Convention met at 9 A. M.

After spending an hour in devotional exercises, the first topic “How can the unity of Christ's followers be better manifested to the world?”

Was opened by Mr. Otis Ballard, of Circleville. The discussion was continued by the Revs. Foster and Dickson, of Circleville, and the Revs. Miller, of Tarlton, Acton, of West Rushville, and Rev. W. W. McKinney, of Kingston.

After the discussion, the Convention spent half an hour in devotional exercises, and then took a recess until 2 o'clock.

Convention met at 2 P. M., and spent half an hour in devotional exercises.

The second topic was then taken up: “What shall be done to secure a more general attendance of the people, especially the poor, upon public worship?”

The discussion was opened by Rev. J. H. Acton, and participated in by Revs. Foster, Simpson, Hoisington, of Circleville, McClintock, of Darbyville, McKinney, of Kingston, and Mr. T. Orpwood, of Yellow Bud.

The question drawer was then opened, and after some time spent in answering the various questions propounded, the Business Committee reported a programme for the next session, when the Convention adjourned until 7 P. M.

Convention met at 7 o'clock.

After a half hour spent in devotional exercises, the third topic was considered: “How can woman's talent be best employed in the Church?”

The discussion was opened by Rev. W. MacMillan, of Circleville, followed by the Revs. Foster, Simpson, Hill, Hoisington, and Messrs. A. McCrea, J. A. Lutz, of Circleville, and Revs. Acton and McClintock.

After some time spent in miscellaneous business, a half hour was again occupied in prayer and singing, after which the Convention adjourned till 9 o'clock on Thursday morning. Benediction by Rev. W. W. McKinney.

The Convention re-assembled at 9 A. M. A half hour was devoted to singing and prayer, followed by a discussion on the fourth topic: “How can be the personal and social study of God's word be increased?”

The discussion was opened by Rev. E. O. Simpson.

On motion, Rev. W. W. McKinney, Rev. McClintock and L. H. Olds were appointed to draft resolutions expensive of the sentiment of the Convention in regard to the exclusion of the Bible from our public schools.

Discussion continued by Revs. McKinney, Acton, Dickson, Miller, McClintock, Hoisington, and Messrs. Lutz, Peters and Olds.

The Business Committee reported a programme for the next session, and the exercises of the forenoon concluded with another half hour spent in devotional exercises.

The Convention re-assembled at 2 P. M. After the usual devotional exercises, the fifth topic was considered: “What are the obstacles in the way of a revival of religion in our midst, and how may they be overcome?”

Discussion opened by Rev. H. R. Hoisington, who was followed by Revs. Foster, Snodgrass, Miller, McClintock, and by Messrs. Fickardt and Doddridge. The following paper was then presented and unanimously adopted:

Whereas efforts are being made in different parts of our land to exclude the Bible from our public schools, on the ground that it is sectarian in its character; therefore we. the representatives of the Evangelical Churches of Pickaway county and vicinity, in a Christian Convention, take this occasion to briefly express our sentiments upon the subject in the following resolutions:

Resolved, That we regard the Bible as in no sense sectarian, but as solely the Word of God, given by his inspiration as a rule of faith and practice to all men of this and every land, and in every age.

Resolved, That ours is not a Godless nation, but rests, as Washington said, on intelligence, morality and religion, and hence the Bible is necessary to its preservation and glory.

Resolved, That we call upon all who love it, who seek their country's good and who desire to honor God, to stand by the Bible as the palladium of our liberties, as the hope of the race, and as the glory of our nationality, and to do all in their power to retain it in our public schools.

W. W. McKinney,} W. H. McClintock, }Committee. L. H. Olds. }

A committee was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the feeling of the Convention in regard to the different topics discussed. After a half hour spent in devotional exercises, the Convention took a recess until 7 o'clock P. M.

Convention met, the President in the chair. After a voluntary upon the organ, the congregation united in singing the hymn, “Blest be the tie that binds,” after which prayer was offered by the President.

Addresses followed by Rev. J. H. Dickson, Rev. Thomas Hill, George H. Fickardt and A. McCrea, urging christians to a more thorough consecration to the Master's service. A vote of thanks was then tendered to the officers of the Convention, to the singers and to the families of the city who had so kindly entertained visiting members. Earnest appeals to the unconverted were made by Rev. Snodgrass, J. C. Doddridge, Sr., Revs. MacMillan and McClintock. Then came the farewell address by Rev. H. K. Foster, and the reply of Rev. George Carpenter.

The following resolutions were presented by the Committee and adopted:

Resolved, That we separate with more elevated views of Christian unity and will labor more earnestly to manifest it to the world about us, that the unbelieving and the sinners may be convinced, that our testimony is one as to Christ's great salvation.

Resolved, That we will with the zeal of God's house work to fill up his empty courts with attenders on the public ordinances, and crowd his gates with praise.

Resolved, That as to that already recognized power of female talent, we shall endeavor to order 013107and direct it so that it will be in our churches an influence and a beauty, to the promotion of God's name and the salvation of souls.

Resolved, That we will use all means to extend the personal and social reading to God's word, as an agent in our hands for personal and social piety.

Resolved, That as to all known obstacles to a revival of God's work, we will with a more observant and diligent hand take away all such stones of offense and watch for the growth of grace in our hounds.

Resolved, That as to the resolutions adopted on the question of the Bible by this Convention, we will all stand up for the use of the word of God for all its ends, and in all places where it may enlighten save young and old.

W. MacMillan,} A. McCrea, }Committee. W. H. McClintock, }

It was further resolved that other counties be recommended to hold similar Conventions; also that the newspapers of the city be requested to publish the entire proceedings, after which the Convention adjourned with singing the hymn, “All hail the power of Jesus name,” and the apostolic benediction by Rev. Wm. MacMillan.

The Committee on Nominations reported the following list of officers for the ensuing year: President—Asa Bartlett, of Lake county. Vice Presidents—A. W. Carter, of Lake county; H. M. Vietts, of Lorain; A. Burrows, of Chatauqua county, N. Y.; S. Wilbur, of Erie; J. Budlong, of Geauga; C. B. Chamberlin, of Medina; L. D. Badger, of Ashtabula; O. Burrows, of Portage; L. D. King, of Huron; Mr. Hubbell, of Cuyahogo; M. D. Call, of Summit, Secretary and Treasurer—A. C. Houghton, of Lorain.

Hon. Norton Townsend made a lengthy address on the causes and prevention of abortion in cows.

Mr. L. F. Mellen, of Cleveland, a delegate from the Cleveland Sabbath Association, read an interesting address, presenting the views of said Association on the subject of “Sabbath Cheese-making.”

A discussion on the subject ensued. Dr. Townsend being called upon, presented his views. He did not wish to discuss the question, but had no hesitation expressing his views, especially as he found himself to some extent in sympathy with the gentlemen on both sides. Said he: “With the gentleman from Cleveland I am entirely in sympathy, so far as the uses to which he would put the Christian Sunday are concerned. He is an earnest Sunday school worker, and equally earnest in every good word and work. With the gentleman from Geauga I am to some extent in sympathy, so far as I heard and understood his views of the Jewish Sabbath. This question can hardly be settled by an appeal to Scripture, without first settling the nature of inspiration. If inspiration was objective, the question may be settled by an appeal to proof-texts; but if inspiration 014108was subjective, as perhaps many here, with Dr. Stowe, believe, then an appeal to the words of even inspired men will not necessarily determine the matter. But we may, I think, waive the theological question. Are we not all agreed that the well-being of society, mentally, socially and morally, requires the observance of the Christian Sunday as a day of rest from labor, and a day devoted to social and religious culture? Are we not all agreed that it is necessary for us to save, for ourselves, for our families and for the community, as much of the elevating and purifying influences of the Sunday as possible? The tendency to animalism and materialism is strong enough in us all, and in society about us. We are directly interested, then, in making the most of the Sunday and its beneficent influences. The pulpit, the Sunday school and the social conference are agencies that cannot safely be dispensed with. The legislation of the State, which prohibits servile labor on the Sunday, and pursuits only which may be claimed to be works of necessity or mercy, does not depend solely on the Books of Moses, but on the observation and sober judgment of all good citizens. Murder is declared a crime because it is plainly destructive of the interest of society. So of theft and other crimes. If the same good judgment of our citizens has led them to the conviction that the Sunday is necessary for society, they need no other foundation for what is called Sunday legislation than such a conviction. So, then, may we not say that Sunday cheese making in factories should be continued, if by that means many families may be relieved of Sunday labor? or that it should be abandoned, if by any other means more of the Sunday can be saved?”

