easure of dining yesterday with Wendell Phillips in New York. Shall I
tell you a secret? I happened to allude to one Susan Anthony. 'Yes,'
said he, 'one of the salt of the earth.'" On the 16th came this from
Henry B. Stanton: "I date from the federal capital. Since I arrived
here I have been more gloomy than ever. The country is rapidly going to
destruction. The army is almost in a state of mutiny for want of its
pay and for lack of a leader. Nothing can carry the North through but
the Southern negroes, and nobody can marshal them into the struggle
except the Abolitionists. The country was never so badly off as at this
moment. Such men as Lovejoy, Hale and the like have pretty much given
up the struggle in despair. You have no idea how dark the cloud is
which hangs over us.... We must not lay the flattering unction to our
souls that the proclamation will be of any use if we are beaten and
have a dissolution of the Union. Here then is work for you. Susan, put
on your armor and go forth!"

From many prominent men and women came the same cry, and so she did
gird on her armor and go forth. The latter part of February she took up
her abode with Mrs. Stanton in New York. Herculean efforts were being
made at this time by the Republicans, under the leadership of Charles
Sumner, to secure congressional action in regard to emancipation. A
widespread fear existed that the President's proclamation might not
prove sufficient, that some way of overriding it might be found, and
there was much anxiety to secure such an expression of public sentiment
as would justify Congress in submitting an amendment to the United
States Constitution which should forever abolish slavery. This could
best be done through petitions, and here Miss Anthony recognized her
work. An eloquent appeal was sent out, enclosing the following:

CALL FOR A MEETING OF THE LOYAL WOMEN OF THE NATION.

In this crisis it is the duty of every citizen to consider the
peculiar blessings of a republican form of government, and decide
what sacrifices of wealth and life are demanded for its defense and
preservation.... No mere party or sectional cry, no technicalities
of constitutional or military law, no methods of craft or policy,
can touch the heart of a nation in the midst of revolution. A grand
idea of freedom or justice is needful to kindle and sustain the
fires of a high enthusiasm.

At this hour the best word and work of every