, those who would oppose "negro suffrage" from prejudice are
many, hence the only way to secure the latter, is to end all this
talk of class legislation, bury the negro in the citizen, and
claim the suffrage for all men and women, as a natural,
inalienable right. The friends of the negro never made a greater
blunder than when, at the close of the war, they timidly refused
to lead the nation in demanding suffrage for all. If even Wendell
Phillips and Gerrit Smith, the very apostles of liberty on this
continent, failed at that point, how can we wonder at the
vacillation and confusion of politicians at this hour. We had
hoped that the elections of '67, with their overwhelming
majorities in every State against negro suffrage, would have
proved to all alike, how futile is compromise, how short-sighted
is policy. We have pressed these considerations so often on Mr.
Phillips and Mr. Smith during the last four years, that we fear
we have entirely forfeited the friendship of the one, and
diminished the confidence of the other in our good judgment; but
time, that rights all wrongs, will surely bring them back to the
standpoint of principle.

As soon as we had a mouthpiece in _The Revolution_ we found that many
noble women in every State understood the situation, and saw that
while the question of reconstruction was under debate, woman was false
to herself not to put in her claims. In face of all opposition, those
who did see the policy and justice of claiming this time as the
woman's hour also, made the most persistent, brave fight possible.
Again were appeals and petitions sent to Congress and the people, but
now for woman's enfranchisement. When the whole nation was as it were
resolved into its original elements, and the fundamental rights of
citizens the topic for discussion in the halls of legislation and at
every fireside, the time seemed so opportune for the settlement of the
broad question of representation, that the persistency and
determination of a few women to secure their rights was neither
surprising nor unreasonable.

This was one of the most trying periods in the woman suffrage
movement. Negro suffrage being a party measure, a political necessity
and the culmination of the anti-slavery conflict, Republicans and
Abolitionists could bid each other a most sincere and heartfelt
Godspeed. And with them, too, stood the majority of