The thinking women of the country were justly indignant, in this great centennial year of the Republic, at the high-handed manner in which they had been ignored in the vast preparations for its celebration, in spite of their protests and in face of the fact that women had purchased $100,000 of the centennial stock issued to pay expenses.  It had been decided at the Washington convention that the National Association should open headquarters in Philadelphia, and at this May meeting Miss Anthony was made chairman of the 1876 campaign committee.  The resolutions adopted show the spirit of the convention: 

WHEREAS, The right of self-government inheres in the individual before governments are founded, constitutions framed or courts created; and whereas, Governments exist to protect the people in the enjoyment of their natural rights, and when one becomes destructive of this end, it is the right of the people to resist and abolish it; and whereas, The women of the United States for one hundred years have been denied the exercise of their natural right of self-government; therefore

    Resolved, That it is their natural right and most sacred duty to
    rebel against the injustice, usurpation and tyranny of our present
    government.

WHEREAS, The men of 1776 rebelled against a government which did not claim to be of the people, but on the contrary upheld the “divine right of kings;” and whereas, The women of this nation today, under a government which claims to be based upon individual rights, in an infinitely greater degree are suffering all the wrongs which led to the war of the Revolution; and whereas, the oppression is all the more keenly felt because our masters, instead of dwelling in a foreign land, are our husbands, fathers, brothers and sons; therefore

    Resolved, That the women of this nation, in 1876, have greater
    cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution, than had the men of
    1776.

Resolved, That with Abigail Adams we believe “the passion for liberty can not be strong in the breasts of those who are accustomed to deprive their fellow-creatures of liberty;” that, as she predicted in 1776, “we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

WHEREAS, We believe in the principles of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution of the United States, and that a true republic is the best form of government in the world; and whereas, This government is false to its underlying principles in denying to women the only means of self-government, the ballot; and one-half of the citizens of this nation, after a century of boasted liberty, are still political slaves; therefore

    Resolved, That we protest against calling the present centennial
    a celebration of the independence of the people of the United
    States.