The following is an item from the Boston Commonwealth:

FURTHER PROGRESS IN WOMAN'S RIGHTS.—Miss Stebbins, of Chickasaw County, Iowa, has received an appointment as Notary Public for that county. She is the first female ever having received such a commission, and is represented as eminently competent.

This from the National Anti-Slavery Standard:

WOMAN'S RIGHTS IN HUNGARY.—A curious petition has been presented to the Hungarian Diet. It is signed by a number of widows and other women who are landed proprietors, and asks for them the same equality of political rights with the male inhabitants of the country as they possessed in 1848. These ladies represent that they have much more difficulty in bringing up their children and attending to their estates than men; that they have to bear the same State burdens; that they are not allowed to take part in the communal elections; and that, although many of them possess much more ground than the male electors, they have no political rights.

There is one point in the report open to objection. It is not fair to say that Mrs. Farnham's life "was a bitter disappointment to herself." Who does realize in life all that in starting was looked for? Who has nothing to regret? With a heart so generous and sympathizing as hers—a mind so disciplined and stored with general information—a life so rich in practical usefulness, she was not only a blessing to others, but she must have had a more than an ordinary share of that peace and happiness that gladdens every Christian life. I have just read her last great work. I took it up with prejudice, not believing her theory of the superiority of woman. I lay it down with a higher idea of woman's destiny, and a profound reverence for the author of the glorious thoughts that thrill my heart. I never met Mrs. Farnham on earth, but I know and honor and love her now, and from the celestial shores feel the pulsations of a true and noble soul.

E. C. S.

* * * * *

LETTERS.

WAYLAND, April 28.

DEAR MRS. STANTON:— ... What I most wish for women is that they should go right ahead, and do whatever they can do well, without talking about it. But the false position in which they are placed by the laws and customs of society, renders it almost impossible that they should be sufficiently independent to do whatever they can do well, unless the world approves of it. They need a great deal of talking to, to make them aware that they are in fetters. Therefore I say, success to your Convention, and to all similar ones!...

I am very cordially yours, LYDIA MARIA CHILD.

NEW CASTLE, DEL., April 21, 1866.

DEAR MRS. STANTON:— ... I am with you in heart and sympathy, rejecting with contempt the antiquated idea that woman is only fit for a plaything or a household drudge. Nor can I see how it is less dignified to go to a public building to deposit a vote than to frequent the concert-room, whirl through the waltz in happy repose on some roue's bosom, or mingle in any public crowd which is, in modern times, quite admissible in polite society. Dethrone the idol and raise the soul to its true and noble elevation, supported on a foundation of undying principle, and woman becomes a thing of life and beauty—then only fit to raise sons to be rulers. Justice requires your success, and I hope the age will prove itself sufficiently enlightened to mete out to you the reward of your years of toil.

Yours sincerely, JANE VOORHEES LESLIE.

MONDAY, April 22.

DEAR MISS ANTHONY:—What I enclose is not much for the work you have to do, but it is all I can proportion out for it just now. You are quite right in relying on my regard for you, although I can not see the subject as you do, and I was pleased to get your note saying so. I am sure you take great interest in following Mr. Gladstone's bill for the extension of suffrage in England. His speech upon it is in great contrast to the shallow nonsense talked by many Americans against our democratic form of government.

Very sincerely yours, JESSIE BENTON FREMONT.

13 CHESTNUT ST., BOSTON, April 19, 1866.

DEAR MRS. STANTON:—I have received yours of 14th inst., making eloquent and friendly appeal to me for the expression of my sympathy, written or spoken, in behalf of your forthcoming "Woman's Rights Convention." Surely you need not my assurance that I most heartily indorse all the claims and objects of your Association; that I earnestly advocate whatever would advance or insure the rights of humanity, whether for man or woman; that I as earnestly protest against any and all prejudices, limitations, or legislations which would interfere with those rights; that I claim for woman as ample social and civil privileges as are conceded to man, whether in the exercise of the franchise, the domain of our legislatures, or in the sphere of the professions. We are no true men if we deny or would barricade the exercise or the claim of those privileges, and have just so much less of manhood as we dare to question or infringe them. I agree with you, most fully, that the woman element is greatly needed in the present crisis of our affairs for the right reconstruction of our suffering Government. We have had, and still have, not men but too many brutes making a very "bear garden" of our congressional halls, rending and tearing this poor "body politic" of ours till, like the raving demoniacs of old, it is now foaming and wandering crazily around its own preconstructed tomb! while at the head of the Government we have only a surly, self-conceited despot in embryo! "The nation needs (as you say) at this hour the highest thought and inspiration of a true womanhood infused into every vein and artery of its life." There is no gainsaying your arguments on that head, for just so far, and only so far as the refining influence of that womanly element is so infused and felt in all our social and civil relations, will the consummation of our national peace and prosperity be effected.

Yours truly, J. T. SARGENT.

WEST NEWTON, May 6, 1866.

E. C. STANTON, President Executive Committee Women's Rights Association:

MY DEAR MRS. S.:—I had hoped to be present at this, our eleventh anniversary, but find it impossible. And so, at the last moment, I hasten to express my earnest conviction that now, as never before, we are called upon for vigorous, united action—that we are left no alternative but an unflinching protest against the strange legislation by which a Republican Congress, so-called, assumes to engraft upon our national Constitution, as "amendments!" clauses which not only allow rebels to disfranchise loyal soldiers, who have borne the flag of the Republic victoriously against their treason and rebellion, but to keep the ballot from the hands of all women!

If not moved by an enlightened appreciation of the first principles of political economy and social justice in legislation touching them heretofore, we could scarcely believe that after the record made by both the proscribed classes during our late fearful struggle, our legislators could gravely stoop to brand them anew as "aliens" and outlaws! It is an act as discreditable to their hearts and their moral sense as to their statesmanship. And upon their shoulders must rest the responsibility of an agitation to which we are thus forced—an agitation which we have hesitated to arouse while so many vital questions touching the future of the negro were awaiting settlement, and in which we are acting strictly on the defensive. Under the magnificent utterance of our brave Senator Sumner—which was an inspiration and a prophecy—we looked to see all faltering and compromise, so fatal in all our past, so fatal always and everywhere, swept like dew before the sun. But the old fears and falterings return sevenfold reinforced to renew a puerile and patch-work legislation, which, while asserting the truth, submits to, nay, invites a fresh struggle over each separate application of the same "self-evident truth." What remains for us, then, but to turn from a Congress from which we had hoped so much, which might have dared anything in the interest of loyalty and justice, as our brave brethren turned, from a recreant President to the people, whom he and Congress have not dared to trust, and resolve to do our utmost to awaken a public sentiment which only slumbers, but is not dead, and which shall make impossible such burlesques, such infamous "amendments" to our organic law. With undiminished hope and faith, yours,

CAROLINE M. SEVERANCE.

HARTFORD, April 22, 1866.

DEAR MADAM:—I learn by a circular I have received that a Woman's Rights Convention is to be held in New York in May. I can not have the pleasure of attending it, but I would like to take this opportunity of telling you I am with you, heart and soul, in this cause—of thanking you, and those with whom you are associated, for the noble work you have done, and are doing, in the cause of universal suffrage. There never was a more opportune time for calling a convention of this kind than the present, when it is evident that the United States Constitution is about to undergo some repairs—when all the so-called radicals in Congress are trying to have it so altered as to insure the disfranchisement of one-half the nation. They have so strangely perverted the meaning of the term "universal suffrage," that it is a misnomer as at present used by them. It is rather significant of the "universality" of the suffrage intended, that every one of these special guardians of freedom refused to present Congress a petition for woman's enfranchisement; that the Massachusetts Senator who leads the van of freedom's host, did, finally, most reluctantly present it with one hand, while taking good care to deal it a blow with the other that would prove a most effectual quietus to it; that a representative [Mr. Boutwell], after repeating the self-evident truth that "there can be no just government without the consent of the governed," says that "man is endowed by nature with the priority of right to the vote rather than woman or child;" that the two Senators from Massachusetts have each proposed amendments to the Constitution holding out inducements to the States to enfranchise all male inhabitants, but none to enfranchise women, when they could have included them by omitting one word; that that light of freedom, Mr. Greeley, of the Tribune, states that "men express the public sense as fully as if women voted" [speech in Suffield, Conn., last June]. These are a few of the straws pointing to that sham labeled "universal suffrage."

The conservatives of the slave-driving school have had an odious enough reputation, but I never heard of any of them taking measures to so amend the Constitution as to insure the perpetuation of the disfranchisement of sixteen millions of the nation, as would the proposed amendments of Messrs. Sumner and Wilson. And these Massachusetts Senators are called the foremost workers in the ranks of liberty's grand army. If these are the foremost, Heaven save us from those in the rear! Why does Mr. Boutwell try to make it appear that he believes that governments, to be founded on justice, should obtain "the consent of the governed," when he believes the consent of only one-half the governed should be obtained? when he classes adults as fully capable of exercising an enlightened judgment as himself with infants? If Mr. Greeley thinks it right for one-half the people to represent the wants, and speak as they may think best for the other half, that other half having no choice in the matter, he must admit, if he have a tithe of the sense of justice attributed to him, that it would be only fair to let each half take their turn—the men expressing the public sense a part of the time, then the women—thus alternating between the two, in order to balance the scales of justice with perfect equilibrium.

It seems rather a difficult matter for men to appreciate the fact that women are ordinary human beings, with the wants and reasoning faculties of the same. If women lived on the plane where sword and cannon are resorted to for the procuring of justice, men might then see the necessity of establishing equality of rights for all. But the power of women lies in spiritual, not in brute force; therefore men have failed to comprehend them, or to see the necessity of granting rights that are not contested at the point of the bayonet. Add to this the ambitious but weak love of power—of having some one to rule—inherent in the natures of most men, and the causes of woman's bondage are pretty clear. In the light of the developments of the past few months it is plain that the most thorough faced abolitionists—those who wax eloquent for the negro—are as much in favor of continuing the slavery of women as were Southern planters of continuing negro slavery. There are a few exceptions to this, and but a few.

Even the Boston Commonwealth, perhaps as radical a paper as any now published, and which favors suffrage for women, is a good illustration of the difficulty of the most liberal-minded men seeing this question in its true light; for, in its issue of February 24, it says that "suffrage for women is not a political necessity of a republican government."

