iel after he had been shot by a rival
editor in Leavenworth.

[325] _Ibid._, p. 472.

[326] _Ibid._, p. 473.

A FEDERAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT

Like everyone else in the United States in 1876, Susan now turned her
attention to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, which was
proclaiming to the world the progress this new country had made. Susan
pointed out, however, that one hundred years after the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, women were still deprived of basic
citizenship rights.

As an afterthought, a Woman's Pavilion had been erected on the
exposition grounds and exhibited here she found only women's
contribution to the arts but nothing which would in any way show the
part women had played in building up the country or developing
industry. She longed to explain so that all could hear how the skilled
work of women had contributed to the prosperous textile and shoe
industries, to the manufacture of cartridges and Waltham watches, and
countless other products. Could she have had her way, she would have
made the Woman's Pavilion an eloquent appeal for equal rights, but
unable to do this, she established a center of rebellion for the
National Woman Suffrage Association at 1431 Chestnut Street, in
parlors on the first floor. Here she spent many happy hours directing
the work, often sleeping on the sofa so that she could work late and
save money for the cause.

Philadelphia had always been a friendly city because of Lucretia Mott.
Now Lucretia came almost daily to the women's headquarters, bringing a
comforting sense of support, approval, and friendship. When Mrs.
Stanton, free at last from her lecture engagements, joined them in
June, Susan's happiness was complete and she confided to her diary,
"Glad enough to see her and feel her strength come in."[327]

Susan and Mrs. Stanton now sent the Republican and Democratic national
conventions well-written memorials pointing out the appropriateness of
enfranchising women in this centennial year. But no woman suffrage
plank was adopted by either party. Susan put Mrs. Stanton and Mrs.
Gage to work on a Women's Declaration of 1876, and so "magnificent" a
document did they produce that she not only had many copies printed
for distribution but had one beautifully engrossed on parchment for
presentation to President Grant at the Fourth of July celebration in
Independence Square.

Unable to secure permission to present this declaration, she made