beyond anything he had imagined possible. It
is always a great comfort to feel that we have not distressed our
_cultured friends_.

Mrs. Stanton is going to slip out to Johnstown to spend Sunday with
her mother. How I wish I could slip out to Rochester to sit a few
hours in my mother's delightful east chamber, but I must hie me
back to New York by tonight's boat instead.

In a letter from George William Curtis, he declared: "You may count
upon me not to be silent when, whether by my action or another's, this
question comes before the convention." Petitions were presented by
various members, signed by 28,000 men and women, asking that the
constitution be so amended as to secure the right of suffrage to the
women of New York. One of these was headed by Margaret Livingston Cady,
mother of Mrs. Stanton, one by Gerrit Smith, one by Henry Ward Beecher,
and all contained many influential names. Mr. Greeley was chairman of
the committee on suffrage and, as Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton knew he
would seize upon this occasion to repeat his hackneyed remark, "The
best women I know do not want to vote," they wrote Mrs. Greeley to roll
up a big petition in Westchester. So she got out her old chaise and,
with her daughter Ida, drove over the county, collecting signatures.
After all the others had been presented, Mr. Curtis arose and said:
"Mr. Chairman, I hold in my hand a petition signed by Mrs. Horace
Greeley and 300 other women of Westchester asking that the word 'male'
be stricken from the constitution." As Mr. Greeley was about to make an
adverse report, his anger and embarrassment, as well as the amusement
of the audience, may be imagined.[41]

A magnificent argument in behalf of the petitions was made by Mr.
Curtis, and the discussion lasted several days; but the committee
handed in an adverse report, which was sustained by a large majority of
the convention. When this result was announced, Anna Dickinson wrote
Miss Anthony:

My blood boiled, my nerves thrilled, as I read from day to day the
reports of the convention debate. Reasons urged for the
enfranchisement of paupers, of idiots, of the ignorant, the
degraded, the infamous--none for women! The exquisite care with
which men guard their own rights in the most vulnerable of their
sex--the silence, the scorn, the ridicule with which they pass by
or allude to our claims--great God! it is too much for endurance
and p