It has been said that these rights secured to us would destroy the peace of the marriage relations. On the contrary these relations would be entered into with more seriousness, and consequently not so often broken. It is our duty here to keep guard over our own souls, and to guard the most glorious institutions that ever blest mankind. Then could woman have equal advantages in the struggle of life, and her love be not wasted, but burn brighter and better, till it is lost in the effulgence of another existence. Need I point you to the society of Quakers where women have always had a share in the institutions of their order? Note their quiet decided movements, their gentle energetic actions, their thoughtful expressive countenances, their intellectual matronly appearance; and yet their domestic responsibilities have never been neglected or set aside to make way for their other responsibilities. On the contrary they are brightened in the radiance of liberty and duty. Look abroad through the world, and note where you would not expect woman to be equal with man; among the Mahommedan, barbarous, and savage nations; but. where man is elevated into truth and light, must he not know that his present use of power is despotism over our rights and the laws of our being?

It seems strange to me that woman, who has so often sat upon the throne, has never raised her sex to the enjoyment of their rights. Semiramis, and Isabella of Spain, might have done it. Elizabeth of England preserved her realms in peace and repelled invasion. Mary was learned and energetic, and if she had had better men for ministers, how different would have been her counsels. These and others might have elevated woman.

Whatever there is worthy in our own Constitution is owing to the indirect influence of two women: the mother of Washington and the wife of John Adams. The latter wrote cheering letters to her husband in Congress to be firm and uncompromising, and many of the measures brought forward there, were found in their germs in her letters to her children. If such advice and such encouragement indirectly, can have such an influence, what would be the direct influence of the whole host of American women, upon our institutions and country?

Women, and sisters, ponder these things in your hearts. Convene frequently and counsel together; assist the sister conventions in word

and deed; and the light will break upon your souls, and you will find it better patriotism far, than to gird on your brother's sword, and flout the banner of battle. The hearts of your people will be a better defense than garrisoned troops.

We are opposed not only by those who make the law, but by woman herself. There are those whose only hope is in woman's want of power. There are others who have been so long looking up to man's example, that they think there is no other way. And there is another portion still, who actually believe they have not the intellect to investigate great subjects or to engage in this reform. They sink back into capriciousness and selfishness; and so long as man is blind enough to foster that selfishness, he may be subject to it. Let her have a voice in your councils and you will disenthral her at once from the kindred offenses of folly and vice.

I am aware that I throw but a feeble and flickering light upon this subject, but there is a day coming when you will see it in a light glorious as the brightness of noon. I look upon the past-there is nothing in history to militate against this movement. I look upon the present-it is fraught with lofty efforts, indeed none loftier; and it is as God designed it. Woman in her purity, ennobled by religion and unoppressed by low passions and power, blending her moral and religious influence here, shall have man's approval and God's acceptance hereafter.

LUCY STONE-I believe that in every good movement everything that comes to it, helps it. "The wrath of man shall praise."

And in the discussions that have grown out of this Woman's Rights question, I have never felt that anything that comes to it from either side, can be a hindrance to its progress. We talk of the wrongs we suffer in one direction, and in another of the rights we ought to have, which are not given us; and the people listen, and thousands of women wish there were some way by which the wrong they suffer, and they know they suffer, could be removed; and yet they do not see what may be done. I hold in my hand a letter from a good friend of this cause; a man but no less a friend; for men are friends of woman's cause, as well as she herself. They have learned in the words of Tennyson that,

"Woman's cause, is man's cause,

We rise and fall together."

And because they have learned that, they have come to be co-workers in this cause, which is to me one of the most sacred that is now moving upon the great deep of the human soul.

The Rev. MR. HIGGINSON, whose letter I hold, and who has taken this cause to his heart as though it were his sister, is desirous that we should devise some practical measures by which we may work out a pathway to more rapid progress-and, by the way, it is the same Mr. Higginson, who, when the meeting assembled last spring in N. Y., at the Brick Chapel, and when Revs. John Chambers, and Marsh, and Crampton, and Ex Mayor Barstow of Providence, and I don't know how many other would-be-called worthies, were there, utterly denying that in the deliberations of the convention, woman should have any place; when they ruled us out of order, although we were in order; when, I say, every woman was gagged, and only men were heard,—and not even they, if they were expected to speak on the side of woman, -it is 'the same Mr. Higginson who proposed that we should all withdraw and make arrangements for a whole world's convention, one that would be large enough to admit men and women; and the letter I hold in my hand is from him, and he is a clergyman too.

MR. BARKER :-But he is a heretic!

LUCY STONE:-Yes, men call him so now, but he believes that "all things which ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them ;" and I do not believe therefore, that the great Master whom he obeys, will write him down an heretic, at last. But we will hear the letter:

WORCESTER, Sept. 15. 1853.

DEAR FRIEND : In writing to the New York Woman's Rights' Convention, I mentioned some few points of argument which no opponents of this movement have ever attempted to meet. Suffer me, in addressing the Cleveland Convention, to pursue a different course, and mention some things which the friends of the cause have not yet attempted to do.

I am of a practical habit of mind, and have noticed with some

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regret that most of the friends of the cause have rested their hopes, thus far, chiefly upon abstract reasoning. This is doubtless of great importance, and these reasonings have already made many converts; because the argument is so entirely on one side that every one who really listens to it begins instantly to be convinced. The difficulty is, that the majority have not yet begun to listen to it, and this, in great measure, because their attention has not been called to the facts upon which it is founded..

Suppose, now, that an effort were made to develop the facts of woman's wrongs. For instance:

1st. We say that the laws of every state of this Union do great wrong to woman, married and single, as to her person and property, in her private and public relations. Why not procure a digest of the laws on these subjects, then; prepared carefully, arranged systematically, corrected up to the latest improvements, and accompanied by brief and judicious commentaries? No such work exists, except that by Mansfield, which is now obsolete and in many respects defective. 2d. We complain of the great educational inequalities between the Why not have a report, elaborate, statistical, and accurate, on the provision for female education, public and private, throughout the free States of this Union, at least? No such work now exists.

sexes.

3d. We complain of the industrial disadvantages of women, and indicate at the same time, their capacities for a greater variety of pursuits. Why not obtain a statement, on as large a scale as possible, first, of what women are doing now, commercially and mechanically, throughout the Union (thus indicating their powers ;) and secondly, of the embarrassments with which they meet, the inequality of their wages, and all the other peculiarities of their position, in these respects? An essay, in short, on the Business Employments and Interests of Women; such an essay as Mr. Hunt has expressed to me his willingness to publish in his "Merchants' Magazine." No such essay now exists.

Each of these three documents would be an arsenal of arms for the Women's Rights Advocate. A hundred dollars, appropriated to each of these, would more than repay itself in the increased subscriptions it would soon bring into the treasury of the cause. That sum

would, however, be hardly sufficient to repay even the expenses of correspondence and traveling necessary for the two last essays; or the legal knowledge necessary for the first.

If there is, however, known to the Convention at Cleveland any person qualified and ready to undertake either of the above duties for the above sum; (no person should undertake more than one of the three investigations)-I would urge you to make the appointment. It will require, however, an accurate, clear headed and industrious person, with plenty of time to bestow. Better not have it done at all, than not have it done thoroughly, carefully and dispassionately. Let me say distinctly, that I cannot be a candidate for either duty, in my own person, for want of time to do it in; though I think I could render some assistance, especially in preparing materials for the third essay. I would also gladly subscribe towards a fund for getting the work done.

Permit me, finally, to congratulate you on the valuable results of every Convention yet held to consider this question. I find the fact everywhere remarked, that so large a number of women of talent and character have suddenly come forward into a public sphere. This phenomenon distinguishes this reform from all others that have appeared in America, and illustrates with new meaning the Greek myth of Minerva, born full-grown from the head of Jove. And if, (as some late facts indicate) this step forward only promotes the Woman's Rights movement from the sphere of contempt into the sphere of hostility and persecution it is a step forward, none the less. And I would respectfully suggest to the noble women who are thus attacked, that they will only be the gainers by such opposition, unless it lead to dissensions or jealousies among themselves.

Yours cordially,

MISS LUCY STONE.

THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON.

This letter, you see, proposes that we shall find some way if possi ble, by which our complaints may be spread before the people. We find men and women in our conventions, earnest and thoughtful, who are not drawn by mere curiosity, but are drawn by a conscious want of