The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony
(Volume 2 of 2), by Ida Husted Harper
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Title: The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 of 2)
Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From
Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years
Author: Ida Husted Harper
Release Date: January 30, 2010 [EBook #31125]
Language: English
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THE LIFE AND WORK
OF
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
INCLUDING PUBLIC ADDRESSES, HER OWN LETTERS
AND MANY FROM HER CONTEMPORARIES
DURING FIFTY YEARS
BY
IDA HUSTED HARPER
_A Story of the Evolution of the Status of Woman_
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS, PICTURES OF HOMES, ETC.
INDIANAPOLIS AND KANSAS CITY
THE BOWEN-MERRILL COMPANY
1898
COPYRIGHT 1898
BY
THE BOWEN-MERRILL COMPANY
TO WOMAN, FOR WHOSE FREEDOM
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
HAS GIVEN FIFTY YEARS OF NOBLE ENDEAVOR
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
[Illustration: SUSAN B. ANTHONY. IN THE CALIFORNIA CAMPAIGN. 1896.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOL. II.
CHAPTER XXX.
POLITICAL CANDIDATES--WRITING THE HISTORY. (1880-1881.) 515-532
Miss Anthony's rallying cry; letter on death of sister; Convention
at Indianapolis; Mass Meeting in Farwell Hall, Chicago; suffrage
advocates neither unmarried nor childless; Republican National
Convention refuses even "recognition" plank of former years;
Greenback-Labor Convention passes Woman Suffrage resolution in
spite of Dennis Kearney; Democratic Convention at Cincinnati
receives ladies with great courtesy but ignores their claims;
tribute of Commercial; Prohibition Convention adopts Suffrage
plank; interviews with Garfield and Hancock; correspondence of
General Garfield and Miss Anthony on Woman Suffrage; martyrdom to
writing the History; Thirteenth Washington Convention and memorial
service to Lucretia Mott; ridiculous press items on Skye terrier;
letter on sparing parents for children's sake; first volume of
History issued.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE LEGACY--NEBRASKA CAMPAIGN--OFF FOR EUROPE. (1881-1882-1883.) 533-550
National Association in Boston; badge presented Miss Anthony by
Philadelphia Citizens' Suffrage Association; comments of Traveller
and Globe; sweep of New England; tribute of Zerelda G. Wallace; no
welcome for Miss Anthony in Albany; letter on death of Garfield;
attends National W. C. T. U. Convention in Washington; Phillips'
seventieth birthday; Mrs. Eddy's handsome legacy; Fourteenth
Washington Convention; amusing suffrage debate in Senate; meeting
in Philadelphia; tributes from Elmira Free Press and Washington
Republic; favorable Senate and House Committee reports; campaign in
Nebraska; addresses Lincoln Club, Rochester; decides to go abroad;
Philadelphia Times account of Birthday reception; Mrs. Sewall's
description in Indianapolis Times of farewell honors; fine tributes
from Chicago Tribune and Kansas City Journal; N. Y. Times describes
departure for Europe.
CHAPTER XXXII.
MISS ANTHONY'S EUROPEAN LETTERS. (1883.) 551-579
On shipboard; in Liverpool and London; in Milan and Rome; in
Naples; in Zurich, Berlin, Cologne, Heidelberg; in Paris; back to
London; Mrs. Jacob Bright, Moncure D. Conway, Wm. Henry Channing,
Mrs. Rose, Stopford Brooke; speech at Prince's Hall; Helen Taylor,
Jane Cobden and others; speech at St. James Hall; Mrs. Mellen's
Fourth of July reception; Canon Wilberforce, Sarah Bernhardt;
Edinburgh; Elizabeth Pease Nichol, Priscilla Bright McLaren,
Professor Blackie, Dr. Jex-Blake; home of Harriet Martineau;
Dublin; Isabella M. S. Tod and others; trip through Ireland;
characteristic descriptions; John Bright, Hannah Ford, home of the
Brontës; Henrietta Müller, Margaret Bright Lucas, Frances Power
Cobbe, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Mrs. Peter Taylor; home again.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS--VISIT TO NEW ORLEANS. (1884-1885.) 581-603
Welcome Home from Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, N. Y. Evening
Telegram, Cleveland Leader; unkind comment Cincinnati Times-Star;
dislike of interviewing Congressmen shown by letter to Wm. D.
Kelley; Warren Keifer in favor of Woman Suffrage; opposition of
Reagan, of Texas; members for and against Special Committee;
Douglass marriage; letters to young workers; death of Wendell
Phillips; Bishop Simpson on Woman Suffrage; fine speech before
Congressional Committee; Thomas B. Reed's report; letter from
Senator Palmer; Miss Anthony on Suffrage Bill in Parliament;
attitude of Presidential candidates; opposes resolution denouncing
dogmas and creeds; attack of Rev. W. W. Patton; Senator Palmer's
speech; trip to New Orleans; tribute of Picayune; Eddy legacy
received; working on History; Miss Anthony's dislike of literary
labor; Mrs. Stanton's seventieth birthday; letter from Harriet
Stanton Blatch.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
MANY TRIPS--FIRST VOTE ON SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT. (1886-1887.) 605-626
Miss Anthony's persistence with members of Congress; Eighteenth
Washington Convention; committee reports; canvass of the State of
Kansas; Municipal Suffrage Bill passed by Legislature; speaking
throughout Wisconsin; advice as to Church for holding convention;
History of Woman Suffrage and valuable work accomplished by it;
opinions of Mary L. Booth, Sarah B. Cooper and others; Nineteenth
Annual Convention; Senator Blair's bill for Woman Suffrage;
Senators Brown and Vest in opposition; Senators Dolph and Blair in
favor; remonstrance from Boston; the Vote; women incensed at
Ingalls; letter to Frances Willard on Prohibition Party; letter to
Olympia Brown against bringing suit under school suffrage law;
scores Senator Ingalls in Kansas; canvass of Indiana.
CHAPTER XXXV.
UNION OF ASSOCIATIONS--INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL. (1888.) 627-645
American Association proposes Union; negotiations to that end; plea
for Mrs. Stanton's election as president; Union completed;
International Council of Women; magnitude of preparations; Miss
Anthony's idea of a sermon; letter of Douglass on First Woman's
Rights Convention; letter of Maria Mitchell; efforts to secure Mrs.
Stanton's presence; comment of Baltimore Sun and N. Y. World;
Frances Willard's speech and letter to Union Signal; National and
International Councils formed; at Central Music Hall, Chicago;
letter urging women to go to National Political conventions; open
letter to General Harrison; Republican "free ballot" plank does not
include Women; dislike of "red tape;" speech at Columbus W. C. T.
U. celebration not well received.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CONVENTIONS FROM WASHINGTON TO SOUTH DAKOTA. (1889.) 647-661
Twenty-first Washington Convention; address before Unity Club,
Cincinnati; death of niece Susie B.; letters on Death; newspaper
comment on Dress; at Seidl Club on Coney Island and "Broadbrim's"
account; a round of lectures and conventions; letter of Harriet
Hosmer; canvass of South Dakota; Miss Anthony outlines plan of
campaign; nephew D. R. describes speech at Ann Arbor; "Andrew
Jackson-like responsibility"; work for South Dakota; description in
Washington Star.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
AT THE END OF SEVENTY YEARS. (1890.) 663-678
Consternation at idea of selling tickets for Birthday banquet;
description of banquet by Washington Star and N. Y. Sun; speeches
of Rev. F. W. Hinckley, Hon. J. A. Pickler, Mrs. Stanton and Miss
Anthony; congratulatory letters from distinguished people; eloquent
tributes from Boston Traveller and Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle; first Convention of United Associations; money for South
Dakota; in Washington society; letter on pre-natal influence.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE SOUTH DAKOTA CAMPAIGN. (1890.) 679-696
Appeals from South Dakota; Miss Anthony lays down the law regarding
National funds; pledges of Farmers' Alliance leaders; contributions
to campaign; goes to South Dakota; Farmers' Alliance and Knights of
Labor form new party and repudiate pledges for Woman Suffrage;
insults at Democratic Convention; Republican Convention has room
for Indian men but none for white women; Miss Anthony's cheerful
letters; hardships of campaign; Mrs. Howell's description of
meetings at Madison; Rev. Anna Shaw's account of crying babies and
drunken man; Mrs. Chapman Catt's summing-up of situation;
statistics of Defeat; Miss Anthony endorsed by State W. C. T. U.
and Suffrage Associations.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
WYOMING--MISS ANTHONY GOES TO HOUSEKEEPING. (1890-1891.) 697-716
Debate in Congress on admission of Wyoming; first majority report
from House Committee in favor of Sixteenth Amendment; Wimodaughsis;
in Boston; letter of sympathy from Lucy Stone; first triennial
meeting of National Woman's Council; Miss Anthony's joy;
Twenty-third Washington Convention; breakfast at Sorosis; letter
from ex-Secretary Hugh McCulloch; leaving Riggs House; letter
describing visits in New England; goes to housekeeping; kindness of
press and people; letter from Adirondacks and John Brown's home;
stirs up Rochester W. C. T. U.; at Chautauqua; describes meeting at
Lily Dale; happiness in keeping house; speaks at N. Y. State Fair;
invites Mrs. Stanton to share her home; calls meeting to admit
girls to Rochester University; speaks at Thanksgiving services in
Unitarian church; appeals from Kansas.
CHAPTER XL.
IGNORED BY THE PARTIES--APPOINTED TO OFFICE. (1892.) 717-735
Mrs. Stanton's last appearance at National Convention; Miss Anthony
made president; home life; attends biennial meeting Federation of
Woman's Clubs; bust made by Lorado Taft; letter approving Southern
Woman's Council; ignored by Republican National Convention at
Minneapolis; "every citizen" does not include Women; bowed out of
Democratic National Convention at Chicago; Frances Willard's
beautiful tribute; at People's National Convention in Omaha; Woman
Suffrage at Chautauqua; campaign of Kansas on Republican platform;
illustrates difference in treatment of same women now and forty
years ago; appointed on Board of Managers State Industrial School;
press comment; addresses mass meeting on including Women in
provisions of New Charter for Rochester; face sculptured on theater
in Dowagiac, Mich.; John Boyd Thacher asks his father's record;
Philip Schuyler objects to his stepmother's statue in company with
Miss Anthony's; Justice Rufus W. Peckham's tribute.
CHAPTER XLI.
WORLD'S FAIR--CONGRESS OF REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN. (1893.) 737-754
Miss Anthony opposes holding National Conventions outside
Washington; extended range of letters and invitations; urges those
who can not work to contribute money; opening of World's Fair;
Bertha Honoré Palmer's words for women; Miss Anthony behind
movement to have women on Board of Managers; President and Board of
Lady Managers; Woman's Congress; Miss Anthony center of attraction;
compliments from Frances Willard and Lady Somerset; letter of
Florence Fenwick Miller; Suffrage leads at Congress; letters from
Mrs. Palmer, Mrs. James P. Eagle; speech on Religious Press;
pleasant visits in Chicago; tribute from Inter-Ocean; Woman
Suffrage granted in Colorado; preparing for New York and Kansas
amendment campaigns.
CHAPTER XLII.
THE SECOND NEW YORK CAMPAIGN. (1894.) 755-776
Speeches in Ann Arbor, Toledo, Baltimore and Washington; no creeds,
no politics in National-American Association; congratulations of
Chicago Journal; great New York campaign inaugurated to secure
Amendment from Constitutional Convention; headquarters in Anthony
home; Corresponding Secretary Mary S. Anthony reports amount of
work done; opening rally in Rochester; women of wealth and fashion
in New York and Brooklyn take part; N. Y. World describes the
movement; "Remonstrants" organize; Miss Anthony's opinion of them;
600,000 signatures secured; Joseph H. Choate, President of
Constitutional Convention, uses his influence against Woman
Suffrage Amendment; Miss Anthony and many other women address
delegates; representatives of the "Antis" speak in opposition;
Edward Lauterbach and other members support Amendment; Elihu Root,
Wm. P. Goodelle and others oppose; Amendment Defeated; tribute by
State president, Mrs. Greenleaf; appreciative letters; incorrect
report of speech at Spiritualist camp meeting; Miss Anthony,
Frances Willard, Lady Somerset and others at Republican State
Convention in Saratoga; starting for Kansas.
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE SECOND KANSAS CAMPAIGN. (1894.) 777-798
Miss Anthony insists that political State conventions must put
Woman Suffrage planks in their platforms; politicians try to
persuade Kansas women not to ask for them; dilemma of State
president, Mrs. Johns; letters of Mrs. Chapman Catt, Henry B.
Blackwell, Rev. Anna Shaw, showing uselessness of campaign without
Political endorsement; Miss Anthony's rousing letters to Woman's
State Committee, Republican leaders and Mrs. Johns; great speech at
Kansas City; action taken by Republican Woman's Convention;
Suffrage plank refused by Republican State Convention; fight for it
in Populist Convention; wild scene when secured; "not a test of
party fealty;" Prohibitionists adopt plank; Miss Anthony and Miss
Shaw censured by Republicans; Miss Anthony states their reasons and
takes a cheerful view; friendly words from Wm. Lloyd Garrison; her
brave declaration; scores Kansas Republicans in letter to Mr.
Blackwell; cordial support of Annie L. Diggs; Mrs. Johns and Mr.
Breidenthal hopeful; Amendment Defeated; possession of Limited
Suffrage a hindrance to securing Full Suffrage.
CHAPTER XLIV.
THE SOUTHERN TRIP--THE ATLANTA CONVENTION. (1895.) 799-817
Not cast down by Kansas defeat, Miss Anthony speaks at Nebraska
Convention; goes to New York State Convention at Ithaca; visits
Cornell University and speaks to girls of Sage College; addresses
National W. C. T. U. on Sunday at Cleveland, showing weakness of
all attempts at Reform unsupported by the Ballot; pleasant month in
New York City; letter on Y. M. C. A. for "woman's edition;"
invitation from Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones and Rev. H. W. Thomas to
take part in Liberal Religious Congress; addresses at Lexington,
Louisville, Memphis and New Orleans; complimentary reports of
Picayune, Shreveport Times, Birmingham News, Huntsville Tribune;
National-American Convention in Atlanta; courtesy of press, pulpit
and people; Seventy-fifth Birthday celebration and presentation of
Annuity of $800; second triennial of Woman's Council; speaks at
Douglass' funeral; stirs up the audience in Rochester at Ida B.
Wells' lecture on Lynching; resigns position on State Industrial
School Board.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE SECOND VISIT TO CALIFORNIA. (1895.) 819-838
Invitation from California Woman's Congress; Miss Anthony and Miss
Shaw have royal welcome at St. Louis, Denver, Cheyenne, Salt Lake
City, Reno; cordial reception at Oakland; beautiful scene at
Woman's Congress; eulogies of press; visit Stanford University;
entertained by many clubs and societies; go to Yosemite Valley;
joyfully received at San Jose, Los Angeles, Riverside, Pasadena,
Pomona, San Diego, Santa Monica; address Ministers' Meeting in San
Francisco; Mrs. Cooper's victory over Fourth of July Committee;
speak at the celebration; miss audience at Oakland; affectionate
farewell.
CHAPTER XLVI.
MRS. STANTON'S BIRTHDAY--THE BIBLE RESOLUTION. (1895-1896.) 839-862
Miss Anthony stirs up papers with resolution on Kansas men;
description by Chicago Herald; seized with nervous prostration at
Lakeside, O.; sympathy of people and press; secret of vitality;
letter on maternity hospitals; on "hard times;" on woman's dress;
Mrs. Stanton's birthday celebration; Miss Anthony magnanimously
refuses to take the lead; tribute from Tilton; appreciative letters
from Mary Lowe Dickinson, Mrs. Leland Stanford; Twenty-eighth
Annual Convention; Utah admitted with Woman Suffrage; women of
South Australia enfranchised; resolution against Woman's Bible;
speech on Religious Liberty; grief over action of convention; view
of the Bible; Suffrage will emancipate from Superstition; Nelly
Bly's racy interview; loud call from California; can not refuse but
goes to the Golden State.
CHAPTER XLVII.
THE CALIFORNIA CAMPAIGN. (1896.) 863-893
Effort to secure Woman Suffrage Bill from California Legislature;
State committees formed; county conventions; Mrs. Sargent's
hospitality; work of women throughout the State; attitude of press;
the Call declares for Woman Suffrage; Republican Convention; Miss
Anthony and Miss Shaw before platform committee; tributes to Mrs.
Duniway and Mrs. McCann; Populist Convention; Prohibition
Convention; Democratic Convention; women's ratification;
headquarters opened; principal speakers; great work of Miss
Anthony; social courtesies extended; goes to Portland and Seattle;
can not go to Idaho; Suffrage plank in National Republican
convention repudiated; tour of Southern California; letters to Miss
Willard and Mrs. Peet on holding National W. C. T. U. Convention in
California; action of Chairman Republican State Committee;
attempts of Women to speak at Political conventions; the Call
coerced; the orators "flunk;" Liquor Dealers fight Woman Suffrage;
efforts to register new voters; amount of money raised; Women
outwitted by State officials; Defeat; summing-up of vote; a
touching sight; pleasant campaign; State Suffrage Convention; Mrs.
Sargent's tribute; homeward bound.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
HER LETTERS--BIRTHDAY PARTY--BIOGRAPHY. (1896-1897.) 895-911
Reception in Rochester; never denies charges; urges women not to
"scramble" for office; Book of Proverbs; constancy of purpose;
women have nothing to do with Reform parties; objects to calling
God the author of Civil Government; men trying to lift themselves
by their bootstraps; no time for Speculation; opposes Educated and
Property Suffrage; eloquent tribute of Dr. H. W. Thomas; pleasant
letters from Mrs. Henrotin, John Hutchinson, Mrs. Dickinson;
National-American Convention in Des Moines; letter urging that all
National conventions be held at Washington; reception at
Indianapolis; addresses Indiana Legislature; kindness to reporters;
birthday of Frederick Douglass; Miss Anthony's great Birthday
reception in Rochester; compliments of Post-Express and Herald; the
day at Anthony home; Mrs. Chapman Catt's tribute; speech at Cuban
League; remarks at funeral of Mrs. Humphrey; beginning the
Biography; immense amount of material; description of attic
workroom.
CHAPTER XLIX.
CHARACTERISTIC VIEWS ON MANY QUESTIONS. (1897.) 913-930
Monday evenings at home; Miss Anthony dislikes rôle of Literary or
Society woman; declares she never again will speak before
Legislative Committee at Albany; Miss Mary Anthony's birthday;
Herald's interview; description by Democrat and Chronicle; remarks
of Rev. W. C. Gannett and others; assists at golden wedding; visits
Eliza Wright Osborne with Mrs. Stanton; her greatest compliment;
opinion on Women rising in Rebellion; on Mrs. Besant and Theosophy;
letter to Supreme Court of Idaho; on commemorating deeds of
Revolutionary Mothers; Sentiment no guarantee for Justice;
Subjection of Woman the cause of public Immorality; opposed to
asking Partial Suffrage for women; opinion on Poetry; God not
responsible for human ills; Sunday observance; objects to asking
for Educated and Property Suffrage; voters not influenced by
Religious arguments; refuses to join Miss Willard in attack on
"yellow journalism" and prize fighting; wide scope of invitations,
etc.; amusing letter of inquiry; never received salary from
National Association; visit to Thousand Islands; centennial of
Rev. Samuel J. May; at Nashville Exposition; criticises Women for
going into Partisan Politics and defends "rings;" Woman Suffrage
movement of the Present contrasted with that of the Past.
CHAPTER L.
HOME LIFE--THE REUNION--THE WOMAN. (1897.) 931-953
Daily habits of life; dress; harmonious relations of the two
sisters; description of Anthony home; outline of Miss Anthony's
vast private correspondence; her patience and conscientiousness;
objects to which close of life is being given; invited to
Berkshire; Suffrage Committee meeting in the "Old Hive" at Adams;
guest of Berkshire Historical Society; addresses of Mrs. Chapman
Catt, Mrs. Foster Avery, Mrs. Sewall, Mrs. Colby, Rev. Anna Shaw
and others; Anthony Reunion; picturesque old homestead; visit to
birthplace and loved spots of childhood; contrast in position of
Woman now and fifty years ago; Miss Anthony's part in securing
reforms; face carved in Capitol at Albany; tributes of Mrs. Sewall,
Miss Willard and Mrs. Stanton; Miss Anthony's characteristics;
compared to Napoleon, Gladstone, Lincoln, Garrison; finis.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Vol. II.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY in California Campaign, 1896 _Frontispiece_
HARRIET PURVIS _faces page_ 526
MENTIA TAYLOR 554
PRISCILLA BRIGHT MCLAREN 564
ELIZABETH PEASE NICHOL 568
MARGARET BRIGHT LUCAS 578
MISS ANTHONY AND MRS. STANTON writing the History of
Woman Suffrage 600
CAROLINE E. MERRICK 608
ZERELDA G. WALLACE 632
REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW 688
HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON 700
MAY WRIGHT SEWALL 746
MARY S. ANTHONY 760
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 780
RACHEL FOSTER AVERY 814
SARAH B. COOPER 828
ELLEN CLARK SARGENT 864
SARAH L. KNOX GOODRICH 888
ANTHONY RESIDENCE IN ROCHESTER 904
ATTIC WORK-ROOMS 910
MARY S. AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY 916
ANTHONY FAMILY AT REUNION 938
AT THE OLD HOMESTEAD 942
QUAKER MEETING-HOUSE, ADAMS, MASS 946
CHAPTER XXX.
POLITICAL CANDIDATES--WRITING THE HISTORY.
1880-1881.
During her May lecture trip Miss Anthony was formulating a scheme for a
series of conventions, opening and closing with a great mass meeting,
which should influence the national political conventions to recognize
in their platforms the rights of woman. As usual most of the women
opposed this plan and as usual Miss Anthony carried the day. The
following letters to Mrs. Spencer, national secretary, will serve as
specimens of hundreds which she wrote with her own hand, before every
similar occasion:
I want the rousingest rallying cry ever put on paper--first, to
call women by the thousand to Chicago; and second, to get every one
who can not go there to send a postal card to the mass convention,
saying she wants the Republicans to put a Sixteenth Amendment
pledge in their platform. Don't you see that if we could have a
mass meeting of 2,000 or 3,000 earnest women, June 2, and then
receive 10,000 postals from women all over the country, what a
tremendous influence we could bring to bear on the Republican
convention, June 3? We can get Farwell Hall for $40 a day, and I
think would do well to engage it for the 2d and 3d, then we could
make it our headquarters--sleep in it even, if we couldn't get any
other places.
Besides this, I want to make the best possible use of all our
speakers between June 3 and 21, when we shall have a mass meeting
in Cincinnati, the day before the Democratic convention. My
proposition is that I, as vice-president-at-large, call conventions
of two days each at a number of cities. We could divide our
speakers and thus fill in the entire two weeks between Chicago and
Cincinnati with capital good work. How does the plan strike you?
Can we summon the women from the vasty deeps--or distances? Can we
get 5,000 or 10,000 to send on their postals? Do the petitions
still come in? How many thousands of appeals and documents have you
had printed and how many have you sent out?
After the ball was set rolling she wrote:
A letter from Mrs. Stanton tells of her being on the verge of
pneumonia, and rushing home to rest and recruit. She is better and,
since she has been to the dinner-table, I infer she is well enough
to begin to work up the thunder and lightning for Indianapolis and
Chicago. Now won't you at once scratch down the points with which
you want to fire her soul and brain, and get her at work on the
resolutions, platform and address? She won't go out to lecture any
more this spring, and if you will only put her en rapport with your
thought she will do splendid work in the herculean task awaiting
us.
It is simply impossible for me to go to her at present, and we must
all give her our ideas in the rough, from time to time, and let her
weld them together as best she can; and then, as she says, when we
meet in Indianapolis we all will put in our happiest ideas,
metaphysical, political, logical and all other "cals," and make
these the strongest and grandest documents ever issued from any
organization of women. It does seem to me that if we can succeed in
grinding out just the right appeal, demand, or whatever it may be
called, the Republican convention must heed us. At any rate, we
will do our level best at a strong pull, a long pull and a pull all
together to compel them to surrender.
I enclose my list of May lecture engagements. I shall be able to
help in money from them soon, and better than I could in any other
way. I watch both Congress and our State legislatures, but the
"scamps" are vastly better at promising than fulfilling. The
politicians, of course, expect all this flutter and buncombe about
doing something for women in New York--in California--in Iowa--is
going to spike our guns and make us help the Republican party to
carry all before it; but we must not be thus fooled by them.
After a lecture at Waynesburg, Penn., when she had gone to her train at
4 A. M. to find it an hour late, she wrote on the ticket-office shelf,
by the light of a smoky lamp, this letter to her sister:
Just three years ago this day was our dear Hannah's last on earth,
and I can see her now sitting by the window and can hear her say,
"Talk, Susan." I knew she wanted me to talk of the future meetings
in the great beyond, all of them, as she often said, so certain and
so beautiful to her; but they were not to me, and I could not dash
her faith with my doubts, nor could I pretend a faith I had not; so
I was silent in the dread presence of death. Three years--and yet
what a living presence has she been in my thoughts all the days!
There has been scarcely one waking hour that I have not felt the
loss of her. We can not help trying to peer through the veil to
find the certainty of things over there, but nothing comes to our
eyes unless we accept the Spiritualistic testimony, which we can
not wholly do.
Well, only you and I are left of mother's four girls, and when and
how we also shall pass on is among the unknown problems of the
future. Of course I feel and know that your loss is far beyond
mine; for never was there a child who so faithfully devoted herself
to a mother, and made all other interests subserve that mother's
happiness as did you, and I feel, too, that but for you I never
could have done my public work.
The great series of conventions began with the May Anniversary, which
was held at Indianapolis, the 25th and 26th, in the Park Theater, Miss
Anthony presiding. All arrangements had been made and all expenses
assumed by the local suffrage society under the leadership of Mrs.
Sewall. The Sentinel, edited at that time by Colonel J. B. Maynard,
welcomed the convention in a strong editorial declaring for woman
suffrage in unmistakable terms. The very successful meetings closed with
a handsome reception tendered by Mrs. John C. New.
The mass meeting opened in Farwell Hall, Chicago, June 1, the day before
the Republican convention, with delegates from twenty-six States, and
continued in session three days. The welcoming address was made by
Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, the speakers comprised the most prominent
women of the nation, the audience numbered 3,000 and the enthusiasm was
unprecedented in all the records of this movement.[1] The History of
Woman Suffrage says:
The mass convention had been called for June 2, but the crowds in
the city gave promise of such extended interest that Farwell Hall
was engaged for June 1, and before the second day's proceedings
closed, funds were voluntarily raised by the audience to continue
the meeting the third day. So vast was the number of letters and
postals from women who desired to vote, that the whole time of each
session could have been spent in reading them--one day's mail alone
bringing them from twenty-three States and three Territories. Some
contained hundreds of names, others represented town, county and
State societies. Many were addressed to the different nominating
conventions, Republican, Greenback, Democratic, while the reasons
given for desiring to vote ranged from the simple demand, through
all the scale of those connected with good government and
morality. So highly important a contribution to history did the
Chicago Historical Society deem these expressions that it made a
formal request to be put in possession of all letters and postals,
with a promise that they should be carefully guarded in a
fire-proof safe.
A large parlor in the Palmer House was tendered to the ladies by the
proprietor for business meetings and for a reception room. They were
visited by a number of Republican delegates, many of whom were
thoroughly in favor of a suffrage plank in the platform and of giving
the ladies seats in the convention. A letter was sent to the chairman of
the Republican national committee, Don Cameron, signed by one hundred
and eighteen United States senators and representatives, asking that
seventy-six seats on the floor of the convention be given to as many
accredited delegates from the National Suffrage Association. Although
the veteran soldiers and sailors were liberally provided for, Mr.
Cameron granted only ten seats to the women, and those not to the
association in its official capacity but as "guest" tickets for seats on
the platform. Miss Anthony was allowed _ten_ minutes before a
_sub_-committee to present the argument for a suffrage plank. It was
favorably regarded by scattered members of various delegations, but the
platform was silent on the subject.
The Republican convention of 1880 did not even adopt the "recognition"
planks of 1872 and 1876, and all the demonstrations of this great mass
meeting of women had not the slightest influence, because made by a
disfranchised class. Before closing they adopted a resolution that they
would support no party which did not endorse the political equality of
woman; but all the "support" which they could give or withhold was not
likely to be considered of much value by political leaders.
Miss Anthony and four others attended the Greenback-Labor Convention, a
few days later, in the same city. They were well received. Mrs. Gage
read the suffrage memorial in open session and Miss Anthony was
permitted to address the convention. This privilege was violently
opposed by Dennis Kearney, who said that "his wife instructed him before
he left California not to mix up with woman suffragists, and if he did
she would meet him at the door with a flat-iron when he came home."
Failing to frighten the convention with Mrs. Kearney's flat-iron, he
declined to hear Miss Anthony's speech and left the hall in disgust. The
committee refused to incorporate a suffrage plank in its platform, but
the next day in convention, after the nominations were concluded, a
delegate introduced an equal suffrage resolution which passed by a large
majority.
The delegates and speakers of the National Association then held
meetings at Milwaukee, Wis., Bloomington, Ill., Grand Rapids, Mich.,
Lafayette and Terre Haute, Ind., and reached Cincinnati in time for the
Democratic National Convention, June 22. They were received here with
unexpected courtesy. Mayor Prince, of Boston, and Mr. Eaton, of Kansas,
presented their request for seats, and sixteen were granted them on the
floor of the house, just behind the delegates. A committee room was
placed at their disposal and their notices and placards were printed by
the convention. A hearing was given before the platform committee, with
no limit as to time, and after several had spoken the others were
invited to do so. The chairman, Henry Watterson, declared himself in
favor of the plank desired. The delegations from Maine, New York and
Kansas also were favorable. Miss Anthony was escorted to the platform
upon the arm of Carter Harrison, amid wild applause, given a seat beside
the presiding officer, Wade Hampton, and the clerk was ordered to read
the address which she presented.[2] After all this parade, however, the
platform contained not the slightest reference to the claims of women
or, in fact, to their existence. The results of the appeal to the
Republican and Democratic conventions were precisely the same, except
that the latter administered the dose with chivalry.
The National Prohibition Convention at Bloomington, Ill., officially
invited the suffrage advocates to meet with them and participate in
their proceedings. Phoebe Couzins was sent as a delegate, and the
convention adopted the following plank: "We also demand that women
having privileges as citizens in other respects, shall be clothed with
the ballot for their own protection, and as a rightful means for the
proper settlement of the liquor question." This body, it will be
noticed, not only demanded the ballot for woman but told her what she
would be expected to do with it.
While not at all surprised, Miss Anthony was greatly disgusted with the
action of the Republican and Democratic conventions, but, determined to
leave nothing undone, she soon afterwards called upon General Garfield
at Mentor. He was cordial and expressed himself in favor of equality for
woman in matters of education, work, wages and civil rights, but was not
ready to declare himself in favor of the suffrage and, as was always the
case, urged that the issue be not pressed during _that_ campaign. Mrs.
Blake and others visited General Hancock, the Democratic candidate, and
the New York Sun reports the interview in part:
Mrs. Blake said the delegation had come to ask the general what
hope the woman suffrage party might entertain in case any measure
came before him, as President, which bore upon granting women the
ballot. The general replied that the movement was a growing one,
and that everything which tended toward the amelioration of woman's
condition had his sympathy. In the course of conversation he said
that women should be paid equally with men for the same work
equally well performed.
Mrs. Slocum said that the delegation desired a decided expression
from him as to whether he would or would not veto any measure
favorable to woman suffrage that might come before him as
President. The general replied that if such a measure were voted
upon by Congress as a constitutional amendment, it would not come
before the President. If, however, Congress accorded women the
right to vote in the District of Columbia, he certainly would offer
no obstruction.
Mrs. Blake asked if he considered women as "people."
"Undoubtedly," replied the general. "He would be a bold man who
would undertake to say they were not."
"Then, general," said Mrs. Blake, "we ask nothing more than what
you say in your letter of acceptance: 'It is only by a full vote,
a free ballot and a fair count that the people can rule in fact, as
required by the theory of our government.'"
"I am perfectly willing," said General Hancock, "that you should
say I take my stand on that paragraph in my letter of acceptance."
In order to exhaust every resource, Miss Anthony, on August 17,
addressed this letter to each of the presidential candidates:
As vice-president-at-large of the National Woman Suffrage
Association, I am instructed to ask you if, in the event of your
election, you, as President of the United States, would recommend
to Congress the submission to the several legislatures of a
Sixteenth Amendment to the National Constitution, prohibiting the
disfranchisement of United States citizens on account of sex. What
we wish to ascertain is whether you, as President, would use your
_official influence_ to secure to the women of the several States a
_national guarantee_ of their right to a voice in the government on
the same terms with men. Neither platform makes any pledge to
secure political equality to women--hence we are waiting and hoping
that one candidate or the other, or both, will declare favorably,
and thereby make it possible for women, with self-respect, to work
for the success of one or the other or both nominees. Hoping for a
prompt and explicit statement, I am, sir, very respectfully yours.
General Hancock did not so much as acknowledge the receipt of this, but
General Garfield answered promptly, writing with his own hand:
Your letter of the 17th inst. was duly received. I take the liberty
of asking your personal advice before I answer your official
letter. I assume that all the traditions and impulses of your life
lead you to believe that the Republican party has been and is more
nearly in the line of liberty than its antagonist, the Democratic
party; and I know you desire to advance the cause of woman. Now, in
view of the fact that the Republican convention has not discussed
your question, do you not think it would be a violation of the
trust they have reposed in me, to speak "as their nominee"--and add
to the present contest an issue which they have not authorized?
Again, if I answer your question on the ground of my own private
opinion, I shall be compelled to say that, while I am open to the
freest discussion and fairest consideration of your question, I
have not yet reached the conclusion that it would be best for woman
and for the country that she should have the suffrage. I may reach
it; but whatever time may do to me, that fruit is not yet ripe on
my tree. I ask you, therefore, for the sake of your own question,
do you think it wise to pick my apples now? Please answer me in the
frankness of personal friendship.
With kind regards, I am, very truly yours.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Please answer me in the frankness of personal
friendship. With kind regards, I am very truly yours. Garfield"]
Under date of September 9 Miss Anthony sent a spirited reply:
Yours of the 25th ult. has waited all these days that I might
carefully consider it.
First.--The Republican party did run well for a season in the "line
of liberty," but since 1870, its congressional enactments, majority
reports, Supreme Court decisions, and now its presidential
platform, show a retrograde movement--not only for women but for
colored men--limiting the power of the national government in the
protection of United States citizens against the injustice of the
States, until what we gained by the sword is lost by political
surrenders. We need nothing but a Democratic administration to
demonstrate to all Israel and the sun the fact, the sad fact, that
all is lost by the Republican party. I mean, of course, the one
vital point of national supremacy in the protection of United
States citizens in the enjoyment of their right to vote, and the
punishment of States or individuals thereof, for depriving citizens
of the exercise of that right. The first and fatal mistake was in
ceding to Rhode Island the right to "abridge" the suffrage to
foreign born men; and to all the States to "deny" it to women, in
direct violation of the principle of _national supremacy_. From
that time, inch by inch, point by point has been surrendered, until
it is only in name that the Republican party is the party of
national supremacy. Grant did not protect the negro's ballot in the
presidential election of 1876--Hayes can not in 1880--nor will
Garfield be able to do so in 1884--for the "scepter has departed
from Judah."
Second.--For the candidate of a party to add to the discussions of
the contest an issue unauthorized or unnoted in its platform, when
that issue is one vital to its very life, it seems to me would be
the grandest act imaginable. For doing that very thing, with regard
to the protection of the negroes of the South, you are today
receiving more praise from the best men of the party than for any
and all of your utterances inside the line of the platform. I know,
if you had in your letter of acceptance, or in your New York
speech, declared yourself in favor of "perfect equality of rights
for women, civil and political," you would have touched an electric
spark which would have fired the hearts of the women of the entire
nation, and made the triumph of the Republican party more grand and
glorious than any it ever has seen.
Third.--As to picking fruit before it is ripe! Allow me to remind
you that very much fruit is never picked; some is nipped in the
bud; some is worm-eaten and falls to the ground; some rots on the
trees before it ripens; some, too slow in ripening, is bitten by
the early frosts of autumn; while some rare, ripe apples hang until
frozen and worthless on the leafless boughs! Really, Mr. Garfield,
if after passing through the war of the rebellion and sixteen years
in Congress; if after seeing and hearing and repeating that _no
class_ ever got justice and equality of chances from any government
except it had the power--the ballot--to clutch them for itself; if
after all your opportunities for growth and development, you can
not yet see the truth of the great principle of individual
self-government; if you have reached only the idea of
class-government, and that, too, of the most hateful and cruel
form--bounded by sex--there must be some radical defect in the
ethics of the party of which you are the chosen leader.
No matter which party administers the government, women will
continue to get only subordinate positions and half pay, not
because of the party's or the President's lack of chivalric regard,
but because, in the nature of things, it is impossible for any
government to protect a disfranchised class in equality of chances.
Women, to get justice, must have political freedom. But pardon this
long trespass upon your time and patience, and please bear in mind
that it is not for the many good things the Republican party and
its nominee have done in extending the area of liberty that I
criticise them, but because they have failed to place the women of
the nation on the plane of political equality with men. I do not
ask you to go beyond your convictions, but I do most earnestly beg
you to look at this question from the standpoint of the
woman--alone, without father, brother, husband, son--battling for
bread. It is to help the millions of these unfortunate ones that I
plead for the ballot in the hands of all women.
With great respect for your frank and candid talk with one of the
disfranchised, I am, very sincerely yours.
On the strength of Hancock's perfectly non-committal interview and
Garfield's frank letter, several of the prominent Democratic women
rushed into a campaign for that party, whereupon Miss Anthony called
them down in vigorous language. After expressing her indignation at the
many false newspaper reports of her correspondence and interview with
General Garfield, she said:
He has always stood ready to aid us in getting our demand before
Congress, and was one of the three who reported in favor of a
special woman suffrage committee in the House the last session. He
has actually done a thousand things a thousand times more friendly
to woman suffrage than Hancock now _talks_ of doing. Then, again,
Hancock has given us no public statement that, if elected, he will
recommend a Sixteenth Amendment in his inaugural; and in his
letter of acceptance he said nothing more that can be twisted into
suffrage for women than Garfield did in his, and there is no more
in the Democratic platform that can be thus construed than there is
in the Republican.
I never intended that the National Association should accept any
sort of "under the ink or between the lines" as favorable pledges;
and before _I_ shall consent to put my name to any document
favoring either candidate, I must see in black and white, in the
candidate's own pen tracks, something to warrant such favoring.
Mere gallantry will not do.
During the campaign which followed, neither she nor the other leading
women of the country did any public work, and both parties lost the
splendid services which would have been gladly rendered had they
recognized the simple principle of justice. When the success of Garfield
was practically assured, Miss Anthony wrote to a friend on the evening
of election day: "I am fairly holding my breath tonight, waiting for the
morning reports, as I feel it will be an overwhelming triumph for the
Republican party. If their majority should be immense, perhaps it will
give them courage and strength to speak for woman--and so let us hope
and hope on."
As Mrs. Stanton's health forbade her going on the lecture platform in
the autumn of 1880, and as Miss Anthony had now enough money ahead to
dare claim a little leisure from public work, they decided to settle
down to the serious business of writing the History of Woman Suffrage.
For this purpose Miss Anthony went to Tenafly in October and ensconced
herself in Mrs. Stanton's cosy home among the "blue hills of Jersey."
The work already was advanced far enough to show that it could not
possibly be restricted to the one volume into which it had enlarged from
the 500-page pamphlet at first intended, and the task loomed up in an
appalling manner. Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, the generous patron of so
many progressive movements, gave Miss Anthony $1,000 for immediate
expenses and so they went on with the work, delving among old papers and
letters, compiling, cutting, pasting, writing and re-writing, sending
over and over to the women of different States for local history, going
into New York again and again to see the publishers, and performing all
the drudgery demanded by such an undertaking, which can be appreciated
only by the few who have experienced it.
Miss Anthony hated this kind of work and it was torture for her to give
up her active life and sit poring over the musty records of the past.
Her diary contains the usual impatient expressions of this feeling, and
in her letters to friends she says: "O, how tired and sick I am of
boning down to facts and figures perpetually, and how I long to be set
free from what to me has been a perfect prison for the last six months!"
She stuck to it with Spartan heroism, however, knowing that otherwise it
never would be done, but she was not unwilling occasionally to sally
forth and fill a lecture engagement or attend a convention. At the Rhode
Island annual meeting she made the principal address, and the next day
went, with Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, to Danbury, Mass., to call on John G.
Whittier. Almost his first words were, "And so our dear Lucretia Mott is
gone!" She had died the evening before, November 11, aged nearly
eighty-eight.
Miss Anthony had expected her death, but was inexpressibly grieved to
lose from out her life that sweet presence which had been an inspiration
for thirty years, whose staunch support had never failed, even when
friends were fewest and fortune at its lowest ebb. In times of greatest
perplexity she could slip down to the Philadelphia home for sympathy and
encouragement, and there was always a corner in the pocketbook from
which a contribution came when it was most needed. If ever any human
character was without a flaw it was that of Lucretia Mott. Her motto was
"Truth for authority, not authority for truth." She faded away like a
spirit and her dying words, whispered many times during the last day or
two, were, "O, let me go, let this little standard bearer go!" For
freedom, for peace, for temperance, for equality, she was indeed the
standard bearer through all her long and beautiful life.
On election day, prompted no doubt by the unconquered and unconquerable
Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton made an effort to vote. This act created much
excitement and called forth columns of comment in the newspapers, to the
great amusement of the two conspirators in their quiet retreat.
Toward the end of 1880, Miss Anthony wrote to the treasurer, Mrs.
Spofford, asking if she did not think it would be best to omit the
National Convention of 1881, giving as reasons that there had been such
a surfeit of conventions during the past year and that she was very busy
with the History. Mrs. Spofford was much surprised, for Miss Anthony
never had been known to yield in the matter of holding this annual
meeting, even when all others were opposed, but she advised against
postponement and by the next mail received this reply:
I feel exactly as you do about having the convention. I have never
for a moment felt ready _not_ to hold it. I wrote you under Mrs.
Stanton's orders not to tell you how I felt, as that would be sure
to influence you. Now I have read her your letter and told her my
determination was to go ahead. She won't promise to attend, she
never does, but I never fail to take her with me when I am on the
spot, as I shall be when the time comes next January. So you may
save us each a bedroom away up, no matter how lofty--you know I
love the fresh air of the high heavens. Don't give yourself one
moment's uneasiness in regard to the convention. I am going to set
about it and am bound to make it one of the best, if not the best
ever held in Washington, and you shall have Mrs. Stanton too,
unless I miss my guess.
At the same time came the following from Mrs. Stanton: "Your kind
invitation I fully appreciate, and feel that the pleasure of seeing you
is one of the compensations of these conventions, which I dread more
than I can tell. But Susan says truly that when she is at hand, she
always dragoons me into what she considers my duty, so I never venture
to say what I will or will not do. Although I have solemnly vowed I will
go nowhere this winter, I should not be surprised if I found myself in
Lincoln Hall the middle of January."
[Illustration: Harriet Purvis (Signed: "Harriet Purvis")]
The Thirteenth Annual Convention of the National Association opened
January 18, 1881, Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the chair. The first session
was devoted to a memorial service for Lucretia Mott. The stage was
decorated with draperies and flowers and a large portrait of Mrs. Mott
stood on an easel. An exquisite floral harp was presented by the colored
citizens of the District. In the audience were many distinguished
people, including Mrs. Hayes and her guests from the White House,
members of the Supreme Court and of Congress, and other noted
personages. The music was rendered by the colored choir of St.
Augustine's Church. Miss Anthony said in part: "The highest tribute she
could pay was that during the past thirty years she had always felt sure
she was right when she had the sanction of Lucretia Mott. Next to that
of her own conscience she most valued the approval of her sainted
friend; and it was now a great satisfaction that in all the differences
of opinion as to principles and methods in their movement, Mrs. Mott had
stood firmly with the National Association, of which she was, to the day
of her death, the honored and revered vice-president." Short and
touching addresses were made by Mrs. Sewall, Miss Couzins, Frederick
Douglass and Robert Purvis, and the eulogy was delivered by Mrs.
Stanton.
There was an effort during this convention to secure in Congress a
"standing committee on the rights of women." It was ably advocated by
Senator McDonald and defeated largely through the smooth manipulation of
Roscoe Conkling. The convention closed with a reception and supper for
the delegates, given by Mrs. Spofford at the Riggs House.
Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton went from Washington to the home of Mrs.
Mott, where they were welcomed by her daughters, who sent for Sarah
Pugh, and the old friends had a lovely day, made sacred by reminiscences
of the dear one gone forever. For more than a quarter of a century this
had been Miss Anthony's stopping-place when in Philadelphia,[3] but she
was welcomed at once into another beautiful home, that of the wife and
daughters of J. Heron Foster, founder of the Pittsburg Dispatch. All
were deeply interested in the great question, and Julia and Rachel
henceforth were ranked among the most earnest and valued workers.
It was soon afterwards that a reporter of the Chicago News started the
following paragraph:
Susan B. Anthony has never condescended to love a man but she
lavishes a heap of affection on a little gray Skye terrier which
she takes around with her wherever she goes. This dog was given her
by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and having recently lost a favorite
Newfoundland pet, she accepted the frolicsome Skye with hearty
gratitude. She has taught the apt brute every variety of trick and
its intelligence seems to be unlimited. The little creature sleeps
on her bed, eats from her hand, has blankets, gold and silver
collars and every kind of ornament and comfort. Miss Anthony is
accompanied by this accomplished canine everywhere, and during the
recent convention in Washington "Birdie," as the dog is called,
occupied a prominent place on the platform, either cuddled up in
her voluminous lap or coiled in a frowsy heap at her feet.
This was copied into many newspapers throughout the country, often
accompanied by editorial comment, facetious, disapproving, and sometimes
deducing from this text the solemn fact that every woman's nature must
have something to love, or that while women were so frivolous they had
no right to ask for the ballot. This extract from a half-column
editorial in the New York Graphic will serve as an example:
There is something wrong here. If Miss Anthony were to carry around
with her a Newfoundland or a good bloodhound the spectacle would
have nothing incongruous in it. If she would make a pet of a
six-barrelled revolver and another of a large club that would be
appropriate. But a Skye terrier, a miserable, little, whining pup,
a coached, coddled and coaxed dog making repeated journeys in a
basket and fed on crackers and milk--what sort of a thing is this
for a person of reformative powers to be associated with? It is an
argument in favor of woman's rights that women are capable of all
the masculinity necessary to voting and the making of laws; but who
ever heard of a President, a senator, a member of the House of
Representatives, a legislator of any kind, going about with a sick
dog in his arms, soothing the little wretch into its proper sleep,
providing it with its regular nourishment and superintending its
morning awakenings and the accompanying ablutions?
Women can never come to the head of the government, can never
assist to a large extent in its management, until they reform these
weaknesses. It isn't necessary that they should chew tobacco and
swear, and perhaps they needn't smoke cigars and drive fast horses;
but their leaders must abandon the pet dog, the favorite kitten,
the especial hen and the abominable bird. They may still sew and
still wear the petticoat; but if they enter politics they must
submit to the hard raps that men expect, without putting their
hands to their eyes and sobbing that their feelings have been hurt.
There must be reform, and Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton must set
about it in earnest and at once.
A Skye terrier for Miss Anthony! Merciful heavens! after all these
years has it come to this? Catnip for Julius Cæsar! Boneset tea and
black stockings with garters for Alexander the Great! A locket with
hair in it on the bosom of the first Napoleon! A Skye terrier! We
have fallen upon evil days.
Under this in her scrap-book Miss Anthony wrote, "Doesn't this cap the
climax?" Of course, there was not the slightest foundation for the
paragraph. Miss Anthony never owned a dog or any pet animal, not from
dislike but because she felt that humanity needed all her time and
affection.
Work on the History was at once resumed, as its editors were now
convinced that it never could be finished except by the hardest kind of
labor without cessation. Of the able assistance rendered by many women
throughout the country, perhaps that of Clarina Howard Nichols was the
most valuable. She possessed not only great literary ability but also
the true editorial instinct and was one of the few left of the "old
guard." Out of her fine memory she wove a number of delightful chapters,
all written while lying on her back an almost helpless invalid and over
seventy years old. She had long ago gone to California to be with her
children, and Miss Anthony's weekly letters to her were of the most
loving character and answered in the same affectionate strain. Mrs.
Nichols hesitated to use the names of those who had been most violent in
their opposition to the rights of women, because she disliked to make
their children blush for them, but Miss Anthony wrote:
History ought to be true, and the men and women who at the time
enjoyed the glory of opposing us ought to be known to posterity
even if it is to their children's sorrow; just as those who
suffered the torments of ridicule and hatred then, now enjoy the
rewards, and their children and grandchildren glory in their
ancestors. Robert Dale Owen's daughter, in writing up the Indiana
Constitutional Convention and her father's opponents, withheld
their names from sympathy for their children. I have told her, that
as she now rejoices in what was then considered her father's
reproach, so she should let the children of those men hang their
heads now for what then was their father's pride. Isn't that fair?
Garrison used to say, "Where there is a sin, there must be a
sinner." When people understand that their descendants and all
Israel will know of their deeds, a hundred years hence, maybe they
will learn to be and do better.
I am a genuine believer in the doctrine of letting the seed bear
its fruit on the sower's own ground. For us not to give the names
of our opponents, but only of those who were wise and good, not
only would not be true history, but would rob the book of one-half
its interest. If all persons felt that their children must suffer
for their wrong-doings, they would be more cautious, but the belief
that all their ill record is to be hidden out of sight helps them
to go on reckless of truth and justice. It is not in malice or
with a desire to make any one suffer, but to be true to history
that every name should stand and be judged as the facts merit.
Miss Anthony in reality seldom carried out this theory, but usually
desired that personal failings should not be recorded and handed down to
posterity. She scarcely could be persuaded to allow the bare facts in
many instances to be stated lest surviving relatives should be hurt
thereby.
Without knowing where the money was to be obtained for publishing the
History but determined that it should be done, Miss Anthony pushed on
the work. The steel engravings cost $126 apiece and where women were
unable or unwilling to pay for their own, she herself assumed the
responsibility. To Mrs. Nichols she wrote: "I shall have your picture
and that of Ernestine L. Rose if it takes the last drop in the
bucket."[4] Because of the unpopularity of the subject the large firms
would not consider the publication of this work, which it was now found
would fill two huge volumes, but arrangements were concluded finally
with Fowler & Wells. In their great anxiety to get their work before the
public while they yet lived to see it properly done, each chapter was
hurried to the publishers the moment it was completed and immediately
stereotyped and printed, which made revising, condensing and
re-arranging impossible.
The first volume was issued in May, 1881, a royal octavo of 900 pages,
bringing the record down to the beginning of the Civil War. It is not an
exaggeration to say that no history during the century had been more
favorably received by the press. The New York dailies contained from one
to two or more columns of most complimentary reviews. The National
Citizen and Ballot-Box gave up almost an entire edition to notices of
the History taken from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and other
papers, with not a disparaging criticism. Most of them echoed the
sentiment of the New York Sun: "We have long needed an authentic and
exhaustive account of the movement for the enfranchisement of women;"
and of the Chicago News: "The appearance of this book, long expected by
the friends, is not only an important literary occurrence, but it is a
remarkable event in the history of civilization." The personal
commendations from such men as President Andrew D. White, of Cornell
University, Hon. C. B. Waite, of Chicago, Rev. William Henry Channing,
and from scores of eminent women, would in themselves require several
chapters.
Nobody realized so well as the authors the imperfections of the work,
but when one considered that it had to be gathered piecemeal from old
letters, personal recollections, imperfect newspaper reports, mere
scraps of material which never had been put into shape as to time and
place, the result was remarkable. They were indeed correct in their
assertion that no one but the actual participants ever could have
described the early history of this movement to secure equal rights for
women. "We have furnished the bricks and mortar," they said, "for some
future architect to rear a beautiful edifice." These "bricks and mortar"
were supplied almost wholly by Miss Anthony, who, from the beginning,
had carefully preserved every letter, newspaper clipping and report, and
whose persistent and endless labor in collecting facts, dates, etc.,
never can be estimated or sufficiently appreciated; and it is not
probable that any more forcible or graceful pens than those of Mrs.
Stanton and Mrs. Gage ever will be found to enhance their splendid work.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Truly yours as ever, Matilda Joslyn Gage"]
So unanimous and hearty was the reception of this book, to which they
had devoted every moment of spare time for five years, that they felt
encouraged to spend the next five, if necessary, upon the other volume,
which the mass of material now demanded; but if all the criticism had
been unfavorable and everybody had declared the work not needed, they
still would have gone straight on to the finish, because they realized
so strongly the value of putting into permanent form the story of the
struggle for the emancipation of woman. Many letters were received
urging that it was too soon to write this history, to which Mrs. Stanton
invariably responded in her humorous way: "Well, we old workers might
perhaps have 'reminisced' after death, but I doubt if the writing
mediums could do as well as we have done with our pens. You say the
history of woman suffrage can not be written until it is accomplished.
Why not describe its initiative steps? The United States has not
completed its grand experiment of equality, universal suffrage, etc.,
and yet Bancroft has been writing our history for forty years. If no one
writes up his own times, where are the materials for the history of the
future?"
Before the task should be resumed, however, there must be a little rest
and a great deal of work of another kind. The diary says: "Had a man
today and toted all my documents out to the barn, storing them in big
boxes, then packed my winter clothes away in the attic, so that my room
might be renovated for Theodore Stanton and his bride from Paris." Miss
Anthony then returned home, filled several lecture engagements and in
May started for Massachusetts, stopping at Tenafly to take Mrs. Stanton
with her in order that she might not escape.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The Chicago press gave very satisfactory reports of this meeting,
but the Springfield Republic was vulgar and abusive, called the ladies
"withered beldames," "cats on the back roof," and advised them to "go
home and attend to their children, if they had any, and if not, to
engage in that same occupation as soon as they could regularly do so."
The charge being so often made that the leaders of the suffrage movement
were a lot of old maids and childless wives, Miss Anthony prepared a
list showing that sixteen of the most prominent were the mothers of
sixty-six children. Of the pioneers she herself was the only one who
never married. Of the younger speakers Phoebe Couzins was the only one
who remained single.
[2] The Cincinnati Commercial said at this time: "Miss Anthony is the
same clear, calm reasoner--a woman of the same firm convictions and with
the same forcible, dignified and essentially womanly manner of
expressing them--that she has always been. While in Cincinnati she is
the guest of her cousin, Mrs. A. B. Merriam, of Walnut Hills, where many
call upon her and find a talk with a woman so earnest and fine in
intellectual power to be a genuine satisfaction. On the 'woman
question,' she is hopeful but not a hopeless enthusiast. She is too
clear-headed for that, and has overcome too many obstacles not to
appreciate the requisite momentum and the force necessary to produce it.
Her life is great in that it has made a larger life and higher work
possible to other women, who share her aspirations without her
invincible strength to carve their way."
[3] This and the hospitable homes of Robert and Harriet Purvis, Sarah
Pugh, and Adeline and Annie Thomson, sisters of J. Edgar Thomson.
[4] The women of Kansas contributed $75 toward Mrs. Nichols' picture as
a testimonial to her suffrage work in that State.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE LEGACY--NEBRASKA CAMPAIGN--OFF FOR EUROPE.
1881-1882-1883.
It had been decided this year of 1881 to take the anniversary meeting
into the very heart of New England, and for the first time the National
Association went to Boston, opening in Tremont Temple, May 26. The
address of welcome was made by Harriet H. Robinson, wife of
"Warrington," the well-known newspaper correspondent, and there were
several new speakers in the convention, including A. Bronson Alcott,
Mary F. Eastman, Anna Garlin Spencer, Frank Sanborn, ex-Governor Lee, of
Wyoming, the noted politician, Francis W. Bird, Harriette Robinson
Shattuck and Rev. Ada C. Bowles. The ladies had no cause to complain of
the hospitality of this conservative New England center. The Boston
Traveller expressed the general sentiment in saying:
The National Suffrage Association has reason to congratulate itself
on one of the most notable and successful conventions ever held.
Boston's attitude to her distinguished guests has been uniformly
hospitable, the audiences have been large and enthusiastic, the
press co-operative in every sense. The eminent women who are its
leaders are ladies whose acquaintance is an unmixed pleasure, and
not least in importance have been the friendships formed and
renewed at this meeting. The business management of the convention
has been superb; the sympathy between audience and speakers
reciprocal.
The guests received an invitation from Governor John D. Long to visit
the State House and were received by him in person. In his remarks he
said he believed women should vote, not because they are women but
because they are a part of the people and government should be of the
people regardless of sex; he thought the extension of suffrage to women
could not fail to give stability to the government. Mrs. Hooker thanked
him for coming to their support and in her letter describing the
occurrence she says: "Miss Anthony standing close to the governor said
in low; pathetic tones, 'Yes, we are tired, we are weary with our work.
For thirty years some of us have carried this burden, and now if we
might put it in the hands of honorable men, such as you, how happy we
would be.'" The ladies also accepted an invitation from Mayor Prince to
visit the city hall and were cordially received by him. They were
invited to inspect the great dry goods store of Jordan, Marsh & Co. and
see the arrangements for the comfort and pleasure of the employes many
of whom were women. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Robinson were
entertained at the Parker House by the famous Bird Club.
Miss Anthony received several beautiful floral offerings during the
convention, and also a handsome pin in the shape of a Greek cross. The
golden bar from which it was suspended bore the letters S. B. A., on the
points were the initials N. W. S. A., and on the reverse was engraved,
"Presented by the Citizens' Suffrage Association of Philadelphia as a
token of gratitude for her life-long devotion to the interests of
woman." The little presentation speech was made in a most tender and
graceful manner by May Wright Sewall. The Boston Globe in describing the
scene pays this compliment:
Miss Anthony was as deeply touched as she was surprised. Recovering
herself, she responded eloquently and in her usual interesting and
magnetic manner. Of all the eminent women who are here, no one is
such a favorite with a Boston audience as Susan B. Anthony. Her
courage and strength and the patient devotion of a life consecrated
to the advancement and the elevation of womanhood, her invincible
honor, her logic and her power to touch and sway all hearts, are
felt and reverently recognized. The young women of the day may well
feel that it is she who _has made life possible_ to them; who has
trodden the thorny paths and, by her unwearied devotion, has opened
to them the professions and higher applied industries; nor is this
detracting from those who now share with her the labor and the
glory. Each and all recognize the individual devotion, the purity
and singleness of purpose that so eminently distinguish Miss
Anthony.
The convention closed with a reception at the elegant home of Mrs. Fenno
Tudor, on Beacon Hill.
After leaving Boston, this distinguished body of women, made the sweep
of New England, holding conventions in Providence, R. I.; Portland, Me.;
Dover, Concord and Keene, N. H.; Hartford and New Haven, Conn. The
national board of officers received an infusion of new blood this year
through the election of May Wright Sewall, chairman executive committee,
and Rachel Foster, corresponding secretary. Miss Anthony writes, "It is
such a relief to roll off part of the burden on stronger, younger
shoulders." This entire round of conventions was arranged by Miss
Foster, a remarkable work for an inexperienced girl.
At Concord Miss Anthony was entertained in the family of her old friend
and co-laborer, Parker Pillsbury, and after her departure Mrs. Pillsbury
wrote: "I am so very happy to know you personally, and I thank you for
the compliment you bestow in asking me to enroll my name among the most
grand and noble women of our land. I shall enjoy being counted worthy to
place it in company with dear Miss Anthony. Mr. Cogswell says many men
(some members of the Legislature among them) in talking with him have
expressed unexpected satisfaction in the speeches of the convention just
holden--especially in yours, and he says, 'She is a host in herself, I
like her practical common sense.'"
There was comfort in a letter received at this time from Elizabeth
Boynton Harbert, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association and one
of the Inter-Ocean staff:
Before entering upon our usual business talk, I want to wish you
all beautiful and peaceful things this summer morning, and tell you
of a rare and genuine tribute to yourself which brought tears of
gladness to my own eyes when I heard it. In talking to some of the
old workers, I referred to your life-long sacrifice and wondered
how we could develop a similar spirit in our younger women, when
Mrs. Zerelda Wallace said with great impressiveness: "My dear
sisters, I want to say this, and to say it with a profound
realization of all that it means, that to me, the person who, next
to Jesus Christ himself, has shown to the world a life of perfect
unselfishness, is Susan B. Anthony." I tell you this, my dear
friend, because I believe such a tribute from such a woman will
lighten some of the burdens.
Many similar letters were now received every year, and were as sweet and
fragrant flowers in a pathway which had contained more thorns than
roses.
In the hot summer of 1881 Miss Anthony went again to Albany to spend the
last weeks with another friend, Phebe Hoag Jones, who passed away July
27. She was the intimate associate of Lydia Mott and the last of that
little band of Abolitionists so conspicuous in the Democratic stronghold
of Albany for many years preceding the war. At her death Miss Anthony
felt that she had no longer an abiding place in the State capital, and
expressed this feeling in a letter to Mrs. Spofford, who replied: "You
speak of no longer having a home in Albany. Why, the best homes in that
city should be gladly opened to you, and some day those people will wake
up and wonder why they did not take you in their arms and hearts and
help you in your work."[5]
All the letters during this summer are filled with sorrow over the
assassination, long suffering and death of President Garfield. After all
was ended Miss Anthony wrote to a friend:
In the reported death-bed utterances of our President, the only one
which has grated on my ears was that in answer to the query whether
he had made a will: "No, and he did not wish one, as he could trust
the courts to do justice to his wife and children." How little even
the best of men see and feel the dire humiliation and suffering to
the wife, the widow, who is left to the justice of the courts! My
heart aches because of man's insensibility to the cruelty of thus
leaving woman. How can we teach them the lesson that the wife
suffers all the torment under the law's assuming her rights to her
property and her children, which the husband would, should it
assume similar ownership and control over him, his property and
children after his wife's death.
What a twelve weeks these have been, and what a funeral pall has
rested upon us the past week. Every nook and corner, every
mountaintop and valley is shrouded in sorrow for this crime against
the nation. Today the ministers are preaching their sermons on the
life and character of Garfield. Our Unitarian, Mr. Mann, made his
special point on the fact that all the people of every sect had
united in endorsement of Garfield's religion, which was most
emphatically one of life and action, natural, without cant or
observance of the outward rites and ceremonies. There is no report
of even a minister's being asked to pray with him. When the bells
told of the people's day of special prayer for his life, he
exclaimed, "God bless the people," but covered his face, as much as
to say, "Nothing but science can determine this case."
In the late summer and fall Mrs. Stanton had a tedious and alarming
attack of malarial fever, and Miss Anthony was greatly distressed
because some of her family insisted that it was produced by the long,
hard strain of the work on the History. She writes: "It is so easy to
charge every ill to her labors for suffrage, while she knows and I know
that it is her work for woman which has kept her young and fresh and
happy all these years. Mrs. Stanton has written me that during her
illness 'she suffered more from her fear that she never should finish
the History than from the thought of parting with all her friends.'"
The National Prohibition Alliance, which met in New York, October 18,
invited her to take an official part in its proceedings. She declined to
do so but attended the meeting and, after a visit to Mrs. Stanton, went
to Washington to the national convention of the W. C. T. U. She had
three reasons for this: 1st, she understood there was to be an attempt
to supersede Miss Willard, to whom she had become very much attached;
2d, an effort was to be made to commit the association to woman
suffrage; and 3d, she had made up her mind to see President Arthur on
business connected with her own organization. She sat in the convention
through all the three days' sessions and, on motion of Mrs. J. Ellen
Foster, was invited to address it and was introduced by Miss Willard in
words of strong approval. A prominent woman who was opposed to Miss
Willard's re-election went among the delegates, assuring them in the
most solemn manner that Miss Willard had insulted every one of them by
introducing Miss Anthony on the platform, as she did not recognize God.
"Well," replied one of them, an Indianapolis woman, "I don't know about
that, but I do know that God has recognized her and her work for the
last thirty years."
She had the pleasure of seeing Miss Willard triumphantly re-elected, an
equal suffrage resolution adopted and a department of franchise
established. "So the Christian craft of that great organization has set
sail on the wide sea of woman's enfranchisement," she comments. At the
close of the convention this amusing card was sent to the press: "All
presidents of State delegations represented in the National W. C. T. U.
desire to explain, in refutation of a statement in the Post of October
31, that, so far from 'capturing the convention,' Miss Susan B. Anthony
made no effort to influence their delegations in public or in private,
and is not, nor ever has been, a member of the W. C. T. U., either
local, State or national, hence has had no part in its deliberations."
The President, who was an old schoolmate of her brother Daniel R.,
granted her a pleasant interview, arranged by Senator Jones, of Nevada,
in which she urged him to recommend in his message to Congress a
standing committee on the rights of women and also a Sixteenth Amendment
which should enfranchise them. The reporters learned of this interview
and, as a result, newspapers throughout the country used a portion of
their valuable space in describing "how President Arthur squeezed Susan
B. Anthony's hand!"
On the way home she stopped in Philadelphia and, with Rachel Foster and
Adeline Thomson, called on George W. Childs, who gave to her $50 for
"the cause," and to each of them one of his rare china cups and saucers.
On November 7 work on the History was again resumed. The 29th was
Wendell Phillips' seventieth birthday and Miss Anthony wrote him a
letter of congratulation, telling him that she always had found comfort
in the thought that, when there were differences between them, she had
had his respect if not his approval. He replied with the following
affectionate note: "Hearty thanks for your congratulations. The band
grows smaller month by month. We ought to stand closer together. You and
I have differed as all earnest souls must. I trust each always believed
the other to be true in spirit. I know I always did, touching yourself.
You are good to assure me you have had the same faith in me, and I hope
when you reach threescore and ten, some kind friend will cheer you with
equally generous and welcome words."
The last entry in the diary for 1881 says: "The year closes down on a
wilderness of work, a swamp of letters and papers almost hopeless." She
attacked it, however, with that sublime courage which was ever her
strongest characteristic, and at the end of the first week of the new
year the heaviest part of the burden was lifted from her shoulders by
the receipt of this letter from Mr. Phillips:
DEAR SUSAN: Our friend Mrs. Eliza Eddy, Francis Jackson's daughter,
died a week ago Thursday. At her request, I made her will some
weeks before. Her man of business, devoted to her for twenty-five
years, Mr. C. R. Ransom (ex-president of one of our banks) is the
executor. He and I were present and consulted, and we know all her
intentions and wishes from long talks with her in years gone by.
After making various bequests, she ordered the remainder divided
equally between you and Lucy Stone. There is no question whatever
that your portion will be $25,000 or $28,000. I advised her, in
order to avoid all lawyers, to give this sum to you outright, with
no responsibility to any one or any court, only "requesting you to
use it for the advancement of the woman's cause."
After all the years of toil without financial recompense, of struggling
to accomplish her work with wholly insufficient means, of depending from
month to month on the few dollars which could be gathered in, Miss
Anthony's joy and gratitude scarcely could find expression in words. She
answered at once:
Your most surprising letter reached me last evening. How worthy the
daughter of Francis Jackson! How it carries me back to his generous
gift of $5,000; to that noble, fatherly man and that quiet, lovely
daughter in his home. Never going to Boston during the past fifteen
years, I had lost sight of her, though I had not forgotten her by
any means. How little thought have I had all these years that she
cherished this marvellous trust in me, and now I recognize in her
munificent legacy your own faith in me, for such was her confidence
in you that I feel sure she would not have thus willed, if you had
not fully endorsed her wish. So to you, my dear friend, as to her,
my unspeakable gratitude goes out. May I prove worthy the care and
disposal of whatever shall come into my hands. Will you, as my
friend and Mrs. Eddy's, ever feel free to suggest and advise me as
to a wise use thereof? I am very glad it was your privilege to be
with her through these years of her loneliness. I am pleased that
you and Mr. Ransom propose to appropriate something to her faithful
brother James, and most cheerfully do I put my name to the paper
you enclose, with the fullest confidence that you would ask of me
nothing but right and justice to all parties.
A few days afterwards she received another letter from Mr. Phillips:
You remember Mrs. Bacon (Mrs. Eddy's daughter) died about a week
after she did. Her husband (who Mrs. Eddy knew would disturb her
will if he could) is trying ostensibly to break it, really to force
you and Lucy Stone to buy him off. The grounds on which he objects
to the will are "that she was of unsound mind; that I and her
executor exercised over her an undue influence in urging her to
leave her money as she did; and that she did not know how much she
was willing away." The truth is, we never said one word to her. It
was her own plan entirely to leave it to woman's rights. Mr. Bacon
knows there is not a ghost of a chance of his succeeding. The
executor and I have retained Benjamin F. Butler and mean to fight
to have Mrs. Eddy's will executed as she wished. The Misses Eddy
sustain the will and wish it carried out to the letter, and say if
it is broken they shall give their portion to the woman's rights
cause, to you and Lucy. I'll tell you when any news is to be had.
We are doing our best to protect your interests.
This was the beginning of litigation which continued for three years,
and was a source of annoyance to Miss Anthony in other respects besides
being deprived of the money. The fact of the bequest naturally being
heralded far and wide by the newspapers, appeals and demands for a share
of it poured in from all quarters, and she had much difficulty in
persuading people that she had not the money already in her hands to be
divided.
In company with Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony arrived in Washington January
16, 1882, to attend the Fourteenth Annual Convention. The effort to
secure a special committee on woman suffrage which had failed in the
Forty-sixth Congress was successful in the Forty-seventh, through the
championship of Senators Hoar and John A. Logan, Representatives John D.
White, of Kentucky, Thomas B. Reed and others. There was bitter
opposition by Senator Vest, of Missouri, who declared it to be "a step
toward the recognition of woman suffrage, which has nothing in it but
mischief to the institutions and to the society of the whole country."
In his zeal he dropped into poetry, saying,
"A woman's noblest station is retreat,
Her fairest virtues fly from public sight,"
and so, of course, she had no need of a special committee. It was
vigorously opposed also by Senator Beck, of Kentucky, who said "the
colored women's votes could be bought for fifty cents apiece;" and by
Senator Morgan, of Alabama, who made a stump speech on "dissevered
homes, disbanded families, pot-house politicians seated at the fireside
with another man's wife, women fighting their way to the polls through
crowds of negroes and ruffians," etc.[6] It was carried in the Senate by
a vote of 35 to 23; in the House, a month later, by a vote of 115 to 84.
Miss Anthony says of this in her diary: "If the best of worldly good had
come to me personally, I could not feel more joyous and blest."
In addition to the usual distinguished array of speakers were Rev.
Frederick Hinckley, Representative G. S. Orth, of Indiana, Senator
Saunders, of Nebraska, Clara B. Colby, Harriette R. Shattuck and Helen
M. Gougar, all new on the National platform. The Senate committee on
woman suffrage just appointed, granted a hearing January 20, and at its
close expressed a desire to hear other speakers among the ladies on the
following day. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton presented each of the
members of the committee with the first volume of the History of Woman
Suffrage.
The convention closed with the usual handsome reception at the Riggs
House and immediately afterwards most of the speakers went to
Philadelphia, where Rachel Foster had arranged for another
convention.[7] This was held at St. George's Hall, January 23, 24, 25,
welcomed by Rev. Charles G. Ames, and was highly successful. A pleasant
feature of this occasion was a luncheon given by that revered Quaker and
temperance worker, Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith, of Germantown, to twelve
of the prominent speakers.
The two historians hastened back to their work, which was interrupted
only by Miss Anthony's going to the New York State Suffrage Convention
held in Chickering Hall, February 1. Calls for her presence and help
came from many parts of the country. "O, how I long to be in the midst
of the fray," she writes, "and here I am bound hand and foot. I shall
feel like an uncaged lion when this book is off my hands." On February
15, her birthday was celebrated by suffrage clubs in many places,[8] but
she refused to be drawn out of her retreat, where she was remembered
with telegrams, newspaper notices and gifts. In quoting a complimentary
reference from the Rochester Herald, the Elmira Free Press commented:
The Herald says too little. Miss Anthony has labored for the most
part without money, and from pure love of the principle to which
she has devoted her life. She is as good a knight as has enlisted
in any crusade, and has sacrificed as much and been as faithful and
true. She has been thrice true, indeed, because of the ridicule
showered on her as a woman trying to do a man's work. No man ever
had the courage of his convictions as much as she. It takes a bold
spirit to stand up against the dangers of gunpowder in the
old-time, legitimate way; but it is a braver one that withstands
ridicule and that mean cunning which makes wit of every act looking
toward the advancement of women. The Free Press has perhaps had as
many of the frowns of this "good gray poet" of the woman's cause as
anybody. It has seen enough of them to know, however, that behind
that somewhat frigid exterior is a sensitiveness which would well
become a girl of sixteen rather than a lady of sixty-two and which
shows that the woman is always the woman; and it wants to present
its compliments to the bravest and grandest old lady within the
circle of its acquaintance.
The Washington Republic furnished another example of the pleasant things
said:
Miss Anthony, whom we know well and of whom we can speak from
personal experience, is so broad in her charity, so cosmopolitan in
her sympathies, that she will stand, without fearing speck or soil,
beside any publican or sinner whose eyes have been opened to see
the good in woman's rights, and who is willing to help on the work
in his own way. For herself she never deviates from the principles
she espoused when, stepping upon the rostrum to plead for
disfranchised women, she determined that her life work should be
endeavoring to procure for her sex all the rights and privileges of
which exclusively male legislation had for ages defrauded them.
With eyes steadily fixed upon the goal she has in view, neither the
jeers nor ridicule of the crowds without, nor the jealous asides of
those claiming to be workers in the same cause, have had power to
distract her attention or make her turn from her labor to answer or
rebuke.
The last of April the second volume of the History was completed and its
editors found to their dismay that they still had enough material on
hand for a third huge volume. Mrs. Stanton sailed for Europe with her
daughter Harriot, and after Miss Anthony had read the last bit of proof
and seen all safe at the publishers, she obeyed an urgent call from the
women at Washington and hastened thither to look after the congressional
committees on woman suffrage.
She was fortunate in her friends at court at this time, having two
cousins, Elbridge G. Lapham and Henry B. Anthony, in the United States
Senate, and her lawyer, John Van Voorhis, of Rochester, in the House of
Representatives, all in favor of woman suffrage, and the two cousins on
the "select committee" of the Senate. On June 5, 1882, this committee
made a report in favor of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of
the United States, signed by the Republican senators, E. G. Lapham, T.
W. Ferry, H. W. Blair and H. B. Anthony. The minority report took the
ground that suffrage was a matter which should be regulated solely by
the States, not by Congress, and was signed by J. Z. George and Howell
E. Jackson (Dems.), and James G. Fair (Rep.).
The following year, March 1, 1883, the House committee, John D. White,
chairman, presented a favorable report. This was the first time woman
suffrage had received a majority report from a Senate or House
committee.[9]
[Illustration: Autograph: "Very sincerely, John D. White"]
When Miss Anthony returned home she found this bright note from Harriot
Stanton, dated Paris: "... Dear Susan, you often seem to me like a
superb warhorse. You are completely swallowed up in an idea, and it's a
glorious thing to be. Carlyle says, 'The end of man is an Action, not a
Thought,' and what a realization of that truth has your life been. You
have never stopped for idle culture or happy recreations. You are
possessed by a moral force, and you act. You are a Deed, not a
Thinking.... I should love to be your biographer. You are to other women
of your time just what Greek architecture is to Gothic. I long to carve
your literary image, and know I could."
If Miss Anthony had any hope of rest it was soon dispelled. The
legislature of Nebraska had submitted a woman suffrage amendment, and
the women of that State called upon the National Association for
assistance. After a vast amount of preliminary correspondence she left
Rochester September 2, and travelled westward, leaving a trail of
newspaper interviews in her wake, as she was intercepted by reporters at
every city. En route she wrote to her friend Mrs. Nichols: "Only think,
I shall not have a white-haired woman on the platform with me, and shall
be alone there of all the pioneer workers. Always with the 'old guard' I
had perfect confidence that the wise and right thing would be said. What
a platform ours then was of self-reliant, strong women! I felt sure of
you all, and since you earliest ones have not been with us, Mrs.
Stanton's presence has ever made me feel that we should get the true and
brave word spoken. Now that she is not to be there, I can not quite feel
certain that our younger sisters will be equal to the emergency, yet
they are each and all valiant, earnest and talented, and will soon be
left to manage the ship without even me."
The opening convention was held in Boyd's Opera House, Omaha, September
26, 27, 28. The Bee was ironical and contemptuous in its treatment,
heading its report "Mad Anthony's Raid." The Herald, under control of a
young son of U. S. Senator Hitchcock, was vulgar and abusive, referring
to the question as a "dead issue." The Republican, edited by D. C.
Brooks, replied:
PRETTY LIVELY "DEAD ISSUE."--During the three days' sessions of the
woman suffrage convention, we estimate that 7,000 people were in
attendance. The Republican, in its three daily issues, and its
coming weekly issue, will have laid the proceedings in full before
about 75,000 readers, and the Bee and Herald will have given them
nearly as many more. For a "dead issue" we submit this is a pretty
respectable showing. Considered as a series of political meetings,
the suffrage convention had more hearers than all the Democratic
meetings and conventions held in Omaha during the last five years.
The audiences were truly representative, embracing the business,
professional and working interests of our city, and composed very
largely of voters and citizens influential in politics.
The next convention was held in Lincoln with the same crowded houses.
The newspapers were fair in their reports. The National Association
raised $5,000 by contributions, mostly from outside the State. Miss
Anthony gave her time and services and over $1,000 in money besides all
she collected. Mrs. Foster and daughters contributed $500. Eleven
speakers were kept in the field,[10] and all the complicated series of
meetings was arranged and managed by Rachel Foster, assisted by Mrs.
Colby. Miss Anthony herself spoke in forty counties, free transportation
being given her by all the railroads in the State. On October 13, she
held the famous debate at Omaha with Edward Rosewater, editor of the
Bee, in the presence of an immense audience. Everywhere her meetings
were perfect ovations, people coming in from a radius of twenty-five
miles; and outside of Lincoln and Omaha, there was no audience-room
large enough to hold the crowds.
A splendid force of Nebraska women conducted the campaign in behalf of
the State. Every effort possible was made in the brief space of six
weeks, but the masses of voters were not prepared for the question, most
of the leading newspapers opposed it, and the women had no help from
either of the political parties. In spite of these fatal drawbacks, the
suffrage amendment received about one-third of the total vote.[11]
Miss Anthony returned home by way of St. Louis, where Mrs. Minor gave a
large reception in her honor. When she reached Rochester she was invited
by the Lincoln Club, one of the leading political organizations of the
city, to give her address, "Woman Wants Bread, not the Ballot." The
Democrat and Chronicle said in its report: "The large audience-room of
the city hall was completely filled, and many extra seats were brought
in. A number of prominent ladies and gentlemen occupied seats upon the
platform. W. E. Werner, president of the club, in introducing the
speaker, said it was fitting the hall should be full to overflowing with
an audience anxious to hear the greatest advocate of one of the greatest
questions of the day."
Miss Anthony had made a short trip to Washington immediately upon her
return from Nebraska, to confer with the select committees on woman
suffrage and also to make final arrangements for the approaching
National Convention. It met in Lincoln Hall, January 23, 24 and 25,
1883, and she presided over its deliberations.
In response to many urgent letters written by Mrs. Stanton from England,
and encouraged by friends at home who felt that she needed a long rest
after more than thirty years of uninterrupted public work, Miss Anthony
decided to make a trip abroad. As Rachel Foster contemplated a few
years' study in Europe, the pleasant arrangement was made that she
should undertake the financial management of the journey, act as
interpreter and give Miss Anthony the care and attention her loving
heart would suggest.[12] Miss Anthony's sixty-third birthday being near
at hand, the friends in Philadelphia, led by the Citizens' Suffrage
Association, Edward M. Davis, president, tendered her a reception, which
circumstances rendered it necessary to hold on the 19th instead of the
15th of February. The Philadelphia Times gave this account:
The parlor of the Unitarian church was filled to overflowing on the
occasion of the farewell reception to Miss Susan B. Anthony. After
prayer by Rev. Charles G. Ames, Robert Purvis, who presided, said
in a brief and earnest address: "I have the honor, on behalf of the
National Suffrage Association, to present to you these resolutions
testifying to their high regard, confidence, and affection." After
the applause which the resolutions evoked, Mr. Purvis continued: "I
present these with feelings which I can not express in words, for
my thoughts take me back in vivid recollection to those stormy
periods of persecution and outrage when you, Miss Anthony, with the
foremost in the ranks of the Abolitionists, battled for the freedom
and rights of the enslaved race. You have lived, with many
compeers, to see the glorious result of your labors in redeeming
from the infamy and degradation of chattelism 4,000,000 slaves.
That done, your attention was turned to the greater question--in
view of numbers--of woman's emancipation from civil and political
debasement."
Upon rising to reply Miss Anthony received an ovation. She said: "I
feel that I must speak, because if I should hear all these words of
praise and remain silent, I should seem to assent to tributes which
I do not wholly deserve. My kind friends have spoken almost as if I
had done the work, or the greater part of it, alone, whereas I have
been only one of many men and women who have labored side by side
in this cause. Philadelphia has had the honor of giving to the
world a woman who led the way in this noble effort. Lucretia Mott
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were active in the good work ere my
attention had been called to it. It was through their influence
that I was led to consider and accept the then new doctrine. Alone
I should have been as a mere straw in the wind.... I have known
nothing the last thirty years save the struggle for human rights on
this continent. If it had been a class of men who were
disfranchised and denied their legal rights, I believe I should
have devoted my life precisely as I have done in behalf of my own
sex. I hope while abroad that I shall do something to recommend our
work here, so as to make them respect American women and their
demand for political equality...."
Letters, telegrams, flowers and gifts were received in great
numbers.[13]
May Wright Sewall had this graphic description in the Indianapolis
Times, owned and edited by Col. Wm. R. Holloway, an earnest advocate of
woman suffrage:
The few days spent in Philadelphia by Miss Anthony prior to sailing
were a series of fêtes. She spoke to over one thousand girls of the
Normal School on the public duties of women; was officially invited
to visit the Woman's Medical College; was given a reception by the
New Century Club; was tendered a complimentary dinner by Mrs. Emma
J. Bartol, in her own elegant home, where ten courses were served
and toasts were drunk to the guest of honor.... Letters of
introduction, quite unsolicited, poured in from friends and
countrymen personally unknown to her, who thus showed their desire
to facilitate her meeting with the stars of various desirable
circles abroad. At the public reception, Robert Purvis presented
the following testimonial, beautifully engrossed on vellum, and
encased in garnet velvet with gold borders:
"_Resolved_, That the National Woman Suffrage Association of the
United States does hereby testify its appreciation of the life-long
devotion of Susan B. Anthony to the cause of woman; that it
acknowledges her as the chief inspirer of women in their struggle
for personal liberty, for civil equity, and for political equality;
that as one of the foremost of American women it commends her to
the women of foreign lands.
"_Resolved_, That the members of the association rejoice in the
approaching holiday of their beloved leader; that they will follow
her wanderings with affection and sympathy; that during her absence
they will steadfastly uphold the principles to which her life has
been devoted; that on her return they will welcome her to a
resumption of her labors and hold themselves ready to work under
her able and devoted leadership."
Among the numerous letters and telegrams were messages from Wendell
Phillips, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Mary Clemmer,
Helen Potter, Emma C. Bascom and Dr. Alida C. Avery.... Probably no
testimony was more enjoyed than the following:
"ROCHESTER, N. Y., THE HOME OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY: In this open
letter old friends and neighbors unite with all who honor the
birthday of its true citizen, and express the sincere wish that
Miss Anthony in her sojourn in strange lands may find what she has
in full measure here at home--a genuine appreciation of her true
womanliness, her sturdy adherence to honest conviction and her
heroic stand, against all opposition, for the higher education and
enfranchisement of women. Wishing her Godspeed and a safe return,
we, the undersigned, do not need to assure her that neither the
triumphs nor the defeats of her future public life will change our
estimation of her, for to us she will ever remain what her life
among us has proved her to be--a good, true woman, self-consecrated
to the cause of woman in every land."
The signatures include the names of eighty of the leading men and
women of Rochester; among them editors of the papers of both
parties, pastors of the prominent churches, university professors,
bankers, politicians, etc. Honor, if tardy, surely comes at last to
the prophet in her own country. A song written for the occasion and
inscribed to Miss Anthony, by Annie E. McDowell, one of the first
editors of a woman's paper, was splendidly sung by Mr. Ford, the
composer, who had set it to music.
Among the telegrams was this from her brother, D. R. Anthony:
"Sixty-three years have crowned you with the honor and respect of the
people of America, and with the love of your brothers and sisters."
From the friends in Washington, D. C., came a plush case, on whose satin
lining rested an exquisite point lace fichu and sleeve ruffles. A New
York gentleman sent $100 to be used toward the purchase of an India
shawl, writing: "I don't believe in woman suffrage, but I do believe in
Susan B. Anthony." The Cheney Brothers sent a handsome black silk dress
pattern; Helen Potter, a steamer rug; the Fosters, a travelling bag;
Adeline and Annie Thomson, a silver cup; Robert Purvis, a gold-handled
umbrella, and there were various other tokens of remembrance. Many of
the leading papers contained an editorial farewell, with a hearty
compliment and Godspeed. The Chicago Tribune, edited by Joseph Medill,
offered this tribute:
The best known and most popular woman in the United States, engaged
in public work, is Susan B. Anthony, the co-worker of Wm. Lloyd
Garrison, Lydia Maria Child, Wendell Phillips, Lucretia Mott and
others in the anti-slavery movement, and the fellow-laborer of
Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the woman's rights movement. She ranks
first among the warriors in this latter contest, because she has
lived her life in its service and there has been no side issue to
it. Neither father nor mother, husband nor children, have diverted
her mind from her hobby, or led her to cease for a day from the
prosecution of the task she set out to accomplish.... Miss Anthony
is an American woman whom the better class of English people
particularly, and of foreigners generally, will delight to honor,
and one that her country-women are pleased to have represent them.
She is, in point of character and ability, one of the few of her
sex who have made themselves a name and a place in the history of
her time....
She has had occasion to speak sharply, to lecture women severely,
when in her heart she would have preferred to praise; but women
love her dearly all the same, and trust her implicitly. In
integrity, stainless honor and generosity of sentiment and of deed
she has no peer. She has stood the storm of raillery and abuse she
aroused, as the leader of the "shrieking sisterhood," with perfect
equanimity, and while others were cowed by the ridicule which was
hardest of all to bear, Miss Anthony busied herself using this
opportunity to show to women the real opinion of them entertained
by the stronger sex.
Only those who are aware of the great and beneficent changes made
in the laws relating to the rights of property, for instance, can
at all estimate the good accomplished by these brave women. Almost
all the leaders in the movement are gone. Mrs. Stanton and Miss
Anthony, both elderly women, now remain in the work, and Miss
Anthony alone still labors with the old-time zeal and freedom. She
is at her best mentally and physically, and is likely to live many
years to follow up the work she is now doing. The best lesson that
women can learn from her life is that success in any one thing is
secured only by the sacrifice of many others, and that for a woman
to reach the highest place in her chosen pursuit is for her to work
with an eye single to it, counting it a privilege to forego
pleasures and affections which tend to distract and divide
attention. Miss Anthony knew this secret of success, as she has
proven.
When the history of the reform work done in this country in this
century is written, no individual laborer will have higher praise
than that which belongs to Miss Anthony. Honest, sincere, tolerant
and kind, she has won the homage of her adversaries; for while
there is but a small minority of men and women who believe in woman
suffrage, there are none who fail to pay tribute to the sterling
qualities of this representative woman.
The Kansas City Journal said good-by in these graceful words: "Susan B.
Anthony will celebrate her sixty-third birthday tomorrow, and in a few
days will sail for England.... She goes abroad a republican
queen--uncrowned to be sure, but none the less of the blood royal, and
we have faith that the noblest men and women of Europe will at once
recognize and welcome her as their equal. Fair winds waft her over the
sea and home again!"
The two ladies sailed from Philadelphia on the morning of February 23,
and a special dispatch to the New York Times thus announced their
departure:
Miss Susan B. Anthony, accompanied by Miss Rachel Foster, embarked
on the British Prince, of the American Steamship Line, at 9 o'clock
this morning, for Liverpool. Notwithstanding the cold and cheerless
weather, quite a number of persons stood patiently on the wharf,
facing the raw and snow-laden air which blew from the river,
waiting to see the steamer get under way and to catch a glimpse of
the celebrated champion of woman's rights. A little before 10
o'clock Miss Anthony came out of her stateroom with several friends
and, bidding them a final farewell, watched with sober countenance
as they passed down the gang-plank. Among those present were Miss
Mary Anthony, of Rochester, Miss Julia Foster, Miss Thomson, a
sister of the first president of the Pennsylvania R. R.; Rev. Dr.
Soule, formerly of Scotland; Mrs. M. Louise Thomas and Edward M.
Davis....
Miss Anthony was attired in a black silk dress and wore a black
velvet bonnet. A beaver-lined satin circular was drawn tightly
about her form. She retired immediately to her stateroom, where a
pleasant surprise awaited her in the shape of a handsome silk flag,
the gift of a friend, which was suspended in a corner of the room.
Her eyes rested upon the tasty and comfortable apartment, bearing
numerous evidences of the kindly feeling and good wishes of her
friends, with visible enjoyment and emotion.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] This comment applies with equal force to Albany today. It is the
only city in the United States where Miss Anthony has not a standing
invitation to a number of hospitable homes.
[6] For full report of debate see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III,
p. 198.
[7] Miss Anthony, Mrs. Sewall and Mrs. Jane Graham Jones remained over
one day to appear before the House committee, presenting arguments in
favor of abolishing the word "male" from the Constitution of Dakota
before admitting it as a State.
[8] This national celebration of Miss Anthony's birthday by suffrage
clubs was first suggested by Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, in her
department, "Woman's Kingdom," in the Chicago Inter-Ocean.
[9] For full text of reports see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III.,
p. 263.
[10] Mrs. Sewall, Mrs. Gougar, Miss Couzins, Mrs. Minor, Mrs. Saxon,
Miss Hindman, Mrs. Shattuck, Mrs. Mason, Madame Neymann, Mrs. Blake and
Miss Anthony.
[11] After the election some of the students of the State University
placed an effigy of Miss Anthony in a coffin and with torches and
pallbearers started in a funeral procession. They were met by another
crowd of students who, to preserve the honor of the university,
overpowered them and took the effigy away.
[12] It was on this trip that, as "Miss Anthony" seemed too formal and
"Susan" too familiar, Miss Foster adopted the endearing title "Aunt
Susan." After they returned and a few of the younger workers most
closely associated with her began to use this name, Miss Anthony did not
object; but when it came into general use and not only older women and
comparative strangers, but men also, and the newspapers, fell into the
habit of calling her "Aunt Susan," she was very much annoyed and never
heard or saw the name without an inward protest.
[13] Among the letters was the following from Senator John J. Ingalls:
"I see by the papers that you are about to depart for Europe. Though I
do not sympathize with the opinions whose advocacy has made you famous,
yet I am not insensible to the great value of the example of your
courageous and self-denying labors to the cause of American womanhood. I
hope that none but prosperous gales may follow your ship, that your
visit may be happy, and that your life may be spared till your
aspirations are realized."
CHAPTER XXXII.
MISS ANTHONY'S EUROPEAN LETTERS.
1883.
No pen so well as Miss Anthony's own, can describe her delightful tour
abroad, and although her letters were dashed off while travelling from
point to point, or at the close of a hard day's sight-seeing, and the
entries in the diary are a mere word, they tell in a unique way her
personal impressions. Because of limited space descriptions of scenery
will be omitted in order to leave room for opinions of people and
events.
ON BOARD THE BRITISH PRINCE, February 24.
MY DEAR MRS. SPOFFORD: Here we are at noon, Friday, steaming down
Delaware Bay. We got along nicely until 3 P. M. yesterday, when we
came to a standstill. "Stuck in the mud," was the report. There we
lay until eight, when with the incoming tide we made a fruitless
attempt to get over the bar; then had to steam back up the river to
anchor, and lie there until nine this morning--twenty-four hours
almost in sight of the loved ones! It is a break from all
fastenings to friends to be thus cut loose from the wharf and
wafted out into the waters. These long hours of delay have given me
time to think of those left behind, and how very far short I have
come of doing and saying all I should have done and said....
From the diary:
Feb. 24.--The weather lovely; saloon cozy and pleasant with piano,
flowers and canaries. There are only seven passengers, among them a
Catholic priest, a dear little three-year-old child and a baby. We
sent twenty letters on shore, written during the day we have been
detained.
Feb. 25.--Today dawns with no possibility of communicating with a
soul outside the ship, a lonely feeling indeed; but I am determined
to get all the good I can to mind and body out of this trip, and as
little harm as possible.
Feb. 26.--I sit at the captain's right hand at table. The sea is
perfectly smooth; I wonder if this broad expanse can be rolled up
into mountains.
4 P.M.--The wind and waves are beginning to roar. The priest shows
signs of surrender.
Mar. 2.--Sea calm and dishes no longer have to be fastened to
table. It seems like freedom again. I can think of nothing beyond
shipboard, can see no moves to be made when we reach Liverpool.
Mar. 4.--Winds fair, sea smooth, whole company at breakfast.
Captain Burton read the church service. Rachel played the piano and
led the singing.
ON BOARD THE BRITISH PRINCE, March 5.
MY DEAR SISTER MARY: At lunch the captain said, "I'll soon show you
land! It will be Mizzenhead, the farthest southwest point of
Ireland." This is the first pen put to paper since I wrote you at
the Delaware breakwater, eleven days ago. Think of it, oh, ye
scribbling fairies, almost two weeks and not a letter written by S.
B. A.!
Well, we are thus far and have had no more than what the sailors
call a "stiff breeze" and only two whiffs of that sort. Since
Thursday the weather has been lovely--bright sun and crisp air.
Rachel succumbed one night when the "stiff breeze" first opened
upon us, and I felt a little squalmy. The next morning a sudden
lurch of the ship took both feet from under me and I was flat on my
back. The following day while I was lying on a seat, reading and
half-dozing, the first I knew I was in a heap on the floor. Then I
learned it wasn't safe to lie down without a board fence in front.
Again, in the evening I had taken the one loose chair in the
saloon, drawn it under a lamp and seated myself very complacently
to read, when lo, I was pitched over as if propelled from a
ten-pounder! Three times and out--all in rapid succession--taught
me to trust not to myself at all, but always to something fast to
the ship. I haven't lost a meal during the whole trip. Another time
I should take a larger stock of oranges, lemons and other fruit.
3 P. M.--We have just been up on the bridge for a first sight of
the Emerald Isle. So long as there was no immediate prospect of
setting foot on land, I could get up no spirit to write or think. I
have worn the old velvet-trimmed black silk dress right through,
and it is pretty well salted. I should love to have Lucy and Louise
and Maud along on this trip, with sister Mary, too. What a jolly
lot of tramps we would make! Well, their one ray of hope is to
"pull through" the free academy and get on their own feet. There is
plenty of good in store for all who can bring themselves in line to
get it. Holding a dish right side up to catch the shower is the
work for each one of us. How much I do think and hope for the three
nieces now entering womanhood. For Susie B. Jr., and little Anna O.
and Gula, I shall think and hope by and by. As for the nephews, I
do not forget them, but they'll fight their way through somehow, as
have all boys before them....
Dinner is over and an hour's talk at table after it. The Englishman
Mr. Mullinor, summed up: "Your country will come to ruin from such
doctrines as you woman's rights folks advocate;" and I have put the
case to him to the best of my sea-brain's ability. This is the very
first time I have let my tongue loose. We expect to be in Liverpool
tomorrow early, and then I will write you. Just take it for granted
all is well with me, and I will try to do the same with you.
Miss Anthony found at Liverpool a cordial letter from Mrs. A. A.
Sargent, whose husband was now United States Minister to Germany. She
welcomed her to Europe, saying: "You always have the entree to our home
and hearts. Come and stay as long as you will." A note from Mrs. Stanton
to her "beloved Susan" said: "I came up to London the moment I heard of
the arrival of the British Prince. To think of your choosing a 'Prince'
when a 'Queen' was coming! I am on the tiptoe of expectation to meet
you.... I write in the suffrage rooms surrounded with ladies."
A week later the diary records: "Left London at 10 A. M. for Rome,
Rachel and self, also Hattie Daniels, Alice Blatch and Mrs. Fanny
Keartland, five in all, three of the Eagle and two of the Lion, each
glorying in her own nationality!"
ROME, NO. 75 VIA NAZIONALE, March 22.
MY DEAR SISTER: Here it is a whole month tomorrow since we took a
last glimpse of each other and scarce a decent letter have I
written you; but it is fearfully hard work to find the minutes.
There is so much to tell, and the spelling and pronunciation of the
names are so perfectly awful.... At Liverpool we drove two hours in
the Princess and Sefton parks and then went to the city museum,
where the most interesting things to us were the portraits of all
the Bonapartes--men and women, old and young--Josephine's very
lovely; and to the city library, which is free. There is also an
immense free lecture hall, which was built for an aquarium but
found impracticable, so it is an enormous circle, seated from the
circumference down to the center, with a large platform at one side
and every step and seat cut out of solid stone. Here the most
learned men of the English colleges give free lectures, the city
fund being ample to meet all expenses. The librarian, on hearing we
were Americans, took great pains to show us everything. Of course
when he said, "We have over 80,000 volumes," I asked, "Have you
among them the History of Woman Suffrage, by Mesdames Stanton,
etc., of America?" And lo, he had never heard of it!
Thursday morning we took train--second-class carriage--for London.
Mrs. Stanton was at the station, her face beaming and her white
curls as lovely as ever, and we were soon landed at our
boarding-house. Lydia Becker came to dinner by Mrs. Stanton's
invitation, so she was the first of England's suffrage women for us
to meet. Friday afternoon we glanced into the House of Commons and
happened to see Gladstone presenting some motion. Spent the evening
chatting with Mrs. Stanton--a world of things to talk over....
Saturday we went again to Bayswater to see Mrs. Rose--found her
very lonely because of the death of her devoted husband a year ago.
She threw her arms around my neck and her first words were: "O,
that my heart would break now and you might close my eyes, dear
Susan!" She is vastly more isolated in England because of her
non-Christian views than she ever was in America. Sectarianism
sways everything here more now than fifty years ago with us.
That afternoon I left for Basingstoke, the new home of darling
Harriot Stanton, now with Blatch suffixed. Her husband is a fine
specimen of a young Englishman of thirty. Sunday morning he took me
in a dog-cart through two gentlemen's parks, a pleasant drive
through pasture and woodland, thousands of acres enclosed by a
stone wall. When I said, "What a shame that all these acres should
thus lie waste, while myriads of poor people are without an inch of
ground whereon to set foot," he replied: "They would be no better
off if all should be cut up into forty-acre farms and divided among
the poor, for no man could possibly support a family upon one. The
owners of these parks are actually reduced to poverty trying to
keep them up." So you see it is of no use to talk of giving every
Englishman a farm, when the land is so poor no one can make a
living off of it. Of course this is not true of all England, but
evidently its inhabitants must be fed from other countries. On our
return I was conducted through the garden and green-house of Mr.
Blatch's father, where I saw peach trees in blossom and grape vines
budding. The tree-trunks were not larger than my arm and I
exclaimed, "How many peaches can you get off these little trees?"
"Why, last year, we had 250," said he. How is that by the side of
our old farm harvest of 1,000 trees? And yet these English people
talk as if they raised fruit!...
The next day I returned to London and Mrs. Stanton and I called on
Rev. William Henry Channing at the West End, and had a two hours'
chat with him.... He was very cordial and on our leaving said, "I
can't tell you how grateful I am for this interview. You have my
blessing and benediction;" so we were glad at heart. Mr. Channing
loves America above all other countries and feels it was a mistake
for him to have left it. His elder daughter is the wife of Edwin
Arnold. March 12 we dined with the son-in-law of William Ashurst,
the friend of Wm. Lloyd Garrison--Mr. Biggs, and his four
daughters. Caroline Ashurst Biggs, the second, is the editor of the
Englishwoman's Review and one of the leading suffrage women of
England.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Very sincerely yours, Caroline A. Biggs."]
After dinner some twenty ladies and gentlemen came in and we had a
delightful evening, but such a continual serving of refreshments!
[Illustration: Mentia Taylor (Signed: "Yours very sincerely Mentia
Taylor")]
Tuesday morning I went again to Mrs. Rose's and finding her
bonneted and cloaked for a chair ride, I walked beside her, holding
her hand, through Kensington Park. I hope and almost believe she
will go back to America with me. I feel sure that we, who have not
forgotten her early and wonderful work for woman and for freedom
of thought, will do all in our power to smooth her last days....
That evening Rachel and I went to see Irving and Ellen Terry in
Much Ado About Nothing. The painting and the lights and shadows of
the scenery were lovely, and I suppose the acting was good, but I
can not enjoy love and flirtation exhibited on the stage any more
than off. All passional demonstrations seem to belong to the two
concerned, not to other persons. The lovemaking, however, was
cooler, more distant and more piquant than usual.
Wednesday afternoon Mrs. Rebecca Moore, our old Revolution
correspondent, took me to a meeting at Mrs. Müller's, about the
Contagious Diseases Acts--fifty or sixty ladies present--was
introduced, and several invited me to speak for them when I
returned to London. Miss Rye, who has made between thirty and forty
trips across the Atlantic with little girls, taking over more than
10,000 and placing them in good homes in Canada, was there and
spoke. She said all her efforts could accomplish nothing in
thinning out the more than 1,000,000 surplus women of the island.
Not one seemed to dare speak out the whole of the facts and
philosophy. Each promised, "I will not shock you by calling the
names," etc. Mrs. Peter Taylor's reception that evening was an
unusually brilliant affair. She is looked upon as the mother of the
English movement, as Mrs. Stanton is of the American. She is a
magnificent woman and acted the part of hostess most gracefully.
Her husband is a member of Parliament. At eleven we went home and
packed our trunks to be off for Rome on the morrow, half-regretting
that we had planned to leave London....
ROME, March 23.
MY DEAR SISTER: It is noon--Good Friday--and just set in for a
steady rain, so I will give you the goings, seeings and sayings of
our company since leaving London.... We started from Victoria
Station--second-class carriage, no sleeper--for a three days' and
two nights' journey to Rome. It looked appalling, even to so old a
traveller as myself, but I inwardly said, "I can stand it if the
younger ones can." The crossing of the straits of Dover was rough,
the sea dashing over the sides of the boat, but Rachel and I went
through the two hours without a quaver. At Calais we had the same
good luck as at London--a compartment of the car all to ourselves.
Here we were to be settled without change for that night and the
next day, so with bags and shawl-straps, bundles, lunch-baskets and
a peck of oranges, we adjusted ourselves. We breakfasted at Basle,
after having pillowed on each other for the night as best we could.
Now we were in the midst of the Jura mountains, and all day long we
wound up and down their snowy sides and around the beautiful lakes
nestling at their feet--through innumerable tunnels, one of them,
the St. Gothard, taking twenty-three minutes--over splendid bridges
and along lovely brooks and rivers.
We arrived at Milan at 7:50 P. M., when even the bravest of our
party voted to stop over twenty-four hours and try the virtues of a
Christian bed. Rachel and I shared a large old-fashioned room with
a soap-stone stove, where we had a wood-fire built at once.
(Remember that all the houses have marble floors and stairs, and
are plastered on the stone walls, so they seem like perfect
cellars.) We had two single bedsteads (I haven't seen any other
sort on the continent) with the same bedclothes covering both. Our
big room was lighted with just two candles! We "slept solid" till 8
A. M., when Rachel got out her Italian phrase-book, rang the bell
and ordered a fire and hot water.
After fairly good steak and coffee, we five began a day of steady
sight-seeing.... In the evening we went to the station, and here
found a wood-fire in a fireplace and monstrous paintings of Christ
and the saints on the walls. All who had trunks had now to pay for
every pound's weight. I had brought only my big satchel and
shawl-strap. We were not so fortunate as to find a compartment to
ourselves but had two ladies added to our number, while four or
five men in the next one smoked perpetually and the fumes came over
into ours. We growled but that availed nothing, as men here have
the right of way. At Genoa the ladies left us--midnight--and two
men took their places. These proved to be seafarers and could talk
English, so we learned quite a bit from them. At ten we were halted
and rushed in to breakfast. Sunday afternoon we reached the Eternal
City and came direct to the Pension Chapman, tired and hungry, but
later went to St. John's Cathedral to vespers.... After dinner we
were glad to lay ourselves away. We have a pleasant room, with
windows opening upon a broad court and lovely garden and fountain.
Monday we drove around the city for bird's-eye views from famous
points. Such wonders of ruins upon ruins!
Sunday Evening.--It is of no avail that I try and try to write-when
the sight-seeing is done for the day I am too tired.... Last
evening the Coliseum was illuminated--a weird, wonderful sight.
Today, Easter Sunday, I have seen crowds of people reverently
kissing St. Peter's big toe. Tomorrow we go to Naples for a week
and then return and finish Rome.
NAPLES, March 27.
Here we are, Rachel and I, at the Pension Brittanique, far up a
high hill, in a room overlooking the beautiful bay of Naples. It is
lovely, lovely! The little island of Capri, the city, the bold
shores and mountain setting--a perfect gem.... We have a little bit
of wood-fire with the smallest sticks--twigs we should call
them--two sperm candles to light our bedroom and no matches except
what we furnish. But 8 o'clock is here and we are all to meet for
breakfast....
Yesterday was a lovely _May_ day, and our party drove to the
village of Resina, which is built forty feet above the ruins of
Herculaneum. There, with a guide, we descended a hundred steps and
walked through the old theater, over the same stone stairs and
seats which two thousand years ago were occupied by the gayest of
mortals. Then we went to the ruins of Pompeii and ate our lunch
under large old trees growing upon the debris left by the great
eruption. We passed through the narrow streets, over stone
pavements worn by the tread of long-buried feet, through palaces,
public gardens and baths, temples, the merchants' exchange,
customhouse and magnificent theater....
I have just received John Bright's splendid address before the
2,000 students of Glasgow University on being made Lord Rector. It
fired my soul beyond all the ruins and all the arts in Rome or
Naples. It is grand indeed, and reminds one of our own Wendell
Phillips' address to the Harvard students two years ago.[14]
ROME, March 29.
_To Madam Susan B. Anthony, of New York, U. S. A._
MADAM: We had the honor to announce your coming to Rome some three
weeks ago in the Italian Times. While we ourselves have an
impressive appreciation of your distinguished mental acquirements,
yet we would wish to carry to our numerous English-speaking
subscribers on this continent some testimony of your presence in
our midst. Therefore we place our columns at your disposal, and
will esteem the privilege of presenting to the public any topic
your facile pen may write. To this end we will wait upon you or be
pleased to see you at our sanctum. With much respect, we are,
Madam, your obedient servants,
THE PROPRIETORS OF THE ITALIAN TIMES.
[Only English newspaper published in Italy.]
ROME, April 1.
DEAR BROTHER D. R.: We have climbed Vesuvius. One feels richly paid
when the puffing and exploding and ascending of the red-hot lava
meet the ears and eyes. The mountains, the Bay of Naples, the sail
to Capri and the Blue Grotto are fully equal to my expectations....
The squalid-looking people, however, and their hopeless fate make
one's stay at any of these Italian resorts most depressing. Troops
of beggars beset one all along the streets and roads, and with
tradesmen there is no honesty. For instance, a man charged some
twenty francs for a shell comb, then came down to seven, six, five,
and finally asked, "What will you give?" I, never dreaming he would
take it, said, "two francs," and he threw the comb into the
carriage.... Saturday we took the cars from Naples to Palermo.
Every mountainside having a few seven-by-nine patches of soil in a
place, is terraced and covered with grape vines and lemon trees,
the latter now yellow with fruit. On many I counted twenty and
thirty terraces, each with a solid stone wall to hold the earth in
place. It is wonderful what an amount of labor it costs to earn
even the little the natives seem to care for. Our hotel here is an
old monastery, and on one side of the court is the cathedral with
its grotesque paintings. One becomes fairly sickened with the
ghastly spectacle of the dead Christ. It is amazing how little they
make of the living Christ.
On Monday morning we drove back over that magnificent road, and
took the train to Naples. In the afternoon we went to Lake Avernus
and into the grotto of the sibyls, the entrance to Dante's Inferno.
It was a dark, cavernous passage and with the flaring candles
making the darkness only more visible, we could not but feel there
was reason for the old superstition. The narrowness of the streets
of Naples--and they are without the pretense of a sidewalk--leave
the men, women and children, horses and carriages, funny little
donkeys with their big loads, the cows and goats (which are each
night and morning driven along and halted at the doors while the
pint cupful, more or less, is milked to supply the people within)
all marching along together in the filthy road, jostling each other
at every step.
But we are back in Rome now and this forenoon we spent in the
galleries of the Vatican. One is simply dazed with the wealth of
marble--not only statuary, but stairs, pillars and massive
buildings. We stop here till the 9th, then go to Florence.[15]
It is good for our young civilization to see and study that of the
old world, and observe the hopelessness of lifting the masses into
freedom and freedom's industry, honesty and integrity. How any
American, any lover of our free institutions based on equality of
rights for all, can settle down and live here is more than I can
comprehend. It will be only by overturning the powers that
education and equal chances ever can come to the rank and file. The
hope of the world is indeed in our republic; so let us work to make
it a _genuine_ democracy, where every citizen--woman as well as
man--shall be crowned with the one symbol of equality--the
ballot....
ROME, April 5.
MY DEAR SISTER: How these anniversary days of our dear mother's
illness and death bring back to me everything, even at this
distance and amid these strange surroundings. How she would have
enjoyed these sights because of her knowledge and love of history.
She could have told the Bible story of every one of these great
frescoes. What a woman she would have been, could she have had the
opportunities of education and culture which her granddaughters are
having....
Tell Mrs. Lewia Smith her lovely piece of lace has been honored
with the wearing in London and Rome several times and has been
pronounced beautiful; but I prize it most of all for the giver's
sake. No one but she would have trudged through the slush and rain
to get those splendid names to that testimonial. Nothing which came
to me gave so much pleasure as those signatures of my own townsmen
and women, from President Anderson all the way to the end of the
list.... This evening Rachel has gone to a friend's to study German
so as to make our way with that nationality. What a jumble, that by
just crossing an imaginary line one finds people who can't
understand a word one says!
Last evening we heard the grand Ristori render a part of Dante's
Inferno and a selection from Joan of Arc. Of course I couldn't
understand a word she said, but her voice, her gestures, her
expression told the whole story. Then the music, vocal and
instrumental, was the softest and sweetest....
ZURICH, April 23.
MY DEAR SISTER: We spent Friday night at Milan--there took our last
look at Italian cathedrals, as we did our first, and its own still
holds highest place as to beauty. We left early next morning and
very soon were among the Alps.... The eleven hours' stretch was
tiresome and disgusting inside our compartment, with from three to
five stalwart men puffing away at their pipes all day long, and at
every station rushing out for a drink of wine or beer. Our only
chance of a free breath was to open the window, and then all the
natives were in consternation!
We reached Zurich at six and, after a splendid dinner of roast
chicken, green peas and lettuce, took a cab and called on Elizabeth
Sargent, who is studying medicine at the university, and found her
very happy and glad to see us. In the afternoon we took a
delightful drive, as it was too cold and misty for the lake
excursion we had intended. The highest Alps are still lost to us by
fog and clouds. After supper we called at the American consulate.
Think of our government supporting a consul in most of the
twenty-two cantons of Switzerland!
Tuesday.--At Munich. We saw princes and princesses galore out
driving this afternoon, but not the king. We leave tomorrow morning
for Nuremberg, and reach Berlin Saturday, and there I hope to rest
at least a week--but then the Emperor William must be seen, and
lots of other curiosities.... If I could command the money, as soon
as each of our girls graduated, I would take her first on a tour of
her own continent and then through the old world, before she
settled down to the hard work of life either in a profession or in
marriage. Thus she would have much to think of and live over, no
matter how heavy might be the burdens and sorrows of her after
life....
COLOGNE, May 8.
MY DEAR SISTER: We left Berlin yesterday morning after a delightful
week with the Sargents. I do not believe our nation ever has been
represented at any foreign court by such genuine republican women,
in the truest and broadest sense, as are Mrs. Sargent and her
daughters. Mr. Sargent, too, touches the very height of democratic
principle. Their association with monarchial governments and
subjects but makes them love our free institutions the more.[16]
Our last evening was spent with the Frau Dr. Liburtius--formerly
Henriette Hirschfeldt--a practicing dentist in Berlin since 1869,
who studied at the Philadelphia Dental College. No college in
Germany will admit women. Frau Libertius is dentist for various
members of the royal family as well as for the Sisters of Charity.
She says there are no dental colleges in the world equal to those
of America....
May 10.--At Worms--where Martin Luther made his glorious
declaration for the right of private judgment. There is a
magnificent monument in a beautiful square; Luther's is the central
statue--a standing one; below, at the corners, are sitting Huss,
Savonarola, Wycliffe and Peter Waldo, and on a still lower pedestal
are four more worthies--one of them Melancthon.... We spent Tuesday
at Cologne--visited the splendid cathedral and the church of St.
Ursula. The latter contains the bones of 11,000 virgins martyred at
Cologne in the fifth century. Whole broadsides of chapels are lined
with shelves of skulls, which the noble ladies of the twelfth
century partly covered with embroidery. Wednesday we took steamer
up the Rhine at six in the morning and landed at Mayence at eight.
It was a beautiful panorama, but not surpassing all others I have
seen. The vine-clad hillsides, the ruins of the old castles
(nothing like as many of them as I had thought) and the winding of
the river were all very lovely. We visited the cathedral, the
monuments of Gutenberg and Schiller, and then the fortress and the
remains of a Roman monument erected nine years before Christ....
HEIDELBERG, May 11.
DEAR BROTHER D. R.: As I clambered among the ruins of Heidelberg
Castle today, I wished for each of my loved ones to come across old
ocean and look upon the remains of ancient civilization--of art and
architecture, bigotry and barbarism. I am enjoying my "flying,"
though I would not again make such a rush, but I am getting a good
relish for a more deliberate tour at some later day. All of life
should not be given to one's work at home, whether that be woman
suffrage, journalism or government affairs.
After being perpetually among people whose language I could not
understand, it was doubly grateful to be in the midst of not only
my countrymen but my dearest friends, and I enjoyed their society
so much that I almost forgot there were any wonders to be seen in
Berlin. But we did make an excursion to Potsdam--a jolly company of
us, Mr. and Mrs. Sargent and their gifted daughter Ella, also the
professor of Greek in your Kansas State University, Miss Kate
Stephens. She interpreted the utterances of the ever-present
guides, whose jabber was worse than Greek.
At Potsdam we were shown the very rooms in which Frederick the
Great lived and moved and had his being, plotted and planned to
conquer his neighbors. In the little church are myriads of tattered
flags, taken in their many wars, and two great stone caskets in
which repose the bodies of Frederick the Great and his father,
Frederick William, peaceful in death, however warlike in life. We
also visited the new palace where the present Emperor spends the
summer. We saw parlors, dining-rooms, bedrooms, the plain, narrow
bedstead the Emperor sleeps upon, the great workshop, in which are
maps and all sorts of material for studying and planning how to
hold and gain empires. I even peered into the kitchen and saw the
pitchers, plates, coffee-pots and stew-pans. It was my first chance
of a real mortal living look of things, so I enjoyed it hugely.
There are rooms enough in these palaces for an army of people. All
of these magnificent displays of wealth in churches, palaces and
castles, citadels, fortifications and glittering military shows of
monarchial governments, only make more conspicuous the poverty,
ignorance and degradation of the masses; and all pleasure in seeing
them is tinged with sadness.
From the diary for May:
12.--Showering, but I walked up the mountain to pay a last visit to
Heidelberg Castle, the most magnificent ruin in Germany. Its
ivy-covered towers always will be pictured in my memory.
13.--At Strasburg. We have driven over the city, looked at the
wonderful fortifications and explored the great cathedral with its
famous clock. We heard the grand organ and saw 250 priests conduct
the services before an audience of 2,000 people, nine-tenths women.
Then to St. Thomas' church and the monument to Marshal Saxe.
14.--Left for Paris and had a beautiful ride through Alsace and
Lorraine, the lost kingdoms of France. It made me sad all day; I
wanted them returned to their own mother country. Theodore Stanton
and his wife Marguerite met us at the station.
15.--Madam de Barron has invited me to be her guest while here.
Such a delightful home and intelligent hostess! I have a charming
room, and this morning the sun is shining bright and warm and the
robins are singing in the trees. My continental breakfast--rolls,
butter and coffee--was sent to my room and, for the first time in
my life, I ate it in bed. What would my mother have said?
16.--Went to grand opera last night; magnificent house, scenery,
toilets, equipages; but with my three "lacks," a musical ear, a
knowledge of French and good eyesight, I could not properly
appreciate the performance.
17.--Theodore took me to the Chamber of Deputies to see how
Frenchmen look in legislative assembly--very like Americans. Then
we called on friends at the American Exchange and the Hotel
Normandie, and I was too tired to go to U. S. Minister Morton's
reception at night.
22.--Called and had a good chat with Charlotte B. Wilbour, of New
York; called also on Grace Greenwood; visited the Hotel des
Invalides and walked in the gardens.
23.--Theodore and Marguerite took me to St. Cloud by boat and back
on top of tram-car. Delightful!
27.--Today, Sunday, we went to Père la Chaise and saw great crowds
of Communists hanging wreaths on the wall where hundreds of their
friends were shot down in 1871--a sorrowful sight.
28.--At noon we went to the College of France to witness the last
honors to Laboulaye, the scholar and Liberal. Saw his little study
and sadly watched the priests perform the services over his coffin.
29.--Left Paris at 9 A. M., Theodore and his little Elizabeth Cady
going with me to the station. The parks and forests are green and
lovely, the homes cozy and pretty, France is a beautiful country. I
have enjoyed the last three months exceedingly, but I am very, very
tired; and yet it is a new set of faculties which are weary, and
the old ones, so long harped upon, are really resting.
_To Miss Susan B. Anthony_, PARIS.
MADAM: Having been informed of your arrival in Paris, I take the
liberty of writing to ask from your courtesy the favor of a short
interview. I have since several years heard of all the work you
have done in behalf of womankind, and I need not say how happy I
would be to meet a person who has so often been praised in my
presence. Hoping you will forgive my intrusion, and have the great
kindness to let me know when I may have the honor to call, I am,
madam, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
[Of Le Soir.] A. SALVADOR.
PARIS, May 20.
MY DEAR MRS. SPOFFORD: I have just come from a call on Mademoiselle
Hubertine Auclert, editor of La Citoyenne. I can not tell you how I
constantly long to be able to speak and understand French. I lose
nearly all the pleasure of meeting distinguished people, because
they are as powerless with my language as I with theirs. We called
also on Leon Richer, editor of La Femme. He thinks it inopportune
to demand suffrage for women in France now, when they are yet
without their civil rights. I wanted so much to tell him that
political power was the greater right which included the less....
Miss Foster has gone to London for presentation at Court. She had
the "regulation" dress made in Berlin--cream-white satin, low neck,
_no sleeves at all_, and a four-yard train!... I have not decided
when I shall go home, but before many months, for I long to be
about the work that remains undone. The fact is, I am weary of mere
sight-seeing. Amidst it all my head and heart turn to our battle
for women at home. Here in the old world, with its despotic
governments, its utter blotting out of woman as an equal, there is
no hope, no possibility of changing her condition, so I look to our
own land of equality for men, and partial equality for women, as
the only one for hope or work.
PARIS, May 24.
MY DEAR RACHEL: I am glad to hear that you were not cheated out of
teetering through the palace halls in front of the princess, and
that you are not utterly prostrated by it.... I attended the
suffrage meeting last evening, and heard and saw several men
speak--_well_, I inferred from the cheering and shouting of
"bravo!"
This afternoon I visited the tomb of Napoleon. It surpasses every
mausoleum I have ever seen, not excepting that of Frederick the
Third and Queen Louise in Berlin. It is well that his memory should
be thus honored, for had he been born a hundred years later, when
the march of civilization had pointed to some other goal to gratify
his great nature than that of bloody conquest of empire, I believe
he would have stood at the head of those who strive to make free
and independent sovereigns of all men and all women. Everywhere
here are reminders of the ravages of war, the madness of ignorance
and unreason. I want to get away from them and their saddening
associations. You will think I am blue. So I am, from having lived
a purposeless life these three months. I don't know but the women
of America, myself in particular, will be the greater and grander
for it, but I can not yet see how this is to be....
LONDON, June 7.
MY DEAR SISTER: For the hundredth time I am going to beg you to
shut up the house and come over here. It does seem as if now we two
sisters, left so alone, ought to be able to travel and enjoy
together. You can not know how I long to have you with me; it hurts
every minute to think of you treading round and round, with never a
moment of leisure or enjoyment. Surely you have given a mother's
love and care to our nieces for eight years, and now you can let
them go out from under your eye....
Rachel and I came up from Basingstoke on Sunday to attend a small
reception at Mrs. Jacob Bright's. Her husband has championed woman
suffrage in Parliament for years, and she has led the few who have
dared say, "And married women, too, should have the franchise."
When the powers that be forbade her to include married women in the
Parliamentary Suffrage Bill now pending, Mrs. Bright withdrew and
started a bill for their property rights, which was passed last
session and is now in force.
[Illustration: Autograph: "With kindest regards from Mr. Bright and
myself, yours very truly, Ursula M. Bright"]
Monday morning we went to Bedford Park and spent two hours at
Moncure D. Conway's. His charming wife read us what a delegate here
from the American Unitarians says of Emerson, Alcott, Frothingham
and George Ripley--that all are wearying of their early theories
and theologies and returning to the old faith. Today I had an hour
with William Henry Channing, and he virtually told me this was true
of himself! I exclaimed: "Do you mean to say that you have returned
to the belief in the immaculate conception of Jesus and in the
miracles--that you no longer explain all these things as you used
to do in your Bible readings at Rochester?" He replied: "I never
disbelieved in miracles. Man's levelling and tunnelling the
mountains is a miracle." Well, I was stunned and left. Even if all
these grand men, in old age, or when broken in body, decide that
the conclusions of their early and vigorous manhood were false,
which shall we accept as most likely to be true--the strong or the
weakened thought? It is very disheartening if we are so constituted
that with our deepest, sincerest study we grope and dwell in error
through our threescore and ten, and after those allotted years find
all we believed fact to be mere hallucination. It is--it must
be--simply the waning intellect returning to childish teachings.
That evening we visited the House of Commons and heard several
members speak as we peeped through the wire latticework of the
ladies' cage. The next afternoon we attended a large reception at
Mrs. J. P. Thomasson's, daughter of Margaret Bright Lucas and wife
of a member of Parliament. There we met the leading suffrage women.
Wednesday morning I went to Tunbridge Wells--thirty miles--to see
Mrs. Rose, who is trying the waters there in hope of relief.... I
should have told you that I dined on Sunday with Margaret
Lucas--John Bright's sister--and lunched today with Mrs. Mellen,
mother-in-law of General Palmer, of Colorado, president of the Rio
Grande R. R.--an elegant and wealthy woman.
LONDON, June 22.
MY DEAR SISTER: ... Sunday morning we went to hear Stopford Brooke,
a seceder from the established church. I could see no diminution in
the poppings up and down, nor in the intonings and singsongs, but
when, after a full hour of the incantations, he came to his sermon
on the Christian duty of total abstinence, he gave us a splendid
one. Before commencing he said that, from his request the previous
Sunday, twenty members out of his congregation of 600 came to the
meeting to form a Church Total Abstinence Society, and ten of those
made special and earnest protest against the formation of such a
society! Can you imagine the chilliness of the spiritual air in
that church as he laid down the Christian's duty of denying himself
that he might save his fellow who had not the power to drink
moderately?
Afterwards, we called on Hon. William D. Kelley, wife and daughter
Florence, of Philadelphia. We also attended a reception at Emily
Faithfull's and met a number of nice people; then took underground
railway for Bedford Park and had tea with Eliza Orme, England's
first and only woman lawyer--or as nearly one as she can be and not
have passed the Queen's Bench. Her mother was lovely and so proud
of her daughter and glad to see me. Miss Orme has a partner, Miss
Richardson, who is a member of the London school board and has
visited our schools in America. She says London has none, public or
private, to compare with those of the United States.
The next morning we went to hear Laura Curtis Bullard read her
sketch of Mrs. Stanton, which is to go into Famous Women, the same
book for which Mrs. Stanton is writing me up. In the afternoon we
called on Miss Müller, who purchased a house and lives in it that
she may be a householder, as is necessary to hold office. She too
is a member of the school board. Miss Müller insisted that I should
talk to the ladies there, about thirty of them, and so I did,
sitting under the trees in her garden, where we had our tea. Thence
we went to the women's suffrage parlors and met some fifty or
sixty, and then to the Albemarle Club of both ladies and gentlemen,
the only one of the kind in London. Then came a meeting at the
Somerville Club--all ladies. A paper was read on the topic,
"Sentiment is not founded on reason and is a hindrance to
progress," and followed by a bright discussion, in which both
Rachel and I were invited to take part. A pretty full afternoon and
evening!
Wednesday morning I studied on my speech for the 25th under the
auspices of the National Women's Suffrage Society. Harriot has so
divided the subject, that Mrs. Stanton is to take the educational,
social and religious departments, and S. B. A. the industrial,
legal and political. That evening we went to the Court Theater with
Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller, another member of the London school
board. The nights are all days here now--daylight till after 9
o'clock and again at 3. Rachel and I lunched with Mr. and Mrs.
Jacob Bright, and had a splendid visit; then went to the school
board meeting.
[Illustration: Priscilla Bright McLaren (Signed: "Your loving friend
Priscilla Bright McLaren.")]
[Illustration: Autograph: "Cordially yours, Helen Taylor"]
Saw there five of the seven women members, among them Miss Helen
Taylor, stepdaughter of John Stuart Mill, and the senior woman
member of the board. Today I spent an hour with Mrs. Lucas, sister
of John and Jacob Bright, and this afternoon Rachel and I are going
to a Women's Poor Law Guardian meeting, at which Mrs. Lucas is to
preside and other ladies to speak....
Just back from the meeting. In all England there are thirty-one
women poor law guardians. There are 19,000 of the guardians elected
and 1,000, mainly clergymen, are honorary. They have over 1,000,000
paupers to look after. The secretary, Mrs. Chamberlain, stated that
in her section of London there were 16,000. The guardians overlook
everything about the workhouses and asylums, get no pay, and yet
the public hesitates to put women on the board. One man stirred up
the handful present by saying, "suffrage not only for widows and
spinsters, but for married women."
June 26.--Well, the ordeal is over and everybody is delighted.
Moncure D. Conway said: "I have learned more of American history
from your speech than I ever dreamed had been made during the past
thirty years." Even the timid ones expressed great satisfaction.
Mrs. Stanton gave them the rankest radical sentiments, but all so
cushioned they didn't hurt. Mrs. Duncan McLaren came down from
Edinburgh and Mrs. Margaret Parker from Dundee. Rachel said I made
a good statement of the industrial, legal and political status of
women in America. We went to tea with Mrs. Jacob Bright; then I
took dinner with Mrs. Stanton at Mrs. Mellen's, getting up from
table at 9:15 P. M.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Most sincerely yours, Jane Cobden"]
Saturday Rachel and I drove four hours in Miss Müller's carriage
and called on Lady Wilde, a bright, quaint woman. Sunday morning I
went to Friends' meeting and had a look at John Bright, though I
was not sure it was he until after the meeting was over; then he
was gone, and I not introduced to him! In the afternoon I called on
Miss Jane Cobden, daughter of Richard Cobden, a charming woman.
Yesterday I presented her with a set of our History in memory of
her noble father, and for her own sake also. I will not foreshadow
the coming days but they are busy indeed. You will see that the
Central Committee have put both my name and Mrs. Stanton's on the
card for the meeting of July 5....
LONDON, June 28.
MY DEAR SISTER: It is now just after luncheon and at 4 o'clock we
are to be at Mrs. Jacob Bright's reception, tomorrow evening at one
at Mrs. Thomasson's, which she gives to friends for the special
purpose of meeting Stanton and Anthony, and Saturday at Frances
Power Cobbe's--and so we go. Yesterday morning Miss Frances Lord--a
poor law guardian--escorted us through Lambeth workhouse. It has
1,000 inmates and 700 more in the infirmary, and gives out-door
relief to 2,000 besides.
[Jacob Bright presided over the Prince's Hall meeting, and William
Woodall over that at St. James' Hall.[17] All of the prominent
newspapers in Great Britain contained editorials on the meetings, and
noted especially the addresses of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton,
speaking of them in a dignified and respectful manner.]
LONDON, July 13.
MY DEAR SISTER: My last letter was mailed the 3d. That afternoon I
was at Rebecca Moore's reception. We dined at Miss Müller's and
afterwards went to Horn's assembly rooms to a suffrage meeting. Her
sister Eva, wife of Walter McLaren, M.P., was one of the
speakers.... At 9 P. M., we went to a Fourth of July reception at
Mrs. Mellen's, given in honor of Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, and
a brilliant affair it was. About 150 were there; she had elegant
refreshments; and the young American girls gave songs, recitations,
violin music, etc. Grace Greenwood recited her "Mistress
O'Rafferty"--a woman's rights poem in Irish brogue--very rich and
racy; her daughter Annie sang, also Mrs. Carpenter, of Chicago;
Kate Hillard, of Brooklyn, Adelaide Detchon, the actress, and
Mildred Conway recited; Frank Lincoln impersonated; Nathaniel
Mellen sang a negro jubilee melody; Maude Powell played the violin.
She is not fifteen yet and is a charming player. The company did
not disperse until after one.
July 5, drove to Mrs. Mellen's to a 10 o'clock breakfast, and
worked on Rachel's report of my Prince's Hall speech--you'll find
it in full in the Englishwoman's Review. In the evening Mrs.
Thomasson gave a splendid dinner-party, and afterwards took us all
in carriages to the St. James' Hall suffrage demonstration, where
there was a fine audience of about 2,000.... Next morning I went to
a meeting of the suffrage friends from various towns who had come
up for the demonstration. At 8 P. M. Mrs. McLaren took me to the
House of Commons, to witness Mr. Hugh Mason present the Women's
Suffrage Bill; so I heard all the speeches pro and con, up to 1:30
A. M., and how tired I was! Mr. Jacob Bright's was the strongest
and most earnest.
The morning of July 7, at the suffrage rooms, I heard strong
protests against the way Mr. Mason disclaimed all intention of
enfranchising married women. He carried the matter too far even for
the most timid. In the afternoon, we went to the Somerville Club,
and Rachel spoke beautifully on the need of union and co-operation
among women. I followed her, and Mrs. McLaren moved a vote of
thanks.... Rachel left for Antwerp this evening, to meet her mother
and sister, and I returned to my room, lonesome enough. Sunday I
lunched with Mrs. Lucas and Mrs. McLaren. I had calls from three
factory-women, who told a sad story of the impossibility of getting
even a dollar ahead by the most frugal and temperate habits.
