renewed it from year to year.  These same men have had control of the churches, the Sabbath-schools and all religious institutions, and the women have been a party in complicity with slavery.  They have made the large majority in all the churches throughout the country and have, without protest, fellowshipped the slaveholder as a Christian; accepted proslavery preaching from their pulpits; suffered the words “slavery a crime” to be expurgated from all the lessons taught their children, in defiance of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you.”  They have meekly accepted whatever morals and religion the selfish interest of politics and trade dictated.

Woman must now assume her God-given responsibilities and make herself what she is clearly designed to be, the educator of the race.  Let her no longer be the mere reflector, the echo of the worldly pride and ambition of man.  Had the women of the North studied to know and to teach their sons the law of justice to the black man, they would not now be called upon to offer the loved of their households to the bloody Moloch of war.  Women of the North, I ask you to rise up with earnest, honest purpose and go forward in the way of right, fearlessly, as independent human beings, responsible to God alone for the discharge of every duty.  Forget conventionalisms; forget what the world will say, whether you are in your place or out of it; think your best thoughts, speak your best words, do your best works, looking to your own consciences for approval.

The fourth resolution, asking equal rights for women as well as negroes, was seriously objected to by several who insisted that they did not want political rights.  Lucy Stone, Mrs. Weld, Mrs. Rose and Mrs. Coleman made strong speeches in its favor, and Miss Anthony said: 

This resolution merely makes the assertion that in a genuine republic, every citizen must have the right of representation.  You remember the maxim “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.”  This is the fundamental principle of democracy, and before our government can be placed on a lasting foundation, the civil and political rights of every citizen must be practically established.  This is the meaning of the resolution.  It is a philosophical statement, made not because women suffer, not because slaves suffer, not because of any individual rights or wrongs—­but as a simple declaration of the fundamental truth of democracy proclaimed by our Revolutionary fathers.  I hope the discussion will no longer be continued as to the comparative rights or wrongs of one class or another.  This is the question before us:  Is it possible that peace and union shall be established in this country, is it possible for this government to be a true democracy, a genuine republic, while one-sixth or one-half of the people are disfranchised?

The resolution was adopted by a large majority.