rial by Jury_,
by John Hooker, the husband of Isabella Beecher Hooker. The Rochester
_Democrat and Chronicle_ called the booklet "the most important
contribution yet made to the discussion of woman suffrage from a legal
standpoint." The _Woman's Suffrage Journal_, IV, Aug. 1, 1873, p. 121,
published in England by Lydia Becker, said: "The American law which
makes it a criminal offense for a person to vote who is not legally
qualified appears harsh to our ideas."

[311] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 455-456.

[312] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, pp. 737-739, 741-742.

[313] _Trial_, p. 191.

SOCIAL PURITY

Militancy among the suffragists continued to flare up here and there
in resistance to taxation without representation. Abby Kelley Foster's
home in Worcester was sold for taxes for a mere fraction of its worth,
while in Glastonbury, Connecticut, Abby and Julia Smith's cows and
personal property were seized for taxes. Both Dr. Harriot K. Hunt in
Boston and Mary Anthony in Rochester continued their tax protests.
Much as Susan admired this spirited rebellion, she recognized that
these militant gestures were but flames in the wind unless they had
behind them a well-organized, sustained campaign for a Sixteenth
Amendment, and this she could not undertake until _The Revolution_
debt was paid. Nor was there anyone to pinch-hit for her since
Ernestine Rose had returned to England and Mrs. Stanton gave all her
time to Lyceum lectures.

At the moment the prospect looked bleak for woman suffrage. In
Congress, there was not the slightest hope of the introduction of or
action on a Sixteenth Amendment. In the states, interest was kept
alive by woman suffrage bills before the legislatures, and year by
year, with more people recognizing the inherent justice of the demand,
the margin of defeat grew smaller. Whenever these state contests were
critical, Susan managed to be on hand, giving up profitable lecture
engagements to speak without fees; in Michigan in 1874 and in Iowa in
1875, she made new friends for the cause but was unable to stem the
tide of prejudice against granting women the vote. After the defeat in
Michigan, she wrote in her diary, "Every whisky maker, vendor,
drinker, gambler, every ignorant besotted man is against us, and then
the other extreme, every narrow, selfish religious bigot."[314]

A new militant movement swept the country in 1874, starting in small
Ohio towns among women who were so aroused over