atience. Daily I pray for a tongue of flame and inspired lips
to awaken the sleeping, arouse the careless, shake to trembling and
overthrow the insolence of opposition.... After men and women have
alike borne the burden and heat of battle, to mark the absolute
silence with which these men regard the rights of half the race,
while they squabble and wrangle, debate and contend, for exact
justice to the poorest and meanest man--to mark this spectacle is
to be filled with alternate pity and disgust.

Naturally the women felt highly indignant at the treatment they had
received, especially from the Republican party, which was so deeply
indebted for their services and from which they had every reason to
expect recognition and support, and they did not hesitate freely to
express themselves. Soon after their defeat at Albany Mr. Curtis wrote:
"I beg you and your friends to understand that the _real_ support of
this measure, the support from conviction, comes from men who believe
in Republican principles, and not from the Democracy as such." While a
close analysis might prove the truth of this assertion, the women were
not able to find comfort in the fact. As a party, the Republicans were
opposed to their claims, and with the immense majority of its members
completely under the domination of party, the result could be nothing
but defeat. Not only was this the case, but the leaders, who dictated
its policy and directed its action, although avowed believers in the
political rights of women, did not hesitate to sacrifice them for the
success of the party.

Lucy Stone and her husband had returned from Kansas the last of May,
reporting a good prospect for carrying the woman suffrage amendment;
but the Republicans there soon became frightened lest the one
enfranchising the negro should be lost and, in order to lighten their
ship, decided to throw the women overboard. Although the proposition
had been submitted by a Republican legislature and signed by a
Republican governor, the Republican State Committee resolved to remain
"neutral," and then sent out speakers who, with the sanction of the
committee, bitterly assailed this amendment and those advocating it.
Prominent among these were P.B. Plumb, I.S. Kalloch, Judge T.C. Sears
and C.V. Eskridge. The Democratic State Convention vigorously denounced
the amendment. The State Temperance Society endorsed it, and this
aroused the active enmity of the Germans. East