Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/310

 see things in their true proportions and make light of obstacles in his path. The many and varied tributes that have been paid to his memory all dwell upon his intense love of justice which led him to wage war against oppression wherever he found it... . It was my good fortune to be present at the celebration of Mr. Blackwell's eightieth birthday in Faneuil Hall in Boston. With great clarity of vision he defined the duty of the hour and said: "But we can not afford to be a mutual admiration society, there is still work to do." With what patience, fortitude and true courage he and Lucy Stone, his wife, played their part in the face of ridicule and opprobium is now a matter of history. Women who today live a freer life because of their labors and those of their coadjutors must offer to their memory the highest meed of praise.

Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch: Lives consecrated to great reforms, particularly to the advancement of a reform to emancipate women, teach us that the age of chivalry is not past. These great men whom we honor to-day were not, like the knights of old, inspired by the love of some one woman whom they desired to possess, but they strove for justice for those they loved best and for us too, who were their friends, and for millions of women they never knew. Their far-reaching chivalry was one of the most important elements in the characters of Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Garrison. Both of them were unusually fortunate in the women who were their nearest and dearest. Mr. Blackwell's sister Elizabeth was the first woman physician in the United States; his sister-in-law, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first ordained minister; his wife, Lucy Stone, one of the sweetest and truest of the pioneer suffrage lecturers.

Mr. Garrison was not old enough to be related to so many pioneers, except through his illustrious father, but his wife's devotion to the suffrage work, his sister's unfaltering activity and his association from boyhood with Boston's brilliant coterie of renowned women, might well have influenced him to have a higher regard and deeper respect for all their sex. Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Garrison, in their beautiful family lives, are particularly illustrious examples that woman suffrage will not break up the home. Many long years did these pairs of married friends work together for our cause

To-day we sorrow for the loss of these men but not without hope, for there are other men coming forward to take up the work they have dropped. We women who are here to-day do not represent merely ourselves and the tens of thousands of other suffrage women but we are backed by the sympathy, the active encouragement and the money of our husbands, our brothers, our fathers, and many of us have chivalrous sons. More even than sympathy they now give, as some are giving themselves for service. One of Mr. Blackwell's last letters to me related to securing a large membership among men, and our Men's Suffrage Leagues, now springing up in all large cities, might well name themselves