unt Susan. As she later confessed to Susan, this was a
personal sacrifice which cost her many a heartache, but she "honestly
felt that Mrs. Catt was better fitted ... as well as freer to go into
an unpaid field."[427] Susan therefore approached Mrs. Catt through
Rachel and Harriet Upton, and was relieved when she consented to stand
for election.

Rumors of Susan's retirement aroused ambitions in Lillie Devereux
Blake, who from the point of seniority and devoted work in New York
was regarded as being next in line for the presidency by Mrs. Stanton
and Mrs. Colby. Unable to visualize Mrs. Blake as the leader of this
large organization with its diverse strong personalities, Susan
nevertheless conceded her right to compete for the office. Although
she appreciated Mrs. Blake's valuable work for the cause, there never
had been understanding or sympathy between them. Temperamentally the
blunt stern New Englander with untiring drive had little in common
with the southern beauty turned reformer.

A change in the presidency needed wise and patient handling as
personal ambitions, prejudices, and misunderstandings reared their
heads. When there were murmurings of secession among a small group if
Mrs. Catt were elected, Susan wrote Mrs. Colby that such talk was
"very immature, very despotic, very undemocratic," and she hoped she
was not one of the malcontents.[428]

Another problem was the future of the organization committee which
under Mrs. Catt's chairmanship had carried on a large part of the
work. Its influence was considerable and could readily develop so as
to conflict with that of the officers, thus threatening the unity of
the whole organization. To dissolve the committee seemed to Susan and
her closest advisors the wisest procedure. Mary Garrett Hay, who had
worked closely with Mrs. Catt on the organization committee, opposed
this plan, but after earnest discussion the officers, including Mrs.
Catt, agreed to dissolve the organization committee.

* * * * *

As Susan appeared on the platform at the opening session of the
Washington convention in February 1900, there was thunderous applause
from an audience tense with emotion at the thought of losing the
leader who had guided them for so many years. The tall gray-haired
woman in black satin, with soft rich lace at her throat and the
proverbial red shawl about her shoulders, had become the symbol of
their cause. Now, as she looked down upo