admitted from
local organizations, or _from no organization whatever_, provided the
applicants be actual residents of the State they claim to represent."
The American Suffrage Association was thus formed, with twenty-one
States represented; Henry Ward Beecher, president; Henry B. Blackwell,
Amanda Way, recording secretaries; Lucy Stone, chairman executive
committee.

In the midst of her exacting duties and many annoyances, Miss Anthony
found time to write numerous letters and obtain a testimonial for
Ernestine L. Rose, who was about to return with her husband to England,
after having given many years of valuable service to the women of
America. She secured a handsome sum of money and a number of presents
for her, and Mrs. Rose went on board ship laden with flowers and very
happy and grateful. Miss Anthony wrote to Lucretia Mott: "Was it not a
little funny that this unsentimental personage should have suggested
the thing and stirred so many to do the sentimental, and yet could not
even take the time to go to the wharf and say good-by? I spent Sunday
evening with her and it is a great comfort to me that I helped others
contribute to her pleasure." On the back of this letter, which was sent
to her sister, Martha Wright, Mrs. Mott penned: "Think of the
complaints made of Susan when she does so much and puts others up to
doing, and always keeps herself in the background."

In the summer of 1869, under the auspices of the National Association,
large and successful conventions were held at Saratoga and Newport in
the height of the season. Of the former The Revolution said: "That a
woman suffrage convention should have been allowed to organize in the
parlors of Congress Hall, that those parlors should have been filled to
their utmost capacity by the habitual guests of the place, that such
men as ex-President Fillmore, Thurlow Weed, George Opdyke and any
number of clergymen from different parts of the country, should have
been interested lookers-on, are significant facts which may well carry
dismay to the enemies of the cause. That the whole convention was
conducted by women in a dignified, orderly and business-like manner, is
a strong intimation that in spite of all which has been said to the
contrary, women are capable of learning how to manage public affairs."

The following comment was made by Mrs. Stanton on the Newport
convention: "So, obeying orders, we sailed across the Sound one bright
moonlight night with a gay par