(Ward 39-42) .

             Meetings were now a difficult task. Later, when suffragist leaders undertook speaking tours in support of women"s rights, temperance, and abolition, they were often subjected to physical violence. Meeting were stormed and disrupted by gangs of street bullies and people against the cause. On one occasion when Anthony spoke in Albany, New York, the city mayor sat on the rostrum brandishing a revolver to discourage possible attacks by hoodlums in the audience. The women"s rights and abolitionist movements were faced by much intimidation but continued to grow together as one powerful force. (Melder 76).

             In 1868, the abolitionists pushed for a constitutional amendment, which according to the suffragists requested changes for Americans of different color, race, or creed but made no mention of women. This is the conflict, which separated the two struggles. In May 1869 the independent National Women Suffrage Association was created. This was led by two feminist leaders and fought for suffrage. Lucy Stone and Henry Ward Beecher began the America Women Suffrage Association, which worked for suffrage on a state-by-state method. Wyoming being the first gave women the right to vote in 1869. .

             In 1870 the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed. Anthony interpreted the law so that it applied to both American women and ex-slaves. In 1872 Anthony persuaded election inspectors to allow her and 12 other women to vote in Rochester, New York. They were all arrested two weeks later. The judge expressed many antifeminist views and knew that the jury would express a verdict in her favor, so he dismissed the jury and fined her $100. Anthony refused to pay, and the judge allowed her to go on the basis that she would not appeal to higher courts. In 1890 the Stanton-Anthony group merged with the Stone-Beecher group to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Many think of Stone, Anthony, and Stanton, as the only supporters of the association.