Have I told you that I have a new dark garnet velvet? I wore it
with my point lace at Mrs. Mellen's reception on the Fourth, and
the India shawl I have worn today for the first time.... Tuesday I
went with Mrs. Lucas to the Crystal Palace at Sydenham to a great
national temperance demonstration. More than 50,000 people passed
the gates at a shilling apiece, and we saw a solid mass of 5,000
boys and girls from all parts of the kingdom seated in a huge
amphitheater, singing temperance songs--a beautiful sight. Then in
another part of the palace was an audience of 2,000 listening to
speeches. Among the speakers was Canon Wilberforce, a grandson of
the great Abolitionist but a degenerate one. He said the reason the
temperance movement was now progressing so rapidly was because the
persons who led it were praying people, and that the Lord had
willed it, and all depended on whether it was kept in the Lord's
hands--if not, then it would fall back like the old Washingtonian
movement in America. Mrs. Lucas was very wroth, and so was I. He
never spoke of woman except as "maiden aunt" or "old grandmother,"
and advised the boys to take a little wine for the stomach's sake.
At 6 o'clock we went to Miss Müller's where I remained until today.
She took me to the Gaiety Theater to see Sarah Bernhardt. What a
magnificent actor! I never saw any man or woman who so absolutely
buried self out of sight and became the very being personated.
Though I couldn't understand a single word, I enjoyed it all until
the curtain fell at half-past eleven. I was tired beyond telling,
but felt richly repaid by the seeing. She must be master of her
divine art thus to impress one by action alone. Today Mrs. McLaren
invites me to dine at her son's, Charles McLaren, M.P. All this is
written in a hurry but is perhaps better than nothing. It is so
difficult to clutch a moment to write.
LONDON, July 19.
MY DEAR RACHEL: ... I am to attend a suffrage meeting at the
Westminster Palace Hotel Hall this afternoon, and tomorrow at 10:25
A. M. I start for Edinburgh with Mrs. Moore. I am bound to suck all
the honey possible out of everybody and everything as they come to
me or I go to them. It is such unwisdom, such unhappiness, not to
look for and think and talk of the best in all things and all
people; so you see at threescore and three I am still trying always
to keep the bright and right side up. I am expecting a great
ferment at the meeting today, for those who agree with Mrs. Jacob
Bright have asked Mrs. Stanton to confer with them about what they
shall do now. She advises them to demand suffrage for all women,
married and single; but I contend that it is not in good taste for
either of us to counsel public opposition to the bill before
Parliament....
I wrote you about Miss ----. She is settled in the conviction that
she never will marry any man--not even the one with whom she has
had so close a friendship for the past ten years. She feels that to
do the work for the world which she has mapped out she must eschew
marriage, accepting platonic friendship but no more. I tell her she
is giving her nature a severe trial by allowing herself this one
particular friend, that if he does not in the end succeed in
getting her to marry him, it will be the first escape I ever have
heard of. She is a charming, earnest, conscientious woman, and I
feel deeply interested in her experiment.
[After being royally entertained in London and making many little trips
into the beautiful country around, Miss Anthony left for Edinburgh July
20, carrying with her many pleasant remembrances of friends.]
EDINBURGH, July 22.
MY DEAR SISTER: Here I am in Huntley Lodge, the delightful home of
Mrs. Elizabeth Pease Nichol, whose name we so often used to see in
the Liberator and the Anti-Slavery Standard, and of whom we used to
hear from Mr. Phillips and others who had visited England. We had a
most cordial welcome from Mrs. Nichol--a queenly woman. She is now
seventy-seven, and lives in this handsome house, two miles from the
center of the city, with only her servants....
Mrs. Nichol has gone to her room to rest and Mrs. Moore and I are
writing in the little, sunny southeast parlor. I have an elegant
suite of three rooms, the same Mr. Garrison occupied when he
visited here in 1867 and in 1877. Mrs. Nichol is one of the few
left of that historic World's Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840. We
are going to a "substantial tea" with Dr. Agnes McLaren, daughter
of Duncan McLaren. She is very bright--spent four years in France
studying her profession--has a good practice, takes a house by
herself, and invites to it her friends. So many young Englishwomen
are doing this, and indeed it is a good thing for single women to
do.
The suffrage society--Eliza Wigham, president, Jessie M. Wellstood,
secretary--has invited a hundred or more of the friends to an
afternoon tea on Tuesday next in honor of my visit, and I am to
make a brief speech, so what to say and how to say it come
uppermost with me again....
[Illustration: Elizabeth Pease Nichol (Signed: "Elizabeth Pease
Nichol")]
THE RAVEN HOTEL, DROITWICH, August 5.
MY DEAR FRIEND SUSAN B. ANTHONY: I have often wished to write thee
since we parted in London, my heart has been so full of loving
thought. It has been a greater trial than I can describe that I
have been denied the pleasure of receiving thee in my home in
Edinburgh. If it had been only for an hour, I should have looked
back on that hour as one of great privilege. But even if we should
not meet again, I have had a pleasure which seems almost like a
dream to me, in having made the personal acquaintance of thyself
and dear Mrs. Stanton....
That thou shouldst have been on the 1st of August with the
Elizabeth Pease of those grand anti-slavery times, revived in me
the thought I expressed in moving a vote of thanks to thee and Mrs.
Cady Stanton for the noble addresses you gave at the Prince's Hall
Meeting in London; ... that you had been brought here to give us
the hand of rejoicing fellowship; and that it gave me great faith
to believe the God of Justice was leading us on, and had brought
England and America together by your presence amongst us at this
most critical and hopeful time of our agitation....
I have addressed thee in the dear singular person, because it
seemed to me in harmony with the noble simplicity of thy character,
and also more affectionate--just as I feel toward thee. Believe me,
dear friend--I love so to call thee--thine very affectionately,
PRISCILLA BRIGHT MCLAREN.
[The diary notes many teas and luncheons in Edinburgh, drives to Melrose
Abbey, Holyrood Palace, Roslyn Castle, to the celebrated monuments, the
old cathedrals and the university; calls from distinguished professors
and those interested in philanthropic movements, visits to public
institutions, and lovely gifts from the new friends. Every day of the
month was filled with pleasant incidents. The scenery through the lake
and mountain regions Miss Anthony found so beautiful that, although
there was a steady downpour of rain for days, she sat on the outside of
boat or stage in order not to miss a moment of it. She hunted up the old
home of Thomas Clarkson but could not find there a person who ever had
heard of him. She went also to the Friends' meeting house at Ulverston,
presented to the Society by George Fox and completed in 1688. To her
such spots as these were more interesting and hallowed than towering
castles and vine-clad abbeys.]
BALLACHULISH HOTEL, August 13.
MY DEAR SISTER: Miss Julia Osgood and I are here, waiting for
sunshine.... While in Edinburgh Mrs. Nichol drove us out to
Craigmillar Castle, where I saw the very rooms in which Queen Mary
lived. We bought for a shilling a basket of strawberries
plucked--no, "pulled"--the old man who sold them said, from the
very garden in which berries and vegetables were "pulled" for Queen
Mary three hundred years ago. One evening Professor Blackie, of the
Edinburgh University, dined with Mrs. Nichol. At my reception he
had said he did not want to "see refined, delicate women going down
into the muddy pool of politics," and I asked him if he had ever
thought that, since the only places which were too filthy for women
were those where men alone went, perhaps they might be so from lack
of women. At dinner Mrs. Nichol rallied him on the report that he
had been converted, and he admitted that it was true; so as he was
leaving I said, "Then I am to reckon an Edinboro' professor among
my converts?" He seized my hand and kissed it, saying, "I'll seal
it with a kiss." Don't be alarmed--he is fully eighty years of age
but blithe and frolicsome--sang and acted out a Scotch war-song in
the real Gaelic.
On August 1 we saw 200 medical students capped--and not a woman
among them, because the powers ruled that none should be admitted.
That afternoon we called on Professor Masson, a great champion of
co-education. We took tea with Mrs. Jane and Miss Eliza Wigham. The
stepmother, now eighty-two, was Jane Smeale in 1840. In their house
have visited Henry C. Wright, Parker Pillsbury, and of course Mr.
Garrison. Mrs. Nichol went with us to Melrose by rail, from which
we drove to Abbotsford....
Tuesday at 2 o'clock Miss Osgood and I landed at Stirling. At 4:30
we reached Callander, where I found no trunk, and not a man of them
could give a guess as to its whereabouts. They give you no check
here, but just stick a patch on your trunk. I had expected not to
find it at every stop, and now it was gone for sure; but the
station-master was certain he could find it and forward it to me,
so he wrote out its description and telegraphed in every direction.
Meanwhile we went to a hotel for luncheon and there in the hall was
my trunk! Nobody knew why or how it got there and all acknowledged
our American check system superior. I was raging at their
stupidity, and no system at all, but laughingly said, "You ought to
send this trunk free a thousand miles to pay for my big scold at
you." The man good-naturedly replied, "Where will you have it
sent?" I answered "Oban," and he booked it.
At 6 o'clock we took the front seat with the driver on a great high
stage which we mounted by a ladder--they call the stage the
"machine"--and drove a few miles to the Trossachs Hotel, past Loch
Achray and Loch Vennachar.... While the rain rested this noon I
took a walk up the ravine and it seemed very like going up the
mountain at Grandfather Anthony's. Indeed, there is nothing here
more beautiful than we have in America, only everything has some
historic or poetic association....
BRUNTSFIELD LODGE, WHITEHOUSE LOAN, EDINBURGH, August 23.
MY DEAR SISTER: Here am I, back in Edinboro' again, at Dr.
Jex-Blake's delightful home--at least one hundred and fifty years
old, with an acre or more of garden all enclosed with a six-foot
wall. Lodge means a walled-in house; loan means lane, and the
street took its name from a white house which two hundred and fifty
years ago stood in this road. Every day the doctor has taken me a
long and beautiful ride in her basket-carriage, driving her own
little pony, White Angel, or her hay horse, while her boy-groom
rides in his perch behind. Today she drove me through Lord
Rosebery's park of thousands of acres. It is lovely as a native
forest--the roads macadamized all through--and a palace-like
residence set deep within....
AMBLESIDE, August 27.
MY DEAR SISTER: Last Thursday I left Edinburgh for Penrith, which
has a fine view of the lake and the hills beyond. Next morning I
took steamer at Pooley Bridge. The trip the whole length of the
lake was beautiful, but can not compare with Lake George--indeed,
nothing I have seen equals that--but the hills (mountains, they
call them here), the water and the sky all were lovely. At
Patterdale I had a cup of tea, with bread and butter and the
veritable orange marmalade manufactured at Dundee. Thence I took a
stage over Kirkstone Pass, and walked two miles up the hills to a
small hotel with a signboard saying it is the highest inhabited
house in England, 1,114 feet above the sea--not very much beside
Denver's 6,000 and others in Colorado 10,000 or 12,000. Arrived at
Ambleside to find the hotel overflowing, so they sent me to a
farmer's house where I had a good bed, splendid milk and sweet
butter. Saturday morning I went by coach to Coniston, then railway
to Furness Abbey, a seven-hundred-year-old ruin of magnificent
proportions. After four hours there, I took a train to Lakeside and
then steamer up Lake Windermere back to Ambleside. The hotel still
being full, "the Boots," as they call the porter or runner, found
me lodgings at a private house, where I am now. It is the tiniest
little stone cottage, but they have a cow, so I am in clover. My
breakfasts consist of a bit of ham, cured by the hostess, a boiled
egg, white and graham bread with butter and currant jam, and a cup
of tea.
Saturday evening I strolled out and entered the gate of Harriet
Martineau's home. On the terrace I met the present occupants, Mr.
and Mrs. William Henry Hills. They invited me to call in the
morning, when they would be happy to show me over the house. In
naming the hour they said: "We never go to church--we are Liberal
Friends--_real_ Friends." At that I immediately felt at home with
them. I called and spent two hours sitting and chatting in the
drawing-room where Harriet Martineau received her many
distinguished guests, and in the kitchen saw the very same table,
chairs and range which were there when she died, and sitting on the
doorsill was the same black-and-yellow cat, said to be fourteen
years old now. The Hills invited me to 5 o'clock tea, which we took
in the library, where Miss Martineau used to sit and study as well
as entertain her guests at dinner. It seemed impossible to realize
that I was actually in her house. It is not large and is covered
with ivy, which grows most luxuriantly everywhere. It fronts on a
large field, much lower than the knoll on which it stands, and fine
hills stretch off beyond. The old gardener, who has been here more
than thirty years, still lives in a little stone cottage just under
the terrace.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Yours affectionately, H. Martineau."]
Mr. Hills is a great lover of America and its institutions. He is
one of the very few I have met here who really love republicanism.
Nearly every one clings to the caste and class principle, thinks
the world can not exist if a portion of the people are not doomed
to be servants, and that for the poor to have an ambition to rise
and become something more than their parents makes them
discontented. "Yes," I answer, "and that is just what I want them
to be, because it is only through a wholesome discontent with
things as they are, that we ever try to make them any better."...
DUBLIN, September 10.
MY DEAR SISTER: ... I stayed in Belfast some days, and visited the
Giant's Causeway with Miss Isabella Tod, amidst sunshine and
drenching showers; still it was a splendid sight, fully equal to
Fingal's Cave. The day before, we went nearly one hundred miles
into the country to a village where she spoke at a temperance
meeting. Here we were guests of the Presbyterian minister--a cousin
of Joseph Medill, of the Chicago Tribune--and a cordial greeting he
and his bright wife gave me. They have three Presbyterian churches
in that one little village. All welcomed the woman speaker most
kindly, but not a person could be urged to vote down the whiskey
shops, as these are licensed by a justice of the peace, appointed
by the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who receives his appointment
from the Queen of England!
[Illustration: Autograph: "Yours most truly, Isabella M. S. Tod"]
So all she could ask was that every one should become a total
abstainer. I do not see how they can submit to be thus voiceless as
to their own home regulations.
Saturday I took tea with Mrs. Haslam, a bright, lovely "come-outer"
from the Friends. She had invited some twenty or thirty to be
present at eight, and I spoke, they asking questions and I
answering. Among them were a son of the Abolitionist Richard D.
Webb, and ever so many nephews and nieces. Eliza Wigham's brother
Henry and his wife had come ten miles to be there.... This
afternoon I am going to the common council meeting with Alfred
Webb, who is a member and a strong Home Ruler. The question of
electing their own tax collector is to be discussed.
CORK, September 16.
MY DEAR SISTER: ... Your heart would break if you were here to see
the poverty and rags, and yet the people seem cheerful under it
all. Something surely must be wrong at the root to bear such fruit.
I have had an awfully "hard side of a board time" of ten hours in a
third-class car, paying therefor just as much as I would on the N.
Y. Central for a first-class ticket. I not only saved $4.25 by
going third-class, but I saw the natives. Men, women, boys and
girls who had been to the market towns with their produce were on
the train, and to see them as they tumbled in toward evening, at
town after town, one would think that whiskey and tobacco were the
main articles they bought. Any number of men and boys, and at least
four women, were drunk enough, and they brought bottles with them
and added to their puling idiocy as they went on. Nothing short of
a pig-sty could match the filth, but it is only in that class of
cars that you see anything of the vast number of poor farmers and
laborers. If they can not pay exorbitant rates, refined, educated
men and women are thrust into pens and seated face to face with the
smoking, drinking, carousing rabble. I have everywhere protested
against this outrage and urged the women to demand that the railway
companies should give them separate cars, with no smoking
allowed....
LEAMINGTON, October 1.
MY DEAR RACHEL: ... I must have told you of my good times at
Belfast with Miss Tod, who gave a reception for me and I had a
welcome all round.
Miss Osgood met me at Cork, and we went by rail to Macroom. Tuesday
morning we visited the convent, nuns' schools, and the poorhouse
with 400 helpless mortals, old and young; then took an Irish
jaunting-car, and were driven some forty miles through "the Gap" to
Glengariff. It rained almost all the way, much to our disgust. Next
morning we packed into two great stages with thirty or more others,
and started for the lakes of Killarney; but soon the rain poured
again, and as we were losing so much of the scenery we stopped
half-way at Kenmare. We visited the convent and the Mother Abbess
showed us every cranny. Thirty girls were at work on beautiful
Irish point and Limerick lace. These nuns have 400 pupils, and give
200 of the poorest their breakfast and lunch--porridge and a bit of
bread. At two we took stage again, the sky looked promising, but
alas! for half an hour it fairly poured. Then it grew lighter, and
we got very fine views of hills and dales. Killarney _is_
lovely....
Saturday I sauntered along the streets of Killarney, passed the
market, and saw all sorts of poor humanity coming in with their
cattle to sell or to buy. Many rode in two-wheeled carts without
seat or spring, drawn by little donkeys, and nearly all the women
and girls were bareheaded and barefooted. On the bridge I saw some
boys looking down. I looked too and there was a spectacle--a
ragged, bareheaded, barefooted woman tossing a wee baby over her
shoulders and trying to get her apron switched around to hold it
fast on her back. I heard her say to herself, "I'll niver do it,"
so I said, "Boys, one of you run down there and help her." At that
instant she succeeded in getting the baby adjusted, and to my
horror took up a bundle from the grass and disclosed a second baby!
Then _I_ went down. I learned that she had just come from the
poorhouse, where she had spent six weeks, and before going further
had laid her two three-weeks-old boys on the cold, wet grass, while
she washed out their clothes in the stream. The clothing was the
merest rags, all scrambled up in a damp bundle. She had heard her
old mother was ill in Milltown and had "fretted" about her till she
could bear it no longer, so had started to walk ten miles to her. I
hailed a boy with a jaunting-car--told her to wait and I would take
her home--got my luncheon--fed the boy's horse, bought lunch for
boy and woman--and off we went, she sitting on one side of the car
with her two babies, wet bundle, two milk bottles and rubber
appendages, bare feet and flying hair, and I on the other, with the
boy in front.
For a long way both babies cried; they were blue as pigeons, and
had on nothing but little calico slips, no socks even. She had four
children older than these--a husband who went to fairs selling
papers and anything he could to support them all--and an aged
father and mother who lived with them. She said if God had given
her only one child, she could still help earn something to live on,
but now He had given her two, she couldn't. When we reached
Milltown I followed her home. It was in a long row of one-room
things with a door--but no window. Some peat was smouldering under
a hole in the roof called a chimney, and the place was thick with
smoke. On the floor in one corner was some straw with a blanket on
it, which she said was her bed; in another were some boards
fastened into bed-shape, with straw packed in, and this belonged to
her father and mother. Where the four other children, with the
chickens and the pig, found their places to sleep, I couldn't see.
I went to the home of another tenant, and there again was one room,
and sitting around a pile of smoking-hot potatoes on the cold, wet
ground--not a board or even a flag-stone for a floor--were six
ragged, dirty children. Not a knife, fork, spoon or platter was to
be seen. The man was out working for a farmer, his wife said, and
the evidences were that "God" was about to add a No. 7 to her
flock. What a dreadful creature their God must be to keep sending
hungry mouths while he withholds the bread to fill them!...
I went back to Killarney heart-sick; wrote letters Sunday, and
Monday took train for Limerick, where I rushed round for an hour or
two.... Then went on to Galway. Tuesday morning took the mail-car
to Connemara, and had company all the way--a judge, an Irish M.P.,
and two Dublin drummers--with whom I talked over the Irish problem.
I had meant to make the tour of the western coast up to
Londonderry, but my courage failed. It was to be the same
soul-sickening sight all the way--only, I was assured, worse than
anything yet seen. I took the stage back to Galway, every one
saying it was sure to be a fine day, but it proved to be terrific
wind and rain, and before I had gone ten miles my seat was a pool
of water and it took all my skill to keep my umbrella right side
out.... Once while the driver changed horses I stood in front of a
big fire on the hearth of the best farmer's house I have seen here.
Everything was clean and cheerful--two rooms--a bed made up with a
spotless white spread--the old father smoking and the wife cooking
dinner. She lifted a wooden cover from a jar and proudly showed me
her butter--patted down with her hands, I could see--and near by
was another jar with milk. Think of butter being made in a room
full of tobacco-smoke! Then I went my last ten out of the fifty
miles, having been soaking wet for eight hours. At my hotel I had
room and fire on a "double-quick," bath-tub and hot water, and put
myself through a regular grooming. In the morning I rode around
Galway, saw Queen's College and the bay, and then took train for
Belfast.
From the diary:
Sept. 11.--In Dublin. The Professor of Arabic took me through
Trinity College, with its library of 200,000 volumes. Thence to the
old Parliament House, now the Bank of Ireland. In the afternoon
Alfred Webb went with me to the National League rooms and from
there to Thomas Webb's for tea, where I saw the names of Garrison
and N. P. Rogers written in 1840. We called on Michael Davitt, the
leader of the Irish Land League, who impressed me as an earnest,
honest man, deeply-rooted in the principles of freedom and
equality, and claiming all for woman that he does for man.
Sept. 16.--At Youghal. Visited the home of Sir Walter Raleigh, Lady
Hennessy, eighty years old, showing me around. Found in a library
Children of the Abbey, and read again the story of Lord Mortimer
and Amanda. Once it thrilled my young soul, but now it seems
inexpressibly thin.
Sept. 20.--While I was talking in the car today with an Irishwoman
about the poverty here, another behind me shouted: "It is very ill
manners for an American to come over here and abuse the English
government."
Sept. 29.--In Belfast. O, how I would like to purchase _all_ the
linen I want for myself and my friends! Have bought as much as I
dared and after all perhaps I'm cheated--but it's done, so I won't
worry.
Sept. 30.--Landed at Fleetwood and went direct to Rugby. Walked all
around the famous school, but had not courage to go in and
introduce myself to Doctor Jex-Blake, whose sister's guest I had so
recently been.
Oct. 1.--At Leamington. Went direct to Kenilworth Castle, a grand
old ruin; the home of Leicester, where Queen Elizabeth visited him
in the olden days.
Oct. 2.--Mrs. Mullinor called at our hotel and accompanied us to
Warwick Castle, a splendid pile. We lunched with her, and when Mr.
M. put fork into the roast he remarked: "Wife asked me what she
should order for dinner and I said, 'a leg of mutton, for Americans
never see such a thing at home.'" We smiled and ate it with a
relish.
Oct. 3.--At Stratford on Avon, and we have visited every spot
sacred to the memory of Shakespeare, and walked through the meadows
and down by the riverside....
Oct. 4.--In Oxford. I have visited many of the colleges, and as I
saw where all the millions of dollars had been expended for the
education of boys alone, I groaned in spirit and betook me to
Somerville and St. Margaret's Halls, where at least there is a
shelter for girls, and a beginning.
Oct. 5.--In London; and how almost like getting home it seems to
come back here.
LONDON, October 7.
MY DEAR SISTER: Mrs. Stanton feels that she must stay with Hattie
till the baby is a month old, and then have a week for farewell
visits in London. Cousins Fannie and Charles Dickinson are here.
Today I learned that I should have a chance to see and hear John
Bright at a convention of the Liberal Party at Leeds, October 17;
all these together have made me put off leaving a little longer.
Since yesterday we have been in the midst of a genuine London fog.
It is now 10 A. M. and even darker than it was two hours ago, when
we dressed and breakfasted by gaslight. I saw smoky, foggy days
here last March but they could not compare with this, and yet the
people say, "O, this is nothing to what November will bring."...
LONDON, October 27.
MY DEAR SISTER: Since I last wrote you I have visited Leeds where I
was the guest of Mrs. Hannah Ford, who has an elegant home--Adel
Grange. There were several other guests who had come to attend the
great Liberal demonstration, among them Mrs. Margaret Priestman
Tanner, a sister-in-law of John Bright, and his son Albert. Mrs.
Alice Scatcherd, of Leeds, was the person who had the sagacity to
get women sent as delegates and secure them admission on terms of
perfect equality. The amendment was a great triumph. She invited
the friends to meet next day at her house, where I saw John
Bright's daughter, Mrs. Helen Clark, and Richard Cobden's, Miss
Jane Cobden. Both made speeches at the convention, and most fitting
it was they should--the daughters of the two leading Radicals of a
half century ago.
On Saturday, Mrs. Ford took me to Haworth, the home of the Brontë
sisters. It is a bleak enough place now, and must have been even
more so forty or fifty years ago when those sensitive plants lived
there. A most sad day it was to me, as I looked into the little
parlor where the sisters walked up and down with their arms around
each other and planned their novels, or sat before the fireplace
and built air-castles. Then there were the mouldering tombstones of
the graveyard which lies in front and at one side of the house, and
the old church-pew, directly over the vault where lay their loved
mother and two sisters. And later, when Emily and Anne and the
erring brother Branwell had joined the others, poor Charlotte sat
there alone. The pew had to be removed every time the vault was
opened to receive another occupant. Think of those delicate women
sitting in that fireless, mouldy church, listening to their old
father's dry, hard theology, with their feet on the cold,
carpetless stones which covered their loved dead. It was too
horrible! Then I walked over the single stone pathway through the
fields toward the moor, opened the same wooden gates, and was, and
still continue to be, dipped into the depths of their utter
loneliness and sadness, born so out of time and place. How much the
world of literature has lost because of their short and
ill-environed lives, we can guess only from its increased wealth in
spite of all their adverse conditions.
From Leeds I went to Birmingham to attend an Anti-Contagious
Diseases Acts conference, and there heard the serene, lovely
Josephine E. Butler.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Josephine E. Butler"]
Miss Müller has invited Mrs. Stanton and me to spend the rest of
our time with her. Mrs. Lucas and some others are going to
Liverpool to say good-by to us. The cordiality, instead of
decreasing, grows greater and greater as the day of departure draws
near.... I dread stepping on shipboard, but long to set foot upon
my native soil again. Only think, I shall have been gone over nine
months when I land in New York!
From the diary:
Oct. 13.--Last evening at Mrs. Rose's I met the daughter of Charles
Bradlaugh, a talented young woman, whom the college refused to
admit to botany lectures because of her father's atheism.
Oct. 18.--At Leeds. Liberal party convention; went this evening to
hear John Bright remember to forget to mention the extension of
suffrage to women in 1869 and 1870, and the property law for
married women in 1882. He did not meet my expectations as a
speaker, but far surpasses any other Englishman I have heard. None
of them can touch Wendell Phillips.
Oct. 28.--Had a four hours' row on the Thames today with some
friends. This evening went to hear Mrs. Annie Besant.
Nov. 2.--Have been out to Basingstoke to see the new baby. Mrs.
Mona Caird lunched with us. Have heard Michael Davitt, Mr. Fawcett
and Helen Taylor, all masterly speakers.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Sincerely Yours, Frances Power Cobbe"]
LONDON, November 6.
MY DEAR SISTER: ... As soon as I finish this scribble I am to have
5 o'clock tea with Frances Power Cobbe. Tomorrow I go shopping,
Thursday Millicent Garrett Fawcett is to dine with us, and Mrs.
Peter Taylor is to call here, and all are to take "substantial tea"
with dear, noble Mrs. Lucas, and then go to hear Henry Fawcett on
the political issues. Friday afternoon we receive at Miss Müller's.
Saturday morning I leave for Bristol to visit Miss Mary Estlin,
Mrs. Tanner and the Misses Priestman, three sisters-in-law of John
Bright, who give a reception in my honor. The 12th I visit Margaret
E. Parker, at Warrington, and the next afternoon Mrs. Stanton and I
both go to Alderley Edge, near Manchester, to the home of Mr. and
Mrs. Jacob Bright.[18] On the 14th we attend the annual meeting of
the Manchester Women's Suffrage Association, and on the 16th go to
Liverpool where a reception will be given us in the afternoon. That
evening we shall spend at our hotel with the friends who go to see
us off, and on the 17th we give ourselves to old ocean's care in
the Cunarder Servia.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Believe me, yours very truly, M. G.
Fawcett."]
Don't worry now if you do not hear from me again until I touch
Yankee soil; and don't worry if the wind blows or if you learn the
vessel is late or lost. If the Servia fail to land me safe and
sound, don't repine or stop because I am not, but buckle on a new
and stronger harness and do double work for the good cause of
woman. You have the best of judgment in our work and are capable of
doing much if only you had confidence in yourself, so whatever
comes to me, do you be all the more for the less that _I_ am.
Half of Miss Anthony's nine-months' trip abroad had been spent in Great
Britain. To her all the other attractions of the old world were as
nothing compared with its living, breathing humanity. On the continent
she was deprived of any exchange of thought with its people because she
spoke no language but her own, and this made her prefer England; but
there was another and a stronger interest--the great progressive
movement which was going forward in regard to woman. Here she found
women of fine intellect and high social position engaged in the same
work to which she had given more than thirty years of her own life; and
here she met sympathy and recognition which would have been impossible
in any other country in Europe. Her central thought in going to Great
Britain had been to secure the co-operation of Englishwomen in holding
an international suffrage convention. At first her proposition met with
no response. The most radical of English women were conservative
compared to those of America, but after they had become thoroughly
acquainted with Mrs. Stanton and herself and prejudice had been
supplanted by confidence, the idea began to be more favorably regarded.
One serious difficulty in the way of the proposed convention lay in the
fact that the suffrage women of England and Scotland were not themselves
in thorough unison as to plans and purposes. No definite action was
taken until the last afternoon of their stay, when, at the reception
given in their honor by Dr. Ewing Whittle, in Liverpool, with the hearty
concurrence of Mrs. McLaren, Mrs. Lucas, Mrs. Scatcherd and Mrs. Parker,
who had accompanied Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton to see them safely on
board their vessel, a strong committee was formed to promote
international organization.
[Illustration: Margaret Bright Lucas (Signed: "Yours affectionately
Margaret Bright Lucas")]
They sailed from Liverpool on the Servia, November 17, 1883. Among their
fellow voyagers were Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey, of Orange, N. J., to whom
the cause of woman suffrage and Miss Anthony personally are deeply
indebted; and Mrs. Margaret B. Sullivan, of Chicago, the distinguished
editorial writer. There was some lovely weather, which was greatly
enjoyed, but heavy fogs impeded the ship and it was just ten days from
the time of starting when, on November 27, they steamed into New York
harbor and stepped again on the shores of loved America.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] The many inquiries and directions in regard to the suffrage work,
and the loving messages to friends and relatives at home, are omitted in
the extracts made from Miss Anthony's letters; but they are of constant
occurrence, and show that these were never absent from her thoughts.
[15] While in Florence, Miss Anthony was entertained by the Countess de
Resse, daughter of Elizabeth B. Phelps, of New York, and by the Princess
Koltzoff-Massalsky, the distinguished author and artist, known through
Europe by her pen-name of Dora d'Istria.
[16] Miss Anthony occupied some rainy days, while here, in wrapping up
papers and writing letters which she put in her official envelopes,
bearing the revolutionary mottoes, "No just government can be formed
without the consent of the governed," "Taxation without representation
is tyranny." After a few days a dignified official appeared at the
American legation with a large package of mail bearing the proscribed
mottoes, and said, "Such sentiments can not pass through the post-office
in Germany." So in modest, uncomplaining wraps the letters and papers
started again for the land of the free.--E. C. S.
[17]
WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.
A Public Meeting will be held in
ST. JAMES' HALL, PICCADILLY,
Thursday, July 5th, 1883,
In Support of the Resolution to be moved by Mr. Mason in the House of
Commons, on July 6th, for extending the Parliamentary Franchise to Women
who possess the qualifications which entitle men to Vote.
Doors open at 7. Organ Recital 7 to 8. The Chair will be taken at 8
o'clock by
WILLIAM WOODALL, ESQ., M.P.
Mrs. Fawcett.
Dr. Cameron, M.P.
Miss Tod.
J. P. Thomasson, Esq., M.P.
Mrs. Beddoe.
Mrs. E. Cady Stanton.
Miss Susan B. Anthony.
W. S. Caine, Esq., M.P.
Mrs. Fenwick Miller.
Arthur Arnold, Esq., M.P.
Miss Becker.
A. Illingworth, Esq., M.P.
Miss Müller.
C. H. Hopwood, Esq., M.P.
Mrs. Oliver Scatcherd.
R. P. Blennerhassett, Esq., M.P.
Miss Eliza Sturge.
Thos. Roe, Esq., M.P.
J. A. Blake, Esq., M.P.
W. Summers, Esq., M.P.
Thos. Burt, Esq., M.P.
Mrs. Ashford, Miss Bewicke, Miss C. A. Biggs, Miss Cobden, Mrs. Cowen,
Mrs. Ormiston Chant, Mrs. J. R. Ford, Mrs. Hoggan, M.D., Mrs. Lucas,
Miss Frances Lord, Miss Lupton, Mrs. McLaren, Mrs. Paterson, Miss E.
Smith, Miss Stacpoole, Mrs. J. P. Thomasson, Miss Laura Waittle, and
other Ladies and Gentlemen are expected to be present.
Numbered Sofa Stalls, 2s. 6d. Balcony and Reserved Seats, 1s. Body of
the Hall and Gallery Free.
[18] A pleasant letter was received afterwards from Mrs. Bright, in
which she made this playful reference to Miss Anthony's always
depreciating herself in favor of Mrs. Stanton:
"We have thought of you often and hoped that the wind, which has been
rough here, has been tempered on the Atlantic for your sakes. Apropos of
the very beautiful allusion you made to Mrs. Cady Stanton's popularity
and the effect produced by her personal appearance, I must tell you of a
remark made by my little son John immediately after your departure. I
found him sitting on the sofa in my bedroom, thinking deeply. 'Mamma,'
he said, 'I wish you could get me a photograph of Miss Anthony. I think
she has such a fine face. There is something about it so firm and yet so
kind.' I said, 'Do you like her better than Mrs. Stanton?' 'Oh dear,
yes, much better,' replied Johnnie. So you see she does not monopolize
all the admiration!"
CHAPTER XXXIII.
CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS--VISIT TO NEW ORLEANS.
1884-1885.
Most of the newspapers had a welcome for Miss Anthony. In a two-column
report in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle she is quoted as saying:
"I can scarcely tell you of the hospitality extended, the dinners,
teas and receptions given in our honor. I had no idea we were so
well-known in Great Britain or that there was such cordial feeling
toward us. Of course, I met chiefly those known as Liberals and the
sympathizers with our cause. Public sentiment there is rapidly
growing in our favor. In the discussion I heard in Parliament not a
Conservative uttered a word against the suffrage already possessed
by women but relied upon the hackneyed argument that when married
women were included there would be trouble."
"You saw the Queen, I suppose?"
"No; I thought more of seeing the Bright family than the Queen and
I never happened to be near where she was. I really had very little
leisure to look around. I am ashamed to say I did not visit
Westminster until the morning before I came away, but it was simply
for lack of time. The social idea was of more importance to me."
The New York Evening Telegram said editorially: "The statement of Miss
Susan B. Anthony, in another column, illustrates the superb
determination of that champion of woman's political rights. In the
struggle which has constituted her life-work she has the rare advantage
of not being able to comprehend defeat. Battling under the inspiration
of an enthusiast--of a fanatic, some may be disposed to say--she knows
no such word as fail. The most disheartening reverses appear to her
inspired imagination but steps in an undeviating march of progress. It
was enthusiasm such as this that made the career of Joan of Arc.
Without it, not even the broad intellect and strong soul of Miss Anthony
could sustain the burden of the struggle which she is called upon to
lead." The Washington correspondent of the Cleveland Leader thus began a
long interview:
Susan B. Anthony is back from Europe, and is here for the winter's
fight in behalf of woman suffrage. She seems remarkably well, and
has gained fifteen pounds since she left last spring. She is
sixty-three, but looks just the same as twenty years ago. There is
perhaps an extra wrinkle in her face, a little more silver in her
hair, but her blue eyes are just as bright, her mouth as serious
and her step as active as when she was forty. She would attract
attention in any crowd. She is of medium height and medium form but
her face is wonderfully intellectual, and she moves about like the
woman of a purpose that she is. She says she experiences far
different treatment by public men now from what she did years ago.
The statesman of the past always came to her with a smirk on his
face as though he considered woman's rights nonsensical and thought
himself wonderfully condescending to take notice of her at all.
"Now," says she, "public men look upon our mission as a matter of
business, and we are considered from that standpoint."
The interview closed:
"One question more, Miss Anthony. Will you please tell me what is
your highest ideal of the woman of the future?"
"It is hard to say," was the reply. "The woman of the future will
far surpass the one of the present, even as the man of the future
will surpass the one of today. The ages are progressive, and I look
for a far higher manhood and womanhood than we now have. I think
this will come through making the sexes co-equal. When women
associate with men in serious matters, as they do now in frivolous,
both will grow stronger and the world's work will be better done. I
look for the day when the woman who has a political or judicial
brain will have as much right to sit in the Senate or on the
Supreme Bench as men have; when women will have equal property,
business and political rights with men; when the only criterion of
excellence or position shall be the ability and character of the
individual; and this time will come. All of the Western colleges
are now open to women, and send forth more than 2,000 women
graduates every year. Think of the effect upon the race to come!
The woman of the future will be a better wife, mother and citizen
than the woman of today."
There were, however, some discordant notes in the symphony of pleasant
things which by 1883 had become customary in the newspapers. For
instance, the Cincinnati Times-Star headed its interview: "Susan
Speaks--Miss Anthony Corralled by a Times-Star Correspondent--The Old
Lady Wears Good Clothes and Stops at First-class Hotels--Bubbling about
the Ballot." The smart reporter described the size of her foot, devoted
a paragraph to the question whether her teeth were natural or
artificial, and said: "There must be money in being a reformer, for Miss
Anthony lives at the Riggs House in good style, and expects to be there
all winter, and this, after a summer in Europe, would be a pretty severe
drain on any but a long purse." When one thinks of Miss Anthony's
uniform kindness and courtesy to reporters, always granting an interview
no matter how tired or how busy she might be, and assisting them in
every possible way with information and suggestions, it is astonishing
that any one of them could indulge in petty, personal criticism and
innuendoes.
Miss Anthony had now another friend at court, Col. Halbert S. Greenleaf,
of Rochester, having been elected to Congress. Both he and his wife were
strong and influential advocates of suffrage, and her warm personal
friends. The diary shows that every day of December she was conferring
with officials and their wives who were friendly to the cause, making
converts wherever possible and co-operating actively with the District
committee in all the drudgery of detail necessary to a successful
convention. It is only by reading her diary that one can understand what
a mental agony it was for Miss Anthony to press this matter upon
congressmen, year after year, to be repulsed by those who were opposed
and only tolerated by those in favor, who had many other matters on hand
which to them seemed of much greater importance. "Oh, if men only could
know how hard it is for women to be forever snubbed when they attempt to
plead for their rights! It is perfectly disheartening that no member
feels any especial interest or earnest determination in pushing this
question of woman suffrage, to all men only a side issue," she writes in
this little confidant; but not even in her letters is there ever a note
of discouragement. To the world at large and to those who were
associated with her, she was always brave, bright and hopeful. It causes
a keen heartache to reflect upon how she crucified herself for fifty
years, unfaltering and uncomplaining, in order to make conditions better
for womankind. To Hon. William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, who believed
in woman suffrage and voted for it, but did not feel enough interest to
push the matter in Congress, she wrote, January 6, 1884:
No one shrinks more from making herself obnoxious than I do, and
but for the sake of all women, your darling Florence included, I
should never again say a word to you on the subject of using your
influence to secure the passage of a Sixteenth Amendment
proposition. Last winter you put off my appeal for help with, "This
is the short session and the tariff question is of momentous
importance." Now, since this is the "long session," will you not
take hold of this work, and with the same earnestness that you do
other questions?
It is cruel for you to leave your daughter, so full of hope and
resolve, to suffer the humiliations of disfranchisement she already
feels so keenly, and which she will find more and more galling as
she grows into the stronger and grander woman she is sure to be. If
it were your son who for any cause was denied his right to have his
opinion counted, you would compass sea and land to lift the ban
from him. And yet the crime of denial in his case would be no
greater than in that of your daughter. It is only because men are
so accustomed to the ignoring of woman's opinions, that they do not
believe women suffer from the injustice as would men; precisely as
people used to scout the idea that negroes, whose parents before
them always had been enslaved, suffered from that cruel bondage as
white men would.
Now, will you not set about in good earnest to secure the
enfranchisement of woman? Why do not the Republicans push this
question? The vote on Keifer's resolution showed almost a party
line. Of the 124 nays, only 4 were Republicans; while of the 85
yeas, only 13 were Democrats. Even should you fail to get another
committee, the discussion and the vote would array the members and
set each man and party in their true places to be seen of all men,
and all women too.
The term of the select committee on woman suffrage having expired with
the close of the Forty-seventh Congress, a new one was appointed by the
Senate of the Forty-eighth. The House committee on rules refused to
report such a committee but placed the question in the hands of
Representative Warren Keifer, of Ohio, who made a gallant fight for it
on the floor, during which he said: "Is not the right of petition a
constitutional right? Has not woman, in this country at least, risen
above the rim and horizon of servitude, discredit and disgrace, and has
she not a right, representing as she does in many instances great
questions of property, to present her appeals to this national council
and have them wisely and judiciously considered? I think it is due to
our wives, daughters, mothers and sisters to afford them an avenue
through which they can legitimately and judicially reach the ear of this
great nation."
He was ably assisted by Mr. Belford, of Colorado. The measure to appoint
this committee was bitterly opposed by Mr. Reagan, of Texas, who said in
a long speech: "When woman so far misunderstands her duty as to want to
go to working on the roads and making rails and serving in the militia
and going into the army, I want to protect her against it." The vote
resulted--yeas, 85, nays, 124; absent or not voting, 112.
Immediately after the return of members from the holiday recess, Miss
Anthony wrote to each of the 112 asking how he would vote if the
question came up again. To these letters 52 replies were received, 26
from Republicans, all of whom would vote yes; 26 from Democrats, 10 of
whom would vote yes, 10, no; while 6 did not know how they would vote.
As these 36 affirmative votes added to the 85 yeas would so nearly have
overcome the adverse majority, John D. White, of Kentucky, at the
solicitation of Miss Anthony, made another earnest effort in February to
secure the desired committee, but the Democrats refused to allow the
question to come to a vote. She was greatly disappointed at the failure
to get the select committee, but afterwards became of the opinion that
it was more advantageous to return to the old plan of working through
the judiciary committee.
Miss Anthony had to be continually on the alert to head off zealous but
injudicious women who were determined to commit the suffrage movement to
the various ologies and isms of the day, and especially to personal
matters. Even a woman so intellectually great as Mrs. Stanton could not
be relied upon always to make her individual opinions subserve what was
demanded of her position as president of the National Association. In
January Miss Anthony received a document which Mrs. Stanton had prepared
as an "open letter," to be signed by both of them officially and given
to the press, congratulating Frederick Douglass upon his marriage to a
white woman and sympathizing with him because of the adverse criticism
it had called out! She especially urged that he be given a prominent
place on the program at the approaching convention. Miss Anthony replied
at once:
I do hope you won't put your foot into the question of
intermarriage of the races. It has no place on our platform, any
more than the question of no marriage at all, or of polygamy, and,
so far as I can prevent it, shall not be brought there. I beg you
therefore not to congratulate him publicly. Were there a
proposition to punish the woman and leave the man to go scot free,
then we should have a protest to make against the invidious
discrimination.
The question of the amalgamation of the different races is a
scientific one, affecting women and men alike. I do not propose to
have it discussed on our platform. Our intention at this convention
is to make every one who hears or reads believe in the grand
principle of equality of rights and chances for women, and if they
see on our program the name of Douglass every thought will be
turned toward the subject of amalgamation and away from that of
woman and her disfranchised. Neither you nor I have the right thus
to complicate or compromise our question, and if we take the bits
in our teeth in one direction we must expect our compeers to do the
same in others. You very well know that if you plunge in, as your
letter proposes, your endorsement will be charged upon me and the
whole association. Do not throw around that marriage the halo of a
pure and lofty duty to break down race lines. Your sympathy has run
away with your judgment. Lovingly and fearfully yours.
It is hardly necessary to say that the "open letter" was not published.
Everybody's burdens were laid upon Miss Anthony's shoulders. In looking
over the mass of correspondence it seems as if each writer wanted
something and looked to her to supply it. All expected her to take the
lead, to do the planning, to bear the responsibility, and usually she
was equal to the demand, but even her brave spirit could not resist an
occasional groan on the pages of the diary. When a new accession to the
ranks, from whom she expected great assistance, wrote, "I do not know
how to plan but tell me what to do and I will obey," she says, "My heart
sinks within me; so few seem to use their brain-power on ways and
means." And again: "This drain of helpless women, able and willing to
work but utterly ignorant of how to do it, wears me out body and soul."
She was greatly distressed because so many of the younger women were
frequently incapacitated by illness, and writes: "O, the weak-bodied
girls of the present generation, they make me heart-sick!"
But never did the women themselves know of these feelings. To the
younger ones she wrote: "Don't give up 'beat' at any of those places
till I have dropped my plummet into them.... Your young shoulders will
have to learn to bear the crotchets of all sorts of people and not bend
or break under them.... Put all the blame on me; they may abuse me but
not you.... It makes my heart ache every minute to see you so tired....
Vent all your ill-feelings on me but keep sweet as June roses to
everybody else. It does not pay to lose your temper.... You will have to
learn to let people pile injustice on you and then trust to time to
right it all." If on rare occasions she spoke a word of censure, it was
followed by a letter in the next mail, full of sorrow and repentance.
She always signed herself, even in the darkest hours, "Yours with love
and hope." Beautiful optimism, sublime courage!
Sunday, February 3, 1884, Miss Anthony read in the morning papers of the
sudden death of Wendell Phillips. He had been to her always the one
being without a peer, the purest, sweetest, best of men. The news
overwhelmed her with grief and she wrote at once to Robert Purvis:
How cut down I am at the telegram, "Wendell Phillips is dead," and
I know you are equally so. I hope you can go on to Boston to the
funeral, and help tenderly to lay away that most precious human
clay. Who shall say the fitting word for Wendell Phillips at this
last hour as lovingly and beautifully as he has done so many, many
times for the grand men and women who have gone before him? There
seem none left but you and Parker Pillsbury to pour out your souls'
dearest love in his memory. Would that I had the tongue of an angel
and could go and bear my testimony to the grandeur of that noblest
of God's works! I can think of no one who can rightly and fully
estimate that glorious character. What a sad hour for his beloved
wife! He said to me on my last visit: "My one wish has come to be
that I may live to bury Ann." He doubtless knew of his impending
disease of the heart. On whose shoulders will fall the mantle of
Wendell Phillips? When will the children of men ever listen to
such a matchless voice? How poor the world seems! In sorrow I am
with you.
She could not stay away and, inclement as was the weather, went to
Boston three days later to look for the last time upon the loved face.
At the request of many ladies in Washington the National Convention was
held in March, instead of earlier in the winter, to avoid the social
distractions which always precede the Lenten season. The ladies were
pleasantly received by President Arthur.[19] This was an exceptionally
brilliant convention, a noteworthy feature being the large number of
letters containing the greetings of the distinguished men and women of
Great Britain, whom Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton had met and interested
during their trip abroad. The following was read from Matthew Simpson,
senior bishop in the Methodist church, among his last public utterances,
as he died a few months later:
For more than thirty years I have been in favor of suffrage for
woman. I was led to this position, not by the consideration of the
question of natural rights or of alleged injustice or of inequality
before the law, but by what I believed would be her influence on
the great moral questions of the day. Were the ballot in the hands
of women, I am satisfied that the evils of intemperance would be
greatly lessened; and I fear, without that ballot, we shall not
succeed against the saloons and kindred evils in large cities. You
will doubtless have many obstacles placed in your way; there will
be many conflicts to sustain; but I have no doubt that the coming
years will see the triumph of your cause, and that our higher
civilization and morality will rejoice in the work which
enlightened women will accomplish.[20]
[Illustration: Autograph: "M. Simpson"]
Both Senate and House committees granted hearings, and eloquent
addresses were made by delegates from many States. Miss Anthony said in
part:
This is the fifteenth year we have appeared before Congress in
person, and the nineteenth by petitions, asking national protection
for women in the exercise of their right to vote. In the winter of
1865 and 1866 we sent your honorable body a ten-thousand prayer,
asking you not to put "male" in the second section of the proposed
Fourteenth Amendment; and again we appealed to you by thousands of
petitions that you would add "sex" after "race or color" in the
Fifteenth, but all to no avail. Then by an eighty-thousand petition
in 1871 we demanded the enactment of a declaratory law that women
had the right to vote under the first section of the Fourteenth
Amendment. This, too, was denied us, not only by Congress but by
the Supreme Court, which held that the framers of the amendment had
only "colored men" in their thought, therefore none others could
come within its purview. From 1876 to the present we have from year
to year poured into Congress hundreds of thousands of petitions
asking you to take the initiative step for another amendment which
shall specifically prohibit the disfranchisement of women.
But, you say, why do you not go to your several States to secure
this right? I answer, because we have neither the women nor the
money to make the canvasses of the thirty-eight States, school
district by school district, to educate each individual man out of
the old belief that woman was created to be his subject. Four State
legislatures submitted the question of striking "male" from their
constitutions--Kansas, Michigan, Colorado and Nebraska--and we made
the best canvass of each which was possible for a disfranchised
class outside of all political help. Negro suffrage was again and
again overwhelmingly voted down in various States; and you know,
gentlemen, that if the negro had never had the ballot until the
majority of white men, particularly the foreign born, had voted
"yes," he would have gone without it until the crack of doom. It
was because of this prejudice of the unthinking majority that
Congress submitted the question of the negro's enfranchisement to
the legislatures of the several States, to be adjudicated by the
educated, broadened representatives of the people. We now appeal to
you to lift the decision of _our_ question from the vote of the
populace to that of the legislatures, that thereby you may be as
considerate and just to the women of this nation as you were to the
freedmen.
Every new privilege granted to woman has been by the legislatures.
The liberal laws for married women, the right of the wife to own
and control her inherited property and separate earnings, the right
of women to vote at school elections in a dozen States, full
suffrage in two Territories, all have been gained through the
legislatures. Had any one of these beneficent propositions been
submitted to the vote of the rank and file do you believe a
majority would have placed their sanction upon it? I do not; and I
beg you, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, that you will
at once recommend to the House the submission of the proposition
now before you, and thus place the decision of this great
constitutional question of the right of one-half the people of this
republic to a voice in the government, with the legislatures of the
several States. You need not fear that our enfranchisement will
come too suddenly or too soon by this method. After the proposition
shall have passed Congress by the requisite two-thirds vote, it may
require five, ten or twenty years to secure its ratification by the
necessary three-fourths of the State legislatures; but, _once
submitted by Congress, it always will stand until ratified by the
States_.
It takes all too many of us women from our homes and from the works
of charity and education in our respective localities, even to come
to Washington, session after session, until Congress shall have
submitted the proposition, and then to go from legislature to
legislature, urging its adoption. But when you insist that we shall
beg at the feet of each individual voter of every one of the
States, native and foreign, black and white, learned and ignorant,
you doom us to incalculable hardships and sacrifices, and to most
exasperating insults and humiliations. I pray you to save us from
the fate of waiting and working for our freedom until we shall have
educated the ignorant masses of men to consent to give their wives
and sisters equality of rights with themselves. You surely will not
compel us to await the enlightenment of all the freedmen of this
nation and the newly-made voters from the monarchial governments of
the old world!
Liberty for one's self is a natural instinct possessed alike by all
men, but to be willing to accord liberty to another is the result
of education, of self-discipline, of the practice of the golden
rule. Therefore we ask that the question of equality of rights to
women shall be decided by the picked men of the nation in Congress,
and the picked men of the several States in their respective
legislatures.
The Senate committee again submitted a majority report in favor of a
Sixteenth Amendment enfranchising women, signed by T. W. Palmer, Blair,
Lapham and Anthony. The minority report, by Joseph E. Brown, Cockrell
and Fair, began: "The undersigned believe that the Creator intended that
the sphere of the males and females of our race should be different,"
etc.
The House Judiciary Committee gave a majority report in the
negative.[21] The minority report in favor was signed by Thomas B. Reed,
Maine; Ezra B. Taylor, Ohio; Thomas M. Browne, Indiana; Moses A. McCoid,
Iowa. It is one of the keenest, clearest expositions of the absurdity of
the objections against woman suffrage that ever has been made, and ends
with this trenchant paragraph:
It is sometimes asserted that women now have a great influence in
politics through their husbands and brothers. That is undoubtedly
true. But this is just the kind of influence which is not wholesome
for the community, for it is influence unaccompanied by
responsibility. People are always ready to recommend to others
what they would not do themselves. If it be true that women can not
be prevented from exercising political influence, is not that only
another reason why they should be steadied in their political
action by that proper sense of responsibility which comes from
acting themselves? We conclude then, that every reason which in
this country bestows the ballot upon man is equally applicable to
the proposition to bestow the ballot upon woman, and in our
judgment there is no foundation for the fear that woman will
thereby become unfitted for all the duties she has hitherto
performed.
Miss Anthony mailed 500 packages of copies of this report to different
points for distribution. Upon the urgent invitation of the suffrage
association of Connecticut she went there for a few days to assist at
their State convention, but in a letter to Mrs. Spofford she said: "I
shall return tomorrow night, if possible. I keep thinking of those men
at the Capitol not doing what I want them to." She afterwards wrote to
May Wright Sewall:
My plan is to get away from here the minute I can do so without
letting our work suffer in Congress. A week ago the House Judiciary
Committee voted down a motion to print our "hearing" speeches.
Yesterday I went up and called out a Democrat who I knew had voted
"no," and hence could move to reconsider, and he promised to go
back and thus move, and did so, and Mr. Browne, of Indiana, asked
leave of the House to print them. I wish you would write to Mr.
Browne that he is splendid and our main help now in the committee.
Cockrell has been trying to prevent printing the Senate "hearing,"
but Blair, Lapham, Palmer and Anthony are bound it shall be
printed. Still, all would fall flat and dead if some one were not
here to keep them in mind of their duty to us.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Yours &c, Thomas M. Browne"]
Miss Anthony remained in Washington till April 14, managing her forces
like an experienced general until the last gun had been fired. When she
returned home ready to begin work on the History, she found to her
amazement that the officer who had been charged with preparing the
report of the Sixteenth National Suffrage Convention, a woman of great
literary ability, had given it up in despair, declaring that it would be
utterly impossible to make anything creditable out of such a mass of
unsatisfactory material, most of which would have to be entirely
re-written. Miss Anthony did not stop to sit down and weep, but wrote
her at once to send to Rochester every document she had in her
possession. Then, taking all of them to Mrs. Stanton, who had gone to
her old paternal home at Johnstown, they arranged, edited, re-wrote and
put into shape the conglomerate of letters, speeches, etc., and in less
than two weeks prepared and sent to the printer the most complete report
ever made of a National convention.[22]
The middle of May, after two years' interruption, Miss Anthony and Mrs.
Stanton set themselves diligently to finish the third volume of the
History of Woman Suffrage, all the boxes and trunks of material having
been shipped from Tenafly. Although submerged in the avalanche of old
documents, Miss Anthony's mind was full of current events. She writes in
her journal June 2: "I wait with bated breath the news from Oregon,
where today the men are voting on the question of woman's
enfranchisement. My heart almost stands stills. I hope against hope, but
still I hope." When the news of the defeat comes, she says: "Dear Mrs.
Duniway, with all that debt left on her shoulders, which she assumed to
carry on the campaign! I felt so agonized for her that on the very day
of election I rushed to the bank and sent her $100. We must not leave
her to carry it alone, after all her brave work. I have written a dozen
letters to friends asking them to give her assistance. I feel like a
lion champing the bars of his cage, shut up here digging and delving
among the records of the past when I long to be out doing the work of
the present." In a letter received from Senator Palmer at this time he
says:
I fully sympathize with your regret and chagrin over the reverse in
Oregon but hardly with your conclusion, viz., that "the women
should stop asking legislatures to submit this question to the
electors, to have it killed by the majority, made up of ignorance
and whiskey, native and foreign, and all go to Congress for
success," etc. It seems to me that nothing is to be lost and much
to be gained by local discussions and temporary defeats. You know
in 1850 Webster, in his unfortunate Revere House speech,
stigmatized the anti-slavery movement as "a rub-a-dub agitation,"
and Wendell Phillips closed his masterly philippic thereon with
what was accepted as a motto: Agitate! Agitate!! Agitate!!! Another
decade of that rub-a-dub agitation sufficed to divide the continent
in a political earthquake and from out the chasm the negro emerged
to citizenship. It may still require years to educate a majority of
our women to demand the franchise and a majority of our men or
their representatives in Congress and the legislatures, to proclaim
it, but that the way leads through constant agitation I make no
doubt. The still pool casts nothing to shore.
[Illustration: Autograph: "With high personal esteem I have the honor to
be, Very truly yours, T W Palmer"]
She watches events across the water and writes on July 7: "Well, the
House of Lords is today discussing whether 2,000,000 farm laborers shall
have the ballot placed in their hands, while the half-million, more or
less, women who employ them are left without it. What an outrage that
Mr. Gladstone refused to allow Mr. Woodall's amendment to his bill to be
at least voted upon! He applied the party whip and made voting for the
woman suffrage amendment disloyalty to the government, and over one
hundred Liberals, who had previously declared themselves in favor of
women's sharing in this new extension of the franchise, voted against
allowing them to do so. I do not believe a more humiliating abnegation
of principle at the behest of a party leader ever was witnessed in our
Congress."
The national political conventions in the summer of 1884 received the
usual appeal to recognize the claims of women. The Republican,
Democratic, Anti-Monopoly and Greenback parties equivocated, although
the last two nominated Benjamin F. Butler, an avowed advocate of woman
suffrage; the Prohibition convention relegated the question to the
States[23]. The American party put in a plank and nominated S. C.
Pomeroy, a champion of woman suffrage, but it had too small a following
to offer any hope of success. Blaine was not a friend, Logan was an
earnest one; Cleveland was not acceptable to many women, Hendricks had
never shown himself favorable. In the midst of such a conglomeration the
wise thing for all women would have been to remain non-partisan and take
no share in the campaign. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, however,
watching events from their secluded nook, issued a manifesto urging
women to stand by the Republican party. They were led to take this
action by the tendency of large numbers to rush to the support of the
Prohibitionists, because of their suffrage plank; and they believed that
if women were determined to work for some political party, the
Republican at that time held out most hope. This aroused the antagonism
of the Prohibitionists and Democrats, both men and women, and afforded
the strongest possible object lesson to Miss Anthony of the wisdom of
henceforth adhering to her policy of non-partisanship until one of the
_dominant_ parties should declare unmistakably for woman suffrage and
advocate it by means of press and platform.
In August occurred the death of Sarah Pugh, the gentle Quaker and
staunch Abolitionist, her old and faithful friend. It was followed by
that of Frances D. Gage a few months later; and in December passed away
the true and helpful ally, William Henry Channing. Each left a void in
her heart, and yet the memory of these great souls impelled to renewed
effort. There was no cessation of the work on the History, which was
slowly evolved through the heat of summer and the beautiful days of
early autumn, but by the end of October the funds were exhausted, the
money left by Mrs. Eddy was still in litigation, and Miss Anthony again
went on the lecture platform, speaking almost every night through
November and December.
She did not fail, however, to look carefully after the interests of the
Seventeenth National Convention which met as usual in Washington,
January 20, 1885. A letter from Clarina Howard Nichols was sent to be
read at this meeting, but the hand which penned it was stilled in death
before it was received. Of all the pioneer workers with whom Miss
Anthony had been associated in the early days so full of scorn, ridicule
and abuse, Mrs. Nichols was among the nearest and dearest, a forceful
speaker and writer, a tender, loving woman. It was in this convention
that the resolution denouncing dogmas and creeds was introduced by Mrs.
Stanton, and caused much commotion and heated argument. Miss Anthony
opposed it, saying:
I object to the words "derived from Judaism." It does not matter
where the dogma came from. I was on the old Garrison platform, and
found long ago that the settling of any question of human rights by
people's interpretation of the Bible is utterly impossible. I hope
we shall not go back to that war. We all know what we want, and
that is the recognition of woman's perfect equality. We all admit
that such recognition never has been granted in the centuries of
the past; but for us to begin a discussion here as to who
established this injustice would be anything but profitable. Let
those who wish go back into their history, but I beg it shall not
be done on our platform.[24]
The public, which always longed for a sensation at these suffrage
conventions and was disappointed if it did not come, seized upon this
resolution, and press and pulpit made it a text. The following Sunday W.
W. Patton, D. D., president of Howard University, preached in the
Congregational church of Washington a sermon entitled, "Woman and
Skepticism." He took the ground that as soon as women depart from their
natural sphere they become skeptical if not immoral. He gave as examples
Hypatia, Madame Roland, Harriet Martineau, Frances Power Cobbe and
George Eliot! Then turning his attention to America he said that "the
recent convention of woman suffragists gave evidence of atheism and
immorality," and that "Victoria Woodhull was the representative of the
movement in this country"[25]. And this when Mrs. Woodhull had not been
on the suffrage platform for thirteen years! Miss Anthony and Mrs.
Stanton occupied front seats and at the close of the sermon went
forward, shook hands with the preacher and Miss Anthony remarked
earnestly: "Doctor, your mother, if you have one, should lay you across
her knee and give you a good spanking for that sermon." "O, no," said
Mrs. Stanton quickly, "allow me to congratulate you. I have been trying
for years to make women understand that the worst enemy they have is in
the pulpit, and you have illustrated the truth of it." Then, while the
great divine was trying to recover his breath, they walked out of the
church. The nine days' commotion which this produced can be imagined
better than described. After some reflection Miss Anthony regretted that
she should have been provoked into her remark, but Mrs. Stanton wrote:
"Don't worry a moment. The more I think about it, the better I like it,
because it was the most contemptuous thing which could have been said.
Like that shot at Lexington, it will go round the world."
On February 6, Thomas W. Palmer called up in the Senate the resolution
for a Sixteenth Amendment and supported it by that masterly speech which
ever since has been one of the strongest suffrage campaign documents.
At the request of Miss Anthony thousands of copies were sent out under
his frank. She went from Washington to Boston to attend a meeting of the
National branch of the Massachusetts association, and soon afterwards,
on March 2, started for the New Orleans Exposition. She was warmly
welcomed by Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, wife of Judge E. T. Merrick, at
whose lovely home she was entertained during part of her stay. It was
her first visit to the Crescent City and she was soon deluged with
invitations to speak and received many charming tokens of the
justly-famed southern hospitality.
She spoke before the Woman's Club in the hall of the Continental Guards,
with May Wright Sewall, representative from Indiana; gave seven
addresses, in as many days, before schools and colleges and, by
invitation of the Press Association, spoke in Agricultural Hall at the
exposition and visited the headquarters of the different papers. The
next day, by request of Commissioner Truman, she gave an address and
held a reception at the New York headquarters. Her last appearance was
at Tulane Hall under the auspices of the teachers of the city schools.
She was everywhere beautifully received, although her doctrines were new
and unpopular, and at the close of each meeting her audience crowded
about her with words of appreciation and cordiality. Miss Anthony here
met for the first time "Catherine Cole," of the editorial staff, and
Mrs. Eliza J. Nicholson, owner and manager of the Picayune. The latter
presented her with an Indian basket filled to overflowing with orange
blossoms, and this tribute was paid in her paper:
THE APOSTLE OF WOMAN'S RIGHTS.--Miss Susan B. Anthony has made a
most favorable impression upon the New Orleans public, and has by
her gentleness and courtesy won many friends for herself and her
cause. She came here a total stranger, and recognized the fact that
there were many who did not approve of her or her doctrines. She
has been sincere, truly polite and simply womanly in all her
dealings with the southern people, and by these very qualities has
commanded the respectful esteem of all. Miss Anthony has not
striven to make herself "solid" with the people who give the best
dinners.... The workingwoman, the unfashionable woman, have been
made as heartily welcome as the leader of society; and for their
appreciation they have been repaid by the friendship and esteem of
one of the grandest old maids that ever lived.
The Times-Democrat and Daily States also gave full and favorable reports
of her visit and lectures. The two weeks allowed for this holiday sped
quickly away and Miss Anthony left for the North on March 20, laden with
luncheon, flowers and many tokens of affection from the women of New
Orleans. At Marshall, Tex., she dined with President and Mrs. Culver, of
Bishops' University, and reached St. Louis Sunday evening, where she was
the guest of her nephew, Arthur A. Mosher, and his wife. The next four
or five weeks were spent in the lecture field at hard work, under the
management of the Slayton Bureau. In answer to her letter of regret at
not meeting Mrs. J. Ellen Foster at an Iowa convention, as she had
requested, Mrs. Foster wrote: "I was sorry enough not to see you but I
gave the people your message in the evening. Dear soul, how long you
have stood for the truth delivered unto you! God bless your words and
works. I do not see creeds and dogmas just as you see them, I do not
believe in all that you do, but I believe in you!"
The last of April came the long-expected summons to Boston to receive
the legacy of Mrs. Eddy, the courts having sustained the will. While
eastward bound, crossing the State of Illinois, newspapers were brought
on the train announcing the death of Grant, and she writes: "The weather
is lovely and springlike today, but how still and solemn it seems out
here on these broad prairies with that great general gone forever!" The
case had been in litigation three years, Benjamin F. Butler appearing
for Miss Anthony and Lucy Stone. His fees were very reasonable but
several thousand dollars were swallowed up in the suit. The legacy, in
first-class securities, stocks, bonds, etc., was paid April 27, each
receiving $24,125.[26] Miss Anthony gives an amusing account, in one of
her letters, of the awful nightmare she had on board the sleeper going
home, when she dreamed that a woman was at the head of her berth
stifling her while a man knelt in front, his hand cautiously creeping
toward the inside pocket where she had sewed the money and bonds. She
awoke with a scream and did not go to sleep again.
If this bequest had been left to Miss Anthony for her own personal use,
she could not have felt one-half the joy she now experienced in having
the means to carry on the work which always had been so seriously
impeded for lack of funds. Of course its receipt was heralded far and
wide by the papers, and appeals began to pour in from all sides, nor
were they always appeals, but often demands. Scores of women considered
themselves entitled to a share because the money had been left to
further the cause of woman. One wanted it to help lift a mortgage on her
home, others to educate their children, to pay a debt, to reward them
for the valuable services they had given to woman suffrage, to start a
paper, to carry one already started, and so on without end. The men also
were willing to relieve her of a portion. "I am terribly oppressed by it
all," Miss Anthony writes, "and nothing would make me happier than to
respond to every one, but my money would melt away in a month." It was
ludicrous and yet pitiful to see certain persons who had repudiated her
in days gone by because she was too radical and too aggressive,
discovering all at once how much they always had valued her and how
anxious they had been for a long time to renew the old friendship--the
common story, ancient as the world.
The one thing she was determined to do first of all was to complete the
History of Woman Suffrage, upon which she and Mrs. Stanton had spent all
the days that could be spared for nearly ten years. The work had been
delayed by the many other demands upon their time, by their trips
abroad, but more than all else by lack of money. The authors were to pay
for composition, stereotyping, the making of the plates for the
engravings and the printing of the same; Fowler & Wells for the paper,
press-work, binding and advertising. Miss Anthony and her co-workers
were to receive only 12-1/2 per cent. commission on the sales. It
readily may be seen that she did not go into this as a money-making
scheme. Her only thought, her only desire, was to collect the facts in
connection with the movement to secure the rights of women, before they
should be scattered and lost, and to preserve and put them into shape
for reference.
In preparing the first two volumes she had used every dollar she had
been able to earn and all she could obtain from generous friends, and
there were still large unpaid bills. Now, with plenty of money at her
command, she bought out the rights of Fowler & Wells, and engaged
Charles Mann, of Rochester, to print the third volume. Mrs. Stanton had
returned to Tenafly, and there Miss Anthony again sent all the trunks
and boxes of precious documents. She completed her lecture engagements
and the first of June, 1885, found the two women once more hard at work.
"I really think of you with pity these hot midsummer days," wrote Mrs.
Sewall to Mrs. Stanton, "under the lash of blessed Susan's relentless
energy; but the reflection that she applies it with the most vigor to
her own back enables one to regard that instrument, after all, with more
admiration than terror." It was indeed true that Mrs. Stanton's luxury
and ease-loving nature required much urging,[27] and while Miss Anthony
took upon herself all the drudgery possible and all the financial
anxiety and burden, she was compelled to keep Mrs. Stanton keyed up to
do a great portion of the literary work. "It is the one drawback at
every turn," she writes, "that I have not the faculty to frame easy,
polished sentences. If I could but do this, I would finish up the
History without asking aid of anyone." And again: "It has been the bane
of my life that I am powerless to put on paper the glimpses of thoughts
which come and go like flashes of lightning." As has been said before in
these pages, she is a perfect critic and delightful letter-writer, but
finds difficulty in doing what is called "literary work." Practice
undoubtedly would have enabled her to overcome this, but she felt
always that her chief strength lay in executive ability.
[Illustration: MISS ANTHONY AND MRS. STANTON.
WRITING THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.]
Early in June Miss Anthony slipped away from the work long enough to go
to the Progressive Friends' meeting at Kennett Square, Penn., where she
was the guest of Deborah Pennock and met, for the first time, Sarah J.
Eddy. In her diary she says: "Last evening as I sat on the sofa Miss
Eddy put her arms around me and said, 'I am so glad I love you; I should
have felt very sorry if I had not.' And so should I, for the sake of her
dear mother and grandfather, who had so much confidence in me." The two
went on to New York together and then over to Mrs. Stanton's for a
little visit, and the friendship formed at that time has been maintained
ever since. Later when Miss Eddy was going to Rochester to a convention,
Miss Anthony wrote Mrs. Hallowell: "I am sure you would be glad to
entertain her; she is a sweet, lovely little woman; thoroughly
sympathizing with everything and everybody that suffers injustice. I am
very sorry that sister Mary and I must be away and can not have the dear
girl with us."
Miss Anthony experienced a great disadvantage in being so far away from
her publisher, the more especially as she had to send a chapter at a
time, read proofs of each as soon as it was set up, send back corrected
proof, get the revises, etc., and she soon found it necessary to spend
about half her time in Rochester. The women who were preparing the
chapters for their respective States delayed the work, neglecting to
send them when promised; many occupied twice as much space as had been
assigned them and were highly indignant when Mrs. Stanton used the blue
pencil unsparingly on their productions. They vented their feelings on
Miss Anthony, knowing that nothing they could say would ruffle Mrs.
Stanton's equipoise, and she writes in her diary: "To decide between the
two has almost torn me in twain. People who can write are so tenacious,
each thinking her own style better than any other, while poor I don't
know which is the best."
Every few weeks she was obliged to rush over to Fayetteville to confer
with Mrs. Gage, who was industriously preparing her part of the work.
Urgent appeals came from women in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas
and Indiana that they could not possibly make a success of their State
conventions unless she came to their assistance, but she steeled her
heart against them and stuck closely to her task. From the lecture
bureau came a list of ten engagements at $50 a night, but she refused
them. Some of the expressions in her letters of those busy days show the
state of her mind better than could volumes of description:
All the work of today put aside to grope into the old past. I feel
like rushing to you this very minute, but here Mrs. Stanton and I
are, scratching, scratching every hour, not each other's eyes but
the History papers. I am a fish out of water.... It makes me feel
growly all the time.... I can not get away from my ball and
chain.... I think we'll make things snap and crackle a little....
This is the biggest swamp I ever tried to wriggle through.... We'll
both put on our thinking caps and I guess get quite a lot of
funnies in the reminiscences.... Now here is the publisher's
screech for money.... O, to get out of this History prison!... I am
too tired to write--I mean too lazy.... No warhorse ever panted for
the rush of battle more than I for outside work. I love to make
history but hate to write it.
On November 12 Mrs. Stanton's seventieth birthday was celebrated by a
large reception held in the parlors of Dr. Lozier in New York, where
Mrs. Stanton read a charming paper on "The Pleasures of Old Age." Her
daughter, Harriot Stanton Blatch, sent the following bright and breezy
message:
... How I wish I could give my congratulations in the flesh!
Distance is the foe of love. Kiss dear Susan and let her kiss you
for me. On November 12 I shall think of you both, for you two are
not easily separated in my mind, and there will be a tenderness in
my thoughts and a thankfulness that you both have lived. In your
worries over the History, remember that at least one woman
appreciates the fact that her life has been made easier because of
your combined public work. You ought to be overflowing with
gratitude for each other's existence, for neither without the other
would have achieved the work you have accomplished. Every day of
your lives let your hearts praise the good fortune that brought you
together. Friendship is the grandest relation in the world, and I
feel infinitely blessed in having two such women as friends. You
and dear Susan are not yet to be sainted; you have no end of work
in you still, and must labor on for many a long year, and gain many
a triumphant victory. I throw up my cap and cry hurrah for you two
grand old warriors! The curl is from Nora's little head. She shall
be taught to reverence her Queen Mother and Maid of Honor Susan.
Now farewell, dear ladies; I am wishing you on birthdays and every
day a long and happy life.
The next morning came the cablegram announcing the sudden death in
Switzerland of the mother of Julia and Rachel Foster. Miss Anthony
dropped all work when the sisters arrived at New York, went with them to
Philadelphia and rendered every possible consolation and assistance. But
not even to go to Washington to push the work in Congress and arrange
for the National Convention would she delay the task she was so anxious
to finish. She wrote scores of letters, however, in regard to both, and
the congressmen particularly had reason to feel that she had not
forgotten their promises. Her long and persistent labors were rewarded,
for the close of 1885 found the whole third volume of the History in the
hands of the printers.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] An official request was sent to the heads of the departments to
permit the women employes to attend one session of this convention but
it was refused. A few days later permission was given them to go to Mrs.
McElroy's reception at the White House, and the male employes were given
a half-holiday to attend the exercises on St. Patrick's Day.
[20] The Methodist bishops Bowman, Warren, Newman, Haven, Turner and
Walters have favored woman suffrage.
[21] Signed by Maybury, Michigan; Poland, Vermont; Tucker, Virginia;
Hammond, Georgia; Culbertson, Texas; Moulton, Illinois; Broadhead,
Missouri; Dorsheimer, New York; Collins, Massachusetts; Seney, Ohio;
Bisbee, Florida.
[22] Miss Anthony's letters show how desirous she was that everybody who
assisted at these conventions should have full measure of credit: "They
are earnest and anxious to do for woman's cause and I want them treated
fairly and leniently as to all mistakes." Again she writes: "Since
Oregon was never before represented in our conventions, her speakers
must have more room in the report than we old stagers."
[23] When Miss Anthony learned that this action had been taken with the
sanction of Frances E. Willard, she pointed out to her in vigorous
language how the Prohibition-Republicans had left that party this year
because a temperance resolution had failed in the platform committee and
had gone over to the Prohibition party, charging that the Republicans
were cowardly. Yet the very first act of this Prohibition convention, to
which Miss Willard was a delegate, was to abandon the idea of National
Supremacy and accept that of State Rights in order to conciliate the
southern members. She further said: "When the time comes in which it
will be political expediency for the Prohibition party to throw woman
suffrage overboard altogether, over it will go." Miss Willard lived to
see this prophecy fulfilled at the National Prohibition Convention of
1896.
[24] Apropos of this discussion, an amusing anecdote is related of Miss
Anthony. When confronted, in an argument, with the passage of scripture,
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands," etc., she replied:
"Gentlemen, no one objects to the husband being the head of the wife as
Christ was the head of the church--to crucify himself; what we object to
is his crucifying his wife."
[25] This account of the sermon is taken from the reports of half a
dozen reputable newspapers.
[26] This is the only instance where a woman has bequeathed a large
amount of money to the cause of equal rights, although a number of small
bequests have been made. Women have given millions of dollars to
churches, charities, and colleges for men but comparatively nothing to
secure freedom for those of their own sex.
[27] In one of Miss Anthony's letters she relates with amusement that
Mr. Stanton had just come in and, seeing his wife lying on the couch,
remarked, "Ah, resting, I see." "No," she replied, "I am exercising by
lying down."
CHAPTER XXXIV.
MANY TRIPS--FIRST VOTE ON SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT.
1886-1887.
Miss Anthony started for Washington toward the last of January, 1886,
with a lighter heart than she had possessed for many years. The dreadful
burden of the labor on the History was lifted, all the bills were paid,
she had given a helping hand to several of the old workers, which made
her very happy, and she had one or two good dresses in her trunk. There
was nothing which the paragrapher who hated what Miss Anthony
represented, liked so well as to make disagreeable flings at her
clothes, and yet it is an indisputable fact of history that she was one
of the most perfectly dressed women on the platform, although her tastes
were very plain and simple. A lady once wrote her asking if it would not
be possible to make the suffrage conventions a little more æsthetic,
they were so painfully practical. She sent the letter to Mrs. Stanton,
who commented: "Well now, perhaps if we could paint injustice in
delicate tints set in a framework of poetical argument, we might more
easily entrap the Senator Edmunds and Oscar Wilde types of Adam's sons.
Suppose at our next convention all of us dress in pale green, have a
faint and subdued gaslight with pink shades, write our speeches in verse
and chant them to a guitar accompaniment. Ah me! alas! how can we reform
the world æsthetically?"
The members of Congress always knew when Miss Anthony had arrived in
Washington. Other women accepted their word that they were going to do
something, and waited patiently at home. Miss Anthony followed them up
and saw that they did it. If she could not find them at the Capitol,
she went to their homes. If they promised to introduce a certain measure
on a certain day, she was in the gallery looking them squarely in the
face. If they failed to do it, they found her waiting for them at the
close of the session. Senator Blair wrote this humorous note January 15:
"I thought just as likely as not you would come fussing round before I
got your amendment reported to the Senate. I wish you would go home.
Cockrell has agreed to let me know soon whether he won't allow the
report to be made right off without any bother, and I have been to him
several times before. I don't see what you want to meddle for, anyway.
Go off and get married!"
[Illustration: Autograph: "I hope you will live always in this world.
Heaven has got more than it's share of good people already. Sincerely &
Respectfully, Henry W. Blair."]
Miss Anthony has been directly connected with every action taken by
Congress or by any congressional committee on the question of woman
suffrage. There are on file among her papers hundreds of letters from
members during the past thirty years, showing her energy and persistence
in compelling attention to this subject, in learning who were its
friends, in attempting to convert the doubters and in spurring the
believers to effort. This is something for the women of the future to
remember.
The Eighteenth Annual Convention opened February 17. Prominent features
were a fine address by Rev. Rush R. Shippen, of All Souls church, and
the first appearance on the platform of Mary F. Eastman, Ada C. Sweet,
the pension agent, the eloquent southern speakers, Mrs. Elizabeth A.
Meriwether and Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett, and the talented German, Madame
Clara Neymann. Among many letters was one from George W. Childs to Miss
Anthony, saying: "I am always glad to hear from you and I keep track of
your continued good work. Do not be discouraged. I take pleasure in
sending the enclosed check ($100) with my sincere regards and very best
wishes."
The crowds were so great that policemen had to be stationed at the door
to prevent late comers from trying to enter during the evening sessions.
The resolutions scored the bill before Congress proposing to
disfranchise all Utah women, both Gentile and Mormon, to punish the
crime of polygamy. The usual hearing was granted before the
congressional committees. The fight for woman suffrage in the
Forty-ninth Congress was conducted by Ezra B. Taylor, of Ohio, who
prepared the favorable minority report of the House Judiciary Committee.
The adverse majority report was signed by John Randolph Tucker, of
Virginia.
On March 25 "the general" slipped up to New York City, to assist her
forces at the State convention, and then hastened back to Washington to
direct the main line of attack. The diary says:
March 30.--Went to House of Representatives, saw Messrs. Tucker and
Taylor of judiciary committee; both promised to report soon. Then
went to Senate, saw Messrs. Blair, Stanford and Bowen; all agreed
to work to bring up our bill by May 1. In the evening took a cab
and went in a pouring rain to Senator Stanford's, where I spent an
hour. How keen and true are his perceptions in regard to public
questions!
March 31.--Pouring rain, dark and muggy. I went to the Senate; sat
with Mrs. Dolph and Mrs. Stanford; heard Senator Dolph's fine
speech on the admission of Washington Territory as a State and his
splendid word for woman suffrage. Mrs. Dolph took me home in her
carriage.
April 1.--Went to the Senate again to secure pledges for votes and
speeches for the Sixteenth Amendment Bill. Got Senator Dolph's
strongest paragraphs, and at 8 P. M. went to the top floor of the
Associated Press rooms and gave them to Mr. Boynton, who sent them
over the wires.
April 9.--The United States Senate today voted down Eustis' motion
to refuse to admit Washington Territory unless the woman suffrage
clause were eliminated from its constitution, 25 to 12. Senator
Ingalls was the only Republican who voted with the enemy.
A few days later Miss Anthony received the following from Mrs. Caroline
E. Merrick, of New Orleans: "... I feel defrauded that I never knew you
until last year. Judge Merrick says you are the most sensible person he
ever met (without any sex qualifications, of course). Like you, I was
indignant at Mr. Eustis in regard to his course toward Washington
Territory. I was ashamed and blushed for my Louisiana senator that time.
Thanks for your sympathy in my illness. When my head lies low I pray
that you may find another and even better friend in my State, who will
come to the front in the cause of equal rights for women." An extract
from a letter of Rev. Olympia Brown to Mrs. Stanton shows how much the
old workers as well as the young depended upon Miss Anthony: "I wish to
inquire what has become of Susan? You know she is my North Star. I take
all my bearings from her, and when I lose sight of her I wander
helplessly, uncertain of my course."
The diary of April 30 says: "Heard Phoebe Couzins had been taken to Hot
Springs, terribly crippled with rheumatism. Wrote her at once and
enclosed $100, telling her I wanted it used to provide delicacies and
make her comfortable. I have thought it would be Phoebe whom I should
take with me on my southern tour next year, but I fear her work is
done."
[Illustration: Caroline E. Merrick (Signed: "I am thine ever faithfully
and affectionately Caroline E. Merrick")]
By the middle of May, 1886, the last bit of History proof was read, and
unlimited leave of absence was granted Miss Anthony by her publisher,
while the indexer and binder completed the work which was begun in 1876.
On the 19th she started for Kansas, stopping for the usual visit in
Chicago with her cousins. In Kansas she visited her brothers at
Leavenworth and Fort Scott for nearly two months, making an
occasional speech. On the morning of July 4, under the auspices of
the W. C. T. U., she addressed a large audience at Salina on, "The
powerlessness of woman so long as she is dependent on man for bread." In
the hot afternoon, as she was about to enjoy a nap, word came that a
hundred people had united in a request that she should speak again, as
they had come from ten to twenty miles on purpose to hear her; so she
returned to the grove, and Mrs. Griffith, State evangelist, kindly
yielded her hour. On July 11 Miss Anthony went again to Chicago, and on
the 14th spoke at Lake Bluff Camp Meeting, which was under the
management of Frances E. Willard. She then visited the summer homes of
her cousins and of Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, at Lake Geneva. On this
trip she was accompanied by her dearly-loved niece, Susie B., who went
with her to Rochester and spent the summer. The diary briefly records:
September 28.--Left Chicago at noon and lunched with Miss Willard
at Rest Cottage, Evanston. Her mother bright and charming at
eighty-two, and Anna Gordon sweet as ever. It was very good to see
Miss Willard under her own roof. Reached Racine in time for the
State convention, was met by a delegation of ladies and taken to
the home of Martha Parker Dingee, niece of the great Theodore
Parker, a lovely woman. Fine audiences.
October 2.--Reached St. Louis at 8 A. M. As I was looking for my
trunk I heard some one cry out, "Is that you, Susan?" and there
were Phoebe Couzins and her father. I had made my trip that way for
the special purpose of seeing her, expecting to find her confined
to the house; so I went home and breakfasted with them.
October 4.--Reached Leavenworth and found Mrs. Colby and Mrs. Saxon
ready to begin the campaign for arousing public sentiment to demand
a bill from the next legislature to secure Municipal suffrage for
women. Dr. Ruth M. Wood is the mainspring of the movement here.
This series of conventions was held in the congressional districts from
October 5 to November 3, Mrs. Laura M. Johns, manager, assisted by Mrs.
Anna C. Wait, president of the State Association, and by a number of
capable and energetic Kansas women at each place visited. Under date of
October 11, Miss Anthony wrote to eastern friends: "We are having the
loveliest weather you ever dreamed of and the most magnificent
audiences--no church or hall holding them. If our legislators, State or
national, could only see these gatherings and look into the earnest
faces of these people, coming so many miles in wagons to see and hear
and get fresh courage, they would surely answer our demands by something
else than silence." The press corroborated this description and the
following special dispatch may be taken as a fair specimen:
The seventh district convention, the third of the series, has just
closed in Lincoln, and was a beautiful ovation to Miss Anthony.
Crowded houses greeted her--every available foot of space filled
with chairs, window-sills utilized for seats, and conveyances drawn
up outside of windows and filled with listeners. People came
thirty, forty and fifty miles in buggies and wagons to shake hands
with the pioneer suffragist. Grizzly-headed opposers succumbed to
Miss Anthony's logic and came up to grasp her hand and say God
bless her, and proved the depth of their fervor by generous
financial aid to the cause she so ably represents. It is seldom
that the beginner of a great reform lives to see such fruitage of
her labors as does she. People often descant upon the indifference
of women to the question of their own enfranchisement and to
political matters generally; but there is serious doubt of greater
interest ever having been shown by men in political meetings than
women exhibit in these conventions....
On the evening of the second day the house was so densely packed
that a messenger for a glass of water had to go out through a
window. But in spite of all discomfort and the many standing, the
audience maintained perfect order and gave the utmost attention
throughout Miss Anthony's speech of two hours. Learning that she
would remain in Lincoln over Sunday the people importuned her to
speak that afternoon in the Presbyterian church, which she did to a
large audience.
The diary relates: "A mother brought her four-weeks-old girl baby
twenty-five miles in a carriage, so she might tell it, when grown, that
Susan B. Anthony had taken it in her arms. 'And the trip has not hurt
baby a particle,' she said brightly." And again it tells, with a good
deal of gusto, that one Baptist minister was determined the suffrage
speakers should not have his church and only yielded after several of
the richest pew-holders declared they never would pay another dollar
towards his salary if he did not. He then made his appearance at the
meeting, opened it with his blessing and closed it with his benediction!
Miss Anthony was not always able to speak to her own satisfaction. At
Salina she lectured for the Y. M. C. A. and writes: "I went to the
opera house and found a fine audience. Tried to give 'Moral Influence
vs. Political Power,' but the spirit wouldn't soar; its wings flapped on
the earth perpetually for the whole hour. I took my $25 from the
treasurer and went home with a heavy heart. It is beyond my knowledge
why, after speaking every day for a whole week, freely and decently, my
wits should desert me and my tongue be tied just at the time when I am
most anxious to do my best."
Two days' meetings were held at Abilene, Florence, Hutchinson, Wichita,
Anthony, Winfield, Independence, Lawrence and Fort Scott. The speakers
were entertained by prominent families, suffrage societies were formed
at each place, the vast majority of public sentiment seemed favorable,
and the collections paid all the expenses of the conventions.
In November and December a number of other speakers made a canvass of
the State, and the following winter the legislature passed a bill
conferring Municipal suffrage upon the women of Kansas. The bill was
introduced in the Senate by R. W. Blue (Rep.) of Linn county; and in the
House by T. T. Taylor (Rep.) of Reno county. It passed the Senate, 25
ayes, all Republicans; 13 noes, 10 Republicans and 3 Democrats; in the
House 90 ayes, 84 Republicans and 6 Democrats; 21 noes, 5 Republicans
and 16 Democrats. The bill was signed by Governor John A. Martin,
February 15, 1887; and under its provisions women in that State have
voted ever since at Municipal elections.[28]
Without a day's rest, Miss Anthony went direct from Kansas to Sandwich,
Ill., to attend the State convention. After three days there and a
Sunday in Chicago, Monday, November 8, found her at Racine, Wis., ready
to begin a tour of conventions in every congressional district. That
evening a reception was given her by Hon. and Mrs. M. B. Erskine, and
the hospitality of their handsome home was offered for every day which
she could spend in the city.
With Mrs. Colby and Rev. Olympia Brown, assisted by local speakers,
meetings were held at Waukesha, Ripon, Oshkosh, Green Bay, Grand Rapids,
Eau Claire, LaCrosse, Evansville, Milwaukee and Madison. At the last
place the ladies spoke in the Senate chamber of the State House to an
audience containing a number of dignitaries, among them President
Bascom, of the State University, and his wife, who from this time were
Miss Anthony's steadfast friends. Mrs. Colby gives a graphic description
of Miss Anthony's sudden outburst here, when several members had
exasperated her by their remarks, which closes: "I was writing at the
secretary's desk and as I looked up I realized the full grandeur of the
scene. It was woman standing at the bar of the nation, pleading for the
recognition of her citizenship. Miss Anthony seemed positively Titanic
as she leaned far over from the speaker's desk. Her tone and manner were
superb, and the vast and sympathetic audience caught the electric
thrill...." In this city she was the guest of an old schoolmate,
Elizabeth Ford Proudfit. The meetings closed December 3, and Miss
Anthony wrote Mrs. Spofford:
I intend now to make straight for Washington without a stop. I
shall come both ragged and dirty. Think of two solid months of
conventions, speaking every night! Don't worry about me. I was
never better or more full of hope and good work. Though the apparel
will be tattered and torn, the mind, the essence of me, is sound to
the core. Please tell the little milliner to have a bonnet picked
out for me, and get a dressmaker who will patch me together so I
shall be presentable. Now for the Washington convention: Before
settling upon the Universalist church, you would better pocket the
insults and refusals of the Congregational church powers that be
and send your most lovely and winning girls to ask for that. If you
can't get it or the Metropolitan or the Foundry or the New York
Avenue or any large and popular church, why take the Universalist,
and then tell the saints of the fashionable churches that we dwell
there because they refused us admission to their holy sanctuaries.
Don't let us go into the heterodox houses, much as I love them,
except because we are driven away from the orthodox.
In December the third volume of the History of Woman Suffrage at last
was ready for the public, another book of nearly 1,000 pages. It
completed the story up to 1884, and like its predecessors was cordially
received by the press. The money swallowed up by this work hardly will
be credited. Mrs. Stanton not being able or willing to revise the last
volume until it was put into proof slips, and then making extensive
changes, the cost for re-setting type was over $900. The fifty fine
steel engravings and the prints made from them cost over $6,000. For
proof reading $500 was paid, and for indexing, $250. Mrs. Stanton and
Mrs. Gage, seeing that there never would be any profits from the books
and that Miss Anthony proposed to give most of them away, sold out their
rights to her, the former for $2,000 and the latter for $1,000. She
also, as has been stated, bought out the interest of Fowler & Wells.
When the first edition of the three mammoth volumes finally came into
her sole possession, they represented an outlay on her part of $20,000.
While there were many criticisms from certain quarters as to various
errors and so-called misstatements, and many threats to write a history
which should be free from all imperfections, the fact remains that,
although fifty years have passed since the inception of the great
movement to secure equal rights for women, there never has been another
attempt to preserve the story. But for Miss Anthony's careful collecting
and saving of newspaper accounts, manuscripts of speeches, published
reports and the correspondence of half a century, her persistent and
determined effort for ten years to have them put into readable shape,
and Mrs. Stanton's fine ability to do it, the student never would have
been able to trace the evolution of woman from a chattel in the eye of
the law to a citizen with legal and social rights very nearly equal to
those of man. While there is necessarily some repetition, so long a time
elapsing between the writing of the different volumes, and perhaps a
little prolixity, there is not a dull page in the whole work and the
reader will find it difficult to reach a place where she is willing to
stop. It contains a resumé of early conditions; the persecutions endured
by the pioneers in the struggle for freedom; the progress in each
separate State, and in foreign countries; the action taken by different
legislatures and congresses; the grand arguments made for equal rights;
the position of woman in church and State. Into whatever library the
student may go seeking information upon this question, it is to these
volumes he must look to find it in collected and connected form. If Miss
Anthony had done no other work but to produce this History, she would
deserve a prominent place on the list of immortal names.
It was necessary to put so high a price upon it, $15 a set in cloth and
$19.50 in leather binding, as to make a large sale impossible. Miss
Anthony did not undertake it as a money-making scheme, and when the
receipt of Mrs. Eddy's bequest enabled her to discharge all indebtedness
connected with it, she felt herself at liberty to use it as a most
valuable means of educating the people into an understanding of the
broad principle of equality of rights. At her own expense she placed the
History in over 1,000 of the libraries of Europe and America, including
the British Museum, the university libraries of Oxford, Edinburgh,
Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Finland, Melbourne, Toronto, and many of the
university and public libraries of the United States. The members of the
Senate and House Judiciary Committees in several Congresses were
presented with sets, and there are hundreds of letters on file from
prominent persons in England and this country acknowledging the receipt
of the books.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Faithfully yours, H B Anthony"]
Chapters might be made of commendatory letters received from officials,
writers, public workers and friends in private life. A few specimens
must suffice. A letter from Senator H. B. Anthony to his "dear cousin,"
closed by saying: "The three volumes form a valuable history of the
important enterprise in which you have borne so conspicuous and
honorable a part, and you have added to the reputation of the name that
we both bear."
Mary L. Booth, the gifted editor of Harper's Bazar, thus expressed her
opinion of the work:
You and your colleagues have industriously placed on record a
copious mass of documentary evidence which will be of the utmost
value when the time arrives to sum up the final results. When this
era comes, you will be foremost among the band of heroic pioneers
who have endured discomfort, obloquy and privation of much that is
dear to women for the sake of those who will profit by your labors
while failing to recognize them. Posterity will do you this
justice, whether your contemporaries do or not; but indeed, it is
universally known to those with any knowledge of the facts, that
among all the champions of women, none has been more distinguished
for utter self-abnegation, single-heartedness and devotion to her
life-work than Susan B. Anthony.
As you know, I have always felt the deepest interest in the
elevation of women, which is synonymous with that of humanity, for
man must be always on the plane of his wife, sister and mother....
The antagonism to political equality is rapidly disappearing, as it
is beginning to be recognized that in politics, as in everything
else, woman's help is needed, and the republic can not afford to
have her stand aloof. But this phase of the subject has been so
much misunderstood, both by men and women, that time is needed to
clear away the mists of misconception which envelop it; and to
prove that the co-operation of women in political life is not only
just and expedient, but absolutely indispensable to the public
weal.
[Illustration: Autograph: "I am now and always, Yours faithfully, Mary
L. Booth"]
No family in Rochester stood more steadfastly by Miss Anthony during all
her long and eventful life than the Wilders--Carter, Samuel, Mrs. Maria
Wilder Depuy and D. Webster. The last, in acknowledging the receipt of
the books, wrote: "How much you have contributed to history in this
grand publication! With woman as a part of humanity, what a revolution
will be wrought! Changes everywhere--in social life, in morals,
politics, business--and all for the better. In this world-revolution you
have done a great work. My children are proud of the fact that you are
my personal friend. I fully appreciate your gift. It will be a Bible in
my home." From the philanthropist, Sarah B. Cooper, revered for her work
in the kindergartens on the Pacific coast, came this tribute:
This book is the fruitage of all the years of your faith and work.
It tells of the long preparation--the opening up of the forest; the
blazing of the trail; the clearing of the underbrush; the deep
sub-soiling; the lying fallow; the ploughing, sowing, harrowing,
the patient tillage--and now comes the harvest. What courage,
endurance, fidelity and faith! The pioneers of new thoughts and
principles are the loneliest of mortals. Those who live ahead of
their time must wait for the honors and plaudits of posterity to
get their full meed of appreciation and reward. But after all,
dear, honored friend, the richest reward of such a life as yours is
_to have lived it_.
The History also was given to the libraries of those towns whose women
would raise a certain amount towards various State suffrage campaigns,
and in every possible way it always has been used for missionary
work.[29]
The first week in 1887, in most inclement weather and against the
protest of friends, Miss Anthony went all the way to Nebraska, to keep a
promise to Mrs. Colby and other women of that State to attend their
annual convention, January 7. She found a pleasant letter awaiting her
at Lincoln, from her old friend, Mary Rogers Kimball, daughter of the
noted Abolitionist, Nathaniel P. Rogers, and wife of the General
Passenger Agent of the Union Pacific R. R., now living at Omaha, which
closed: "How I wish you could come to us and rest a few days. Mr.
Kimball would welcome you, as would every one of this household. You
ought to make our home happy by coming once in a while.... Mother, who
is able to walk a little and is interested in all you do and say, sends
her love and hopes to see you." She spoke at Chicago, January 13, in the
First Methodist church, where she was introduced by the well-known Rev.
H. W. Thomas.[30] She went from there to the Michigan convention at
Lansing, January 14, and here was presented to the audience by Governor
Cyrus G. Luce.
She reached Washington January 17, 1887, and rushed the preparations for
the Nineteenth National Convention, which opened on the 25th at the
Metropolitan M. E. church. Zerelda G. Wallace gave a noteworthy address;
Senator Carey, of Wyoming, made an able speech and Mrs. Carey sat by
Miss Anthony during the proceedings. The second day of the convention,
January 26, marked a great epoch, the first vote ever taken in Congress
on a Sixteenth Amendment. The previous month, December 8, 1886, Henry W.
Blair had asked the Senate to consider the following joint resolution:
"The rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied
or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." He
supported this in a long and comprehensive speech covering the whole
ground on which the demand is based, quoting from the favorable reports
of the judiciary committees, exposing the weakness and fallacy of the
objections, and making an unanswerable argument on the justice of
granting political liberty to women.
At the urgent request of opposing senators the matter had been postponed
until January 25, when it was again called up by Mr. Blair. The
opposition was led by Joseph A. Brown, of Georgia, who described in
detail the intentions of the Creator when he made woman, and declared
that females had not the physical strength to perform military duty,
build railroads, raise crops, sit on juries or attend night caucuses,
but that God had endowed men with strength and faculties for all these
things. He stated that it was a grave mistake to say that woman is taxed
without being represented, and added, "It is very doubtful whether the
male or the female sex has more influence in the administration of the
affairs of government and the enactment of laws!" He asserted that "the
baser class of females would rush to the polls, and this would compel
the intelligent, virtuous and refined females, including wives and
mothers, to relinquish for a time their God-given trust and go, contrary
to their wishes, to the polls and vote to counteract the other class;"
and followed this by saying that "the ignorant female voters would be at
the polls en masse, while the refined and educated, shrinking from
public contact, would remain at home." He continued: "The ballot will
not protect females against the tyranny of bad husbands, as the latter
will compel them to vote as they dictate;" then in the next breath he
declared: "Wives will form political alliances antagonistic to the
husbands, and the result will be discord and divorce." In his entire
speech Senator Brown ignored the existence of unmarried women and
widows. He closed with copious extracts from "Letters from a Chimney
Corner," written by some Chicago woman.
Senator Dolph, of Oregon, followed in a clear, concise argument,
brushing away these sophistries by showing that such evils did not exist
where women were enfranchised and voted at every election. He was
interrupted by Senator Eustis, of Louisiana, who inquired whether he
thought "it would be a decent spectacle to take a mother away from her
nursing infant and lock her up all night with a jury?" Senator Dolph
replied that there was not a judge in the world who would not excuse a
woman under such circumstances, just as there were many causes which
exempted men. He continued:
Government is but organized society.... It can only derive its just
powers from the consent of the governed, and can be established
only under a fundamental law which is self-imposed. Every citizen
of suitable age and discretion has, in my judgment, a natural right
to participate in its formation. The fathers of the republic
enunciated the doctrine "that all men are created equal; that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." It
is strange that any one in this enlightened age should be found to
contend that this is true only of men, and that a man is endowed by
his Creator with inalienable rights not possessed by a woman. The
lamented Lincoln immortalized the expression that ours is a
government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," and
yet in reality it is far from that. There can be no government by
the people where half of them are allowed no voice in its
organization and control.... God speed the day when not only in all
the States of the Union and in all the Territories, but everywhere,
woman shall stand before the law freed from the last shackle which
has been riveted upon her by tyranny, and the last disability which
has been imposed upon her by ignorance; not only in respect to the
right of suffrage, but in every other respect the peer and equal of
her brother, man.
[Illustration: Autograph: "J N Dolph"]
Senator Vest, of Missouri, came to the rescue of Senator Brown and in
the course of his speech said:
I pity the man who can consider any question affecting the
influence of woman, with the cold, dry logic of business. What man
can, without aversion, turn from the blessed memory of that dear
old grandmother, or the gentle words and caressing hand of that
blessed mother gone to the unknown world, to face in its stead the
idea of a female justice of the peace or township constable? For my
part, I want when I go to my home--when I turn from the arena where
man contends with man for what we call the prizes of this paltry
world--I want to go back, not to be received in the masculine
embrace of some female ward politician, but to the earnest, loving
look and touch of a true woman. I want to go back to the
jurisdiction of the wife, the mother; and instead of a lecture upon
finance or the tariff, or upon the construction of the
Constitution, I want those blessed, loving details of domestic life
and domestic love.
I have said I would not speak of the inconveniences to arise from
woman suffrage. I care not whether the mother is called upon to
decide as a juryman, or a jurywoman, rights of property or rights
of life, whilst her baby is "mewling and puking" in solitary
confinement at home. There are other considerations more important,
and one of them to my mind is insuperable. I speak now respecting
women as a sex. I believe that they are better than men, but I do
not believe they are adapted to the political work of this world. I
do not believe that the Great Intelligence ever intended them to
invade the sphere of work given to men, tearing down and destroying
all the best influences for which God has intended them. The great
evil in this country today is emotional suffrage. Women are
essentially emotional. What we want in this country is to avoid
emotional suffrage, and what we need is to put more logic into
public affairs and less feeling.[31]
He presented a remonstrance against giving the ballot to women, signed
by nearly 200 New England men, headed by President Eliot, of Harvard
University, and including nearly fifty names prefixed by "Rev." He next
drew from his budget a letter from Clara T. Leonard, of Boston, praying
that the suffrage should not be granted to women, and Mr. Hoar remarked
that the lady herself had been holding public office for a number of
years.
Continuing Senator Vest said: "If we are to tear down all the blessed
traditions, if we are to desolate our homes and firesides, if we are to
unsex our mothers, wives and sisters, and turn our blessed temples of
domestic peace into ward political assembly rooms, pass this joint
resolution!" He now produced a document, entitled "The Law of Woman
Life," and said: "This is signed Adeline D. T. Whitney--I can not say
whether she be wife or mother. It contains not one impure or
unintellectual aspiration. Would to God that I knew her so I could thank
her in behalf of the society and politics of the United States. I shall
ask that it be printed, as my strength does not suffice for me to read
it."[32] It proved to be a long and involved essay begging that the
ballot should not be given to women, and saying: "Are the daughters and
granddaughters about to leap the fence, leave their own realm little
cared for, undertake the whole scheme of outside creation, or contest it
with the men? Then God help the men! God save the commonwealth!" Mr.
Vest concluded with a blood-curdling picture of the French Revolution
which would be repeated in this country if women were enfranchised.
Senator Blair then offered the appeal of the W. C. T. U. for the ballot,
representing over 200,000 women, presented by Zerelda G. Wallace, who
had reared thirteen children and grandchildren, among them the author
of Ben Hur. He submitted also the matchless arguments which had been
made by the most intellectual women of the nation before the
congressional committees from year to year, including that of Miss
Anthony in 1880, and urged that the question should be submitted to the
legislatures of the various States for settlement.
The vote was taken on the question of submitting a Sixteenth Amendment
to the Constitution to the State legislatures for ratification, and
resulted in 16 yeas and 34 nays, 26 absent.[33] Of the affirmative
votes, all were Republican; of the negative, 24 Democratic and 10
Republican. Senator Farwell, of Illinois, was roundly denounced by the
Chicago Tribune for his affirmative vote. Senators Chace, Dawes and
Stanford, who were paired, and Plumb, who was absent, announced publicly
that they would have voted "aye."
Over fifty of the distinguished women in attendance at the convention
were in the Senate gallery during this debate. The most sanguine of them
had not expected the necessary two-thirds, but had worked to obtain a
vote simply for the prestige of a discussion in the Senate, the printing
of the speeches in the Congressional Record and the wide agitation of
the question through the medium of press and platform which was sure to
follow. They felt especially incensed at Senator Ingalls, as the
sentiment of his State had just shown itself to be overwhelmingly in
favor of woman suffrage, and they did not hesitate to score him in
public and in private. As soon as the news of the vote reached the
convention Miss Anthony roundly denounced him from the platform. In the
evening she received a note from him saying: "Will you do me the favor
to designate an hour at which it would be convenient for you to give me
a brief interview?" She did not answer, and on the 31st she received
another: "I called Thursday and Friday mornings, but was not able to
reach you with my card. My errand was personal and I hope I may be more
fortunate when you are again in the city." When she did see him she
found his purpose was to declare a truce, which she declined, as he
already had done the cause all the harm possible for him.
From Washington Miss Anthony went to assist at a convention in
Philadelphia, and "felt guilty for days," she says in her diary, because
she refused to go on to Connecticut. She enjoyed a brief visit with
Professor Maria Mitchell at Vassar College; and hastened to Albany to
address the legislature in regard to the Constitutional Convention,
"just as I did twenty years ago in the old Capitol," she writes. Then
back to Washington to look after matters there, and thus on and on,
never allowing herself to be delayed by weather, fatigue or social
demands, month after month, year after year, with but one object in
view, never losing sight of it for a moment, and making all else
subservient to this single purpose.
In April she was terribly distressed at the malicious falsehoods which
were sent out from Leavenworth in regard to the first voting of the
women in Kansas, and says, "It will take oceans of breath and ink to
counteract the baneful effects." On May 11, 1887, Frances E. Willard
wrote her: "Will you please send me the form of resolution which would
be the least that would satisfy you as a plank in the platform of the
Prohibition party, or as a resolution to be adopted by the W. C. T. U.?
I write this without authorization from any quarter, simply because I
would like to find out what is the angle of vision along which you are
looking." To this Miss Anthony replied:
What is the full significance of "would satisfy you?" Do you mean
so satisfy me that I would work, and recommend all women to work,
for the success of the Third party ticket? Or do you mean the least
that I think it should say for its own sake? If the first, I am not
sure that the fullest endorsement would cause me to throw all my
sympathies and efforts into line with the Prohibition party, any
more than if the same full suffrage plank should be put into the
platform of the great Labor or Fourth party, which is pretty sure
to take part in the presidential contest of 1888.
I can not answer for others, but I shall not pray or speak or work
for the defeat of the nominees of the party of which every United
States Senator who voted for us last winter is a leading member,
and to which belongs every man but six in the Kansas Legislature
who made the overwhelming vote giving municipal suffrage to the
women of that State. Not until a third party gets into power or is
likely to do so, which promises a larger per cent. of
representatives on the floor of Congress and in the several State
legislatures who will speak and vote for woman's enfranchisement,
than does the Republican, shall I work for it. You see, as yet
there is not a single Prohibitionist in Congress, while there are
at least twenty Republicans on the floor of the United States
Senate, besides fully one-half of the members of the House of
Representatives, who are in favor of woman suffrage. For the women
of Kansas or Iowa to work for any third party would be ungrateful
and suicidal.
Since I hope to live to see a Sixteenth Amendment Bill through
Congress and three-fourths of the State legislatures, I do not
propose to work for the defeat of the party which thus far has
furnished nearly every vote in that direction. If you will pardon
me, I think it will be quite as suicidal a policy for the
temperance women of the nation to work to defeat the party which
contains so nearly all of their best friends and helpers. What it
seems to me should be done by all women who want reforms in
legislation, is to appoint committees to confer with leading
Republicans asking them to make pledges in the direction of
suffrage and temperance, with the assurance of our support in case
of the insertion of the planks we ask in their platform. I fear,
however, you are already pledged to the Third party, come what may,
and if so it is of no use for me to advise.[34]
In May Miss Anthony again journeyed westward, though she says in her
diary: "It never was harder for me to start. A heavy nothingness is upon
head and heart." She went first to the State Suffrage Convention at
Indianapolis, where as usual she was a guest in the beautiful home of
Mr. and Mrs. Sewall. A reception was given her at the Bates House and
she was cordially greeted by several hundred ladies. She went to
meetings at Evansville, Richmond and Lafayette, and then to the Ohio
convention at Cleveland; here, as always, the guest of her loved friend,
Louisa Southworth.
She writes May 26: "Arrived home at 8 P. M. and found all well--the all
consisting of sister Mary, the only one left." She was invited to meet
with a large and conservative society of women who did not believe in
equal suffrage. All made nice little addresses and when Miss Anthony was
called on she said: "Ladies, you have been doing here today what I and
a few other women were denounced as 'unsexed' for doing thirty years
ago--speaking in public;" and then proceeded to point the moral. She
attended the commencement exercises of a young ladies' seminary, whose
principal would not acknowledge a handsome gift from her pupils by a few
remarks because she "considered it would look too strong-minded." Miss
Anthony comments on the graduates' essays: "They had as much originality
as Baedecker's Guide-book."
In July she went as the guest of her friend Adeline Thomson, of
Philadelphia, for two weeks at Cape May and here had her first
experience in sea-bathing, although she always had lived within a short
distance of the ocean. She says: "This is my first seaside dissipation.
It seems very odd to be one of the giddy summer resort people!" She took
Miss Thomson with her up into the Berkshire hills of northwestern
Massachusetts to Adams, her birthplace, and visited the home of her
grandfather. In the early days of her peregrinations she used to come
often to this picturesque spot, but it now had been twenty years since
her last visit. Time does not bring many changes to the New England
nooks or the people who live in them, and she greatly enjoyed the nine
days spent with uncles, aunts and cousins, exploring the well-remembered
spots. They went from here to Magnolia for a two weeks' visit at the
seaside cottage of Mr. and Mrs. James Purinton, of Lynn, Mass. At this
time, in answer to a request for advice, Miss Anthony wrote to Olympia
Brown and Mrs. Almedia Gray, of Wisconsin:
I have your letters relative to bringing suits under the school
suffrage law, and hasten to say to you that Mrs. Minor's and my own
experience in both suing and being sued on the Fourteenth Amendment
claim leads me to beseech you not to make a test case unless you
_know_ you will get the broadest decision upon it. If you get the
narrow one restricting the present law simply to school-district
voting, there it will rest and no judge or inspector will transcend
the limit of the decision. My judgment would be to say and do
nothing about the law, but through the year keep up the educational
work, showing that such and such cities allowed women to vote for
mayor, common council, etc., and by the next election many others
will let women vote; and so in a few years all will follow suit.
Let what you have alone and try for more; for all your legislature
has power to give. It will be vastly more likely to grant municipal
suffrage than your supreme court will be to give a decision that
the school law already allows women to vote for mayor, council,
governor, etc.
They thought best, however, to bring the suits; the exact results which
were predicted followed, and the school suffrage even was restricted
until it was practically worthless.
During this summer Miss Anthony undertook to arrange her many years'
accumulation of letters, clippings, etc., and knowing her reluctance
ever to destroy a single scrap, Mrs. Stanton wrote from Paris: "I am
glad to hear that you have at last settled down to look over those awful
papers. It is well I am not with you. I fear we should fight every
blessed minute over the destruction of Tom, Dick and Harry's epistles.
Unless Mary, on the sly, sticks them in the stove when your back is
turned, you will never diminish the pile during your mortal life. (Make
the most of my hint, dear Mary.)" It is safe to say it was just as large
at the end of the examination as at the beginning.
In September, 1887, Miss Anthony again made a circuit of conventions in
every congressional district in Wisconsin and then turned her attention
to Kansas. The officers of the State association had arranged a series
of conventions for the purpose of demanding a constitutional amendment
conferring _full_ suffrage on women. Miss Anthony, with Mrs. Johns, Mrs.
Letitia V. Watkins, State organizer, Rev. Anna Shaw and Rachel Foster,
gave the month of October to this canvass. Senator Ingalls, in a speech
at Abilene, had attempted to defend his vote in the Senate against the
Sixteenth Amendment, and Miss Anthony took this as a text for the
campaign. She had ample material for the excoriating which she gave him
in every district in Kansas, as the Senator had declared: 1st, that
suffrage was neither a natural nor a constitutional right, but a
privilege conferred by the State; 2d, that no citizens should be allowed
to participate in the formation of legislatures or the enactment of
laws, who could not enforce their action at the point of a bayonet; 3d,
that no immigrants should be allowed to enter the United States from any
country on earth for the next twenty-five years; 4th, that negro
suffrage had been an absolute and unqualified failure; 5th, that while
there were thousands of women vastly more competent than men to vote
upon questions of morality, they never should be allowed to do
so--simply because they were women.
It hardly need be said that Miss Anthony found little difficulty in
reducing to tatters these so-called arguments, and that her audiences
were in hearty sympathy. To borrow her own expression, she "tried to use
him up so there was not an inch of ground under his feet." When the
convention was held at Atchison Mrs. Ingalls invited sixteen of the
ladies to a handsome luncheon, where the senator placed Miss Anthony at
his right hand and made her the guest of honor. She proposed that he
debate the question of woman suffrage with her but he refused on the
ground that he could not attack a woman, so she served up this objection
in her speech that evening. To a reporter he is said to have given the
reason that he "would not stoop to the intellectual level of a woman."
The month of November was given to holding a two days' convention in
each of the thirteen congressional districts of Indiana. These meetings
were arranged by the State secretary, Mrs. Ida H. Harper, and the strong
force of speakers, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Wallace, Mrs. Sewall and Mrs.
Gougar, aroused great enthusiasm and made many converts.[35] This ended
three months of constant travelling and speaking almost every day and
evening. On the first of December Miss Anthony writes: "I have laid me
down to sleep in a new bed nearly every night of this entire time."
But the 10th found her in Washington fresh and vigorous for the work of
the coming winter. She was anxious to know whether the reports of the
Senate debate had been franked and sent out as promised and, to her
inquiry, Senator Blair answered with his usual little joke: "I have had
the speeches, etc., attended to and trust that the mails will do you
justice if the males do not. But remember that men naturally fight for
their lives, and on the same principle, you shall for yours!"
FOOTNOTES:
[28] Miss Anthony notes in her diary that she made her first Kansas
campaign in '67 and the suffrage bill was signed on her sixty-seventh
birthday. She received a letter of congratulation on the signing of the
bill from Chief-Justice Horton, of Kansas.
[29] The total amount received from sales has been only $7,000. Now,
however, in order to give the History the widest possible circulation,
the price has been so reduced as to enable it to be placed in the hands
of the reading public. It is the hope of Miss Anthony to publish the
fourth volume in the year 1900, bringing the History up to that date.
[30] At this meeting a yellow dog came on the platform and Miss Anthony
is quoted as afterwards making this apt comment: "She says that, at
least where women are concerned, the reporters are sure to seize upon
some triviality and ring its changes to the exclusion of serious
matters. She mentioned that when she spoke in Chicago last a dog ran
across the stage and, springing up, laid his nose on her shoulder. 'I
prophesied to the audience then,' she continued, 'that the dog would
figure in the press reports more conspicuously than anything that was
said or done, and so he did. He occupied half of the space in nearly
every paper.'"
[31] Both Senator Vest and Senator Brown had appealed wholly to the
emotions in their speeches upon this question, which were overflowing
with sentiment and "gush."
[32] This hardly corresponds with Senator Brown's glowing description of
the physical strength conferred by the Creator on man so that he could
do the voting for the family.
[33] _Yeas_: Blair, Bowen, Cheney, Conger, Cullom, Dolph, Farwell, Hoar,
Manderson, Mitchell of Oregon, Mitchell of Pennsylvania, Palmer, Platt,
Sherman, Teller, Wilson of Iowa. _Nays_: Beck, Berry, Blackburn, Brown,
Call, Cockrell, Coke, Colquitt, Eustis, Evarts, George, Gray, Hampton,
Harris, Hawley, Ingalls, Jones of Nevada, McMillan, McPherson, Mahone,
Morgan, Morrill, Payne, Pugh, Saulsbury, Sawyer, Sewell, Spooner, Vance,
Vest, Walthall, Whitthorne, Williams, Wilson of Maryland. _Absent_:
Aldrich, Allison, Butler, Frye, Gibson, Gorman, Miller, Plumb, Ransom,
Camden, Cameron, Chace, Dawes, Edmunds, Fair, Hale, Harrison, Jones of
Arkansas, Jones of Florida, Kenna, Maxey, Riddleberger, Sabin, Stanford,
Van Wyck, Voorhees.
[34] The skeptical can not but wonder whether the Republican party ever
will have the grace and wisdom to justify the confidence which Miss
Anthony has steadfastly placed in it, as regards this question, from the
day of its birth.
[35] Conventions were held at Evansville, Vincennes, Bloomington,
Kokomo, Logansport, Wabash, Lafayette, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Muncie,
Anderson, Madison and New Albany. The largest of the series was at Terre
Haute, where the opera house, donated by the citizens, was crowded both
evenings with an audience representing the culture and intelligence of
the city, and the convention was welcomed by the mayor, Jacob C.
Kolsom.
CHAPTER XXXV.
UNION OF ASSOCIATIONS--INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL.
1888.
A preceding chapter described the forming in 1869 of the American Woman
Suffrage Association at Cleveland, O., the overtures for union by the
National Association the next year, and their rejection. No further
efforts were made and each body continued to work in its own way. At the
annual meeting of the American Association in Philadelphia, October 31,
1887, the following resolution from the business committee was
unanimously adopted:
WHEREAS, The woman suffragists of the United States were all united
until 1868 in the American Equal Rights Association; and _whereas_,
The causes of the subsequent separation into the National and
American Woman Suffrage Societies have since been largely removed
by the adoption of common principles and methods; therefore
_Resolved_, That Mrs. Lucy Stone be appointed a committee of one
from the American Woman Suffrage Association to confer with Miss
Susan B. Anthony of the National and, if on conference it seems
desirable, that she be authorized and empowered to appoint a
committee of this association to meet a similar committee appointed
by the National to consider a satisfactory basis of union, and
refer it back to the executive committee of both associations for
final action.
HENRY B. BLACKWELL,
_Corresponding Secretary, A. W. S. A_.
After conferring with the officers of the National Association, Miss
Anthony informed Mrs. Stone that she would meet her in Philadelphia any
time until December 9, and after that in Washington. She replied that
she was not able to travel even so far as Philadelphia and, after some
correspondence, Miss Anthony agreed to go to Boston. On the afternoon
of December 21, 1887, accompanied by Rachel Foster, corresponding
secretary of the National, she met Mrs. Stone and Alice Stone Blackwell,
at No. 3 Park street, Boston, and held an extended conference in regard
to the proposed union. Two days later Mrs. Stone sent to Miss Anthony,
who was still in that city, the following:
In thinking over the points raised at our informal conference, it
seems to me that the substantial outcome is this: The committees
appointed by us respectively, if we conclude to appoint them, must
each agree upon a common name, a common constitution and a common
list of officers for the first year. A subsequent acceptance of
these by each association will thereafter constitute the two
societies one society. If you think there is a fair probability of
coming to an agreement I will proceed to appoint my committee.
As the formal overtures for union have come from the American
Association, it will be appropriate that our committee should draw
up the plan for union which appears to them the most feasible, and
forward it to Miss Foster, to be submitted to yours. Then your
committee will suggest such modifications as they may think
needful; and, if a mutually satisfactory result can be reached, the
name, constitution and list of officers will go to the executive
committee of each association for final action.
Christmas Day Miss Blackwell sent to Miss Foster a comprehensive plan
for a union of the two societies, closing as follows: "Since many
members of the National society regard Mrs. Stone as the cause of the
division, and many members of the American regard Mrs. Stanton and Miss
Anthony as the cause of it, Mrs. Stone suggested that it would greatly
promote a harmonious union, for those three ladies to agree in advance
that none of them would take the presidency of the united association."
Early in January this formal announcement and letter were sent to Miss
Foster:
The committee of the National to sit in counsel with that of the
seven appointed by Lucy Stone, of the American, shall be: May
Wright Sewall, _Chairman_, Harriette R. Shattuck, Olympia Brown,
Helen M. Gougar, Laura M. Johns, Clara B. Colby, Rachel G. Foster,
_Secretary_.[36]
I hope all will sink personalities and exalt principles, seeking
only the best good for woman's enfranchisement, and that surely
will come through the union of all the friends of woman suffrage
into one great and grand national association which shall enable
them to present a solid front to the enemy. This must be based on
the principle of a genuine democracy, which shall give to each of
its members a voice in all its deliberations, either in person or
through representatives chosen by them, and to a constitution thus
based I am sure each of my seven chosen ones will contribute her
aid. Hoping that a consolidation of all our forces will be the
result of this overture from Lucy Stone and her society, I am, very
sincerely,
SUSAN B. ANTHONY.
On January 18, Miss Foster received from Miss Blackwell the list of the
conference committee appointed by Mrs. Stone: Julia Ward Howe,
_Chairman_, Wm. Dudley Foulke, Margaret W. Campbell, Anna H. Shaw, Mary
F. Thomas, H. M. Tracy Cutler, Henry B. Blackwell, _Secretary_.
Miss Anthony again wrote Miss Foster: "I can not think of any
stipulation I wish to make the basis of union save that we _unite_, and
after that discuss all measures and ways and means, officers and
newspapers, and cheerfully accept and abide by the rule of the majority.
I do not wish to exact any pledges from Lucy Stone and her adherents,
nor can I give any for Mrs. Stanton and her followers. When united we
must trust to the good sense of each, just as we have trusted during the
existence of the division. As Greeley said about resuming specie
payment, '_the way to unite is to unite_' and trust the consequences."
It is not essential for the completeness of this work to reproduce in
detail the official proceedings, which extended through two years and
caused Miss Anthony often to write, "I shall be glad when this
frittering away of time on mere forms is past." A basis of agreement
finally was reached, and the union was practically completed at the
National Convention which met in Washington, January 21, 1889. A
committee of thirteen was selected to confer with the committee from the
American. This consisted of Miss Anthony and Mesdames Hooker, Minor,
Duniway, Johns, Sewall, Perkins, Colby, Spofford, Brown, Blake, Gougar
and Foster Avery. The Woman's Tribune thus described the result:
At the business session, January 24, 1889, they reported in
substance as follows:
_Name, etc._--The association to be called the National-American W.
S. A. The annual convention to be held at Washington.
_Chronology._--The next annual meeting of the joint society to
be--as it would be for the National--the twenty-second annual
Washington convention.
_Work._--To be for National and State legislation protecting women
in the exercise of their right to vote.
_Representation._--As provided in the new National constitution.
Where two associations exist in one State and will not unite, both
are to be accepted as auxiliary societies.
An earnest debate followed. Miss Anthony threw her influence
strongly in favor of union and carried many with her, even those
who openly expressed themselves that their judgment would be to
continue the two societies. The vote was then taken on union,
thirty voting for, eleven against.
Miss Alice Stone Blackwell and Rev. Anna H. Shaw were present on
behalf of the American Association, accepted the deviations from
the propositions as presented by that association, and felt
reasonably certain that it would endorse their action.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Yours for equal rights, Alice Stone
Blackwell."]
No one person contributed so much toward effecting the union of these
two societies as Alice Stone Blackwell. On February 17, 1890, both
bodies met in Washington and it was decided that the official boards of
the two should form the voting force until the joint temporary
organization was completed. Councils were held in the great parlor and
dining-room of the Riggs House. Both Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton had
been willing, from the beginning of negotiations, to accept the
proposition of the Americans that neither one of them, nor Lucy Stone,
should take the presidency of the united association, but from the
Nationals in every part of the country came a cry of dissent. Letters
poured in declaring that Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton had borne the
brunt of the battle for forty years, that they had not once lowered the
flag or made the question of woman suffrage subservient to any other,
that they were the head and heart of the movement, and that for them to
be deposed was out of the question.[37] It soon became evident that
unless this point were conceded all hope of union would have to be
banished. While most of the delegates agreed that, in respect to
seniority in years and work and also in consideration of her commanding
ability, Mrs. Stanton should be president, there were many who thought
that, because of her advanced age and the fact that she spent most of
her time abroad, it would be better to elect Miss Anthony. The latter
was distracted by such a thought and at the final meeting of National
delegates preliminary to the joint convention, with all the earnestness
of her strong nature and in a voice vibrating with emotion, she said:
I appeal to every woman who has any affection for the old National
or for me not to vote for Susan B. Anthony for president. I stand
in a delicate position. I have letters which accuse me of having
favored the union solely for personal and selfish considerations,
and of trying to put Mrs. Stanton out. Now what I have to say is,
don't vote for any human being but Mrs. Stanton. There are other
reasons why I wish her elected, but I have these personal ones:
When the division was made twenty years ago, it was because our
platform was too broad, because Mrs. Stanton was too radical; a
more conservative organization was wanted. If we Nationals divide
now and Mrs. Stanton is deposed from the presidency, we virtually
degrade her. If you have any love for our old association, which,
from the beginning, has stood like a rock in regard to creeds and
politics, demanding that every woman should be allowed to come upon
our platform to plead for her freedom--if you have any faith in
that grand principle--vote for Mrs. Stanton....
The National always has allowed the utmost liberty. Anything and
everything which stood in the way of progress was likely to get
knocked off our platform. I want every one who claims to be a
National to continue to stand for this principle. We have come now
to another turning-point and, if it is necessary, I will fight
forty years more to make our platform free for the Christian to
stand upon whether she be a Catholic and counts her beads, or a
Protestant of the straitest orthodox creed, just as I have fought
for the rights of the infidels the last forty years. These are the
principles I want you to maintain, that our platform may be kept as
broad as the universe, that upon it may stand the representatives
of all creeds and no creeds--Jew or Christian, Protestant or
Catholic, Gentile or Mormon, pagan or atheist.
At the joint executive session after the union was formally declared to
be consummated, the vote was: For president, Mrs. Stanton, 131; Miss
Anthony, 90; for vice-president-at-large, Miss Anthony, 213. Lucy Stone
was unanimously elected chairman of the executive committee; Rachel
Foster Avery, corresponding secretary; Alice Stone Blackwell, recording
secretary;[38] Jane H. Spofford, treasurer; Eliza T. Ward and Rev.
Frederick W. Hinckley, auditors. This uniting of the two associations
was begun in 1887 and finished in 1890, in the most thoroughly official
manner, according to the most highly approved parliamentary methods, and
the final result was satisfactory to a large majority of the members of
both societies, who since that time have worked together in unbroken
harmony.
The action of the American Association was almost unanimous, but the
members of the National were widely divided. Letters of protest were
received from many States, and several of its members attempted to form
new organizations. The executive sessions in Washington were the most
stormy in the history of the association, and only the unsurpassed
parliamentary knowledge of the chairman, May Wright Sewall, aided by the
firm co-operation of Miss Anthony, could have harmonized the opposing
elements and secured a majority vote in favor of the union. There had
been no time during the twenty years' division when Miss Anthony was not
ready to sink all personal feeling and unite the two societies for the
sake of promoting the cause which she placed before all else in the
world; and from the first prospect of combining the forces, she used
every effort toward its accomplishment. It was a source of especial
gratification that this was practically assured by the winter of 1888,
when the International Council of Women met in Washington, as it enabled
the American Association to accept the invitation and send
representatives to this great convocation--which will now be considered.
[Illustration: Zerelda G. Wallace (Signed: "To my Dear friend Susan B.
Anthony with love & severence, Zerelda G. Wallace")]
It had long been the dream of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton to form
an International Suffrage Association for purposes of mutual helpfulness
and the strength of co-operation. During 1883, when in Great Britain,
they discussed this subject with the women there and, as a result, a
large committee of correspondence had been established to promote the
forming of such an association. After a time it was judged expedient to
enlarge its scope and make it an International Council, which should
represent every department of woman's work. This was called to meet at
Washington in 1888, the fortieth anniversary of the first organized
demand for the rights of women, the convention at Seneca Falls, and
active preparations had been in progress for more than a year. It was
decided at the suffrage convention held the previous winter that the
National Association should assume the entire responsibility for this
International Council and should invite the participation of all
organizations of women in the trades, professions, reforms, etc.
Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Spofford were in Europe and this herculean task
was borne principally by Miss Anthony, May Wright Sewall and Rachel
Foster.[39] Miss Anthony stayed in Washington for two months preceding
the council, perfecting the last arrangements. The amount of labor,
time, thought and anxiety involved in this year of preparation can not
be estimated. Nothing to compare with it ever had been attempted by
women. Not the least part of the undertaking was the raising of the
$13,000 which were needed to defray expenses, all secured by personal
letters of appeal and admission fees, and disbursed with careful economy
and judgment. The intention was to give the suffrage association the
same prominence as other organizations and no more. An entry in Miss
Anthony's diary says: "I have just received proof of the 'call' for the
council and struck out the paragraph saying, 'no one would be committed
to suffrage who should attend.' I can't allow any such apologetic
invitation as that! There is no need to say anything about it." To her
old friend Antoinette Brown Blackwell, who asked if only those women
ministers who had been regularly ordained were to be heard, Miss Anthony
wrote:
I have felt all along that we ought to give a chance for the
expression of the highest and deepest religious thought of those
not ordained of men. Your wish to give the result of your research
opens the way for us to make the last day--Easter Sunday--voice the
new, the purer, the better worship of the living God. We'll have a
real symposium of woman's gospel. It is not fair to give only the
church-ordained women an opportunity to present their religious
thoughts, and now it shall be fixed so that the laity may have the
same. I don't want a controversy or a lot of negations, but shall
tell each one to give her strongest affirmation. This forever
saying a thing is false and failing to present the truth, is to me
a foolish waste of time, when almost everybody feels the old forms,
creeds and rituals to be only the mint, anise and cumin.
So, my dear, I am very, very glad that you and Lucy are both to be
on our platform, and we are to stand together again after these
twenty years. But none of the past! Let us rejoice in the good of
the present, and hope for more and more in the future.
In response to her letter asking him to take part on Pioneer Day,
Frederick Douglass wrote:
I certainly shall, if I live and am well. The cause of woman
suffrage has under it a truth as eternal as the universe of
thought, and must triumph if this planet endures. I have been
calling up to my mind's eye that first convention in the small
Wesleyan Methodist church at Seneca Falls, where Mrs. Stanton, Mrs.
Mott and those other brave souls began a systematic and determined
agitation for a larger measure of liberty for woman, and how great
that little meeting now appears! It seems only yesterday since it
took place, and yet forty years have passed away and what a
revolution on this subject have we seen in the sentiment of the
American people and, in fact, of the civilized world! Who could
have thought that humble, modest, maiden convention, holding its
little white apron up to its face and wiping away the tear of
sympathy with woman in her hardships and the sigh of her soul for a
larger measure of freedom, would have become the mother of an
International Council of Women, right here in the capital of this
nation?
Maria Mitchell, who was in feeble health (and died the next year) in
expressing her regrets said: "I am taking a rest. I have worked more
than a half-century and, like stronger people, have become tired. I am
meaning to build my small observatory and keep up a sort of apology for
study--because I am too old to dare do nothing. I wish I felt able to
take the journey and hear what others have to say and are ready to do.
The world moves, and I have full faith it will continue to move and to
move, for better and better, even when we have put aside the armor."
[Illustration: Autograph: "The world moves and I have full faith it will
continue to move and to move, for better and better, even when we have
put aside the armor. Sincerely yours, Maria Mitchell."]
During the winter, Mrs. Stanton had written Miss Anthony: "We have
jogged along pretty well for forty years or more. Perhaps mid the wreck
of thrones and the undoing of so many friendships, sects, parties and
families, you and I deserve some credit for sticking together through
all adverse winds, with so few ripples on the surface. When I get back
to America I intend to cling to you closer than ever. I am thoroughly
rested now and full of fight and fire, ready to travel and speak from
Maine to Florida. Tell our suffrage daughters to brace up and get ready
for a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together when I come
back."
What then were her amazement, anger and grief to receive another letter
from Mrs. Stanton a short time before the council, saying that a voyage
across the Atlantic so filled her with dread that she had about decided
not to undertake it! A fortieth anniversary of the Seneca Falls
convention without the woman who called it! And this when she had
counted on Mrs. Stanton to make the greatest speech of the whole meeting
and cover the National Association with immortal glory! She says in her
journal: "I am ablaze and dare not write tonight." The next entry: "I
wrote the most terrific letter to Mrs. Stanton; it will start every
white hair on her head." And then the following day the little book
records: "Well, I made my own heart ache all night, awake or asleep, by
my terrible arraignment, whether it touches her feelings or not." Ten
days later she writes: "Received a cablegram from Mrs. Stanton, 'I am
coming,' so she has my letter. My mind is so relieved, I feel as if I
were treading on air."
