especially distinguished by the presence of visitors from other lands,
in the First Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C., Feb. 12-18,
1902.[14] There was special significance in this meeting place, as the
pastor of the church for many years was the Rev. Byron Sutherland,[15]
who from its pulpit had more than once denounced woman suffrage and
its advocates; but it was now under the liberal ministry of the Rev.
T. DeWitt Talmage, their strong and valued advocate. The Washington
_Post_ said: "More than a thousand visitors were present yesterday
afternoon at the first session of the National American Suffrage
Convention and the first International Woman Suffrage Conference.
Perhaps no other meeting of its kind ever has occasioned as much
interest on the part of Washington women generally.[16] The large
audience room was packed to the doors ... and it has been arranged to
hold overflow meetings in the church parlors." The platform was banked
with flowers over which waved the flags of thirty nations, lent by
Miss Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross, to whom they had been
presented by representatives of each individual nation. Above them all
hung the "suffrage flag" with four golden stars on its blue ground for
the four States where women were fully enfranchised--Wyoming,
Colorado, Utah and Idaho. The president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, was
in the chair.

This convention will be ever memorable because under its auspices the
First International Woman Suffrage Conference was held which resulted
later in the founding of the International Alliance. The proceedings
of this conference are described in the chapter devoted to the
Alliance. Ten countries were represented and their delegates took part
in the convention, which was welcomed on the opening afternoon by the
Hon. Henry B. F. McFarland, president of the board of commissioners of
the District of Columbia. He addressed the delegates as "stockholders
in the national capital" and said: "Personally I welcome not only you
but your cause. In common, I believe, with the majority of intelligent
men I think you have won your case on the argument. Equal suffrage is
equal justice and there is no reason why such women as you should be
classed in the States with idiots and criminals." Mrs. May Wright
Sewall, who was to greet the foreign guests in the name of the
International Council of Women, of which she was president, was
detained until later. Mrs. Catt with words of highest eulog