ese chapters show that, while the principal object of the
association was a Federal Amendment, it gave valuable assistance to
every campaign for the amendment of State constitutions and that it
was responsible for the granting of the Presidential franchise, which
was so important a factor in gaining the final victory. The reports of
its officers each year show the large amount of money raised and
expended, the hundreds of thousands of letters written, the millions
of pieces of literature circulated, the thousands of meetings held,
the many workers in the field. The committee reports and the
resolutions adopted show that all reforms vital to the welfare of
women and children and many of a wider scope were included in the work
of the association. The names of the speakers at the national
conventions and at the hearings before the committees of Congress
during all these years prove that this cause was championed by the
leaders among the men and women of their generation. Such quotations
from their speeches as space has permitted show that in eloquence,
logic and strength they were unsurpassed and that their arguments were
unanswerable.

If this volume contained only the first nineteen chapters the reader
could not fail to be convinced that principally to the efforts of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association the women of the United
States owe their enfranchisement, but it shows too that in the
forty-eight auxiliary States they also fought their own hard battles.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, Chapters XX and XXI.

CHAPTER I.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1901.

The Thirty-third annual convention opened on the afternoon of May 30,
1901, in the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, with the new
president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair, and continued
through June 4, with 144 delegates from twenty-six States present.[4]

Miss Anthony was present at this Minneapolis convention, alert and
vigorous but happy to relinquish her official duties to one in whose
ability and judgment she had implicit confidence; and the rest of the
official board were there ready to give the same allegiance and
loyalty to the new chief which they had rendered for many years to the
supreme leader. The _Minneapolis Journal_ said: "The formal opening of
the suffrage convention yesterday afternoon was an impressive affair.
Among the national officers seated on the platform were women who saw