love.' I am unwilling that it should be suggested
that this great, sacred cause of ours means anything but what we have
said it does. If any one says to us, 'Oh, I know what you mean, you
mean free love by this agitation,' let the lie stick in his throat."

Mrs. Rose followed with a strong protest, saying: "I think it strange
that the question of 'free love' should have been brought upon this
platform. I object to Mrs. Livermore's resolution, not on account of
its principles, but on account of its pleading guilty. When a man tries
to convince me that he is not a thief, then I take care of my coppers.
If we pass this resolution that we are not 'free lovers,' people will
say, 'It is true that you are, for you try to hide it.' Lucretia Mott's
name has been mentioned as a friend of 'free love,' but I hurl back the
lie into the faces of those who uttered it. We have been thirty years
in this city before the public, and it is an insult to all the women
who have labored in this cause; it is an insult to the thousands and
tens of thousands of men and women who have listened to us in our
conventions, to say at this late hour, 'We are not free lovers.'"

The charge of "free love" was vigorously repudiated by Miss Anthony
also, who closed the discussion by asserting: "This howl comes from the
men who know that when women get their rights they will be able to live
honestly and not be compelled to sell themselves for bread, either in
or out of marriage. There are very few women in the world who would
enter into this relationship with drunkards and libertines provided
they could get their subsistence in any other way. We can not be
frightened from our purpose, the public mind can not long be prejudiced
by this 'free love' cry of our enemies." Olive Logan poured oil upon
the troubled waters in a graceful speech, and the subject was dropped.

At each recurring anniversary the conviction had been growing that the
term "equal rights" was too comprehensive, permitting entirely too much
latitude as to speakers and subjects. Ever themselves having been
repressed and silenced, when at last women made a platform on which
they had a right to stand, they declared first of all for "free
speech." They would not refuse to any human being what so long had been
denied to them and, as a result, fanatics, visionaries and advocates of
all reforms flocked to this platform, delighted to find such audiences.
According to the tenets of the association, al