ll the sweet and sacred
sanctities of life--a blow at our homes and a lasting stigma on
our civilization--the people of this community, led by the
chancellor of Washington University, at the ballot-box but
recently laid that monster away in a tomb, never, I trust, to be
resurrected.

And now, Mrs. President, let me add, in words which but faintly
express the emotion of my heart, the gratitude we feel towards
the noble women who have borne the burden and heat of the day.
They who have been ridiculed, villified, maligned, but through it
all maintained an unswerving allegiance to truth. In the name of
all true womanhood I welcome this association in our midst as
worthy of the highest honor.

We have lived to see the enlargement of woman's thought in all
directions. From our laboratories, libraries, observatories,
schools of medicine and law, universities of science, art and
literature, she is advancing to the examination of the problems
of life, with an eye single only to the glory of truth. Like the
Spartan of old she has thrown her spear into the thickest of the
fray, and will fight gloriously in the midst thereof till she
regains her own. No specious sophistry or vain delusion--no
time-honored tradition or untenable doctrine can evade her
searching investigation.

Mrs. Gage responded to this address in a few earnest, appropriate
words.

Of the many letters[50] read in the convention none was received
with greater joy than the few lines, written with trembling hand,
from Lucretia Mott, then in the eighty-seventh year of her age:

ROADSIDE, Fourth Month, 26, 1879.

MY DEAR SUSAN ANTHONY--It would need no urgent appeal to draw me
to St. Louis had I the strength for the journey. You will have no
need of my worn-out powers. Our cause itself has become
sufficiently attractive. Edward M. Davis has a joint letter on
hand for my signature, so this is enough, with my mite toward
expenses. And to all assembled in St. Louis best wishes for--yes,
full faith in your success. I have signed Edward's letter, so it
is hardly necessary for me to say,

LUCRETIA MOTT.

The distinguishing feature of this convention was an afternoon
session of ladies alone, prompted by an attempt to reenact a law
for the l