or not,
still, in the eyes of our women we would be what our German poet
calls, "the conquering defeated."

Yours for Fremont and Freedom, EMILE PRETORIUS.

LETTER FROM CHARLES SUMNER.

SENATE CHAMBER, _May 6, 1864_.

MADAM:--I can not be with you in New York, according to the
invitation with which you have honored me; for my post of duty is
here. I am grateful to your Association for what you have done to
arouse the country to insist on the extinction of slavery. Now is
the time to strike, and no effort should be spared. And yet there
are many who lap themselves in the luxury of present success, and
hold back. This is a mistake. The good work must be finished; and
to my mind nothing seems to be done while anything remains to be
done. There is one point to which attention must be directed. No
effort should be spared to castigate and blast the whole idea of
_property in man_, which is the corner-stone of the rebel
pretension, and the constant assumption of the partisans of
slavery, or of its lukewarm opponents. Let this idea be trampled
out, and there will be no sympathy with the rebellion; and there
will be no such abomination as _slave-hunting_, which is beyond
question the most execrable feature of slavery itself. Accept my
thanks, and believe me,

Madam, faithfully yours,
MISS SUSAN B. ANTHONY. CHARLES SUMNER.

Speeches were then made by George Thompson, Lucretia Mott, and
Ernestine L. Rose; after which, in adjourning the Convention, the
President said:

This is the only organization of women that will have a
legitimate cause for existence beyond the present hour. The
Sanitary, Soldiers' Aid, Hospital, and Freedmen's Societies all
end with the war; but the soldier and negro in peace have yet to
be educated into the duties of citizens in a republic, and our
legislators to be stimulated by a higher law than temporary
policy. This is the only organization formed during the war based
specifically on universal emancipation and enfranchisement.
Knowing that in this great national upheaval women would exert an
influence for good or evil, we felt the importance of
concentrating all their power on the side of liberty. To this end
we have urged