Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/635

580 cerned, began yesterday in the election of Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson as a member in full standing from the State of Illinois.

Dr. Mary H. Thompson, who was graduated at Boston in 1863, and who, removing to Chicago, succeeded in establishing a woman's hospital, is included in a short list of notable alumnæ of the Boston Medical School. Dr. Lelia G. Bedell, Dr. E. G. Cook, Dr. Julia Holmes Smith, Dr. Alice B. Stockham, and many others have won honorable distinction in this profession.

One of the marked crises in the history of the reform we trace was the centennial Fourth of July. The daughters of the Pilgrims realized as never before the cruel injustice by which they were deprived of their birthright, and from the Western prairies and Eastern hills their earnest protest was given to the nation. As early as May 2, 1876, at a special convention of the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association, two vigorous protests were read as the official utterances of State and National Associations. The convention was called to order by Mrs. Alma Van Winkle, who stated that Mrs. Jane Graham Jones, the beloved and efficient president of the association, having determined upon a European sojourn, had sent her resignation to the executive committee, and that Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, recently removed to the State, had been elected to fill her place. This action being ratified, Susan B. Anthony was introduced, and although she had just concluded an intensely vigorous lyceum tour, extending through many months, she spoke with unusual power. Just here I wish to emphasize the great loss to women in the fact that as Miss Anthony's speeches were never written, but came with thrilling effect from her patriotic soul, scarce any record of them remains, other than the intangible memories of her grateful countrywomen. At this convention the following address was read and adopted:

To the Women of the United States of America, greeting:

While the centennial clock is striking the hour of opportunity for the Pilgrims' daughters to prove themselves regenerate children of a worthy ancestry, while the air reverberates to the watchwords of the statesmen of the Revolution, let the daughters of the nation, in clear, steady and womanly voices, chorus through the States: "Taxation without representation is tyranny," and "all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Womanly hands, firm, capable and loving, have been steadily, persistently and unceasingly knocking, knocking at the doors of judicial, ecclesiastical and legislative halls, until at last the rusty bars are yielding and the persistent knocking is beginning to tell upon iron nerves and all kinds of masculine constitutions. Just now, in the centennial year, another door has opened, preparing the way for the Pilgrims' daughters to present their claim before the assembled nation on the "Fourth of July, 1876."

A joint resolution of congress, signed by the president of the United States, and made the subject of proclamation by the governor of the State, reads as follows: