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First Declaration in Favor of a Political Alliance. Southern States, and met in every one of them representatives and leaders of opinion. I have seen their acceptance in good faith of the issues of the war-a good faith sufficiently attested by the great loyalty they invariably manifested toward President Garfield, in spite of his army record, his radical utterances in Congress, and the uncompromising tone of his clear-cut inaugural. I have seen Northern capital pouring into those once disaffected states in untold millions, and I know there is no stronger bridge across the "bloody chasm" than this one woven out of national coin, and supported by the iron-jointed cables of self-interest; I have seen their legislatures making state appropriations for the education of the freedmen, and helping to sustain those "colored schools" whose New England teachers they once despised; I have learned how ex-masters cheered to the echo the utterances of their ex-slaves in the great Prohibition convention of North Carolina, and my heart has glowed with the hope of a real "home government" for the South, and a "color line" broken, not by bayonets nor repudiationists, but by ballots from white hands and black, for prohibitory law. Seeing is believing, and on that sure basis I believe the South is ready for a party along the lines of longitude,- -a party that shall wipe Mason and Dixon's line out of the heart as well as off the map, weld the Anglo-Saxons of the New World into one royal family, and give us a really re-United States. With what deep significance is this belief confirmed by the South's tender sympathy in the last pathetic summer, and the unbroken group of states that so lately knelt around our fallen hero's grave! But this new party cannot bear the name of Republican or Democrat. Neither victor nor vanquished would accept the old war-cry of a section; besides, "the party of moral ideas” has ceased to have a distinctive policy. Was its early motto, "Free Territory"? We have realized it. Later did it declare the Union must be preserved and slavery abolished? Both have been done. Did it demand negro enfranchisement and the passage of a bill of Civil Rights? Both are accomplished facts, so far as they can be until education completes the desired work. Was the redemption of our financial pledges essential to good faith? That noble record of the Republican party cannot be erased. If we contemplate questions still unsettled, as Civil Service Reform, both parties claim to desire it; or a National Fund for Southern Education-each deems it necessary. But when we name the greatest issue now pending on this, or any, continent-the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as a drink-behold, the Republicans of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont vote for, and the Republicans of North Carolina, Ohio and Illinois against it, while the Democrats of Kansas oppose, and of South Carolina favor it! Now, I blame neither party for this inconsistency; it is simply the hand-writing on the wall, which tells that both are weighed in the balance and found wanting. For they are formed of men who, while they thought alike and fought alike on many great questions, on this greatest of all questions are hopelessly divided, and a "house divided against itself cannot stand." This is saying nothing whatever against the house; it is recognizing the law of gravitation, that is all.

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Believing that the hour had come for us, the Woman s Christian Temperance Union of Illinois, at its annual meeting, nearly two months ago, indorsed the action of the Lake Bluff Convocation, held a few days earlier, and composed of representative temperance men and women from twelve different states.

In many a meeting of our temperance women I have seen the power of the Highest manifest, but in none has the glow of Crusade fire been so bright as when these daughters of heroic sires who, in the early days of the great party whose defection we deplore, endured reproach without the camp, solemnly declared their loyalty to the Home Protection party, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Let me read you the statement of doctrine to which we women of Illinois subscribed:

"We recommend that, looking to the composition of the next legislature, we request and aid the Home Protection party to put in nomination in each district a Home Protection candidate, committed not more by his specific promise than by his well-known character, to vote for the submission of a constitutional amendment, giving the full ballot to the women of Illinois as a means of protection to their homes.

"Finally, to these advance positions we have been slowly and surely brought by the logic of events and the argument of defeat in our seven years' march since the Crusade. We have patiently appealed to existing parties, only to find our appeals disregarded. We now appeal to the manhood of our state to go forward in the name of 'God and Home and Native Land.'"

Ten days later the Liquor League of Illinois held its convention, the day being universally observed by our unions in that state in fervent prayer that God would send confusion and defeat as the sequel of their machinations. Let me read you their declaration :

"Resolved, That the district executive committee be instructed to make a vigorous fight against all such candidates for the General Assembly, no matter what political party they may belong to, who cannot be fully relied upon to vote in favor of personal liberty and an equal protection of ours, with all other legitimate business interests."

They want protection, too! and they know the legislature alone can give it. But we know, as the result of our local Home Protection ordinance, under which women have voted in nearly a dozen widely separated localities of Illinois, and have voted overwhelmingly against license, that our enfranchisement means confusion and defeat to the liquor sellers. Therefore, since for this we have prayed, we must take our places at the front and say, with the greatest reformer of the sixteenth century:

Amen!"

"Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Here, then, at the nation's capital, let us declare our allegiance; here let us turn our faces toward the beckoning future; here, where the liquor traffic pours in each year its revenue of gold, stained with the blood of our dearest and best, let us set up our Home Protection standard in the name of the Lord!

But the convention took no action; the sentiment of the society was not yet ripe for the declaration I so earnestly desired.

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A Secession that Did Not Secede.

Of this convention, held in Foundry M. E. Church, the most notable feature was the large attendance from the Southern states, a delegation of thirty or more from a majority of these states, being present, headed by Mrs. Sallie F. Chapin.

At this convention the following resolution was adopted: "Resolved, That wisdom dictates the Do-everything policy; Constitutional Amendment, where the way is open for it; Home Protection' [i. e., the vote for women on the temperance question only], where Home Protection is the strongest rallying cry; Equal Franchise, where the votes of women joined to those of men can alone give stability to temperance legislation."

The Plan of Work Committee also recommended :

"A Committee on Franchise whose duty it shall be to furnish advice, instruction and assistance to states that so desire, in inaugurating measures for securing and using woman's ballot in the interest of temperance."

The Southern delegation requested permission not to vote upon these measures, but showed a degree of tolerance not to have been expected of them at their first convention. Besides, Susan B. Anthony was present as a visitor, was introduced on motion of a delegate and publicly kissed by an enthusiastic Quaker lady from the West. All this had alarmed the conservatives, and a few of them withdrew, stating that they could no longer keep us company.

The New York Tribune, which had never reported our work, nor shown the least interest in our proceedings except as an antagonist, now came out with displayed headlines announcing that our society had "split in two." The facts were that out of a total of two hundred and eighteen delegates, only twelve to fifteen delegates left us. They made immediate overtures to the Southern women to join them, stating that "then there would be a conservative movement divested of the radicalism that was destroying this one"; but the Southern ladies said, "they had seceded once, and found it did n't work." Not one of them joined the malcontents, but the latter formed themselves into the "National Woman's Evangelical Temperance Union," which had, perhaps, a dozen auxiliaries, but soon died for lack of members.

At this convention the constitution was so changed that actual membership became the basis of representation instead of,

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as heretofore, allowing so many delegates to each congressional district, no matter how few its white ribbon women.

New women came to us continually with bright ideas about the work. Personal initiative was at a premium and a new department usually developed from the advent of a woman with a mission, to whom, after a study of her character and reputation, we gave a com-mission. We thus conserved enthusiasm and attached experts to our society.

W

CHAPTER II.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS.

In August of 1882, a "Home Protection Convention" met in Chicago, to which rallied the "old liners" as well as the new converts. There were present three hundred and forty-one delegates from twenty-two states. A substantial reorganization of the party followed, the name becoming "Prohibition Home Protection Party." Gideon T. Stewart, of Ohio, was made chairman of the national committee, and Rev. Dr. Jutkins, secretary. I there became officially related to a political party as a member of its central committee and have been thus related almost ever since. A new force was added to the Prohibitionists by means of this convention, chiefly drawn from the Crusade movement and consisting of men and women who had dearly loved the Republican party and who retired from it with unaffected sorrow.

In the autumn of this year I renewed the political attack, closing my annual address before our National Woman's Christian Temperance Union Convention in Louisville, Ky., with these words:

Protection must be administered through a mighty executive force and we call that force a party. Happily for us, what was our earnest expectation last year, is our realization to-day. The Prohibition Home Protection Party stands forth as woman's answered prayer. In the great convention of last August at Chicago, where three hundred and forty-one delegates represented twenty-two states, where North and South clasped hands in a union never to be broken, we felt that the brave men who there combined their energy and faith were indeed come unto the kingdom for such a time as this.

"The right is always expedient," and the note of warning which this non-partisan convention may sound in the ears of partisans will serve the cause of constitutional amendment far better than the timid policy of silence. It will help, not hinder, our onward march; for we must each year fall back