Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/876

838 speech of Gen. Voris was a close, logical argument. It reviewed the entire question of suffrage, and bristled with points. He was so frequently interrupted by applause that he was obliged to ask the audience to withhold their tokens of approbation till he got through, but it was to little purpose, for enthusiastic suffragists couldn't help letting their hands tell their ears how good the General's hard hits at the anti-suffragists made them feel, and the applause would still break out once in a while.

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore was next introduced. She was greeted with applause, and commenced by an allusion to the Scandinavian origin of our race, and their characteristic bravery, vigor, and love of freedom. The Scandinavians were distinguished from other races by their regard for their wives. With them the woman stood nearer to heaven than the man. She was in some sense a priest, a law-giver, and a physician, and she was worthy of the position. Is it strange that with such foremothers we should love liberty? Something of this spirit has always marked the race. And now women ask for the right of suffrage, not because they are abused, but because they are half of humanity—the other half of man. They want simply equality, not superiority. She spoke of laws in the statute-books which do absolute injustice to men, and asked whether if the men could not legislate better than that for themselves, it was not a little ridiculous for them to assume to legislate for themselves and the women too? Mrs. Livermore spoke of some of the injustice of the law to women. The law is not for you, gentlemen, who are a law to yourselves, and who care for your wives so that they forget the injustice of the law. They are for the poor and down-trodden women, the wives of drunkards and wife-beaters. Make them what they should be. But the main claim of women to the ballot is that it is the symbol of equality. Women can never be made men. There is no danger of woman losing her womanhood. In fact we do not dream yet what womanhood can be. Women are now obsequious. Many who want to vote, in awe of husbands, fathers, sons, the pulpit, the press, ruled by men, do not say so. They have been taught through all the centuries that patience is the highest attribute of woman. She spoke of the division of masculine and feminine attributes. They complement each other, and together make the perfect whole. The assertion that women are slaves is nonsense. The great reason for woman suffrage is that it will aid a higher and grander civilization.

The following letter was read:

, 148 Charles Street, October 10, 1874.

, Esq.: My dear sir—I am sorry my first letter never reached you, for I said in that just what I wanted to express of my own convictions touching suffrage for women. My opinion will go for very little, but whenever an opportunity occurs I wish to say just this if nothing more. It is my firm conviction that all who oppose so just a cause as woman suffrage know not what they do; and, if they are not dead within five years, will repent their opposition in deep and mortifying self-reproach.

"The seed of the thistle," says Tyndall, "always produces the thistle," and our opponents will have a prickly time of it with their own consciences, when the day dawns in righteousness over the American ballot-box. God prosper the struggle and give you heart and hope, for your triumph is sure as sunrise, and will win that final mastery which heaven unfailingly accords to everlasting truth. Cordially yours,

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Short speeches were then made by Giles B. Stebbins, Mrs. Blakeman,