tution that
made all men rulers, all women subjects. Gerrit Smith, who had often
said, "It is always safe to do right"; "now is the time for action,
you can not be sure of to-morrow"; "speak the truth though the heavens
fall," acted from policy rather than principle in refusing to sign the
following petition:

_To the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress
assembled_:

The undersigned, citizens of the State of New York, earnestly but
respectfully request, that in any change or amendment of the
Constitution you may propose to extend or regulate suffrage,
there shall be no distinctions made between men and women.

PETERBORO, Dec. 30, 1868.

MY DEAR SUSAN B. ANTHONY:--I this evening received your earnest
letter. It pains me to be obliged to disappoint you. But I can
not sign the petition you send me. Cheerfully, gladly can I sign
a petition for the enfranchisement of women. But I can not sign a
paper against the enfranchisement of the negro man, unless at the
same time woman shall be enfranchised. The removal of the
political disabilities of race is my first desire--of sex, my
second. If put on the same level and urged in the same connection
neither will be soon accomplished. The former will very soon be,
if untrammeled by the other, and its success will prepare the way
for the accomplishment of the other.

With great regard, your friend, GERRIT SMITH.

To which letter Mrs. Stanton replied in _The Revolution_ Jan. 14,
1869:

The above is the petition to which our friend Gerrit Smith, as an
abolitionist, can not conscientiously put his name, while
Republicans and Democrats are signing it all over the country. He
does not clearly read the signs of the times, or he would see
that there is to be no reconstruction of this nation, except on
the basis of universal suffrage, as the natural, inalienable
right of every citizen. The uprising of the women on both
continents, in France, England, Russia, Switzerland, and the
United States, all show that advancing civilization demands a new
element in the government of nations. As the aristocracy in this
country is the "male sex," and as Mr. Smith belongs to the
privileged order, he naturally considers it important for the
best interests of the nation, t