“DEFENDS WOMAN’S RIGHTS.
“Thanksgiving evening, 1855, by invitation of the Rev. Mr. Rice, I gave a temperance lecture from the pulpit of the new church and a little later, about the last of November, one on ‘Woman’s Enfranchisement’ at the Methodist church, by invitation of the Men’s Literary and Debating Society; and again, by invitation of the same society and the Rev. Mr. Rice, Jan. 18, 1856, I spoke on ‘Female Education’ at the Congregational church. During the following years I gave several lectures on some phase of the woman question.
“At the close of my lecture on ‘Woman Suffrage’ in the Methodist church, in November, 1855, I was approached by Gen. William Larimer, then of Omaha, but recently of Pittsburg, Pa., and a member of the first Nebraska legislature, with a request that I go to Omaha and repeat my lecture before the legislature. A few days later I received a formal invitation from the legislature, signed by twenty-five of its members, to give them a lecture on woman suffrage or such phase of the woman question as I might select.
“Jan. 8, 1856, I made my appearance in the House of Representatives of Nebraska, having accepted the invitation to appear before that body. I was escorted to the platform by Gen. Larimer, who made way for me through a great crowd who had congregated to hear me. Indeed, it was a packed house, men standing up between those who were sitting on benches around the room, and leaning against the wall, and the platform was so packed up to the very desk that I hardly had elbow-room. Gen. Larimer introduced me amidst silence so profound that one could almost hear a pin drop, and I was listened to with the most absorbed interest to the end. Then came great applause and a request that I give the lecture for publication. This latter I declined doing. Omaha was hardly large enough and was without daily papers and, besides, I felt that I might wish to make further use of the lecture and publishing it would prevent its again being brought out.