from another, equally well established as a principle in this country, that "taxation and representation are inseparable." Woman, everybody knows, is taxed; and if she is taxed, she ought to be represented.

Upon this just ground I will simply here throw out a statement of these principles upon which our claims are based; and I trust each separate resolution will be taken up by this Convention, fully canvassed and commented upon, so as to show it not only an abstract right, but a right which can be wisely made practical.

Woman is taxed, therefore she has a right to be represented. Again, it is acknowledged in this country, and it is eternally true, that "all the just powers of government are derived from the consent of the governed." If so, then, as woman is a subject of government, she ought to have a voice in enacting the laws. If her property is taxed to maintain government, she ought to have a voice in forming that government. If she has to pay taxes to maintain government, she ought to have a voice in saying how those taxes shall be applied.

On these grounds we make our claims, on natural, humane, eternal and well-recognized laws and principles of this Republic. On these grounds we ask man to meet us, and meet us in the spirit of inquiry, in the spirit of candor and honesty, as rational and human beings ought to meet each other, face to face, and adduce arguments, if they can, to convince us that we are not included in that great Declaration of Independence; that although it is a right principle that taxation and representation are inseparable, yet woman ought to be taxed, and ought not to be represented; and that although it is an acknowledged principle that all just power of government is derived from the consent of the governed, yet woman should be governed without her consent. Let them meet us fairly and openly; let them meet us like rational men, men who appreciate their own freedom, and we will hear them. If they can convince us that we are wrong, we will give up our claims; but if we can convince them that we are just in claiming our rights, as they are in claiming theirs, then we expect them, in a spirit of candor and honesty, to acknowledge it.

But by all means let them come forward in a spirit of candor and

truth.

Let them lay aside sophistry and misrepresentation; for it is a disgrace to any man to bring forth no other arguments but the coward's weapons, slander and derision. Oh man, can you look your fellow beings in the face, and not blush to think that a question of such vital importance as that of Human Rights, should be met in no better spirit than that of ridicule and derision? But that derision harms not our cause. No good cause has been injured by such weapons. If I regard it at all, I regard it mostly for the sake of those who make it; for none such weapons can reach us; they fall harmless at our feet. We claim our rights because we ought to have them, and because we have been deprived of them; and we call upon man to justify that great violation in depriving us of our full share of privileges, emoluments and honors, which society can justly bestow upon man. I, for one, do not deny, that if it is honorable for man to be great, it is equally honorable for woman to be great; and my definition of greatness consists in goodness; for no man can be great, unless he is good.

Therefore I claim all my rights without a single distinction. I claim my political right to vote, so as to know whether measures brought before the public, will, or ought to be, sustained, or not,so as to vote for them if they are good, or to vote against them if they are bad; ay, and if found desirable by myself and others, to be voted for, myself. I claim my rights without distinction of sex; for I go upon the broad basis that human rights acknowledge no sex; humanity acknowledges no sex; mind acknowledges no sex; virtue and vice, life and death, pleasure and pain, acknowledge no sex. Alike all come into existence; alike all are subject to the vicissitudes of life; alike they are subject to penalty for breaking the laws of their being, or the laws which govern society; alike they possess a three-fold organization, physical, mental, and moral, upon the proper cultivation of which, depends their happiness.

Upon these reasons again, I claim the full rights of woman, that she may be enabled to receive that kind of education which shall best develop her various powers-her natural capacities; her mind, her moral nature, and her physical strength. I claim these rights to enable woman to place herself, after she has received an education,

in the position which her natural powers best fit her to occupy. İ claim woman's rights, to enable her to pursue her happiness precisely in that direction, which to her, would appear the best calculated to promote it, without let or hindrance from man. I claim her right to have a hand in enacting the laws, for until she has that, the laws will be wrong. Woman will ever be wronged, she will ever have injustice done her, until she has a voice and a hand in enacting the laws which govern her; for it is the grossest violation of human rights to enact laws and enforce them upon others who have never sanctioned or consented to them. Here, in this country, it is considered wrong to enact laws and enforce them against another nation; and it is wrong; but not so great a wrong as to enact such laws between the sexes.

Is woman alike human with man, or is she not? I would say to our opponents, choose your alternative; say yes, or no, and we are willing to abide the consequences. Is she equally a human being with man? Is she like him in all the requisites to promote usefulness, and health, and happiness? Then has she the same rights he has, and it is wrong to enact laws without her concurrence, and enforce them arbitrarily against her. Is she not the same-is she altogether a different being? If you say, yes, again I will abide the consequences, and will say, in the name of Justice, how can man legislate for a being whose nature he does not understand, whose motives he does not appreciate, whose feelings he does not realize? How can he rightfully legislate for a being entirely different from himself? So that, whether we consider woman identical in her nature with man, or entirely different from him, neither view interferes with the great question of her rights.

On account of all these reasons, I claim these rights for woman; for she will never have justice done to her in the ordering of the government, in the enacting of laws, and in the various branches of society connected with human welfare, until they are conceded to her. These are my reasons, and I presume they are our reasons, for claiming these rights. Man has been accustomed, instead of looking these things in the face, of treating them on the principle of expediency. Even upon that principle, (if it be worthy the name of prin

ciple) we could show him, that had we no higher or nobler ground for our claims, they could be justified. We could prove that on account of the subjection of woman to man, on account of that great violation of her rights, she has been kept in a state of slavery, weakness, and helpless dependence, which has had a most pernicious and terrible effect, not only upon woman, but upon man. We might simply call to mind the fact that the woman,-in as far as she is the true woman,-in the relation of wife, mother, and daughter, just so far is her influence upon society more potent than that of man. We could prove that until woman has her rights, until all her powers are developed, and she herself allowed to assume her proper position,-ay, my friends, to move in her "proper sphere," she cannot have that influence in society which she would have, and which she should have.

Much is said about "the sphere of woman." Our opponents tell us that woman ought to "remain in her sphere." I say so too, with this addition,-Let her first be placed in her sphere. And as to being placed in it, who shall do it? Can one human being place another in his sphere? I say, No. What, then, can place a being in his proper sphere? His own tastes, his own energies and powers, his own inclinations and attractions. If properly developed, unrestricted, untrammeled, they, and they alone, can rightly place a being in his proper sphere. And it is precisely to have woman in her proper sphere that we claim her rights; for now she is not in it, but out of it. She does not even know what it is. We wish to give her all the advantages and rights society can bestow; and then she can prove her own sphere. It will not require man's commands and arbitrary laws to place her there. As water, under its own natural law, finds its own level, so will woman, as well as man, find her proper level.

I know the popular objections against us-I cannot term them. arguments-for they do not deserve that title. They are not arguments, they are not reasons; they are simply the emanations of long prejudice, and this is the best and most charitable term I can apply to them. "Why, woman have her rights! Perfectly outrageous! Would you have her come in contact with vulgar men, at the polls

and in out-door life? Why, who ever heard of it? She would be contaminated"! Is this deplorable statement true? Can man behave no better than this, even during the short space of time when he is acting strictly as a citizen of the republic? Can he not, during that time, behave so manly as to make it quite proper and safe that woman should accompany him, and that, too, without danger of having her fine sensibilities shocked by the contact with him? I have a better opinion of man than he has of himself. I believe it is quite practicable for man to go and deposit his vote, by the side of his wife, daughter, or mother, without endangering her refinement or feelings in any shape or manner. But if it is the case that he cannot behave manly for so short a space of time, then is there an additional reason for woman to have her political rights, that her presence and example may here, as it has ever done elsewhere, teach him better manners, and train him to a higher manliness.

These I now urge, are reasons of expediency-I have given you some reasons based upon the solid principles of justice and humanity. I speak now of some reasons of expediency, why woman should be recognized as equally entitled to rights with man. Wherever it is right and proper in the performance of duty for man to be, there woman may rightly be also; for duty, like all our moral obligations, recognizes no sex. Human rights are for all, just as that glorious luminary, the sun, shines alike for all. It would be no more inconsistent to hide a portion of the sun, lest it might shine on woman, than to deprive her of her share in government, education and everything that society can bestow.

I say only give us our rights. That act of justice will open to us all avenues to emolument. It will call out our powers, and give us an object for which to live. Man cannot exert his powers without an object, and the greater and more distant that object, the more it is magnified, and the more he is inclined to exert his energies, and apply his forces for its acquirement. Until now, on account of the injustice done to woman, in depriving her of her rights, she has had no object, or the most limited or contracted ones, for which to exert her powers; and therefore, they have to a great extent, remained dormant, have not been called out. As man must have an object in life, and that