As a result of this agitation a little clique of women in Boston, led by Caroline H. Dall, announced that they would hold a convention which should not be open to free discussion but should be “limited to the subjects of Education, Vocation and Civil Position.”  They drew to themselves a small body of conservatives and it was thought might start a new movement, but the meeting had no permanent results.  Parker Pillsbury said of it:  “With the exception of Phillips, no soul kindled with volcanic fire was permitted a solitary spark.  O, such a meeting!  Beautiful as parlor theatricals, but as a bold shriek for freedom or a protest against tyrant laws, not a sparrow on the housetop could have been more harmless.”  Miss Anthony wrote at this time:  “Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform.  Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.”

In June she and Mrs. Stanton went to a large meeting of Progressive Friends at Waterloo, where the latter read this same speech on divorce and then, to quote Miss Anthony’s own words, “As usual when she had fired her gun she went home and left me to finish the battle.”  In this case it lasted several days, but Mrs. Stanton knew she could count upon her friend to defend her to the last ditch.  Miss Anthony was always on the skirmish line.  She would interview the married women who could not leave home and children, get their approval of her plans and then go to the front.  Once or twice a year she would gather her hosts for a big battle, but the rest of the time she did picket duty, acted as scout and penetrated alone the enemy’s country.  Between meetings she would find her way home, make over her old dresses and on rare occasions get a new one.  This she called “looking after the externals.”  Then, as her mother was an invalid, she would clean the house from top to bottom and do a vast amount of necessary work.

In her diary are many such entries as these:  “Washed all the shutters.  Took up the carpet this morning....  Whitewashed the kitchen today....  Helped the girl wash this morning; in the afternoon ironed six shirts, and started for New York at 4 o’clock.  Was a little bit tired.”  At one time, with the help of a seamstress, she made fourteen shirts, stitching by hand all the collars, bosoms and wristbands, and, as this woman had worked in the Troy laundry, she taught Miss Anthony to clear-starch and iron them.  Each summer she managed to be home long enough to assist with the canning, pickling and preserving.  The little journal gives the best glimpses of her daily life, usually only a hasty scrawl of a few lines but containing many flashes of humor and wisdom.  Thus the records run: