men. It is suggestive to consider the "slight changes," between the two
Declarations.

The Fathers of the Revolution begin their protest by saying: "We hold
these truths to be self-evident:--That all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The Mothers
of the Woman's Rebellion add nothing to the meaning, but detract greatly
from the force of its expression, when in their parody they say: "We hold
these truths to be self-evident: That all men and women are created equal,
and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These women
of all in America were the first to belittle themselves by seeming to
assume that in a revolutionary document that was promulgated to declare a
determination to wrest from tyranny the liberty that was an inalienable
right for all, they and their sex were excluded because the generic term
"man" was employed in relation to another inalienable right, which was
about to be set forth,--that of revolution against intolerable tyranny.
The Americans who framed that instrument would have been the last men in
the world to assert that women were not the equals of men. They were not
discussing abstract human or sex conditions. They met "to institute a new
government." The Mothers of the Woman's Rebellion had an inalienable right
to meet "to institute a new government," if they believed as sincerely as
did the Fathers of the Revolution that "a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinced a design to
reduce them under absolute despotism." Life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness were their natural and God-given rights. If they truly believed
that these were trampled upon by government, they might be justified in
revolting and attempting to form a new government. That they did not so
believe, seems to be proved by their statement that "they knew that woman