ir country, the delegates smugly linked the ballot
and the bullet together, and Horace Greeley gleefully asked the two
women, "If you vote, are you ready to fight?" Instantly, Susan
replied, "Yes, Mr. Greeley, just as you fought in the late war--at the
point of a goose quill." Then turning to the other delegates, she
reminded them that several hundred women, disguised as men, had fought
in the Civil War, and instead of being honored for their services and
paid, they had been discharged in disgrace.[187]

Confident that Horace Greeley would sooner or later fall back on his
oft-repeated, trite remark, "The best women I know do not want to
vote," Susan had asked Mrs. Greeley to roll up a big petition in
Westchester County, and believing heartily in woman suffrage she had
complied. This gave Susan and Mrs. Stanton a trump card to play,
should Horace Greeley present an adverse report as they were informed
he would do.[188]

In Albany to hear the report, these two conspirators gloated over
their plan as they surveyed the packed galleries and noted the many
reporters who would jump at a bit of spicy news to send their papers.
Just before Horace Greeley was to give his report, George William
Curtis announced with dignity and assurance, "Mr. President, I hold in
my hand a petition from Mrs. Horace Greeley and 300 other women,
citizens of Westchester, asking that the word 'male' be stricken from
the Constitution."[189]

Ripples of amusement ran through the audience, and reporters hastily
took notes, as Horace Greeley, the top of his head red as a beet,
looked up with anger at the galleries, and then in a thin squeaky
voice and with as much authority as he could muster declared, "Your
committee does not recommend an extension of the elective franchise to
women...." As a result, New York's new constitution enfranchised only
male citizens.[190]

Horace Greeley justified his opposition to woman suffrage in a letter
to Moncure D. Conway: "The keynote of my political creed is the axiom
that 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed....' I sought information from different quarters ... and
practically all agreed in the conclusion that _the women of our state
do not choose to vote_. Individuals do, at least three fourths of the
sex do not. I accepted their choice as decisive; just as I reported in
favor of enfranchising the Blacks because they do wish to vote. The
few may not; but the many do; and I thin