The first evening of the convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. Marion H. Shutter.[6] The audience was far beyond the seating capacity of the large church and in presenting the official speakers Mrs. Catt said: "This is a great contrast to the early days when we did not use to be welcomed because we were not welcome. Now we are welcomed wherever we go but not often, as here, by the representative of a whole State." Governor Samuel R. Van Sant gave a hearty western greeting, which, he said, he wanted to make as cordial as he could express it and as broad as the State he lived in. He made this point among others: "You are doing a splendid work and the reason you do not get the ballot sooner is because you do not convert your own sex. I know for I have been a member of the Legislature. If you wanted to vote as much as you want other things you would go there and block the legislators so they couldn't get to their seats." Mayor Albert A. Ames extended the welcome of the city and declared his belief in woman suffrage. Former Mayor William Henry Eustis ended his address in behalf of the Commercial Club and Board of Trade by saying: "Commercial bodies are temporary but a great movement like this is eternal." Former Mayor James Gray, representing the press, assured them of its cooperation and said that from a dozen to twenty women were doing important work on the papers of the city. Mrs. Maud C. Stockwell, president of the State Suffrage Association, welcomed them to "the hearts of the women of Minneapolis." Dr. Shaw closed the evening with a stirring address on An Invisible Foe, in which she referred to the many refusals they had had from the anti-suffrage leaders to come to the convention and debate the question. She accused them of wearing a khaki-colored uniform to conceal themselves from the foe and declared they were always careful to make their attacks when the enemy was not present, saying: "The anti-suffragists are not fighting woman suffrage, they are fighting the ideals of democracy and leaning toward an aristocracy. Take note of the words they use to designate the people, 'mob,' 'hordes,' etc. They look at the people as not only incapable and ignorant now but so for all time and they never learn that in the heart of every individual in the mob lie the forces which make for martyrs or for brutes." "From point to point through long and close argument the brilliant speaker moved with lightning velocity," said a press report. "She called up the anti-suffrage arguments made by the Rev. Samuel G. Smith of St. Paul, in his recent series of sermons on women, and laughed to scorn their plea for 'the days of chivalry,' which, she said, were a man's protection of his own women against other men. Woman must work out God's ideal of what a woman should be and she cannot do it until she is absolutely free as man is free."