women, all right on this question-I do not know of but one who is not a good housekeeper, wife and mother; while, on the contrary, I never knew a strong opposer, who was a cheerful and orderly woman at home, or a discreet woman abroad. The same I can say of my acquaintances in New York, Maryland and Virginia. Therefore, I put it down as a marked fact, that a bad domestic and social woman is sure to oppose this agitation; while a woman who does her duty in her present limits, is ready to do her duty when limits are expanded.

"Be faithful over a few things and I will make thee ruler over many," is higher authority than Blackstone.

Allow me, as one who has been obliged to look upon our conventions from many points of observation, and to note their effects upon community by actual communication with that community; as one who feels identified in principle and purpose; to suggest, perfect unity, and but few resolutions; and those well digested, and fully acted upon. Beware of ultraisms. I mean mental, monstrous, unconstitutional deformities; not the perfection of what is just and right.

Give a high tone and elevation to your deliberations; encourage all the sisters who have spoken and acted in this work; bring out the true, the beautiful, the divine of your own souls, to meet the true, the grand, the divine inspirations of this agitation.

One thing else I would strongly recommend. Let no gentleman be appointed to office, in the convention, or by the couvention. You will then secure yourselves from outside coarseness, and secure to yourselves greater respect from the public at large. If you do not come to this now, you will be obliged to come to it, before you receive the credit for a wisdom you justly deserve.

May God guide you and bless you.

Yours, strong in the right,

REBECCA M. SANFORD.

To the Woman's Convention at Cleveland, }

[From Horace Greeley.]

NEW YORK, Obtober 2d, 1853. MADAM:-I have received yours of the 26th, this moment. I can but briefly answer, that an engagement, long since made, to visit Indiana next week, will detain me from home at least ten days; I must not make it three weeks by visiting Ohio this week. Beside, I do not see that my presence in Cleveland, could be of any service. The question to be considered concerns principally Woman, and Woman should mostly consider it. I recognize most thoroughly the right of woman to choose her own sphere of activity and usefulness, and to evolve its proper limitations. If she sees fit to navigate vessels, print newspapers, frame laws, and select rulers-any or all of these -I know no principle that justifies MAN in interposing any impediment to her doing so. The only argument entitled to any weight against the fullest concession of the rights you demand, rests in the assumption that WOMAN DOES NOT CLAIM ANY SUCH RIGHTS, but chooses to be ruled, guided, impelled, and have her sphere presented for her by MAN.

I think the present state of our laws respecting property and inheritance, as respects married women, show very clearly that Woman OUGHT NOT to be satisfied with her present position; yet it may be that she is so. If all those who have never given this matter a serious thought are to be considered on the side of conservatism, of course, that side must preponderate. Be this as it may, Woman alone can, in the present state of the controversy, speak effectively for Woman, since none others can speak with authority, or from the depths of a personal experience.

Hoping that your convention may result in the opening of many eyes, and the elevation of many minds from light in graver themes, I remain yours, HORACE GREELEY.

Mrs. C. M. SEVERANCE, Cleveland, O.

The convention was then addressed as follows, by Mrs. LYDIA A. JENKINS, of Waterloo, N. Y.

MY FRIENDS: The calling of this convention, among other signs

of the times, shows us that Improvement is the practical watchword of the age. It is inscribed in living characters upon every department of nature. There is a law indelibly impressed upon the mental and moral nature of man, which leads him to desire a higher and still higher degree of mental and moral attainment. The range of human improvement is illimitable. Every man rises the stronger, because of his desire to press forward and upward, to occupy a still more exalted station; and this desire has never, in any previous period of the world's history, equalled that of the present time, in point of intensity. So strong has it become in woman, that she now demands, at the hand of man, her full right to the expression of this progressive spirit; that every barrier should be thrown down, and that every pathway should be laid open to her, as freely as to himself. Then would the divine energy pervade the human nature, to a degree unknown in the past history of the world. But this will not be done, until inward and outward freedom, for woman as much as for man, shall be acknowledged as a right, not yielded as a concession.

