hat woman should in the very capitol
of the nation lift her voice against that abominable measure," she
wrote Lucy Stone, with whom she was corresponding more and more
frequently. "It is not enough that H. B. Stowe should write."[49]
Harriet Beecher Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ had been published in 1852
and during that year 300,000 copies were sold.

[Illustration: Ernestine Rose]

With Ernestine Rose, Susan now headed for Washington. These two women
had been drawn together by common interests ever since they had met in
Syracuse in 1852. Susan was not frightened, as many were, by
Ernestine's reputed atheism. She appreciated Ernestine's intelligence,
her devotion to woman's rights, and her easy eloquence. Conscious of
her own limitations as an orator, she recognized her need of Ernestine
for the many meetings she planned for the future.

As they traveled to Washington together, she learned more about this
beautiful, impressive, black-haired Jewess from Poland, who was ten
years her senior. The daughter of a rabbi, Ernestine had found the
limitations of orthodox religion unbearable for a woman and had left
her home to see and learn more of the world in Prussia, Holland,
France, Scotland, and England. She had married an Englishman
sympathetic to her liberal views, and together they had come to New
York where she began her career as a lecturer in 1836 when speaking in
public branded women immoral. She spoke easily and well on education,
woman's rights, and the evils of slavery. Her slight foreign accent
added charm to her rich musical voice, and before long she was in
demand as far west as Ohio and Michigan. With a colleague as
experienced as Ernestine, Susan dared arrange for meetings even in the
capital of the nation.

Washington was tense over the slavery issue when they arrived, and
Ernestine's friends warned her not to mention the subject in her
lectures. Unheeding she commented on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, but the
press took no notice and her audiences showed no signs of
dissatisfaction. In fact, two comparatively unknown women, billed to
lecture on the "Educational and Social Rights of Women" and the
"Political and Legal Rights of Women," attracted little attention in a
city accustomed to a blaze of Congressional oratory. Hoping to draw
larger audiences and to lend dignity to their meetings, Susan asked
for the use of the Capitol on Sunday, but was refused because
Ernestine was not a member of a religious societ