Editing Lucy Stone (section)

== Reconciliation ==
In 1887, eighteen years after the rift formed in the American women's rights movement, Stone proposed a merger of the two groups. Plans were drawn up, and, at their annual meetings, propositions were heard and voted on, then passed to the other group, for evaluation. By 1890, the organizations resolved their differences and merged to form the [[National American Woman Suffrage Association]] (NAWSA). Stone was too weak, with heart problems and respiratory illness, to attend its first convention<ref>Mani, 2007, p. 113.</ref> but was elected chair of the executive committee. Stanton was president of the new organization, but Anthony, who had the title of vice president, was its leader in practice.<ref>McMillen (2008), p. 228</ref>

[[File:Lucy Stone in middle age.jpg|thumb|Lucy Stone in old age]]
Starting early in January 1891, [[Carrie Chapman Catt]] visited Stone, repeatedly, at Pope's Hill, for the purpose of learning from Stone about the ways of political organizing.<ref name=Kerr236 /> Stone had previously met Catt at an Iowa state woman's suffrage convention in October 1889 and had been impressed at her ambition and sense of presence, saying "Mrs. Chapman will be heard from yet, in this movement."<ref>Van Voris, Jacqueline. [https://books.google.com/books?id=s2SkL2HNuwEC&pg=PA18 ''Carrie Chapman Catt: A Public Life''], The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1987, p. 18. {{ISBN|0-935312-63-3}}</ref> Stone mentored Catt, the rest of that winter, giving her a wealth of information about lobbying techniques and fundraising. Catt, later, used the teaching to good effect in leading the final drive to gain women the vote in 1920.<ref name=Kerr236>Kerr, 1992, pp. 236–237.</ref>

Catt, Stone, and Blackwell went, together, to the January 1892 NAWSA convention in Washington, DC. Along with [[Isabella Beecher Hooker]], Stone, Stanton, and Anthony, the "triumvirate" of women's suffrage,<ref name="loc leaders" /> were called away from the convention's opening hours by an unexpected woman suffrage hearing before the [[United States House Committee on the Judiciary]]. Stone told the assembled congressmen "I come before this committee with the sense which I always feel, that we are handicapped, as women, in what we try to do for ourselves by the single fact that we have no vote. This cheapens us. You do not care so much for us, as if we had votes.”<ref>Lucy Stone. January 18, 1892. [http://www.uark.edu/depts/comminfo/women/stonetestimony.html ''Hearing of the Woman Suffrage Association, Before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary''] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120805200005/http://www.uark.edu/depts/comminfo/women/stonetestimony.html |date=August 5, 2012 }}. Retrieved on April 30, 2009.</ref> Stone argued that men should work to pass laws for equality, in property rights between the sexes. Stone demanded an eradication of [[coverture]], the folding of a wife's property into that of her husband.<ref name=Mani115>Mani, 2007, p. 115.</ref> Stone's impromptu speech paled, in comparison to Stanton's brilliant outpouring, which preceded hers. Stone later published Stanton's speech, in its entirety, in the ''Woman's Journal'' as "Solitude of Self".<ref name=Kerr236 /><ref>Library of Congress. American Memory. Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848–1921. [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/naw:@field(DOCID+@lit(rbnawsan9898)): "Solitude of self"]: address delivered by Mrs. Stanton before the Committee of the Judiciary of the United States Congress, Monday, January 18, 1892. Retrieved on April 30, 2009.</ref> Back at the NAWSA convention, Anthony was elected president, with Stanton and Stone becoming honorary presidents.<ref name=Kerr236 />