and that she is powerless to assert her rights, because she is poor.  Woman must go to work to get rid of her poverty, but that she can not do in her present disabling dress, and she seems determined not to cast it aside.  She is unwilling to sacrifice grace and fashion, even to gain her rights; albeit, too, that this grace is an absurd conventionalism and that this fashion is infinite folly.  Were woman to adopt a rational dress, a dress that would not hinder her from any employment, how quickly would she rise from her present degrading dependence on man!  How quickly would the marriage contract be modified and made to recognize the equal rights of the parties to it!  And how quickly would she gain access to the ballot-box.

Thus one man refused to assist the cause because its advocates were too radical, and another because they were not radical enough; or, in other words, each wanted the women to be and to do according to his own ideas.

The Seventh National Woman’s Rights Convention met in the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, November 25 and 26.  Lucy Stone presided and Wendell Phillips was one of the prominent speakers.  The election was over, the mob spirit temporarily quieted, and the convention was not disturbed except when certain of the men attempted to make long speeches or introduce politics.  The audience had come to hear women plead their own cause and insisted that this should be the program.

In this fall of 1856 Miss Anthony renewed her engagement with the anti-slavery committee, writing Mr. May:  “I shall be very glad if I am able to render even the most humble service to this cause.  Heaven knows there is need of earnest, effective radical workers.  The heart sickens over the delusions of the recent campaign and turns achingly to the unconsidered whole question.”  The committee answered:  “We put all New York into your control and want your name to all letters and your hand in all arrangements.  We like your form of posters; by all means let ’No Union with Slaveholders’ be conspicuous upon them.”  An extract from a letter received from Mr. May, the secretary, dated October 22, shows the estimate placed upon her services by the committee: 

The Anti-Slavery Society wants you in the field.  I really think the efficiency and success of our operations in New York this winter will depend more on your personal attendance and direction than upon that of any other of our workers.  We need your earnestness, your practical talent, your energy and perseverance to make these conventions successful.  The public mind will be sore this winter, disappointment awaits vast numbers, dismay will overtake many.  We want your cheerfulness, your spirit—­in short, yourself.

[Footnote 22:  In 1854 Judge William Hay brought out a new edition of his romance, Isabel D’Avalos, the Maid of Seville, with a sequel, The Siege of Granada, dedicated as follows: 

TO
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
whose earnestness of purpose, honesty of intention,
unintermitted industry, indefatigable perseverance,
and extraordinary business-talent,
are surpassed only by the virtues which have illustrated her life,
devoted, like that of Dorothea Dix,
TO THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY.