ree press, free schools, free church, and the rapid progress we
have made in material wealth, trade, commerce and the inventive
arts? And we do rejoice in the success, thus far, of our
experiment of self-government. Our faith is firm and unwavering
in the broad principles of human rights proclaimed in 1776, not
only as abstract truths, but as the corner stones of a republic.
Yet we cannot forget, even in this glad hour, that while all men
of every race, and clime, and condition, have been invested with
the full rights of citizenship under our hospitable flag, all
women still suffer the degradation of disfranchisement.

The history of our country the past hundred years has been a
series of assumptions and usurpations of power over woman, in
direct opposition to the principles of just government,
acknowledged by the United States as its foundation, which are:

_First_--The natural rights of each individual.

_Second_--The equality of these rights.

_Third_--That rights not delegated are retained by the
individual.

_Fourth_--That no person can exercise the rights of others
without delegated authority.

_Fifth_--That the non-use of rights does not destroy them.

And for the violation of these fundamental principles of our
government, we arraign our rulers on this Fourth day of July,
1876,--and these are our articles of impeachment:

_Bills of attainder_ have been passed by the introduction of
the word "male" into all the State constitutions, denying to
women the right of suffrage, and thereby making sex a
crime--an exercise of power clearly forbidden in article I,
sections 9, 10, of the United States constitution.

_The writ of habeas corpus_, the only protection against
_lettres de cachet_ and all forms of unjust imprisonment,
which the constitution declares "shall not be suspended,
except when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public
safety demands it," is held inoperative in every State of
the Union, in case of a married woman against her
husband--the marital rights of the husband being in all
cases primary, and the rights of the wife secondary.

_The right of trial by a jury of one's peers_ was so
jealously guarded that States refused to ratify