The _Investigator, Truthseeker_, and other aggressive papers, however, called for complete repeal; and a petition with this object received seventy thousand signatures. The National League had voted, in 1876, that legislation against obscene publications was absolutely necessary, but that the existing laws needed amendment. The question whether this position should be maintained, was announced as the principal business to be settled in the convention which met at Syracuse on October 26, 1878. Mr. Abbot, the president, and other prominent officers declared that they should not be candidates for re-election if the position assumed two years before was not kept. Scarcely had the convention met, when its management passed into the hands of the friends of repeal. They allowed Judge Hurlbut, formerly on the bench in the Supreme Court of the State, to argue in favour of closing the mails against publications "manifestly designed or mainly tending to corrupt the morals of the young." Much respect was due to the author of a book which declared, in 1850, that married women had a right to vote and hold property, as well as that the State "cannot rightfully compel any man to keep Sunday as a religious institution; nor can it compel him to cease from labour or recreation on that day; since it cannot be shown that the ordinary exercise of the human faculties on that day is in any way an infringement upon the rights of mankind." On Sunday morning, October 27th, it was agreed that the question of repeal or reform should be postponed until the next annual convention; but the decision was made a foregone conclusion that afternoon, when three-fifths of the members voted not to re-elect Mr. Abbot and other champions of reform. The defeated candidates left the convention at once, as did Mr. Underwood and many other members, Judge Hurlbut taking the lead. A new league was organised by the seceders; but it was not a success.