"Can a woman be said to have a right to life, if all means of self-protection are denied her….Can she be said to have a right to liberty, when another citizen may have the legal custody of her person ….Can any citizen be said to have the right to the pursuit of happiness, whose inalienable rights are denied; who is disenfranchised from all the privileges of citizenship…?"
Elizabeth Cady Stanton to the Tenth National Woman's Rights Convention

On the heels of a stunning legislative victory in New York, giving women joint custody of their children and sole use of their personal property and wages, Martha C. Wright presided over six to eight hundred conventioneers. Resolutions adopted by the convention pushed for women's full protection under the law: the right to vote, to trial by jury of her peers and equal opportunity in churches, schools, and places of employment. Elizabeth Cady Stanton served on the business committee; Stanton, Wright and Mary Hallowell were appointed to the executive committee of the National Woman's Rights Central Committee.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Antoinette Brown Blackwell extended the convention's resolutions with resolutions on divorce reform, calling for legislation permitting separation or divorce in cases of drunkeness, insanity, desertion or cruelty. Wendell Phillips moved that these resolutions be stricken from the record. After hot debate, his motion was defeated. The issue also separated the officers of executive committee: Stanton as chair and Anthony as secretary supported divorce reform; Phillips, as treasurer, did not.

National Women's Rights Conventions                                                   1863 Convention