Immediately after the convention in Washington, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony made their first tour through the Western States, speaking at various points in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio, having been invited to attend several State Conventions. The editorial correspondence in The Revolution, gives a brief summary of this Western trip, so valuable in its results, in the organization of many suffrage associations. These meetings aroused the women who had been absorbed by the war to new and higher duties, showing them that although the battles of freedom had been fought and settled by the sword, many questions growing out of the conflict were still to be adjusted by discussion and legislation, and that, all important as their work had been in helping to save the life of the nation, there were other duties to themselves as citizens on which the perpetuation of our free institutions as fully depended.
To awaken women everywhere to a proper self-respect, was the special mission of the suffrage movement, and it was a labor, for the very elect were in favor of negro suffrage first, woman suffrage afterwards, which meant the postponement of the latter question for another generation. The few who had the prescience to see the long years of apathy that always follow a great conflict, strained every nerve to settle the broad question of suffrage on its true basis while the people were awake to its importance, but the blindness of reformers themselves in playing into the hands of the opposition, made all efforts unavailing.
Chicago, Feb. 12, 1869.
Dear Revolution:—Sitting on the platform in the Chicago Convention, we remember that the mail to-night must take a word to you. After traveling forty hours on the railroad, sitting two days in convention and talking in all the leisure hours outside, our missives to you must be short, but not spicy, for we feel like a squeezed sponge at the present writing. Our journey hither, barring delays, was most charming. This was our first trip on the Erie Railroad, and although we had heard much of the majesty and beauty of the scenery through the valleys of the Delaware and Susquehanna, and the spacious, comfortable cars, the journey surpassed our expectations. The convention has been crowded and most enthusiastic throughout; judges, lawyers, clergymen, professors, all taking part in its deliberations. The women of this nation may congratulate themselves that their cause is near its triumph when such noble men as Edward Beecher, Rev. Mr. Goodspeed, Robert Collyer, Prof. Haven, Judge Waite, and Judge Bradwell come forward in public to advocate their cause. Mr. Beecher made an able speech yesterday, showing that "manhood suffrage" was not the demand of this hour, but suffrage for all the citizens of the republic. He pointed out the necessity of woman's voice in the legislation of the country, not only for her own safety, but for the preservation of our free institutions. The Secretary of the convention, Mrs. J. F. Willing of Rockford, is a most accomplished woman. She understands Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, writes for several periodicals, and is the author of "Through the Dark to the Light," a new book, it is said, of much power and merit.
Library Hall has been literally packed throughout the convention; and, from the letters we have already received urging us to go hither and thither throughout the West, "The prairies seem to be all on fire with woman's suffrage." While politicians are trying to patch up the Republican party, now near its last gasp, the people in the West are getting ready for the new national party, to combine the best elements of both the old ones, soon to be buried forever out of sight. Woman's suffrage, greenbacks, free trade, homesteads for all, eight hours labor, and three per cent the legal interest, will be some of the planks in the platforms of the political parties of the future. Mrs. Livermore, the President of the Convention, discharged the duties of her office with great executive ability, grace, and patience. The women of Chicago are fortunate in having in her so wise and judicious a manager of their cause. She is a tall, dignified-looking woman, has a fine voice and pleasant address. William Wells Brown and Anna Dickinson enlivened the discussions of this afternoon. The former helped to annihilate "us" of The Revolution on the same resolutions we discussed at Washington, and Anna left Mr. Robert Laird Collyer, who had already had a passage at arms with Mrs. Livermore and Robert Collyer, without one logical weapon for his defense. This gentleman and Rev. Mr. Hammond, brother-in-law of Owen Lovejoy, not believing in woman's suffrage, were, unhappily for themselves, though to the great amusement of the audience, made the target for all the wit and satire of the platform. Mr. Hammond, in his death gasp, declared "he believed his Bible," which did not help his case, for everyone else on the platform affirmed the same faith, with only this difference, they did not believe Mr. Hammond's interpretation of the good book. Mrs. Myra Bradwell, editor of the Chicago Legal News, took a prominent part in the convention. She is a woman of great force and executive ability, and it is said her husband is indebted to her for his success in life.
A telegram from Mrs. Minor, President of the Woman's Suffrage Association in St. Louis, says that they have announced us to speak there on Monday evening. What will interest you more than all besides, is the unanimous passage of a resolution in the convention indorsing The Revolution as the national organ of the woman's suffrage movement. The Chicago press has graciously given many columns to reports of the convention.
E. C. S.
St. Louis, Feb. 18.
Dear Revolution:—While in Chicago we attended a reception at Mrs. William Doggett's, where we met Madame de Herricourt, a distinguished French lady, who published an able work on woman some years since, in which she severely criticised several French writers, Michelet among the rest, for their sentimental nonsense about the sex. She is a very brilliant woman, with a large head, a bright, expressive face, and a stout figure, rather below the medium height. We discussed several French writers, among others, Victor Hugo, and fully agreed as to his women—that they were all lamentable failures. It is strange that a writer who can paint such strong men should so utterly fade out whenever he attempts a woman, and, the strangest part of it is, that he does not see it himself, and get some gifted woman to draw his female characters. To make such grand men as Jean Valjean and Gilliette love such types of womanhood as Victor Hugo creates, always did seem to us a desecration of that sentiment. We called to see Sidney Howard Gay, one of the editors of the Chicago Tribune, and found him writing with his left hand, as, owing to a severe fall, his right hand had forgotten its cunning. If the grand position the Chicago Tribune takes on Woman Suffrage, is the result of this accident, we wish all our Republican editors in the East would take a left handed tilt at our question. Sunday night we left Chicago for St. Louis in the palace cars, where we slept as comfortably as in our own home and breakfasted on the train in the morning. The dining-room was exquisitely arranged and the cooking excellent. The kitchen was a gem, and the cook, in the neatness and order of his person and all his surroundings, was a pink of male perfection. It really did seem like magic, to eat, sleep, read the morning papers, and talk with one's friends in bed-room, dining-room and parlor, dashing over the prairies at the rate of thirty miles an hour. While men can keep house in this charming manner, the world will not be utterly desolate when women do vote. As we consider the great versatility in the talents of our noble countrymen, we are lost in admiration. They seem as much at home in watching the gyrations of an egg or oyster in hot water as the revolutions of the heavenly bodies; in making pins and buttons to unite garments that time and haste may have put asunder as in spanning continents with railroads and telegraphs.
As we reached the eastern bank of the Mississippi, we were met by a delegation of ladies and gentlemen to escort us to St. Louis, where we found pleasant apartments in the Southern Hotel, which is extremely well kept, and where one is always sure of a "christian" cup of coffee. The tea and coffee in all the hotels on the route are the most miserable concoctions of hayseed and chiccory that were ever palmed off on a long-suffering, patient people. We had an enthusiastic meeting in St. Louis, and found great interest manifested in the question of woman suffrage among many of its leading citizens. The ladies were in high spirits, as they had just returned from Jefferson, where they had been most graciously received by their legislators. Miss Phoebe Couzins had made an address at the capitol which was well received. She is a young lady of great beauty and talent, both as a writer and speaker, and is called the Anna Dickinson of the West. She is studying law, and hopes to be admitted to the senior class in the law school next year. Her mother, a woman of rare capacity, is a candidate for the Post Office of St. Louis. We hope she will get it. Tuesday evening we had a reception in the parlors of the hotel. Among others, we were happy to meet Mrs. Tittman, a highly cultivated German lady, sister of Professor Helyard, whom we met in Washington. She announced that two of the German papers had come out in favor of woman suffrage that morning and confessed that they were converted the night before. We were surprised to hear that the paper controlled by Carl Schurz and Emile Pretorius had not taken that position long ago. But, from the character and influence of the German ladies there, it is evident that the German politicians must come to terms. Mrs. Minor, President of the Missouri Woman Suffrage Association, invited us to drive around and see the parks, gardens and new streets of the city.
We drove to the Polytechnic, and were received by Mr. Baily (Librarian) and Mr. Devoll, ex-superintendent of schools. He said that he was ready to vote for educated suffrage, without distinction of sex.
The ladies then proposed to go to the Merchants' Exchange and see the bulls and bears. Accordingly we drove there, ascended into the galleries, and looked down upon a great crowd of men standing round long lines of tables covered with tin pie-plates. At first we thought they were lunching, but we soon perceived that the tins contained different kinds of grains and flour, which wise ones were carefully examining. As we stood there, laughing at the idiosyncrasies of the sons of Adam, lo! two most polished gentlemen approached our charmed circle, and announced that they were a committee from the merchants on the floor to invite us to come down and address them. We descended with Mr. John J. Roe and Mr. Merritt and were introduced to the President of the Board, George P. Plant, and Mr. Blow, who escorted us to a temporary platform, and called the house to order. We made a short speech, and then there were loud calls from all parts of the house for Miss Couzins. She stepped forward and made a few pleasant remarks, when we all bowed graciously to the gallant gentlemen who conferred this great honor upon us, and retired.
Springfield, Feb. 21.
Dear Revolution:—We have been resting here at the capital of Illinois a few days. Of our meeting in the Opera House we will say nothing about it, except that we had the Governor and members of the Legislature as attentive listeners, and the Lieut.-Governor for presiding officer, who made an admirable speech indorsing woman's suffrage. Mrs. Livermore made an able argument, though Robert Laird Collyer says we never have any logic on our platform, as if we had not been so logical in all our positions for the last twenty years that the dear men had no answer to make. Poor fellows! as they saw their outposts, one after another taken, their fortresses riddled through and through, their own guns turned on their defenseless heads, and such fifty-pounders as "taxation without representation," "all men created equal," "no just government can be formed without the consent of the governed," hurled at them, no wonder they left logic and took up ridicule; and now, when we meet them with their own weapons, they say we can not reason. The drunken man always imagines the lamp-posts dancing. Poor R. L. C., in the Chicago Convention, really thought his platitudes logic, and our logic sentiment.
On arriving at Springfield, we found the Chicago delegation all ready to besiege the Legislature. Among them were Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Mr. Bradwell and his pretty wife Myra, who edits the Chicago Legal News. We have met several members of the bar and judges of the Supreme Court, among others Judge Lawrence and Judge Breese. All these gentlemen of the bar are in favor of amending the laws and constitutions. One thing is certain, unless these Republicans wheel in and do their duty, the Democrats in the West will take up woman's suffrage. We would advise the Western men to come into the measure generously and gracefully, and not be so obstinate and mulish as our Eastern lords have been. There is no escape, and where is the use of courting disgrace and defeat?
Sharon Tyndale, Ex-Secretary of State, escorted us to the House and Senate, and introduced us to the heads of the departments. We had two pleasant interviews with Gov. Palmer. He talks very reasonably in regard to the enfranchisement of women, although he says he does not quite indorse it yet, but as he has a very clear, honest mind, he will soon convince himself that what the ballot has done towards elevating man it will do for woman also.
The telegrams are flying in all directions for us to come here, there, everywhere. Western women are wide-awake to-day. The question of submitting an amendment to the Constitution to strike out the word "male," is under consideration. The poor "white male" is doomed.
E. C. S.
Chicago, March 1.
Dear Revolution:—From Springfield, I went to Bloomington, lectured before the Young Men's Association to a large audience, and met there many liberal men and women. I found that the Rev. Mr. Harrison had just fired a gun in the town paper on the lack of logic in the Chicago Convention and women's intuitions in general. It amuses me to hear the nonsense these men talk. They say God never intended woman to reason, they shut their college doors against her so that she can not study that manly accomplishment, and then they blame her for taking a short cut to the same conclusion they reach in their roundabout, lumbering processes of ratiocination. Do these gentlemen wish us to set aside God's laws, pick up logic on the sidewalks, and go step by step to a point we can reach with one flash of intuition? As long as we have the gift of catching truth by the telegraph wires, neither the sage of Bloomington nor Robert Laird Collyer of Chicago need ask us to go jogging after it in a stage-coach, perchance to be stuck in the mud on the highways as they are. It is enough to make angels weep to see how the logicians, skilled in the schools, are left floundering on every field before the simple intuitions of American womanhood.
Finding the ladies of Bloomington somewhat scarified and nervous under the Reverend's firing, like the good Samaritan, I tried to pour oil and wine on their wounded spirits, by exalting intuition, and with a pitiful and patronizing tone deploring the slowness, the obtuseness, the materialism of most of the sons of Adam. It had its effect. They soon dried their tears, and with returning self-respect, told me of all the wonderful things women were doing in that town. From the scintillations of wit, the fun and the laughter, an outsider would never have supposed that we were an oppressed class, and so hopelessly degraded in the statute laws and Constitution. After the meeting we had a long talk with the clerical assailant, and were happy to find that the good man's pen had done his heart great injustice. He is rather morbid on the question of logic; but the most melancholy symptom of his disease is his hatred of The Revolution. He says it is a very wicked paper, that he had felt it his duty to warn his congregation against taking it, thus depriving us of, at least, five hundred subscribers, though he read it himself (under protest) regularly every week. Strange what a fascination evil things have even for those who minister at the altar! He advised me to strangle Train, gibbet the financial editor, snub the proprietor, and to say no more in the paper on the questions of political economy, until we had one and all studied the subject. Dear Revolution, when I listened to those things, I had the same sinking of the heart that I used to feel when neighbors complained that my boys were running over their house-tops, dropping stones down their chimneys, ringing their bells then running away, throwing balls in their windows, and teazing the girls on the sidewalk. Now, I do hope, dear Revolution, you will not bring my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave, but turn over a new leaf and adopt some Christian means to get back these five hundred subscribers. The reverend gentleman said one thing that was like balm to my bruised spirit. He liked everything over the initials P. P. and E. C. S. Sub rosa, P. P., we must try and circumvent Train, and fill the paper ourselves.
I met some grand women at Bloomington, one who has been a successful merchant in the dry-goods business. She has not only supported her self and a family of children, but cleared $5,000 in five years. Another lady is a furniture dealer; when her husband died she went on with the business, and although he was so much embarrassed that every one advised her to close up and save what she could, she has paid all the debts, saved a handsome sum of money, and been every way more successful than her husband before her. A lady is the head of an establishment where music and pianos are sold. She carries on a large business, and has been very successful. All these women with their intuitions seem to be doing much better than many who can boast the gift of reason. I should not be surprised if, in the progress of events, men should come to think that woman's gift, after all, is the more desirable.
E. C. S.
Toledo, March 7.
Dear Revolution:—A bright, crisp morning I found myself seated beside Mrs. Livermore in the train for Milwaukee, whither we were going to attend a convention. In these eventful times of woman suffrage, having been separated a few days, on meeting, our hearts were overflowing with good news for one another. While I told Mrs. L. all I had seen and heard at Bloomington, and the various conversations I had had with dissenting "white males" on the trains, she told me her plans in regard to her new paper, the Agitator. Having decided to call such a journal into being, what its name should be was the question. Accordingly a council was held of the wise men and willful women of Chicago over the baptismal font of the new comer. The men, still clinging to the pleasant illusions that everything emanating from woman should be mild, gentle, serene, suggested "The Lily," "The Rose Bud," "The New Era," "The Dawn of Day;" but Mrs. Livermore, always heroic and brave, now defiant and determined, having fully awakened to the power and dignity of the ballot, and stung to the very soul with the proposed amendment for "manhood suffrage," declared that none of those names, however touching and beautiful, expressed what she intended the paper should be—nothing more or less than the twin sister of The Revolution, whose mission is to turn everything inside out, upside down, wrong side before. With such intentions, she felt the Agitator was the only name that fully matched The Revolution. All the women present echoed her sentiments, eschewing the "rose bud" dispensation and declaring that they would rather get the word "male" out of the constitution than to have a complete set of diamonds—rather have a right to property, wages, and children, than the best seats in the cars, and the tid-bits at the table. Thus, with one simultaneous shout, the women proclaimed the Agitator. The men calmly and sorrowfully resigned all hope of influence in the matter, and, as they dispersed, it was evident they looked mournfully into the future. Good Prof. Haven said that the mere name of the Agitator gave him an ague chill, and what life would be to most men after this twin sister to The Revolution was under full headway, no one could predict. Filled with profound pity for our beloved countrymen in this their hour of humiliation, we arrived in Milwaukee, where a delegation of ladies and gentlemen awaited us, among whom were a nephew and niece of Rufus Peckham, of New York, young law students of great promise. We drove to the Plankington House, where a suite of beautifully furnished apartments, with a bright fire in the grate, was prepared for us.
The Convention was held in the City Hall, and lasted two days, three sessions each, and was crowded throughout. Miss Chapin, the regularly ordained pastor of the Universalist church, was the President. Mr. and Miss Peckham, Dr. Laura J. Ross, and Madam Anneke were the ruling spirits of the Convention. Madam Anneke, a German lady of majestic presence and liberal culture, made an admirable speech in her own language. The platform, besides an array of large, well-developed women, was graced with several reverend gentlemen—Messrs. Dudley, Allison, Eddy, and Fellows—all of whom maintained woman's equality with eloquence and fervor. The Bible was discussed from Genesis to Revelation, in all its bearings on the question under consideration. By special request I gave my Bible argument, which was published in full in the daily papers. A Rev. Mr. Love, who took the opposite view, maintained that the Bible was opposed to woman's equality. He criticised some of my Hebrew translations, and scientific expositions, but as the rest of the learned D.D.s sustained my views, I shall rest in the belief that brother Love, with time and thought, will come to the same conclusions. A Rev. Mr. England also profanely claimed the Bible on the side of tyranny, and seemed to think that "Nature intended that the male should dominate over the female everywhere." As Mr. E. is a small, thin, shadowy man, without much blood, muscle, or a very remarkable cerebral development, we would advise him always to avoid the branch of the argument he stumbled upon in the Milwaukee Convention—"the physical superiority of man." Unfortunately for him, the platform illustrated the opposite, and the audience manifested, ever and anon, by suppressed laughter, that they saw the contrast between the large, well-developed brains and muscles of the women who sat there, and those of the speaker. Either Madam Anneke, Mrs. Livermore, or Dr. Ross, could have taken the reverend gentleman up in her arms and run off with him. Now, I mean nothing invidious toward small men, for some of the greatest men the world has known have been physically inferior, for example, Lord Nelson, Napoleon, our own Grant and Sheridan, and ex-Secretary Seward. All I mean to say is, that it is not politic or in good taste for a small man to come before an audience and claim physical superiority; that branch of the argument should be left for the great, burly fellows six feet high and well-proportioned, who illustrate the assertion by their overpowering presence.
We were happy to meet Mr. Butler in Milwaukee, a good Democrat, and one of the most distinguished lawyers in Wisconsin, and to find in him an ardent supporter of our cause. I told him we were looking to the Democrats to open the constitutional doors to the women in the several States. He said he thought they were getting ready to do so in the West. In Milwaukee, my pet resolutions that had been voted down in Washington and Chicago passed without a dissenting voice.
Madison, Wisconsin.
Hearing of the great enthusiasm at Milwaukee, Madison telegraphed for the convention to adjourn to the capitol and address the Legislature. Accordingly, on Friday a large delegation took the train to that city. On arriving, the first person who greeted us was Mr. Croffet, formerly of the New York Tribune. He went with us to the hotel where we were introduced to lawyers, judges, senators, generals, editors, Republicans and Democrats, who were alike ready to break a lance for woman. A splendid audience greeted us in the Hall of Representatives. Governor Fairchild presided. Mrs. Livermore, Miss Anthony and myself, all said the best things we could think of, and with as much vim as we could command after talking all day in the cars and every moment until we entered the capitol, without even the inspiration that comes from a good cup of tea or coffee. Blessed are they who draw their inspirations from the stars, the grand and beautiful in nature, and the glory of the human face divine, for such sources niggardly landlords and ignorant cooks can neither muddle nor exhaust. After the meeting we were invited into the Executive apartments and presented to Mrs. Fairchild, a woman of rare beauty, cultivation, and common sense. She, as well as the Governor, expressed great interest in the question of woman's suffrage. The Governor, with many others, subscribed for The Revolution.
From Madison we returned to Chicago. At Janesville, Wis., the Postmaster, Mr. Burgess, came on board on his way to Washington. In the course of conversation we learned that there had been some trouble in that town about the post office, and it was finally decided to submit the matter to a vote of the people. The result was that Miss Angeline King, Mr. Burgess's opponent, was chosen by fifty majority. This was a bomb shell in the male camp, and half a dozen men started for Washington, to show General Grant that they had, one and all, done braver deeds during the war than Angie possibly could have done, and that their loyalty should be rewarded. Angie, like a wise woman, stole the march on all of them, and reached Washington before they started. If the people of Janesville prefer Angie, as they have shown they do by their votes, we think it would be well for the powers that be to confirm the choice of the people.
In Chicago, we were glad to meet again our charming friend, Anna Dickinson. Miss Anthony spent the day with her at Mr. Doggett's one of the liberal merchant princes of that city. The result of that day's cogitation was one of the most cutting speeches that the "Gentle Anna," as the Tribune called her, ever made. It was a severe, but just criticism of all the twaddle of the Western press after the Chicago Woman's Suffrage Convention. Liberty Hall was crowded with a most enthusiastic audience, and although the press was not very complimentary the next day, the people who listened were delighted. She was advertised to give "Fair Play," but the West is tired of the negro question, and she was besieged on all sides to speak on woman, which she did with great effect.
E. C. S.
Galena, March 3.
Dear Revolution:—As you look at the date, your patriotic heart will palpitate to think that the women of The Revolution have taken possession of the home of the President, and propose to hold a Woman Suffrage Convention right under the very shadow of his flagstaff, peering up beside one chimney of a large square brick house with a flat roof. Said house is situated on a high hill with pleasant grounds about. At the present writing we are on the opposite hill under the hospitable roof of "Sarah Coates," whose name appears in the reports of all the early Ohio conventions. She is now Mrs. Harris. We arrived here this morning at six o'clock, and found good Mr. Harris waiting for us at the depot. He is one of the oldest and wealthiest inhabitants in the county. They have a beautiful home, surrounded with every comfort and luxury. Mrs. Harris is a noble woman, tall, fine-looking, and moves about among her household gods like a queen. Although she has a large family of black-eyed, rosy-cheeked children, pictures, statuary, a cabinet of rare minerals, a conservatory of beautiful plants, and a husband who thinks her but little lower than the angels, she still demands the right to vote, and occasionally indulges in the luxury of public speaking. She is the moving spirit in every step of progress in Galena, and was the President of the convention. We have had a most enthusiastic meeting, three sessions, and house crowded throughout on an admission fee of twenty-five cents. The women all over the West are wide-awake. Theodore Tilton had just preceded us, and some ladies laughingly told us that Theodore said they would certainly vote in twenty years!!
Let our cold-blooded Eastern reformers understand that ideas, like grains, grow fast in the West, and that women here intend to vote now, "right along," as the Hutchinsons sing. The editor of the Independent may talk of twenty years down on the Hudson among the Rip Van Winkles in Spookey Hollow, to H. G. in New York, or W. P. at the "Hub," but never to Western audiences, or to the women of The Revolution. Why, Mr. Tilton, when you go to the Senate some wise woman will sit on your right, and some black man on your left. You are to pay the penalty of your theorizing and be sandwiched between a woman and a black man in all the laws and constitutions before five years pass over your curly head. Twenty years! Why, Theodore, we expect to be walking the golden streets of the New Jerusalem by that time, talking with Noah, Moses, and Aaron, about the flood, the Pharaohs, the journey through the Red Sea and the wilderness. We shall be holding conventions by that time on the banks of the Jordan with Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Huldah, Deborah, Miriam, Ruth, Naomi, Sheba, Esther, Vashti, Mary, Elizabeth, Priscilla and Phebe, Tryphena and Tryphosa, and all the strong-minded women honorably mentioned in sacred history. Do you not know, Theodore, that we have vowed never to go disfranchised into the Kingdom of Heaven? In the meantime, we propose to discuss sanitary and sumptuary laws, finance, and free trade, religion and railroads, education and elections with such worthies as yourself in the councils of the American republic. Twenty years! Why, every white male in the nation will be tied to an apron-string by that time, while all the poets and philosophers will be writing essays on "The Sphere of Man"!
We found the good men and women of Galena filled with faith in the new President. They say he is a sober, honest, true man; that he will entirely revolutionize affairs at Washington, send the old political hacks to their homes, drive bribery and corruption from high places, and draw a new order of statesmen about him. May the good angels guide and strengthen him, for unless something is soon done to rouse the slumbering virtue of the American people, our sun will set in darkness to rise no more. Feeling the deepest interest in the past, the present, and the future of Ulysses, we asked a thousand questions concerning him. Among other things, we proposed to go to the tannery where he used to work, but found that was a myth. We peeped into some of the stores where, in his leisure hours, he used to smoke the pipe of peace, and fancied that in walking up and down the streets our feet might be treading in his footsteps. What a fascination there is in the material surroundings of great souls, and in contact with the people who have seen and loved them! But, alas, how little of the inner life, that is most interesting to hear about, mortals ever reveal to one another.
On the way from Galena to Toledo we met Frederick Douglass, dressed in a cap and a great circular cape of wolf-skins. He really presented a most formidable and ferocious aspect. I thought perhaps he intended to illustrate "William the Silent" in his northern dress, as well as to depict his character in his Lyceum lecture. As I had been talking against the pending amendment of "manhood suffrage," I trembled in my shoes and was almost as paralyzed as Red Riding Hood in a similar encounter. But unlike the little maiden, I had a friend at hand, and, as usual in the hour of danger, I fell back in the shadow of Miss Anthony, who stepped forward bravely and took the wolf by the hand. His hearty words of welcome and gracious smile reassured me, so that when my time came I was able to meet him with the usual suaviter in modo. Our joy in shaking hands here and there with Douglass, Tilton, and Anna Dickinson, through the West, was like meeting ships at sea; as pleasant and as fleeting. Douglass's hair is fast becoming as white as snow, which adds greatly to the dignity of his countenance. We hear his lecture on "William the Silent" much praised. Mr. Tilton's lecture too, on "Statesmanship," is said to be the best he has ever delivered. We had an earnest debate with Douglass as far as we journeyed together, and were glad to find that he was gradually working up to our ideas on the question of suffrage. He is at present hanging by the eyelids half-way between the lofty position of Robert Purvis, and the narrow one of George W. Downing. As he will attend the woman suffrage anniversary in New York in May, we shall have an opportunity for a full and free discussion of the whole question.