On Mrs. Stanton's arrival a few days before the convention, Miss Anthony
learned, to her consternation, that she had prepared no speech for the
occasion! She shut her up in a room at the Riggs House with pen and
paper, kept a guard at the door, permitted no one to see her, and when
the time arrived she was ready with her usual magnificent address.
The council opened Sunday, March 25, in Albaugh's new opera house, with
religious services conducted entirely by women, Revs. Phebe A. Hanaford,
Ada C. Bowles, Antoinette Blackwell, Amanda Deyo, and a matchless sermon
by Rev. Anna H. Shaw, "The Heavenly Vision." It would be wholly
impossible to enter into a detailed account of this council, the
greatest woman's convention ever held.[40] Although twenty-five cents
admission was charged, and fifty cents for reserved seats, the opera
house was crowded during the eight days and evenings, and seats were at
a premium. Miss Anthony presided over eight of the sixteen sessions.
While every speaker was allowed the widest latitude, there was not at
any time the slightest friction. Letters were read from celebrated
people in most of the countries of Europe and all parts of America. At
the pioneer's meeting were eight men and thirty-six women who had been
connected with the movement for woman suffrage forty years.[41]
Among the social courtesies extended to this distinguished body of
women, were a reception at the White House by President and Mrs.
Cleveland; handsome entertainments by Senator and Mrs. Leland Stanford,
and Senator and Mrs. T. W. Palmer; a reception at the Riggs House; many
smaller parties, dinners and luncheons; and numerous social gatherings
of women doctors, lawyers, etc. At all of the large functions Miss
Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and Lucy Stone stood at the left hand of the
hostess, while the other officials and the foreign delegates were also
in the "receiving line." At the White House Miss Anthony made the
presentations to the President. As every newspaper in the country had
complimentary notices of this council and the prominent ladies connected
with it, it is scarcely possible to discriminate. The Baltimore Sun
said:
The council began its deliberations in the finest humor with
everybody, particularly with that prime favorite, Susan B. Anthony.
This lady daily grows upon all present; the woman suffragists love
her for her good works, the audience for her brightness and wit,
and the multitude of press representatives for her frank, plain,
open, business-like way of doing everything connected with the
council. Miss Anthony when in repose looks worn with the conflict
she has waged, though when she goes into action her angular face
loses its tired look and becomes all animation. Her word is the
parliamentary law of the meeting. Whatever she says is done without
murmur or dissent. The women of the council are saved any
parliamentary discussions such as arise in the meetings of men;
they acknowledge that she is an autocrat. All are agreed that no
better system than the absolute control of Susan B. Anthony can be
devised.
The New York World commented:
If ever there was a gay-hearted, good-natured woman it is certainly
Miss Anthony. From the beginning of this council it is she who has
kept the fun barometer away up. The gray-headed friends of her
youth are all "girls" to her, and she is a girl among them.
Parliamentary rules have been by no means so severe as to keep
even the regular proceedings free from her lively interpolation and
comment. When Miss Anthony has felt the public pulse or looked at
her watch and seen that a speech has gone far enough, she says
under her breath, "Your time's about up, my dear." If the speaker
continues, the next thing is, "I guess you'll have to stop now;
it's more than ten minutes." When this fails, she usually begins to
hang gently on the orator's skirt, and if pluckings and pullings
fail, she then subsides with a quizzical smile, or stands erect and
uncompromising by the speaker's side. There is none of the rude
beating of the gavel, nor any paraphrase of "The gentleman's time
is up," which marks the stiff proceedings of men "in congress
assembled." To an unprejudiced eye this free-and-easy method of
procedure might lack symmetry and dignity, but there is not the
slightest doubt that Miss Anthony has been as wise as a serpent
while being as gentle as a dove.
When Frances E. Willard rose to address the council, she laid her hand
tenderly on Miss Anthony's shoulder and said: "I remember when I was
dreadfully afraid of Susan, and Lucy too; but now I love and honor them,
and I can not put into words my sense of what it means to me to have the
blessing of these women who have made it possible for more timid ones
like myself to come forward and take our part in the world's work. If
they had not blazed the trees and pioneered the way, we should not have
dared to come. If there is one single drop of chivalric blood in woman's
veins, it ought to bring a tinge of pride to the face that Susan B.
Anthony, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Julia Ward Howe and these
other grand women, our leaders and our foremothers, are here for us to
greet; that they, who heard so much that was not agreeable, may hear an
occasional pleasant word while they are alive." Very few of the speakers
failed to express their deep feeling of personal obligation and the
indebtedness of all women to the early labors of Miss Anthony and the
other pioneers.
In her letter to the Union Signal, Miss Willard gave this bit of
description: "The central figure of the council was Susan B. Anthony, in
her black dress and pretty red silk shawl, with her gray-brown hair
smoothly combed over a regal head, worthy of any statesman. Her mingled
good-nature and firmness, her unselfish purpose and keen perception of
the right thing to do, endeared her alike to those whom she admonished
and those whom she praised. In her sixty-ninth year, dear 'Susan B.'
seems not over fifty-five. She has a wonderful constitution, and the
prodigies of work she has accomplished have forever put to rout the
ignorant notion that women lack physical endurance."
In the year of preliminary work for this great council, the thought came
many times to May Wright Sewall that it ought to result in something
more than one brief convention, and she conceived the idea of a
permanent International and also a permanent National Council of Women.
During the week in Washington she presented her plan to a large number
of the leaders who regarded it with approval. Miss Anthony, chairman of
the meeting, by request, appointed a committee of fifteen who reported
in favor of permanent councils, and Miss Willard presented an outline of
constitutions. After a number of meetings of the delegates the councils
were officially formed, March 31, 1888, "to include the organized
working forces of the world's womanhood," in the belief that "such a
federation will increase the world's sum total of womanly courage,
efficiency and esprit de corps, widen the horizon, correct the tendency
of an exaggerated impression of one's own work as compared with that of
others, and put the wisdom and experience of each at the service of
all." A simple form of constitution was adopted, and it was decided that
the National Council should meet once in three years and the
International once in five.[42]
Immediately upon the close of the council, the National Suffrage
Association held its twentieth annual convention and, as many of the
delegates remained, the meetings were nearly as crowded as those of the
council had been. A local paper remarked "that it seemed as if the
Washington people could never hear enough about woman suffrage." A fine
address by Caroline E. Merrick was an especial feature, as it presented
the question from the standpoint of a southern woman. The Senate
committee granted a hearing, the speakers being presented by Miss
Anthony. Mrs. Stanton made the principal address, a grand plea for human
equality, and the grave and dignified committee gave her a round of
applause. She was followed by Frances E. Willard and Julia Ward Howe;
Laura Ormiston Chant and Alice Scatcherd, England; Isabelle Bogelot,
France; Sophia Magelsson Groth, Norway; Alli Trygg, Finland; Bessie
Starr Keefer, Canada.
Miss Anthony received many pleasant letters after the council; among
them one from her friend Mrs. Samuel E. Sewall, of Boston, in which she
said: "We want to congratulate you upon the very satisfactory and
gratifying result of the council. I hear from the delegates on all sides
most enthusiastic accounts of the whole affair, and of your wonderful
powers and energy. Mr. Blackwell is loud in your praise. All this might
be expected from the delegates, but what pleases me still more is the
respectful tone of nearly all the newspapers. Even the sneering Nation
has admitted an article in praise of the council." In all Miss Anthony's
own letters there was not the slightest reference to any feeling of
fatigue or desire for rest, but she seemed only to be stimulated to
greater energy. It was impossible for her to respond to half the
invitations which came from all parts of the country, but usually she
selected the places where she felt herself most needed, without any
regard to her own pleasure or comfort. She did, however, accept a
cordial invitation to attend the annual Boston Suffrage Festival, and
was royally entertained for several days.
On the afternoon of June 9, Central Music Hall, Chicago, was packed with
an audience of representative men and women. Frances E. Willard
presided,[43] prayer was offered by Rev. Florence Kollock, and Mrs.
Ormiston Chant gave a wonderfully electric address on the "Moral
Relations of Men and Women to Each Other." She was followed by Dr. Kate
Bushnell in a thrilling talk on "Legislation as it Deals with Social
Purity." Miss Anthony closed the program with a ringing speech showing
the need of the ballot in the hands of women to remedy such evils as had
been depicted by the other speakers. No abstract can give an idea of her
magnetic force when profoundly stirred by such recitals as had been made
at this meeting.
A few days afterwards a largely-attended reception was given by the
Woman's Club of Chicago to Miss Anthony, Isabella Beecher Hooker and
Baroness Gripenberg, of Finland.
In the summer of 1888, the National Association as usual sent delegates
to each of the presidential conventions, asking for a suffrage plank,
and as usual they were ignored by Republicans and Democrats. Miss
Anthony and Mrs. Hooker had headquarters in the parlors of Mrs. Celia
Whipple Wallace, at the Sherman House, Chicago, during the Republican
convention in June. They issued an open letter citing the record of the
party in regard to women, and asking for recognition, but received no
consideration. In the Woman's Tribune, Miss Anthony made this forcible
statement:
Had the best representative suffrage women of every State in the
Union been in Chicago, established in national headquarters,
working with the men of their State delegations, as well as with
the resolution committee, I have not a doubt that the Republican
platform would have contained a splendid plank, pledging the party
to this broad and true interpretation of the Constitution. Every
other reform had its scores and hundreds of representatives here,
pleading for the incorporation of its principles in the platform
and working for the nomination of the men who would best voice
their plans. Women never will be heard and heeded until they make
themselves a power, irresistible in numbers and strength, moral,
intellectual and financial, in all the formative gatherings of the
parties they would influence. Therefore, I now beg of our women not
to lose another opportunity to be present at every political
convention during this summer, to urge the adoption of woman
suffrage resolutions and the nomination of men pledged to support
them. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" for women as well
as for men.
From Chicago Miss Anthony went directly to Indianapolis and, with Mrs.
Sewall, called at the Harrison residence. She says: "We met a most
cordial reception and while the general did not declare himself in favor
of woman's enfranchisement, he expressed great respect for those who
are seeking it." The two ladies then addressed an open letter to General
Harrison, urging that in accepting the nomination he would interpret as
including women that plank in the Republican platform which declared:
"We recognize the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen to
cast one free ballot in all public elections and to have that ballot
duly counted;"[44] but this reasonable request was politely ignored.
Sarah Knox Goodrich and Ellen Clark Sargent, of California, sent the
following telegram to their fellow-citizen, Morris M. Estee, chairman of
the National Republican Convention: "Please ascertain, for many
interested women, if the clause in the platform concerning the sovereign
right of every lawful citizen to a free ballot, includes the women of
the United States." To this Mr. Estee telegraphed reply, "I do not think
the platform is so construed here." This ended the battle of 1888, as
far as women were concerned, and those who might have been the ablest
advocates which any political party could put upon its platform were
relegated to silence during the campaign.
On August 7, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton spoke at Byron Center, and
were entertained by Mrs. Newton Green. Miss Anthony addressed a large
audience at Jamestown on the 10th and was the guest of Mrs. Reuben E.
Fenton. During part of the summer, for a little recreation, she took
hold of the great heterogeneous mass of bills and receipts of the
National W. S. A. for the past four years and compiled them into a neat,
accurate financial report of seventeen pages, in which every dollar
received and disbursed during that time was acknowledged and accounted
for, without any "sundries" or other makeshifts for the sake of
accuracy. As the total amount reached nearly $18,000, a large part of
which had been received in sums of one or two dollars, the labor
involved may be appreciated. Miss Anthony did this, as she did many
other disagreeable things, not because they were officially her duty,
but because they ought to be done and there was no one else ready to
undertake them. She always was restive under red tape regulations. For
many years she was forced to take the lead in all departments of the
suffrage work and when they finally became systematized, with a head at
each, she sometimes grew impatient at delay and usurped the functions of
others without intending any breach of official etiquette. And so when
this financial statement was completed, she published it without waiting
for money or authority, and wrote to the national treasurer, Mrs.
Spofford, who had recently returned from Europe:
Andrew Jackson-like, I decided to assume the responsibility of
sending to each member of the association a copy of the Council
Report with one of the National's financial statement. I am writing
a personal letter to all, explaining our double keeping of our
pledge and asking them to return contributions, if they are able,
for this permanent and nice report. I do not know what results in
cash will come of it to the National, but I do know that the
poorest and hardest-working women who pinched out their dollars to
send, think that we promised them therefor this book-report of the
council. So all in all I decided, against Miss Foster, Mrs. Stanton
and your own dear self, to give each the report, leaving her to do
as she feels most comfortable about sending to the treasurer
payment in return.
A few days later she writes: "I mailed 800 letters yesterday, and we
have sent over 1,500 Reports, with 800 more promised." Could any pen
give an adequate idea of the amount of work accomplished by that
tireless brain and those never-resting hands?
Miss Anthony spoke on Woman's Day, October 12, at the Centennial
Celebration in Columbus, O. A newspaper correspondent drew this contrast
between her address and those of the women of the W. C. T. U.:
Each prayer started heavenward was weighted with
politics--political prohibition. When the eloquent speakers of the
afternoon dealt a stinging blow under the belt to one of the
leading political parties, the applause was tremendous, cheers and
"amens" mingling in a sacrilegious chorus of approval. On the other
hand, when Miss Anthony made her calm, strong and really logical
argument in favor of woman suffrage, giving each party, so far as
related to action of States, just praise or censure, she was
received coldly. It did not seem to count for anything that she had
been a pioneer in the cause of temperance. That white record was
stained because she cast their idol down--she showed that
prohibition had failed in Kansas in the large cities, whether under
a Democratic or a Republican governor, or under St. John, the
Prohibition governor; in every administration it was a failure,
because even there women had only a restricted vote, and public
sentiment without the ballot counted for naught. There were no
little graves in her speech, no weeping willows by winding streams
where lay broken hearts in tombs unmarked. It was a simple
statement of the cause a brave woman had at heart.
She attended the State conventions at Ames, Ia., and at Emporia, Kan.,
where she was the guest of Senator and Mrs. Kellogg. From there she went
to Leavenworth, and later to Omaha for the Nebraska convention. She then
engaged for the fall and winter with the Slayton Lecture Bureau at $60 a
night, and began again the tiresome round throughout the Western States.
In this autumn of 1888, Miss Anthony received a severe shock in the
announcement of the approaching marriage of Rachel Foster to Cyrus
Miller Avery, of Chicago. He had attended the International Council the
preceding spring with his mother, Rosa Miller Avery, known prominently
in suffrage and other public work in Illinois. Here he had seen Miss
Foster in her youth and beauty, carrying a large part of the
responsibility connected with that important gathering, and had fallen
in love with her at first sight. During her long life Miss Anthony had
seen one young girl after another take up the work of woman's
regeneration, fit herself for it, grow into a power, then marry, give it
all up and drop out of sight. "I would not object to marriage," she
wrote, "if it were not that women throw away every plan and purpose of
their own life, to conform to the plans and purposes of the man's life.
I wonder if it is woman's real, true nature always to abnegate self."
Miss Foster had developed unusual ability and for a number of years had
been Miss Anthony's mainstay in the suffrage work, and had grown very
close into her heart; it is not surprising, therefore, that she learned
of the coming marriage with dismay. She accepted the situation as
gracefully as possible, however, and, although too far away to attend
the wedding, sent most cordial wishes for the happiness of the
newly-married.[45]
The year 1888 brought to Miss Anthony many honors, but it brought also
the usual quota of the bereavements which come with every passing year
when one nears threescore and ten. Her cherished friend, Dr. Clemence
Lozier, had passed away; Edward M. Davis, whose faithful friendship
never had failed, was no more; A. Bronson Alcott and his daughter Louisa
had gone to test the truth of the new philosophy; and other dear ones
had dropped out of the narrowing circle. But as a partial compensation,
there had come into her life some new friends who were destined, if not
to fill the place of those who were gone, to make another for themselves
in her affections and her labors quite as helpful and important. Chief
among these was Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, who, from the time of the
International Council, gave her deepest love and truest allegiance.
Until then she had not been near enough Miss Anthony to realize the
nobility and grandeur of her character, but thenceforth she accorded to
her all the devotion and reverence of her own strong and beautiful
nature. In a letter written after she had returned to her home in
Boston, she said: "From my heart I pray that I may always be worthy your
love and confidence. To know you is a blessing; to be trusted by you is
worth far more than my efforts for our work have cost me."
FOOTNOTES:
[36] To these afterwards were added from the executive committee,
Isabella Beecher Hooker, _Chairman_, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Mary B. Clay,
Sarah M. Perkins, Lillie Devereux Blake, Mary F. Eastman, Clara Neymann,
Elizabeth Boynton Harbert.
[37] Many letters are on file making these declarations. It is not
practicable to quote them here, but a place may be made for an extract
from that of Zerelda G. Wallace to Miss Anthony: "While they do not
under-estimate the work of any of the pioneers, the hearts of the women
all over the country are turning to you. They feel that they are yours,
and you are theirs. The suffrage women look to you with as much loyalty
and affection as the temperance women to Miss Willard. There are
thousands of them who would rally around you with an enthusiasm which no
one else can inspire. You will do me the credit to believe that I speak
solely for the good of the work to which you have given your life."
[38] Mrs. Avery and Miss Blackwell have continued ever since to fill
these positions most acceptably to the association.
[39] The magnitude of the work of the council may be better appreciated
by the mention of a few figures in this connection. There were printed
and distributed by mail 10,000 calls and 10,000 appeals; sketches were
prepared of the lives and work of speakers and delegates and circulated
by a press committee of over ninety persons in many States; March 10,
the first edition (5,000) of the sixteen-page program was issued; this
was followed by five other editions of 5,000 each and a final seventh
edition of 7,000. About 4,000 letters were written. Including those
concerning railroad rates, not less than 10,000 more circulars of
various kinds were printed and distributed. A low estimate of the number
of pages thus issued gives 672,000. During the week of the council and
the week of the convention of the National W. S. A. the Woman's Tribune
was published by Mrs. Colby eight times (four days sixteen pages, four
days twelve pages), the daily edition averaging 12,500.
An international convention of men, held in Washington the same year,
cost in round numbers $50,000.--Official Report.
[40] One session each was given to Education, Philanthropy, Temperance,
Industries, Professions, Organizations, Legal Conditions, Social Purity,
Political Conditions, etc., which were discussed by the women most
prominent in the several departments. Fifty-three different national
organizations of women were represented by eighty speakers and
forty-nine delegates from England, France, Norway, Denmark, Finland,
India, Canada and the United States.
[41] The fine stenographic reports of this council were made by Mary F.
Seymour and a corps of women assistants. The official proceedings, with
speeches in full, may be obtained of the corresponding secretary of the
National-American W. S. A.
[42] National Council: _President_, Frances E. Willard;
_vice-president-at-large_, Susan B. Anthony; _corresponding secretary_,
May Wright Sewall; _recording secretary_, Mary F. Eastman; _treasurer_,
M. Louise Thomas.
[43] This meeting was arranged by Dr. Frances Dickinson, who had
persuaded Miss Anthony to make the journey to Chicago in order to
preside over it. On the way to the hall she was detained at a drawbridge
and Miss Willard kindly took her place.
[44] See Appendix for full text of letter.
[45] Mrs. Foster Avery has proved an exception to the rule and, during
the ten years since her marriage, has performed as much work, to say the
least, as any of the younger generation of women, besides contributing
thousands of dollars.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CONVENTIONS FROM WASHINGTON TO SOUTH DAKOTA.
1889.
The eleventh of January, 1889, found Miss Anthony in her usual pleasant
suite of rooms at the Riggs House. She plunged at once into preparations
for the approaching convention, interviewing congressmen, calling at the
newspaper offices and conferring with local committees. The Twenty-first
National Convention opened January 21, in the Congregational church,
with the speakers as bright and full of hope as they had been through
all the score of years. The opening address was given by Hon. A. G.
Riddle and, during the sessions, excellent speeches were made by Hon.
William D. Kelley, Senator Blair, Rev. Alexander Kent and State Senator
Blue, of Kansas. Rev. Anna H. Shaw made her first appearance on the
National platform and delivered her splendid oration, "The Fate of
Republics." Laura M. Johns gave a practical and pleasing talk on
"Municipal Suffrage in Kansas;" and there was the usual array of talent.
Miss Anthony presided, putting every speaker to the front and making a
substantial background of her own felicitous little speeches, each
containing an argument in a nutshell.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Very truly yours, Wm D Kelley"]
While in Washington she was entertained at dinner by the "Six O'clock
Club," and seated at the right hand of its president Dr. Wm. A.
Hammond. The subject for the evening was "Robert Elsmere" and, in giving
her opinion, she said she had found nothing new in the book; all those
theological questions had been discussed and settled by the Quakers long
ago. What distressed her most was the marriage of Robert and Catherine,
who, any outsider could have seen, were utterly unfitted for one
another, and she wondered if there could be any way by which young
people might be able to know each other better before marrying.
On February 11, Miss Anthony spoke in Cincinnati to an audience of
2,000, under the management of A. W. Whelpley, city librarian.[46] The
Commercial Gazette commented: "Miss Susan B. Anthony had every reason
for congratulation on the audience, both as to quality and quantity,
which greeted her Sunday afternoon at the Grand Opera House. Her
discourse proved to be one of the most entertaining of the Unity Club
lectures this season, and if she did not succeed in gaining many
proselytes to her well-known views regarding woman's emancipation, she
certainly reaped the reward of presenting the arguments in an
interesting and logical manner. Every neatly turned point was received
with applause and that good-natured laughter that carries with it not a
little of the element of conviction. As of old, this pioneer of the
woman's cause is abundantly able to return sarcasm for sarcasm, as well
as to present an array of facts in a manner which would do credit to the
most astute of our politicians."
Miss Anthony was much gratified at the cordial reception given her in
Cincinnati and the evident success of her speech, and Tuesday morning,
with a happy heart, took the train for her western lecture tour. She
settled herself comfortably, glanced over her paper and was about to lay
it aside when her eye caught the word "Leavenworth." A hasty glance told
her of the drowning the day before of Susie B. Anthony, while out
skating with a party of schoolmates! Susie B., her namesake, her
beloved niece, as dear as a daughter, and with many of her own strong
characteristics--she was almost stunned. Telegraphing at once to cancel
her engagements, she hastened to Leavenworth. Just six months before,
Colonel and Mrs. Anthony had lost a little daughter, five years old, and
now the sudden taking away of this beautiful girl in her seventeenth
year was a blow of crushing force. She found a stricken household to
whom she could offer but small consolation out of her own sorrowing
heart. After the last services she attempted to fill her engagements in
Arkansas, speaking in Helena, Fort Smith and Little Rock; at the last
place being introduced to the audience by Governor James B. Eagle. She
was so filled with sympathy for her brother and his wife that she gave
up her other lectures and returned to Leavenworth, where she remained
for two months, going away only for two or three meetings.
She lectured in Memorial Hall, St. Louis, March 5,[47] and a brilliant
reception was given her at the Lindell Hotel. On March 9, she spoke at
Jefferson City, where the Daily Tribune contained a full synopsis of her
address, beginning as follows: "The hall of the House of Representatives
was crowded last night as never before, with ladies and gentlemen--State
officials, members of the general assembly, clerks of the departments
and of the legislature, and all the students from Lincoln Institute....
Miss Anthony was received with applause, and plunged at once into the
subject which for many years has made her name a household word in every
English-speaking country on the globe."
Leavenworth was in the midst of an exciting municipal campaign and
Colonel Anthony had been nominated for mayor by the Republicans. Miss
Anthony made a number of speeches, at Chickering Hall, the Conservatory
of Music, the different churches, meetings of colored people, etc. The
night of the last great rally she writes in her diary: "It does seem as
if the cause of law and order and temperance ought to win, but the
saloon element resorts to such tricks that honest people can not match
them." So it seemed in this case, and Colonel Anthony was defeated. The
Republicans, both men and women, were divided amongst themselves with
the usual results.
Her grief over the untimely death of Susie B. was still fresh, and in a
letter to a friend who had just suffered a great bereavement, she said:
"It is a part of the inevitable and the living can not do otherwise than
submit, however rebellious they may feel; but we will clutch after the
loved ones in spite of all faith and all philosophy. By and by, when one
gets far enough away from the hurt of breaking the branch from its tree,
there does, there must, come a sweet presence of the spirit of the loved
and gone that soothes the ache of the earlier days. That every one has
to suffer from the loss of loving and loved ones, does not make our
anguish any the less."
To the sorrowing father she wrote after she returned home: "Can you not
feel when you look at those lonely mounds, that the spirits, the part of
them that made life, are not there but in your own home, in your own
heart, ever present? It surely is more blessed to have loved and lost
than never to have loved.... Which of us shall follow them first we can
not tell, but if it should be I, lay my body away without the
heartbreak, the agony that must come when the young go. Try to believe
that all is well, that however misunderstood or misunderstanding, all
there is clear to the enlarged vision. Whenever I have suffered from the
memory of hasty or unkind words to those who have gone, my one comfort
always has been in the feeling that their spirits still live and are so
much finer that they understand and forgive."
Miss Anthony went from Leavenworth to Indianapolis for a few days'
conference with Mrs. Sewall on matters connected with the National
Suffrage Association and National Council of Women. She writes in her
diary: "Mrs. Sewall introduced me to the girls of her Classical School
as one who had dared live up to her highest dream. I did not say a word
for fear it might not be the right one." From here she journeyed to
Philadelphia, stopping, she says, "with dear Adeline Thomson, whose
door is always open to those who are working for women;"[48] thence to
New York for the State convention April 26.
The preceding evening a reception was tendered Miss Anthony at the Park
Hotel, where she notes, "I wore my garnet velvet and point lace." This
did not suit the correspondent of the Chicago Herald, who said: "Her
futile efforts to adjust her train with the toe of her number seven
boot, instead of the approved backward sweep of heel, demonstrated that
she certainly was not 'to the manner born.'" He then continued to sneer
at the suffrage women for "adopting the social elegancies of life
inaugurated by Mrs. Ashton Dilke, at the council last winter;" evidently
unaware that Miss Anthony had been wearing her velvet gown since 1883.
But the same day the New York Sun had a long and serious editorial to
the effect that "equal suffrage never would be successful until it was
made fashionable." This illustrates how hard it is to please everybody,
and also how prone men are to make a woman's work inseparable from her
garments, always giving more prominence to what she wears than to what
she says and does, and then censuring her because she "gives so much
time and thought to her clothes." Even from far-off Memphis the
Avalanche tumbled down on Miss Anthony for wearing point lace "when the
women who wore their lives out making it were no better than slaves."
Doubtless the editor abjured linen shirt-bosoms because the poor
Irishwomen who bleach the flax are paid starvation wages. The Brooklyn
Times also jumped into the breach and, in a column editorial, attempted
to prove that "the ballot for woman is as superfluous as a corset for a
man." Thus does the male mind illustrate its superiority!
On May 17, Miss Anthony addressed the Woman's Political Equality Club of
Rochester, in the Unitarian church, which was crowded to its capacity.
She spoke in Warren, O., May 21, the guest of Hon. Ezra B. Taylor and
his daughter, Mrs. Upton. The next day the two ladies went to the Ohio
State Convention at Akron and were entertained at the palatial home of
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Miller. A dinner was given to Miss Anthony, Mrs.
Zerelda G. Wallace and Rev. Anna Shaw by Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Schumacher.
A report went the rounds of the newspapers at this time saying that
"Miss Anthony had renounced woman suffrage." It was started doubtless by
some one who supposed her to be so narrow as to abandon a great
principle because her brother had been defeated in a city where women
had the suffrage. The Portland Oregonian having used this alleged
renunciation as the basis for a leading editorial, the ladies of Tacoma,
Wash., where women had been arbitrarily disfranchised by the supreme
court, sent a telegram to Miss Anthony asking if the rumor were true.
She telegraphed in reply: "Report false; am stronger than ever and bid
Washington restore woman suffrage."
She went to Philadelphia to attend the wedding, June 21, of one of her
family of nieces, who filled the place in her great heart which would
have been given to her daughters, had she chosen marriage instead of the
world's work for all womankind. When her sister Hannah had died years
before, Miss Anthony had brought the little orphan, Helen Louise Mosher,
to her own home, where she had remained until grown. For some time she
had been a successful supervisor of kindergarten work in Philadelphia
and today she was the happy bride of Alvan James, a prominent business
man of that city.[49] Miss Anthony was pleased with the marriage and the
young couple started on their wedding tour with her blessing.
In July a charming letter was received from Madame Maria Deraismes,
president of the French Woman's Congress, conveying "the greetings of
the women of France to the leader of women in America." On the Fourth
Miss Anthony addressed a Grangers' picnic, at Lyons, held under the
great trees in the dooryard of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Bradley, who were
her hosts. One hot week this month was spent with Dr. Sarah A. Dolley, a
prominent physician of Rochester, in her summer home at Long Pond. Early
in August, with her niece Maud, she took a very delightful trip through
the lake and mountain regions of New York. After a visit at Saratoga
they went up Mount McGregor, and Miss Anthony writes in her diary: "Here
we saw the room where General Grant died, the invalid chair, the clothes
he wore, medicine bottles, etc.--very repulsive. If the grand mementoes
of his life's work were on exhibition it would be inspiring, but these
ghastly reminders of his disease and death are too horrible."
They spent a few days at the Fort William Henry Hotel on beautiful Lake
George, and she says: "Several of the colored waiters formerly at the
Riggs House recognized me the moment I entered the dining-room, and one
of them brought me a lovely bouquet." They sailed through Lake Champlain
to Montreal, stopping at the Windsor, visiting the grand cathedrals and
enjoying the glorious view from the summit of the Royal mountain. Then
they journeyed to the Berkshire hills and enjoyed many visits with the
numerous relatives scattered throughout that region. At Brooklyn they
were the guests of the cousins Lucien and Ellen Hoxie Squier.
Early in July Miss Anthony had accepted an invitation to address the
Seidl Club, who were to give a luncheon at Brighton Beach, the
fashionable resort on Coney Island. The invitation had been extended
through Mrs. Laura C. Holloway, one of the editorial staff of the
Brooklyn Eagle and a valued friend of many years' standing, who wrote:
"Not nearly all our members are suffragists, but all of them honor you
as a great and noble representative of the sex. You can do more good by
meeting this body of musical and literary women than by addressing a
dozen out-and-out suffrage meetings. You will find many old friends to
greet you, and a loving and proud welcome from yours devotedly." She
addressed the club August 30, after an elegant luncheon served to 300
members and guests. She selected for her subject, "Woman's Need of
Pecuniary Independence," and her remarks were received with much
enthusiasm. "Broadbrim's" New York letter thus describes the occasion:
The Seidl Club had an elegant time down at Coney Island this week,
and dear old Susan B. Anthony addressed the members, many of whom
are among the representative women of the land. It was the custom
in years gone by for a lot of paper-headed ninnies, who write cheap
jokes about mothers-in-law, to fire their paper bullets at Susan B.
She has lived to see about one-half of them go down to drunkard's
graves, and the other half are either dead or forgotten, while she
today stands as one of the brightest, cheeriest women, young or
old, to be found in our own or any other land. What a tremendous
battle she has fought, what a blameless life she has led, rejoicing
in the strength which enabled her to mingle with the weak and
erring of her sex when necessary without even the smell of smoke on
her garments. She made an address, and what an address it was, with
more good, sound, hard sense in it than you would find in fifty
congressional speeches, and how the women applauded her till they
made the roof ring! Susan B. Anthony was by all odds the lioness of
the day.
A few days were given to Mrs. Stanton, who was spending the summer with
her son Gerrit and his wife at Hempstead, L. I., and they prepared the
call for the next national convention. She reached home in time to speak
on September 9 at Wyoming, where she was a guest at the delightful
summer home of Mrs. Susan Look Avery for several days, as long as she
could be persuaded to stay. She then hastened back to New York to visit
Mrs. M. Louise Thomas, president of Sorosis, for a day or two, and
arrange National Council affairs, and down to Philadelphia to plan
suffrage work with Rachel Foster Avery.[50] Just as she was leaving she
received a letter from Margaret V. Hamilton, of Ft. Wayne, announcing
that her mother, Emerine J. Hamilton, had bequeathed to Miss Anthony for
her personal use $500 in bank stock, a testimonial of her twenty years
of unwavering friendship. While grieved at the loss of one whose love
and hospitality she had so long enjoyed, she rejoiced in the thought
that from the daughters she still would receive both in the same
unstinted degree.
September 27 saw her en route for the West once more and by October 1
she was at Wichita, ready for the Kansas State Convention. The Woman's
Tribune had said: "It is the greatest boon to the president of a State
convention to have the presence and counsel of Miss Anthony." At this
meeting the committee reported a set of resolutions beginning, "We
believe in God," etc., when she at once protested on the ground that
"the woman suffrage platform must be kept free from all theological
bias, so that unbelievers as well as evangelical Christians can stand
upon it."
The 10th of October Miss Anthony, fresh, bright and cheery, reported for
duty at the Indiana State Convention held at Rushville. On October 14,
strong and vigorous as ever, she announced herself at Milwaukee, ready
for the Wisconsin State Convention, where she spoke at each of the three
days' sessions. In one of her addresses here she said that she did not
ask suffrage for women in order that they might vote against the liquor
traffic--she did not know how they would vote on this question--she
simply demanded that they should have the same right as men to express
their opinions at the ballot-box. Immediately the report was sent
broadcast that Miss Anthony had said "as many women would vote for beer
as against it."
Then down to Chicago she journeyed to talk over the "Isabella Memorial"
with her cousin, Dr. Frances Dickinson, who was a prime factor of this
movement. While there she had a charming visit with Harriet Hosmer, the
great sculptor, who afterwards wrote her:
It was a real treat to see you once more.... How well do I remember
our first meeting in the office of The Revolution. I do not know of
anything that would give me so much pleasure as being present at
the Washington convention, and if I am in America next January you
may rest assured I shall be there.... Yes, you are quite right;
there ought to be a National Art Association of women who are real
artists, and it would be a good thing all round. There is nothing
which has impressed me so much and so favorably since my return
here as the number of helpful clubs and associations which are of
modern growth, and one of the best fruits of the work that has been
done among women. Not only are they full of pleasantness but where
unity is there is strength.
Now that we have come together, don't let us permit a vacuum of
twenty years to intervene again; we have a great deal to say to
each other.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Keep me in your heart as I keep you in mine
and hold me even [illegible] H. Hosmer."]
Miss Anthony went from Milwaukee to the Minnesota State Convention at
Minneapolis, and addressed the students of the university. She also
visited the Bethany Home for the Friendless and writes in her journal:
"I saw there over forty fatherless babes, and twenty or thirty girls who
must henceforth wear the scarlet letter over their hearts, while the men
who caused their ruin go forth to seek new recruits for the Bethany
homes!" At Duluth she was the guest of her faithful friends, Judge J. B.
and Sarah Burger Stearns, speaking here in the Masonic Temple. The judge
introduced Miss Anthony in these words: "The first quality we look for
in men is courage; the next, ability; the third, benevolence. It is my
pleasure to present to you tonight a woman who has exhibited, in a
marked degree, all three."
On November 11, 1889, at the beginning of the northern winter, she went
from here to South Dakota. A woman suffrage amendment had been submitted
to be voted on in 1890, and Miss Anthony had been receiving urgent
letters from the members of the State Suffrage Association to assist
them in a preliminary canvass and advise as to methods of organization,
etc. "Every true woman will welcome you to South Dakota," wrote Philena
Johnson, one of the district presidents. "My wife looks upon you as a
dependent child upon an indulgent parent; your words will inspire her,"
wrote the husband of Emma Smith DeVoe, the State lecturer. "We are very
grateful that you will come to us," wrote Alonzo Wardall, the
vice-president.
Miss Anthony began the canvass at Redfield, November 12, introduced by
Judge Isaac Howe. The Supreme Court decision allowing "original
packages" of liquor to come into the State had just been announced, and
the old minister who opened this meeting devoted all of his prayer to
explaining to the Almighty the evils which would follow in the wake of
these "original packages!" She held meetings throughout the State, had
fine audiences and found strong friends at each place. There was much
public interest and the comments of the press were favorable in the
highest degree.[51]
She addressed the Farmers' Alliance at their State convention in
Aberdeen; they were very cordial and officially endorsed the suffrage
amendment. In a letter at this time she said: "I have learned just what
I feared--the Prohibitionists in their late campaign studiously held
woman suffrage in the background. The W. C. T. U. woman who introduced
me last night publicly proclaimed she had not yet reached woman
suffrage. Isn't it discouraging? When I get to Washington, I shall see
all of the South Dakota congressmen and senators and learn what they
intend to do. The Republican party here stood for prohibition, and if it
will stand for woman suffrage we can carry it, and not otherwise." Her
fine optimism did not desert her, however, and to the Woman's Tribune
she wrote:
I want to help our friends throughout this State to hold the
canvass for woman suffrage entirely outside all political,
religious or reform questions--that is, keep it absolutely by
itself. I advise every man and woman who wishes this amendment
carried at the ballot-box next November to wear only the badge of
yellow ribbon--that and none other. This morning I cut and tied a
whole bolt of ribbon, and every woman went out of the court-house
adorned with a little sunflower-colored knot.
The one work for the winter before our good friends in South
Dakota, should be that of visiting every farmhouse of every school
district of every county in the State; talking and reading over the
question at every fireside these long evenings; enrolling the names
of all who believe in woman suffrage; leaving papers and tracts to
be read and circulated, and organizing equal suffrage committees in
every district and village. With this done, the entire State will
be in splendid trim for the opening of the regular campaign in the
spring of 1890.
She started eastward the very day her canvass ended, reaching Chicago on
Thanksgiving evening, and went directly to Detroit where she spoke
November 29, and was the guest of her old friends of anti-slavery days,
Giles and Catharine F. Stebbins. Her nephew, Daniel R. Jr., came over
from Michigan University to hear her and accompanied her back to Ann
Arbor, where she was entertained by Mrs. Olivia B. Hall. He thus gives
his impressions to his parents:
Aunt Susan spoke here for the benefit of the Ladies, Library
Association, and had an excellent audience; and Sunday night she
spoke at the Unitarian church. It was jammed full and people were
in line for half a block around, trying to get inside. At the
beginning of her lecture Aunt Susan does not do so well; but when
she is in the midst of her argument and all her energies brought
into play, I think she is a very powerful speaker.
Dr. Sunderland, the Unitarian minister, invited her to dinner and,
as I was her nephew, of course I had to be included. The Halls are
very fine people and as I took nearly every meal at their house
while she was here, I can also testify that they have good things
to eat. I brought Aunt Susan down to see where I lived. It being
vacation time of course the house was closed and hadn't been aired
for a week, and some of the boys having smoked a good deal she
thought the odor was dreadful, but that otherwise we were very
comfortably fixed.
Miss Anthony spoke at Toronto December 2, introduced by the mayor and
entertained by Dr. Augusta S. Gullen, daughter of Dr. Emily H. Stowe.
She addressed the Political Equality Club of Rochester in the
Universalist church, December 5. During the past three months she had
travelled several thousand miles and spoken every night when not on
board the cars. Three days later she started for Washington to arrange
for the National convention, and from there wrote Rachel Foster Avery:
I have done it, and to my dismay Mrs. Colby has announced my
high-handedness in this week's Tribune, when I intended to keep my
assumption of Andrew Jackson-like responsibility a secret. One
night last week the new Lincoln Hall was opened and when I saw what
a splendid audience-room it is, I just rushed the next day to the
agent and found our convention days not positively engaged; then
rushed to Mr. Kent and from him to Mr. Jordan and got released from
the little church, and then back I went and had the convention
booked for Lincoln Hall. I did not mean to have any notice of the
change of place go out over the country, because it makes no
difference to friends outside of Washington. Well, no matter. I
couldn't think of taking our convention into any church when we had
a chance to go back to our old home, and that in a new and elegant
house reared upon the ashes of the old. So if killed I am for this
high-handed piece of work, why killed I shall be!
A letter will illustrate her efforts for South Dakota: "I have 50,000
copies of Senator Palmer's speech ready to go to the Senate
folding-room, and thence to the South Dakota senators and
representatives to be franked, and then back to me to be addressed to
the 25,000 men of the Farmers' Alliance, etc. If suffrage literature
does not penetrate into every single family in every town of every
county of South Dakota before another month rolls round, it will be
because I can not get the names of every one. I am securing also the
subscription lists of every county newspaper. If reading matter in every
home and lectures in every school house of the State will convert the
men, we shall carry South Dakota next November with a whoop! I do hope
we can galvanize our friends in every State to concentrate all their
money and forces upon South Dakota the coming year. We must have no
scattering fire now, but all directed to one point, and get everybody to
thinking, reading and talking on the subject."
And again she writes: "With my $400 which I have contributed to the
National this year, I have made life members of myself, nieces Lucy E.
and Louise, and Mrs. Stanton. Now I intend to make Mrs. Minor, Olympia
Brown, Phoebe Couzins and Matilda Joslyn Gage life members. I had
thought of others, but these last four are of longer standing, were
identified with the old National and have suffered odium and persecution
because of adherence to it."
In the diary's mention of busy days is one item: "Went to the Capitol to
the celebration of the centennial of the First Congress. Justice Fuller
made a beautiful oration on the progress of the century but failed to
have discovered a woman all the way down;" and another: "This morning
called on Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Stanford and Mrs. Manderson to talk about
having women represented in the Columbian Exposition of 1892. All are in
favor of it."
Every hour was filled with business, and with social duties undertaken
solely because of the influence they might have on the great and only
question. The last day of 1889 she went to pay the final honors to the
wife of her faithful ally, Hon. A. G. Riddle. Death had robbed her of
many friends during the past year. On February 1 her old co-worker Amy
Post, of Rochester, was laid to rest, one of the veteran Abolitionists
who commenced the work in 1833 with Garrison, and who had stood by the
cause of woman as faithfully as by that of the slave. In March passed
away in the prime of womanhood, Mary L. Booth, editor of Harper's Bazar
from its beginning in 1867. In June died Maria Mitchell, the great
astronomer, in the fullness of years, having completed threescore and
ten. In November was finished the work of Dinah Mendenhall, the
venerable Quaker and philanthropist, wife of Isaac Mendenhall, whose
home near Philadelphia had been for sixty years the refuge of the poor
and oppressed, without regard to sex, color or creed.[52]
At the close of the old year, the Washington Star in a long interview,
headed "A Leader of Women," said.
Miss Anthony is now at the capital, ready for the regular annual
agitation before Congress of the proposed Sixteenth Amendment to
the Constitution. She is one of the remarkable women of the world.
In appearance she has not grown a day older in the past ten years.
Her manner has none of the excitement of an enthusiast; never
discouraged by disappointment, she keeps calmly at work, and she
could give points in political organization and management to some
of the best male politicians in the land. Her face is strong and
intellectual, but full of womanly gentleness. Her gold spectacles
give her a motherly rather than a severe expression, and a stranger
would see nothing incongruous in her doing knitting or fancy-work.
In no sense does she correspond with the distorted idea of a
woman's rights agitator. In conversation her manner is that of
perfect repose. She is always entertaining, and the most romantic
idealizer of women would not expect frivolity in one of her age and
would not charge it to strong-mindedness that she is sedate....
Speaking of the Columbus celebration, she said she understood it
was probable that the board of promotion at the capital would
decide to permit women a part in the organization and management of
the enterprise.
FOOTNOTES:
[46] In response to a letter of introduction from Mr. Spofford, of the
Riggs, Miss Anthony was the guest of the Burnet House with a fine suite
of apartments. In a letter home she writes: "The chambermaid said, 'Why,
you have had more calls than Mrs. Hayes had when she occupied these
rooms.'"
[47] Mrs. Minor managed this meeting and also tried to arrange for Miss
Anthony to address a large Catholic gathering but was unsuccessful. She
writes: "The vicar-general was on the side of your lecture and spoke in
complimentary terms of you and your work."
[48] In a letter Miss Thomson wrote: "I want you to know that my heart
is warmer for you than for any other mortal, my thoughts follow you
wheresoever you go, and I am always glad when your footsteps turn toward
me."
[49] A little incident showed the family spirit. When her lover was
about to present her with a handsome diamond engagement ring, she
requested that instead the money should be given to the National
Suffrage Association, which was done.
[50] In a letter to Mrs. Avery relative to some pressing work, Miss
Anthony wrote: "I would not for anything have you drudge on this during
your husband's vacation. No, no, there is none too much of life and
happiness for any of us, so plan to go and be and do whatever seemeth
best unto the twain made so beautifully one."
[51] She spoke at Huron, Mitchell, Yankton, Sioux Falls, Madison,
Brookings, DeSmet, Watertown, Parker, Pierre, St. Lawrence and Aberdeen,
and presented a full set of the History of Woman Suffrage to libraries
in each of these towns.
[52] The year previous Mrs. Mendenhall had given Miss Anthony and
Frances Willard each her note for $1,000 payable after her death, to be
used for the cause of woman suffrage and temperance, but the heirs
refused to honor the notes.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
AT THE END OF SEVENTY YEARS.
1890.
Miss Anthony received New Year's calls in the Red Parlor of the Riggs
House, January 1, 1890, entertained a party of friends at dinner in the
evening, and had the usual number of pleasant gifts and loving letters.
While busy with preparations for the national convention, she learned of
the project to celebrate her seventieth birthday on February 15.
Supposing it to be simply a tribute from her friends, like the
observance of her fiftieth anniversary twenty years before in New York,
she was pleased at the compliment, but after the arrangements were
commenced she learned that it was to take the form of an elegant banquet
at the Riggs and tickets were to be sold at $4 each. Her feelings were
expressed in a letter to May Wright Sewall and Rachel Foster Avery, who
had the matter in charge:
I write in utter consternation, hoping it is not too late to recall
every notice sent for publication. I never dreamed of your doing
other than issuing pretty little private invitations signed by Mrs.
Stanton and yourselves as officers of the National Association. If
its official board is too far dissolved for this, please let the
whole matter drop, and I will invite a few special friends to sup
with me on my birthday. I know Mr. and Mrs. Spofford would love to
unite with you in a personal entertainment of this kind. I may be
wrong as to the bad taste of issuing a notice, just like a public
meeting, and letting those purchase tickets who wish; but it seems
to me the very persons least desired by us may be the first to buy
them. I should be proud of a banquet with invited guests who would
make it an honor, but with such persons as will pay $5, more or
less, it resolves itself into a mere matter of cash. I would vastly
prefer to ask those we wanted and foot the entire bill myself.
Mrs. Sewall wrote at once to Mrs. Avery, "This letter strikes dismay to
my soul. I will share with you the expense of the banquet." In a day or
two Miss Anthony's heart smote her and she wrote again: "I have blown my
bugle blast and I know I have wounded your dear souls, but I can not see
the plan a bit prettier than I did at first. I may be very stupid or
supersensitive. If it were to honor Mrs. Stanton, I would be willing to
charge for tickets." And then a few days later: "Have I killed you
outright? I can not tell you how much I have suffered because I can not
see this as you do, but I would rather never have a mention of my
birthday than to have it in that way. I know you meant it all lovely for
me, but you did not look at it outside your own dear hearts. Do tell me
that I have not alienated the two best-beloved of all my girls."
They finally effected a compromise on the money feature by sending out
handsomely engraved invitations to those whom they wished as guests and
letting them pay $4 a plate if they came. Although they proved to Miss
Anthony that this always was done in such cases, she assented very
unwillingly, and begged that they would ask the friends to contribute $4
apiece to the fund for South Dakota instead of the birthday banquet.
Finally, when all her scruples had been overcome, she made out so long a
list of people whom she wished to have complimentary invitations that
they would have filled every seat in the dining hall. She also was so
anxious that no one should be slighted in a chance to speak that Mrs.
Avery wrote: "The banquet would have to last through eternity to hear
all those Miss Anthony thinks ought to be heard."
On the evening of the birthday over 200 of her distinguished friends
were seated in the great dining-room of the Riggs House, including a
delegation from Rochester and a number of relatives from Leavenworth,
Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. Miss Anthony occupied the place of
honor, on her right hand were Senator Blair and Mrs. Stanton; on her
left, Robert Purvis, Isabella Beecher Hooker and May Wright Sewall.
(Mrs. Foster Avery was detained at home.) The room was beautifully
decorated and the repast elaborate, but with such an array of intellect,
the after-dinner speeches were the distinguishing feature of the
occasion. The Washington Star, in a long account, said:
A company of the most remarkable women in the world were assembled.
As she sat there, surrounded by the skirted knights of her long
crusade, Miss Anthony looked no older than fifty, but she had got a
good start into her seventy-first year before the dinner ended. May
Wright Sewall presided. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, that venerable and
beautiful old stateswoman, sat at the right of Senator Blair,
looking as if she should be the Lord Chief-Justice, with her white
hair puffed all over her head, and her amiable and intellectual
face marked with the lines of wisdom. Isabella Beecher Hooker, who
reminds one of her great brother, with the stamp of genius on her
brow and an energy of intellect expressed upon her face, sat at the
left of Miss Anthony. Old John Hutchinson, the last of the famous
singing family, his white hair and beard forming a fringe about his
shoulders; Clara Barton, her breast sparkling with Red Cross
medals; and many other women of wide fame were present. Before the
banquet the guests assembled in the Red Parlor of the Riggs, where
a levee was held and congratulations were offered. It was after 10
o'clock when the line was formed and the guests marched down to the
dining-room, Miss Anthony, on the arm of Senator Blair, leading the
way.
The correspondent of the New York Sun said in a brilliant description:
"The dining-room was a splendid scene, long to be remembered. The
American flag was everywhere and, with tropical flowers and foliage,
made bright decorations.... It was a notable gathering of women
world-wide in fame, and of distinguished men. The lady with a
birthday--seventy of them indeed--was of course the star on which all
others gazed. She never looked better, never happier, and never so much
like breaking down before her feelings. No wonder, with such a birthday
party! Friends of her youth calling her 'Susan,' affectionate deference
from everybody, and all saying she deserved a thousand just such
birthdays--young in heart, beautiful in spirit."
Phoebe Couzins replied to the toast "St. Susan," making a witty contrast
between the austere St. Anthony of old and the St. Anthony of today,
representing self-abnegation for the good, the beautiful, the true. Rev.
Anna Shaw made a delightfully humorous response to "The Modern
Peripatetic," referring to the ancient philosopher who had founded the
school of men, and Miss Anthony who had founded the modern school of
women peripatetics, ready to grab their grips and start around the world
at a moment's notice. Matilda Joslyn Gage responded to "Miss Anthony as
a Fellow-worker;" Clara Bewick Colby to "Miss Anthony as a Journalist;"
Laura Ormiston Chant, of England, to "American Womanhood;" Mrs. Jane
Marsh Parker, sent by the Ignorance Club of Rochester, to "Miss Anthony
at Home," beginning: "To have brought to Miss Anthony all the
testimonials which Rochester would have laid at her feet tonight would
have made me appear at the banquet like the modern Santa Claus--the
postman at Christmastide." Rev. Frederick W. Hinckley, of Providence,
began his graceful address by saying:
King Arthur, sword in hand, is not at the head of the table, but
Queen Susan is, the silver crown of seventy honorable years upon
her brow; and we gather here from every quarter of the Union,
little knights and great knights, without distinction of sex, to
take anew at her hands the oath of loyal service to the cause of
universal liberty. Those of us who have followed her through all
these years know that she has been a knight without reproach, that
her head has been level and her heart true. Faithful to the cause
of her sex, she has been broad enough to grasp great general
principles. She has been not only an advocate of equal rights, but
the prophet of humanity; and a better advocate of equal rights
because a prophet of humanity. There never has been a time when
Whittier's lines concerning Sumner would not have been applicable
to her:
"Wherever wrong doth right deny,
Or suffering spirits urge their plea,
Here is a voice to smite the lie,
A hand to set the captive free."
Nineteenth century chivalry renders all honor to that type of
womanhood of which she is an illustrious example.
Robert Purvis eloquently referred to Miss Anthony's grand work for the
abolition of slavery, which, he said, was still continued in the vaster
and more complicated work for the freedom of women. Mrs. Stanton's two
daughters, Mrs. Lawrence and Mrs. Blatch, made sparkling responses.
Representative J. A. Pickler said in part:
Five years since, when a member of the Dakota legislature and in
charge of the bill giving full suffrage to women, I was
characterized in the public press as "Susan B. Pickler." I look
upon this as one of the greatest honors ever bestowed upon me. I
have never learned how Miss Anthony regarded it....
Unswerved by the shafts of ridicule, without love of gain, she has
sublimely borne through all these years ridicule and reproach for
principle, for humanity, for womanhood. The soldier battles amid
the plaudits of his countrymen, the statesman supported by his
party, the clergyman sanctioned by his church, but alone, this
great woman has stood for half a century, contending for the rights
of women. Says Professor Swing: "Mark any life pervaded by a worthy
plan, and how beautiful it is! Webster, Gladstone, Sumner,
Disraeli; fifty years were these temples in the building!" How
aptly these words describe our great advocate of woman. Gratifying
it must be to Susan B. Anthony; gratifying, we bear witness, it is
to her friends, that in her maturer years we see this cause, long
hated by others but by her always loved, now respected by all; and
herself, its representative and exponent, revered, loved and
honored by a whole nation.
The main address was made by Mrs. Stanton, who responded to the
sentiment "The Friendships of Women," in an oration full of humor, and
closed:
If there is one part of my life which gives me more intense
satisfaction than another, it is my friendship of more than forty
years' standing with Susan B. Anthony. Ours has been a friendship
of hard work and self-denial.... Emerson says, "It is better to be
a thorn in the side of your friend than his echo." If this add
weight and stability to friendship, then ours will endure forever,
for we have indeed been thorns in the side of each other. Sub rosa,
dear friends, I have had no peace for forty years, since the day we
started together on the suffrage expedition in search of woman's
place in the National Constitution. She has kept me on the war-path
at the point of the bayonet so long that I have often wished my
untiring coadjutor might, like Elijah, be translated a few years
before I was summoned, that I might spend the sunset of my life in
some quiet chimney-corner and lag superfluous on the stage no
longer.
After giving up all hope of her sweet repose in Abraham's bosom, I
sailed some years ago for Europe. With an ocean between us I said,
now I shall enjoy a course of light reading. I shall visit all the
wonders of the old world, and write no more calls, resolutions or
speeches for conventions--when lo! one day I met Susan face to face
in the streets of London with a new light in her eyes. Behold there
were more worlds to conquer. She had decided on an international
council in Washington, so I had to return with her to the scenes of
our conflict.... Well, I prefer a tyrant of my own sex, so I shall
not deny the patent fact of my subjection; for I do believe that I
have developed into much more of a woman under her jurisdiction,
fed on statute laws and constitutional amendments, than if left to
myself reading novels in an easy-chair, lost in sweet reveries of
the golden age to come without any effort of my own.
As Mrs. Stanton concluded, "The Guest of the Evening" was announced and,
amidst long continued applause and waving of handkerchiefs, Miss Anthony
arose and made one of those little speeches that never can be reported,
in which she said:
I have been half inclined while listening here to believe that I
had passed on to the beyond. If there is one thing I hope for more
than another, it is that, should I stay on this planet thirty years
longer, I still may be worthy of the wonderful respect you have
manifested for me tonight. The one thought I wish to express is how
little my friend or I could have accomplished alone. What she said
is true; I have been a thorn in her side and in that of her family
too, I fear. I never expect to know any joy in this world equal to
that of going up and down the land, getting good editorials
written, engaging halls, and circulating Mrs. Stanton's speeches.
If I ever have had any inspiration she has given it to me, for I
never could have done my work if I had not had this woman at my
right hand. If I had had a husband and children, or opposition in
my own home, I never could have done it. My father and mother, my
brothers and sisters, those who are gone and those who are left,
all have been a help to me. How much depends on the sympathy and
co-operation of those about us! It is not necessary for all to go
to the front. Every woman presiding over her table in the homes
where I have been, has helped sustain me, I wish they could know
how much.
Poems were read or sent by Harriet Hosmer, Elizabeth Boynton Harbert,
Alice Williams Brotherton and a number of others. At the close of Mrs.
Hooker's verses entitled "Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot?" the
entire company arose and sang two stanzas of "Auld Lang Syne," led by
the venerable John Hutchinson. From the many letters received only a few
extracts can be given:
Allow me to congratulate you on your safe arrival at the age of
threescore and ten. How much we may congratulate ourselves on the
great gains that have come to woman during these years; gains for
which you have worked so hard and so long! Hoping that you may
still be on this planet when the ballot is the sure possession of
our sex, I am very truly your co-worker,
LUCY STONE.
None can more heartily congratulate thee on thy threescore and ten
years nobly devoted to the welfare of humanity, to unremitting
labor for temperance, for the abolition of slavery and for equal
rights of citizenship, irrespective of sex or color. We have lived
to see the end of slavery, and I hope thou wilt live to see
prohibition enforced in every State in the Union, and sex no longer
the condition of citizenship. God bless thee and give thee many
more years made happy by works of love and duty. I am truly thy
friend,
JOHN G. WHITTIER.
[Illustration: Autograph: "John G Whittier"]
My heart honors, loves and blesses you. Every woman's would if she
only knew you. You'll have a statue some day in the Capitol at
Washington, but your best monument is built already in your
countrywomen's hearts. God bless you, brave and steadfast elder
sister! Accept this as the only valentine I ever wrote. May you
live a hundred years and vote the last twenty-five, is the wish and
prediction of your loyal sister,
FRANCES E. WILLARD.
Miss Anthony's sole and effective fidelity to the cause of the
equal rights of her sex is worthy of the highest honor, and I know
that it will be eloquently and fitly acknowledged at the dinner,
which I trust will be in every way successful. Very respectfully
yours,
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.
It is a grief to me that I can not be present to honor the birthday
of our dear Susan B. Anthony; long life to her! I should have been
delighted to respond to the toast proposed, and to bear my
heartfelt tribute of respect and love for the true and unselfish
reformer, to whom women are no more indebted than are men. "Time
shall embalm and magnify her name." Very sincerely yours,
WM. LLOYD GARRISON.
I know her great earnestness in every righteous cause, especially
that most righteous of all, woman suffrage, which I hope may
receive a new impulse from your gathering. As I grow older I feel
assured, year by year, that the granting of suffrage to women will
remedy many evils which now are attendant on popular government;
and if we are to despair of that cause we must despair of the final
establishment of justice as the controlling power in the political
affairs of mankind. I am faithfully yours,
GEORGE F. HOAR.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Yours Sincerely, T B Reed"]
I can not venture to promise to be present at the dinner to be
given to Miss Anthony, but I should be sorry to lose an opportunity
to express my admiration of her life and character. In themselves
they are ample refutation of the charges made by the unthinking
that participation in public affairs would make women unwomanly. If
any system of subjection has enabled any woman to preserve more
thoroughly the respect and affectionate regard of all her friends
than has Miss Anthony amid the struggles of an active and
strenuous life I have yet to learn of it. With sincere hope that
she may have many years still left to her, I am yours sincerely,
THOMAS B. REED.
I think I express the feeling of most if not all the workers in our
cause when I say that the women of America owe more to Susan B.
Anthony than to any other woman living. While Mrs. Stanton has been
the standard bearer of liberty, announcing great principles, Miss
Anthony has been the power which has carried those principles on
toward victory and impressed them upon the hearts of the people.
Yours truly,
OLYMPIA BROWN.
May you live many years longer to enjoy the results of your
herculean work, and score as many triumphs in the future as you
have in the past. On the morning of the 15th some flowers will be
sent you with my love. I wish they were as imperishable as your
name and fame. Affectionately,
MRS. JOHN A. LOGAN.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Affectionately, Mrs. John A Logan"]
How good to have lived through the laugh of the world into its
smiles of welcome and honor--how much better to have reached these
with a heart gentle and humble like hers--how best of all to care,
as she must, scarce a rush for the personal honor and accept it
only as an honor to the cause for which she has given so many of
the seventy years. Truly yours,
W. C. AND MARY LEWIS GANNETT.
With the hope that you may live to one hundred or until, like
ancient Simeon, you behold what you hope for, I am yours very
truly,
T. W. PALMER.
My wife and I send you our hearty congratulations on your birthday.
May you have many happy returns of the day, with increasing honor
and affection from your numerous friends, amongst whom we hope you
will let us count ourselves. Yours very truly,
CHARLES NORDHOFF.
I congratulate you with all my heart upon your health and happiness
on this your seventieth birthday, and wish to say that I believe no
woman lives in the United States who has done more for her sex, and
for ours as well, than yourself. The great advancement of women,
not alone in the direction of suffrage, but in every field of labor
and every department of the better and nobler life of manhood and
womanhood, during the past generation, has sprung from the work
which you inaugurated years ago. Mrs. Carpenter joins me in
congratulations and good wishes. Very truly yours,
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
Cordial greetings were received from Neal Dow and Senator Dawes, and
letters and telegrams came from distinguished individuals and societies
in every State and from many foreign countries. Over 200 of these are
preserved among other mementoes of this occasion. Among the telegrams
were these, representing the great labor organization of the country:
We congratulate you on the seventieth anniversary of a useful and
successful life. May you enjoy many years of health and happiness.
HANNAH POWDERLY, T. V. POWDERLY.
May your noble, self-sacrificing life be spared to participate in
your heart's dearest wish--woman's full emancipation.
LEONORA M. BARRY, _Grand Organizer K. of L._
[Illustration: Autograph: "Faithfully yours, Clara Bewick Colby."]
Mrs. Colby issued a birthday edition of the Woman's Tribune containing a
history of Miss Anthony's trial, a fine biographical sketch written by
herself and many beautiful tributes from other friends, among them this
from Laura M. Johns: "Always to efface herself and her own interests and
to put the cause to the fore; to be striving to place a crown upon some
other brow; to be receiving and giving, but never retaining; ever
enriching the work but never herself; to be busy through weariness and
difficulty and resting only in a change of labor; to bear the stinging
hail of ridicule which fell on this movement, and to receive with
surprised tears the flowers that bloomed in her thorny path; to be in
the heat of the noonday harvest field at seventy, with years of activity
and usefulness still remaining to add to her glorious life and crown it
with such dignity as belongs to few--this is the story of Susan B.
Anthony."
Miss Anthony carried in her arms seventy pink carnations with the card,
"For she's the pink o' womankind and blooms without a peer," from Miss
Cummings, of Washington. Flowers were sent in profusion, and there was
no end of lovely little remembrances of jewelry, water colors, books,
portfolios, card cases, handkerchiefs, fans, satin souvenirs,
fancy-work, the gifts of loving women in all parts of the country.[53]
The evening was one of the proudest and happiest of a life which,
although filled with toil and hardship, had been brightened, as had that
of few other women, with the bountiful tributes and testimonials not
only of personal friends but of people in all parts of the world who
knew of her only through her work for humanity. The next day she sat
down to Sunday dinner at a table which, thanks to Mrs. Spofford's
thoughtfulness, had been arranged especially for the occasion,
surrounded by twenty-five of her own relatives who had come to
Washington to celebrate her birthday.
Among many newspaper editorials upon this celebration, an extract from
the Boston Traveller, which bears the impress of the gifted Lilian
Whiting, may be taken as an example of the general sentiment:
Without any special relay of theories on the subject, Miss Susan B.
Anthony discovered early in life the secret of imperishable youth
and constantly increasing happiness--a secret that may be
translated as personal devotion to a noble purpose. To devote one's
self to something higher than self--this is the answer of the ages
to those who would find the source of immortal energy and
enjoyment. It is a statement very simply and easily made but
involving all the philosophy of life. Miss Anthony recognized it
intuitively. She translated it into action with little
consciousness of its value as a theory; but it is the one deepest
truth in existence, and one which every human soul must sometime or
somewhere learn.
On February 15, 1820, when Susan B. Anthony was born, Emerson was a
youth of seventeen; Henry Ward Beecher was a child of seven and
Harriet Beecher Stowe a year his junior; Wendell Phillips was nine,
Whittier thirteen, and Wm. Lloyd Garrison fifteen years of age.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was four years old, and Lucy Stone, Julia
Ward Howe and James Russell Lowell were Miss Anthony's predecessors
in this world only by one or two years. Margaret Fuller was ten,
Abraham Lincoln was eleven, and thus, between 1803-20, inclusive,
were born a remarkable group of people--a galaxy whose influence on
their century has been unequalled in any age or in any country,
since that of Pericles and his associates in the golden age of
Greece. It is only now, as the work of these immortals begins to
assume something of the definite outline of completeness; as some
results of the determining forces for which this great galaxy has
stood, begin to be discerned, that we can adequately recognize how
important to the century their lives have been. There are
undoubtedly high spirits sent to earth with a definite service to
render to their age and generation; a service that prepares the way
for the next ascending round on the great cycle of progress, and it
is no exaggeration to say that Susan B. Anthony is one of these....
[Illustration: Autograph: "I am always faithfully yours, Lilian
Whiting."]
Even brief quotations must be omitted for want of space, but this from
the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Charles E. Fitch, editor, is
entitled to a place as the sentiment in the city where Miss Anthony had
made her home for nearly half a century:
The occasion is a notable one. It is in honor of one of the noblest
women of her time. The day is past when Susan B. Anthony is met
with ridicule. She is honored everywhere. Consistent earnestness
will, at the last if not at the first, command respect. Slowly but
surely, Miss Anthony has won that respect from her countrymen. The
cause of the emancipation of women, for which she has labored so
long and so zealously, is not yet triumphant, nor is it probable
that she will live to see woman suffrage the rule of the land; but
at threescore years and ten, she may freely cherish the faith that
it is a conquering cause, destined some day to be vindicated in the
organic law of the separate American commonwealths and the Federal
union.
But it is not alone for the service which Miss Anthony has rendered
to the cause of woman suffrage that she is highly honored. She is
honored because of her womanhood, because she has ever been brave
without conceit and earnest without pretense, because she has the
heart to sympathize with suffering humanity in its various phases,
and the will to redress human wrongs. She has revealed a true
nobility of soul, and has ever been patient under abuse and
misrepresentation. She has allied herself with all good causes, and
has been the friend of those struggling against the dominion of
appetite as well as of those who have sought to free themselves
from political thralldom. She has earned the esteem even of those
who were diametrically opposed to her views. Within the movements
which she has urged, she has been an administrator rather than an
orator, although on occasions her speech has been informed with
the eloquence of conviction. In private life she has constrained
affection by a gentleness with which the world would hardly credit
her; but those who best know her, best know also the gracious
womanhood which illustrates itself in acts of unselfishness and
beneficence.
The birthday was celebrated by individuals and clubs in many states with
luncheons, teas, receptions and literary entertainments. After all these
pleasant happenings, Miss Anthony felt new courage and hope to enter
upon the Twenty-second National Suffrage Convention, February 18, at
Lincoln Music Hall. This was to be an important meeting, as it was to
consummate the union of the National and American organizations, and she
was anxious for a large attendance. "Do come," she wrote to the most
influential friends, "if you stay away forever afterwards. This will be
the crucial test whether our platform shall continue broad and free as
it has been for forty years. Some now propose secession because it is to
be narrow and bigoted; others left us twenty years ago because it was
too liberal. Some of the prominent women are writing me that the union
means we shall be no more than an annex to the W. C. T. U. hereafter;
others declare we are going to sink our identity and become sectarian
and conservative. There is not the slightest ground for any of these
fears, but come and be our stay and support."
She also had the annual struggle to secure the presence of Mrs. Stanton,
who was about to sail with her daughter for England, but, after the
usual stormy correspondence, the day of departure was postponed and she
wrote: "You will have me under your thumb the first of February." As her
time was limited, Miss Anthony arranged for the hearing before the
Senate committee on February 8, which was held in the new room assigned
to the committee on woman suffrage. A few days later the ladies spoke
before the House Judiciary Committee.
The union of the two organizations was effected before the opening of
the convention and Mrs. Stanton elected president.[54] She faced a
brilliant assemblage at the opening of the National-American Convention
and made one of the ablest speeches of her life, stating in the first
sentence that she considered it a greater honor to go to England as the
president of this association than to be sent as minister
plenipotentiary to any court in Europe. She closed by introducing her
daughter, Mrs. Stanton Blatch, who captivated the audience.[55] Hon. Wm.
Dudley Foulke, ex-president of the American Association, then delivered
an eloquent and scholarly address. At its close Mrs. Stanton was obliged
to leave, as she sailed for Europe the next morning. When she arose to
say farewell the entire audience joined in the waving of handkerchiefs,
the clapping of hands, and the men in three rousing cheers.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Wm D Youlke"]
The usual corps of National speakers received a notable addition in Wm.
Lloyd Garrison, Julia Ward Howe, Henry B. Blackwell, Carrie Chapman
Catt, Hon. J. A. Pickler and Alice Stone Blackwell. Lucy Stone, being
detained at home by illness, sent a letter of greeting. When Miss
Anthony, as vice-president-at-large, took the chair after Mrs. Stanton's
departure, a great bouquet of white lilies was presented to her.
A woman suffrage amendment was pending in South Dakota, and the claims
of the new State were presented by Representative and Mrs. Pickler and
Alonzo Wardall, secretary of the Farmer's Alliance and vice-president of
the suffrage association, all of whom felt confident that with financial
help the amendment could be carried but, as the State was poor, most of
this would have to come from outside. The convention became very
enthusiastic and a South Dakota campaign committee was formed; Susan B.
Anthony, chairman, Clara B. Colby, Alice Stone Blackwell. Rev. Anna H.
Shaw made a stirring appeal for money. Miss Anthony pledged all that she
could raise between then and the November election. Mrs. Clara L.
McAdow, of Montana, headed the list with $250. A number of ladies
followed with pledges for their respective States. In a short time it
seemed evident that a large sum could be raised and, at Miss Anthony's
request, the association directed all contributions to be sent to its
treasurer, Mrs. Spofford, at Washington, and she herself agreed to
devote a year's work to Dakota.[56]
Miss Anthony remained in Washington several weeks, looking after various
matters: first of all, a representation of women in the management of
the Columbian Exposition; then there were the reports of the Senate and
the House committees, upon which she always brought to bear as much as
possible of that "indirect influence" which women are said to possess.
Just now the admission of Wyoming as a State with woman suffrage in its
constitution was hanging in the balance, but on March 26 she had the
inexpressible pleasure of witnessing, from her seat in the gallery of
the House, the final discussion and passage of the bill.[57] She also
was arranging for the incorporation of the National-American
Association, the old National, which had been a corporate body for a
number of years, having added American to its name. The bills of the
convention were to be settled,[58] and there were still other subjects
claiming her attention before she started for the far West to inaugurate
the South Dakota campaign.
Miss Anthony was a welcome guest at dinners and receptions in the homes
of many of the dignitaries in Washington, but accepted these invitations
only when she saw an opportunity thereby to further the cause of woman
suffrage. She realized fully that one important step in the work was to
interest women of influence, socially and financially, and the high
plane of respectability which this question had now attained was at
least partly due to her winters in Washington, where, at the Riggs House
and in society, she met and made friends with prominent men and women
from all parts of the country and converted them to her doctrines, which
they disseminated in their various localities upon returning home.
She writes her sister, in describing social events, of a dinner at the
handsome home of John R. McLean, owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer, who
in person brought the invitation, while his wife, the daughter of
General Beale, looked after her "as if she had been the Queen of Sheba."
Here she met Senator and Mrs. Payne of Ohio, Senator and Mrs. Cockrell
of Missouri, Senator and Mrs. Butler of South Carolina, Speaker and Mrs.
Reed of Maine, Justice and Mrs. Field and other notables. Then she
speaks of a meeting of the Cobweb Club, composed of women in official
life, where, at the close of her informal talk, they crowded around her
and exclaimed: "Why, Miss Anthony, we never understood this question
before; of course we believe in it." Mrs. Hearst, wife of the Senator,
said: "Had any one ever presented this subject to me as you have done
today, you should have had my help long ago." "And so you see," she
writes, "that at this juncture of our movement much could be
accomplished by accepting such invitations, but it costs me more courage
than to face an audience of a thousand people."
While Miss Anthony was still in Washington she sat for her bust by a
young sculptor, Adelaide Johnson. "So marble and canvas both are to tell
the story," she wrote, "for I have sat also for a painting. The time
draws near when I must start out campaigning and O, how I dread it!"
During this winter she received an invitation from a State W. C. T. U.
to bring a suffrage convention to their city and they would bear the
expenses, stipulating only that she herself should be present, and that
"no speaker should say anything which would seem like an attack on
Christianity." She wrote Miss Shaw: "Won't that prevent your going, Rev.
Anna? I wonder if they'll be as particular to warn all other speakers
not to say anything which shall sound like an attack on liberal
religion. They never seem to think we have any feelings to be hurt when
we have to sit under their reiteration of orthodox cant and dogma. The
boot is all on one foot with the dear religious bigots--but if they will
all pull together with us for suffrage we'll continue to bear and
forbear, as we have done for the past forty years."
In this winter of 1890 many loving letters passed between Miss Anthony
and Rachel Foster Avery, almost too sacred to be quoted, and yet a few
sentences may be used to show the maternal tenderness in the nature of
the great reformer:
Of course I miss you from my side, but do not feel for a moment
that any doubt of your love and loyalty ever crosses my mind. No,
my dear, you and all of us must consider only the best interests of
the loved though not yet seen. Banish anxiety and let the rest of
us take all the work and care. Be happy in the new life you are
molding; avoid all but lovely thoughts; let your first and nearest
and dearest feelings be for the precious little one whose
temperament and nature you are now stamping. Your every heartbeat,
not only of love and peace and beauty, but of the reverse as well,
is making its mark on the unborn.... I feel much better satisfied
to know Sister Mary is with you for a few days. If her presence is
comforting, why don't you ask her to stay with you till the wee one
arrives?
And so the serene and helpful sister Mary remains until a telegram is
sent to the anxious one, by that time in far-off Dakota, announcing the
birth of a daughter. "My heart bounded with joy," wrote Miss Anthony,
"to hear the ordeal was passed and the little, sassie Rose Foster Avery
safely launched upon the big ocean of time." And in a little while the
mother replied: "Darling Aunt Susan, when I lie with baby Rose in my
arms, I think so often of what she and I and all women, born and to be
born, owe to you, and my heart overflows with love and gratitude."
FOOTNOTES:
[53] There were also more substantial tokens, an Irish wool shawl from
Mrs. Chant; a Webster's Unabridged Dictionary from Mrs. Colby, with the
inscription, "The words in this volume can not express what women owe
you;" a silk dress pattern from brother Daniel R.; a $50 check from
sister Mary; $200 from Sarah Willis of Rochester, and $100 from the
Woman's Political Equality Club of that city; seventy golden dollars
from the Toledo Suffrage Club; $50 from Mrs. Arthur A. Mosher of St.
Louis, and enough $5 bills in friendly letters to bring the amount to
over $500. The very next day Miss Anthony gave a part of this to friends
who were ill or needy, including $50 to Phoebe Couzins.
[54] Described in detail in Chapter XXXV.
[55] Miss Anthony wrote in her journal that night: "Harriot said but a
few words, yet showed herself worthy her mother and her mother's
life-long friend and co-worker. It was a proud moment for me."
[56] Among those who contributed largely to this fund were Senator
Stanford, $300; Rachel Foster Avery, $300; George C. Lemon, Washington
City; Hon. Ezra V. Meeker, Puyallup; Rev. Anna H. Shaw; Isabella
Hedenberg, Chicago; Alice Stone Blackwell; Emily Howland, Sherwood, N.
Y.; O. G. and Alice Peters, Columbus, O.; John L. Whiting, Boston;
Senator R. F. Pettigrew, Sioux Falls; Albert O. Willcox, New York, $100
each; Mary H. Johnson, Louisville, $115, which she earned by knitting
wool shawls and fascinators; May Wright Sewall sent nearly $200,
collected from Indiana friends; James and Martha Callanan, Des Moines,
$150; Mary Grew, $143 for the Pennsylvania society. Other women sent
their jewelry to be sold, and one offered a gift of western land. The
rest of the $5,500 was sent in smaller amounts, and all receipts and
expenditures were carefully entered on the national treasurer's books
for 1890. When later some carping individuals complained at so much
money passing through Miss Anthony's hands, Mrs. Livermore silenced them
by saying: "Susan would use every dollar for suffrage if millions were
given to her."
[57] Mary Grew wrote her immediately: "All hail and congratulations! I
read in this morning's paper that you were in the House yesterday; and I
have no doubt that today you are doing something to promote the passage
of the bill through the Senate.... One object of this letter is to urge
you to take more care of your health. Emily Howland reports that you are
very much overworked and exhausted. Pray stop awhile and rest yourself,
for the sake of the cause as well as for your own and your friends'."
[58] I will authorize you to add my signature to yours in approving any
bills relating to the expenses of the National-American convention just
past. It will save time and trouble. You are on the spot and know all
about the bills. Yours sincerely,
LUCY STONE.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE SOUTH DAKOTA CAMPAIGN.
1890.
Miss Anthony left Washington to attend the wedding of her nephew,
Wendell Phillips Mosher, and Carolyn Louise Mixer, at Cleveland, O.,
April 17; stopped in Chicago for a day, and reached Huron, S. Dak.,
April 23, 1890.[59] During the early winter she had had the most urgent
letters from this State, begging her to hasten her coming, that all
depended upon her. "If you will come we will throw off our coats and go
to work," wrote the men. "Woe to the man or woman who is not loyal to
you! If ever you were needed anywhere, you are needed here now," wrote
the women. When she had been in South Dakota the previous autumn, all
had united in urging her to take charge of the campaign, and for months
she had been receiving appeals for help. "We have not enough money to
organize one county," came from a member of the executive committee. In
January, from Alonzo Wardall, vice-president of the State Association,
"We are very grateful for your earnest efforts in our behalf and trust
you will be able to spend the coming summer with us." His wife, the
superintendent of press, wrote in February: "We shall give you the
credit, dear Miss Anthony, if we succeed next November."
On March 5, the president of the association, S. A. Ramsey, said in the
course of a long letter: "I had begun to feel misgivings relative to our
success, because we were so poorly prepared for the great conflict
which is pending; but the appointment by the national convention of a
special committee to aid us in our work has inspired me with great hope,
especially as you were placed at the head of that committee." Mrs. H. M.
Barker, State organizer, wrote March 10: "Organizing must have stopped
in the third district, had it not been for the money you sent. It is
utterly impossible for us to pay even $10 a week to organizers. I have
been disappointed in my home workers, so many incapacitated for various
reasons. We shall make suffrage a specialty in all our W. C. T. U.
county and district conventions." And April 11, the State secretary,
Rev. M. Barker, supplemented this with: "It is absolutely impossible to
raise money in the State to pay speakers and furnish literature. This
you understand. The election must go by default if it is expected."
At the Washington convention it had been ordered that all contributions
should be forwarded to the national treasurer and disbursed by order of
the committee. Notwithstanding this, a large proportion was sent
directly to Miss Anthony with the express stipulation that it should be
expended under her personal supervision. There never was a woman
connected with the suffrage movement who could collect as much money as
she; people would give to her who refused all others, with the
injunction that she should use according to her own judgment. That which
was sent her for Dakota she turned over at once to the treasurer, Mrs.
Spofford, and paid all the campaign bills by checks.
The Dakota people had made the mistake of electing a suffrage board
entirely of men, except the treasurer and State organizer, and, although
they had not a dollar in their treasury and no prospects, they agreed to
pay the secretary $100 a month for his services! When money from all
parts of the country had been sent to the national treasurer, until the
Dakota fund reached $5,500, the executive committee of that State
suddenly discovered that they could manage their own campaign, and made
a demand upon the national committee to turn the funds over to them.
Miss Anthony, as chairman, already had sent them $300 for preliminary
work; had written and telegraphed that the services of Miss Shaw could
be had for only one month, at that time, and asked if they would arrange
her routes; and had twice written them to send her their "plan of
campaign," but had received no answer to any of these communications. At
the last moment she was obliged herself to make out Miss Shaw's route
and send her into the field with practically no advertisement. On March
29 she wrote to the State president:
Immediately on the receipt of your answer to my first letter to
your executive committee, instead of sending you a personal reply I
wrote again to the entire committee, answering the various points
presented by you, Mr. and Mrs. Barker and others. This I did to
save writing the same thing to half a dozen different people, as
well as to make sure that I should get your official action upon
what seemed to me most important matters; but to this date I have
received not only no official answer, but no information which
shows my letter to have been acted upon. Nor have I heard from any
member of the committee that you have mapped out any plan of
campaign, or have accepted and proposed to work on the one which I
outlined last November at the Aberdeen meeting, and twice over have
stated in my letters.
You, personally, say to me that you must have the national funds
put into your treasury before you can plan work. Now, my dear sir,
as a business man you never would give your money to any person or
committee until they had presented to you a plan for using it which
met your approval. Then I have had no indication of any intention
on the part of your executive committee or State organizer to hold
any series of suffrage meetings or conventions. The only ones
written of are W. C. T. U. county and district conventions.
California's suffrage lecturer, I am informed, is to be introduced
to the State at the First District W. C. T. U. Convention.
Now, I want to say to you individually, and to the executive
committee generally, that the National-American South Dakota
committee will pay the money entrusted to them only to _suffrage_
lecturers and _suffrage_ conventions. We shall not pay it to any
individual or association for any other purpose, or in any other
name, than suffrage for women, pure and simple. We talked this over
fully in your executive committee meeting at Aberdeen last fall,
and all agreed that, while the temperance societies worked for
suffrage in their way, the suffrage campaign should be carried
forward on the basis of the one principle. Our national money will
not go to aid Prohibition leagues, Grand Army encampments, Woman's
Relief Corps, W. C. T. U. societies or any others, though all, we
hope, will declare and work for the suffrage amendment. We can not
ally ourselves with the Prohibition or Anti-Prohibition party--the
Democrats or the Republicans. Each may do splendid work for
suffrage within its own organization, and we shall rejoice in all
that do so; but the South Dakota and the National-American
Associations must stand on their own ground.
Co-operation is what our committee desire, and we stand ready to
aid in holding three series of county conventions with three sets
of speakers, at least one of each set a national speaker, beginning
on May 1 and continuing until the school election, June 24. I am
feeling sadly disappointed that every voting precinct of every
county has not been visited, and will not have been by the 1st of
May, as was agreed upon at Aberdeen. Still, I want to begin now and
henceforth push the work; but the entire fund would not pay every
single man and woman in the State who helps, hence every one who
can must work without cost either to the State or national
committee.
On the 7th of April Miss Anthony wrote to the State secretary:
Yours mailed April 3 is received. The National-American committee
have only about $1,300 yet in hand, and we have arranged a trip
through your State for Rev. Anna Shaw. When your committee did not
answer my telegram, I could not wait longer for fear of losing Miss
Shaw's good work before the students of your various educational
institutions, and having had urgent importunities from Mrs. D. W.
Mayer to send some of our very best speakers to Vermillion so that
the 600 students there might be roused to thought before separating
for the summer, I felt the cause could not afford to lose Miss
Shaw's effective services and so mapped out her route, and
telegraphed and wrote asking that she be advertised.
Now, my dear friends, once for all, I want to say on behalf of our
South Dakota committee, the National-American Association, and the
friends who have placed money in our hands--that we shall no more
turn it over to you to appropriate as your executive committee
please, without our voice or vote, than you would turn over the
money entrusted to your care to our committee to spend as we
choose, without your voice or vote. But while we shall retain our
right to expend the national fund in accordance with our best
judgment, we shall in future, as I have several times written your
committee, hold ourselves ready to help defray the cost of whatever
work you present to us. I have once verbally, and twice or oftener
by letter, presented a plan of campaign asking your adoption of it,
or of one which suited you better, telling you that we would
co-operate with you in executing the plan and paying therefor; and
to all of my propositions to help, the one reply has been: "The
wheels are blocked until you turn the money over to us. You in
Washington can not run the South Dakota campaign." Now nearly five
months have elapsed, and, so far as reported, the resident
committee have adopted no plan and had no organizers at work in the
different counties.
Rev. Anna Shaw made her lecture tour throughout the State, and wrote
Miss Anthony that the people everywhere were most anxious for her to
come and there was not the slightest disaffection except on the part of
two or three persons who wished to handle the funds. To these Miss Shaw
said:
What our committee object to, and what they have no right to do by
the vote of our convention, is to put a dollar of our money into
your treasury to be spent without our consent or for any purpose of
which we do not approve. For example, not one of us, myself least
of all, will consent to take out of the contributions from friends
of suffrage one dollar to pay towards a salary of $100 a month to
any man as secretary. We do not pay our national secretary a cent,
and we have no doubt there are plenty of women in the State of
Dakota who would be glad to do the secretary's work for love of the
cause. I understand it has been planned, and the statement has gone
out, that your committee propose to cut loose from Miss Anthony.
Now if you do, you cut loose from the goose that lays the golden
egg for the South Dakota work; you cut loose from all the national
speakers and workers and all the money given.
Miss Anthony wrote Alice Stone Blackwell:
I fully agree with you and dear Mrs. Wallace about not antagonizing
the prohibition and W. C. T. U. people who made the 6,000 majority
last fall in South Dakota; but I also feel that we must not
antagonize the license people, for they are one-half of the voters,
lacking only 6,000, and fully 6,000 of the Prohibition men are
anti-suffragists and can not be converted. Hence it is also vastly
important that the license men shall not have just cause to feel
that our national suffrage lecturers are W. C. T. U. agents. That
is my one point--that we shall not at the outset repel every man
who is not a Prohibitionist.
But we shall see. I surely am as earnest a prohibitionist and total
abstainer as any woman or man in South Dakota or anywhere else. But
they have prohibition, and now are after suffrage; therefore it
should not be the old prohibition and W. C. T. U. yardstick in this
campaign, but instead it must be the woman suffrage yardstick alone
by which every man and every woman shall be measured. Best assured
I shall try not to offend a single voter, of whatever persuasion,
for it is votes we are after now. I hope to make such a good
showing of work done in this spring campaign, that our friends will
feel like giving another and larger contribution to help on the
fall canvass.
The editors of the two suffrage papers, the officers of the
National-American Association, the largest contributors to the fund and
the other members of the committee, all sustained Miss Anthony in her
position. Zerelda G. Wallace published the following notice: "Having
pledged to the committee on work in South Dakota one month's services in
the projected suffrage campaign in that State, I wish to announce
publicly that all I do there will be done under the direction of the
South Dakota committee of which Susan B. Anthony is chairman."
Finally, on April 15, the executive committee of South Dakota forwarded
their plan, which included a provision that "every dollar expended
should pass through the State treasury, and that the State executive
committee should have control of all plans of work and decide what
lecturers should be engaged;" but by the time it reached Washington Miss
Anthony was well on her way to South Dakota. When she arrived she found
that it was just as she had been informed, the disaffection was confined
to a few persons, but the body of workers made her welcome and she was
cordially received throughout the State. Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe, State
lecturer and one of the ablest women, at once placed her services at
Miss Anthony's disposal, and in a short time nearly all were working in
harmony with the national plan.
The autumn previous, when Miss Anthony was attending a convention in
Minneapolis, H. L. Loucks and Alonzo Wardall, president and secretary of
the South Dakota Farmers' Alliance, had made a journey expressly to ask
her to come into the State to conduct this canvass. She had replied that
she never again would go into an amendment campaign unless it was
endorsed and advocated by at least one of the two great political
parties. They assured her that the Farmers' Alliance dominated politics
in South Dakota, that it held the balance of power, and the year
previous had compelled the Republicans to put a prohibition plank in
their platform and, through the influence of the Alliance, that
amendment had been carried by 6,000 majority. They were ready now to do
the same for woman suffrage. It was wholly because of the assurance of
this support that Miss Anthony took the responsibility of raising the
funds and conducting the campaign in South Dakota.
When she arrived in the State, April 23, none of the political
conventions had been held. In co-operation with the State executive
board, she at once planned the suffrage mass meetings, arranged work for
the corps of speakers, pushed the district organization and made
speeches herself almost every night. The National-American Association
sent into the State and paid the expenses of Rev. Anna Shaw, Rev.
Olympia Brown, Laura M. Johns, Mary Seymour Howell, Carrie Chapman
Catt, Julia B. Nelson and Clara B. Colby.[60] It also contributed over
$1,000 to the office expenses of the State committee, paid $400 to the
Woman's Journal and Woman's Tribune for thousands of copies to be sent
to residents of South Dakota during the campaign, and flooded the State
with suffrage literature. The speakers collected altogether $1,400 in
South Dakota, which went toward their expenses. California, as her
contribution to the national fund, raised $1,000 through a committee
consisting of Hon. George C. Perkins, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent, Mrs.
Knox Goodrich, Hon. W. H. Mills, Miss Sarah C. Severance and Dr. Alida
C. Avery. This was used to pay the expenses of Matilda Hindman for eight
months, as one of the campaign organizers and speakers.
As Miss Anthony was on her way to a meeting June 3, she received a
telegram which sent her at once to Huron, where the annual convention of
the Farmers' Alliance was in session. Upon arriving she found her
information had been correct, that the Alliance and the Knights of Labor
had combined forces and were about to form an independent party. She was
permitted to address the convention and in the most impassioned language
she begged them not to take this step, as it would be death to the woman
suffrage amendment. She appealed to them in the name of their wives and
daughters at home, doing double duty in order that the men might attend
this convention; she reminded them of their pledges to herself and the
other women to stand by the amendment, and showed them that, of
themselves, they would not be strong enough to carry it, and that the
Republican party, unless sustained by the Alliance, would not and could
not support it. Her appeals fell upon deaf ears, and the old story was
repeated--the women sacrificed to party expediency.
The Alliance of 478 delegates, at its State convention the previous
year, November, 1889, after Miss Anthony's speech and after she had met
with its business committee, had passed this resolution:
_Resolved_, That we will do all in our power to aid in woman's
enfranchisement in South Dakota at the next general election, by
bringing it before the local Alliances for agitation and
discussion, thereby educating the masses upon the subject.
The Knights of Labor, at their annual convention in Aberdeen, January,
1890, had adopted the following:
_Resolved_, That the Knights of Labor, in assembly convened, do
hereby declare that we will support with all our strength the
amendment to the State Constitution of South Dakota, to be voted on
at the next general election, giving to our wives, mothers and
sisters the ballot.... We believe that giving to the women of our
country the ballot is the first step towards securing those reforms
for which all true Knights of Labor are striving.
This action was taken by both conventions after the amendment had been
submitted, and it was intended as a pledge of support. And yet the
following June these two bodies formed a new political party and refused
to put a woman suffrage plank in their platform! H. L. Loucks was
himself a candidate for governor on this Independent ticket, and in his
annual address at this time never mentioned woman suffrage. Before
adjourning, the convention passed a long resolution making seven or
eight declarations, among them one that "no citizen should be
disfranchised on account of sex," but, during the entire campaign, as
far as their party advocacy was concerned, this question was a dead
issue.[61]
The State Democratic Convention met at Aberdeen the following week, and
a committee of representative Dakota women was sent to present the
claims of the amendment. They were invited to seats on the platform and
there listened to an address by Hon. E. W. Miller, of Parker county,
land receiver of the Huron district, in which, according to the press
reports, "he declared that no decent, respectable woman asked for the
ballot; that the women who did so were a disgrace to their homes; that
when women voted men would have to suckle the babies," and used other
expressions of an indecent nature, "which were received with prolonged
and vigorous cheers." (Argus-Leader, June 16, 1890.)[62] Judge Bangs, of
Rapid City, who had brought in a minority report in favor of a suffrage
plank, supported it in an able and dignified speech, but it was
overwhelmingly voted down amidst great disorder. A large delegation of
Russians came to this convention wearing great yellow badges (the
brewers' color in South Dakota) lettered "Against woman suffrage and
Susan B. Anthony."
The Republican State Convention met in Mitchell, August 27. A suffrage
mass meeting was held the two days preceding, and every possible effort
made to secure a plank in the platform. Most of the national speakers
and a large body of earnest and influential South Dakota men and women
were present. Rev. Anna Shaw graphically relates an incident which
deserves a place in history:
When the Republicans had their State convention some of the leading
men promised that we should have a plank in the platform, so we
went down to see it through. We requested seats in the body of the
house for our delegation, which was composed of most of the
national speakers and the brainiest women in South Dakota, but we
were informed there was absolutely no room for us. Finally a friend
secured admission for ten on the very back of the platform, where
we could neither see nor hear unless we stood on our chairs. We
begged a good seat for Miss Anthony but no place could be made for
her. Soon after the convention opened, an announcement was made
that a delegation was waiting outside and that back of this
delegation would probably be 5,000 votes. It was at once moved and
seconded that they be invited in, and a committee was sent to
escort them to seats on the floor of the house. In a moment it
returned, followed by three big, dirty Indians in blankets and
moccasins. Plenty of room for Indian men, but not a seat for
American women!
We asked for a chance to address the delegates, but the chairman
adjourned the convention, and then announced that we might speak
during the recess. That night we went back again to the hall, and
the resolution committee not being ready to report, the audience
called for leading speakers, but none of them dared say a word
because they did not yet know what would be in the platform.
Finally when no man would respond they called for me, and I went
forward and said: "Gentlemen, I am not afraid to speak, for I know
what is in _our_ platform and I know also what I want you to
introduce into yours."
She then made her plea. It was cordially received, but the platform
entirely ignored the question of woman suffrage. This was true also of
the press and party speakers during the campaign, with one exception.
Hon. J. A. Pickler was renominated for Congress, and in his speech of
acceptance declared his belief in woman suffrage and his regret that the
Republicans did not adopt it in their platform. He was warned by the
party leaders, but replied that he would advocate it even if he
imperilled his chances for election. He spoke in favor of the amendment
throughout his campaign and was elected without difficulty. His wife,
Alice M. Pickler, was one of the most effective speakers and workers
among the Dakota women and, although Mr. Pickler was a candidate, she
did not once speak upon Republican issues but confined herself wholly to
the question of woman suffrage. She was as true and courageous as her
husband. Although fair reports of the suffrage meetings were published,
scarcely a newspaper in the State gave editorial endorsement to the
amendment.
The adverse action of the party conventions virtually destroyed all
chance for success, but the suffrage speakers usually found enthusiastic
audiences, and the friends still hoped against hope that they might
secure a popular vote. Miss Anthony never lost courage, and her letters
were full of good cheer. "Tell everybody," she wrote, "that I am
perfectly well in body and mind, never better, and never doing more
work.... Anna Shaw and I are on our way to the Black Hills, and shall
rush into Sioux City for a pay lecture and turn the proceeds over to the
Dakota fund.... O, the lack of the modern comforts and conveniences! But
I can put up with it better than any of the young folks.... All of us
must strain every nerve to move the hearts of men as they never before
were moved. I shall push ahead and do my level best to carry this State,
come weal or woe to me personally.... I never felt so buoyed up with the
love and sympathy and confidence of the good people everywhere....
The friends here are very sanguine and if I had not had my hopes dashed
to the earth in seven State campaigns before this, I, too, would dare
believe. But I shall not be cast down, even if voted down."
[Illustration: Anna Howard Shaw (Signed: "With affectionate severence
for women's truest friend, Anna Howard Shaw.")]
The eastern friends sent appreciative letters. "The thought of you and
your fellow-workers in South Dakota in this hot weather and with
insufficient funds, has lain like lead upon my heart," wrote John
Hooker. "How I wish I could accept your invitation to come to you and
talk to the old soldiers," said Clara Barton; "but alas, I have not the
strength. My heart, my hopes, are with you and if there is a spoke I can
get hold of, I will help turn that wheel before the campaign is over. My
love is always with you and your glorious cause, my dear, dear Susan
Anthony."
[Illustration: Autograph: "Hoping once more to see you I am my dear
friend, Yours faithfully, Clara Barton"]
Anna Shaw wrote from Ohio in August: "I am trying to follow your
magnificent example, in quietly passing over every personal matter for
the sake of the greatest good for the work. Whenever I find myself
giving way, I think of you and all you have borne and get fresh courage
to try once more. Dear Aunt Susan, my heart is reaching out with such a
great longing for my mother, now eighty years old, that I must go to her
for a few days before I enter upon that long canvass, but I will come to
you soon."
It was a hard campaign, the summer the hottest ever known, the distances
long, the entertainment the best which could be offered, good in the
towns but in the rural districts sometimes very poor, and the speakers
slept more than once in sod houses where the only fuel for preparing the
meals consisted of "buffalo chips." The people were in severe financial
straits. A two years' drouth had destroyed the crops, and prairie fires
had swept away the little which was left. "Starvation stares them in the
face," Miss Anthony wrote. "Why could not Congress have appropriated the
money for artesian wells and helped these earnest, honest people,
instead of voting $40,000 for a commission to come out here and
investigate?"
Frequently the speakers had to drive twenty miles between the afternoon
and evening meetings, in the heat of summer and the chill of late
autumn; at one time forty miles on a wagon seat without a back. On the
Fourth of July, a roasting day, Miss Anthony spoke in the morning, drove
fifteen miles to speak again in the afternoon, and then left at night in
a pouring rain for a long ride in a freight-car. At one town the school
house was the only place for speaking purposes, but the Russian trustees
announced that "they did not want to hear any women preach," so after
the long trip, the meeting had to be given up. Several times in the
midst of their speeches, the audience was stampeded by cyclones, not a
soul left in the house.[63] The people came twenty and thirty miles to
these meetings, bringing their dinners. Miss Anthony speaks always in
the highest terms of the fine character of the Dakota men and women, and
of their large families of bright, healthy children.
The speakers never tire of telling their experiences during that
campaign. Mary Seymour Howell relates in her own interesting way that
once she and Miss Anthony had been riding for hours in a stage which
creaked and groaned at every turn of the wheels, the poor, dilapidated
horses not able to travel out of a walk, the driver a prematurely-old
little boy whose feet did not touch the floor, and a cold Dakota wind
blowing straight into their faces. After an unbroken, homesick silence
of an hour, Miss Anthony said in a subdued and solemn voice, "Mrs.
Howell, humanity is at a very low ebb!" The tone, the look, the words,
so in harmony with the surroundings, produced a reaction which sent her
off into a fit of laughter, in which Miss Anthony soon joined.
They had been warned to keep away from a certain hotel, at one place, as
it was the very worst in the whole State. At the close of the afternoon
meeting there, a man came up and said he would be pleased to entertain
the speakers and could make them very comfortable. This seemed to be a
sure escape, so they thankfully accepted his invitation, but when they
reached his home, they discovered that he was the landlord of the poor
hotel! Miss Anthony charged Mrs. Howell to make the best of it without a
word of complaint. They went to supper, amidst heat and flies, and found
sour bread, muddy coffee and stewed green grapes. Miss Anthony ate and
drank and talked and smiled, and every little while touched Mrs.
Howell's foot with her own in a reassuring manner. After supper Mrs.
Howell went to her little, bare room, which she soon learned by the
clatter of the dishes was next to the kitchen, and through the thin
partition she heard the landlady say: "Well, I never supposed I could
entertain big-bugs, and I thought I couldn't live through having Susan
B. Anthony here, but I'm getting along all right. You ought to hear her
laugh; why, she laughs just like other people!" Mrs. Howell gives this
graphic description of the meetings at Madison, July 10:
In the afternoon we drove some distance to a beautiful lake where
Miss Anthony spoke to 1,000 men, a Farmers' Alliance picnic. When
she asked how many would vote for the suffrage amendment, all was
one mighty "aye," like the deep voice of the sea. That evening we
spoke in the opera house in the city. While Miss Anthony was
speaking a telegram for her was handed to me, and as I arose to
make the closing address I gave it to her. I had just begun when
she came quickly forward, put her hand on my arm and said, "Stop a
moment, I want to read this telegram." It was from Washington,
saying that President Harrison had signed the bill admitting
Wyoming into the Union with woman suffrage in its constitution.
Before she could finish reading the great audience was on its feet,
cheering and waving handkerchiefs and fans. After the enthusiasm
had subsided Miss Anthony made a short but wonderful speech. The
very tones of her voice changed; there were ringing notes of
gladness and tender ones of thankfulness. It was the first great
victory of her forty years of work. She spoke as one inspired,
while the audience listened for every word, some cheering, others
weeping.
When Miss Anthony was starting for South Dakota she was urged not
to go, through fear of the effect of such a campaign on her health.
Her reply was, "Better lose me than lose a State." A grand answer
from a grander woman. And this night in South Dakota we had won a
State and still had Miss Anthony with us, the central figure of the
suffrage movement as she was the central figure in that
never-to-be-forgotten night of great rejoicing.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Ever affectionately and faithfully yours,
Mary Seymour Howell."]
As very few women were able to hire help, many were obliged to bring
their babies to the meetings and, before the speaking was over, the heat
and confusion generally set them all to crying. Miss Anthony was very
patient and always expressed much sympathy for the overworked and tired
mothers. One occasion, however, was too much for her, and Anna Shaw thus
describes it:
One intensely hot Sunday afternoon, a meeting was held by the side
of a sod church, which had been extended by canvas coverings from
the wagons. The audience crowded up as close as they could be
packed to where Miss Anthony stood on a barn door laid across some
boxes. A woman with a baby sat very near the edge of this
improvised platform. The child grew tired and uneasy and finally
began to pinch Miss Anthony's ankles. She stepped back and he
immediately commenced to scream, so she stepped forward again and
he resumed his pinching. She endured it as long as she could, but
at last stooped down and whispered to the mother, "I think your
baby is too warm in here; take him out and give him a drink and he
will feel better." The woman jerked it up and started out,
exclaiming, "Well, this is the first time I have ever been insulted
on account of my motherhood!" A number of men gathered around her,
saying, "That is just what to expect from these old maid
suffragists." Some one told Miss Anthony she had lost twenty votes
by this. "Well," she replied, "if they could see the welts on my
ankles where they were pinched to keep that child still, they would
bring their twenty votes back."
She said to me the next day: "Now, Anna, no matter how many babies
cry you must not say one word or it will be taken as an insult to
motherhood." That afternoon I gave a little talk. The church was
crowded and there were so many children it seemed as if every
family had twins. There were at least six of them crying at the top
of their lungs. The louder they cried, the louder I yelled; and the
louder I yelled, the louder they cried, for they were scared.
Finally a gentleman asked, "Don't you want those children taken
out?" "O, no," said I, "there is nothing that inspires me so much
as the music of children's voices," and although a number of men
protested, I would not allow one of them taken from the room. I was
bound I wouldn't lose any votes.
Among the racy anecdotes which Miss Shaw relates of that memorable
campaign, is one which shows Miss Anthony's ready retort:
Many of the halls were merely rough boards and most of them had no
seats. I never saw so many intemperate men as at ----, in front of
the stores, on the street corners, and in the saloons, and yet they
had a prohibition law! We could not get any hall to speak in--they
were all in use for variety shows--and there was no church
finished, but the Presbyterian was the furthest along and they let
us have that, putting boards across nail kegs for seats. It was
filled to overflowing and people crowded up close to the platform.
One man came in so drunk he could not stand, so he sat down on the
edge and leaned against the table. Miss Anthony gave her argument
to prove what the ballot had done for laboring men in England and
was working up to show what it would do for women in the United
States, when suddenly the man roused and said: "Now look 'ere, old
gal, we've heard 'nuf about Victoria; can't you tell's somethin'
'bout George Washington?" The people tried to hush him, but soon he
broke out again with, "We've had 'nuf of England; can't you tell's
somethin' 'bout our grand republic?" The men cried, "Put him out,
put him out!" but Miss Anthony said: "No, gentlemen, he is a
product of man's government, and I want you to see what sort you
make."
In September Carrie Chapman Catt, one of the coolest, most logical and
level-headed women who ever went into a campaign, at the request of the
State executive committee gave her opinion of the situation as follows:
We have not a ghost of a show for success. Our cause can be
compared with the work of prohibition, always remembering ours is
the more unpopular. Last year the Methodist church led off in State
conference and declared for prohibition. It was followed by every
other church, except the German Lutheran and Catholic, even the
Scandinavian Lutherans voting largely for it. Next the Republican,
the strongest party, stood for it, because if they did not it meant
a party break. The Farmers' Alliance were solid for it. The
leaders were put to work, a large amount of money was collected and
representative men went out in local campaigns. It was debated on
the street, and men of influence converted those of weaker minds.
Now what have we? 1st.--The Lutherans, both German and
Scandinavian, and the Catholics are bitterly opposed. The
Methodists, our strongest friends everywhere else, are not so here.
2d.--We have one party openly and two others secretly against us.
3d.--While this county, for instance, gave $700 to prohibition, it
gives $2.50 to suffrage and claims that for hall rent, the amount
then not being sufficient. 4th.--When I suggested to the committee
to start a vigorous county campaign and get men of influence to go
out and speak, they did not know of one man willing to face the
political animosities it would engender.
With the exception of the work of a few women, nothing is being
done. We have opposed to us the most powerful elements in the
politics of the State. Continuing as we are, we can't poll 20,000
votes. We are converting women to "want to vote" by the hundreds,
but we are not having any appreciable effect upon the men. This is
because men have been accustomed to take new ideas only when
accompanied by party leadership with brass bands and huzzahs. We
have a total lack of all. Ours is a cold, lonesome little movement,
which will make our hearts ache about November 5. We must get
Dakota _men_ in the work. They are not talking woman suffrage on
the street. There is an absolute indifference concerning it. We
need some kind of a political mustard plaster to make things
lively. We are appealing to justice for success, when it is
selfishness that governs mankind....
The campaign was continued, however, with all the zeal and ability which
both State and national workers could command. There were between
fifteen and twenty thousand Scandinavians in the State and a woman was
sent to address them in their own language--one woman! A German woman
was sent among the men of that nationality. The last night before
election, mass meetings were held in all the large towns, Miss Anthony
and Miss Shaw being at Deadwood. In her excellent summing-up of the
campaign, Elizabeth M. Wardall, State superintendent of press, gives:
"Number of addresses by the national speakers, 789; by the State
speakers, 707; under the auspices of the W. C. T. U., 104; total, 1,600;
local and county clubs of women organized, 400. Literature sent to every
voter in the State."
What was the result of all this expenditure of time, labor and money?
There were 68,604 ballots cast; 22,972 for woman suffrage; 45,632
opposed; majority against, 22,660. Eight months of hard work by a large
corps of the ablest women in the United States, 1,600 speeches, $8,000
in money, for less than 23,000 votes! There were 30,000 foreigners in
South Dakota, Russians, Scandinavians, Poles and other nationalities. It
is claimed they voted almost solidly against woman suffrage, but even if
this were true they must have had the assistance of 15,000 American men.
If only those men who believed in prohibition had voted for woman
suffrage it would have carried, as had that measure, by 6,000 majority.
The opponents of prohibition, of course, massed themselves against
putting the ballot in the hands of women.
The main interest of this election was centered in the fight between
Huron and Pierre for the location of the capital. There never in any
State was a more shameless and corrupt buying and selling of votes, and
the woman suffrage amendment was one of the chief articles of barter.
The bribers, the liquor dealers and gamblers, were reinforced here, as
had been the case in other State campaigns, by their faithful allies,
"the Remonstrants of Boston," who circulated their anonymous sheet
through every nook and corner of the State.
All of the speakers who took any prominent part in the campaign were
paid except Miss Anthony.[64] She contributed her services for over six
months and refused during that time an offer of $500 from the State of
Washington for ten lectures and a contract from one of the largest
lecture bureaus in the country at $60 per night.[65] At the close of the
canvass she gave from the national fund $100 each to Mrs. Wardall and
Philena E. Johnson, who had worked so faithfully without pay. Then,
lacking $300 of enough to settle all the bills, she drew that amount
from her own small bank account and put it in as a contribution to the
campaign.
At the annual meeting of the State W. C. T. U., September 26, a strong
resolution was adopted endorsing Miss Anthony's work in South Dakota
and she was made an honorary member. After the election the State
suffrage committee unanimously passed the following resolution: "The
earnest and heartfelt gratitude of all the suffragists of South Dakota
is hereby extended to Susan B. Anthony, who has devoted her entire time,
energy and experience for six months to the cause of liberty and
justice."
Anna Shaw said that in all her years of preaching and lecturing she had
never been so exhausted as at the close of that canvass. Mrs. Catt was
prostrated with typhoid fever immediately upon reaching home, and
hovered between life and death for many months, in her delirium
constantly making speeches and talking of the campaign. Mary Anthony
said, "When my sister returned from South Dakota I realized for the
first time that she was indeed threescore and ten."
FOOTNOTES:
[59] "I am homesick already," she wrote Mrs. Spofford, "and have been
every minute since I left Washington. My choice would be to live there
most of the year, but no! Duty first, ease and comfort afterwards, even
if they never come."
[60] Mrs. Wallace was kept at home by serious illness in her family. In
a letter to Miss Anthony, August 18, expressing her deep regret, she
said: "Money would be no object with me if I could overcome the other
difficulties in the way, but as I can not, I fear I shall have to let
you think I am unreliable. I regret this, as there is no woman (except
Miss Willard) whose good opinion I value so highly as yours."
[61] In order to keep her next engagement, Miss Anthony was obliged to
leave Huron at 7:30 A. M., drive sixteen miles in the face of a heavy
northwest wind and rain, travel all day and speak that evening. "I did
the best I could," she wrote in her journal.
[62] Then E. W. Miller took the floor, and in a disgusting manner and
vile language berated the women present and all woman suffragists....
Miller disgraced the name of Democracy, disgraced his constituents,
disgraced South Dakota, disgraced the name of man by his brutal and low
remarks in the presence of ladies and gentlemen.--Aberdeen Pioneer.
[63] At one place where this happened, the Russian sheriff had locked
the court house doors, but the women compelled him to open them. He was
entirely converted by the addresses of the afternoon, and in the evening
when the storm was approaching, he rushed to Miss Anthony and exclaimed,
"Come, quick, and let me take you to the cellar, where you will be
perfectly safe." "O, no, thank you," she replied, "a little thing like a
cyclone does not frighten me."
[64] Henry B. Blackwell made a speaking tour of six weeks through the
State at his own expense.
[65] A letter from Mrs. Catt said: "I think you are the most unselfish
woman in all the world. You are determined to see that all the rest of
us are paid and comfortable, but think it entirely proper to work
yourself for nothing. If some of your self-sacrificing spirit could be
injected into the great body of suffragists, we would win a hundred
years sooner."
CHAPTER XXXIX.
WYOMING--MISS ANTHONY GOES TO HOUSEKEEPING.
1890-1891.
Miss Anthony accepted the defeat in South Dakota as philosophically as
she had those of the past forty years, bidding the women of the State be
of good cheer and continue the work of education until at last the men
should be ready to grant them freedom. With Mrs. Colby and Mrs. Julia B.
Nelson she went directly to the Nebraska convention at Fremont, November
12.[66] The 18th found her in Atchison with Mrs. Catt and Mrs. Colby, at
the Kansas convention, "where," the Tribune says, "she took part in all
the deliberations and methods of work as critically and earnestly as if
she herself would have to carry them out."
Two weeks were pleasantly spent visiting at Leavenworth and Fort Scott.
Thanksgiving was passed at the latter place and the next day the
suffrage friends, under the leadership of Dr. Sarah C. Hall, whom Miss
Anthony called "the backbone of Bourbon county," gave her a very pretty
reception at the home of Mrs. H. B. Brown. Saturday she spoke, morning,
afternoon and evening, at the county suffrage convention. Her time for
rest and recreation was very brief, and by December 4 she and Mrs. Catt
were in the midst of the Iowa convention at Des Moines. As usual when
flying from one side of the continent to the other, she stopped at
Indianapolis for a few days' work with Mrs. Sewall, and they sat up into
the wee, sma' hours, planning and arranging for the Washington
convention, the National Council and the World's Fair Congress of Women.
She arrived in Rochester Saturday morning; that evening Anna Shaw came
in from her tour of lectures all along the way from South Dakota, and it
would not be surprising to know that a business meeting of two was held
the next day after church services. Monday evening the Political
Equality Club tendered them a reception at the Chamber of Commerce,
which was largely attended. On December 16 and 17 they addressed the
State Suffrage Convention in this city, and soon afterwards Miss Anthony
started for Washington by way of New York and Philadelphia.
The year 1890 had been eventful for the cause of woman suffrage, in
spite of the defeat in Dakota. The bill for the admission of Wyoming as
a State had been presented in the House of Representatives December 18,
1889. Its constitution, which had been adopted by more than a two-thirds
vote of the people, provided that "the right of its citizens to vote and
hold office should not be denied or abridged on account of sex." The
House Committee on Territories, through Charles S. Baker, of Rochester,
reported in favor of admission. The minority report presented by William
M. Springer, of Illinois, covered twenty-three pages; two devoted to
various other reasons for non-admission and twenty-one to objections
because of the woman suffrage clause, "which provides that not only
males may vote but their wives also." Incorporated in this report were
the overworked articles of Mrs. Leonard and Mrs. Whitney, supplemented
by a ponderous manifesto of Goldwin Smith, and it ended with the same
list of "distinguished citizens of Boston opposed to female suffrage,"
which had several times before been brought out from its pigeonhole and
dusted off to terrify those citizens of the United States who did not
reside in Boston.
As it was supposed Wyoming would be Republican its admission was
bitterly fought by the Democrats, who used its suffrage clause as a club
to frighten the Republicans, but even those of the latter who were
opposed were willing to swallow woman suffrage for the sake of bringing
in another State for their party. The changes were rung on the old
objections with the usual interspersing of those equivocal innuendoes
and insinuations which always make a self-respecting woman's blood boil.
The debate continued many days and it looked for a time as if the woman
suffrage clause would have to be abandoned if the State were to be
admitted. When this was announced to the Wyoming Legislature, then in
session, the answer came back over the wire: "We will remain out of the
Union a hundred years rather than come in without woman suffrage."[67]
After every possible effort had been made to strike out the
objectionable clause, the final vote was taken March 26, 1890; for
admission 139; against, 127.
The bill was presented in the Senate by Orville H. Platt, of
Connecticut, from the Committee on Territories, and discussed for three
days. After a repetition of the contest in the House, the vote was taken
June 27; in favor of admission 29; opposed 18. Woman suffrage clubs in
all parts of the country, in response to an official request by Miss
Anthony and Lucy Stone, celebrated the Fourth of July with great
rejoicing over the admission of Wyoming, the first State to enfranchise
women.
Another event of importance during 1890, was the first majority report
from the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives in favor of
the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which should
confer suffrage upon women. Hon. Ezra B. Taylor, of Warren, O., was
chairman of the committee and had exerted all his influence to secure
this report, which was presented May 29 by L. B. Caswell, of
Wisconsin.[68] On August 12, the Senate committee on woman suffrage
again presented a majority report for a Sixteenth Amendment.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Our country needs the vote of her best
citizens--women--E. B. Taylor."]
It had long been Miss Anthony's earnest desire to have suffrage
headquarters in Washington, pleasant parlors where local meetings could
be held and friends gather in a social way. In the midst of her great
work and responsibility she exchanged many letters during 1890 with
ladies in that city regarding this project, but it was finally decided
that it would not be judicious to incur the expense. Out of this
agitation, however, was evolved a stock company, incorporated under the
name of Wimodaughsis, organized for the education of women in art,
science, literature and political and domestic economy by means of
classes and lectures. As Miss Anthony never gave herself to any work
except that which tended directly to secure suffrage for women, she took
no part in the new enterprise except to bestow upon it her blessing and
$100. Rev. Anna Shaw was elected its first president. The
National-American Association took two large rooms in the new club house
for headquarters.
[Illustration: Harriet Taylor Upson (Signed "Faithfully Yours Harriet
Taylor Winston")]
Two deaths in 1890 affected Miss Anthony most deeply. Ellen H. Sheldon,
of Washington, for a number of years had served as national recording
secretary and had endeared herself to all. She was a clerk in the War
Department and her entire time outside business hours was devoted to
gratuitous work for the association. Her reports were accurate and
discriminating and Miss Anthony felt in her death the loss of a
valued friend and helper. Julia T. Foster, of Philadelphia, who passed
away November 16, was as dear to her as one of her own nieces. A sweet
and beautiful woman, wealthy and accomplished, she was so modest and
retiring that her work for suffrage and the large sums of money she
contributed were known only to her most intimate friends. In remembrance
Rachel Foster Avery sent Miss Anthony all the handsome furnishings of
her sister's room.
Miss Anthony arrived in Washington January 3, 1891, and received the
usual welcome by Mr. and Mrs. Spofford. On the 24th she went to Boston
in response to an invitation to attend the Massachusetts Suffrage
Convention.[69] She reached the Parker House Sunday morning, but Wm.
Lloyd Garrison came at once and took her to his hospitable home in
Brookline, and a most fortunate thing it was. Since leaving South Dakota
she had been fighting off what seemed to be a persistent form of la
grippe and the next morning she collapsed utterly, pneumonia threatened
and she was obliged to keep her room for a week. She received the most
loving attention from her hostess, Ellen Wright Garrison, and had many
calls and numerous pleasant letters, among them the following:
What a mercy it was that you fell into the shelter and care of the
Garrisons when so serious an illness came upon you. Of course
everybody was disappointed that you could not be at the meeting so
that they might at least see you. Now that you are convalescing and
we trust on the high road to recovery we want to arrange an
informal reception at our office, so that those or some of those
who were sorry not to see you at the meeting, may have a chance to
do so. I was too tired today to go with my two, and maybe you would
have been too tired to see us if we had gone. It is not quite the
same when we are seventy-two as when we are twenty-seven; still I
am glad of what is left, and wish we might both hold out till the
victory we have sought is won, but all the same the victory is
coming. In the aftertime the world will be the better for it.
Trusting you may soon be well again, I am your fellow-worker,
LUCY STONE.
Her old comrade, Parker Pillsbury, urged her to come for a while to his
home in Concord, N. H., saying: "Should you come you may be sure of a
most cordial greeting in this household, and by others; but by none more
heartily and cordially than by your old friend and coadjutor in the
temperance, anti-slavery and suffrage enterprises." Mrs. Pillsbury
supplemented this with a pressing invitation; and another came from the
loved and faithful friend, Armenia S. White. Miss Anthony appreciated
the kindness but there was too much work awaiting her in Washington to
allow of visiting, and thither she hastened even before she was fully
able to travel.
The first triennial meeting of the National Woman's Council, Frances E.
Willard, president, Susan B. Anthony, vice-president, began in Albaugh's
Opera House, February 22, 1891, and continued four days. It was as
notable a gathering as the great International Council of 1888. Forty
organizations of women were represented; "one," said Miss Willard in her
opening address, "for every year during which this noble woman at my
right and her colleagues have been at work." The meeting was preceded by
a reception tendered by Mrs. Spofford at the Riggs to 500 guests. The
services for two Sundays were conducted entirely by women, Revs. Anna
Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer, Ida C. Hultin, Caroline J. Bartlett, Amanda
Deyo, Olympia Brown, Mila Tupper and, among the laity, Margaret Bottome,
president of the King's Daughters, and Miss Willard. The most famous
women of the United States took part in this council. Especial interest
was centered in the beautiful Mrs. Bertha Honoré Palmer, president of
the Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition, who occupied a
seat on the stage. This board was represented also by its
vice-president, Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin and by Mrs. Virginia C. Meredith.
Each great national organization sent its most representative women to
present its objects and its work.
As Mrs. Stanton was still in Europe, her paper, "The Matriarchate," was
read by Miss Anthony. Miss Willard introduced the reader in her own
graceful way, saying: "I will not call her Mrs. Stanton's faithful
Achates, for that would fail to express it, but will say that the paper
written by one of the double stars of the first magnitude will be read
by the other star." Miss Anthony was so happy over this great
assemblage, the direct result of all her long years' work for the
evolution of woman into a larger life and a catholicity of spirit which
would enable those of all creeds, all political beliefs and all lines of
work to come together in fraternal council, that she herself scarcely
could be persuaded to make even the briefest address. Her one anxiety
was that all the noted speakers present should be seen and heard.[70]
The council was received by Mrs. Harrison at the White House.
The Twenty-third Annual Convention of the National-American W. S. A.
commenced the morning after the council closed, and the vast audiences
which filled the opera house at every session hardly knew when one ended
and the other began. The interest was sufficient to sell the boxes for
the latter at $10, and single seats at 50 cents. Miss Anthony presided
and read Mrs. Stanton's fine address, "The Degradation of
Disfranchisement," saying as she commenced that "they might imagine how
every moment she was wishing they could see, instead of her own, the
sunny face and grand white head of the writer." At its close she
introduced Lucy Stone, who came forward amid great applause, and said
that "while this was the first time she had stood beside Miss Anthony at
a suffrage convention in Washington, she had stood beside her on many a
hard-fought battlefield before most of those present were born." She
then gave a graphic picture of the work accomplished by the suffrage
advocates from 1850 to 1890.
All sections of the United States were represented at this convention;
delegates were present from Canada, and Miss Florence Balgarnie, of
London, spoke for the women of England.[71] Mrs. Henrotin presented an
official invitation from the Board of Lady Managers for the association
to take part in the Woman's Congress to be held during the World's Fair.
The newspapers of Washington, and those of other cities through their
correspondents, gave columns of reports, indisputable evidence of the
important and stable position now secured by the question of woman
suffrage. The board of officers was re-elected, Mrs. Stanton receiving
for president 144 of the 175 votes; Miss Anthony's election unanimous.
The Women's Suffrage Society of England had sent official
congratulations on the admission of Wyoming with enfranchisement for
women, and Miss Anthony was determined they should be read in the United
States Senate. This letter from Senator Blair will show how it was
accomplished: "The memorial of congratulation which you sent me is not
one which I could press for presentation as a matter of right, but
fortunately, by a pious fraud, I succeeded in reading it without
interruption, so that it will appear word for word in the Record, and it
is referred to the noble army of martyrs known as the committee on woman
suffrage."
At a delightful breakfast given by Sorosis at Delmonico's on its
twenty-third birthday, Miss Anthony was the guest of honor, seated at
the right of the president, Mrs. Ella Dietz Clymer, and in her short
address recalled the fact that she had known Mrs. Clymer and their
incoming president, Dr. Jennie de la M. Lozier, when they were no taller
than the table.
She gave a Sunday afternoon reception at the Riggs to Mrs. Annie Besant,
of London, and in his letter regretting that absence from the city would
prevent his attendance, ex-Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch
said: "I am sorry I can not see you often. I have been for many years a
'looker on' and I appreciate the work which you have done for the
benefit of the race. You have not labored in vain and you have the
satisfaction of knowing that your good work will follow you." She
accepted a cordial invitation to dine at his home and received assurance
of his thorough belief in suffrage for women.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Sincerely Yours, Hugh McCulloch"]
Easter Sunday she went to Philadelphia to witness the christening, or
consecration, of the Foster-Avery baby, by Rev. Anna Shaw, who had
married the father and mother. On Monday Mrs. Avery gave a reception for
her in the parlors of the New Century Club, and on the following day she
addressed the 1,600 girls of the Normal School.
She made this entry in her diary May 1: "Left Washington and the dear
old Riggs House today. For twelve winters this has been my home, where I
have had every comfort it was possible for Mr. and Mrs. Spofford to
give. For as many winters it has been the National Association's
headquarters, but now both will have to find a new place, for the hotel
is to pass under another management." Miss Anthony reached home the next
day, and by the 12th was on hand for the State convention at Warren, O.,
the guest as usual of Mr. and Mrs. Upton at the home of Hon. Ezra B.
Taylor. From here she went to Painesville, where she was entertained at
the handsome residence of General J. S. and Mrs. Frances M. Casement,
whose hospitality she had enjoyed for many years whenever her
journeyings took her to that city.
After a few days at home Miss Anthony started for Meriden, to attend the
Connecticut convention on May 22, and when this was over went home with
Mrs. Hooker. A letter to the Woman's Tribune said:
I wish I could tell you of my journeyings. I had a pleasant visit
with Mrs. Hooker at her charming home in Hartford. En route from
Boston I spent a few days with Hon. and Mrs. William Whiting in
their beautiful home at Holyoke. One day was devoted to a luncheon
party of a hundred or more in their picturesque log cabin three
miles down the river, through the lovely Connecticut valley. This
cabin, with fireplace worthy the grandest old back-log and
fore-stick, polished floors, and lunch served by a Springfield
caterer, is not like those of our dear old grandmothers. After the
tables were cleared, Mrs. Whiting called on me for a talk. Another
day we visited Mount Holyoke Seminary, going through the various
buildings and, in the great old kitchen, looking upon neat plateaus
of light, sweet-smelling bread, biscuits and cake, all made by the
girls during the morning. Each must do a certain amount of work,
and all is done in memory of the sainted Mary Lyon, whose monument
stands under the grand old trees which surround the buildings.
Then on Sunday I went to Cheshire, to dine with my mother's dear
cousin, ninety-five years of age, bright and cheerful in her
on-look. Next I hied me to the house of my Grandfather Anthony, who
lived in it from the day of his marriage in 1792, to his death at
the age of ninety-six.... From here I went to Saratoga and took a
drink from the old Congress Spring, and Wednesday reached home. The
paper tells you what happened on Thursday evening, and now I am
enjoying to the fullest all the good-will of my dear friends.
"What happened" was that Miss Anthony went to housekeeping! After the
mother's death, Miss Mary rented the lower part of the house, which now
belonged to her, reserved the upper rooms for herself and sister, and
took her meals with her tenants. This plan was followed for a number of
years. Now, however, Miss Anthony had passed one year beyond the
threescore and ten which are supposed to mark the limit of activity if
not of life, and her friends urged that she should give up her long
journeys from one end of the continent to the other, her hard State
campaigns, her constant lectures and conventions. She felt as vigorous
as ever but had long wished for the comforts and conveniences of her own
home, and she concluded that perhaps her friends were right and she
should settle down in one place and direct the work, rather than try to
do so much of it herself. She thought this might be safely done now, as
so many new and efficient workers had been developed and the cause had
acquired a standing which made its advocacy an easy task compared to
what it had been in the past, when only a few women had the courage and
strength to take the blows and bear the contumely. So Miss Mary took
possession of the house; masons, carpenters, painters and paper-hangers
were put to work, and by June all was in in beautiful readiness.
The friends in various parts of the country were deeply interested in
the new move. Letters of approval came from all directions, among them
this from Mrs. Stanton in England: "I rejoice that you are going to
housekeeping. The mistake of my life was selling Tenafly. My advice to
you, Susan, is to keep some spot you can call your own; where you can
live and die in peace and be cremated in your own oven if you desire."
When Miss Anthony returned from her eastern trip on June 11, a pleasant
surprise awaited her. The Political Equality Club had taken part in the
housekeeping program. Handsome rugs had been laid on the floor, lace
curtains hung at the windows, easy chairs placed in the rooms, a large
desk in Miss Mary's study, a fine oak table in the dining-room, all the
gift of the club. Mrs. Avery had sent a big, roomy desk and Mrs. Sewall
an office chair for Miss Anthony's study; Miss Shaw and Lucy Anthony, a
set of china; Mr. Avery, the needed cutlery; the brother Daniel R., a
great box of sheeting, spreads, bolts of muslin, table linen and towels,
enough to last a lifetime. From other friends came pictures, silver and
bric-a-brac without limit. The events of the evening after Miss Anthony
arrived at home are thus described by the Rochester Herald:
The truth of the matter is that for a long time the Woman's
Political Club has been in love with Miss Anthony, a feeling which
she has not been slow to reciprocate. The affair culminated last
evening, the nuptial ceremony being a housewarming tendered by the
club. The reception was a complete success, and the rooms were
crowded for several hours, the number of visitors being estimated
at no less than 300. The house was brilliantly lighted and
everywhere was a profusion of cut flowers and potted ferns. At the
entrance the visitors were greeted by Mrs. Greenleaf, president of
the club, who presented them to Miss Anthony. In greeting each
new-comer the hostess displayed her remarkable power of memory and
brilliance as a conversationalist, having a reminiscent word for
every one. In the parlor before the fireplace stood the old
spinning-wheel which in 1817 had been a wedding gift to her mother.
It was decked with marguerites and received no small degree of
attention....
A short time after the housewarming, her cousin, Charles Dickinson, of
Chicago, stopped over night and, after he had gone, Miss Anthony found
this note: "It makes me blush for the wealthy people of the country,
that they forget their duty to others. Here art thou, with thy moderate
income, spending all of it for humanity's cause, thinking, speaking,
doing a work that will last forever. Please take rest enough for good
health to be with thee, and to make this easier I enclose a check for
$300. Call it a loan without interest, already repaid by the good done
to our fellow-beings."
In June she made a long-promised visit to her friend Henrietta M. Banker
at her home in the Adirondacks, which she thus describes:
Rev. Anna Shaw and I have had a lovely week. Almost every day we
drove out among the mountains; one day to the Ausable lakes,
through beautiful woods, up ravines a thousand feet; another to
Professor Davidson's summer school, high up on the mountainside.
But the day of days was when we drove to the farm-home of old
Captain John Brown at North Elba. We found a broad plateau,
surrounded with mountain peaks on every side. We ate our dinner in
the same dining-room in which the old hero and his family partook
of their scanty fare in the days when he devoted his energies to
teaching the colored men, who accepted Gerrit Smith's generous
offer of a bit of real estate, which should entitle the possessor
to a right to vote. Of all who settled on those lands, called the
"John Brown opening," only one grayheaded negro still lives, though
many of their old houses and barns yet stand, crumbling away on
their deserted farms.
In front of the house is a small yard and occupying one-half of it
is a grand old boulder with steps leading to the top, where one
sees chiseled in large letters, "John Brown, December 2, 1859." At
the foot is the grave of the martyr, marked by an old granite
headstone which once stood at his grandfather's grave, and on it
are inscribed the names of three generations of John Browns. The
vandals visiting that sacred spot chipped off bits of the granite
until it became necessary to make a cover and padlock it down, so
that the farmer unlocks the cap and lifts it off for visitors now.
Thus is commemorated that fatal day which marks the only hanging
for treason against the United States Government. John Brown was
crucified for doing what he believed God commanded him to do, "to
break the yoke and let the oppressed go free," precisely as were
the saints of old for following what they believed to be God's
commands. The barbarism of our government was by so much the
greater as our light and knowledge are greater than those of two
thousand years ago....
July 25 is to be Suffrage Day at Chautauqua, and dear Mrs. Wallace
and Anna Shaw are to preach the gospel of equal rights. I do hope
Bishop Vincent will be present and there learn from those two, who
are surely "God's women," the law of love to thy neighbor--woman,
as to thyself--man. I am hoping the gate receipts on that day will
be greater than those of any other during the summer. Wouldn't that
tell the story of the interest in this question?
In June she accepted the urgent invitation of the Ignorance Club to
honor them by being their guest at their annual frolic on Manitou beach
and respond to a toast which should allow her to say anything she liked.
Three most enjoyable weeks were spent at home and during this time Miss
Anthony addressed the W. C. T. U. She expressed herself in no uncertain
tones as to the futility of third parties, declaring that the
Prohibition party already had taken some of the best temperance men out
of Congress, and made a speech so forcible that it lifted the bonnets of
some of the timid sisters. The evening paper reported:
... Rev. C. B. Gardner said Miss Anthony had given the company some
excellent political advice, but he inclined to the belief that the
temperance reform could be brought about without woman suffrage.
"The women would bring the men around in time; they could
accomplish much by their moral influence; in this they resembled
ministers." Miss Anthony wished to know if it would not be a good
thing then, to disfranchise the ministers and let them depend
entirely on their moral influence. She explained that in what she
had said about prayer she meant prayer by action. She would not
have it understood that she did not believe in prayer; she thought,
however, that an emotion never could be equal to an action.
She went to Chautauqua July 25, when, for the first time in its history,
woman suffrage was presented. Zerelda G. Wallace delivered a grand
address and Rev. Anna Shaw gave "The Fate of Republics." Miss Anthony
followed in a short speech, and the Jamestown Sunday News said: "Woman's
Day was fully justified by the reception given to that intrepid Arnold
Winkelreid of women." Frances Willard wrote a few days later from the
assembly grounds: "Dearest Susan, I could sing hallelujah over you and
our Anna Shaw and 'Deborah' Wallace! It was the best and biggest day
Chautauqua ever saw. Do urge your suffragists to go in for this on next
year's program."
Miss Anthony attended the golden wedding of John and Isabella Beecher
Hooker, in Hartford, August 5; "a most beautiful occasion," she writes
in her diary, "but to the surprise of all there was no speaking." An
affair without speeches was to her what a feast without wine would have
been to the ancients. On the 15th suffrage had a great day at Lily
Dale, the famous Spiritualist camp meeting grounds, Miss Shaw and
herself making the principal addresses. Miss Anthony thus speaks of the
meeting in a letter:
... To Brother Buckley's assertion, made a short time before, that
women should not be allowed to vote because the majority of
Spiritualists, Christian Scientists and all false religions were
women, Miss Shaw replied that there was a larger ratio of men in
the audience before her than she had seen in any Methodist or
temperance camp meeting or Chautauqua assembly this summer. When
Mr. Buckley charged that women were too numerous in the false
religions to vote, she would remind him that there were three women
to one man in the Methodist church also; and she was quite willing
to match the vast majorities of women in the various religions,
false and true, with the vast majorities of men at the horse races,
variety theaters, police stations, jails and penitentiaries
throughout the country. She brought the house down with, "Too much
religion unfits women to vote! Too much vice and crime qualifies
men to vote!"
People came from far and near. Fully 3,000 were assembled in that
beautiful amphitheater decorated with the yellow and the red, white
and blue.... There hanging by itself was our national suffrage
flag, ten by fourteen feet, with its regulation red and white
stripes, and in the center of its blue corner just one great golden
star, Wyoming, blazing out all alone. Every cottage in the camp was
festooned with yellow, and when at night the Chinese lanterns on
the piazzas were lighted, Lily Dale was as gorgeous as any Fourth
of July, all in honor of Woman's Day and her coming freedom and
equality.
Our hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Skidmore, are the center of things
at Lily Dale, and right royal are they in their hospitality as well
as their love of liberty for all. This camp has been in existence
twelve summers, there has been no police force, and no disturbance
ever has occurred. Every one is left to his own sense of propriety
of behavior and every one behaves properly.
Miss Anthony still intended, however, to remain at home and in the
intervals when she was not coaxed away no bride ever enjoyed more fully
her first experiment at housekeeping. All the forty years of travelling
up and down the face of the earth had not eradicated from her nature the
domestic tastes, and she loved every nook and corner of the old home
made new, going from room to room, putting the finishing touches here
and there, and fairly revelling in the sense of possession. Hospitality
was her strongest instinct, and during all these years she had accepted
so much from her friends in Rochester and elsewhere without being able
to return it, that now she wanted to entertain everybody and all at
once. The diary speaks often of ten and twelve at the table for dinner
or tea, and Miss Mary, who constituted the committee of ways and means,
was quite overwhelmed with the new regime. The story in the journal runs
like this:
Our dear old friends, Sarah Willis and Mary Hallowell, shared our
first Sunday dinner with us.... Our old Abolition friends, Giles B.
and Catharine F. Stebbins and three or four others took tea with us
tonight.... My old friend Adeline Thomson has come to stay several
weeks with us. How nice to have my own home to entertain my
friends.... Anna Shaw and niece Lucy came today and we had five
others to dinner. A very pleasant thing to be able to ask people to
stop and dine.... Brother D. R., sister Anna and niece Maud came
today for a week. It is so good to receive them in our own home. D.
R. enjoys the fire on the hearth.... Had Maria Porter, Mr. and Mrs.
Greenleaf and eleven altogether to tea this evening. How I do enjoy
it!... Who came this day? O, yes, Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley, of
Chicago, her son and her mother, Mrs. Susan Look Avery, of
Louisville, Ky. It makes me so happy to return some of the
courtesies I have had in their beautiful home.... Just before noon
Mrs. Greenleaf popped into the woodshed with a great sixteen-quart
pail full of pound balls of the most delicious butter, and we made
her stay to dinner. The girl was washing and I got the dinner
alone: broiled steak, potatoes, sweet corn, tomatoes and peach
pudding, with a cup of tea. All said it was good and I enjoyed it
hugely. How I love to receive in my own home and at my own table!
She went to Warsaw September 17 to help the Wyoming county women hold
their convention. The 23d had been set apart as Woman's Day at the
Western New York Fair, held at the Rochester driving park. Mrs.
Greenleaf presided; Miss Anthony and Rev. Anna Shaw were the speakers.
The former spoke briefly, insisting with her usual generosity that the
honors of the occasion should belong to Miss Shaw.[72] In the course of
her few remarks she said: "We who represent the suffrage movement ask
not that women be like men, but that they may be greater women by having
their opinions respected at the ballot-box. Only men's opinions have
prevailed in this government since it was founded. Enfranchisement says
to every man outside of the State prisons, the insane and idiot asylums:
'Your judgment is sound; your opinions are worthy of being crystallized
in the laws of the land.' Disfranchisement says to all women: 'Your
judgment is not sound; your opinions are not worthy of being counted,'
Man is the superior, woman the subject, under the present condition of
political affairs, and until this great wrong is righted, ignorant men
and small boys will continue to look with disdain on the opinion of
women."
From the time that Mrs. Stanton had decided to return to America for the
remainder of her days, Miss Anthony had hoped they might have a home
together and finish their life-work of history and reminiscence. When
she learned that her friend, with a widowed daughter and a bachelor son,
contemplated taking a house in New York, she was greatly distressed, as
she felt that this would be the end of all her plans. She wrote her
immediately:
We have just returned from the Unitarian church where we listened
to Mr. Gannett's rare dissertation on the religion of Lowell; but
all the time there was an inner wail in my soul, that by your
fastening yourself in New York City I couldn't help you carry out
the dream of my life--which is that you should take all of your
speeches and articles, carefully dissect them, and put your best
utterances on each point into one essay or lecture; first deliver
them in the Unitarian church on Sunday afternoon, and then publish
in a nice volume, just as Phillips culled out his best. Your
Reminiscences give only light and incidental bits of your life--all
good but not the greatest of yourself. This is the first time since
1850 that I have anchored myself to any particular spot, and in
doing it my constant thought was that you would come here, where
are the documents necessary to our work, and stay for as long, at
least, as we must be together to put your writings into systematic
shape to go down to posterity. I have no writings to go down, so my
ambition is not for myself, but it is for one by the side of whom I
have wrought these forty years, and to get whose speeches before
audiences and committees has been the delight of my life.
Well, I hope you will do and be as seemeth best unto yourself,
still I can not help sending you this inner groan of my soul, lest
you are not going to make it possible that the thing shall be done
first which seems most important to me. Then, too, I have never
ceased to hope that we would finish the History of Woman Suffrage,
at least to the end of the life of the dear old National.
Mrs. Stanton's children would not consent to this plan, but she came to
Rochester for a month's visit in September. It was desired by many
friends that to the very satisfactory busts of Miss Anthony and Lucretia
Mott, which had been made by Adelaide Johnson, should be added one of
Mrs. Stanton, and all be placed in the Woman's Building at the World's
Fair. To accomplish this Miss Anthony rented a large room in the
adjoining house for a studio and invited the sculptor to her home for a
number of weeks, until the sittings were finished.
During Mrs. Stanton's visit Miss Anthony entertained the Political
Equality Club and a large company of guests, the evening being devoted
to the subject of the admission of women to Rochester University. A
number of the faculty, Congressmen Greenleaf and Baker, several
ministers, the principal of the free academy--about 200 altogether were
present and the discussion was very animated. Practically all of them
believed in opening the doors and a letter of approval was read from
David J. Hill, president of the university. The trustees were
represented by Dr. E. M. Moore, who was in favor of admitting women but
declared that it would be impossible unless an additional fund of
$200,000 was provided beforehand. Miss Anthony insisted that the girls
should first be admitted and then, when a necessity for more money was
apparent, it would be much easier to raise it. In the course of his
remarks Dr. Moore said it was more important to educate boys than girls
because they were the breadwinners.
The Utica Sunday paper came out a few days later with a half-page
cartoon representing the university campus; on the outside of the fence
were Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton heading a long procession of girls,
books in hand; standing guard over the fence, labeled "prejudice and old
fogyism," was Dr. Moore pointing proudly to the "breadwinners," who
consisted of two confused and struggling masses, one engaged in a "cane
rush" and the other in a fight over a football. This little incident
merely proved the oft-repeated assertion that these two women never were
three days together without stirring up a controversy, in which the
opposing forces invariably were worsted and public sentiment was moved
up a notch in the direction of larger liberty for woman.
Together they visited the palatial home, at Auburn, of Eliza Wright
Osborne, daughter of Martha C. Wright, where they were joined by
Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of Gerrit Smith; and there were
delightful hours of reminiscence and chat of mutual friends, past and
present. The diary shows that Miss Anthony purchased a full set of books
to join the Emerson and Browning classes this year, but there is no
record of attendance save at one meeting. One entry says: "Dancing to
the dentist's these days." Another tells of forgetting to go to a
luncheon after the invitation had been accepted; and still another of
inviting a number of friends to tea and forgetting all about it.
In November she went again to Auburn to the State convention, remaining
four days. The Daily Advertiser said: "Miss Susan B. Anthony, the grand
old woman of the equal rights cause, was then introduced and spoke at
length upon the objects for which she had labored so faithfully all her
life. Except for her gray hair and a few wrinkles, no one would suppose
the speaker to be in her seventy-second year. The full, firm voice, the
active manner and clear logic, all belonged to a young woman." At the
close of the convention Mrs. Osborne gave a reception in her honor,
attended by nearly one hundred ladies.
By invitation of the Unitarian minister, Rev. W. C. Gannett, Miss
Anthony participated with himself and Rabbi Max Lansberg in Thanksgiving
services at the Unitarian church. The topic was "The Unrest of the Times
a Cause for Thankfulness," as indicated by "The Woman, the Social and
the Religious Movements." Miss Anthony responded to the first in a
concise address, considered under twelve heads and not occupying more
than that number of minutes in delivery, beginning with Ralph Waldo
Emerson's declaration, "A wholesome discontent is the first step toward
progress," and giving a resume of women's advancement during the past
forty years, due chiefly to dissatisfaction with their lot.
It had not been an easy matter for Miss Anthony to have even this
fragment of a year at home. From many places she had received letters
begging her to come to the assistance of societies and conventions, and
she was just as anxious to go as they were to have her. The most urgent
of these appeals came from Mrs. Johns, of Kansas, where a constitutional
convention was threatened and the women wanted a suffrage amendment.
When Miss Anthony did not go to the spring convention, Mrs. Johns wrote,
April 18: "I can never tell you how I missed you, and the people--they
seemed to think they must have you. Letter after letter came asking, 'Is
there no way by which we can get Miss Anthony?'" When she declined to go
to the fall convention, Mrs. Johns wrote, November 26: "I declare it
seemed as if I did not know how to go on without you, and our women felt
just as I did. We have had you with us so often that we depended on your
presence more than we knew." In another long letter she said:
I hope the national association will not leave Kansas to work out
her own salvation. Surely you, to whom we owe municipal suffrage,
are not going to fail to come to us at this awful juncture! Dear
Aunt Susan, you won't get any wounds here. I will take charge of
the office and make the routes, which I am able to do well; I will
speak; I will organize; I will do anything you think best, and
there will be nobody inquiring what you do with funds, and there
will be no disgraceful charges and counter-charges, unless I am
greatly mistaken in Kansas women and in myself. We all love you
here and we want the cause to succeed more than we want personal
aggrandizement.
Mrs. Johns persuaded Mrs. Avery to join in her plea and finally Miss
Anthony could hold out no longer, but December 11 wrote to the latter:
"I have been fully resolved all along not to go to Kansas during this
first campaign, because I felt that my threescore and ten and two years
added ought to excuse me from the fearful exposure; still, since you and
dear Laura are left so deserted and will be so heartbroken if I stick to
my resolve, I will say yes, tuck on my coat and mittens and start. But
alas! how soon must that be? I am thoroughly in the dark as to when and
where I shall be wanted to begin, but I will do my level best."
[Illustration: Autograph: "Very truly yours, Frances E Warren"]
The closing days of 1891 were devoted to the voluminous correspondence
which preceded every national convention. The large number of letters on
file from prominent senators and representatives show that Miss Anthony
was keeping an eye on the committees and pulling the wires to have known
friends placed on those which would report on woman suffrage. "I am in
full sympathy with you upon the question of woman's enfranchisement,"
wrote Senator Dolph, of Oregon, "and also with your effort to secure a
chairman of the committee who favors the movement and is able to present
it with intelligence and ability." Speaker Reed closed his letter by
saying, "When the eleventh hour comes, we all shall flock in, clamorous
for pennies." Words of encouragement were received from many others, and
Senator and ex-Governor Francis E. Warren, of Wyoming, wrote: "I am
always in harness for woman suffrage wherever I may be. My spoken and
written testimony for a score of years has been in its praise and of its
perfect working and results in Wyoming."
FOOTNOTES:
[66] While here Miss Anthony received a letter from Rev. N. M. Mann,
formerly pastor of the Unitarian church in Rochester but now residing in
Omaha, which said: "Are you not coming to the metropolis of the State,
when some of us here are just perishing for the sight of your face? I
speak for myself and Mrs. Mann firstly, though judging from the number
of parlors I go into where your picture is the first thing one sees, I
fancy there are a good many others who would be hardly less glad than we
to greet you. Come and spend a Sunday, and hear a good old sermon, and
lecture in my church."
[67] As women had been voting in the Territory over twenty years and
this answer was sent by a legislature composed entirely of men, it would
seem to show that the evils predicted of woman suffrage were wholly
disproved by actual experience.
[68] Mr. Taylor wrote Miss Anthony: "The delay, which seemed long to
you, was absolutely necessary and I am sure you will understand that I
have been faithful to the cause. My daughter Harriet, the most wonderful
of all women to me, is largely influential in the result...."
[69] DEAR SUSAN ANTHONY: We are to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of
the First National Woman's Rights Convention in this State and want to
make the meeting as useful to the cause as we can. You ought to be here.
Will you come? The sheaves gathered in these forty years are to be
presented, and of course there will be some reminiscences of pioneer
times. We shall be glad to announce you as one of the speakers. I hope
you are a little rested since the hard campaign in Dakota. Yours truly,
LUCY STONE.
[70] In her letter describing the council Mrs. Margaret Bottome wrote of
Miss Anthony: "I have met, since I have been in Washington, a woman whom
I have heard of since I can remember anything. We are not of the same
faith--she has devoted her life to what during the past I have shrunk
from--and I met her here for the first time; but I shall carry with me
always the impression of her spirit upon my own, of the Christ-life, the
Christ-spirit. I got it before she had said five words to me, and I
could have sat down at her feet and drank in the spirit of Jesus Christ
that is in her, though she does not see him just as I do."
[71] After the convention Miss Balgarnie wrote: "It has been one of the
most genuine pleasures of my life to meet you, my dear Miss Anthony. I
felt 'strength go out of you,' as it were, directly you took my hand."
[72] Miss Anthony was equally generous in regard to speakers of less
renown. She wrote to Mrs. Blake during this year: "I felt so happy to
give half of my hour at Syracuse to Mrs. C., so that splendid audience
might see and hear her. And I am always glad to surrender my time to any
unknown speakers whom we find promising; but first they ought to have
tried their powers at their home meetings and in rural districts."
CHAPTER XL.
IGNORED BY THE PARTIES--APPOINTED TO OFFICE.
1892.
On her way to the convention of 1892, Miss Anthony stopped in New York
in response to an urgent letter from Mrs. Stanton, now comfortably
ensconced in a pleasant flat overlooking Central Park, saying that
unless she came and took her bodily to Washington she should not be able
to go. "All the influences about me urge to rest rather than action,"
she wrote--exactly what Miss Anthony had feared. She was now in her
seventy-seventh year and naturally her children desired that she should
give up public work; but Miss Anthony knew that inaction meant rust and
decay and, as her fellow-worker was in the prime of mental vigor, she
was determined that the world should continue to profit by it. Her
address this year was entitled "The Solitude of Self," considered by
many one of her finest papers.
Mrs. Stanton received a great ovation at the opening session, January
16, but this proved to be her last appearance at a national convention.
For more than forty years she had presided with a grace and dignity
which never had been surpassed, and now she begged that the scepter, or
more properly speaking the gavel, might be transferred to Miss Anthony,
whose experience had been quite as extended as her own. The delegates
yielded to her wishes and Miss Anthony was elected national president.
The office of chairman of the executive committee was abolished; Mrs.
Stanton and Lucy Stone were made honorary presidents, and Rev. Anna H.
Shaw vice-president-at-large.
Miss Anthony presided over the ten sessions of the convention and they
required a firm hand, for the discussions were spirited, as the
questions considered were important. Among them were the work to be done
at the World's Fair; the opening of the fair on Sunday; the proposition
to hold every alternate convention in some other city than Washington;
the plan to carry suffrage work into the southern States; the
advisability of making another campaign in Kansas; and other matters on
which there was a wide difference of opinion.
John B. Allen, of Washington, had introduced in the Senate, and Halbert
S. Greenleaf in the House, a joint resolution proposing an amendment to
the Constitution extending the right to women to vote at all federal
elections. The House Judiciary Committee, January 18, granted a hearing
to such speakers as should be selected by the national convention then
in session. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton, Lucy Stone and Mrs. Hooker were
chosen. This was the first Democratic committee before whom an appeal
had been made; they listened courteously, but brought in no report on
the question.
The Senate committee granted a hearing January 20, and three-minute
addresses were made by eighteen women representing as many States.
Before they left the room, Senator Hoar moved that the committee make a
favorable report and the motion was seconded by Senator Warren, Senator
Blair also voting in favor. Senators Vance, of North Carolina, and
George, of Mississippi, voted in the negative. Senators Quay and
Carlisle were absent.
During the convention the district suffrage society gave a reception in
the parlors of the Wimodaughsis club house. Later, Mrs. Noble, wife of
the Secretary of the Interior, issued cards for a reception in honor of
Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and Lucy Stone. It was attended by members of
the Cabinet, Senate, House, diplomatic corps and many others prominent
in official and social life.
As Miss Anthony had no longer her comfortable quarters at the Riggs
House free of all expense, she did not linger in Washington, but went to
Philadelphia for a week with the friends there and reached home
February 6. "I send congratulations, I always wanted you to be
president," wrote Mrs. Johns. "Now can't you come to our Kansas City
Inter-State Convention? We do need you so and there wouldn't be standing
room if you were there." And later: "Do any of my wails reach you? The
Kansas City people plead for you to come if only to be looked at. Is
there any hope?" Miss Anthony was perfectly willing to make a winter
campaign in Kansas, but her friends insisted that there were plenty of
younger women to do this work and she should wait till spring. So Anna
Shaw, Mary Seymour Howell and Florence Balgarnie, of England, went to
the assistance of the women there, and Rachel Foster Avery gave $1,000
to this canvass.
Every day at home was precious to Miss Anthony. Sometimes on Sunday
afternoon she went to Mount Hope, on whose sloping hillsides rest the
beloved dead of her own family and many of the friends of early
days;[73] or she walked down to the long bridge which spans the
picturesque Genesee river and commands a fine view of the beautiful
Lower Falls. Occasionally a friend called with a carriage and they took
the charming seven-mile drive to the shore of Lake Ontario. Sunday
mornings she listened to Mr. Gannett's philosophical sermons; and
through the week there were quiet little teas with old friends whom she
had known since girlhood, but had seen far too seldom in all the busy
years. Instead of forever giving lectures she was able to hear them from
others; and she could indulge to the fullest, on the big new desk, her
love of letter-writing, while the immense work of the national
association was always pressing. She had a number of applications for
articles from various magazines and newspapers, but her invariable reply
was, "I have no literary ability; ask Mrs. Stanton;" and no argument
could convince her that she could write well if she would give the time
to it.
She addressed the New York Legislature in April in reference to having
women sit as delegates in the approaching Constitutional Convention. In
response to a request from the Rochester Union and Advertiser, she wrote
an earnest letter advocating the opening of the World's Fair on Sunday,
and giving many strong reasons in favor. On April 22, she joined Miss
Shaw, who was lecturing at Bradford, Penn., and Sunday afternoon
addressed an audience which packed the opera house. The next day she
organized a suffrage club of seventy members among the influential women
of that city. After leaving there Rev. Anna Shaw, herself an ordained
Protestant Methodist minister, wrote her that she had been shut out of
several churches because she had addressed an audience at the Lily Dale
Spiritualist camp meeting. She said: "I told them that I would speak to
5,000 people on woman suffrage anywhere this or the other side of Hades
if they could be got together."
The first week in May, at the urgent invitation of her good friends,
Smith G. and Emily B. Ketcham, of Grand Rapids, Miss Anthony attended
their silver wedding. From this pleasant affair she went to the Michigan
Suffrage Convention at Battle Creek, where she visited an old
schoolmate, Mrs. Sarah Hyatt Nichols. She reached Chicago in time for
the biennial meeting of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs. Special
trains were run from New York and Boston, Central Music Hall was crowded
and numerous elegant receptions were given for the 300 delegates from
all parts of the country. Many eminent women sat upon the platform,
among them the president of the federation, Mrs. Charlotte Emerson
Brown, Frances E. Willard, Susan B. Anthony, Julia Ward Howe, May Wright
Sewall, Jenny June Croly and Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson, all of whom
were heard at different times during the convention. Miss Anthony was
the guest of Lydia Avery Coonley, whose mother wrote to Mary Anthony:
I have been intending for several days to tell you that however
your sister may have been regarded forty years ago, she is today
the most popular woman in these United States. The federation
closed, as you probably know, on Friday night. During the meetings
she was several times asked to come forward on the platform, which
she did to the manifest gratification of the people, saying
something each time which "brought down the house." On the last
night a note was sent to the president asking that "Susan B.,"
Julia Ward Howe and Ednah D. Cheney would please step forward. They
came, but only your sister spoke and what she said was vociferously
cheered over and over again.
The business committee of the National Council--Miss Willard, Mrs.
Sewall, Mrs. Foster Avery, Miss Anthony and others--met in Chicago the
same week, the principal subject of consideration being the Woman's
Congress to be held the next year during the World's Fair. While in the
city Miss Anthony gave a number of sittings to Lorado Taft, the
sculptor. Miss Willard had asked that he might make the bust to be
placed in the gallery of famous women at the World's Fair, she herself
to be responsible for all expenses. "Come and spend a week with me in my
home," she wrote, "while he prepares a model of that statesmanlike head,
the greatest of them all." Desirous of pleasing her, Miss Anthony
agreed, but at once many of the strong-minded protested that the bust
must be made by a woman.
A number of amusing letters were exchanged. From Miss Willard: "Mr. Taft
is the most progressive believer in woman and admirer of you, dear
Susan, that I know. He is in full sympathy with all of our ideas. I am
sure that as a friend of mine, appreciated by me as highly as you are by
any woman living, you will not place me in the position of declining to
have this work done. Please do not take counsel of women who are so
prejudiced that, as I once heard said, they would not allow a male
grasshopper to chirp on their lawn; but out of your own great heart,
refuse to set an example to such folly."
Mr. Taft himself wrote Miss Anthony: "I can put myself in your place
sufficiently to appreciate in part the objections which you or your
friends may feel toward having the work done by a man. My only regret is
that I am not to be allowed to pay this tribute to one whom I was early
taught to honor and revere.... Come to think of it, I believe I am
provoked after all. Sex is but an accident, and it seems to me that it
has no more to do with art than has the artist's complexion or the
political party he votes with." Again from Miss Willard: "Do you not
see, my friend and comrade, that having engaged a noble and large-minded
young man, who believes as we do, to make that bust, engaged him in good
faith and announced it to the public, it is a 'little rough on me,' as
the boys say, for my dear sister to wish me to break my contract? We can
not have too many busts of you, so let Miss Johnson go on and make hers,
and let me have mine, and let those other women make theirs, and we will
yet have one of them in the House of Representatives at Washington, the
other in the Senate, the third in the White House!... My dear mother and
Anna wish to be remembered to you, knowing that you are one of our best
and most trusted friends, only I must say that you are a naughty woman
in this matter of the 'statoot.'" Miss Anthony's common sense finally
induced her to waive objections and she gave Mr. Taft as many sittings
as he desired. When the work was finished Miss Willard wrote: "My
beloved Susan, your statue is perfect. Lady Henry and I think that _one_
man has seen your great, benignant soul and shown it in permanent
material."
The 25th of May Miss Anthony attended a meeting of the Ohio association
at Salem, where had been held in April, 1850, the second woman's rights
convention in all history. There was present one of the pioneers who had
called that convention, Emily, wife of Marius Robinson, editor of the
Anti-Slavery Bugle. Miss Anthony read her paper for her, as she was over
eighty years old, and added her own strong comments, of which the report
of the secretary said: "Her burning words can never be forgotten, and
many a soul must have responded to her call for workers to carry to
glorious completion what was begun in such difficulty."
There was some talk at this time of holding a Southern Woman's Council
and Miss Anthony wrote to the Arkansas Woman's Chronicle:
The New England States hold an annual suffrage convention and have
done so for nearly thirty years, and I do not see any valid reason
why the States of any section may not have a society or a
convention. Larger numbers from the six New England States can
meet and help each other in Boston, than could possibly go to
Washington to get the soul-refreshing which comes through the
gathering together of kindred spirits from the entire nation.
As I shall be glad to see the women of the South, of all possible
aims and ends, meet in council, so I should rejoice to see them
hold a southern States' suffrage convention. I say this because I
want you to know that my heartiest sympathy goes with you in your
effort to call together the women of your section of the Union; and
I shall rejoice to see the women of the far-off northwestern States
doing the same thing. Women should have their local societies and
meetings, their county, State and section conventions, and then,
for our great national gathering, each State should send its
representatives to Washington, there to confer together and go
before the committees of Congress to urge our claims. What a power
women would be if all could but see eye to eye in their struggle
for freedom!
She remained at home long enough to prepare the memorials to the
national political conventions, and June 4 found her at Minneapolis
ready for the Republican gathering. She was entertained by Mr. and Mrs.
T. B. Walker, and found Mrs. J. Ellen Foster also a guest in that
hospitable home. The memorial presented by the National-American W. S.
A. contained the same unanswerable arguments for the enfranchisement of
women which had been made for so many years, and asked for the following
plank: "As a voice in the laws and the rulers under which we live is the
inalienable right of every citizen of a republic, we pledge ourselves,
when again in power, to place the ballot in the hand of every woman of
legal age, as the only weapon with which she can protect her person and
property and defend herself against all aggressive legislation."
Miss Anthony was notified that she could have a hearing before the
platform committee on the evening of June 8. She was promptly on hand
and was kept standing in the hall outside of the committee room until
after 9 o'clock. Finally she was so tired she sent for one of the
committee to ask how much longer she would have to wait. She learned
that its chairman, J. B. Foraker, of Ohio, refused to preside or call
the committee to order to hear any argument on woman suffrage. Senator
Jones, of Nevada, then hunted him up and asked if he might preside in
his place, and permission being given she was invited into the room. She
spoke for thirty minutes as only a woman could speak who had suffered
the persecution of an Abolitionist before the Republican party was born,
who had been loyal to that party throughout all the dark days of the
Civil War, who had not once repudiated its principles in all the years
which had since elapsed. She pleaded that now she and the women she
represented might have its support and recognition in their right to
representation at the ballot-box. This committee was composed of
twoscore of the most prominent men in the Republican party and, at the
close of Miss Anthony's address, every one in the room arose and many
crowded about her, giving her the most earnest assurance of their belief
in the justice of her cause, but telling her frankly that they could not
put a woman suffrage plank in their platform as the party was not able
to carry the load! The plank eventually adopted read as follows:
We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed
to cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections,
and that such ballot shall be counted as cast; that such laws shall
be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich
or poor, native or foreign, white or black, this sovereign right
guaranteed by the Constitution. The free and honest popular ballot,
the just and equal representation of all the people, as well as
their just and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation
of our republican institutions, and the party will never relax its
efforts until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of
elections shall be guaranteed and protected in every State.
This was identical with the one adopted in 1888, at which time a number
of women had telegraphed the chairman asking if the convention intended
it to apply to women, and he had answered that he did not understand it
to have any such intention. Therefore the women who went to the
Republican convention of 1892 asking for bread, received instead "the
water in which the eggs had been boiled."
There were present at this convention two regularly appointed women
delegates from Wyoming, and the difference in the attention bestowed
upon them and upon those who came to press the claims of the great class
of the disfranchised, ought to have been an object lesson to all who
assert that women will lose the respect of men when they enter
politics. Not a newspaper in the country had a slur to cast on these
women delegates. The Boston Globe made this pertinent comment: "An
elective queen in this country is no more out of place than one seated
by hereditary consent abroad. It is no rash prediction to assert that
the child is now born who will see a woman in the presidential chair.
Thomas Jefferson will not be fully vindicated until this government
rests upon the consent of all the governed."
After just five days at home Miss Anthony left for Chicago to attend the
Democratic National Convention, June 21, which was requested to adopt
the following plank: "Whether we view the suffrage as a privilege or as
a natural right, it belongs equally to every citizen of good character
and legal age under government; hence women as well as men should enjoy
the dignity and protection of the ballot in their own hands."
Miss Anthony and Isabella Beecher Hooker took rooms at the Palmer House
and the latter made arrangements for the hearing before the resolution
committee, which was assembled in one of the parlors, Henry Watterson,
of Louisville, chairman. The ladies made their speeches, were
courteously heard, politely bowed out, and the platform was as densely
silent on the question of woman suffrage as it had been during its whole
history. Mrs. Hooker remained alone in the convention until 2 o'clock in
the morning, hoping to get a chance to address that body. She had not
been fooled as many times as Miss Anthony, who returned to the hotel and
went to bed.
The Union Signal, Frances E. Willard, editor, spoke thus of the
occasion:
That heroic figure, Susan B. Anthony, sure to stand out in history
as plainly as any of our presidents, has given added significance
to the two great political conventions of the year. Neither party
has recognized her plea, but both have innumerable adherents who
openly declare themselves in favor of her principles. She states
that this year she felt for the first time that she had a pivot on
which to hang her quadrennial plea, and that pivot was Wyoming, the
men of that equal-minded State in both conventions holding up her
hands. Miss Anthony's pathetic eyes reveal that she has attained to
loneliness--the guerdon of great spirits who struggle from any
direction toward the mountain tops of human liberty. But on the
heights such souls meet God, and one day all women shall call her
blessed.
The National Prohibition Convention at Cincinnati, June 30, was not
visited by Miss Anthony, as she felt that the women of this party needed
no assistance in looking after the interests of suffrage. The third
plank in the platform there adopted read: "No citizen should be denied
the right to vote on account of sex."
From Chicago she went directly to Kansas to look after the fences in
that State. Mrs. Johns and Anna Shaw joined her and they spoke before
the Chautauqua Assembly at Ottawa, June 27, going thence to Topeka, as
Miss Anthony expressed it, "to watch the State Republican Convention."
They received a hearty greeting and she was invited to address the
convention June 30. The Capital said: "There were loud calls for Susan
B. Anthony and as she advanced to the platform she was greeted with the
most cordial applause." In the evening a reception was given in the
Senate chamber to the ladies in attendance at the convention. Miss
Anthony, Mrs. Johns and Mrs. May Belleville Brown addressed the
resolution committee. The platform was reported with a plank favoring
the submission to the voters of a woman suffrage amendment, which was
enthusiastically adopted--455 to 267--in the largest Republican
convention ever held in Kansas.[74]
Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw then hastened to Omaha for the first national
convention of the People's party July 4. They arrived about 9 P. M.,
July 2, to find they were booked for speeches at the Unitarian church
that evening and the audience had been waiting since 7:30, so they
rushed thither, hot, dusty and tired, and made their addresses. Sunday
afternoon they went to a workingwomen's meeting in the exposition
building and heard Master Workman Powderly for the first time. At his
invitation Miss Anthony also spoke.
The People's party, from its inception, had recognized women as speakers
and delegates and claimed to be the party of morality and reform, but
after a day at the convention Miss Anthony writes in her diary: "They
are quite as oblivious to the underlying principle of justice to women
as either of the old parties and, as a convention, still more so." The
resolution committee refused to grant the ladies even an opportunity to
address them, which had been done willingly by the Republicans and
Democrats. Their platform contained no reference to woman suffrage
except that in the long preamble occurred the sentence: "We believe that
the forces of reform this day organized will never cease to move forward
until every wrong is righted, and equal rights and equal privileges
securely established for all the men and women of this country." This
sentiment, however, was universally accepted by the delegates as
including the right of suffrage.
Miss Anthony spoke at the Beatrice Chautauqua Assembly, and then
returned to Rochester. She had some time before received a letter from
Chancellor John H. Vincent saying: "The subject of woman suffrage will
be presented at Chautauqua on Saturday, July 30, 1892. A prominent
speaker will be secured to present the question as forcibly as possible.
In behalf of the Chautauqua management, I take pleasure in extending to
you a hearty invitation to be present and take a place upon the platform
on that occasion. Trusting that you will be able to accept this
invitation, I am, faithfully yours."
She had had a long, hot and fatiguing trip and her cool, spacious home
was so restful that she decided to defer her visit to Chautauqua until
later in the season.[75] On August 8, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Foster Avery and
Miss Anthony, who had been having a little visit together, started from
Rochester for Chautauqua, where the Reverend Anna was to debate the
question of woman suffrage with Rev. J. M. Buckley, editor New York
Christian Advocate. She gave her address amidst a succession of cheers
and applause, Miss Anthony sitting on the platform with her, an honor
rarely accorded at the assembly. In the evening a delightful reception
was given to the three ladies in the Hall of Philosophy. Dr. Buckley
made his reply the next day to an audience so cold that even his supreme
self-satisfaction was disturbed. If any one thing ever has been
demonstrated at Chautauqua, by those speeches and all preceding and
following them on the same question, it is that the sentiment of the
vast majority of the people who annually visit this great assembly is in
favor of woman suffrage.
After speaking at the Cassadaga Lake camp meeting, August 24, Miss
Anthony went in September to the Mississippi Valley Conference at Des
Moines. It was thought that possibly by holding a great convention in
the West, large numbers in that section of the country and the States
along the Mississippi could attend who would find it inconvenient to go
to Washington. She was glad to give her co-operation and spoke and
worked valiantly through all the sessions. From Des Moines she went to
Peru, Neb., at the urgent invitation of President George L. Farnham, to
address the State Normal School.[76]
Early in October she began her tour of the State of Kansas under the
auspices of the Republican central committee. She was accompanied one
week by Mrs. Johns, and then each went with some of the men who were
canvassing the State. Mrs. Johns made Republican speeches; Miss Anthony
described the record of the party on human freedom and urged them to
complete that roll of honor by enfranchising women. The campaign
managers were very much dissatisfied because she talked suffrage instead
of tariff and finance, but as she was paying her own travelling expenses
and contributing her services, she reserved the right to speak on the
only subject in which she felt a vital interest. If the Republicans had
won the election, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Johns expected that of course
they would take up the question of woman suffrage and carry it to
success; but the State was carried by the newly formed People's party.
As soon as she was thoroughly rested and renovated in her own home,
after this hard campaign, Miss Anthony left for the State convention at
Syracuse, November 14.[77] The Standard, intending to compliment the
ladies, said: "The loud-voiced, aggressive woman of other days was not
here. In her place were low-voiced, quietly-dressed, womanly women, and
those who expected to see the 'woman rioter' of the past failed to find
one of the sort. The graceful, dignified and quiet woman of today bears
no likeness to some who have gone before, who thought to break through
and gain their desires."
A contemporary called the paper down as follows: "When it is remembered
that Susan B. Anthony was one of the originators of the movement, that
Lucy Stone and Mrs. Greenleaf and a host of others who have marched
right along in the suffrage ranks from the beginning, were also the
leaders in this 'low-voiced' assembly who came on tip-toe and acted in
pantomime, the compliment, to say the least, has negative qualities." An
interview on this statement contains the following paragraph:
"It simply shows," said Miss Anthony, smiling, "how differently the
question is regarded now. Among the women who were pioneers in the
movement were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and myself. I don't think it
probable that we are any sweeter-faced or that our voices are any
more melodious than they were thirty years ago. It is only that the
whole matter was regarded with such horror and aversion then that
any one connected with it was looked upon in a disagreeable light;
it is very different now." Her pleasant face, with a suggestion of
her Quaker descent in its soft bands of gray hair, took on a gently
reminiscent expression, which her visitor could not help but
contrast amusedly with the imaginary portrait of the redoubtable
Amazon that in her early years was conjured up by the sound of
Susan B. Anthony's name.
Thanksgiving Day she attended service at the Universalist church and
comments in her diary: "Mr. Morrill, the associate pastor, spoke on
'The undiscovered Church without a Bishop;' Mr. Gannett, 'The
undiscovered State without a King;' Mr. Lansberg, 'Many States in One;'
all good, but all alike gave not the faintest hint of any undiscovered
America, where the male head of the family should not be considered
'divinely appointed.' I had hard work to keep my peace."
The next day she went to Buffalo to address the alumnæ of the ladies'
academy, and was entertained by Miss Charlotte Mulligan, founder of the
missionary school for boys. During this time she was investigating the
new law permitting women to vote for county school commissioners in New
York, and found to her disgust that by the use of the words "county
clerk" instead merely of "clerk who prints and distributes the ballots,"
all the women of the large towns and cities were still disfranchised;
just as the law of 1880 had used the words "school meeting," which also
cut off the women of the cities. This was another illustration of the
manner in which every step of the way to suffrage for women has been
made as difficult as possible.
In December Miss Anthony became an office-holder! It happened in this
way: Her neighbor, Dr. Jonas Jones, who had been one of the trustees of
the State Industrial School located at Rochester, died on the 4th. She
immediately wrote to Governor Roswell P. Flower requesting that a woman
be put on the board in his place, in addition to the one already serving
(Mrs. Emil Kuichling), and suggested Mrs. Lansberg, wife of the rabbi;
at the same time she asked Mary Seymour Howell, who resided in Albany,
to see the governor and use her influence. She did so and found he was
quite willing to appoint a woman but would not consider any but Miss
Anthony. She, however, was away from home so much she thought that in
justice to the institution she ought not take the position; but when she
learned that her refusal might result in a man's being given the place,
she telegraphed her willingness to accept. She was appointed at once to
fill out the unexpired term of Dr. Jones, and May 4, 1893, was
re-appointed by Governor Levi P. Morton for a full term. Of course
numerous letters and telegrams of congratulation were received and the
newspapers contained many kind notices, similar in tone to this from the
Democrat and Chronicle:
It is a good appointment; a fitting recognition of one of the
ablest and best women in the commonwealth. There has been a vast
amount of cheap wit expended upon Miss Anthony during the past
years, and although it has been almost entirely good-natured it has
served to give a wrong impression to the unthinking of one of the
clearest-headed and most unselfish women ever identified with a
public movement.... Speaking of her appointment she said: "You see
I have been regarded as a hoofed and horned creature for so long
that even a little thing touches my heart, and when it comes to
being recognized as an American citizen after fighting forty years
to prove my citizenship, it begins to look as if we women have not
fought in vain." ... A braver-hearted woman than Susan B. Anthony
never lived, but those who can read between the lines of her remark
will not miss the little touch of pathos in her pride, and the hint
of the disappointments which have hurt in the long struggle.
A new charter for the city of Rochester had been prepared and a mass
meeting of citizens was announced for December 12, to hear an exposition
of its points. The morning paper said: "By far the most largely attended
meeting the Chamber of Commerce has ever held was that of last evening.
The large attendance was due to the announcement that the new charter
would be discussed by Miss Susan B. Anthony, and the interest of the
meeting was largely due to the fact that, true to her colors, she kept
her engagement...." Miss Anthony's commission had been received from the
governor that day, which fact was announced by President Brickner as he
introduced her, and she was greeted with cheers. In the course of her
speech she said:
Since promising to address this body, I have tried in vain to find
some word which would settle the question with every member present
in favor of so amending the charter as to give our women equal
voice in conducting the affairs of the city. It seems such a
self-evident thing that the mother's opinion should be weighed and
measured in the political scales as well as that of her son. It is
so simple and just that the wife's judgment should be respected and
counted as well as the husband's. And who can give the reason why
the sister's opinion should be ignored and the brother's
honored?... Over 5,000 women of this city pay taxes on real estate,
and who shall say they are not as much interested in every
question of financial expenditure as any 5,000 men; in the public
parks, street railways, grade crossings, pavements, bridges, etc.?
And not only the 5,000 tax-paying women, but all the women of the
city are equally interested in the sanitary condition of our
streets, alleys, schools, police stations, jails and asylums....
To repair the damages of society seems to be the mission assigned
to women, and we ask that the necessary implements shall be placed
in their hands. But, you say, women can be appointed to see to
these matters without voting. Yes, but they are not; and if they
were, without the ballot they would be powerless to effect the
improvements they might find necessary. If the women of this city
had the right to vote, those on the board of charities, for
instance, would not be compelled year after year to beg each member
of every new council for the appointment of some women as city
physicians, as scores of them have done for the past six or eight
years. Had we the right to vote, do you suppose we should have to
plead in vain before the two parties to place women in nomination
for the school board?
I want this amendment of the charter first, because it is right and
just to women; second, that women may have a political fulcrum on
which to plant their lever for everything they wish to secure
through government; third, that the opinions of the women of this
city may be respected, and there is no other way to secure respect
but to have them counted with those of men in the ballot-box on
every possible question which is carried to that tribunal; and
fourth, to free the mothers from the cruel taunt of being
responsible for the character of their grown-up sons while denied
all power to control the conditions surrounding them after they
pass beyond the dooryards of their homes.
She continued by showing the good effects of woman's municipal suffrage
in England, Canada and also in Kansas, and full suffrage in Wyoming; and
closed with an earnest appeal for an amendment to the new charter which
should confer the municipal franchise upon women. A few days later the
board of trustees took final action on the charter, of which the
Democrat and Chronicle said: "The amendment proposed by Miss Susan B.
Anthony extending the suffrage to women was defeated, although by a
close vote. Had there been a full meeting of the board it is a question
whether it would not have been adopted, as several of the members who
were not present last evening had expressed themselves as
favorable."[78]
Miss Anthony addressed the Monroe County Teachers' Institute at
Brighton, December 16. The diary records many visits to the Industrial
School, conferences with the other fourteen trustees and much
correspondence with the boards of similar institutions elsewhere. In her
mail this year were letters from most of the civilized countries on the
globe, among them several from the leaders of the movement in New
Zealand, saying that her name was more familiar than all others there,
and asking for advice and encouragement in their work of securing the
ballot for women.[79] The following was received from Mrs. Kate Beckwith
Lee, Dowagiac, Mich.: "Mr. Bonet, our sculptor, obtained your
photograph, and we now have your grand face looking down in stone from
the front of our theater, which was erected as an educator to our people
and a memorial to my father, P. D. Beckwith, who was liberal toward all
mankind and a believer in woman's equality, and I sincerely hope you may
some time see the building." The other women sculptured on this handsome
edifice are George Eliot, George Sand, Rachel, Mary Anderson and Sarah
Bernhardt. Among the great mass of correspondence, this is selected:
An incident which is of no particular consequence to this inquiry,
constrains me to write in the hope that you may find time to place
upon paper your recollection of the connection that my father (the
late George H. Thacher, then mayor of the city of Albany) had with
your anti-slavery meeting in this city just before the war. I was
too young to have it make a vivid impression upon me, but it has
sometimes been said that was the first opportunity your
organization had to freely express its views within the State of
New York. I will be very grateful if you will permit your memory to
go back some thirty years and recall that incident.[80] Yours,
JOHN BOYD THACHER.
This illustrates the pride which the children of the future will have in
showing that their parents or grandparents rendered some assistance to
the cause of woman and of freedom. Yet Mr. Thacher, who, as a member of
the New York Board of General Managers of the Columbian Exposition, had
the selection of those who should compose the Woman's Board of the
State, did not name one who had been identified with the great movement
for equal rights during the past forty years, and had made it possible
for women to participate in this celebration.
A case which had been commenced in the courts of New York in 1891 and
had run along through several years, may as well be described here as
elsewhere. Miss Anthony had but an indirect connection with it and it is
mentioned more for its utter ridiculousness than for any other reason. A
woman's art association in New York City, Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson,
president, Miss Alice Donlevy, secretary, had the promise of a legacy to
build an academy, and they decided to place a statue or bust at each
side of the entrance, representing Reform and Philanthropy. Miss Anthony
was selected for the one and Mrs. Mary Hamilton Schuyler for the other.
The latter, in 1852, founded the New York School of Design for Women,
had been the friend and patron of art, and for many years before her
death had been noted for her philanthropic work.
A serious difficulty at once arose in the opposition of Mrs. Schuyler's
nephew and stepson, Philip Schuyler, who objected to the "disagreeable
notoriety." He carried the matter into the courts, which of course
attracted the comment of all the newspapers of the country, pro and con,
and caused more "disagreeable notoriety" than a dozen statues would have
done. He obtained a preliminary injunction against the art association
and then took the case to the supreme court for a permanent injunction,
on the ground that the "right of privacy" had been violated. The real
secret of his objections, however, was exposed in his complaint before
the supreme court. Among the twenty-eight grievances alleged were the
following:
Twenty-second.--The said Mary M. Hamilton Schuyler took no part
whatever in any of the various so-called woman's rights agitations,
with which the aforesaid Susan B. Anthony was, and is, prominently
identified; and that she took no interest in such agitations or
movements, and had no sympathy whatever with them; and that, as
the plaintiff believes, she would have resented any attempt such as
is made by the defendants to couple her name with that of the said
Susan B. Anthony.
Twenty-third.--The acts of the defendants in attempting to raise
money by public subscription for a statue of the said Mary M.
Hamilton Schuyler; in associating her name with the name of Susan
B. Anthony, and in announcing that the projected statue of her is
to be placed on public exhibition at the Columbian Exposition as a
companion piece to a statue of the said Susan B. Anthony,
constitute, and are an unlawful interference with the right of
privacy, and a gross and unwarranted outrage upon the memory of the
said Mary M. Hamilton Schuyler, under the specious pretense of
doing honor to her memory; and that the surviving members of her
family have been, and are, greatly distressed and injured thereby.
The supreme court continued the injunction, and the art association then
carried the case up to the court of appeals. Here the decision of the
lower court was reversed. The opinion was rendered by Justice Rufus W.
Peckham, afterwards appointed by President Cleveland to the Supreme
Bench of the United States. It is not often that a judge of the highest
court in the State incorporates in a legal decision a compliment to a
woman, and for this reason the tribute of Justice Peckham is the more
highly appreciated. After holding that "persons attempting to erect a
statue or bust of a woman no longer living, if their motive is to do
honor to her, and if the work is to be done in an appropriate manner,
can not be restrained by her surviving relatives," he continued:
Many may, and probably do, totally disagree with the advanced views
of Miss Anthony in regard to the proper sphere of women, and yet it
is impossible to deny to her the possession of many of the
ennobling qualities which tend to the making of great lives. She
has given the most unselfish devotion of a long life to what she
has considered would tend most for the benefit and practical
improvement of her sex, and she has thus lived almost literally in
the face of the whole world, and during that period there has never
been a single shadow of any dark or ugly fact connected with her or
her way of life to dim the lustre of her achievements and of her
efforts.
FOOTNOTES:
[73] In the center of the Anthony lot, not far from the main gateway, is
a square monument of Medina granite, the four sides of its cap-stone
inscribed Liberty, Justice, Fraternity, Equality.
[74] At the convention of Republican clubs a few days previous, Senator
Ingalls, having been defeated for re-election to the Senate and feeling
somewhat humbled, said in his speech: "I believe every man ought to be a
politician; I might say every woman also. If a plank endorsing woman
suffrage were inserted in the Republican platform, I would stand upon
it." Ten years before, in this same city, he had declared it to be "that
obscene dogma, whose advocates are long-haired men and short-haired
women, the unsexed of both sexes, human capons and epicenes."
[75] Henry B. Blackwell delivered the address at Chautauqua. At its
close he asked all who were opposed to woman suffrage to rise, and about
twenty persons stood up. He then asked all who were in favor to stand,
and the great audience, filling the huge amphitheater, rose in a body.
[76] When she spoke in the New York State Teachers' Convention in 1853,
the first time a woman's voice had been heard in that body, Professor
Farnham, then superintendent of the Syracuse public schools, was one of
the three men who came up and congratulated her.
[77] While here Miss Anthony received a telegram: "Greeting, gratitude
and good-by to the noblest Roman of them all and her brave host, from
Isabel Somerset and Frances E. Willard." They had expected to stop in
Rochester and visit her before leaving for England, but had gone to New
York by another route.
[78] Jean Brooks Greenleaf, at this time in Washington with her husband,
wrote Miss Anthony:
"I felt heart-sick when I learned the result of the charter business and
I am not over it yet. I told Mr. Greenleaf I would dispose of every bit
of taxable property I have in Rochester. I can not bear to think that,
with so glorious an opportunity to be just, men prefer to be so unjust.
They can help it if they will, those men who speak us so fair. If they
would make one solid stand for our rights they could overrule the masses
who are not half so unready to do women justice as they are represented.
Good God! when I think of it I wonder how you have borne it all these
years and not gone wild."
[79] Full suffrage was granted to the women of New Zealand in 1893.
[80] In February, 1861; see Chapter XIII.
CHAPTER XLI.
WORLD'S FAIR--CONGRESS OF REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN.
1893.
It is not surprising that Miss Anthony writes in her journal at the
beginning of the New Year, 1893: "The clouds do not lift from my spirit.
I am simply overwhelmed with the feeling that I can not make my way
through the work before me." Never a year in all her crowded life opened
with such a mountain of things to be attended to--suffrage conventions,
council meetings, the great Woman's Congress at the World's Fair, State
campaigns, Industrial School matters, lecture engagements--the list
seemed to stretch out into infinity, and it is no wonder that it
appalled even her dauntless spirit.
The first necessity was to get the Washington annual convention out of
the way. It had been set for an early date this winter, and she left
home January 5. Headquarters were at Willard's Hotel and the convention
opened in Metzerott's Music Hall, January 15, continuing the usual five
days. At the opening session Miss Anthony read beautiful tributes by
Mrs. Stanton to George William Curtis, John Greenleaf Whittier,
Ernestine L. Rose and Abby Hutchinson Patton, who had died during the
year, all earnest and consistent friends of woman's equality.
Resolutions were adopted recognizing the splendid services of Francis
Minor, Benjamin F. Butler, Abby Hopper Gibbons, Rev. Anna Oliver and a
number of other active and efficient workers who also had passed away.
Miss Anthony, in her president's address, gave a strong, cheery account
of the past year's work and an encouraging view of the future, and at
both day and evening sessions there were the usual number of able and
entertaining speeches. Reports were made by delegates from thirty-six
States. At the business meeting the question again came up of holding
the annual convention in Washington at the beginning of each new
Congress and in some other part of the country in alternate years. This
plan was vigorously opposed by Miss Anthony, who said in her protest:
The sole object, it seems to me, of this national organization is
to bring the combined influence of all the States upon Congress to
secure national legislation. The very moment you change the purpose
of this great body from National to State work you have defeated
its object. It is the business of the States to do the district
work; to create public sentiment; to make a national organization
possible, and then to bring their united power to the capital and
focus it on Congress. Our younger women naturally can not
appreciate the vast amount of work done here in Washington by the
National Association in the last twenty-five years. The delegates
do not come here as individuals but as representatives of their
entire States. We have had these national conventions here for a
quarter of a century, and every Congress has given hearings to the
ablest women we could bring from every section. In the olden times
the States were not fully organized--they had not money enough to
pay their delegates' expenses. We begged and worked and saved the
money, and the National Association paid the expenses of delegates
from Oregon and California in order that they might come and bring
the influence of their States to bear upon Congress.
Last winter we had twenty-three States represented by delegates.
Think of those twenty-three women going before the Senate
committee, each making her speech, and convincing those senators of
the interest in all these States. We have educated at least a part
of three or four hundred men and their wives and daughters every
two years to return as missionaries to their respective localities.
I shall feel it a grave mistake if you vote in favor of a movable
convention. It will lessen our influence and our power; but come
what may, I shall abide by the decision of the majority.
Miss Anthony was warmly supported by a number of delegates but the final
vote resulted: in favor, 37; opposed, 28.
Among the notable letters received by the convention was the following
from Lucy Stone: "Wherever woman suffragists are gathered together in
the name of equal rights, there am I always in spirit with them.
Although absent, my personal glad greeting goes to every one; to those
who have borne the heat and burden of the day, and to the strong, brave,
younger workers who have come to lighten the load and complete the
victory. We may surely rejoice now when there are so many gains won and
conceded, and when favorable indications are on every hand. The way
before us is shorter than that behind; but the work still calls for
patient perseverance and ceaseless endeavor. The end is not yet in
sight, but it can not be far away." Those who listened little thought
that this would be the last message ever received from that earnest
worker of fifty long years. Letters of greeting were sent to her and to
Mrs. Stanton. Miss Anthony was unanimously re-elected president.
She lingered for a few days' visit with Mrs. Greenleaf, who gave a
reception for her, at which Grace Greenwood was one of the receiving
party. She had a luncheon at Mrs. Waite's, wife of the Chief-Justice,
and after several other pleasant social functions, left Washington
February 1.[81] There was now a magnet in New York City and henceforth
she always arranged her hurried eastern trips so that she might spend a
few hours or days with Mrs. Stanton, when as in the old time, they wrote
calls, resolutions and memorials and made plans to storm the
strongholds.
On February 8, Miss Anthony spoke at Warsaw, the guest of Mrs. Maud
Humphrey; and for the next week the journal says: "Trying all these days
to get to the bottom of my piles of accumulated letters." On her
seventy-third birthday the Political Equality Club gave a reception at
the pleasant home of Rev. and Mrs. W. C. Gannett, and presented her with
a handsome silver teapot, spirit lamp and tray. Mrs. George Hollister
gave her a set of point lace which had belonged to her mother, the
daughter of Thurlow Weed; and there were numerous other gifts. She wrote
to Mrs. Avery on the 23d: "It is just ten years ago this morning, dear
Rachel, since we two went gypsying into the old world. Well, it was a
happy acquaintance we made then and it has been a blessed decade which
has intervened. Ten years of constant work and thought, but ten years
nearer the golden day of jubilee!"
She arranged a meeting at the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, March 1,
for May Wright Sewall, president National Council of Women, to speak on
the approaching Woman's Congress at the World's Fair. On March 6 she
began a brief lecture tour, speaking in Hillsdale, Detroit, Saginaw, Bay
City, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Battle Creek, Charlotte and in Toledo. Nine
evening addresses, several receptions, and over a thousand miles of
travel in twelve days, was not a bad record for a woman past
seventy-three.[82]
Among the pleasant letters received through the winter were several from
the South. Miss Anthony was especially appreciative of the friendship of
southern women, as her part in the "abolition" movement in early times
had created a prejudice against her, and in later days the sentiment for
suffrage had not been sufficient to call her into that part of the
country, where she might form personal acquaintances and friendships.
She had, during these months, earnest letters from the women of Italy
asking for encouragement and co-operation in their struggles. Many
letters came also from teachers, stenographers and other wage-earning
women, full of grateful acknowledgment of their indebtedness to her.
There were invitations enough for lectures to fill every month in the
year, ranging from the Christian Association at Cornell to the
Free-thinkers' Club in New York, and covering all the grades of belief
or non-belief between the two. She was asked to contribute to a
symposium on "The Ideal Man," to write an account of "The Underground
Railroad," and to give so many written opinions on current topics of
discussion that to have complied would have kept her at her desk from
early morning until the midnight hour.
In a letter to a friend she said: "The other day a millionaire who wrote
me, 'wondered why I didn't have my letters typewritten.' Why, bless him,
I never, in all my fifty years of hard work with the pen, had a writing
desk with pigeonholes and drawers until my seventieth birthday brought
me the present of one, and never had I even a dream of money enough for
a stenographer and typewriter. How little those who have realize the
limitations of those who have not."
She wrote to Robert Purvis at this time: "What a magnificent opening
speech Gladstone made, and how splendid his final remarks: 'It would be
misery for me if I had foregone or omitted in these closing years of my
life any measure it was possible for me to take towards upholding and
promoting the cause--not of one party or one nation, but of all parties
and all nations.' So can you and I say with Gladstone, we should be
miserable but for the consciousness that we have done all in our power
to help forward every measure for the freedom and equality of the races
and the sexes."
In April she lectured at a number of places in New York to add to the
limited fund which kept the pot boiling at home.[83] She also went to
Buffalo to talk over Industrial School matters with Mrs. Harriet A.
Townsend, president of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union,
which had proved so great a success in that city. On the 28th she spoke
before the Woman's Columbian Exposition Committee of Cincinnati, "to a
very fashionable and representative audience," the Enquirer said. For
this lecture she received $125. During the spring she wrote the Woman's
Tribune:
How splendidly Kansas women voted, and now come suffrage amendments
in Colorado, New York and Kansas! Well, we must buckle on our armor
for a triple fight, and we must shout more loudly than ever to our
friends all over the country for money to help these States.
Although Kansas is the most certain to carry the question,
nevertheless we must organize every school district of every county
of each State in which the battle of the ballot for woman is to be
fought. _Organize_, _agitate_, _educate_, must be our war cry from
this to the day of the election.
Today's mail brought $100 to our national treasury from Mrs. P. A.
Moffett, of Fredonia. How my heart leaped for joy as I read her
letter and again and again looked at her check, and how I
ejaculated over and over, "O that a thousand of our good women who
_wish_ success to our cause would be moved thus to send in their
checks!" Only a very few can go outside to work, but many can
contribute money to help pay the expenses of those who do leave all
their home-friends, comforts and luxuries. If the many who stay at
home and wish, could only believe for a moment that we who go out
not knowing where our heads will rest when night comes, really love
our homes as they love theirs, they would vie with each other to
throw in their mite to make the path smooth for the wayfarers. But
we, every one of us who can speak acceptably, must do all in our
power to persuade the men of these States to vote for the
amendment. Do let us all take to ourselves new hope and courage for
the herculean task before us. Who will send the next $100? O, that
we had $10,000 to start with!
Miss Anthony and Mrs. Avery met at Mrs. Sewall's for a conference on
Woman's Congress matters and then went to Chicago to attend, by
invitation, the formal opening of the Columbian Exposition May 1, 1893.
Miss Anthony wrote: "Mrs. Palmer's speech was very fine, covering full
equality for woman." Her address the year before at the dedication
ceremonies contained one of the noblest tributes ever paid to women,
closing with these beautiful sentences: "Even more important than the
discovery of Columbus, which we are gathered together to celebrate, is
the fact that the general government has just discovered woman. It has
sent out a flashlight from its heights, so inaccessible to us, which we
shall answer by a return signal when the exposition is opened. What will
be its next message to us?" Upon this occasion she was even more
eloquent. Her keen expose of the absurd platitudes in regard to woman's
sphere, and her fine defence of women in the industrial world, deserve a
place among the classics.
Since Miss Anthony's part in this great world's exposition must
necessarily be condensed into small space, it seems most satisfactory to
place it all together. It has been related in the chapter of 1876 how
women were denied practically all governmental recognition in the
Centennial. They were determined that this should not be the case in
1893. As early as 1889 she began making plans to this effect and
conferring with other prominent women. Several officials, who were in
positions to influence action on this question, had declared that
"those suffrage women should have nothing to do with the World's Fair;"
and as some women whose social prestige might be needed were likely to
be frightened off if suffrage were in any way connected with the matter,
Miss Anthony felt the necessity of moving very discreetly. As "those
suffrage women" had been behind every progressive movement that ever had
been made in the United States for their own sex, it was hardly possible
that they would not be the moving force in this. Miss Anthony was not
seeking for laurels, however, either for herself or for her cause, but
only to carry her point--that women should participate in this great
national celebration and that they should do this with the sanction and
assistance of the national government. In her plans she had the valuable
backing of Mrs. Spofford, who made it possible for her to remain in
Washington every winter, gave the use of the Riggs House parlors for
meetings and aided in many other ways.
Miss Anthony went quietly about among the ladies in official life whom
she could trust, and as a result various World's Fair meetings were held
at the hotel, participated in by Washington's influential women, and a
committee appointed to wait upon Congress and ask that women be placed
on the commission. She did not appear at these gatherings, and only her
few confidantes knew that she was behind them. Meanwhile it was
announced early in January, 1890, that the World's Fair Bill had been
brought before the House, and Miss Anthony at once prepared a petition
asking for the appointment of women on the National Board of Management.
This was placed in the hands of ladies of influence and in a few days
one hundred and eleven names were obtained of the wives and daughters of
the judges of the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, senators, representatives,
army officials; as distinguished a list as could be secured in the
national capital.
This petition was presented to the Senate January 12. It requested that
women should be placed on the board with men, but instead, the bill was
passed in March creating a commission of men and authorizing them to
appoint a number of women to constitute a "Board of Lady Managers."
These 115 appointments were intended to be practically of a
complimentary nature, it was not expected that the women would take any
prominent part, and no particular rule was observed in their selection.
While perhaps in some States they were not the ablest who might have
been found, they were, as a board, fairly representative. To bring this
great body into harmonious action and guide it along important lines of
work, required a leader possessed of a combination of qualities rarely
existing in one person--not only the highest degree of executive ability
but self-control, tact and the power of managing men and women. They
were found, however, in the woman elected to preside over this board,
Mrs. Bertha Honoré Palmer, of Chicago. At the close of the exposition it
was universally conceded that she had proved herself pre-eminently the
one woman in all the country for this place. Her record, during the
several years that she held this very responsible position, is one of
the most remarkable ever made by any woman.
At the time Miss Anthony prepared her petition to Congress for
representation, no action had been taken by any organized body of women
in the country, and if she had not been on the field of battle in
Washington and acted at the very moment she did, the bill would have
passed Congress without any provision for women. They would have had no
recognition from the government, no appropriations for their work, no
official power, and their splendid achievements at the Columbian
Exposition, which did more to advance the cause of women than all that
had been accomplished during the century, would have been lost to the
world. Having secured this great object, she asked no office for herself
or for any other woman. On several public occasions, in the early months
of the fair, she refused to speak or to sit on the platform, lest she
might embarrass the President of the Board of Lady Managers by
committing her to woman suffrage. Mrs. Palmer, however, showed her the
most distinguished courtesy, in both public and private affairs,
inviting her to the platform and including her in the social functions
at her own residence. Miss Anthony soon felt that she was in full
sympathy with herself in every measure which tended to secure for women
absolute equality of rights, a point which Mrs. Palmer emphasized in the
most unmistakable language in her eloquent address delivered in the
Woman's Building, at the close of the exposition.
In these circumscribed limits it will be impossible to give any adequate
account of that greatest of all accomplishments of women at the World's
Fair--the Woman's Congress--whose proceedings fill two large volumes in
the official report. In order that intellectual as well as material
progress should be presented, it had been decided to hold a series of
congresses which should bring together a representation of the great
minds of the world. C. C. Bonney was made president of the Congress
Auxiliary; Mrs. Palmer, president, and Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin,
vice-president of the Woman's Branch. Although women were to participate
in all, Mr. Bonney desired to have one composed of them alone. To assist
Mrs. Henrotin, who had been made acting president, as well as to further
insure the success of this congress, Mr. Bonney appointed May Wright
Sewall chairman, and Rachel Foster Avery secretary, of the committee of
organization, and they were assisted by an efficient local committee.
As president and secretary of the National Council of Women, and Mrs.
Sewall vice-president of the International Council, no two could have
been secured with so wide a knowledge of the organizations of women
throughout the world and the best methods of securing their
co-operation. The magnitude of their labors can be appreciated only by
an examination of the official report. The fact of their merging into
this congress the International Council of Women, which was to have been
held in London that year, was one of the most potent elements of its
success. Miss Anthony wrote Mrs. Sewall: "The suffrage work has missed
you, oh, so much, still I would not have had you do differently. I glory
in Rachel's and your work this year beyond words."
The World's Congress of Representative Women, which opened May 15,
1893, was the largest and most brilliant of any of the series which
extended through the six months of the fair, and was considered by many
the most remarkable ever convened. Twenty-seven countries and 126
organizations were represented by 528 delegates. During the week
eighty-one meetings were held in the different rooms of the Art Palace.
There were from seven to eighteen in simultaneous progress each day and,
according to official estimate, the total attendance exceeded 150,000
persons. The fifteen policemen stationed in the building stated that
often hundreds of people were turned away before the hour of opening
arrived, not only the audience-rooms but the halls and ante-rooms being
so crowded that no more could enter the building, which held 10,000.
All who were in attendance at this congress, all who read the accounts
in the Chicago daily papers, will testify that it is not the bias of a
partial historian which prompts the statement that Susan B. Anthony was
the central figure of this historic gathering. Every time she appeared
on the stage the audience broke into applause; when she rose to speak,
they stood upon the seats and waved hats and handkerchiefs. People
watched the daily program and when she was advertised for an address,
there was a rush from other halls and an impenetrable jam in the
corridors. Again and again she was obliged to call upon a stout
policeman to make a way for her through the throngs which pressed about
her, anxious to get even a sight of her face. No matter what department
of the congress she visited, whether of education, religion,
philanthropy or industries, the audience demanded a speech and would not
be satisfied until it was made.[84] Large numbers of the women who gave
addresses in these various meetings paid tribute to her work, and the
mention of her name never failed to elicit a burst of applause. At the
many public and private receptions given to the congress the post of
honor was assigned to her, and no guest ever was satisfied to leave
without having touched her hand.
[Illustration: May Knight Sewall (with signature)]
It is not too much to say that no woman in this country, or in any
other, ever was so honored because of her own individual services to
humanity. It was the universal recognition of her labors of nearly half
a century, that had laid the foundation upon which had been reared all
the great organizations represented by the women in this congress. Hers
had been the pioneer work, the blazing of the pathway through the
forests of custom and prejudice which for untold centuries had forbidden
them to step beyond the narrow limits of domestic occupations. All of a
sudden, it seemed, the women of the world had awakened to the knowledge
that she had borne ridicule, abuse, misrepresentation, disgrace, that
they might enter into the kingdom of woman's right to her highest
development. Long-delayed though it had been, the women of her own and
other countries came to lay their homage at her feet, to bow before her
in loving gratitude, to rise up and call her blessed.
Letters of congratulation were received from far and wide; one from
Frances E. Willard in Switzerland said:
MY BELOVED SUSAN: You are a happy woman and we are all crowing to
think the people love, honor and call for you so loud and long. It
suits one's sense of poetic justice; it confirms one's faith in
human nature and the Heavenly Power not ourselves "that makes for
righteousness." Lady Henry, Anna Gordon and I have "hoorayed" over
your laurels and said, "Bless her; she is not only _our_ Susan but
everybody's." Lady Henry says you have the true sign of greatness
that you are absolutely without pretension. You do not take up all
the time and luxuriate in the sound of your own voice, but are glad
to give the other ones a bit of breath too. She says no woman of
fame has ever so thoroughly made this impression of modesty and
unselfishness upon her mind. And I say Selah.[85]
[Illustration: Autograph: "Isabel Somerset"]
In her London letter the noted correspondent, Florence Fenwick Miller,
of England, wrote:
Amidst all the attractive personalities and ideas presented, the
most sought of all--the one whose presence drew crowds everywhere,
who was made to speak in whatever hall she entered, and who was
surrounded in every corridor and every reception, just as the
queen-bee is surrounded in the hive by her courtiers, was the
veteran leader of the woman suffragists of America, Susan B.
Anthony. At seventy-three she is as upright of form, as clear and
powerful of mind, as strong of voice, as courageous and
uncompromising as ever. Let our revered and beloved Miss Anthony
have the last word.
The program for the Woman's Congress assigned but one session to the
National-American Suffrage Association, and it was the honest intention
to give no more time to the discussion of political equality than to
each of the other departments. It made a place for itself, however, in
practically every one of the meetings. Whether the subject were
education, philanthropy, reform or some other, the speakers were sure to
point out the disabilities of woman without the ballot. So strong was
the desire to hear this question discussed that it became necessary to
hold afternoon meetings in the large halls, aside from those on the
regular morning and evening program, in order to give the eager crowds
an opportunity to hear its distinguished advocates from all parts of the
world. It is doubtful if the whole fifty years of agitation made as many
converts to equal suffrage as did the great object lesson of the Woman's
Congress.
Many pleasant letters passed between Miss Anthony and Mr. Bonney, Mrs.
Palmer and Mrs. Henrotin. The last named asked her to take part in the
Temperance, the Labor and the Social and Moral Reform Congresses and
requested her advice and assistance. She was placed by Mr. Bonney on the
advisory council of the Political, Social and Economic Congresses. Mrs.
Palmer wrote: "I should like you to send us special suggestions for
speakers and topics." Miss Anthony was much pleased at the selection of
Mrs. Palmer for president of the Board of Lady Managers, heartily
seconded all her efforts and lent no support to the dissensions made by
several women who thought there should have been more recognition of
those who had been pioneer workers. That this was appreciated is shown
by a letter written as early as April, 1891:
I feel that I must express my thanks to you that you did not
condemn us unheard, for I naturally supposed that as ---- ----
belonged to your organization you would take her view of any matter
which interested her. I thank you very much for your
fair-mindedness, and beg that you will read the statement which I
shall send you and which will probably give you a better idea of
this unpleasant matter than anything else you have seen.
I remember with great pleasure our meeting in Washington, and hope
it was only the first of many such pleasant occasions for me.
Thanking you again, I am most cordially yours,
[Illustration: Autograph: "Most Cordially Yours, Bertha M H Palmer"]
Miss Anthony spoke several times at the noon-hour meetings held in the
Woman's Building.[86] Mrs. James P. Eagle, chairman, who edited the
report of the noon-hour addresses, wrote her: "I would not take much
pleasure in publishing our book if I could not have something from your
addresses to go in it. You must not deny me. One of your talks was
'Woman's Influence vs. Political Power,' another 'The Benefits of
Organization.' If it is your best and easiest way, make the speeches and
employ a stenographer to take them and send me the bill. I can not
afford to miss them. You have been so very kind and encouraging to me
all along that I shall feel it a Brutus blow if you fail me now." As she
never wrote a speech in these days and could not make the same one
twice, she was unable to comply with this request.
Miss Anthony was invited to speak at the Press Congress May 27, the day
when the religious press as a leader of reforms was under consideration.
The managers became very uneasy and began trying to find out how she
meant to handle the question. Her only reply was, "I shall speak the
truth." The speech, delivered before an audience containing many
ministers, caused a tremendous sensation. She took up the reforms,
temperance, anti-slavery, woman's rights, labor, and showed conclusively
that in every one the church and the religious press, instead of being
leaders, were laggards. At the close the chairman remarked
apologetically that of course the speaker did not expect people in
general to agree with everything she had said. The Chicago Tribune thus
finished its report: "As Miss Anthony had an engagement she was obliged
to leave at this point, and most of the audience went with her."
The Congress on Government convened August 7 and, at Mr. Bonney's
request, Miss Anthony was present at the opening ceremony and responded
to an address of welcome in behalf of the civil service commission. Five
sessions of this Government Congress were devoted to a discussion of
equal suffrage, the speakers being women. The chairman, Hon. Wm. Dudley
Foulke, said it was not the intention to give this subject such
prominence, but women had shown so much more interest than men, half of
them accepting the invitation to take part and only one man in twenty
responding, that he was compelled thus to arrange the program.
Soon after the adjournment of the Woman's Congress Miss Anthony left the
Palmer House, which had been its headquarters, and, accepting the
invitation of Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley, enjoyed the congenial atmosphere
of her beautiful home for a month. At the conclusion of her visit with
Mrs. Coonley she went for six weeks with Mr. and Mrs. Sewall, who had
taken a large house for the season. This was a social center and the
weekly receptions were a prominent feature, bringing together
distinguished people from all countries, who were in Chicago, as
officials or visitors, during this wonderful summer. While at Mrs.
Coonley's Miss Anthony formed two acquaintances who from that date have
been among her most valued friends--Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E. Gross. After
leaving the Sewalls she spent a delightful month with them at their
residence on the Lake Shore drive, where she was surrounded with every
luxury which wealth and affection could bestow. This added another to
the homes in that city always open to her, and Mrs. Gross often wrote:
"Your visits are a sweet benediction to our family."[87]
Among the most elegant of the many social affairs to which she was
invited was the luncheon in the great banquet hall of the Hotel
Richelieu, given by the officers of the National Council to those of the
International, the foreign delegates and a few other guests, 150 in all.
May Wright Sewall presided with great dignity and charm over the "after
dinner speech-making" of this assemblage of the representative women
from the most highly civilized nations of the world, and Miss Anthony
sat at her right hand.
Once she went to Harvey and spoke at a camp meeting of 3,000 persons;
and later to the Bloomington Chautauqua to give an address; then all the
way to Kansas to speak at the State Fair in Topeka and fill a month's
lecture engagements. Two weeks she spent in her own home visiting with
relatives; then rushed down to Long Island to hurry Mrs. Stanton with
her paper; and back again to Chicago to read it for her at the
Educational Congress. Many days and evenings were passed among the
wealth of attractions on the exposition grounds; and so the summer waxed
and waned, one of the longest holidays she ever had known, and yet with
not an idle hour through all the four months of delightful associations
and cherished acquaintances. She writes in the diary October 30: "This
was my last sight of the White City in its full glory by night."
Among the many graceful words of farewell spoken by the press of
Chicago, may be quoted the following from the Inter-Ocean, which
suggests the strong and graceful pen of Mary H. Krout:
It is pleasant in these reminiscent days when we talk over the
glories and delights of the World's Fair, to recall the honors
heaped upon Susan B. Anthony. Her personal friends vied with each
other in arranging elaborate entertainments of which she was the
central figure. There were dinners and luncheons, banquets and
receptions, and at each and all the refined and delicate face
shone above the board with a beauty and tranquillity far exceeding
the mere beauty of youth and faultlessness of feature. It was the
beauty of experience, sweetened and purified by success and
appreciation....
It must seem a strange contrast to the woman who has worked so
perseveringly in the face of untold difficulties--this change that
a few years have wrought. It has not been so very long since she
was the universal butt of ridicule, lampooned and caricatured, with
all that malice, in its coarsest and most brutal form, could
suggest. Her age was the favorite theme of the callow witling, her
cause a never-failing subject for reproach and abuse. It is all
over and done with, thanks to the new race of men which women
themselves are training and educating. There are no words for her
nowadays but those of praise and affection. She has lived to see
truth survive and justice vindicated. Men no longer regard her as
the arch-enemy to domestic peace, disseminating doctrines that mean
the destruction of home and the disorganization of society. They
perceive in her, rather, the advocate of that liberty which knows
no limitations either of sex or of condition--a freedom which,
achieved, means the incalculable advancement of the race.
In all the assemblages where Miss Anthony was present during those
memorable months--the observed of all observers, holding a
veritable court--her admirers were both men and women, and no belle
at a ball was ever more unmistakably deferred to. It made her
happy, as it should have done. But it made far happier those who
have believed in her all these years, that she should have
triumphed over ignorance and prejudice, and at threescore and ten
have come into her kingdom at last. When it is asked what woman was
most prominent, most honored, most in demand in all the public
ceremonials and private functions held in Chicago during the
Columbian Exposition, there can be but one answer--Susan B.
Anthony.
Through all the summer and autumn of 1893 a campaign had been going
forward in Colorado, where the legislature had submitted the question of
woman suffrage to the voters. The national association was represented
by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who rendered splendid service. Mrs. Leonora
Barry Lake spoke under the auspices of the Knights of Labor. The rest of
the work was done by the women of Colorado, who proved a host in
themselves. Miss Anthony held herself in readiness to go at any time but
the friends felt that, unless vitally necessary, she should be spared
the hardships. Circumstances were favorable; there had been a vast
change in public sentiment since the defeat of 1877; the question was
submitted at a time when only county elections were held and there was
no political excitement; Populists and Republicans not only endorsed it
but worked for it; Democrats offered no party opposition and many of
them gave it cordial support; more than half of the newspapers in the
State advocated it. The campaign in Colorado differed from all those
which had been conducted in other States in the fact that it was not
left for women to carry on alone, but the most prominent men in all
parties lent their assistance and made the victory possible.[88] The
amendment was carried by nearly 6,000 majority, about three to one in
favor. Miss Anthony received the telegram announcing the fact November
8, the day after election, and she was the happiest woman in America.
Immediately upon returning home from Chicago she went to the State
suffrage convention which met in Historical Hall, Brooklyn, November 13.
While in New York she was the guest of Mrs. Russell Sage at the dinner
of the Emma Willard Alumnæ. Four days were given to the convention,
one or two spent with Mrs. Catt, in her delightful home at
Bensonhurst-by-the-Sea, and a few at the suburban residence of Mrs.
Foster Avery. While here she addressed the New Century Club in
Philadelphia, and for several days following was in attendance at the
Pennsylvania convention. On December 18, she lectured at Jamaica; the
19th at Riverhead; the 20th at Richmond; the 22d she attended the
Foremothers' Day dinner in New York and made an address; the 23d she
spoke before the Women's Conference of the Ethical Society in that city.
When not lecturing she was struggling with her mass of correspondence,
attending to her duties in connection with the Industrial School, and
making preliminary arrangements for two big State campaigns which
required the writing of hundreds of letters, all done with her own hand.
Invitations came during these days to address the New York Social Purity
League, the Women's Republican Association, the Pratt Institute and the
National Convention of the Keeley Cure League; and requests for articles
on "Why Should Young Men Favor Woman Suffrage?" for the Y. M. C. A.
paper of Chicago; "What Should the President's Message Say?" for the New
York World; "If you had $1,000,000 what would you do with it?" for a
symposium; and at least a score of similar applications. The friendly
letters included one from Judge Albion W. Tourgee, acknowledging receipt
of the History of Woman Suffrage, "from one whose devotion to principle
and brave advocacy of right have ever commanded my profound esteem." He
also expressed his interest and belief in the principle of woman
suffrage. The same mail brought a letter from Professor Helen L.
Webster, asking for a copy of the History to place in the library of
Wellesley College "so that it may be within reach of the students."
The Kansas legislature again had submitted a suffrage amendment and many
letters were coming from the women of that State, begging Miss Anthony's
help. She filled reams of paper during December, telling them how to put
everybody to work, to organize every election precinct in the State, to
raise money, and above all else to create a public sentiment which would
demand a woman suffrage plank in the platform of each of the political
parties. "I am going to make a big raid to get a fund for Kansas," she
wrote, "but nothing will avail without the support of the parties." The
work in Kansas was not, however, by any means the most formidable
undertaking which confronted her. The women of New York were about to
enter upon the greatest suffrage campaign ever attempted, and toward its
success she was bending every thought, energy and effort, earnestly
coöperating with the strongest and best-equipped workers in the State.
FOOTNOTES:
[81] James G. Blaine died while she was in Washington and the diary
says: "He should have lived, and the Republicans should have honored him
as their leader. He _was that_, though not chosen by them."
[82] The newspapers, almost without exception, in all these places,
spoke in unqualified praise of Miss Anthony and her work, of her "royal
welcome," her "packed audiences," her "masterly address," etc. Several
of them, notably the Bay City Tribune, contained strong editorial
endorsement of woman suffrage. At Lansing she addressed the House of
Representatives and the next day the bill conferring municipal suffrage
on women was voted on; 38 ayes, 39 nays. It was reconsidered, received a
good majority in both Houses and was signed by the governor, but
afterwards declared unconstitutional by the supreme court of the State.
[83] The diary shows a gift for this purpose, during the month, of $150
from Rachel Foster Avery and $50 from Adeline Thomson.
[84] "More than once--indeed, I believe more than a score of times--I
saw speakers of eloquence and renown interrupted in the midst of a
discourse by audiences who simply would not listen, after Miss Anthony's
entrance into the hall, until she had been formally introduced and an
opportunity given them to express their reverence by prolonged
applause."--From letter of Mrs. Sewall.
[85] Lady Henry had just returned from Chicago where she had attended
the World's Fair Temperance Congress and here had heard Miss Anthony for
the first time. At the close of her speech declaring that there could be
no effective temperance work among women until they had the ballot, Lady
Henry came forward and gave it her most hearty endorsement.
[86] "As only the most gifted women will be invited to participate in
these entertainments, we hope the invitation will be esteemed as an
honor conferred by the Board of Lady Managers, and your acceptance will
be gratefully appreciated."--Note of Invitation.
[87] As a memento of these visits Mrs. Gross presented Miss Anthony with
$100; and Mrs. Coonley gave her a rich brocaded silk dress and a
travelling suit, both beautifully made by her own dressmaker, with
bonnets to match.
[88] The "Remonstrants" flooded the State with their literature, but as
this contained a conspicuous advertisement of a large liquor
establishment, it defeated itself. The headquarters of the organized
opposition were located in a Denver brewery.
CHAPTER XLII.
THE SECOND NEW YORK CAMPAIGN.
1894.
The year 1894 is distinguished in the annals of woman suffrage for two
great campaigns: one in New York to secure from the Constitutional
Convention an amendment abolishing the word "male" from the new
constitution which was to be submitted to the voters at the fall
election; the other in Kansas to secure a majority vote on an amendment
which had been submitted by the legislature of 1893, and was to be voted
on in November. In order to make the story as clear as possible, each of
these campaigns, both of which were in progress at the same time, will
be considered separately. Before entering upon either, the leading
features of the twenty-sixth of the series of Washington conventions,
which have run like a thread through Miss Anthony's life for more than a
quarter of a century, will be briefly noticed.
On January 13, she lectured before the University Association at Ann
Arbor in the great University Hall--the second woman ever invited to
address that body, Anna Dickinson having been thus honored during the
war. Sunday morning she spoke for the University Christian Association,
in Newbury Hall. Monday morning the State Suffrage Association commenced
a three days' convention, during which she gave numerous short
addresses. Wednesday evening a large reception was given by her hostess,
Olivia B. Hall, whose home Miss Anthony always regarded as one of her
most enjoyable resting-places in her many trips through Michigan. Mrs.
Hall had contributed hundreds of dollars to the cause of woman
suffrage, and made a number of timely presents to Miss Anthony for her
personal use.
From Michigan they went to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the suffrage
association of Toledo. It is worthy of note that Miss Anthony had helped
organize this society in the house of Mrs. Hall, who lived there at that
time. She was here, as always when in this city, the guest of her
friend, Anna C. Mott, whose father and uncle, Richard and James Mott,
were her staunch supporters from the early days of the abolition
movement. The papers contained long and flattering notices, which had
now become so customary that to quote one is to give the substance of
all.
Miss Anthony lectured in Baltimore February 13, going from there to
Washington. The convention opened in Metzerott's Music Hall, February
15, welcomed by Commissioner John W. Ross, of the District. Among the
speakers were Senator Carey and Representative Coffeen, of Wyoming;
Senator Teller and Representatives Bell and Pence, of Colorado; Senator
Peffer and Representatives Davis, Broderick, Curtis and Simpson, of
Kansas; ex-Senator Bruce, of Mississippi; Hon. Simon Wolf, of the
District; Catherine H. Spence, of New Zealand; Miss Windeyer, of
Australia; Hannah K. Korany, of Syria; Kate Field; and Mary Lowe
Dickinson, secretary King's Daughters.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Yours truly, Kate Field"]
Appropriate memorial services were held for the distinguished dead of
the past year who had rendered especial service to the cause of woman
suffrage: Lucy Stone, George W. Childs, Leland Stanford, Elizabeth
Peabody, Elizabeth Oakes Smith. Eloquent tributes were offered by the
various members of the convention, and Miss Anthony added one to Mary F.
Seymour, founder of the Business Woman's Journal. The death of Myra
Bradwell, editor Legal News, occurred too late for her honored name to
be included in these services. Bishop Phillips Brooks and ex-President
Rutherford B. Hayes, both of whom had unequivocally expressed themselves
in favor of suffrage for women, also had died in 1893.
At the opening session, on Miss Anthony's birthday, she was presented by
the enfranchised women of Wyoming and Colorado with a beautiful silk
flag which bore two shining stars on its blue field. She accepted it
with much emotion, saying: "I have heard of standard bearers in the army
who carried the banners to the topmost ramparts of the enemy, and there
I am going to try to carry this banner. You know without my telling how
proud I am of this flag, and how my heart is touched by this
manifestation." From the ladies of Georgia came a box of fresh flowers,
and among other pleasant remembrances were seventy-four American Beauty
roses from Mrs. S. E. Gross, of Chicago. A little later, when Virginia
D. Young brought the greetings of South Carolina, Miss Anthony said:
I think the most beautiful part of our coming together in
Washington for the last twenty-five years, has been that more
friendships, more knowledge of each other have come through the
hand-shakes here, than would have been possible through any other
instrumentality. I shall never cease to be grateful for all the
splendid women who have come up to this great center for these
twenty-six conventions, and have learned that the North was not
such a cold place as they had believed; I have been equally glad
when we came down here and met the women from the sunny South and
found they were just like ourselves, if not a little better. In
this great association, we know no North, no South, no East, no
West. This has been our pride for twenty-six years. We have no
political party. We never have inquired what anybody's religion
was. All we ever have asked is simply, "Do you believe in perfect
equality for women?" That is the one article in our creed.
There were many pleasant newspaper comments on Miss Anthony's
re-election, among them the following from the Chicago Journal:
The national suffrage association honored itself yesterday by again
electing to its presidency Susan B. Anthony. She has suffered long
for a cause she believes to be right, and it is fitting that in
these later years of her active life, when the cause has become
popular, she should wear the honors her patient, persistent
endeavor has won. Susan B. Anthony is one of the most remarkable
products of this century. She is not a successful writer; she is
not a great speaker, although a most effective one; but she has a
better quality than genius. She is the soul of honesty; she
possesses the gift of clear discrimination--of seeing the main
point--and of never-wavering loyalty to the issue at hand....
For more than forty years she has led the women of America through
the wilderness of doubt, and now from Pisgah's heights looks over
into the Canaan land of triumphant victory. Past the allotted time
of threescore years and ten, Miss Anthony may never cross the
Jordan of her hopes, but she has led her hosts safely through the
gravest dangers and trained up others well fitted to wear the
mantle of leadership. It is the hope of all who have learned to
know and appreciate this heroic woman, that her wise counsel and
earnest, faithful spirit may long continue to inspire and direct
the affairs of this great association.
The office of national organizer was created and Carrie Chapman Catt
elected to fill it. The association accepted an invitation to hold the
next meeting in Atlanta, Ga. At the close of the convention a hearing
was granted by the Senate and House committees. Miss Anthony introduced
the various speakers, representing all sections of the country, and at
the conclusion one of the new members came to her and said earnestly:
"If you had but adopted this course earlier, your cause would have been
won long ago." He was considerably surprised when she informed him that
they had had just such hearings as this for the past twenty-six years.
The legislature of New York had ordered the necessary measures to be
taken for a delegate convention to revise the constitution. Governor
Hill in 1887 and Governor Flower in 1892 had recommended that women
should have a representation in this convention. The bill, as it finally
passed both branches of the legislature, provided that any male or
female citizen above the age of twenty-one should be eligible to
election as delegate. When the district conventions were called to
choose these, both Democrats and Republicans refused to nominate any
woman. As the delegates would draw $10 a day for five months, the
political plums were entirely too valuable to give to a disfranchised
class. The Republicans of Miss Anthony's district would not consider
even her nomination, although she was recognized as the peer of any man
in the State in a knowledge of constitutional law. The Democrats in that
district, who were in a hopeless minority, made the one exception and,
as a compliment, nominated Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf, who ran several
hundred votes ahead of the ticket.
The women then proceeded to inaugurate a great campaign in order to
create a public sentiment which would demand from this convention an
amendment conferring suffrage on women. To begin this, which would
require a vast amount of money, they had not a dollar. No delegate owed
his election to a woman, nor could any woman further his ambition for
future honors to which his record in this body might prove a
stepping-stone. So far as any political power was concerned, women were
of less force than the proverbial fly on the wagon wheel, and the
majority of men who go into a convention of this kind do so from that
particular sort of lofty patriotism which sees an official position in
the near or distant future. On the other hand, the element which is
forever and unalterably opposed to any move in the direction of suffrage
for women, represented the dominant financial and political power in the
greatest metropolis in America, whose ramifications extend to every
city, village and cross-roads in the State. With its money and its votes
this element can make and unmake politicians at will, and under present
conditions, with the ballot in the hands of men only, it is virtually an
impossibility for a candidate to be elected if this organization exert
its influence against him. How to persuade the parties and the
individual men to risk defeat until they succeed in the enfranchisement
of women, which alone will destroy the absolute domination of this
oligarchy, is a problem yet to be solved. That the women of New York
dared attempt it, showed courage and determination of the highest order.
This necessarily had to be a campaign of education, of forming new
public sentiment and putting into definite shape that which already
existed. This could be done in four ways: by organization, by petitions,
by literature and by speeches. The petitions were put into circulation
in 1893.[89] As it would be necessary to use every dollar to the very
best advantage, the Anthony home in Rochester was put at the service of
the committee in order to save rent. Practically every room in the house
was called into requisition. The parlors became public offices; the
guest chamber was transformed into a mailing department; Miss Anthony's
study was an office by day and a bedroom by night; and even
the dining-room and kitchen were invaded. Here Mary S. Anthony,
corresponding secretary, and Mrs. Martha R. Almy,
vice-president-at-large, with a force of clerks, worked day and night
from December, 1893, to July, 1894, sending out thousands of letters,
petition blanks, leaflets, suffrage papers, etc.[90] The letter boxes
were wholly inadequate, and the post-office daily sent mail-sacks to the
house, which were filled and set out on the front porch to be collected.
Hither came every day the State president, Mrs. Greenleaf, who toiled
without ceasing from daylight till dark; and into this busy hive Miss
Anthony rushed from the lecture field every Saturday to get the report
of the work and consult as to the best methods for the coming week. It
is not possible to describe in detail the vast amount of labor performed
at these headquarters, but it is thus summed up in the report of the
corresponding secretary:
... Add to the correspondence incident to the circulation of our
great petition, the sending out of nearly 5,000 blank
petition-books and instructions to insure the work's being properly
done, literature for free distribution, the planning and arranging
for sixty mass meetings in as many counties, and we have a task
before which Hercules himself might well stand aghast. To
accomplish this work has taken not only the entire time of your
corresponding secretary, but that of our president, Mrs.
Greenleaf, for a full year. Hundreds of women over all the State
worked as never before, petitions in hand, travelling from house to
house in all sorts of weather to secure the names of people who
believe in the right of women to a voice in the government under
which they live.
[Illustration: Mary S. Anthony (Signed: "Your Sister Mary S. Anthony")]
It has so often been asserted by those in power that when any
considerable number of women wanted to vote, there would be perfect
freedom for them to do so, that it was now decided thoroughly to
test the truth of such assertion. Over 332,000 individual names,
more than half being those of women, were thus actually obtained,
neatly put up in book form and presented to the Constitutional
Convention with a feeling that such a showing could not, by any
possible means, fail to make the men of that convention and of the
State clearly understand that _women do want to vote_.[91]
[Illustration: Autograph: "Lillie Devereux Blake"]
The entire management of New York City was put in charge of Lillie
Devereux Blake, and Brooklyn in that of Mariana W. Chapman. While the
petition work was going forward a great series of mass meetings was in
progress, for which Miss Anthony, who knew every foot of New York State
as well as her own dooryard, mapped out the routes. The management of
these was placed in the hands of Harriet May Mills and Mary G. Hay, who
proved remarkably efficient. Rev. Anna Shaw spoke at over forty of these
meetings and Mary Seymour Howell at a large number. Several speakers
from outside the State came in at different times and rendered excellent
service. Carrie Chapman Catt made nearly forty speeches in New York,
Brooklyn and vicinity. Miss Anthony herself, at the age of seventy-four,
spoke in every one of the sixty counties of the State, beginning at
Albion, January 22, and ending at Glens Falls, April 28.[92]
The campaign opened with a mass meeting at Rochester, of which the
Democrat and Chronicle said in a leading editorial: "In pursuance of a
call signed by over a hundred prominent citizens, a public meeting will
be held January 8.... This should be largely attended, not only in honor
of our distinguished townswoman, Miss Susan B. Anthony, but to declare
in terms which can not be mistaken that the constitution should be
revised. The negro and the Indian have been enfranchised; women alone
remain under political disabilities. They demand justice. Let it be
granted freely, and without any exhibition of that selfishness which has
so long kept them waiting."
Judge George F. Danforth presided over this meeting and among the
prominent citizens on the platform were Dr. E. M. Moore, Rev. Asa Saxe,
Eugene T. Curtis, Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Howell and Miss Anthony, all of
whom made strong speeches in favor of the amendment. The list of
vice-presidents comprised the leading men and women of the city.
Forcible resolutions were presented by Henry C. Maine, and letters of
approval read from Judge Thomas Raines, Rev. H. H. Stebbins, of the
Central Presbyterian church, and others. The papers said, "Miss Anthony
went home as happy as a young girl after her first ball."
On January 9 Miss Anthony addressed the Political Equality Club of
Syracuse, and a handsome reception was given to Elizabeth Smith Miller
and herself by its president, Mrs. E. S. Jenney. The next day, she went
to a big rally at Buffalo, under the auspices of the city suffrage club,
Dr. Sarah Morris, president, where speeches were made by Judge Stern,
Rabbi Aaron, Rev. Joseph K. Mason and others. On the 22d, the great
sweep of county mass meetings began.[93] The scrap-books containing the
voluminous accounts show that usually the audiences were large and
sympathetic; that the newspapers, almost without exception, gave full
and friendly reports, and although most of them were non-committal in
the editorial columns, a number came out strongly in favor of having a
suffrage amendment incorporated in the constitution. "Oh, if those who
attend our meetings could do the voting," wrote Miss Anthony, "it would
carry overwhelmingly, but alas, the riff-raff, the paupers, the
drunkards, the very chain-gang that I see passing the house on their way
to and from the jail, will make their influence felt on the members of
the Constitutional Convention." In another letter she said: "I am in the
midst of as severe a treadmill as I ever experienced, travelling from
fifty to one hundred miles every day and speaking five or six nights a
week. How little women know of the power of organization and how
constantly we are confronted with the lack of it!"[94]
Most of the other speakers were paid for their services but Miss Anthony
would not accept a dollar for hers, and refused to take even her
travelling expenses out of the campaign fund. That year she received the
bequest of her friend, Mrs. Eliza J. Clapp, of Rochester, who had died
in 1892, leaving her $1,000 to use as she pleased. The court costs were
$55 and she received $945. Although she was drawing from her small
principal for her current expenses, she gave $600 of this to the State
of New York and $400 to the national association, paying the court fees
out of her own pocket.
A new and gratifying feature of this campaign was the interest taken by
the women of wealth and social position in New York and Brooklyn.
Heretofore it had seemed impossible to arouse any enthusiasm on the
question of woman's enfranchisement among this class. Surrounded by
every luxury and carefully protected from contact with the hard side of
life, they felt no special concern in the conditions which made the
struggle for existence so difficult among the masses of women. All of a
sudden they seemed to awake to the importance of the great issue which
was agitating the State. This possibly may have been because it met the
approval of many of the leading men of New York, for among those who
signed the petition were Chauncey M. Depew, Russell Sage, Frederick
Coudert, Rev. Heber Newton, Rev. W. S. Rainsford, Bishop Potter, Rabbi
Gottheil, John D. Rockefeller, Robert J. Ingersoll, William Dean Howells
and others of the representative men of the city. The wives of these
gentlemen opened their elegant parlors for suffrage meetings, and in a
short time the following card was sent to a large number of people:
A committee of ladies invite you and all the adult members of your
household, to call at Sherry's on any Saturday in March and April,
between 9 and 6 o'clock, to sign a petition to strike out, in our
State Constitution, the word "male" as a qualification for voters.
Circulars explaining the reason for this request may be obtained at
the same time and place.--Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, Mrs. Joseph
H. Choate, Mrs. Mary Putnam Jacobi, Mrs. J. Warren Goddard, Mrs.
Robert Abbe, Mrs. Henry M. Sanders, Miss Adele M. Fielde.
Sherry, the famous restaurateur, placed one of his handsomest rooms at
the disposal of the ladies and, for many weeks, one or more of them
might always be found there ready to receive signatures to the
petitions. The New York World expressed the situation in a strong
article, saying in part:
Within the month there has been a sudden and altogether unexpected
outbreak of the woman suffrage movement in New York.... Some one
gave a signal and from all parts of the State rose the cry for the
enfranchisement of women. It is not hard to discover the original
cause which set on foot the insurrection--for in a certain sense it
is an insurrection. It was an appeal which appeared in the latter
part of February and was signed by many eminent men and women. Here
were nearly twoscore of names, as widely known and honorable as any
in this State--names of people of the highest social standing, not
because of extravagant display or fashionable raiment, but because
of distinction in intellect, in philanthropy and in the history of
the State. The reason of the coming of the petition just at this
time was, of course, plain. The meeting of the Constitutional
Convention would be the one chance of the woman suffragists in
twenty years....
It will be noticed that these women are in Mr. McAllister's Four
Hundred, but not of it. They do not go in for frivolity. They go in
for charity, for working among the masses, for elevating standards
of living and morals in the slums of the city. They have awakened
to the fact of the other half, and of how that other half lives,
and they have expressed their indignation over the small salaries
paid women for doing men's work; over the dishonest men in
political places, put there because they could vote and control the
votes of a number of saloon loungers; over the wretched lot of the
woman school teacher, ill-paid and neglected because useless on
election day.
And to go back a little further, the most of these society women
are the products of that higher education which the pioneer
suffragists made possible. They are women of wide reading, of
independent thought, of much self-reliance. They began to wonder
why they could not vote, when the sloping-shouldered,
sloping-skulled youths who proposed to marry them, or had married
them, had that right and did not exercise it and showed no
information and no concern as to the rottenness of the local
government.... The upper class of women are enlisted. Woman
suffrage is the one interesting subject of discussion in the whole
fashionable quarter.
This campaign brought also another surprise. In all the forty years of
suffrage work, one of the stumbling-blocks had been the utter apathy of
women themselves, who took no interest either for or against, but now
they seemed to be aroused all along the line. In Albany a small body of
women calling themselves "Remonstrants" suddenly sprung into existence.
For a number of years there had been a handful of women in Massachusetts
under that title, but this was the first appearance of the species in
New York. They seemed to be fathered by Bishop William Croswell Doane,
and mothered by Mrs. John V. L. Pruyn. Seven men and a number of women
were present at the first meeting in that lady's parlor, and they formed
an organization to counteract the vicious efforts of those women who
were asking for political freedom. Evidently under the direction of her
spiritual adviser, Mrs. Pruyn submitted a set of resolutions, which were
adopted, begging the Constitutional Convention "not to strike out the
word 'male';" setting forth "that suffrage was not a natural right; that
there was no reason why this privilege should be extended to women; that
no taxation without representation did not mean that every citizen
should vote; that universal suffrage was a mistake; that the possession
of the suffrage would take women into conflicts for which they were
wholly unfitted; and that it would rudely disturb the strong and growing
spirit of chivalry." Another branch was formed in Brooklyn with Mrs.
Lyman Abbott at its head and the Outlook at its back, edited by Rev.
Lyman Abbott. A society appeared in New York at about the same time and
opened headquarters at the Waldorf. There was also an "Anti" club at
Utica.[95]
The Democrat and Chronicle published a long interview with Miss Anthony
in regard to these "Remonstrants," from which the following is an
extract:
"This opposition movement is not the work of women," she said,
"although it has that appearance. There was held in Albany
yesterday afternoon a meeting at which resolutions condemning our
work were adopted. Listen to the names of the women who were
present. Do you see that they are all Mrs. John and Mrs. George and
Mrs. William this and that? There is not a woman's first name in
the whole list, and I do not see a Miss, either. This goes to show
that the women are simply put forward by their husbands.
"Another point: These men who are stirring up the opposition would
not only deny the right of women to vote but would qualify the word
'male' as it now stands in the constitution. They say in so many
words in their resolutions that the right of suffrage is already
extended to too many men; and they pay a doubtful compliment to the
intelligence of their mothers, wives and sisters by adding that the
class of undesirable voters would be swelled by giving the ballot
to women. These are men of wealth who would confine the exercise of
the right of suffrage to their own class--in fact would make this
government an aristocracy."
These new organizations seemed to be abundantly supplied with money, but
though they were able to pay for the work of circulating petitions,
which with the suffrage advocates had to be a labor of love, they
secured only 15,000 signatures. The petitions asking for a suffrage
amendment received 332,148 individual signatures, including the 36,000
collected by the W. C. T. U. In addition to these the New York
Federation of Labor sent in a memorial representing 140,000; the Labor
Reform Conference, 70,000; several Trades Unions, 1,396; Granges,
50,000; total, 593,544. Added to these were petitions from a number of
societies, making in round numbers about 600,000. It had been
impossible, for several reasons, to make a thorough canvass, and this
was especially true of New York and Brooklyn, containing half the
population of the State; and yet there were over one-half as many
signers as there were voters in the entire State.
The Constitutional Convention assembled in Albany, May 8, and elected
Joseph H. Choate, of New York City, president. Although only a few
months previous he had expressed himself favorable to woman suffrage,
all his influence in the convention was used against it. Mr. Choate,
according to universal opinion, accepted this office with the
expectation that it would lead to his nomination as governor of the
State, and he had no intention of offending the power behind the
gubernatorial chair. The amendment was doomed from the moment of his
election. His first move was to appoint a committee to have charge of
all suffrage amendments, and on this committee of seventeen he placed
twelve men, carefully selected, because they were known to be strongly
opposed to woman suffrage. He appointed as chairman a man who could be
depended on to hesitate at no means which would secure its defeat.[96]
In all his efforts to kill the amendment beyond hope of resurrection,
Mr. Choate was actively supported by his first lieutenant, Hon. Elihu
Root, also of New York City.
Having ruined all the chances of the amendment, President Choate then
announced that every courtesy and consideration would be extended to the
ladies having it in charge. Miss Anthony was invited to address the
suffrage committee May 24, and the hearing was held in the Assembly room
of the Capitol. Not only the committee but most of the delegates were in
their seats and a large audience was present. This was said to be one of
her best efforts and she seemed to have almost the complete sympathy of
her audience. She spoke for three-quarters of an hour, and then urged
that those opposed should state their reasons and give her an
opportunity to answer them. Although there were twelve men on the
committee who even then intended to bring in an adverse report, and
ninety-eight delegates who afterwards voted against it, not one could be
persuaded to rise and present his objections. It was said by many that
if the vote could have been taken at that moment, no power could have
prevented a majority in favor.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Very truly yours, Mary Putnam Jacobi"]
The women of New York City were accorded a hearing May 31, and it was on
this occasion, with the petitions of the 600,000 stacked on a table in
front of her, that Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi made that masterly speech
which ranks as a classic. Miss Margaret Livingstone Chanler, in a
beautiful address, also spoke in behalf of the "Sherry contingent." The
regular New York City League was ably represented by Lillie Devereux
Blake and Harriet A. Keyser. The platform was filled with the
distinguished women of the State, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Greenleaf and Dr.
Jacobi occupying the central position.
On June 7 a hearing was granted to the women from the senatorial
districts, each presenting in a five-minute speech the claims of the
thousands of petitioners from her district. Among these speakers were
some of the best-known women in the State, socially and intellectually;
and a number of others, of equal standing, who never had taken part in
public work and who now left their homes only to plead for the power
which would enable women better to conserve the interests of home.[97]
The State president, Mrs. Greenleaf, presided over all of these
hearings, her commanding presence, great dignity and fine mental power
giving especial prestige to these bodies of women, who in character and
intellect could not be surpassed. The final hearing of those in favor of
the amendment was held June 28, when U. S. Senator Joseph M. Carey, who
had come by urgent invitation, made a most convincing speech, describing
the practical workings of woman suffrage in Wyoming and urging the men
of New York to enfranchise the women of the State. He was followed by
Mrs. Mary T. Burt, representing the W. C. T. U., and by Mary Seymour
Howell.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Your cause has become the cause of states and
nations. Your success will form a [illegible] for the generations to
come. Sincerely Yours, Joseph M. Carey"]
One hearing was given to the "Remonstrants," or "Antis," as the press
had dubbed them. Because of their extreme modesty, and for other more
obvious reasons, they did not make their own appeals but were
represented by the male of their species. Their petition was presented
by Elihu Root. Hon. Francis M. Scott, whose wife was one of the leading
"Antis" in New York, made the principal address. He described
pathetically the timid and shrinking class of women for whom he pleaded,
insisted that the legislature never had refused women anything they
asked, declared the suffrage advocates represented only an
"insignificant minority,"[98] and closed with the eloquent peroration:
"I vote, not because I am intelligent, not because I am moral, but
solely and simply because I am a man." Rev. Clarence A. Walworth, Hon.
Matthew Hale and J. Newton Fiero were the other speakers. The first
individual did not believe in universal manhood suffrage and could not
favor anything which would double the vote. Mr. Hale devoted most of his
argument to the so-called "bad women," declaring there were over 100,000
of them in the State who would sell their votes as they did their
bodies--enough to overcome the votes of the virtuous women. Mr. Fiero
said woman was unfitted for the ballot because she was influenced by
pity, passion and prejudice rather than by judgment. A letter was read
from Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, objecting to the amendment because the
majority of women do not care to vote.
These insults to their sex seemed very acceptable to the fashionably
dressed "Antis" who occupied the front rows of seats. How far their
influence affected the adverse vote of the convention it is of course
impossible to determine. While the liquor dealers were sending to
wavering members their kegs of beer and jugs of whiskey, the "Antis"
supplemented their efforts with champagne suppers, flowers, music and
low-necked dresses. And the suffrage advocates hoped to offset these
political methods by trudging through mud and snow with their petitions
and using their scanty funds to send out literature! A mistaken policy,
perhaps, but the only one possible to the class of women who are asking
for enfranchisement.
The committee, as had been foreordained, brought in an adverse report.
The evenings of August 8, 9, 14 and 15, were devoted to a discussion of
this report. The Assembly chamber was crowded at each session. The women
had known for weeks that they were defeated but had not abated their
efforts in the slightest degree. Their work was now finished and they
assembled in large numbers to hear the final debate. The amendment had,
from first to last, an able and earnest champion in Edward Lauterbach,
of New York, who opened the discussion in a speech of an hour and a
quarter, said to have been the ablest made in the convention. Nineteen
members spoke in favor and fourteen in opposition. The debate throughout
was serious and respectful and as dignified as was possible with the
frivolous objections made by the opponents. The delegates showed an
evident appreciation of the importance of the question at issue, which
was about to be sacrificed as usual to political exigency.
The opponents were led by Elihu Root, of New York, who begged
pathetically that "we be not robbed of the women of our homes;" and
declared that "he would hesitate to put into the hands of women the
right to defend his wife and the women he loved and respected." William
P. Goodelle, of Syracuse, chairman of the committee, closed the
discussion with a long speech in which he asserted that "the question
was not whether large numbers of male and female citizens asked for
woman suffrage, or protested against it, or are taxed or not, but was it
for the benefit of the State?" This being the case, why did Mr. Goodelle
not favor its being submitted to the voters of the State in order that
they might decide?
It required an hour and a half to take the vote, as most of the members
found it necessary to explain why they voted as they did. While it was
being taken President Choate left his chair and talked earnestly with
many of the delegates--probably about the weather--stopping occasionally
to receive the approving smiles of the "Antis." When his name was called
for the last vote he recorded himself against the amendment, and the
great battle was over![99] In favor of submission 58, opposed 98.
No question before the convention had attracted so much attention
throughout the State. The New York Recorder led the newspapers which
championed the submission of the amendment, and Harper's Weekly and the
Evening Post were prominent among the opposition, a mighty descent from
the days when they were under the editorial management of George William
Curtis and William Cullen Bryant. The day after the vote was taken the
suffrage committee closed its Albany headquarters in the Capitol and the
ladies returned to their homes. They had raised $10,000 and expended it
in the most economical manner; they had given a year of the hardest and
most conscientious work; and they did not regret a dollar of the money
or a day of the time.[100] In her president's report Mrs. Jean Brooks
Greenleaf said:
These days will never be forgotten by the trio of the State
committee who daily met to work and plan--to make the campaign
"bricks" without financial "straw." No one with a heart will recall
the pecuniary distress of last winter without a shudder, and to
those who had, what was in their estimation, a cause at stake
precious as life itself, the outlook was often well nigh
disheartening.... Could the full history of the past winter's work
be given, the doubts expressed of woman's desire for the ballot
would be set at rest forever. No more pathetic stories are told of
the struggle for liberty in the days of the Revolution than could
be told of the women of New York in this campaign....
In closing, we come to the name of one who, we all know, is the
inspired leader of women up the heights of honor, purity and
self-devotion--Susan B. Anthony. To her marvellous energy and
resolution we owe both the conception and the success of this
wonderful campaign. In her seventy-fifth year she started out as
one of the principal speakers to be heard in the sixty counties of
the State; never once did she fail to keep an appointment, never
once did she cry a halt.... This noble woman, leaving a home of
which she is as fond as any woman can be, travelled night or day,
as the case required, not only speaking, but plying her busy
pen--and all for what? Not for money, for she has stoutly refused
to receive one penny of a salary, which, had it been paid, would
have exceeded the sum of $3,000. She gave her services for love of
liberty and justice, with the hope that New York would prove to be
in truth the Empire State of the Union.
From the hour when she learned that a Constitutional Convention would be
held, up to the opening of this convention, Miss Anthony had believed
that it would incorporate a suffrage amendment which, in all
probability, would be allowed by the voters to pass with the rest of the
constitution. She found herself outwitted by the politicians, as she had
been so many times before, but while this defeat was the bitterest
disappointment of her life, it did not crush her dauntless spirit. It
is related of her that as she came down the steps of the Capitol with
the other ladies at midnight, after the vote had been taken, she began
planning another campaign.
Among the many appreciative and sympathetic letters she received at this
time was one from Isabella Charles Davis, secretary International King's
Daughters, saying for herself and Mrs. Mary Lowe Dickinson: "I do not
believe you know how tenderly we love you and in what high respect and
honor we hold you. Mrs. Dickinson was present at one of those meetings
at Sherry's, and she said the only thing lacking to make the occasion
perfect was dear Miss Anthony's strong, brave face looking down upon the
great multitude." Henry B. Blackwell wrote: "You are to be congratulated
on having made a splendid fight in New York. To have secured 600,000
petitions is itself a victory."
In answer to a letter from Isabel Howland, the efficient State recording
secretary, she expressed the welcome recognition which she always
extended to young workers: "Well, I am truly glad for the discovery of
our twin New York girls, Harriet May Mills and Isabel Howland, who
promise to take up the laboring oar and pull us to the promised land.
Give my warmest regards to your precious mother and aunt Emily; how I
have learned to know and love the two!" She went as a guest of the
Howlands for a few brief days in the Catskills, and they drove over to
Eagle's Nest, in Twilight Park, where Miss Willard and Lady Henry
Somerset were spending the summer.
Miss Anthony lectured at Keuka College, August 7, and on the 22d, gave
the annual address on suffrage, at Cassadaga lake. The next day she
found herself thus reported in the Buffalo Express:
If, instead of Spiritualists, this great body of people had been
Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists or Catholics, their praises for
the firm stand they have taken for the enfranchisement of half the
people of this country, would have been everywhere sung in song and
told in story. But the suffrage women of America always have been
afraid to give voice to the "thank you" in their hearts, for
Spiritualism has been fully as unpopular as woman suffrage; and
they feared if they displayed too much gratitude for this
endorsement the public would at once pronounce them Spiritualists
and they would thus be doubly damned. But there are a few of our
members who are brave enough to rejoice in the damnation of
orthodox religions and orthodox politics!
Her consternation at these closing words was intensified by the letters
which began coming in upon her before forty-eight hours. She wrote at
once to the paper: "This is all right until you come to the last
sentence. I had illustrated also the danger of expressing kind words to
unpopular political parties, and then I concluded--not as printed--but
with: 'There are still a few of us brave enough to rejoice in every good
word and work said and done for woman, and to publicly express our
thanks therefor, notwithstanding the "denunciation" (not damnation) of
orthodox religionists and orthodox politicians.'" The Express published
her correction, but it is doubtful if it ever was able to overtake the
original statement.
Miss Anthony was very anxious to influence the next legislature, through
the public sentiment which had been created, to submit a suffrage
amendment. For this purpose she laid out a plan of work to continue the
organization and petitions, and herself held meetings in a number of
counties. It was decided by the committee to go before the Republican
and Democratic State Conventions, which were to be held at Saratoga. An
address was prepared and a resolution asking for an endorsement of a
woman suffrage amendment. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Greenleaf and Mr.
Lauterbach went before the resolution committee, September 18, which
allowed five minutes for the three to present their case, and never gave
it one minute's attention afterwards.
Frances Willard and Lady Somerset came down from their mountain retreat
to attend this convention, and after their return Miss Willard wrote:
"... As for you, our leader of leaders, I wish I could transfer to your
brain all the loving thoughts and words of our trio toward you. As you
stood before that roomful of people, so straight and tall and masterful,
with that fine senatorial head and face, on which the strength and
heroism of your character are so plainly marked, I thought, 'There is
one of the century's foremost figures; there is the woman who has been
faithful among the faithless and true among the false!'"
[Illustration: Autograph: "I am with sisterly regard, Frances E
Willard"]
Five minutes allowed such women! Had they represented an enfranchised
class, the whole committee would have been at their feet.
Miss Anthony, Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Greenleaf went to the Democratic
convention and met with about the same experience. They were permitted
to address the resolution committee and bowed out as quickly as
possible. There was no especial rudeness or discourtesy, but they had no
constituency behind them, no political power, and in the hurry and worry
of a State convention the men did not care to waste time with them, even
had they been the most eminent women on the face of the earth.
Miss Anthony had a number of urgent invitations to spend the hot months
of July, August and September at various charming summer homes in the
mountains and at the seaside, but she declined all and resolutely
continued at work. The hardest for her to resist had been a triumphant
call from the women of Colorado to come and help them celebrate the
Fourth of July. It was to be the jubilee of their political
emancipation, the first since their enfranchisement. The State
president, Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, wrote: "The women of Colorado feel
that their precious holiday will be less precious if the beloved
suffrage leader and the suffrage flag are not present." At first she
sent an acceptance, but later, affairs in New York became so pressing
that she was obliged, most reluctantly, to recall it. After filling an
engagement to lecture before the alumnæ of the Girls' Normal School in
Philadelphia, October 13, she started on the 16th for the final struggle
in Kansas.
FOOTNOTES:
[89] In November of this year Miss Anthony called at the office of the
New York Sun and had an interview with Mr. Dana, who always had
maintained that when any considerable number of women expressed a desire
for the ballot, the men would grant it. She asked him how many names
would suffice and he replied: "If you can get a petition of 100,000
women it will be amply sufficient to compel the convention to submit the
amendment." Although more than twice this number signed the petition,
Mr. Dana's very first editorial after the convention had refused to
submit the amendment, declared the reason was that not enough women had
asked for it!
[90] A salary was voted to Mary Anthony which she declined to accept;
Mrs. Almy received $50 a month; the clerks either donated their services
or gave them for a mere trifle.
[91] The president's report pays this tribute:
"The corresponding secretary, Miss Mary S. Anthony, ostensibly had
charge of the department of distribution and State correspondence, but
all this was only a small fraction of the labor performed by her. Being
president of the local club of Rochester, she had charge of the canvass
of that city; and it is enough to say that no city or town equalled hers
in the work done or results obtained. As our chieftain was leading our
hosts through the State, the housekeeping, too, fell to the said
secretary's charge and, it being convenient for the speakers and
managers to stay at headquarters when in town, her family was seldom a
small one; and all this gratuitously, be it understood. I can not hope
to tell the story in full, but I trust I have said enough to cause you
all, when you say, "God bless Susan B. Anthony," to add "and her sister
Mary, also."
[92] During this time Miss Anthony gave ten days to the national
convention in Washington; and the day after the last of the mass
meetings she started for Kansas; stopped in Cincinnati for the Ohio
convention, speaking each of the three days; opened the Kansas campaign
May 4, spoke in that State every day for two weeks; and on May 21
presented herself, fresh and cheerful, at the Constitutional Convention
in Albany, N. Y.
[93] As has been noted, Miss Anthony spoke at Ann Arbor, Mich., January
13, 14, 15, 16 and 17; at Toledo the 19th, and was ready to open the New
York campaign the 22d.
[94] In December Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton had issued an address
calling upon the women of New York to unite in this grand effort for
political freedom. During the entire campaign Mrs. Stanton contributed
to the New York Sun masterly arguments for woman suffrage, which were
widely copied by the press of the State.
[95] Mrs. Jane Marsh Parker, a newspaper woman of Rochester, attempted
to organize a club there and secure a petition in opposition to the
amendment. Her efforts evidently did not meet with marked success for,
in a letter to the New York Evening Post, she says, "In offering the
'protest' for signatures, quality rather than quantity has been
considered." That prince of editors, Joseph O'Connor, at that time in
charge of the Rochester Post-Express, gave the lady a delicious dressing
down in an editorial beginning: "What is 'quality'?" and ending:
"Probably she means no more by the offensive words 'quality' and
'quantity' than this--that she has secured to the protest only the
signatures of a few representative women, no better and no worse than
many of their opponents. Such an interpretation saves the statement from
being insulting; but unhappily very many women in Rochester give it a
different interpretation."
[96] Mr. Choate might claim that he did not know the position of these
men on this question, but it was so well understood that Miss Anthony
and her associates felt all hope depart when they read the names of the
committee. John Bigelow and Gideon J. Tucker had favored a woman
suffrage amendment when they were members of the Constitutional
Convention in 1867, but, being now over eighty, were not able to make an
aggressive fight for it.
[97] The addresses made on this occasion were issued in pamphlet form
and presented to the suffrage association by Messrs. Lauterbach and
Towns, of the committee.
[98] Although their petitions contained 600,000 names and those of the
"Antis" 15,000.
[99] Mrs. Choate was one of the women who signed the first call for the
suffrage advocates to meet at Sherry's; just as, in 1867, Mrs. Greeley
canvassed her whole county to secure signatures to the woman's petition.
Horace Greeley, as chairman of the suffrage committee of that
Constitutional Convention, threw the whole weight of his influence
against the amendment, lest it might hurt the Republican party; just as
Mr. Choate did in this one, lest it might hurt the party and himself.
Significant answers to the threadbare assertion that the husband
represents the wife!
[100] From official report: Emily Howland generously contributed $1,200.
That staunch friend, Sarah L. Willis, of Rochester, gave $720. Abby L.
Pettengill, of Chautauqua county, gave $220. General Christiansen, of
Brooklyn, began the contributions of $100, of which there were, if I
mistake not, seven others from our own State--Semantha V. Lapham,
Ebenezer Butterick, of New York, Mrs. H. S. Holden, of Syracuse, Marian
Skidmore, of Chautauqua county, Hannah L. Howland, of Sherwood, Mr. and
Mrs. James Sargent and Colonel H. S. Greenleaf, of Rochester, completing
the number.
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE SECOND KANSAS CAMPAIGN.
1894.
The Kansas legislature of 1893 had submitted an amendment conferring
full suffrage on women, to be voted on in November, 1894. Mrs. Laura M.
Johns, president of the State Suffrage Association, had written Miss
Anthony in April, 1893: "Republicans and Populists are pledged to the
support of the amendment. I consider both parties equally committed by
their platforms this year, and by their votes in the legislature. We
ought to have somebody present in each county convention of both, next
year, to secure a suffrage resolution which would insure such a plank in
each State platform. You see if one party leaves it out the other will
take it up and use it against the first."
During all the voluminous correspondence of 1893, in which Mrs. Johns
assured Miss Anthony again and again that her assistance in the campaign
was absolutely necessary to success, the latter did not once fail to
impress upon her that the endorsement of the political parties was the
one essential without which they could hope for nothing. She mapped out
and sent to Mrs. Johns a complete plan of work, covering many pages of
foolscap, arranging for a thorough organization of every precinct in the
State, for the specific purpose of bringing to bear a pressure upon the
political conventions the next summer which would compel them to put a
plank in their platforms endorsing the amendment. She made it perfectly
clear that, if the conventions did not do this, she would not go into
the State.
When the Kansas women came to the Washington convention in February,
1894, Miss Anthony for the first time had her suspicions aroused that
the politicians of that State were getting in some shrewd work to
prevent them from pressing the question of planks in the platforms. Mrs.
Johns had made the serious mistake of accepting also the presidency of
the State Republican Woman's Association, and had been actively
organizing clubs and conferring with Republican leaders. She insisted
that she was making woman suffrage the primary feature of her work, but
Miss Anthony held that her strong Republican affiliations could not
avoid weakening her influence with the Populists. She did, it is true,
send out circulars urging the local organizations to work for planks in
both State conventions; and she did advise the women to keep clear of
partisan action, but this advice could hardly be effective coming from
the State president of the Republican Woman's Association. Miss Anthony
wrote her: "My dear Laura, you must choose whom you will serve--the
Republican party or the cause of woman's enfranchisement;" and she
replied: "Please don't insult my loyalty with any such suggestion as
this; I have never served anything but the suffrage cause since I began
the suffrage work;" and continued to look after the welfare of her
Republican clubs and arrange Republican meetings.
There is no question that a tremendous pressure was brought to bear upon
the suffrage leaders by the Republican politicians. If space would
permit the publication of their many letters now on file they would make
interesting reading. That of Charles F. Scott, of the Iola Register,
urging Mrs. Johns to call off her women and telling her the exact
language in which to do it, is a masterpiece of political shrewdness. It
concludes: "Try to get E. W. Hoch nominated for governor and we won't
need any platform." As a specimen of pure humor might be quoted one from
Case Broderick, M. C., in which he says:
I have thought a good deal about this question and have concluded
we can recognize the movement by a resolution similar to this:
"While the question of the amendment of the constitution, now
pending, granting the right of suffrage to women, is wholly
non-partisan and should not be made a test of Republicanism, yet
we can not view with apprehension the effort to fully confer upon
the women of Kansas the elective franchise."
He then closes: "Some will contend that we ought to say one thing or the
other ... but such a resolution as this would not drive any from our
party." One must admit that it would not scare them to death. Mr.
Broderick, however, was an honest believer in woman suffrage and later
did attempt to secure some recognition for it in the platform. The
Republicans sent an agent of adroit address among the suffrage clubs to
explain to them how "an endorsement by the political parties would be
really a hindrance to their success," and it was charged that this was
done with the consent of some of the leading women.
Miss Anthony wrote to Mrs. Johns at this time: "You know as well as I do
that not one of those Republicans thinks party endorsement will damage
the suffrage amendment, as they are trying to make the women believe,
but every one of them does fear that it will hurt his chances for some
position and lose the party the votes of the Germans and the whiskey
dealers. The shame for them now is vastly greater than it was
twenty-seven years ago, for then they feared to lose the enfranchisement
of the negro. Their proposal to leave out the plank now, after they have
carried the question thus far, is too wicked to be tolerated by any sane
woman![101] I marvel that you do not see and feel the insult and
humiliation."
On March 6, 1894, Mrs. Johns wrote: "I find a stampede here on the plank
question. _Women_ of _both_ parties are going against it. Judge Johnston
of the supreme bench is opposed to it; so is Judge Horton. Do write them
for their views; you know they are good friends of ours. I am worried.
The Republicans will hold the first convention, and the general talk of
candidates, managers and leaders is against a plank. I was yesterday
about to go into print in regard to it, but am afraid if I make
strenuous efforts and am beaten that it will hurt us more than if I keep
quiet. Prominent men are writing and besieging me to relieve the party
of the embarrassment of this demand. I am not clear in my own mind what
to do."
As the weeks went on it became more and more apparent that the women
were yielding to the pressure. The officers of the National-American
Association, which had pledged nearly $2,300 to help Kansas, insisted
that the women should continue to demand the endorsement of the
political parties and let the onus of failure rest upon the men and not
upon themselves. It might not be worth while to quote from the official
letters sent, the campaign having passed into history, but for the fact
that they may serve as a guide to other States in the future.
Carrie Chapman Catt, the national organizer, wrote: "It is very plain
that the chief fight is now. We must compel endorsement, and I believe
we can do it. How any man in his sane senses could think non-endorsement
would give votes and sympathy, I can not conceive; or how the women can
have a hope of winning without it, after all the experience of our
campaigns." Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the Woman's Journal and an
experienced politician, wrote Miss Anthony:
At the request of Mrs. Johns I enclose a letter from Mr. Wagener,
of Topeka. He gives the worst possible advice, and Mrs. Johns'
letter seems to show that she is surrounded by bad advisers and in
doubt as to her course. If there is anything which twenty-seven
years' work has taught us, it is that a woman suffrage amendment
can not be carried without at least one political party squarely
behind it. In Colorado, for the first time, we have had a majority;
and Mrs. Catt, and Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Stansbury of Denver, all
say that the amendment could not have been carried if the
Republican, Populist and many of the Democratic district
conventions had not first endorsed it in their platforms. It thus
became a live issue and the masses of voters became interested and
enlightened.
On the other hand, our South Dakota experience is conclusive....
All three parties ignored it, and the press of the State joined in
a conspiracy of silence. The campaign speakers were instructed not
to name it. We had to rely for the discussions upon the efforts of
suffragists as outsiders. Consequently ... we were beaten two to
one. The same will surely be true in Kansas in 1894.... If we do
not capture the Republican and Populist State conventions we shall
be beaten in advance. All hinges on that!
I have just talked with Mrs. Lease, who fully agrees with me. The
Republican convention will be the first to meet. If Mrs. Johns will
go before the resolution committee and urge her plank, securing at
least its presentation as a minority report offered in open
session, it will stampede the convention and be carried. Then the
Populists will put one in so as not to be behind the Republicans,
and _then_ we shall probably win. Do write Mrs. Johns to stand by
her guns. No one but her can do this work, because she is
personally dear to the Republicans. The fate of the amendment will
be then and there decided.
[Illustration: Carrie Chapman Catt (Signed: "Yours Faithfully Carrie
Chapman Catt")]
Rev. Anna Shaw, vice-president-at-large, wrote Mrs. Johns in this
vigorous language:
I must confess that while I can readily understand the abject
cowardice and selfishness which prompt men and political tricksters
to urge the abandonment of the plank, I can not understand how you
or any other woman with a grain of sense can listen to such
proposals for a moment. That endorsement is our only hope. If that
fail us, our cause is lost in advance; for it will show the body of
the party what the leaders think and feel on the subject, and be a
tacit command to kill it. The hypocrisy of the whole business
should not receive from women even a show of belief. What wonder
men despise us as a shallow lot of simpletons, if we are deceived
by so thin a pretense as this? I for one protest against it so
strongly that if your committee agree to it and do not push party
endorsement, I must decline to fool away my time in Kansas. If you
give up that point I must refuse to go a single step or raise a
dollar. I am sick of the weakness of women, forever dictated to by
men. Experience has taught us what a campaign unendorsed means.
Think of submitting our measure to the advice of politicians! I
would as soon submit the subject of the equality of a goose to a
fox. No; we must have party endorsement or we are dead.
If I am not to go to Kansas, I want to know it immediately. It is
too late even now, for I refused twenty consecutive engagements for
May in one State, thinking it was all given up to Kansas. The man
or woman who urges surrender now is more a political partisan than
a lover of freedom. I care nothing for all the political parties in
the world except as they stand for justice. I can not tell you how
even the suggestion of this surrender affects me. For the love of
woman, do not be fooled by those men any longer.
Finally, as the case grew more hopeless, Miss Anthony, as president of
the National-American Association, on March 11, sent the following:
_To the Kansas Woman Suffrage Amendment Campaign Committee--Laura
M. Johns, Bina M. Otis, Sarah A. Thurston, Annie L. Diggs and
Others:_
MY DEAR FRIENDS: I have the letter of your chairman, Mrs. Johns,
together with one she forwards from a lawyer of Topeka, with the
added assertion that Judges Horton, Johnston et al., and leading
editors and politicians, are begging your committee to cease to
demand of the two great political parties, the Republican and
People's, that they put a suffrage plank in their platforms; but
instead, simply allow the amendment to go before the electors on
its merits--that is to say, repeat the experiment as it has been
made and has failed eight times over....
The one and only sure hope of carrying the amendment in Kansas is
to have on its side all the aid of the political machinery of its
two great parties. My one object in consenting to go into your
campaign for May and June, was to create so strong a public demand
as to make sure that every delegate elected to the State nominating
conventions of the Republican and People's parties shall be
instructed by his constituents, in county convention assembled, to
vote for a woman suffrage plank in the platform. The moment your
committee abandons this aim, I shall lose all interest in your
work. You say: "Prominent Republicans are besieging us to relieve
their party of the embarrassment of this demand." So did they
besiege us twenty-seven years ago. No; not for a moment should you
think of relieving the politicians from the duty of declaring for
this amendment. If you do, you are unworthy the trust reposed in
you. I surely never would have promised to go into your campaign,
or begged the friends to contribute, had I dreamed of the
possibility of your surrendering to the cowardice of political
trimmers.
If the convention which meets first do not endorse the amendment,
then the other will not; in which event, its discussion will not be
germane in either party's fall campaign. On the other hand, if the
first put a plank in its platform, the other will be sure to do so;
and then the question will be a legitimate one to be advocated in
the meetings of both parties and this will ensure the presentation
of our cause to all the voters of the State.
By this means the two parties will run your amendment campaign, and
you will not be compelled to make a separate suffrage campaign.
That you can not do in any event, because (1st) you can not get
either the speakers or the money necessary; and (2d) if you could
get both, you would have only women in your meetings, and defeat
would be just as certain as in the eight States which have had such
separate woman's campaigns. Therefore, if you decide to abandon the
demand for political endorsement and active help, as the first and
chief object of this spring's work, you may count me out of it; for
I will not be a party, even though a protesting one, to such a
surrender of our only hope of success.
I came home for a rest over Sunday, after speaking five successive
nights in five different counties, in our New York campaign, and
these letters with the weak--the wicked--thought of not demanding
of the political leaders to make their parties help carry the
amendment, raged through my brain all night long. How to put the
shame of surrender strongly enough was my constant study, sleeping
and waking alike. No, a thousand times no, I say; and if you do
yield to this demand at the behest of men claiming to be your
friends, you make yourselves a party with those men to ensure your
defeat. The speakers will advocate no measure, and the vast
majority of men will vote for none, which is not approvingly
mentioned in the platform. If you give up trying for political
endorsement, or fail after trying, all hope of carrying the
amendment will be gone. So, over and over I say, demand party help!
Lovingly but protestingly,
SUSAN B. ANTHONY.
Mrs. Johns, of course, indignantly rejected the imputation that she was
not working night and day to secure a plank from the Republican
convention. She was a most efficient manager, but the cause of her
weakness and that of the other women, was that they were trying to serve
two masters. The very fact that the Republican men were begging them not
to ask for a plank, shows the power which the women already possessed in
their municipal suffrage, and they should have had the courage to stand
firm in their demands for recognition in the platform, for the dignity
of their cause and their womanhood, whether there were hope of getting
it or not. There is no doubt that Mrs. Johns did make an earnest effort
to this end, but there is also no doubt that every Republican leader
understood that even if the party did not endorse the suffrage
amendment, she and her associates still would be no less Republicans and
would work no less vigorously for the party's success. Miss Anthony's
Kansas correspondence during 1894 comprises 300 letters and all confirm
the statements thus briefly outlined.
The Republican politicians made the women believe if they would not
insist on the party's placing itself on record and thus losing the
support of the elements opposed to woman suffrage, all of them would
vote for the amendment. Should the women of Kansas ever become
politically free, the publication of these letters would be fatal to
some aspiring male candidates, but so long as the men still have it in
their power to grant to women or to withhold the full franchise, it is
the part of wisdom to leave them on their files. There were many Kansas
women, however, who refused to be deceived and sustained Miss Anthony's
position. In April she wrote to one of the Republican leaders:
If the Republicans had two grains of political sense, they would
see that for them to espouse the amendment and gain the glory, as
they surely would, of lifting the women of the State into full
suffrage, would give them new life, prestige and power greater and
grander than they ever possessed; and they would not be halting
and belittling themselves with such idiotic stuff and nonsense as
their advice to let the amendment go to the electors of the State
"on its own merits." But however politicians may waver, our
suffrage women must not have a doubt, but must persist in the
demand for full recognition in both platforms. We must exact
justice and if they do not give it, the curse be on their heads,
not ours.