Were thought and feeling so far elevated in man, that he would regard himself the brother, but in no wise the Lord, of woman; did he fully realize this equality, any arrangements with regard to offices and employments, would be unnecessary. What woman wants, is the growth of her soul, the freedom of her intellect, the right as a human being, to live unimpeded; to develop all the powers given her at her creation. To this end, the education of our daughters, should be vastly different from what it now is. Parents should be impressed with a firm belief in the equal humanity of the sexes. Daughters, as well as sons, should be addressed as beings possessing living minds. Instead of clothing the head with outward adornment, it should be regarded as the temple of the immortal intellect. Call on them for force of character-require of them honor and fidelity --require the highest virtues of which you have a knowledge. Allow them the key to the secret wonders of the universe, and, through the incentive given by a high expectation, prevent their privileges from lying idle. Give them a sense of self-dependence. Let the

world be free to them, that they may live freely in it. As their most valuable portion, give them a dignified sense of independence. Thus will that faith, that intelligence, that self-respect be established, which, notwithstanding the storms of adversity, will buoy their bark on life's tempestuous sea, and with these as a chart and a compass, will anchor them in a secure haven. Woman has never been trained to self-dependence. This has been a greater defect in her education. than the neglect to impart knowledge in a more direct manner. Education consists not so much in learning facts as in being able to grasp principles with a comprehensive mind, and in learning to adapt ourselves to the universe of matter and mind which surrounds us. That education which has no practical utility, should not be dignified by the name. I do not propose to enlarge upon the blessings of education; but I will say, that in as far as these vast advantages of education are understood and appreciated, with reference to the more favored sex, in so far, at least, are they essential to the sex hitherto neglected.

But because of this neglect, woman has not risen; she has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. She has been denied systematic education, ample and adequate instruction, with the motive of self-benefit in view, and to fit her to fulfil the object of her earthly pilgrimage.

If woman is naturally less intellectual and more feeble minded than man, surely that is a very good reason why she should have all the advantages of education that man possesses. But has a strengthening and invigorating system of education been devised for her? The defects of her mental powers being so obvious, doubtless the philantrophy of the financiers and legislators, has endowed many schools and colleges for her benefit, that as far as possible these radical deficiencies may be remedied! No indeed! this is very far from being the case. Should poor simple minded woman—as it is said—feel any yearnings to advance farther than the very alphabet of learning, difficulties present themselves on every hand. In our own country, she is better provided for than in any other, but what do we see here? Colleges and universities where she may retire from active life, where she may

uninterruptedly secure an education? By no means, she is blest with none of these advantages. Of the two hundred and fifty colleges in this country, no more than half a dozen admit woman to their privileges. And woman too pays her full share for their support. In all candor, let me ask if our country could boast of as many great minds, if this had been the encouragement man had received? It would not, I am sure, have been the case.

We must admit that it is not the want of talent, but the positive hindrances that woman meets, which detain her in her upward career, since it has been proven in too many instances to be doubted, that her capacities and aspirations are equal to those of man. Our Queen Catharines and Elizabeths in the olden time, our De Staels and Martineaus, have shown abilities in far seeing political sagacity which have been envied by all, but not surpassed by any. When it could be said of one of these, that she was the most profound politician of her time, and of another that she is doing more for political reform than any man of her nation; does it not show what woman is capable of becoming. It may be said that these are rare instances, they are, but we might bring forward many others from the records of history not inferior to these; and then too, if they are selected instances from the few on record, it proves nothing against the point. If one woman elevates herself, then others are capable of aspiring to and reaching positions, perhaps less in degree, but the same in kind. Our Edgeworths, Mitchells, Moores, Morgans, Thorntons, Hemans, Childs, Sommervilles and a host of others, prove positively her scientific and literary abilities. If there were but few, if there were but one, who had reached these positions in spite of the obstacles that surround woman's advancement, it would prove positively that woman should have all the advantages that man possesses. It is with a feeling of exultation, of pride, we say, that notwithstanding all these disadvantages, and notwithstanding due rewards have been withheld from woman, we have noble examples of women for whom the innate and irrepressive impulse of a capacious mind has sufficed; and whose immortal genius has surprised, while it has rebuked the world.

But the mass of woman have lacked the stimulus which is afforded