The Nation thinks women ought to be deprived of the franchise because they do not, as a general thing, express a wish for it, stating at the same time that they have as good a right to it as men. Remarkable logic this, to deprive the whole class of the power to obtain their dues because they do not en masse express a wish for them. There are men who do not care enough about the franchise to make use of it; therefore, according to this argument, they should be immediately disfranchised.

There is no compulsion in exercising the right to the vote—all can let it alone who choose; and did every woman in the land choose to let it alone, it would be no argument for withholding from her the power to make use of it whenever disposed. But the statement that they are opposed to it is untrue. No woman—whether teacher, or telegraph operator, or government clerk, or dry-goods clerk, all the way down to the poor needle-woman who lives under a reign of oppression as frightful as that in the manufacturing districts of England—is paid more than half or a third what she earns, or what a man would be paid performing the same services, and performing them no better, in many cases not so well; and the needle-women are paid no more than a tenth part of what they earn. And yet women do not rise up against the oppression that denies them the just compensation; therefore these logicians of the Nation's school must, to be consistent, argue that women do not wish to have just wages paid them, and they should not have just wages offered them—the right of accepting or refusing being at their own option.

It seems to be full time for the women of this country to demand a settlement of the question whether they are still to be treated as infants or as intelligent adults. If the former treatment is to be continued it would be very appropriate to present Congress with a protest against having one-half the basis of representation composed of those who are to remain in a state of perpetual infancy (which needs and can have representation; whose government must be as absolute as that of the Czar's, the very word "representative" implying a substitute chosen by another)—a protest that if they are too good—as often stated, too divine—to have any voice in such earthly matters as governments, they are also too good to be thrust just so far into the body politic as to swell the basis of representation one-half, merely for the furtherance of the interests of ambitious politicians, and then to be put one side and utterly ignored when the voice of a free intelligent being is required.

It seems to be full time for women to take soundings of the depth of the professions, and make calculations of the latitude and longitude of the party to which alone they have looked for redemption from the slavery in which they have ever been held, when the chief ones of that party—now that there is any possibility of attaining that object—utterly refuse all efforts in that direction, and, worse than that, give indications of taking positive measures in the opposite direction. It is important that Congress be flooded with petitions on this matter—that it be allowed no rest from them; and, in addition to petitions, a bill is needed excluding women from the basis of representation so long as they shall be excluded from the franchise—excluding them from the list of taxable persons and from those who are by law liable to the death-penalty.

Should such a bill be tabled by Congress; should they refuse all action on it that would place them in their true light, showing that they look upon this question the same as the Southern Congress under Polk, Pierce, and Buchanan looked upon the anti-slavery movement—very much afraid of having the subject agitated; should they give it a decided veto, that would place them in their true light—greatly opposed to universal suffrage, although it is their policy to sail under that banner, like the pirate who sometimes finds an advantage in substituting for his own black flag some more respectable one. Should they pass such a bill it would place them in a better light than they have ever had the fortune to be in before, while it would make it for the interest of the States to have this bill followed up by another, giving women the franchise; and it is very doubtful whether we will ever obtain it in any other way than from motives of self-interest on the part of legislators—motives of pure justice and right occupying a secondary place.

The statutes of the land present a remarkable conglomeration of inconsistencies and injustice in regard to women, and show the utter failure of the plan of having one class govern another class without any consent or participation in the matter on the part of the class so governed. The law ought not in certain cases to treat women as infants and wholly irresponsible beings, merely to foster a weak ambition and love of power, and in other cases as wholly responsible adults. The infant regimen should be enforced thoroughly from the day of their birth to the day of their death, whether it be in one year or a hundred, or they should come, in all respects, under a system adapted to responsible, intelligent adults. Infants should not pay taxes and they should not be hung. It is the general opinion that the infant Surrat committed crimes equal in magnitude to those of any of the conspirators who were hung with her, but her state of infancy should have afforded her legal protection from the gallows. If this government is too weak to decide the qualifications of voters; too weak to extend freedom from the northern coast of Maine to the southern coast of Florida; too weak to prevent any State disfranchising its inhabitants; too weak to make ignorance, criminality, and non-age the only political limitations for man or woman, be they black or white, or a combination of all the hues of the rainbow; too weak to send tyranny to the wall and make liberty the universal rule for this broad land; then a party must and will arise of sufficient metal to infuse into it the requisite strength—a party that will "strengthen its weak hands and confirm its feeble knees."

Concentration of power for the establishment and extension of liberty is not a tendency to despotism. Despotisms are never built out of that material. But that is a despotism as bad as Austria that allows one-half its citizens to govern the other half without any consent of theirs; and it is none the less a despotism for being divided up into petty State despotisms than if carried on by the general government, so long as they are all agreed on disfranchising one-half the people. Thirty-six despotisms make a pretty good sized one taken in the aggregate. The party to inaugurate the reign of freedom must inevitably arise, for the elements to bring it into power are at work. Morally, it will tower as far above the present republican party as that did above the old ones—whig and democratic. There are true souls, women and men, in the Old World and the New, faithfully working and watching for its advent.

Some months ago we got word from over the water that John Stuart Mill had been elected to that formidable body of conservatism—the British Parliament. Another significant fact, but this time significant of good. The writings of Mill are illumined by the sun-clear radiance of that liberty for which he appeals—a liberty that shines with the steady light of a fixed star—and which I have watched for in vain in the writings and speeches of the most noted reformers on this continent. When men like him come into power I think we have good ground for taking fresh courage. I have written more than I intended, but the subject is one on which I do not feel like restricting myself, especially when writing to one who fully appreciates the situation. Sincerely hoping you may never weary in your good work.

Yours respectfully, F. ELLEN BURR. SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

ALBANY, April 9, 1866.

MY DEAR MISS ANTHONY:—It will be out of my power to speak at your Convention—my health will not permit my attendance—but I cordially concur in your efforts to restore to woman her civil and political rights, and for her emancipation from slavery, her actual, undeniable status at present in the Government. I can suggest no plan to effect this great object, except that of agitation and discussion, everywhere throughout the land. Whenever the public mind shall become sufficiently enlightened, and women themselves shall seriously and earnestly demand, on their own behalf, equal rights and equal laws, they will be accorded; and then we shall have, what the world has never yet had or seen, a true republican system of government. Excuse these hasty thoughts.

Truly yours, A. J. COLVIN.

To the President and Members of the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention in New York assembled:

LADIES:—I notice with pleasure the call for your annual convention The hour is pregnant with events, and this period is opportune for opening and pressing upon the public attention the questions with which you are occupied. As the claims of the slave in past years have furnished to so many espousing them the occasion of manifold and large emancipations little thought by them at first, so the claims of the emerging freedman will lay open the way to the study and solution of the gravest and widest social questions. The great problems of social order: government, its fit aims and happiest methods, the nature and just basis of suffrage, etc., are to be studied anew and brought to true adjustment; false barriers and artificial distinctions must be swept away, no child of Adam must be inhibited from wielding those prerogatives which by birthright or attainment he may be entitled to. The more obvious abuses, the flagrantly gratuitous distinctions, involving very gross inequalities and oppressions, will be the first to be exposed and abolished.

The natural and just basis of the right of suffrage is doubtless qualification, wisdom, and substantial honesty. The right to wield the ballot is not in the strict sense an inborn and original right, coeval with our being, except as any right to which we may by culture attain is of this character. It is ours potentially. It belongs to attainment and possession, as the right, for instance, in a particular case to survey land, or instruct minds. It is a right I am to rise to through intelligence, discipline, manhood. It is conditioned upon discernment and true faithfulness. Those too ignorant or uncaring to distinguish between rule and misrule, government and lawlessness, science and a juggle, supernal and infernal—those especially so profligate, who seek only to reach through government the sanction of law, the baptism of social order for their wickedness and misdeeds, have no business at any ballot-box, save that of recorded resolution to amend and repent. To put the ballot into the hands of the reckless, the besotted, and the profligate, is the sheerest abuse possible, and suicidal to all just protection and rule.

It may be a long day ere suffrage shall be adjusted carefully and strictly to the normal basis. But before this the Gospel must be preached to all nations, the rough places must be made smooth and the paths straight for the coming of the Most High. Whatever unjust barriers or factitious discrimination there may be against any must be abolished, and equality must be for all. Wisdom or virtue is not the monopoly of any class or sex or race. By all the proprieties of nature, woman should have with man a voice in the enactment of laws and the administration of government. She is the complement of man, essential for the due poise, the right wisdom, and conduct in family, in neighborhood, in Church or in State. Sharing in civil government, she will be a redemptive agency for society in many ways little thought at present. And agitation and overturning shall not cease until the final realization is reached. Society shall yet be rewrought and born again. All rule shall be justice, and obedience liberty. Government shall be the reflection of the infinite kingdom, the incarnation of truth, wisdom, benignity, power, the protector and help of all, inviting and assisting each to full realization of the utmost possibilities of attainment and strength for the individual soul, building to perfect freedom, building also to perfect unity. Service, sacrament, supreme reverence—this shall be the motto and norm of the world, all society become a church and all life worship, the broad anthem of souls. For this high consummation let us look and labor, trusting and working on to the perfect end.

Yours sincerely, CHAS. D. B. MILLS.

DWIGHT, ILL., April 30, 1866.

MY DEAR MISS ANTHONY:—Your kind letter inviting me to attend the Convention on the 10th of May, was duly received. I should be extremely happy to be with you in your deliberations, but so much of my time has of late been occupied in the work of the American Union Commission, that I can hardly spare a moment for even your good work. I, however, feel only selfish regrets, for I should be but a listener and partaker of the rich mental feasts that will there be freely offered to all who will partake. The great arguments have all been made by our opponents, and they concede all that we ask, save that they substitute expediency for principle. They have yet to learn that God will not be dethroned; that when He decrees a human soul, He surrounds it with all the dignity of free will and consequent responsibility. He therefore endows the soul with rights, the exercise and protection of which are the crown of humanity. We ask no new code of rights. We simply ask to be included in the general method of asserting and protecting them, which even the shadowy-browed children of bondage are now perceived to claim without presumption. It has been with no small degree of interest that I have seen that our wisest statesmen begin to so far see and feel the importance of the issue that lies inevitably in their path, that they stop to explain and apologize; but they dare not deny, lest the logic they use should be turned against themselves.

