f confidence. Women taxpayers had been
granted the right to vote in municipal elections in England, Scotland,
and Wales, through the efforts of Jacob Bright. In the Territory of
Wyoming, during the first session of its legislature, women had been
granted the right to vote, to hold office, and serve on juries, and
married women had been given the right to their separate property and
their earnings. This progressive action by men of the West turned
Susan's thoughts hopefully to the western territories, and early in
1870 when the Territory of Utah enfranchised its women, she had
further cause for rejoicing.

To celebrate these victories for which her twenty years' work for
women had blazed the trail, some of her friends held a reception for
her in New York at the Women's Bureau on her fiftieth birthday. She
was amazed at the friendly attention her birthday received in the
press. "Susan's Half Century," read a headline in the _Herald_. The
_World_ called her the Moses of her sex. "A Brave Old Maid," commented
the _Sun_. But it was to the _Tribune_ that she turned with special
interest, always hoping for a word of approval from Horace Greeley and
finding at last this faint ray of praise: "Careful readers of the
_Tribune_ have probably succeeded in discovering that we have not
always been able to applaud the course of Miss Susan B. Anthony.
Indeed, we have often felt, and sometimes said that her methods were
as unwise as we thought her aims undesirable. But through these years
of disputation and struggling. Miss Anthony has thoroughly impressed
friends and enemies alike with the sincerity and earnestness of her
purpose...."[253]

To Anna E. Dickinson, far away lecturing, Susan confided, "Oh, Anna, I
am so glad of it all because it will teach the young girls that to be
true to principle--to live an idea, though an unpopular one--that to
live single--without any man's name--may be honorable."[254]

A few of Susan's younger colleagues still insisted that a merger of
the National and American Woman Suffrage Associations might be
possible. Again Theodore Tilton undertook the task of mediation and
Lucretia Mott, who had retired from active participation in the
woman's rights movement, tried to help work out a reconciliation.
Susan was skeptical but gave them her blessing. Representatives of the
American Association, however, again made it plain that they were
unwilling to work with Susan and Mrs. Stanton.[255]

By this time _T