New York in May 1871, to a convention of the National
Woman Suffrage Association, Susan found that Mrs. Hooker, Mrs.
Stanton, and Mrs. Davis had invited Victoria Woodhull to address that
convention and to sit on the platform between Lucretia Mott and Mrs.
Stanton.

Through them and others more critical, Susan was brought up to date on
the sensational story of Victoria Woodhull, who had been drawing
record crowds to her lectures and whose unconventional life
continuously provided reporters with interesting copy. Victoria's home
at 15 East Thirty-eighth Street, resplendent and ornate with gilded
furniture and bric-a-brac, housed not only her husband, Colonel Blood,
and herself but her divorced husband and their children as well, and
also all of her quarrelsome relatives. Here many radicals, social
reformers, and spiritualists gathered, among them Stephen Pearl
Andrews, who soon made use of Victoria and her _Weekly_ to publicize
his dream of a new world order, the Pantarchy, as he called it.
Victoria, herself, was an ardent spiritualist, controlled by
Demosthenes of the spirit world to whom she believed she owed her most
brilliant utterances and by whom she was guided to announce herself as
a presidential candidate in 1872. Needless to say, with such a
background, Victoria Woodhull became a very controversial figure among
the suffragists.

In New York only a few days, it was hard for Susan to separate fact
from fiction, truth from rumor and animosity. Even Demosthenes did not
seem too ridiculous to her, for many of her most respected friends
were spiritualists. Nor did Victoria's presidential aspirations
trouble her greatly. Presidential candidates had been nothing to brag
of, and willingly would she support the right woman for President. If
Victoria lived up to the high standard of the Woodhull Memorial, then
even she might be that woman. After all, it was an era of radical
theories and Utopian dreams, of extravagances of every sort. Almost
anything could happen.

Whatever doubts the suffragists may have had when they saw Victoria
Woodhull on the platform at the New York meeting of the National
Association, she swept them all along with her when, as one inspired,
she made her "Great Secession" speech. "If the very next Congress
refuses women all the legitimate results of citizenship," she
declared, "we shall proceed to call another convention expressly to
frame a new constitution and to erect a new government.... We m