Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/894

856 they are shod with wool," says Lieber, "is true of great ideas in history. They approach softly. Great truths always dwell a long time in small minorities." Growing in unobserved places, they take root and become strong before their spreading branches attract the public gaze.

To many the pursuit of an abstract principle under so many difficulties seems an absurdity. They therefore impute motives more or less unworthy to those who are willing to immolate themselves for an idea. There are always at least two ways of looking at any question, and I have sometimes placed myself in the position of those who take an unfavorable view of woman suffrage, and who reason in this wise: "These women are discontented. They must have been unfortunate. They seek to overstep the limits which nature and circumstance have placed about them. Not content with the round of domestic duties which has hitherto constituted the sum total of woman's life, they seek to perform the functions which custom has allotted to man. They desire to be independent, self-sustaining—strong, while the more attractive ideal woman is fragile, clinging, dependent. Why should they desire to overturn the existing order of things? The world gets on pleasantly enough, why introduce these disquieting questions, when by patient acquiescence we might have tranquillity, and, perhaps, more of the pleasant things of life?" or as I once heard it formulated by a lady: "Why should Mrs. A. want to vote when she has such an indulgent husband." This is one view of the subject and there are times in the life of every woman when such reasoning has more or less weight.

But there is another side to this question, and how changed the picture. The whole scope and meaning of this wonderful woman's movement here dawns upon us. We find a new order of things indeed. We behold amid the changing dynasties of the world a new government arise—a republic based, not upon the will of the strongest, not upon property, but upon the rights of the individual. With a code of political ethics more perfect than any the world has yet seen, we find it still hesitating to put these principles to the test. As a consequence it struggles in the waves of political disorder like a ship without ballast. Recognizing as vital doctrines the equality of the race, and the value of the family as the political unit, we find the woman principle, the mother element, subdued, subjected, deprived of any fair expression in the conduct of the government. As a result we have corruption in high places, fraud, public distrust, and their host of accompanying evils. We find forces at work which threaten the security of our homes, the manhood of our sons, the purity of our daughters; in a word, the whole social structure of society. Reflecting on these things we begin to understand the meaning of the ballot for woman. Scrutinizing closely, we find that it means justice, integrity, peace, purity, temperance, sweeter manners, wiser laws.

Lucy Stone made the next and last speech of the evening, on "The Meaning of the Woman Suffrage Movement, the What and the How."

The session of Wednesday morning was devoted to business, the election of officers, and hearing of reports of the auxiliary societies. At the afternoon session, Dr. Mary F. Thomas, of Indiana, Dr. Hannah Tracy Cutler, of Illinois, Rev. Thomas J. Vater, of Ohio, and Rev. Sarah M. Perkins, of