The same month she wrote Mrs. Johns:
I can not tell you how more and more it is borne in upon me that
our one chance lies in securing the Republican pledge to carry us
to victory, for that will mean a Populist pledge, and both planks
will mean a clean-cut battle between the different elements of the
grand old party combined as one on this question--and the Democracy
of the State. Even with so solid an alliance of the two branches,
we shall have a hard enough fight of it. Every woman who listens to
the siren tongues of political wire-pullers and office-seekers not
to demand a plank, will thereby help to sell Kansas back into the
hands of the whiskey power. Behind every anti-plank man's word,
written or spoken, is his willingness to let Kansas return to
saloon rule. Sugar coat it as they may, that is the unsavory pill
in the motive of every one of them.
Sincerely and hopefully yours, trusting in good and keeping our
powder dry.
Enough has been quoted to show the situation. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt
and Miss Shaw went to Kansas to open the spring canvass, May 4, to
influence the State conventions. Miss Anthony had been advertised for
forty-three speeches. The women of New York, where a great campaign was
in progress, were highly indignant that she should leave her own State,
but she had put her heart into this Kansas campaign as never into any
other, and she fully believed that, if properly managed, the result
could not fail to be victory for the amendment. The three ladies held
the first meeting in Kansas City, May 4. Miss Anthony made a speech
which fairly raised the hair of her audience, demanding in unqualified
terms the endorsement of the amendment by the Republican and People's
parties. She closed by offering the following resolution, which was
unanimously adopted:
WHEREAS, From the standpoint of justice, political expediency and
grateful appreciation of their wise and practical use of school
suffrage from the organization of the State, and of municipal
suffrage for the past eight years, we, of the Republican and
People's parties, descendants of that grand old party of splendid
majorities which extended these rights to the women of Kansas, in
mass meeting assembled do hereby
_Resolve_, That we urgently request our delegates in their
approaching State conventions to endorse the woman suffrage
amendment in their respective platforms.
That night she wrote in her journal: "Never did I speak under such a
fearful pressure of opposition. Mrs. Johns, presiding, never smiled, and
other women on the platform whispered angrily and said audibly, 'She is
losing us thousands of votes by this speech.'" Miss Anthony repeated it
in the county mass conventions at Leavenworth and Topeka, to the dismay
of the Republican women and the wrath of the men.[102] While at the
latter place she received an urgent summons to return immediately to New
York, as fresh dangers threatened; and so she hastened eastward, leaving
the others to fill her engagements. On her way, she stopped by
invitation at Kansas City, Mo., and with Miss Shaw held a Sunday
afternoon meeting at which $133 were raised for the Kansas campaign.
In three weeks Miss Anthony returned to Kansas, arriving June 5. She
found the Republican Woman's State Convention in session, Mrs. Johns
presiding. The committee reported a weak resolution declaring that they
would not make the adoption of a suffrage plank by the Republican State
Convention "a test of party fealty," etc. Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw
condemned this in the strongest English they could command. Mrs. Johns
also severely criticised the committee, but Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, who
had come for both conventions, said: "I care more for the dominant
principles of the Republican party than I do for woman suffrage." The
committee finally were compelled to report a stronger resolution asking
for recognition.
The Republican convention met June 6. C. V. Eskridge, of Emporia, the
oldest and bitterest opponent of woman suffrage in the State of Kansas,
was made chairman of the committee on resolutions. The proposal to hear
the women speak, during an interim in the proceedings, was met by a
storm of noes. Finally Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Johns were permitted to
present the claims of women, but neither Miss Anthony nor Miss Shaw was
given an opportunity to address the convention. They did, however, plead
the women's cause most eloquently before the resolution committee of
thirty-five members, but the platform was entirely silent on the
subject, not even containing the usual complimentary allusions,
recognition of their services, etc.[103] Not the slightest attempt was
made to deny the fact that agents of the party had been at work for
weeks among the various county conventions to see that delegates were
appointed who were opposed to a suffrage plank, and that the resolution
committee had been carefully "packed" to prevent any danger of one. In
conversations which Miss Anthony held with several of the leading
candidates who in times past had advocated woman suffrage, they did not
hesitate to admit that the party had formed an alliance with the whiskey
ring to defeat the Populists. "We must redeem the State," was their only
cry. "Redeem it from what?" she asked. "From financial heresies," was
the answer. "Yes," she retorted, "even if you sink it to the depths of
hell on moral issues."
[Illustration: Autograph: "Your Brother, D R Anthony"]
It is not probable that any earthly power could have secured Republican
endorsement at this time, although heretofore the party always had posed
as the champion of this cause. There never was a more pitiable
exhibition of abject subserviency to party domination. Men who had stood
boldly for woman suffrage in the legislature, men who had spoken for it
on the platform in every county in the State, sat dumb as slaves in this
convention, sacrificing without scruple a lifelong principle for the
sake of a paltry political reward. While many of the papers had spoken
earnestly in favor of the amendment, the Leavenworth Times, owned and
edited by D. R. Anthony, was the only one of size and influence which
demanded party endorsement.[104] The Republican managers had but one
idea--to overthrow Populist rule and get back the reins of
government--and they were ready to take on or pitch overboard whatever
would contribute to this end.
A suffrage mass meeting was held in Topeka the Saturday following the
convention and, in spite of a heavy thunderstorm, there was an audience
of over one thousand. Annie L. Diggs presided and Miss Anthony and Miss
Shaw spoke, the former on "Reasons why the dominant parties do not put a
plank in their platforms;" the latter on, "Woman first, Republican or
Populist afterwards."
The great question now was whether it were wise to ask for a suffrage
plank in the Populist platform, and here again was great diversity of
opinion. Some thought that endorsement by this party would make it
appear like a Populist measure, and the Republicans would vote against
it rather than allow them to have the credit of carrying it. Others held
that the Populists carried the State at the last election and were
likely to do so again, and with their party vote, the Prohibition and
such Republican votes as certainly could be counted on, the amendment
would go through without fail. Miss Anthony belonged to the latter class
and directed every energy towards securing an endorsement in their State
convention, June 12. Although woman suffrage had been one of the tenets
of this party from its beginning, there was by no means a unanimous
sentiment in favor of a plank of endorsement. This was especially true
in regard to the leaders. Governor Lewelling, who was a candidate for
re-election, was openly opposed, and P. P. Elder, chairman of the
resolution committee, made a determined fight against it.
While the resolution committee was out Miss Anthony addressed the
convention, saying in the course of her remarks: "I belong to but one
party under the shadow of the flag, and that is the party of idiots and
criminals. I don't like my company. Are you going to leave your mothers,
wives and sisters in that category? I ask you to say that every woman by
your side shall have the same rights as you have." When she concluded
one of the delegates said: "Miss Anthony, with all due respect, I wish
to ask, in the event of the Populists putting a woman suffrage plank in
their platform, will you work for the success of this party?" The
newspapers thus report her reply and what followed:
"For forty years I have labored for woman's enfranchisement, and I
have always said that for the party which endorsed it, whether
Republican, Democratic or Populist, I would wave my handkerchief. I
will go before the people at your meetings, and though I know very
little about the other principles of your party and never discuss
finance and tariff, I will try to persuade every man in those
meetings to vote for woman suffrage."
"Miss Anthony," said Mr. Carpenter, "we want more than the waving
of your handkerchief, and if the People's party put a woman
suffrage plank in its platform, will you go before the voters of
this State and tell them that because the People's party has
espoused the cause of woman suffrage it deserves the vote of every
one who is a supporter of that cause?"
Miss Anthony answered: "I most certainly will!"
Immediately upon hearing this, the convention went wild--yelled and
cheered and applauded to its very utmost--hundreds rose to their
feet--the cheering lasted five minutes without intermission.
In the confusion Miss Anthony thus finished her interrupted sentence:
"For I would surely choose to ask votes for the party which stood
for the principle of justice to women, though wrong on financial
theories, rather than for the party which was sound on the
questions of money and tariff, and silent on the pending amendment
to secure political equality to half the people."
None of the reporters caught this and, as a result, the simple
statement, "I certainly will," appeared in all the Kansas papers and
went the rounds of the press of the entire country.
The suffrage question had its opponents and advocates among leaders and
delegates. It occupied the resolution committee until late at night, and
finally went down to defeat, 8 to 13. When the resolutions were reported
they considered finance, labor, taxes, banks, bonds, arbitration,
pensions, irrigation, freight rates, transportation, initiative and
referendum--everything under the sun but the suffrage amendment. In
regard to that much agitated point they were painfully silent. On this
committee was one woman delegate, Mrs. Eliza Hudson, who could not be
coaxed or bullied. She gave notice at once that she would make a
minority report and carry it to the floor of the convention. The
following was signed by herself and seven other members of the
committee: "_Whereas_, The People's party came into existence and won
its glorious victories on the fundamental principles of equal rights to
all and special privileges to none; therefore be it resolved that we
favor the pending constitutional amendment."
Meanwhile Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt and Miss Shaw addressed the convention
and were enthusiastically received. When the minority report was
presented and every possible parliamentary tactic had failed to prevent
its consideration, it was vehemently discussed for four hours, in
five-minute speeches, Judge Frank Doster leading the affirmative. The
debate was closed by Mrs. Diggs, and the resolution was adopted, ayes
337, noes 269; carried by 68 majority in a delegate body of 606. During
the fray a tail in some way tacked itself on to the resolution, which
said, "_but we do not regard this as a test of party fealty_." So the
party adopted a plank declaring that it did not regard a belief in one
of its own fundamental principles as a test of fealty; but in the wild
excitement which ensued, a little thing like this was not noticed. The
State Journal thus describes the scene:
When it became evident the resolution had carried, and before the
vote could be announced, the convention jumped up and yelled. Canes
were waved, hats thrown high in the air, men stood on chairs and
shouted frantically. The whole convention was one deep,
all-prevailing impersonated voice. How they howled and stamped, as
though every one loved suffrage and suffragists with all their
hearts!
"I want Miss Shaw to come forward and give that Populist whoop that
she promised she would last night," said a delegate. Miss Shaw came
to the front of the platform and said: "I do not know any better
whoop than that good old tune, 'Praise God From Whom All Blessings
Flow.'" "Sing," said Chairman Dunsmore. The vast audience shook
every particle of air in the big hall with the full round notes of
the long meter doxology. "Let all the people cry amen," said Alonzo
Wardall, who was on the platform. Hundreds of voices which had not
pronounced the word for years joined in the great, resounding,
unanimous "amen" that filled the hall.
Susan B. Anthony, Annie L. Diggs and Anna Shaw leaned over the
front of the stage and shook every man's hand as he passed along,
and hundreds of brown, calloused hands were thrust up to give a
grasp of congratulation. Miss Anthony warmed to her work and had to
push up her sleeves, but she didn't mind that for suffrage, for
which she had just won a glorious victory. Many said, as they
grasped her hand: "You're going to be a Populist now, ain't you?"
During the confusion an old soldier came up and pinned a Populist badge
on her dress, and this was magnified by the newspapers into the
thrilling description: "Miss Anthony seized a Populist badge and,
pinning it on her breast, declared: 'Henceforth and forever I belong to
the People's party!'"
The State Prohibition convention was in progress at Emporia at the same
time, and the women had been notified that a suffrage plank would be
adopted without any effort on their part. On June 13 the following
telegram was sent by the secretary of the convention to Miss Anthony and
Miss Shaw: "Recognizing the right of suffrage as inherent in
citizenship, the Prohibition party stands unequivocally pledged to use
its utmost efforts to secure the adoption of the pending constitutional
amendment for the enfranchisement of women." This was their response
from the Populist convention hall: "The National-American Woman Suffrage
Association sends greeting, and is gratified that there is one political
party which does not need to be urged to declare for justice to women."
The Capitol said: "There was a wild demonstration as their names were
read."
It is hardly possible to give an adequate idea of the storm which
followed the announcement of Miss Anthony's declaration in regard to
the People's party. There was scarcely a newspaper in the country which
did not have its fling. Kate Field's Washington led off with a full
first page entitled, "The Unholy Alliance." Editors opposed to woman
suffrage made it a text for double leaders. Republican papers berated
her without mercy. Letters poured in upon her from personal friends,
judges, mayors, ministers, members of Congress, accepting the published
reports and condemning her in unmeasured terms. Others wrote begging her
to set herself right in the eyes of the public, as they knew she had
been misrepresented. It seemed impossible, however, for her to make
herself clearly understood. She writes in her journal: "One would think
I had committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost in thanking
the Populists for their good promise and saying I preferred them with
justice to women, no matter what their financial folly, to the
Republicans without justice to women, no matter what their financial
wisdom."
She returned home June 20 and all the Rochester reporters were on hand
for an interview. The following from the Democrat and Chronicle is
practically what appeared in all:
Miss Anthony was perfectly willing to talk, and this is a resume of
what the reporter learned: 1. Miss Anthony is not a Populist. 2.
Miss Anthony is not a Democrat. 3. Miss Anthony is not a
Republican. 4. Miss Anthony can not say what party she will join
when the right to vote is given her.
"I didn't go over to the Populists by doing what I did in Kansas,"
she said. "I have been like a drowning man for a long time, waiting
for some one to throw a plank to me. The Republicans refused, but
the Populists threw an excellent plank in my direction. I didn't
step on the whole platform, but just on the woman suffrage plank. I
went forward at the close of the convention and told the men how
glad I was to see one of the dominant parties take up woman
suffrage. I said that we had been besieging the big political
parties for twenty-five years. Here is a party in power which is
likely to remain in power, and if it will give its endorsement to
our movement, we want it.
"I do not claim to know anything of the merits of the issues which
brought the Populist party into existence. All I know is that it is
chiefly made up from the rank and file of the old Republican party
of that State, and that the men who compose it think they have
better methods for the correction of existing evils. They are
protesting against the present order of things, and certainly no
one will deny there is ground for it. I do not endorse their
platform, but I would be one of the last to condemn an honest
protest."
"But," said the reporter, "it always has been understood that you
are a strong Republican."
"Why has it been so understood? Simply because a majority of the
national legislators who have favored us have been Republicans.
Suppose the Republican party of New York, at its coming convention,
refuses to endorse woman suffrage; suppose the Democratic does
endorse it. My action with the Democrats would be just what it was
with the Populists of Kansas. I am for woman suffrage and will work
with any party which will help us. Remember I say 'with,' not
'for.'"
Miss Shaw finished her two months' engagement in Kansas and did not
return to that State. Mrs. Catt wrote Miss Anthony a few weeks after the
conventions:
It is remarkable the difference of opinion that is floating about.
We hear of Populists who are so mad about the plank they declare
they will go back to the Democratic party. Others, even those who
are suffragists, are so mad at the women for putting the plank
forward they say they will vote against the amendment. Democrats
say there can be no fusion and that will mean death to the Populist
party. Some Republicans say they will not vote for the amendment
because it is now a Populist question. Again some Republicans and
some Democrats say they will vote the Populist ticket because of
the plank. From all these varied ideas it is impossible to find out
whether we are better or worse off.... At any rate, the question
now has a political standing, and it will depend upon party
developments where we find ourselves. My own hope is that it may
bring the Republicans to time, but if the Populists say too much,
it may drive them to secret opposition, and then we are done for.
Miss Anthony took a much more cheerful view and replied to the various
letters:
At last one of the dominant parties in a State, and that one the
party in power, has adopted a woman suffrage amendment, and upon
that one plank I have planted my feet. The Republicans by ignoring
us give party sanction to every anti-suffrage man among them; while
the Populists' endorsement makes every anti-suffrage man among them
feel that he will be the better Populist if he vote "yes."...
Meantime, every Farmers' Alliance picnic, every school-house
meeting, will be on fire with the enthusiasm born of their party's
heroic action; for such it was, in defiance of their leaders'
command to imitate the Republicans and ignore the amendment. The
900 Republicans in the State convention obeyed their masters; while
68 more than one-half of the 606 Populists rebelled against theirs.
Surely there is more to hope from the party, a majority of whose
men dare vote opinions against their bosses, than for the one in
which not a single man dares even raise a protest. What would our
friends have had us do? Bless the Republicans for slapping us in
the face, and blast the Populists for giving us a helping hand?
Among the comforting letters which came during these troublous times was
one from Wm. Lloyd Garrison, with whose father she had fought the battle
of Abolitionism, in which he said: "I saw Mrs. Isabel Barrows yesterday
and heard from her of your weary journey together from Chicago, your
discouragement regarding Kansas, and the personal pain occasioned you by
untrue newspaper reports and the harsh criticism of friends. I write to
express my word of sympathy and cheer. Send me a brief statement of the
Populist matter and let me break a lance in your behalf. A reformer's
life is full of misrepresentations. How little they signify in the long
run and, if they did not wound the spirit, would not be worth the
mention. To be misjudged by one's own friends hurts more than all the
bitterness of the rest of the world."
In a public address made this summer, Miss Anthony referred to the
matter in the following beautiful words:
Had the Republicans of Kansas adopted a woman suffrage plank, and
Miss Shaw and Miss Anthony declared that, because of such
endorsement, they would prefer the success of that party, nobody
would have thought it meant that they had endorsed the whole
Republican platform, and made themselves responsible for the right
conduct of every officer and nominee of that party.
I was born and reared a Quaker, and am one still; I was trained by
my father, a cotton manufacturer, in the Henry Clay school of
protection to American products; but today all sectarian creeds and
all political policies sink into utter insignificance compared with
the essence of religion and the fundamental principle of
government--equal rights. Wherever, religiously, socially,
educationally, politically, justice to woman is preached and
practiced, I find a bond of sympathy, and I hope and trust that
henceforth I shall be brave enough to express my thanks to every
individual and every organization, popular or unpopular, that gives
aid and comfort to our great work for the emancipation of woman,
and through her the redemption of the world.
To a letter from Henry B. Blackwell, urging her to be non-partisan if
she could not be Republican, she replied, July 9:
The difference between yourself and me, and Mrs. Johns and me, is
precisely this--that you two are and have been Republicans _per
se_, while I have been a Republican only in so far as the party and
its members were more friendly to the principle of woman suffrage.
I agree with you that it will be in line with Mrs. Johns' ideas for
her to work for the Republican party, false though its platform and
its managers are to the pending amendment; but I could not do so.
The rank and file of the Populist men of Kansas may not possess
equal book or brain power with the Republicans, but they are more
honest and earnest to establish justice, and 337 of their delegates
had manhood enough to break out of the whiskey-Democratic bargain
which their leaders, like the Republican fixers, had made. No, I
shall not praise the Republicans of Kansas, or wish or work for
their success, when I know by their own confessions to me that the
rights of the women of their State have been traded by them in cold
blood for the votes of the lager beer foreigners and whiskey
Democrats....
I have not allied and shall not ally myself to any party or any
measure save the one of justice and equality for woman; but the
time has come when I strike, and proclaim my contempt for the
tricksters who put their political heel on the rights of women at
the very moment when their help is most needed. I never, in my
whole forty years' work, so utterly repudiated any set of
politicians as I do those Republicans of Kansas. When it is a mere
matter of theory, a thousand miles from a practical question, they
can resolve pretty words, but when the crucial moment comes they
sacrifice us without conscience or honor. The hubbub with the
Republicans shows they have been struck in the right place. I never
was surer of my position that no self-respecting woman should wish
or work for the success of a party which ignores her political
rights.
These few extracts from scores of similar letters, speeches and
interviews, show the position consistently and unflinchingly maintained
by Miss Anthony, and justified by many years of experience in such
campaigns. During the summer of 1894, while she was being thus harassed,
she kept steadily on, speaking and working in the New York campaign and
preparing to return to Kansas in the fall. She wrote to the Republican
and the Populist central committees, offering to speak on the suffrage
question upon their platforms. The former, through its chairman, Cyrus
Leland, declined her offer.
To John W. Breidenthal, of the People's party, she wrote: "Do you not
think it will be a great deal better, both for the suffrage amendment
and the Populist party, if in all the announcements it shall be
distinctly stated that Miss Anthony speaks only on the subject of
woman's enfranchisement?" To this he replied, August 6: "I leave the
matter entirely with you whether you confine yourself only to the
suffrage amendment, or whether you add to that the discussion of the
other questions now attracting public attention." Meanwhile she had
been receiving cheerful messages from the Populist women of Kansas,
among them a long and cordial letter from Annie L. Diggs, written August
16:
Nearly everything along the line of my experience and observation
would make you glad. I have large audiences, say the best and
strongest things I know for suffrage and always find the heartiest
response. I see more and more the wisdom of your insistence on
platform mention. Oh, I am so thankful that I, too, saw straight
before it was too late to get the Populist endorsement. I have been
speaking almost constantly, sometimes twice a day, and at every
meeting other speakers and _candidates_ say the best kind of words
for the amendment. Governor Lewelling speaks in warm endorsement,
reports to the contrary notwithstanding. I can not say that he does
so always, but he did at the three meetings which we held together.
The Populists who wanted to shake my head off at the convention,
give me, if possible, warmer greetings than the others. They are
truly glad they took that righteous step....
We Populists wish so much for you and Miss Shaw to come to Kansas.
People constantly ask me if you will talk for the Populists when
you come. I answer that you will talk suffrage at Populist meetings
and will also say that, inasmuch as in Kansas the Populists endorse
suffrage, therefore the party ought to win. Is not that your
intention? How I wish I could describe to you some of the success I
have had in talking to German audiences. But I have not another
minute only to thank you for your kind words about me, and to say
again, as I have said so many years, "I love and revere you."
[Illustration: Autograph: "Faithfully yours, Annie L. Diggs."]
Mrs. Johns wrote, August 27: "I think the Republicans are conscious
dimly of the increasing strength of the Populists. It looks as if they
will win, and it is generally believed the amendment will go through."
As late as October 12, Mrs. Catt, who had been speaking at suffrage
meetings for the past six weeks and whose judgment was generally sound,
said in a letter from Hutchinson:
After all the vicissitudes, hard feelings and distresses of the
campaign, it begins to look as if we were going to come in "on the
home stretch." The last two weeks have wrought wonderful changes.
The tide has set in our favor. I think the chief cause is the
published fact that we are going to count the votes to see how many
out of each party are cast for the amendment, and Republicans
understand they will be in a bad way if they don't make a good
showing. Since this came out, Morrill has spoken for the amendment.
Judge Peters, at the big McKinley meeting here, advocated it and
they tell me it created more enthusiasm than anything else during
the meeting. Cyrus Leland admits that it will carry. The
Republicans are coming over splendidly and, if the Populists stand
firm, we will surely come in with a fine majority. It seems as if
nothing can defeat us now.
Two weeks before the election, October 21, Mr. Breidenthal wrote her: "I
am confident the amendment will have 30,000 majority." Miss Anthony
reached the State October 20 and began her two weeks' tour the 22d,
speaking at Populist meetings in the largest cities up to election day,
November 6.[105] From the hour of her arrival she realized there was not
a shadow of hope for the amendment, and it was marvellous to her how the
others could have been so deceived.
At the previous election when the Populists came into power it had been
through a fusion with the Democrats. This year the Democrats had their
own ticket, and not only had ignored the pleading of the Democratic
women for a suffrage plank, but had adopted a resolution denouncing
it.[106] The great railroad strike and its attendant evils, during that
summer, were attributed by many to Populistic sentiment and created a
strong prejudice against the party. The argument was made that if the
amendment carried, the women would feel so grateful to the Populists
that it would result in securing to them the woman's vote, thus keeping
them in power. This induced many to vote against it who disliked
Populism, and it decided a number of even those Republicans who believed
in woman suffrage to reject the amendment this year rather than allow
the Populists to have the credit of carrying it. To destroy the last
hope, word came from Colorado that the People's party was about to be
defeated there. It was the first time for the women of that State to
vote and, while there was no evidence to prove that they were
responsible, the bare possibility was enough to stampede the Kansas
Populists and prevent their giving the ballot to the women of that
State.
The amendment was lost by 34,827 votes; 95,302 for; 130,139 against. The
total vote cast for governor was 299,231; total vote on suffrage
amendment, 225,441; not voting on amendment, 73,790. There was an
attempt to keep count of the ballots according to parties, but it was
not successful and there was no way of correctly estimating the
political complexion of the vote. The vote for Governor Morrill lacked
only 1,800 of that for the other three candidates combined, which shows
how easily the Republican party might have carried the amendment.
Subtracting the 5,000 Prohibition votes which it was conceded were cast
for the amendment, it lacked 28,000 of receiving as many votes as were
cast for the Populist candidate for governor. Since some Republicans
must have voted for it, the figures prove that a vast number of
Populists did not do so. In Miss Anthony's journal on the night of the
election she wrote: "Our friends remembered to forget to vote for the
suffrage amendment, while not an enemy forgot to remember to stamp his
ticket against it."
Though she had expected defeat, her regret was none the less keen. In
all the past years she had given more time and work to Kansas than to
any other State, even her own. Her hopes had been centered there. It
having been the first State to grant school suffrage and the first to
grant municipal suffrage to women, she had confidently expected that
when the amendment for full suffrage was again submitted it would be
carried. The events of the campaign confirmed her belief that the
granting of municipal suffrage is a hindrance rather than a help toward
securing full enfranchisement. By its exercise women naturally become
partisan, show the influence they can wield through the ballot, and
thereby create enmities and arouse antagonisms which bitterly oppose any
further extension of this power. She resolved henceforth to advise women
not to attempt to secure fragmentary suffrage, but to demand the whole
right and work for nothing less.
FOOTNOTES:
[101] It was the Republicans who framed the original constitution of the
State so as to give women liberal property rights, equal guardianship of
their children, and school suffrage. In 1867 they gave to women an equal
voice on the question of local option. In 1887 they granted to them
municipal suffrage. In various State conventions they adopted an
unequivocal endorsement of full suffrage for women.
[102] See Appendix for full speech.
[103] The women of the Topeka Equal Suffrage Club, at their next
meeting, adopted a resolution thanking the Republican convention _for
not declaring against the amendment_!
[104] It will be cowardice for the Republicans to fail to endorse woman
suffrage in their State platform. In past years, when no amendment was
pending, the Republican party of Kansas has encouraged the presentation
of such an amendment. Will it now attempt to sneak out of the
responsibility and go back on its past record? The women of our State
have shown themselves intelligent voters, in every way worthy of being
entrusted with full suffrage. None of the evils have come upon us which
were predicted by the opponents of the reform, and they never will come.
To place a plank in the platform will save many votes to the party. It
is the right, the brave thing to do. What is brave and right has, in the
past, been the thing that the Republican party has done. Let it not now
begin to do the cowardly thing.--Leavenworth Times, May 17, 1894.
[105] Miss Anthony did not receive a dollar for her services daring the
year in Kansas, and was enabled to make the three trips there solely
through the kindness of her brother Daniel R., who furnished
transportation. It was also by his assistance that she had made her long
railroad journeys from east to west during the past thirty years.
[106] Fifteenth.--We oppose woman suffrage as tending to destroy the
home and family, the true basis of political safety, and express the
hope that the helpmeet and guardian of the family sanctuary may not be
dragged from the modest purity of self-imposed seclusion to be thrown
unwillingly into the unfeminine places of political strife.
CHAPTER XLIV.
THE SOUTHERN TRIP--THE ATLANTA CONVENTION.
1895
The day following the Kansas election, November 7, 1894, Miss Anthony
started at 10 o'clock in the morning for Beatrice, Neb., to make the
opening speech at the State Suffrage Convention; arrived at 6 P. M.,
took a cup of tea, dressed and, without having had one moment's rest,
found herself at the opera house in the presence of a splendid audience.
After she was seated on the platform a telegram was handed her saying
the suffrage amendment had been lost in Kansas by an immense majority.
Yet, in spite of the terrible physical strain of the past weeks and in
the face of this stunning news, it is said she never made a stronger,
more logical and comprehensive speech than on this occasion. She
reviewed the amendment campaigns of the last twenty-five years,
describing the causes of defeat or success, and pointing out the
necessity of educational effort beginning with the primaries and
continuing through all the conventions and political meetings up to the
very day of election.
Although she received urgent invitations to speak at various points in
the State, she declined all and left the next morning early for
Leavenworth; and the day following, November 9, was on her way eastward.
After a day in Chicago she went directly to Philadelphia, where she
attended a reception given by the New Century Club to Mary Mapes Dodge;
had several business meetings regarding the affairs of the national
association; then hastened by night train to the New York convention at
Ithaca. Here again, without a day's rest, she made a stirring address to
an audience which packed the opera house to the top row of the upper
gallery, sat on the steps and filled the aisles. The convention was
welcomed by the mayor of Ithaca and President Schurmann, of Cornell. The
latter invited the officers and delegates to visit the university and
accompanied them on their tour of inspection. Miss Anthony spoke to the
girls of Sage College after dinner, gave them many new ideas long to be
remembered, and was received with enthusiasm and affection.
The next evening, November 15, she returned to Rochester. She had just
concluded two of the hardest campaigns ever made for woman suffrage; for
almost one year she had found no rest for the sole of her foot, not an
hour's respite for the tired brain, and yet the letters and the entries
in the journal show her to be as cheerful, as philosophical, as full of
hopeful plans, as ever she had been in all her long and busy life. After
just one day at home she started for Cleveland. The W. C. T. U. were
holding a national convention in that city and were to have a great
"gospel suffrage" meeting in Music Hall, Sunday afternoon, which she was
invited to address. The Cleveland Leader, in describing the occasion,
said:
Miss Willard, the chieftain of the white ribbon army, introduced
Miss Anthony, the chieftain of the yellow ribbon army, saying:
"Once we would not have allowed the yellow ribbon to be so
generously displayed here. Had its wearers asked us to admit it
with the white we might have voted it down; but the yellow badge of
the suffragists looks natural now. The golden rule has done it.
Well do I remember that in the hard struggle mother and I had in
paying the taxes on our little home, no man appeared to pay them
for us. Had I been condemned to death I would not have expected a
man to startup and take my place. Susan B. Anthony--she of the
senatorial mind--will be remembered when the politicians of today
have long been doomed to 'innocuous desuetude.'" Miss Willard then
quoted a few familiar lines ending with the sentence, "And Susan B.
Anthony has been ordained of God to lead us on."
Miss Anthony was greeted with a rousing Chautauqua salute. "I am
delighted beyond measure," she said, "that at last the women of
this great national body have found there is only one way by which
they can reach their desired end, and that is by the ballot. What
is 'gospel suffrage?' It is a system by which truth and justice
might be made the uppermost principles of government. Every
election is the solution of a mathematical problem, the figuring
out of what the majority desire. We have in this country
mercantile, mining, manufacturing and all kinds of business by
which money can be made. The interests of every one of these are
put into the political scale, but when the moral issues are put in
the other side the material pull them down. Why? Because the moral
issues are not weighted with votes. The men who are associated with
women in movements of reform get no more in the way of legislation
than do women themselves, because when they go to the legislatures
or to Congress they have back of them only a disfranchised class.
"If you would have your requests granted your legislators must know
that you are a part of a body of constituents who stand with
ballots in their hands. Women, we might as well be dogs baying the
moon as petitioners without the power to vote! If you have no care
for yourselves, you should at least take pity on the men associated
with you in your good works. So long as State constitutions say
that all may vote when twenty-one, save idiots, lunatics, convicts
and women, you are brought down politically to the level of those
others disfranchised. This discrimination is a relic of the dark
ages. The most ignorant and degraded man who walks to the polls
feels himself superior to the most intelligent woman. We should
demand the wiping out of all legislation which keeps us
disfranchised.
Almost every sentence of this brief address was punctuated with applause
from the immense audience.
Always when in Cleveland Miss Anthony was a guest at the palatial home
of Mrs. Louisa Southworth, At this time, with her hostess' permission,
she had summoned the entire National-American Board to a business
meeting, and all were entertained under this hospitable roof. For thirty
years Mrs. Southworth had been among the leading representatives of the
suffrage movement in northern Ohio, and during all that time had been
Miss Anthony's staunch and unfailing friend. She had given thousands of
dollars to the suffrage cause, and hundreds to Miss Anthony for her
personal use. On this occasion she presented her with $1,000 to open the
much desired national headquarters. One such supporter in every State
would win many battles which are lost because of insufficient funds to
do the necessary work.
Miss Anthony soon afterwards went to New York to prepare with Mrs.
Stanton the call and resolutions for the approaching national
convention, and to revise the article on "Woman's Rights" for Johnson's
new edition of the Encyclopedia. She was the guest of her cousin, Mrs.
Semantha Vail Lapham, whose home overlooked Central Park. Mrs. Stanton's
cosy flat was on the other side, and through this lovely pleasure ground
each bright day Miss Anthony took her morning walk. When the weather was
inclement she was sent in the carriage, and the two old friends talked
and worked together as they had done so many times in days gone by.
The evenings were spent with her cousin and various friends and
relatives. Once they dined with a kinsman in his elegant Tiffany
apartments. She and Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, Mrs. Henry
M. Sanders and Mrs. George Putnam, had a delightful luncheon with Dr.
Mary Putnam Jacobi. She was invited by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lauterbach to
hear the opera of Faust, which was followed by a supper at the Waldorf.
With a relative she attended the "Authors' Uncut Leaves Club," at
Sherry's. One Sunday she went to hear Robert Collyer and the diary says:
"His grand face, his rich voice, his white hair, were all as attractive
as ever; he was a beautiful picture in the pulpit. He gave me a cordial
greeting at the close of the sermon." She ran over to Orange for a few
days with a loved cousin, Ellen Hoxie Squier; and then on down to
Philadelphia and Somerton for a little visit with the friends there, of
which she writes: "Rachel and I had a soul-to-soul talk all the day long
and until after midnight." She was a guest at the Foremothers' Dinner,
December 22, given at Jaeger's by the New York City Woman Suffrage
League, Lillie Devereux Blake, president, with nearly 300 prominent
women at the table.[107] The dinner and the speeches lasted until after
5 o'clock, Miss Anthony responding to the toast, "Our Future Policy."
Thus a month slipped pleasantly by, and then, with the work all
finished, the body rested and the mind refreshed, she returned home to
spend Christmas. The two sisters dined with Dr. and Mrs. F. H. Sanford
and a few old-time friends, and passed a happy day. Among the numerous
Christmas remembrances were several pieces of fine china and an elegant
velvet cloak from Mrs. Gross.[108]
On December 30, Miss Anthony received word of the death of her old
co-worker, Amelia Bloomer, at Council Bluffs, Ia., aged seventy-seven,
and sent a telegram of sympathy to the husband. A death felt most keenly
in 1894 was that of Virginia L. Minor, of St. Louis, August 14, which
closed a beautiful and unbroken friendship of thirty years. She left
Miss Anthony a testimonial of her love and confidence in a legacy of
$1,000.
The year ended amidst the usual pressure of requests, invitations and
engagements. Would she lecture for the Art League, for the Musical
Society, for the Church Guild and for a dozen other organizations of
whose purposes she knew practically nothing? Would she accept a
"reception" from the Scribblers' Club of Buffalo? Would she send a
package of documents to the girls of Vassar College, who were going to
debate woman suffrage? Would she please reply to the following
questions, from various newspapers: "Have not women as many rights now
as men have? What is woman's ideal existence and what woman has most
nearly attained it? Have you formed any resolutions for the coming year,
and what has been the fate of former New Year's resolutions?" and so on,
ad infinitum.
The "woman's edition" fever raged with great violence at this time, and
it is not an exaggeration to say that the editors of ninety-nine
hundredths of them wrote to Miss Anthony for an article. Of course it
was an impossibility to comply, but occasionally some request struck her
so forcibly that she made time for an answer. For instance, the woman's
edition of the Elmira Daily Advertiser was for the purpose of helping
the Young Men's Christian Association, and to its editor, Mrs. J. Sloat
Fassett, she wrote:
I should feel vastly more interested in, and earnest to aid the Y.
M. C. A., if the men composing it were, as a body, helping to
educate the people into the recognition of the right of their
mothers and sisters to an equal voice with themselves in the
government of the city, State and nation. Nevertheless, I avail
myself of your kindly request, and urge all to study the intricate
problem of bettering the world; not merely the individual
sufferings in it, but the general conditions. Such study will show
the great need of a new balance of power in the body politic; and
the conscientious student must arrive at the conclusion that this
will have to be obtained by enfranchising a new class--women. If
the Y. M. C. A. really desire to make better moral and social
conditions possible, they should hasten to obey the injunction of
St. Paul, and "help those women" who are working to secure
enfranchisement.
Miss Anthony received soon after this a consignment of pamphlets, etc.,
that she had ordered printed, on the outside of which the manager of the
printing house, a man entirely unknown to her, had written:
"A wreath, twine a wreath for the brave and the true,
Who, for love of the many, dared stand with the few."
Among the pleasant letters was one from Mrs. Mary B. Willard, who was
then abroad, in which she said: "I am so glad that you live on to know
how much you are loved and to enjoy the fruit of your blessed labors."
One invitation which Miss Anthony especially appreciated came from Rev.
Jenkin Lloyd Jones, of Chicago, editor of Unity and pastor of All Souls
church: "I am sure your heart goes out with us in our dreams as
represented by the enclosed printed matter.[109] One number of the
program is, 'What is woman's part in this larger synthesis,' or 'What
can woman do for liberal religion?' I enclose Dr. Thomas' letter that it
may reinforce my own pleading that you should come and speak on this
topic. Phrase it yourself. Pour your whole heart into it. Make it the
speech of your life. Give your large religious nature freedom. We will
pay all your expenses and I do hope you will make an effort to come. We
will give you from thirty to forty minutes, then we would want to ask
one or two women to follow in the discussion, perhaps a Jewess and may
be some woman who represents the independent church, like Dr. Thomas'
and Prof. Swing's...."
Dr. H. W. Thomas' letter said in part: "Your suggestion is wise; no
other can perhaps so fittingly and ably represent the larger place and
work of woman as Susan B. Anthony. It will honor her and help the cause
to have her speak at the congress. Bless her dear soul, how I would like
to see her--to hear her--to have her one with us--her counsel, her
spirit, her great heart of love and hope so much like the Christ."
After the receipt of Miss Anthony's reply Dr. Jones wrote again: "I
received your modest protest against being made, as you are, one of the
vice-presidents of the Liberal Congress organization; but the very
reason you urged against it is the very reason for putting you on. We
want you not for what you can do but for what you are. We can not take
the congress into the polemics of the woman question, but George
Washington went into the first Continental Congress with his uniform on,
said nothing, yet that was his speech. So we organize with Susan B.
Anthony's name among our vice-presidents, and this is our war speech on
that question. Do let your name stay there.... Ever rejoicing in your
work and its slowly approaching triumph, I am, brotherly yours."
The New Year of 1895 promised less in the way of work and anxiety than
the one which had just closed. There were to be no State amendment
campaigns with their annoying complexities, their arduous labors, their
usual defeats. So many capable and energetic women had come into the
national organization that Miss Anthony was relieved of much of the
burden which used to rest upon her in the olden times, when she had to
attend personally to details of arrangement and assume the financial
responsibility. She found it difficult at first to adapt herself to the
new regime, but soon learned to have confidence in the judgment and
ability of her much-loved "body guard," as she liked to call the
official board. It was not so easy for others of the old workers to
accept the new order of things, and they rebelled occasionally against
the "red tape" requirements of this executive body. To one of these Miss
Anthony wrote: "My dear, what we older ones all have to learn is that
these young and active women now doing the drudgery in each of the
forty-five States, must be consulted and must have a vote on all
questions pertaining to the association, and we must abide by the
decision of the majority. This is what I am trying to learn. No one or
two can manage now, but all must have a voice."
The voluminous correspondence shows, however, that the new workers were
very glad to feel the touch of her firm and experienced hand on the
helm, and that usually she was consulted on every point. She especially
impressed upon them the necessity of keeping the financial accounts with
the strictest care and accuracy, and for a number of years would not
allow a report to be published until she herself had examined every
detail. At one time when two contributions had been accidentally omitted
from the statement sent for her inspection, she wrote: "Not finding
those two in your copy congealed the blood to the very ends of my
fingers and toes, lest the givers should think I had not sent their
money to you."
New Year's Day twelve friends were gathered around the Anthony table,
the Gannetts, the Greenleafs, the Sanfords, Mrs. Hallowell and Mrs.
Willis, and the occasion was a pleasant one. A week later Miss Anthony
started on an extended southern trip. There had been practically no
suffrage work done in the South, with the exception of Kentucky,
Tennessee, Missouri and Louisiana. As the national convention was to
meet in Atlanta, Miss Anthony thought it advisable to make a lecture
tour through the South to arouse a sentiment which might be felt there a
month later. She invited Mrs. Chapman Catt to accompany her,
guaranteeing her expenses although she had no assurance she would be
able to make even her own.
At Lexington they were guests in the fine old home of Mrs. Mary J.
Warfield Clay and daughter Laura, and spoke in the Christian church to a
sympathetic audience. They held meetings at Wilmore, Louisville,
Owensboro, Paducah and Milan, receiving many social courtesies at each
place visited, and they reached Memphis January 17. The management here
was in the capable hands of the Woman's Council and a fine audience
greeted them at the Young Men's Hebrew Association Hall. They were
introduced by their hostess, Mrs. Lide Meriwether, president of the
Equal Suffrage Club, and cordially received. The Appeal, Avalanche and
Scimitar gave long and interesting reports. The next morning Miss
Anthony and Mrs. Catt were handsomely entertained by the ladies of the
Nineteenth Century Club. In the afternoon Mrs. Mary Jameson Judah,
president of the Woman's Club, gave a reception in their honor. Saturday
morning they were guests of the Colored Women's Club; in the afternoon
the Woman's Council, composed of forty-six local clubs, tendered a large
reception, and in the evening they lectured again. Sunday morning they
spoke in the Tabernacle to the colored people; and they left at 5.30 P.
M. feeling they had not wasted much time at Memphis.
[Illustration: Autograph: "For your lifelong work for Truth and Liberty
I am, Gratefully yours, Laura Clay."]
They reached New Orleans Monday morning; were met at the train by the
president and several members of the Portia Club, and escorted to the
residence of Judge Merrick. Each of the daily papers contained lengthy
and excellent mention of the lectures. The Picayune said at the
beginning of a four-column report:
If any one doubted the interest that southern women feel in the
all-absorbing question of the day, "Woman and her Rights," that
idea would have forever been dispelled by a glance at the splendid
audience assembled last night to hear Miss Susan B. Anthony, the
world-famed apostle of woman suffrage, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman
Catt, the distinguished western leader. The hall was literally
packed to overflowing, not only with women but with men, prominent
representatives in every walk of life. Standing room was at a
premium, corridors and windows were filled with a sea of earnest,
interested faces, the name of Miss Anthony was on every lip, and
all eyes were directed to the platform, which was beautifully
decorated with palms and potted plants, the suffrage color, yellow,
predominating among the verdant foliage.
Seated upon the platform were the four ladies who have successively
filled the position of president of the Portia Club, Mrs. Elizabeth
Lyle Saxon, Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, Mrs. Evelyn B. Ordway and
Miss Florence Huberwald. The entrance of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Catt
was the signal for a burst of applause, which rose into an ovation
when Miss Huberwald, in a few graceful words, presented Mrs.
Merrick, who in turn introduced Miss Anthony as the most famous
woman in America. When the applause subsided, Miss Anthony, whose
voice is singularly sweet and clear, began to speak.
She was presented with a basket of flowers and a bouquet from Mrs. J. M.
Ferguson, president of the Arena club. At the close hundreds pressed
forward to take the hands of the speakers.
They left this charming and hospitable city Wednesday evening, Mrs. Catt
going to Greenville, Miss Anthony to Shreveport. Here she was
entertained by Mrs. M. F. Smith and Professor C. E. Byrd, principal of
the high school. The Hypatia Club sent her two lovely floral offerings.
Of her lecture the Times said editorially:
This veteran apostle of woman's rights addressed a magnificent
audience last evening at the court-house, a representative
assemblage comprising all the best elements of all the best classes
of Shreveport's citizens, and one which was equally divided between
men and women. Miss Anthony is certainly a remarkable woman in
every respect, and one whose genius will leave its mark not only on
the recorded history of the nineteenth century, but in the advanced
position of woman now and for all time to come. She was one of the
first women in America to raise her voice in advocacy of woman's
rights, and she has lived to see herself and her sisters gradually
released from legalized bondage and, in everything but suffrage,
made the full equal of man. No one can deny that her claims are
founded on justice; and in the light of cold and clear reason,
divested of all sentiment and cleansed of all prejudice, her
arguments can not be successfully controverted.
By failure of the train to connect with the ferry she was unable to join
Mrs. Catt and keep her appointment at Jackson. When, after waiting two
hours, she finally reached that station at half-past nine, she found a
message from Mrs. Catt that she was holding a magnificent audience for
her. According to her journal she "was too oozed-out even to be looked
at, much less to try to speak in the House of Representatives packed
with the flower of southern chivalry;" so she went on to Birmingham.
Here she found inadequate arrangements had been made and a northern
blizzard interfered with her meetings. The News, however, gave an
excellent two-column account beginning:
Only a moderate audience greeted Susan B. Anthony, the chief
suffrage leader in the United States, but that audience was
cultured and able to appreciate the very energetic, clear-minded
and vigorous woman, whose name is as well-known as that of any man
in the Union, and who has done more than any other woman to prove,
by her strong and unique personality, the mental equality of woman
with man and her fitness for the things sought to be entrusted to
her care, share and share alike with the sterner sex. After a
graceful introduction by Colonel J. W. Bush, the lecturer plunged
at once with ease and distinction into her subject and line of
argument.... She is a very able and incisive speaker, talks
fluently and distinctly, and makes easy and graceful gestures. In a
word, she is as good a lecturer as a good man-lecturer.
They spoke in the opera house at New Decatur, and were the guests of
Mrs. E. S. Hildreth. At Huntsville they were entertained by Mrs. Milton
Hume, and introduced to the audience by Mrs. Clay-Klopton. The Evening
Tribune headed its report, "Grand and Enthusiastic Meeting; Eloquent
Addresses Presented by Noble and Gifted Women;" and said:
Much to the surprise of a great many, the city hall was filled last
night with a very large and intelligent audience of ladies and
gentlemen.... Miss Anthony spoke for an hour in a plain, unassuming
manner, but ably and learnedly. She has been an active worker for
more than forty years in this cause and now, at life's closing
hours, sees the right accorded woman in the States of Wyoming and
Colorado, and the cause gaining momentum as intelligence spreads
and the blessings become known which follow in the pathway of
woman's ballot. No one can look upon the face of that venerated,
noble woman, who has grown gray in her life-work, and not be
impressed that there has been something more than sentiment, more
than a cranky idea, impelling her in all these long, sacrificing
years.
Mrs. Chapman Catt as completely charmed as she surprised the large
audience. She is a young woman of winning personality, as beautiful
as she is brilliant, with a command of language and convincing
eloquence that would do credit to the matchless Prentiss....
The next day, with Mrs. Alberta Chapman Taylor, they started for
Atlanta, joining the Kentucky delegation at Knoxville and reaching their
destination at noon. The headquarters were at the Aragon, where they
found a large number of delegates, warm rooms and everything bright and
comfortable, with the promise of a fine meeting.
The Twenty-seventh Annual Convention opened at De Give's opera house,
January 31, continuing six days. Ninety-three delegates were present
from twenty-eight states, numbers were in attendance from southern
cities, and the people of Atlanta turned out en masse. An evidence of
the interest taken in this convention is the fact that a number of the
New York papers had daily reports of several thousand words telegraphed,
and the large newspapers throughout the country had extended accounts.
The Atlanta Constitution had had columns of matter pertaining to it,
pictures and personal descriptions of the prominent women, which, added
to its extended daily reports, contributed largely to the success of the
meeting; but it was as careful to avoid editorial endorsement as its
contemporaries in the North. The other city papers were generous with
space and complimentary mention, but the Sunny South, edited by Colonel
Henry Clay Fairman, was the only one which advocated the principle of
woman suffrage.
Many beautiful homes were opened to the visitors, and all the officers
and speakers were entertained at the Aragon at the expense of the newly
formed Georgia State Association. The most of it was borne, in fact, by
three sisters residing at Columbus, H. Augusta Howard, Miriam Howard Du
Bose and Claudia Howard Maxwell. With the genuine southern hospitality,
they declined the offer of several societies and of the association to
reimburse them. A handsome reception at the hotel was attended by
hundreds of Atlanta's representative citizens. Mrs. W. A. Hemphill, one
of the board of the Atlanta Exposition, received the visitors in her
lovely home, assisted by the wife of the recently-elected Governor
Atkinson.
A Baptist preacher, Rev. J. B. Hawthorne, built on the antiquated plan,
delivered a sermon not only denouncing suffrage but abusing its
advocates. The result was to make the other ministers in the city offer
their pulpits to the convention speakers, and on Sunday lectures were
given in various churches by Emily Howland, Elizabeth Upham Yates, Mrs.
Colby and Mrs. Meriwether. Rev. Anna Shaw preached in the opera house
and the Constitution prefaced its report as follows: "When the opening
hour arrived there was not an empty chair in the house. So dense became
the crowd that the doors were ordered closed before the services began.
The vast congregation was made up of all classes of citizens. Every
chair that could be found had been utilized and then boxes and benches
were pressed into service. Many prominent professional and business men
were standing on the stage and in different parts of the house."
Miss Anthony, besides her president's address, made many brief speeches
and also read Mrs. Stanton's fine paper on "Educated Suffrage," which
was especially acceptable to a southern audience.[110] One of the most
eloquent speakers was General Robert R. Hemphill, member of the South
Carolina legislature. Among the able and interesting southern delegates
Laura Clay and Josephine K. Henry, of Kentucky, and A. Viola Neblett and
Helen Lewis Morris, of North Carolina, were especial favorites. After
the convention a mass meeting was held in the courthouse, which was
crowded with an enthusiastic audience. Mrs. M. L. McLendon, president of
the Atlanta Club, requested Miss Anthony to take charge. The
Constitution said:
Miss Anthony was received with such a warmth of demonstration on
the part of the large audience as to thoroughly convince her that
she was addressing those who were in sympathy with the suffrage
movement. As she stood up in the presence of the vast congregation
of faces a profound silence filled the hall and every one seemed to
be intently waiting for her opening words. Within the railing a
large number of men, who preferred to stand near the speaker rather
than secure seats in the rear of the hall, were grouped in a solid
mass, and appeared to be equally as much concerned as the ladies.
There were many distinguished women present at the convention, from the
South and the North, and all separated with the feeling that fraternal
bonds had been strengthened and many converts made to the belief in
equal suffrage.
Miss Anthony was much revered by the colored race and while here she
addressed the students of the Atlanta University, and spoke with Bishop
Turner to an immense audience at Bethel church. She was invited also to
address the alumnæ of the girls' high school. At the close of the
convention she went, with her sister Mary, niece Lucy, Anna Shaw and
Mrs. Upton, for a three days' visit at the spacious old-time mansion of
the Howards, in Columbus. She left for Aiken, S. C., February 9, where
she spoke in the courthouse and was introduced by the Baptist minister.
Here she was the guest of Miss Martha Schofield, and was much interested
in the very successful industrial school for colored children, founded
by her during the war. On February 12, she lectured at Columbia for the
Practical Progress Club, introduced by Colonel V. P. Clayton. The Pine
Tree State contained an excellent editorial in favor of woman suffrage,
but thought "it could be more successfully advocated in that locality by
some one of less pronounced abolitionism." Her hostess, Mrs. Helen
Brayton, gave a reception for her, and she met a large number of the
representative people of Columbia. Her last lecture was given at
Culpepper, Va. The six weeks' southern trip had been very pleasant; she
had made many friends and found much sentiment in favor of suffrage. The
only drawback had been the severity of the weather, the coldest ever
known in that locality, which will long be remembered because of the
destruction of the orange groves.
Miss Anthony reached Washington on the morning of her seventy-fifth
birthday, February 15. The National Woman's Council was to open its
second triennial meeting on the 18th, and its official board and many
delegates were already in the city. When she arrived she found that
"her girls," as she was fond of designating the younger workers, had
arranged for a banquet in her honor at the Ebbitt House that evening.
Covers were laid for fifty and it was a beautiful affair. After a number
of speeches had been made, Rachel Foster Avery arose and stated that the
friends of Miss Anthony from ocean to ocean and the lakes to the gulf,
had placed in her hands sums of money amounting to $5,000. This she had
put into a trust fund, purchasing therewith an "annuity" of $800, which
she now took great pleasure in presenting. There were 202 contributors
and although Mrs. Avery had been for several months collecting the
money, incredible as it may seem, the whole matter was a complete
surprise to Miss Anthony. Realizing that during the last forty-five
years she had spent practically all she had earned and all that had been
given her, to advance the cause to which she had devoted her life, they
determined to put this testimonial into such shape as would make it
impossible thus to expend it. She was greatly overcome and for once
could not command the words to voice her feelings.
As each three months have rolled around since that occasion, and the
$200 check has been sent with a pleasant greeting from the Penn Mutual
insurance company, hoping that she might live to use the entire
principal, her heart has thrilled anew with gratitude and affection to
Mrs. Avery and the friends who put their love and appreciation into this
material shape. It suffices to pay the monthly expenses of the modest
household and, with the income from the few thousands that have been
laid away, an occasional paid lecture and the gifts from generous
friends, Miss Anthony is freed from financial anxiety, although obliged
to exercise careful economy.
It is impossible in this limited space to attempt a description of that
great council extending through the days and evenings of two weeks,
attended by delegates from twenty national organizations, representing
the highest intellects and activities among women and covering a wide
range of vital questions. Miss Anthony stood for the department of
Government Reform. Although at this council she desired to be simply
one of the many representatives of different organizations, the public
would make her the central figure of all occasions. On February 28, Mrs.
John R. McLean, assisted by Mrs. Calvin Brice, gave a reception in her
honor, attended by many of the official, literary, artistic and musical
people of the capital.
Frederick Douglass came into the council the afternoon of the 20th and
was invited by the president, Mrs. Sewall, to a seat on the platform. He
accepted, but declined to speak, acknowledging the applause only by a
bow. Upon entering his home in Anacostia, a few hours later, he dropped
to the floor and expired instantly. Funeral services were held in the
African Metropolitan church, Washington, February 25, in which, at the
request of the family, Miss Anthony took part, paid a brief tribute and
read Mrs. Stanton's touching memorial of the only man who sustained her
demand for the enfranchisement of women in that famous first convention
of 1848.
At the close of the council Miss Anthony lectured at Lincoln, Va., in
the ancient Quaker meeting house. Returning to Washington she was
entertained by Mrs. Mary S. Lockwood at a dinner party on the evening of
the Travel Club, at which she was one of the speakers. Reaching
Philadelphia March 9, she turned her steps, as was always her custom,
directly towards her old friend Adeline Thomson, and her surprise and
grief may be imagined when she found that she had died a month previous.
Her relations with Adeline and Annie Thomson, who had passed away nearly
ten years before, had been those of affectionate sisters, and for nearly
forty years their home had been as her own. She had received many
contributions from them, and Adeline had made her a personal gift of
$1,000. She often had said to her and written in her letters, that she
had $5,000 more laid away for her after she herself should have no
further use for it, but as is so often the case she neglected to make
provision for this, and all her property went to a nephew.
[Illustration: Rachel Foster Avery (Signed: "Always lovingly yours,
Rachel Foster Avery")]
From Mrs. Avery's suburban home at Somerton, Miss Anthony sent grateful
letters to every one of the 202 contributors to her annuity. She
addressed the 500 students at Drexel Institute, and left for New York
March 12. Here she had an important business meeting with Mary Lowe
Dickinson, the newly elected president of the National Council, and then
went to tell all about the Atlanta convention, the Woman's Council and
various other events to Mrs. Stanton, who still felt the liveliest
interest although not physically able to take an active part.
The day after Miss Anthony reached home she read in the morning paper
that two of the State Industrial School girls and two of the free
academy boys had been seen the night before coming out of a questionable
place; the girls were arrested and locked up in the station house, the
boys were told to go home. It was an everyday injustice but she
determined to protest, so she went straightway to the police court,
where she insisted that the boys should not go free while the girls were
punished. She pleaded in vain; the girls were sent to the reformatory,
the boys being used as witnesses against them and then dismissed without
so much as a reprimand.
A short time afterwards Miss Anthony went to the Baptist church one
Sunday evening to hear a young colored woman, Miss Ida Wells, lecture on
the lynching of negroes in the South. The speaker was rudely interrupted
several times by a fellow from Texas who was in Rochester attending the
theological school. She answered him politely but at length he asked:
"If the negroes don't like it in the South, why don't they leave and go
North?" At this Miss Anthony, who had been growing more indignant every
moment, sprung to her feet and, with flashing eyes and ringing voice,
said: "I will tell you why; it is because they are treated no better in
the North than they are in the South." She then related a number of
instances, which had come to her own knowledge, of the cruel
discrimination made against colored people, to the utter amazement of
the audience who did not believe such things possible.[111]
She took Miss Wells home with her for the rest of her stay. She had
employed a young woman stenographer for a few weeks to clear up her
accumulated correspondence and, having to go away the next day, she told
Miss Wells the girl might help her with her pile of letters. When she
returned in the evening she found her scribbling away industriously and
the stenographer at leisure. In answer to her inquiry the latter
replied: "I don't choose to write for a colored person." "If you can not
oblige me by assisting a guest in my house," said Miss Anthony, "you can
not remain in my employ." The girl, although in destitute circumstances,
gave up her situation.
Miss Anthony had been feeling for a long time that, in justice to
herself and to the State Industrial School, she should resign her
position on the board of managers. When she accepted it she had intended
to give up the greater part of her travelling and direct her forces from
the seat of government in her own home, but she had found this
practically impossible. The demands for her actual presence and personal
work were too strong to be resisted. There were very few women in the
country who could draw so large an audience as herself, or who knew so
well how to manage a convention or carry on a campaign, and the women of
the different States, who had one or the other of these in hand, were
unwilling to accept a substitute. She was as well and vigorous as at
fifty, and there seemed to be no adequate reason why she should refuse
the many opportunities to advance the cause for which she had given the
active service of nearly half a century. The several years since she
began housekeeping, therefore, had found her at home no more of the time
than those which had preceded.
When she first visited the school she found the boys' departments fitted
up with all the appliances of a steam laundry, while a large number of
the girls were bending their backs over washtubs and ironing-boards the
whole of every week. She soon succeeded in having the washing sent over
to the laundry, where a few girls were able to do it all in two or three
days; she also made many valuable suggestions in the sewing department.
When in the city she went to the school on Sunday, helped with the
services and talked to the 700 boys and 150 girls. Some of the latter
came to her one Sunday and said pathetically that it was the first time
a speaker ever had seemed to know there were any girls there! She wrote
in her journal, with quiet humor, that the men on the board were going
the next day to select a cooking stove. She realized even more strongly
than ever that, though the best and wisest men may be on the boards of
public institutions, there is need also of women, but she felt that,
with so vast an amount of other work on hand, she could not do her duty
by the school. As she was about to go away again for a number of months
she decided to delay her resignation no longer and forwarded it to
Governor Morton April 15, after having served about two and a half
years. She then finished her lecture engagements and completed
arrangements for what proved to be one of the pleasantest journeys of
her life.
FOOTNOTES:
[107] At these annual feasts gentlemen are permitted to sit in the
gallery, listen to the toasts and watch the ladies enjoy the dinner.
[108] During this year Mrs. Gross had presented Miss Anthony with $1,000
to complete the education of a nephew and niece.
[109] A plan for a great Liberal Religious Congress, the outgrowth of
the Parliament of Religions in 1893.
[110] After 1892 Miss Anthony had to read most of Mrs. Stanton's
addresses, and the latter wrote her: "If you pronounce what I write
'good,' I know it is up to the mark. Many thanks for reading all my
papers so well as everybody says you do. I am sure of your rich voice
and deep sympathy with the subject, and I much prefer to have you read
my speeches rather than any other person, as I am always told that your
reading makes a deep impression. Our thoughts have the same trend on the
woman suffrage question, and we have written and talked over every phase
of the subject so much together that what I write is essentially yours
as well as mine."
[111] The Rochester dailies came out next morning with full reports of
this episode and editorial remarks; citizens of both sexes wrote to the
papers, pro and con; other newspapers took up the question, and a wave
of comment swept over the country.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE SECOND VISIT TO CALIFORNIA.
1895.
It has been said in another chapter that Miss Anthony established
herself firmly and forever in the hearts of the people at the Columbian
Exposition of 1893. Men and women were there from every State in the
Union, many of whom never had seen or heard her and had been deeply
prejudiced against her, but she conquered all and they returned home
henceforth to sing her praises. Naturally they wanted their friends and
neighbors to be converted like themselves, and invitations to lecture
came from all quarters. One of the most urgent was from the Woman's
Congress Auxiliary of the great California Midwinter Exposition, which
followed the World's Fair, but as she had two campaigns on hand in 1894
she could not accept it. Out of this auxiliary had grown a permanent
Woman's Congress Association, with Sarah B. Cooper at its head. When a
pressing request came to attend their first anniversary in San
Francisco, in 1895, she accepted with pleasure. The corresponding
secretary, Mrs. Minna V. Gaden, wrote in reply:
I can not attempt to express to you the joy and gratification of
the executive board over your consent to be with us and take part
in the congress in May. I wish I could have phonographed the
exclamations of delight and photographed the beaming countenances
of the members when I read them your letter. In answer to your
question as to whether we desired to have you speak upon some
special point of the subject for which you stand, I would say we
want Susan B. Anthony and all that she is; and we are sure that
the right word will be said, the great facts made plain and the
true inspiration given. We want _you_ and all that your presence
means and all that your life's work has brought.
Miss Anthony had another reason for wishing to go to California in
addition to the desire of meeting and helping the women of that
beautiful State in their congress. Its legislature, the previous winter,
had submitted a woman suffrage amendment which was to be voted on in
1896. This visit would enable her to look over the field, talk with the
men and women, and render any assistance they might desire towards
planning their campaign. She wrote Mrs. Cooper stating that she did not
wish to make the journey alone, that she liked to have one of her
"lieutenants" to relieve her of the burden of much speaking, and would
be glad of the privilege of bringing with her Rev. Anna Shaw. Mrs.
Cooper responded with a check of $450, for travelling expenses, saying:
"We rejoice to know that Miss Shaw will come with you, as another grand
helper for us. I send you the money and want you to have every possible
comfort on the journey."
From that time until Miss Anthony reached California not over three days
ever passed without a letter from Mrs. Cooper, rejoicing over the
promised visit. "Everybody is full of expectancy looking for your
advent. I have engaged the First Congregational church of San Francisco
for Miss Shaw's sermon. Hattie and I send you a heart full of love. May
God hold you safe in His keeping." "San Francisco and the whole Pacific
coast have a warm welcome for you both; every one is looking forward to
meeting you, great and noble champion of all that is good." So the
letters ran, and they were supplemented by long and loving ones from the
daughter Harriet, who lived but to second her mother's work and wishes.
When the papers heralded abroad the news that Miss Anthony was going to
California, the large western towns along the route sent earnest
requests for lectures and visits, and the journey assumed the aspect of
a triumphal tour. She started April 27, full of health and spirit and
with happy anticipations; spent one day with Mrs. Upton, at Warren, O.,
one with Mrs. Sewall, at Indianapolis, going thence to Chicago, where
she was entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Gross. Here she found Harriet
Hosmer, who had been with them seven months, while she worked on her
statue of Lincoln. In the evening half a dozen reporters called and the
papers bristled with interviews. The next day she went with her hostess
to the famous Woman's Club. Miss Shaw joined Miss Anthony in Chicago,
and May 1 they left for St. Louis, where they remained four days at the
New Planters' Hotel, the guests of Mrs. Gross, who had accompanied them.
Their mission at St. Louis was to address the Mississippi Valley Woman's
Congress, under the auspices of the W. C. T. U., Mrs. E. B. Ingalls,
presiding. Miss Anthony spoke on "The Present Outlook," and the papers
described enthusiastically "the splendid ovation" she received, the many
floral offerings, and the hundreds of personal greetings at the close of
the evening. Just before her address, seventy-five little boys and
girls, several colored ones among them, marched past her on the
platform, each laying a rose in her lap. The day after the congress the
State Suffrage Association held its convention, and on the evening of
May 4 a handsome banquet, with covers laid for 200, was given for her at
the Mercantile Club rooms.
She reached Denver May 8, at 4 A. M., remained in the sleeper till six
and then could stand it no longer but took a carriage and sallied forth.
When the reception committee came to the station at seven to escort her
to the elaborate breakfast which had been prepared at the Brown Palace
Hotel, where a large number of friends were waiting, the guest had flown
and could not be found. While in the city she was entertained at the
home of Hon. Thomas M. Patterson, of the Rocky Mountain News, whose
progressive and cultured wife was her warm personal friend and had been
an advocate of suffrage long before it was granted to the women of
Colorado. Reverend Anna was the guest of ex-Governor and Mrs. Routt.
That afternoon Miss Anthony went to Boulder, where she was engaged to
lecture.
The next day the Woman's Club gave a large reception in their honor at
the Brown Palace Hotel, attended by over 1,200 women. The News, in its
account, said: "The scene marked, to the retrospective mind, the
enormous change that has taken place in the status of the sex within the
lifetime of one woman. It hardly seemed possible, as the spectator
beheld Miss Anthony surrounded by the richest and most conservative
women of Denver, to believe that in her youth the great lecturer was
hissed from the stage in the most cultured and liberal cities of the
United States, and cast out from polite society like a pariah. It is not
often either that one who has been a pioneer in an unpopular cause lives
to see it become fashionable and herself the center of attention from a
younger generation which has profited by her labors of earlier years."
The same paper commented editorially: "To accomplish the political
enfranchisement of her sex and open a broader field of work and
influence for women everywhere, Miss Anthony has devoted her life....
Among all the noble women who have stood boldly to champion the cause of
their sisters, she is easily chief, and is worthy of all the honors that
have been bestowed upon her. It must have been a proud satisfaction for
her yesterday to meet the women of Colorado, who are now endowed with
equal political rights because of the crusade she has been instrumental
in starting and maintaining. Well may these newly enfranchised women do
her reverence. Not more loyal should the silver men of Colorado be to
Dick Bland, than the women of Colorado to the apostle of equal
suffrage--Susan B. Anthony."
The Denver Times said in a leading editorial: "To Miss Anthony the women
of today owe a great debt, for through her life's work they enjoy a
hundred privileges denied them fifty years ago. From her devotion to a
cause which for decades made her a martyr to the derision of an
unsympathetic public, has grown a new order of things. Her hand has most
helped to open every profession and every line of business to women.
While all the women of the United States are under many obligations to
her, those of Colorado, who are now equal citizens, owe her the
greatest allegiance." The Times also quotes in an interview with Miss
Anthony: "When asked what subject she would take for her speeches to the
people of Colorado, she shook her head with a kindly smile and said: 'My
usual lectures will not do. What can I say to the women who have the
franchise? I can only encourage them to use their new power wisely, to
stand bravely for the right, and to help the equal suffrage cause in
other States.'"
The ladies lectured that evening to an immense audience in the Broadway
Theater. The papers reported with great headlines: "Enthusiastic
Greeting by Colorado's Enfranchised Citizens. Miss Anthony Overcome with
Hearty Congratulations. America's Joan of Arc Shakes Hands with an Army
of Women Voters." One searches in vain in these newspapers for evidences
of the terrible loss of respect which women were to experience when they
were endowed with the ballot. The News, in over a column report, said:
Miss Anthony's voice was clear and powerful, filling the big
theater without any apparent effort. She began by saying that she
believed the thing she had always claimed had come true; that the
women had learned a new and higher self-respect with their added
rights and responsibilities.... She paid the men of Colorado the
compliment of declaring them the best in the world. The men of
Wyoming had occupied this proud position up to 1893, but those of
Colorado had granted the ballot to a disfranchised class not
through the legislature, but by a popular vote. This act stands
alone in the history of the world; no class of men has ever done as
much for even another class of men....
She said she had heard that some of the women had voted with
sagacity and some had not. This was not strange, since men
continued to do this after more than one hundred years of voting.
If women made mistakes this year, they would remedy them next year,
and in time she believed they would become the balance of power
between the two parties in all social, moral and educational
questions.
At Cheyenne Senator and Mrs. Carey gave an elegant dinner party in their
honor, attended by Governor and Mrs. Rich, Senator and Mrs. Warren, Mrs.
Esther Morris, the first woman judge, Mrs. Therese Jenkins, State
president, Mrs. Amalia Post, a suffrage pioneer, and other distinguished
guests. They went immediately from dinner to the new Baptist church,
which was filled to overflowing, and were introduced by the governor. At
the close of the lectures, Mrs. Jenkins said, "Now I desire to introduce
the audience to the speakers." She then called the names of the governor
and all his staff, the attorney-general, the United States judges, the
senators and congressmen, the mayor and members of the city council.
Each rose as his name was mentioned, and before she was through, it
seemed as if half the audience were on their feet, and the applause was
most enthusiastic. Here again one could not discern an indication of the
dreadful loss of respect which was to be the portion of enfranchised
women.
It was long after midnight before the travellers were quietly in bed in
the delightful home of the Careys, but at half-past seven they had
finished breakfast and were on board train en route for Salt Lake City.
Learning from the conductor that Mrs. Leland Stanford's private car was
attached, Miss Anthony sent her card and soon was invited to a seat in
that luxurious conveyance, where she enjoyed a visit of several hours.
Mrs. Stanford told her of the government suit against the estate, and
Miss Anthony's parting words were a warning not to leave her lawyers to
go before the Supreme Court alone, but to be present herself in
Washington to protect her own interests and those of the great
university.
At Salt Lake, on Sunday morning, a large delegation of women,
representing the different religious sects and political organizations,
met the travellers and drove to the Templeton, where seventy-five sat
down to breakfast, and they were then taken for a drive over the city.
Miss Anthony was the guest of Mrs. Beatie, daughter of Brigham and Zina
D. H. Young, and Miss Shaw of Mrs. McVicker. At 3 P. M., the Reverend
Anna preached in the great Tabernacle, Bishops Whitney and Richards
assisting. At the close they congratulated her on having preached a
Mormon sermon; afterwards a Methodist minister who was in the audience
thanked her for her good Methodist sermon; and a little later a
Presbyterian minister shook her hand heartily and expressed his pleasure
at hearing her Presbyterian doctrine; so she concluded she had made a
politic address. Sunday evening she preached in the theater at what was
intended to be a union service. All of the Gentile ministers had been
invited to take part and all declined but the pastor of the Unitarian
church. He and the principal of the public schools, formerly a Unitarian
minister, were the only men on the stage.
The Inter-Mountain Woman Suffrage Association of Utah, Montana and Idaho
opened the next morning, May 13. The first day's sessions were held in
the new city building, but it was so crowded that an overflow meeting
was necessary and the next day the convention was transferred to the big
assembly hall. The seat of honor was given to Miss Anthony; on her right
Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells, president of the Utah association, on her left,
Rev. Anna Shaw. They were surrounded by a semicircle of the illustrious
women of the Territory who, for many years, had been active in the work
for suffrage. The hall was draped with the national colors and above the
stage were portraits of Lincoln, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton. The
introductory address was made by Governor West, who, after paying an
earnest tribute to Miss Anthony, predicted that the new State
constitution, which was to go to the voters containing a woman suffrage
clause, would be overwhelmingly ratified.
During their stay in Salt Lake Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw received the
highest consideration. Monday afternoon Mr. and Mrs. F. S. Richards gave
a reception in their honor, and were assisted in receiving by Governor
West, President Woodruff, Hon. George Q. Cannon, and many ladies. The
next afternoon a reception was tendered by the W. C. T. U. In the
evening, a large party went to Ogden, where a banquet was given, a great
meeting held in the city hall, and an overflow meeting in one of the
churches.
The 16th of May found the travellers at Reno, Nev., where they were the
guests of Mrs. Elda A. Orr, president of the State association. In the
morning Miss Anthony talked to the 800 men and women students of the
State University. In the evening they spoke in the opera house, which
was crowded to its limits, while on the stage were the representative
men and women of the city and neighboring towns. The house was
beautifully decorated with flowers and banners, a brass band played on
the balcony and an orchestra within. They were introduced by Miss Hannah
H. Clapp, who had presented Miss Anthony to a Nevada audience at Carson,
in 1871. Saturday afternoon they enjoyed a charming reception in the
parlors of the women's clubhouse.
Late that day they resumed their journey, took supper at Truckee on the
summit of the Sierras, and had a delicious glimpse of Lake Donner just
as they plunged into the forty miles of snow-sheds. They were glad of a
long night's rest after the strain of the last three weeks and, when
they awoke the next morning, were rolling through the fertile Sacramento
valley. California in May! Never was there a pen inspired with the power
to describe its beauties. Not the brush of the most gifted artist could
picture the mountains with their green foot-hills and snow-capped
summits; the valleys, nature's own lovely and fragrant conservatories of
brilliant blossoms and luxuriant, riotous vines, and the great oaks with
their glossy foliage, all enveloped in a warm and shimmering atmosphere
and, bending above, the soft blue sky scarcely dimmed by a fleeting
cloud. They can not be put into words, they must be lived.
The travellers had been up and dressed and enjoying the sweet air and
lovely landscape for a long time when the train stopped at the Oakland
station at half-past seven Sunday morning, May 19. Early as was the
hour, with the mists still hovering over the bay, they found awaiting
them, laden with flowers, Mrs. Cooper and her daughter Harriet, from San
Francisco, Mrs. Isabel A. Baldwin, Mrs. Ada Van Pelt and several other
Oakland ladies, and Rev. John K. McLean, the Congregational minister,
whose eldest brother was the husband of Miss Anthony's sister. He
conveyed her at once to his own home, while the others took charge of
Miss Shaw. At 11 o'clock the reverend lady was in Dr. McLean's pulpit,
fresh and smiling, in her soft, black ministerial robes, with dainty
white lawn at neck and wrists. Every seat was filled, chairs were
placed in the aisles, people sitting on the steps, and the happiest
woman in all the throng was Susan B. Anthony as she sat beside her
friend. That evening the scene was repeated in the Congregational church
of San Francisco, where the chancel was adorned with lilies and the
revered Sarah B. Cooper made the opening prayer.
The Woman's Congress opened at Golden Gate Hall, on the morning of May
20. The newspapers of San Francisco had decreed that this congress
should be a success, and to this end they had been as generous with
space and as complimentary in tone as the most exacting could have
desired. The result was that at not a session during the week was the
great hall large enough to hold the audience which sought admission. It
presented a beautiful sight on the opening morning, festooned from end
to end with banners; the stage a veritable conservatory, with a
background of palms, bamboo and other tropical plants, and in front a
bewildering array of lilies, roses, carnations, sweet peas and other
fragrant blossoms. Grouped upon the platform, on chairs and divans,
under tall, shaded lamps, were the speakers and guests. At the right of
the president's desk was a large arm-chair artistically draped with
flowers beneath a canopy of La France roses. At half-past ten Mrs.
Cooper stepped out from the wings escorting Miss Anthony, followed by
Mayor Adolph Sutro and Rev. Anna Shaw. The audience burst into a storm
of applause and, amid cheers and the waving of handkerchiefs, Miss
Anthony was conducted to her floral throne. As soon as she was seated,
one woman after another came up with arms full of flowers until she was
literally buried under an avalanche of the choicest blossoms. No one who
was present ever will forget the lovely scene.
Mayor Sutro made the address of welcome, in which he emphasized his
belief that "the ballot should be placed in the hands of woman as the
most powerful agent for the uplifting of humanity." At the preceding
congress the general topic had been, "The Relation of Women to the
Affairs of the World," and the criticism had been made that it was too
much of a woman suffrage meeting. For this one the subject selected was
"The Home," but the results were the same. Whatever the
paper--"Hereditary Influence," "The Parents' Power," "The Family and the
State"--all led to suffrage; and the more suffrage, the greater the
applause from the audience. Mrs. Cooper had written Miss Anthony, "I
told the committee to put you and Miss Shaw anywhere on the program,
that you could speak on one subject as well as another;" so they found
themselves down for "Educational Influences of Home Life;" "Which Counts
More, Father's or Mother's Influence?" "Does Wifehood Preclude
Citizenship?" "The Evolution of the Home;" "The Family and the State;"
"Shall We Co-operate?" "The Rights of Motherhood;" and numerous other
topics. Both spoke every day during the Congress and the people seemed
never to tire of hearing them.
Mrs. Cooper presided in her dignified and beautiful manner, and in her
presentation said: "I have the very great honor and pleasure of
introducing to this assembly one who has done more towards lifting up
women than any other one person--Miss Susan B. Anthony." The Chronicle
reported: "Then the audience made still further demonstrations. They
clapped and cheered and waved, and some of the gray-haired women wiped
their eyes because it is so seldom that people live to be appreciated.
But Susan B. stood like a princess of the blood royal. Very erect of
head and clear of voice she began her little speech. It was full of
reminiscences, but some few people have the privilege of telling
recollections without the fear of ever boring any one. Miss Anthony is
one of these...."
Miss Shaw also received a hearty welcome; and all through that wonderful
week the bright, appreciative, warm-hearted California audiences crowded
the hall and listened and applauded and brought their offerings of
flowers and fruit to lay at the feet of these two women, who had come
from the far East to clasp their hands and unite with them in one great
cause--the uplifting of womanhood. The Chronicle said:
Twelve hundred women went to Golden Gate Hall on Monday; fourteen
hundred went Tuesday; two thousand Wednesday; twenty-five
hundred Thursday. Golden Gate Hall could not hold one-fourth of
the crowds, so all three of yesterday's sessions were held at the
First Congregational church. Even there a stream of humanity
blocked every aisle clear to the platform. Nobody ever supposed
that the women of San Francisco cared for aught except their gowns,
their teas and their babies. But they do. They like brains, even in
their own sex. And they can applaud good speeches even if made by
women, and they have all fallen madly, desperately in love with a
very short, very plump little woman whose name is Anna Shaw. A year
ago there were not more than a hundred women in San Francisco who
could have been dragged to a suffrage meeting, but yesterday
twenty-five times that number struggled and tore their clothing in
their determination to hear Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw.
[Illustration: Sarah B. Cooper (Signed: "Always Affectionately Yours,
Sarah B Cooper")]
Again it commented: "There has been some talk that the Woman's Congress
which expired last night attracted its crowds under false
pretenses--that it promised to talk about the home and then preached
suffrage. That is usually the case when Miss Anthony is about, but it
was always suffrage in its relation to the home. Who, knowing Miss
Anthony's reputation, could suppose that she would cross the continent
in the evening of her life to discuss the draping of a lace curtain or
the best colors for a parlor carpet?... Five thousand people waiting on
the steps of the Temple Emanu-El for the purpose of hearing the woman
preacher's last address does not look as if her position were uncertain.
Mere curiosity does not take the same people to nineteen consecutive
sessions."
"Apotheosis of Woman," the Examiner headed its fine reports; and the
Call, the Bulletin, the Post, the Report, and the newspapers around the
bay all gave columns of space to this great meeting which had discovered
to the State of California its own remarkable women.
Miss Anthony had been the guest of her old friend, Mrs. A. A. Sargent,
whose hospitality she had enjoyed so many years in Washington City. As
the suffrage amendment was to come up the next year, Miss Anthony and
Miss Shaw met with a large number of ladies at the Congregational church
and helped them organize a campaign committee, with Mrs. Cooper as its
chairman. In accepting the office she said: "I intend to put all there
is of me into current coin and use it to forward this Heaven-ordained
work. If ever a woman was thoroughly converted to this idea I have
been, and in this spirit I accept the charge."
In the afternoon of this same day Mrs. Cooper escorted them to the Y. M.
C. A. Hall to address the Congregational ministers at their regular
Monday meeting, to which they had been officially invited. That evening
they were the guests of honor at the Unitarian Club dinner at the Palace
Hotel, Miss Anthony responding to the toast, "The Rights and Privileges
of Man;" Miss Shaw to "The Manly Man;" Rev. A. C. Hirst and Dr. Horatio
Stebbins to "The Rights and Privileges of Woman" and "The Womanly
Woman;" and the evening was a lively one. They addressed the girls' high
school, and accepted also an invitation to speak to the 900 teachers at
the institute in session at Golden Gate Hall. They were the guests of
the Century Club, Sorosis and other San Francisco societies of women.
A friend, Mrs. Mary Grafton Campbell, wrote from Palo Alto that she
heard President Jordan say every remaining day and evening of the
semester were filled, and when she exclaimed, "But Miss Anthony is
coming; what about her?" he replied, "There will be room for Miss
Anthony if we have to give up classes." Immediately he wrote her a
cordial invitation to visit the university, offering to pay her
travelling expenses and expressing a wish to entertain her in his home.
She accepted for herself and Miss Shaw, and they spoke to as many
students as could crowd into the chapel. Mrs. Stanford sent a personal
invitation for them to attend the reception which she was to give the
first graduating class in her San Francisco residence.[112] They were
invited to the beautiful Water Carnival at Santa Cruz, and to the Flower
Festival at Santa Barbara. It would be impossible, indeed, to mention
all the delightful invitations of both a public and private nature, and
there was not a day that did not bring a remembrance in the shape of
flowers and the delicious fruit in which Miss Anthony revelled.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Yours with friendly greetings, Jane L.
Stanford"]
On May 29 the Ebell Club of Oakland gave them a breakfast at 11:30; at 2
P. M. they addressed the Alameda County Auxiliary of the Woman's
Congress, Rev. Eliza Tupper Wilkes, president. The audience filled every
inch of space in the Unitarian church, the most prominent ladies of
Oakland occupied seats on the platform, and a large reception in the
parlors followed the speaking. The evening session was held in the
Congregational church, an enthusiastic crowd in attendance. The next
afternoon they started for the Yosemite Valley, having for companions
Dr. Elizabeth Sargent and Dr. Henry A. Baker, Miss Anthony's
grand-nephew. There Miss Anthony, at the age of seventy-five, made the
usual trips on the back of a mule. She relates that the name of her
steed was Moses and Anna Shaw's Ephraim, and they had great sport over
them. They enjoyed to the full all the beauties of that wonderful
region, which never pall, no matter how often one visits them or how
long one remains among them. During this trip Miss Shaw went with one of
the Yosemite commissioners, George B. Sperry, to the Mariposa Big Trees.
Two, in a group of the largest three, were christened George Washington
and Abraham Lincoln, and he offered her the privilege of naming the
third. She gave it the title of Susan B. Anthony, it was appropriately
marked, and thus it will be known to future generations.
At San Jose they were the guests of Mrs. Sarah Knox Goodrich, who gave a
dinner for them, and over a hundred called during the evening. Sunday
afternoon Miss Anthony spoke in the Unitarian church, and Monday morning
addressed the students of the Normal School. At noon Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe
Watson gave a luncheon party under the great trees at her lovely home,
Sunny Brae, where the ladies spoke in the afternoon to several hundred
people from neighboring ranches. In the evening they lectured at San
Jose and, although fifty cents admission was charged, not nearly all who
had bought tickets could get into the building. When they left for Los
Angeles Mrs. Goodrich slipped into the hand of each $50 in gold, as a
present; just as Mrs. Sargent had done when they left San Francisco.
Long before Miss Anthony had started for California, cordial invitations
had been received from the southern part of the State, from old friends
and new. It was of course impossible to accept more than a small
fraction of these, but from the time the twain reached Los Angeles,
there was one continuous ovation. On the evening of their arrival, June
12, they addressed an audience of over 2,000 in Simpson tabernacle,
which had been transformed into a bower of choicest blossoms. While in
the city they were the guests of Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, with whom
Miss Anthony had worked for suffrage in Ohio forty years before.
In Riverside a reception was given them at the Glenwood by Mr. and Mrs.
F. M. Richardson, relatives of Miss Anthony. The beautiful drives for
which that place is famous were greatly enjoyed, and they went into
raptures over the oranges, which they never before had seen in such
quantities. They spoke to a large audience in the handsomely decorated
Methodist tabernacle at Pasadena. While here they were the guests of
Mrs. P. C. Baker, on Orange Avenue, and received many social attentions
from the people of this lovely little city. Thence they went to Pomona,
where they were met at the station by a delegation of ladies, escorted
to the Palomares Hotel, and found the committee had adorned their rooms
with flowers in a profusion which would be impossible outside of
California. They spoke here also in the Methodist church. The next day
Miss Shaw preached in Los Angeles and Miss Anthony spent the Sunday at
Whittier with Mrs. Harriet R. Strong at her ranche, so widely noted for
its walnut groves and pampas fields.
Monday morning they journeyed to San Diego where they were the guests of
Miss Anthony's niece, Mrs. George L. Baker. Elaborate preparations had
been made to receive them and they addressed a large audience in the
evening. The next afternoon a reception was given at the Hotel Florence
by all the woman's clubs of the city. The Union said: "The two guests of
honor were simply loaded and garlanded with flowers. They were presented
with baskets of sweet peas by the Y. W. C. A., yellow blossoms by the
suffrage club, red, white and blue by the Datus Coon corps; bouquets of
white roses by the W. C. T. U., of red and white carnations in a holder
of blue satin by Heintzelman W. R. C., of red roses by the Woman's
League, of pink roses by the Jewish women. There was music by an
orchestra as an accompaniment to the sociability of the occasion, in
which some 700 women participated during the afternoon."
The following day a picnic was given by the Woman's Club at "Olivewood,"
the home of Mrs. Flora M. Kimball, near National City, where tables were
spread on the lawn for the 200 guests who came by train and carriage.
That same evening, by request of many who could not be present at the
first meeting, the two ladies lectured again in San Diego. The next day
they returned to Los Angeles, laden with souvenirs of their delightful
visit; and that evening, without an hour's rest, addressed a mass
meeting there.
The following day the Los Angeles Herald gave an excursion to Santa
Monica in their honor. The ladies of that pretty seaside resort, under
the leadership of Mrs. C. H. Ivens, met them with carriages and
conducted them to the Hotel Arcadia. After luncheon, as they started for
the hall where they were to speak, twelve little girls strewed flowers
in their pathway, and after the addresses twelve large bouquets of
choice blossoms were laid at their feet. They were taken for a long
drive by Mrs. E. J. Gorham, then to the residence of her brother,
Senator John P. Jones; and at the close of a lovely day, returned to Los
Angeles. That evening a reception was given them by Mrs. Mark Sibley
Severance, which Miss Anthony always remembered as one of the handsomest
in her long experience. The next morning they met a committee from the
suffrage club and had a conference on the broad piazza of their hostess
in regard to the work of the coming campaign; and in the afternoon took
the train for San Francisco, after two of the most delightful weeks in
all their recollection. An especially gratifying feature was the
attitude of the press of Southern California. There had been scarcely a
discordant note in the extended reports of the public meetings and
social entertainments, and the editorial comments on the two ladies and
the cause of which they were leading representatives, were dignified,
fair and friendly.[113]
They reached San Francisco June 24 and were welcomed at the ferry by a
number of friends from the two cities. The next day they were
entertained at an elaborate dinner-party of ladies and gentlemen in the
artistic home of Mrs. Emma Shafter Howard, of Oakland. From the table
they went at once to the evening meeting. The Enquirer said: "It needed
no preliminary brass band or blare of trumpets to pack the
Congregational church with a live Oakland audience. The simple
announcement that Susan B. Anthony and Rev. Anna H. Shaw were to speak
was sufficient, and the chairman, Colonel John P. Irish, looked out over
an animated sea of faces."
The following evening the San Francisco farewell meeting was held in
Metropolitan Temple. Friday and Saturday were filled with social
engagements, sight-seeing and shopping. On Sunday Miss Shaw preached in
the California street Methodist church in the morning and the Second
Congregational in the evening, while Miss Anthony addressed a union
meeting of all the colored congregations in the city at the M. E. Zion
church, the historic building in which Starr King preached before the
war. Monday they spoke again at the Ministers' Meeting. The fact that
they would be present had been announced in the papers, and ministers of
all denominations were there from most of the towns within a radius of
forty miles. Miss Anthony told them in vigorous language: "The reason
why they, as a class, had so little influence with men of business and
political affairs was because the vast majority of the people they
represented had neither money nor votes; that if four or five hundred
ministers of the State should go up to Sacramento to ask for any
legislation, they would be treated politely and bowed out precisely as
would so many of their women church members. Whereas, on the other hand,
one manufacturer, one railroad official, one brewer or distiller, could
go before the same body and get whatever he asked, because every member
would know that behind this request were not only thousands of dollars
but thousands of votes." The ministers seemed to realize fully the force
of this statement and many expressed themselves thoroughly in favor of
the enfranchisement of women.
The State Suffrage Association, with a good delegate representation, met
in Golden Gate Hall, July 3, for their annual convention. There had been
heretofore some dissensions in this organization and, at this critical
time, co-operation was so vitally necessary that the friendly offices of
Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw were requested in the interests of harmony.
In view of the arduous campaign approaching, all desired that Mrs. A. A.
Sargent should accept the presidency, and the close of the convention
found the forces united and ready for work.
The Fourth of July witnessed the last public appearance of the two
eminent visitors, and thereby hangs a tale. The last of May Miss Anthony
had received from the chairman of the Fourth of July Executive
Committee, William H. Davis, the following: "Fully realizing the great
importance of your life-work, and rejoicing with you in the certainty
that the fruition of your labors and hopes is now no longer problematic,
but merely a question of days, we take much pleasure in extending to you
the right hand of American fellowship ... We cordially invite you to an
honorary position on our committee, and hope that you will do us the
honor of allowing us to select for you an appropriate and prominent
place in the celebration of our national independence."
When it had been decided to celebrate the Fourth on a more elaborate
scale than usual, an auxiliary board was appointed, composed of the
leading women of the city, with Sarah B. Cooper, chairman. Thinking to
add an interesting feature to the occasion, she requested of the
literary committee that Rev. Anna Shaw be placed on the program as one
of the orators of the day. To her amazement she was refused in
discourteous manner and language. The executive committee, learning of
this action, requested that it should be reconsidered and Miss Shaw
invited to speak. This being refused, the executive committee notified
them that unless it was done, their committee would be discharged and a
new one appointed. They then yielded to the inevitable, placing Miss
Shaw's name upon the list of orators, and the announcement was received
with cheers by all the other committees. The reverend lady had not the
slightest desire to make a Fourth of July speech, but she did wish to
see Mrs. Cooper win her battle with the little sub-committee. Meanwhile
the committee in Oakland, P. M. Fisher, chairman, did not wait to be
asked, but invited her to deliver an oration in that city as soon as she
had finished in San Francisco, and she accepted.
In the great Fourth of July procession, the very next carriage to that
of the mayor contained Mrs. Cooper, Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw, and the
rousing cheers of the people along the whole line of march showed their
appreciation of the victory gained for woman. At 2 o'clock in the
afternoon the ladies took seats on the platform at Woodward's Pavilion,
facing an audience of 5,000 people. San Francisco never heard such an
oration as was delivered that day by the little Methodist preacher, her
natural eloquence fired by the efforts to prevent her making it. After
she had finished and the cheers upon cheers had died away, there was a
great shout from the immense crowd, "Miss Anthony, Miss Anthony!"
Finally she was obliged to come forward and, when a stillness had
settled upon the audience, she said in strong, ringing tones: "You have
heard today a great deal of what George Washington, the father of his
country, said a hundred years ago. I will repeat to you just one
sentence which Abraham Lincoln, the savior of his country, uttered
within the present generation: 'No man is good enough to govern another
man without his consent.' Now I say unto you, 'No man is good enough to
govern any woman without her consent;'" and sat down amidst roars of
applause.
Miss Shaw had been placed at the very end of the program and when she
got out into the street it was 5 o'clock. It would require an hour to
reach Oakland, and she supposed of course some one had telegraphed the
situation and the people there had long since gone home; but this had
not been done, and a great audience on that side of the bay had
assembled in the Tabernacle, many going as early as 1 o'clock, and had
waited until 6. Knowing there was some mistake they separated with the
understanding that if Miss Shaw could be secured for the evening the
church bells would be rung. That lady had just seated herself at the
dinner table when a telegram was received explaining the situation. She
replied at once: "I will be with you at half-past eight." Miss Anthony
would not let her go alone and so, exhausted as they both were by the
hard demands of the day, they crossed the bay, reaching Oakland at 8
o'clock. No one was at the station to meet them, so they took a carriage
and drove to the Tabernacle but found it dark and deserted. They then
went the rounds of the churches, but all were closed. Finally they gave
up in despair and made the long journey back to San Francisco, reaching
the Sargent home at 11 o'clock. Why the telegram was not received was
never satisfactorily determined.
After a meeting with the amendment campaign committee the next morning
and a long discussion of their plan of work, the travellers started
eastward at 6 P. M. They were met at the Oakland ferry by a crowd of
friends from both cities with flowers, fruit and lunch baskets, and left
amidst a shower of affectionate farewells. They carried away the
sweetest memories of a lifetime and could find no words to express their
love and admiration for the people of California.
Miss Anthony preserves, as a memento of this visit, a large scrap-book
of over 200 pages entirely filled with personal notices from the
newspapers of that State during the six weeks of her stay, all, with a
few exceptions, of such a character as to make their reading a pleasure.
A source of even greater satisfaction was the wide discussion of woman
suffrage which her visit had inspired and the favorable consideration
accorded it by the press. In the months which followed she received
scores of letters from California women, many of them unknown to her,
expressing the sentiments of one from a teacher, which may be quoted:
"Many of us who could attend but few of the meetings and had not even
time to meet you personally, have caught something of their spirit and
have been with you in heart. We bless the day which brought you to us;
for your kindly words to women, and to men for women, have lifted the
fog, and the veiling mists are drifting away, leaving us a clearer view
of our duty not only to humanity but to ourselves. You have left a trail
of light."
FOOTNOTES:
[112] As soon as they arrived in California they were presented by Mrs.
Stanford with railroad passes throughout the State.
[113] The Los Angeles Times, Harrison Gray Otis, editor, furnished the
only exception of any importance to this rule.
CHAPTER XLVI.
MRS. STANTON'S BIRTHDAY--THE BIBLE RESOLUTION.
1895-1896.
On the way homeward they were met at every large station by friends with
something to add to the pleasure of their trip. Miss Shaw went through
to Chicago, but Miss Anthony journeyed towards Leavenworth. She dined
with friends at Topeka, and while waiting in the station, one of them
remarked, "We are to have our suffrage meeting tomorrow, what shall we
tell them from you?" In a spirit of fun she dashed off a resolution
saying that "since 130,000 Kansas men declared themselves against woman
suffrage at the late election and 74,000 showed their opposition by not
voting; therefore it is the duty of every self-respecting woman in the
State to fold her hands and refuse to help any religious, charitable or
moral reform or any political association, until the men shall strike
the adjective 'male' from the suffrage clause of the constitution."
She was in Topeka only five hours, but during that time attended a
dinner party, gave a two-column interview to a reporter from each of the
city papers, and furnished a resolution which set all the newspapers in
the country by the ears. "Talk about hysterics," she said, laughingly,
as she read the clippings, "it takes the editors to have 'em, if they
are opposed to woman suffrage and can get hold of something to help them
out." Any one who could have the patience to read the fearful morals
which were deduced, the frightful sermons which were preached, from what
was intended as a joking resolution, would quite agree with her. Even
had it been meant seriously, it would have been only such retaliation
as men would have visited upon women had the latter been possessed of
the power and voted three to one to take the ballot away from them.
She visited a week in Leavenworth and Fort Scott, arrived at Chicago
July 15, and was thus described by a Herald reporter:
Miss Anthony has grown slightly thinner since she was in Chicago
attending the World's Fair Congresses, thinner and more
spiritual-looking. As she sat last night with her transparent hands
grasping the arms of her chair, her thin, hatchet face and white
hair, with only her keen eyes flashing light and fire, she looked
like Pope Leo XIII. The whole physical being is as nearly submerged
as possible in a great mentality. She recalls facts, figures, names
and dates with unerring accuracy. It was no Argus-eyed autocrat who
told with pardonable pride last night of how her chair at every
great function in San Francisco was hung with floral wreaths, how
bouquets were piled at her feet until she could scarcely step for
them. It was a pleasing story, told by a sweet old woman, of honors
which she accepted for the sake of a beloved cause.
The next day she resumed her journey with Mr. and Mrs. Gross and Harriet
Hosmer, who were going to Bar Harbor. She reached her own home at
daybreak, and here, the diary shows, she sat down on the steps of the
front porch and read the paper for an hour or two rather than disturb
her sister's morning nap. The first word received from Miss Shaw was
that she had arrived at her summer home on Cape Cod with a raging fever,
the result of the great strain of constant speaking and travelling so
many weeks without rest, and she continued alarmingly ill the remainder
of the summer. She was much distressed because of an engagement she had
to lecture to the Chautauqua Assembly at Lakeside, O., and to relieve
her mind Miss Anthony telegraphed her that she would go in her place.
She herself felt not the slightest ill effect from her journey, and the
long interviews published in all the Rochester papers during the week
she was at home, displayed the keenest and strongest mental power. She
reached Lakeside on the 25th of July and the next day spoke to a large
audience. Towards the close of her address, she ended abruptly, dropped
into her chair and sank into a dead faint.
She was taken at once to Mrs. Southworth's summer home, at which she
was a guest, and telegrams were sent out by the press reporters
announcing that she could not live till morning. She learned afterwards
that long obituary notices were put in type in many of the newspaper
offices. One Chicago paper telegraphed its correspondent: "5,000 words
if still living; no limit, if dead." She was very much vexed at this
momentary weakness and, using her will-power, by the next day had
rallied sufficiently to return home. The national suffrage business
committee, by previous arrangement, met at her house, and she forced
herself to keep up for two days, but felt very dull and tired, and on
the morning of July 30 she did not rise. A physician was summoned and a
trained nurse, and for a month she lay helpless with nervous
prostration; her first serious illness in seventy-five years.
She is quoted as saying that if she "had pinched herself right hard she
would not have fainted." One of the papers remarked that "then she never
would have known how much the American people thought of her." Every
newspaper had something pleasant to say,[114] many friends wrote letters
of sympathy, and scores whom she had not known personally sent their
words of admiration. Only her body was weak, her mind was abnormally
alert; she appreciated all that was said and done for her, and remarked
often that this was the only real _rest_ of her lifetime. A number of
relatives came to visit her, and a little later Mrs. Coonley and Mrs.
Sewall. Mr. and Mrs. Gross also stopped on their way home, the latter
leaving $50 for "the very prettiest wrapper that could be had." From her
old anti-slavery co-worker, Samuel May, now eighty-five, came the words:
I suppose there is hardly another person in the United States, man
or woman, who has been engaged in actual hard public labor so long
as yourself; and is it not a part of your business and a part of
your duty--in view of the unattained results--to allow yourself
larger spaces of rest and to put upon yourself more moderate and
less exhausting tasks? We would not willingly see you retire from
the field altogether; therefore we want you to do less of the
common soldier's work and take charge of the reserves, keeping
watch from your tower of experience, and personally appearing only
when and where the enemy rallies in unusual numbers or with unusual
craftiness. This does not imply a lessening of your usefulness but
an increase, being a wiser application of your strength and
resources.
From Parker Pillsbury, the old comrade, aged eighty-six: "We have heard
of your late illness, a warning to constant prudence and care for your
health as you come down to 'life's latest stage.' Hold on, my
dear--_our_ dear--Susan, hold on to the last hour possible. You have
seen great and glorious changes, almost revolutions, but yet how much
remains to be encountered and accomplished.... We shall hope you may
live to see the one grand achievement--the equal civil and political
rights of all women before the law. Then you may well say: 'Lord, now
lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation.'"
Mrs. Stanton wrote: "I never realized how desolate the world would be to
me without you until I heard of your sudden illness. Let me urge you
with all the strength I have, and all the love I bear you, to stay at
home and rest and save your precious self." From Mrs. Cooper this urgent
message: "You are too far along in years to work as hard as you do. Take
it easy, my beloved friend, and let your young lieutenants bear the heat
and burden of the day, while you give directions from the hill-top of
survey. Age has the right to be peaceful, as childhood has the right to
be playful. You are the youngest of us all, nevertheless nature cries a
halt and you must obey her call in order to be with us as our leader for
a score of years to come."
There is a long hiatus in the diary, and then for many days the brief
entry, "On the mend." In September she began to walk out a little and
then to call on the nearest friends, and by the last of the month she
attended a few committee meetings. The rumor had been persistently
circulated that she was to resign the presidency of the
National-American Association and retire to private life. In fact, she
never had the slightest intention of giving up active work. She realized
that inactivity meant stagnation and hastened both physical and mental
decay, and she was determined to keep on and "drop in the harness" when
the time came to stop.[115] It was evident, however, that she must have
relief in her immense correspondence. This she recognized, and so
secured an efficient stenographer and typewriter in Mrs. Emma B. Sweet,
who assumed her duties October 1, 1895. The five large files packed with
copies of letters sent out during the remaining months of the year show
how pressing was the need of her services. Miss Anthony relates in her
diary with much satisfaction, that she "managed to have a letter at
every State suffrage convention held that fall."
She thought possibly she might have to work a little more moderately for
a while, and one of her first letters was written to the head of the
Slayton Lecture Bureau: "I should love dearly to say 'yes' to your
proposition for a series of lectures at $100 a night. Nothing short of
that would tempt me to go on the lyceum platform again, and even to
that, for the present, I must say 'nay.' I am resolved to be a home-body
the coming year, with the exception of attending the celebration of Mrs.
Stanton's eightieth birthday and our regular Washington convention."
Among the characteristic short letters is this to Dr. Sarah Hackett
Stevenson, of Chicago, who had asked for a word of encouragement in
regard to a hospital she was founding for mothers whose children were
born out of wedlock:
I hope your beneficent enterprise may succeed. I trust the day will
come when there will be no such unfortunate mothers, but until
then, it certainly is the duty of society to provide for them. The
first step towards bringing that day is to make women not only
self-supporting but able to win positions of honor and emolument.
Since no disfranchised class of men ever had equal chances in the
world, it is fair to conclude that the first requisite to bring
them to women is enfranchisement. It is not that all when
enfranchised will be capable, honest and chaste, but it is that
they will possess the power to control their own conditions and
those of society equally with men. Therefore my panacea for the
ills which your hospital would fain mitigate is the ballot in the
hands of women.
The editor of the Voice wrote for her opinion as to the cause of the
prevailing "hard times," and she answered:
The work of my life has been less to find out the causes of men's
failure to successfully manage affairs, than to try to show them
their one great failure in attempting to make a successful
government without the help of women. It used to be said in
anti-slavery days that a people who would tacitly consent to the
enslavement of 4,000,000 human beings, were incapable of being just
to each other, and I believe the same rule holds with regard to the
injustice practiced by men towards women. So long as all men
conspire to rob women of their citizen's right to perfect equality
in all the privileges and immunities of our so-called "free"
government, we can not expect these same men to be capable of
perfect justice to each other. On the contrary, the inevitable
result must be trusts, monopolies and all sorts of schemes to get
an undue share of the proceeds of labor. There is money enough in
this country today in the hands of the few, if justly distributed,
to make "good times" for all.
Reporters were constantly besieging her for her views on "bloomers,"
which had been re-introduced by the bicycle, and she usually replied in
effect:
My opinion about "bloomers" and dress generally for both men and
women is that people should dress to accommodate whatever business
or pastime they pursue. It would be quite out of good taste as well
as good sense, for a woman to go to her daily work with trailing
skirts, flowing sleeves, fringes and laces; and certainly, if women
ride the bicycle or climb mountains, they should don a costume
which will permit them the use of their legs. It is very funny that
it is ever and always the men who are troubled about the propriety
of the women's costume. My one word about the "bloomers" or any
other sort of dress, is that every woman, like every man, should be
permitted to wear exactly what she chooses.
When women have equal chances in the world they will cease to live
merely to please the conventional fancy of men. As long as there
was no alternative for women but to marry, it was about as much as
any woman's life was worth to be an old maid, and her one idea was
to dress and behave so as to escape this fate. She now has other
objects in life, and her new liberty has brought with it a freedom
in matters of dress which is cause for rejoicing.
These opinions might be multiplied almost to infinity and all would
emphasize two points: 1st, the broad views entertained by Miss Anthony
on all questions, based on her idea of individual freedom, the same for
both sexes; 2d, her fundamental belief that, until women cease to be a
subject class, and until they stand upon the plane of perfect equality
of rights and privileges, there can be no such thing as a fair solution
or adjustment of the issues of the day, either great or small; in other
words, that these can not be satisfactorily and permanently settled
through the judgment and decision of only one-half the people.
On October 18 she celebrated her complete recovery by accepting an
invitation to "come and take a cup of tea with Aunt Maria Porter," in
honor of her ninetieth birthday. She was obliged to cancel her
engagement to speak at the Atlanta Exposition, but during this month
made a trial of her strength by an hour's speech at the annual meeting
of the Monroe County Suffrage Club at Brockport, "attempting it," she
says, "with fear and trembling, but going through as if I never had had
a scare." Assured by this that she had herself well in hand once more,
she went to Ashtabula, Ohio, for a three days' convention of the State
association, attending every business meeting and public session. This
fact being duly heralded in the newspapers, they put the obituary
notices back into their pigeonholes.
She started for New York November 6 to be present at an event to which
she had looked forward with more pleasure than to anything of that
nature in all her life--the celebration of the eightieth birthday of
Mrs. Stanton. At the convention in February it had been unanimously
decided that the National-American Association should have charge of
this, but at the Woman's Council in Washington it was agreed that it
would have greater significance if held under the auspices of that
body, which cheerfully accepted the charge. Its new president, Mary Lowe
Dickinson, urged Miss Anthony to take the chairmanship of the committee
of arrangements, insisting that no one else could make so great a
success of it, but Miss Anthony assured her of what afterwards proved to
be true, that no one could manage the affair more perfectly than Mrs.
Dickinson herself.
Naturally many of the suffrage women resented having any one outside
their own association as the leader on this great occasion, and Lillie
Devereux Blake wrote: "Mrs. Stanton stands for suffrage above all else
and she should be honored by our societies. To have the celebration
under the charge of the secretary of the King's Daughters, an orthodox
organization, seems very much out of taste, greatly as I honor Mrs.
Dickinson. I do not think any one else will make the celebration such a
success as you would; you, the long-time companion and co-worker with
our dear leader, are the person who should be at the head and, with your
admirable manner as a presiding officer, you would give a tone to it
that no one else could." To this Miss Anthony replied:
All of you fail to see the higher honor to Mrs. Stanton in having
the celebration mothered by a great body composed of twenty
national societies, instead of by only our one. Surely, for all
classes of women--liberal, orthodox, Jewish, Mormon, suffrage and
anti-suffrage, native and foreign, black and white--to unite in
paying a tribute of respect to the greatest woman reformer,
philosopher and statesman of the century, will be the realization
of Mrs. Stanton's most optimistic dream. I am surprised and
delighted at the action of the council. It shows a breadth and
comprehensiveness on the part of the leaders of its twenty-in-one
organization of which I am very proud. Of course Mrs. Stanton
stands for suffrage first, last and all the time, and the
conservative women who join in this celebration do so knowing that
she stands thus for a free and enfranchised womanhood.
Don't you see that for Anthony to head the fray, preside and be
general master of ceremonies, would reduce it to a mere mutual
admiration affair? The celebration is not taken away from us. We,
the suffrage women, will have our modicum of time to set forth what
Mrs. Stanton has done for our specific cause, and the other women
will have theirs. O, no, my dear, it is not possible that the
greater can be less than one of the parts which compose it.
Her own "girls," Mrs. Sewall and Mrs. Avery, could not help being a
little jealous for their general, and insisted that her name should head
the invitations, but to them she wrote:
Do you not see that for Susan B. Anthony's name to stand at the
top, will frighten the conservatives? Everybody will conclude that
the big suffrage elephant has possessed the council, body and
soul--all thrust into the suffrage hopper and the wheel turned by
S. B. A. To make me chairman will wholly spoil the intention of the
council, which is and should be to bring the fruits of Mrs.
Stanton's first demand, fifty years ago, and lay them at her feet;
not only the suffrage children, but those of education, literature,
science, reform, religion, all as one. If Mrs. Dickinson single out
the hoofed and horned head of suffrage as the commander-in-chief,
not only the nineteen other societies but all the world outside
will say it is suffrage after all; which it will be, because the
others won't train under our leadership. No, no; Mrs. Dickinson
herself must be the chief cook of this broth and appoint her own
lieutenants, one of whom, with name far down in the middle of the
list, I shall be most happy to be, and do all I possibly can to
help, but always in the name of the president of the council.
She was true to her word, and in every way assisted Mrs. Dickinson in
the immense amount of preparation necessary for what was the largest and
most perfect affair of this nature ever given in America. At her request
Miss Anthony wrote over a hundred letters to collect funds, secure the
presence of the pioneer workers among women, etc., but still insisted on
keeping herself so much in the background as even to refuse to make one
of the principal speeches of the occasion. When she reached New York,
she went for the night to her cousin, Mrs. Lapham, and early the next
morning to Mrs. Stanton's to read over the birthday speech, of which she
writes: "My only criticism was that she did not rest her case after
describing the wonderful advance made in state, church, society and
home, instead of going on to single out the church and declare it to be
especially slow in accepting the doctrine of equality to women. I tried
to make her see that it had advanced as rapidly as the other departments
but I did not succeed, and it is right that she should express her own
ideas, not mine."
The next day she went to Newburgh to address the State convention,
returning to New York on the 9th. Friends had come from all parts of
the country to attend the celebration, and the three days following were
pleasantly spent in visiting with them at the different hotels. On the
evening of the 12th occurred the birthday fête. There is not room in
these pages to describe in full that magnificent gathering, the great
Metropolitan Opera House crowded from pit to dome, each of the boxes
brilliantly and appropriately decorated and occupied by the
representatives of some organization of women. On the stage was a throne
of flowers and above it an arch with the name "Stanton" wrought in red
carnations on a white ground. When Mrs. Stanton entered, the entire
audience of 3,000 rose to salute her with waving handkerchiefs. At the
right and left of the floral throne sat Miss Anthony and Mrs. Dickinson.
Instead of responding with a set speech, when called upon, Miss Anthony
paid an eloquent tribute to the "pioneers," and then read the most
important of the one hundred telegrams of congratulation which had been
received from noted societies and eminent men and women in the United
States and Europe.[116] The New York Sun said: "In ordinary hands this
task would have been dull enough, but Miss Anthony enlivened it with her
wit and cleverness and made a success of it." It may be truly said that
not one woman in that audience, not even Mrs. Stanton herself, was
prouder or happier than Miss Anthony over this splendid ovation.
The next day a large reception was given at the Savoy by Mrs. Henry
Villard, the only daughter of Wm. Lloyd Garrison; and after various
luncheons and dinners and good-by calls, Miss Anthony returned to
Rochester. She plunged into the mountain of correspondence and,
expecting to spend most of the next year at home, gave every spare
moment to the arranging and classifying of her mass of documents,
preparatory to some contemplated literary work. On November 21, the
Political Equality Club celebrated Mrs. Stanton's birthday in a
beautiful manner at the Anthony home, over 200 guests attending. Several
unkind newspaper attacks being made upon Miss Anthony by disgruntled
women, she wrote Mrs. Stanton, who was much distressed: "This fresh
onslaught reminds me of the old adage, 'When one is over-praised by the
many, the few will try to pull down and destroy.' Certainly I know that
in my head and heart there never has been any but the strongest desire
that all the other workers should have their full meed of opportunity
and reward."
A telegram came November 25 announcing the sudden death, in Boston, of
Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick. She had been actively in the suffrage work
for only a few years, but in that time Miss Anthony had learned her
splendid powers and had said of her: "I feel that into her hands can
safely fall the work of the future, both as to principle and policy."
She had been made chairman of the national press work, and had shown an
unsurpassed beauty and strength of style and thought. "She was a
philosopher, a student," Miss Anthony wrote, "possessed of the
conscience and the courage to stand by the truth as she saw it. Can it
be that she is gone in the very prime of her womanhood? Why can not we
keep with us the brave and beautiful souls; why can not the weak and
wicked go? The world seems darker to me now, a light has gone out."
On December 2 she gathered about her a group of the very oldest and
dearest friends in memory of what would have been her mother's one
hundred and second birthday. She records attending a lecture by
President Andrew D. White, at the close of which he presented his wife
to her, saying: "I want you to know her; she is of your kind." The day
before Christmas came another telegram, this one from May Wright Sewall,
containing simply the words: "Dear General, my Theodore is taken." It
meant the desolation of one of the happiest, most perfect homes ever
made by two mortals. It told the breaking of as strong and sweet a tie
as ever united husband and wife. What could she write? Only, "Be brave
in this inevitable hour; take unto yourself the 'joy of sorrow' that you
did all in mortal power for his restoration, that his happiness was the
desire of your life; find comfort in the blessed memories of his tender
and never-failing love and care for you in all these beautiful years."
But the poverty, the powerlessness of words in times like this!
And so the old year rolled into the past and the record was finished.
Among the letters which came to cheer its close, was one from Mary Lowe
Dickinson, which ended:
In every way, in all this work, how grandly you stood by and helped
me! Some day you will understand how grateful I am, and how
thoroughly I appreciate the support, moral and other, that you have
given me. I know this holiday season will bring you a great many
loving souvenirs from all over the world, and I haven't sent you
anything at all; but I have a gift for you, notwithstanding, a gift
of loyal reverence for the grand outspoken bravery of your life and
service, a gift of genuine gratitude for what you have been and
what you have done, and an affection that has been growing ever
since my first talk with you in Chicago. This is quite a
declaration for a reserved woman, but it is as sincere as it is
unusual, and I wish you all sorts of blessings for the New Year,
and most of all that it may show great progress in the work which
lies so close to your heart.
And this from her beloved friend, Mrs. Leland Stanford:
It is needless for me to express all I feel in regard to your
tender and long-continued friendship. I always prized it when I had
my dear husband by my side to help me bear the burdens and sorrows
of life, but now, standing as I do alone with the weighty cares and
sacred duties depending upon me, I cherish your sympathy, your
friendship and your tender words as an evidence of God's love. He
can instigate and guide hearts to reach out sustaining helpfulness
to His children, who need just such support as you have given me.
Long years past and gone, you and Mrs. Stanton were appreciated and
extolled by my husband more than you ever realized. He predicted
twenty years ago what has now come, and mainly through the
instrumentality of yourself and her--the advancement and elevation
of womanhood--and we are only on the eve of what is to follow in
the twentieth century.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Leland Stanford"]
Miss Anthony was very glad to go back to Washington with the annual
convention, which was held January 23 to 28, 1896. She went on a week
beforehand to satisfy herself that all was in readiness. Although the
details of the work were assumed by the younger members of the board,
she was always on the scene of action early enough to look over the
ground before the battle opened. This year the papers said: "A notable
feature of the suffrage movement is the large number of college alumnæ
and professional women who are coming into the ranks." The committee
reported organizations in every State and Territory except Alaska.
Delegates were present from almost every one, among them Mrs. Hughes,
wife of the governor of Arizona, Mrs. Teller, wife of the senator from
Colorado, Mrs. Sanders, wife of the ex-senator from Montana, the wives
of Representatives Arnold, Allen, Shafroth and Pickler, Mrs. Ella
Knowles Haskell, assistant attorney-general of Montana. Most of them
addressed the committees of the Senate and House, who gave long and
respectful hearings.
The principal cause of rejoicing at this convention was the admission of
Utah as a State with the full enfranchisement of women. A clause to this
effect had been put into the State constitution, endorsed by all
political parties, voted on by the men of the Territory and carried.
This constitution had been accepted, the new State admitted by Congress,
and the bill was signed by President Cleveland January 4, 1896. A
noteworthy circumstance in this case was that, while the admission of
Wyoming with a woman suffrage clause in its constitution was fought for
many days in both Senate and House in 1890, that of Utah was accepted
with scarcely a protest against its enfranchisement of women. There was
also rejoicing over the fact that, during the autumn of 1895, the full
franchise had been conferred upon the women of South Australia.
The occurrence of the convention which forever made its memory a sad one
to Miss Anthony was the so-called "Bible resolution." It had this effect
not only because of the resolution itself but because those who were
responsible for it were especially near and dear to her. Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, assisted by a committee of women, had been for several years
preparing a work called the "Woman's Bible." It contained no discussion
of doctrinal questions but was simply a commentary upon those texts and
chapters directly referring to women, and a few others from which they
were conspicuously excluded. Naturally, however, this pamphlet caused a
great outcry, especially from those who had not read a word of it. That
women should dare analyze even the passages referring to themselves in a
book which heretofore, neither in the original writing nor in all the
revisions of the centuries, had felt the impress of a woman's brain or
the touch of a woman's hand, stirred the orthodox to their greater or
less depths. Mrs. Stanton was honorary president of the
National-American Suffrage Association, but had not attended its
meetings or actively participated in its work for a number of years.
Several members of the board, who were children when she and Miss
Anthony founded that organization, and unborn when Mrs. Stanton called
the first woman's rights convention, decided that her Woman's Bible was
injuring the association, although only the chapters on the Pentateuch
thus far had been published. They determined that this body should take
official action on the question, but they understood perfectly that it
would have to be brought before the convention without any previous
knowledge on the part of Miss Anthony. Therefore it was planned to have
a paragraph of condemnation and renunciation of the Woman's Bible
incorporated in the report of the corresponding secretary. When it was
read in open meeting she was struck dumb. Mrs. Colby sprung to her feet
and moved that the report be accepted, all but the paragraph relating to
the Woman's Bible. After an animated discussion the secretary's report
was laid on the table and later was adopted with the offending clause
stricken out. Miss Anthony supposed this was the end of the matter but,
to her amazement, the committee on resolutions reported the following:
"This association is non-sectarian, being composed of persons of all
shades of religious opinions, and has no official connection with the
so-called Woman's Bible, or any theological publication."
This resolution was wholly gratuitous. While true that the association
was composed of persons of all shades of religious opinion, it comprised
also among some of its oldest and ablest members those who entertained
no so-called religious beliefs. Mrs. Stanton invariably had announced
that this revision of the Scriptures was the individual work of herself
and her committee, and there was no ground for holding the whole
association responsible. The resolution, however, was debated for an
hour. Miss Anthony was moved as never before. Not only was she fired
with indignation at this insult to the woman whom she loved and revered
above all others, but she was outraged at this deliberate attempt to
deny personal liberty of thought and speech. Leaving the chair she said
in an impassioned appeal:
The one distinct feature of our association has been the right of
individual opinion for every member. We have been beset at each
step with the cry that somebody was injuring the cause by the
expression of sentiments which differed from those held by the
majority. The religious persecution of the ages has been carried on
under what was claimed to be the command of God. I distrust those
people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice
it always coincides with their own desires. All the way along the
history of our movement there has been this same contest on account
of religious theories. Forty years ago one of our noblest men said
to me, "You would better never hold another convention than allow
Ernestine L. Rose on your platform;" because that eloquent woman,
who ever stood for justice and freedom, did not believe in the
plenary inspiration of the Bible. Did we banish Mrs. Rose? No,
indeed!
Every new generation of converts threshes over the same old straw.
The point is whether you will sit in judgment on one who questions
the divine inspiration of certain passages in the Bible derogatory
to women. If Mrs. Stanton had written approvingly of these passages
you would not have brought in this resolution for fear the cause
might be injured among the _liberals_ in religion. In other words,
if she had written _your_ views, you would not have considered a
resolution necessary. To pass this one is to set back the hands on
the dial of reform.
What you should say to outsiders is that a Christian has neither
more nor less rights in our association than an atheist. When our
platform becomes too narrow for people of all creeds and of no
creeds, I myself can not stand upon it. Many things have been said
and done by our _orthodox_ friends which I have felt to be
extremely harmful to our cause; but I should no more consent to a
resolution denouncing them than I shall consent to this. Who is to
draw the line? Who can tell now whether these commentaries may not
prove a great help to woman's emancipation from old superstitions
which have barred its way? Lucretia Mott at first thought Mrs.
Stanton had injured the cause of all woman's other rights by
insisting upon the demand for suffrage, but she had sense enough
not to bring in a resolution against it. In 1860 when Mrs. Stanton
made a speech before the New York Legislature in favor of a bill
making drunkenness a ground for divorce, there was a general cry
among the friends that she had killed the woman's cause. I shall be
pained beyond expression if the delegates here are so narrow and
illiberal as to adopt this resolution. You would better not begin
resolving against individual action or you will find no limit. This
year it is Mrs. Stanton; next year it may be I or one of
yourselves, who will be the victim.
If we do not inspire in women a broad and catholic spirit, they
will fail, when enfranchised, to constitute that power for better
government which we have always claimed for them. Ten women
educated into the practice of liberal principles would be a
stronger force than 10,000 organized on a platform of intolerance
and bigotry. I pray you vote for religious liberty, without
censorship or inquisition. This resolution adopted will be a vote
of censure upon a woman who is without a peer in intellectual and
statesmanlike ability; one who has stood for half a century the
acknowledged leader of progressive thought and demand in regard to
all matters pertaining to the absolute freedom of women.
Rev. Anna Shaw, Carrie Chapman Catt, Henry B. and Alice Stone Blackwell,
Laura M. Johns, Annie L. Diggs, Rachel Foster Avery, Laura Clay, Mariana
W. Chapman, Elizabeth Upham Yates, and others spoke in favor of the
resolution; Lillie Devereux Blake, Clara B. Colby, Mary S. Anthony,
Emily Rowland, Charlotte Perkins Stetson and Caroline Hallowell Miller
were among those who opposed it. The vote resulted, 53 ayes, 41 nays;
and the resolution was adopted. The situation was felicitously expressed
in a single sentence by Mrs. Caroline McCullough Everhard, president of
the Ohio Suffrage Association: "If women were governed more by principle
and less by prejudice, how strong they would be!"
Miss Anthony's feelings could not be put into words. At first she
seriously contemplated resigning her office, but from all parts of the
country came letters from the pioneer workers--the women who had stood
by her for more than twoscore years--pointing out that this action of
the convention was a striking illustration of the necessity for her
remaining at the helm. Mrs. Stanton urged that they both resign, but
Miss Anthony replied:
During three weeks of agony of soul, with scarcely a night of
sleep, I have felt I must resign my presidency, but then the rights
of the minority are to be respected and protected by me quite as
much as the action of the majority is to be resented; and it is
even more my duty to stand firmly with the minority because
principle is with them. I feel very sure that after a year's
reflection upon the matter, the same women, and perhaps the one
man, who voted for this interference with personal rights, will be
ready to declare that their duty as individuals does not require
them to disclaim freedom of speech in their co-workers. Sister Mary
says the action of the convention convinces her that the time has
not yet come for me to resign; whereas she had felt most strongly
that I ought to do it for my own sake. No, my dear, instead of my
resigning and leaving those half-fledged chickens without any
mother, I think it my duty and the duty of yourself and all the
liberals to be at the next convention and try to reverse this
miserable, narrow action.
In letters to the different members of her "cabinet," who had voted in
favor of the resolution, she thus expressed herself:
In this action I see nothing but the beginning of a petty
espionage, a revival of the Spanish inquisition, subjecting to
spiritual torture every one who speaks or writes what the other
members consider not good for the association. Such disclaimers
bring quite as much of martyrdom for our civilization as did the
rack and fire in the barbarous ages of the past.
That a majority of the delegates could see no wrong personally to
Mrs. Stanton and no violation of the right of individual judgment,
makes me sick at heart; and still, I don't know what better one
could expect when our ranks are now so filled with young women not
yet out of bondage to the idea of the infallibility of that book.
To every person who really believes in religious freedom, it is no
worse to criticise those pages in the Bible which degrade woman
than it is to criticise the laws on our statute books which degrade
her. Everything spoken or written by Jew or Greek, Gentile or
Christian, or by any human being whomsoever, is not too sacred to
be criticised by any other human being.
She was far too magnanimous, however, and loved the cause too well to
relax her efforts for the welfare of the association. Before the year
closed she received from Mrs. Avery and Mrs. Upton most tender and
beautiful letters, acknowledging their mistake, expressing their sorrow
and begging to be reinstated in her confidence and affection.[117]
In order that Miss Anthony's position maybe clearly understood and that
she may not appear biased and one-sided, and in order also to consider
this question all at one time, her point of view will be a little
further illustrated. In an interview in the Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle she is thus reported:
"Did you have anything to do with the new Bible, Miss Anthony?" was
asked.
"No, I did not contribute to it, though I knew of its preparation.
My own relations to or ideas of the Bible always have been
peculiar, owing to my Quaker training. The Friends consider the
book as historical, made up of traditions, but not as a plenary
inspiration. Of course people say these women are impious and
presumptuous for daring to interpret the Scriptures as they
understand them, but I think women have just as good a right to
interpret and twist the Bible to their own advantage as men always
have twisted and turned it to theirs.... It was written by men, and
therefore its reference to women reflects the light in which they
were regarded in those days. In the same way the history of our
Revolutionary War was written, in which very little is said of the
noble deeds of women, though we know how they stood by and helped
the great work; and it is the same with history all through."
Although she stood so firm for individual rights she nevertheless
regretted that Mrs. Stanton should give the few remaining years of her
precious life to this commentary, and frequently wrote in the following
strain, when importuned to assist in it:
I can not help but feel that in this you are talking down to the
most ignorant masses, whereas your rule always has been to speak to
the highest, knowing there would be a few who would comprehend, and
would in turn give of their best to those on the next lower round
of the ladder. The cultivated men and women of today are above the
need of your book. Even the liberalized orthodox ministers are
coming to our aid and their conventions are passing resolutions in
favor of woman's equality, and I feel that these men and women who
are just born into the kingdom of liberty can better reach the
minds of their followers than can any of us out-and-out radicals.
But while I do not consider it my duty to tear to tatters the
lingering skeletons of the old superstitions and bigotries, yet I
rejoice to see them crumbling on every side.
Months after this Washington convention, when Miss Anthony was in the
midst of a great political campaign in California, she sent Mrs. Stanton
this self-explanatory letter:
You say "women must be emancipated from their superstitions before
enfranchisement will be of any benefit," and I say just the
reverse, that women must be enfranchised before they can be
emancipated from their superstitions. Women would be no more
superstitious today than men, if they had been men's political and
business equals and gone outside the four walls of home and the
other four of the church into the great world, and come in contact
with and discussed men and measures on the plane of this mundane
sphere, instead of living in the air with Jesus and the angels. So
you will have to keep pegging away, saying, "Get rid of religious
bigotry and then get political rights;" while I shall keep pegging
away, saying, "Get political rights first and religious bigotry
will melt like dew before the morning sun;" and each will continue
still to believe in and defend the other.
Now, especially in this California campaign, I shall no more thrust
into the discussions the question of the Bible than the manufacture
of wine. What I want is for the men to vote "yes" on the suffrage
amendment, and I don't ask whether they make wine on the ranches in
California or believe Christ made it at the wedding feast. I have
your grand addresses before Congress and enclose one in nearly
every letter I write. I have scattered all your "celebration"
speeches that I had, but I shall not circulate your "Bible"
literature a particle more than Frances Willard's prohibition
literature. So don't tell Mrs. Colby or anybody else to load me
down with Bible, social purity, temperance, or any other arguments
under the sun but just those for woman's right to have her opinion
counted at the ballot-box.
I have been pleading with Miss Willard for the last three months to
withdraw her threatened W. C. T. U. invasion of California this
year, and at last she has done it; now, for heaven's sake, don't
you propose a "Bible invasion." It is not because I hate religious
bigotry less than you do, or because I love prohibition less than
Frances Willard does, but because I consider suffrage more
important just now.
It seems that Miss Anthony's attitude ought to be perfectly understood
by the testimony here presented. It is one from which she never has
swerved and on which she is willing to stand in the pages of
history--entire freedom for herself from religious superstition--the
most absolute religious liberty for every other human being.
To return to the Washington convention: Among many pleasant social
features Miss Anthony was invited to an elegant luncheon given by Mrs.
John R. McLean in honor of the seventieth birthday of Mrs. Ulysses S.
Grant and, at the reception which followed, received the guests with
Mrs. Grant and Mrs. McLean.
[Illustration: Autograph: "I am yours with great respect and sincere
admiration, Julia D. Grant"]
At the close of the convention the principal speakers and many of the
delegates went to Philadelphia to a national conference, which was
largely attended. It was here that "Nelly Bly" had the famous interview
published in the New York World of February 2, 1896. She had tried to
secure this in Washington, but Miss Anthony could not spare time for it,
so she followed her to Philadelphia. It filled a page of the Sunday
edition and contained Miss Anthony's opinions on most of the leading
topics of the day, in the main correctly reported, although not a note
was taken. It began thus:
Susan B. Anthony! She was waiting for me. I stood for an instant in
the doorway and looked at her. She made a picture to remember and
to cherish. She sat in a low rocking-chair, an image of repose and
restfulness. Her well-shaped head, with its silken snowy hair
combed smoothly over her ears, rested against the back of the
chair. Her shawl had half fallen from her shoulders and her soft
black silk gown lay in gentle folds about her. Her slender hands
were folded idly in her lap, and her feet, crossed, just peeped
from beneath the edge of her skirt. If she had been posed for a
picture, it could not have been done more artistically.
"Do you know the world is a blank to me?" she said after we had
exchanged greetings. "I haven't read a newspaper in ten days and I
feel lost to everything. Tell me about Cuba! I almost would be
willing to postpone the enfranchisement of women to see Cuba
free...."
"Do you believe in immortality?"
"I don't know anything about heaven or hell," she answered, "or
whether I will meet my friends again or not, but as no particle of
matter is ever destroyed, I have a feeling that no particle of mind
is ever lost. I am sure that the same wise power which manages the
present may be trusted with the hereafter."
"Then you don't find life tiresome?"
"O, mercy, no! I don't want to die as long as I can work; the
minute I can not, I want to go. I dread the thought of being
enfeebled. The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to
help the world; I am like a snowball--the further I am rolled the
more I gain. But," she added, significantly, "I'll have to take it
as it comes. I'm just as much in eternity now as after the breath
goes out of my body."
"Do you pray?"
"I pray every single second of my life; not on my knees, but with
my work. My prayer is to lift woman to equality with man. Work and
worship are one with me. I can not imagine a God of the universe
made happy by my getting down on my knees and calling him
'great.'...
"What do I think of marriage? True marriage, the real marriage of
soul, when two people take each other on terms of perfect equality,
without the desire of one to control the other, is a beautiful
thing; it is the highest condition of life; but for a woman to
marry for support is demoralizing; and for a man to marry a woman
merely because she has a beautiful figure or face is
degradation...."
"Do you like flowers?" I asked, leading her into another channel.
"I like roses first and pinks second, and nothing else after," Miss
Anthony laughed. "I don't call anything a flower that hasn't a
sweet perfume."
"What is your favorite hymn or ballad?"
"The dickens!" she exclaimed merrily. "I don't know! I can't tell
one tune from another. I know there are such hymns as 'Sweet By and
By' and 'Old Hundred,' but I can not tell them apart. All music
sounds alike to me, but still if there is the slightest discord it
hurts me. Neither do I know anything about art," she continued,
"yet when I go into a room filled with pictures my friends say I
invariably pick out the best. I have good company, I always think,
in my musical ignorance. Wendell Phillips couldn't recognize tunes;
neither could Anna Dickinson."
"What's your favorite motto, or have you one?"
"For the last thirty years I have written in all albums, 'Perfect
equality of rights for women, civil and political;' or, 'I know
only woman and her disfranchised.' There is another, one of Charles
Sumner's, 'Equal rights for all.' I never write sentimental
things....
"Yes, I'll tell you what I think of bicycling," she said, leaning
forward and laying a hand on my arm. "I think it has done more to
emancipate woman than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every
time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives her a feeling of
self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and
away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood."