The great Christian doctrine of the equality of all before God, who is declared to be no respecter of persons, is the axe laid at the root of the tree of prejudice, which has for such long ages brought forth injustice and oppression in a multitude of forms. Our good and great men are reading with anointed eyes the declaration, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free," and we may hope they will soon read the final assertion, "Neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." In this full and broad assertion lies the completion of the great Christian scheme, not limited to any number of parts, but embracing the great whole, thus recognizing the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. What our cause now needs is the Christian advocacy of good and wise men and women. Legally, our position is conceded, so far as the logical sequences are concerned; but the pulpit, on which woman is prone to lean for all her opinions on questions of morality, has, with a few rare exceptions, been silent. Henry Ward Beecher has dared to speak out in a manly, Christian way; but even he has not laid upon the women of the Church that burden of responsibility concerning government that they ought to be made to feel. For what, let me ask, is to excuse them, if their want of intelligence and activity should lead to a thorough corruption of political morals such as we have seen in portions of our country during a few years past. Will they not be among those who hide their Lord's talent in the earth, and by and by come back with the little morsel carefully wrapped up in a napkin, all beautifully embroidered, it may be, and tender it back, saying, "Lo! there is thine own, take it!" In this religious aspect women must come to consider the question before it will become vital. Political action may give it a body, but God only can breathe into it the breath of life that will constitute it a living soul. Hence we see that without the best religious sanction, little progress can really be assured. I am conscious that my views are not identical with those of many who have reached the same general conclusions; but as many are disposed to regard the question from this standpoint, I have thought it best to express myself with great frankness. With many regrets that I can not partake in your deliberations,

I remain, truly yours, MRS. H. M. TRACY CUTLER.

1710 LOCUST STREET, PHILADELPHIA, May 10, 1866.

MY VERY DEAR SUSAN ANTHONY:—I fully intended coming to the meetings—gave up Washington, made all my arrangements, packed my bag—and stayed at home. Circumstances which I could not control, and which I can't very well explain, put utterly out of my power the duty and pleasure of coming. There's no use in saying how sorry I am, for it would waste paper and time to state all my regrets. Suffice it to declare that I have rarely been so extremely sorry and disappointed.

Affectionately and truly thine, ANNA E. DICKINSON.

OFFICE OF CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE FRIENDS OF THE MISSING MEN OF } UNITED STATES ARMY, WASHINGTON, D. C.; April 3, 1866. }

DEAR MISS ANTHONY:—I am glad that my too kind and partial friends have set me "right on the record." I am "with you," and with all who labor for the advancement of humanity and the world through the proper channels—the elevation of woman. You have my heart, my sympathies (if needed), my prayers, and, best of all, my hopes, for the success of your every endeavor; and my poor words you should have, if they could add either strength or interest, but neither nature nor art have contributed me anything in this direction. I sometimes work a little, but it seems to me to be in the most common manner, and I am sure I could not speak at all. But no one knows how happy I should be to be present and listen to those who can; and if not prevented by duties of a very pressing and positive nature, I shall indulge myself so far. With assurances of the highest regard, believe me your friend,

CLARA BARTON.

NEWPORT, R. I., May 14, 1866.

MISS SUSAN B. ANTHONY—Dear Friend:—It has proved impossible for me to attend the Convention; and I hope it is unnecessary, so far as my own position is concerned, for me to renew my allegiance to the Equal Rights movement. It seems to me the most glaring of logical absurdities to apply the name of Universal Suffrage to any system which does not include both sexes. It seems, in this point of view, a righteous retribution upon American men, that the disfranchisement of woman has put such a weapon into the hands of those who would disfranchise the negro also. I must say, however, that a still greater share of this responsibility rests upon American women, for it is their unwillingness to ask for their rights which chiefly renders our legislators unwilling to concede them.

Cordially yours, THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON.

A letter declining to speak at the Boston Equal Rights meeting, says: "There has been a time when no one could do any better than I, to speak in favor of women physicians, and then I was willing to come forward and do my best. At present there are so many able and eloquent, however, on the platform to advocate what we need—political franchise—that I would appear presumptuous should I attempt to add myself to the list. There is no other right which I want besides the elective franchise, because the right to work on equality with man we can obtain, with nothing but energy and firm will. My own case as a physician illustrates that; while I am paying very nearly $400 taxes (State and national), without the right to vote. These enormous taxes come from money earned, dollar by dollar, on equality with men, and yet there are all round me here many physicians of the stronger sex, who do not pay half this amount of taxes, who vote and rule. I hope before long a republic in the true sense of the word will be our share in this glorious country. With sincere wishes for the best of results in your present movement,

I am truly yours, M. E. ZAKRZEWSKA.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS,

In a letter, saying it would be impossible for him to attend the Boston Equal Rights meeting on the 31st of May, says, "My best and most earnest wishes for the success of your noble Convention. The cause which it aims to subserve is the cause of the whole human family, in a sense the broadest and most striking ever hit upon by any other association."

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON,

In a letter stating that ill health prevented him from attending the National Woman's Rights Convention in New York, says: "In some way I will try to express my warm and hearty approval of the Equal Rights movement at the approaching meeting in Boston. I hail it with gladness, and as of far-reaching importance. The time has fully come to drop the phrase "Woman's Rights" for that of "Equal Rights."

The following appeal, written by Parker Pillsbury, was issued in behalf of the American Equal Rights Association in the autumn of 1866:

APPEAL FOR UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.

In restoring the foundations of the Government, Justice, as the chief corner-stone, can alone secure a permanence of Peace and Prosperity. The eighteenth century gave the World the Declaration of Independence, the war of the Revolution, and the Constitution of the United States; but only in the light of the nineteenth are these sublime phenomena to be interpreted to us. From the Government, the civilization, and religion of Great Britain, we derived our chattel slave system; but it survived the pen of Jefferson, the sword of Washington, and the wisdom, humanity, and statesmanship of the founders and framers of the Government; and until far louder thunders than Bunker Hill and Saratoga dashed it to the ground, and almost whelmed the Government itself with it in a common ruin. And the terrible lessons of the late war will all be in vain, should we now attempt to relay our foundations in injustice and oppression. Out of the jaws of rebellion and treason was the nation snatched by the hand of negro valor. And thus, surely, has that race earned the right of full citizenship and equality in the State. Even Jefferson declared, more than half a century ago, that whoever "fights and pays taxes" has the right of suffrage against the world. But the right of humanity, of manhood, is older and of higher and diviner appointment than any other. If the right of liberty and the pursuit of happiness be the gift and endowment of the Creator, then surely is the right to the ballot the only possible or conceivable assurance and guaranty of it in republican governments. And on this ground the claim of woman is no less than that of man. But base and degrading as has been the position of the negro in the Government, that of woman is far lower. At no price within human power to pay, can she arrive at equality in the Government she is compelled to support and obey. In the making or executing of no law, however deeply her womanly interest or happiness may be involved, can she bear a part. She is found guilty, not of a crime, not of a color, but of a sex; and all her appeals to courts or communities for equality and justice, are in vain, even in this democratic and Christian Republic. She is a native, free-born citizen, a property-holder, taxpayer, loyal and patriotic. She supports herself, and in proportionable part, the schools, colleges, universities, churches, poor-houses, jails, prisons, the army, the navy, the whole machinery of government; and yet she has no vote at the polls, no voice in the national councils. She has guided great movements of philanthropy and charity; has founded and sustained churches; established missions; edited journals; written and published invaluable treatises on history and economy, political, social, and moral, and on philosophy in all its departments; filled honorably professors' chairs; governed nations; led armies; commanded ships; discovered and described new planets; practiced creditably in the liberal professions; and patiently explored the whole realm of scientific research; and yet, because in life's allotment she is female, not male, woman, not man, the curse of inferiority cleaves to her through all her generations. Eden's anathema was to be removed on the coming of the second Adam; and in the new dispensation there was to be neither male nor female. Jewish outlawry from all the nations, continuing through almost twenty centuries, is repealed by common consent among all civilized governments. Nor does the curse of eternal attainder longer blast the Ethiopian race to degradation and slavery, through Canaan's sin and shame. But where shall woman look for her redemption in this auspicious hour, when new dawnings of liberty, new sunrises of human enfranchisement are illumining the world? A man once said, "where liberty is, there is my country." But on what continent or island, or in what vast wilderness shall woman find a nationality where she shall be taxed to support no government she did not aid in making, obey no law she did not help to enact, nor suffer any penalty until adjudged, by a jury, in part at least, of her peers? True, her privileges in some States have been, after long struggle and conflict, enlarged and increased. Like the Southern freedmen, she has had her Civil Rights bill. But all this is compatible with the Dred Scott decision itself. The power that gives can take away; but of that power woman is no part. Mr. Sumner says, "The ballot is the one thing needful to the emancipated slave." Without it, he declares, his liberty is but an illusion, a jack-o'lantern which he will pursue in vain. Without the ballot, he reiterates, the slave becomes only sacrifice. And shall it not also be pre-eminently so with woman? Formed by Almighty power a little lower than the angels, her ruling lords and masters have, by legislative proscription, plunged her not a little but immeasurably below myriads of the human race, whose only boast or claim is, that for some inscrutable reason they were so constituted as to stand men in the tables of the census.

In the American Equal Rights Association, it is determined to prosecute an agitation which shall wake the nation to new consciousness of the injustice long inflicted and still suffered through proscriptive distinctions on account of sex and complexion. To the industrial, hard-toiling, property-producing, family-supporting women, this appeal is made to come to the rescue of their own long-lost rights. In New York the angel of a Constitutional Convention is soon to stir the waters. Let all who need healing hasten to the baptism. Nor is it one of the least cheering signs that multitudes of the intelligent women of the country are fast waking to a full consciousness of the wrongs they suffer. Even the war has taught invaluable lessons on the dignity and worth of woman in a thousand new spheres. Our Florence Nightingales have not been one, but many, yea thousands. Woman as well as the freedman saved the nation in its hour of peril, and invested herself with new dignity demanding new distinction. Now emphatically is her hour. But no comparison need be instituted, none surely should be urged, as to whose is the paramount claim. The great clock of humanity has struck the hour, and its tones are ringing across the continents, reverberating as well among the Alps as the Alleghanies, and mingling sweet music in both the hemispheres. We are coming to the rescue of justice and right, girded with the panoply of a divine and holy cause, and Omnipotence is pledged in our behalf. We propose to organize Equal Rights clubs or committees in every city, town, and village; to hold meetings for discussions and lectures; to circulate tracts and petitions, and to raise funds to enable the Association to carry forward its work for educating the popular sentiment. We shall endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press. Truth, justice, reason, humanity, must and will triumph. Already a host is on our side, and our principles can never be defeated. The prospect before us is full of encouragement, and we confidently submit our enterprise to the heart and hand of a waiting and expectant people.

