count of Miss Anthony's determination not to accept the
presidency see her Life and Work, p. 631.

CHAPTER XI.

THE NATIONAL-AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1891.

Immediately preceding the Twenty-third annual suffrage convention in
1891, the first triennial meeting took place of the National Council
of Women, which had been formed in 1888. It was held in Albaugh's
Opera House, Washington, beginning Sunday, February 22, and continuing
four days, an assemblage of the most distinguished women of the nation
in many lines of work. Miss Frances E. Willard presided and the other
officers contributed to the success of the Council--Miss Susan B.
Anthony, vice-president; Mrs. May Wright Sewall, corresponding
secretary; Miss Mary F. Eastman, recording secretary; Mrs. M. Louise
Thomas, treasurer. Ten national organizations were represented by
official delegates and forty sent fraternal delegates.

The Sunday services were conducted entirely by women, the Rev. Ida C.
Hultin giving the sermon from the text, "For the earth bringeth forth
fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full
corn in the ear." "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth". The
program of the week included Charities, Education, Temperance,
Religion, Organized Work, Political Status of Women, etc.[82] On
Saturday evening Mrs. Jane H. Spofford gave a large reception at the
Riggs House to the Council and the Suffrage Association. The latter
held its sessions February 26-March 1, occupying the same beautifully
decorated opera house which had been filled for four days by audiences
in attendance at the Council, who kept on coming, scarcely knowing the
difference.

The Call for this convention expressed the great joy over the action
of Congress during the past year in admitting Wyoming as a State with
woman suffrage in its constitution:

The admission of Wyoming into the Union as a State with equal
rights for women guaranteed in its organic law, not only sets a
seal of approval upon woman suffrage after a practical experience
of twenty-one years, but it makes woman a recognized factor in
national politics. Hereafter the Chief Executive and both Houses
of Congress will owe their election partly to the votes of women.
The injustice and absurdity of allowing women in one State to be
sovereign rulers, and across the line in every direction obliging
them to occupy the position of a subject class, taxed wi