onsummation. I believe that in
some parts of the country women will vote for the President of these
United States in 1872."

Susan grew impatient as Lucy shifted from one side to the other,
straddling the issue. Her own clear-cut approach, earning for her the
reputation of always hitting the nail on the head, made Lucy's seem
like temporizing.

The men now took control, criticizing the amount of time given to the
discussion of woman's rights, and voted endorsement of the Fifteenth
Amendment. Nevertheless, a small group of determined women continued
their fight, Susan declaring with spirit that she protested against
the Fifteenth Amendment because it was not Equal Rights and would put
2,000,000 more men in the position of tyrants over 2,000,000 women who
until now had been the equals of the Negro men at their side.[237]

* * * * *

It was now clear to Susan and to the few women who worked closely with
her that they needed a strong organization of their own and that it
was folly to waste more time on the Equal Rights Association. Western
delegates, disappointed in the convention's lack of interest in woman
suffrage, expressed themselves freely. They had been sorely tried by
the many speeches on extraneous subjects which cluttered the meetings,
the heritage of a free-speech policy handed down by antislavery
societies.

"That Equal Rights Association is an awful humbug," exploded Mary
Livermore to Susan. "I would not have come on to the anniversary, nor
would any of us, if we had known what it was. We supposed we were
coming to a woman suffrage convention."[238]

At a reception for all the delegates held at the Women's Bureau at the
close of the convention, this dissatisfaction culminated in a
spontaneous demand for a new organization which would concentrate on
woman suffrage and the Sixteenth Amendment. Alert to the
possibilities, Susan directed this demand into concrete action by
turning the reception temporarily into a business meeting. The result
was the formation of the National Woman Suffrage Association by women
from nineteen states, with Mrs. Stanton as president and Susan as a
member of the executive committee. The younger women of the West,
trusting the judgment of Susan and Mrs. Stanton, looked to them for
leadership, as did a few of the old workers in the East--Ernestine
Rose, always in the vanguard, Paulina Wright Davis, Elizabeth Smith
Miller, Lucretia Mott, who although