The first resolution was unanimously passed. The resolution in regard to the Conscription Act was then taken up.
Mrs. Spence asked (for information) whether they were willing to receive the Conscription law as it was? What did they think of the $300 clause about substitutes? Some lovers (Mrs. Spence said lovers, not husbands) would certainly buy themselves off.
Mrs. Stanton would accept the Conscription law because it was necessary—not because it was just in all its provisions.
Mrs. Spence: If your husbands propose to pay three hundred dollars, would you urge them to go themselves?
Mrs. Stanton: We shall urge them to go as to the post of glory.
Mrs. Loveland would urge her husband. She was very severe on the skedaddlers to Canada and Europe. Still, all the European conscription laws permitted some kind of substitution. Her idea was that as the men must go to the war now, the women should give tone to its music.
A Lady: If the men would give themselves, why not freely? Is a conscription itself consistent with freedom?
Miss Willard, while believing in certain cases of exemption, liked the conscription because it would take in the copperheads. (Applause).
The Lady: What kind of soldiers would copperheads make?
Mrs. Loveland: Good soldiers! Men who have the courage they have to brave public opinion, would make good soldiers if put in the ranks with bayonets behind them. (Applause).