Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/654

 

The first convention in all history to consider the Rights of Women was called by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and two others to meet July 19, 20, 1848, at Seneca Falls in western New York, Mrs. Stanton's home. In 1851 the work was taken up by Susan B. Anthony, destined to be its supreme leader for the next half century. Meetings soon began to take place and societies to be formed in various States, so that by 1861 there was a well-defined movement toward woman suffrage. Large conventions were held annually in eastern and western cities, in which the most prominent men and women participated. The commencement of the Civil War ended all efforts for this object and its leaders devoted themselves for the next five years to the women's part of every war. In May, 1866, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony issued a call for the scattered forces to come together in convention in New York City, and here began the movement for woman suffrage which continued without a break for fifty-four years.

No large extension of the franchise had been made since the government was founded except to the working men between 1820 and 1830 and this had been accomplished by amending State constitutions. There had been no thought of enfranchising women in any other way but now Congress, for the purpose of giving the ballot to the recently freed negro men, was about to submit an amendment to the National Constitution. This convention was called to protest against "class legislation" and demand that women should be included. It adopted a Memorial to Congress, prepared by Mrs. Stanton, which contained a portion of Charles Sumner's great speech, Equal Rights for All, and was