he women of Ohio, rousing them to action, and when
the call to the second was issued, there was a generous response. In
1851, May 28th and 29th, many able men and women rallied at the stone
church, and hastened to give their support to the new demand, and most
eloquently did they plead for justice to woman.

Frances D. Gage, Hannah Tracy Cutler, Jane G. Swisshelm, Caroline M.
Severance, Emma R. Coe, Maria L. Giddings, Celia C. Burr (afterward
Burleigh), Martha J. Tilden, and many other noble women who were
accustomed to speaking in temperance and anti-slavery meetings, helped
to make this Convention most successful. Frances D. Gage was chosen
President of the Convention. On taking the chair she said:

I am at a loss, kind friends, to know whether to return you
thanks, or not, for the honor conferred upon me. And when I tell
you that I have never in my life attended a regular business
meeting, and am entirely inexperienced in the forms and
ceremonies of a deliberative body, you will not be surprised that
I do not feel remarkably grateful for the position. For though
you have conferred an honor upon me, I very much fear I shall not
be able to reflect it back. I will try.

When our forefathers left the old and beaten paths of New
England, and struck out for themselves in a new and unexplored
country, they went forth with a slow and cautious step, but with
firm and resolute hearts. The land of their fathers had become
too small for their children. Its soil answered not their wants.
The parents shook their heads and said, with doubtful and
foreboding faces: "Stand still, stay at home. This has sufficed
for us; we have lived and enjoyed ourselves here. True, our
mountains are high and our soil is rugged and cold; but you won't
find a better; change, and trial, and toil, will meet you at
every step. Stay, tarry with us, and go not forth to the
wilderness."

But the children answered: "Let us go; this land has sufficed for
you, but the one beyond the mountains is better. We know there is
trial, toil, and danger; but for the sake of our children, and
our children's children, we are willing to meet all." They went
forth, and pitched their tents in the wilderness. An herculean
task was before them; the rich and fertile soil was shadowed by a
mighty forest, and giant trees were to be felled. The