nvention, determined
that she would not be stampeded into a long skirt by the jeers of
Albany men or the ridicule of the women. However, she made up her mind
that immediately after the convention she would take off the bloomer
forever. She had worn it a little over a year. Never again could she
be lured into the path of dress reform.

The Albany _Register_ scoffed at the "feminine propagandists of
woman's rights" exhibiting themselves in "short petticoats and
long-legged boots."[46] Nevertheless, the convention aroused such
genuine interest that evening meetings were continued for two weeks,
featuring as speakers Ernestine Rose, Antoinette Brown, Samuel J. May,
and William Henry Channing, the young Unitarian minister from
Rochester; and when the men appeared on the platform, the audience
called for the women.

Susan could not have asked for anything better than Elizabeth
Stanton's moving plea for property rights for married women and the
attention it received from the large audience in the Senate Chamber.
Her heart swelled with pride as she listened to her friend, and so
important did she think the speech that she had 50,000 copies printed
for distribution.

To back up Mrs. Stanton's words with concrete evidence of a demand for
a change in the law, Susan presented petitions with 10,000 signatures,
6,000 asking that married women be granted the right to their wages
and 4,000 venturing to be recorded for woman suffrage.

Enthusiastic over her Albany success, she impetuously wrote Lucy
Stone, "Is this not a wonderful time, an era long to be
remembered?"[47]

Although the legislature failed to act on the petitions, she knew that
her cause had made progress, for never before had women been listened
to with such respect and never had newspapers been so friendly. She
cherished these words of praise from Lucy, "God bless you, Susan dear,
for the brave heart that will work on even in the midst of
discouragement and lack of helpers. Everywhere I am telling people
what your state is doing, and it is worth a great deal to the cause.
The example of positive action is what we need."[48]

* * * * *

Susan continued her "example of positive action," this time against
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, pending in Congress, which threatened repeal
of the Missouri Compromise by admitting Kansas and Nebraska as
territories with the right to choose for themselves whether they
would be slave or free. "I feel t