"What do you think the new woman will be?"
"She'll be free," said Miss Anthony. "Then she'll be whatever her
best judgment dictates. We can no more imagine what the true woman
will be than what the true man will be. We haven't him yet, and it
will be generations after we gain freedom before we have the
highest man and woman. They will constantly change for the better,
as the world does. What is the best possible today will be outgrown
tomorrow."
"What would you call woman's best attribute?"
"Good common sense; she has a great deal of uncommon sense now, but
I want her to be an all-around woman, not gifted overly in one
respect and lacking in others...."
"And now," I said, approaching a very delicate subject on tip-toe,
"tell me one thing more. Were you ever in love?"
"In love?" she laughed. "Bless you, Nelly, I've been in love a
thousand times!"
"Really!" I gasped, taken back by this startling confession.
"Yes, really," nodding her snowy head; "but I never loved anyone so
much that I thought it would last. In fact, I never felt I could
give up my life of freedom to become a man's housekeeper. When I
was young, if a girl married poverty, she became a drudge; if she
married wealth, she became a doll. Had I married at twenty-one, I
would have been either a drudge or a doll for fifty-five years.
Think of it!" and she laughed again....
Miss Anthony's seventy-sixth birthday was celebrated by the Rochester
Political Equality Club at the residence of Dr. and Mrs. S. A. Linn. The
spacious and beautifully decorated rooms were crowded with guests, and
interesting addresses were given by Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Gannett, Mr. J.
M. Thayer and Mary Seymour Howell, to which Miss Anthony made a happy
response. On February 17 she spoke at a church fair given by the colored
people of Bath, and then completed her preparations for a long journey
and a great campaign. It will be remembered that Miss Anthony had
decided to rest from "field work" during 1896, and to arrange her papers
for the writing of the history of her life, which her friends felt was
now the most important thing for her to do. To this end a roomy
half-story had been built on the substantial Rochester home, and therein
were placed all the big boxes and trunks of letters and documents which
had been accumulating during the last fifty years and stored in
woodshed, cellar and closets; a stenographer had been engaged and all
was in readiness for the great work. Then came an appeal from 3,000
miles away which rent asunder all her resolutions.
When she had been in California the previous year and had helped the
women plan their approaching campaign, nothing had been further from her
thoughts than returning to give her personal assistance. As the time for
action drew near, those who had the matter in charge began to realize
that the task before them was far greater than they had anticipated, and
that they were lacking in the experience which would be needed. There
were very few women who could be depended on to draw together and
address great audiences of thousands of people, to speak thirty
consecutive nights in each month, and to be equal to every emergency of
a political campaign; nor were there any considerable number who
understood the best methods of organization. It was then both natural
and sensible that the State society should appeal to the national
association for assistance. It is an essential part of the business of
the officers of that body to respond to such calls.
Miss Anthony had been home from California but a short time in 1895 when
Ellen C. Sargent, president of the State association, wrote an earnest
official request for the help of the national board. At the same time
Sarah B. Cooper, president of the campaign committee, sent the strongest
letter her eloquent pen could write, emphasizing Mrs. Sargent's
invitation. These were followed by similar pleas from the other members
of the board and from many prominent women of the State. Miss Anthony
felt at first as if it would not be possible for her to make the long
trip and endure the fatigue of a campaign, which she understood so well
from having experienced it seven times over. On the other hand she
realized what a tremendous impetus would be given to the cause of woman
suffrage if the great State of California should carry this amendment,
and she longed to render every assistance in her power. It was not,
however, until early in February that she yielded to the appeals and
decided to abandon all the plans she had cherished for the year. The
moment her decision reached California, Harriet Cooper, secretary of the
committee, telegraphed their delight and sent her a check of $120 for
travelling expenses.
The question now arose with Miss Anthony what she should do with her
secretary, whom she had engaged for a year but did not feel able to take
with her. This was settled in a few days through the action of Rev. and
Mrs. W. C. Gannett, who went among the friends and in a short time
raised the money to pay Mrs. Sweet's expenses to California and back,
all agreeing that Miss Anthony must have some one to relieve her of the
mechanical part of the burden she was about to assume. This seemed too
good to be true, as she had had no such help in all her forty-five years
of public work. The two started on the evening of February 27, a large
party of friends assembling at the station to say good-by to the veteran
of seventy-six years about to enter another battle. They stopped at Ann
Arbor for the Michigan convention, the guests of Mrs. Hall, and then a
few days in Chicago, where Miss Anthony and Mrs. Gross sat for a
statuette by Miss Bessie Potter.
She reached San Diego March 10 and, after attending the Woman's Club,
went to Los Angeles where she was beautifully received, sharing the
honors with Robert J. Burdette at the Friday Morning Club. Mrs. Alice
Moore McComas wrote to Mrs. Sargent and Mrs. Cooper the next day: "Dear
Miss Anthony came, saw and conquered, and we are hers! Letters and
telegrams were dispatched in every direction as soon as we found she was
coming and she has been able to reach women that I have almost despaired
of. Dozens who have heretofore held aloof, have promised me today to
stand by the amendment till all is over, and with these recruits we feel
that we can undertake the convention work in this county. The women are
aroused and we will see that they stay aroused. Miss Anthony's visit was
opportune and just what was needed."
She arrived at San Francisco a few days later, being joyfully greeted at
the Oakland station by Mrs. Cooper and Harriet. She went directly to the
Sargent residence, and from this delightful home, Miss Anthony, the
National president, and Mrs. Sargent, the State president, directed the
great campaign.
FOOTNOTES:
[114] The following from the Wichita Eagle is noteworthy because in the
Kansas campaign the year before, and in all previous years, it had been
abusive beyond description and had at all times put every possible
stumbling-block in the way of woman suffrage and berated all who
advocated it:
"What an experience Miss Anthony has had! None but a remarkable woman
could have accepted such a life-work at a time when prejudice and
education ran all in the opposite direction. Finely-balanced and
self-educated as to her special cause, she has not only won a name and
fame world-wide, but turned perceptibly the entire current of human
conviction. And she has been, through it all, the modest woman, truly
womanly. The men and women of this country--of the world--who believe
that the ballot for woman means better government and the elevation of
society to a higher plane, must ever recognize Susan B. Anthony as the
real pioneer prophetess of the cause, for so will history record her."
[115] Miss Anthony was many times besought to tell the secret of her
wonderful vitality and power for work, and on one occasion wrote the
following:
"As machinery in motion lasts longer than when lying idle, so a body and
soul in active exercise escape the corroding rust of physical and mental
laziness, which prematurely cuts off the life of so many women. I
believe I am able to endure the strain of daily travelling and lecturing
at over threescore years and ten, mainly because I have always worked
and loved work. As to my habits of life, it has been impossible for me
to have fixed rules for eating, resting, sleeping, etc. The only advice
I could give a young person on this point would be: 'Live as simply as
you can. Eat what you find agrees with your constitution--when you can
get it; sleep whenever you are sleepy, and think as little of these
details as possible.'"
[116] Among others was a beautiful testimonial from Theodore Tilton, who
had been for many years a resident of Paris, in which he said:
"At the present day, every woman who seeks the legal custody of her
children, or the legal control of her property; every woman who finds
the doors of a college or a university opening to her; every woman who
administers a post-office or a public library; every woman who enters
upon a career of medicine, law or theology; every woman who teaches a
school, or tills a farm, or keeps a shop; every one who drives a horse,
rides a bicycle, skates at a rink, swims at a summer resort, plays golf
or tennis in a public park, or even snaps a kodak; every such woman, I
say, owes her liberty largely to yourself and to your earliest and
bravest co-workers in the cause of woman's emancipation. So I send my
greetings not to you alone, but also to the small remainder now living
of your original bevy of noble assistants, among whom--first, last and
always--has been and still continues to be your fit mate, chief
counselor and executive right hand, Susan B. Anthony; a heroine of hard
work who, when her own eightieth birthday shall roll round, will
likewise deserve a national ovation, at which she should not
inappropriately receive the old Roman crown of oak."
This was accompanied by a personal letter to Miss Anthony, saying,
besides other pleasant things: "I heard lately that you were dying! I
did not believe the canard. Dying? No! You are to live forever. Give my
love to the heroine of the hour--and prepare yourself for an equal
picnic when your own time shall come. Ever yours as of old."
[117] In a letter to the Woman's Tribune Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf
said: "I was absent from the convention and could not vote against that
resolution. The 'Woman's Bible' a hindrance to organization? Of course
it is. What of it? The belief in the old theories about women, which had
their basis in doctrines taught from King James' version of the Bible,
was a much more monumental hindrance to the work of the pioneers, in not
only the woman suffrage movement but in all movements for the
advancement of women."
CHAPTER XLVII.
THE CALIFORNIA CAMPAIGN.
1896.
In their State convention of 1894 the Republicans of California had
adopted the strongest possible plank in favor of woman suffrage and, as
the legislature the next year was Republican by a considerable majority,
Clara Foltz and Laura de Force Gordon, attorneys, and Nellie Holbrook
Blinn, at that time State president, Mrs. Peet, Madame Sorbier, Mrs.
Bidwell, Mrs. Spencer, of Lassen county, and others made a determined
effort to secure a bill enfranchising women. That failing, the
legislature consented to submit an amendment to the constitution to be
voted on in 1896. This bill was signed by Governor James H. Budd and the
women then prepared to canvass the State to secure a favorable majority.
Out of the officers of the State suffrage association and the amendment
committee, a joint campaign committee was formed and, in addition to
this, a State central committee.[118] These two constituted the working
force at State headquarters. There were also speakers and organizers,
and a regularly officered society in each county, co-operating with the
officials at headquarters.
At the request of the State committee Miss Anthony's niece, Lucy E., for
seven years Miss Shaw's secretary and thoroughly experienced in planning
and arranging meetings, went out early in February to assist Dr.
Elizabeth Sargent in the preparations for the first series of
conventions. She carried with her a complete list, made by Miss Anthony
herself with great labor and care, of every town of over two hundred
inhabitants in every county in the State, with instructions to plan for
a meeting there during the campaign. One scarcely can describe the
perplexing work of these young women in arranging this great sweep of
conventions, two days in every county seat, each convention overlapping
the next, getting the speakers from one to the other on time, finding
women in each town or city who would take charge of local arrangements,
and rounding up the whole series in season for the Woman's Congress in
May. In March the campaign committee invited Mary G. Hay, who had had
twelve years' experience in organization work, and Harriet May Mills,
the State organizer of New York, to manage the conventions; and Rev.
Anna Shaw and Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates as speakers. It is impossible
to follow these meetings in detail further than to say that, with but
few exceptions, they were very successful, the audiences were large and
cordial, clubs were formed, much suffrage sentiment was created, and the
conventions considerably more than paid all expenses. The women of
California possessed ability, energy, patriotism and desire for
political freedom, but up to this time they had no conception of the
immense amount of money and work which would be required for a campaign.
As soon as they grasped the situation they were fully equal to its
demands and never in all the history of the movement was so much
splendid work done, or so large a fund raised, by the women of any
State.
[Illustration: Ellen Clark Sargent (Signed: "Ellen Clark Sargent.")]
It was unanimously agreed that Miss Anthony should remain in San
Francisco, answering the numerous calls for addresses in that city and
the surrounding towns, and having general oversight of the campaign.
Mrs. Sargent assigned to her the largest, sunniest room in her spacious
home, but her hospitality and her services to the cause of the amendment
did not end here. Another large apartment was appropriated to Rev. Anna
Shaw and her secretary. The room formerly used as the senator's
office was dedicated to the work, the typewriters ensconced there, and
it soon was crowded with documents, newspapers and all the paraphernalia
of a campaign. In a little while they encroached on the library and it
was filled with the litter. Then a typewriter found its way into one
corner of the long dining-room. The committee meetings were held in the
drawing-room; and, during the whole eight months, there was scarcely a
meal at which there were not from one to half a dozen speakers, members
of committees, out-of-town workers and others besides her family at the
table. Every hour of Mrs. Sargent's and Dr. Elizabeth's time was devoted
to the campaign. The latter was placed at the head of the literary
committee and also took entire charge of the petition work for the
State, involving months of most exacting labor. In addition to all this,
both gave most liberally in money. How much was accomplished by Mrs.
Sargent's quiet influence, her wise and judicial advice, her many
logical and dignified appeals in person and by letter, never can be
estimated.
The State board and committees were composed of women of fine character
and social standing, who commanded the highest respect; and during the
long campaign they put aside every other duty and pleasure and devoted
themselves, mind and body, to the success of the amendment. Across the
bay in Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley were a large and active county
society, Mrs. Isabel A. Baldwin, president, and city organizations of
women of equal ability and prestige, who were in daily communication
with State headquarters and performed the most valuable and
conscientious work. What was true here was equally so of the women in
all the counties from San Diego to Del Norte. It seems invidious to
mention a single name where so many gave such excellent service. It must
be admitted, however, that while hundreds of women worked for their
political freedom, thousands contributed absolutely nothing in either
money or service; and yet there were many among them who believed fully
in the principle of woman suffrage. They simply allowed domestic duties
or the demands of society or apathetic indifference to prevent their
rendering any assistance, and they could not be prevailed upon even to
give money to help those who performed the labor. If all such had lent
their influence, the women of California today would be enfranchised;
but they left the whole burden to be carried by the few, and these could
not do the work necessary for success, because human nature has its
limits.
The attitude of the press of California deserves especial mention
because to it was largely due the marked consideration which the
suffrage amendment received throughout the State. Miss Anthony met in
California an acquaintance, Mrs. Ida H. Harper, recently of the
editorial staff of the Indianapolis News, and requested her to act as
chairman of the press committee. As the press of San Francisco could
kill the amendment at the very start, if it chose to do so, they decided
to call upon the editors of the daily papers in that city and ascertain
their position. They visited the managing editors of the Call, Examiner,
Chronicle, Post, Report and Bulletin and, without a single exception,
were received with the greatest courtesy and assured that the amendment
and the ladies who were advocating it would be treated with respect,
that there would be no ridiculing, no cartooning and no attempt to
create a sentiment in opposition.
The Post came out editorially in favor of the amendment and established
a half-page department, headed "The New Citizen," which was continued
daily during the campaign, the largest amount of space ever given by any
paper to woman suffrage. Dr. Elizabeth Sargent assumed most of the
responsibility for this department, assisted by members of the staff.
The Report gave editorial endorsement and a double-column department
entitled "The Woman Citizen," edited every Saturday by Winnifred Harper.
The Bulletin expressed itself as friendly and later in the campaign
opened a suffrage department conducted by Eliza D. Keith; but the paper
contained editorials from time to time, which the friends did not
construe as favorable to the measure. The managing editor gave the
ladies to understand that there would be no opposition from the
Chronicle, and during the campaign it contained several strong
editorials, not advocating the amendment, but decidedly favorable to
woman suffrage. This paper also gave a prominent place to a number of
articles from Mrs. Harper and others. Two days before election, however,
it advised its readers to vote against the amendment.
The Examiner was friendly and offered a column on the editorial page of
the Sunday edition, throughout the campaign if Miss Anthony would fill
it. She protested that she was not a writer, but it was only upon this
condition that the space would be given. It was too valuable to be
sacrificed and so she accepted it, and for seven months furnished Sunday
articles of 1,600 words. These were widely copied, not only throughout
the State, but in all parts of the country. Every possible influence was
exerted to persuade William R. Hearst, the proprietor, who was residing
in New York, to bring out the paper editorially in favor of the
amendment. Miss Anthony wrote an earnest personal letter which closed:
"So, I pray you for the love of justice, for the love of your noble
mother, and for the sake of California--lead the way for the Democratic
party of your State to advocate the suffrage amendment. The Examiner has
done splendidly thus far in publishing fair and full reports of our
meetings and articles from our leading suffrage women. The one and only
thing we do ask is that it will editorially champion the amendment as it
will every other measure it believes in which is to be voted upon next
November." All pleadings were in vain and the great paper remained
silent. It did not, however, contain a line in opposition.
During Miss Anthony's visit to San Francisco the previous year, the
Monitor, the official Catholic organ of California, had come out in two
editions with full-page editorials in favor of woman suffrage, as strong
as anything ever written on that subject. When the two ladies called on
the editor, he assured them of his full sympathy and agreed to accept a
series of articles from the chairman of the press committee. These were
published regularly for a time and then suddenly were refused, and every
effort to ascertain the reason was unsuccessful. Miss Anthony called on
him several times and waited for half an hour in his anteroom, but he
declined to see her and, during the remainder of the campaign, the
amendment received no recognition from the Monitor.
The response from the other papers of the State was most remarkable. The
Populist press, without exception, was for woman suffrage. Every
newspaper in Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley spoke in favor of the
amendment. The majority of those in Los Angeles and San Diego counties
endorsed it. All but one in San Jose, and all but one in Sacramento, did
likewise. Before the campaign closed, 250 newspapers declared
editorially for the suffrage amendment. Only two of prominence in the
entire State came out boldly in opposition, the Record-Union, of
Sacramento, and the Times of Los Angeles. The former ceased its
opposition some time before election; the latter continued to the end,
ridiculing, misrepresenting, denouncing, and even going to the extent of
grossly caricaturing Miss Anthony.
The Star, the Voice of Labor and other prominent journals published in
the interests of the wage-earning classes; those conducted by the
colored people; the Spanish, French and Italian papers; the leading
Jewish papers; the temperance, the A. P. A. and the Socialist organs;
and many published for individual enterprises, agriculture, insurance,
etc., spoke strongly for the amendment. The firm which supplied plate
matter to hundreds of the smaller papers accepted a short article every
week. There were very few newspapers in the State which did not grant
space for woman suffrage departments, and these were ably edited by the
women of the different localities. Matter on this question was furnished
to the chairman of the press committee by the San Francisco Clipping
Bureau, and these clippings were carefully tabulated and filed. At the
close of the eight months' campaign they numbered 9,000, taken from the
press of California alone. Twenty-seven papers came out in opposition;
these included a number of San Francisco weeklies of a sensational
character and a few published in small towns.
It must be remembered, in this connection, that the woman suffrage
organization had not a dollar to pay for newspaper influence, had no
advertising to bestow, and that even the notices for meetings were
gratuitous. All this advocacy on the part of the papers was purely a
free-will offering and represented the honest and courageous sentiments
of the editors. It is deemed especially worthy of notice because there
was never anything like it in previous suffrage campaigns. Toward the
end, when the influence of the opposition began to do its fatal work,
these papers were closely watched and in not one instance was there a
defection.
Notwithstanding this splendid support of the press, Miss Anthony was
firm in her decision that she would not remain through the campaign
unless the amendment could secure the endorsement of the political
parties, and every energy was directed toward this point. Several of the
Republican county conventions declared for it, and a number of
Republican leaders who were visited, announced themselves in favor of
the plank. The State Convention was to be held May 5. On May 3, the
Sunday edition of the San Francisco Call, the largest and most
influential Republican paper in the State, came out with flaming
headlines declaring boldly and unequivocally for woman suffrage! The
sensation created was tremendous, and amendment stock went up above par.
The Monday and Tuesday editions continued the editorial endorsement,
declaring that the Republican party stood committed to woman suffrage,
and that the Call constituted itself the champion and would carry it to
victory.
Tuesday morning the Republican convention opened at Sacramento. The
woman suffrage delegation, consisting of Mrs. Sargent, Mrs. John F.
Swift, Mrs. Blinn, Mrs. Austin Sperry, Mrs. Knox Goodrich, Miss Anthony,
Rev. Anna Shaw, Miss Hay, Miss Yates, Mrs. Harper, opened their
headquarters at the Golden Eagle Hotel, decorated their parlor with
flowers, spread out their literature and badges and waited for the
delegates. They had not long to wait. With the influence of the Sunday
Call, a copy of which had been laid on the seat of every delegate in the
convention hall, they had a prestige which found favor in the eyes of
the politicians. The visitors came early and stayed late; they went away
and returned bringing their friends to be converted. The Call account
said: "They went in twos and threes, in large groups and in entire
delegations, to pay homage to their more modest workers and apparently
to beg the privilege of serving them." The rooms were crowded until
after midnight.
The delegates put on the badges, and when the convention opened 250 of
them were wearing the little flag with its three stars. The ladies were
given the best seats in the great building. The delegates were divided
into two hostile camps, representing opposite wings of the party, and
the women had to move very carefully, as it was by no means certain
which faction would secure control of the convention. They also had to
frame many non-committal answers to the question, "How do you stand on
the A. P. A.?" The headquarters were thronged with reporters; every
woman was interviewed at length and her opinions telegraphed to the
great San Francisco dailies. Miss Anthony's interviews occupied a column
in the Examiner, each day of the convention. Those alarmists who fear
women will lose the respect of men when they are invested with political
influence should have had this object lesson.
The chairman of the convention was considered not favorable to woman
suffrage. Of the seven men appointed on the resolution committee, five
were said to be opposed to the plank. The spirits of the ladies began to
droop. In the evening permission was given them to address the platform
committee. Mrs. Harper wrote the San Francisco Call:
I wish I could picture that scene. In the small room, seated around
the table, were the seven men who held the fate of this question in
their hands. At one end stood Miss Anthony, the light from above
shining upon her silver hair until it seemed like a halo, and she
spoke as no one ever heard her speak before. On the face of every
delegate was an expression of the deepest seriousness, and before
she had finished tears were in the eyes of more than one. She was
followed by Miss Shaw, who stood there the embodiment of all that
is pure, sweet and womanly, and in a low, clear voice presented the
subject as no one else could have done. As we were about to leave
the room, the chairman said, "Ladies, we will take the vote now, if
you desire." We thanked him, but said no, we would withdraw and
leave them to consider the matter at their leisure.
Within a very few minutes we had their decision--six in favor of
the resolution and one opposed. Here I want to call attention to
one thing. Eight women knew of the favorable action of the
committee by 9 o'clock, but although we were besieged by reporters
and delegates until nearly midnight we gave no sign, and the
Wednesday morning papers could only say that it was probable there
would be a woman suffrage plank. It is charged that women can not
keep a secret, but this is one of those many ancient myths which
take a long time to die.
The plank was adopted next day in the big convention with only one
dissenting voice. The Woman's Congress was in session at San Francisco
and when Mrs. Cooper, its president, stepped forward on the platform and
read the telegram announcing the result, the enthusiasm hardly can be
described. The ladies went down from Sacramento to the Congress the next
day and received a continuous ovation throughout the rest of the
meetings.
Among the pleasant letters which came to Miss Anthony was one from
Abigail Scott Duniway, of Portland, Ore., in which she said: "Your
triumphs in California are marvellous. Hurrah, and again, hurrah! I
believe now the women of the Golden State will win. All honor to you and
your noble confreres!" And one from Lucy Underwood McCann, of Santa
Cruz, saying: "It is to you, most honored and revered of women, we owe
the fact, because of your long martyrdom in this great reform, that we
stand now, as we hope and pray, upon the brink of realization of our
rights. This has been made possible only through the patient toil of
such heroic souls as your own. Your wisdom in planning this campaign, in
which we confidently expect a glorious victory, is our mainstay, upon
which all other hopes depend."
Miss Anthony's happiness over the action of the Republicans knew no
bounds, and she began with renewed courage to prepare for the Populist
convention May 12. The prominent Populists who were visited assured the
ladies that they need not waste time or money going to Sacramento to
secure a plank in their platform, as woman suffrage was one of the
fundamental principles of their party. The suffrage leaders felt,
however, that this convention was entitled to the same courtesy as the
others and they attended in a body, headed by Miss Anthony and Mrs.
Sargent. When they entered the convention hall they were received with
cheers and waving of hats, escorted to the front seats, invited to
address the convention and surrounded by delegates during the recess.
Without any solicitation the resolution committee reported and the
convention adopted a strong woman suffrage plank, and then gave three
cheers for the ladies. They were told that not half a dozen men in that
body were opposed to the amendment.
From here they went to the Prohibition convention at Stockton, were met
at the station by a delegation of ladies, and received with
distinguished consideration by the convention. Miss Anthony was twice
invited to address them, and the plank endorsing the amendment was
adopted by a hearty and unanimous vote. A reception was then held at the
hotel and over a hundred ladies called.
One convention yet remained, the Democratic. While a few of the leaders
of this party were in favor of the amendment, most of them were opposed
and gave no encouragement to the attempt to secure a plank. The ladies,
however, carried out the program, and the same large delegation returned
to Sacramento June 16, the number increased by Mrs. Cooper, Mrs. E. O.
Smith, of San Jose, Mrs. Alice M. Stocker, of Pleasanton, and several
others. A month had intervened and the opposition had had time to
organize. Some of the county conventions had declared against the
amendment and many of the delegates had been instructed to vote against
it.
The suffrage representatives were disappointed in the hope that they
might come to this convention with the editorial endorsement of the
Examiner, but they were greatly pleased to receive from that paper, on
the morning of the opening, a package of 2,000 woman suffrage leaflets.
The Examiner had collected at its own expense a large amount of fresh
and valuable testimony from the leading editors and officials of
Colorado and Wyoming, as to its satisfactory practical working in those
States, and had arranged it in large type on heavy cream-tinted paper,
making the handsomest leaflet of the kind ever issued. These were placed
in the hands of the delegates, and also distributed throughout the
State.
The women's headquarters at the Golden Eagle were practically unvisited.
A few lone delegates, and two or three delegations that had been
instructed to vote for the amendment, strayed up to express their
sympathy, but most of them were too well subjugated by the political
bosses even to pay a visit of courtesy. A new element was introduced
here in the person of a woman of somewhat unpleasant record who claimed
to be the representative of the anti-suffrage organization. The platform
committee consisted of thirty-five and met in a large room filled with
spectators. The ladies presented a petition signed by 40,000 California
men and women asking for woman suffrage. The entire delegation of
speakers, with Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw at the head, was granted
twenty minutes to present its claims, and the one woman above referred
to was given the same amount of time. She did not occupy more than a
minute of it, simply saying that her anti-suffrage league was going to
organize all over the State and work for the Democratic party. The
resolution was laid on the table, almost before they were out of the
room.
A minority report was prepared by Charles Wesley Reed, of San Francisco,
and signed by himself, Mr. Alford, chairman of the committee, and two
others. In a letter to the Call, Mrs. Harper thus describes subsequent
events:
Mr. Reed assured the ladies that he would bring this report before
the convention and he kept his word, although he had other fights
on hand and endangered them by standing for woman suffrage. This
minority report, although properly drawn and signed by four members
of the platform committee, including the chairman, was "smothered"
by the secretary of the convention and its chairman, Mr. Frank
Gould. Every other minority report was read and acted upon by the
convention; that alone on woman suffrage was held back. In vain Mr.
Reed protested; the chairman ignored him and called for a vote on
the platform as a whole. It was adopted with a roar, and our fight
was lost! It was near midnight. We had sat two long hot days in the
convention, had slept but little, were worn out and very, very
wrathy. At this juncture John P. Irish addressed the convention,
stating that a distinguished lady was present, etc., and would they
hear Miss Susan B. Anthony? Thinking it was too late for her to do
any harm, she was received with loud applause.
It was impossible to say what the convention expected, but they got
a rebuke for allowing such action on the part of their chairman and
for treating the women of the State in this unjust and undemocratic
manner, which caused a hush to fall upon the whole body. It was a
dramatic and impressive scene, one not to be forgotten. At its
conclusion there were loud cries for Anna Shaw. The little fighter
was at the boiling point, but she stepped upon the platform with a
smile, and with that sarcasm of which she is complete master
supplemented Miss Anthony's remarks. As she stepped down, half the
convention were on their feet demanding the minority report. The
chairman stated that it was too late for that, but a resolution
might be offered. The original resolution was at once presented,
and then there was an attempt to take a viva-voce vote, but our
friends demanded a roll-call. It resulted in 149 ayes and 420 noes.
Mr. Gould's own county voted almost solidly in favor. Alameda
county, led by W. W. Foote, gave 32 noes and 3 ayes, yet this
county sent in the largest petition for woman suffrage of any in
the State.
To secure more than a one-fourth vote of a convention which had been
determined not to allow the question even to come before it, was not a
total defeat.[119]
The battle was now fairly begun and it grew hotter with every passing
week for the next five months. A few days after the last convention the
women held a mass meeting in Metropolitan Temple to ratify the planks.
The great hall was crowded to the doors and hundreds stood during all
the long exercises. As the ladies who had been to the conventions came
upon the stage, the building fairly rang with applause. The Republican,
Populist, Prohibition, Democratic and Socialist-Labor parties were
represented by prominent men who made strong suffrage speeches.
Congressman James G. Maguire spoke for those individual Democrats who
believed in woman suffrage, among whom he was always a staunch
advocate. Miss Anthony was cheered to the echo and it seemed as if the
audience could not get enough of her bright, pithy remarks, as she
introduced the different speakers.
The suffrage advocates, elated with their victory in three conventions,
opened headquarters in the large new Parrott building and swung their
banner across the street.[120] Five rooms were filled with busy workers
directed by Mary G. Hay, chairman of the State central committee, while
the other members took turns in receiving the reporters, the people on
business and the throngs of visitors from all parts of the State. To
follow this campaign in detail, to name all of those most prominently
connected with it, would be obviously impracticable. It would be utterly
impossible to mention individually the hundreds of women who thoroughly
canvassed their own precincts and deserve a full share of the credit for
the large vote cast. A number of competent California women took up the
organization of the different counties. Every woman in the State who
could address an audience found her place and work. Mrs. Alice Moore
McComas and Rev. Mila Tupper Maynard headed the list of Southern
California speakers. Miss Sarah M. Severance spoke under the auspices of
the W. C. T. U. Mrs. Naomi Anderson represented the colored women. Rev.
Anna Shaw spoke every night during the campaign, except the one month
when she returned East to fill engagements. She paid the salary of her
secretary and donated her services to the headquarters for five months.
Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates, of Maine, made about one hundred speeches.
The last two months Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, national organizer, gave
several addresses each day. There were very few men who worked as hard
during that campaign as did scores of the women, each according to her
ability.
No description could give an adequate idea of the amount of labor
performed by Miss Anthony during those eight months. There was scarcely
a day, including Sundays, that she did not make from one to three
speeches, often having a long journey between them. She addressed great
political rallies of thousands of people; church conventions of every
denomination; Spiritualist and Freethinkers' gatherings; Salvation Army
meetings; African societies; Socialists; all kinds of labor
organizations; granges; Army and Navy Leagues; Soldiers' Homes and
military encampments; women's clubs and men's clubs; Y. M. C. A.'s and
W. C. T. U.'s. She spoke at farmers' picnics on the mountaintops, and
Bethel Missions in the cellars of San Francisco; at parlor meetings in
the most elegant homes; and in pool-rooms where there was printed on the
blackboard, "Welcome to Susan B. Anthony."
She was in constant demand for social functions, where her presence gave
an opportunity for a discussion of the all-absorbing question. One of
the handsomest of these was a breakfast of two hundred covers, given by
the Century Club in the "maple room" of the Palace Hotel, where were
gathered the leading women of San Francisco and other cities in the
State. Miss Anthony sat at the right hand of the president and responded
to the toast, "Those who break bread with us." The club privileges were
extended to her and, at the close of the campaign, she was made an
honorary member. This club was composed largely of conservative women,
but its president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, was one of the most prominent
of the suffrage advocates. She addressed the Woman's Press Association,
the Laurel Hall Club, the Forum, Sorosis, Association of Collegiate
Alumnæ and most of the other women's organizations of San Francisco. An
invitation to luncheon was received from Mrs. Stanford signed, "Your
sincere friend and believer in woman suffrage," and a very pleasant day
was spent in her lovely home at Menlo Park.
A breakfast was given in her honor by the Ebell Club of Oakland, Mrs. G.
W. Bunnell, president. She rode in a beautifully decorated carriage at
the great Fabiola Fête, or floral festival, held annually in this city.
Many social courtesies were extended in the towns around the bay, among
them being dinner parties by Senator and Mrs. Fred Stratton, Mr. and
Mrs. A. A. Moore, Mrs. Henry Vrooman, Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Smith, Mrs.
Emma Shafter Howard, Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Havens, Mrs. Alice H. Wellman,
of Oakland; Judge and Mrs. J. A. Waymire, of Alameda; Mr. and Mrs.
William A. Keith, of Berkeley. All this would have been very enjoyable
but for the fact that most of these occasions included a speech, and she
was usually obliged to come from just having spoken, or to rush away to
keep another engagement. One unique experience was a complimentary trip
tendered, through Mrs. Lovell White, by the proprietors of the new Mill
Valley and Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway, to Miss Anthony and a large
number of guests. From the top of this high peak, which overlooks the
Golden Gate, they enjoyed a view that for beauty and grandeur is not
surpassed in the world.
Miss Anthony visited also various towns throughout the central part of
the State and along the coast, speaking in wigwams, halls, churches,
schoolhouses and the open air, taking trains at all hours, travelling
through heat and dust, wind and cold; and there was never a word of
complaint during all the long campaign. She was always ready to go,
always on time, always full of cheer and hope.
The first week in June she went to Portland to attend the Woman's
Congress, Abigail Scott Duniway, president. Its officers were among the
prominent women of the city, and she was royally received. She spoke a
number of times during the nine sessions and was handsomely treated by
the press. Sarah B. Cooper joined her here, on her way home from the
National Federation of Clubs at Louisville, Ky. A number of receptions
were given in their honor, among them one by the Woman's Club. There was
an elaborate luncheon at "the Curtis;" and a reception was tendered by
the managers of the Woman's Union. No effort was spared to make their
visit in everyday delightful. Miss Anthony lectured in the opera house
at Seattle under the auspices of the Woman's Century Club, and a
reception was given by her hostess, Mrs. Kate Turner Holmes. Many
inducements were offered for her to extend the visit, but she was
desirous of returning to the field of work in California at the earliest
possible moment and was absent only nine days.
Miss Anthony was invited by both Republican and Populist managers to
address their ratification meetings in San Francisco, and received an
ovation from the great audiences representing the two parties. One wing
of the Democrats held their ratification meeting after night in the open
air and of course she was not invited to speak, but the other wing
extended a cordial invitation and she addressed them in Metropolitan
Temple, receiving an enthusiastic greeting. The suffrage women
themselves held a second mass meeting September 10, according to the
Call, "amid a mighty outburst of popular enthusiasm, the like of which
has seldom if ever been seen at a political meeting held in this city."
Here again the part taken by prominent men from all political parties
demonstrated the non-partisan character of the woman's campaign. This
was Mrs. Catt's first appearance before a California audience and the
papers said: "As she and the other ladies delivered their clear-cut,
logical speeches, cheers rent the air and handkerchiefs and hats were
waved with overmastering enthusiasm."
And so the months went by, with their cares and pleasures, their hopes
and fears, their elation and depression. In her letters to her sister,
Miss Anthony wrote: "Sometimes I have a homesick hour and feel as if I
must leave all and rush back to my own hearthstone, but then I pull
myself together and resolve to go through to the end." A similar
campaign was in progress in Idaho and Mrs. Catt was there in August at
the request of that State board, to represent the national association.
They were very anxious that Miss Anthony should come also, but to their
many letters she replied:
I should love dearly to go to Boise at once, as you request, and I
should have been in Idaho during the last two months had it been
possible for one human being to be in two places at the same
time.... I learn that the men who believe in suffrage in your
State, object to an open demand for party endorsement, but prefer a
"still hunt." I have seen this tried before, but our opponents
always can make a stiller hunt. Our only hope of success lies in
open, free and full discussions through the newspapers and
political party speakers.... Won't it be a magnificent feather in
our cap if we get both California and Idaho into the fold this
year? How beautiful the blue field will look with two more
stars--five little gold stars! Remember that the woman suffrage
stars are gold, not silver. Not that I think gold is better than
silver, but it is a different color from the forty-five on the
regular flag.[121]
There were, of course, some misrepresentations, both intentional and
unintentional, of Miss Anthony's attitude. The fact of her speaking on
the platforms of all political parties was something which many people
could not comprehend, and the party organs could not refrain from
twisting her remarks a little bit in the direction of their doctrines;
then would come a storm of protests from the other side, and she would
have to explain what she actually said. Thus, with the reporters
constantly at her elbow, the public watching every utterance and the
politicians on the alert to discover what party she and her
fellow-workers really did favor, she lived indeed for many months in
"the fierce light that beats upon a throne."
"O, that I had you by my side; what a team we would make!" she often
wrote to Mrs. Stanton, who answered: "I read all the papers you send and
watch closely the progress of the campaign. I feel at times as if I
should fly to your help. We are the only class in history that has been
left to fight its battles alone, unaided by the ruling powers. White
labor and the freed black men had their champions, but where are ours?"
In June the National Republican Convention was held at St. Louis. Miss
Anthony could not make the long journey but she sent the following
resolution and asked its adoption: "The Republican Party in national
convention assembled hereby recommends that Congress shall submit an
amendment to the Federal Constitution providing that the right of
citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by
the United States, or by any State, on account of sex."
The platform committee labored and this is what it brought forth: "The
Republican party is mindful of the rights and interests of women.
Protection of American industries includes equal opportunities, equal
pay for equal work, and protection to the home. We favor the admission
of women to wider spheres of usefulness, and welcome their co-operation
in rescuing the country from Democratic mismanagement and Populist
misrule."
Miss Anthony's indignation, anger and contempt when she read this
resolution can not be put into words. It required the combined efforts
of those who were nearest her to prevent the expression of her opinion
in reply to the many reporters and letters wanting to know how she
regarded this plank. "You must not offend the Republicans and injure our
amendment," they argued, and she would acquiesce and subside. Then,
after thinking it over, she would again burst forth and declare the
women of the country should not be compelled to submit to this insult
without a protest from her. "Women want the suffrage as a sword to smite
down Democratic and Populist misrule. Infamous!" she exclaimed again and
again. "That climaxes all the outrages ever offered to women in the
history of political platforms." To Mrs. Stanton she wrote: "O, that you
were young and strong and free, and could fire off of the planet such
ineffable slush as is being slobbered over our cause!" But she held her
peace, and all the brainy women who were conducting this great campaign
kept silent, although there was not one of them who did not feel exactly
like Miss Anthony in regard to this plank. Nor was there a woman in the
country, who was able to comprehend the resolution, that did not regard
it as an insult and feel that she would prefer never again to have women
mentioned in a national platform if the men who should make it had no
higher conception of justice than this.
On October 11, Miss Anthony started on a southern tour, speaking first
at San Luis Obispo to an audience which crowded the hall. From here to
Santa Barbara, through the courtesy of Superintendent Johnson, of the
narrow gauge railroad, the train was stopped at every station for a
ten-minute address. At some places a stage had been extemporized, at
others she spoke from the rear platform of the car. Her coming had been
announced and, even in those rather thinly settled regions, there would
be as many as a thousand people gathered at the station. When she
concluded, quantities of flowers would be thrown in her pathway and the
platform literally banked with them.[122] After a stage ride of forty
miles she received an enthusiastic welcome at Santa Barbara, where she
was the guest of Dr. Ida Stambach. The ovation was continued at all the
towns visited in the southern part of the State.
A little flurry had been caused early in the campaign by the
announcement that the National W. C. T. U. Convention would be held in
San Francisco during the autumn of 1896. Miss Anthony had written Miss
Willard that she thought this would be very injudicious. She then had
agreed to postpone it until after the election, and Miss Anthony again
had objected, saying:
I am glad you think it will be possible to postpone your convention
to November; but, you see, even to do that all California will be
full of your advertisements, and the papers all telling how the W.
C. T. U. is going to bring its convention to San Francisco
immediately after the women have the right to vote, so as to
educate them to destroy the wine-growing and brandy-distilling
business; in other words, that it is going to start in the first
thing to ruin what today is the one means of livelihood for immense
numbers of ranchmen throughout the State. So, I hope--nay, I
beseech that you will withdraw the convention altogether from
California for this year. I have had letters from the amendment
campaign committee, and every one of them deplores the coming of
the convention....
Now, my dear, hold your convention any place but in a State where
we are trying to persuade every license man, every wine-grower,
every drinker and every one who does not believe in prohibition,
as well as every one who does, to vote "yes" on the woman suffrage
question. If you only will do this, I am sure you will do the most
effective work in the power of any mortal to secure the end we all
so much desire.
Miss Willard replied in a cordial letter that she had not the slightest
wish to antagonize her or the suffrage movement and would use her
influence to have the place of the convention changed. To Mrs. B.
Sturtevant Peet, president of the California W. C. T. U., who was
somewhat in doubt as to the necessity for such change, Miss Anthony
wrote:
What you say of the good influence of your national convention in
San Francisco is true so far as concerns the actual Prohibition
men; but we must consider those who are making their daily bread
out of the manufacture as well as the sale of liquors. There are
many excellent men in California who are not total abstainers, but
who believe in wine as the people of Italy and France believe in
it; and I think that, in waging our campaign, we should be careful
not to run against the prejudices or the pecuniary interests of
that class. As I have said before, if it were a Prohibition
amendment which was pending I should think it exceedingly unwise to
run that campaign under the banner of woman suffrage. The average
human mind is incapable of taking in more than one idea at a time.
The one we want to get into the heads of the voters this year is
woman's enfranchisement, and we must pull every string with every
possible individual man and class of men to secure their votes for
this amendment. We should be extremely careful to base all our
arguments upon the right of every individual to have his or her
opinion counted at the ballot-box, whether it is in accordance with
ours or not. Therefore, the amendment must not be urged as a
measure for temperance, social purity, or any other reform, but
simply as a measure to give to women the right to vote yea or nay
on each and all of them. I want every woman in California to work
for the amendment, but I want her to work in the name of suffrage,
not of prohibition.
The national convention was withdrawn entirely from California, and the
W. C. T. U. women, in most places, worked under the one banner of the
suffrage amendment during the campaign. In proof that there was no
feeling on the part of the leaders against Miss Anthony, it may be
stated that she received official invitations to be present at the
birthday celebration of Mrs. Peet, in April; to address the State W. C.
T. U. Convention at Petaluma, in October; to attend the National
Convention at St. Louis in November; and to join in the farewell
reception to Miss Willard in New York on the eve of her departure for
Europe.
The managers of the woman's campaign supposed of course that the
endorsement by the Populist and Republican State Conventions meant not
only that the speakers of those parties would advocate the suffrage
plank just as they did the others in their respective platforms, but
that they also would permit the women themselves to speak for it in
their political meetings. When they applied to Mr. Wardall and the other
members of the Populist Central Committee, the schedule was promptly
furnished and they were assured that their speakers would be welcomed.
When they applied to the Republican Central Committee, to their
amazement, they were put off with an evasive answer. Meanwhile they had
Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Catt and other speakers waiting for
engagements and did not dare make dates ahead lest it might interfere
with the big Republican rallies which they wished them to address. Again
and again they went to the Republican Central Committee and asked for
the schedule of their meetings and the privilege of sending their
speakers to them. Finally, after weeks of anxious waiting, the chairman,
Major Frank McLaughlin, sent a letter to the suffrage headquarters
saying in effect: "The committee had decided not to grant this
privilege; in the language used at one time by Miss Anthony, it meant
'too many bonnets at their meetings,' and they wished to reach the
voters."
He added that they were at liberty to make any arrangements they chose
with the county chairmen. This meant, of course, that they must
ascertain the name and address of every county chairman in the State,
watch the papers for the announcements of meetings, hold their speakers
in reserve, and beg the privilege of having them heard. All this, when
the endorsement of the suffrage amendment was the first plank in the
Republican platform unanimously adopted by the State convention! There
was nothing, however, except to make the best of it; but when they
attempted to arrange with the county chairmen, they found Major
McLaughlin had written them not to allow the women speakers on their
platforms! While many of them refused to obey his orders, he had
practically destroyed the best opportunity for reaching the people.
The Republican State Convention had enthusiastically adopted a
resolution declaring for "the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to
1." When the National Convention met in St. Louis soon afterwards it
adopted a gold standard plank, and there they were! The Populists and
Democrats who agreed on a financial plank saw here an opportunity and,
in many counties, effected a fusion and held their meetings together.
This, of course, nullified the permission given the women to put
speakers on the Populist platform, since the Democrats, as a party, were
opposed to woman suffrage, and there they were! If they attempted to
hold simply suffrage meetings, they could get only audiences of women,
because all the men were in attendance at the political rallies. So the
only thing left was for the women in every city and town in the State,
whenever a political mass meeting was advertised, to go to the managers
and humbly beg to have one of their speakers on the platform.
This was not often refused, and it was just as easy to get this
permission from Democrats as from Republicans. The former felt that if
the amendment should carry they would not object to a little of the
credit, and they soon found also that the women were a drawing card.
Whenever there was a purely Populist meeting, a conspicuous place and
all the time desired were given to the women, but at Republican,
Democratic or Fusion meetings, they always were placed at the end of the
program and allowed only five or, at most, ten minutes. In order simply
to get this little word, the women speakers would make long journeys and
sit on the platform until every long-winded male orator had finished his
speech, and until they were ready to drop from their chairs. But the
audience waited for them, no matter how late, and never failed to
receive them with the wildest enthusiasm. Many times when the managers
would have been willing to sandwich them between other speakers, the
latter would object, saying the people would go home as soon as the
women had finished!
As the campaign wore on it became a fight for life with the political
parties. The Call, which had come out so valiantly for woman suffrage,
had been struck in a vital part, i.e., in the counting-room, by the
opponents of this measure, who withdrew valuable advertising and in
every possible way sought to injure the paper. Its support was used by
the other wing of the Republican party to create a prejudice against the
candidates it advocated; the principal stockholders were not friendly to
the amendment; as the organ of the Central Committee it was deprived of
independent action. So it was not surprising that, long before the close
of the campaign, the great fight which the Call agreed to make had
dwindled to an occasional skirmish when the pleading of the women grew
too strong to be resisted.
Almost without exception the Republican orators were silent on the
question of woman suffrage, even those who personally favored it. The
women wrote them, interviewed them and begged them to advocate the first
plank in their platform as they did all the rest, and occasionally when
they would go in a body and sit on the front seats to watch the speaker,
he would say a few mild words in favor of the amendment, but there were
several of the Democrats who did as much. Some of the Populists
advocated it, but the most prominent, who always before had spoken for
it, went through the entire campaign without so much as a mention, in
order to secure Democratic support. When Thomas B. Reed came into the
State, at the very end of the campaign, the women felt sure of an ally,
as he had long been a pronounced advocate, but he did not so much as
refer to the question in his tour of the State, although they bombarded
him with letters which would have impressed a heart of stone. At the
last grand rally in Oakland, the day before election, with Miss Anthony
on one side of him and Miss Shaw on the other, he did say that he "knew
of no more reason why a woman should not vote than why a man should
not"--but the battle then was already lost.
Up to within a few weeks of election, in spite of all the drawbacks, it
looked as if the amendment would win. The general sentiment throughout
the State seemed to be in favor. The mere mention of the subject at any
meeting was received with the greatest enthusiasm. Almost every delegate
body which assembled in convention during that summer adopted a
resolution of endorsement; this was true of most of the church
conferences, the teachers' institutes, the State Grange and farmers'
institutes, the Chautauqua assemblies and countless others. And still
the women watched and waited! There was one element more powerful than
all these combined, which had not yet shown its hand. It never had
failed in any State to fight woman suffrage to the death, and there was
no reason to believe it would not kill it in California.
Ten days before election the fatal blow came. The representatives of the
Liquor Dealers' League met in San Francisco and resolved "to take such
steps as were necessary to protect their interests." The political
leaders, the candidates, the rank and file of the voters recognized the
handwriting on the wall. From that moment the fate of the amendment was
sealed. The women had determined, from the beginning of the campaign,
that they would give the liquor business no excuse to say its interests
were threatened, and therefore the temperance question had been kept out
of the discussion as had the religious, the tariff and the financial
questions. They took the sensible view that it had no more place than
these in the demand for women's right to vote as they pleased on all
subjects. Therefore the action of the liquor dealers had no
justification in anything which the women had said or done. It simply
showed that they considered woman suffrage a dangerous foe. The
following letter, signed by the wholesale liquor firms of San Francisco,
was sent to the saloon-keepers, hotel proprietors, druggists and grocers
throughout the State:
At the election to be held on November 3, Constitutional Amendment
No. Six, which gives the right to vote to women, will be voted on.
It is to your interest and ours to vote against this amendment. We
request and urge you to vote and work against it and do all you can
to defeat it.
See your neighbor in the same line of business as yourself, and
have him be with you in this matter.
The men in the slums of San Francisco were taken in squads and, with
sample ballots, were taught how to put the cross against the suffrage
amendment and assured that if it carried there never would be another
glass of beer sold in the city. When the chairman of the press committee
went to a prominent editor, who was opposed to woman suffrage and knew
that these things were being done, and asked if there were no way by
which some suffrage literature could be given to those men so that they
might see there was no ground for these threats, he said: "Most of them
can not read and if they could the whiskey men would never allow a page
of it to get into their hands." In what way the liquor dealers worked
upon the political parties, it is not necessary to speculate. The
methods were not new and are pretty well understood. They control tens
of thousands of votes not only in California but in every State, which
they can deliver to either of the great parties that does their bidding
and regards their interests.
It is absurd, however, to attribute the defeat of the suffrage amendment
wholly to the liquor dealers, or to the densely ignorant, or to the
foreigners. In the wealthiest and most aristocratic wards of San
Francisco and Oakland, where there were none of these, the proportion of
votes against the amendment was just as great as it was in the slum
wards of the two cities. Those respectable, law-abiding citizens who
cast their ballots against the amendment, thereby voted to continue the
power of the above mentioned classes.
For weeks before the election, the most frantic efforts were made by the
politicians to register new voters and colonize them in the wards where
they would be most needed.[123] Columns of appeals were issued in all
the newspapers to get the vast numbers of lately arrived immigrants to
come to the city hall and register. Men were sent around ringing big
bells and calling upon them to do this, and interpreters were employed
to explain that it would not cost them a cent. Finally the registry
books were carried to the parks and other places where these men were
employed, in order to secure their names.
Meanwhile the intelligent, order-loving, sober and industrious women of
the State were making such efforts as never were made by any class of
men, to secure this same privilege of placing in the ballot-box and
having counted their opinions on questions relating to the public
welfare;--opinions, one would think, that ought to be considered of as
much value to the State as those which such strenuous attempts were
being made to obtain. It seems, however, that intelligence, morality and
thrift must wait the pleasure of ignorance, vice and idleness.
During the months of the early spring, through the efforts of a few
women who worked without pay and used only their spare moments, the
names of nearly 30,000 women were secured to a petition asking for the
suffrage. This, of course, represented only a fraction of those which
might have been obtained by continued effort, but a petition signed by
even 30,000 men would have been considered worthy of attention. The vast
majority of women have no money of their own and those who work for
wages, as a rule, receive but a pittance, and yet there were raised in
California for this amendment campaign almost $19,000, and the amount
contributed by men was so small as not to be worth mentioning. The
financial success was due very largely to the State treasurer, Mrs.
Austin Sperry. She not only made a donation of $500, but borrowed from
the bank on her personal note, when necessary, and signed blank checks
to be used when the treasury was empty and repaid when outstanding
pledges were collected. Mrs. Phoebe Hearst headed the list with $1,000.
Mrs. Stanford gave almost as much in railroad transportation to the
speakers and organizers. The next largest contributor was Mrs. Knox
Goodrich, of San Jose, who for nearly thirty years had stood in
California a faithful advocate of woman suffrage, giving time, money and
influence. She added to her past donations nearly $500 for this
campaign. Mrs. Sargent's munificence has been mentioned. A few women
subscribed $100 each, but all the rest was given in sums ranging down
to a few cents.
[Illustration: Sarah L. Knox Goodrich (Signed: "Sarah L. Knox
Goodrich")]
[Illustration: Autograph: "regard with deep respect your heroic life and
entire devotion to the cause you have consecrated it to. Yours very
sincerely. Phebe A. Hearst."]
The true record of these contributions would wring the heart of every
man in the State. A large photograph of Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw was
given for every $2 pledge, and many poor seamstresses and washerwomen
fulfilled their pledges in twenty-five cent installments, coming eight
times with their mite. Often when there was not enough money on hand at
headquarters to buy a postage stamp, there would come a timid knock at
the door and a poorly dressed woman would enter with a quarter or
half-dollar, saying, "I have done without tea this week to bring you
this money;" or a poor little clerk would say, "I made a piece of fancy
work evenings and sold it for this dollar." Many a woman who worked hard
ten hours a day to earn her bread, would come to headquarters and carry
home a great armload of circulars to fold and address after night. And
there were teachers and stenographers and other workingwomen who went
without a winter cloak in order to give the money to this movement for
freedom. This pathetic story ought to be written in full and given to
every man who eases his conscience by saying, "The majority of women do
not want to vote;" and to every well-fed, well-clothed woman who
declares in her selfish ease, "I have all the rights I want."
Knowing that if the suffrage amendment were placed first or last among
the six which were to be voted on, it would be a target for those who
could not read, the ladies wrote to the Secretary of State asking that
it be placed in the middle of the list. He answered, June 26: "It shall
be as you request and the suffrage amendment be third in order as
certified by me to the various county clerks." When the tickets were
printed, however, it was placed at the end of the list and thus
necessarily at the end of the whole ticket, making it a conspicuous
mark. The explanation given was that Governor Budd had directed the
amendments to be placed on the ballot in the same order as they had
appeared in his proclamation. As this had not been issued until July 20,
a month after the official request of the ladies had been granted, one
must conclude there was a mistake somewhere. The results were exactly
what had been feared. In San Francisco alone hundreds of ballots were
cast on which there was only one cross and that against the amendment;
not even the presidential electors voted for.
There were 247,454 votes cast on the suffrage amendment; 110,355 for;
137,099 against; defeated by 26,734. The majority against in San
Francisco was 23,772; in Alameda county, comprising Oakland, Alameda and
Berkeley, 3,627; total, 27,399-665 votes more than the whole majority
cast against the amendment. Berkeley gave a majority in favor, so in
reality it was defeated by the vote of San Francisco, Oakland and
Alameda.[124] Alameda is the banner Republican county and gave a good
majority for the Republican ticket. There never had been a hope of
carrying San Francisco for the amendment, but the result in Alameda
county was a most unpleasant surprise, as the voters were principally
Republicans and Populists, both of whom were pledged in the strongest
possible manner in their county conventions to support the amendment,
and every newspaper in the county had declared in favor of it. The fact
remains, however, that a change of 13,400 votes in the entire State
would have carried the amendment; and proves beyond question that, if
sufficient organization work had been done, this might have been
accomplished in spite of the combined efforts of the liquor dealers and
the political bosses.
Near midnight of election day, a touching sight might have been
witnessed on a certain street in San Francisco: two women over seventy
years of age, one the beloved wife of a man whom California had selected
as its representative in the United States Senate and whom the
government had sent as its minister to the court of Germany; the other a
woman universally admitted to be the peer of any man in the country in
statesmanship and knowledge of public affairs--Mrs. A. A. Sargent and
Susan B. Anthony. In the darkness of night, arm in arm, they went down
the street, peering into the windows of the rough little booths where
the judges and clerks of the election were counting votes. The rooms
were black with tobacco smoke and in one they saw a man fall off his
chair too drunk to finish the count. They listened to the oaths and
jeers as the votes were announced against the suffrage amendment, to
which they had given almost their lives. Then in the darkness they crept
silently home, mournfully realizing that women must wait for another and
better generation of men to give them the longed-for freedom.
The next morning when Miss Anthony came down to breakfast she found a
group in the Sargent library reading the news of the election, and all
looked at her in sorrowing sympathy. She stood still in the center of
the room for a moment and then said sadly: "I don't care for myself, I
am used to defeat, but these dear California women who have worked so
hard, how can they bear it?"
Miss Anthony not only had donated her own services but had paid her
secretary's salary of $75 per month and permitted her to give her entire
time to the State headquarters for seven months, while she herself
attended to the drudgery of her immense correspondence whenever she
could get a spare hour. Even at the small sum of $25 for a regular
speech, she would have contributed over $3,000 to this campaign, in
addition to the scores of little parlor and club addresses. She gave her
services freely and willingly and did not regret them, but often said
that the California campaign was the most harmonious and satisfactory of
any in which she ever was engaged. There was not the slightest friction
between herself and the State association or State headquarters, and
most of those prominent in the work were of such refinement and nobility
of character that it was a pleasure to be associated with them. Not a
day passed that she did not receive some token of affection from the
women of the State. The Sargent home was filled with the flowers and
baskets and boxes of fresh and dried fruits, etc., which were sent to
her.[125]
On November 5, two days after the election, a large body of California
women met in Golden Gate Hall to hold the annual State Suffrage
Convention. Miss Anthony and all the national officers remained to help.
There was not a trace of defeat or disappointment; all were brave,
cheerful and ready to go to work again. Twelve hundred dollars were
raised to settle all outstanding bills and the campaign closed without a
dollar of indebtedness. As Mrs. Sargent was going abroad, a worthy
presidential successor was elected, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, wife of John
F. Swift, minister to Japan, a fine presiding officer, a lady of much
culture, travel and social prestige, who had rendered valuable service
throughout the campaign. The next evening the suffrage forces held a
grand rally in Metropolitan Temple. Every seat in that fine auditorium
was occupied and the aisles were crowded. It was not a meeting of the
adherents of a lost cause, but of one which had suffered only temporary
defeat. Miss Anthony presided and was given a true California ovation
and, as her voice rang out with all its old-time vigor, there was not
one in that vast audience but hoped she might return to lead her hosts
to victory.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Yours with Love, Mary Wood Swift"]
Saturday evening at 6 o'clock the seven eastern women started homewards,
laden with tokens of affection, accompanied across the bay by a large
number of loving friends, and moving off amidst smiles and tears and a
shower of fragrant blossoms.
FOOTNOTES:
[118] Joint campaign committee: Ellen C. Sargent, chairman; Sarah B.
Cooper, vice-chairman; Ida H. Harper, corresponding secretary; Harriet
Cooper, recording secretary; Mary S. Sperry, treasurer; Mary Wood Swift
and Sarah Knox Goodrich, auditors. State central committee: Mrs.
Sargent, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Swift, Mrs. Sperry, Mrs. Blinn, with Mary G.
Hay, chairman.
[119] About 1 o'clock in the morning, after this eventful night, the
ladies were awakened by loud laughter and women's voices. They arose and
went to the window and there in the brilliantly lighted street in front
of the hotel were two carriages containing several gaily dressed women.
A number of the convention delegates came out and crowded around them,
three or four climbed into the carriages, wine bottles were passed and
finally, with much talk and laughter, they drove off down the street,
the men with their arms about the women's waists. The ladies returned to
their slumbers thoroughly convinced that they had not used the correct
methods for capturing the delegates of a Democratic convention.
[120] The use of these rooms was donated by the manager of the Emporium,
the large department store in the building. All through the summer and
autumn a number of most capable young women, who were employed as
stenographers, teachers, etc., gave every waking moment outside business
hours to the work at headquarters, carrying home with them great
packages of leaflets and circulars to be folded and addressed, looking
after their own precincts, and rendering services which could not have
been paid for in money. Although all were breadwinners they labored from
love of the cause and without a thought of thanks or remuneration.
[121] In Idaho all political State conventions, Republican, Populist and
Democratic, endorsed the amendment, it received a majority of the
popular vote, and the women now have full suffrage.
[122] To commemorate this journey Miss Selina Solomons, of San
Francisco, wrote a tender poem, beginning:
"She walks on roses! she whose feet
Have trod so long the stony way,
They tread who lead mankind to greet
The coming of a brighter day."
[123] Some of the women going the rounds with suffrage petitions in San
Francisco found a house consisting of one room with three cots, where
were registered twenty-seven voters.
[124] Los Angeles gave a majority of 3,600 in favor of the amendment.
[125] In her president's report, at the next annual convention, Mrs.
Sargent said: "Susan B. Anthony! We can never forget her labor of love
and devotion to the cause of woman suffrage in California. She counted
not her life dear to her so that she could help to awaken the interest
of men and women in the great principle to which she has devoted her
life. She was not cold, nor hungry, nor tired, nor sleepy, while there
was a chance to push forward the work. Throughout the campaign Miss
Anthony gave her own services and those of her secretary without money
and without price. She reminds one of the great Niagara, which would be
wonderful if its waters rolled and dashed for only a short period; but
when they roll and dash on ceaselessly, nor ever stop to rest, there the
wonder of it all comes in, and we can only gaze, admire and acknowledge
the great law or power behind it."
CHAPTER XLVIII.
HER LETTERS--BIRTHDAY PARTY--BIOGRAPHY.
1896-1897.
On the way home from California Miss Anthony and Mrs. Catt stopped at
Reno, Nev., lecturing there Sunday, while Miss Shaw hastened on to speak
at Salt Lake City. Then all met at Kansas City to attend the Missouri
convention, where they were the guests of Mrs. Sarah Chandler Coates.
The papers refer to Miss Anthony's speeches at this convention as being
the very strongest she ever had made, and of her perfect physical
condition at the close of an eight months' campaign.
She went from here directly home, and on November 19 a brilliant banquet
was given in honor of Miss Shaw and herself at the Hotel Livingston by
the Political Equality Club. Mary Lewis Gannett was toast-mistress and
about 250 guests were seated at the tables. This was followed by the
State convention at Rochester. After a few days' rest Miss Anthony went
to the home of Mrs. Catt, near New York, where a business meeting was
held of the national executive board. With Mrs. Avery she then took one
of the great Sound steamers for Boston to attend a meeting of the
National Woman's Council. A reception was given by Mrs. Charles W. Bond,
of Commonwealth Avenue, and one at the Hotel Vendome. She ran up to
Concord, N. H., for a few days' visit with her aged friends, Mr. and
Mrs. Parker Pillsbury and Mrs. Armenia S. White. Then back again to the
Garrisons', and out to Medford for a day with Mrs. Edward M. Davis, the
daughter of Lucretia Mott.
She left Boston December 9, to fulfill a promise made to Elizabeth
Buffum Chace, to spend her ninetieth birthday at her home in Valley
Falls, R. I. Mrs. Chace had written a number of letters with her own
trembling hand to arrange for this visit. It was only a family party,
but the diary tells of the cake with ninety little candles, and other
birthday features. Anna Shaw came in time for the supper, and the next
day Mrs. Chace sent them in her carriage to Providence to attend the
State convention. Here they were guests in the handsome old Eddy
homestead, and Miss Anthony addressed a large audience in the evening.
She stopped a day in New York to tell Mrs. Stanton about the California
campaign, and Sunday morning reached her own dear home. Her old and
loved friend, Maria Porter, had died the preceding night, and she
attended the funeral services next day. On December 23 she went to
Niagara Falls with her stenographer to secure reminiscences from her
cousin, Sarah Anthony Burtis, aged eighty-six, who was a teacher in the
home school at Battenville over sixty years before.
The year just closed had been busy but pleasant. It had brought the
usual number of tokens of appreciation, one of which was notice of
election as honorary member of the Chicago Woman's Club. Among the
scores of invitations on file were one from Judge George F. Danforth to
meet the justices of the appellate court at his home; and one to the
golden wedding of her old fellow-laborers, Giles B. and Catharine F.
Stebbins, at Detroit, the latter one of the secretaries of that famous
first convention of 1848. Major James B. Pond, the well-known lecture
manager, wrote Miss Mary Anthony: "Thank you for your kind letter and
the excellent photograph of your great sister, whom I have admired and
hoped and prayed for since I was a poor boy out in Kansas. I still
believe she will be spared to witness a general triumph of her noble
cause." The letter contained an offer of $100 for a parlor lecture by
Miss Anthony at Jersey City.
A few of Miss Anthony's own letters, taken almost at random from copies
on her file, will illustrate the vast scope of her correspondence and
her peculiarly trenchant mode of expression. To one who wanted a
testimonial from her that she might show in vindication of certain
accusations, she wrote:
I went through all the fire of charges of stealing, and of every
other crime in the whole calendar, twenty-five years ago--charges
made, too, by people of vastly more influence than any of the women
who are talking and writing today about you. I never made a public
denial of one of them, through all the years of the bitterest kind
of persecution, and believe I was greatly the gainer by working
right on and ignoring them. It will be the mistake of your life if
you go into print in your own defence. Your denial will reach a new
set of people and start them to talking, while the ones who read
the original charges will never see the refutation of them.
To one of the newly-enfranchised women of Utah:
The one word I should have to say to the women throughout your
State would be, not so much to try to get women elected to the
offices as to get the best persons, whether men or women. Naturally
there will be a far less number of women than of men capable of
holding office, from the very fact of their long disfranchisement.
I do hope your women therefore will set a good example not only for
Utah, but also for the States where they are not enfranchised;
namely, that of proving it is not the spoils of office they are
after. I think the women of Wyoming always have been wonderfully
judicious in not being anxious to hold offices themselves, but
mightily anxious as to what men hold them. It will be considered a
strong objection to woman suffrage if the vast majority of your
women should prove themselves mere partisans.
To a New York cousin: "Your little birthday present, the Book of
Proverbs, came duly. Solomon's wise sayings, however, don't help me very
much in my work of trying to persuade men to do justice to women. These
men and their progenitors for generations back have read Solomon over
and over again, and learned nothing therefrom of fair play for woman,
and I fear generations to come will continue to read to as little
purpose. At any rate, I propose to peg away in accordance with my own
sense of wisdom rather than Solomon's. All those old fellows were very
good for their time, but their wisdom needs to be newly interpreted in
order to apply to people of today."
In answer to a letter from Illinois asking the secret of her success in
life:
If I may be said to have made a success of my life, the one great
element in it has been constancy of purpose--not allowing myself
to be switched off the main road or tempted into bypaths of other
movements. It always has been clear to me that woman suffrage is
the one great principle underlying all reforms. With the ballot in
her hand woman becomes a vital force--declaring her will for
herself, instead of praying and beseeching men to declare it for
her. It has been a long, hard fight, a dark, discouraging road, but
all along the way here and there a little bright spot to cheer us
on. And now we have four true republics, whose women are
full-fledged citizens, and the prospects are hopeful for others
soon to follow in the wake of those blessed four. One of the most
cheering things in these days is the large number of young women
who are entering the work, bringing to it a new, strong enthusiasm
which will push on to victory. The women over all the country are
waking up to the fact that truly to possess themselves, to have
their opinions respected, they must have this right of suffrage.
A letter from the secretary of a national conference which was seeking
to bring about a union of reformers, Prohibitionists, Free Silver
advocates, etc., asked her assistance and called forth the following
response:
It is all very well for you men, who have the power to make and
unmake political parties, to form a third, fourth or fiftieth
party, as the case may be; but as for myself and all who are of my
class, disfranchised and helpless, we have nothing to do with any
of them--old or new--except to ask each and all to put a woman
suffrage plank in their platform and educate their members to place
a ballot in the hands of women. I never have identified myself with
any political party, but have stood outside of all, asking each to
pledge itself to the enfranchisement of women. Whenever any one of
them has asked me to speak in its meetings on the suffrage
question, I have accepted the invitation, but I never have
advocated the specific measures of any.
So, you see, I can be of no help to you, but I do know that no one
of the reform political parties ever will amount to much standing
alone, and that it would be a good thing for all of them to come
together in one body. I might say, however, that least of all could
I join yours, which makes "God the author of civil government." If
such civil government as we have was made by God, what reason is
there to expect any improvement in the future?
From a letter to Isabella Beecher Hooker:
Fortune indeed does not smile any too favorably upon us who feel so
longingly the need to use money. I am crippled all the time and
prevented from doing what I might by lack of funds. The old faith
would say, I suppose, that whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth
financially, but seems to me I could better do His work and my own
for the regeneration of the world, if I had the money to do it
with.... What a fuss the men are making nowadays over "good
government"--the idiots! Can't they see it is impossible to
improve things until they get a new and better balance of power
that will outweigh the one which now pulls down the political
scales and makes decency kick the beam every time? It does try my
soul that we can not make them see they are simply trying to lift
themselves by their bootstraps. Well, they are born of
disfranchised mothers, a subject class, and one can not expect
different results.
If I could spare the time and money I would love to accept your
invitation to sit with you and your dear John in your summer
retreat, and chat over the world of work for our good cause. Of the
before and the after I know absolutely nothing, and have very
little desire and less time to question or to study. I know this
seems very material to you, and yet to me it is wholly spiritual,
for it is giving time and study rather to making things better in
the _between_, which is really all that we can influence; but
perhaps when I can no longer enter into active, practical work, I
may lapse into speculations.
To a debating society asking her opinion on the question of "educated
and property suffrage:"
I always have taken the negative; that is, have believed in
universal suffrage without either property or educational
qualification. I hold that every citizen has a right to a voice in
the government under which he lives. While an education is highly
desirable, yet a man may be unable to read but may attend political
meetings, talk with his neighbors and form intelligent opinions. He
may be honest and beyond bribery, and a more desirable voter than
many wily and unscrupulous men who have a graduate's diploma. It
is, however, the duty of the State to educate its citizens; and the
Australian ballot, which has been largely adopted, is in itself an
educational qualification.
As to a property qualification: while in the majority of cases,
perhaps, the possession of property is evidence of ability and
thrift, there are many who do not own property and yet are
possessed of good sense and are more capable of casting an honest
and intelligent ballot than some of the wealthy men of the country;
then, too, those who have least are the ones who suffer most from
the legislation of the rich, and need the ballot for
self-protection. I am decidedly opposed to a property
qualification.
To one who was in deep grief she said in an affectionate letter: "Do
assure me that you are beginning to think of your dear one as he was
when well and moving about in his always helpful and cheering manner. To
get far enough from the sickness, the suffering and the death of our
friends, so as to be able to have only the thought of them in their full
vigor of life, is the greatest joy which possibly can come to those who
have lost their beloved."
While Miss Anthony was thus constantly giving out from the vast wealth
of her heart and brain, she was receiving, also, from all parts of the
country the strong and loving tributes of noble souls. A beautiful one
which shines on the pages of 1896 was pronounced by the eloquent Dr. H.
W. Thomas, of Chicago, in the course of a Sunday sermon entitled
"Progressive Greatness," delivered to a large audience assembled in
McVicker's Theater:
A Washington and a Lincoln have come in our great century, and
between their birthdays was born a Susan B. Anthony, whose grand
life has been given to a noble cause; once the target for the cruel
and bitter shafts of ridicule; now deemed the noblest among women.
The task of Washington and Lincoln could not be complete till the
crown was placed on the brow of woman as well as man; and when the
angels shall call Susan B. Anthony to the life immortal, her name,
her memory on earth should and will take its place among the
martyrs and saints of liberty, not for man alone, but for woman and
child."
To watch the old year out and the New Year in, Miss Anthony went to
Geneva, and here spent a few days very pleasantly with Elizabeth Smith
Miller and her guest, Harriot Stanton Blatch. Among the New Year's
remembrances were $50 from Mrs. Elda A. Orr, of Reno, Nev.; $150 from
Mrs. Gross, of Chicago; and $300 from Mrs. Cornelia Collins Hussey, of
Orange, N. J. The usual number of congratulatory letters were received
from all classes of people, high and low, old and young, white and
colored.
To show their wide range two or three may be given. From Mrs. Ellen M.
Henrotin, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs: "I send
to you on the New Year a fraternal greeting and my best wishes that this
may prove for you and the interests you represent, a year of
fulfillment. We are all serving the same cause and we are surely among
the happy ones of earth that we are enabled to assist, by even a slight
impetus, the 'power which makes for righteousness.' ... Therefore I send
you today my heartfelt wishes for the continued success of your cause
and the peace and prosperity of your life."
Her friend of fifty years, John W. Hutchinson, the last of that
never-equalled family of singers, sent his New Year's greetings and
added: "I bless you and your work. Wonderful possibilities will be the
result of this great movement, which you have led, for equal rights and
the franchise for women." The president of the National Council of
Women, Mary Lowe Dickinson, an earnest, efficient worker for humanity,
said in the course of a long letter dated January 9:
I pray that all strength and blessing of every kind may crown this
coming year of your life; and O, how earnestly I hope that in it
you may see the fruition of some of the work that you have been
struggling with these many, many years. When I run over in my mind
the present situation of the cause you represent--which seems to me
more and more the one cause which must succeed if we are going to
have genuine success anywhere else--I see what ground you have for
encouragement and what a vast advance has been made; but I see,
too, how slow it must seem to you, and how weary of waiting you
must become. I know no courage like yours, and I do that courage
full honor.
She had received a telegram of greeting from Frances E. Willard as soon
as she arrived home from California, and January 5 accepted her urgent
invitation for a little visit with her at the sanitarium of Dr. Cordelia
Green, Castile; and while there addressed a parlor gathering of the
patients. On January 15 she was guest of honor at a luncheon given by
the Educational and Industrial Union of Rochester, at the Genesee
clubhouse, to the State executive committee of the Federation of Clubs.
Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson spent a few days with her, and she
arranged for her to hold Sunday evening services in the Unitarian
church. On January 20 the two ladies, with Miss Mary, started for the
twenty-ninth annual convention of the national association, which was to
be held this year at Des Moines, Ia. The thermometer was 15° below zero,
the snow very deep, and Miss Anthony's friends saw her set forth on the
journey to this cold western city with much anxiety. All their protests,
however, were not sufficient to keep her at home; but she thought with
much longing of the clean, beautiful streets of Washington, the mild
climate, the Congressional committees, the crowds of visitors there from
various parts of the country who always came to the convention, and she
felt more strongly than ever that it was a serious mistake to take it
away from the national capital.
She stopped at Chicago for a few days, and a characteristic little entry
in her diary says: "I slept on a $6,000 bed last night; my! how much
good suffrage work could have been done with that money." On the
afternoon of January 23, Miss Anthony addressed a large meeting of the
Woman's Club and in the course of her remarks paid a tribute to that
organization, in which she said: "This is the banner club of the United
States, not because it has such nice women for members, and not even
because it is located in Chicago, but because it is a club which does a
large amount of practical work."
Mrs. Foster Avery joined the party at Chicago and they reached Des
Moines January 24, where they found the rest of the executive board, and
all were entertained in the suburban mansion of James and Martha C.
Callanan. The meetings were held in the Central Christian church, whose
pastor, Rev. H. O. Breeden, extended a cordial greeting. Notwithstanding
the extreme severity of the weather, 24° below zero, the audience-room
was crowded to its capacity at every public session, and overflow
meetings were held. The convention was officially welcomed by Governor
Francis M. Drake and Mayor John McVicar; Mrs. Adelaide Ballard, State
president, made the opening address, and Mrs. Macomber spoke in behalf
of the women's clubs of the city. State Senator Rowan was one of the
speakers. Among the letters of greeting was one from Miss Kitty Reed,
daughter of Speaker Thomas B. Reed. The memorial services showed that
never in any previous year had so long a list of friends to the cause
passed away as in 1896. There were thirty-seven names mentioned in the
resolutions.[126]
In Miss Anthony's address she spoke of the great victories in 1896, as
shown by the full enfranchisement of the women of Utah and Idaho. Mrs.
M. C. Woods, from the latter State, presented an interesting account of
the late campaign and an outline of their work for the future. Her
mother, Emmeline B. Wells, made the report for Utah. Delegates were
present from twenty States, and most of them were entertained in the
hospitable homes of the city. A reception, attended by 500 guests, was
tendered by Mr. and Mrs. Hubbell, at their elegant residence on Terrace
Hill. An imaginative reporter on this occasion transformed Miss
Anthony's historic garnet velvet gown, worn for the past fourteen years,
into a "magnificent royal purple," and her one simple little pin into
"handsome diamonds." A pleasant reception also was given by the Woman's
Club in their commodious parlors. The daily newspapers contained
excellent reports of the convention, but not one gave editorial
endorsement of the cause it represented.
Those who believed in holding the alternate national conventions away
from Washington were satisfied with the result; those who thought
differently continued to hold the same opinion, and among the latter was
Miss Anthony, who soon afterwards wrote to one of the business
committee:
The conventions at Atlanta and Des Moines have but confirmed me in
my judgment that our delegated body always should meet in
Washington. For local propaganda both were undoubtedly good, but
for effect in securing Congressional action, absolutely nil. I
believe in resuming our old plan of holding at least two
conventions every year, one for the election of officers and for
its influence upon Congress in Washington every winter; the other
in whatsoever State we have constitutional amendments pending,
where we need to do our greatest amount of work in that direction.
The best way for the national association to help create local
sentiment is to build up and make a success of the different State
annual meetings, and to have at least two of its ablest and most
popular speakers attend as many of them as possible every year; and
I think by this means we can do a great deal more to make the
States feel that the national is mother to them, than by once in a
lifetime holding a delegate convention within their borders. I am
more and more convinced that some of the national officers must be
present at every State annual meeting, and if well advertised there
would be as many representatives of the local clubs present as go
to our national convention.
On the way home from Des Moines Miss Anthony spent a few days at
Indianapolis. The evening of February 3, Mrs. Sewall gave a reception in
her honor, to which were invited the governor, members of the
legislature, State officials and their wives, members of the Woman's
Council and their husbands. At one end of the large drawing-room, on a
slightly raised platform covered with rugs, sat Miss Anthony and
Indiana's most revered woman, Zerelda G. Wallace, to whom Mrs. Sewall
presented the guests. Later in the evening both of these ladies, from
their "throne," as it was laughingly called, gave pleasant informal
addresses, to which Senator Roots responded on behalf of the
legislature. The next day Mrs. Wallace and Miss Anthony's old friend,
Hon. George W. Julian, were entertained at luncheon and had a long
afternoon chat. In the evening a reception was given for her by Mr. John
C. and Mrs. Lillian Wright Dean at their pleasant home "The Pines."
The morning of February 5 Miss Anthony was invited to address a joint
session of the Indiana legislature in the Assembly chamber. The judges
of the supreme and appellate courts and most of the State officials were
present, and all the visitors' seats on the floor and in the galleries
were filled with Indianapolis ladies. Miss Anthony was introduced with
words of praise by Representative Packard, and spoke for an hour, making
her usual strong plea for a Sixteenth Amendment enfranchising women.
On February 6, at 9 A. M., in the midst of rain and sleet, she arrived
in Rochester and, in less than an hour, reporters from every newspaper
in the city were on hand for an interview. They had learned long since
that they always were sure of a cordial reception at her cozy home, and
that the returned traveller would not fail to tell them something which
would make interesting reading. Miss Anthony was actuated by two motives
in this: One was her desire to get as much suffrage news as possible
into the papers, for no one could have a higher appreciation of the
value of the press; the other was a strong sentiment of admiration and
friendship for the faithful and industrious men and women who earn a
living at newspaper work.
Sunday night, February 14, the birthday of Frederick Douglass was
observed in the Plymouth Congregational Church. Miss Anthony presided
over the large meeting and introduced the speakers.
[Illustration: THE ANTHONY RESIDENCE.
SINCE 1865, ROCHESTER, N. Y.]
There had been something in the air of Rochester for several weeks,
something of a social nature in which most of the people in the city
seemed interested, and it promised to culminate on the approaching 15th
of February, when Miss Anthony should be eleven times seven years old.
This famous birthday, which had been beautifully celebrated in New York,
Washington and numbers of other cities and towns throughout the country,
also had been often pleasantly observed in Rochester; but it was thought
by many people here that it was time Miss Anthony's own city should hold
a celebration which should eclipse all on record. The first intimation
she had was the receipt of this invitation:
The woman's clubs of this city are planning to give a reception in
your honor at Powers Hall on the evening of your seventy-seventh
birthday, February 15, 1897. They have chosen this means of
publicly expressing the great esteem in which they hold you, and
the pride they feel in reckoning among their number a woman of
national reputation. They trust that this date will be
satisfactory, and this manner of showing their respect not
distasteful to you. Very sincerely,
OLIVE DAVIS,
_Corresponding Secretary of the Committee on Arrangements_.
The committee was composed of one member of each of the sixteen woman's
clubs, and the admirable manner in which the affair was conducted
certainly indicated that it was in the hands of representative
women.[127] Most of the Rochester papers contained editorials of
congratulation. Among others the Post-Express said of the celebration:
Its purpose is to indicate the esteem in which she is held by the
people of the city of which she has, for many years, been a
resident. It is not intended as a demonstration in behalf of the
cause with which she has been especially identified. Its meaning is
deeper and its scope is broader than this. It is the woman, rather
than the advocate, who is to be honored....
Rochester is proud of Susan B. Anthony--proud that it can call her
its citizen. It has come to appreciate her quality. It understands,
not alone that she has stood in the front ranks of those who have
done battle for the equality of woman with man at the ballot-box,
but that she has also done much for the emancipation of woman from
civil thralldom and social inferiority, and that in all good causes
she has been distinguished--in philanthropies as in politics, in
the reformation of moral abuses as in the righting of what seemed
to her civic wrongs. As her work has proceeded, she has conquered
prejudice and persuaded respect--respect for herself independent of
and even superior to that for the causes in which she has enlisted.
And so it occurs that the citizens of Rochester, without regard to
the opinions they entertain upon woman suffrage and cognate
movements, but wholly in admiration and affection for a noble
woman, unite in the reception which awaits her, cordial and full of
meaning. It will be a notable occasion, and one long to be
remembered.
The daily papers gave long and elaborate reports of this great
reception, headed, "Our beloved Susan; Two thousand hands grasped by the
Grand Old Woman;" "Rochester Shows its Love for Her," etc., etc. A
portion of the Herald account may be quoted as indicating the tone of
all:
The reception accorded to Susan B. Anthony at Powers Hall by the
woman's clubs of Rochester was one of the most brilliant events of
the kind ever held in this city. All the prominent people of both
sexes were there, and each vied with the others in doing honor to
the woman whose splendid attributes of mind and heart have
reflected so much credit on the city. But little preliminary work
was needed, as it partook largely of the nature of a spontaneous
tribute. Fully 2,000 people, representing the beauty, wealth and
intelligence of the city, passed before this unostentatious, kindly
woman during the evening and esteemed it an honor to press her
hand.
The guests began to arrive at 8:30 o'clock and continued to come in
a steady stream for two hours thereafter. Miss Anthony stood at the
western end of the large room and around her were gathered the
reception committee, composed of representatives from each of the
woman's clubs in the city. The guests formed in line as they
entered and each in succession took the hand of Miss Anthony. She
greeted every one cordially and had a pleasant word for each. In
one hand she held a beautiful bouquet of white and yellow roses
sent by Miss Frances E. Willard.
There were more than Rochester's most distinguished citizens; hundreds
of the poor and the humble, a number of colored people, men and women in
all the walks of life, thronged the great hall surrounded with famous
paintings and radiant with electric lights, flowers and beautiful
costumes. They came to grasp the hand of one who had made no distinction
of race or rank or belief in her fifty years' work of uplifting all
humanity. If these had not been present, Miss Anthony would have felt
that her own city had not offered its full tribute of recognition.
At the Anthony home the day was a happy one. Rev. Anna Shaw came to help
celebrate. The house was filled with guests from out of town and many
callers, and the bell was ringing all day for telegrams, letters and
packages. There were potted plants and cut flowers, baskets of violets
and hyacinths, and great bunches of roses and carnations. Letters and
telegrams came from California and Massachusetts, and a number of States
between. Clubs of many descriptions sent messages, and even
Sunday-schools offered greetings. Mariana W. Chapman, president New York
State Suffrage Association, expressed the congratulations of that body,
and from all the National-American officers came words of appreciation.
Among these were the following from the national organizer, Carrie
Chapman Catt:
When a woman lives to be seventy-seven years old, having given a
whole half-century and more to the cause of human liberty, her age
becomes a crown of glory, before which every lover of progress bows
in acknowledgment. Such a woman is she whom we know as "Saint
Susan." Upon her birthday I have but one wish, and in this millions
of grateful American women join with me; may she live in health and
strength undiminished, until she witnesses the last woman in the
United States blessed with all the political privileges of
citizenship. If this wish might be fulfilled, I know it would bring
the highest joy ever permitted a human being; therefore because I
love her tenderly I make it, with gratitude for her years of
service and with a reverence unspeakable for the woman whose
courage, determination and adherence to principle made the service
possible.
A few evenings later Miss Anthony attended a meeting held in Rochester
by the Cuban League. As soon as she entered she was invited to a seat
on the stage and then the audience insisted on a speech. Finally she
came forward and said:
From the report of the first outrage in Cuba down to the present
time, there has not been a moment but that its people have had my
sympathy. Never since I began to know the meaning of the word
"freedom" has anything taken a stronger hold on me than this
struggle in Cuba. Even where all men are free, women are not, and I
trust that when Cuban men achieve their independence and frame
their constitution, they will not forget the women who have borne
the struggle with them, as our Revolutionary fathers forgot the
women who toiled by their side. The men of only four out of
forty-five States of our republic have yet granted liberty to the
women. I never can speak in a meeting like this without bearing
testimony to the cowardice of the men of this nation in refusing to
make the women free. I believe in liberty and equality for every
human being under every flag, not for men alone but for women also.
The last of February a telegram announced the death of Maude, wife of
Senator L. H. Humphrey, who but a few weeks before had visited the
Anthony home, and stated that the husband desired Miss Anthony to speak
at the funeral. She was a young and lovely wife and mother, treasurer of
the State Federation of Clubs and an officer of the State and county
suffrage associations. It was said that Miss Anthony spoke as one
inspired of the woman in whose death everything good had lost a helpful
hand, who had gone out of life with no fear for herself but only loving
thoughtfulness for others. She told of her courage in following the
truth wherever it might lead, of the freedom into which she had grown,
and the beautiful faith and trust in which she had lived; she said that
it was such who walked with God, and that her spiritual life could be
comprehended only by those who lived on the same high plane. It was a
deep regret to all who heard this exquisite eulogy that it was not
preserved word for word.
Reference has been made in a preceding chapter to Miss Anthony's
preparations for the writing of her biography, which were interrupted by
the urgent call from California. All her letters from friends and many
from strangers, for several years, had urged that it should not longer
be deferred. But who should do it? That was the important question.
There were a number of women who possessed the ability and the desire,
but some were absorbed in family cares and others in breadwinning
occupations; where was the one who could and would give a year or more
of her life to this vast undertaking? The question was still unanswered
when Miss Anthony laid everything else aside and plunged into the
California campaign. Long before this had ended, she had exacted a
promise from Mrs. Harper, who had charge of the State press during that
long and trying period, to come to Rochester and write the biography.
She herself agreed to remain at home till the work should be finished,
and give every possible assistance from the storehouse of reminiscence
and the wealth of material which had been so carefully garnered during
all the years.
So the first of March, 1897, the work began. A little while before, Miss
Anthony had written to a friend: "Some one soon will write the story of
my life and will want everything she can get about me, but she will find
there is precious little when she sits down to the task." What the
biographer did find was two large rooms filled, from floor to ceiling,
with material of a personal and historical nature. It seemed at first as
if nothing less than a cyclopedia could contain what would have to be
used. Ranged around the walls were trunks, boxes and bags of letters and
other documents, dating back for a century and tied in bundles just as
they had been put away from year to year. There were piles of legal
papers, accounts, receipts and memoranda of every description, and the
diaries and note-books of sixty years. The shelves were filled with
congressional, convention and other reports; there were stacks of
magazines and newspapers, large numbers of scrap-books and bushels of
scraps waiting to be pasted. There was, in fact, everything of this
nature which can be imagined, all carefully saved and put away, waiting
for the leisure when they could be sorted and classified.
It was fortunate indeed that the two women, who went to work so
cheerfully on that March morning, did not realize the task which was
before them, or their courage might have wavered. With the assistance of
their efficient secretary, Miss Genevieve Lel Hawley, the work went
steadily on from daylight till dark for many days, until at length the
sheep all were separated from the goats; the matter likely to be used
placed in one room, and the remainder arranged conveniently for
reference in the other. Every scrap of writing was pressed out and each
year's quota not only placed in a separate box, but arranged according
to months and days. The printed matter was carefully classified and the
scrap-books all finished, a complete set of nearly fifty years.
Then commenced the far more difficult labor of culling the most
important and interesting points from this great mass of material, and
condensing them into such space as would permit the reading of the
biography during at least an average lifetime. And thus was the task
continued, day after day, and far into the night, for much more than a
year. The snows of winter melted away; the bare branches of the tall
chestnut trees which towered above the windows put forth their buds and
burst into a wilderness of snowy blossoms; the birds built their nests
among the green leaves, reared their young and flew away with them to
warmer climes before the chill winds of approaching autumn; the
luxuriant foliage faded and dropped to the earth; again the naked
branches stretched out to a stormy sky, and the snow lay deep on the
frozen ground; while the story followed the life and work of this great
historic character through the slow unfolding out of the depths of the
past; the development from the springtime of youth into the fruitful
summer of maturity; the mellowing into the richness and beauty of
autumn; the coming at last into the snowy spotlessness of serene and
beautiful old age.
The attic workrooms were an ideal place for this long and exacting task,
secluded from all interruption and dedicated so entirely to the work
that not a book or paper ever was disturbed. A pretty description
written by Mrs. Minette Cheshire Hair, of the Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle staff, and published in a number of papers, thus began:
[Illustration: ATTIC WORK-ROOMS WHERE THE BIOGRAPHY WAS WRITTEN.]
Way up on the third floor of the cozy home at 17 Madison street,
away from the dust and noise of the pavement, in a charming den
admirably arranged for the purpose, two women have for months
been busily engaged getting together material and putting it in
shape for the publishers, which will give to the world a story--the
story of a career as remarkable as any ever written. Pausing on the
threshold, a description of the sanctum is not out of place, for
the pleasant atmosphere and surroundings at once impress the
visitor, so unconsciously have the occupants stamped it with their
own strong individuality. It consists of two large and airy rooms
which appear to be literally perched in the tree-tops, so close are
the swaying branches, which seem to nod approval and encouragement
to the two busy workers seated before a large bow window. Patches
of the blue sky glimmer above and through them, and the scene
without is restful and inspiring. Within is a large, low table
where the writing is done, and an easy couch piled with pillows
invites repose when the brain grows too weary.
The rooms are plain and ceiled above in natural wood, and on
shelves arranged along the sides are boxes containing years of
correspondence and documents, dating back to 1797--just one
century. In the room beyond, three stenographers do their part of
the work, and here also are large chests filled with the
accumulations of years of public life. It would seem as if the task
before these two dauntless women were almost endless, for every
letter must be read and carefully noted, every newspaper clipping
gleaned--and these alone would make volumes--old diaries perused,
and the whole digested and woven into the fabric of facts which not
only go to make the story of one woman, but the history of the
great progressive movement of women during the past fifty years.
FOOTNOTES:
[126] Among them were Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sarah B. Cooper, Drs. Hiram
Corson and Caroline B. Winslow, Judges E. G. Merrick and O. P. Stearns,
Mary Grew, J. Elizabeth Jones, Hannah Tracy Cutler, Sarah Southwick.
[127] The idea of giving the reception originated among the members of
the Wednesday Club, some of whom conceived the thought that it was time
for the women of Rochester in some way to recognize Miss Anthony's
ability, energy and labors in behalf of her sex.... Reformers, as a
rule, are not popular in their day, and Miss Anthony ran the gauntlet of
derision and abuse years ago, but today the magnificent services she has
rendered for woman are everywhere recognized.
The plans have been perfected upon a very elaborate scale. The following
are represented in the movement: the Wednesday Club, the Ethical
Society, the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, the Wellesley
Association, the Cornell Association, the Coterie, the Woman's Saturday
Club, the Holyoke Association, the Jewish Council, the Sisterhood of
Berith Kodesh, the Ignorance Club, the Tuesday Reading Club, the
Livingston Park Seminary Alumnæ, the Rochester Female Academy Alumnæ,
the Ladies' Travellers' Club, and Mrs. Hall's Art Class.
The reception is not to women only, but it is expected that a large
number of men will be present. [Then follows a list of names of many of
the prominent ladies of Rochester, who acted as a reception committee,
and of equally well-known young men, who served as ushers.]--Democrat
and Chronicle.
CHAPTER XLIX.
CHARACTERISTIC VIEWS ON MANY QUESTIONS.
1897.
Miss Anthony was strong in her determination to remain at home and
devote herself to the biographical task, but found it almost an
impossibility to resist the calls for her services which came from all
directions. Occasionally she would slip out for a lecture, but long
journeys and convention work for the most part were given up, and never
during fifty years had she remained at home a fraction of the time that
she spent here in 1897. Monday evening of each week was set apart to
receive callers and the pleasant parlors often were crowded, many of the
Rochester people declaring that this was their first chance of getting
acquainted with their illustrious townswoman. There were two rôles,
however, which she never could fill with any pleasure to herself, that
of the society or the literary woman. While no one loves her friends
more faithfully or better enjoys receiving visits from them, she cares
for social life, in general, only so far as it can advance her cause.
Although letter-writing is a pleasure, she hates the use of the pen for
so-called literary work. Standing on the platform, words and ideas rush
upon her more rapidly than she can give them utterance, but with pen in
hand the thoughts still come but refuse to be formulated.
In the chapters describing the preparation of the History of Woman
Suffrage was set forth in detail her restiveness at such confinement. "I
love to make history but hate to write it," was her oft-repeated
assertion. The years had brought no change of feeling and her
correspondence shows how she chafed under the search of old records, the
reading of faded letters. Many times she wrote: "There is so much to be
done, so much more money is needed and so many more women are wanted for
the present work, that half the time I feel conscience-smitten to be
dwelling among the scenes and people of the past. There are so very few
of my early co-workers now on this side of the big river, that I am
really living with the dead most of the time; but as there is no way out
of this job except through it--through it I must go." In the journal she
says: "O, how it tires me to think over and talk over those old days,
not only of my own labors, but of the never-ceasing efforts to stir up
others to work."
The 9th of March Miss Anthony lectured before the Men's Club of the
Central Church at Auburn. On the 12th she spoke at a meeting addressed
by Booker Washington in the interest of the Tuskeegee Colored Institute.
The 24th she went to Albany with Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, Mrs. Catt,
Elizabeth Burrill Curtis, daughter of George William Curtis, Mrs.
Chapman, State president; and all addressed the senate judiciary
committee in behalf of a woman suffrage amendment. Miss Anthony went to
this hearing much against her will and, at its conclusion, declared she
never again would stoop to plead her cause before one of these
committees. She had made her appeals to their fathers and grandfathers,
and she was tired of begging for her liberty from men not half her own
age and with not a hundredth part of her knowledge of State and national
affairs.
The seventieth birthday of the devoted sister Mary would occur on April
2, and Miss Anthony decided to have a home reception in her honor. When
she broached the subject to a few intimate friends in the Unitarian
church and the Political Equality Club, she found they already had such
arrangements well under way and they insisted that she should leave the
matter entirely in their hands. Anything which concerned the Anthony
sisters interested Rochester, and the city papers contained extended
notices. The Herald began a long interview as follows:
Seventy! It did not seem possible that the sprightly, energetic
little woman who answered the reporter's ring could have reached
the allotted threescore and ten. Old Father Time is certainly no
more than a myth to Miss Mary Anthony. "Yes," said she, laughing,
"I am about to make my debut. Just think of it, a real reception in
my honor! By the time I'm eighty, my existence will probably have
become one whirl of delicious excitement."
The reporter asked to see Miss Susan B. Anthony; five minutes would
be sufficient; the matter was urgent and important.... Turning to
her the reporter said: "The Herald would like you to give an
account of your sister. You know she would never admit that she
ever did anything worth mentioning, so it is from you that the true
story must come."
She laughed as she took off her glasses, leaned back in her chair
and asked, "Where shall I begin?"
"At the beginning, please."
"Well then, my sister was born in Battenville, the youngest of four
daughters. One thing may surprise you. She, not I, is the suffrage
pioneer in our family. She attended the first woman's rights
convention, and when I came home from teaching school, I heard
nothing but suffrage talk, and how lovely Lucretia Mott was, and
how sweet Elizabeth Cady Stanton was. I didn't believe in it then,
and made fun of it; but sister Mary was a firm advocate. My
brother-in-law used to tell me that I could preach woman's rights,
but it took Mary to practice them.
"For twenty-six consecutive years, from 1857 to 1883, she taught in
our public schools. Many of the best citizens of Rochester once
went to school to her; and it is perhaps her influence upon those
minds and lives that my sister considers the most important part of
her life-work. She has always been identified with the suffrage
cause in this city and State, as I have with the national. For a
number of years she was corresponding secretary of the State
society, and for five years has been president of the city
Political Equality Club.
"I can not tell you how she has helped and sustained me. She has
kept a home where I might come to rest. From the very beginning,
she has cheered and comforted me. She has looked after the great
mass of details, my wardrobe, my business, etc., leaving me free.
She is the unseen worker who ought to share equally in whatever of
reward and praise I may have won."
The Democrat and Chronicle thus commenced a two-column account of the
reception:
... The occasion was the seventieth anniversary of Miss Mary
Anthony's birth and, in the afternoon and evening, crowds of her
friends gathered to offer their congratulations and do homage to
one who has done so much for the educational interests of the city
and social and political equality for her sex. Miss Mary, to be
sure, has not gained the national reputation which her famous
sister enjoys, yet among the people of Rochester she is regarded as
a sharer in the laurels won by Susan B. Whenever one is mentioned
the personality of the other is immediately brought to mind.... It
was with rare hospitality, interwoven with personal love and
respect, that Dr. and Mrs. J. E. Sanford devoted their handsome
home to the celebration of this birthday. Attired in black satin
and duchesse lace, with a pretty bouquet of bride roses in her
hand, Miss Mary presented a womanly and attractive appearance.
In the name of the club, Mrs. Sanford presented, with a felicitous
little speech, a handsome, jetted broadcloth cape. She was followed by
Mrs. Greenleaf, who tendered in affectionate words a purse containing
$70, a golden tribute for each year from many friends.[128] John M.
Thayer then made a witty and interesting address. He was followed by
Rev. W. C. Gannett, who dwelt especially on the work done by Miss Mary
in looking after the poor and needy for the past twenty years, not only
as an officer of the city charitable association but in a private
capacity, and closed by saying:
It takes two sorts of people to make a reform: One who become
public speakers and bear the brunt of obloquy, and the other who in
obscurity lend their assistance to the work. There are hundreds of
this latter class that the world never hears about. It is the
blessed silent side of life, and it seems to me that Mary is the
very incarnation of the quiet majority of this great reform which
is yet to celebrate its triumphs. In after years, when the story is
written of this political equality movement, men will say that the
battle was won by the two sisters, because there never could have
been a Susan abroad if it had not been for a Mary at home.
If there ever was a time when Miss Anthony was speechless from supreme
satisfaction it was on this occasion. All the honors ever bestowed upon
herself had not afforded her the joy of this testimonial to her gentle,
unassuming but strong and helpful sister, on whom she leaned far more
than the world could ever know.
[Illustration: MARY S. AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY, 1897.]
Miss Anthony assisted at the elegant golden wedding celebration of Mr.
and Mrs. James Sargent, April 29; not one in the receiving line under
seventy, and yet not one broken or enfeebled by age. The men erect
and vigorous, the women beautifully dressed and full of animation,
formed a striking illustration of the changed physical and social
conditions of the last half-century.
Early in June Miss Anthony, Rev. Anna Shaw, Miss Emily Howland and Mrs.
Harper went to Auburn to visit Eliza Wright Osborne, with whom Mrs.
Stanton and her daughter, Mrs. Lawrence, were spending the summer. The
days were delightfully passed, driving through the shaded streets of
that "loveliest village of the plain" and walking about the spacious
park and gardens surrounding the Osborne mansion; while in the evenings
the party gathered in the large drawing-room and listened to chapters
from the forthcoming biography, followed with delightful reminiscences
by the two elder ladies and Mrs. Osborne, whose mother, Martha C.
Wright, was one of their first and best-beloved friends and helpers. It
was a rare and sacred occasion, and those who were present ever will
cherish the memory of those two grand pioneers, sitting side by
side--Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony--the one just beyond, the
other nearing the eightieth milestone of life, both having given to the
world fifty years of unremitting service, and yet both as strong in
mind, as keen in satire, as brimming with cheerfulness, as in those
early days when they set about to revolutionize the prejudices and
customs of the ages.[129]
The correspondence this year seemed heavier than ever before, letters
pouring in from all parts of the United States and Europe. Even from
far-off Moscow, in conservative Russia, came the cry of women for help.
Pages written by the pen of another could not give so accurate an idea
of Miss Anthony's opinions on various topics as single paragraphs culled
from copies of her own letters, preserved, alas, only during the past
few years since she has employed a stenographer. One scarcely knows
which to select. To a newspaper inquiry she answered: "The 'greatest
compliment' ever paid me was, that by my life-work I had helped to make
the conditions of the world better for women." She wrote to an
exasperated Ohio woman:
The plan you propose, of our getting all the members of suffrage
clubs, and all individual women outside, in each State, to march to
the polls every election day and attempt to deposit their ballots,
sounds very well. But, my dear, it is impossible thus to persuade
the women, after the Supreme Court of the United States has
declared they have no right to vote under the National
Constitution. Your suggestion means a revolution which women will
not create against their own fathers, husbands, brothers and sons.
A whole race of men under a foreign or tyrannical government, like
the Cubans, may rise in rebellion, but for women thus to band
themselves against the power enthroned in their own households is
quite another matter. Hundreds have recommended your plan, so it is
nothing new, but it is utterly impractical. There can be but one
possible way for women to be freed from the degradation of
disfranchisement, and that is through the slow processes of
agitation and education, until the vast majority of women
themselves desire freedom. So long as mothers teach their sons and
daughters, by acquiescence at least, that present conditions need
no improving, you can not expect men to change them. Therefore do
not waste a single moment trying to devise any sort of
insurrectionary movement on the part of the women.
In a letter to Mrs. Stanton she said:
Mrs. Besant lunched with us, and I heard her last evening for the
second time. She is master of the English language, and whether or
not one can believe she sees and hears from the world of the
disembodied what she feels she does, one can not but realize that
she is a great woman and has a wonderful theory of how human souls
return to earth. But I tell her that it seems to me repellent that
we have to come back here through Dame Nature's processes, after a
period of such great freedom in the occult world, and again go
through with teething, mumps, measles, and similar inflictions. The
truth is, I can no more see through Theosophy than I can through
Christian Science, Spiritualism, Calvinism or any other of the
theories, so I shall have to go on knocking away to remove the
obstructions in the road of us mortals while in these bodies and on
this planet; and leave Madam Besant and you and all who have
entered into the higher spheres, to revel in things unknown to
me.... I will join you at Mrs. Miller's Saturday, and we'll chat
over men, women and conditions--not theories, theosophies and
theologies, they are all Greek to me.
There had been a question after the late election in Idaho whether the
suffrage amendment required a majority of all the votes cast, or only a
majority of those cast on the amendment. If the former, then it was
defeated. The case was carried to the supreme court, which put the
latter construction on the law. Miss Anthony wrote to the judges, Isaac
N. Sullivan, Joseph W. Huston, Ralph P. Quarles, (John T. Morgan
retired):
On behalf of the suffrage women of the United States, I thank you
for the decision which you have rendered. I had studied over the
clause a great deal and felt that if your judgments were biased by
the precedents and prejudices which had controlled the decisions of
the Supreme Courts of the United States, and of the different
States, upon the extension of rights to women, you certainly would
give the narrow interpretation. Instead of that, for the first time
in the history of our judiciary, the broadest and most liberal
interpretation possible has been given.
The Kentucky Daughters of the American Revolution, who were marking
historic spots, she advised as follows:
I hope in your selections you will be exceedingly careful to
distinguish those actions in which our Revolutionary mothers took
part. Men have been faithful in noting every heroic act of their
half of the race, and now it should be the duty, as well as the
pleasure, of women to make for future generations a record of the
heroic deeds of the other half. It is a splendid thing for your
association to devote the Fourth of July to a commemoration of
women. If I had the time, I too might be one of the
"Daughters,"[130] for my Grandfather Read enlisted and fought on
the heights of Quebec and at the battles of Bennington and
Ticonderoga; but I have been, and must continue to be, so busy
working to secure to the women of this day the paramount right for
which the Revolutionary War was waged, that I can give neither time
nor money to associations of women for any other purpose, however
good it may be.
When the answer came that they were doing the very thing that she
wished, she replied:
I am delighted; for however heroic our pioneer fathers may have
been, our pioneer mothers, in the very nature of things, must have
braved all the hardships of the men by their side with the added
one of bearing and rearing children when deprived of even the vital
necessities of maternity. Self-government is as necessary for the
best development of women as of men. Sentiment never was and never
can be a guarantee for justice, but with equal political power
women will be able to secure justice for themselves. We have had
chivalry and sentiment from the beginning of time, with some
privileges granted as a favor. We now demand rights, guaranteed to
us by codes and constitutions; and if their possession shall
forfeit us gallantry, we will make the best of it. But I do not
believe woman's utter dependence on man wins for her his respect;
it may cause him to love and pet her as a child, but never to
regard and treat her as a peer.
To Prof. C. Howard Young, of Hartford, Conn., for thirteen years an
invalid and yet an ardent advocate of woman suffrage, she wrote: "I want
you to feel that the dollar you have sent from year to year all this
time for your membership in the national association has helped bring to
us Idaho, for our organization committee's work in that State was a
large factor in securing the victory. Every one who gives a dollar helps
do the work where it is most needed to gain the practical result."
The following extracts are self-explanatory:
The vast majority of women easily can have their sympathies drawn
upon to help personal and public charities, while very few are
capable of seeing that the cause of nine-tenths of all the
misfortunes which come to women, and to men also, lies in the
subjection of woman, and therefore the important thing is to lay
the axe at the root. Now, my dear, if you and all the women who are
working for the different charities and reforms of your city, had
the right to vote, how long do you suppose the brothels and
gambling houses would be allowed to keep their doors open? Do you
believe that if women could vote for every officer whose duty it is
to enforce the laws, these dens would be licensed, or if not
absolutely licensed, would be allowed to run year in and year out
merely by the payment of fines from time to time? How long do you
think our streets would be infested with men walking up and down
seeking whom they might devour, and with women doing the same?
While some of you must work, as you are doing, giving heart and
soul to the mitigation of the horrors of our semi-barbaric
conditions, I must strike at the cause which produces them.
To the women of Kansas:
I hope your State association won't do the foolish thing of wasting
your time in asking the legislature to pass a law granting
"presidential" suffrage to women. Our chances in your State have
been postponed, if not absolutely killed, because of municipal
suffrage, and now if you should induce your legislature to give
"presidential" suffrage and the women should thwart the men's
wishes in their votes for President, as they already have done with
their limited franchise, you would be doomed never to get the right
to vote for congressmen, governor and legislators. I wish women
never would ask for any but full suffrage; and also that they would
stop asking the legislatures to submit an amendment to the voters,
until they have created public sentiment enough to get at least one
of the leading parties to stand for it from year to year. We have
been working at the top with the members of legislatures,
delegates to conventions, etc., too long; it is now time to begin
at the bottom with the voting precincts. Nothing short of this
should be considered organization.
Miss Anthony received many poems every year from admiring friends of
both sexes. This acknowledgment of one raises the suspicion that she was
not so appreciative as she might have been: "I find in a very handsome
lavender envelope a poem inscribed on lavender paper, addressed to Susan
B. Anthony. Since I know nothing of the merits of poetry, I am not able
to pass any opinion upon this, but I can see that 'reap' and 'deep,'
'prayers' and 'bears,' 'ark' and 'dark,' 'true' and 'grew' do rhyme, and
so I suppose it is a splendid effort, but if you had written it in plain
prose, I could have understood it a great deal better and read it a
great deal more easily. Nevertheless, I am thankful to you for poetizing
over me--although the fact is that I am the most prosaic, matter-of-fact
creature that ever drew the breath of life."
A relative in California wrote that "God would punish the people in that
State who worked against the woman suffrage amendment," and Miss Anthony
replied:
It is hardly worth while for you or anybody to talk about "God's
punishing people." If He does, He has been a long time about it in
a good many cases and not succeeded in doing it very thoroughly. He
certainly didn't punish the liquor dealers of San Francisco;
instead of that, He let them rejoice over us women because of their
power to cheat us out of right and justice. I think it is quite
time, at least for anybody who has Anthony blood in her, to see
that God allows the wheat and the tares to grow up together, and
that the tares frequently get the start of the wheat and kill it
out. The only difference between the wheat and human beings is that
the latter have intellect and ought to combine and pull out the
tares, root and branch. Instead of that, good men stay away from
the ballot-box or else form third, fourth and forty-'leventh
parties, thus leaving the liquor men and vicious elements, who
always know enough to stand together, a balance of power on the
side of the candidate or the party that will do most for their
interests. If the good men were as bright as the bad men, they
would pull together instead of separately.
To the Jewish Woman's Council: "From day to day I read the press reports
of your meetings, and was pleased to see how successful they were;
especially was I glad at the answer one of your women made to the
criticism of your holding a meeting on Sunday. It is time to teach some
of our Protestant women that it is just as worthy to do a good thing on
Sunday as on Monday or any other day in the week, and no worse to do a
bad one. They should learn also that they have no more right to ask you
to hold their Sunday sacred than you have to demand that they shall
observe your Jewish Sabbath."
Some California women wrote her that the politicians were advising them
to ask for "educated and property suffrage," and she replied:
I should answer them that it is quite difficult enough for women to
push their demand for enfranchisement on an _equal_ basis with men.
They all know there is not a man who has any political aspirations
or a party which hopes for success, that would take a public stand
in favor of such a measure as they wish us to adopt. I do not agree
with them that we have too many voters now. Instead of that, I say
we have just half enough, for a majority of the opinions of all the
people combined is sure to be better than the opinions of any one
class. They call it a "mistake" giving to poor and uneducated men
the right to vote; whereas, the greatest wrongs in our government
are perpetrated by rich men, the wire-pulling agents of the
corporations and monopolies, in which the poor and the ignorant
have no part.
No, they can not persuade me that it would be a right or even a
politic thing to ask that only educated, tax-paying women be
enfranchised. It would antagonize not only every man who had
neither property nor education but also every one whose wife had
neither, and all such would vote against the enfranchisement of the
rich and educated women. You can not start a demand for any sort of
restrictive qualification for women which will not lose more votes
for the measure in one direction than it can possibly gain in
another.
The habit of many women of continually intruding their religious beliefs
into their public work was a great annoyance to Miss Anthony. To a
prominent speaker on the Prohibition platform with whom she was well
acquainted, she wrote: "It seems to me that by your using constantly the
words 'God' and 'Jesus' as if they were material beings, when to you
they are no longer such, you impress upon your audience, grounded as the
vast majority yet are in the old beliefs, that you still hold to the
idea of their personality. The world, especially women, love to cling to
a personal, material help--God a strong man, Jesus a loving man." And
then a little further on, referring to the common habit of regarding
physical misfortunes as the punishment of God, she said: "God is not
responsible for our human ills and we should not believe or disbelieve
in Him on account of our aches and pains. It surely is not the good
people who escape bodily ailments. Certain fixed laws govern all, and
those who come nearest to obeying these laws will suffer least; but even
then we must suffer for the failures of our ancestors."
One of the leading women in a State where a suffrage amendment was
pending, wrote her that she felt sure the Lord would interpose in its
behalf and she should try to influence the voters by prayer. In response
Miss Anthony said:
I think you do not fully realize that the vast majority of the men
whom you have to convert to suffrage, neither know nor care whether
you and the rest of the women who want to vote, are especially
inspired by God to make the demand. Those who are good Methodists
like yourself ought to believe in suffrage already, and therefore
your appeals are to be made to the men who are not Methodists,
possibly not even Christians, and would be repelled by your
presenting any of the religious motives which are so powerful with
you and other church members. To prevail with the rank and file of
voters, you must appeal to their sense of justice. I am glad to
have you tell me personally about your communings with the Lord,
but for you to give that talk of "miraculous intervention" to the
common run of voters would be, as the Good Book says, "casting
pearls before swine."
To a nephew, D. R. Anthony, Jr., and his bride on the day of their
wedding, she telegraphed the beautiful words of Lucretia Mott: "May your
independence be equal, your dependence mutual, your obligations
reciprocal."
In the winter of 1897 a great cry was raised about what was called
"yellow" journalism, the mischievous sensationalism of certain
metropolitan newspapers. The matter was taken up by the W. C. T. U. and
Miss Willard sent out an address to prominent women asking that they
should protest against this journalism and also against such spectacles
as the recent Corbett-Fitzsimmons prize fight. When it reached Miss
Anthony she answered:
Your circular letter came duly, proposing that women should refuse
to patronize the so-called "yellow" newspapers, and also protest
against prize fighting. It seems to me that for the women of the
country to come out now with their little piping voices, after all
the great daily papers of the nation have written the strongest
kind of editorials against both these evils, would be very like the
caricatures of the old Conkling-Platt fight in the United States
Senate--the tall Conkling dealing his blow, and the little Platt
peeping, "Me, too."
Instead of going around echoing one or another class of men, it is
time for women to put their heads together and demand to have their
opinions counted the same as those of the men who make possible
"yellow journalism" and prize fighting. They who wish may waste
their time trying to make bricks without straw--to change the
conditions of society without votes--I shall go on clamoring for
the ballot and trying not to antagonize any man or set of men.
Don't you see, if women ever get the right to vote it must be
through the consent of not only the moral and decent men of the
nation, but also through that of the other kind? Is it not
perfectly idiotic for us to be telling the latter class that the
first thing we shall do with our ballots will be to knock them out
of the enjoyment of their pet pleasures and vices? If you still
think it wise to keep on sticking pins into the men whom we are
trying to persuade to give women equal power with themselves, you
will have to go on doing it. I certainly will not be one of your
helpers in that particular line of work.
In reading these and scores of similar expressions of wisdom and
philosophy, one can but echo the words of Rev. Anna Shaw, who wrote to
Miss Anthony: "Your letters sound like a trumpet blast. They read like
St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, so strong, so clear, so full of
courage." Miss Anthony and Miss Willard always continued the best of
friends, each great enough to respect the other's individuality. In
reply to the above, Miss Willard wrote: "Dearest Susan, two women as
settled in their opinions as you and I, show their highest wisdom when
they mildly agree to differ and go on their way rejoicing, with mutual
good word, good will, good heart. Ever yours with warm affection." A
little later Miss Willard added to the official invitations to the
World's and the National W. C. T. U. Conventions, her warm personal
request for Miss Anthony's presence.
There was no end to the invitations which came by every mail: a banquet
given by the New York Woman's Press Club; the twenty-fifth anniversary
of the Woman's Club at Orange, N. J.; an anniversary breakfast of
Sorosis, at the Waldorf; a reunion of the old Abolitionists in Boston;
the Pilgrim Mothers' Dinner in the Astor Gallery; the dedication of the
Mother Bickerdyke Hospital in Kansas; the opening reception of the
Tennessee Centennial--the very answering of them consumed hours of
precious time.[131] Neither was there any limit to the newspaper
requests for opinions, such as, "Do you favor the use of birds for
personal adornment? Why, or why not?" "Christ's message, 'Peace on
earth, good will to men'--what has it done and what does it mean after
nineteen centuries?" etc. She seldom attempted to answer such queries,
but her comments while looking them over in her daily mail, if preserved
by stenographer and historian, would make piquant reading.
An amusing letter turns up among the almost nine hundred received in
1897, in which a county official, not seventy-five miles from Rochester,
asks these questions: "In how many cities have you spoken? How many
lectures delivered? Have you ever spoken in Washington before Congress?
Have you ever spoken in Albany before the legislature? How many people
would you think you had addressed in your lifetime?" Miss Anthony
responded: "It would be hard to find a city in the northern and western
States in which I have not lectured, and I have spoken in many of the
southern cities. I have been on the platform over forty-five years and
it would be impossible to tell how many lectures I have delivered; they
probably would average from seventy-five to one hundred every year. I
have addressed the committees of every Congress since 1869, and our New
York legislature scores of times."
As has been stated, she never replied to personal attacks, but during
1897 one so unjust and so bitter was made by a disgruntled woman of New
York City in the St. Louis Republic, that she yielded to the importunity
of friends and answered briefly:
I have been an officer in the National Suffrage Association since
1852, and its president since 1892. During that time I never have
had one dollar of salary, nor have I ever received any money for my
suffrage work from this association. I usually am paid for
lectures by any society which sends for me to come to a special
place. In all of the laborious State campaigns I have given my
services without money and without price. The various bequests
which have been left to me, to use at my discretion, all have been
appropriated directly to the suffrage cause. Not one officer of the
national association is or ever has been paid for her services, and
most of them have contributed many years of hard work and a large
amount of their own money.
By the middle of July the biography was so well advanced that the two
workers felt entitled to a vacation during midsummer. The completed
chapters were locked securely in the safety deposit vault and, with a
fervent hope that the house would not catch fire and burn up the
unwritten part of the book during their absence, they started, July 15,
for a little tour, going first to the home of Mr. and Mrs. James Sargent
on "Summerland," one of the loveliest of the Thousand Islands. Here Miss
Anthony tried very hard for a whole week to do nothing. Even
letter-writing was laid aside and she sat on the veranda and watched the
great steamers and the pleasure boats go up and down the broad St.
Lawrence; took long naps in the hammock swayed by the soft breezes;
wandered through the picturesque ravine and along the water's edge; at
evening watched the sun set in gorgeous splendor, leaving a trail of
glory on the waters which slowly faded as the stars came out in the
beauty of the night and were reflected in the still depths. Every day,
with host and hostess and the other guests in the house, she boarded the
little launch and sailed up the river, winding in and out among those
wonderful islands with their diversity of hotels, clubhouses, elegant
mansions and pretty cottages; but all surpassed by the adornments of
nature, tall trees with luxuriant vines climbing to the very tops, and
the great rocks of the ages, rent and cleft and covered with mosses and
ferns.
It was a charming week but, although the stay might have been prolonged
through the summer, Miss Anthony was far too busy a woman for much
visiting, and on the 22d started for her old home at Adams, Mass., where
a unique and long anticipated event took place, which will be described
in the next chapter. A number of relatives, who had come from various
parts of the country for this occasion, returned to Rochester with her.
A little trip was made to Geneva to visit with Mrs. Stanton at Mrs.
Miller's, and so the summer sped quickly and pleasantly away.
Miss Anthony attended the Ohio convention at Alliance, October 5, and
was the guest of Mrs. Emma Cantine. While here, at the request of
President Marsh, she addressed the students of Mount Union College on
"The Progress of Women during my Lifetime." She had said again and again
that she would not leave her work and go to this convention, but when at
last a telegram was received, "For heaven's sake come; all depends on
you"--she put on her bonnet and went, just as she had done a hundred
times before.
She spoke, October 20, at the celebration of the hundredth birthday of
Rev. Samuel J. May, in the beautiful church erected to his memory in
Syracuse. She had known Mr. May intimately from 1850 to the time of his
death, and those who have read the first chapters of this book and seen
what he was to her in those early days of abolitionism and woman's
rights when the enemies far outnumbered the friends, can imagine how
eloquently she voiced the love and gratitude in her heart.
The next evening Miss Anthony left Rochester for ten days at Nashville,
Tenn. The Woman's Board had invited a number of national organizations
to hold conventions during the Exposition, and the last week was set
apart for the Woman's Council. This was not a suffrage meeting; it was
simply a national council where each one of the speakers asked for the
suffrage to enable her association to do its work. Headquarters were at
the Maxwell House, and the officers and many other notable women came
from various parts of the country for the week. The public sessions were
held in the Woman's Building, which was crowded to its capacity.
Although suffrage was a comparatively new subject in this city, the
announcement of Miss Anthony's address filled the assembly-room and she
was received with enthusiasm.
They met with a hearty greeting from the people of Nashville. Among the
elegant receptions given in their honor was one by Mr. and Mrs. W. W.
Berry at Vauxhall Place. The president of the Exposition, Mr. John W.
Thomas, and his wife gave a handsome entertainment, of which the
American's account said: "By the hostess stood her honored guest, Miss
Susan B. Anthony, in simple attire. Warm was the reception accorded this
gray-haired woman, and her grand face impressed all with the noble part
she had played in this century." At the close of the council the
visitors, as the guests of the lady directors, were driven in tally-ho
and carriages to the beautiful country-seat of the president of the
board, Mrs. Van Leer Kirkman, where they were royally received.
Miss Anthony spoke also before the Liberal Congress of Religions in
session at this time, and was introduced by the president, Dr. Thomas,
as "one who had stood for the cause of liberty when it cost something to
stand, and had borne the storm of calumny and abuse for fifty years."
While she was in Nashville President Erastus M. Cravath, of Fiske
University, called with his carriage and took her to that institution,
where she addressed the faculty and 600 students, speaking, by request,
on "The Early Days of Abolitionism."
After a day or two at home Miss Anthony attended the New York Suffrage
Convention at Geneva, November 3. Here she made a speech criticising the
women of New York City for having gone so actively into partisan
politics during the recent campaign, although none of the parties
advocated giving them the right of suffrage, and pointed out the
absurdity of hoping for "good government" from any party until it was
reinforced by the votes of women. The speech created something of a
sensation, and when she reached home a reporter was waiting for her, to
whom she gave an interview which intensified the original excitement.
Not only did she review the political situation in New York, but she
declared also that no movement could succeed unless it were managed by a
so-called "ring." Leaders must be surrounded by those who are in
sympathy with their ideas and willing to carry out their methods, or
nothing can be accomplished. In commenting, the paper quoted the remark
so often made, "When Susan B. Anthony was born a woman, an adroit
statesman was lost to the world."
On November 11 Miss Anthony started on a great swing of western
conventions, or conferences, stopping on her way to the railroad station
to attend the golden wedding reception of her friends of nearly fifty
years, Dr. and Mrs. Edward M. Moore. These conferences--Miss Anthony,
Mrs. Catt, Miss Shaw, speakers--were for the purpose of arousing
interest and raising money for the suffrage celebration to be held in
Washington in the winter of 1898. They began at Minneapolis and
continued for two days each in Madison, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo
and Toledo. At the first city Miss Anthony addressed the students of the
State University, introduced by President Cyrus Northrop. A reception
was given in the public library building by the local Woman's Council.
At each of the cities visited the ladies were entertained by prominent
residents, the audiences were large and appreciative, and the newspapers
contained long and favorable reports. There was not a discord in the
chorus of pleasant welcome; not a disrespectful word of either the
speakers or the cause they advocated. The question was treated with the
same consideration and dignity as others before the public for
discussion, and it required no more courage to present it than to talk
of any other reform of the day.
If one desire an illustration of the progress made by women during half
a century, let him turn to the early chapters of this book and read the
story of those first meetings where Miss Anthony, rising timidly in her
seat and asking to make a remark, was literally howled down because no
woman was allowed to speak in public; and then let him read these
closing chapters of her ovations extending from ocean to ocean. From a
canvass of New York State in a sleigh, speaking to little handfuls of
people in country schoolhouses, ridiculed by the newspapers and outlawed
by society--to an endless series of conventions and congresses in all
the great cities of the country, with no hall large enough to hold the
audiences and with almost the unanimous approval of press and people!
Only a short period of less than fifty years, scarcely a second in the
eons of history, and yet in that brief time a revolution in public
sentiment, an overturning of the customs and prejudices of the ages, the
release of womanhood from unknown centuries of bondage!
FOOTNOTES:
[128] Among other birthday remembrances were a diamond pin from Miss
Shaw, Mrs. Avery, Mrs. Louise Mosher James and Lucy E. Anthony; $50 from
Mrs. Gross; many smaller gifts and quantities of flowers.
[129] During this month a fine medallion of Miss Anthony was made for
the Political Equality Club of Rochester and put on sale to obtain money
for the suffrage fund. Some time before, a handsome souvenir spoon was
designed by Mrs. Millie Burtis Logan, of Rochester.
[130] Later Miss Anthony was made honorary member of Irondequoit
Chapter, D. A. R. (Rochester).
[131] Miss Anthony was this year made honorary member of the Cuban
League, the Rochester Historical Society, the Ladies of the Maccabees,
and various other organizations.
CHAPTER L.
HOME LIFE--THE REUNION--THE WOMAN.
1897.
The unsurpassed powers of endurance, which have enabled Miss Anthony to
work without ceasing for more than sixty years, are due to her perfect
physical condition. She comes of a long-lived race, in which
centenarians have been not unusual. Her paternal grandfather lived past
the age of ninety-seven, able to oversee his farm to the very last; the
grandmother lived beyond sixty-seven; both the maternal grandparents
died in their eighty-fourth year; her father at sixty-nine, and her
mother at eighty-six. She never has abused her inheritance of a fine,
strong constitution. Travelling so much of the time, she has not been
able to observe regular hours and, being usually entertained in private
families, has not had a choice of food, but nevertheless, as far as
possible, she has observed the laws of health which she made for herself
in youth.
She never fails to take each morning, regardless of the weather, a cold
sponge bath from head to foot, followed by a brisk rubbing, which puts
the skin in excellent condition. She has a good appetite, drinks tea and
coffee moderately and eats always the simplest food, cereals, bread and
butter, vegetables, eggs, milk, a little meat once a day, plenty of
fruit at every meal, whatever is in season, and never can be tempted by
rich salads, desserts or fancy dishes. Whenever it is possible she rests
a short time after each meal, and lies down for an hour during the
afternoon, even if she can not sleep; retires at nine or ten and rises
at six or seven. She travels by night, when convenient, as she thus can
avoid much of the fatigue of the journey. When travelling in the daytime
she reads very little, never writes or dictates letters on the train, as
many busy people do, but makes herself comfortable and dozes and rests.
An invariable rule, with which nothing is allowed to interfere, is
plenty of fresh air and exercise, and she regards these as the
mainspring of her long years of health and activity. If she has been on
the cars all day, she walks from the station to her stopping-place.
After a speech, she walks home. When in Rochester she often writes until
nearly 10 o'clock at night, then puts on a long cloak, ties a scarf over
her head, goes out to the mail box, and walks eight or ten blocks,
returning in a warm glow; gives herself a thorough rubbing, and is ready
for a night's rest in a room where the window is open at all seasons.
The policemen are accustomed to the late pedestrian and often speak a
word of greeting as she passes. It is not an unusual thing for her to
take up a broom, when it has been snowing all the evening, and sweep the
walks around and in front of the house, just before going to bed. While
not an adherent of any special "sciences" or "cures," she believes
thoroughly in not dwelling upon either mental or bodily ills; giving
disagreeable things and people only such attention as is absolutely
necessary, and then putting them out of mind; observing the laws of
hygiene with regard to the body and then banishing it also from the
thoughts. Over and above all else is she an advocate of work, employment
for mind and body, as a means of salvation.
In dress Miss Anthony is extremely particular. She considers it poor
economy to wear cheap material, always buys the best fabrics, linings
and trimmings, and employs a competent dressmaker. She has one gown a
year and often this is a present from some loving friend. While she
wears only black silk or satin in public, she loves color and her house
dress is usually maroon or soft cardinal. Her laces and few pieces of
jewelry are gifts from women. The slender little ring, worn on the
"wedding finger," was placed there thirty years ago by her devoted
friend, Dr. Clemence Lozier. She never in a lifetime has changed the
style of wearing her hair, once dark brown, glossy and abundant, now
thin and fine and shining like spun silver, which is always evenly
parted, combed over the ears and coiled low at the back, thus showing
the fine contour of her head. In all the details of the toilet she is
most fastidious, and a rent, a missing button or a frayed edge is
considered almost an unpardonable sin.
Miss Anthony attends Unitarian church but retains her membership in the
Society of Quakers. On the rare occasions when she needs a physician,
she consults some woman of the homeopathic school, but she is opposed to
much medicine, believing that proper diet and exercise are the best cure
for most maladies. Although pleased always to welcome callers, she makes
few visits, except to the faithful friends of olden times whose names so
often have been mentioned in these pages. She finds the days all too
short and too few for the great work whose demands increase with every
year. While Miss Anthony feels an abiding interest in household affairs,
the details and management necessarily devolve upon her sister Mary, who
also looks carefully after the finances, to see that the modest income
is not all appropriated to the cause of woman suffrage. In matters of a
material nature she is the needed complement to the life of her gifted
sister. On all vital questions, suffrage, religion, the various reforms,
the two are in perfect accord and, as they sit together in the quiet
home for the usual twilight chat before the lamps are lighted, there is
none of that dwelling in the past, to which old people are so prone, but
all is of the present, the live topics of the day, and the plans and
hopes which they share alike.
The Anthony home in Rochester stands in Madison street, one of the
nicely paved, well-shaded avenues in the western part of that beautiful
city. It is a plain, substantial two-and-a-half story brick house of
thirteen rooms, with modern conveniences, and belongs to Miss Mary. It
is furnished with Quakerlike simplicity but with everything necessary to
make life comfortable. In the front parlor are piano, easy chairs and
many pictures and pieces of bric-a-brac, given by friends. Over the
mantel hangs a fine, large painting of the Yosemite, presented to Miss
Anthony in 1896 by William Keith, the noted artist of California.
Beneath it stand three fine photographs, Mary Wollstonecraft, Lucretia
Mott and Frederick Douglass. Between the windows is the very mahogany
table upon which were written the call and resolutions for the first
woman's rights convention ever held--the gift of Mrs. Stanton. In the
back parlor the most conspicuous object is the library table strewn with
the papers and magazines which come by every mail. This is surrounded
with arm-chairs, tempting one to pause awhile and enjoy this luxury of
literature. On one side are the bookcases, and on the walls large
engravings of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and a handsome
copy of Murillo's Madonna, while in one corner stands the mother's
spinning-wheel. Opening out of this room is Miss Mary's study, the big
desk filled with work pertaining to the Political Equality Club of 200
members, whose efficient president she has been for a number of years;
and here she spends several hours every day looking after her own work
and relieving her sister of a part of hers. There is a sewing-machine
here also, and a big, old-fashioned haircloth sofa, suggesting a nap and
a dream of bygone days.
In the dining-room is a handsomely carved mahogany sideboard, a family
heirloom, containing china and silver which belonged to mother and
grandmother, and here hang very old steel engravings of Washington and
Lincoln. The large, light kitchen, with its hard coal range, is a
favorite apartment, and Miss Anthony especially enjoys sitting there in
a low rocking-chair while she reads the morning paper. The front room
upstairs, with little dressing-room attached, is the guest chamber. It
contains a great chest of drawers, a dressing-table and mirror which
were part of the mother's wedding outfit over eighty years ago, a
mahogany bedstead and a modern writing-desk and rocking-chairs. On the
walls are several paintings, the work of loved hands long since at rest,
and two engravings, over one hundred years old, such as used to hang in
every Abolitionist's parlor in early days. They are copies of paintings
by G. Morland, engraved in 1794, by "J. R. Smith, King St., Covent
Garden, engravers to H. R. H. the Prince of Wales." One is entitled
"African Hospitality," and represents a ship wrecked off the coast of
Africa with the white passengers rescued and tenderly cared for by the
natives; the other is named "The Slave Trade," and shows these same
negroes loaded with chains and driven aboard ship by the white men whom
they had saved. These pictures have little meaning to the present
generation, but one can imagine how they must have fired the hearts of
those who were laboring to eradicate the curse of slavery from the
nation.
Back of the guest chamber, in this interesting home, is Miss Mary's
sleeping-room, with quaint old furniture and family pictures; then the
maid's room, another guest chamber and, in the southwest corner, next
the bathroom, the pleasant bedroom of Miss Anthony with the pictures of
those she loves best, and the dresser littered with the little toilet
articles of which she is very fond. The most attractive room in the
house, naturally, is Miss Anthony's study in the south wing on the
second floor. It is light and sunshiny and has an open gas fire. Looking
down from the walls are Benjamin Lundy, Garrison, Phillips, Gerrit
Smith, Frances Wright, Ernestine L. Rose, Abby Kelly Foster, Harriet
Beecher Stowe, Lucy Stone, Lydia Maria Child and, either singly or in
groups, many more of the great reformers of the past and present
century. On one side are the book shelves, with cyclopedia, histories
and other volumes of reference; on another an inviting couch, where the
busy worker may drop down for a few moment's repose of mind and body. By
one window is the typewriter, and by the other the great desk weighted
with letters and documents.
