original rights. Those rights, they may be assured, when that question
comes fairly up, will be firmly asserted and maintained."

And in answer to the expected fling, "But you are a woman's rights man,"
he replied:

"We are a human rights man. And our mother was a human being. And our
wives, sisters, and daughters are all human beings. And that these human
beings are liable as any other human beings to be oppressed by the
stronger sex, and as truly need in self-defence a check upon oppression,
the history of all past governments and legislation does most terribly
demonstrate. What is best in the State is not indeed with us the
question; but never, with our consent, shall the Church of the living
God disfranchise her who gave to the world its divine Redeemer. When
that disfranchisement comes to the debate, may the God of eternal
righteousness give us strength equal to our will to cleave it to the
ground!"

The General Conference of 1868, after full discussion, submitted the
question of Lay Representation to a vote of all the members of the
Church, male and female, thus recognizing the women as laymen, as
belonging to the great body of the laity, and as vitally interested in
the government of the Church, and having rights under that government.
During the debate on the report of the Committee on the plan for
submitting the question as in 1861, to the male members, Dr. Sherman
moved to strike out the word "male." While that motion was under
consideration, Dr. Slicer, of Baltimore, said, "If it were the last
moment I should spend, and the last articulate sound I should utter,
I should speak for the wives, mothers, and daughters of the Methodist
Episcopal Church.... I am for women's rights, sir, _wherever church