ready to vote for the amendment when
opportunity should be given."

Among the State reports those of California, by Mrs. Ellen Clark
Sargent, and of Idaho, by Mrs. Eunice Pond Athey, were of special
interest, as they contained an epitomized history of the recent
campaigns in these States. It was decided that there should be a
special effort to make the next annual meeting a noteworthy affair, as
it would celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Woman's
Rights Convention.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE NATIONAL-AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1898.

The Thirtieth annual convention of the suffrage association took place
in the Columbia Theatre, Washington, D. C., Feb. 13-19, 1898, and
celebrated the Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Woman's Rights
Convention.[112] In the center of the stage was an old-fashioned,
round mahogany table, draped with the Stars and Stripes and the famous
silk suffrage flag with its four golden stars. In her opening address
the president, Miss Susan B. Anthony, said: "On this table the
original Declaration of Rights for Women was written at the home of
the well-known McClintock family in Waterloo, N. Y., just half a
century ago. Around it gathered those immortal four, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright and Mary Ann McClintock, to
formulate the grievances of women. They did not dare to sign their
names but published the Call for their convention anonymously.[113] We
have had that remarkable document printed for distribution here, and
you will notice that those demands which were ridiculed and denounced
from one end of the country to the other, all have now been conceded
but the suffrage, and that in four States."

This convention was the largest in number of delegates and States
represented of any in the history of the association, 154 being in
attendance and all but four of the States and Territories represented.

The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw devoted the most of her vice-president's
report to an account of the work to secure a suffrage amendment from
the Legislature which was being done in Iowa, where she had been
spending considerable time. The report on Press Work by the chairman,
Miss Jessie J. Cassidy, stated that 30,000 suffrage articles had been
sent from headquarters to the various newspapers of the country and
the number willing to accept these was constantly increasing. The
headquarters had been removed from Philadelphia to New York City
during the year and united