Each morning, as soon as the postman arrives, Miss Anthony sits down at
her desk and, going over the piles of letters, puts to one side those
which can wait, dictates replies to those requiring the longest answers
and, while they are being typewritten, plunges with her pen into the
rest. Many hours every day and often into the night she writes steadily,
but the pile never diminishes. As president of the National-American
Association not only must she direct the work for suffrage, which is
being carried on in all parts of the country to a much greater extent
than the public imagines, but she also must keep in touch with the
hundreds of individuals each of whom is helping in a quiet but effective
way. There are few days that do not bring requests from libraries,
associations, colleges, high schools or clubs for literature and other
information concerning woman suffrage, which is now the subject of
debate from the great universities down to the cross roads schoolhouse.
In past years libraries have been very deficient in matter upon this
question because there was no general call for it, but now the demand is
so large that it scarcely can be supplied, and all instinctively turn to
Miss Anthony for information.
Some idea has been given of the scope of her correspondence of a public
nature, but it hardly would be possible to describe the private letters.
Standing for half a century as the friend and defender of women, and
known so widely through her travels and newspaper notices, she is
overwhelmed with appeals for advice and assistance. From the number of
wives, and husbands also, who pour the tale of their domestic grievances
into her ears, she would be fully justified in believing marriage a
failure. She is daily requested to sign petitions for every conceivable
purpose, and begged for letters of recommendation by people of whom she
never heard. Women entreat her to obtain positions for their husbands
and children and to help themselves get pensions, or damages, or wages
out of which they have been defrauded. Girls and boys want advice about
their plans for the future. Women, and men too, without education or
experience, insist upon being placed as speakers on the suffrage
platform. Authors send books asking for a review. People write of their
business ventures, their lawsuits, their surgical operations, their
diseases and those of all their family, and of every imaginable
household matter. Scores of letters ask for a "word of greeting" on all
sorts of occasions. Editors of papers and pamphlets, advocating every
ology and ism under the sun, send them with the entreaty that she will
examine and express an opinion, each insisting that "it will take only
a few hours of her time." She is besieged to dress dolls and make aprons
for fairs, to write her name upon pieces to be used for quilts and
cushions, and to furnish scraps of her gowns for the same purpose.
Babies are named for her and she is asked to send a letter of
acknowledgment and a little keepsake. Requests for autographs outnumber
the days of the year.
She is constantly importuned to examine MSS., and not only to do this
but to secure a publisher. During the year 1897 one man sent an article
of sixty-eight closely typewritten pages of legal cap, asking that she
give it a careful reading, revise it, and send it where it would be
published; and no postage stamps accompanied this nervy request. A woman
whose grammar and rhetoric were most defective announced that she had
written a book called "The Intemperate Life of my Father;" also two
stories and a play. She would send all of them to Miss Anthony, to 'fix
up just as if they were her own and help her sell them; she wanted the
proceeds to assist her brothers who had failed in business.' It is a
common occurrence for persons to ask, without so much as enclosing a
stamp, that she prepare an address on woman suffrage and send for them
to read as their own production. One enthusiastic poem begins:
"When the grain is ripe we will gather the sheaves,
And weave a crown for your brow of laurel leaves."
A man from the great Northwest sends a long article entitled, "Sun and
Moon Bathed in Blood! Ring, Ring the Bells!" desiring that it be put in
the "index of the biography," meaning the appendix. One writes: "You are
said to be very good about assisting helpless girls; now you could not
find one more helpless than I am;" and then requests that she select,
have made and pay for a school outfit for her. Another has a great
scheme for starting a "workingwoman's home" and wants Miss Anthony to
furnish the money. The list might be extended almost indefinitely and,
while one is amused and disgusted by turns, there are among this vast
correspondence many letters which touch the heart. During the tariff
debate in Congress in 1897 a paragraph was widely published that a tax
was to be placed on tea, and this note, evidently written by a child,
was received: "My mamma goes out to work while I go to school and she
loves her cup of tea. Our groceryman tells us we will have to pay more
for it now. I have heard how good you are to the poor, do please spare
time to write to the President and ask him not to make our tea dearer.
Tell him to put the tax on beer and whiskey."
Miss Anthony is very conscientious about answering letters, too much so,
her friends think, for she is a slave to her correspondence. Sometimes,
however, she reaches the point of exasperation, as when she opened eight
pages of a faintly written scrawl beginning, "My heart goes out to you
in sympathy." "Well, I wish it would go out in blacker ink," she
exclaimed, and threw it into the waste-basket. Invitations to lecture
and to attend all sorts of gatherings pour in, and she often says to the
younger workers, "If I might but transfer them to you, how much good you
could accomplish." Every mail brings also loving and appreciative
letters which illuminate the whole day, take the sting out of the unkind
ones and lighten the burdens never entirely lifted. The women who have
come into the work in late years continually ask, "How have you borne it
so long?" Sometimes when their own endurance ceases they write her that
they will have to resign, and she makes answer: "If all the young women
fail, then the octogenarian must work the harder till a new reserve
comes to the rescue;" and of course they are ashamed and redouble their
labors to show their loyalty.
With all her hours of toil she is never satisfied with what she has
accomplished, but always feels that she might have done a little more,
that something or somebody has been neglected. In looking over the
mention made in these chapters of a few of the most valuable gifts and
noteworthy letters, she said with sadness: "And no notice has been taken
of the hundreds of little tokens of affection which cost far more of
sacrifice on the part of the givers, and of the thousands of letters
from obscure but faithful women, without which I never could have had
the courage to do my work."
[Illustration: THE ANTHONY FAMILY AT THE REUNION, ADAMS, MASS., JULY 30,
1897.]
While Miss Anthony has remained at home more days in 1897 than in any
previous year for half a century it has been one of the busiest in
regard to letter-writing. It is the dream of her life to raise a
permanent fund to be placed in the hands of trustees, after the manner
of the famous Peabody fund, the income to be used to further the cause
of woman suffrage. To accomplish this she is exerting her strongest
powers of appeal. During all these years of labor for humanity she has
had to beg practically every dollar she has used, and she longs to
relieve the workers of the future from this drudgery and humiliation, by
providing an assured income, so they may not be obliged to expend half
their time and strength in obtaining the money with which to do the
work. In addition to this Standing Fund, she is endeavoring also to
secure enough money for the early establishment of a Press Bureau for
the purpose of taking up and answering, day by day, the false statements
made in regard to woman suffrage, its ultimate aims and actual results;
to furnish news and arguments where they are desired; and to enlist the
support of the press for this question, which is now acknowledged to be
one of the leading issues of the day.
The event of 1897 which gave Miss Anthony more pleasure than all others,
in fact one of the happiest incidents of her life, was the Anthony
Reunion at Adams, Mass., the last of July. The Historical and Scientific
Society of Berkshire had for many years held an annual meeting at some
one of the historic spots for which that county is especially noted. In
1895 this had been held in the dooryard of the old Anthony homestead,
and she had been invited to be present, but was otherwise engaged. It
had been the custom to eulogize her highly at these gatherings but it
was determined that now she must come and speak for herself, therefore
the invitation was repeated for 1896, but then she was in California. In
1897 the letter from the president, A. L. Perry, said: "The present
writing is to give you a formal and official invitation, in the name of
the people of the entire county, whose representatives we are, to be
present and participate in our next meeting. You may be sure of a warm
welcome from your old neighbors who remain, and from the generation of
Berkshire people, men and women, now on the stage."
The meeting was to be held in Lee, and she wrote that if they would
again hold it at the old Anthony homestead she would put aside
everything else and come. She soon received this answer from Rev. A. B.
Whipple: "It gives me pleasure, as vice-president of the Berkshire
Historical Society, to inform you that we have decided to gratify your
'bit of sentiment' as well as our own inclination to meet again 'in that
old dooryard,' to do you honor as one of the natives of Berkshire whose
historic lives are finding a deserved and permanent record in our
society."
Miss Anthony ever wanted her friends to share in her joys and was
anxious that everybody should know her friends, so she wrote that she
would like to have the Berkshire people hear Miss Shaw and others among
the noted speakers. After some exchange of letters the officers of the
society requested her to take charge of the program of the day, and
promised to second all her arrangements. As she always combined business
with pleasure she appointed a meeting of the national suffrage committee
that week, and thus brought to Adams her "body guard," Miss Shaw, Miss
Blackwell, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Avery, Mrs. Upton[132] and, by invitation,
Mrs. Sewall, Mrs. Colby and Mrs. Harper. She had decided also to have at
this time a family reunion, and for many weeks had been writing far and
wide to the Anthonys, the Laphams, the Reads and the Richardsons,
bidding all come to Adams on the 29th of July, and as a result the "Old
Hive" swarmed as it never had done, even in the early days. She went on
a week ahead and joined forces with her cousin, Mrs. Fannie Bates, who
lived in the house. Albert Anthony, another cousin and near neighbor,
put himself, his horses and vehicles at their service; other relatives
came to their assistance, beds were set up, provisions laid in; and for
a week fifteen people picnicked in the old homestead. The overflow was
received in the hospitable homes of other relatives in the neighborhood,
and even Hotel Greylock, in the village, was pressed into service to
entertain the guests, who came from Kansas, Illinois, New York,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hampshire and other States.
The suffrage committee meetings were held during several days and
evenings preceding the Historical Society celebration. It was a picture
always to be remembered, that group of distinguished women, standing at
the very head of the greatest progressive movement of the age, gathered
in serious conclave in those old-fashioned, low-ceiled rooms built over
a century ago, concocting schemes which would have filled their Quaker
owners with holy horror. It seemed almost as if they would come back
from the dim past to ask what it all meant. And yet, when one recalled
that the Quakers never commanded their women to keep silence in the
meeting house, but recognized their full equality there and elsewhere,
and stood for liberty in a world given over to religious and political
tyranny, it seemed indeed most fitting that the representatives of this
great association for securing freedom to all, should come together
under the roof of one of these old Friends. One felt as if the ancient
door-latch should lift, and Aunt Hannah, the wise and gentle Quaker
preacher, should glide in and take her seat among these other women whom
the Spirit also had moved. But the most remarkable feature of this
unique occasion was that the woman presiding over the deliberations of
this body of reformers, should have carried on her childish games in
this very room, seventy-five years before, and listened with awe to
parents and grandparents as they discussed the burning questions of
intemperance, slavery and religious intolerance.
An unseasonable storm of several days' duration had made it necessary to
transfer the meeting of the Historical Society to the pavilion in
Plunkett's Park. The ladies of Adams and vicinity, with Mrs. Susan
Anthony Brown at their head, had prepared a bountiful luncheon for the
officers of the society and the fifty invited guests, and here, at noon
on July 29, Miss Anthony sat at the upper end of the long table with
Rev. Anna Shaw on one hand and Rev. A. B. Whipple on the other. At the
conclusion of the luncheon, the officers and speakers took seats on the
stage in the large pavilion, which soon was filled with an audience that
had come from Williamstown, North Adams, Pittsfield, Great Barrington,
Lee and other surrounding towns. The Adams Freeman said: "If the group
of women speakers were brilliant, the audience that honored them, while
less so perhaps in renown, was equal in intellectual attainments. It was
a cultured assembly, including the most progressive people of
Berkshire."[133]
[Illustration: AT THE OLD HOMESTEAD, JULY 30, 1897.]
In a few words of welcome Rev. Louis Zahner, the Episcopal minister,
spoke of the Anthony family as having laid the foundations of the
schools, the industries and the prosperity of Adams, and of the
community's indebtedness to them for the best it has today. Mr. Whipple,
in a cordial address, then introduced Miss Anthony and placed the
meeting in her charge. Can any pen describe her pride and happiness in
returning thus to the loved home of her birth and childhood, to meet
this warm and appreciative welcome and to introduce in turn her cabinet
of eminent women?
After relating some very interesting recollections of her ancestors and
of early events, which were especially appreciated by the old residents,
she introduced Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who said in the course of a
graceful address:
There is no citizen of this great nation who would not be delighted
with the privilege of visiting these Berkshire hills, famed for
their beauty, but it is not because of this that most of us have
made this pilgrimage to Adams; rather have we come with much of
that spirit which led the thousands upon thousands of Christians in
the early centuries to Jerusalem, or which later prompted thousands
of Mohammedans to make their pilgrimage to the city of Mecca. We
have come to Adams because it is the birthplace of the greatest
woman of our time.
Many centuries ago, on the 15th of February, there was born a man
whose name is familiar to every school-child throughout the
civilized world, and yet that man never knew a happy day. He was
reviled, persecuted, martyred, tried, condemned, and died sorrowful
and broken-hearted. And what was his offense? He declared that this
earth turned upon its axis and that it moved around the sun. There
were no newspapers in that day, but every pulpit thundered its
denunciation against the great Galileo. When he was condemned to
die he was compelled to renounce this belief, but under his breath
he said, "The world does move!" A century after he had gone, not a
pulpit in Christendom, not a scholar, was there but knew that he
had told the truth.
It is a curious coincidence that upon the anniversary of the
birthday of Galileo there was born Susan B. Anthony. She also
perceived a great truth and the world did not agree with her. It
reviled her for the belief she had propounded, but in this century
she never renounced that belief, but thundered back to the pulpit
and to the newspapers that the world does move and the time will
come when women shall be free; the time will come when they shall
have every right, every privilege, every liberty which any man
enjoys.... We, today, are making the first pilgrimage to the
birthplace of Susan B. Anthony, but I prophesy that in another
quarter of a century there will be many pilgrimages hither, and no
child will be so illiterate as not to know that in this county it
was this greatest of American women was born.
Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery followed with an entertaining account of her
trip abroad with Miss Anthony and the latter's utter indifference to the
titles of the nobility. As she never could get them right she discarded
all of them and insisted on calling everybody plain "Mr." and "Mrs." She
then related this incident:
We had in our party for a few weeks a couple of English ladies.
When driving in Rome, one of them, a great dame of noble lineage,
was admiring an old palace belonging to some very ancient Roman
family and made the statement that this same family owned five
other famous palaces in Italy. Miss Anthony seemed to be making a
mental calculation, and finally said with enthusiasm, "What a
magnificent orphan asylum that would make."
"Why, Miss Anthony, do you mean that you would actually turn the
home of this old family into an orphan asylum?"
"Yes," said she, "I think about 700 of these little ragamuffins
could be put in there. Think of the streets just full of them, and
all these big houses vacant! I don't see a better use to which
these old palaces could be put."
Mrs. Upton in her bright, humorous way related some amusing stories
which she had heard from her ancestors, who were born in Berkshire, and
adroitly turned them into an argument for woman suffrage. A beautiful
poem was read, entitled "Pioneers," dedicated to Miss Anthony by her old
friend John M. Thayer, of Rochester. Col. D. R. Anthony created great
mirth by telling among other stories that eighty years ago his father
had a cotton mill of twenty-six looms; one day all of them suddenly
stopped and, rushing out to ascertain the cause, he found that his wife,
in rinsing her mop in the stream, had stopped the power which moved the
machinery! He then referred to the Plunkett factories with 2,600 looms,
and the other great mills of Adams, as illustrating the progress of the
century. In an address which glowed with beauty and eloquence, Mrs. May
Wright Sewall thus compared Miss Anthony's character with the scenes
amidst which she was born:
We, who own and follow our general, know that she goes where
Liberty leads, where Justice calls, where Love whispers his divine
commands; and we have found in her the gravity of your stately
mountains, the yearning for freedom of your lofty hills lifted
toward the sky spaces. We have found in her the impetuosity of your
mountain streams, which, fretting against narrow bounds, broke
through them, widening and widening ever the channel of the life of
American womanhood; and so we, who love appropriateness, gaze with
delight upon this scenery, the environment of her infancy and the
nurturing influence of her childhood, as a fine illustration of the
eternal fitness of things.
One of the most exquisite addresses of the day was made by Mrs. Clara B.
Colby, who said in part:
Miss Anthony's love of justice links her with the divine. This has
been her impelling motive, and her patient endurance has been the
secret of her success. No matter how keen might have been her sense
of the injustice done to women, no matter how courageously she
might have set out to right the wrong, had she lacked endurance,
she had never been the one to lead us to victory. As justice is the
root of the tree of character, and patience the stalk from which
all growth proceeds, so tenderness is the outflowering of the
divinity within. By her tenderness Miss Anthony has made herself
loved where she might have only been honored.
It was perhaps the drop hardest to swallow from the cup of
bitterness which was ever pressed to the lips of the early woman
suffragists, that they were destroyers of the home. To Miss
Anthony, the home and kindred-lover--homeless only for the sake of
the homes of the mother-half of the race--this must have been
especially hard to bear. There are such all over the land where she
has been a tender and sympathetic friend and where she is enshrined
in the hearts of the homekeepers.... Thus Miss Anthony,
justice-loving, patient and tender, has erected for herself a
lasting monument in the hearts of the women of this nation. May the
time be long deferred when she shall pass from the leadership of
her now triumphant host, but when that day comes, let there be, as
she has enjoined upon us, no tears, but only glad thankfulness for
a great life-work wrought in courage, fidelity and tenderness.
Mrs. Colby urged the Historical Society to purchase the old homestead,
if possible, as a depository not only for relics of the Anthony family
but for mementoes of suffrage work and workers. No report ever can give
an adequate idea of the eloquence of Anna Shaw, so artistically
diversified by delicious bits of humor and keen points of satire. A
portion of her address was as follows:
Amidst all the eulogy which has surrounded Miss Anthony this
afternoon, her brother said to me, "Don't you think they will turn
Susan's head?" I answered, "No, she has had so many years of
misrepresentation and abuse that if they keep on eulogizing her as
long as she lives, it won't balance the other side." There is no
danger in this world that the leader of an unpopular cause ever
will die of overpraise, for, in America as in Jerusalem, the
prophets of God have always been received with stones. We who know
her best love her most, and to me the truest and deepest love of my
existence, since my mother entered the life beyond, is that which I
cherish for Susan B. Anthony.
The remonstrants today tell us that our movement will destroy the
affectionate tenderness of the womanly nature and unsex woman until
she becomes a weak man. I believe in men, and I do not believe that
all the love, the tenderness, the power to sacrifice is feminine. I
believe that the love of man is as true and deep and tender as the
love of woman. I will not accept the theory that "man is the head"
and "woman is the heart." I believe that when God created head and
heart for the human race He divided them equally and gave man his
part and woman hers, and both have kept their own all the way down
the centuries.
The part of Miss Anthony's life which is dearest to us is that into
which she has admitted the few who belong to the sacred inner
circle, who have seen her toil, her suffering, her soul's anguish
and travail for the freedom, the larger growth, the diviner
possibilities of womanhood; and if there is any evidence that
living in the world, working for its uplift, does not destroy this
trait in human character, it is shown in the life of Miss Anthony.
There is no human being whom I have ever known who had more
tenderness for the erring and greater willingness to overlook the
frailties of human life. In this she shows that contact with the
most disagreeable side of the reformer's work, makes the real woman
not less but more womanly. I believe that if the principles which
she advocates, the ideals for which she stands, were embodied in
all womankind, we would have a motherhood diviner than any this
world has ever known, a motherhood such as God had in his thought
when he created woman to be the mother of the race....
It is not a name we love today, it is not a person we revere, but a
great, an ideal life of a woman who has battled with the world, who
has been misunderstood, who has borne its scorn, who has been
ostracised, and who, in the midst of all, has kept her life sweet,
her heart young, her love tender; and when the best thing shall be
said of her which men and women can say, it will be--she was true,
she was noble, she was woman.
The day after the meeting of the Historical Society, occurred the
Anthony Reunion at the old homestead, when eighty of the clan sat down
at the long tables spread in grandfather's room, the keeping-room and
the weaving-room; and what a dinner the famous cooks of the
Anthony-Lapham-Read-Richardson families had prepared for this great
occasion! Not the least important features were the eighteen apple-pies
eaten with the world-renowned Berkshire cheese; and then the sweet bread
and butter, the fried chicken, the baked beans, the rich preserves and
cream, the delicious cake--but why attempt to describe a New England
dinner prepared by New England women? Those who have eaten know what it
is; those who have not, can not be made to understand.
Where Susan B. Anthony sat was the head of the table; at her right hand,
the brother Daniel R.; at her left, the brother Merritt; and close by,
the quiet, smiling sister Mary; and then all along down the line, the
cousins, the nephews, the nieces, three and four generations, who had
joined so heartily with her for the success of this rare occasion.
Before the dinner began, Miss Anthony asked that, in accordance with the
custom of their ancestors, there might be a moment of silent thanks; and
at the close of the meal, when the chatter and mirth were stilled, she
arose and in touching words paid tribute to the loved and gone who once
blessed these rooms by their presence. She then called upon the
representatives of the different branches, old and young, who, in prose
or poetry, with wit or pathos, made delightful response.
[Illustration: THE QUAKER MEETING HOUSE, ADAMS, MASS. 150 YEARS OLD.
SEVERAL MEMBERS OF THE ANTHONY FAMILY IN THE GROUP OF PIONEERS.]
After all had finished they adjourned to the dooryard and a reception
commenced which even the roomy old house could not have accommodated.
For several hours a long line of carriages wound up the hill--the people
of Adams and vicinity coming to pay respect to their illustrious
townswoman and her relatives and friends. The immediate members of the
family were photographed in a group on the old porch, as was also the
dinner party gathered in the historic dooryard. The mountain air was
sweet and invigorating, and the view in every direction most enchanting.
A more picturesque spot scarcely can be imagined: in front, the long
range of Berkshire hills, a spur of the Green mountains of Vermont whose
faint outlines are visible in the distance; at the back, glorious "Old
Greylock," the highest peak in the State; at the right, the steep,
winding road leading down to the village a mile below, through a ravine
perfectly bewildering in its beauty of overhanging trees, moss-grown
rocks and fern-bordered brook tumbling over the massive boulders in its
rapid descent to join the Hoosac; and then united they flow through the
pretty town of Adams, turning the countless wheels of the great mills
and factories.
The next day after the reunion a merry party of thirty, the guests of a
cousin, William Anthony, started in two great coaches, each drawn by six
horses, for the all-day trip to the top of Mount Greylock. The gayest
and happiest of them all was Miss Anthony, with her red shawl over her
shoulders, and her heart as light as when she used to climb these
mountainsides, a little, barefooted girl, more than seventy years ago.
Several days thereafter were spent visiting the pleasant homes of the
relatives, and going with her friends to point out the various places of
interest. Every spot connected with her early life was as sacred to them
as it was dear to her. Together they went to the deserted Quaker meeting
house, a century and a half old, and were shown the very spot where sat
the grandfather, the father, mother and little ones; and the raised
bench occupied by the grandmother, who was a "high-seat Quaker," and
Aunt Hannah Hoxie, the preacher. They strolled through the little
graveyard, with its lines of unmarked mounds. They visited the site of
the old mill, built by Daniel Anthony at the very beginning of the
manufacturing industry, where now only a few sunken stones mark the
foundation. They rested beneath the great trees which stand like
sentinels in front of the girlhood home of the mother, the house long
since crumbled away. They gazed curiously at the ancient Bowen's Tavern,
the favorite stopping-place of the mountaineers in early days.
And then they went with Miss Anthony into her own old home. They stepped
reverently into the very room where she was born. They climbed to the
garret and she pointed out the exact spot by the tiny window where she
used to sit with her simple playthings. They stood with her by the
little stream which still ran merrily through the dooryard, and listened
with misty eyes as she recalled many touching incidents of days long
past; but, however her own heart might have ached with tender
recollections, there were no words of vain longing, no useless tears for
those who had fulfilled their mission and passed away, leaving to her
their legacy of hope and courage and determination. Strong, brave and
cheerful, she honored the memory of the dead in showing herself by her
works to be the worthy descendant of a noble race. And here, where the
story of this pure, single-hearted, self-sacrificing life began, it
shall be ended.
* * * * *
The usual fate of reformers is "praise when the ear has grown too dull
to hear, fame when the heart it should have thrilled is numb." Seldom it
is, indeed, that they live to see the fulfillment of the end for which
they labored, and even recognition usually is deferred until it can be
given only to a memory, but there are a few happy exceptions. While true
reformers seek no personal reward, those who love them rejoice when they
are spared to receive the honors they have earned. Susan B. Anthony's
self-imposed task, for almost half a century, has been to secure equal
rights for women--social, civil and political. When she began her
crusade, woman in social life was "cabin'd, cribb'd, confined," to an
extent which scarcely can be conceived by the present independent and
self-reliant generation; in law she was but little better than a slave;
in politics, a mere cipher. Today in society she has practically
unlimited freedom; in the business world most of the obstacles have been
removed; the laws, although still unjust in many respects, have been
revolutionized in her favor; in four States women have the full
franchise, in one the municipal ballot, in twenty-five a vote on school
questions, and in four others some form of suffrage; while in each
campaign their recognition as a political factor grows more marked. Miss
Anthony's part in securing these concessions may be judged from the
record of these pages. She is the only woman who has given her whole
time and effort to this one end, with no division of interest in behalf
of husband and children, no diversion of other public questions. Is
there an example in all history of either man or woman who devoted half
a century of the hardest, most persistent labor for one reform?
"Of the dead naught shall be spoken except good," is a rule so
universally observed that post mortem compliments have little weight,
but when beautiful things are said of those who still live and toil,
they are full of meaning. Not only is it a delight to her
contemporaries, but it will be a pleasure to future generations who
shall read her history, that Miss Anthony lived to receive her meed of
appreciation. While not all of even the enlightened minds of today have
progressed far enough to accept her doctrine of perfect equality, which
will be universally admitted by the next generation, there are few who
do not recognize and honor the splendid character of the woman and the
service she has rendered. Just as these closing words are being written,
the State superintendent of public works, George W. Aldridge, announces
that he has ordered her face to be carved in the Capitol at Albany, one
of the magnificent public buildings of the world. Here, wrought in
imperishable stone, amidst those of the country's greatest warriors and
statesmen, it will look down forever upon that grand staircase whose
marble steps were so many times pressed by her weary feet, as she made
her annual pilgrimage to plead for liberty.
The sweetest strains in this great oratorio are the tributes of women
voicing their love and gratitude. They come from those in all the walks
of life, and a distinguishing feature is that they who have known her
longest and best are most loyal and devoted. The secret of this is
perfectly expressed by May Wright Sewall, when she says:
Mortals with all their consciousness of their own infirmities are
exacting of one another. It is a proof of the infinite
possibilities involved in the human soul, and a foundation for the
infinite hope which sustains us, that we are satisfied with nothing
less than perfection in other people. Is a woman great? To please
us she must be also good. Is a woman both great and good? We are
not satisfied unless she be likewise loving and lovable. No one can
come near to the life of Miss Anthony without realizing how
responsive she is to personal needs; how lively in her sympathies;
how instinctive her outreaching of the helping hand. The same
fidelity and single-minded loyalty which have characterized her
public career, distinguish her in all private relations. Others may
forget us in our griefs, she never forgets. Others may forget us in
our pleasures, she never forgets.
It is indeed true that Miss Anthony never forgets. In her letters to
hundreds of people, she recollects always to send a message to the
different members of the family, to refer to some agreeable incident of
their acquaintance, and to express either pleasure or regret over
personal affairs which any one else would have failed to remember amidst
such a pressure of work and responsibility.
After an unbroken friendship of twenty-five years, Frances E. Willard,
herself one of the grandest women of the century, paid this beautiful
tribute in December, 1897:
Ever since I "came to myself" my love and loyalty have enveloped
the name, Susan B. Anthony. I look upon her as that figure full of
courage, resource and dignity which will yet be enshrined in the
admiring affection of the whole republic, even as it already has
been for so long in that of thoughtful women. Others have done
nobly and we count over their names with devout remembrance and
gratitude, but Susan B. Anthony by reason of her heroic
self-sacrifice, her lonely life, her changeless devotion, her
disregard for money and position, her concentration of purpose and
universal good will, has made for herself a place on the highest
pedestal in America's pantheon of women.
We do not forget "the slings and arrows" of the earlier time, now
that she is justly honored in these years of greater intelligence
and progress; we do not forget that high sense of personal
integrity which led her to pay off the debts on The Revolution,
although no legal obligation rested upon her to do so; we do not
forget her testing of an unjust law in the great "case" in
Rochester; we do not forget that (jointly with her great associate,
Mrs. Stanton) she prepared for us that invaluable historic record
of the suffrage movement from its earliest inception; we do not
forget the untiring labors which have carried her, from youth to
age, into every nook and corner of the Union; and many of us are
cognizant of unnumbered acts of personal kindness toward women in
need who cherish her as if she were their sister or their mother.
Although the press once misrepresented her, it would hardly venture
to do so now, for her standing with the public is such that not to
know Miss Anthony argues one's self unknown, and to vilify her
argues one's self a villain.
Blessed Sister Susan, accept the homage of one whom you have
cheered and comforted, and who rejoices to believe that the loving
friendship begun here shall grow and deepen in the bright light of
that happier world where there is no injustice, and where we have
abundant reason to believe that women will stand on a plane of
perfect equality.
A number of years ago, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her own unsurpassed
beauty of language, said:
I will attempt no analysis of one as dear to me as those of my own
household. In an intimate friendship of many years, without a break
or shadow; in daily consultation, sometimes for months together
under the same roof, often in circumstances of great trial and
perplexity, I can truly say that Susan B. Anthony is the most
charitable, self-reliant, magnanimous human being that I ever knew.
As I recall the honesty and heroism of her public life; her
tenderness and generous self-sacrifice to friends in private; her
spontaneous good will towards her worst enemies, a new hope kindles
within me for womankind--a hope that by giving some high purpose to
their lives, all women may be lifted above the petty envy,
jealousy, malice and discontent that now poison so many hearts
which might, in healthy action, overflow with love and helpfulness
to all humanity. Miss Anthony's grand life is a lesson to all
unmarried women, showing that the love-element need not be wholly
lost if it is not centered on husband and children. To live for a
principle, for the triumph of some reform by which all mankind are
to be lifted up--to be wedded to an idea--may be, after all, the
holiest and happiest of marriages.
In the twilight of age, when Mrs. Stanton prepared for future
generations the Reminiscences of her life and work of fourscore years,
she wrote to her old friend: "The current of our lives has run in the
same channel so long it can not be separated, and my book is as much
your story as, I doubt not, yours is mine;" and when it was ended she
placed upon it the inscription, "I dedicate this volume to Susan B.
Anthony, my steadfast friend for half a century."
Steadfast! No other word so fitly defines the keystone of the arch of
noble attributes upon which this heroic life is founded--as constant to
a principle as to a friendship. There is nothing of the martyr in Miss
Anthony's nature and she refuses to consider herself in the light of a
vicarious sacrifice. "I do not look back upon a hard life," she says; "I
have been continually at work because I enjoyed being busy. Had this
never-ending toil made me wretched in mind or body, I have no doubt that
in some way I should have gotten out of it." "What thanks did you
receive for the stand you made?" once was asked her. "I had my own
thanks for retaining my self-respect," was the reply. Again one
inquired, "Did you not grow discouraged in those olden times?" "Never,"
she answered; "I knew that my cause was just, and I was always in good
company." Her character, instead of growing embittered by the hard
experiences of early days, has been sweetened and strengthened by the
high moral purpose which has dominated her life. She is a philanthropist
in her love of mankind and her work for humanity, but she is governed by
philosophy rather than emotion, ever examining causes and effects by the
pure light of reason and logic.
Susan B. Anthony has been called the Napoleon of the woman suffrage
movement and, in the planning of campaigns and the boldness and daring
of carrying them forward, there may be the qualities of that famous
general, but in character and principles the comparison fails utterly.
She has been termed the Gladstone among women, and in statesmanlike
ability and long years of distinguished service, there may be points of
resemblance, but she would repudiate the sacrifice of justice to party
expediency, oftentimes charged against the noted English politician. It
has been said that she has been the great Liberator of women, as Lincoln
was of the negroes. There is indeed something in her countenance and
manner which reminds one of Lincoln, the same unconscious dignity, the
same rugged endurance, the same strong, resolute face, softened by lines
of weariness and care and spiritualized by an expression of infinite
patience and indescribable pathos. She has not, however, the
conservatism, the forbearance, the reverence for existing laws and
constitutions, which made Lincoln slow to act and tolerant almost to the
point of criticism.
She has been described as being to the cause of woman's emancipation,
what Garrison was to that of the slave. She has, perhaps, more of the
characteristics of Garrison than of the other three conspicuous figures
of the century. His motto, "No Compromise," has been her watchword. Like
Garrison, she strikes a body-blow straight from the shoulder. She
recognizes no such word as expediency and accepts no halfway measures.
Theoretically a non-resistant, she fights to the last ditch and never
accepts a defeat as final. She has the natural gift of selecting always
the strongest word, and the power of carrying conviction to her
audience. She is conventional in outward observances, but most radical
in thought and speech. She detests all forms of cruelty and oppression,
but it is the action, not the person, that she censures, and she is most
charitable in excuses for the faults and failings of others. She bears
the ills of life with cheerful fortitude, and accepts the blessings with
fine humility. There is no need of comparison. She has her own strong
individuality, which has made its indelible impress upon history and
secured for her a place among the immortals. Now, in life's evening, her
world is illumined with the beauty of a sunset undimmed by clouds--and
as she contemplates the infinite, she takes no heed of the gathering
darkness of night, but looking into a clear sky beholds only the
ineffable glory of other spheres.
FOOTNOTES:
[132] Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, the national
auditors, were unable to be present.
[133] There were present also reporters from the New York Sun, New York
World, Springfield Republican, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and
other papers.
APPENDIX.
CHAPTER XIV--PAGE 229.
ADDRESS TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
_Adopted by the Women's National Loyal League, May 14, 1863._
... We ask not for ourselves or our friends redress of specific
grievances or posts of honor or emolument. We speak from no
considerations of mere material gain; but, inspired by true patriotism,
in this dark hour of our nation's destiny, we come to pledge the loyal
women of the Republic to freedom and our country. We come to strengthen
you with earnest words of sympathy and encouragement. We come to thank
you for your proclamation, in which the nineteenth century seems to echo
back the Declaration of Seventy-six. Our fathers had a vision of the
sublime idea of liberty, equality and fraternity; but they failed to
climb the heights which with anointed eyes they saw. To us, their
children, belongs the work to build up the living reality of what they
conceived and uttered. It is not our mission to criticise the past.
Nations, like individuals, must blunder and repent. It is not wise to
waste our energy in vain regret, but from each failure we should rise up
with renewed conscience and courage for nobler action. The follies and
faults of yesterday we cast aside as the old garments we have outgrown.
Born anew to freedom, slave creeds and codes and constitutions all now
must pass away. "For men do not put new wine into old bottles, else the
bottles break and the wine runneth out and the bottles perish; but they
put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved."
Our special thanks are due to you, that by your proclamation 2,000,000
women are freed from the foulest bondage humanity ever suffered. Slavery
for man is bad enough, but the refinements of cruelty ever must fall on
the mothers of the oppressed race, defrauded of all the rights of the
family relation and violated in the most holy instincts of their nature.
A mother's life is bound up in that of her child. There center all her
hopes and ambitions. But the slave-mother in her degradation rejoices
not in the future promise of her daughter, for she knows by experience
what her sad fate must be. No pen can describe the unutterable agony of
that mother whose past, present and future all are wrapped in darkness;
who knows the crown of thorns she wears must press her daughter's brow;
who knows the wine-press she treads those tender feet must tread alone.
For, by the law of slavery, "the child follows the condition of the
mother."
By your act, the family, that great conservator of national virtue and
strength, has been restored to millions of humble homes around whose
altars coming generations shall magnify and bless the name of Abraham
Lincoln. By a mere stroke of the pen you have emancipated millions from
a condition of wholesale concubinage. We now ask you to finish the work
by declaring that nowhere under our national flag shall the motherhood
of any race plead in vain for justice and protection. So long as one
slave breathes in this republic, we drag the chain with him. God has so
linked the race, man to man, that all must rise or fall together. Our
history exemplifies this law. It was not enough that we at the North
abolished slavery for ourselves, declared freedom of speech and press,
built churches, colleges and free schools, studied the science of
morals, government and economy, dignified labor, amassed wealth,
whitened the sea with our commerce and commanded the respect and
admiration of the nations of the earth--so long as the South, by the
natural proclivities of slavery, was sapping the very foundations of our
national life....
You are the first President ever borne on the shoulders of freedom into
the position you now fill. Your predecessors owed their elevation to the
slave oligarchy, and in serving slavery they did but obey their masters.
In your election, northern freemen threw off the yoke, and with you
rests the responsibility that our necks never shall bow again. At no
time in the annals of the nation has there been a more auspicious moment
to retrieve the one false step of the fathers in their concessions to
slavery. The Constitution has been repudiated and the compact broken by
the southern traitors now in arms. The firing of the first gun on Sumter
released the North from all constitutional obligations to slavery. It
left the government, for the first time in our history, free to carry
out the declaration of our Revolutionary fathers, and made us in fact
what we ever have claimed to be, a nation of freemen.
"The Union as it was"--a compromise between barbarism and
civilization--can never be restored, for the opposing principles of
freedom and slavery can not exist together. Liberty is life, and every
form of government yet tried proves that slavery is death. In obedience
to this law, our republic, divided and distracted by the collisions of
class and caste, is tottering to its base and can be reconstructed only
on the sure foundation of impartial freedom to all. The war in which we
are involved is not the result of party or accident, but a forward step
in the progress of the race never to be retraced. Revolution is no time
for temporizing or diplomacy. In a radical upheaving the people demand
eternal principles on which to stand.
Northern power and loyalty never can be measured until the purpose of
the war be liberty to man; for a lasting enthusiasm ever is based on a
grand idea, and unity of action demands a definite end. At this time our
greatest need is not men or money, valiant generals or brilliant
victories, but a _consistent policy_, based on the principle that "all
governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."
The nation waits for you to say that there is no power under our
declaration of rights nor under any laws, human or divine, by which free
men can be made slaves; and therefore that your pledge to the slaves is
irrevocable, and shall be redeemed.
If it be true, as it is said, that northern women lack enthusiasm in
this war, the fault rests with those who have confused and confounded
its policy. The pages of history glow with instances of self-sacrifice
by women in the hour of their country's danger. Fear not that the
daughters of this republic will count any sacrifice too great to insure
the triumph of freedom. Let the men who wield the nation's power be
wise, brave and magnanimous, and its women will be prompt to meet the
duties of the hour with devotion and heroism.
When Fremont on the western breeze proclaimed a day of jubilee to the
bondmen within our gates, the women of the nation echoed back a loud
amen. When Hunter freed a million men and gave them arms to fight our
battles, justice and mercy crowned that act and tyrants stood appalled.
When Butler, in the chief city of the southern despotism, hung a traitor
we felt a glow of pride; for that one act proved that we had a
government and one man brave enough to administer its laws. And when
Burnside would banish Vallandigham to the Dry Tortugas, let the sentence
be approved and the nation will ring with plaudits. Your proclamation
gives you immortality. Be just, and share your glory with men like these
who wait to execute your will.
On behalf of the Women's National Loyal League,
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, _President_.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, _Secretary_.
CHAPTER XV--PAGE 247.
RECONSTRUCTION.
_Address Delivered at Ottumwa, Kansas, July 4, 1865._
_Mr. President, and Men and Women of Kansas:_
It is a pleasure to me, beyond the reach of words, to be with you today.
I accepted the invitation of your committee that I might feast my eyes
on your grand prairies, ever fringed with the darker green of their
timber-skirted creeks and rivers. I came here on this 89th anniversary
of our National Independence, that I might look into the honest, earnest
faces of the men and the women who, ten years ago, taught the nation
anew, that "resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Through all this
glorious decade of heroic struggle, my interests, my sympathies, my
affections have been bound up with yours; for, during and since the
cruel outrages of the summer of 1856, my two and only brothers have
stood shoulder to shoulder with the freedom-loving, freedom-voting,
freedom-fighting men of Kansas. And, as I have waited the telegraphic
word that trembled along the western wires, telling of your successes
and your defeats, it has ever been with bated breath lest those of my
own home circle, too, should be numbered among the slain. Therefore,
though not here in person through all these trial years, in spirit I
have been with you, in your privations and hardships, in your sufferings
and sacrifices to make freedom and free institutions the sure
inheritance of Kansas and the nation.
You have already listened to the grand old Declaration of the Fathers of
1776. You have heard the true words of your representative to the next
Congress.[134] His manly utterances here today give you assurance that
he will faithfully reflect the highest and truest sentiments of his
constituency. Men and women of Kansas, I congratulate you, that you have
in this chosen agent a man who will speak and vote on the vital
questions to come before the next Congress from the standpoint of human
equality.
It is my purpose to call your attention to the recent declarations of
our President to our "erring sister States" of the South. I ask you
specially to note his proclamation to Mississippi. After pointing out
that the Constitution of the United States guarantees to every State in
the Union a republican form of government, and that the late rebellion
has deprived the people of Mississippi of all civil government, he
continues:
Now, therefore, in obedience to the high and solemn duties imposed
upon me by the Constitution of the United States, and for the
purpose of enabling the loyal people of said State to organize a
State government, whereby justice may be established, domestic
tranquillity insured, and loyal citizens protected in all their
rights of life, liberty, and property, I, Andrew Johnson, President
of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy
of the United States, do hereby appoint William L. Sharkey
Provisional Governor of the State of Mississippi, whose duty it
shall be, at the earliest practicable period, to prescribe such
rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for convening
a convention, composed of delegates to be chosen by that portion of
the people of said State who are loyal to the United States, and no
others, for the purpose of altering or amending the constitution
thereof; and with authority to exercise, within the limits of said
State, all the powers necessary and proper to enable such loyal
people of the State of Mississippi to restore said State to its
constitutional relations to the Federal government, and to present
such republican form of State government as will entitle the State
to the guarantee of the United States therefor, and its people to
protection by the United States against invasion, insurrection, and
domestic violence: Provided, That in any election that may be
hereafter held for choosing delegates to any State Convention as
aforesaid, no person shall be qualified as an elector, or shall be
eligible as a member of such convention, unless he shall have
previously taken and subscribed the oath of amnesty, as set forth
in the President's proclamation of May 29, A. D. 1865, _and is a
voter qualified as prescribed by the Constitution and laws of the
State, of Mississippi, in force immediately before the ninth (9th)
of January, A. D. 1861, the date of the so-called ordinance of
secession_; and the said convention, when convened, or the
Legislature that may be thereafter assembled, will prescribe the
qualifications of electors, and the eligibility of persons to hold
office under the Constitution and laws of the State, a power the
people of the several States composing the Federal Union have
rightfully exercised from the origin of the government to the
present time.
The President says he finds the people of Mississippi "deprived of all
civil government" by the revolutionary progress of the rebellion;
therefore he appoints a provisional governor, to call an election of the
loyal people for delegates to a convention to alter or amend the
constitution that was in force prior to the rebellion. He does this "for
the purpose of enabling the loyal people of said State to organize a
State government whereby justice may be established, domestic
tranquillity insured, and loyal citizens protected in all their rights
of life, liberty and property." To this laudable end he instructs the
governor, who is his military agent, to allow no man to vote or to be
voted for, unless he shall have previously taken and subscribed to the
oath of amnesty of May 29, 1865, _and is a voter by the old constitution
and laws of the slaveholding State of Mississippi_. By this ordering,
the President makes it impossible for the great mass of the loyal people
to have a voice in organizing the new government. He re-establishes
precisely the same basis of class representation that worked out the
ruin of the old State government. Not to mention the loyal women, who
make fully one-half of the loyal people, he shuts out all the loyal
black men, with all the loyal poor white men, who were not allowed to
vote under the old regime of slavery.
Thus, by this initiative step, the President makes it inevitable that
the rebuilding of the government shall be controlled by the ex-rebels;
the men who have fought desperately for four years to overthrow the
federal government; the men who hate republicanism; the men who love and
are determined to enjoy aristocracy. The loyal white men there, who have
stood firmly and truly by the government through all the cruel
persecutions of this bloody rebellion, are today a most powerless and
pitiable minority; and yet the President tells this little handful that
their only hope of organizing a genuine republican form of government
lies in their ability to outvote the vast horde of disloyal civilians
and pardoned, but not penitent, returned rebel soldiers. Such an
offence against white loyalty is enough to make the very stones cry out.
But what shall we say of the other and deeper crime against the
thousands of loyal black soldiers, who have fought bravely for us from
the hour we permitted them to shoulder the musket; against the entire
slave population, who have welcomed our Yankee soldiers, been faithful
spies and guides to our armies, nursed our sick and wounded, relieved
and rescued our starving prisoners, and in every conceivable way and
manner given "aid and comfort" to our Union cause? I tell you, men and
women of Kansas, no tongue can speak the ingratitude, the injustice, the
shame and outrage of a proposition thus to leave those true and faithful
freedmen to the cruel legislation of their old tyrants and oppressors,
made tenfold more their enemies, because of their attachment and service
to the government which they themselves have failed to destroy. Think of
it, to thrust four million loyal people under the political heel of
eight millions, almost to a man, disloyal!
I am sure you, who have given the best blood of Kansas to put down the
slaveholders' rebellion against the rightful rule of the majority, will
never by your silence give seeming consent to a reorganization of those
rebel States on any basis save that of the ballot to all loyal citizens,
black and white. You will never consent that loyal Union soldiers and
friends, for no crime but the color of their skin, shall be made
subjects, if not slaves, to disloyal rebel soldiers and enemies, with no
virtue but that of belonging to the "governing race," as the President's
North Carolina appointee calls the white faces. No, no, you will make
these grand old prairies ring with your thunder-toned protests until
they shall be felt and feared in the legislative halls at Washington.
Then will your honorable and honored representative say for you on the
floor of the next Congress, as he has said here today in the shadow of
these mighty oaks of your Neosho, "no reconstruction except on the basis
of the ballot in every loyal hand, black and white." Then will your
senator[135] echo your voice from his seat in the Capitol, as he did the
other day in old, Faneuil Hall, when he said, "the price of our
victories is lost unless we give the negro the homestead, the musket,
and the ballot."
And then will your other senator,[136] who has not spoken since he, with
his colleagues in the Senate, said, "colonize" the faithful, loyal
blacks; since he said, admit Louisiana and Arkansas back into the Union
on the vote of the merest minority of their freshly-oathed white
men--then will he say "no reconstruction without negro suffrage." But,
good people, I charge you, suffer not this man to return to his seat in
the Senate, until he has not only repented and confessed, but given sure
promise forever to forsake his old sins of "white suffrage" and "black
colonization." You owe it to yourselves and your country to see that
your entire representation in the next Congress is right on this one
vital question of reunion. Tell your senator if he must advocate a class
and caste government in the rebel States, it must be loyal blacks, not
disloyal whites. If he must colonize somebody, it must be the cowed,
unconverted rebels, the anti-negro-equality white faces. Tell him
henceforth to speak and vote to disfranchise, and drive out if need be,
the persons who make war and oppress and outrage, and are resolved not
to give "fair play" to peaceable, industrious citizens. You have but to
speak and you will be obeyed, for it is the people's will, not that of
their servants, which is law.
Now, a word on your State legislature: One of the first reports that met
my ear on my arrival in your State last winter, was that the Republicans
of Kansas, almost in a body, had voted against a bill for "negro
suffrage," and that they voted thus for the reason that the question was
introduced and urged by the opposition party of the State. My humble but
earnest advice to you is that you permit those delegates who voted
against right, against justice, against equality to all men, for so
paltry a reason, henceforth to remain quietly at home. Teach them and
all other aspirants for your suffrages that your representatives must
speak and vote for the right, though the arch-demon from the pit below
shall present the measure. That miserable political quibbling at Topeka
last winter lost Kansas the place which of right belonged to her--that
of being the first of the loyal States to give her freedmen their
inalienable right to self-protection.
Our hope of salvation from the fatal errors that are now fastening
themselves upon the plan and the policy of reorganization, lies in the
prompt and right action of the coming Congress. The delegates from any
and all of the rebel States, sent up to Washington by "free white loyal
male" suffrages to knock for admission into the Union, must be sent home
with instructions that no member will be admitted to Congress except he
be elected by a majority of all the loyal men of the State, black as
well as white. To the end that Congress may thus reject the amnestied
white suffrage delegates, the people, all over the country, should unite
in one mighty voice and demand that their representatives shall thus
speak and thus vote. "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." If we
sleep now, all is lost; for on this one question of the negro hangs the
future of our republic.
Since the firing of the first gun of the rebellion there has been no
hour fraught with so much danger as is the present. To have been
vanquished on the field of battle would have involved much of misery;
but to be foiled now in gathering up the fruits of our blood-bought
victories, and to re-enthrone slavery under the new guise of negro
disfranchisement, negro serfdom, would be a defeat and disaster, a
cruelty and crime, which would surely bequeath to coming generations a
legacy of wars and rumors of wars, equalled only by that which the
Revolutionary fathers entailed upon their descendants by their fatal
compromises with slavery. It would leave the final triumph of the great
principles of republicanism, universal freedom and equality, "taxation
and representation inseparable," the "consent of the governed," to be
worked out and established in each of those old slave States, through a
fearful re-enactment of the early struggles which you of Kansas so well
remember.
If Congress shall admit the rebel representatives on the basis of white
suffrage, those States will have added to their old representation the
other two-fifths of what used to be "all other persons," which will give
them an increase of fourteen votes in the House as a reward for their
four years of fire and sword against the government. With this added
power on the floor of Congress united to their political aiders and
abettors from the Northern States, there is scarcely any project they
may not be able to carry through in their own time and way. Nor is there
room for a doubt, that it is the spirit and purpose of the slave
oligarchy, whipped and cowed as they say by force of might, not right,
to make a most desperate political fight to regain their old supremacy
in the legislation of the country.
I base my estimate of the nature and intentions of the to-be-restored
representation of the South, on the results of the elections already
held in several of the rebel States, and from the efforts everywhere
among the old planters again to reduce the black freedmen, as nearly as
possible, to the status of slavery. In Virginia, the elections gave a
legislature largely secession and almost wholly anti-negro. The planters
have solemnly leagued themselves together to pay only five dollars per
month to able field hands, each laborer to furnish his own clothes and
pay his own doctor bills. This, too, when these same planters used to
pay or receive for the hire of these same laborers, the sum of fifteen
dollars and upwards. In South Carolina, Gen. Rufus Saxton reports that
the old planters are actually driving the freedmen to work in the fields
in chain gangs, and that the woods are strewn with the bodies of negroes
shot dead in their efforts to escape the cruel torture. In Murfreesboro,
Tennessee, the city election resulted in a secession mayor and common
council. The only Union success I have noticed is that of Fernandina,
Florida, and there the negroes were allowed to vote. Even the loyal
State of Missouri saved her free constitution by less than two thousand
votes.
The result of white suffrage can not be other than the election of large
majorities of anti-negro, if not absolutely secession State and National
representatives. Tennessee, the President's own State, of the loyalty of
whose people we have heard much, has adopted a free constitution, and
under it framed a new code of anti-negro laws; and we can hardly expect
any rebel State to do better, for these new free State law-makers are
the persecuted loyal men of Tennessee who have been outraged in their
homes, hunted to the caves and mountains, or for a time driven out of
the State altogether by the secessionists. One of these new free State
laws says, the testimony of no "free colored person shall be received in
court against any white person." By this enactment, the meanest white
man may enter the home of the bravest black soldier, or wealthiest
colored citizen, may murder his sons, ravish his wife and daughters,
pillage and burn his house, commit any and every possible crime against
him and his, and yet, if no human eye but his own, or that of his
family, or his colored friends, witness the barbarisms, that black man,
the father, the husband, the land-holder, outraged beyond measure, has
no possible legal redress in the courts of Tennessee.
Then again, in case a free colored person is imprisoned and unable to
pay his jail fees, he may be apprenticed out to labor until the sum be
paid. And yet again, the courts may apprentice colored children as they
see proper. The law does not even say friendless or orphan children. Is
not that slavery under a new form? Thus, to leave those devoted black
men's lives, liberties and property to be protected by white men, whose
loyalty to the government is because it is a means to secure power to
themselves, not from any love of its republican principles, is to doom
them to all the ignominies and cruelties of slavery itself.
Let us not be deceived by the wicked wiles of politicians who tell us
that President Johnson can not give the right to the ballot to the black
loyalists of the South; for it is but the new "refuge of lies" to which
slavery resorts. The same men told us that Lincoln had not the power to
emancipate the slaves; that the government had no right to arm the
negro, etc. If President Johnson has constitutional authority, either
civil or military, to take away a man's right to vote, as a punishment
for disloyalty, he must have power to give a man the same right, as a
reward for loyalty; if the President may disfranchise a rebel soldier in
order to enable the loyal people of a State to organize a republican
form of government, he may also enfranchise a Union soldier to
accomplish the same purpose. If the President has not the right nor the
power to give the ballot to any person not entitled to it under the old
order of slavery, how will he organize South Carolina, by whose old
constitution no person was allowed to vote unless he owned ten slaves or
was worth ten thousand dollars? Of course nobody owns ten slaves, and
how many men, think you, who remained loyal at home, or how many
returned soldiers or amnestied civilians have the requisite ten thousand
dollars? In South Carolina, therefore, the President will be compelled
to create voters; and, if he shall enfranchise any of the white
non-voters, can he not also enfranchise the loyal black non-voters?
Let us watch and pray without ceasing. Let us hope that the day will
dawn, and that soon, when law shall be found on the side of justice to
the black race. These objectors never questioned McClellan's military
right to put down slave insurrections with an "iron hand," or Halleck's
infamous Order No. 3 to drive all negroes outside the military lines. It
was only when Generals Fremont, Hunter and others declared the slaves
free, that they might cripple the rebel armies and add them to our Union
forces, that the cry of no law, no power was raised. Thus it is clear
that the blindness and inability to find rightful authority, civil or
military, first to emancipate, then to arm, and now to enfranchise the
negroes, have the one source. Slavery perpetrated the "sum of all
villainies" on the negroes, and then, to justify its wickedness, filled
the whole land with atrocious lies of their depraved and degraded
nature. The American people consented to the outrage; and their
continued prejudice against that oppressed race but proves the adage,
"we hate those whom we have injured."
Last of all comes the objection that the old masters will influence the
vote of the negroes, and that, therefore, to enfranchise them will but
give increased power to the old lords of the lash. Do not believe such
nonsense. Think you, men who for four years have withstood every
possible temptation and torture to induce them to fight for the slave
oligarchy, can now be wheedled into voting for it? No, no. Those loyal,
brave, black men who have known enough to fight on the right side will
know enough to vote on the right side; and it is because the aiders and
abettors of the old slave power believe and know that the negroes will
be an invincible host on the side of equality, that they thus fear them.
We never from the beginning have had a genuine republican form of
government in any State in the Union; for in no State have "the people"
ever been permitted to elect their representatives. Even in
Massachusetts and Vermont, the States nearest republican, only one-half
of the people, the "male inhabitants," are allowed to vote. In other
States it is only all "free white male persons," and in others still,
all "free white male inhabitants owning so many slaves or so much
property." It is not true therefore that _the people_ have ever
exercised the right to prescribe the qualifications of voters or
officers. From the beginning, Congress always has settled the question
in its organic act. That of your own Territory read, "Every free, white,
male inhabitant shall vote at the first election, and be eligible to any
office within the Territory." Thus you see Congress, not you, the
people, decided who should and who should not vote in Kansas. And when
the delegates of the prescribed "free, white, male" order met in
convention, they proved themselves nothing above human, very like the
so-elected conventions of other States, and retained all legislative
power within the limits of the original congressional permit. The same
is true of the rebel States, in which the President now finds the people
destitute of all civil government; when he specifies who may vote, when
he excludes any class from the ballot-box, he makes it impossible for
"the people" to form a republican government.
When the loyal black men are not allowed their right to vote in the
first election of the rebel States, their governments are thrown into
the hands of a very small minority, and that too of very doubtful
loyalty. The President by adhering to the old slave definition of "the
people," rules that all our brave black Union soldiers and our best
friends and allies, without whose aid we should still be struggling with
rebels in arms, shall be subjects, not citizens, of the government they
have rescued from the Confederate usurpers. It is not in human nature
that a people fanatically believing themselves a superior race, and
thereby rightful legislators over another and inferior race, shall
execute justice and equality toward those whom they decree shall be
"hewers of wood and drawers of water." No, the black man's guarantee to
the protection of his inalienable rights to "life, liberty and
property," is bound up in his right to the ballot.
When I speak of the inalienable rights of the negro, I do not forget
that these belong equally to woman. Though the government shall be
reconstructed on the basis of universal manhood suffrage, it yet will
not be a true republic. Still one-half of the people will be in
subjection to the other half, and the time will surely come when the
whole question will have to be reopened and an accounting made with this
other subject class. There will have to be virtually another
reconstruction, based on the duty of the national government to
guarantee to every citizen the right of self-protection, and this right,
for woman as for man, is vested in the ballot.
That this superior "white male" class may not be trusted even to
legislate for their own mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, the cruel
statutes in nearly all the States, both slave and free, give ample
proof. In scarcely a State has a married woman the legal right to the
control of her person, to the earnings of her hands or brain, to the
guardianship of her children, to sue or be sued, or to testify in the
courts, and by these laws women have suffered wrongs and outrages second
only to those of chattel slavery itself. If this be true, that this
so-called superior class can not legislate justice even to those nearest
and dearest in their own hearts and homes, is it not a crime to place a
separate race, one hated and despised, wholly at the will of that
governing class?
It must not be; and the one great work for the people at this hour, and
every hour, between this and next December, is to agitate this question
until the entire nation shall speak in tones not to be mistaken, which
shall compel the coming Congress to refuse admission to every
representative from the rebel States, who is sent there by the so-called
"loyal white male" people.
"_No reorganization without Negro Suffrage_" is the word to send back to
every rebel State. Until Congress shall define and settle this question,
it can not in the future, as it has not in the past, perform its
duty--guarantee a republican form of government in each of the States.
When Congress shall thus decide, there will be work to do in most of the
loyal States. Let us all labor to that end.
Men and women of Kansas, what say you, shall new loyal States or old
rebel States be admitted into the Union until they present constitutions
and laws truly republican, until they send representatives to Washington
elected by a majority of all the people--white and black, men and women?
You say No; your blood-enriched prairies, your battle-fought ravines,
your sacked and burned cities, say No; your martyred dead, your own
immortal John Brown, their freed souls all gloriously marching on, say
No!
My friends, there is one word more I must leave with you. There is yet
another danger. The reverence, the almost idolatry of the American
people for their martyred President, is being used and abused by the
political managers at Washington, and over all the country. The people
are lulled to sleep over the most startling propositions, by insidious
whisperings that President Lincoln originated or approved them. Almost
every reconstruction plan is sent over the wires "sugar-coated" with,
"President Johnson, in this, is but carrying out the spirit and purpose
of Mr. Lincoln!" And there is no disguising or denying the fact, that
the people are today accepting, and that too without questioning, the
anti-negro reorganization plans already inaugurated, because of these
wily, insinuating appeals to their reverence for the memory of their
sacred dead.
If the four years' administration of Abraham Lincoln taught the American
people any one lesson above another, it was that they must think and
speak and proclaim, and that he, as President, was bound to execute
their will, not his own. And if Lincoln were alive today, he would say
as he did four years ago, "I wait the voice of the people." The stern
logic of the events of today would guide him, not those of yesterday.
Therefore let us not be thrown off our watch by any of these appeals to
our reverence for the opinions and plans of our departed President. If
his freed spirit is permitted today to hover over each and all of the
vast gatherings of the loyal people throughout the nation, it is
beckoning every soul upward and onward in the path of equal justice to
all; it is urging the great heart of the nation to plant our new Union
on the everlasting rock of republicanism--universal freedom and
universal suffrage.
FOOTNOTES:
[134] Sidney Clark, of Lawrence.
[135] S. C. Pomeroy.
[136] James H. Lane.
CHAPTER XVI--PAGE 259.
ADDRESS TO CONGRESS.
_Adopted by the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention, held in New
York City, Thursday, May 10, 1866._
Prepared by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
We already have presented to your honorable body during this session
many petitions asking the enfranchisement of women; and now, from our
national convention, we again make our appeal and urge you to lay no
hand on that "pyramid of rights," the Constitution of the Fathers,
unless to add glory to its height and strength to its foundation.
We will not rehearse the oft-repeated arguments on the natural rights of
every citizen, pressed as they have been on the nation's conscience for
the last thirty years in securing freedom for the black race, and so
grandly echoed on the floor of Congress during the past winter. We can
not add one line or precept to the comprehensive speech recently made by
Charles Sumner in the Senate, to prove that "no just government can be
formed without the consent of the governed;" to prove the dignity, the
education, the power, the necessity, the salvation of the ballot in the
hand of every man and woman; to prove that a just government and a true
church rest alike on the sacred rights of the individual.
As you are familiar with Sumner's speech on "Equal Rights to All," so
convincing in facts, so clear in philosophy, and so elaborate in
quotations from the great minds of the past, without reproducing the
chain of argument, permit us to call your attention to a few of its
unanswerable assertions regarding the ballot:
I plead now for the ballot, as the great guarantee, and the only
sufficient guarantee--being in itself peacemaker, reconciler,
schoolmaster and protector--to which we are bound by every
necessity and every reason; and I speak also for the good of the
States lately in rebellion, as well as for the glory and safety of
the republic, that it may be an example to mankind.
Ay, sir, the ballot is the Columbiad of our political life, and
every citizen who has it is a full-armed Monitor.
The ballot is schoolmaster. Reading and writing are of inestimable
value, but the ballot teaches what these can not teach.
Plutarch records that the wise man of Athens charmed the people by
saying that equality causes no war, and "both the rich and the poor
repeated it."
The ballot is like charity, which never faileth, and without which
man is only as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. The ballot is
the one thing needful, without which rights of testimony and all
other rights will be no better than cobwebs which the master will
break through with impunity. To him who has the ballot all other
things shall be given--protection, opportunity, education, a
homestead. The ballot is like the horn of abundance, out of which
overflow rights of every kind, with corn, cotton, rice and all the
fruits of the earth. Or, better still, it is like the hand of the
body, without which man, who is now only a little lower than the
angels, must have continued only a little above the brutes. They
are fearfully and wonderfully made; but as is the hand in the work
of civilization, so is the ballot in the work of government. "Give
me the ballot, and I can move the world."
Do you wish to see harmony truly prevail, so that industry,
society, government, civilization, may all prosper, and the
republic may wear a crown of true greatness? Then do not neglect
the ballot.
Lamartine said, "Universal suffrage is the first truth and only
basis of every national republic."
In regard to "taxation without representation," Mr. Sumner quotes from
Lord Coke:
The supreme power can not take from any man any part of his
property without consent in person or by representation.
Taxes are not to be laid on the people, but by their consent in
person or by representation.
I can see no reason to doubt but that the imposition of taxes,
whether on trade, or on land or houses or ships, or real or
personal, fixed or floating property in the colonies, is absolutely
irreconcilable with the rights of the colonies, as British subjects
and as men. I say men, for in a state of nature no man can take any
property from me without my consent. If he does, he deprives me of
my liberty and makes me a slave. The very act of taxing, exercised
over those who are not represented, appears to me to deprive them
of one of their most essential rights as freemen, and if continued
seems to be in effect an entire disfranchisement of every civil
right. For what one civil right is worth a rush, after a man's
property is subject to be taken from him at pleasure without his
consent?
In demanding suffrage for the black man you recognize the fact that, as
a freedman, he is no longer a "part of the family," and that therefore
his master is no longer his representative; hence, as he will now be
liable to taxation, he must also have representation. Woman, on the
contrary, has never been such a "part of the family" as to escape
taxation. Although there has been no formal proclamation giving her an
individual existence, the single woman always has had the right to
property and wages, the right to make contracts and do business in her
own name. And even married women, by recent legislation, have been
secured in these civil rights. Woman now holds a vast amount of the
property in the country and pays her full proportion of taxes, revenue
included. On what principle, then, do you deny her representation? By
what process of reasoning was Charles Sumner able to stand up in the
Senate, a few days after these sublime utterances, and rebuke 15,000,000
disfranchised tax-payers for the exercise of their mere right of
petition? If he felt that this was not the time for woman even to
mention her right to representation, why did he not, in some of his
splendid sentences, propose to release the wage-earning and
property-owning women from the tyranny of taxation?
We propose no new theories. We simply ask that you secure the practical
application of the immutable principles of our government to all,
without distinction of race, color or sex. And we urge our demand now,
because you have now the opportunity and the power to take this onward
step in legislation. The nations of the earth stand watching and waiting
to see if our Revolutionary idea, "all men are created equal," can be
realized in government. Crush not, we pray you, the myriad hopes which
hang on our success. Peril not this nation with another bloody war. Men
and parties must pass away, but justice is eternal; and only they who
work in harmony with its laws are immortal. All who have carefully
contrasted the speeches of this Congress with those made under the old
regime of slavery, must have seen the added power and eloquence which
greater freedom gives. But still you propose no action on your grand
ideas. Your joint resolutions, your reconstruction reports, do not
reflect your highest thought.
The Constitution, as it stands, in basing representation on "respective
numbers" covers a broader ground than any you have yet proposed. Is not
the only amendment needed to Article 1, Section 3, to strike out the
exceptions which follow "respective numbers?" And is it not your duty,
by securing a republican form of government to every State, to see that
these "respective numbers" are made up of enfranchised citizens, thus
bringing your legislation up to the Constitution--not the Constitution
down to your party possibilities? The only tenable ground of
representation is universal suffrage, as it is only through universal
suffrage that the principle of "equal rights to all" can be realized.
All prohibitions based on race, color, sex, property or education are
violations of the republican idea; and the various qualifications now
proposed are but so many plausible pretexts to debar new classes from
the ballot-box. The limitations of property and intelligence, though
unfair, can be met; as with freedom must come the repeal of statute laws
that deny schools and wages to the negro, and time will make him a
voter. But color and sex! Neither time nor statutes can make black,
white, or woman, man! You assume to be the representatives of 15,000,000
women--American citizens--who already possess every attainable
qualification for the ballot. Women read and write, hold many offices
under government, pay taxes and suffer the penalties of crime, and yet
are denied individual representation.
For twenty years we have labored to bring the statute-laws of the
several States into harmony with the broad principles of the
Constitution, and have been so far successful that in many of them
little remains to be done except to secure the right of suffrage. Hence,
our prompt protest against the propositions before Congress to introduce
the word "male" into the Federal Constitution, which, if successful,
would sanction all State action in withholding the ballot from woman. As
the only way in which disfranchised citizens can appear before you, we
availed ourselves of the sacred right of petition; and, as our
representatives, it was your duty to give those petitions a respectful
reading and a serious consideration. How a Republican Senate failed in
that duty, is already inscribed on the page of history. Some tell us it
is not judicious to press the claims of women now; that this is not the
time. Time? When you propose legislation so fatal to the best interests
of woman and the nation, shall we be silent until after the deed is
done? No! As we love justice, we must resist tyranny. As we honor the
position of American senator, we must appeal from the politician to the
man.
With man, woman shared the dangers of the Mayflower on a stormy sea, the
dreary landing on Plymouth Rock, the rigors of New England winters and
the privations of a seven years' war. With him she bravely threw off the
British yoke, felt every pulsation of his heart for freedom, and
inspired the glowing eloquence which maintained it through the century.
With you, we have just passed through the agony and death, the
resurrection and triumph of another revolution, doing all in our power
to mitigate its horrors and gild its glories. And now, think you, we
have no souls to fire, no brains to weigh your arguments; that, after
education such as this, we can stand silent witnesses while you sell our
birthright of liberty to save from a timely death an effete political
organization? No, as we respect womanhood, we must protest against this
desecration of the magna charta of American liberties; and with an
importunity not to be repelled, our demand must ever be, "No compromise
of human rights"--"No admission to the Constitution of inequality of
rights or disfranchisement on account of color or sex."
In the oft-repeated experiments of class and caste, who can number the
nations that have risen but to fall? Do not imagine you come one line
nearer the demand of justice by enfranchising but another shade of
manhood; for, in denying representation to woman, you still cling to the
same false principle on which all the governments of the past have been
wrecked. The right way, the safe way, is so clear, the path of duty is
so straight and simple, that we who are equally interested with
yourselves in the result, conjure you to act not for the passing hour,
not with reference to transient benefits, but to do now the one grand
deed which shall mark the zenith of the century--proclaim Equal Eights
to All. We press our demand for the ballot at this time in no narrow,
captions or selfish spirit; from no contempt of the black man's claims,
nor antagonism to you who, in the progress of civilization, are now the
privileged order; but from the purest patriotism, for the highest good
of every citizen, for the safety of the republic, and as a glorious
example to the nations of the earth.
CHAPTER XX--PAGE 342.
MISS ANTHONY'S FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY.
_February 15, 1870._
Careful readers of the Tribune have probably succeeded in discovering
that we have not always been able to applaud the course of Miss Susan B.
Anthony. Indeed, we have often felt, and sometimes said, that her
methods were as unwise as we thought her aims undesirable. But through
these years of disputation and struggling, she has thoroughly impressed
friends and enemies alike with the sincerity and earnestness of her
purposes....
Fifty years ago the full moon of suffrage rose in the small, red and
wrinkled countenance of the infant Susan B. Anthony. "Agitation is the
word," says Miss Anthony, in these her later years. Agitation was
probably the word then, as a happy family surrounded the cradle of the
boisterous phenomenon. Miss Anthony has compressed into her half-century
a deal of work, talk, hurry and resolution. Beginning with the women's
temperance conventions in 1848, she has strewn the gliding years with
organizations, societies, conventions innumerable, to the wonderment, if
not always to the admiration, of an observant world. "Through all these
years," remarks Mrs. Henry B. Stanton, "Miss Anthony was the connecting
link between me and the outer world--the reform scout who went to see
what was going on in the enemy's camp, and returned with maps and
observations to plan the mode of attack." It has been intimated that
Miss Anthony has not remained sweet Dian's votary, in maiden meditation
fancy free, because nobody asked her to change her name and station.
Many victims, we are told, are carrying crushed hearts and blighted
hopes through life, and all because of the unrelenting cruelty exercised
by this usually good-humored woman towards the whole male sex.--The
Tribune.
* * * * *
Miss Anthony bears her fifty summers lightly. Whatever our sentiments
may be as to the cause she advocates, we do full justice to her
resistless energy and activity and unswerving fidelity to her
principles. Charming and cordial in her manners, with kind words for
all, she welcomed every guest last evening and made them at ease.--The
Times.
* * * * *
It was regarded last night, and was a topic of conversation, that the
public announcement that Miss Anthony was fifty years old was one more
of the courageous things for which her life has been distinguished.
Battling with the wrong and striving for the right has not left so rigid
a mark of the progress of time upon her features as to prevent her
keeping up a little fiction about being fair and forty. Miss Anthony
prefers the truth, and she says that the register in the family Bible
supports the assertion that a half-century of rolling years have passed
before her.--The Herald.
* * * * *
Miss Anthony looked her very best last night, and let the truth be said,
even should it be followed by persecuting proposals from the bachelors,
she didn't look much more than five-and-twenty. The genial salutations
and happy surroundings of the hour effaced for the time those lines
which care and labor and fifty years will make, however pure the soul
within. Miss Anthony was happy and she looked it.... She wears her years
and honors well. May we live till the celebration of her centenary, and
she read the report thereof next day in the columns of the Evening
Mail.--The Mail.
* * * * *
In these latter days the aspirations and activities of woman are greatly
quickened, and her day of pure and perfect freedom seems near at hand.
When the year of jubilee shall at last ring in, no name will be more
highly honored than that of Miss Susan B. Anthony; and her honors have
been well deserved. Early and late, in season and out, in places high
and low, all over this broad land, by voice and pen, has she labored
with unflagging zeal for the exalted liberty of woman.... Men who have
honored mothers, pure sisters, devoted wives and loving daughters, owe
to Miss Anthony a heavy debt of gratitude for her life-work in behalf of
women.--The Globe.
* * * * *
Miss Anthony's reception has been one of the events of the week.... Men
who have expended about half of the time and half of the energy in the
business of money-making which Miss Anthony has expended in benefiting
the race, have become millionaires, and have been held up to the rising
generation as examples of energy and industry worthy of imitation.
Bronzes have been erected and numerous biographies written to do them
honor. Had Miss Anthony labored for herself as devotedly as she has for
others, she would no doubt have received the usual reward in greenbacks;
and but for the fact of her being a woman, might have had a bronze
erected in her honor.--The Courier.
* * * * *
It is not always true that "the good die young," for Miss Susan B.
Anthony has lived to celebrate her fiftieth birthday.... Right glad are
we that the anniversary was observed with due pomp and circumstance. No
kindly tribute to great moral worth is too good for this good woman. As
one of the chief heroines of our generation, she abundantly deserves all
the honors which were paid her on that festal night. There are many
public-spirited workers in our busy land; many noble souls who have
devoted their life-long energies to the elevation of their
fellow-beings; many moral pioneers, who, when they die, will leave the
world better than they found it; and conspicuous among these is the
staunch, unwearied and indomitable woman who, at the end of half a
century of life, can remember but few idle or wasted days. If Miss
Anthony's persevering efforts in behalf of her sex are not worthy of
generous praise, then there is no just fame due to a brave career. If
her methods have sometimes lacked soundness of judgment, they have never
lacked nobility of purpose. There exists a peculiar, invaluable and
time-honored class of plain and substantial women who are said to be "as
honest as the day is long;" and Susan B. Anthony is the queen of this
royal race. Dauntless and tireless as the sterner sex, sympathetic and
tender as the gentler, we sometimes think that she is both man and woman
in one. She is one of the sterling characters of our day. The whole
people ought to rejoice that such a woman was born, has lived and still
toils.--The Independent.
* * * * *
Out of scores of letters received space allows the reproduction of but a
few:
* * * * *
I shall always be present in sympathy with any number of people who will
express their admiration of the sterling traits which adorn the life and
character of the lady who now passes the fiftieth anniversary of her
most devoted and unselfish life. I am glad to tender the legal
representative of a dollar for each of these years, with the confident
assurance of the early triumph of that cause to which her life has been
singularly devoted. This greenback is no surer of being redeemed in gold
than is my confidence in the golden era of legal enfranchisement for
woman!... Long before Miss Anthony sees her "threescore and ten," the
political equality of all American citizens will be fully established.
With sentiments of the highest esteem, I am, very cordially and truly,
S. C. POMEROY.
* * * * *
... God bless her, and may she live many happy, joyous years! That she
and her noble co-workers are soon to see the complete triumph of the
woman's cause I firmly believe. And when in after years the great
benefactors of this century are sought for, Susan B. Anthony's name will
be found occupying one of the highest niches in the temple of honest
fame. Truly yours,
J. P. ROOT. [Lieutenant-Governor of Kansas.]
* * * * *
... Enclosed is a check for $50, one for each year of your life. Will
agree to give you the same pro rata sum on your one hundredth, birthday.
With love, your brother,
D. R. ANTHONY.
* * * * *
There will be among those who sympathize with and rejoice in your
labors, no lack of testimony tonight to their persistency and value; but
from one who deplores both, you will perhaps be willing to hear a
hearty, cordial, admiring expression of the regard he is nevertheless
forced to cherish for the sincerity and the unmistakably disinterested
devotion which has marked your long and hopeful work in the cause you
hold so dear and serve so faithfully. I can not wish you the success you
seek--let me give you this better wish, that the anniversary your
friends celebrate tonight may never bring fewer tokens of regard than
now, and never find you seeming less the faithful worker "of cheerful
yesterdays and confident tomorrows." With renewed congratulations I am,
very cordially yours,
WHITELAW REID.
* * * * *
I could not be where I longed to be last evening, where I could look
upon the toilworn face of the true, tried and never found wanting--the
one of all others who has borne the heat of the day, and that without
wilting or complaining ever hopeful and ever pursuing "the even tenor of
her way." Absence shall not keep from thee my mite, and how I wish it
were ten, yes, twenty times as much, but here it is with my love,
respect and genuine friendship. Be of brave heart and believe that I am
thy fast friend,
ABBY HOPPER GIBBONS.
* * * * *
Yours is a "golden wedding" indeed--for the fiftieth anniversary of a
life that has been wedded to a great cause is a far more glorious golden
wedding than those which generally go by that name. Accept my heartiest
wishes for your welfare and for the success of your novel celebration.
Heretofore the privilege of growing old and possessing common sense has
belonged exclusively to the other sex. Sincerely yours,
FRANCES ELLEN BURR.
* * * * *
Please accept the enclosed check of $50, as a slight token of regard
from our absent trio. As I hardly need tell you, the lion's share of
this birthday gift is sent by my father, but neither mother nor I will
admit that in the unsubstantial, and yet I hope not valueless part of
the offering, the personal regard and appreciation of your noble work
for woman which accompany it, our contribution is any less than his. I
remain yours very truly,
LAURA CURTIS BULLARD.
* * * * *
You have worked for the slave and for woman. Your fifty years shine
about you and rest like a halo of glory around your head.... Fifty years
today! When that half-century again rolls around, you and I will be in
our graves and our names and work will stand back of us to all time. But
into that future I look with prophetic eye to see woman no longer
enslaved, and to find, not only on this continent, but over the world,
as benefactor of the race, the name of Susan B. Anthony. Your
affectionate friend,
MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE.
* * * * *
My good husband in writing from Toledo says: "Tell Susan that all the
newspaper accounts taken together could not increase the pride which I
have long felt in her pertinacious, obstinate, fault-finding, raspish,
strong-minded, dogmatic and grand career. God bless her!" To all of
which I subscribe most affectionately,
ELIZABETH R. TILTON.
* * * * *
... If your Bible says you are fifty, I will try to be as reverential as
possible when next we meet. I wish you similar health and strength when
you are seventy-five--you'll find no change in me. I send you by express
today Whittier's poems. Ever affectionately,
ELLEN WRIGHT GARRISON.
* * * * *
All the people who know you and who don't know you were given
opportunity to utter their good wishes, and poor me, wandering across
these western spaces, quite left out in the cold! Please ma'am, why did
I know nothing of your reception till it was all over? I should have
sent you what I now send--a gray silk gown, wherein you are to make
yourself fine and grand, and a draft for $200 as a little nest-egg.
If I only had a happy ease with my pen, how glad I would have been to
put on paper in glowing words just what I think of the faithful,
unselfish, earnest, single-minded, courageous years, which my dear old
Susan has given to the service of humanity. How, through poverty and
persecution, evil tongues and slanderous words, ridicule and reproach,
she has said, "Nothing shall daunt me; 'tis God's service;" and so
speaking, has held fast the profession of her faith without wavering....
God bless her! God bless her! The tears come to my eyes as I write that
benediction, and think how gently and earnestly men and women alike in
time to come will repeat it when her name is mentioned; when those same
men and women shall see her life and her work, not as now "through a
glass darkly," but as those who gaze through the sunshine of truth.
Good-by, dear friend--many happy years for you, prays your loving
ANNA E. DICKINSON.
* * * * *
Accept the enclosed check for $50, not as a present, merely, but as a
debt, honestly due, for "services rendered." Had there been no
"agitation" for the last twenty years, resulting in so complete a
"Revolution," we teachers might still be working for $1 per week and
"boarding 'round." But thanks to your unfailing "persistency," and the
faithfulness of your co-workers in speaking for a class, the majority of
whom dare not speak for themselves through fear of losing the little
already gained, the salaries of all workingwomen have been largely
increased.... So, if need be, fight as valiantly, dear sister, for the
next twenty years as for the last, or at least till woman's right to a
voice in the laws by which she is governed shall be acknowledged in
every State and Territory of our country. Affectionately your sister,
MARY S. ANTHONY.
* * * * *
On this, your fiftieth birthday, permit me to present you my check for
$50, as a slight and very inadequate expression of admiring gratitude on
my part for your twenty years of arduous and self-sacrificing labor in
the cause of woman. What woman has gained already, and it is much, what
I and others have been able to achieve in professional life, must be
mainly ascribed to you, and such as you.... Your faithful friend and
co-worker,
CLEMENCE S. LOZIER.
* * * * *
Although away here in Rome, I have kept track of your goings-on through
The Revolution, which comes regularly.... I wish I could have been there
to assist at the merrymaking. Miss Manning has kindly offered to take a
little remembrance [an Etruscan gold and garnet pin] to you when she
goes home, which you are to wear with that new silk dress. You see how
selfish I am. I wish to compel you not only to think of me, but to
associate me in your mind with our peerless Anna, God bless the dear
child! Ever affectionately,
KATE N. DOGGETT.
* * * * *
The presents received were too numerous to mention. From Mr. and Mrs.
Cheney, South Manchester, Conn., $50; Erie Co. (N. Y.) Suffrage
Association, $50; Henry Ward Beecher, the Tiltons, Frank D. Moulton,
Mrs. Hooker, Mrs. S. C. Pomeroy, $25 each; Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E.
Sewall, $20; and from other friends, sums of ten, fifteen and twenty
dollars, amounting in all to $1,000. In addition were a broché shawl
from Mrs. Stanton, gold watch, chain and pin from Miss Sarah Johnston,
pen-and-ink sketch from Eliza Greatorex, point and duchesse lace collars
and handkerchiefs, sets of books, engravings, gold pens, pocket-books,
travelling case, and floral offerings.
CHAPTER XXV--PAGE 435.
CONSTITUTIONAL ARGUMENT.
_Delivered in twenty-nine of the post-office districts of Monroe, and
twenty-one of Ontario, in Miss Anthony's canvass of those counties prior
to her trial in June, 1873._
_Friends and Fellow-Citizens:_--I stand before you under indictment for
the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election,
without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening
to prove to you that in thus doing, I not only committed no crime, but
instead simply exercised my citizen's right, guaranteed to me and all
United States citizens by the National Constitution beyond the power of
any State to deny.
Our democratic-republican government is based on the idea of the natural
right of every individual member thereof to a voice and a vote in making
and executing the laws. We assert the province of government to be to
secure the people in the enjoyment of their inalienable rights. We throw
to the winds the old dogma that government can give rights. No one
denies that before governments were organized each individual possessed
the right to protect his own life, liberty and property. When 100 or
1,000,000 people enter into a free government, they do not barter away
their natural rights; they simply pledge themselves to protect each
other in the enjoyment of them through prescribed judicial and
legislative tribunals. They agree to abandon the methods of brute force
in the adjustment of their differences and adopt those of civilization.
Nor can you find a word in any of the grand documents left us by the
fathers which assumes for government the power to create or to confer
rights. The Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution,
the constitutions of the several States and the organic laws of the
Territories, all alike propose to _protect_ the people in the exercise
of their God-given rights. Not one of them pretends to bestow rights.
All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. To secure these, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed.
Here is no shadow of government authority over rights, or exclusion of
any class from their full and equal enjoyment. Here is pronounced the
right of all men, and "consequently," as the Quaker preacher said, "of
all women," to a voice in the government. And here, in this first
paragraph of the Declaration, is the assertion of the natural right of
all to the ballot; for how can "the consent of the governed" be given,
if the right to vote be denied? Again:
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to
institute a new government, laying its foundations on such
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them
shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Surely the right of the whole people to vote is here clearly implied;
for however destructive to their happiness this government might become,
a disfranchised class could neither alter nor abolish it, nor institute
a new one, except by the old brute force method of insurrection and
rebellion. One-half of the people of this nation today are utterly
powerless to blot from the statute books an unjust law, or to write
there a new and a just one. The women, dissatisfied as they are with
this form of government, that enforces taxation without
representation--that compels them to obey laws to which they never have
given their consent--that imprisons and hangs them without a trial by a
jury of their peers--that robs them, in marriage, of the custody of
their own persons, wages and children--are this half of the people who
are left wholly at the mercy of the other half, in direct violation of
the spirit and letter of the declarations of the framers of this
government, every one of which was based on the immutable principle of
equal rights to all. By these declarations, kings, popes, priests,
aristocrats, all were alike dethroned and placed on a common level,
politically, with the lowliest born subject or serf. By them, too, men,
as such, were deprived of their divine right to rule and placed on a
political level with women. By the practice of these declarations all
class and caste distinctions would be abolished, and slave, serf,
plebeian, wife, woman, all alike rise from their subject position to the
broader platform of equality.
The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity,
provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do
ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of
America.
It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor we, the male
citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed this Union. We formed it
not to give the blessings of liberty but to secure them; not to the half
of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole
people--women as well as men. It is downright mockery to talk to women
of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the
only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican
government--the ballot.
The early journals of Congress show that, when the committee reported to
that body the original articles of confederation, the very first one
which became the subject of discussion was that respecting equality of
suffrage. Article IV said:
The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and
intercourse between the people of the different States of this
Union, the free inhabitants of each of the States (paupers,
vagabonds and fugitives from justice excepted) shall be entitled to
all the privileges and immunities of the free citizens of the
several States.
Thus, at the very beginning, did the fathers see the necessity of the
universal application of the great principle of equal rights to all, in
order to produce the desired result--a harmonious union and a
homogeneous people.
Luther Martin, attorney-general of Maryland, in his report to the
legislature of that State of the convention which framed the United
States Constitution, said:
Those who advocated the equality of suffrage took the matter up on
the original principles of government: that the reason why each
individual man in forming a State government should have an equal
vote, is because each individual, before he enters into government,
is equally free and equally independent.
James Madison said:
Under every view of the subject, it seems indispensable that the
mass of the citizens should not be without a voice in making the
laws which they are to obey, and in choosing the magistrates who
are to administer them.... Let it be remembered, finally, that it
has ever been the pride and the boast of America that the rights
for which she contended were the rights of human nature.
These assertions by the framers of the United States Constitution of the
equal and natural right of all the people to a voice in the government,
have been affirmed and reaffirmed by the leading statesmen of the nation
throughout the entire history of our government. Thaddeus Stevens, of
Pennsylvania, said in 1866: "I have made up my mind that the elective
franchise is one of the inalienable rights meant to be secured by the
Declaration of Independence." B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, in the three
days' discussion in the United States Senate in 1866, on Senator Cowan's
motion to strike "male" from the District of Columbia suffrage bill,
said:
Mr. President, I say here on the floor of the American Senate, I
stand for universal suffrage and as a matter of fundamental
principle, do not recognize the right of society to limit it on any
ground of race or sex. I will go farther and say that I recognize
the right of franchise as being intrinsically a natural right. I do
not believe that society is authorized to impose any limitations
upon it that do not spring out of the necessities of the social
state itself. Sir, I have been shocked, in the course of this
debate, to hear senators declare this right only a conventional and
political arrangement, a privilege yielded to you and me and
others; not a right in any sense, only a concession! Mr. President,
I do not hold my liberties by any such tenure. On the contrary, I
believe that whenever you establish that doctrine, whenever you
crystallize that idea in the public mind of this country, you ring
the death-knell of American liberties.
Charles Sumner, in his brave protests against the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments, insisted that so soon as by the Thirteenth
Amendment the slaves became free men, the original powers of the United
States Constitution guaranteed to them equal rights--the right to vote
and to be voted for. In closing one of his great speeches he said:
I do not hesitate to say that when the slaves of our country became
"citizens" they took their place in the body politic as a component
part of the "people," entitled to equal rights and under the
protection of these two guardian principles: First, that all just
governments stand on the consent of the governed; and second, that
taxation without representation is tyranny; and these rights it is
the duty of Congress to guarantee as essential to the idea of a
republic.
The preamble of the constitution of the State of New York declares the
same purpose. It says: "We, the people of the State of New York,
grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its
blessings, do establish this constitution." Here is not the slightest
intimation either of receiving freedom from the United States
Constitution, or of the State's conferring the blessings of liberty upon
the people; and the same is true of every other State constitution. Each
and all declare rights God-given, and that to secure the people in the
enjoyment of their inalienable rights is their one and only object in
ordaining and establishing government. All of the State constitutions
are equally emphatic in their recognition of the ballot as the means of
securing the people in the enjoyment of these rights. Article I of the
New York State constitution says:
No member of this State shall be disfranchised or deprived of the
rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the
law of the land, or the judgment of his peers.
So carefully guarded is the citizen's right to vote, that the
constitution makes special mention of all who may be excluded. It says:
"Laws may be passed excluding from the right of suffrage all persons who
have been or may be convicted of bribery, larceny or any infamous
crime."
In naming the various employments which shall not affect the residence
of voters, Section 3, Article II, says "that neither being kept in any
almshouse, or other asylum, at public expense, nor being confined in any
public prison, shall deprive a person of his residence," and hence of
his vote. Thus is the right of voting most sacredly hedged about. The
only seeming permission in the New York State constitution for the
disfranchisement of women is in Section 1, Article II, which says:
"Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, etc., shall be
entitled to vote."
But I submit that in view of the explicit assertions of the equal right
of the whole people, both in the preamble and previous article of the
constitution, this omission of the adjective "female" should not be
construed into a denial; but instead should be considered as of no
effect. Mark the direct prohibition, "No member of this State shall be
disfranchised, unless by the law of the land, or the judgment of his
peers." "The law of the land" is the United States Constitution; and
there is no provision in that document which can be fairly construed
into a permission to the States to deprive any class of citizens of
their right to vote. Hence New York can get no power from that source to
disfranchise one entire half of her members. Nor has "the judgment of
their peers" been pronounced against women exercising their right to
vote; no disfranchised person is allowed to be judge or juror--and none
but disfranchised persons can be women's peers. Nor has the legislature
passed laws excluding women as a class on account of idiocy or lunacy;
nor have the courts convicted them of bribery, larceny or any infamous
crime. Clearly, then, there is no constitutional ground for the
exclusion of women from the ballot-box in the State of New York. No
barriers whatever stand today between women and the exercise of their
right to vote save those of precedent and prejudice, which refuse to
expunge the word "male" from the constitution.
The clauses of the United States Constitution cited by our opponents as
giving power to the States to disfranchise any classes of citizens they
please, are contained in Sections 2 and 4, Article I. The second says:
The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen
every second year by the people of the several States; and the
electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for
electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature.
This can not be construed into a concession to the States of the power
to destroy the right to become an elector, but simply to prescribe what
shall be the qualifications, such as competency of intellect, maturity
of age, length of residence, that shall be deemed necessary to enable
them to make an intelligent choice of candidates. If, as our opponents
assert, it is the duty of the United States to protect citizens in the
several States against higher or different qualifications for electors
for representatives in Congress than for members of the Assembly, then
it must be equally imperative for the national government to interfere
with the States, and forbid them from arbitrarily cutting off the right
of one-half the people to become electors altogether. Section 4 says:
The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and
representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the
legislature thereof; but Congress may at any time, by law, make or
alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing
senators.
Here is conceded to the States only the power to prescribe times, places
and manner of holding the elections; and even with these Congress may
interfere in all excepting the mere place of choosing senators. Thus,
you see, there is not the slightest permission for the States to
discriminate against the right of any class of citizens to vote. Surely,
to regulate can not be to annihilate; to qualify can not be wholly to
deprive. To this principle every true Democrat and Republican said amen,
when applied to black men by Senator Sumner in his great speeches from
1865 to 1869 for equal rights to all; and when, in 1871, I asked that
senator to declare the power of the United States Constitution to
protect women in their right to vote--as he had done for black men--he
handed me a copy of all his speeches during that reconstruction period,
and said:
Put "sex" where I have "race" or "color," and you have here the
best and strongest argument I can make for woman. There is not a
doubt but women have the constitutional right to vote, and I will
never vote for a Sixteenth Amendment to guarantee it to them. I
voted for both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth under protest; would
never have done it but for the pressing emergency of that hour;
would have insisted that the power of the original Constitution to
protect all citizens in the equal enjoyment of their rights should
have been vindicated through the courts. But the newly-made
freedmen had neither the intelligence, wealth nor time to await
that slow process. Women do possess all these in an eminent degree,
and I insist that they shall appeal to the courts, and through them
establish the powers of our American magna charta to protect every
citizen of the republic.
But, friends, when in accordance with Senator Sumner's counsel I went to
the ballot-box, last November, and exercised my citizen's right to vote,
the courts did not wait for me to appeal to them--they appealed to me,
and indicted me on the charge of having voted illegally. Putting sex
where he did color, Senator Sumner would have said:
Qualifications can not be in their nature permanent or
insurmountable. Sex can not be a qualification any more than size,
race, color or previous condition of servitude. A permanent or
insurmountable qualification is equivalent to a deprivation of the
suffrage. In other words, it is the tyranny of taxation without
representation, against which our Revolutionary mothers, as well as
fathers, rebelled.
For any State to make sex a qualification, which must ever result in the
disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of
attainder, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the
supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever
withheld from women and their female posterity. For them, this
government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed.
For them this government is not a democracy; it is not a republic. It is
the most odious aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe.
An oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor; an oligarchy of
learning, where the educated govern the ignorant; or even an oligarchy
of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this
oligarchy of sex which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the
oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every
household; which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects--carries
discord and rebellion into every home of the nation. This most odious
aristocracy exists, too, in the face of Section 4, Article IV, which
says: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a
republican form of government."
What, I ask you, is the distinctive difference between the inhabitants
of a monarchical and those of a republican form of government, save that
in the monarchical the people are subjects, helpless, powerless, bound
to obey laws made by political superiors; while in the republican the
people are citizens, individual sovereigns, all clothed with equal power
to make and unmake both their laws and law-makers? The moment you
deprive a person of his right to a voice in the government, you degrade
him from the status of a citizen of the republic to that of a subject.
It matters very little to him whether his monarch be an individual
tyrant, as is the Czar of Russia, or a 15,000,000 headed monster, as
here in the United States; he is a powerless subject, serf or slave; not
in any sense a free and independent citizen.
It is urged that the use of the masculine pronouns _he, his_ and _him_
in all the constitutions and laws, is proof that only men were meant to
be included in their provisions. If you insist on this version of the
letter of the law, we shall insist that you be consistent and accept the
other horn of the dilemma, which would compel you to exempt women from
taxation for the support of the government and from penalties for the
violation of laws. There is no _she_ or _her_ or _hers_ in the tax laws,
and this is equally true of all the criminal laws.
Take for example the civil rights law which I am charged with having
violated; not only are all the pronouns in it masculine, but everybody
knows that it was intended expressly to hinder the rebel men from
voting. It reads, "If any person shall knowingly vote without _his_
having a lawful right." It was precisely so with all the papers served
on me the United States marshal's warrant, the bail-bond, the petition
for habeas corpus, the bill of indictment--not one of them had a
feminine pronoun; but to make them applicable to me, the clerk of the
court prefixed an "s" to the "he" and made "her" out of "his" and "him;"
and I insist if government officials may thus manipulate the pronouns to
tax, fine, imprison and hang women, it is their duty to thus change them
in order to protect us in our right to vote.
So long as any classes of men were denied this right, the government
made a show of consistency by exempting them from taxation. When a
property qualification of $250 was required of black men in New York,
they were not compelled to pay taxes so long as they were content to
report themselves worth less than that sum; but the moment the black
man died and his property fell to his widow or daughter, the black
woman's name was put on the assessor's list and she was compelled to pay
taxes on this same property. This also is true of ministers in New York.
So long as the minister lives, he is exempted from taxation on $1,500 of
property, but the moment the breath leaves his body, his widow's name
goes on the assessor's list and she has to pay taxes on the $1,500. So
much for special legislation in favor of women!
In all the penalties and burdens of government (except the military)
women are reckoned as citizens, equally with men. Also, in all the
privileges and immunities, save those of the jury and the ballot-box,
the foundation on which rest all the others. The United States
government not only taxes, fines, imprisons and hangs women, but it
allows them to pre-empt lands, register ships and take out passports and
naturalization papers. Not only does the law permit single women and
widows the right of naturalization, but Section 2 says, "A married woman
may be naturalized without the concurrence of her husband;" (I wonder
the fathers were not afraid of creating discord in the families of
foreigners;) and again:
When an alien, having complied with the law and declared his
intention to become a citizen, dies before he is actually
naturalized, his widow and children shall be considered citizens,
entitled to all rights and privileges as such, on taking the
required oath.
If a foreign born woman by becoming a naturalized citizen is entitled to
all the rights and privileges of citizenship, do not these include the
ballot which would have belonged to her husband? If this is true of a
naturalized woman, is it not equally true of one who is native born?
The question of the masculine pronouns--yes, and nouns too--was settled
by the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Silver _versus_ Ladd,
December, 1868. The court said:
In construing a benevolent statute of the government, made for the
benefit of its own citizens, inviting and encouraging them to
settle on its distant public lands, the words "single man" and
"unmarried man" may, especially if aided by the context and other
parts of the statute, be taken in a generic sense. Held,
accordingly, that the Fourth Section of the Act of Congress, of
September 21, 1850, granting by way of donation lands in Oregon
Territory to every white settler or occupant, American half-breed
Indians included, embraced within the term single man an unmarried
woman.
Though the words persons, people, inhabitants, electors, citizens, are
all used indiscriminately in the national and State constitutions, there
was always a conflict of opinion, prior to the war, as to whether they
were synonymous terms, but whatever room there was for doubt, under the
old regime, the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment settled that
question forever in its first sentence:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject
to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and
of the State wherein they reside.
The second settles the equal status of all citizens:
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property
without due process of law, or deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? I
scarcely believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say
they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens, and no State has
a right to make any new law, or to enforce any old law, which shall
abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination
against women in the constitutions and laws of the several States is
today null and void, precisely as is every one against negroes.
Is the right to vote one of the privileges or immunities of citizens? I
think the disfranchised ex-rebels and ex-State prisoners all will agree
that it is not only one of them, but the one without which all the
others are nothing. Seek first the kingdom of the ballot and all things
else shall be added, is the political injunction.
Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all define citizen to be a person, in the
United States, entitled to vote and hold office. Prior to the adoption
of the Thirteenth Amendment, by which slavery was forever abolished and
black men transformed from property to persons, the judicial opinions of
the country had always been in harmony with this definition: In order to
be a citizen one must be a voter. Associate-Justice Washington, in
defining the privileges and immunities of the citizen, more than fifty
years ago, said: "They include all such privileges as are fundamental in
their nature; and among them is the right to exercise the elective
franchise, and to hold office." Even the Dred Scott decision, pronounced
by the Abolitionists and Republicans infamous because it virtually
declared "black men had no rights white men were bound to respect," gave
this true and logical conclusion, that to be one of the people was to be
a citizen and a voter.
Chief-Justice Daniels said:
There is not, it is believed, to be found in the theories of
writers on government, or in any actual experiment heretofore made,
an exposition of the term citizen which has not been considered as
conferring the actual possession and enjoyment of an entire
equality of privileges, civil and political.
Associate-Justice Taney said:
The words "people of the United States" and "citizens" are
synonymous terms, and mean the same thing. They both describe the
political body, who, according to our republican institutions, form
the sovereignty, and who hold the power and conduct the government
through their representatives. They are what we familiarly call
"the sovereign people," and every citizen is one of this people,
and a constituent member of this sovereignty.
Thus does Judge Taney's decision, which was so terrible a ban to the
black man while he was a slave, now that he is a person and no longer
property, pronounce him a citizen, possessed of entire equality of
privileges, civil and political; and not only the black man, but the
black woman, and all women. It was not until after the abolition of
slavery, by which the negroes became free men and hence citizens, that
any contrary opinion was rendered. U. S. Attorney-General Bates then
said:
The Constitution uses the word "citizen" only to express the
political quality, [not equality, mark,] of the individual in his
relation to the nation; to declare that he is a member of the body
politic, and bound to it by the reciprocal obligations of
allegiance on the one side and protection on the other. The
phrase, "a citizen of the United States," without addition or
qualification, means neither more nor less than a member of the
nation.
Then, to be a citizen of this republic is no more than to be a subject
of an empire. You and I, and all true and patriotic citizens, must
repudiate this base conclusion. We all know that American citizenship,
without addition or qualification, means the possession of equal rights,
civil and political. We all know that the crowning glory of every
citizen of the United States is that he can either give or withhold his
vote from every law and every legislator under the government.
Did "I am a Roman citizen" mean nothing more than that I am a "member"
of the body politic of the republic of Rome, bound to it by the
reciprocal obligations of allegiance on the one side and protection on
the other? When you, young man, shall travel abroad, among the
monarchies of the old world, and there proudly boast yourself an
"American citizen," will you thereby declare yourself neither more nor
less than a "member" of the American nation?
This opinion of Attorney-General Bates, that a black citizen was not a
voter, given merely to suit the political exigency of the Republican
party in that transition hour between emancipation and enfranchisement,
was no less infamous, in spirit or purpose, than was the decision of
Judge Taney, that a black man was not one of the people, rendered in the
interest and at the behest of the old Democratic party in its darkest
hour of subjection to the slave power. Nevertheless, all of the adverse
arguments, congressional reports and judicial opinions, thus far, have
been based on this purely partisan, time-serving decision of General
Bates, that the normal condition of the citizen of the United States is
that of disfranchisement; that only such classes of citizens as have had
special legislative guarantee have a legal right to vote.
If this decision of Attorney-General Bates was infamous, as against
black men, but yesterday plantation slaves, what shall we pronounce upon
Judge Bingham, in the House of Representatives, and Carpenter, in the
Senate of the United States, for citing it against the women of the
entire nation, vast numbers of whom are the peers of those honorable
gentlemen themselves in morals, intellect, culture, wealth, family,
paying taxes on large estates, and contributing equally with them and
their sex, in every direction, to the growth, prosperity and well-being
of the republic? And what shall be said of the judicial opinions of
Judges Cartter, Jameson, McKay and Sharswood, all based upon this
aristocratic, monarchial idea of the right of one class to govern
another?
I am proud to mention the names of the two United States judges who have
given opinions honorable to our republican idea, and honorable to
themselves--Judge Howe, of Wyoming Territory, and Judge Underwood, of
Virginia. The former gave it as his opinion a year ago, when the
legislature seemed likely to revoke the law enfranchising the women of
that Territory that, in case they succeeded, the women would still
possess the right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment. The latter, in
noticing the recent decision of Judge Cartter, of the Supreme Court of
the District of Columbia, denying to women the right to vote under the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, says:
If the people of the United States, by amendment of their
Constitution, could expunge, without any explanatory or assisting
legislation, an adjective of five letters from all State and local
constitutions, and thereby raise millions of our most ignorant
fellow-citizens to all of the rights and privileges of electors,
why should not the same people, by the same amendment, expunge an
adjective of four letters from the same State and local
constitutions, and thereby raise other millions of more educated
and better informed citizens to equal rights and privileges,
without explanatory or assisting legislation?
If the Fourteenth Amendment does not secure to all citizens the right to
vote, for what purpose was that grand old charter of the fathers
lumbered with its unwieldy proportions? The Republican party, and Judges
Howard and Bingham, who drafted the document, pretended it was to do
something for black men; and if that something were not to secure them
in their right to vote and hold office, what could it have been? For by
the Thirteenth Amendment black men had become people, and hence were
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the government,
precisely as were the women of the country and foreign men not
naturalized. According to Associate-Justice Washington, they already
had:
Protection of the government, the enjoyment of life and liberty,
with the right to acquire and possess property of every kind, and
to pursue and obtain happiness and safety, subject to such
restraints as the government may justly prescribe for the general
welfare of the whole; the right of a citizen of one State to pass
through or to reside in any other State for the purpose of trade,
agriculture, professional pursuit, or otherwise; to claim the
benefit of the writ of habeas corpus, to institute and maintain
actions of any kind in the courts of the State; to take, hold, and
dispose of property, either real or personal, and an exemption from
higher taxes or impositions than are paid by the other citizens of
the State.
Thus, you see, those newly-freed men were in possession of every
possible right, privilege and immunity of the government, except that of
suffrage, and hence needed no constitutional amendment for any other
purpose. What right in this country has the Irishman the day after he
receives his naturalization papers that he did not possess the day
before, save the right to vote and hold office? The Chinamen now
crowding our Pacific coast are in precisely the same position. What
privilege or immunity has California or Oregon the right to deny them,
save that of the ballot? Clearly, then, if the Fourteenth Amendment was
not to secure to black men their right to vote it did nothing for them,
since they possessed everything else before. But if it was intended to
prohibit the States from denying or abridging their right to vote, then
it did the same for all persons, white women included, born or
naturalized in the United States; for the amendment does not say that
all male persons of African descent, but that all persons are citizens.
The second section is simply a threat to punish the States by reducing
their representation on the floor of Congress, should they disfranchise
any of their male citizens, and can not be construed into a sanction to
disfranchise female citizens, nor does it in any wise weaken or
invalidate the universal guarantee of the first section.
However much the doctors of the law may disagree as to whether people
and citizens, in the original Constitution, were one and the same, or
whether the privileges and immunities in the Fourteenth Amendment
include the right of suffrage, the question of the citizen's right to
vote is forever settled by the Fifteenth Amendment. "The right of
citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color or
previous condition of servitude." How can the State deny or abridge the
right of the citizen, if the citizen does not possess it? There is no
escape from the conclusion that to vote is the citizen's right, and the
specifications of race, color or previous condition of servitude can in
no way impair the force of that emphatic assertion that the citizen's
right to vote shall not be denied or abridged.
The political strategy of the second section of the Fourteenth Amendment
failing to coerce the rebel States into enfranchising their negroes, and
the necessities of the Republican party demanding their votes throughout
the South to ensure the re-election of Grant in 1872, that party was
compelled to place this positive prohibition of the Fifteenth Amendment
upon the United States and all the States thereof.
If once we establish the false principle that United States citizenship
does not carry with it the right to vote in every State in this Union,
there is no end to the petty tricks and cunning devices which will be
attempted to exclude one and another class of citizens from the right of
suffrage. It will not always be the men combining to disfranchise all
women; native born men combining to abridge the rights of all
naturalized citizens, as in Rhode Island. It will not always be the rich
and educated who may combine to cut off the poor and ignorant; but we
may live to see the hard-working, uncultivated day laborers, foreign and
native born, learning the power of the ballot and their vast majority of
numbers, combine and amend State constitutions so as to disfranchise the
Vanderbilts, the Stewarts, the Conklings and the Fentons. It is a poor
rule that won't work more ways than one. Establish this precedent, admit
the State's right to deny suffrage, and there is no limit to the
confusion, discord and disruption that may await us. There is and can be
but one safe principle of government--equal rights to all.
Discrimination against any class on account of color, race, nativity,
sex, property, culture, can but embitter and disaffect that class, and
thereby endanger the safety of the whole people. Clearly, then, the
national government not only must define the rights of citizens, but
must stretch out its powerful hand and protect them in every State in
this Union.
If, however, you will insist that the Fifteenth Amendment's emphatic
interdiction against robbing United States citizens of their suffrage
"on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude," is a
recognition of the right of either the United States or any State to
deprive them of the ballot for any or all other reasons, I will prove to
you that the class of citizens for whom I now plead are, by all the
principles of our government and many of the laws of the States,
included under the term "previous condition of servitude."
Consider first married women and their legal status. What is servitude?
"The condition of a slave." What is a slave? "A person who is robbed of
the proceeds of his labor; a person who is subject to the will of
another." By the laws of Georgia, South Carolina and all the States of
the South, the negro had no right to the custody and control of his
person. He belonged to his master. If he were disobedient, the master
had the right to use correction. If the negro did not like the
correction and ran away, the master had the right to use coercion to
bring him back. By the laws of almost every State in this Union today,
North as well as South, the married woman has no right to the custody
and control of her person. The wife belongs to the husband; and if she
refuse obedience he may use moderate correction, and if she do not like
his moderate correction and leave his "bed and board," the husband may
use moderate coercion to bring her back. The little word "moderate," you
see, is the saving clause for the wife, and would doubtless be
overstepped should her offended husband administer his correction with
the "cat-o'-nine-tails," or accomplish his coercion with blood-hounds.
Again the slave had no right to the earnings of his hands, they belonged
to his master; no right to the custody of his children, they belonged to
his master; no right to sue or be sued, or to testify in the courts. If
he committed a crime, it was the master who must sue or be sued. In many
of the States there has been special legislation, giving married women
the right to property inherited or received by bequest, or earned by the
pursuit of any avocation outside the home; also giving them the right to
sue and be sued in matters pertaining to such separate property; but not
a single State of this Union has ever secured the wife in the enjoyment
of her right to equal ownership of the joint earnings of the marriage
copartnership. And since, in the nature of things, the vast majority of
married women never earn a dollar by work outside their families, or
inherit a dollar from their fathers, it follows that from the day of
their marriage to the day of the death of their husbands not one of them
ever has a dollar, except it shall please her husband to let her have
it.
In some of the States, also, laws have been passed giving to the mother
a joint right with the father in the guardianship of the children.
Twenty-five years ago, when our woman's rights movement commenced, by
the laws of all the States the father had the sole custody and control
of the children. No matter if he were a brutal, drunken libertine, he
had the legal right, without the mother's consent, to apprentice her
sons to rumsellers or her daughters to brothel-keepers. He even could
will away an unborn child from the mother. In most of the States this
law still prevails, and the mothers are utterly powerless.
I doubt if there is, today, a State in this Union where a married woman
can sue or be sued for slander of character, and until recently there
was not one where she could sue or be sued for injury of person. However
damaging to the wife's reputation any slander may be, she is wholly
powerless to institute legal proceedings against her accuser unless her
husband shall join with her; and how often have we heard of the husband
conspiring with some outside barbarian to blast the good name of his
wife? A married woman can not testify in courts in cases of joint
interest with her husband.
A good farmer's wife in Illinois, who had all the rights she wanted, had
had made for herself a full set of false teeth. The dentist pronounced
them an admirable fit, and the wife declared it gave her fits to wear
them. The dentist sued the husband for his bill; his counsel brought the
wife as witness; the judge ruled her off the stand, saying, "A married
woman can not be a witness in matters of joint interest between herself
and her husband." Think of it, ye good wives, the false teeth in your
mouths are a joint interest with your husbands, about which you are
legally incompetent to speak! If a married woman is injured by
accident, in nearly all of the States it is her husband who must sue,
and it is to him that the damages will be awarded. In Massachusetts a
married woman was severely injured by a defective sidewalk. Her husband
sued the corporation and recovered $13,000 damages, which belong to him
absolutely, and whenever that unfortunate wife wishes a dollar of that
money she must ask her husband for it; and if he be of a niggardly
nature, she will hear him say, every time, "What have you done with the
twenty-five cents I gave you yesterday?" Isn't such a position
humiliating enough to be called "servitude?" That husband sued and
obtained damages for the loss of the services of his wife, precisely as
he would have done had it been his ox, cow or horse; and exactly as the
master, under the old regime, would have recovered for the services of
his slave.
I submit the question, if the deprivation by law of the ownership of
one's own person, wages, property, children, the denial of the right as
an individual to sue and be sued and testify in the courts, is not a
condition of servitude most bitter and absolute, even though under the
sacred name of marriage? Does any lawyer doubt my statement of the legal
status of married women? I will remind him of the fact that the common
law of England prevails in every State but two in this Union, except
where the legislature has enacted special laws annulling it. I am
ashamed that not one of the States yet has blotted from its statute
books the old law of marriage, which, summed up in the fewest words
possible, is in effect "husband and wife are one, and that one the
husband."
Thus may all married women and widows, by the laws of the several
States, be technically included in the Fifteenth Amendment's
specification of "condition of servitude," present or previous. The
facts also prove that, by all the great fundamental principles of our
free government, not only married women but the entire womanhood of the
nation are in a "condition of servitude" as surely as were our
Revolutionary fathers when they rebelled against King George. Women are
taxed without representation, governed without their consent, tried,
convicted and punished without a jury of their peers. Is all this
tyranny any less humiliating and degrading to women under our
democratic-republican government today than it was to men under their
aristocratic, monarchial government one hundred years ago? There is not
an utterance of John Adams, John Hancock or Patrick Henry, but finds a
living response in the soul of every intelligent, patriotic woman of the
nation. Show me a justice-loving woman property-holder, and I will show
you one whose soul is fired with all the indignation of 1776 every time
the tax-collector presents himself at her door. You will not find one
such but feels her condition of servitude as galling as did James Otis
when he said:
The very act of taxing exercised over those who are not represented
appears to me to be depriving them of one of their most essential
rights, and if continued seems to be in effect an entire
disfranchisement of every civil right. For what one civil right is
worth a rush after a man's property is subject to be taken from him
at pleasure without his consent? If a man is not his own assessor
in person, or by deputy, his liberty is gone, for he is wholly at
the mercy of others.
What was the three-penny tax on tea or the paltry tax on paper and sugar
to which our Revolutionary fathers were subjected, when compared with
the taxation of the women of this republic? And again, to show that
disfranchisement was precisely the slavery of which the fathers
complained, allow me to cite Benjamin Franklin, who in those olden times
was admitted to be good authority, not merely in domestic but also in
political economy:
Every man of the commonalty, except infants, insane persons and
criminals, is, of common right and the law of God, a freeman and
entitled to the free enjoyment of liberty. That liberty or freedom
consists in having an actual share in the appointment of those who
are to frame the laws, and who are to be the guardians of every
man's life, property and peace. For the all of one man is as dear
to him as the all of another; and the poor man has an equal right,
but more need, to have representatives in the legislature than the
rich one. They who have no voice or vote in the electing of
representatives do not enjoy liberty, but are absolutely enslaved
to those who have votes and to their representatives; for to be
enslaved is to have governors whom other men have set over us, and
to be subject to laws made by the representatives of others,
without having had representatives of our own to give consent in
our behalf.
Suppose I read it with the feminine gender:
Women who have no voice or vote in the electing of representatives
do not enjoy liberty, but are absolutely enslaved to men who have
votes and to their representatives; for to be enslaved is to have
governors whom men have set over us, and to be subject to the laws
made by the representatives of men, without having representatives
of our own to give consent in our behalf.
And yet one more authority, that of Thomas Paine, than whom not one of
the Revolutionary patriots more ably vindicated the principles upon
which our government is founded:
The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by
which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to
reduce man to a state of slavery; for slavery consists in being
subject to the will of another; and he that has not a vote in the
election of representatives is in this case. The proposal,
therefore, to disfranchise any class of men is as criminal as the
proposal to take away property.
Is anything further needed to prove woman's condition of servitude
sufficient to entitle her to the guarantees of the Fifteenth Amendment?
Is there a man who will not agree with me that to talk of freedom
without the ballot is mockery to the women of this republic, precisely
as New England's orator, Wendell Phillips, at the close of the late war
declared it to be to the newly emancipated black man? I admit that,
prior to the rebellion, by common consent, the right to enslave, as well
as to disfranchise both native and foreign born persons, was conceded to
the States. But the one grand principle settled by the war and the
reconstruction legislation, is the supremacy of the national government
to protect the citizens of the United States in their right to freedom
and the elective franchise, against any and every interference on the
part of the several States; and again and again have the American people
asserted the triumph of this principle by their overwhelming majorities
for Lincoln and Grant.
The one issue of the last two presidential elections was whether the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments should be considered the irrevocable
will of the people; and the decision was that they should be, and that
it is not only the right, but the duty of the national government to
protect all United States citizens in the full enjoyment and free
exercise of their privileges and immunities against the attempt of any
State to deny or abridge. In this conclusion Republicans and Democrats
alike agree. Senator Frelinghuysen said: "The heresy of State rights has
been completely buried in these amendments, and as amended, the
Constitution confers not only National but State citizenship upon all
persons born or naturalized within our limits."
The call for the National Republican Convention of 1872 said: "Equal
suffrage has been engrafted on the National Constitution; the privileges
and immunities of American citizenship have become a part of the organic
law." The National Republican platform said: "Complete liberty and exact
equality in the enjoyment of all civil, political and public rights,
should be established and maintained throughout the Union by efficient
and appropriate State and Federal legislation."
If that means anything it is that Congress should pass a law to protect
women in their equal political rights, and that the States should enact
laws making it the duty of inspectors of elections to receive the votes
of women on precisely the same conditions as they do those of men.
Judge Stanley Matthews, a substantial Ohio Democrat, in his preliminary
speech at the Cincinnati Liberal Convention, said most emphatically:
"The constitutional amendments have established the political equality
of all citizens before the law."
President Grant, in his message to Congress, March 30, 1870, on the
adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, said, "A measure which makes at
once four millions of people voters, is indeed a measure of greater
importance than any act of the kind from the foundation of the
government to the present time."
How could _four_ million negroes be made voters if two million out of
the four were women?
The California Republican platform of 1872 said:
Among the many practical and substantial triumphs of the principles
achieved by the Republican party during the past twelve years, it
enumerates with pride and pleasure the prohibiting of any State
from abridging the privileges of any citizen of the republic, the
declaring the civil and political equality of every citizen, and
the establishing all these principles in the Federal Constitution,
by amendments thereto, as the permanent law.
Benjamin F. Butler, in a recent letter to me, said: "I do not believe
anybody in Congress doubts that the Constitution authorizes the right of
women to vote, precisely as it authorizes trial by jury and many other
like rights guaranteed to citizens."
It is upon this just interpretation of the United States Constitution
that our National Woman Suffrage Association, which celebrates the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the woman's rights movement next May in New
York City, has based all its arguments and action since the passage of
these amendments. We no longer petition legislature or Congress to give
us the right to vote, but appeal to women everywhere to exercise their
too long neglected "citizen's right." We appeal to the inspectors of
election to receive the votes of all United States citizens, as it is
their duty to do. We appeal to United States commissioners and marshals
to arrest, as is their duty, the inspectors who reject the votes of
United States citizens, and leave alone those who perform their duties
and accept these votes. We ask the juries to return verdicts of "not
guilty" in the cases of law-abiding United States citizens who cast
their votes, and inspectors of election who receive and count them.
We ask the judges to render unprejudiced opinions of the law, and
whereever there is room for doubt to give the benefit to the side of
liberty and equal rights for women, remembering that, as Sumner says,
"The true rule of interpretation under our National Constitution,
especially since its amendments, is that anything _for_ human rights is
constitutional, everything _against_ human rights unconstitutional." It
is on this line that we propose to fight our battle for the
ballot--peaceably but nevertheless persistently--until we achieve
complete triumph and all United States citizens, men and women alike,
are recognized as equals in the government.
CHAPTER XXV--PAGE 436
NEWSPAPER COMMENT ON MISS ANTHONY'S TRIAL.
It is perhaps needless to say that whoever listens candidly to Susan B.
Anthony, no matter how he previously regarded her and her sentiments, is
certain to respect her and them afterwards.--Geneva Courier.
* * * * *
Miss Susan B. Anthony is sharp enough for a successful politician. She
is under arrest in Rochester for voting illegally, and is conducting her
case in a way which beats even lawyers. She stumped the county of Monroe
and spoke in every post-office district so powerfully that she has
actually converted nearly the entire male population to the woman
suffrage doctrine. The sentiment is so universal that the United States
district-attorney dare not trust his case to a jury drawn from that
county, and has changed the venue to Ontario. Now Miss Anthony proposes
to stump Ontario immediately, and has procured the services of Matilda
Joslyn Gage, of Fayetteville, to assist her. By the time the case comes
on, Miss Anthony will have Ontario county converted to her
doctrine.--Syracuse Standard.
* * * * *
If Miss Anthony has converted every man in Monroe county to her views of
the suffrage question, as the district-attorney intimates in his recent
efforts to have her case adjourned, it is pretty good evidence--unless
every man in Monroe county is a fool--that the lady has done no wrong.
"Her case," remarks the Auburn Bulletin, "will probably be carried over
to another term, and all she has to do is to canvass and convert another
county. A shrewd woman that! Again we say she ought to vote."--Rochester
Democrat and Chronicle.
* * * * *
There is perplexity in the northern district of New York. It was in that
jurisdiction that Miss Susan B. Anthony and sundry "erring sisters"
voted at the November election. For this they were arrested and
indicted. The venue was laid in Monroe county and there the trial was to
take place. Miss Anthony then proceeded to stump Monroe county and every
town and village thereof, asking her bucolic hearers the solemn
conundrum, "Is it a crime for a United States citizen to vote?" The
answer is supposed generally to be in the negative, and so convincing is
Sister Anthony's rhetoric regarded that it is supposed no jury can be
found to convict her. Her case has gone to the jurymen of Monroe, in her
own persuasive pleadings, before they are summoned. The
district-attorney has, therefore, postponed the trial to another term of
the court, and changed the place thereof to Ontario county; whereupon
the brave Susan takes the stump in Ontario, and personally makes known
her woes and wants. It is a regular St. Anthony's dance she leads the
district-attorney; and, in spite of winter cold or summer heat, she
will carry her case from county to county precisely as fast as the venue
is changed. One must rise very early in the morning to get the start of
this active apostle of the sisterhood.--New York Commercial Advertiser.
* * * * *
It seems likely that the decision of the court will be in Miss Anthony's
favor. If such be the result the advocates of woman suffrage will change
places with the public. They will no longer be forced to obtain hearings
from congressional and legislative committees for their claims, but will
exercise their right to vote by the authority of a legal precedent
against which positive laws forbidding them from voting will be the only
remedy. It is a question whether such laws can be passed in this
country. A careful examination of the subject must precede any such
legislation, and the inference from the result of Judge Selden's
investigation is that the more the subject is studied the less likely
will any legislative body be to forbid those women who want to vote from
so doing.--New York Evening Post.
* * * * *
Miss Susan B. Anthony, whatever else she may be, is evidently of the
right stuff for a reformer. Of all the woman suffragists she has the
most courage and resource, and fights her own and her sisters' battle
with the most wonderful energy, resolution and hopefulness. It is well
known that she is now under indictment for voting illegally in Rochester
last November. Voting illegally in her case means simply voting, for it
is held that women can not lawfully vote at all. She is to be tried
soon, but in the meantime, while at large on bail, she has devoted her
time to missionary work on behalf of woman suffrage, and has spoken, it
is said, in every post-office district in Monroe county, where her trial
would have been held in the natural course of things. She has argued her
cause so well that almost all the male population of the county have
been converted to her views on this subject. The district-attorney is
afraid to trust the case to a jury from that county, and has obtained a
change of venue to Ontario on the ground that a fair trial can not be
had in Monroe.
Miss Anthony, rather cheered than discouraged by this unwilling
testimony to the strength of her cause and her powers of persuasion, has
made arrangements to canvass Ontario county as thoroughly as Monroe.
Some foolish and bigoted people who edit newspapers are complaining that
Miss Anthony's proceedings are highly improper, inasmuch as they are
intended to influence the decision of a cause pending in the courts.
They even talk about contempt of court, and declare that Miss Anthony
should be compelled to desist from making these invidious harangues. We
suspect that the courts will not venture to interfere with this lady's
speech-making tour, but will be of the opinion that she has the same
right which other people, male or female, have to explain her political
views and make converts to them if she can. We have never known it
claimed before that a person accused of an offense was thereby deprived
of the common right of free speech on political and other
questions.--Worcester Spy.
* * * * *
The vapid efforts of a part of the newspaper press to entertain the
public, of late, by descriptions, criticisms and comments, founded upon
pretended interviews with Miss Anthony, reveal a standard of courtesy
and truth discreditable to the American press, and a meagerness of
interesting matter suggesting the propriety of the suspension of such
sheets altogether. The Pittsburg Leader, among others, disgraces itself
by a scurrilous report of what "the gay old girl said to a reporter;"
and the New York World, of course, waxed very funny in its account of
the late convention. These gibes at Miss Anthony's personal appearance,
unwillingness to tell her age, "fishy eyes," etc., are read by her
friends in Rochester with indignation and with contempt for the press
which will publish such misrepresentations as truth.
All Rochester will assert--at least all of it worth heeding--that Miss
Anthony holds here the position of a refined and estimable woman,
thoroughly respected and beloved by the large circle of staunch friends
who swear by her common sense and loyalty, if not by her peculiar views.
As for her age, she tells it often enough unsolicited, whenever the
famous silk dress is alluded to; the dear old dress that a New York
reporter held up as such perfection of taste and fashion! Anna Dickinson
gave that dress to Miss Anthony upon her fiftieth birthday a number of
years ago, and the news was in all the papers. That dress is going into
history with Commissioner Storrs, Judge Selden and the illustrious rest.
It has always been worn by a lady--a genuine lady--no pretense nor
sham--but good Quaker metal. She is no "sour old maid," our Miss
Anthony, nor are the young men shy of her when she can find time to
accept an invitation out; genial, cheery, warm-hearted, overflowing with
stories and reminiscences, utterly fearless and regardless of mere
public opinion, yet having a woman's delicate sensitiveness as to
anything outre in dress or appearance.
Our Susan B. Anthony will work up into a charming bit of biography some
day without a dull page within the covers, providing, of course,
stupidity does not have the writing of it. Never mind what she has been
fighting for, and will fight for till the victory is sure, we must all
own hers a brave record, and she has already accomplished for her sex
much that their scorn and contumely did not prevent her striving for. We
heard a lady remark after attending the suffrage convention: "No, I am
not converted to what these women advocate, I am too cowardly for that;
but I am converted to Susan B. Anthony."--Rochester Evening Express.
CHAPTER XXVII--PAGE 472.
WOMAN WANTS BREAD, NOT THE BALLOT!
_Delivered in most of the large cities of the United States, between
1870 and 1880. The speech never was written, and this abstract was
prepared from scattered notes and newspaper reports._
My purpose tonight is to demonstrate the great historical fact that
disfranchisement is not only political degradation, but also moral,
social, educational and industrial degradation; and that it does not
matter whether the disfranchised class live under a monarchial or a
republican form of government, or whether it be white workingmen of
England, negroes on our southern plantations, serfs of Russia, Chinamen
on our Pacific coast, or native born, tax-paying women of this republic.
Wherever, on the face of the globe or on the page of history, you show
me a disfranchised class, I will show you a degraded class of labor.
Disfranchisement means inability to make, shape or control one's own
circumstances. The disfranchised must always do the work, accept the
wages, occupy the position the enfranchised assign to them. The
disfranchised are in the position of the pauper. You remember the old
adage, "Beggars must not be choosers;" they must take what they can get
or nothing! That is exactly the position of women in the world of work
today; they can not choose. If they could, do you for a moment believe
they would take the subordinate places and the inferior pay? Nor is it a
"new thing under the sun" for the disfranchised, the inferior classes
weighed down with wrongs, to declare they "do not want to vote." The
rank and file are not philosophers, they are not educated to think for
themselves, but simply to accept, unquestioned, whatever comes.
Years ago in England when the workingmen, starving in the mines and
factories, gathered in mobs and took bread wherever they could get it,
their friends tried to educate them into a knowledge of the causes of
their poverty and degradation. At one of these "monster bread meetings,"
held in Manchester, John Bright said to them, "Workingmen, what you need
to bring to you cheap bread and plenty of it, is the franchise;" but
those ignorant men shouted back to Mr. Bright, precisely as the women of
America do to us today, "It is not the vote we want, it is bread;" and
they broke up the meeting, refusing to allow him, their best friend, to
explain to them the powers of the franchise. The condition of those
workingmen was very little above that of slavery. Some of you may
remember when George Thompson came over to this country and rebuked us
for our crime and our curse of slavery, how the slaveholders and their
abettors shouted back to Mr. Thompson, "Look at home, look into your
mines and your factories, you have slavery in England."
You recollect a book published at that time entitled, "The Glory and
Shame of England." Her glory was the emancipation of slaves in the
British West Indies, and her shame the degraded and outraged condition
of those very miners and factory men. In their desperation, they
organized trades unions, went on strike, fought terrible battles, often
destroying property and sometimes even killing their employers. Those
who have read Charles Reade's novel, "Put Yourself in his Place," have
not forgotten the terrible scenes depicted. While those starving men
sometimes bettered their condition financially, they never made a ripple
on the surface of political thought. No member ever championed their
cause on the floor of Parliament. If spoken of at all, it was as our
politicians used to speak of the negroes before the war, or as they
speak of the Chinese today--as nuisances that ought to be suppressed.
But at length, through the persistent demands of a little handful of
reformers, there was introduced into the British Parliament the
"household suffrage" bill of 1867. John Stuart Mill not only championed
that bill as it was presented, but moved an amendment to strike out the
word "man" and substitute therefor the word "person," so that the bill
should read, "every person who shall pay a seven-pound rental per annum
shall be entitled to the franchise." You will see that Mr. Mill's motive
was to extend the suffrage to women as well as men. But when the vote
was taken, only seventy-four, out of the nearly seven hundred members of
the British Parliament, voted in its favor.
During the discussion of the original bill, the opposition was
championed by Robert Lowe, who presented all the stock objections to the
extension of the franchise to "those ignorant, degraded workingmen," as
he called them, that ever were presented in this country against giving
the ballot to the negroes, and that are today being urged against the
enfranchisement of women. Is it not a little remarkable that no matter
who the class may be that it is proposed to enfranchise, the objections
are always the same? "The ballot in the hands of this new class will
make their condition worse than before, and the introduction of this new
class into the political arena will degrade politics to a lower level."
But notwithstanding Mr. Lowe's persistent opposition, the bill became a
law; and before the session closed, that same individual moved that
Parliament, having enfranchised these men, should now make an
appropriation for the establishment and support of schools for the
education of them and their sons. Now, mark you his reason why! "Unless
they are educated," said he, "they will be the means of overturning the
throne of England." So long as these poor men in the mines and factories
had not the right to vote, the power to make and unmake the laws and
law-makers, to help or hurt the government, no measure ever had been
proposed for their benefit although they were ground under the heel of
the capitalist to a condition of abject slavery. But the moment this
power is placed in their hands, before they have used it even once, this
bitterest enemy to their possessing it is the first man to spring to his
feet and make this motion for the most beneficent measure possible in
their behalf--public schools for the education of themselves and their
children.
From that day to this, there never has been a session of the British
Parliament that has not had before it some measure for the benefit of
the working classes. Parliament has enacted laws compelling employers
to cut down the number of hours for a day's work, to pay better wages,
to build decent houses for their employes, and has prohibited the
employment of very young children in the mines and factories. The
history of those olden times records that not infrequently children were
born in the mines and passed their lives there, scarcely seeing the
sunlight from the day of their birth to the day of their death.
Sad as is the condition of the workingmen of England today, it is
infinitely better than it was twenty years ago. At first the votes of
the workingmen were given to the Liberal party, because it was the
leaders of that party who secured their enfranchisement; but soon the
leaders of the Conservative party, seeing the power the workingmen had,
began to vie with the Liberals by going into their meetings and pledging
that if they would vote the Tory ticket and bring that party into
control, it would give them more and better laws even than the Liberals.
In 1874 enough workingmen did go over to bring that party to the front,
with Disraeli at its head, where it stood till 1880 when the rank and
file of the workingmen of England, dissatisfied with Disraeli's policy,
both domestic and foreign, turned and again voted the Liberal ticket,
putting that party in power with Gladstone as its leader. This is the
way in which the ballot in the hands of the masses of wage-earners, even
under a monarchial form of government, makes of them a tremendous
balance of power whose wants and wishes the instinct of self-interest
compels the political leaders to study and obey.
The great distinctive advantage possessed by the workingmen of this
republic is that the son of the humblest citizen, black or white, has
equal chances with the son of the richest in the land if he take
advantage of the public schools, the colleges and the many opportunities
freely offered. It is this equality of rights which makes our nation a
home for the oppressed of all the monarchies of the old world.
And yet, notwithstanding the declaration of our Revolutionary fathers,
"all men created equal," "governments derive their just powers from
the consent of the governed," "taxation and representation
inseparable"--notwithstanding all these grand enunciations, our
government was founded upon the blood and bones of half a million human
beings, bought and sold as chattels in the market. Nearly all the
original thirteen States had property qualifications which disfranchised
poor white men as well as women and negroes. Thomas Jefferson, at the
head of the old Democratic party, took the lead in advocating the
removal of all property qualifications, as so many violations of the
fundamental principle of our government--"the right of consent." In New
York the qualification was $250. Martin Van Buren, the chief of the
Democracy, was a member of the Constitutional Convention held in Buffalo
in 1821, which wiped out that qualification so far as white men were
concerned. He declared, "The poor man has as good a right to a voice in
the government as the rich man, and a vastly greater need to possess it
as a means of protection to himself and his family." It was because the
Democrats enfranchised poor white men, both native and foreign, that
that strong old party held absolute sway in this country for almost
forty years, with only now and then a one-term Whig administration.
