Many of those even who have been her warm and faithful friends have had
to be omitted for want of space. No one can know the regret this has
caused, or the conscientious effort which has been made to render exact
justice to Miss Anthony's co-workers. It was so difficult for her to
select the few pictures for which room could be spared that she was
strongly tempted to exclude all. Personal controversies have been
omitted, in the belief that nothing could be gained which would justify
handing them down to future generations. Where differences have existed
in regard to matters of a public nature, only so much of them has been
given as might serve for an object lesson on future occasions.
In preparing these volumes over 20,000 letters have been read and,
whenever possible, some of them used to tell the story, especially
those written by Miss Anthony herself, as her own language seemed
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
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