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.[1] 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,[2] 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
- ↑ The Sunday afternoon preceding the convention religious services were held in the theatre, which was crowded. The sermon was given by the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, from the text, "One shall chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight"
- ↑ A most interesting account of that historic occasion may be found in the History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, p. 67.
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