Reformers arriving for the anniversary meetings found New York City
gripped by excitement, word having just arrived of the hammering-in of
the golden spike linking the nation--ocean to ocean--by rail. The New
York Times described the "booming of cannon and chiming of bells," the
fire sirens, prayer services, and flag-waving that greeted the news. The
festivities surrounding the completion of the railroad had barely subsided
when a new fever gripped the city. Steinway Hall was besieged by throngs
hoping for tickets to the anticipated showdown at the A. E.R.A. meetings.
"It is a pity that the cause of 'Equal Rights' should have been so disgraced
by such a lawless scrabble for entrance tickets as occurred in the vestibule
of the Hall last evening," said the Brooklyn Daily Union, with "men and
women remorselessly crushing and tearing one another, and suffocating
the solitary policeman who had the matter in charge." ¹ At the May anni-
versaries and in the months that followed, Stone would undergo a series
of personal and political trials that would succeed in purging whatever
country innocence remained in her. She would emerge more politically
savvy, socially conservative, and emotionally hardened.

In the weeks leading up to the anniversaries, Stone, Stanton, and An-
thony had attempted through intermediaries to come to some agreement
regarding a joint future course of action. ² As part of their reconciliation
efforts, the three leaders had agreed to work together on correspondence
preparatory to forming a national woman suffrage association in the fall.
Stanton's conciliatory gestures in the Revolution and Train's statement of
withdrawal signaled a willingness to make concessions. Stone hoped that
the antislavery old guard could be brought around. At the Anti-Slavery
Society meeting that preceded the A.E.R.A. convention, she spoke force-
fully to the need for speedy ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, reas-
suring those who had begun to see women's rights as inimical to the
interests of the freedmen.

Stone's speech showed that she was mindful of the precarious position

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