Lucretia Mott, a distinguished "minister" in the Society of Friends, took part in the proceedings.

She was careful to state that she spoke as a mere visitor, having no place in the organization, but she ventured to suggest various modifications in the report of Garrison's committee on a declaration of principles which rendered it more acceptable to the meeting.

It had not then been seriously considered whether women could become members of the Anti-Slavery Society, which was at that time composed exclusively of men, with the women maintaining their separate organizations as auxiliaries.
The women of the West were already better organized than the men and were doing a work which men could not do.

They were, for the most part, unconscious of any conflict between the peculiar duties of men and those of women in their relations to common objects.

The "library associations" of Indiana, which were in fact effective anti-slavery societies, were to a large extent composed of women.