<P> The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was created on February 18, 1890, in Washington by a convention that merged the NWSA and the AWSA . The question of who would lead the new organization had been left to the convention delegates . Stone, from the AWSA, was too ill to attend this convention and was not a candidate . Anthony and Stanton, both from the NWSA, each had supporters . </P> <P> The AWSA and NWSA executive committees met separately beforehand to discuss their choices for president of the united organization . At the AWSA meeting, Henry Blackwell, Stone's husband, said the NWSA had agreed to avoid mixing in side issues (the approach associated with Stanton) and to focus exclusively on suffrage (the approach of the AWSA and increasingly of Anthony). The executive committee recommended that AWSA delegates vote for Anthony . At the NWSA meeting, Anthony strongly urged its members not to vote for her but for Stanton, saying that a defeat of Stanton would be viewed as a repudiation of her role in the movement . </P> <P> Elections were held at the convention's opening . Stanton received 131 votes for president, Anthony received 90, and 2 votes were cast for other candidates . Anthony was elected vice president at large with 213 votes, with 9 votes for other candidates . Stone was unanimously elected chair of the executive committee . </P> <P> As president, Stanton delivered the convention's opening address . She urged the new organization to concern itself with a broad range of reforms, saying, "When any principle or question is up for discussion, let us seize on it and show its connection, whether nearly or remotely, with woman's disfranchisement ." She introduced controversial resolutions, including one that called for women to be included at all levels of leadership within religious organizations and one that described liberal divorce laws as a married woman's "door of escape from bondage". Her speech had little lasting impact on the organization, however, because most of the younger suffragists did not agree with her approach . </P>

Who served as the 1st president of the national american woman suffrage association (nawsa)