Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/587

 In preparing sketches of the heroic women who have fought the battles and won the victories of the woman suffragists of the United States one is deeply impressed by the similarity in heroism, steadfastness of purpose, indefatigable industry, conscientious convictions and determination of these noble women and the women of the Revolution of 1776. The women of those trying days were sustained by their convictions on the subject of human rights, and with the suffragists the movement was started as a revolt against what they considered cruel injustice toward the supposed weaker sex, and because women had not equal rights under the laws of which men were the authors and administrators. From the early days of the Republic and the persecution and cruel decisions of judges and jurors, American women have kept alive a righteous resentment over the discrimination against them in a Republic that pretended to be founded upon principles of equal justice for all mankind before the law. The smouldering fires of indignation were fanned into a flame by such courageous women as Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Caroline M. Seymour Severance and a host of remarkable women who have enlisted in the cause of equal rights for women. It would take volumes to list their achievements by causing the enactment of laws in every state in the Union, lightening the burdens of women and in securing protection for them against all forms of injustice. Mrs. C. E. Lucky, president of the Knoxville, Ky., Equal Suffrage League, has recently summed up some of the work of