l which Susan and I have just
been getting up for Congress. I have been writing to Mr. Garrison
to make some mention of us, "the only disfranchised class now
remaining," in his last Liberator. It is fitting that we should be
recognized in his valedictory. We have now boosted the negro over
our own heads, and we had better begin to remember that
self-preservation is the first law of nature. Will you see if you
can get our petition in your city and county papers? Sign it
yourself and send it to your representatives in Senate and
Congress, and then try to galvanize the women of your district into
life. Some say: "Be still; wait; this is the negro's hour." We
believe this is the hour for everybody to do the best thing for
reconstruction.

Miss Anthony found the leaders among the men so absorbed with their
interest in the male negro that they had given little thought to the
suffrage as related to women; but the Hovey Committee appropriated $500
to begin the petition work. She went to Concord and held a parlor
meeting attended by Emerson, Alcott, Sanborn and other sages of that
intellectual center, stating what the women desired to accomplish.
After she finished, Emerson was appealed to for an opinion but said:
"Ask my wife. I can philosophize, but I always look to her to decide
for me in practical matters." Mrs. Emerson replied without hesitation
that she fully agreed with Miss Anthony in regard to the necessity for
petitioning Congress at once to enfranchise women, either before this
great body of negroes was invested with the ballot or at the same time.
Mr. Emerson and the other gentlemen then assured her of their sympathy
and support.

[Autograph: R. Waldo Emerson]

She presented her claims at the annual anti-slavery meeting in
Westchester and at many other gatherings. She went also to Philadelphia
to visit James and Lucretia Mott and interest Mary Grew and Sarah Pugh
and all the friends in that locality; then back to New York with
tireless energy and unflagging zeal. She wrote articles for the
Anti-Slavery Standard, sent out petitions and left no stone unturned to
accomplish her purpose. The diary shows the days to have been well
filled:

Went to Tilton's office to express regrets at not being able to
attend their tin wedding. He read us his editorial on Seward and
Beecher. Splendid!... Went to hear Beecher, morning and evening.
There is no one like hi