Republicans to offer even a glimmer of hope that they
were capable of governing in this crisis. Lincoln's inaugural address
prejudiced her at once, for he said, "I have no purpose directly or
indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states
where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so and I have
no inclination to do so."[130] To her the future looked dark when
statesmen would save the Union at such a price.

"No Compromise" was Susan's watchword these days, as a feminist as
well as an abolitionist, even though this again set her at odds with
Garrison and Phillips, the two men she respected above all others.
They were now writing her stern letters urging her to reveal the
hiding place of a fugitive wife and her daughter. Just before she had
started on her antislavery crusade and while she was in Albany with
Lydia Mott, a heavily veiled woman with a tragic story had come to
them for help. She was the wife of Dr. Charles Abner Phelps, a highly
respected member of the Massachusetts Senate, and the mother of three
children. She had discovered, she told them, that her husband was
unfaithful to her, and when she confronted him with the proof, he had
insisted that she suffered from delusions and had her committed to an
insane asylum. For a year and a half she had not been allowed to
communicate with her children, but finally her brother, a prominent
Albany attorney, obtained her release through a writ of habeas corpus,
took her to his home, and persuaded Dr. Phelps to allow the children
to visit her for a few weeks. Now she was desperate as she again faced
the prospect of being separated from her children by Massachusetts law
which gave even an unfaithful husband control of his wife's person and
their children.

Well aware of how often her friends of the Underground Railroad had
defied the Fugitive Slave Law and hidden and transported fugitive
slaves, Susan decided she would do the same for this cultured
intelligent woman, a slave to her husband under the law. Without a
thought of the consequences, she took the train on Christmas Day for
New York with Mrs. Phelps and her thirteen-year-old daughter, both in
disguise, hoping that in the crowded city they could hide from Dr.
Phelps and the law. Arriving late at night, they walked through the
snow and slush to a hotel, only to be refused a room because they were
not accompanied by a gentleman. They tried another hotel, with the
same result, and