C. H. Horr, of Lorain, then offered the following resolution: Resolved , That as the manufacture of cheese cannot be avoided on Sunday without serious loss, it is warranted, as a work of necessarily, both by human and divine law.

Mr. Horr spoke in favor of the resolution. He did not consider cheese making on the Sabbath a violation of that day, as it is plainly justified by necessity. No divine law forbids our so doing. On the other hand, it is rendered necessary by the great law of economy which God has given us. Man should properly use his blessings. We have no more right to waste the products of our dairies than the grain of our fields. If it is right to perform some labor to save a part of the milk, it is right to perform more to save the whole of it. Why does not the milk cease to flow on the Sabbath day, or why should we not milk it on the ground? What can be done by large dairies with the milk of Saturday evening and Sunday? In his factory, a loss of one hundred dollars a Sabbath during the summer months would be entailed by not using the milk on that day the same as others. The full value of the milk cannot otherwise be saved in warm weather. If it be wrong to thus save it, it is wrong to set in pans. If it is justified in one case, it is justified in both. If wrong, the factory proprietors would be the last to wish to incur the penalties of wrong doing in a future world for the small profits their patrons are willing they should make in this. But no divine law forbids us. People have ceased to consider the Sabbath a surely divine institution. The intelligence and enlightened reason of the country now look upon the Bible as a light and a guide, but not as an infallible law to supersede the use of our reason. By our cheese making on the Sabbath, none of our hands are deprived of the privilege of attending religious services, at least some part of the day. They can seek the Lord in their closets, as commanded in the Scriptures, and at all times enjoy communion with His Holy Spirit, which pervades the universe.

Mr. Darling, of Summit county, described his plan of using Sunday's milk, and contended that there was no waste. He asked that Mr. Horr's resolution be amended so as to strike out all after the word “resolved.”

The Association then adjourned until two o'clock.

As has been announced, the object of this Convention is to take into consideration the legal relations which women at present sustain to the State of Ohio. There are some other matters concerning the operations of our movement which will also be considered but our great object in coming together at this time is to consider the resolutions which have already been introduced into the Legislature of this State, looking to the elevation of women to the relation of full citizenship. There have been decisions recently in the United States which recognize woman as legally a citizen. Doubtless a great many women have lived to more than half the average life of humanity without knowing that they had not been related to the State in such a manner as to be fully counted citizens; and yet it is only within the last few years that the decisions of the courts have recognized woman as fully a citizen, and that recognition has not been so full as to give her a complete guarantee for her rights. So far as laws are concerned, woman stands still in the same relation with infants, idiots, paupers and criminals. We have bid farewell to a large class of those who once ranked with us. We can no longer say that we are ranked with the slave or even with the negro. The Fifteenth Amendment, which has been carried so recently in this State, is supposed to settle that question forever; and now we are anxious to follow up that large body of people who have been recently made citizens, an ourselves be fully recognized as citizens of the United States. We are now here to urge upon the Legislature our earnest solicitation that this question may be fully considered. We especially desire that there may be no complications—that there may be no party intrigues, but that this question may rest upon its own merits. The question now before us; Shall the word sex be stricken from the statute books, and shall woman, as she has hitherto been held to equal accountability for crime, now also have an equal guarantee that her rights shall be fairly represented in the Government? A meeting was called last September at Cincinnati. There a State organization was formed, and those who earnestly desired the prosecution of this object associated themselves together for the purpose of carrying forward this work in this State. It is well known at most of you that associations exist in various States of the Union for this same object; that last November a Convention was called in Cleveland, forming an American Womans’ Suffrage Association, having for its object the securing of the right of suffrage to all of the women of the United States—this either through the passage of an amendment to the Constitution of the United States or by the direct action of the various States, through their Legislature. We know that this reform can be affected in either of these ways; but as our Legislature has moved in this matter, we are very desirous that Ohio shall take a leading position. We already know that one territory has, in advance of all others, given the right of suffrage to women. The Governor of the State of Vermont has also recommended to citizens of that State the change of their Constitution so as to allow women to be citizens. They contemplate voting upon this question in May next.

All over the world we find a simultaneous movement in this work; not only 020114in the political, but religious world, the great question that humanity is now asking is, what is there for woman's hand to do; what is there for her heart to engage in; what is there for her brain to plan? For the wold is beginning to recognize that it cannot afford to lose so much of the very best material that God has ever given to it. They recognize that woman's mind is becoming restless; that if she cannot do good, she will do evil; if she has not high and noble pursuits, she will waste her time on the frivolties of life, fashion and extravagance, and even upon vice; and so we feel that in order to give her the noblest incentives to the development of her powers, she must take her place in the movement, ranking in the State as she does in the family, taking her place by the side of man, his equal, an aid and helper. It is significant of the movement at the present day, that in one of the very largest churches in the United States, they have substituted for the word “obey” in the marriage covenant, the words, “mutually agree.” So we believe that the State should substitute for the subjection of woman her mutual relation to man in all that is common to their interests.

Mrs. Cutler then read the call for the Convention.

Mr. G. T. Stewart said: “The call contemplates two objects—one has general reference to the question of suffrage; the other has particular reference to the connecting of the association with a national organization. I think that the latter belongs properly to the delegates who are here from the county associations, and the disposition of the other belongs to the Convention at large. This, as I understand, is a convention invited under the auspices of this association of the friends of the movement, for the purpose of presenting it before the public and before the Legislature. I don't see any necessity in the organization of the Convention to appoint an enrolling committee. It is sufficient that the auxiliary societies shall report the names of their representatives to the Secretary. Friends of the cause are invited to take part in the deliberations of the Convention.”

Mr. Stewart moved that a Committee on Resolutions and a Business Committee of seven each, be appointed by the chair to report to this Convention. The motion was passed.

On motion of Mrs. Longley, Mrs. E. T. Crain, of Dayton, was appointed Secretary pro tem.

The President announced the following Committee on Business: Mr. G. T. Stewart, of Norwalk; Mrs Janney, of Columbus; Mrs. Graham, of Cincinnati; Miss Rebecca Dean, of Jefferson, Ashtabula county; Mrs. M. M. Cole, of Sidney; Mr. A. J. Boyer, of Dayton, and Rev. Mr. Gorman, of Columbus.

The President then called for Rev. Geo. W. Phillips, who was expected to speak on the religious aspect of the woman suffrage movement; but Mr. Phillips not appearing, Mrs. Cutler proceeded as follows:

Regarding this movement as having its origin in christianity, from the beginning I have taken a very different position from many who have advocated this question. Many have advocated it from humanitarian views, and have argued it as other political measures. They have said the rights of all human beings were the same; that inasmuch as we are all endowed with life, all have a natural desire for liberty; that we all claim a right to pursue our own happiness without infringement; that all men necessarily have a common guarantee for the enjoyment of rights. And it has seemed to me from that stand-point it was impossible to deny to woman an equal guarantee with man. But we were met in the outset with the customs of ages; and you know, according to common law, any custom which for a long time had remained inviolate, was regarded as in effect law, and we had to begin first with those prejudices which were most closely interwoven with the every-day life of the people.

First of all came the religious sentiment. When I attended the first convention that was held of any magnitude in the State of Ohio, eighteen or nineteen years ago, the convention which was held, as I now recollect, in the summer of 1851, at Akron, Ohio, our opponents almost entirely were ministers of the orthodox denominations. They were shocked with the idea that women should appear before a public audience, and venture to assert that they were human beings and had human rights. They were told that St. Paul insisted that we should not appear in public, and should stay at 021115home and learn of our husbands at home, and were not to come before the world and make ourselves in any way conspicuous. We regarded this as a relic of Orientalism. Whatever St. Paul said in reference to this we regarded as having been said to a people just emerging from the darkness of Oriental life. There we know women had been secluded, for it was necessary in their mode of life. A large harem could not be very well maintained unless there was some seclusion. We know our great prophet now at Salt Lake, removed again and again until he thought he had found a spot so isolated that civilization could not reach him, and he could establish a grand harem there. But steam, which enables people to go to distant places with great speed, was instrumental in establishing railroad communication even with Salt Lake, so that we now find the system of this modern prophet tottering to its foundation. Christianity is a great innovator; and let me say, no system ever introduced into the world is so great an innovator as christianity; and it was prophesied of it,that it should turn and overturn until He should came whose right it is to reign; or, perhaps, a more correct translation would be, until the right should reign. So christianity came as an innovator, overturning and removing the dead past, brushing out of the way that which is false, and establishing the kingdom on one sure foundation,the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. Christ claimed to be the Elder Brother of humanity. He recognized what an overthrowing there would be when He said, “I come not to bring peace, but a sword.” Even families were to be divided—the mother-in-law was to rise up against the daughter-in-law, and the father against the son, and it was to set all things at variance which were not one with God. In the outset of this movement,it seems to me the great mistake those clergymen made—who were so very zealous for the truth—was, that they did not recognize the essentially innovating principles of christianity, nor that other most essential principle of christianity, that it individualizes every human soul; that it divests no one of right, but enfranchises all, and holds all to the strictest and highest responsibility.