LETTERS TO THE MAY ANNIVERSARY OF 1867.

LAWRENCE, KANSAS, May 6, 1867.

MY DEAR MISS ANTHONY:—I hope your Convention will not fail to set in its true light the position of those editors in New York who are branding as the "infamous thirteen" the men who, in the New Jersey Legislature, voted against negro suffrage, while they themselves give the whole weight of their journals against woman's right to vote. They use the terms "universal and impartial suffrage," when they mean only negro suffrage; and they do it to hide a dark skin and an unpopular client. They know that a "lie will keep its throne a whole age longer if it skulks behind the shadow of some fair seeming name." In New Jersey a negro father is legally entitled to his children, but no mother in New Jersey, black or white, has any legal right to her children. In New Jersey a widow may live forty days in the house of her deceased husband without paying rent, but the negro widower, just like the white widower, may remain in undisturbed possession of house and property. A negro man can sell his real estate and make a valid deed, but no wife in that State can do so without her husband's consent. A negro man in New Jersey may will all his property as he pleases, but no wife in the State can will her personal property at all, and if she will her real estate with her husband's consent, he may revoke that consent any time before the will is admitted to probate, and thus render her will null and void. The women of New Jersey went to the Legislature last winter on their own petition, for the right of suffrage. Twenty-three members voted for them, thirty-two voted against them. But the editors who now find unmeasured words to express their contempt for the "infamous thirteen" who voted against the negro, were as dumb as death when this vote was cast against woman. The Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune says that Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens give it as their opinion that New Jersey will not have a republican form of government until they put the word "white" out of their Constitution. Do these gentlemen mean to say that when New Jersey has given her 8,000 negro men the vote she will have a republican form of government, while 134,000 women of that State are still without it? and not only without it, but blasted by laws which are a disgrace to the civilization of the age; and of these laws not one afflicts or affects the negro man. The rebels who starved our brave boys in Andersonville, and made ornaments of their bones, these men, traitors, guilty of the highest crime known to our laws, are to be punished by having their right to vote taken away. Of what crime are American women guilty that they are to be compelled to stand on a political platform with such men as these? Let no man dream that national prosperity and peace can be secured by merely giving suffrage to colored men, while that sacred right is denied to millions of American women. That scanty shred of justice, good as far it goes, is utterly inadequate to meet the emergency of this hour. Men of every race and color may vote, but if the women are excluded our legislation will still lack that moral tone, for want of which the nation is to-day drifting toward ruin. There is no other name given by which the country can be saved but that of woman. "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." Women are governed, negroes are governed, and should give their consent. Will men never learn that a principle which God has made true He has also made it safe to apply? Aye, more, that a principle He has made true, it is not safe not to apply? The problem for the American statesmen to-day is no narrow question of races, but how to embody in our institutions a guarantee for the rights of every citizen. The solution is easy. Base government on the consent of the governed, and each class will protect itself. Put this one great principle of universal suffrage, irrespective of sex or color, into the foundation of our temple of liberty, and it will rise in fair and beautiful proportions, "without the sound of a hammer or the noise of any instrument," to stand at last "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Omit it, and only "He who sees the end from the beginning" knows through what other national woes we must be driven, before we learn that the path of justice is the only path of peace and safety.

LUCY STONE.

BOSTON, May 5, 1867.

To the American Equal Rights Association:

Although not permitted to be present with you, yet, in spirit, I join you in all your efforts to secure justice and equality to all the children of God. I have so long felt deeply upon the subjects before you, that I wish to add my word to the voices of those who are more fortunate in being present. Since I was old enough to think upon important subjects, I have constantly felt the pressure of injustice that has borne so heavily upon my sex. At sixteen I earnestly desired to enter some college, that I might have the benefit of those helps to learning which were open to all boys, and I deeply felt the cruelty and injustice that closed the doors of the universities to me, who was longing and thirsting for knowledge, while they were invitingly open to the youth of the other sex, who often only used them to waste their time and give them the name of educated men. I could see no reason for this exclusion, nor could I imagine how it would harm any one to allow girls who desired to learn the privilege of going to the universities.

My next personal experience of the injustice done to women by the laws was, when a widow, I buried one of my little daughters, and found that I, who had borne her and nursed her and provided for all her wants, was not her heir, but her little sister, who had done nothing for her, and was still dependent on me for care, etc. This I felt very keenly, not on account of the property involved, for it was but little, but on account of the great injustice done to my maternal heart. My next personal lesson in the law's iniquity was, when about to marry the second time, both myself and husband desired to secure to me the property I possessed. I employed a great lawyer in Maine, Gov. Fessenden, the father of one of our senators, to make an instrument that would secure that end. After thinking on the subject a week, and doing the best he could, he handed me the paper, saying, "I have done my best; but I can not assure you that this instrument will secure to you your property if your husband should ever become insolvent!" This surely astonished me. The law not only did not protect women in their property rights, but did so much to prevent their getting or keeping them, that an able lawyer could not frame an instrument that would secure them even when signed by their intended husbands before marriage! This was more than thirty years ago, and some improvements have since been made in the laws in reference to women.

The next great wrong that pressed heavily upon me was when I again became a widow. I found myself yearly taxed for State and county, and later for revenue, without a voice in anything that concerned the raising of money, or in any of the elections to office in the great struggle that our country was passing through. With all the deep feeling of my brethren, a clear appreciation of the all-important issues at stake, and an intensely painful knowledge of the sin of slavery and its concomitant evils, I could not cast a vote in favor of the right, but must look on with folded hands, and give my money to support the Government, without a chance of giving it an impetus, however slight, in the direction of justice and liberty! In view of all these wrongs, I felt that the women of America had as just cause for rebellion against the Government as our fathers had against the British Government when they resisted, on the ground that taxation and representation were one and inseparable. The three great desires of my life have been: That the halls of learning should be universally open to all souls who desire to enter them; that the property rights of all, without regard to sex, color, or race, should stand on the same foundation, and be equal; that every person twenty-one years old, who is a citizen of the United States, should have the ballot, unless disfranchised by crime, idiocy, or insanity. When these three things are granted, all else will follow in due time. But until these things are assured to the citizens of America, our Government presents the anomaly of being professedly founded upon the consent of the governed, and yet shutting out two-thirds of its citizens from all voice in it.

* * * * *

MERCY B. JACKSON, M.D.

CHICAGO, March 22, 1867.

DEAR MISS ANTHONY:—I feel that I must do something for the "Woman's Suffrage" movement in the West. There is much interest here concerning it, but no movement is yet made. Matters are being prepared, and when the movement is made in the West, it will sweep onward majestically. Kansas and Iowa will first give women the right to vote before any other States, East or West. "Man proposes, but God disposes." I have always had a theory of my own concerning this suffrage question. Ever since I began to think of it, and that has been since Dr. Harriot Hunt's first protest against woman being taxed when she had no representation, I have believed that, in my day, woman would vote. But I have thought they would first obtain the right to work and wages, and that the right to vote would naturally follow. For woman's right to work and wages I have labored indefatigably. But I see that my plan is not God's plan. The right to vote is to come first, and work and wages afterwards, and easily. I "stumped" the Northwest during the war. Two women of us, Mrs. Hoge and myself, organized over 1,000 Aid Societies, and raised, in money and supplies, nearly $100,000 for the soldiers; and to do it, we were compelled to get people together in masses, and tell our story and our plans, and make our appeals to hundreds at a time. So I can talk here, and can help you here, when you are ready to lead. In the meanwhile, I have begun to work for the cause through my husband's weekly paper, which has a large circulation in the Northwest. I have announced myself as henceforth committed to the cause of woman suffrage, and have become involved, instanter, in a controversy on the subject. I am associate editor of the paper, and have been these dozen years. I have just completed a reply to an objector to the doctrine, which goes into this week's issue. In my way, I am working with you. I have always believed in the ballot for woman at some future time—always, since reading Margaret Fuller's "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," which set me to thinking a quarter of a century ago. Boston is my native city, and I lived there till my marriage, and had one or two talks with Theodore Parker which helped me wonderfully.

Yours truly, MARY A. LIVERMORE.

TOPEKA, KANSAS, April 5, 1867.

DEAR MADAM:—We are now arranging for a thorough canvass of our State for impartial suffrage, without regard to sex or color. We are satisfied that an argument in favor of colored suffrage is an argument in favor of woman suffrage. Both are based upon the same principle. It is the doctrine of our fathers "that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." We "white men" have no right to ask privileges or demand rights for ourselves that we are unwilling to grant to the whole human family. There never has been, and never can be, an argument, based upon principle, against colored or woman suffrage. Sneers and attempts at ridicule are not arguments. Henry B. Blackwell, of New Jersey, and Mrs. Lucy Stone, are now canvassing our State for impartial suffrage. Some of the most eminent men and women of the United States have been invited, and promised to visit our State this summer and fall; and we shall succeed. Kansas will be free, and occupy the proudest place, in all time to come, in the history of the world.

We desire to extend our meetings to every neighborhood in Kansas; reach, if possible, the ear of every voter. For this purpose we must enlist every home speaker possible. We shall arrange series of meetings in all parts of the State, commencing about September 1st, and running through September and October. We desire speakers to advocate the broad doctrine of impartial suffrage, but welcome those who advocate either. Those who desire colored suffrage alone, are invited to take the field; also those who favor only female suffrage. Each help the other. I am instructed by the State Impartial Suffrage Executive Committee to ask you to aid us, and speak at as many of our meetings as possible. Please answer at once, and let us know how much time you can spend in the campaign, and what part of the State you prefer to speak in.

Yours truly, S. N. WOOD, Cor. Sec'y Kansas Impartial Suffrage Association.

BANGOR, ME., May 9, 1867.

DEAR MISS ANTHONY:—I should be truly glad to attend the Annual Meeting; but, as you see, I am far from New York. Mr. Davis and I are at work in another part of the great field of progress. While you and your noble friend, Mrs. Stanton, are endeavoring to move the adult population of our nation to just and righteous action, we are striving to establish on earth the beginning of the kingdom of heaven, by instituting a new and true method of moral and spiritual or religious education for the children and youth of the New Dispensation. Spiritualism, as a religious movement, has done more than any previous dispensation to give woman an equal career with man; and we trust that, through the influence of the "Children's Progressive Lyceums," the youth in our midst, rapidly advancing to the stage of action, will form a powerful phalanx on the side of "Equal Rights" and the elevation of humanity.

