where Elizabeth Cady Stanton, another pioneer heroine of the
movement, was born. Mrs. Stanton has long since been gathered to her
fathers, but her work remains an imperishable monument in memory of her
achievements.

It was at the first Woman's Rights convention ever held in the United
States, July 19, 1848, that Mrs. Stanton delivered an oration that will
forever have a place in the literature of woman's struggle for freedom.
The doctrine she advocated was at that time little less than treason,
but she knew it was _true_, and she boldly took her stand and maintained
it to the end. In her speech at this first convention she said:

"Now is the time for the women of this country, if they would save our
free institutions, to defend the right, to buckle on the armor that can
best resist the keenest weapons of the enemy--contempt and ridicule. The
same religious enthusiasm that nerved Joan of Arc to her work nerves us
to ours. In every generation God calls some men and women for the
utterance of the truth, a heroic action, and our work today is the
fulfilling of what has long since been foretold by the prophet. * * * We
do not expect our path will be strewn with the flowers of popular
applause, but over the thorns of bigotry and prejudice will be our way,
and on our banner will beat dark storm-clouds of opposition from those
who have entrenched themselves behind the stormy bulwarks of custom and
authority, and who have fortified their position by every means, holy
and unholy. But we will steadfastly abide the result. Unmoved we will
bear it aloft. Undauntedly we will unfurl it to the gale, for we know
that the storm cannot rend from it a shred, that the electric flash
will but more clearly show to us the glorious words inscribed upon it:
'Equality of Rights.'"

There was thrilling power in the burning eloquence of Mrs. Stanton, but
only they who had a part in the struggle at that time could have any
conception of what bitter hatred, blind prejudice and malign persecution
there were to overcome.

In February, 1854, Mrs. Stanton made a notable plea for the political
rights of women to the legislature of New York. In mentally invoicing an
average legislature today one gets some idea of the self-imposed task of
this brave old pioneer, and the indomitable spirit required to undertake
it, of arousing a body of sodden bourgeois legislators, ward
politicians, to recognize the right of women to breathe the air of
civilized citiz