preferable to that of any other, but only a comparatively small number
of the latter could be obtained. She kept copies of a few important
official letters, and friends in various parts of the country kindly
sent those in their possession. Every letter quoted in these volumes
was copied from the original, hence there can be no question of
authenticity. The autographs reproduced in fac-simile were clipped from
letters written to Miss Anthony. Her diaries of over fifty years have
furnished an invaluable record. The strict financial accounts of all
moneys received and spent, frequently have supplied a date or incident
when every other source had failed. A mine of information was found in
her full set of scrap-books, beginning with 1850; the History of Woman
Suffrage; almost complete files of Garrison's Liberator, the
Anti-Slavery Standard, and woman's rights papers--Lily, Una,
Revolution, Ballot-Box, Woman's Journal, Woman's Tribune. The reader
easily can perceive the difficulty of condensation, with Miss Anthony's
own history so closely interwoven with the periods and the objects
represented by all these authorities.

The intent of this work has been to trace briefly the evolution of a
life and a condition. The transition of the young Quaker girl, afraid
of the sound of her own voice, into the reformer, orator and statesman,
is no more wonderful than the change in the status of woman, effected
so largely through her exertions. At the beginning she was a chattel in
the eye of the law; shut out from all advantages of higher education
and opportunities in the industrial world; an utter dependent on man;
occupying a subordinate position in the church; restrained to the
narrowest limits along social lines; an absolute nonentity in politics.
Today American women are envied by those of all other nations, and
stand comparatively free individuals, with the exception of political
disabilities.