lings were first fully awakened
by the hanging of Mrs. Surrat; for, although a Unionist and an
abolitionist, I could but regard her execution by the government,
considering her helpless position, as judicial murder. I wrote on
the subject to the editor of the New York _Independent_. The
letter was handed to Miss Anthony, and resulted in an invitation
to the next meeting of the Equal Rights Society. This almost
frightened me, for I had hitherto looked askance at the woman's
rights movement.

Meeting an old friend and neighbor not long after, the talk
turned upon negro suffrage. I expressed myself in favor of that
measure, and timidly added, "And go farther--I think women also
should vote." She grasped my hand cordially, saying, "And so do
I!" This was Mrs. Virginia L. Minor. We had each cherished this
opinion, supposing that no other woman in the community held it;
and this we afterwards found to have been the experience of many
others. This was in 1866; and in the following autumn Mrs. Minor
prepared and circulated for signatures a card of thanks to Hon.
B. Gratz Brown for the recognition of woman's political rights he
had given in the United States Senate in a speech upon extending
the suffrage to the women of the District of Columbia.[383] This
card received enough names to justify another step--that of a
petition to the Missouri General Assembly. This was headed by
Mrs. Minor, and circulated with untiring energy by her, receiving
several hundred signatures, and was sent to the legislature
during the winter, where it received some degree of favor.

But as yet no effort had been made toward an organization. The
first step in that direction was in May, 1867, by Mrs. Lucretia
P. Hall and her sister, Miss Penelope Allen, daughters of Mrs.
Beverly Allen, and nieces of General Pope, in the parlors of Mrs.
Anna L. Clapp, the president of the Union Aid Society during the
war. Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Clapp and myself called a public meeting on
May 8, when the Woman Suffrage Society of Missouri was organized,
with Mrs. Minor president.

In the winter of 1868 the association sent a large delegation of
ladies to Jefferson with a petition containing about 2,000 names,
to present to the legislature. The Republicans were then in the
ascendency, and the lad