CONVENTION INFLUENCE.
Probably, no single event ever had so great an influence in promoting the cause of woman’s enlargement as this Rochester convention. It opened the door wide for women to enter. It brought out a number of faithful workers in that cause, as well as in the cause of Temperance, who from that time devoted their lives to the work. Some took a wider view of their work than others, but all devoted themselves with a singular fidelity and earnestness to the noble aims before them. Nor was the influence confined solely to women who took part in that convention. Others, in every part of the country, soon enlisted in the cause and became zealous advocates of woman’s redemption from the thralldom of evil habits and unjust laws. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony continued a tower of strength for half a century and upwards, and Mrs. Bloomer nearly as long, but in the latter years of her life not so prominently; and there came to their aid Lucy Stone, Frances D. Gage, Mrs. C. H. Nichols, Antoinette L. Brown, Mary A. Livermore, Lydia A. Fowler, and many more who might be mentioned.
Mrs. Bloomer, as corresponding secretary of the new society, was brought into immediate and close connection with its agents and friends. Her home was at all times open to them, and they often visited and consulted with her and Mrs. Stanton, who resided in the same village. Mrs. Vaughan, Mrs. Albro, and Miss Emily Clark, besides Miss Anthony, were earnest workers in the good cause. Mrs. Bloomer’s correspondence was also very extensive; but in her removals from place to place it has been mostly destroyed, and the death of nearly all her correspondents renders it impracticable to procure copies of her letters to them.