meditated a whole year may be overturned in a day by a woman"; and for
this very reason we proclaim it the very highest expediency to endow
her with full civil rights, since only then will she exercise this
mighty influence under a just sense of her duty and responsibility;
the history of all ages bearing witness, that the only safe course for
nations is to add open responsibility wherever there already exists
unobserved power.

7. _Resolved_, That we deny the right of any portion of the species to
decide for another portion, or of any individual to decide for another
individual what is and what is not their "proper sphere"; that the
proper sphere for all human beings is the largest and highest to which
they are able to attain; what this is, can not be ascertained without
complete liberty of choice; woman, therefore, ought to choose for
herself what sphere she will fill, what education she will seek, and
what employment she will follow, and not be held bound to accept, in
submission, the rights, the education, and the sphere which man thinks
proper to allow her.

8. _Resolved_, That we hold these truths to be self-evident: That all
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed; and we charge that man with gross dishonesty or
ignorance, who shall contend that "men," in the memorable document
from which we quote, does not stand for the human race; that "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," are the "inalienable rights"
of half only of the human species; and that, by "the governed," whose
consent is affirmed to be the only source of just power, is meant that
_half_ of mankind only who, in relation to the other, have hitherto
assumed the character of _governors_.

9. _Resolved_, That we see no weight in the argument that it is
_necessary_ to exclude women from civil life because domestic cares
and political engagements are incompatible; since we do not see the
fact to be so in the case of men; and because, if the incompatibility
be real, it will take care of itself, neither men nor women needing
any law to exclude them from an occupation when they have undertaken
another incompatible with it. Second, we see nothing in the assertion
that women, themselves, do not desire a cha