carries her on to “ways and means” not altogether tenable—­in fine, she will offend your taste and mine; but this is only the outside and a very small side of Susan Anthony.  A man, and more than a man—­a woman who can deny herself, ignore herself, for a principle, for what she believes to be the truth, whether we believe it or not, is at least entitled to our respect.

Susan B. Anthony has a strong, earnest and loving nature; her devotion to her sex is an utterly absorbing and absolute passion.  Born and nurtured a Quaker, she transgresses no prejudice, even of education, when she stands forth everywhere and in all places the unflinching, unwearied, never-to-be-put-down champion of woman.  In the better age, when the woman of the future shall be man’s equal in law, in education, in labor, in labor’s rewards; when time shall have softened the asperities of the present, and the crudeness of the personal shall be buried forever in the grave, Susan B. Anthony will live as one of the truest friends that woman ever had.

[Autograph:  Mary Clemmer]

Sarah Pugh wrote Miss Anthony to stop over in Philadelphia and visit Mrs. Mott and herself on her way home from Washington, adding, “We are true to you.”  In accepting the invitation, Miss Anthony said:  “I pray every day to keep broad and generous towards all who scatter and divide, and hope I may hold out to the end.  The movement can not be damaged, though some particular schemes may, by any ill-judged action.  The wheels are secure on the iron rails, and no ‘National’ or ’American’—­no New York or Boston—­assumption or antagonism can block them.  Individuals may jump on or off, yet the train is stopped thereby but for a moment.”

A letter to her from the California association declares:  “We will split into a thousand pieces before we will prove false to you, who have so long borne the heat and burden of the day.”  The heat and burden had indeed been great, and one less strong in body and less heroic in soul would have sunk under them.  Although she was still weighed down by the terrible financial struggle of The Revolution, the storm of opposition which it had aroused was passing away and the old friends and many new ones were flocking around the intrepid standard bearer, whom neither fear nor favor could induce to swerve from the straight line marked out by her own convictions and conscience.  Miss Anthony would soon complete a half-century, and her friends resolved to commemorate it in a worthy manner.  Handsomely engraved cards were sent out, reading: 

The ladies of the Woman’s Bureau invite you to a reception on Tuesday evening, February 15, 1870, to celebrate the Fiftieth Birthday of Susan B. Anthony.  On this occasion her friends will be afforded an opportunity to testify their appreciation of her twenty years’ service in behalf of woman.  ELIZABETH B. PHELPS, ANNA B. DARLING, CHARLOTTE B. WILBOUR.

There had been hard work to persuade Miss Anthony to accept this testimonial, but she was very happy that evening when the spacious parlors were crowded with the leading men and women of the day.  Although her opinions and methods had been many times attacked by the newspapers, they now united in cordial congratulations.  The New York World, in a long account, thus described the affair: