hrough evil and good report. I should be glad to
have all united, with Mr. Beecher or Lucretia Mott for our general....
I am willing to work with any and all or to get out of the way
entirely, that there may be an organization which shall be respectable
at home and abroad."

The representatives of the American Association insisted that they had
offered the olive branch at the time of their organization and it had
been refused. This olive branch had been a suggestion that the National
Association should consider itself a local society and become auxiliary
to the American. After a protracted but fruitless discussion of over
four hours, they withdrew from the room, declining to accept or to
suggest any overtures. The proposition made by the callers of the
conference was that the two associations should merge into one, with a
new constitution embodying the best features of both, and with a board
of officers elected from the two existing organizations. Even the
friendly offices of Lucretia Mott, which never before were disregarded,
failed to effect a union, and the many letters from mutual friends were
equally ineffective. In her regular letter to The Revolution Miss
Anthony said:

There is but one feeling all through this glorious West, and that
is that it is a sin to have a divided front at this auspicious
moment. Since my last I have had splendid meetings in Quincy,
Farmington, Elwood, Mendota, Peru, La-Salle, Batavia, Peoria and
Champaign in Illinois, and in Sturgis and Jonesvine, Michigan. I
can tell you with emphasis that the fields are white unto
harvest--waiting, waiting only the reapers. And it is a shame--it
is a crime--for any of the old or new public workers to halt by the
way to pluck the motes out of their neighbors' eyes. Not one of us
but has blundered; yet if only we are in earnest, each will
forgive, in the faith that the others, like herself, mean right.
How any one can stand in the way of a united national organization
at an hour like this, is wholly inexplicable.

Just before the May Anniversary Mrs. Stanton published the following
card in The Revolution: "It is a great thing for those who have been
prominent in any movement to know when their special work is done, and
when the posts they hold can be more ably filled by others. Having, in
my own judgment, reached that time, at the present anniversary of our
association I must forbid the use of my nam