meeting in the town. Frederick Douglass was the hero of the
occasion. The woman who was the head of the family that restored
him to health was on the platform. Some of the men who threw the
brickbats were there to make public confession and to apologize
for the brutal deed.

In the minds of a few persons of rare intellectual and logical
endowment, democracy has always implied the equality of the
sexes. From the time of the French Revolution there have been
advocates of this doctrine. As early as 1820, Frances Wright, a
young woman in Scotland having knowledge of the Western republic
founded upon the professed principles of liberty and equality,
came to America for the express purpose of pleading the cause of
equal rights for women. To the general public her doctrine seemed
revolutionary, threatening the very foundations of religion and
morality. In the midst of opposition and persecution she
proclaimed views respecting the rights and duties of women which
today are generally accepted as axiomatic.

The women who attended the meetings for the organization of the
American Anti-Slavery Society were not suffragists, nor had they
espoused any special theories respecting the position of women.
They did not wish to be members of the men's organizations but
were quite content with their own separate one, which served its
purpose very well under prevailing local conditions. James G.
Birney, the candidate of the Liberty party for the Presidency in
1840, had good reasons for opposition to the inclusion of men and
women in the same organization. He knew that by acting separately
they were winning their way. The introduction of a novel theory
involving a different issue seemed to him likely to be a source