It was followed by the call of Mrs. Woodhull and others for a delegate convention to form a new party.  Miss Anthony was thunderstruck.  Not only had she no knowledge of this action, but she was thoroughly opposed both to the forming of a new party and to the National Association’s having any share in such a proceeding.  She immediately telegraphed an order to have her name removed from the call, and wrote back indignant letters of protest against involving the association in such an affair.  A month prior to this, on March 13, she had written Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Hooker from Leavenworth: 

We have no element out of which to make a political party, because there is not a man who would vote a woman suffrage ticket if thereby he endangered his Republican, Democratic, Workingmen’s or Temperance party, and all our time and words in that direction are simply thrown away.  My name must not be used to call any such meeting.  I will do all I can to support either of the leading parties which may adopt a woman suffrage plank or nominee; but no one of them wants to do anything for us, while each would like to use us....

I tell you I feel utterly disheartened—­not that our cause is going to die or be defeated, but as to my place and work.  Mrs. Woodhull has the advantage of us because she has the newspaper, and she persistently means to run our craft into her port and none other.  If she were influenced by women spirits, either in the body or out of it, in the direction she steers, I might consent to be a mere sail-hoister for her; but as it is, she is wholly owned and dominated by men spirits and I spurn the control of the whole lot of them, just precisely the same when reflected through her woman’s tongue and pen as if they spoke directly for themselves.

After sending this letter she had supposed the question settled until she saw this notice, hence her anger and dismay can be imagined.

The regular anniversary meeting of the National Association was to begin in New York on May 9, and on the 6th Miss Anthony reached the city to prevent, if possible, the threatened coalition with the proposed new party.  She engaged the parlors of the Westmoreland Hotel for headquarters and then hastened over to Tenafly to get Mrs. Stanton.  As soon as the suffrage committee opened its business session, Mrs. Woodhull and her friends appeared by previous arrangement made during Miss Anthony’s absence in the West, and announced that they would hold joint sessions with the suffrage convention the next two days at Steinway Hall.  It was only by Miss Anthony’s firm stand and indomitable will that this was averted, and that the set of resolutions which they brought, cut and dried, was defeated in the committee.  She positively refused to allow them the use of Steinway Hall, which had been rented in her name, and at length they were compelled to give up the game and engage Apollo Hall for their “new party” convention.  Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Hooker called her narrow, bigoted and headstrong, but the proceedings of the “people’s convention” next day, which nominated Mrs. Woodhull for President, showed how suicidal it would have been to have had it under the auspices of the National Suffrage Association.