on, at Cincinnati,
May 2, 1872, with a resolution asking that as liberal Republicans they
should hold fast to the principles of the Declaration of Independence
and recognize the right of women to the franchise. The ladies were
politely treated and invited to seats on the platform, but were not
allowed to appear before the committee and no attention was paid to
their resolution. They expected no favors from the presiding officer,
Carl Schurz, the foreign born, always a bitter opponent of woman
suffrage, but they had hoped for assistance from B. Gratz Brown, George
W. Julian, Theodore Tilton and other leading spirits of the meeting,
who had been open and avowed friends; but it was the old, old
story--political exigency required that women must be sacrificed, and
this so-called Liberal convention was no more liberal on this subject
than all which had preceded it. Miss Anthony is quoted in an interview
as saying:

You see our cause is just where the anti-slavery cause was for a
long time. It had plenty of friends and supporters three years out
of four, but every fourth year, when a President was to be elected,
it was lost sight of; then the nation was to be saved and the slave
must be sacrificed. So it is with us women. Politicians are willing
to use us at their gatherings to fill empty seats, to wave our
handkerchiefs and clap our hands when they say smart things; but
when we ask to be allowed to help them in any substantial way, by
assisting them to choose the best men for our law-makers and
rulers, they push us aside and tell us not to bother them.

On June 7 Miss Anthony and other prominent suffrage leaders attended
the National Republican Convention, at Philadelphia, which adopted the
following compromise:

The Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the loyal
women of America for their noble devotion to the cause of freedom;
their admission to wider fields of usefulness is received with
satisfaction; and the honest demands of any class of citizens for
equal rights should be treated with respectful consideration.

At the close of this meeting, the faithful Sarah Pugh slipped $20 into
Miss Anthony's hand, telling her to go and confer with Mrs. Stanton.
She did so and they prepared a strong letter for the New York World,
calling upon the Democrats at Baltimore to adopt a woman suffrage plank
if they did not wish to compel the women of the country t