<P> Several of the women who played leading roles in the national conventions, especially Stone, Anthony and Stanton, were also leaders in establishing women's suffrage organizations after the Civil War . They also included the demand for suffrage as part of their activities during the 1850s . In 1852 Stanton advocated women's suffrage in a speech at the New York State Temperance Convention . In 1853 Stone became the first woman to appeal for women's suffrage before a body of lawmakers when she addressed the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention . In 1854 Anthony organized a petition campaign in New York State that included the demand for suffrage . It culminated in a women's rights convention in the state capitol and a speech by Stanton before the state legislature . In 1857 Stone refused to pay taxes on the grounds that women were taxed without being able to vote on tax laws . The constable sold her household goods at auction until enough money had been raised to pay her tax bill . </P> <P> The women's rights movement was loosely structured during this period, with few state organizations and no national organization other than a coordinating committee that arranged the annual national conventions . Much of the organizational work for these conventions was performed by Stone, the most visible leader of the movement during this period . At the national convention in 1852, a proposal was made to form a national women's rights organization, but the idea was dropped after fears were voiced that such a move would create cumbersome machinery and lead to internal divisions . </P> <P> Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met in 1851 and soon became close friends and co-workers . Their decades - long collaboration was pivotal for the suffrage movement and contributed significantly to the broader struggle for women's rights, which Stanton called "the greatest revolution the world has ever known or ever will know ." They had complementary skills: Anthony excelled at organizing while Stanton had an aptitude for intellectual matters and writing . Stanton, who was homebound with several children during this period, wrote speeches that Anthony delivered to meetings that she herself organized . Together they developed a sophisticated movement in New York State, but their work at this time dealt with women's issues in general, not specifically suffrage . Anthony, who eventually became the person most closely associated in the public mind with women's suffrage, later said "I wasn't ready to vote, didn't want to vote, but I did want equal pay for equal work ." In the period just before the Civil War, Anthony gave priority to anti-slavery work over her work for the women's movement . </P> <P> Over Anthony's objections, leaders of the movement agreed to suspend women's rights activities during the Civil War in order to focus on the abolition of slavery . In 1863 Anthony and Stanton organized the Women's Loyal National League, the first national women's political organization in the U.S. It collected nearly 400,000 signatures on petitions to abolish slavery in the largest petition drive in the nation's history up to that time . </P>

Who was not a leader in the women's suffrage movement