Susan B. Anthony appeared to the convention like Minerva, goddess of wisdom.  Her advent was with thunders, not of applause, but of the scorn of a degenerate masculinity.  The great Horatio said, with infinite condescension, that he held in his hand a memorial of the women of the United States.  The name of Miss Anthony was greeted with a yell such as a Milton might imagine to rise from a conclave of the damned.  “She asked to plead the cause of her sex; to demand the enfranchisement of the women of America—­the only class of citizens not represented in the government, the only class without a vote, and their only disability, the insurmountable one of sex.”  As these last significant words, with more than significant accent and modulation, came from the lips of the knightly, the courtly Horatio, a bestial roar of laughter, swelling now into an almost Niagara chorus, now subsiding into comparative silence, and again without further provocation rising into infernal sublimity, shook the roof of Tammany.  Sex—­the sex of women—­was the subject of this infernal scorn; and the great Democratic gathering, with yells and shrieks and demoniac, deafening howls, consigned the memorial of Susan B. Anthony to the committee on resolutions.

The World, the Herald, the Democratic press generally, spoke of this incident in satirical and half-contemptuous tones, and the few papers which treated it seriously declared in effect that, if they had to take the “nigger,” they might as well add woman to the unpalatable dose.  A petition from the Workingmen’s Association to this same convention, demanding a “greenback plank” in the platform, was received with great respect and the plank put in as requested—­offering the very strongest object lesson of the superiority of an enfranchised over a disfranchised class.  It was not that the convention had more respect for the workingman, per se, but they feared his vote and so adopted the greenback plank in order to placate him, and then nominated for President the most ultra of gold bond-paying advocates.

The Revolution took up with great earnestness the cause of workingwomen, investigated their condition and published many articles in regard to it.  A meeting was called at the office of The Revolution and a Workingwoman’s Association formed, with officers chosen from the various occupations represented, which ranged from typesetters to ragpickers.  In September the National Labor Union Congress was held in Germania Hall, New York, and Miss Anthony was selected to represent this association.  Mr. J. C. C. Whaley, a master workman from the great iron mills of Philadelphia, presided and she was cordially received.  A committee on female labor was formed with her as chairman, and reported a strong set of resolutions, urging the organization of women’s trades unions, demanding an eight-hour law and equal pay in all positions, and pledging support to secure the ballot for women.