As I am prevented, to my deep regret, from being present at the Convention, let me suggest in writing what I should prefer to speak. First, however, I would once again avow that I am with you heart, mind, soul, and strength for the Equal Rights of Women. This great reform will prove to be, I am well assured, the salvation and glory of this Republic, and of all Christian and civilized States: "And if at once we may not Declare the greatness of the work we plan, Be sure at least that ever in our eyes It stands complete before us as a dome Of light beyond this gloom--a house of stars Encompassing these dusky tents--a thing Near as our hearts, and perfect as the heavens. Be this our aim and model, and our hands Shall not wax faint, until the work is done." The Woman's Rights Conventions, which, since 1848, have been so frequently held in New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, etc., have aroused respectful attention, and secured earnest sympathy, throughout the United States. It becomes the advocates of the Equal Rights of Women, then, to take advantage of this wide-spread interest and to press the Reform, at once, onward to practical results. Among other timely measures, these have occurred to me as promising to be effective: I. There should be prepared, printed, and widely circulated, A DECLARATION OF WOMAN'S RIGHTS. This Declaration should distinctly announce the inalienable rights of women: 1st. As human beings,--irrespective of the distinction of sex--actively to co-operate in all movements for the elevation of mankind. 2d. As rational, moral, and responsible agents, freely to think, speak, and do, what truth and duty dictate, and to be the ultimate judges of their own sphere of action. 3d. As women, to exert in private and in public, throughout the whole range of Social Relations, that special influence which God assigns as their appropriate function, in endowing them with feminine attributes. 4th. As members of the body politic, needing the protection, liable to the penalties, and subject to the operation of the laws, to take their fair part in legislation and administration, and in appointing the makers and administrators of the laws. 5th. As constituting one-half of the people of these free and United States, and as nominally, free women, to possess and use the power of voting, now monopolized by that other half of the people, the free men.