Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/798

762 season ticket." And so some women seem to think that the right of suffrage will be like the boy's season ticket, and they must vote whether they will or not. When we can not drive men to the polls, when there is no law to compel them to serve or save their country at the ballot-box, if they stay away from selfishness or indifference, it is not likely that we will be more successful with the women. No compulsion is intended. We will lay before woman the great responsibility that rests upon her, her sacred duty as a wife and mother, we will open up to her a career of the highest usefulness in the world, in which she may more perfectly than ever before fulfill the destiny for which she is created, and then she may individually accept the ballot or not, according to the dictates of her own conscience. All men can do is to take down the barriers and say to her: "Vote, if you please." It is to give more dignity and sacredness to woman; to enlarge and not limit her field of usefulness; but not to take her out of her appropriate sphere. It says to the wife: "Do all you can to save your sons and husbands at home, strew around them its most hallowed influences; but if you fail there, you have another chance at the ballot-box to abolish, by your votes, the liquor-sellers that are dragging them down to ruin."

I would earnestly recommend to this Convention the importance of efficient and perfect organization, and not only in this body, but throughout the country. In the judgment of those who called this meeting, the great movement for woman suffrage is too far advanced to be further prosecuted only by local and accidental organizations. In most of the States, State Associations are of but recent origin, and in many they do not exist at all. The efforts hitherto made were all well and useful in their way, but not enough to meet the demands of the present. It is the aim to establish this Association on a national representative basis, embracing all the States in the Union. We seek this because we need it. The enterprise is too vast to be left to hasty or accidental organizations only. We want something solid and permanent. The Congress of the United States rests upon a narrower basis than does the organization at which we aim. That represents but half the people of the country while this is for all. It is eminently needful that we give the greatest care and deliberations to the work. We must have the counsel of various minds, laying aside local differences. We are of different habits and opinions, and do not think alike on all subjects. Upon many questions we "agree to differ," but on this great question we are, and must be, all united. Efficient organization will be a powerful aid in helping forward the grandest reform that was ever launched upon the human race. With this understanding I accept the position of President of this Convention, losing my own individuality as one of its members. In conclusion, I ask your patience with my short-comings and your co-operation in conducting its proceedings.

Mrs. Cutler read a courteous communication from H. S. Stevens Esq., kindly offering to furnish carriages free to those members of the Convention who may wish to see the city, during their stay. Col. Higginson said that in the early days of woman suffrage, he had seen a rivalry among livery stable keepers to furnish carriages to take persons engaged in the movement out of town, and he regarded this offer as in singular contrast to that. On motion of Mrs. Lucy Stone, the Committee on Permanent Organization of the