in the spirit of Jesus Christ
that is in her, though she does not see him just as I do."

[71] After the convention Miss Balgarnie wrote: "It has been one of the
most genuine pleasures of my life to meet you, my dear Miss Anthony. I
felt 'strength go out of you,' as it were, directly you took my hand."

[72] Miss Anthony was equally generous in regard to speakers of less
renown. She wrote to Mrs. Blake during this year: "I felt so happy to
give half of my hour at Syracuse to Mrs. C., so that splendid audience
might see and hear her. And I am always glad to surrender my time to any
unknown speakers whom we find promising; but first they ought to have
tried their powers at their home meetings and in rural districts."

CHAPTER XL.

IGNORED BY THE PARTIES--APPOINTED TO OFFICE.

1892.

On her way to the convention of 1892, Miss Anthony stopped in New York
in response to an urgent letter from Mrs. Stanton, now comfortably
ensconced in a pleasant flat overlooking Central Park, saying that
unless she came and took her bodily to Washington she should not be able
to go. "All the influences about me urge to rest rather than action,"
she wrote--exactly what Miss Anthony had feared. She was now in her
seventy-seventh year and naturally her children desired that she should
give up public work; but Miss Anthony knew that inaction meant rust and
decay and, as her fellow-worker was in the prime of mental vigor, she
was determined that the world should continue to profit by it. Her
address this year was entitled "The Solitude of Self," considered by
many one of her finest papers.

Mrs. Stanton received a great ovation at the opening session, January
16, but this proved to be her last appearance at a national convention.
For more than forty years she had presided with a grace and dignity
which never had been surpassed, and now she begged that the scepter, or
more properly speaking the gavel, might be transferred to Miss Anthony,
whose experience had been quite as extended as her own. The delegates
yielded to her wishes and Miss Anthony was elected national president.
The office of chairman of the executive committee was abolished; Mrs.
Stanton and Lucy Stone were made honorary presidents, and Rev. Anna H.
Shaw vice-president-at-large.

Miss Anthony presided over the ten sessions of the convention and they
required a firm hand, for the discussions were spirited, as the
questions considered were important. Among them were