At the outset I took my position as a christian. I said I claimed my rights as a citizen of the world—as a citizen of the United States, because I claimed to be a citizen of the heavenly kingdom which was established on earth; that inasmuch as Christ had died for all He had redeemed all; [voice, “thank God”] that the relation of woman hitherto had been similar to her relation under the law. She was held, according to the old Jewish law, in subjection, but even the letter of the law did not put woman in subjection. It was only the tradition which Christ denounced, for when you take the ten commandments there is no discrimination. “The soul that sinneth it shall die;” if you obey, you shall live. It does not say man or woman, but the law is universal; it included both sexes. So recognizing these truths, I said, governments when they come to be just, when they come to be conformed to the principles of christianity, must include all equally. So if a man coming into this governmental relation claims from his fellow-men a pledge that he shall not be unduly oppressed, that a law shall be made equal for men in high places and men in low places, how shall he complain if his sister asks also the same pledges?

Now, our government sustains about the same relation to the true government as the Jewish church sustained to the true church at the coming of Christ—a sort of mongrel system funded on principles that were right, but holding to traditions that were wrong. So it has been my principle to claim this right sa belonging to individuals; and as we have these rights from the God who created us, we must have a guarantee from society that our rights shall be regarded.

It has been thought that those who asked this right were discontented women, who, not satisfied in their homes, were going about to see what they could do to dissatisfy those in other homes. But I am glad to say that those who are most heartily in favor of these principles are those whose domestic relations are most in accordance with christian principles. Those who have received, perhaps, the highest and best eduction; those who have not known oppression or degradation themselves, but because they have not known them, are able to look upon those who have been less favored. It is not a question of individual wrong—it is a question of general wrong; a question involving the relation of one-half of the world to the other half. When our government was formed, what was its purport? To be a government of justice. Did it at once secure this object? Let us look at the constitutions of the various States of the Union, and at the laws that were made after the adoption of those constitutions. I have very carefully read and re-read the constitutions of the States as they existed before the rebellion, and ascertained that in almost every one,with the exception of a few which came in after the great heresy had begun to be established, that slavery was a divine institution, the declaration in their bill 022116of rights was, that all person were created equal, and endowed with inalienable rights; and yet the rights of a very large portion of the people were altogether denied. It was said, they had no rights white men were bound to respect. But the people so long held in subjection had right which the power of the universe did respect; and the governing classes were to together, warring to destroy each other, until, like the Egyptian king of old, they were ready to let these people go free. So we see our government has been gradually brought up to a practical recognition of what is acknowledge theoretically so long ago.

It is almost a hundred years since our government was established, and yet until the last year there has been no recognition of the political rights of woman in any State of the Union. Wyoming Territory, like an eagle's nest among the rocky fastness of the West, was the first to recognize the true relation of woman to the government; and so now we have what law always wants—a precedent. The church has taken some steps in this direction. I see a convention has been called to decide whether women shall be allowed to enter the ministry in the Methodist church, and the question is raised, whether they shall be ordained as ministers.

Years ago, a couple of women at Oberlin insisted on their rights to be ordained ministers of the gospel. Though Oberlin did not admit that right, they went elsewhere and received ordinations. That was a precedent. Now we know there are ladies who are acting as ministers of of the gospel, and with a very success, too. Lawyers among women were unknown in the past. Now we find a few who are approaching the legal profession. So we see that they are making inroads in this direction, and it is said they are doing a good work. We know the medical profession has been largely invaded. Something over three hundred ladies have graduated in the medical profession, and we know that they are succeeding admirably in that direction.

But the general movement in the church is one I have noticed with a good deal of interest. I shall say but little on this point now, but hope it may be more fully considered again. You know that christian association have been formed among women, and that their work has been largely successful, and that ancient order of deaconesses has been revived, and now ministers, who quoted St. Paul to the streets, to keep them still, have as much trouble to get them to talk. [Laughter.] They are found that the light of the church has gone out with silencing the lips of the women. Some times ministers tell us their prayer meetings are almost a total failure because women take so little part in them. A few women are now beginning to act and speak; but so long as they are told that it is contrary to the teaching of that wise Apostle they will take but little part. The Bible must be newly interpreted to meet the wants of the present day, and our laws must be newly arranged to meet the present demands. We read in general law that where it says man it include woman. I said twenty years ago that that was the understanding.

A few are beginning to say we will take the Constitutions of the different States and stand by them, and if we fall we will carry it up to the Supreme Courts, and they will not dare to deny women their rights. I have looked over the Constitution of Ohio in this respect, and believe a very good argument could be made on that ground; and I believe if legislation falls, that the court will ultimately give woman her relation to the government. Because just as soon as you convince law that it means something broader than it has been interpreted, there will be a constant widening of the Constitution, broadening down from precedent to precedent. So we feel that in any case our cause is full of hope. If you want to see what is going on in the old world, go to Russia and at St. Petersburg, which for so many years has been bound up in frosts so that it was scarcely expected a progressive idea could be worked out, and yet John Stuart Mill's work on woman is called for, and has been translated into their language, and is now being read by the court circles in Russia, and is reaching down among the common folks. Russia, who a few years ago emancipated her serfs, will, perhaps, before we are ready as a people, emancipate her women. In Russia, woman's right to home and children is such that the only she can be deprived of that is to issue a commission of lunacy or outlawry. But in other cases she is the guardian of her children and the mistress of the home that shelters them. Thus, you see, Russia in this respect is in advance of our civilization, which gives the children to the father, the home to the father, and can shut the children away from the mother, and give her no claim to their society or any pecuniary interest that may regard them.

We have so far outgrown this old common law that we hardly recognize it practically while both husband and wife 023117live. It is only when the husband is taken away and the wife is left in widowhood that the law insists upon the appraisement and division of the estate. If you would cast a burlesque on the law making system of the United States, gather together the statutes that existed twenty years ago in reference to the settlement of the estates and the provision for widows and orphans. I don't think any humorist has ever produced and published to the world anything that seemed so ridiculous as these laws. For instance, the provisions for the wife and children after the death of the husband: In some States the widow was allowed to occupy the house forty days after his death, undisturbed. At the expiration of that time there must be an appraisement of all the personal property, and she might be allowed to retain for her and the use of the family, if she had children, a sufficient number of beds, one cook stove, one table, six chairs, six plates, six knives and forks. Some States gave twelve plates and other only six. [Laughter.] Whether the family consisted of six or twelve persons, the provision of the law remained the same. It is true, probably, that judges sometimes stretched their consciences a good deal and set off to the widow really more than the law allowed; but it was so unjust, giving one-third of the real estate and one-third of the personal property, reserving to the man, however, the right to dispose of his personal property before death. He could give away every dollar if he chose, and leave his wife without any personal property. Again, the personal property must be exhausted before the real estate could be touched. No man thought in his sober senses what wrong was being done. The fact is, the women of this country have borne laws that the far more oppressive than those our fathers rebelled against. They battled against taxation without representation. She has no right to be tried by a jury of her peer. A woman who has committed a crime must be tried by men. Who has not witnessed trials before justices that would make one's cheeks burn with shame for humanity that a father could permit such testimony as is often taken in the presence of women and men? These things have not been thought of really until within the last few years, since we began to agitate this subject. Now, when we come up at this time, public sentiment is strongly in our favor. We claim the right for ourselves that others have, so that there shall not be only good laws for men and bad laws for women; no taking children from the mother because the father can do it in spite of her remonstrance; no taxation without representation, but when we shall have a voice as much as men have in the administration of the government, not taking any authority from man, but simply adding our own to the great sum of human interest. I think here has been a difficulty. Men think sometimes if we had the majority we would want to control them. Gentlemen, that is not our purpose. We think we have a strong sense of justice and a hatred of oppression, and would not exercise the right to tyranize over you. Perhaps it is those who are held in subjection most that are most likely to avail themselves of the chance to exercise power over their oppressors when the opportunity present itself. It might have been the case with women aa century ago, but our cause has so grown in favor that we do not feel ourselves so tyrannically ruled over as formerly, and we think you may feel yourselves safe on that ground.

Governments have proved in a great measure failures. The world is asking what is to come. The great question is: “Is there a government now upon the face of the earth that can stand for a century? American men, fresh and vigorous in the youth of this great country, say, “Yes, look at our government; it is strong enough to stand against the power of the world.” They say the last war has settled the question in regard to our strength. Yet you ask the intelligent people of the old world and they will say, “The American government is but an experiment. You are taking into it a great mass of ignorance and degradation, and that ignorance and degradation will be your overthrow; it is a sort of moral pestilence you are taking in, and the question is, ‘Can't it overcome these great evil?’” And they are looking with the deepest interest to our institutions and questioning their stability. I recollect being in this city ten years ago. We brought before the Legislature petitions for changes in the laws. They promised us good laws. The laws were, perhaps, somewhat amended, and somewhat not amended. There was a little fraud in the matter, if I am rightly informed. I have thought it was always well to look after the men who make the laws. I know that the law was not what it was promised to be. We were here the very day that Georgia declared herself no longer a member of the Confederacy. I recollect saying to the intelligent audience that gathered together that evening that this government could not stand unless all its principles were squared by the Declaration of Independence; that these States were tottering out of the Union like an unsubstantial building; that the Declaration of Independence, 024118which declared the rights of all equal, and insisted on an equal guarantee of all, was really the only foundation on which our government could safely rest; and so I have believed that the only sure foundation for our government is in making the laws one and the same for the son and the daughter; that where you give protection to one you shall give it to the other, so that the equal interests of all shall be maintained. A great many are saying now that they go for restricting the franchise. Very intelligent men say it is their opinion that we have got more voters now than we ought to have, and favor less voters rather than doubling the vote. They say we have just admitted a large number to vote who do not know how to write their names, and they are for a qualification somewhat different. What would you have, gentlemen? Would you have intelligence made the basis of the right of suffrage? It will be well if you can tell us how much intelligence is necessary to enable a man to walk up to the ballot box and deposit his vote. Whatever standard of intelligence you require for men, we are ready to-day to meet it for woman, and I believe we shall be able to poll as large a vote as you will. [Applause.]

Mr. Stewart moved that a committee of three be appointed to make arrangements for the evening meeting. Carried.

The chair appointed Dr. Coulter, of Columbus, G. T. Stewart, of Norwalk, and Mrs. Janney, of Columbus.

The committee reported these suggestions: First in order—the opening of the meeting this afternoon; and the considerations submitted, or proposed to be submitted, for referring to the people of Ohio an amendments to the Constitution striking out the word male from the article on suffrage.

It is understood that the amendment now before the Legislature will be read. A resolution or bill has been submitted in the Legislature, and any one who has any proposition he or she desires to submit, can read it.

Convention adjourned till 2 o'clock p.m.

The Convention was called to order at 2 o'clock p.m., a very large and intelligent audience present.

The President announced the following committee on Resolutions: Mrs. M. V. Longley, of Cincinnati, Mr. G. T. Stewart, of Norwalk, Dr. Organ, of Urbana, Miss Rebecca S. Rice, of Yellow Springs, Mrs. Janney, of Columbus, Mrs. Stewart, of Springfield, and A. J. Boyer.

The President announced the resignation of the permanent Secretary, and appointed A. J. Boyer temporary Secretary.

The proceedings of the last meeting at Cleveland were read and approved.

The report of the Executive committee was read by the Secretary. This reports the work of the year, and the progress made in the cause. On motion of Mrs. Cole the report was accepted.

At the time of the last report there were local associations at Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, Springfield, Yellow Springs, Xenia, Cadiz and Troy. Since that time societies have been organized at Cleveland, Ashtabula, Willoughby, Jefferson, Painesville, Norwalk, Elyria, Tontogany, Mastersville, Northfield and Marysville.

On motion of Mr. Stewart, it was resolved that all resolutions be presented in writing and referred to the committee on Resolutions.

The President stated that any person present might present resolutions to the committee, and if thought proper, they would be brought before the Convention for discussion. She continued: We are aware that many persons meet with objections in regard to this movement which could be easily answered if these objections were brought forward. Perhaps things that seem to us as trivial now were once considered very grave.—We want to consider anything relating to this subject in fairness.

Mr. G. T. Stewart, chairman of the Business committee, reported the following order of business: 1st. The reading and consideration of propositions submitted, or proposed to be submitted, to the Legislature for referring to the people of Ohio an amendment to the Constitution, striking out the word male from the article on suffrage.

2nd. The appointment of a committee of seven members to present the amendment, as approved by the Convention, to the Legislature.

3rd. The report of the committee on Resolutions. The report of the committee on Resolutions will cover the whole field of reform in behalf of women, but the particular branch to which our attention is called in this Convention, and to which 025119its deliberations will be mainly directed, will be the enlargement of the suffrage. I propose the following resolution: Resolved, by the Woman Suffrage Convention, That we respectfully request the General Assembly of this State, now in session, to take the proper action for submitting to the electors of the State, for their approval or rejection, at the next election, an amendment to the State Constitution, striking out the word male from, and inserting the words or she after the word he, in the first section of the fifth article defining the qualifications of an elector, which will be for the interest of all the people of the State.

Article fifth of the Constitution reads as follows: “Every white male citizen of the United States of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of the State one year next preceding the election, and of the county, township or ward in which he resides, shall have the qualifications of an elector and be entitled to vote at all elections.”

The amendment will strike out the word male an insert the words “or she.” The proposition I have made, is to strike out and insert. A proposition is before the Legislature, which has just been placed in my hands, introduced into the House of Representatives and now pending before that body, in this form: “JOINT RESOLUTION. Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, (three-fiths of the members elected to each house agreeing thereto), that it is hereby proposed to the electors of this State to vote at the annual October election in the year A. D. 1871, upon the approval or rejection of the following amendment as a substitute for the first section of the fifth article of the Constitution of the State of Ohio, to wit: Every white citizen (male and female) of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of the State one year next preceding the election, and of the county, township or ward in which said citizen resides, such time as may be provided by law, shall have all the qualification an elector and be entitled to vote at all elections.”

The objection which I see to this form of the resolution is, that it provides for a substitution. The amendment suggested in my proposition is, simply to strike out and insert. It comes to the one point we seek to reach, to strike out the disqualification on account of sex. This, however, while striking out the disqualification on account of sex, affirms a disqualification on account of color, which already, by the voice of the nation, by the vote of two-thirds of the Congress of the United States submitted to the States, and three-fourths of the States voting upon it, has already been incorporated in the Constitution of the United States, declaring that there shall be no distinction in the right of suffrage on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. That constitutional amendment is above our State Constitution, and its effect is to leave the State Constitution as if the word white was not there. It could have no legal effect—it could have effect. We don't wish the old issue forced upon us in any form. There can no longer be a question in the minds of the people, that the Fifteenth Amendment is anchored in the Constitution of the U.S., and when it has been finally declared to be a part of the Constitution, I have no doubt this Legislature will submit an amendment to the people of this State next year, to strike out the word white. This proposition we now submit to the Legislature is timely. We don't expect to ask precipitate action on the part of the Legislature. We come here in Convention, and respectfully submit it to the General Assembly, asking their consideration of it, and then in due season to submit it to a vote of the people. I don't propose to make the opening argument, but only to explain the measure.

The resolution was laid on the table to be taken up at any time.

