by equal parties to live an equal life, with equal
restraints and privileges on either side. Thus far, we have had
the man marriage, and nothing more. From the beginning, man has
had the sole and whole regulation of the matter. He has spoken in
Scripture, he has spoken in law. As an individual, he has decided
the time and cause for putting away a wife, and as a judge and
legislator, he still holds the entire control. In all history,
sacred and profane, the woman is regarded and spoken of simply as
the toy of man--made for his special use--to meet his most gross
and sensuous desires. She is taken or put away, given or
received, bought or sold, just as the interest of the parties
might dictate. But the woman has been no more recognized in all
these transactions, through all the different periods and
conditions of the race, than if she had had no part nor lot in
the whole matter. The right of woman to put away a husband, be he
ever so impure, is never hinted at in sacred history. Even Jesus
himself failed to recognize the sacred rights of the holy mother
of the race. We can not take our gauge of womanhood from the
past, but from the solemn convictions of our own souls, in the
higher development of the race. No parchments, however venerable
with the mould of ages, no human institutions, can bound the
immortal wants of the royal sons and daughters of the great I
Am,--rightful heirs of the joys of time, and joint heirs of the
glories of eternity.

If in marriage either party claims the right to stand supreme, to
woman, the mother of the race, belongs the scepter and the crown.
Her life is one long sacrifice for man. You tell us that among
all womankind there is no Moses, Christ, or Paul,--no Michael
Angelo, Beethoven, or Shakspeare,--no Columbus, or Galileo,--no
Locke or Bacon. Behold those mighty minds attuned to music and
the arts, so great, so grand, so comprehensive,--these are our
great works of which we boast! Into you, O sons of earth, go all
of us that is immortal. In you center our very life-thoughts, our
hopes, our intensest love. For you we gladly pour out our heart's
blood and die, knowing that from our suffering comes forth a new
and more glorious resurrection of thought and life. (Loud
applause).

Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell foll