help thee
more in thy onward way, for it must be onward even though opponents
fill it with stumbling-blocks. Lucretia Mott is firm in her
adherence to New York--not but that she can work, if the way
offers, in all organizations which labor for the same end. My
opinion of The Revolution may be expressed in what was said of
another paper: "It fights no sham battles with enemies already
defeated. It is true, good men and women not a few stumble at it,
object to it and in some cases antagonize it, but nobody despises
it. An affectation of contempt is not contempt."

Scores of similar letters were received from the early workers in the
cause. It is unnecessary to enter further into a discussion of this
division in the ranks of the advocates of woman suffrage. The
conscientious historian must perform some unpleasant duties, hence it
could not be passed without notice. The mass of correspondence on this
question has been carefully sifted and that which would give pain to
others, even though it would magnify the subject of this work, has been
rigorously excluded. Most of the writers and those whom they criticised
have ended their labors and passed from the scene of action. No good
can be accomplished, either to the individuals or to the reform, by
inflicting these personalities upon future generations. Among earnest,
forceful, aggressive leaders of any great movement, there must arise
controversies because of these strong characteristics, but the chief
interest of mankind lies not in the individuals but in the results
which they were able to accomplish. A comparison of the position of
woman today with that which she occupied at the beginning of the
agitation in her behalf, fifty years ago, offers more eloquent
testimony to the efforts of those heroic pioneers than could be put
into words by the most gifted pen.

[Footnote 48: It is claimed, on good authority, that Anna Dickinson was
the first to suggest that such an amendment would be required, as early
as 1866, in a consultation with Theodore Tilton and Frederick Douglass
at the National Loyalists' Convention in Philadelphia, as the only sure
method of protecting the freedmen. See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol.
II, p. 327.]

[Footnote 49: In reference to this unwarranted attack, the noted
writer, William Winter, said in the New York Tribune:

"Noble, virtuous, honorable women are a country's greatest wealth, and
when, from petty envy