Mrs. M. V. Longley, of Cincinnati, then addressed the Convention, in substance as follows:

Mrs. President, Gentlemen and Ladies: The women of America have not lived in a republican government, and heard it extolled from their earliest girlhood without having become infused with much of the love that animates American men. It is true, the present custom which excludes them from the ballot-box prevents them from having the universal interest in and love for our institutions which men have. The tendency is to dwarf the intellect and prevents a cultivation of the breadth of thought and noble philanthropy which is not exhausted in the home circle, but goes abroad and considers the necessities and desires the welfare of the whole human family; and if women are narrow-minded—if their thoughts and desires do not extend beyond the latest fashion and neighborhood gossip, it is not to be wondered at when we consider their position in society. If we wish people to be worthy of consideration, we must treat them as though they were so. What is women's experience? Do they find themselves treated as though they were of any importance in the universe? If they read authors on civil liberty, 026120self-government and kindred subjects, they soon see that those are subjects of no importance to them, as they are entirely left out of consideration. Women know that they form no integral part of the institutions of this country, and obey persons whom they know to be no more than themselves, simply because they are clothed with authority. If women open a text book of law, almost the first thing they read is that females have no political capacities whatever. They have no direct voice in the administration of the government. But by reading a little further they learn that they enjoy this exemption from political privileges in common with the idiot, the insane, the criminal and the negro; and if the Fifteenth Amendment is a success, as I hope it will be, they will be deprived of the company of the latter. [Laughter.] Thus they find themselves ignored; and although some may adopt the theory that they are mereciphers in the government, yet women in the United States do occupy themselves with thoughts, worthy or unworthy. They do not interest themselves with political affairs, and, as a matter of course, they are not satisfied with the position they occupy. The late war did much towards giving women this desire for equal political advantages with men. They could not take the interest in the government they then did without becoming attached to it, and desiring to co-operate in its affairs, that they might feel that it was truly a government of their own choosing. Thus they can't have daily intercourse with men without feeling that the right of the ballot is a right worth suffering much for; simply for the power it gives, and the recognition of them as responsible beings, whose desires and opinions are worthy of consideration; and because the ballot, being the great educator, will do much to draw women from fashion and frivolty to subjects more worthy of them, and in that way prepare them to perform their duties better to their children during those years, when it is important that their instruction should be of the very best character.

But it is not worth while to stop to give reasons why women should desire to exercise the right of suffrage. Whatever causes make it necessary or desirable for men, make it necessary and desirable for women. If self-government is necessary as a guarantee for man's protection, it is necessary as a guarantee for woman's protection. If, as Beber says, self-government trains the mind and nourishes the character for liberty and dependence on law; if it educates for freedom, cultivates civil dignity and all its partakers, and teaches us to regard the rights of others, gives a consciousness of freedom, rights and corresponding obligations, such as none other dees, for the sake of humanity let us have it in all its purity, with all its advantages, and with all as partakers. Do not have an excluded, disfranchised class, who obey persons clothed with authority without their participation or consent. It is not just, and certainly it is not in accordance with the principles of our government. “We, the people, &c., do ordain and establish this constitution.” I know it is sometimes said that, “we, the people,” as used in the Constitution, does not include womer, and should not be taken literally. This, however, must be a mistake. If the words “person,” “people” and “citizen” do not include women in those clauses which refer to qualifications for office and eligibility to office, they do not include women in those paragraphs which refer to the protection of person and property, the assessment and collection of taxes, and the arrest and punishment for crime, in which there would be no protection for women's property, and no authority to make laws for the collection of taxes and penalties for the violation of laws.

A lady friend, determined to know the exact definition of woman, referred to Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Imagine her surprise and indignation to find that the word was not defined at all. “What,” said she, “is it possible that woman is not of sufficient importance to be defined in an unabridged dictionary?” It was suggested that, perhaps, she would find a definition of woman under the word man. She did so, and was delighted to find that the word man includes woman, and does not refer to sex; and although a man is not a woman, a woman is a man. [Laughter and applause.]

A woman in Iowa was lately elected to the office of County Superintendent of Public Schools. The case was brought before the Attorney General of that Sate, who decided that there was no provision in the law preventing women from holding that office. Timothy Walker, in his lecture on “Husband and Wife,” says: “To say that the laws which regulate these relations are of the highest practical importance, is to assert a truism. The whole relation is a slavish one. When compared even with the civil law, I don't hesitate to say that the law of husband and wife, as gathered from the books, is a disgrace to a civilized nation. I don't say that women are degraded in point of fact, but I only say that the theory of the law degrades them almost to the level of the slaves.”

It is important that the women who engage in this work should be actuated by the highest motives. They should remember that although they are contending 027121for the same principle as did the men of 1776, the war is to be waged in a different spirit. They are not fighting enemies with deadly weapons, but error, with reason. The victory is not to be won by physical force, but by the force of good judicious, logical arguments. Women should plead this cause as a disinterested party, not as people soured by bitter experience. The war should be carried on as was the war with slavery, earnestly and unceasingly, but with a true christian spirit; not from selfish motives, but from a sense of justice and right; not because we consider women better than men, but because they hope both sexes will be improved; and that God, who is the author of whatever difference there is, is fully competent to carry out this designs; and that nature and common sense will enable women, no less than men, to fulfill their destiny. While women will not and should not acknowledge men as authority, as to their sphere, they will be as true to nature's impulses, and as well understand her designs, as men can do for them. Let us make men respect our opinions and demands by the wisdom and reasonableness we manifest in our daily walks, and by our womanly characteristics. Let us avoid the bitter denunciation which will cause a breach in our household. Let us teach our boys that it is only by leaving women untrammeled by special laws, that God's wisdom in creating us, “male and female,” can be fully manifested; and above all, let us teach them to regard as sacred the rights of every human being, and the victory will soon be ours. [Applause.]

It was announced that the Hall of the House of Representatives was tendered the Convention for the evening meeting. It having been determined to use the Opera House this evening, a committee, consisting of Mrs. Cole, Miss Bates and Miss Rice, was appointed to wait on the Legislature and ask the use of the Hall for to-morrow.

Mrs. Cutler followed in a few remarks, claiming that the cause has now reached that sublime position when we can afford to say: “Grant us this suffrage, so graciously, without mixing us up in any of your political intrigues, that we shall feel you welcome us as sincerely to cooperation in the government as you do in the family.” (Applause.)

Mr. Belleville moved the appointment of a committee of three, to visit the railroad officials of the various railroads centering here, and return passes free. Motion carried. The President appointed Mrs. Janney, Mrs. Steelman and Mrs. Belcher.

The resolution proposing an amendment to the Constution of the Stat was taken up and unanimously adopted.

On motion, the President was instructed to present the resolution as adopted to the Legislature.

Recess till seven o'clock.

A large audience assembled in the evening, notwithstanding an admission fee of 25 cents was charged at the door.

The chair announced the following committee to confer with the committee of the Legislature on the question of the suffrage: Dr. Coulter, Mrs. Longley, of Cincinnati, Mrs. Clark, of Cleveland, Mrs. Cole, of Sidney, Mrs. Dickson, of Lorain Co., Mrs. Janney, of Columbus, Mr Belleville, of Dayton. Dr. Coulter having declined, the name of Mrs. Cutler was, on motion, substituted.

Mrs. R. Bates was introduced, and made an address which was well received.

She was followed by Mrs. M. M. Cole, of Sidney, who spoke on the theme—“What will she do with it.”

Not till the ballot is in her hand do you know what she will do with it. We do not wonder this question is asked, albeit this is the nineteenth century, and the grandest century of all time. Not more than women were men endowed with unerring judgment, incorruptible integrity, and large wisdom. From the same maternal fountain we drew life, from the same books we learned the alphabet; through life's journey we go, and the joys and sorrows of life touch us nearly alike, all through the first years of our lives. What separates us and opens up ways to the young man and hedges up the way to the young woman? You, with whom I am pleading for my sex, can answer that question. She must grasp the ballot—the one and only symbol of equality.

The same question was asked in regard to our brother. Abraham Lincoln sent back the answer: “Do what is right, and God will take care of the consequences.” If freedom is the birthright of the slave, as it is yours and mine, give him what belongs to him, and leave the result with him who sees the end from the beginning. There was trust in God and trust in humanity, and the history of the black man to-day is verifying that trust. Are not educated, Christian women fitter 028122to posses the rights and immunities of citizenship than the poor African, whose knowledge is mainly confined to the fields, whose religion is mostly a blind, instinctive reverence for something incomprehensible? Then, I say, upon sex you rest the claim to the elective franchise, and it matters not how ignorant and vicious a human being is, if he is only a man.

When the shackles of the slave were struck off, the world said, “my work is done.” But, ah, the work is not done. Finish the work so gloriously begun, and let a man stand forth a man as God made him—free. Not alone are the colored men shut out from where they would go in. The black man is a good many steps ahead of us. The women part company with the only respectable company they have had, and go back to the criminals, lunatics and idiots. (Laughter.) Even we cannot go back any further, unless nature manufactures something lower than an idiot. (Laughter.)

