further presence in the United States Senate, sending
in his stead the Hon. Henry W. Blair, a valiant champion of
national protection for national citizens.[37]

In April, 1878, Mrs. Williams transferred the _Ballot-Box_ to Mrs.
Gage, who removed it to Syracuse, New York, and changed its name to
the _National Citizen_. In her prospectus Mrs. Gage said:

The _National Citizen_ will advocate the principle that suffrage
is the citizen's right, and should be protected by national law,
and that, while States may regulate the suffrage, they should
have no power to abolish it. Its especial object will be to
secure national protection to women in the exercise of their
right to vote; it will oppose class legislation of whatever form.
It will support no political party until one arises which is
based upon the exact equality of man and woman.

As the first step towards becoming well is to know you are ill,
one of the principal aims of the _National Citizen_ will be to
make those women discontented who are now content; to waken them
to self-respect and a desire to use the talents they possess; to
educate their consciences aright; to quicken their sense of duty;
to destroy morbid beliefs, and fit them for their high
responsibilities as citizens of a republic. The _National
Citizen_ has no faith in that old theory that "a woman once lost
is lost forever," neither does it believe in the assertion that
"a woman who sins, sinks to depths of wickedness lower than man
can reach." On the contrary it believes there is a future for the
most abandoned, if only the kindly hand of love and sympathy be
extended to rescue them from the degradation into which they have
fallen. The _National Citizen_ will endeavor to keep its readers
informed of the progress of women in foreign countries, and will,
as far as possible, revolutionize this country, striving to make
it live up to its own fundamental principles and become in
reality what it is but in name--a genuine republic.

Instead of holding its usual May anniversary in New York city, the
National Association decided to meet in Rochester to celebrate the
close of the third decade of organized agitation in the United
States, and issued the following call:

The National Association will hold a convention in Rochester, N.
Y., July 19, 1878. This will be the t