perfect in its proportions and
arrangements, was richly decorated with the flags of all nations and
of every State in the Union. The platform was fragrant with evergreens
and flowers, brilliant with rich furniture, crowded with distinguished
women, while soft music with its universal language attuned all hearts
to harmony. The beautiful portrait of the sainted Lucretia Mott,
surrounded with smilax and lilies of the valley, seemed to sanctify
the whole scene and to give a touch of pathos to all the proceedings."

This great meeting, like so many before and since that time, was
opened by Miss Anthony. After the invocation and the hymn, she said in
part:

Forty years ago women had no place anywhere except in their
homes; no pecuniary independence, no purpose in life save that
which came through marriage. From a condition, as many of you can
remember, in which no woman thought of earning her bread by any
other means than sewing, teaching, cooking or factory work, in
these later years the way has been opened to every avenue of
industry, to every profession, whereby woman to-day stands almost
the peer of man in her opportunities for financial independence.
What is true in the world of work is true in education, is true
everywhere.

Men have granted us, in the civil rights which we have been
demanding, everything almost but the pivotal right, the one that
underlies all other rights, the one with which citizens of this
republic may protect themselves--the right to vote.

I have the pleasure of introducing to you this morning the woman
who not only joined with Lucretia Mott in calling the first
convention, but who for the greater part of twenty years has been
president of the National Suffrage Association--Mrs. Elizabeth
Cady Stanton.

The entire audience arose with clapping of hands and waving of
handkerchiefs to greet this leader, who had come from England to
attend the Council. In the course of a long and dignified address of
welcome, she said:

Whether our feet are compressed in iron shoes, our faces hidden
with veils and masks; whether yoked with cows to draw the plow
through its furrows, or classed with idiots, lunatics and
criminals in the laws and constitutions of the State, the
principle is the same; for the humiliations of spirit are as real
as the visible badges of servitude. A differenc