In the last few years work has multiplied for men, while women have multiplied for work. Ministers, lawyers and doctors have multiplied to an alarming extent. (Laughter.) It would seem that there is a place for every sort of a man, whether one of nature's master-pieces or one of nature's blunders. The mere lad plans his life-work, and knows he will be successful, if strength and reason remain with him. He knows society will not throw obstructions in his way. There is no grander sight in the world than a brave, earnest boy making wise and thorough preparation for the future. Learn a trade, go into a counting-house, study a profession, be a scientific farmer, do anything you can do well, says the sagacious father, only don't part your hair in the middle or carry a poodle. (Laughter.) Well, what of the sister? Her hair is parted in the middle, and ten to one she carries a poodle. (Renewed laughter.)

Why is idleness more intolerable in a boy than in a girl? The saloon, with its decanters and gambling tables, may not allure her, but other other places and amusements have their temptations for her. Society is to blame for its usefulness and never-worked daughters; they have not received an equal chance in the field of labor. Not a prominent woman in this movement but has felt the lash of scorn and ridicule, not because she expects to reap wealth or personal aggrandisement from it, but simply because she advocates a more extended field of labor for women.

She would say to women, in the language of Cromwell, slightly altered:—“Trust in God and keep the ballot in your eye.”

What will she do with it? She will do nothing wrong. She can be trusted with the ballot, and trusted to answer the question in a practical way.

Mrs. Cole's speech well received, and elicited frequent demonstrations of applause. After a few remarks by Mrs. Cutler, the Convention adjourned to ten o'clock A.M., Friday.

Woman has been slowly learning what the language of the resolution asserts, that the rights of men and women are the same. They are the same, because men and women are human beings, having a common origin and a common destiny. Every right which inheres in one human being must inhere in all. The human right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness implies the right to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is secured to men, but it had never been known that it belongs to women in the same way. But slowly woman has been winning her way up through the centuries until she has gained everything but the last stronghold, the last lever of power, which is the ballots; and we are here to-day in this Convention to help forward the claim of the woman towards this end. A fortnight ago this Convention had not been announced, and here is gathered this large audience, and a larger one gathered last night. After the announcement of the Convention, the women said, “Let us carry up a petition to the Legislature asking for the suffrage, that they may know how much we care about this,” and in ten days nearly two thousands names were secured to a petition which was this morning presented to your Legislature. Some persons who are on the edge of granting the suffrage to woman, wonder whether it will be best; and yet if you will only consider, every single thing that has been gained for woman has been found best. It is not more than three or four hundred years ago when it was as unheard of for woman to write a book as it is now to take part in government. Literary women were called “blue stockings,” and laughed at, and they generally hid themselves behind assumed names. But women's books grew in popular esteem until now, and to-day the book that has a circulation larger than any other is “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” written by Hurriet Beecher Stowe. The world said, if women write books they will neglect their families and scold their husbands; but they wrote books, and the world is a great deal better for it. Men have writen cleaner books since women entered the field of literature, and the gain is positive.

In the world of woman's work there was a time when women had only three occupations. She might be a housekeeper, that was always honorable and useful, but she never had any pay except the use of one-third of the estate when the husband was dead; she might be a seam-stress, always poorly paid, or she might be a teacher, always under paid. When I was a little girl, looking out into life, my brothers, who were older, were always saying, when they were men they were going to do so and so. I remember when one of them said he was going to college, I raised up and said, when I was big enough I was going to college. They looked down upon me as a little green thing, and I suppose I was, for I was only seven years old. I thought if my brother was going to college I wanted to go; but they said: “Women did not go to college.” Women were not allowed to go to college; if they went to school and studied arithmetic as far as the rule of three that was enough for them. A wall of granite, reaching up to the heavens, shut women up to these three occupations. In the soul of ten thousand thousand women there was that sad unrest of every human being thwarted of its natural uses. That discontent found expression in many ways, but it burst upon us in one huge thunderbolt when the anti-slavery question took shape.

There came up from Quaker families three women who said, “let us go out and speak in behalf of the slave.” They came to an audience like this, and the world howled upon those women as if they had been asking the world to commit arson and murder, and every other vile thing. The church and press were against them, and more than all, the scorn of even their own sex; but they were earnest Quaker women, with an undying faith that all true things succeed, and they held their way. To-day more than thirty years have passed, and there is not an audience in christendom that does not gather to listen to the voice of a woman as readily as to the voice of a man. In this country there is no person who addresses so large an audience and receives so large pay as Anna Dickinson, and the world is the better for it. Everybody knows that this 030124public speaking of women, which was once howled down, is all very proper. At first they said, how will it look? I once heard a man draw a picture of a woman as he thought she would appear on the platform, her face red, the veins of her throat swolen, and her fists vibrating in the air, the true picture of a stump speaker of a man who looked that way. [Laughter.] He thought women would do just the same way; but the women came, and they did their speaking as women, and everybody found it was very well, and that field was won.

When women asked to be doctors they were hooted down just as the women speakers had been, and men were not ashamed to stigmatize them in the papers as “she doctors.” But the first women physicians were women of large culture and great purpose, and were not cowards; they held on, and proved that they could be physicians. Mrs. Fowler, a neighbor of mine, in New Jersey, clears fifteen thousand dollars a year as a doctor. [Voice, “Good.”] Yes, good; it is a capital thing, and she earns it. She goes into a family where a mother's child is sick, and her sympathy is as good as medicine; so that field is won, and the world is the better for it.

Then in business, women worked at the needle, and were so poorly paid that Henry Ward Beecher said the woman sews with only the needle between her and hell. She laid down the needle and went to other kinds of work. Women have gone into shops and proved themselves competent to manage machinery. One-half the retail stores in the North are occupied by women as clerks or owners. You can hardly go into a store to ask for pins or tape but you will find a woman to wait on you—sometimes a man six feet high, who ought to be building railroads or planting States. [Laughter.] Stores are owned and successfully managed by women. Yesterday I saw in the papers that a board of brokers has been established by women in New York. Not only is it not hooted at, but the papers take it up and crow over the fact that women are undertaking business enterprises. Mrs. Myra Bradwell, of Chicago, has been admitted as a lawyer, but is not permitted to practice because it has been decided in that State that a woman cannot make a contract; neither can a lunatic or a fool. [Laughter.] She has appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, and we shall soon see whether women are entitled to be lawyers.

Women have done all these things and have not ceased to be womanly. Many years ago, when the question was raised. Margaret Fuller said: “Let woman do anything, if she can do it well; if she can do it, let her be an artist or a sea captain,” not dreaming that a woman ever would be a sea captain. Yet, a few years ago, when a ship from New York was making a voyage around Cape Horn, the captain fell ill and died. His wife took command of the ship, and brought it safely through to San Francisco, and, discharging the cargo, brought it back to New York. Twenty years ago, a woman in Massachusetts, who was an artist, made so by God, who makes no mistakes, feeling the instinct and the power that was in her, and having no opening thought if she could only show what she could do, should find the door open to her work. She made a bust of Robert Rantoul, a distinguished democrat and citizen. She wrought it out in a wonderful way, and when it was done she put it in a store of the village, hoping some one would see it and give her employment, for she was poor. Everybody looked on it with admiration. Bye-and-bye came along a farmer. He was a good fellow, but did not know a great deal; but he knew Robert Rantoul, and immediately knew who it was, and in delight he pulled out the bust, turned it around and patted it, and asked who made it. The shop keeper said, a certain young lady. He took off his hat, held it down, and said: “O my! don't she know e'en most as much as some men?” [Applause and laughter.] Since that day the pencil has been as free to women as to men. Harriet Hosmer has more orders for work than she can fill. Ladies, if you have a daughter with a taste in the direction of art, remember that when God gave her that direction he knew what he was about and made no mistake; and that if she has to earn her living, by one single job she may make twenty thousand dollars, whereas at other kinds of work she would not get twenty cents. Encourage your daughters then to know that every human right is their right. These plain facts of women achieving success are worth ten thousand times more than all the speeches we ever make. What the world needs is to have faith in woman's capacity to do, and when she has done a thing, she is through. Never again will the question be raised whether a woman shall speak on a public platform, or whether women may be doctors or merchants. Never again will the question be raised whether they can be machinists. They are telegraph operators; they are architects; they are artists; they are in all the field of industry; and they have made their way up to the very last thing—the ballot.

People used to say, “take your rights.” 031125We took them and we proved that we could do what we undertook, and the world is the better for our having done it.