Yours fraternally, MARY F. DAVIS.

BUFFALO, April 14, 1867.

DEAR MRS. STANTON:—I thank you for your kind note.... I pray that God will bless you in the noble work you are in, and that woman will soon be admitted to her proper place where God intended she should be, and from which to exclude her must, like any other great wrong, bring misery and sorrow to the race.

Sincerely your friend, RUFUS SAXTON.

148 MADISON AVENUE, SUNDAY EVE., April 14, 1867.

MY DEAR MRS. STANTON:—your invitation to me to lift my voice at your Annual Convention in behalf of the cause for which you have worked so faithfully and so long, and, let me add, so efficiently, was duly received; but I have an universal excuse for neglect of duty in the multitudinous professional engagements that absorb my life and strength. Believing in the justice of your cause, and that better laws and better order would bless our race could they be submitted to the arbitrament of woman, I yet am not able, individually, to give the time to it now which would be requisite for an adequate public presentation of its claims, but must content myself with only such passing words of cheer as the moment calls forth in the daily intercourse of life. I am grateful that you thought me competent to advocate so great a principle; but he would be a bold man who would attempt to add anything to the masterly effort of Mr. Beecher at the last Convention.

I am, as of old, your friend, LUTHER R. MARSH.

148 MADISON AVENUE, April 14, 1867.

DEAR MRS. STANTON:—Please accept the trifle enclosed, $20, as a token of my friendship to the good cause, whose mighty burden of enlightenment is to hold the growth of future cycles with an all-controlling destiny. I am glad to see that those who have been willing to wear the sackcloth and ashes are beginning to receive the crowns of the olive and the bay upon their consecrated heads. Many will find it very agreeable, now, to sail in upon the sunny and ardent tide of the rippling river, forgetting that once it was a darksome, sluggish stream, not pleasant to launch forth upon. My father's[208] early championship of a despised cause taught me to hold very sacred those pioneers in holy efforts, which to embrace was to suffer the pangs of a daily martyrdom.

Your friend, as of old, JEANNIE MARSH.

May 29, 1867.

It is foolish to say that the advocates of the "Woman Movement" demand "special legislation" for woman, or desire to array her in hostility to man. It is the enemies of this movement who have made special legislation necessary, since they declare woman not to be the equal of man. We desire nothing but one common law alike for each, with woman holding the ballot, not as the enemy, but as the peer and friend of man.

ANNA E. DICKINSON.

KENOSHA, WIS., May 1, 1868.

I saw your notice of the meeting of the American Equal Rights Association in that banner of freedom, the Boston Investigator. A thousand times I wish you success. We, in this State, intend to make a determined fight next year for female suffrage. The resolution submitting it to the people passed the Assembly and Senate by more than two to one (57 against 24. and 19 against 9); yet you must not suppose that our cause is so favorable as that. I send a few extracts, copied from the Racine Advocate; and to that number I am pleased to add the Milwaukee News, the leading Democratic paper of the State. Mr. Sholes, one of the leading Republicans of the State (elector on the last Presidential ticket), is warmly in support of your cause. Certainly the great car of progress is under motion, and no bigoted, conservative fogyism can long stay its progress. In the meantime, I really hope to see some of your best speakers in the Wisconsin field before the election of 1868. Where can I get some pamphlets containing the best arguments for universal suffrage? Go bravely on. Let not the scoffs and sneers of the low, mean, and vulgar intimidate, defeat, or discourage you.

Most respectfully, R. F. MILLS.

* * * * *

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Receipts at the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention, held in New York, May 10, 1866.

Abby Hutchinson Patton $50 00 Jessie Benton Fremont 50 00 Mrs. C. Lozier, M.D. 20 00 James and Lucretia Mott 10 00 Anna Densmore, M.D. 10 00 Margaret E. Winchester 5 00 Eliza Wright Osborn 5 00 Martha C. Wright 8 00 Gerrit and Nancy Smith 10 00 Elizabeth Smith Miller 5 00 C. C. Williams 2 00 S. R. Ferris 50 Mrs. L. M. Ward. M.D. 2 00 M. P. Allen 1 00 M. A. Halsted 1 00 Mrs. J. B. Mix 1 00 H. Phelps 1 00 J. H. Smith 1 00 Frances V. Hallock 1 00 Ella M. Clymer 1 00 Sarah S. White 1 00 Cordelia Curtis 1 00 Mrs. D. T. Tompkins 1 00 Josephine S. Griffing 1 00 Mrs. F. Knapp 1 00 Mary M. Bingham 1 00 Harriet Clisby 1 00 Sarah E. Payson 1 00 Christiana T. Wallace 1 00 D. J. H. Wilcox 1 00 Albert O. Wilcox 1 00 J. H. H. Wilcox 1 00 Frances D. Gage 1 00 Louisa Humphrey 1 00 A. M. Odell 1 00 Dr. J. E. Snodgrass 1 00 Gustavus Muller 1 00 Charles Lenox Remond 1 00 Mary Curtis 1 00 Jane P. Thurston 1 00 Martha T. Ketchum 1 00 Sarah H. Hallock 1 00 Elizabeth Barton 1 00 Mrs. Geo. C. White 1 00 A. Raymond 1 00 Susan M. Davis 1 00 A. M. Powell 1 00 General collection 46 50

Receipts at the Equal Rights Convention, held at Boston, May 27, 1866.

Anna E. Dickinson $100 00 E. D. and Anna F. Draper 50 00 Geo. J. and Mary B. H. Adams 20 00 Mr. and Mrs. A. M. McPhail 20 00 Anna Davis Hallowell 10 00 C. Prince 5 00 Mrs. M. P. Snow 5 00 Caroline M. Severance 5 00 R. H. Ober 4 00 Mrs. L. Prang 1 00 A. E. Heywood 2 00 Parker Pillsbury 1 00 Mrs. E. D. Cheney 1 00 L. H. Ober 1 00 Mrs. M. H. Prince 3 00 John T. Sargent 2 00 R. P. Hallowell 2 00 Mrs. C. A. Baker 1 00 E. H. Merrill 1 00 Maria S. Page 2 00 Mary C. Shannon 50 N. Allen 1 00 S. Reynolds 50 R. T. Greene 50 M. Halliburton 50 Harriet A. Foster 2 00 A. B. Morey 50 C. S. Perry 50 A. S. Sisson 50 S. Boynton 50 Henry Abbott 2 00 Lewis Ford 1 00 Sarah J. Nowell 1 00 Friend 35 Col. Wm. B. Green 5 00 R. H. Morrill 2 00 Mrs. M. A. Dotcher 1 00 M. C. Wolson 1 00 Mary Willey 50 Cash 1 15 Abby H. Stephenson 5 00 Lewis McLaughlin 1 00 Mrs. S. D. Young 3 25 Sarah H. Young, M.D. 5 00 M. E. Woods 1 00 M. E. Jameson 1 00 C. F. Haywood 1 00 H. A. Comly 2 00 Anna R. Southwick 1 00 H. E. Sawyer 1 00 Richard Plummer 1 00 R. Howland 1 00 S. R. Duzen 1 00 F. A. Green 5 00 D. B. Morey 1 00 J. Wetherbe 1 00 Isaac H. Marshall 1 00 Maria B. Clapp 1 00 J. E. Bruce 50 A. J. Patterson 50 Cash 3 05 T. B. Rice 50 Cash 1 00 Frances H. Drake 1 00 Kate C. Atkinson 50 Wilmot Wilson 1 00 Cash 50 Mary C. Sawyer 2 00 Elizabeth Mendum 5 00 H. W. Carter 50 L. F. Lalve, M.D. 50 K. E. Walker 50 Charles K. Whipple 1 00 Ruth Buffum 1 00 S. Cheney 50 K. C. Atkins 50 Elizabeth M. F. Denton 5 00 H. N. Green 50 M. E. Steward 1 00 Margaret N. Wood 1 00 Cash 2 50 Kate Reynolds 2 00 John L. Whiting 1 00 Universal Suffrage 1 00 M. E. Darey 1 00 General collection 41 00

Receipts from June 1, 1866, to May 1, 1867.

