ton.

Then Wendell Phillips showed his displeasure by moving that Mrs.
Stanton's resolutions be laid on the table and expunged from the
record because they had no more to do with this convention than
slavery in Kansas or temperance. "This convention," he asserted, "as I
understand it, assembles to discuss the laws that rest unequally upon
men and women, not those that rest equally on men and women."[114]

Aghast at this statement, Susan was totally unprepared to have his
views supported by that other champion of liberty, William Lloyd
Garrison, who, however, did not favor expunging the resolutions from
the record.

It was incomprehensible to Susan that neither Garrison nor Phillips
recognized woman's subservient status in marriage under prevailing
laws and traditions, and she now stated her own views with firmness:
"As to the point that this question does not belong to this
platform--from that I totally dissent. Marriage has ever been a
one-sided matter, resting most unequally upon the sexes. By it, man
gains all--woman loses all; tyrant law and lust reign supreme with
him--meek submission and ready obedience alone befit her."[115]

Warming to the subject, she continued, "By law, public sentiment, and
religion from the time of Moses down to the present day, woman has
never been thought of other than as a piece of property, to be
disposed of at the will and pleasure of man. And this very hour, by
our statute books, by our so-called enlightened Christian
civilization, she has no voice in saying what shall be the basis of
the relation. She must accept marriage as man proffers it or not at
all...."

When finally the vote was taken, Mrs. Stanton's resolutions were laid
on the table, but not expunged from the record, and the convention
adjourned with much to talk about and think about for some time to
come.

The newspapers, of course, could not overlook such a piece of news as
this heated argument on divorce in a woman's rights convention, and
fanned the flames pro and con, most of them holding up Miss Anthony
and Mrs. Stanton as dangerous examples of freedom for women. The Rev.
A. D. Mayo, Unitarian clergyman of Albany, heretofore Susan's loyal
champion, now made a point of reproving her. "You are not married," he
declared with withering scorn. "You have no business to be discussing
marriage." To this she retorted, "Well, Mr. Mayo, you are not a
slave. Suppose you quit lecturing on slavery."[116]

Both Susan and Mr