While the Republican plank was unsatisfactory, it was the first time Woman ever had been mentioned in a national platform and so many glittering hopes were held out by the Republican leaders that the officers of the National Association felt justified in giving their influence to this party.  They were the more willing to do this as General Grant, the nominee, had been the first President to appoint women postmasters and was known to be friendly to their claim for equal opportunities, and as Henry Wilson, candidate for Vice-President, was an avowed advocate of woman suffrage.  Therefore, Miss Anthony, president, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, chairman of the executive committee, on July 19 sent out a ringing address which began: 

Women of the United States, the hour for political action has come.  For the first time in the history of our country, woman has been recognized in the platform of a large and dominant party.  Philadelphia has spoken and woman is no longer ignored.  She is now officially recognized as a part of the body politic....  We are told that the plank does not say much, that in fact it is only a “splinter;” and our Liberal friends warn us not to rely upon it as a promise of the ballot to women.  What it is, we know even better than others.  We recognize its meagerness; we see in it the timidity of politicians; but beyond and through all, we see a promise of the future.  It is the thin side of the entering wedge which shall break woman’s slavery in pieces and make us at last a nation truly free—­a nation in which the caste of sex shall fall down by the caste of color, and humanity alone be the criterion of all human rights.  The Republican has been the party of ideas; of progress.  Under its leadership, the nation came safely through the fiery ordeal of the rebellion; under it slavery was destroyed; under it manhood suffrage was established.  The women of the country have long looked to it in hope, and not in vain; for today we are launched by it into the political arena, and the Republican party must hereafter fight our battles for us.  This great, this progressive party, having taken the initiative step, will never go back on its record.

In July Miss Anthony, continuing the correspondence with Mr. Blackwell, wrote: 

Letters are pouring in upon me because of my announcement that I shall work for the Republican party, second only in numbers and regret to those of 1868—­because of my accepting Train’s words, works and cash, given me to push on the cause of woman suffrage as best I knew.  It is marvelous that the friends can not see what a gain it is to have the question of woman’s claims introduced into politics.  It is the hour I have longed and worked for with might and main because I have seen that so soon as we could get this, the editors and orators of both parties must of necessity discuss the subject pro and con, and of course the party which introduced it favorably into politics, must be the one to give the reasons