in 1853, after several years of attending and speaking at conventions on behalf of woman's rights, she made her first appearance as a speaker to the general public with a speech to cleveland's mercantile library association, the first lecture delivered there by a woman. her subject was "humanity: a definition and a plea", by which she meant that women should be included as part of "humanity". it was a radical idea, but the speech was well received by the audience, and by the cleveland press.