Levi Coates $1 00 Mrs. A. C. L. Hyde 1 00 Jane Voorhees 25 00 Harriet V. Rice 10 00 Mary F. Gilbert 1 00 F. A. Hinckley 1 50 Louisa Frost 2 00 M. B. Linton 10 00 Olympia Brown 5 00 Mary E. Ranks 1 00 Mary E. Deuls 2 00 Sarah H. Hallock 50 Dansville E. R. Association (per James C. Jackson, M.D.) 105 00 Gerrit Smith 100 00 James and Lucretia Mott 53 00 C. S. Lozier, M.D. 50 00 Samuel E. Sewall 40 00 Sinclair Tousey 10 00 G. P. Lowrey 10 00 Dr. Dio Lewis 5 00 Martha C. Wright 5 00 Eliza W. Osborn 5 00 E. V. Dickey 6 00 Edward M. Davis 5 00 Matilda E. J. Gage 5 00 E. D. Hudson 5 00 Job Parker 5 00 Aaron Stedman 1 00 Mrs. B. P. Markham 50 Mrs. D. F. Rogers 50 Emily Rogers 50 Maggie Clemmer 25 James Eaton 1 00 Addison B. Tuttle 1 00 Anna H. McAvoy 25 Isadore Harrison 25 Joseph A. Sherman 1 00 Frank Conway 25 Mary Jackson 25 J. D. Cook 50 J. G. Howe 2 00 R. Lippis 50 H. W. Hale 25 William Litch 50 Sarah Willis 1 00 Mrs. E. B. Judson 10 00 S. J. May 5 00 Joseph Savage 5 00 H. Delano 5 00 T. G. White 3 00 Dr. H. S. Sparks 2 00 Mr. and Mrs. L. Spalding 2 00 J. M. Wieting 2 00 Mrs. W. H. Williams 5 00 Anna Willets 5 00 Emily Jaques 5 00 Sarah E. Wall 5 00 James Freeman Clarke 5 00 Parker Pillsbury 4 00 Mrs. S. M. Doty 3 00 Mary Grew 2 00 Sarah Pugh 2 00 Margaret J. Burleigh 2 00 Geo. H. Sisson 3 00 E. G. Folsom 2 00 Joseph Carpenter 2 00 Susan Ormsby 1 00 Frances Ellen Burr 1 00 J. D. Stephenson 1 00 Paulina Gerry 1 00 J. H. Root 1 00 Mrs. Avery 1 00 Martha Pierce 1 00 James Pierce 1 00 A Friend 1 00 Equal Rights 1 00 Mrs. C. S. Lozier, M.D. 10 00 Mrs. E. Sanderson 5 00 Isaac Sherwood 5 00 Mrs. P. L. Upham 5 00 John B. Bassett 2 00 H. T. Douley 1 00 Sarah F. Rice, M.D. 1 00 Joseph Post 1 00 Huldah S. Warrington 1 00 Mary Styles 1 00 M. Parish 25 Mrs. Field 50 Martha Hudson 1 00 Sarah E. Johonnet 1 00 John Lancaster 1 00 Dr. and Mrs. A. L. Ward 2 00 Frances E. Smith 1 00 Mrs. Whitley 1 00 Mrs. D. B. Hontz 50 J. Sinclair 50 Anna Rice Powell 1 00 Mrs. Mix, M.D. 50 Alice Hall 50 Ella Clymer 1 00 Linda Dietz 1 00 Mrs. Dietz 50 Dr. James Burson 25 L. A. Van Cort 25 William Russel 1 00 Sarah B. Perry 50 D. H. Hoffman 50 P. A. Neale 50 Edward Kingsley 2 00 Fanny M. Callow 2 00 L. Jenny Kellogg 1 00 Caroline H. Sherwood 1 00 Delia A. Barker 1 00 Gustavus Muller 3 00 William L. Jaycox 25 E. P. Bailey 50 M. Newth 1 00 Cynthia DeLong 5 00 John Castor 25 W. R. and M. H. Hallowell 5 00 Mary B. F. Curtis 5 00 Sarah Smith 1 00 J. N. Holmes 1 00 M. Merrick 1 00 Charles D. B. Mills 1 00 A. P. Brown 50 Mrs. F. L. Brown 50 E. C. Lewis 1 00 Mrs. L. H. Hinsdale 50 Mrs. B. Brook 25 C. A. Abbott 25 Fayette Clark 50 Priscilla Clark 50 Louisa J. Phelps 1 00 Lydia P. Savage 1 00 Mrs. Charles B. Sedgwick 1 00 Mary A. Horton 25 J. T. Williams 25 Mrs. G. G. Sperry 50 A. D. Waters 25 S. Brewer 50 H. C. Todd 25 C. G. Alton 50 Mrs. L. A. Strowbridge 3 00 Martha C. Wright 5 00 Eliza W. Osborn 5 00 Mrs. Dr. Hall 1 00 Abby Thayer Chase 50 Philadelphia E. R. Convention 28 00 Esther Cole 1 00 L. Kelsey 1 00 J. S. Northrup 2 00 Mrs. A. Leaton 1 00 Samuel Sutton 50 Caroline Thompson 2 00 Elizabeth M. Atwell 2 00 Jacob and Eliza Powell 10 00 Zenus Brackett 10 00 Mrs. Judge Owen 1 00 Margaret Vanderpool 75 James McEntee 5 00 H. M. Crane 3 00 James G. Lindsley 1 00 Walter B. Crane 1 00 Horatio Falks 1 00 J. E. Lasher 1 00 Mrs. Vantassell 1 00 Jonathan Buffum 10 00 Luther Melendy 5 00 Anson Lapham 40 00 Mary S. Moses 3 00 Mrs. Oliver Dennett 10 00 Mr. Armstrong 5 00 Elisabeth J. Vail, M.D. 1 00 Matilda T. Saxton 5 00 Rosanna Thompson 2 00 Helen Philleo 1 00 James Halleck 1 10 P. H. Boyce 50 Ellis Ellis 1 00 Charlotte M. Schofield 25 John Cadawalder 10 David Perry 25 Le Grand Marvin 1 00 J. Van Vleck 1 00 Cyrus P. Lee 1 00 Aaron R. Vail 2 00 E. Cumming 31 Mrs. J. Watson 5 00

Receipts at the First Anniversary, May 9 and 10, 1867.

Elizabeth B. Chace $25 00 Parker Pillsbury 25 00 Mrs. Luther Marsh 20 00 Lydia Mott 25 00 Mrs. P. H. and M. Jones 25 00 Susan B. Anthony 50 00 Cora A. Syme 10 00 Two Ladies, $5 each 10 00 Frances D. Gage 13 00 Samuel J. May 10 00 L. Francis 10 00 Westchester E. R. Association (per E. A. Studwell) 15 00 Jane Clegg 15 00 Joseph and Mary Post 10 00 Charlotte D. Lozier, M.D. 5 00 Elizabeth W. Brown 5 00 Oliver Johnson 5 00 A. O. Willcox 5 00 J. K. H. Wilcox 5 00 E. Cummings 5 00 Mary C. Sawyer 5 00 J. C. Fergusson 5 00 Fred. H. Hernan 5 00 Harry H. Hall 5 00 Charles P. Somerby 5 00 Robert J. Johnston 5 00 Mrs. S. M. Chickering 5 00 J. Miller McKim 5 00 Sarah E. Wall 3 00 R. F. Hudson 2 00 Mrs. Gayno 2 00 Mrs. Dodge 2 00 Mrs. L. Francis 2 00 Mrs. Elmer Stone 2 00 Hannah W. Bell 2 00 S. S. Foster 1 00 Mrs. Brown 5 00 T. W. Higginson 1 00 S. D. White 1 00 Cash 1 00 A. Noble, Sr. 1 00 C. B. Halsart 1 00 E. Underhill 1 00 A. M. Powell 1 00 J. E. Snodgrass 1 00 Mrs. Hibbard 1 00 Nellie Lord 1 00 D. B. and A. Morey 1 00 R. Salmon 1 00 Adolphus O. Johnson 1 00 Levi K. Joslin 1 00 Mary F. Davis 1 00 Wm. P. Bolles 1 00 Cash 1 00 E. Ostrander 1 00 Esther Titus 1 00 L. B. Humphrey 1 00 Martha Hudson 1 00 Susan M. Davis 1 00 Sojourner Truth 1 00 T. M. Newbold 1 00 M. E. Woodson 50 Mrs. M. Johnson 50 Ann Ellsworth Hunt 50 L. Blake 50 J. L. Langworthy 50 T. B. Pierce 50 Esther C. Pierce 50 E. Campbell 50 M. H. McKinnon 50 Mrs. J. B. Mix, M.D. 50 Samuel D. Moore 25 M. P. Allen 25 R. Williams 25 P. E. Kipp 25

Pledges.

Anna E. Dickinson $100 00 Margaret E. Winchester 100 00 A. O. Wilcox 55 00 C. and M. H. Prince 25 00 Gillis, Harney & Co. 25 00 H. Hart 20 00 D. B. and A. B. Morey 20 00 John Smith 10 00 C. F. Wallace 5 00 C. E. Reason 5 00 Mrs. C. E. Collins 5 00 Euphemia Cochrane 5 00 Melissa Johnson 5 00 W. F. Douley 2 00 Mrs. H. P. Baldwin 1 00 Dr. Chavau 1 00 S. A. Turner 1 00 Dio Lewis, M.D. 50 00 R. C. Browning 30 00 George H. Taylor, M.D. 5 00

* * * * *

SOJOURNER TRUTH ON THE PRESS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE WORLD:—We have had the pleasure of entertaining Mrs. Stowe's "Lybian Sybil" at our home for the last week, and can bear our testimony to the marvelous wisdom and goodness of this remarkable woman. She was a slave in this State for forty years, and has devoted forty years of freedom to the best interests of her race. Though eighty years of age, she is as active and clear-sighted as ever, and "understands the whole question of reconstruction, all its 'quagmires and pitfalls,' as she says, as well as any man does."

The morning after the Equal Rights Convention, as the daily journals one by one made their appearance, turning to the youngsters of the household, she said: "Children, as there is no school to-day, will you read Sojourner the reports of the Convention? I want to see whether these young sprigs of the press do me justice. You know, children, I don't read such small stuff as letters, I read men and nations. I can see through a millstone, though I can't see through a spelling-book. What a narrow idea a reading qualification is for a voter! I know and do what is right better than many big men who read. And there's that property qualification! just as bad. As if men and women themselves, who made money, were not of more value than the thing they made. If I were a delegate to the Constitutional Convention I could make suffrage as clear as daylight; but I am afraid these Republicans will 'purty, purty' about all manner of small things week out and week in, and never settle this foundation question after all." Sojourner then gathered up her bag and shawl, and walked into the parlor in a stately manner, and there, surrounded by the children, the papers were duly read and considered. The Express, the Post, the Commercial Advertiser, the World, the Times, the Herald, the Tribune, and the Sun, all passed in review. The World seemed to please Sojourner more than any other journal. She said she liked the wit of the World's reporter; all the little texts running through the speeches, such as "Sojourner on Popping Up," "No Grumbling," "Digging Stumps," "Biz," to show what is coming, so that one can get ready to cry or laugh, as the case may be—a kind of sign-board, a milestone, to tell where we are going, and how fast we go. The readers then call her attention to the solid columns of the other papers, and the versification of the World. She said she did not like the dead calm. She liked the breaking up into verses, like her songs. That is a good thing; it gives the reporter time to take breath and sharpen his pen, and think of some witty thing to say; for life is a hard battle anyway, and if we can laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. "But, children, why did you not send for some of those wicked Democratic papers that abuse all good people and good things." "They are all here," said the readers in chorus. "We have read you all the Republicans and the Democrats say." "Why, children, I can't tell one from the other. The millennium must be here, when one can't tell saints from sinners, Republicans from Democrats. Is the World Horace Greeley's paper?" "Oh, no; the World is Democratic!" "Democratic! Why, children, the World does move! But there is one thing I don't exactly see; if the Democrats are all ready to give equal rights to all, what are the Republicans making such a fuss about? Mr. Greeley was ready for this twenty years ago; if he had gone on as fast as the Democrats he should have been on the platform, at the conventions, making speeches, and writing resolutions, long ago." "Oh," said some one of larger growth, "Mr. Greeley is busy with tariffs and protective duties. What do you think, Sojourner, of free trade? Do you not think if England and France have more dry-goods than they want that they had better send them to us, and we in turn send them our fruits and flowers and grains; our timber, iron, fish, and ice?" "Yes, I go for everything free. Let nature, like individuals, make the most of what God has given them, have their neighbors to do the same, and then do all they can to serve each other. There is no use in one man, or one nation, to try to do or be everything. It is a good thing to be dependent on each other for something, it makes us civil and peaceable. But," said Sojourner, "where is Theodore Tilton's paper?" "Oh, the Independent is a weekly, it came out before the Convention." "But Theodore is not a weekly; why did he not come to the Convention and tell us what he thought?" "Well, here is his last paper, with a grand editorial," and Sojourner listened to the end with interest. "That's good," said she, "but he don't say woman." "Oh, he is talking about sectarianism, not suffrage; the Church, not the State." "No matter, the Church wrongs woman as much as the State. 'Wives, obey your husbands,' is as bad as the common law. 'The husband and wife are one, and that one the husband.' I am afraid Theodore and Horace are playing bo-peep with their shadows. Did you tell me that Mr. Greeley is a delegate to the Constitutional Convention?" Yes, and I hope that he will soon wake up to the fact that the Democrats are going ahead of him, and instead of writing articles on 'Democracy run mad,' on tariffs and mining interests, it behooves him to be studying what genuine republicanism is, and whether we are to realize it in the Empire State this very year or not. "Speaking of shadows," said Sojourner, "I wish the World to know that when I go among fashionable people in the Church of the Puritans, I do not carry 'rations' in my bag; I keep my shadow there. I have good friends enough to give me clothes and rations. I stand on principle, always in one place, so everybody knows where to find Sojourner, and I don't want my shadow even to be dogging about here and there and everywhere, so I keep it in this bag." "I think," said one of the group, "the press should hereafter speak of you as Mrs. Stowe's Lybian Sybil, and not as 'old church woman.'" "Oh, child, that's good enough. The Herald used to call me 'old black nigger,' so this sounds respectable. Have you read the Herald too, children? Is that born again? Well, we are all walking the right way together. I'll tell you what I'm thinking. My speeches in the Convention read well. I should like to have the substance put together, improved a little, and published in tract form, headed 'Sojourner Truth on Suffrage;' for if these timid men, like Greeley, knew that Sojourner was out for 'universal suffrage,' they would not be so afraid to handle the question. Yes, children, I am going to rouse the people on equality. I must sojourn once to the ballot-box before I die. I hear the ballot-box is a beautiful glass globe, so you can see all the votes as they go in. Now, the first time I vote I'll see if a woman's vote looks any different from the rest—if it makes any stir or commotion. If it don't inside, it need not outside. That good speech of Henry Ward Beecher's made my heart leap for joy; he just hit the nail right on the head when he said you never lost anything by asking everything; if you bait the suffrage-hook with a woman you will certainly catch a black man. There is a great deal in that philosophy, children. Now I must go and take a smoke!" I tell you in confidence, Mr. Editor, Sojourner smokes!

Yours respectfully, E. C. S.

P. S.—She says she has been sent into the smoking-car so often she smoked in self-defense—she would rather swallow her own smoke than another's.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XIX.

THE KANSAS CAMPAIGN, 1867.

IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE IN KANSAS—A VIGOROUS CANVASS ANTICIPATED.

ST. LOUIS, April 3.

The Democrat's Topeka, Kansas, special says: "A large convention of those in favor of impartial suffrage is in session in this city. Lucy Stone and Dr. Blackwell, and delegates from different parts of the State are in attendance.

"An association has been formed for the purpose of canvassing the State thoroughly and distributing documents. The object is to carry the female suffrage clause as well as the negro. The officers of the association are Gov. Crawford, for President; Lieut. Gov. Green, for Vice-President; Judge S. N. Wood, for Corresponding Secretary; and an Executive Committee of fourteen, including such men as Chas. Robinson, J. P. Root, J. B. Abbot, Col. Moonlight, all the members of the Supreme Court, and other leading men of the State. Arrangements are made to have the most prominent advocates of impartial suffrage from the East to stump the State. Money will be raised to conduct the fall campaign, which will probably be the most vigorously conducted of any which has yet taken place."

The State Record, Kansas, says: "The opponents of woman suffrage use the argument very freely that its advocates are not in favor of negro suffrage. This is wickedly and wilfully false. The most earnest and influential supporters of woman suffrage in the State are equally anxious to give the negro his rights, and Republicans, generally, will vote for both propositions. We hope none will be deceived by these false charges made by those who write and speak in the interest of saloons, and who to turn expect to be elevated to office through their agency. The most bitter and relentless and united efforts now making against woman suffrage, are by those who are devoting their lives to degrading men and women too, and we are sorry to see a few respectable men keeping them company, under the foolish impression that the movement originated and is carried on by those who aim to defeat negro suffrage. We earnestly hope the day is near at hand when all men and women everywhere will be allowed to exercise their political rights."

Extract from a letter written by Mrs. S. N. Wood for the Lawrence Tribune, May, 1867: "The women of Cottonwood Falls have passed through this horrid furnace of an election, and come out unscathed. Our laws require that a majority of all the legal voters in the district must vote to issue bonds to build a school-house, before bonds can be issued. As women were legal voters, to stay at home was to vote against bonds. The election had to be conducted exactly as other elections. It was a busy time; none of our men liked to leave their work to spend the day at the polls, so three women were chosen and qualified to act as judges. No guardians of the ballot-box ever acted with more ability or behaved with more propriety and dignity than they. There was not the least rudeness among the men; no brawling or swearing. Not a woman there lost a particle of refinement, or became a grain coarser, or neglected her family. Not one of the misguided women whose bad influences Mr. Reynolds, of the Journal, so much dreads, came to the polls. That kind of women, I judge, are literally opposed to women demoralizing themselves by voting. But if such lived in our district, and had offered to vote, I trust their votes would have been received and counted just the same as the votes of the men who support and encourage them in their wicked career. I never knew what men meant when talking about bonds, until I learned that I must vote on the subject. I wanted to vote intelligently; sought the requisite information; and I went to the polls feeling stronger and safer for that little knowledge gained. When I came home my little ones hailed me as lovingly as ever, and the same mother-love guided my hands for their comfort.

"In 1858, a 'woman's rights' man, in Kansas, believing that there should be a perfect equality as to property rights between men and women, wrote to Gerrit Smith, Wm. Goodell, Lucy Stone, and other advocates of woman's rights, asking them to send him a form of a law that would secure that object. Among others he received the framework of a law written by Lucy Stone. He wrote it over according to her pattern, and Lyman Allen introduced it into the Legislature. It became a law in February, 1859. The original in Lucy Stone's handwriting is yet in existence. The law is virtually the one that, to-day, on our statute book testifies to the honest sense of justice that their conflict with tyranny nurtured in our men in the early days of Kansas. It testifies to Lucy Stone's zeal in behalf of her sex."

The following address to the Southern people was largely circulated in Kansas during the spring campaign, by Mr. Blackwell.

WHAT THE SOUTH CAN DO.

HOW THE SOUTHERN STATES CAN MAKE THEMSELVES MASTERS OF THE SITUATION.

TO THE LEGISLATURES OF THE SOUTHERN STATES:—I write to you as the intellectual leaders of the Southern people—men who should be able and willing to transcend the prejudices of section—to suggest the only ground of settlement between North and South which, in my judgment, can be successfully adopted.

Let me state the political situation. The radical principles of the North are immovably fixed upon negro suffrage as a condition of Southern State reconstruction. The proposed Constitutional Amendment is not regarded as a finality. It satisfies nobody, not even its authors. In the minds of the Northern people the negroes are now associated with the idea of loyalty to the Union. They are considered citizens. They are respected as "our allies." It is believed in the North that a majority of the white people of the South are at heart the enemies of the Union. The advocates of negro suffrage daily grow stronger and more numerous.

On the other hand, a majority of the Southern white population are inflexibly opposed to negro suffrage in any form, universal or qualified, and are prepared to resist its introduction by every means in their power. In alliance with the President and the Northern Democracy, they protest against any and all terms of reconstruction, demand unconditional readmission, and await in gloomy silence the Republican initiative.

This absolute and growing antagonism can only end, if continued, in one of two results, either in a renewal of civil war, or in a concession by the South of political equality to the negro. But in case of war, the South can not possibly succeed. The North is to-day far stronger in men and money, in farms and factories, than she was in 1860. She is now trained to war, conscious of overwhelming strength, flushed with victory, and respected, as never before, by the nations of Europe. Moreover, she is much more united in political sentiment. Do not again deceive yourselves. If you should resort to arms, the North would be practically unanimous. The President would instantly be impeached and a radical successor appointed. The South has lost social unity with the loss of slavery. She can not fight better than before. And the braver her action, the more terrible would be her fate.

Gentlemen, these are facts—not theories. Wise men try to see things as they are, uncolored by opinion or preference. The interest of both North and South, since they must live together, is peace, harmony, and real fraternity. No adjustment can fully succeed unless it is acceptable to both sections. Therefore the statesman and patriot must find a common ground as a basis of permanent reconciliation.

Now the radicalism of the North is actual, organic, and progressive. Recognize the fact. But if "governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed"—if "taxation without representation is tyranny"—and "on these two commandments hang all the (Republican) law and the prophets"—then these propositions are as applicable to women as to negroes. "Consistency is a jewel." The principle is so broad that, if you accept it in its entirety, you can afford to lead—not follow.

The population of the late slave States is about 12,000,000; 8,000,000 white, 4,000,000 black. The radicals demand suffrage for the black men on the ground named above. Very good. Say to them, as Mr. Cowan said to the advocates of negro male suffrage in the District, "Apply your principle! Give suffrage to all men and women of mature age and sound mind, and we will accept it as the basis of State and National reconstruction."

Consider the result from the Southern standpoint. Your 4,000,000 of Southern white women will counterbalance your 4,000,000 of negro men and women, and thus the political supremacy of your white race will remain unchanged.

Think well of this. It is a calculation of the relative political influences of white women and of negroes which perhaps your people have not yet considered. Let us make the statement in figures. Estimating one male voter to every five persons, your present vote is:

White males 1,600,000 Add white females 1,600,000 ————- Total white voters 3,200,000

Negro males 800,000 Negro females 800,000 ————- Total negro voters 1,600,000

Suppose all the negroes vote one way and all the whites the other, your white majority would be 1,600,000—equal to your present total vote. Thus you would control your own State legislation. Meanwhile, your influence in the councils of the nation will be greater than ever before, because your emancipated slaves will be counted in the basis of representation, instead of as formerly, in the ratio of five for three. In the light of the history of your Confederacy, can any Southerner fear to trust the women of the South with the ballot?

