t going to be contented with the
mere show of our rights on this floor; we demand the substance--"

And so she was going on, when there arose the most fearful tumult.
The upshot of it was, that the speaker ordered the sergeant-at-arms to
remove Mrs. Whiston; one of the members, more considerate, walked across
the floor to her, and tried to explain in what manner she was violating
the rules; and in another minute she sat down, so white, rigid and
silent that it made me shake in my shoes to look at her.

"I have made a great blunder," she said to me, that evening; "and it may
set us back a little; but I shall recover my ground." Which she did,
I assure you. She cultivated the acquaintance of the leaders of
both parties, studied their tactics, and quietly waited for a good
opportunity to bring in her bill. At first, we thought it would pass;
but one of the male members presently came out with a speech, which
dashed our hopes to nothing. He simply took the ground that there must
be absolute equality in citizenship; that every privilege was balanced
by a duty, every trust accompanied with its responsibility. He had no
objection to women possessing equal rights with men--but to give them
all civil rights and exempt them from the most important obligation
of service, would be, he said, to create a privileged class--a female
aristocracy. It was contrary to the spirit of our institutions. The
women had complained of taxation without representation; did they now
claim the latter without the former?

The people never look more than half-way into a subject, and so this
speech was immensely popular. I will not give Mrs. Whiston's admirable
reply; for Mr. Spelter informs me that you will not accept an article,
if it should make more than seventy or eighty printed pages. It is
enough that our bill was "killed," as the men say (a brutal word); and
the women of the State laid the blame of the failure upon us. You may
imagine that we suffered under this injustice; but worse was to come.

As I said before, a great many things came up in the Legislature which I
did not understand--and, to be candid, did not care to understand. But
I was obliged to vote, nevertheless, and in this extremity I depended
pretty much on Mrs. Whiston's counsel. We could not well go to the
private nightly confabs of the members--indeed, they did not invite us;
and when it came to the issue of State bonds, bank charters, and such
like, I felt as if I were blunde