Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/352

328, D. C., Jan. 31, 1882.


 * — ... Mrs. Gage's version of the origin of the 15th Amendment is in substance true. To dear Anna E. Dickinson and brave Theodore Tilton belongs the credit of forcing that amendment upon the attention of the Nation at the right moment and in the right way to make it successful. I have given Miss Dickinson the credit you award her in my "Life and Times," and have made myself one of your earliest converts in the same.

Very truly yours,

, D. C., Feb. 6, 1882.


 * —Referring, since reading your note, to what I have said of the National Loyalist Convention, held in Philadelphia in 1866, I find that I have done but very scant justice to Anna E. Dickinson and Theodore Tilton. Their courage, skill and sagacity, were never displayed to greater advantage than on that occasion. I have, as you will see, mentioned the main facts, but I have given but a meagre view of the moral conditions surrounding it. Bold and prompt action was needed, and the man and the woman were equal to the occasion. From the first Miss Dickinson, Mr. Tilton and myself felt that any reconstruction at the South leaving the freedmen without the ballot, would leave them in the absolute power of the old master-class. Hence from the first we conferred together as to the manner of bringing the subject to the attention of the Convention. We looked to the Committee on Resolutions to bring up the subject, but waited in vain. They had nothing for us but well rounded platitudes and glittering generalities about the Union and the relation of the States to the National Government all well enough in ordinary times, but totally inappropriate in respect of the real situation of the country at the moment. When it became known that Mr. Tilton and myself meant to bring forward the subject, we were besought not to do a thing so impolitic. We were implored not to load the Republican party with this new burden. We were told of the advantage it would give the Democratic party against us; how it would intensify and concentrate the prejudice already felt for the negro. It was evident that negro suffrage was the one great dread of the Convention. The proposal to discuss it was deplored as a blunder which would cost us dearly. This apprehension was mainly confined to the delegates from the border States, and as they had the control of the Convention, they managed to keep out the disturbing question of negro suffrage till the last day.

Seeing the evident purpose to this end, Mr. Tilton, after consulting with Miss Dickinson and myself, introduced the suffrage question. His action was received as a very large fire-brand, and caused a storm of tumult and confusion, in the midst of which the President, Mr. Speed, and other officers left their places on the platform, declaring the Convention adjourned. At this critical juncture, with the tact and skill of a veteran, Mr. Tilton seized the helm, declared the Convention not adjourned, and moved that Honorable John Minor Botts take the Chair. The Border States delegates took their hats and heels out of the Convention without standing upon the order of their going, while the men from the Gulf States nobly stood their ground. The Convention was still large. The going out of the Border States unfettered the platform. Anna E. Dickinson came on the stand with all her wonted ability, and