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To her mother: “…I see by the paper that they are having exciting times over politics in C-. Last Saturday, there was a vote taken in College among two hundred and eighteen scholars who were present and voted; one hundred and ninety were for Grant and twenty-eight for Seymour. Pretty good vote was it not? I expect we will have some more ice cream about Thursday or Friday when we get the news of Grant’s election and the Country presents presents her compliments and congratulations to Mr. Colfax. All the girls in one parlor are republicans but one and she does not have much to say. I have quite a good deal of fun with Kate [Huntington?], she would just suit you, she is so strong on the Womans rights question. I read a long sermon yesterday by Rev. Robert Colyer which he preached in Fanueil Hall, Boston last August. I wish you could see it, it was in the Anti-Slavery standard. He has come to the conclusion that women were not made to serve men but to be their companions, etc. “ Vassar student Almira Foote Cowles was born into a Cleveland family which took politics very seriously. Her uncle was part owner of the powerful Chicago Tribune, while her father, publisher of the Cleveland Leader, largest newspaper in Ohio, had been a “radical” opponent of slavery, a founding father of the Republican Party, a friend and close advisor to Republican Presidents Grant, Hayes and Garfield.