ffrage amendment
to the voters, and Miss Anthony decided to canvass the State. To do
this would ruin her own lecture season for the autumn, and those in
charge of the suffrage campaign could offer her no salary. She did not
hesitate, however, but without any financial guarantee, began her work
there September 24. On the eve of going she wrote to a friend: "I leave
home without having had one single week of rest this summer--not this
year, indeed, nor for twenty-five years." She made a forty days'
canvass, taking out three days for the Illinois convention at Chicago,
and during that time spoke in thirty-five different places. Everywhere
she addressed immense and enthusiastic crowds. She was frequently
preceded by Senator Zach. Chandler, speaking for the Republican party,
and often her audiences were much larger than the senator's.[81] Toward
the close of the campaign she wrote home:

If these meetings of mine were only by and in favor of an
enfranchised class, they would carry almost the solid vote of every
town for the measure advocated; but alas, they are for a class
powerless to help or hinder any party for good or for evil. It is
wonderful to see how quickly the prejudices yield to a little
common sense talk. If only we had speakers and time, we could carry
the vote of this State, but we have neither, and so all we can hope
for is a respectable minority. I enclose $200 left above travelling
expenses, hall rent, etc., from collections and the sale of my
trial pamphlets. If I could have had even a twenty-five cents
admission, I should have cleared over $1,000, but I could not have
it said that I went to Michigan, at such a crisis, to make money
for myself; it would have ruined the moral effect of my work. Now
they are calling on me from Washington to stay in that city all
next winter to get our measure considered by Congress, but I ought
to go to work to earn money, for I need it if ever anybody did. If
I have to get it, however, at the cost of losing our golden
opportunity there, it will be too dear a price to pay.

Miss Anthony was correct in her forecast, the suffrage amendment was
defeated in Michigan by more than three to one, but there is no doubt
her able canvass contributed largely to secure "a respectable
minority."

In the summer of 1874 the so-called Beecher-Tilton scandal, which had
been smouldering a long time, burst into full blaze