and when he arose and said: "Mr. President, I hold in my hand a petition from Mrs. Horace Greeley and three hundred other women citizens of Westchester, asking that the word 'male' be stricken from the Constitution," the sensation throughout the house was as profound as unexpected. Mr. Greeley's chagrin was only equaled by the amusement of the other members, and of the ladies in the gallery. As he arose to read his report, it being the next thing in order, he was evidently embarrassed in view of such a flood of petitions from all parts of the State; from his own wife, and most of the ladies in his immediate social circle, by seeming to antagonize the measure.
After Mr. Greeley's report, Mr. Graves made several efforts to get his resolution adopted in time for the women to vote upon it in the spring of 1868. Mr. Weed, of Clinton, also desired that the vote for the measure should consist of the majority of the women of the State. The great event of the Convention was the speech of George William Curtis on the report of the "Committee on the right of suffrage and the qualifications to hold office."
ley's petition and Mr. Greeley's report to antidote each other, and appear side by side in the Metropolitan journals. After the Convention adjourned that day, some of the ladies lingered in the vestibule to congratulate Mr. Greeley on his conservative report; but he had disappeared through some side door, and could not be found. A few weeks after he met Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony at one of Alice Cary's Sunday evening receptions. They noticed him slowly making his way toward them, and prepared for the coming storm. As he approached, both arose, and with extended hands, exclaimed most cordially, "Good evening, Mr. Greeley." But his hands hung limp and undemonstrative by his side, as he said in low and measured words, "You two ladies are the most maneuvering politicians in the State of New York. You set out to annoy me in the Constitutional Convention, and you did it effectually. I saw in the manner my wife's petition was presented, that Mr. Curtis was acting under instructions. I saw the reporters prick up their ears and knew that my report and Mrs. Greeley's petition would come out together, with large headings in the city papers, and probably be called out by the newsboys in the street." Turning to Mrs. Stanton, he said, "You are so tenacious about your own name, why did you not inscribe my wife's maiden name, Mary Cheney Greeley on her petition?" "Because," I replied, "I wanted all the world to know that it was the wife of Horace Greeley who protested against her husband's report." "Well," said he, "I understand the animus of that whole proceeding, and now let me tell you what I intend to do. I have given positive instructions that no word of praise shall ever again be awarded you in the Tribune, and that if your name is ever necessarily mentioned, it shall be as Mrs. Henry B. Stanton!" And so it has been ever since. From that time Mr. Greeley was seemingly hostile to the woman suffrage movement, just as he was toward the anti-slavery cause, after the Abolitionists in rolling up 60,000 votes for James G. Birney, defeated Henry Clay, and gave the ascendency to the Democrats by electing Polk. Clay being a strong Protectionist was a great favorite with Mr. Greeley, and his defeat was a sore disappointment, and for years he denounced Abolitionists individually and collectively in his scathing editorials. Still in his happier moods he firmly believed in the civil and political equality of both women and negroes.
