I hope that you may yet live to see many victories for the principles which you have so nobly advocated in behalf of the women of our land. These principles are not new to the American people. There are many differences of opinion, but, after all the argument for and against, it hardly seems possible that any one who is entitled to the privilege which you request can afford to deny that privilege to his mother. There is no question but that the women of our land bear today as great, if not greater, burdens in the affairs of a good and honorable government than our men. The raising of the children, their education and protection from the vices of the world, are cares that mothers have which no man's responsibility equals....
You are today among a citizenship on this coast that is very fair, broad-minded and ready to assist your cause whenever convinced that it will be an advantage and a betterment to our present government. If it is fairly placed before the voters of this commonwealth with a reasonable argument in its favor, there is no doubt in my mind of its success. We are the only State that has adopted the broad principle of government which permits the citizens of the commonwealth to prepare and vote its own legislation, by its own people, without aid or consent of any other power. I refer to the Initiative and Referendum.... I sometimes doubt whether this great western country would ever have had the Stars and Stripes without the influence of the American mother. Therefore my sympathies are with you in your cause and all others supported by the mothers of our government for the liberties of themselves and families.
Mrs. Duniway spoke on The Pioneers of the Northwest as one of them, introduced by Miss Anthony as "the woman with whom I went gipsying thirty-four years ago," and the audience grew enthusiastic at the sight of these two brave veterans, the one 85 and the other 71. The press commented: "Mrs. Duniway's talk will be remembered as one of the best of the session. She said she had been electrified by the Governor's speech and her own fairly scintillated with the result of the shock. Her anecdotes were capital and her reminiscences of the cabbage and rotten-egg days convulsed the audience." Mrs. Catt, vice-president-at-large, responded to the greetings and expressed the pleasure of the delegates at being in "this most beautiful city of the United States and of the world." She spoke in highest praise of the free, independent spirit of the West, quoting the man who said: "Out here we don't ask who your grandfather was but everybody stands on his own hypothenuse!"
Dr. Shaw was so impressed with the responsibility of her new office that for the first time she wrote her president's address and it was published in twelve columns of the Woman's Journal. A Portland paper thus prepared the audience: "The event of the evening will be the address of the president, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. She is easily the best and foremost woman speaker in the world and in her appearance Portland will enjoy a rare treat. Her eloquence is seldom equalled and she is a woman of deep learning, a cogent reasoner and a brilliant thinker.... She has wonderful magnetism and a rare voice of round, rich tones and great carrying capacity. An unusual combination of dignity and wit is hers and many brilliant remarks intersperse the numbers on the program, keeping the audience in fine humor and constant interest." After a glowing word-picture of the natural beauty of Portland and Oregon Dr. Shaw turned her attention to Sacajawea, the young Indian woman who guided Lewis and Clark through thousands of miles of trackless wilderness on their expedition to the great northwest.
Others will speak of that brave band of immortals whose achievements your great Exposition commemorates, while we pay our tribute of honor and gratitude to the modest, unselfish, enduring little Shoshone squaw, who uncomplainingly trailed, canoed, climbed, slaved and starved with the men of the party, enduring all that they endured, with the addition of a helpless baby on her back. At a time in the weary march when the hearts of the leaders had well nigh fainted within them, when success or failure hung a mere chance in the balance, this woman came to their deliverance and pointed out to the captain the great Pass which led from the forks of the Three Rivers over the mountains. Then silently strapping her papoose upon her back she led the way, interpreting and making friendly overtures to powerful tribes of Indians, who but for her might at any moment have annihilated that brave band of intrepid souls.... The Pass through which she led the expedition has long borne the name of a French explorer who had not seen it until many years after Sacajawea had been gathered to her rest, but tardy acknowledgements of this heroine's services have at last been partially made. The U. S. Geological Survey has recently named one of the finest peaks in the Bridge range in Montana "Sacajawea Peak." ...
Forerunner of civilization, great leader of men, patient and motherly woman, we bow our hearts to do you honor! Your tribe is fast disappearing from the land of your fathers. May we, the daughters of an alien race who slew your people and usurped your country, learn the lessons of calm endurance, of patient persistence and unfaltering courage exemplified in your life, in our efforts to lead men through the Pass of justice, which goes over the mountains of prejudice and conservatism to the broad land of the perfect freedom of a true republic; one in which men and women together shall in perfect equality solve the problems of a nation that knows no caste, no race, no sex in opportunity, in responsibility or in justice! May "the eternal womanly" ever lead us on!...
Referring to the convention and the delegates Dr. Shaw said:
What does our coming mean to us, who gather in this 37th annual convention where sits the woman whose chair has never been vacant in all these years of hope deferred; whose heart has continually glowed with perennial youth; whose soul has burned with a vivid flame of love and freedom; whose brain has been the inspirer of herculean service; whose industry has never flagged; whose quenchless hope for humanity has carried us from victory to victory? May her spirit of devotion to freedom ever lead us on!
It means fifty-seven years nearer to victory than when the first invincible band of pioneers of universal freedom met in that little church in Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1848. It means that in this body are women from four States of our Union already crowned with full citizenship; that delegates from more than two-score States have crossed the borderland of freedom, and that representatives from nearly every State and Territory are banded together in an unfaltering purpose to become politically free. It also means that more has been accomplished for the betterment of the condition of women, for their physical, economic, intellectual and religious emancipation, by these fifty-seven years of evolutionary progress, than by all the revolutions the world has known; and it means that in every civilized nation of the earth, more and more the most patriotic, the most law-abiding, the most intelligent and the most industrious people are coming to see the justice of our claim, that in a representative government "the people who bear the burdens and responsibilities should share its privileges also—not excepting women." ...
The recent attacks of Cardinal Gibbons and former President Cleveland, who had protested against women taking part in the Government lest it interfere with the home, she answered with keen analysis, saying in part: