she turned her attention to the right of women to hold office in the association and to fill the position of principal in the public schools, which called forth vigorous discussion.  She secured the election of a woman as one of the vice-presidents.  The Oswego press declared:  “Miss Anthony made the speech of the convention; in grace of oratory and in spirit and style of thought it fully vindicated her claim to woman’s right to speak in public.  Her arguments were good, her speaking talents of the first order, and we hope that when men answer such pleas as she made, they will do it in a manly and generous spirit.”

She saw at this time that a Temperance and also an Anti-Nebraska Convention were to be held this month at Saratoga Springs, and at once conceived the idea of calling a woman’s rights meeting for the same week.  The time was short but she wrote urgent letters to Lucy Stone, Antoinette Brown, Ernestine Rose and Lucretia Mott.  At the appointed time, every one failed to come.  Each, supposing all the rest would be there, had allowed some other duty to keep her away.  The meeting had been advertised and Miss Anthony was in despair.  Judge William Hay, of Saratoga, always her faithful friend, had made the arrangements and he encouraged her to go ahead.  In those days she had no faith in herself as a speaker.  She was accustomed to raise the money, marshal the forces, then take the onerous position of secretary and let the orators come in and carry off all the glory.  She spoke only when there was nobody else who could or would do so.  In the present emergency she could utilize her one written speech and she was fortunate enough to find at the hotel Matilda Joslyn Gage and Sarah Pellet, a graduate of Oberlin, who consented to help her out.  St. Nicholas Hall was crowded at both sessions.  Twenty-five cents admission was charged, many tracts were sold, she paid all expenses, gave each of her speakers $10 and had a small balance left.  She needed it, for while at Saratoga her purse had been stolen with $15, all she possessed.

In 1854 the Missouri Compromise had been repealed, trouble in Kansas had reached its height, the Know Nothing party was at its zenith, the Whigs were demoralized and the Free Soilers were gaining the ascendency.  This anti-Nebraska meeting at Saratoga may be said to have witnessed the birth of the Republican party.  It possessed an additional interest for Miss Anthony, who attended all its sessions, from the fact that her brother, Daniel R., made on this occasion his first political speech.  He had just returned from Kansas and could describe from personal observation the outrages perpetrated in that unhappy territory.  After leaving Saratoga, Miss Anthony spoke in many places on the way to Rochester, among them Canajoharie, the scene of her last teaching.  Her experience here is described in a letter home: