his equilibrium. We had a very good dinner, and I have not heard a word
about the stoves since. I suppose we shall have another scene when the
bill is presented."

A few years later, Horace Greeley came to Seneca Falls to lecture on
temperance. As he stayed with us, we invited Mr. S., among others, to
dinner. The chief topic at the table was the idiosyncrasies of women.
Mr. Greeley told many amusing things about his wife, of her erratic
movements and sudden decisions to do and dare what seemed most
impracticable. Perhaps, on rising some morning, she would say: "I think
I'll go to Europe by the next steamer, Horace. Will you get tickets
to-day for me, the nurse, and children?" "Well," said Mr. S., "she must
be something like our hostess. Every time her husband goes away she cuts
a door or window. They have only ten doors to lock every night, now."

"Yes," I said, "and your own wife, too, Mrs. S., has the credit of some
high-handed measures when you are in Washington." Then I told the whole
story, amid peals of laughter, just as related above. The dinner table
scene fairly convulsed the Congressman. The thought that he had made
such a fool of himself in the eyes of Charlotte that she could not even
summon a tear in her defense, particularly pleased him. When
sufficiently recovered to speak, he said: "Well, I never could
understand how it was that Charlotte suddenly emerged from her thraldom
and manifested such rare executive ability. Now I see to whom I am
indebted for the most comfortable part of my married life. I am a
thousand times obliged to you; you did just right and so did she, and
she has been a happier woman ever since. She now gets what she needs,
and frets no more, to me, about ten thousand little things. How can a
man know what implements are necessary for the work he never does? Of
all agencies for upsetting the equanimity of family life, none can
surpass an old, broken-down kitchen stove!"

In the winter of 1861, just after the election of Lincoln, the
abolitionists decided to hold a series of conventions in the chief
cities of the North. All their available speakers were pledged for
active service. The Republican party, having absorbed the political
abolitionists within its ranks by its declared hostility to the
extension of slavery, had come into power with overwhelming majorities.
Hence the Garrisonian abolitionists, opposed to all compromises, felt
that this was the opportune moment to rouse the peo