an aristocracy of sex in this republic,
that we raise our indignant protest against this wholesale
desecration of woman in the pending amendment, and earnestly pray
the rulers of this nation to consider the degradation of
disfranchisement. Our Republican leaders see that it is a
protection and defense for the black man, giving him new dignity
and self-respect, and making his rights more sacred in the eyes of
his enemies. It is mockery to tell woman she is excluded from all
political privileges on the ground of _respect_; since the laws and
constitutions for her, in common with all disfranchised classes,
harmonize with the degradation of the position.

In their protest against this discrimination and their insistence that
the word "sex" should be included in the Fifteenth Amendment, Miss
Anthony and Mrs. Stanton stood practically alone. Most of the other
women allowed themselves to be persuaded by the politicians that it was
their duty to step aside and wait till the negro was invested with this
highest attribute of citizenship.

In the first issue of The Revolution for 1869 appeared this letter from
George Francis Train, who had just been released from the Dublin jail
and had returned to America:

....I knew the load I had to carry in the woman question, but you
did not know the load you had to carry in Train. When the poor
man's horse fell and broke his leg, the crowd sympathized. "How
much you pity?" asked the Frenchman; "I pity man $20." I saw that
the theoretical breeching had broken in Kansas, and with voice,
with pen, with time and, what none of your old friends did, with
purse, I threw myself into the battle.

With your remarkable industry and extraordinary executive ability
you have astonished all by your success. You remember I begged you
never to stop to defend me but to push on to victory. Now both
parties are neck and neck to see who shall lead the army of
in-coming negro voters. Woman already begins to creep. Soon she
will walk and legislate. No sneers, no low jokes, no obscene
remarks are now bandied about. The iceberg of prejudice is moving
down the Gulf Stream of a wider liberty and will melt away with the
bigotry of ages. The ball is rolling down the hill. You no longer
need my services. The Revolution is a power. Would it not be more
so without Train? Had you not better omit my name in 1