nchise a million men who but yesterday
were plantation slaves. Here, then, was the power which must be invoked
for the enfranchisement of women. From the office of The Revolution
went out thousands of petitions to the women of the country to be
circulated in the interests of an amendment to regulate the suffrage
without making distinctions of sex. It was decided that a convention
should be held in Washington in order to meet the legislators on their
own ground. A suffrage association had been formed in that city with
Josephine S. Griffing, founder of the Freedmen's Bureau, president;
Hamilton Willcox, secretary. This was the first ever held in the
capital, and it brought many new and valuable workers into the field.
Clara Barton here made her first appearance at a woman suffrage
meeting, and was a true and consistent advocate of the principle from
that day forward.

The venerable Lucretia Mott presided, and Senator Pomeroy opened the
convention with an eloquent speech, January 19, 1869. A feature of this
occasion was the appearance of several young colored orators, speaking
in opposition to suffrage for women and denouncing them for
jeopardizing the black man's claim to the ballot by insisting upon
their own. One of them, George Downing, standing by the side of
Lucretia Mott, declared that God intended the male should dominate the
female everywhere! Another was a son of Robert Purvis, who was
earnestly and publicly rebuked by his father. Edward M. Davis,
son-in-law of Lucretia Mott, also condemned the women for their
temerity and severely criticised the resolutions, which demanded the
same political rights for women as for negro men.

Miss Anthony called on Senator Harlan, of Iowa, chairman of the
District committee, who readily granted the women a hearing which took
place January 26, when she and Mrs. Stanton gave their arguments. This
was the first congressional hearing ever granted to present the
question of woman suffrage. An appeal was sent to Congress praying that
women should be recognized in the next amendment. In her letter to the
Philadelphia Press, Grace Greenwood thus described the leading spirits
of the convention:

Near Lucretia Mott sat her sister, Martha Wright, a woman of
strong, constant character and rare intellectual culture; Mrs. Cady
Stanton, of impressive and beautiful appearance, in the rich prime
of an active, generous and healthful life; Miss Susan B. Anthony,
looking al