She was fortunate in her friends at court at this time, having two cousins, Elbridge G. Lapham and Henry B. Anthony, in the United States Senate, and her lawyer, John Van Voorhis, of Rochester, in the House of Representatives, all in favor of woman suffrage, and the two cousins on the "select committee" of the Senate. On June 5, 1882, this committee made a report in favor of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, signed by the Republican senators, E. G. Lapham, T. W. Ferry, H. W. Blair and H. B. Anthony. The minority report took the ground that suffrage was a matter which should be regulated solely by the States, not by Congress, and was signed by J. Z. George and Howell E. Jackson (Dems.), and James G. Fair (Rep.).
The following year, March 1, 1883, the House committee, John D. White, chairman, presented a favorable report. This was the first time woman suffrage had received a majority report from a Senate or House committee.[9]
When Miss Anthony returned home she found this bright note from Harriot Stanton, dated Paris: "... Dear Susan, you often seem to me like a superb warhorse. You are completely swallowed up in an idea, and it's a glorious thing to be. Carlyle says, 'The end of man is an Action, not a Thought,' and what a realization of that truth has your life been. You have never stopped for idle culture or happy recreations. You are possessed by a moral force, and you act. You are a Deed, not a Thinking.... I should love to be your biographer. You are to other women of your time just what Greek architecture is to Gothic. I long to carve your literary image, and know I could."
If Miss Anthony had any hope of rest it was soon dispelled. The legislature of Nebraska had submitted a woman suffrage amendment, and the women of that State called upon the National Association for assistance. After a vast amount of preliminary correspondence she left Rochester September 2, and travelled westward, leaving a trail of newspaper interviews in her wake, as she was intercepted by reporters at every city. En route she wrote to her friend Mrs. Nichols: "Only think, I shall not have a white-haired woman on the platform with me, and shall be alone there of all the pioneer workers. Always with the 'old guard' I had perfect confidence that the wise and right thing would be said. What a platform ours then was of self-reliant, strong women! I felt sure of you all, and since you earliest ones have not been with us, Mrs. Stanton's presence has ever made me feel that we should get the true and brave word spoken. Now that she is not to be there, I can not quite feel certain that our younger sisters will be equal to the emergency, yet they are each and all valiant, earnest and talented, and will soon be left to manage the ship without even me."
The opening convention was held in Boyd's Opera House, Omaha, September 26, 27, 28. The Bee was ironical and contemptuous in its treatment, heading its report "Mad Anthony's Raid." The Herald, under control of a young son of U. S. Senator Hitchcock, was vulgar and abusive, referring to the question as a "dead issue." The Republican, edited by D. C. Brooks, replied:
Pretty Lively "Dead Issue."—During the three days' sessions of the woman suffrage convention, we estimate that 7,000 people were in attendance. The Republican, in its three daily issues, and its coming weekly issue, will have laid the proceedings in full before about 75,000 readers, and the Bee and Herald will have given them nearly as many more. For a "dead issue" we submit this is a pretty respectable showing. Considered as a series of political meetings, the suffrage convention had more hearers than all the Democratic meetings and conventions held in Omaha during the last five years. The audiences were truly representative, embracing the business, professional and working interests of our city, and composed very largely of voters and citizens influential in politics.
The next convention was held in Lincoln with the same crowded houses. The newspapers were fair in their reports. The National Association raised $5,000 by contributions, mostly from outside the State. Miss Anthony gave her time and services and over $1,000 in money besides all she collected. Mrs. Foster and daughters contributed $500. Eleven speakers were kept in the field,[10] and all the complicated series of meetings was arranged and managed by Rachel Foster, assisted by Mrs. Colby. Miss Anthony herself spoke in forty counties, free transportation being given her by all the railroads in the State. On October 13, she held the famous debate at Omaha with Edward Rosewater, editor of the Bee, in the presence of an immense audience. Everywhere her meetings were perfect ovations, people coming in from a radius of twenty-five miles; and outside of Lincoln and Omaha, there was no audience-room large enough to hold the crowds.
A splendid force of Nebraska women conducted the campaign in behalf of the State. Every effort possible was made in the brief space of six weeks, but the masses of voters were not prepared for the question, most of the leading newspapers opposed it, and the women had no help from either of the political parties. In spite of these fatal drawbacks, the suffrage amendment received about one-third of the total vote.[11]
Miss Anthony returned home by way of St. Louis, where Mrs. Minor gave a large reception in her honor. When she reached Rochester she was invited by the Lincoln Club, one of the leading political organizations of the city, to give her address, "Woman Wants Bread, not the Ballot." The Democrat and Chronicle said in its report: "The large audience-room of the city hall was completely filled, and many extra seats were brought in. A number of prominent ladies and gentlemen occupied seats upon the platform. W. E. Werner, president of the club, in introducing the speaker, said it was fitting the hall should be full to overflowing with an audience anxious to hear the greatest advocate of one of the greatest questions of the day."