Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/866

828 he same breast blesses their baby lips; the same hand guides their first tottering steps. A little later they play the same plays, recite the same lessons and hold the same rank as scholars. They ask admission to Harvard college. The boy is received, and the girl refused. Can any one tell me a good reason why? At twenty-one their father gives them each a house. They both pay taxes on this real estate, but the young man has a voice, both in the amount of tax and its use, all of which is denied to the young woman. Can any one tell a good reason why?

They assume the marriage relation. The young husband can sell his house, give a good title, convey his stocks, will his property according to his pleasure, have the guardianship and control of his children. The young wife can not sell her house, or give a valid title; can not convey her stocks, or make a will of her property with the same freedom that the husband can, has no equal right to the control and guardianship of her children. Can any one tell a good reason why?

The man becomes a widower, but the house, the land, the furniture, and the children are all undisturbed. The woman becomes a widow. The property is divided in fractions, the contents of the cupboards and closets counted, valued, divided, and the widow's thirds (commonly known as the widow's incumbrance), are left to this woman. Can any one give a good reason why there should be such a difference between the rights of the widow and the widower? or why woman as a student, a wife, a mother, a widow, and a citizen, should be held at such a disadvantage?

The mere statement of the case shows the injustice, and the wrong which needs to be righted. There is only one way to remove this, and that is for woman to use her right to the ballot, and through it, protect herself. Oh, men of St. Louis! will you not use the power you hold, and the opportunity to make the application of our theory of government sure as far as in you lies, to each man's mother, sister, and daughter?

On motion of Mr. Blackwell, it was

The American Woman Suffrage Association held an introductory anniversary meeting Monday, October 13, 1873, in the large hall of the Cooper Institute. A fine audience attended, the hall being nearly filled. Fully two-thirds of this audience were men. Colonel T. W. Higginson, the President of the Association, said:

This is my last service as President of this association. Unlike other bodies, it only has a man for that office every other year, and this is the end of the other year. We meet here as a family, men and women, each ready to do his or her share of the talk. We stand here to speak neither for one nor the other, but for that great movement which is to sweep through the land and arouse one sex to its rights and the other to its duties. Not to arouse man against woman, but in favor of the civilization which is to come. It is more than twenty years since the Woman Suffrage Association came up in an organized form. We entered into this movement with no ideas of immediate success. We had behind us only a few years of agitation after