in
virtue of these high titles, or should be shut out for the
reasons stated.

Mr. Phillips, being urged on all sides to withdraw his motion,
said: It has been hinted very respectfully by two or three
speakers that the delegates from the State of Massachusetts
should withdraw their credentials, or the motion before the
meeting. The one appears to me to be equivalent to the other. If
this motion be withdrawn we must have another. I would merely ask
whether any man can suppose that the delegates from Massachusetts
or Pennsylvania can take upon their shoulders the responsibility
of withdrawing that list of delegates from your table, which
their constituents told them to place there, and whom they
sanctioned as their fit representatives, because this Convention
tells us that it is not ready to meet the ridicule of the morning
papers, and to stand up against the customs of England. In
America we listen to no such arguments. If we had done so we had
never been here as Abolitionists. It is the custom there not to
admit colored men into respectable society, and we have been told
again and again that we are outraging the decencies of humanity
when we permit colored men to sit by our side. When we have
submitted to brick-bats, and the tar tub and feathers in America,
rather than yield to the custom prevalent there of not admitting
colored brethren into our friendship, shall we yield to parallel
custom or prejudice against women in Old England? We can not
yield this question if we would; for it is a matter of
conscience. But we would not yield it on the ground of
expediency. In doing so we should feel that we were striking off
the right arm of our enterprise. We could not go back to America
to ask for any aid from the women of Massachusetts if we had
deserted them, when they chose to send out their own sisters as
their representatives here. We could not go back to Massachusetts
and assert the unchangeableness of spirit on the question. We
have argued it over and over again, and decided it time after
time, in every society in the land, in favor of the women. We
have not changed by crossing the water. We stand here the
advocates of the same principle that we contend for in America.
We think it right for women to sit by our side there, and we
t