The National Woman Suffrage Association was organized in New York
City, May 15, 1869, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton president and Susan B.
Anthony chairman of executive committee. [History of Woman Suffrage,
Volume II, page 400.] It held annual conventions for the next half
century, always in Washington, D.C., until 1895, after which date they
were taken in alternate years to other cities, meeting in the national
capital during the first session of each Congress. The object of the
association from its beginning was to obtain an amendment to the
Federal Constitution which would confer full, universal suffrage on
the women of the United States, and its work for amending the
constitutions of the States to enfranchise their women was undertaken
as one means to achieve this main purpose. The American Woman Suffrage
Association was organized in Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 24, 1869, with
Henry Ward Beecher president and Lucy Stone chairman of executive
committee, principally for action through the States, and it also held
annual conventions. [Volume II, page 756.] In 1890 the two united in
Washington under the name National American Woman Suffrage Association
[Volume IV, page 164], and the work was continued by both methods.
Full reports of conventions may be found in preceding volumes of the
History of Woman Suffrage, the list ending in Volume IV with that of
1900. This convention was especially distinguished by the public
celebration of the 80th birthday of Susan B. Anthony and her
retirement from the presidency of the association which she had helped
to found and in which she had continuously held official position, and
by the election of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt as her successor.[3]

The assertion is frequently made that the enfranchisement of women was
due to a natural evolution of public sentiment. A reading of the
following chapters, which give the history of the work of the National
American Woman Suffrage Association, will show how largely the
creation of this sentiment was due to this organization to which all
the State associations were auxiliary. It represented the organized
movement during half a century to secure the vote for women--a
struggle such as was never made by men for this right in any country
in the world. It was the only large organization for this purpose that
ever existed in the United States and its efforts never ceased in the
more than fifty years. At each annual convention some advance was
recorded. Th