I hope the national association will not leave Kansas to work out her own salvation. Surely you, to whom we owe municipal suffrage, are not going to fail to come to us at this awful juncture! Dear Aunt Susan, you won't get any wounds here. I will take charge of the office and make the routes, which I am able to do well; I will speak; I will organize; I will do anything you think best, and there will be nobody inquiring what you do with funds, and there will be no disgraceful charges and counter-charges, unless I am greatly mistaken in Kansas women and in myself. We all love you here and we want the cause to succeed more than we want personal aggrandizement.
Mrs. Johns persuaded Mrs. Avery to join in her plea and finally Miss Anthony could hold out no longer, but December 11 wrote to the latter: "I have been fully resolved all along not to go to Kansas during this first campaign, because I felt that my threescore and ten and two years added ought to excuse me from the fearful exposure; still, since you and dear Laura are left so deserted and will be so heartbroken if I stick to my resolve, I will say yes, tuck on my coat and mittens and start. But alas! how soon must that be? I am thoroughly in the dark as to when and where I shall be wanted to begin, but I will do my level best."
The closing days of 1891 were devoted to the voluminous correspondence which preceded every national convention. The large number of letters on file from prominent senators and representatives show that Miss Anthony was keeping an eye on the committees and pulling the wires to have known friends placed on those which would report on woman suffrage. "I am in full sympathy with you upon the question of woman's enfranchisement," wrote Senator Dolph, of Oregon, "and also with your effort to secure a chairman of the committee who favors the movement and is able to present it with intelligence and ability." Speaker Reed closed his letter by saying, "When the eleventh hour comes, we all shall flock in, clamorous for pennies." Words of encouragement were received from many others, and Senator and ex-Governor Francis E. Warren, of Wyoming, wrote: "I am always in harness for woman suffrage wherever I may be. My spoken and written testimony for a score of years has been in its praise and of its perfect working and results in Wyoming."
FOOTNOTES:
[66] While here Miss Anthony received a letter from Rev. N. M. Mann, formerly pastor of the Unitarian church in Rochester but now residing in Omaha, which said: "Are you not coming to the metropolis of the State, when some of us here are just perishing for the sight of your face? I speak for myself and Mrs. Mann firstly, though judging from the number of parlors I go into where your picture is the first thing one sees, I fancy there are a good many others who would be hardly less glad than we to greet you. Come and spend a Sunday, and hear a good old sermon, and lecture in my church."
[67] As women had been voting in the Territory over twenty years and this answer was sent by a legislature composed entirely of men, it would seem to show that the evils predicted of woman suffrage were wholly disproved by actual experience.
[68] Mr. Taylor wrote Miss Anthony: "The delay, which seemed long to you, was absolutely necessary and I am sure you will understand that I have been faithful to the cause. My daughter Harriet, the most wonderful of all women to me, is largely influential in the result...."
[69] Dear Susan Anthony: We are to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the First National Woman's Rights Convention in this State and want to make the meeting as useful to the cause as we can. You ought to be here. Will you come? The sheaves gathered in these forty years are to be presented, and of course there will be some reminiscences of pioneer times. We shall be glad to announce you as one of the speakers. I hope you are a little rested since the hard campaign in Dakota. Yours truly,
Lucy Stone.