But the propriety of your making the proposal lies deeper than any consideration of sectional expediency. If you must try the Republican experiment, try it fully and fairly. Since you are compelled to union with the North, remove every seed of future controversy. If you are to share the future government of your States with a race you deem naturally and hopelessly inferior, avert the social chaos, which seems to you so imminent, by utilizing the intelligence and patriotism of the wives and daughters of the South. Plant yourselves upon the logical Northern principle. Then no new demands can ever be made upon you. No future inroads of fanaticism can renew sectional discord.

The effect upon the North would be to revolutionize political parties. "Justice satisfies everybody." The negro, thus protected against oppression by possessing the ballot, would cease to be the prominent object of philanthropic interest. Northern distrust, disarmed by Southern magnanimity, would give place to the liveliest sentiments of confidence and regard. The great political desideratum would be attained. The negro question would be forever removed from the political arena. National parties would again crystallize upon legitimate questions of National interest—questions of tariff, finance, and foreign relations. The disastrous conflict between Federal and State jurisdiction would cease. North and South, no longer hammer and anvil, would forget and forgive the past. School-houses and churches would be our fortifications and intrenchments. Capital and population would flow, like the Mississippi, toward the Gulf. The black race would gravitate by the law of nature toward the tropics. The memory and spirit of Washington would be cherished; and every deed of genuine gallantry and humanity would be treasured as the common glory of the republic.

Do you say that Northern Republicans would not accept such a proposition? They can not avoid it. The matter is in your own hands.

In New Jersey (then a slave State) from 1776 to 1807, a period of thirty-one years, women and negroes voted on precisely the same footing as white men. No catastrophe, social or political, ensued. The following is an extract from the New Jersey election law of 1797:

"SEC. 9. Every voter shall openly and in full view deliver his or her ballot, which shall be a single written ticket containing the names of the person, or persons, for whom he or she votes," etc.

Your Southern Legislatures can extend suffrage on equal terms to "all inhabitants," as the New Jersey State Convention did in 1776. Then let the Republicans in Congress refuse to admit your Senators and Representatives, if they dare. If so, they will go under. Upon that issue fairly made up, the men of positive convictions would rally round the new and consistent Democratic party. The very element which has destroyed slavery would side with the victorious South, and "out of the nettle danger you would pluck the flower safety."

Respectfully yours, HENRY B. BLACKWELL.

NEW YORK, January 15, 1867.

* * * * *

SUPPRESSED PROCEEDINGS.

The Republican State Central Committee met last week in Leavenworth. The Leavenworth papers published or pretended to publish the proceedings of the Committee, but suppressed an important portion. Fortunately, Mr. Taylor, the honest and able editor of the Wyandotte Gazette, is a member of the Committee, and was present at the meeting. From his paper we get the following that was for some cause or other suppressed:

"Mr. Taylor offered the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the Republican State Central Committee do not indorse, but distinctly repudiate, as speakers, in behalf and under the auspices of the Republican party, such persons as have defamed, or do hereafter defame, in their public addresses, the women of Kansas, or those ladies who have been urging upon the people of Kansas the propriety of enfranchising the women of the State.

"Whiting moved to lay the resolution on the table.

"Ayes—Whiting, Eskridge—2.

"Noes—Taylor—1.

"Taylor moved to strike the name of I. S. Kalloch from the list of speakers in the Republican State Canvass.

"Ayes—Taylor—1.

"Noes—Whiting, Eskridge—2.

PROTEST OF MR. TAYLOR.

"The undersigned, a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Kansas, protests against the action of the Committee this day had so far as relates to the placing of the names of I. S. Kalloch, C. V. Eskridge, and P. B. Plumb, on the list of speakers to canvass the State in behalf of Republican principles, for the reason that they have within the last few weeks, in public addresses, published articles, used ungentlemanly, indecent, and infamously defamatory language, when alluding to a large and respectable portion of the women of Kansas, or to women now engaged in canvassing the State in favor of impartial suffrage.

"R. B. TAYLOR.

"LEAVENWORTH, Sept. 18, 1867.

Address by the Women's Impartial Suffrage Association of Lawrence, Kansas.

TO THE WOMEN OF KANSAS:—At the coming election on the 5th of November, questions of the greatest importance to every citizen of Kansas, whether man or woman, will be presented for the action of the people. Shall the right of suffrage be extended to negroes? Shall the right of suffrage be extended to women?

The question of the enfranchisement of the negro now mainly occupies the attention of the Republican party. Upon the same principle, viz: that of equal rights and equal justice to all, we ask the ballot for woman, and expect to obtain it.

One great obstacle that the advocates of female suffrage have to contend with is the declaration on the part of many good and intelligent women that they do not want to vote. They say they are contented with their present condition; they have all the rights they want, and do not need the ballot; and they will take no interest in the matter, except to deprecate its agitation by women. Women of Kansas, let us reason together for a little concerning this matter.

Honored wives and mothers, dwelling at ease in the comfortable homes your husbands provide for you, declare you do not want to vote, and would consider it almost a reflection on your husbands to desire such a thing, do you consider yourselves capable of forming a correct judgment in reference to any matter of public interest? You read the newspapers and are familiar with the literature of the day, and pride yourselves upon your general information and intelligence; can you then form a judgment as to the justness of any law, or the character of any candidate for office? Were any one to assert that you were not capable of this, you would resent it as an insult.

But, say you, we feel no interest in public measures, laws, candidates, etc.; our sphere, cares, and duties are at home. So thought thousands of American women five years ago; but war, as the result of public measures, laws and candidates, called from the hearthstones and hearts of these same women, husbands, brothers, sons, and slew them on the field of battle—in crowded hospitals—in rebel prisons. Think you the women of America then had no interest in public measures? Can it be that any woman who has given one of her household to save our country will declare that she takes no interest in the government and affairs of that country? Consider a moment whether you have any interest in matters more immediately pressing upon our attention. Is it of any importance to you whether the dram-shops be closed or not? Perhaps your husbands are safe—above suspicion or fear of temptation; but those little sons playing around your knee, that young brother who is about to leave the paternal roof, when the hour comes that they shall go forth into the world, is it of any concern to you whether temptation meet them at every corner? Said a rumseller who is bitterly opposed to female suffrage, "What more do you want? a man can not now get license to sell liquor without the names of a majority of all the women of the ward upon his petition." Very true, but mark this, unless the women of Kansas obtain the ballot, that law will soon be blotted from the statute book.

Again: the women of Kansas now vote on questions concerning the erection of school-houses and matters pertaining to the facilities for the education of their children. Where has this provision wrought anything but good? How many school districts now have commodious school-houses because the women of the district, who were mothers and wanted schools for their children, outnumbered the men, who, though large landholders, are not residents or had no children and did not want schools? Can it be that any woman who has felt and wielded the power for good that the ballot gave her, in this respect, will yet declare that she does not want to vote?

If, then, you are capable of forming opinions on matters of public interest, and if you admit that you are in some degree liable to be affected by public affairs, in the name of Heaven, of Right, of Home—in the name of Husband, Brothers, Sons, can you not—will you not, give your voice in favor of right, and against wrong? Begin now, if you have never done so before, to inquire into the character of our law-makers, the justness of our laws, the regard our country pays to the rights of all. If you do not feel the need of so doing for yourselves, yet for the sake of generations yet to come, interest yourselves, "that our officers may be peace and our exactors righteousness." If you are in circumstances of ease and comfort, because shielded from every rude wind by noble protectors—father husband, son—yet listen to the cry of thousands of women less favored than yourselves, whose natural protectors, as we style them, the licensed dram-shop transforms into abusive tyrants, from whom they must be protected, or who, being deprived of husband and father, cry aloud of the injustice inflicted upon them in their dependent condition by laws framed in unrighteousness. Listen, we say, to their cry, and will you not desire, yea will you not demand the right to give your voice on all these questions in the only way in which you can effectually do so—the use of the ballot? Why, it would seem that every earnest, philanthropic woman would desire to do so, even were she obliged to go to the polls in their present condition instead of the reformed and purified state that will inevitably result from the enfranchisement of women.

The women of Kansas who, next to the Pilgrim mothers of America, have endured more privations and taken a more active part in public affairs than any other women of America, should of all others have a voice in controlling the affairs of State and framing the laws by which they shall be governed. Say some opposers, "the good and true women would not vote, but only the ignorant and vicious." What a monstrous libel upon the intelligence and public spirit of the women of Kansas! and just so certainly as women obtain the ballot, as far as the intelligent and virtuous outnumber the ignorant and abandoned, will the vote of women swell the majority for just and righteous measures—for the moral and upright man—the man who has never imbrued his hands in blood—who has never robbed woman of her virtue—whose senses are never drowned in the intoxicating bowl. Why! this is the great moral question of the day! It is not that the prominent opposers of this measure fear that it will drag women down; it is because they fear, and justly, that women will lift suffrage so far into the realm of purity and morality that they can never be able even to offer themselves as candidates for office. Then will the destinies of our country be no more decided at drunken orgies, amid scenes that our opponents say it would degrade us to witness, but all questions of public weal will be decided in the hearts and at the firesides of pure-hearted men and women, surrounded by those whose destinies are dearer than life, and that decision shall be enforced when men and women shall together go up to the temple of justice to deposit their ballots.

Whatever, then, may be the opinion of fair ladies who dwell in ceiled houses in our older Eastern States and cities, who like lilies, neither toil nor spin, whose fair hands would gather close their silken apparel at the thought of touching the homelier garments of many a heroine of Kansas—whatever they may say in reference to this question, we, the women of the Spartan State, declare, we want to vote.

By order of the Executive Committee.

MRS. HON. E. G. ROSS, MRS. GRIFFITH, MRS. EX GOV. ROBINSON, MRS. R. S. TENNEY, MRS. JUDGE THACHER, MRS. REV. W. A. STARRETT, MRS. JUDGE MILLER, MRS. REV. R. CORDLEY, MRS. JUDGE BURNETT, MRS. REV. G. S. DEARBORN, MRS. JUDGE HENDRY, MRS. REV. J. S. BROWN, MRS. H. M. SIMPSON, MRS. REV. GEORGE MEYER, MRS. ROBT. MORROW, MRS. J. H. LANE, MRS. MAJOR PLATT, MRS. JAMES HORTON, MRS. MAJOR WHITNEY, MRS. F. W. SPARR, MRS. S. DENMAN, MRS. JANE B. ARCHIBALD, MRS. HENDERSEN, MRS. CONE, MRS. J. O. ADAMS, MRS. WELSH, MRS. MARY WHITCOMB, MRS. MARSH, MRS. THERMUTIUS SUTHERLAND,