opposed her interference at every point; and when a Southern representative declared from his seat that women had no right to send up petitions to Congress he was sustained by the sycophantic response which came from the North, that slavery was a political question, with which women had nothing to do.  Angelina Grimke answered this so fully and so eloquently in her “Appeal to Northern Women,” that no doubt could have been left in the minds of those who read it, not only of woman’s right, but of her duty to interfere in this matter.  The appeal is made chiefly to woman’s tenderest and holiest feelings, but enough is said of her rights to show whither Angelina’s own reflections were leading her, and it must have turned the thoughts of many other women in the same direction.  A passage or two may be quoted as examples.

“Every citizen should feel an intense interest in the political concerns of the country, because the honor, happiness and well-being of every class are bound up in its politics, government, and laws.  Are we aliens because we are women?  Are we bereft of citizenship because we are the mothers, wives, and daughters of a mighty people?  Have women no country—­no interests staked on the public weal—­no partnership in a nation’s guilt and shame?  Has woman no home nor household altars, nor endearing ties of kindred, nor sway with man, nor power at the mercy-seat, nor voice to cheer, nor hand to raise the drooping, or to bind the broken?...  The Lord has raised up men whom he has endowed with ‘wisdom and understanding, and knowledge,’ to lay deep and broad the foundations of the temple of liberty.  This is a great moral work in which they are engaged.  No war-trumpet summons to the field of battle; but Wisdom crieth without, ’Whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring an offering.’  Shall woman refuse her response to the call?  Was she created to be a helpmeet for man—­his sorrows to divide, his joys to share, and all his toils to lighten by her willing aid, and shall she refuse to aid him with her prayers, her labors, and her counsels too, at such a time, in such a cause as this?”

There had been, from the beginning of the anti-slavery agitation, no lack of women sympathizers with it.  Some of the best and brightest of the land had poured forth their words of grief, of courage, and of hope through magazines and newspapers, in prose and in verse, and had proved their willingness to suffer for the slave, by enduring unshrinkingly ridicule and wrath, pecuniary loss and social ostracism.  All over the country, in almost every town and village, women labored untiringly to raise funds for the printing of pamphlets, sending forth lecturers and for the pay of special agents.  They were regular attendants also on the anti-slavery meetings and conventions, often outnumbering the men, and privately made some of the best suggestions that were offered.  But so strong and general was the feeling against women speaking in any public place, that, up to the time