Mrs. Elizabeth F. Ellet, author of Women of the Revolution and other works, cared for and protected the unfortunates, obtained sewing for the mother and helped her to live in peaceful seclusion for a year.  She was placed in the family of a physician who watched her closely and testified, as did all connected with her, that she was perfectly sane.  According to her letters still in existence, the husband took possession of her funds in bank, drew all the money due to her from her publishers and forbade them to pay her any more from the sale of her books, as he had a legal right to do.  In this extremity one of the brothers sent her some money through Miss Mott, who stood as firm as Miss Anthony in the face of threat and persecution.  At length, feeling safe, the mother let the little girl go to Sunday-school alone and at the door of the church she was suddenly snatched up, put into a close carriage and in a few hours placed in possession of the father.  The mother and her friends made every effort to secure the child, but the law was on the side of the father and they never succeeded.

[Footnote 29:  At Miss Anthony’s request only such speeches are published in the appendix of this biography as were prepared entirely without the co-operation of Mrs. Stanton.]

[Footnote 30:  In a letter to Miss Anthony regretting that no action was taken on the suffrage question, Mr. Colvin wrote:  “The more reflection I give, the more my mind becomes convinced that in a republican government we have no right to deny woman the privileges she claims.  Besides, the moral element which those privileges would bring into action would, in my judgment, have a powerful influence in perpetuating our form of government.”]

CHAPTER XIII.

MOB EXPERIENCE——­CIVIL WAR.

1861—­1862.

The beginning of 1861 found the country in a state approaching demoralization.  Lincoln had received a majority of the electoral vote but far from a majority of the popular vote.  The victory was so narrow that the Republicans did not feel themselves strong enough for aggressive action, and the party was composed of a number of diverse elements not yet sufficiently united to agree upon a distinctive policy.  Its one cohesive force was the principle of no further extension of slavery, but there was no thought among its leaders of any interference with this institution in the States where it already existed.  They accepted the interpretation of the Constitution which declared that it sanctioned and protected slavery, but were determined that the Territories should be admitted into the Union as free States.  While many of them were in favor of emancipation, they expected that in some way this question would be settled without recourse to extreme measures, and they feared the effect, not only on the South but on the North, of the forcible language and radical demands of the Abolitionists.