nation, let it be spoken now—­let it be enforced now.  The truth that I have to urge is not that women have the right of suffrage—­not that Chinamen or Irishmen have that right—­not that native born Yankees have it—­but that suffrage is the inherent right of mankind....  I do not put back for a single day the black man’s enfranchisement.  I ask not that he should wait.  I demand that this work should be done, not upon the ground that it is politically expedient now to enfranchise black men; but I propose that you take expediency out of the way, and put a principle which is more enduring in the place of it—­manhood and womanhood suffrage for all.  That is the question.  You may just as well meet it now as at any other time.  You will never have so favorable an occasion, so sympathetic a heart, never a public reason so willing to be convinced as today....  I believe it is just as easy to carry the enfranchisement of all as of any one class, and easier than to carry it class after class.

[Autograph: 

  and believe me
  very truly yours,
  H. W. Beecher]

The resolution was adopted unanimously, as was also a memorial to Congress, written by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, asking most earnestly that the negro should be enfranchised, but just as earnestly that the suffrage should be conferred on woman at the same time.  The leading thought was expressed in these beautiful words: 

We believe that humanity is one in all those intellectual, moral and spiritual attributes out of which grow human responsibilities.  The Scripture declaration is, “So God created man in his own image, male and female created he them,” and all divine legislation throughout the realm of nature recognizes the perfect equality of the two conditions; for male and female are but different conditions.  Neither color nor sex is ever discharged from obedience to law, natural or moral, written or unwritten.  The commandments thou shalt not steal, or kill, or commit adultery, recognize no sex; and hence we believe that all human legislation which is at variance with the divine code, is essentially unrighteous and unjust....

Women and colored men are loyal, liberty-loving citizens, and we can not believe that sex or complexion should be any ground for civil or political degradation.  Against such outrage on the very name of a republic we do and ever must protest; and is not our protest against this tyranny of “taxation without representation” as just as that thundered from Bunker Hill, when our Revolutionary fathers fired the shot which shook the world?...  We respectfully and earnestly pray that, in restoring the foundations of our nationality, all discriminations on account of sex or race may be removed; and that our government may be republican in fact as well as form; A GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE, AND THE WHOLE PEOPLE; FOR THE PEOPLE, AND THE WHOLE PEOPLE.

This was the last convention ever held in the old historic Church of the Puritans.  It soon passed into other hands, and where once sparkled and scintillated flashes of repartee and gems of oratory, now glitter and shine the magnificent jewels in the great establishment of Tiffany.