Should this movement be submitted to in silence, should the
North consent to this solemn breach of contract on the part of the
South, there yet remains one more step to be apprehended, namely, the
legalizing of slavery throughout the free States. By a decision of the
supreme court in the Lemmon case, it may be declared lawful for slave
property to be held in the Northern States. Should this come to pass,
it is no more improbable that there may be four years hence slave
depots in New York city than it was four years ago that the South
would propose a repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
"Women of the free States! the question is not shall we remonstrate
with slavery on its own soil, but are we willing to receive slavery
into the free States and Territories of this Union? Shall the whole
power of these United States go into the hands of slavery? Shall every
State in the Union be thrown open to slavery? This is the possible
result and issue of the question now pending. This is the fearful
crisis at which we stand.
"And now you ask, What can the _women_ of a country do?
"O women of the free States! what did your brave mothers do in the
days of our Revolution? Did not liberty in those days feel the strong
impulse of woman's heart?
"There was never a great interest agitating a community where woman's
influence was not felt for good or for evil. At the time when the
abolition of the slave-trade was convulsing England, women contributed
more than any other laborers to that great triumph of humanity.
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