; but
with the dawn of a new era, after a hundred years of education in a
republic, she asked more than a simple recognition of the products
of her hand and brain; with her growing intelligence, virtue and
patriotism, she demanded the higher ideal of womanhood that should
welcome her as an equal factor in government, with all the rights
and honors of citizenship fully accorded. During the entire
century, women who understood the genius of free institutions had
ever and anon made their indignant protests in both public and
private before State legislatures, congressional committees and
statesmen at their own firesides; and now, after discussing the
right of self-government so exhaustively in the late anti-slavery
conflict, it seemed to them that the time had come to make some
application of these principles to the women of the nation. Hence
it was with a deeper sense of injustice than ever before that the
National Suffrage Association issued the call for the annual
Washington Convention of 1876:

CALL FOR THE EIGHTH ANNUAL WASHINGTON CONVENTION.--The National
Woman Suffrage Association will hold its Eighth Annual Convention
in Tallmadge Hall, Washington, D. C., January 27, 28, 1876. In
this one-hundredth year of the Republic, the women of the United
States will once more assemble under the shadow of the national
capitol to press their claims to self-government.

That property has its rights, was acknowledged in England long
before the revolutionary war, and this recognized right made "no
taxation without representation" the most effective battle-cry of
that period. But the question of property representation fades
from view beside the greater question of the right of each
individual, millionaire or pauper, to personal representation. In
the progress of the war our fathers grew in wisdom, and the
Declaration of Independence was the first national assertion of
the right of individual representation. That "governments derive
their just powers from the consent of the governed,"
thenceforward became the watchword of the world. Our flag, which
beckons the emigrant from every foreign shore, means to him
self-government.

But while in theory our government recognizes the rights of all
people, in practice it is far behind the Declaration of
Independence and the national constitution. On what just ground
is discr