brothers, and sons? Observe,
sir, the point of departure between the chairman of the committee
and myself. I admit that it is their duty to attend to these
things. I subscribe fully to the elegant compliment passed by him
upon those members of the female sex who devote their time to these
duties. But I say that the correct principle is that women are not
only justified, but exhibit the most exalted virtue, when they do
depart from the domestic circle, and enter on the concerns of their
country, of humanity, and of their God. The mere departure of woman
from the duties of the domestic circle, far from being a reproach
to her, is a virtue of the highest order, when it is done from
purity of motive, by appropriate means, and towards a virtuous
purpose. There is the true distinction. The motive must be pure,
the means appropriate, and the purpose good; and I say that woman,
by the discharge of such duties, has manifested a virtue which is
even above the virtues of mankind, and approaches to a superior
nature. That is the principle I maintain, and which the chairman of
the committee has to refute, if he applies the position he has
taken to the mothers, the sisters, and the daughters, of the men of
my district who voted to send me here. Now, I aver further, that,
in the instance to which his observation refers, namely, in the act
of petitioning against the annexation of Texas to this Union, the
motive was pure, the means appropriate, and the purpose virtuous,
in the highest degree. As an evident proof of this, I recur to the
particular petition from which this debate took its rise, namely,
to the first petition I presented here against the annexation--a
petition consisting of three lines, and signed by two hundred and
thirty-eight women of Plymouth, a principal town in my own
district. Their words are:

"'The undersigned, women of Plymouth (Mass.), thoroughly aware of
the sinfulness of slavery, and the consequent impolicy and
disastrous tendency of its extension in our country, do most
respectfully remonstrate, with all our souls, against the annexation
of Texas to the United States as a slaveholding territory.'

"These are the words of their memorial; and I say that, in
presenting it here, their motive was pure, and of the highest order
of purity. They petitioned under a conviction