The last point is the suffrage. That we can't take gentlemen, because you hold the key that keeps us out. We have taken other things, and this we would take very quick if we could get it. Now, gentlemen, say to us, “If you will only ask us we will give it to you.” You didn't wait for the negroes to ask you; you gave it to them. You didn't wait for the rebels to ask; you gave them the suffrage back. And now in Ohio the women, and the fools, and the lunatics, and the villains who don't get pardoned when they come out of the prison, are put together politically. Every man's wife is classed with the fool of the town politically. Every man's wife and the raving maniac are on a political equality. Men say, if we ask to be let out they will let us out. Now, gentlemen, are you not ashamed of that? Of course the gentlemen who come here don't say that; all men who come to such Conventions as this are going to vote for it when they get a chance. [Laughter and applause.] In Rhode Island, two years ago, a thousand women asked for suffrage in that State, and the Legislature took it as a huge joke. They said there are ten thousand women in the State, and only one thousand ask for suffrage. After chuckling over it a little while, they said the petition might be referred to the Committee on Burying Grounds. Their children are going to be ashamed of that some day. Last year a larger number petitioned, and they said, “Let the women be heard for themselves.” I went there and made the best plea I could, and if it had devolved upon the chairman of the Suffrage Committee, I am sure we should have had it; but some members who would not come in to hear made a report that the petitioners have leave to withdraw. Last week they drew up a larger petition, and Mrs. Livermore went down, and we are willing to hear the report. They are finding out that, like the widow who importuned the unjust judge, the women will continue coming till they weary them. Here in your State a large number have come year by year, and now present a petition to your Legislature which, just now, by the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, has secured suffrage for every man. He may be white or black, or yellow, African, Irishman or German—every citizen who is a man is a voter. Are the women who pay taxes, the women who obey the laws, women who are fined, imprisoned, taxed and hung, fit to have no voice in the tax we pay or in the size of the rope that chokes us?

It seems to me that men owe it to their own manhood and honor that they shall see to it, that the women who walks at their side; the little girl who lays her hand trustingly in her father's, and looks to him for protection—that they be taken away from the companionship of the vilest men. But every man ought to ask his mother's forgiveness, that he did not long ago take her out of that category, and make her his equal.

The Methodist church, the largest church in this country, has had a great question, as to whether lay delegates should have a vote. The women were allowed to vote, and they did vote. I know women who were too ill to be out of their houses, and had not been out for months, who were taken in carriages to vote. The sun has shone as bright, and fruit has grown just the same as before.

Now, since we have won our way up to everything else, and taken our rights, why should you not trust us here? In all other things we have proved we are just as womanly, just as good wives, just as good mothers; and remember that the women who are asking for suffrage are not the women who give their children to Irish servants; they are not the women who are dolls, who sit and nurse their waterfalls, and have nothing else to do. [Applause.] They are earnest women, who take their share of the burden of life and do it well. These are the women who will help you to make good laws and choose good men bye-and-bye. Since we have done just as well in every newly added sphere, when this is achieved it will be the same; and in the language of your resolution, when you have learned that human rights are the same for men and women, you will find that the questions agitating humanity are just as great-aye, greater, because wider. All the States are agitating it. Congress will take it up; and, ladies, we are going to vote. [Laughter.] I wonder you gentlemen do not know it, and look out that you are on the winning side. “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Women are governed, and by a self-evident truth they are bound to give their consent; and, as Lowell says so beautifully: “Get but a truth once uttered, and it's like A star new-born that drops into its place, And which once moving in its placid round, Not all the tumults of the earth shall shake.”

So this great truth is uttered. God's own eye is watching over it, and its light can never be taken from us. Just as sure as the buds of spring burst into greenness and beauty in the summer, so sure will this truth clothe this earth with greater beauty. The influence of men and women was never meant to be separated. As in the homes, so in the government, the best men and women will help each 032126other up to higher and nobler deeds. The men must be decent men that they vote for. John Morrissey will not be elected when women are voters. [Applause.] Drunkards will not be elected when women are voters. [Applause.] Profligates will not be elected when women vote; and, as Chief Justice Chase said to me, “I see no end to the good that will come by woman suffrage, both on the electors and the elected. Women themselves will be nobler. The elections will be decent when she shares in them. A constituency of women must modify the character of the men to be chosen.” “So,” he said, “I see no end to the good;” and repeating the language of the Chief Justice, “I see no end to the good,” either. [Loud applause.]

Mrs. Graham, of Cincinnati, related and incident of a lady in that city, whose husband, a druggist, went to war. This lady carried on the business of her husband in his absence, and by strict attention and study became an excellent druggist, so that many people now prefer that she should put up their prescriptions for them instead of her husband.

Mrs. Stewart related the following: An old gentleman near Athens had been bed ridden for twenty years. In the long ago, he and his wife married and bought a little farm. A large family grew up around them, and the husband becoming helpless, the wife carried on the farm, managedd the family, raised the children, took care of the old man—who, in his helpless condition, was very peevish, fretful nd domineering. When election day came, some of the good friends at Athens would come around with a wagon and take father William out to vote. And when tax paying time came around old mother Wilson would go on foot to pay her taxes. [Laughter.] Finally, the old gentleman died, and willed the property, which she had richly earned, to her as long as she remained widow. This was only one instance in a great many of our unjust legislation.

Mrs. Stewart then spoke in a very feeling manner in reference to fallen women. In the course of her remarks on this subject, she related the following, which seemed to touch all hearts: “I was talking with a lady a few days ago who is engaged in a very pious work. She told me she was sometime since engaged in that work in this city—visiting the poor outcasts, talking and praying with them, distributing tracts and doing what she could to reform them. After visiting several houses in a certain street, all of the same character, she entered another, where she met a woman of elegant an intelligent appearance. After the visitor had talked awhile to his woman, she broke out in the following language: ‘O, Anna, don't! How can you? I am miserable! I am lost! It reminds me of my mother, to see a good decent mother once more. A, my mother!’ And, she said the lady, the tears streamed down that woman's face. Then she told her sad story. Said she: ‘I was raised in affluence, and was taught that I need not work; that it was disreputable to work. At length I became acquainted with a young gentleman whom I loved, and married him against my parents’ will, and was disinherited. We lived happily a few years, but having no idea of economy, of course we did not get ahead well, and had nothing laid up for a rainy day. At length my husband died, and I was left penniless, with no friends in the world. What could I do? A wealthy gentleman of this city offered to protect me, and to-day I am protected, God knows how miserable I am though, and you remind me once more of my home, my innocent home, and my mother; Oh, my mother!’ Who knows, continued the speaker, the sorrows of these poor down trodden people, who have been crowded out of their legitimate spheres by men occupying them! Go into your stores and see the men employed as clerks; go into your business places of all kinds, and see how men are employed, to the exclusion of women, and then go into these by-places and learn the results. But we are told, if women have the ballot these poor down trodden women will vote, too. In God's name, why not just as well as the men who support them?” [Applause].

After a few further remarks by this speaker, the Convention adjourned till two ‘o'clock P.M.

Convention met at 2 P.M in the Senate Chamber, and was called to order by the President. The audience was very large, many persons of both sexes being compelled to stand during the whole of the afternoon session.

[A letter from Colorado was read, stating that a bill giving suffrage to women, would probably pass the House in that Territory, but that it was feared it would be defeated in the Council by one vote.]

The third resolution, as reported at the forenoon session, was read: Mrs. Lucy Stone spoke to the resolution at considerable length. She dwelt upon the unjustness of the old laws in regard to the unequal division of the properly in case of the husband's death,&c. More recent laws had made this better for the women, and yet the progress made in this had made the woman none the less womanly. The deduction is, that if woman are made equal before the law with men, that the ends of justice will be subserved and women made 033127all the better. A few years ago the democratic party struck out the property distinction, and poor men voted with the democratic party out of pure gratitude. Here was a great power coming in women's votes. Political sagacity should indicate a proper course.

Mrs. Stewart said, she arose only to speak for a gentleman, who suggested that Mrs. Stone should be taken up for assigning so low a motive for action as to women suffrage. She objected to putting the votes in market. She was afraid she would be worsted in entering the lists against Mrs. Stone, but she must say this. Still she would get a little on Mrs. Stone's ground when she said, that women from this time forward would mark their men. Said she: “Give us a chance, and we will raise the standard of politics. We will have good and pure men as candidates for office.”

Mrs. Stone, replied, that she would be ashamed of any man who could offer to bid. for women's votes, but the women would be a very large balance of power, and it was to either party's interest to make friends with this new power that is coming forward—the fifteen millions of voters, that are to be. She only spoke of it as a matter of political sagacity in the political parties, that they be on the side of justice.

