the State where the movement for woman suffrage had
its birth welcomed the convention to celebrate the event.

Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y., reformer, educator and
philanthropist, a co-worker and friend of the early suffragists, gave
a delightful address on The Spirit of 1848, "herself a living
embodiment of that spirit," in which she said:

"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life
for his friends!" These are the words that come to me as I essay
to speak of the Spirit of '48! Was it not something of this love
which inspired that immortal Declaration made at the Woman's
Rights Convention on July 19-20, 1848? "This," says Mrs. Stanton
in her autobiography, "was the initial step in the most momentous
reform that has yet been launched upon the world--the first
organized protest against the injustice which had brooded for
ages over the character and destiny of one-half of the race. No
words could express our astonishment on finding a few days
afterward that what seemed to us so timely, so rational and so
sacred should be a subject for sarcasm and ridicule in the entire
press of the nation. The anti-slavery papers alone stood by us
manfully."

The Declaration had been signed by many, the audiences being
large, but when pulpit and press ridiculed and reproved do we
marvel that one by one the women withdrew their names and "joined
the persecutors?" Much I fear that our own organization would
shrivel to pitiful proportions if today submitted to the ordeal
from which they recoiled. Indeed even Mrs. Stanton confessed that
if she had had the slightest premonition of all that would
follow this convention, she feared her courage would not have
been equal to it. Fortunate ignorance, if she did not underrate
her bravery, for she and a goodly number of the other signers
were steadfast. They chose to side with truth and take the
consequences.

Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery (Penn.), corresponding secretary of the
International Woman Suffrage Alliance, presented a long and valuable
report of its recent congress in Amsterdam. [See chapter on Alliance.]
The convention then adjourned for the reception given by Mrs. Horton,
whose handsome home on Delaware Avenue was decorated with American
Beauty roses, the dining room with yellow chrysanthemums. She was
assisted in receiving by Dr. Sh