the tempter.... We do not realize
what an immense waste there is in denying woman entrance to political
life. She ought to have free access to anything she is qualified to do
and where she is not qualified she will drop out."

John S. Crosby, a prominent Democratic leader of New York, made a
thorough analysis of the functions of the State and the Government,
showed the utter fallacy of constituting men the governing and women
the governed class and closed as follows: "Attempt to prove that
woman's claim to the right of suffrage is as valid as any that man can
make would be like trying to demonstrate the truth of a self-evident
proposition.... We ask the ballot for woman not merely because she has
a right to it but quite as much because it is her duty to exercise
that right. The irresistible power of that all-embracing organization,
the State, holds you and me and all that are dear to us as its
helpless and often hopeless subjects. The combined wisdom of all of us
would be none too great for its intelligent administration and we
demand for our own sake and for the sake of those that shall come
after us that the wisdom of woman shall be included; not only that her
delicate, intuitional sense of justice shall leaven the lump of public
opinion but that her deft hand shall help to knead it into the bread
of righteous law. We ask as one of the rights that government is bound
to secure that in the administration of its power it shall make use of
the fullest wisdom of the whole people; that the entire popular brain
and social conscience shall take cognizance of and be responsible for
all acts of government. Not until then shall we see true democracy;
not until then shall we indeed have a government of the people, by the
people and for the people."

The next day was one always commemorated by suffragists--the birthday
of Susan B. Anthony--this time the 82nd. The _Woman's Journal_ began
its account: "As Miss Anthony sat at breakfast on February 15, with
one of the jars of delicious cream before her that were sent her
daily by the president of the Maryland Woman Suffrage Association, she
was unexpectedly surrounded by the foreign delegates in a body. A
birthday greeting drawn up and signed by them was read aloud by Mrs.
Florence Fenwick Miller of England, while the rest, grouped behind
her, bent forward listening with attentive faces--a pretty picture.
Among the gifts which she received during the afternoon session were a
canoe