Mrs. Cole said, she could not agree with her friend, Mrs. Stewart, that women would always do right, any more than men would do right in politics. We were all human. She did not suppose politics would be pure when women voted. Said she: “While I know many of the laws are unjust, I have never felt their pressure directly. Many of us are happily married, and our husbands stand between us and trouble, and therefore we do not feel as the men who have had the battle of life to fight alone.”

Mrs. Stone asked Mrs. Cole if she had never felt the humiliation of being classed in her State with fools and idiots.

Mrs. Cole replied that she had, but that when the ballot was given her she expected to vote with felons and fools.

Mrs. Stone replied, that then she would have the privilege of voting with whom she passed. Now she was classed with felons and fools whether she would or not.

Mr. Cole said quickly, she agreed with Mrs. Stone as to the present, but that she was not sure as to what company she would get into hereafter.

The Vice President, Mrs. Longley, taking the chair, Mrs. CUTLER addressed the Convention, dwelling particularly upon the subject of the education of females.

She remarked, that fifty years ago the idea that women should have any aspirations for science was deemed simply ridiculous. Women were not stinted now as they had been. The rough ways had been made smooth. Having taken the forward steps in education, it now remains to be seen whether men will take women on their arms a little farther and bestow the ballot.

Lucy Stone says this is coming. Aye, it is very near. And those who first take action will be proud of having done so. Women were admitted to high schools and colleges, and they should be to universities. Michigan had thrown open her University to women, and others would do the same.

Miss Rice, of Yellow Springs, was introduced as Professor of Antioch College. She wished to say first, that she was not a Professor in Antioch College, and in the next place, that she supposed, if she had been a man she would have been.

In speaking of the proposed Agricultural College, she said the bill proposed that it be a white male college. She did not want such a bill passed, and hoped there would be no more such unjust legislation. She would have the Ohio Agricultural College open to women as well as to men, as is the case with the Kansas Agricultural College. She wanted the ballot for the benefits it would bring, though, as far as she was herself concerned, she would not turn her hand for the ballot. Some person informed her that she was in error in reference to the provisions of the Agricultural College bill, and a copy being handed her, she read the clause relating to the admission “of all persons over fourteen years of age.”

Mrs. Cole feared that men would construe “ persons” to mean males. She was in favor of having the words “irrespective of sex” added.

Mrs. Stone remarked that she had left New England twenty-five years ago, as she could not there be admitted to college, and came to Oberlin, where ladies and negroes were admitted and offered equal advantages with others.

Mrs. Brown, of Athens, said she had been in the habit of paying a large amount annually to support the Ohio University at Athens, yet not one of her daughters could receive a lesson in the institution. She had been here in this Senate Chamber and in the Hall of the House, when bills were pending, which were intended expressly to injure her property, and she had succeeded in defeating them; and, said she, “I intend to fight against these unjust laws, denying the admission of females to the colleges, if it takes all summer; yes, and all the winter of my life.” (Laughter and applause.)

After further remarks by Mrs. Lucy Stone, the Convention adjourned until seven o'clock P.M.

She said, when she saw the crowded audience before her, and knew that in the other hall there was a crowd as large, listening to addresses on the great subject they had met to consider, she could not but think that men would agree with them, that what they demanded was right, and ought to be, and will be done.

The argument was sometimes offered by men that women are not competent to vote. If the women whom those men have chosen for their wives are fools, the argument was as much against the wisdom of these men in making such a choice, as it was against woman's competency. (Laughter.)

She then drew the following PICTURE OF MEN AT THE POOLS, which excited considerable merriment.

Said she: “I go to the polls twice every year. I go to look at my superiors voting, and to keep my indignation warm. I see all sorts of men there; those who are drunk ad those who are sober. At one election, I saw a man go with his ticket to a republican to get him to read it for him, then taking it to a democrat, he got him to read it, and afterwards brought it to me to read it for him, and then feeling sure that it was all right, he went and voted it. That man was my superior! —(Laughter.) I have seen men who were—should I say buying votes?—I will say getting votes, securing votes. When one of these candidates for office sees a man whose vote he wishes to secure, he approaches him in an amiable and friendly manner, and with a most delicious face, says: “Good morning. How do you do? How is your wife? (Laughter.) How are your children? I hope they have got over the small-pox or measles?” or whatever they had. (Renewed laughter.) All these inquiries are made, seemingly, with the greatest anxiety and sympathy, and the poor fellow feels that he never was spoken to so kindly by such a gentleman, (and he will not be again till next election—but he does not know it). (Laughter.) Then he puts a ticket in the hands of the man, and putting his arm around him, walks with him to the polls, talking very pleasantly all the way. The poor fellow puts in the ticket, though perhaps he did not mean to vote that way; but how could he help it, when he was so kindly treated! (Renewed laughter.) The speaker continued at some length, answering the objections usually urged against woman suffrage. Miss Rice followed in a few remarks. Mrs. Clark, of Cleveland, read a lengthy address.

The meeting in the House having closed, Mrs. Cutler returned, and again addressed the audience here, in a brief, animated speech.

Mrs. Cole was then introduced, and made a spirited closing address.

Resolutions of thanks to the Legislature, the citizens of Columbus, and Reporters, were adopted. The audience then rose and joined in singing the doxology, when the Convention adjourned sine die.

Held recently at Urbana, was one of great importance. The practical suggestions elicited in the interesting discussions on the culture of corn, potatoes, small fruits, &c., will be read with interest by those engaged in agricultural pursuits. The report will also contain the able address of Mr. J H. Klippart, Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, on the present Tariff laws and their relation to agriculture and other kinds of industry. Our report of it is mostly in type, and an edition will be issued immediately to supply the order from the Convention for 1,1000 copies and some hundreds that have since been ordered by others.

The report will be furnished at the rate of $10 per hundred, or $1.50 per dozen. Agricultural societies, or persons desiring copies, should order at once.

This valuable report will also appear in the regular issue of the Convention Reporter for April.

In order to extend the circulation of the Convention Reporter as rapidly as possible, we have determined to allow until April first, an extra copy for the year to every one who sends as three yearly subscribers at the rates for single subscriber—$1.50 per year.

Any person raising clubs for numbers containing the report of any particular convention will be liberally rewarded.

There is scarcely a neighborhood in the State where, will proper effort, a club of subscribers, could not be raised for the “ Convention Reporter. “ Persons of either sex may thus find employment that will be very remunerable at the very liberal cash commissions we are paying canvassers.

For terms, &c., address the publishers.

The Woman's Advocate, published at Dayton, is one of the most valuable of our exchanges. Its editors are Mrs. M. M. Cole and Mr. A. J. Boyer, and it is devoted to the advocacy of the social and political equality of woman. The Advocate is conducted with ability ad spirit, occupies a leading position among the journals devoted to reform, and is the only one, we believe, published in the West. Mrs. Cole is a brilliant writer, dealing out the most trenchant arguments and the keenest wit at pleasure. Her address at the State Convention in this city—a brief synopsis of which is elsewhere given—won golden opinions from all sorts of people, and established at once her title to be ranked as one of Ohio's most accomplished women. With Mr. A. J. Boyer, as associate editor, and Mrs. M. V. Longley, corresponding editor, there is no lack of editorial talent, and the readers of the Advocate are assured both abundance and variety. We commend the Advocate to our readers, and have no doubt its influence will be wholesome. It is published weekly, printed on good paper and in excellent style. Send $2.50 to J. J. Belleville, Publisher, Dayton, O., and you will receive the paper a year.

Littell's Living Age. —The Living Age, (the prospectus of which will appear in our next issue) besides its usual large amount of the best scientific, literary, historical and political matter, is publishing two new and very interesting serial stories, one by Mrs. Oliphant and the other by Charles Lever. Published weekly at $8 a year, free of postage. An extra copy sent gratis to any one getting up a club of five new subscribers. Address, Littell & Gay, 30 Bromfield St., Boston.

The Little Corporal. —The March number of this favorite of the young folks is a splendid one. The publishers promise to enlarge and improve their magazine during the present year. One dollar a year. Address Alfred L. Sewell & Co., Chicago, Ill.

The able report of the Fairfield County Christian Convention was furnished by Rev. J. H. Aoton.

The Ohio Educationl Monthly. —This well known and popular journal is being conducted with even more ability than heretofore. Its corps of contributors has recently been increased by the addition of a number of the ablest and most practical educational writers in the country. The Educational Monthly is also School Commissioner Henkle's medium of official communication with teachers and school officers. Terms, $1.50 per year, or four or more copies at $1.25 per copy. Address, E. E. White, Columbus, O.