Miss Anthony’s public life may be said to have fairly begun in 1852.  The Sons of Temperance had announced a mass meeting of all the divisions in the state, to be held at Albany, and had invited the Daughters to send delegates.  The Rochester union appointed Susan B. Anthony.  Her credentials, with those of the other women delegates, were accepted and seats given them in the convention, but when Miss Anthony rose to speak to a motion she was informed by the presiding officer that “the sisters were not invited there to speak but to listen and learn.”  She and three or four other ladies at once left the hall.  The rest of the women had not the courage to follow, but called them “bold, meddlesome disturbers,” and remained to bask in the approving smiles of the Sons.  They sought advice of Lydia Mott, who said the proper thing was to hold a meeting of their own; so they secured the lecture-room of the Hudson street Presbyterian church, and then went to the office of the Evening Journal, edited by Thurlow Weed, to talk the situation over with him.  He told them they had done exactly right, and in his paper that evening he announced their meeting and related their treatment by the men.

The night was cold and snowy.  The little room was dark, the stove smoked and the pipe fell down during the exercises, but the women were sustained by their indignation and sense of justice and would not allow themselves to be discouraged.  Rev. Samuel J. May, who was in the city attending the “Jerry Rescue” trials, seeing the notice of their meeting, came to offer his assistance, accompanied by David Wright, husband of Martha C. Wright and brother-in-law of Lucretia Mott.  These two, with a reporter, were the only men present at this little assemblage of women who had decided that they could do something better for the cause of temperance than being seen and not heard.

Mr. May opened the meeting with prayer, and then showed them how to organize.  Mary C. Vaughn, of Oswego, was made president; Miss Anthony, secretary; Lydia Mott, chairman of the business committee.  Mrs. Vaughn gave an address.  A letter had been received from Mrs. Stanton so radical that most of the ladies objected to having it read, but Miss Anthony took the responsibility.  She read, also, letters from Clarina Howard Nichols and Amelia Bloomer, which had been intended for the Sons’ meeting.  Mrs. Lydia F. Fowler, who happened to be lecturing in Albany, spoke briefly, and Mr. May paid high tribute to the valuable work of women in temperance and anti-slavery, declaring their influence as indispensable to the state and the church as to the home.  Miss Anthony then said their treatment showed that the time had come for women to have an organization of their own; and the final outcome was the appointment of a committee, with herself as chairman, to call a Woman’s State Temperance Convention.

She at once wrote to all parts of the State urging the unions to send delegates, and received many encouraging replies.  Horace Greeley wrote as follows: