the suffragists, Susan made it plain that they
would do nothing of the kind, as Steinway Hall had been engaged for a
woman suffrage convention. With relief, she watched Victoria and her
flock leave for a meeting place of their own. Disgruntled at what she
called Susan's intolerance, Mrs. Stanton then asked to be relieved of
the presidency. Elected to take her place, Susan was now free to cope
with Victoria, should this again become necessary.

Not to be outmaneuvered by Susan, Victoria made a surprise appearance
near the end of the evening session and moved that the convention
adjourn to meet the next morning in Apollo Hall with the people's
convention. Quickly one of her colleagues seconded the motion. Susan
refused to put this motion, standing quietly before the excited
audience, stern and somber in her steel-gray silk dress. Beside her on
the platform, Victoria, intense and vivid, put the motion herself, and
it was overwhelmingly carried by her friends scattered among the
suffragists. Declaring this out of order because neither Victoria nor
many of those voting were members of the National Association, Susan
in her most commanding voice adjourned the convention to meet in the
same place the next morning. Victoria, however, continued her demands
until Susan ordered the janitor to turn out the lights. Then the
audience dispersed in the darkness.

With these drastic measures, Susan rescued the National Woman Suffrage
Association from Victoria Woodhull, who had her own triumph later at
Apollo Hall, where, surrounded by wildly cheering admirers, she was
nominated for President of the United States by the newly formed Equal
Rights party.

Reading about Victoria's nomination in the morning papers, Susan
breathed a prayer of gratitude for a narrow escape, recording in her
diary, "There never was such a foolish muddle--all come of Mrs. S.
[Stanton] consulting and conceding to Woodhull & calling a People's
Con[vention].... All came near being lost.... I never was so hurt with
the folly of Stanton.... Our movement as such is so demoralized by
letting go the helm of ship to Woodhull--though we rescued it--it was
as by a hair breadth escape." She was surprised to find no
condemnation of her actions in _Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly_ but only
the implication that the suffragists were too slow for Victoria's
great work.[282]

The attitude of some of the leading suffragists toward Victoria
Woodhull remained a problem. Fortunatel