In those olden days Horace Greeley, at the head of the Whig party and
his glorious New York Tribune, used to write long editorials showing the
workingmen that they had a mistaken idea about the Democratic party;
that it was not so much the friend of the poor man as was the Whig, and
if they would but vote the Whig ticket and put that party in power, they
would find that it would give them better laws than the Democrats had
done. At length, after many, many years of such education and
persuasion, the workingmen's vote, native and foreign, was divided, and
in 1860 there came to the front a new party which, though not called
Whig, was largely made up of the old Whig elements. In its turn this new
party enfranchised another degraded class of labor. Because the
Republicans gave the ballot to negroes, they have been allied to that
party and have held it solid in power from the ratification of the
Fifteenth Amendment, in 1870, to the present day. Until the Democrats
convince them that they will do more and better for them than the
Republicans are doing, there will be no appreciable division of the
negro vote.
The vast numbers of wage-earning men coming from Europe to this country,
where manhood suffrage prevails with no limitations, find themselves
invested at once with immense political power. They organize their
trades unions, but not being able to use the franchise intelligently,
they continue to strike and to fight their battles with the capitalists
just as they did in the old countries. Neither press nor politicians
dare to condemn these strikes or to demand their suppression because the
workingmen hold the balance of power and can use it for the success or
defeat of either party.
[Miss Anthony here related various timely instances of strikes
where force was used to prevent non-union men from taking the
places of the strikers, and neither the newspapers nor political
leaders ventured to sustain the officials in the necessary steps to
preserve law and order, or if they did they were defeated at the
next election.]
It is said women do not need the ballot for their protection because
they are supported by men. Statistics show that there are 3,000,000
women in this nation supporting themselves. In the crowded cities of the
East they are compelled to work in shops, stores and factories for the
merest pittance. In New York alone, there are over 50,000 of these women
receiving less than fifty cents a day. Women wage-earners in different
occupations have organized themselves into trades unions, from time to
time, and made their strikes to get justice at the hands of their
employers just as men have done, but I have yet to learn of a successful
strike of any body of women. The best organized one I ever knew was that
of the collar laundry women of the city of Troy, N. Y., the great
emporium for the manufacture of shirts, collars and cuffs. They formed a
trades union of several hundred members and demanded an increase of
wages. It was refused. So one May morning in 1867, each woman threw down
her scissors and her needle, her starch-pan and flat-iron, and for three
long months not one returned to the factories. At the end of that time
they were literally starved out, and the majority of them were compelled
to go back, but not at their old wages, for their employers cut them
down to even a lower figure.
In the winter following I met the president of this union, a bright
young Irish girl, and asked her, "Do you not think if you had been 500
carpenters or 500 masons, you would have succeeded?" "Certainly," she
said, and then she told me of 200 bricklayers who had the year before
been on strike and gained every point with their employers. "What could
have made the difference? Their 200 were but a fraction of that trade,
while your 500 absolutely controlled yours." Finally she said, "It was
because the editors ridiculed and denounced us." "Did they ridicule and
denounce the bricklayers?" "No." "What did they say about you?" "Why,
that our wages were good enough now, better than those of any other
workingwomen except teachers; and if we weren't satisfied, we had better
go and get married." "What then do you think made this difference?"
After studying over the question awhile she concluded, "It must have
been because our employers bribed the editors." "Couldn't the employers
of the bricklayers have bribed the editors?" She had never thought of
that. Most people never do think; they see one thing totally unlike
another, but the person who stops to inquire into the cause that
produces the one or the other is the exception. So this young Irish girl
was simply not an exception, but followed the general rule of people,
whether men or women; she hadn't thought. In the case of the
bricklayers, no editor, either Democrat or Republican, would have
accepted the proffer of a bribe, because he would have known that if he
denounced or ridiculed those men, not only they but all the trades union
men of the city at the next election would vote solidly against the
nominees advocated by that editor. If those collar laundry women had
been voters, they would have held, in that little city of Troy, the
"balance of political power" and the editor or the politician who
ignored or insulted them would have turned that balance over to the
opposing party.
My friends, the condition of those collar laundry women but represents
the utter helplessness of disfranchisement. The question with you, as
men, is not whether you want your wives and daughters to vote, nor with
you, as women, whether you yourselves want to vote; but whether you will
help to put this power of the ballot into the hands of the 3,000,000
wage-earning women, so that they may be able to compel politicians to
legislate in their favor and employers to grant them justice.
The law of capital is to extort the greatest amount of work for the
least amount of money; the rule of labor is to do the smallest amount of
work for the largest amount of money. Hence there is, and in the nature
of things must continue to be, antagonism between the two classes;
therefore, neither should be left wholly at the mercy of the other.
It was cruel, under the old regime, to give rich men the right to rule
poor men. It was wicked to allow white men absolute power over black
men. It is vastly more cruel, more wicked to give to all men--rich and
poor, white and black, native and foreign, educated and ignorant,
virtuous and vicious--this absolute control over women. Men talk of the
injustice of monopolies. There never was, there never can be, a monopoly
so fraught with injustice, tyranny and degradation as this monopoly of
sex, of all men over all women. Therefore I not only agree with Abraham
Lincoln that, "No man is good enough to govern another man without his
consent;" but I say also that no man is good enough to govern a woman
without her consent, and still further, that all men combined in
government are not good enough to govern all women without their
consent. There might have been some plausible excuse for the rich
governing the poor, the educated governing the ignorant, the Saxon
governing the African; but there can be none for making the husband the
ruler of the wife, the brother of the sister, the man of the woman, his
peer in birth, in education, in social position, in all that stands for
the best and highest in humanity.
I believe that by nature men are no more unjust than women. If from the
beginning women had maintained the right to rule not only themselves but
men also, the latter today doubtless would be occupying the subordinate
places with inferior pay in the world of work; women would be holding
the higher positions with the big salaries; widowers would be doomed to
a "life interest of one-third of the family estate;" husbands would "owe
service" to their wives, so that every one of you men would be begging
your good wives, "Please be so kind as to 'give me' ten cents for a
cigar." The principle of self-government can not be violated with
impunity. The individual's right to it is sacred--regardless of class,
caste, race, color, sex or any other accident or incident of birth. What
we ask is that you shall cease to imagine that women are outside this
law, and that you shall come into the knowledge that disfranchisement
means the same degradation to your daughters as to your sons.
Governments can not afford to ignore the rights of those holding the
ballot, who make and unmake every law and law-maker. It is not because
the members of Congress are tyrants that women receive only half pay and
are admitted only to inferior positions in the departments. It is simply
in obedience to a law of political economy which makes it impossible for
a government to do as much for the disfranchised as for the
enfranchised. Women are no exception to the general rule. As
disfranchisement always has degraded men, socially, morally and
industrially, so today it is disfranchisement that degrades women in the
same spheres.
Again men say it is not votes, but the law of supply and demand which
regulates wages. The law of gravity is that water shall run down hill,
but when men build a dam across the stream, the force of gravity is
stopped and the water held back. The law of supply and demand regulates
free and enfranchised labor, but disfranchisement estops its operation.
What we ask is the removal of the dam, that women, like men, may reap
the benefit of the law. Did the law of supply and demand regulate work
and wages in the olden days of slavery? This law can no more reach the
disfranchised than it did the enslaved. There is scarcely a place where
a woman can earn a single dollar without a man's consent.
There are many women equally well qualified with men for principals and
superintendents of schools, and yet, while three-fourths of the teachers
are women, nearly all of them are relegated to subordinate positions on
half or at most two-thirds the salaries paid to men. The law of supply
and demand is ignored, and that of sex alone settles the question. If a
business man should advertise for a book-keeper and ten young men,
equally well qualified, should present themselves and, after looking
them over, he should say, "To you who have red hair, we will pay full
wages, while to you with black hair we will pay half the regular price;"
that would not be a more flagrant violation of the law of supply and
demand than is that now perpetrated upon women because of their sex.
And then again you say, "Capital, not the vote, regulates labor."
Granted, for the sake of the argument, that capital does control the
labor of women, Chinamen and slaves; but no one with eyes to see and
ears to hear, will concede for a moment that capital absolutely
dominates the work and wages of the free and enfranchised men of this
republic. It is in order to lift the millions of our wage-earning women
into a position of as much power over their own labor as men possess
that they should be invested with the franchise. This ought to be done
not only for the sake of justice to the women, but to the men with whom
they compete; for, just so long as there is a degraded class of labor in
the market, it always will be used by the capitalists to checkmate and
undermine the superior classes.
Now that as a result of the agitation for equality of chances, and
through the invention of machinery, there has come a great revolution in
the world of economics, so that wherever a man may go to earn an honest
dollar a woman may go also, there is no escape from the conclusion that
she must be clothed with equal power to protect herself. That power is
the ballot, the symbol of freedom and equality, without which no citizen
is sure of keeping even that which he hath, much less of getting that
which he hath not. Women are today the peers of men in education, in the
arts and sciences, in the industries and professions, and there is no
escape from the conclusion that the next step must be to make them the
peers of men in the government--city, State and national--to give them
an equal voice in the framing, interpreting and administering of the
codes and constitutions.
We recognize that the ballot is a two-edged, nay, a many-edged sword,
which may be made to cut in every direction. If wily politicians and
sordid capitalists may wield it for mere party and personal greed; if
oppressed wage-earners may invoke it to wring justice from legislators
and extort material advantages from employers; if the lowest and most
degraded classes of men may use it to open wide the sluice-ways of vice
and crime; if it may be the instrumentality by which the narrow,
selfish, corrupt and corrupting men and measures rule--it is quite as
true that noble-minded statesmen, philanthropists and reformers may make
it the weapon with which to reverse the above order of things, as soon
as they can have added to their now small numbers the immensely larger
ratio of what men so love to call "the better half of the people." When
women vote, they will make a new balance of power that must be weighed
and measured and calculated in its effect upon every social and moral
question which goes to the arbitrament of the ballot-box. Who can doubt
that when the representative women of thought and culture, who are today
the moral backbone of our nation, sit in counsel with the best men of
the country, higher conditions will be the result?
Insurrectionary and revolutionary methods of righting wrongs, imaginary
or real, are pardonable only in the enslaved and disfranchised. The
moment any class of men possess the ballot, it is their weapon and their
shield. Men with a vote have no valid excuse for resorting to the use of
illegal means to fight their battles. When the masses of wage-earning
men are educated into a knowledge of their own rights and of their
duties to others, so that they are able to vote intelligently, they can
carry their measures through the ballot-box and will have no need to
resort to force. But so long as they remain in ignorance and are
manipulated by the political bosses they will continue to vote against
their own interests and turn again to violence to right their wrongs.
If men possessing the power of the ballot are driven to desperate means
to gain their ends, what shall be done by disfranchised women? There are
grave questions of moral, as well as of material interest in which women
are most deeply concerned. Denied the ballot, the legitimate means with
which to exert their influence, and, as a rule, being lovers of peace,
they have recourse to prayers and tears, those potent weapons of women
and children, and, when they fail, must tamely submit to wrong or rise
in rebellion against the powers that be. Women's crusades against
saloons, brothels and gambling-dens, emptying kegs and bottles into the
streets, breaking doors and windows and burning houses, all go to prove
that disfranchisement, the denial of lawful means to gain desired ends,
may drive even women to violations of law and order. Hence to secure
both national and "domestic tranquillity," to "establish justice," to
carry out the spirit of our Constitution, put into the hands of all
women, as you have into those of all men, the ballot, that symbol of
perfect equality, that right protective of all other rights.
CHAPTER XXVII--PAGE 468.
SOCIAL PURITY.
_First delivered at Chicago in the Spring of 1875, in the Sunday
afternoon Dime lecture course._
Though women, as a class, are much less addicted to drunkenness and
licentiousness than men, it is universally conceded that they are by far
the greater sufferers from these evils. Compelled by their position in
society to depend on men for subsistence, for food, clothes, shelter,
for every chance even to earn a dollar, they have no way of escape from
the besotted victims of appetite and passion with whom their lot is
cast. They must endure, if not endorse, these twin vices, embodied, as
they so often are, in the person of father, brother, husband, son,
employer. No one can doubt that the sufferings of the sober, virtuous
woman, in legal subjection to the mastership of a drunken, immoral
husband and father over herself and children, not only from physical
abuse, but from spiritual shame and humiliation, must be such as the man
himself can not possibly comprehend.
It is not my purpose to harrow your feelings by any attempt at depicting
the horrible agonies of mind and body that grow out of these monster
social evils. They are already but too well known. Scarce a family
throughout our broad land but has had its peace and happiness marred by
one or the other, or both. That these evils exist, we all know; that
something must be done, we as well know; that the old methods have
failed, that man, alone, has proved himself incompetent to eradicate, or
even regulate them, is equally evident. It shall be my endeavor,
therefore, to prove to you that we must now adopt new measures and bring
to our aid new forces to accomplish the desired end.
Forty years' efforts by men alone to suppress the evil of intemperance
give us the following appalling figures: 600,000 common drunkards!
Which, reckoning our population to be 40,000,000, gives us one drunkard
to every seventeen moderate drinking and total-abstinence men. Granting
to each of these 600,000 drunkards a wife and four children, we have
3,000,000 of the women and children of this nation helplessly,
hopelessly bound to this vast army of irresponsible victims of appetite.
[Reference was here made to woman's helplessness under the laws.]
The roots of the giant evil, intemperance, are not merely moral and
social; they extend deep and wide into the financial and political
structure of the government; and whenever women, or men, shall
intelligently and seriously set themselves about the work of uprooting
the liquor traffic, they will find something more than tears and prayers
needful to the task. Financial and political power must be combined
with moral and social influence, all bound together in one earnest,
energetic, persistent force.
[Statistics given of pauperism, lunacy, idiocy and crime growing
out of intemperance.]
The prosecutions in our courts for breach of promise, divorce, adultery,
bigamy, seduction, rape; the newspaper reports every day of every year
of scandals and outrages, of wife murders and paramour shootings, of
abortions and infanticides, are perpetual reminders of men's incapacity
to cope successfully with this monster evil of society.
The statistics of New York show the number of professional prostitutes
in that city to be over twenty thousand. Add to these the thousands and
tens of thousands of Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, New Orleans, St.
Louis, Chicago, San Francisco, and all our cities, great and small, from
ocean to ocean, and what a holocaust of the womanhood of this nation is
sacrificed to the insatiate Moloch of lust. And yet more: those myriads
of wretched women, publicly known as prostitutes, constitute but a small
portion of the numbers who actually tread the paths of vice and crime.
For, as the oft-broken ranks of the vast army of common drunkards are
steadily filled by the boasted moderate drinkers, so are the ranks of
professional prostitution continually replenished by discouraged,
seduced, deserted unfortunates, who can no longer hide the terrible
secret of their lives.
The Albany Law Journal, of December, 1876, says: "The laws of
infanticide must be a dead letter in the District of Columbia. According
to the reports of the local officials, the dead bodies of infants,
still-born and murdered, which have been found during the past year,
scattered over parks and vacant lots in the city of Washington, are to
be numbered by hundreds."
In 1869 the Catholics established a Foundling Hospital in New York City.
At the close of the first six months Sister Irene reported thirteen
hundred little waifs laid in the basket at her door. That meant thirteen
hundred of the daughters of New York, with trembling hands and breaking
hearts, trying to bury their sorrow and their shame from the world's
cruel gaze. That meant thirteen hundred mothers' hopes blighted and
blasted. Thirteen hundred Rachels weeping for their children because
they were not!
Nor is it womanhood alone that is thus fearfully sacrificed. For every
betrayed woman, there is always the betrayer, man. For every abandoned
woman, there is always _one_ abandoned man and oftener many more. It is
estimated that there are 50,000 professional prostitutes in London, and
Dr. Ryan calculates that there are 400,000 men in that city directly or
indirectly connected with them, and that this vice causes the city an
annual expenditure of $40,000,000.
All attempts to describe the loathsome and contagious disease which it
engenders defy human language. The Rev. Wm. G. Eliot, of St. Louis, says
of it: "Few know of the terrible nature of the disease in question and
its fearful ravages, not only among the guilty, but the innocent. Since
its first recognized appearance in Europe in the fifteenth century, it
has been a desolation and a scourge. In its worst forms it is so subtle,
that its course can with difficulty be traced. It poisons the
constitution, and may be imparted to others by those who have no outward
or distinguishable marks of it themselves. It may be propagated months
and years after it seems to have been cured. The purity of womanhood and
the helplessness of infancy afford no certainty of escape."
[Medical testimony given from cities in Europe.]
Man's legislative attempts to set back this fearful tide of social
corruption have proved even more futile and disastrous than have those
for the suppression of intemperance--as witness the Contagious Diseases
Acts of England and the St. Louis experiment. And yet efforts to
establish similar laws are constantly made in our large cities, New York
and Washington barely escaping last winter.
To license certain persons to keep brothels and saloons is but to throw
around them and their traffic the shield of law, and thereby to blunt
the edge of all moral and social efforts against them. Nevertheless, in
every large city, brothels are virtually licensed. When "Maggie Smith"
is made to appear before the police court at the close of each quarter,
to pay her fine of $10, $25 or $100, as an inmate or a keeper of a
brothel, and allowed to continue her vocation, so long as she pays her
fine, _that is license_. When a grand jury fails to find cause for
indictment against a well-known keeper of a house of ill-fame, that,
too, is _permission_ for her and all of her class to follow their trade,
against the statute laws of the State, and that with impunity.
The work of woman is not to lessen the severity or the certainty of the
penalty for the violation of the moral law, but to prevent this
violation by the removal of the causes which lead to it. These causes
are said to be wholly different with the sexes. The acknowledged
incentive to this vice on the part of man is his own abnormal passion;
while on the part of woman, in the great majority of cases, it is
conceded to be destitution--absolute want of the necessaries of life.
Lecky, the famous historian of European morals, says: "The statistics of
prostitution show that a great proportion of those women who have fallen
into it have been impelled by the most extreme poverty, in many
instances verging on starvation." All other conscientious students of
this terrible problem, on both continents, agree with Mr. Lecky. Hence,
there is no escape from the conclusion that, while woman's want of bread
induces her to pursue this vice, man's love of the vice itself leads him
into it and holds him there. While statistics show no lessening of the
passional demand on the part of man, they reveal a most frightful
increase of the temptations, the necessities, on the part of woman.
In the olden times, when the daughters of the family, as well as the
wife, were occupied with useful and profitable work in the household,
getting the meals and washing the dishes three times in every day of
every year, doing the baking, the brewing, the washing and the ironing,
the whitewashing, the butter and cheese and soap making, the mending and
the making of clothes for the entire family, the carding, spinning and
weaving of the cloth--when everything to eat, to drink and to wear was
manufactured in the home, almost no young women "went out to work." But
now, when nearly all these handicrafts are turned over to men and to
machinery, tens of thousands, nay, millions, of the women of both
hemispheres are thrust into the world's outer market of work to earn
their own subsistence. Society, ever slow to change its conditions,
presents to these millions but few and meager chances. Only the barest
necessaries, and oftentimes not even those, can be purchased with the
proceeds of the most excessive and exhausting labor.
Hence, the reward of virtue for the homeless, friendless, penniless
woman is ever a scanty larder, a pinched, patched, faded wardrobe, a
dank basement or rickety garret, with the colder, shabbier scorn and
neglect of the more fortunate of her sex. Nightly, as weary and worn
from her day's toil she wends her way through the dark alleys toward her
still darker abode, where only cold and hunger await her, she sees on
every side and at every turn the gilded hand of vice and crime
outstretched, beckoning her to food and clothes and shelter; hears the
whisper in softest accents, "Come with me and I will give you all the
comforts, pleasures and luxuries that love and wealth can bestow." Since
the vast multitudes of human beings, women like men, are not born to the
courage or conscience of the martyr, can we wonder that so many poor
girls fall, that so many accept material ease and comfort at the expense
of spiritual purity and peace? Should we not wonder, rather, that so
many escape the sad fate?
Clearly, then, the first step toward solving this problem is to lift
this vast army of poverty-stricken women who now crowd our cities, above
the temptation, the necessity, to sell themselves, in marriage or out,
for bread and shelter. To do that, girls, like boys, must be educated to
some lucrative employment; women, like men, must have equal chances to
earn a living. If the plea that poverty is the cause of woman's
prostitution be not true, perfect equality of chances to earn honest
bread will demonstrate the falsehood by removing that pretext and
placing her on the same plane with man. Then, if she is found in the
ranks of vice and crime, she will be there for the same reason that man
is and, from an object of pity, she, like him, will become a fit subject
of contempt. From being the party sinned against, she will become an
equal sinner, if not the greater of the two. Women, like men, must not
only have "fair play" in the world of work and self-support, but, like
men, must be eligible to all the honors and emoluments of society and
government. Marriage, to women as to men, must be a luxury, not a
necessity; an incident of life, not all of it. And the only possible way
to accomplish this great change is to accord to women equal power in the
making, shaping and controlling of the circumstances of life. That
equality of rights and privileges is vested in the ballot, the symbol of
power in a republic. Hence, our first and most urgent demand--that women
shall be protected in the exercise of their inherent, personal,
citizen's right to a voice in the government, municipal, state,
national.
Alexander Hamilton said one hundred years ago, "Give to a man the right
over my subsistence, and he has power over my whole moral being." No one
doubts the truth of this assertion as between man and man; while, as
between man and woman, not only does almost no one believe it, but the
masses of people deny it. And yet it is the fact of man's possession of
this right over woman's subsistence which gives to him the power to
dictate to her a moral code vastly higher and purer than the one he
chooses for himself. Not less true is it, that the fact of woman's
dependence on man for her subsistence renders her utterly powerless to
exact from him the same high moral code she chooses for herself.
Of the 8,000,000 women over twenty-one years of age in the United
States, 800,000, one out of every ten, are unmarried, and fully one-half
of the entire number, or 4,000,000, support themselves wholly or in part
by the industry of their own hands and brains. All of these, married or
single, have to ask man, as an individual, a corporation, or a
government, to grant to them even the privilege of hard work and small
pay. The tens of thousands of poor but respectable young girls
soliciting copying, clerkships, shop work, teaching, must ask of men,
and not seldom receive in response, "Why work for a living? There are
other ways!"
Whoever controls work and wages, controls morals. Therefore, we must
have women employers, superintendents, committees, legislators; wherever
girls go to seek the means of subsistence, there must be some woman.
Nay, more; we must have women preachers, lawyers, doctors--that wherever
women go to seek counsel--spiritual, legal, physical--there, too, they
will be sure to find the best and noblest of their own sex to minister
to them.
Independence is happiness. "No man should depend upon another; not even
upon his own father. By depend I mean, obey without examination--to the
will of any one whomsoever." This is the conclusion to which Pierre, the
hero of Madame Sand's "Monsieur Sylvestre," arrives, after running away
from the uncle who had determined to marry him to a woman he did not
choose to wed. In freedom he discovers that, though deprived of all the
luxuries to which he had been accustomed, he is happy, and writes his
friend that "without having realized it, he had been unhappy all his
life; had suffered from his dependent condition; that nothing in his
life, his pleasures, his occupations, had been of his own choice." And
is not this the precise condition of what men call the "better half" of
the human family?
In one of our western cities I once met a beautiful young woman, a
successful teacher in its public schools, an only daughter who had left
her New England home and all its comforts and luxuries and culture. Her
father was a member of Congress and could bring to her all the
attractions of Washington society. That young girl said to me, "The
happiest moment of my life was when I received into my hand my first
month's salary for teaching." Not long after, I met her father in
Washington, spoke to him of his noble daughter, and he said: "Yes, you
woman's rights people have robbed me of my only child and left the home
of my old age sad and desolate. Would to God that the notion of
supporting herself had never entered her head!" Had that same lovely,
cultured, energetic young girl left the love, the luxury, the protection
of that New England home for marriage, instead of self-support; had she
gone out to be the light and joy of a husband's life, instead of her
own; had she but chosen another man, instead of her father, to decide
for her all her pleasures and occupations; had she but taken another
position of dependence, instead of one of independence, neither her
father nor the world would have felt the change one to be condemned....
Fathers should be most particular about the men who visit their
daughters, and, to further this reform, pure women not only must refuse
to meet intimately and to marry impure men, but, finding themselves
deceived in their husbands, they must refuse to continue in the
marriage relation with them. We have had quite enough of the sickly
sentimentalism which counts the woman a heroine and a saint for
remaining the wife of a drunken, immoral husband, incurring the risk of
her own health and poisoning the life-blood of the young beings that
result from this unholy alliance. Such company as ye keep, such ye are!
must be the maxim of married, as well as unmarried, women....
[Numerous instances cited of the unjust discrimination against
women where men were equally guilty.]
So long as the wife is held innocent in continuing to live with a
libertine, and every girl whom he inveigles and betrays becomes an
outcast whom no other wife will tolerate in her house, there is, there
can be, no hope of solving the problem of prostitution. As long
experience has shown, these poor, homeless girls of the world can not be
relied on, as a police force, to hold all husbands true to their
marriage vows. Here and there, they will fail and, where they do, wives
must make not the girls alone, but their husbands also suffer for their
infidelity, as husbands never fail to do when their wives weakly or
wickedly yield to the blandishments of other men.
[Examples given to prove this point.]
In a western city the wives conspired to burn down a house of ill-fame
in which their husbands had placed a half-dozen of the demi-monde. Would
it not have shown much more womanly wisdom and virtue for those legal
wives to have refused to recognize their husbands, instead of wreaking
their vengeance on the heads of those wretched women? But how could they
without finding themselves, as a result, penniless and homeless? The
person, the services, the children, the subsistence, of each and every
one of those women belonged by law, not to herself, but to her
unfaithful husband.
Now, why is it that man can hold woman to this high code of morals, like
Cæsar's wife--not only pure but above suspicion--and so surely and
severely punish her for every departure, while she is so helpless, so
powerless to check him in his license, or to extricate herself from his
presence and control? His power grows out of his right over her
subsistence. Her lack of power grows out of her dependence on him for
her food, her clothes, her shelter.
Marriage never will cease to be a wholly unequal partnership until the
law recognizes the equal ownership in the joint earnings and
possessions. The true relation of the sexes never can be attained until
woman is free and equal with man. Neither in the making nor executing of
the laws regulating these relations has woman ever had the slightest
voice. The statutes for marriage and divorce, for adultery, breach of
promise, seduction, rape, bigamy, abortion, infanticide--all were made
by men. They, alone, decide who are guilty of violating these laws and
what shall be their punishment, with judge, jury and advocate all men,
with no woman's voice heard in our courts, save as accused or witness,
and in many cases the married woman is denied the poor privilege of
testifying as to her own guilt or innocence of the crime charged against
her.
Since the days of Moses and the prophets, men and ministers have
preached the law of "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children and the children's children, to the third and fourth
generations." But with absolute power over woman and all the conditions
of life for the whole 6,000 years, man has proved his utter inability
either to put away his own iniquities, or to cease to hand them down
from generation to generation; hence, the only hope of reform is in
sharing this absolute power with some other than himself, and that other
must be woman. When no longer a subject, but an equal--a free and
independent sovereign, believing herself created primarily for her own
individual happiness and development and secondarily for man's,
precisely as man believes himself created first for his own enjoyment
and second for that of woman--she will constitute herself sole umpire in
the sacred domain of motherhood. Then, instead of feeling it her
Christian duty to live with a drunken, profligate husband, handing down
to her children his depraved appetites and passions, she will _know_
that God's curse will be upon her and her children if she flee not from
him as from a pestilence.
It is worse than folly, it is madness, for women to delude themselves
with the idea that their children will escape the terrible penalty of
the law. The taint of their birth will surely follow them. For pure
women to continue to devote themselves to their man-appointed mission of
visiting the dark purlieus of society and struggling to reclaim the
myriads of badly-born human beings swarming there, is as hopeless as
would be an attempt to ladle the ocean with a teaspoon; as
unphilosophical as was the undertaking of the old American Colonization
Society, which, with great labor and pains and money, redeemed from
slavery and transported to Liberia annually 400 negroes; or the Fugitive
Slave Societies, which succeeded in running off to Canada, on their
"under-ground railroads," some 40,000 in a whole quarter of a century.
While those good men were thus toiling to rescue the 400 or the 40,000
individual victims of slavery, each day saw hundreds and each year
thousands of human beings born into the terrible condition of
chattelism. All see and admit now what none but the Abolitionists saw
then, that the only effectual work was the entire overthrow of the
system of slavery; the abrogation of the law which sanctioned the right
of property in man.
In answer to my proposal to speak in one of the cities of Iowa, an
earnest woman replied, "It is impossible to get you an audience; all of
our best women are at present engaged in an effort to establish a 'Home
for the Friendless.' All the churches are calling for the entire time of
their members to get up fairs, dinners, concerts, etc., to raise money.
In fact, even our woman suffragists are losing themselves in devotion to
some institution."
Thus, wherever you go, you find the best women, in and out of the
churches, all absorbed in establishing or maintaining benevolent or
reform institutions; charitable societies, soup-houses, ragged schools,
industrial schools, mite societies, mission schools--at home and
abroad--homes and hospitals for the sick, the aged, the friendless, the
foundling, the fallen; asylums for the orphans, the blind, the deaf and
dumb, the insane, the inebriate, the idiot. The women of this century
are neither idle nor indifferent. They are working with might and main
to mitigate the evils which stare them in the face on every side, but
much of their work is without knowledge. It is aimed at the effects, not
the cause; it is plucking the spoiled fruit; it is lopping off the
poisonous branches of the deadly upas tree, which but makes the root
more vigorous in sending out new shoots in every direction. A right
understanding of physiological law teaches us that the cause must be
removed; the tree must be girdled; the tap-root must be severed.
The tap-root of our social upas lies deep down at the very foundations
of society. It is woman's dependence. It is woman's subjection. Hence,
the first and only efficient work must be to emancipate woman from her
enslavement. The wife must no longer echo the poet Milton's ideal Eve,
when she adoringly said to Adam, "God, thy law; thou, mine!" She must
feel herself accountable to God alone for every act, fearing and obeying
no man, save where his will is in line with her own highest idea of
divine law.
The president of the Howard Mission School, New York, said, "Miss
Anthony, it is a marvel to me that, with so much brain and common sense,
you should always devote yourself to mere abstractions. Why is it that
you never set yourself about some practical work?"
"Like the Howard Mission?" said I. "How many less children have you now
than ten years ago?"
"Oh, no less, but many, many more."
"Would it not be a practical work, then, to make it possible for every
mother to support her own children? That is my aim and my work; while
yours is simply to pick up the poor children, leaving every girl-child
to the mother's heritage of helpless poverty and vice. My aim is to
change the condition of women to self-help; yours, simply to ameliorate
the ills that must inevitably grow out of dependence. My work is to
lessen the numbers of the poor; yours, merely to lessen the sufferings
of their tenfold increase."
If the divine law visits the sins of the fathers upon the children,
equally so does it transmit to them their virtues. Therefore, if it is
through woman's ignorant subjection to the tyranny of man's appetites
and passions that the life-current of the race is corrupted, then must
it be through her intelligent emancipation that the race shall be
redeemed from the curse, and her children and children's children rise
up to call her blessed. When the mother of Christ shall be made the true
model of womanhood and motherhood, when the office of maternity shall be
held sacred and the mother shall consecrate herself, as did Mary, to the
one idea of bringing forth the Christ-child, then, and not till then,
will this earth see a new order of men and women, prone to good rather
than evil.
I am a full and firm believer in the revelation that it is through woman
that the race is to be redeemed. And it is because of this faith that I
ask for her immediate and unconditional emancipation from all political,
industrial, social and religious subjection.
"What is most needed to ensure the future greatness of the empire?"
inquired Madame Campan of the great Napoleon. "Mothers!" was the terse
and suggestive reply. Ralph Waldo Emerson says, "Men are what their
mothers made them." But I say, to hold mothers responsible for the
character of their sons while you deny them any control over the
surroundings of their lives, is worse than mockery, it is cruelty!
Responsibilities grow out of rights and powers. Therefore, before
mothers can be held responsible for the vices and crimes, the wholesale
demoralization of men, they must possess all possible rights and powers
to control the conditions and circumstances of their own and their
children's lives.
A minister of Chicago sums up the infamies of that great metropolis of
the West as follows: 3,000 licensed dram-shops and myriad patrons; 300
gambling houses and countless frequenters, many of them young men from
the best families of the city; 79 obscene theatres, with their thousands
of degraded men and boys nightly in attendance; 500 brothels, with their
thousands of poor girls, bodies and souls sacrificed to the 20,000 or
30,000 depraved men--young and old, married and single--who visit them.
While all the participants in all these forms of iniquity, victims and
victimizers alike--the women excepted--may go to the polls on every
election day and vote for the mayor and members of the common council,
who will either continue to license these places, or fail to enforce the
laws which would practically close them--not a single woman in that city
may record her vote against those wretched blots on civilization. The
profane, tobacco-chewing, whiskey-drinking, gambling libertines may
vote, but not their virtuous, intelligent, sober, law-abiding wives and
mothers!
You remember the petition of 18,000 of the best women of Chicago, a year
ago, asking the common council not to repeal the Sunday Liquor Law? Why
were they treated with ridicule and contempt? Why was their prayer
unheeded? Was it because the honorable gentlemen had no respect for
those women or their demand? No; on the contrary, many of them,
doubtless, were men possessed of high regard for women, who would have
been glad to aid them in their noble efforts; but the power that placed
those men in office, the representatives of the saloons, brothels and
obscene shows, crowded the council chamber and its corridors,
threatening political death to the man who should dare give his voice or
his vote for the maintenance of that law. Could those 18,000 women, with
the tens of thousands whom they represented, have gone to the ballot-box
at the next election and voted to re-elect the men who championed their
petition, and defeat those who opposed it, does any one doubt that it
would have been heeded by the common council?
As the fountain can rise no higher than the spring that feeds it, so a
legislative body will enact or enforce no law above the average
sentiment of the people who created it. Any and every reform work is
sure to lead women to the ballot-box. It is idle for them to hope to
battle successfully against the monster evils of society until they
shall be armed with weapons equal to those of the enemy--votes and
money. Archimedes said, "Give to me a fulcrum on which to plant my
lever, and I will move the world." And I say, give to woman the ballot,
the political fulcrum, on which to plant her moral lever, and she will
lift the world into a nobler and purer atmosphere.
Two great necessities forced this nation to extend justice and equality
to the negro:
First, Military necessity, which compelled the abolition of the crime
and curse of slavery, before the rebellion could be overcome.
Second, Political necessity, which required the enfranchisement of the
newly-freed men, before the work of reconstruction could begin.
The third is now pressing, Moral necessity--to emancipate woman, before
Social Purity, the nation's safeguard, ever can be established.
CHAPTER XXXV--PAGE 642.
OPEN LETTER TO BENJAMIN HARRISON,
_Republican Nominee for President._
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., June 30, 1888.
DEAR SIR: We, representatives of the National Woman Suffrage
Association, respectfully ask you to consider the following facts:
The first plank in the platform adopted by the Republican convention
recently held in Chicago, entitled "The Purity of the Ballot," reaffirms
the unswerving devotion of the Republican party to the personal rights
and liberties of citizens in all the States and Territories of the
Union, and especially to "the supreme and sovereign right of every
lawful citizen, rich or poor, native or foreign, white or black, to cast
one free ballot in public elections and to have that ballot duly
counted." And again the platform says: "We hold the free and honest
popular ballot, and the just and equal representation of all the people,
to be the foundation of our republican government."
These declarations place the Republican party in its original attitude
as the defender of the personal freedom and political liberties of all
citizens of the United States. These sentiments, even the phraseology in
which they are here expressed, may be found in every series of
resolutions adopted by the National Woman Suffrage Association since its
organization.
The advocates of woman suffrage would have been glad to see the phrase
"male or female" inserted after the phrase "white or black" in the
resolution above quoted, because this would be a fitting conclusion to
the enumeration by antithesis of the classes into which citizens are
divided. However, no enumeration of classes was necessary to explain or
to enforce the declaration of the party's devotion to "the supreme and
sovereign right of every lawful citizen to cast one free ballot in
public elections and to have that ballot duly counted." It is the
unimpeded exercise of this "supreme and sovereign right of every lawful
citizen" which the women we represent demand.
That women are "lawful citizens" is undeniable, since the law recognizes
them as such through the visits of the assessor and tax-gatherer; since
it recognizes them as such in the police stations, the jails, the courts
and the prisons. Only at the ballot-box is the lawful citizenship of
women challenged! Only at the ballot-box, which is declared to be the
sole safe-guard of the citizen's liberty--only there is the liberty of
the female citizen denied.
But reverting to the first resolution in the Republican platform, so
satisfactory in its sentiments, we beg to suggest that its value will
depend solely upon its interpretation, and that its authoritative
interpretation must be given by the leaders of the Republican party.
Therefore to you, the chosen head of that party, we address ourselves,
asking that your letter of acceptance of the nomination to the
presidency of the United States be so framed as to indicate clearly your
recognition of the fact that the Republican party has pledged itself to
protect _every citizen_ in the free exercise of "the supreme and
sovereign right" to vote at public elections.
It appears to us that the application of Republican principles which we
seek must be in harmony with your own inherited tendencies. One familiar
with the history of the English-speaking people, during the last two and
a half centuries, with their struggles for conscience, and freedom's
sake, must deem it a matter of course that by this time the sense of
individual responsibility has become strong even in the hearts of women;
and the descendant of one who in the name of individual liberty stood
with Cromwell against the "divine right of kings" and the tyranny
consequent upon that obnoxious doctrine, can not be surprised to find
himself appealed to by his country-women, in that same sacred name, to
stand with the most enlightened portion of his party--with such men as
Morton, Sumner and Lincoln--against the divine right of sex and the
political tyranny involved in this doctrine, which in a republic
presents such an anomaly.
Hoping that the question suggested by this appeal will command from you
the attention which its importance merits, we subscribe ourselves,
Yours with high esteem,
SUSAN B. ANTHONY,
_Vice-President-at-Large N. W. S. A._
MAY WRIGHT SEWALL,
_Chairman Executive Committee N. W. S. A._
CHAPTER XLIII--PAGE 785.
DEMAND FOR PARTY RECOGNITION.
_Delivered in Kansas City at the opening of the campaign, May 4, 1894._
I come to you tonight not as a stranger, not as an outsider but, in
spirit and in every sense, as one of you. I have been connected with you
by the ties of relationship for nearly forty years. Twenty-seven years
ago I canvassed this entire State of Kansas in your first woman suffrage
campaign. During the last decade I have made a speaking tour of your
congressional districts over and over again. Now I come once more to
appeal to you for justice to the women of your State.
To preface, I want to say that when the rebellion broke out in this
country, we of the woman suffrage movement postponed our meetings, and
organized ourselves into a great National Women's Loyal League with
headquarters in the city of New York. We sent out thousands of petitions
praying Congress to abolish slavery, as a war measure, and to these
petitions we obtained 365,000 signatures. They were presented by Charles
Sumner, that noblest Republican of them all, and it took two stalwart
negroes to carry them into the Senate chamber. We did our work
faithfully all those years. Other women scraped lint, made jellies,
ministered to sick and suffering soldiers and in every way worked for
the help of the government in putting down that rebellion. No man, no
Republican leader, worked more faithfully or loyally than did the women
of this nation in every city and county of the North to aid the
government.
In 1865 I made my first visit to Kansas and, on the 2d of July, went by
stage from Leavenworth to Topeka. O, how I remember those first acres
and miles of cornfields I ever had seen; how I remember that ride to
Topeka and from there in an open mail wagon to Ottumwa, where I was one
of the speakers at the Fourth of July celebration. Those were the days,
as you recollect, just after the murder of Lincoln and the accession to
the presidential chair of Andrew Johnson, who had issued his
proclamation for the reconstruction of Mississippi. So the question of
the negro's enfranchisement was uppermost in the minds of leading
Republicans, though no one save Charles Sumner had dared to speak it
aloud. In that speech, I clearly stated that the government never would
be reconstructed, that peace never would reign and justice never be
uppermost until not only the black men were enfranchised but also the
women of the entire nation. The men congratulated me upon my speech, the
first part of it, every word I said about negro suffrage, but declared
that I should not have mentioned woman suffrage at so critical an hour.
A little later the Associated Press dispatch came that motions had been
made on the floor of the House of Representatives at Washington to
insert the word "male" in the second clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment. You remember the first clause, "All persons born or
naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they
reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges and immunities of citizens." That was magnificent. Every
woman of us saw that it included the women of the nation as well as
black men. The second section, as Thaddeus Stevens drew it, said, "If
any State shall disfranchise any of its citizens on account of color,
all that class shall be counted out of the basis of representation;" but
at once the enemy asked, "Do you mean that if any State shall
disfranchise its negro women, you are going to count all of the black
race out of the basis of representation?" And weak-kneed Republicans,
after having fought such a glorious battle, surrendered; they could not
stand the taunt. Charles Sumner said he wrote over nineteen pages of
foolscap in order to keep the word "male" out of the Constitution; but
he could not do it so he with the rest subscribed to the amendment: "If
any State shall disfranchise any of its MALE citizens all of that class
shall be counted out of the basis of representation."
There was the first great surrender and, in all those years of
reconstruction, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the great leader of our woman
suffrage movement, declared that because the Republicans were willing to
sacrifice the enfranchisement of the women of the nation they would lose
eventually the power to protect the black man in his right to vote. But
the leaders of the Republican party shouted back to us, "Keep silence,
this is the negro's hour." Even our glorious Wendell Phillips, who said,
"To talk to a black man of freedom without the ballot is mockery,"
joined in the cry, "This is the negro's hour;" but we never yielded the
point that, "To talk to women of freedom without the ballot is mockery
also." But timidity, cowardice and want of principle carried forward the
reconstruction of the government with the women left out.
Then came in 1867 the submission by your Kansas legislature of three
amendments to your constitution: That all men who had served in the
rebel army should be disfranchised; that all black men should be
enfranchised; and that all women should be enfranchised. The Democrats
held their State convention and resolved they would have nothing to do
with that "modern fanaticism of woman's rights." The Germans held a
meeting in Lawrence, and denounced this "new-fangled idea." The
Republicans held their State convention and resolved to be "neutral."
And they were neutral precisely as England was neutral in the rebellion.
While England declared neutrality, she allowed the _Shenandoah_, the
_Alabama_ and other pirate ships to be fitted up in her ports to maraud
the seas and capture American vessels. The fact was not a single stump
speaker appointed by the Republican committee advocated the woman
suffrage amendment and, more than this, all spoke against it.
Then, of course, we had to make a woman suffrage campaign through the
months of September and October. We did our best. Everywhere we had
splendid audiences and I think we had a larger ratio of men in those
olden times than we have nowadays. Election day came, that 5th day of
November, 1867, when 9,070 men voted yes, and over 18,000 voted no. On
the negro suffrage amendment, 10,500 voted yes and the remainder voted
no. Both amendments were lost. All the political power of the national
and State Republican party was brought to bear to induce every man to
vote for negro suffrage; on the other hand, all the enginery and power
of the Republican, as well as of the Democratic party, were against us;
and many were so ignorant they absolutely believed that to vote for
woman suffrage was to vote against the negro. It was exactly like
declaring here tonight that if every woman in this house should fill her
lungs with oxygen, she would rob all you men of enough to fill yours.
Nobody is robbed by letting everybody have equal rights.
Since 1867 seven other States have submitted the question. Let me run
them over.
[Miss Anthony then gave a graphic description of the campaigns in
Michigan, 1874; Colorado, 1877; Nebraska, 1882; Oregon, 1884; Rhode
Island, 1886; Washington, 1889; South Dakota, 1890; all of which
failed for lack of support from the political platforms, editors
and speakers.]
But at last in Colorado, in the second campaign, we won by the popular
vote, _gained through party endorsement_, the enfranchisement of women.
During the summer of 1893 nearly every Republican and Populist and not a
few Democratic county conventions put approving planks in their
platforms. When the fall campaign opened every stump orator was
authorized to speak favorably upon the subject; no man could oppose it
unless he ran counter to the principles laid down in his party platform.
That made it a truly educational campaign to all the voters of the
State. A word to the wise is sufficient. Let every man who wants the
suffrage amendment carried, demand a full and hearty endorsement of the
measure by his political party, be it Democrat, Republican, Populist or
Prohibition, so that Kansas shall win as did her neighbor State,
Colorado.
The Republicans of Kansas made the Prohibition amendment a party measure
in 1880. After they secured the law they had planks in their platform
for its enforcement from year to year, until they were tired of fighting
the liquor dealers, backed by the Democrats in the State and on the
borders. They wearied of being taunted with the fact that they had not
the power to enforce the law. Then in 1887 they gave municipal suffrage
to women as a sheer party necessity. Just as much as it was a necessity
of the Republicans in reconstruction days to enfranchise the negroes, so
was it a political necessity in the State of Kansas to enfranchise the
women, because they needed a new balance of power to help them elect and
re-elect officers who would enforce the law. Where else could they go to
get that balance? Every man in the State, native and foreign, drunk and
sober, outside of the penitentiary, the idiot and lunatic asylums,
already had the right to vote. They had nobody left but the women. As a
last resort the Republicans, by a straight party vote, extended
municipal suffrage to women.
This political power was put into the hands of the women of this State
by the old Republican party with its magnificent majorities--82,000, you
remember, the last time you bragged. It was before you had the quarrel
and division in the family; it was by that grand old party, solid as it
was in those bygone days!
Last year, and two years ago, after the People's party was organized,
when their State convention was held, and also when the Republican
convention was held, each put a plank in its platform declaring that the
time had come for the submission of a proposition for full suffrage to
women. What then could the women infer but that such action meant
political help in carrying this amendment? If I had not believed this I
never would have come to the State and given my voice in twenty-five or
thirty political meetings, reminding the Republicans what a grand and
glorious record they had made, not only in the enfranchisement of the
black men but in furnishing all the votes on the floor of Congress ever
given for women's enfranchisement there, and in extending municipal
suffrage to the women of Kansas. I have vowed, from the time I began to
see that woman suffrage could be carried only through party help, that I
never would lend my influence to either of the two dominant parties that
did not have a woman suffrage plank in its platform.
I consider, by every pledge of the past, by the passage of the
resolution through the legislature when the representatives of the two
parties, the People's and Republican, vied with each other to see who
would give the largest majority, that both promised to make this a party
measure and I speak tonight to the two parties as the old Republican
party. You are not the same men altogether, but you are the descendants,
the children, of that party; and I am here tonight, and have come all
the way from my home, to beg you to stand by the principles which have
made you great and strong, and to finish the work you have so nobly
begun.
The Republicans are to have their State convention the 6th of June. I
shall be ashamed if the telegraph wires flash the word over the country,
"No pledge for the amendment," as was flashed from the Republican League
the other day. Should this happen, as I have heard intimated, and there
is a woman in the State of Kansas who has any affiliation with the
Republican party, any sympathy with it, who will float its banner after
it shall have thus failed to redeem its pledge, I will disown her; she
is not one of my sort.
The Populist convention is to be held the 12th of June. If it should
shirk its responsibility, and not put a strong suffrage plank in its
platform, pledging itself to use all its educational powers and all its
party machinery to carry the amendment, then I shall have no respect for
any woman who will speak or work for its success.
The Democrats have declared their purpose. They are going to fight us.
What does the good Book say? "He that is not for me is against me." We
know where the Democratic party is, it is against us. If the Republican
and People's parties say nothing for us, they say and do everything
against us. No plank will be equivalent to saying to every woman
suffrage Republican and Populist speaker, "You must not advocate this
amendment, for to do so will lose us the whisky vote, it will lose us
the foreign vote." Hence, no plank means no word for us, and no word for
us means no vote for us. But while no word can be spoken in favor, every
campaign orator, as in 1867, is free to speak in opposition.
Men of the Republican party, it comes your time first to choose whom
you will have for your future constituents, to make up the bone and
sinew of your party; whether you will have the most ignorant foreigners,
just landed on our shores, who have not learned a single principle of
free government--or the women of your own households; whether you will
lose to-day a few votes of the high license or the low license
Republicans, foreign or native, black or white, as the case may be, and
gain to yourselves hereafter the votes of the women of the State. These
are the alternatives. It has been stated that you can not have a
suffrage plank in the Republican platform in Saline county because it
would lose the votes of the Scandinavians. Will those 1,000 Scandinavian
men be of more value to the Republicans than will be the votes of their
own wives, mothers, daughters and sisters in all the years to come?
The crucial moment is upon you now, and I say unto you, men of both
parties, you will have driven the last nail in the coffin of this
amendment and banished all hope of carrying it at the ballot-box if you
do not incorporate woman suffrage in your platforms. I know what the
party managers will say, I have talked with and heard from many of them.
I read Mr. Morrill's statement that "this question should go to the
ballot-box on its merits and should not be spoken of in the political
meetings or made a party measure."
The masses are rooted and grounded in the old beliefs in the inferiority
and subjection of women, and consider them born merely to help man carry
out his plans and not to have any of their own. Now, friends, because
this is true, because no man believes in political equality for woman,
except he is educated out of every bigotry, every prejudice and every
usage that he was born into, in the family, in the church and in the
state, so there can be no hope of the rank and file of men voting for
this amendment, until they are taught the principles of justice and
right; and there is no possibility that these men can be reached, can be
educated, through any other instrumentality than that of the campaign
meetings and campaign papers of the political parties. Therefore, when
you say this is not to be a political question, not to be in your
platform, not to be discussed in your meetings, not to be advocated in
your papers, you make it impossible for its merits to be brought before
the voters.
Who are the men that come to our women's meetings? We have just finished
the tour of the sixty counties in the State of New York. We had
magnificent gatherings, composed of people from the farthest townships
in the county, and in many of them from every township, with the largest
opera houses packed, hundreds going away who could not get in. Our
audiences have been five-sixths women, and the one man out of the six,
who was he? A man who already believed there was but one means of
salvation for the race or the country, and that was through the
political equality of women, making them the peers of men in every
department of life. How are we going to reach the other five-sixths of
the men who never come to women's meetings? There is no way except
through the political rallies which are attended by all men. Now if you
shut out of these the discussion of this question, then I say the fate
of this amendment is sealed.
Even if it were possible to reach the men through separate meetings,
the women of Kansas can not carry on a fall campaign. They can not get
the money to do it unless you men furnish it. Our eastern friends have
already contributed to the extent of their ability to hold these spring
meetings, and you very well know that after the husbands shall have paid
their party assessments there will be nothing left for them to "give to
their wives" to defray the expenses of a woman suffrage campaign.
Therefore, no discussion in the regular political meetings means no
discussion anywhere. But suppose there were plenty of money, and there
could be a most thorough fall campaign, what then? Why, the same old
story of "women talking to women," not one of whom can vote on the
question.
Again, with what decency can either of the parties ask women to come to
their political meetings to expound Populist or Republican doctrines
after they have set their heels on the amendment? Do you not see that if
it will lose votes to the parties to have the plank, it will lose votes
to allow women to advocate the amendment on their platforms? And what a
spectacle it would be to see women pleading with men to vote for the one
or the other party, while their tongues were tied on the question of
their own right to vote! Heaven and the Republican and Populist State
Conventions spare us such a dire humiliation!
But should the Republicans refuse to insert the plank on June 6 and the
Populists put a good solid one in their platform on June 12, what then?
Do you suppose all the women in the State would shout for the
Republicans and against the Populists? Would they pack the Republican
meetings, where no word could be spoken for their liberty, and leave the
benches empty in the Populist meetings where at every one hearty appeals
were made to vote for woman's enfranchisement? My dear friends, woman
surely will be able to see that her highest interest, her liberty, her
right to a voice in government, is the great issue of this campaign, and
overtops, outweighs, all material questions which are now pending
between the parties.
I know you think your Kansas men are going to vote on this amendment
independently of party endorsement. You are no more sanguine today than
were the men and women, myself included, in 1867, that those Free State
men, who had given up every comfort which human beings prize for the
sake of liberty, who had fought not only through the border ruffian
warfare but through the four years of the rebellion, would vote freedom
to the heroic women of Kansas. Where would you ever expect to find a
majority more ready to grant to women equal rights than among those old
Free State men? You have not as glorious a generation of men in Kansas
today as you had in 1867. I do not wish to speak disparagingly, but in
the nature of things there can not be another race of men as brave as
those. If you had told me then that a majority of those men would have
gone to the ballot-box and voted against equal rights for women, I
should have defended them with all my power; but they did it, two to
one.
Do you mean to repeat the experiment of 1867? If so, do not put a plank
in your platform; just have a "still hunt." Think of a "still hunt" when
it must be necessarily a work of education! My friends, I know enough of
this State, to feel that it is worth saving. I have given more time and
money and effort to Kansas than to any other State in the Union, because
I wanted it to be the first to make its women free. Women of Kansas,
all is lost if you sit down and supinely listen to politicians and
candidates. Both reckon what they will lose or what they will gain. They
study expediency rather than principle. I appeal to you, men and women,
make the demand imperative: "The amendment must be endorsed by the
parties and advocated on the platform and in the press." Let me propose
a resolution:
WHEREAS, From the standpoint of justice, political expediency and
grateful appreciation of their wise and practical use of school
suffrage from the organization of the State, and of municipal
suffrage for the past eight years, we, Republicans and Populists,
descendants of that grand old party of splendid majorities which
extended these rights to the women of Kansas, in mass meeting
assembled do hereby
_Resolve_, That we urgently request our delegates in their
approaching State conventions to endorse the woman suffrage
amendment in their respective platforms.
[The resolution was adopted by a unanimous vote.]
That vote fills my soul with joy and hope. Now I want to say to you, my
good friends, I never would have made a 1,500 mile journey hither to
appeal to the thinking, justice-loving men of Kansas. They already are
converted, but they are a minority. We have to consider those whose
votes can be obtained only by that party influence and machinery which
politicians alone know how to use. This hearty response is a pledge that
you will demand of your State conventions that the full power of this
political machinery shall be used to carry the woman suffrage amendment
to victory.
INDEX.[137]
AARON, RABBI, addresses suff. con., 762.
ABBE, MRS. ROBT., petit. for wom. suff., 764.
ABBOTT, REV. LYMAN, opp. wom. suff., 766.
ABBOTT, MRS. LYMAN, remonstrant agnst. wom. suff., 766.
ADAMS, ABIGAIL, demands ballot, 475.
ALBRO, ATTILIA, 71.
ALCOTT, A. BRONSON, approves wom. suff., 251;
at A.'s lect. in Chicago, 468;
sends A. compli. ticket to Concord School Philos., 510;
spks. at suff. con., 533; 563;
death, 645.
ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY, 645.
ALDRIDGE, GEO. W., orders A.'s face carved in Capitol at Albany, 949.
ALFORD, MR., signs minority res. for wom. suff., 873.
ALLEN, MR. and MRS., 404.
ALLEN, ETHAN, 4.
ALLEN, JOHN B., SEN., introd. suff. res., 718.
ALMY, MARTHA R., work for wom. suff. amend., 760.
AMES, BLANCHE BUTLER, 381.
AMES, REV. CHARLES G., 394;
welcomes suff. con. Phil., 541; 547.
AMES, MRS. CHAS. G., 394.
AMES, OAKES, endorses suffrage, 284.
AMES, SARAH FISHER, 342.
ANDERSON, MARY, 733.
ANDERSON, PRESIDENT M. B., tribute to A., 471; 558.
ANDERSON, NAOMI, spks. for wom. suff., 875.
ANDREWS, STEPHEN PEARL, res. at con., 384.
ANGLE, JAMES L., favors legal rights for women, 110.
ANNEKE, MME. MATHILDE, first appearance in suff. work, 103; 327; 446.
ANTHONY, ALBERT, 940.
ANTHONY, ANCESTORS, William, Derrick, Francis, John, John, Jr.,
Abraham, William, William, Jr., David, 3.
ANTHONY, ANNA O., 552.
ANTHONY, CHARLES, 71.
ANTHONY, D., father of Susan B., born, 4;
sent to "Nine Partners'" school, testimonials, 8;
teaches home school, 9;
falls in love, 10;
marries, Quakers forgive, wedding trip, builds home and cotton
factory, 11;
removes to Battenville, N. Y., 17;
refuses to sell liquor or allow employes to use it, 18;
looks after welfare of employes, 19;
criticised by Quakers for dress, 20;
liberal family discipline, 21;
objects to music, 23;
wealth, 24;
advises daughters to teach, 24;
postmaster, 25;
letters on financ. panic, VanBuren, Wash., New York, agony over
business failure, 33;
removes to Hardscrabble (Center Falls), strug. for existence, 35;
allows dancing school to meet in his house, 36;
turned out of Quaker Soc., grows more liberal, refuses to pay taxes,
supports the Union, 37;
cuts timber in mountains, wife stays with him, goes to Virginia,
Mich., N. Y., looking for new location, buys farm near Roch., 45;
arrives in Roch., takes family out to farm, house put in order, 47;
neighbors, abolition meet., Sunday morning work, farm work, goes
into N. Y. Life Ins. Co., 48;
did not vote till 1860, 61;
signs call for wom. temp. con., 67;
on woman's need of ballot, 85;
advises A. to preserve press notices, 125;
sustains A. in defending wronged mother, 204;
death, love of family, character, 223;
belonged to Henry Clay sch. of protect., 793;
site of old mill, 947.
ANTHONY, D. R., born, 12;
clerking at Lenox, 46;
makes first speech, 121;
letters from Kan. in 1857, 157;
elect. mayor Leav., 231;
marriage, 235;
on plat, at G. F. Train's sp. in Leav., 287;
praises Train, 290;
offers to assist Revolution, but urges A. to provide for own
future, 355;
shot, 470;
strug. for life, 471;
gives A. R. R. passes, 492;
schoolmate Pres. Arthur, 538;
farewell tele. to A. on depart. for Europe, 548;
loses children, nominated for mayor, 649;
defeat, 650; 672;
present to A., 707; 711;
demands wom. suff. pl. in Kan. Rep. plat., 786;
furnishes passes to A. 30 yrs., 796;
at Berk. Hist, meet., grandmother stopped cotton looms by rinsing
mop, 944;
Anthony reunion, 946;
to A. on 50th birthday, 974.
ANTHONY, MRS. D. R., 649; 711.
ANTHONY, D. R., JR., describes A. in Ann Arbor, 658;
A. sends tele. on wed. day, 923.
ANTHONY, ELIZA TEFFT, 12; 23.
ANTHONY, GUELMA (see McLean).
ANTHONY, HANNAH, 1st (see Hoxie).
ANTHONY, HANNAH, 2d (see Mosher).
ANTHONY, HANNAH LAPHAM, 4;
religion, dowry, dress, 6;
domestic qualities, 7.
ANTHONY, SENATOR HENRY B., reports in favor wom. suff., 543;
reports in favor wom. suff., 590, 591;
praises Hist. Wom. Suff., 614.
ANTHONY, HUMPHREY, business ambition, 4;
objects to brother's taking father away, 7;
thinks higher education unnecessary, 8;
at A.'s lecture, 129.
ANTHONY, J. MERRITT, born, 12;
A. advises shd. have own money, 133;
fights at Osawatomie, 144;
nurses brother, 471;
Anthony reunion, 946.
ANTHONY, JUDITH HICKS, 3.
ANTHONY, LOTTIE B., registers and votes, 424.
ANTHONY, LUCY E., childhood, 214;
lives in home of A., 513; 552; 659;
present to A., 812;
Miss Shaw's sec., arranges county cons. in Calif. campn., 863;
successful results, 864;
at wom. suff. headqrs., 875; 916.
ANTHONY, LUCY READ, mother of Susan B., born, 4;
early training, 6;
playmate and pupil of Daniel Anthony, 9;
hesitates to marry Quaker, fond of music, learns to love Friends'
religion, 10;
birth of children, life's realities, modesty, 12;
entertains Quaker preachers, boards employes, 19;
shut out of Quaker business meet., 20;
cares for father and mother, 23;
grief at losing child, parents and home, 35;
sorrow over sale of farm home, 231;
lends A. money for Rev., 355;
death, 512;
characteristics, 513:
old spin. wheel and wed. furniture, 934;
site of childhood home, 948.
ANTHONY, MARY LUTHER, 122.
ANTHONY, MARY S., born, 12;
attends first W. R. Con., 59;
let. on raspberry experiment, 159;
stands for wom. rights in schools, 191, 192;
lends A. money for Revolution, 355;
helps on paper, urges A. to abandon it, 356;
upholds A. in defending Laura D. Fair, 392;
registers and votes, 424;
tends mother, 459;
educates nieces, 513;
devotion to mother and sister, 517;
sees A. start for Europe, 550;
let. from A. 562;
only one left, 623; 672;
stays with Mrs. Avery, 678;
realized A.'s age, 696;
prep. home for self and A., 706;
Roch. Pol. Eq. Club present desk, 707;
com. of ways and means in new home, 711;
work for wom. suff. amend. in N. Y. campn., declines salary, 760;
canvasses, Roch., entertains speak., 761; 812;
urges A. to stand by her post, 855;
opposes res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 854; 896;
goes to Des Moines con. 901;
70th birthday, 914;
acct. Roch. Herald, suff. pioneer, teacher, pres. Pol. Equal. Club,
helper to sister, Chron. description recep., 915;
presents, trib. Rev. W. C. Gannett, 916;
financial respons. of household, 933; 934; 935;
Anthony reunion, 946;
let. to A. on 50th birthday, 976.
ANTHONY, MAUDE, 552;
trip with A., 653.
ANTHONY, SARAH (see Burtis).
ANTHONY, MAJOR SCOTT, 247.
ANTHONY, SUSAN B., born, 12;
precocity, 13;
childish recollections, 14;
works two weeks in father's factory, 20;
attacked by dog, 21;
early schooling, fine needlework, 22;
teaches home school, 23;
teaches at Easton and Reid's Corners, goes to boarding-school, 24;
stilted literary style, 25;
boarding-school lets., 25, 26, 27;
extracts from diary, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31;
leaves school, teaches in Union Village, sorrow at leaving home, 34;
last schooldays, 35;
housework, criticises worldly dress, 36;
trip by boat, 37;
shocked at slavery discussion, enjoys debate on religion, beaux,
dreams of marriage, objects to poem on love, dislikes bachelors,
38;
girls marry lunatics, teaches in boarding-school at New Rochelle,
tells of severe medical methods, defends colored people, objects
to their treatment by Friends, 39;
likes women preachers, criticises uncle for drinking, describes
medical practice, 40;
criticises reception to Pres. Van Buren and scores him, 41;
silkworm culture, remembrances to family, 42;
school closes, small wages, school "bully," excursions of olden
times, first proposal, studies algebra, can make biscuits also,
43;
teaches in Cambridge and Ft. Edward, let. to mother, Whig con.,
first knowledge of Unitarianism, 44;
lends wages to father, sees injustice to wom. teachers, 45;
second proposal of marriage, removes to Rochester, 46;
teaches at Canajoharie, 49;
love of dress, beaux, first quarterly examination, costume, great
success, 50;
visits sisters at Easton, fashionable career, another "exhibition,"
first circus, last dance, liquor controls election, tired of
teaching, 51;
fine clothes, Margaret's headache, illness, death, A.'s
discouragement, longs to go to California, 52;
sec. Daughters of Temp., opposed by women, describes temp. supper,
first public address, 53;
returns home, revels in peaches, takes charge of farm, supply
teacher, leaves schoolroom forever, 55;
reasons for adopting public life, 57;
friendship of May and Channing, 58;
calls on F. Douglass, 59;
not quite in favor of wom. suff., 61;
manages temp. festival, offers toasts, 62;
meets S. S. and A. K. Foster, 63;
first meets H. Greeley, G. Thompson, Mrs. Stn., L. Stone, Mrs.
Bloomer, 64;
snubbed at men's temp. meet. at Albany, arranges one for women, 65;
calls first Woman's State Temp. Con., 66;
opens con. in Rochester, elected sec., 67;
appointed State temp, agent, 68;
delegate to Syracuse Temp. Con., 69;
tries to speak but silenced, sees work for women, 70;
appeals to mothers and declares for wom. suff., 71;
resolves to attend State Teachers' Con., objects to decollete dress,
sec. Syracuse W. R. Con., 72;
urges women to speak louder, 75;
shows up young ministers, 76;
fine voice, 77;
convinced of great need of wom. suff., losing interest in temp.
work, arranges hearing before N. Y. legis., 81;
presides over temp. meet. in Albany, 82:
resolves to make woman's name on petition equal to man's, speaks in
New York and Brooklyn on temp, and makes tour of State, attack of
Utica Telegraph, 83;
delegate to Brick Church temp. meet., 87;
refused place on business com., 88;
presides at W. R. meet. in Broadway Tabernacle, 89;
attack of N. Y. Commercial-Advertiser, 90;
approves men as members of temp. soc., learns mistake, refuses to
serve as sec., leaves soc., 95;
never again member of temp. soc., works up Whole World's Temp. Con.,
urges L. Stone to assist, 96;
demands woman's right to speak at teachers' cons., grief at
indifference of wom. teachers, 98;
first speech at teachers' con., insulted by women, 99;
women find their voices, proposes to invite Hugo and H. Martineau to
temp. con., 100;
vows women shall have right to speak in public, shows difference
between men's and women's wages, 102;
at Cleveland W. R. Con., temp, addresses in southern N. Y., 103;
women's need of pecuniary independence, 104;
arranges State Suff. Con. at Albany, 105;
development, consecration of life to freedom of women, 107;
carrying petitions, snubbed by women, insulted by minister, prints
and circulates Mrs. Stn.'s address before legis., 108;
ad. legis. com. at Albany on legal, civil and polit. rights of
women, 109;
named "Napoleon" by Channing, appointed gen. agent for N. Y., no
funds provided, 110;
canvasses State for W. R., uses own money, great moral and physical
courage, 111;
adopts Bloomer costume, 113;
martyrdom, of wearing it, doubts as to good results, 116;
states objections to Bloomers or any conspicuous dress, 117;
spks. in Washington for first time, goes to Alexandria and
Baltimore, criticises shiftless management and effect of slavery
on labor, 118;
debates existence after death, treatment by ministers, 119;
teachers con. at Oswego, demands women shall hold office in assn.
and position of principal, compli. by papers, all speakers
disappoint her at Saratoga con., no faith in own powers, 120;
purse stolen, attends anti-Neb. con. at Saratoga, Methodist trustees
at Canajoharie refuse church, 121;
guest with Garrison at Lucretia Mott's, Greeley refuses to take
money, Phillips lends $50, she starts out alone to canvass N. Y.,
122;
at Mayville, Sherman, 123;
posters amuse people, smart editors refer to Mark Antony, Rondout
Courier compliments, 124;
begins scrap-books by father's advice, at Olean, Angelica, Corning,
Elmira, T. K. Beecher's theology, presents petitions to N. Y.
legis., 125;
proposal of marriage, Schroon Lake country, tries "water cure" for
injured foot, 126;
results at Riverhead, 127;
women afraid to come to lecture, ends campn. and returns Phillips'
money but he refuses it, husbands eat warm meals, wives cold ones,
regrets marriages of L. Stone and A. Brown, 128;
thinks women soon will have their rights, grandfather sits on her
platform at Adams, she throws away medicine, 129;
arranges con. at Saratoga, appointed at Utica State Teachers' Con.
to read paper on co-education, 130;
goes to Worcester Hydropathic Institute, let. describing Mass. W. R.
Con., social courtesies, distinguished people met, 131;
visits baby show, thinks Apocrypha inspired, 132;
hears Hale, Wilson, Sumner, Burlingame, longs to join Garrisonians,
urges young brother be given his own money, 133;
woman must stand or fall by own strength, sends sister Mary to
Cincinnati W. R. Con. in her place, describes new bonnet, future
wives will have time for culture, treatment at water cure, 134;
reads and enjoys herself, 135;
takes out life insurance, 136;
invited by Am. A. S. Soc. to act as agent, 137;
second canvass of N. Y., lets. describing hardships, snowdrifts,
hard life of wives, 138;
they do work, husbands rec. money, asks release from A. S. Com.,
139;
begs Mrs. Wright to speak, finishes meetings alone, labors for
wage-earning women, entertains Garrison, presents petit. to
N. Y. legis., 140;
shows wife she fails to appreciate husband, 141;
trying to prepare paper on co-education, 142;
holds meet. alone at Saratoga, 143;
let. to brother on raid at Osawatomie, 144;
renews engagement with A. S. Com., given control of N. Y., 148;
begins Garrisonian meet., 149;
disheartening experiences as manager, 150;
economies in dress, sympathetic lets., no faith in own power as
speaker, 151;
describes Remond's speech, 152;
abandons written addresses, notes of speeches, 153;
spks. in Me., newspaper comment, 154;
res. in favor of colored pupils and of co-education, State Teachers
Con. in Binghamton, 155;
defended by Republican, 156;
resumes A. S. meet., 157;
on soul-communing, longing for sympathy, 158;
raspberry experiment, 159;
out-door life for women, "good old days," 160;
"health food cranks," glad to reach home, 161;
on com. to arrange A. S. Annivers. and W. R. Con., no one else for
common work, on large families, 162;
unterrified by mob, rebukes teachers at Lockport con., 163;
demands equal pay for women, not frightened by fogies, 164;
calls meet. to oppose capital punishment, hissed by mob, trustee of
Jackson fund, 165;
desire for Free church, 167;
persists in lecture courses for Rochester, shrinks from active work,
feels spiritual loneliness, 168;
exhorts women to be discontented, no freedom without pecuniary
independence, outrage of denying to woman right of self-govt.,
married woman sinks individuality, 169;
true woman will have purpose, married women can not be relied on for
public work, 170;
distrusts own power to resist marriage, though it blots out freedom,
would use Hovey fund for wom. suff. propaganda, 171;
spicy extracts from diary, criticises Curtis' lecture, 172;
at Albany working for Personal Liberty Bill, member of lobby,
arranges lect. for Cheever, finishes lect. on True Woman, love of
gardening, 173;
presides over suff. con. in Mozart Hall, 174;
prepares Memorial to legis., goes to picnic, escort lacks moral
spine, opens canvass at Niagara Falls, 175;
speaks at N. Y. watering places, lectures teachers en route to
Poughkeepsie, waiter at hotel refuses to take order, 176;
rebukes young Quaker preacher, drains millpond too low, need of
souls baptized into work, women keep her in suspense, 177;
disapproves women's neglecting households, makes canvass alone,
carefully kept expenses, assists Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Wattles to
plan Kan. campn., 178;
too busy to see humorous features, ignores complaints, incident at
Gerrit Smith's when Mrs. Blackwell preached, 179;
we dwell in solitude, arranges John Brown meet., 180;
no one to assist, 181;
urged to resume A. S. work, 182;
speaks to southerners at Ft. Wm. Henry, meets Judge Ormond of Ala.,
sends memorial to him and urges his daughters to take up serious
work in life, his two replies, 183;
right of suff. underlying principle, 185;
urges Mrs. Stn. to address legis. at Albany, 186;
distaste for writing, power as critic, joint work with Mrs. Stn.,
caring for children, 187;
speeches in appendix her own work, 188;
gives radical bill to legis. com., 189;
carrying petit. in face of insult and ridicule, debt owed by women,
arranges course of lectures for Rochester, 190;
rec. vote of thanks at W. R. Con. in Cooper Instit., "better have
been at home," 193;
marriage one sided contract, favors divorce res., 194;
regrets Phillips' action, rec. lets. of approval, no desire to
dictate platform, 195;
writes Phillips for money, he praises her, tilt with Rev. Mayo, 196;
fights Mrs. Stn.'s battles, on the skirmish line, looks after
"externals," domestic work, 197;
extracts from journal, demands equal pay for women at State
Teacher's Con., Syracuse, writes from birthplace of women's hard
work there, 198;
climbs "Greylock," describes visit to old home, receives invitation
to give agricultural ad. at Dundee Fair, 199;
describes fair, speech contains modern ideas on farming, takes up
cause of wronged mother, 200;
goes with mother and child to New York, refused admission to hotels,
rejected by landlady at boarding-house, 201;
declines to leave hotel, places charges with Mrs. Gibbons, welcomed
home by Lydia Mott, persecuted by family of mother, 202;
defies brothers, 203;
refuses to yield to Garrison's and Phillips' requests, sustained by
her father, 204;
arranges Garrisonian meet., mobbed at Buffalo, 208;
hissed at Rochester, will not give up meet., 209;
encounter with mayor of Utica, mob at Rome, 210;
declines to abandon meet. at Syracuse, mobbed and burned in effigy,
goes to Albany, 211;
agrees to adjourn meet. there, 212;
begged to give up W. R. Annivers. because of war, refuses, rearing
children a profession, offers to care for Mrs. Stn.'s, 213;
attitude of Abolits. towards War, 214;
takes charge of farm and does housework, 215;
sharp points from diary, Douglass, negroes shd. be enlisted, slavery
must be blotted out, loneliness, opinion of "Adam Bede," 216;
A. S. meet, at Albany, sends Phillips money for lecture which he
returns, sends Tilton check, he defines her "sphere," 217;
compelled to give up W. R. Annivers., leaves "Abrahamic bosom of
home" for A. S. lecture field, visits Adams and censures men for
not furnishing kitchen properly, visits Hoosac Tunnel, speaks on
summit of Green Mts., 218;
let. on work of E. B. Browning, H. Hosmer, R. Bonheur, cares for
Mrs. Stn.'s boys, visits New York, Boston, Framingham, at the
Garrisons', 219;
anger at N. Y. legis. for repealing laws in favor of women, 220;
let. on private schools, her last teachers' con., results gained,
teachers' debt to her, 221;
speaking extemporaneously, support of Lydia Mott, complimented at
Mecklinburg, honored by teacher's con. after War, death of father,
222;
great bereavement, returns to work, 224;
disbelieves War will lead to wom. suff., continues work for slave,
225;
issues call for Women's Loyal League, 226;
calls meet. to order in Church of Puritans, nominates L. Stone for
pres., makes spirited ad., criticises Lincoln, demands
emancipation, appeals to women, 227;
no peace without wom. suff., presides at business meet., 229;
let. urging women to petit. for emancipation of slaves, opens
headqrs. in Cooper Instit., describes Draft Riots, 230;
let. on brother D. R.'s election and joy it wd. have given father,
longs for mother and father, regrets sale of home, tribute to
mother, 231;
efforts to raise money for league, 232;
goes to Thirtieth Anniversary of Am. A. S. Soc. at Phila., pushes
petition work for emancipation, economical lunches, appeals to
Beecher, pays deficit out of own pocket, 234;
helps at brother's "infare," in communication with Sumner and Robt.
Dale Owen, 235;
gets Mrs. Stn. to invite Phillips to speak, rec. proposal from
former sweetheart, speaks at annivers. of Loyal League, 237;
Sumner and Wilson acknowledge indebtedness, only old arm-chair as
reminder of League, humiliated at refusal of govt. to recognize
women, 238;
attends wedding of W. L. Garrison, Jr., and Ellen Wright, death of
niece Ann Eliza McLean, sunset at cemetery, faith in progress in
hereafter, 241;
too apt to criticise in home circle, starts to Kan. to visit brother
D. R., detained in Chicago, describes journey West during war
times, 242;
enjoys novel sights in Leavenworth, wins gloves on wager, the
"little clothes," work among colored people, colored printer in
composing-room, meets Hiram Revels, 243;
urged to return East and longs to do so, sees momentous questions
demanding settlement, 244;
protests against disbanding A. S. Soc., 245;
letter on division, 246;
trip over prairies, among first to declare for negro suff., spks. at
Ottumwa on Reconstruction, 247;
unpleasant night, spks. at Leavenworth to colored people, Repubs.
object to her mention of wom. suff., learns "male" is to be put in
Fed. Constit. and starts eastward, speaking at Atchison, St.
Joseph, Chillicothe and Macon City, 248;
in old slave church at St. Louis, "soul-sharks," catches wom.
pickpocket, visits board of trade in Chicago, stops at many
places, maps out plan of campn. with Mrs. Stn., 249;
starts on thirty years' work, makes first demand for cong. action,
250;
speaks at Concord, Mrs. Emerson agrees with her as do the "sages of
Concord," untiring work for wom. suff., 251;
many visits, 252;
praise of N. Y. Independent, 253;
at Boston A. S. meet., finds Phillips and others opposed to uniting
with W. R. Soc., believes they will yield, 256;
eloquent demand for wom. suff., 257;
reads address to Congress at W. R. Annivers. in Church of Puritans
and offers res. for an Equal Rights Assn., 259;
speech in favor of ballot for negro and woman, 260;
indignant at proposal of Phillips and Tilton to work for enfranchis.
of negro but not of woman, points out degradation of it to Mrs.
Stn., 261;
never influenced by magnetic speeches, does not recognize
expediency, 262;
after her work for Standard it refuses to help women, much labor to
arrange E. R. meet. for Albany, speech on injustice to
working-women, 263;
abused by N. Y. World, presides at Cooper Instit. suff. meet., 264;
holds meet. in western N. Y., Repubs. led by Sumner refuse to
champion wom. suff., 265;
at A. S. meet. in Phila. begs Phillips to stand by women, also
Stevens chmn. Com. on Reconstruction, 267;
shows injustice of Standard, 268;
will not suffer in silence negro placed in power over woman, 269;
deserted by old leaders, 270;
N. Y. meet. to secure representation of women in Constit. Con.,
Buffalo Commercial ridicules A. and Mrs. Stn., 271;
praise from Troy Times, at Fairfield, N. Y., scores wife of
principal of academy, 272;
assumes burdens of meet. and too tired to prepare speech and appear
at best, protests to Folger agnst. bill to license houses of
ill-repute, 273;
threatens to have women discuss it throughout State, urges L. Stone
to make canvass of Kan., 274; 275;
manhood suff. continuation of class legislation, 276;
Memorial to Cong. asking removal of all discriminations of sex or
color, 277;
hearing before N. Y. Constit. Con., tilt with Greeley, can fight
with goosequill as he did, suff. inalienable right, 278;
Rochester people some time be glad to know her, 279;
lets. from G. W. Curtis and A. Dickinson, snubbed by Greeley at A.
Gary's, 280;
solicits advertisements on Broadway to raise money for Kan. campn.,
appeals to Mrs. Wright and other friends, 282;
starts for Kan. and opens campn., 283;
peculiar nightly experience, 284;
complains of slipshod ways, speaks in cabins, etc., suff. advocates
shd. go earlier into new settlements, 285;
negroes oppose wom. suff., 286;
accepts assistance of G. F. Train, lays out route for him, 287;
holds him to offer of help, will go alone if necessary, starts with
Train, lost in river bottoms, hard experiences, 288;
goes before audience hungry and tired, hears Gen. Blunt attack wom.
suff., mails Train's speeches, 289;
Train's announcement of new woman's paper, 290;
at Atchison, crosses ferry to complete arrangements with Train,
visits polling places in Leav., 291;
praised by Commercial, respect for Train, 292;
accepts his offer for extended lecture tour with herself and Mrs.
Stn., every comfort provided, Demo. papers approve, 293;
Repub. papers censure, old associates repudiate connection with
Train, claims right to accept aid from all sources, eventful year,
294;
begins The Revolution, comment of N. Y. Times, 295;
praise of N. Y. Independent, 296;
secures Pres. A. Johnson and other distinguished subscribers, 297;
refuses to vacate com. room of E. R. Assn., dismayed at Train's
departure for Europe, 298;
persecuted by friends, financial anxiety, 299;
wanted L. Stone to edit paper, founding of Revolution unexpected,
300;
lets. from Mrs. Wright and Ellen W. Garrison, 301;
office and editors described by Nellie Hutchinson, 302;
at Am. E. R. Assn., insists Mrs. Stn. shall preside, 303;
H. B. Blackwell praises work in Kan., independent com. formed, 304;
attends Demo. mass. con., comment of N. Y. Sun, meets pres. Natl.
Labor Union at Melliss' breakfast, 305;
attends Nat'l Demo. Con. in Tammany Hall, memorial received with
jeers, Chicago Republican describes insults, 306;
at Natl. Labor Union Cong. in New York, made chmn. com. on female
labor, wom. suff. repudiated, efforts for working women, advice to
women typesetters, 307;
struggle to maintain Revolution, 308;
takes up case of Hester Vaughan, calls meet. in Cooper Instit.,
offers res. demanding women be tried by their peers, have voice in
laws, and for abolit. of capital punishment, 309;
appeals to Gov. Geary, 310;
arranges first wom. suff. hearing before Cong. Com., described by
Grace Greenwood, 314;
tour of western cities, addresses Ill. legis., in speech at Chicago
declares she stands outside Repub. party but has laid no straw in
way of negro, 315;
tribute by Mrs. Livermore, at New York Press Club speaks on "Why
don't women propose?" 316; 317;
almost alone in demanding word "sex" in Amend. XV, 318;
climbs seven flights of stairs many times daily, prepares for E. R.
Con., 320;
advised by S. S. Foster to withdraw from assn., 322;
protests against Amend. XV and clashes swords with Douglass,
defended by Wm. Winter, 323;
scores those who cry "free love," 325;
let. from Mrs. Livermore on Natl. Assn., 327;
invited by her to join in western lect. tour, 328;
secures testimonial for Mrs. Rose, 329;
speaks at Westchester, indignant note to tax collector, at Western
Wom. Suff. Con. in Chicago, 330;
at Dayton reviews laws for married women, wives object, Herald
compliments, 331;
at Mrs. Davis' meets Mrs. Hooker and they become firm friends, 332;
she arranges con. at Hartford and begs A. not to "flunk," 333;
speech at Hartford con., description by Post, praise from Mrs.
Hooker; forgetfulness of self, 334;
Dansville Sanitarium, let. from Dr. Kate Jackson, 335;
Mrs. Fremont's question, 337;
speech before cong. com. for Amend. XVI, 338;
descriptions of Hartford Courant and Hearth and Home, "the
Bismarck," 339;
trib. of Mary Clemmer, nothing can stop suff. movement, 340;
friends rally around, invitation to fiftieth birthday party, N. Y.
World describes occasion and A.'s appearance, 341;
compli. of press, gifts, lets., poems by P. Cary, J. Hooker, etc.,
342;
response, can speak only to rouse people to action, sympathetic note
to mother, luncheon with Cary sisters, disappointed Mrs. Stn., cd.
not share happiness, 343;
entry in journal on fiftieth birthday, "If I were dead," distrusts
power as orator, 344;
begins with Lyceum Bureau, A. Dickinson's devotion, at Peoria, Ill.,
Col. Ingersoll supplements her speech, debates with Rev. Fulton at
Detroit, attack in Free Press, 345;
tribute of Legal News, people quarrel to entertain her, hears
Beecher on "Sins of Parents," 346;
telegraphs suff. conference in New York that West desires union,
urges it in Revolution, 347;
younger women want her at head, 348;
votes to unite E. R. Assn. and Union Suff. Soc., 349;
calls mass meet. to consider McFarland-Richardson case, 351;
petit. governor to put McFarland in insane asylum, censured by
press, thanks of unhappy wives, prepares to give up Revolution,
353;
condition of Revolution, her work upon it, no salary, touching
appeals for money, 354;
terrible struggle, 355;
still hopeful, stock company projected, 356;
refuses to change name of Revolution, 358;
visits A. Cary and secures story, 359;
warns Mrs. Phelps that Revolution will hurt Woman's Bureau, 360;
strain increases, sells Revolution for one dollar after sinking
$35,000, 361;
grief over giving up paper, let. refuting charge of financial
recklessness, 362;
if she had known power as lecturer cd. have sustained paper, 363;
love for old volumes of Revolution, starts out to pay $10,000 debt,
Yankee bargain, 364;
"squelches" little professor, social courtesies, receives $100 at
Saratoga con. for first time, fine summing up of status wom.
suff., 365;
Natl. Labor Cong. at Phila., 366;
hostility because she advised women to take strikers' places,
credentials rejected, attack of Utica Herald, 367;
goes to New York to help Mrs. Davis with Twentieth Suff. Annivers.
diary shows her energy, makes great success, 368;
urges women not to identify themselves with polit. parties, resumes
lect. tour, death of nephew Thomas King McLean, starts out night
of funeral, 369;
lectures in Va., Wash., Phila., on "The False Theory," introduced by
venerable Lucretia Mott, first meet. with Phillips since
difference of opinion on Amend. XIV, 370;
Mrs. Stn. wants her for pres. of assn., 371;
as does Mrs. Wright, 372;
declines to be snubbed, lectures Mrs. Stn. on giving up the ship,
373;
Mrs. Hooker appeals for help, cancels lecture engagements to go to
her aid, 374;
learns Mrs. Woodhull will address cong. com., goes with Mrs. Hooker
and others to hear her, 375;
addresses cong. com. and begs consideration, described by Wash.
Daily Patriot, 376;
speaks on petit. of Mrs. Dahlgren and others against suff.,
presents resolution declaring women enfranchised by Amend. XIV,
377;
if this fail, go back to Amend. XVI, placed on educational com.,
378;
lectures throughout western cities, 379;
fatigue of trip, different bed every night for three months, compli.
by pres. of Antioch College, 380;
The New Situation, argument on woman's right to vote under Amend.
XIV, 381;
life strongest testimony against cry of "free love," 383;
compliments by N. Y. Standard, Tribune, Democrat, let. to Revolution
on single standard for men and women, 384;
visits Mrs. Hooker, starts for Calif., reception by Chicago Suff.
Club, entertained at Denver by governor, comments of western
press, 387;
letter describing journey, "love makes home heaven," Wy. land of
free, guest of Salt Lake dignitaries, dedication new Liberal
Institute, 388;
problems of polygamy, woman must have independent bread, missionary
work but not for priests, 389;
polygamy in East as well as West, declines to accept "man-visions,"
390;
visits Mrs. Fair in jail, first speech in San Francisco, "men do not
protect women," hissed by audience, 391;
denounced by press, her distress, sister Mary upholds her, goes to
Yosemite, 392;
describes trip, riding horseback, Mirror Lake, etc., 393;
speaks at San Jose, goes to geysers, sits with driver, visits old
teacher, 394;
enjoys getting away from reform talk, enjoys getting back into it,
en route by boat to Ore., first let. from Portland, 395;
enjoys not being Mrs. Stn's shadow, wishes she had said more on Mrs.
Fair's case in San Francisco, first lect. in Portland, 396;
accounts of Oregonian and Herald, insults of Bulletin, 397;
praise by New Northwest, let. on Chinese, 398;
Mrs. Duniway's compliment, at Walla Walla, Salem, Olympia, ride over
corduroy road, sunrise at Seattle, 399;
again at Portland, offer of marriage, incident at Umatilla, a sip of
wine and its results, 400;
addresses Wash. legis., sacrificed by others, praise by Olympia
Standard, misrepresented by Despatch, 401;
no women present in British Columbia audiences, abusive "cards" in
Victoria press, 402;
husband objects to entertaining her, peculiar marriage conditions,
stage ride southward, deep mud, bed-room next to bar-room, at
Yreka, 403;
Mt. Shasta, at Chico, Marysville, etc., discusses Holland Social
Evil Bill in San Francisco, 404;
at Mayfield, banquet at Grand Hotel, San Francisco, Chronicle
report, lect. arranged by L. de F. Gordon, at Nevada City, 405;
Virginia City in rainy season, guest of Sen. Sargent's family on
trip eastward, graphic account of snowbound journey, 406;
carries tea to mothers on train, 407;
hangs jury at mock trial, prefers to check own baggage, stops at
aunt's in Chicago, reaches Wash. in time for con., "not at all
tired," 408;
addresses Senate com. showing record of Repubs. on wom. suff., 410;
presented with $50 at Rochester, how friends have helped all the
years, 412;
sees in Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly call for new party under
auspices of Natl. Suff. Assn., rushes to New York, previous letter
forbidding use of her name, objects to influence of "men spirits,"
413;
thwarts efforts of Woodhull faction to obtain control of New York
Suff. Con., censured by Mrs. Stn. and Mrs. Hooker, elected pres.
of assn., 414;
carries on meet., deserted by friends, "ship almost lost," at Natl.
Liberal Repub. Con. in Cincinnati, rec. no consideration, compares
cause of wom. suff. to that of A. S., 415;
at Natl. Repub. Conv. in Philadelphia, calls on Demo. to stand by
women, corresponds with H. B. Blackwell relative to women's working
for Repub. party, 416;
at Dem. Natl. Con. in Baltimore, interview with Jas. R. Doolittle,
417;
no hope for women here, urges women to work for Repub. party, 418;
her political position, cares only for woman's interests, joy over
action of Repubs., rallying cry to Mrs. Bloomer, 419;
"Ft. Sumter gun of our war fired," congratulat. note from Henry
Wilson, 420;
Natl. Com. invites her to Washington, gives her $500 and N. Y. Com.
gives $500 for campaign meet., 421;
holds rallies at Rochester and New York, insists that women shall
speak only on wom. suff. plank, objects to hounding of Greeley,
422;
advocates no party that does not stand for wom. suff., is registered
to vote, 423;
comments of press, tells Mrs. Stn. about it, 424;
Judge Selden advises that she has right to vote under Amend. XIV,
425;
assures inspectors she will bear expenses if they are arrested, is
herself arrested, refuses to take herself to court, the warrant,
426;
examination before U. S. officers, does not want trial to interfere
with lecture engagements, 427;
sad anniversary, second hearing, speaks in behalf of inspectors,
refuses to give bail, trib. from Rochester Express, her own
defense, 428;
at Wash. con., opening speech on methods of securing wom. suff.,
431;
res. declare her arrest a blow at liberty, speakers defend her,
appears with counsel before Judge Hall at Albany, bail increased,
432;
refuses bail, overruled by Judge Selden, indictment of grand jury,
delivers "Constitutional Argument" in western cities, 433;
becomes unconscious on platform at Ft. Wayne, rallies and lectures
at Marion, votes again, issues call for May Anniversary in New
York, tells of arrest, 434;
res. of endorsement, speaks in twenty-nine post office districts of
Monroe Co., Dist.-Atty. threatens to move case to another county,
tells him she will canvass that, speech a masterpiece, her
appearance, 435;
speaks in twenty-one places in Ontario Co. on "Is it a crime for a
U. S. citizen to vote?" Rochester Union and Advertiser calls her
a "corruptionist," newspaper comment, trial opens, 436;
refused permission to testify, 437;
believed she had a right to vote, 438;
counsel demands jury be polled, refused and new trial denied,
encounter of words with Judge Hunt, dramatic scene, 439;
fined $100, 440;
declares she never will pay it, believes Conkling influenced judge,
trial a farce, extended newspaper comment, 441;
advised by Albany Law Journal to emigrate, attends trial of
inspectors, another tilt with Judge Hunt, 443;
Mr. Van Voorhis' opinion of her case after twenty-four years, 444;
heavy debts, 445;
sympathy and financial help, has Selden's speech and report of trial
printed, lect. in Rochester for benefit of inspectors, omitted as
charter member of Assn. for Advancement of Women, 446;
death of sister Guelma, let. to mother, love of family, "shall we
meet the dead?" tries to vote but finds name struck from register,
447;
Anson Lapham returns her notes for $4,000, 448;
decides to appeal to Cong., 449;
takes appeal to Washington, asks remission of fine, case presented
by Sargent and Loughridge, Tremaine reports adversely, 450;
says president has pardoned her, Butler presents minority report in
favor, Sen. Edmunds presents insulting report, Sen. Carpenter
reports favorably, 451;
writes Pres. Grant and Gen. Butler in behalf of inspectors, urges
them not to pay fine, breakfasts with them in jail, presented with
purse at Dansville Sanitarium, Sargent and Butler telegraph
inspectors are pardoned, 452;
fine still stands against A., 453;
returns to work of securing amends. to Federal and State constit.,
invites Vice-Pres. Wilson speak on suff. platform, Gen. Butler in
favor of wom. suff., 454;
conversation with Pres. Grant, 455;
tour of Conn. with Mrs. Hooker, Sumner's death, helps women organize
temp. crusade, 456;
tells them they can not succeed without ballot, anecdote of Douglass,
writes to Leavenworth Times on this subject, tells Industrial Cong.
women are a millstone around their necks, criticises Dio Lewis, 457;
writes one hundred lets. for May meet., telegram saying she smoked on
platform, etc., 458;
slips home often to see mother, writes fiftieth anniversary let. to
brother D. R., honesty best policy in home and society, 459;
canvassed Mich., larger audiences than Sen. Chandler, small profits,
suff. first, money afterwards, 460;
efforts to compel disclosures in regard to Beecher-Tilton trouble,
461;
complimented on silence by Chicago Tribune, J. Hooker, N. Y. Sun,
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, refutes belief in "free love,"
462;
does not believe in second marriage or platonic friendship, love
for Mr. and Mrs. Tilton, 463;
in latter's praise for Beecher, A. saw only friendship, 464;
death of Gerrit Smith and Martha Wright, struggle to hold
Washington conv., 467;
advances funds and works without ceasing, Anson Lapham gives her
$1,000, lectures on Social Purity at Chicago, 468;
eulogized by St. Louis Democrat, condemned by country papers,
addresses Normal School at Carbondale on marrying for love, sixty
lectures in Iowa, trying experiences, 469;
telegram announcing brother shot, works all night on con. accounts,
journey to Kan., 470;
nine weeks by brother's bedside, skill and tenderness in sickroom,
takes niece Susie B. home with her, 471;
first hears F. E. Willard, refuses to compromise her by sitting on
platform, lectures in Rochester on Social Purity, misses
Washington con. for first time, lectures in Chicago, Bread and
Ballot, pays last dollar of Revolution debt, 472;
beautiful recognition of press, 473;
at New York Suff. Anniversary, chmn. Centennial Campn. Com., 474;
offers Hist. of Wom. Suff. as premium and fulfills pledges, opens
headquarters at Philadelphia and assumes financial
responsibility, 475;
besieges natl. polit. cons., "the golden hour," prepares Woman's
Declaration of Independence, 476;
obtains seat on platform as reporter, 477;
presents Declaration at Centennial Celebration, reads it on
Independence square, 478;
and in con., Luc. Mott's tea-pot, 479;
contibu. to Centennial Headqrs., Mrs. Mott sends tea, A. does not
work for financ. reward, begins Hist. Wom. Suff., 480;
dislike of the work, spks. at Mrs. Davis' funeral, sorrow at her
death and that of Anson Lapham, writes wom. suff. article for
encyclop., 481;
grief at absence from home, 482;
appeal for Amend. XVI, 483;
on floor of House of Repres., 485;
circular of Slayton Bureau, 486;
cancels engagements to be with sister Hannah, 487;
her death, takes orphan daughter home, gift of Helen Potter, Mrs.
Stn.'s let. on their friendship, misses May Annivers. first time,
488;
friendship for Mrs. Stn., love of her children for A., trib. of
Annie McDowell, offers services to Col., 489;
accepted, hard campn. experiences, 65 mile stage-ride, 490;
how husbands represent wives, spks. in saloons, no locks on doors,
Gov. Routt stands by her, 491;
insulting placards, receipts less than expenses, gifts of Mr. and
Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Knox Goodrich, at Denver meets Miss Hindman, Mrs.
Campbell, Abby S. Richardson, her memory of sister Hannah, 492;
at Dr. Avery's writing "Homes of Single Women," spks. at Boulder and
Denver, lect. tour of Neb., longs for sister Mary, fears mother
may die, man wants credit for holding children, 493;
sends $100 to Washington con., friends urge not to miss another
con., 494;
compli. by Phillips, by P. Couzins, arranges 30th Annivers. at
Rochester, 495;
comment of Roch. Demo. and Chronicle, remains with invalid mother,
declines Kan. invitations, writes Hayford regarding wom. suff.
in Wy., 496;
let. to L. Stone on attitude of women toward polit. parties, 497;
strong res. at Natl. Con., 499;
address to Pres. Hayes, 500;
lect. in New England, personal notices in scrap-books, change in
attitude of press, 502;
compli. by Ind. papers, 503;
attack of Richmond, Ky., and Grand Rapids papers, 504;
St. Paul lady acknowledges conversion, wom. needs ballot for temp.
legis., 505;
men fear wom. suff., trib. of Globe-Demo., 506;
response to floral offering, "used to stones," made
vice-pres.-at-large, friendship of Sargents, 507;
death of Garrison, has now a bank account, generosity, 508;
never fails to keep engagements, friends anxious she shd. save
money, desirous of woman's paper, efforts for one, helps edit
Ballot-Box, 509;
need of woman's work and opinion in daily papers, press work shd.
be feature of Natl. Assn., invited to Concord School of Philos.,
510;
new friends, at Washington con., compli. by Edmunds, 511;
Mrs. Spofford's hospitality, sees Luc. Mott last time, death of
mother, 512;
starts out again, 513;
carries point for series of cons., rallying cry for mass meet. in
Chicago, 515;
all send ideas to Mrs. Stn., watching legislators, on death of
sister, doubts of future life, 516;
apprecia. of sister Mary, presides at Indianapolis con., suff.
women married and number of children, 517;
ten minutes at Natl. Repub. Con., ad. Greenback-Labor Con., 518;
trib. of Cin'ti Commercial, 519;
calls on Gen. Garfield, 520;
official let. to president. candidates, 521;
let. to Garfield on Repub. party, 522;
blames women for rushing into campn., defends Garfield, criticises
Hancock, 523;
hopes for help from Repubs., continues work on History, Eliz.
Thomson gives $1,000, 524;
hates the work, calls on Whittier, death of Luc. Mott, persuades
Mrs. Stn. to vote, 525;
suggests Natl. Con. be omitted, owns Mrs. Stn. persuaded her, 526;
trib. to Luc. Mott, day at her home, her hosts in Philadelphia,
ridiculous account of Skye terrier, 527;
N. Y. Graphic on terrier, her disgust, 528;
love for Mrs. Nichols, wd. not spare parents for children's sake,
529;
did not carry out theory, pushing the history, bound to have Rose
and Nichol's pictures, 530;
valuable work done by Hist. Wom. Suff., 531;
starts for Mass. taking Mrs. Stn., 532;
tells Gov. Long women are weary, rec. gold medal from Phila. Suff.
Assn., entertained by Bird Club, Boston Globe pays trib., 534;
relief to roll burden on young shoulders, entertained by Pillsburys,
compli. let. from Mrs. Pillsbury, Mrs. Harbert, trib. of Mrs.
Wallace, 535;
death of Phebe Jones, no home in Albany, death of Garfield, no will,
his religion, 536;
Mrs. Stn.'s work for women kept her young, A. goes to Natl.
W. C. T. U. Con. in Washington, introduced by Miss Willard,
delegate declares she does not recognize God, sees wom. suff.
adopted by con., 537;
delegates announce A. did not influence con., souvenir from Childs,
writes Phillips on his seventieth birthday, his reply, 538;
attacks her work with courage, Phillips announces Eddy legacy, her
joy and gratitude, 539;
suit to break will, appeals from public for money, at Wash. con.,
540;
delight at appointment of cong. com. on rights of woman, presents
each member with Hist. Wom. Suff., con. at Phila., luncheon with
Hannah W. Smith, at N. Y. State Con., appeals to House Com. to
abolish "male" from Constit. of Dak., 541;
restive under history work, trib. of Elmira Free Press and Wash.
Republic, 542;
reads proof of Vol. II of Hist., influential friends in Cong., trib.
of Harriot Stanton, 543;
goes into Neb. campn., "not a white-haired woman on plat., not sure
of younger ones, 544;
gives time and $1,000, speaks in forty counties, debates with Edward
Rosewater, students make effigy, 545;
at St. Louis, ad. Lincoln Club in Rochester, confers with Cong. Com.
in Wash., decides to go abroad, birthday recep. in Phila., dislike
of "Aunt Susan," 546;
Times account of recep., ad. of Purvis, A. gives credit to other
workers, wd. have worked for man's freedom, Mrs. Sewall's
description of farewell honors, testimonial from Rochester
citizens and Natl. Assn., song dedicated, 547;
point lace, India shawl, trib. of Chicago Tribune, A. has "no peer,"
549;
farewell from Kan. City Journal, N. Y. Times' description of
departure, flag in stateroom, 550;
own description of tour abroad, on shipboard, stuck in mud,
recollect. of those left, 551;
rough sea, three falls, thoughts of nieces, talks suff. with
passengers, 552;
invited to Sargent's at Berlin, Mrs. Stn.'s welcome, at Liverpool,
Hist. of Wom. Suff. not in library, visit to Mrs. Rose, 554;
sees Irving and Terry, objects to lovemaking, at Contag. Dis. Act.
Meet., crossing channel, en route to Rome, no sleeper, bedrooms at
Milan, 555;
painting of Christ in railway station, Easter Sunday in Rome, at
Naples, Herculaneum, John Bright's address, 556;
invited to write for Italian Times, climbs Vesuvius, dishonest
tradesmen, Palermo, the dead Christ, Lake Avernus, streets of
Naples, interest in suff. work and friends at home, 557;
Vatican, no hope for freedom in old world, mother's knowledge of
history, too many languages, hears Ristori, at Milan,
disadvantages of compartment travel, 558;
at Zurich, at Munich, every girl shd. go abroad, at Sargents' in
Berlin, at Worms, Luther's statue at Cologne, lets. sent back from
post-office, 559;
up the Rhine, Heidelberg, Potsdam, emperors' tombs and palaces,
degradation of masses, at Strasburg, 560;
Alsace and Lorraine, in Paris, guest of Mme. de Barron, breakfast
in bed, calls on friends, Communists in Pere la Chaise, funeral
of Laboulaye, Le Soir wishes interview, 561;
calls on Hubertine Auclert and Leon Richer, disadvantage of not
speaking French, longs to be fighting battle for women in America,
Miss Foster's presentation at court, tomb of Napoleon, homesick,
begs sister Mary to come to Europe, 562;
shall we accept religious teaching of young, strong intellects or
old, weakened ones? 563;
Stopford Brooke on temp., talks to ladies under trees, visits
Albemarle and Somerville Clubs, prepares speeches, nights all
days, 564;
goes to Poor Law Guardian meet., spks. at Prince's Hall, Conway
delighted, 565;
St. James' Hall, 4th of July recep. at Mrs. Mellen's, 566;
at many dinners, recep., suff. meet., clubs, etc., calls from
factory women, velvet dress and India shawl, hears Canon
Wilberforce on temp., indignation, sees Bernhardt, 567;
bound to get all possible good, refuses to interfere in suff. work
in England, platonic friendship, goes to Edinburgh, at Mrs.
Nichol's, 568;
let. from Priscilla B. McLaren, celebrated places in Scotland,
outside of stage, home of Queen Mary, 569;
converts Prof. Blackie to wom. suff., he "seals it with a kiss,"
loses trunk, criticises English check system, drives among lakes,
visits Dr. Jex-Blake, 570;
at Ambleside, compares hills with those of America, home of H.
Martineau, 571;
class and caste ideas, urges discontent, in Belfast, men can not
vote on temp. question, meets old abolits., rides in third-class
car, at Cork, 472;
drunken men and women, filth, visits convent, incident at Killarney,
573;
woman with twins, sad spectacles, to Galway in rain, butter in
tobacco smoke, 574;
in Dublin, meets Davitt, Youghal, reads Children of Abbey, Belfast,
buys linen, Rugby, Kenilworth Castle, "Americans never see leg of
mutton," Stratford, Oxford, back in London, extracts from diary,
London fog, 575;
at Leeds, home of Brontë sisters, dreads trip home, 576;
hears John Bright forget to mention wom. suff. at Bristol, at Jacob
Bright's, let. from Mrs. Bright on little son's admiration for A.,
577;
urges sister to continue work if she never reach home, especial
interest in England on account of suff. movement, efforts to
secure co-operation between Eng. and Amer. women, 578;
recep. in Liverpool, com. formed to promote organizat., friends come
from London to say good-bye, safe landing in New York, 579;
welcome home, interview, did not see Queen, social idea more
important, trib. of N. Y. Evening Telegram, 581;
Cleveland Leader, woman of the future, Cin'ti Times-Star's
criticism, 582;
kindness to reporters, conferring with congressmen, agony of it,
583;
begs Kelley to take up suff. question, Repubs. in favor, 584;
writes to 112 congressmen, heads off injudicious women, 585;
on Douglass' marriage, everybody's burden on her shoulders, 586;
helpless women wear her out, always writes cheerful lets., death of
Phillips, 587;
goes to funeral, at Washington con., speech before Cong. Com. urging
Amend. XVI, 588;
goes to Conn., hastens back to watch congressmen, how she follows
them up, 591;
report of suff. con. fails, she and Mrs. Stn. get out report, wants
everybody to have credit, begins Vol. III of Hist. Wom. Suff.,
anxiety over Ore. election, sends Mrs. Duniway $100, restive under
historical work, 592;
criticises Gladstone, 593;
advises women to work for Repub. party, decides it was unwise,
criticises Miss Willard for favoring State Rights, Prohib. party
will repudiate wom. suff., prophecy fulfilled, 594;
at Wash. con., death of Mrs. Nichols, opposes res. denouncing dogmas,
answers St. Paul, 595;
rebukes Rev. Patton for sermon, regrets it, Mrs. Stn. approves, 596;
sends out Palmer's speech, goes to Mass., then to New Orleans Expo.,
guest of Mrs. Merrick, many addresses, trib. of Picayune, 597;
cordial recep., at Bishop's University, at St. Louis, message of J.
Ellen Foster, death of Grant, goes to Boston to rec. Eddy legacy,
fright on sleeper, 598;
appeals to share money, friends who repudiated come flocking back,
determined to finish Hist. Wom. Suff., agreement with Fowler and
Wells, 599;
buys out their rights, begins work again at Tenafly, assumes all
financ. responsibil., grief at not being a writer, good critic,
keeps Mrs. Stn. keyed up, applies lash to own back, 600;
meets Miss Eddy, they go to Mrs. Stn.'s, A. commends her, drudgery
on Hist., women complain of Mrs. Stn.'s blue pencil, between two
fires, 601;
refuses appeals for speeches, dislike of literary work, Mrs. Stn.'s
70th birthday, trib. from H. Stn. Blatch., 602;
comforts Julia and Rachel Foster at death of mother, 603;
starts to Wash. with light heart, taste in dress, holds members of
Cong. to their word, 605;
humorous note from Sen. Blair, A. directly connected with all cong.
action on wom. suff., 606;
at Wash. con., rec. $100 from Childs, looking after congressmen,
extracts from diary, Stanford, Dolph, 607;
Eustis, lets. from Mrs. Merrick, O. Brown, sends P. Couzins $100,
Vol. III of Hist. completed, visits in Kan., 608;
speaks at Salina for W. C. T. U., at Lake Bluff, Ill., camp meet.,
at Lake Geneva accompanied by Susie B., at Miss Willard's, at
Racine, at St. Louis, at Leav., spks. in cong. dists. of Kan., 609;
splendid audiences, mother brings baby for her to take in arms,
Baptist minister refuses church and then blesses meet., 610;
"spirit wd. not always soar," Municipal Suff. Bill signed on 67th
birthday, Chief-Justice Horton congratulates her, at Racine, 611;
canvasses Wis., eloquence in State House, lively let. to Mrs.
Spofford, get orthodox church for con., 612;
immense amount of money put into Hist. Wom. Suff., years of careful
collecting and saving of material, resumé of the work, 613;
world indebted to her for it, in over 1,000 libraries, commendatory
lets., 614;
from Mary L. Booth, 615;
D. W. Wilder, Sarah B. Cooper, hopes to publish Vol. IV, goes to
Neb., 616;
at Chicago, Lansing, Wash. con., yellow dog, 617;
denounces Sen. Ingalls, he asks interview, 621;
proposes truce, she declines, refuses to go to Conn., "feels
guilty," visits Maria Mitchell at Vassar, ad. Constit. Con. at
Albany, back to Wash. "year after year," lying reports from
Leavenworth, corres. with Miss Willard regarding suff. plank in
Prohib. plat., 622;
opposes Third Party, will not fight Repubs., dreads starting out,
State Cons. at Indpls. and Cleveland, "only sister Mary left,"
rebukes conserv. women, faith in Repub. party, 623;
seminary graduates' essays, at Cape May, at childhood home, at
Magnolia, advises O. Brown and A. Gray not to bring suit under
school suff. law, 624;
tries to arrange old lets., etc., Mrs. Stn. advises to burn, in
Wis., campn. in Kan., scores Ingalls, 625;
at Mrs. Ingalls' luncheon, senator "will not argue with woman," Ind.
campn. in Wash., Blair's little joke, 626;
on com. for union of two assns., 627;
meets L. Stone and A. S. Blackwell in Boston, receives plan of union
from Mrs. Stone, advised not to take pres. of united assns.,
approves and urges union, 628;
"the way to unite is to unite," impatient of "red tape," exacts and
makes no pledges, chmn. com. on conference, 629;
makes no pledges, chmn. com. on conference, 629;
carries meet. in favor of union, willing to decline pres., lets.
declare she must take it, 630;
sp. in favor of Mrs. Stn., Natl. suff. platform means individ.
freedom, 631;
elected vice-pres.-at-large, co-operates with Mrs. Sewall in
securing union, always ready to sink personal feeling, 632;
dream of internatl. suff. assn., results in Internatl. Council,
her part in arranging it, 633;
"can't allow apologetic invitat.," women not ordained shall preach,
wants affirmations, not negations, glad L. Stone and A. Blackwell
are to be on plat., 634;
Mrs. Stn. expresses friendship and is coming back to Amer. to do
best work, later writes can not cross ocean, 635;
A. cables, she comes, A. shuts her up to write sp., presides over
Council, 636;
at receptions, pres. delegates to Pres. Cleveland, compli. from
Baltimore Sun and N. Y. World, her way of presiding, 637;
sp. and let. of Miss Willard, 638;
speakers acknowledge pers. indebtedness to A., chmn. of meet. to
form permanent councils, made Vice-Pres. Natl. Council, 639;
ad. Senate Com., praise from Mrs. S. E. Sewall, Mr. Blackwell, no
desire for rest, at Boston festival, 640;
in Central Music Hall at Chicago, recep. by Woman's Club, at Natl.
Repub. Con., Chicago, urges women to go to these cons., calls on
Gen. Harrison, 641;
open letter to him on "free ballot" plank, makes four years' financ.
rep. of Natl. Assn., 642;
publishes without authority of assn., restive under "red tape,"
"Andrew Jackson responsibility," poorest women want report, vast
amount of work, at W. C. T. U., Centennial, Columbus O., not well
recd., no little graves in speech, 643;
begins again with Slayton Bureau, Rachel Foster's marriage, young
workers throw away all plans when they marry, A.'s disappoint.,
644;
forms friendship with Rev. A. H. Shaw, old friends pass away, new
ones come, 645;
in Wash. preparing for con., little speeches, Six O'clock Club, 647;
on "Rbt. Elsmere," spks. in Cin'ti, Commercial-Gazette compli.,
guest of Burnet House, "more calls than Mrs. Hayes," namesake
Susie B. drowned, 648;
hastens to Leav., spks. in Ark., Jefferson City, recep. in St.
Louis, not able to ad. Catholics, vicar-gen. favors, spks. in
Leav. municipal campn., 649;
brother defeated for mayor, grief over death of Susie B., hurt of
breaking branch from tree, urges no heartbreak when she dies,
spirits of loved ones will forgive, at Indpls. Classical School,
650;
at Adaline Thomson's, recep. at Park Hotel, New York, newspapers
criticise velvet dress and point lace, spks. in Rochester and
Warren, 651, and Akron, O., denies report that she had renounced
wom, suff., attends wedding of niece Helen Louise Mosher, rec.
let. from Maria Deraismes, 652;
at Mt. McGregor, Grant relics condemned, waiter at Ft. Wm. Henry,
trip with niece Maude, ad. Seidl Club, Coney Island, 653;
"Broadbrim" pays trib., visits Mrs. Stn. at Hempstead, M. Louise
Thomas, legacy of $500 from Mrs. Hamilton, Ft. Wayne, tells Mrs.
Avery not to work during husband's vacation, 654;
at Wichita con., objects to God in suff. plat., at Ind. Suff. Con.
uncertain how women wd. vote on liquor question, visit with H.
Hosmer, 655;
"Bethany Homes," at Duluth, goes to S. Dak., lets. of invitat., 656;
minister explains to Almighty evils of orig. packages, A. canvasses
State, ad. Farmers' Alliance, Prohibs. keep wom. suff. in
background, presents Hist. Wom. Suff. to every town, 657;
plans winter's work in S. Dak., nephew describes her lecture in Ann
Arbor, at Toronto, spks. every night for three months, 658;
"Andrew Jackson-like" action in engaging hall at Wash., immense work
for S. Dak., makes eight women life members of Natl. Assn., 659;
Justice Fuller fails to discover women, work for Columbian Expo.,
death of friends, Mrs. Mendenhall leaves her $1,000, Washington
Star compli., 660;
at Riggs House, objects to having tickets sold for birthday banquet,
663;
wd. use money for S. Dak., wants everybody to have compli. ticket
and be invited to speak, description of banquet, 664;
accts. Wash. Star and N. Y. Sun, toasts by Couzins, Shaw, 665;
Gage, Colby, Chant, Parker, Hinckley, Rbt. Purvis, Mrs. Lawrence,
Mrs. Blatch, J. A. Pickler, 666, Mrs. Stn., 667;
poems by H. Hosmer, A. W. Brotherton, E. B. Harbert, I. B. Hooker,
her response, cd. have accomplished little alone, obligations to
Mrs. Stn., to family and friends, lets., etc., from L. Stone, 668;
Whittier, F. E. Willard, Curtis, Garrison, Hoar, Reed, 669;
O. Brown, Logan, Gannett, Palmer, Nordhoff, Carpenter, Dow, 670;
Dawes, Mr. and Mrs. Powderly, Barry, Colby, Johns, Cummings, 671;
dinner to relatives at Riggs House, presents, trib. of Boston
Traveller, A.'s theory of life, distinguished contemporaries,
gift to P. Couzins, 672;
trib. of Roch. Dem. and Chronicle, allied with all good causes, 673;
urges friends to come to union of assns., keep platform broad, not
annex to W. C. T. U., struggle to secure Mrs. Stn.'s presence,
arranges hearing before Cong. Coms., 674;
presides at Natl.-Am. Con., pride in H. Stanton Blatch, pledges
money and work for S. Dak., made chmn. com., 675;
remains in Wash, looking after Cong. Coms., incorporating assn.,
paying bills, sees Wy. admitted, Mary Grew congratulates, L. Stone
authorizes to settle bills, Mrs. Livermore says A. wd. give a
million to suff., 676;
her winters in Wash. help wom. suff., entertained by McLean's,
attends Cobweb Club, Mrs. Hearst approves speech, wd. rather face
audience than reception, Ad. Johnson makes bust, dreads to start
out, 677;
orthodox not careful about feelings of liberals, pre-natal
influence, joy at birth of Mrs. Avery's daughter, mother's
gratitude, 678;
attends nephew's wedding, reaches S. Dak., lets. begging her to
come, homesick for Washington, but duty first, 679;
ability to raise money, 680;
sends $300 for prelim. work, offers Miss Shaw's services, com. does
not answer, makes out her routes, writes for plan of campn,
refuses to put natl. funds into State treasury, can be used only
for suff. work, 681;
ready to co-operate, cd. not wait longer, again refuses to turn over
money, people anxious for her to come, 682;
will antagonize neither W. C. T. U. nor license advocates, measures
all by wom. suff. yardstick, sustained in her position, Mrs.
Wallace will work only under her direction, 683;
com. send plan after she has started, cordially recd., Loucks and
Wardall pledge support of Farmers' Alliance, 684;
Farmers' Alliance and Knights of Labor form new party and ignore
wom. suff., A.'s appeals, Mrs. Wallace's appreciation, 685;
res. adopted few months before, candidate Loucks, does not mention
wom. suff., dead issue in campn., A.'s hard journey, 686;
Russians wear brewers' badges "against S. B. A.," no seat for her in
Repub. State Con., 687;
lets. full of hope, can bear hardships better than young women,
buoyed up by friends, 688;
not cast down though voted down, sympathy from J. Hooker, C. Barton
sends love, A. Shaw feels her inspiration, A. sleeps in sod
houses, 689;
Cong. shd. appropriate money to irrigate, instead of sending com.,
twenty miles between meet., stampeded by cyclones, Russian sheriff
wants to help her, rides in old stage, 690;
"humanity at low ebb," gets into poor hotel, "laughs like other
people," at Madison telegram announces admission of Wyo., makes
great speech, 691;
"better lose me than lose State," experience with crying child,
woman insulted on account of motherhood, 692;
drunken man illustrates men's govt., 693;
at Deadwood, 694;
contributes services, draws from own bank account, Mrs. Catt's trib.
to her unselfishness, endorsed by S. Dak. W. C. T. U., 695;
and Suff. Assn., aged many years by campn., 696;
accepts defeat philosophically, at Neb. and Kan. Suff. Cons., in
Leav. and Ft. Scott, urged by Rev. Mann to visit Omaha, 697;
at Mrs. Sewall's planning Wash, con., Wom. Council and World's Fair
work, at Rochester, recep. by P. E. Club, State Suff. Con., goes
to Wash., 698;
requests women to celebrate admission of Wy., 699;
anxious for suff. headqrs. in Wash., assists Wimodaughsis, loss of
friends, 700;
ill in Boston, taken to Garrisons', let. from L. Stone and
invitation to attend Mass. Suff. Annivers., 701;
invitations from Pillsbury and Mrs. White, hastens to Wash.,
vice-pres. Triennial of Wom. Council, reads Mrs. Stn.'s paper, 702;
Miss Willard introduces A. as one of the double stars, too happy to
speak, anxious all shd. be heard, presides at natl. suff. con.,
reads Mrs. Stn.'s paper, presents L. Stone, trib. of M. Bottome,
703;
unanimously elect. vice-pres.-at-large, determined let. from English
Suff. Soc. shall be read in Senate, succeeds through Sen. Blair,
breakfast by Sorosis, gives recep. for A. Besant, lets, from
ex-Sec. McCulloch, F. Balgarnie, 704;
dines with McCulloch, recep. by Mrs. Avery, leaves Riggs House
forever as home, at Warren and Painesville, O., at Hartford with
Mrs. Hooker, entertained by Whitings, describes log cabin, 705;
Mt. Holyoke, old homestead at Adams, arrives home, goes to
housekeeping, decides to direct natl. work from home, Mrs. Stn.
approves, 706;
P. E. Club and friends furnish house, Roch. Herald describes recep.,
cousin Charles Dickinson presents $300, 707;
describes visit to Mrs. Banker in Adirondacks, trip to John Brown's
cabin and grave, condemns his execution, Wom. Suff. Day at
Chautauqua, 708;
guest of Ignorance Club, ad. W. C. T. U., opposed to third parties,
suggests ministers be disfranchised, prayer by action, at
Chautauqua, "Arnold Winkelreid among wom." Miss Willard congrat.,
at Hooker golden wedding, "no speeches," 709;
at Lily Dale, beautiful camp, love of domestic life, hospitality,
710;
how friends were entertained in new home, at Warsaw, at West. N. Y.
Fair, woman's opinion will not be respected until counted at
ballot-box, generosity to young speakers, 711;
urges Mrs. Stn. to share her new home and put her own writings in
shape, A "has no writings," 712;
entertains Mrs. Stn. for month, has Ad. Johnson make bust,
entertains P. E. Club, demands Roch. Univers. be opened to women,
cartoon in Utica Herald. A. and Mrs. Stn. always stir up
controversy, 713;
visits E. W. Osborne, joins Emerson and Browning classes, forgets
invitations, compli. of Auburn Advertiser, spks. at Thanksgiving
service in Unitarian ch., Roch., 714;
not easy to remain home, Mrs. Johns urges to come to Kan., will get
no wounds there, Mrs. Avery joins in plea, A. agrees, 715;
keeps eye on Cong. Coms., encouraging lets. from Dolph, Reed,
Warren, 716;
stops for Mrs. Stn. on way to Wash. con., elected pres. natl. assn.,
717;
presid. over con., ad. Cong. Coms., first hearing before Demo. com.,
recep. in Wash., no home in city, does not linger, 718;
renewed appeals from Kan. friends, precious days at home, insists
she has no literary ability, refers all eds. to Mrs. Stn., Anthony
lot in cemetery, ad. N. Y. legis., 719;
opening World's Fair on Sunday, at Bradford, Penn., at Ketcham silver
wedding, at biennial Wom. Fed. Clubs, Chicago, popularity
with audience, 720;
business com. Wom. Council, sits for bust by L. Taft, amusing corres.
between A., Miss Willard and Taft, shd. be made by woman, 721;
her bust shall be in Senate and White House, it pleases Miss W., at
Salem, O., reads Emily Robinson's paper, approves South. Wom.
Council, 722;
each section shd. have con., at Minneapolis Natl. Repub. Con.,
writes plank, kept waiting till 9 o'clock, Foraker refuses to hear
her, Sen. Jones comes to relief, 723;
ad. com. as Abolitionist and loyal woman, com. assure they believe
in her cause but party can not carry load, 724;
at Demo. Natl. Con., Chicago, presents plank, bowed out, Miss
Willard describes her at cons., one day all women will call her
blessed, 725;
not necessary to go to Prohib. Con., at Kan. Repub. Con., wom. suff.
amend. endorsed, at Omaha Popu. Con., at working wom. meet., 726;
Popu. Con. refuse to allow women to ad. them, but declare for equal
rights, at Beatrice, Dr. Vincent invites to speak at Chautauqua,
declines, goes later to hear debate between A. Shaw and Dr.
Buckley, 727;
sits on plat., at Miss. Valley Conf. at Des Moines, ad. Neb. Norm.
Sch. in Peru, begins tour of Kan. on Repub. plat., speaking for
wom. suff., 728;
at N. Y. Con., Syracuse, shows how some women now compli. by press
were formerly abused by it, farewell telegram from F. Willard and
Lady Somerset, 729;
ministers at thanksgiving serv. forget to recog. women, "hard work
to keep her peace," ad. ladies' acad. at Buffalo, law giving wom.
school suff. a failure, appointed on Board of Managers, St. Indus.
Sch. by Gov. Flower, 730;
reappointed by Gov. Morton, Democrat and Chronicle describes her
pride, ad. people of Roch. on new charter, reasons why women shd.
have municipal suff., 731;
effect in other places, defeated by close vote, Mrs. Greenleaf
expresses indignation, 732;
ad. Monroe Co. teachers, lets. from New Zealand and other foreign
countries, face carved on theatre, Dowagiac, J. B. Thacher asks
father's record, 733;
N. Y. Art Assn. desires to make statue of A., represent. reform.,
Phil. Schuyler objects to placing stepmother by side of A., 734;
declares it outrage on her memory, Justice Peckham decides agnst.
Schuyler and pays trib. to character of A., 735;
overwhelmed with work, at Wash. con., reads trib. to dead, 737;
opposes holding natl. con, outside of Wash., defeated, 738;
re-elected pres., receps. by Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Waite, visits Mrs.
Stn., at Warsaw, birthday recep. at Rev. Gannett's, gift of
Thurlow Weed's granddaughter, writes Mrs. Avery, "just ten years
since we went gypsying," Blaine shd. have been Repub. leader, 739;
arranges meet. for Mrs. Sewall, tour of Mich., newspaper comment,
ad. House of Rep., vote on municipal suff. for women, lets. from
South, from Italy, from wage-earning women, wide range of
invitat., 740;
never had writing desk or stenog., can say with Gladstone, have
helped humanity, spks. for wom. World's Fair Com., Cinti., urges
women to organize, work or contribute money, gifts from pers.
friends "to keep pot boiling," 741;
opening of Columbian Expo., compli. Mrs. Palmer's ad., A.'s part in
World's Fair, 742;
determined women shd. participate, stands behind wom. coms.,
prepares petit. to Cong., Board of Lady Manag., 743;
her prompt action secured board, careful not to embarrass Mrs.
Palmer, latter's courtesy, 744;
in full sympathy, 745;
central fig. at Woman's Cong., audiences insist on her speaking,
post of honor assigned her, Mrs. Sewall's testimony, 746;
no woman so honored on acct. of personal work, tribs. of F. Willard,
Lady Somerset, 747;
suff. at Wom. Cong., lets. from Mr. Bonney, Mrs. Palmer, Mrs.
Henrotin, asked to spk. in many Congs., takes no part in dissens.
of women, seconds all Mrs. Palmer's efforts, 748;
spks. at noon-hour meet., can not furnish writ. report, spks. on
Relig. Press, managers uneasy, 749;
speech causes sensation, chmn. apologizes, audience leaves with A.,
welcomes Gov't Cong. on behalf Civ. Serv. Com., visits Mesdames
Coonley, Sewall, Gross, 750;
luncheon to Internat. Council, at Harvey, Bloomington, Ill., Topeka,
Rochester, Hempstead, reads Mrs. Stn.'s paper before Educat.
Cong., last sight of White City, gifts from Mrs. Gross, Mrs.
Coonley, farewell from Inter-Ocean, 751;
most honored of all women, ready to go to Col. if needed, 752;
rec. tele. announcing wom. suff. amend. carried in that State, N. Y.
con. in Brooklyn, ad. New Century Club, at Penn. con.,
Foremothers' dinner, Ethical Wom. Conf., New York, arranges two
State campns., scope of invitations, 753;
lets. from Tourgee, Helen Webster, advice to Kan. wom, as to work
for coming campn., prepares for N. Y. campn., 754;
Wash. cons, run like thread through life, at Ann Arbor, hospitality
of Mrs. Hall, 755;
25th annivers. at Toledo, in Baltimore, in Wash., 756;
acknowl. present of silk flag from wom. of Wyo. and Col., birthday
flowers, advantage of northern and southern women coming together
at natl. cons., no politics, no creed, 757;
Chicago Jour. comments on re-elect. as pres. "most remark., product
of century," at suff. hearing, a new member asks why wom. have not
gone to cong. coms. before, 758;
Repubs. wd. not nominate wom. dele. to N. Y. Consti. Con., 759;
her home devoted to campn. work, interview with Dana on number of
women who shd. petit. for ballot, 760;
maps outroutes and spks. in every county in N. Y., 761;
mass meet. in Rochester, A.'s happiness, at Syracuse, Buffalo,
remarkable tour of meet. in four States at 74, 762;
travels 100 mi. a day, spks. six nights a week, very chain-gang
influence Consti. Con., rec. bequest Eliza J. Clapp, applies all
to suff. work, ad. to N. Y. woman, 763;
opinion of remonstrants agnst. wom. suff., wd. make govt. an
aristocracy, 766;
ad. suff. com. N. Y. Constit. Con., opposed by Mr. Choate, 767;
on platform, 768;
gave serv. even travelling expenses, trib. of Mrs. Greenleaf,
outwitted by politicians, 772;
not crushed but plans another campn. when coming out of con.,
congrat. lets. from Isa. Charles Davis, H. B. Blackwell, guest of
Howlands in Catskills, calls on F. Willard and Lady Somerset at
Eagle's Nest, at Keuka College, Cassadaga Lake, suff. people fear
to thank Spiritualists, 773;
incorrect report in Buffalo Express, appeals to polit. State cons.,
five min. before resolu. com. at Repub. con., Saratoga. Miss
Willard's description, 774;
at Demo. con., women not wanted, continues work thro. hot weather,
Col. women invite to their first 4th of July, 775;
ad. Girl's Norm. Sch., Phila, starts to Kan., 776;
urged to come, sends Mrs. Johns a plan of campn., necessity for
party endorse., 777;
suspects Kan. politicians trying to influence women, objects to Mrs.
Johns being pres. Repub. club, 778;
scores Repubs. for proposing to leave wom. suff. plank out of plat.,
779;
sends official let. to Kan. Wom. Suff. Com. showing trickery of
politicians and uselessness of trying to secure wom. suff. without
party help, woman must not surrender, 781, 782;
received 300 lets. during Kan. campn., shows Repub. leaders wom.
suff. wd. give them new lease of life, 783;
women who yield help sell Kan. back to whiskey power, leaves N. Y.
for Kan., opens campn. at Kansas City, demands Repub. and Popu.
endorsement, both children of grand old party, 784;
opposit. of women, speaks at Leav., and Topeka, returns to N. Y., at
Kansas City, Mo., returns to Kan., Rep. Wom. Con. compelled to ask
State con. for plank, 785;
refused permis. to address Repub. State Con., pleads cause of wom.
before res. com., rejected, candidates admit alliance with whiskey
ring, will sink State on moral issues, 786;
ad. suff. mass meet. in Topeka, tries for endorse. by Popu. Con.,
787;
ad. that body, asked if she will support Popu. party, replies "Yes,"
wild scene in con., rest of sentence not heard, 788; 789;
shakes hands with delegates, soldier pins Popu. badge on her dress,
Prohib. con. telegraphs wom. suff. adopted, she sends greeting,
790;
storm of denunciation for endorsing Popu., prefers justice to women
to financial wisdom, explains posit, in Roch. Demo. and Chron.,
stands only on suff. plank, Popu. make honest protest, 791;
difference in treatment of women by Kan. Repubs. and Popu., 792;
comfort from Wm. Lloyd Garrison, A. believes in protecting home
products, all creeds and politics insignificant compared to
principle of equal rights, defends Popu. of Kan. and shows
treachery and corruption of Repubs., 793;
Repub. chmn. Cyrus Leland declines offer to speak, she asks Popu.
chmn. Breidenthal to announce she will speak only on suff. plank,
794;
Mrs. Diggs says Popu. want her to speak on suff. plank in Kan., 795;
makes tour of State, sees no hope for amend., donates year's work to
Kan., brother D. R. furnishes passes, 796;
suff. defeated, keen disappoint., hopes for Kan., 797;
confirmed in belief partial suff. hinders full suff., 798;
makes strong speech Neb. con., leaves for East, New Century Club
recep. in Philadelphia, 799;
ad. N. Y. con. at Ithaca, visits Cornell, speaks to girls Sage
College, close of two hard campns., full of hope and cheer,
introduced by F. Willard to W. C. T. U., gospel meet, in
Cleveland, "ordained of God," 800;
material outweigh moral interests, men in reforms handicapped by
disfranchis. women, might as well be dogs baying moon, Natl. Amer.
Bus. Com. entertained by Mrs. Southworth, her friendship and
generosity, goes to New York to prepare call with Mrs. Stn., 801;
and revise article for cycloped., guest of Mrs. Lapham, walk thro.
Central Park, lunch with Dr. Jacobi, opera with Lauterbachs, Uncut
Leaves Club, hears Robt. Collyer, visits Orange, Philadelphia,
Somerton, guest Foremother's Dinner, home for Christmas, 802;
Mrs. Minor leaves legacy $1,000, Mrs. Gross makes present $1.000,
velvet cloak, many invitations, requests for lectures, articles,
woman's edition favor, 803;
wd. have more interest in Y. M. C. A. if they stood for wom. suff.,
manager of printing house writes verse, let. Mary B. Willard,
invited by Revs. Jenkyn Lloyd Jones, H. W. Thomas to take part in
Lib. Relig. Cong., 804;
Dr. Thomas compares to Christ, urged to come as Geo. Washington went
into first Continent. Cong., relieved of part of work by younger
women, confidence in "body guard," 805;
urges old workers to consult with young ones, strictness in financ.
accts., alarm lest contribs. be omitted, entertains friends New
Year's, starts on south. tour taking Mrs. Catt, at the Clays in
Lexington, 806;
entertained at Memphis, spks. to col'd people in Tabernacle, at New
Orleans, Picayune's descrip. of lect., 807;
at Shreveport, floral offerings, trib. of Times, misses connect. for
Jackson, 808;
too "oozed-out" to speak, goes to Birmingham, trib. of News, at New
Decatur, Huntsville, compli. of Tribune, 809;
in Atlanta, 810;
presides over con., reads Mrs. Stn.'s paper, takes charge mass
meet., compli. of Constitution, Mrs. Stn.'s thanks for reading her
papers, 811;
ad. Atlanta Univers., etc., visits Howards in Columbus, spks. in
Aiken, guest Martha Schofield, in Columbia, Pine Tree State obj.
to Abolitionism, in Culpepper, in Wash., 812;
75th birthday banquet, Mrs. Avery presents annuity from friends,
A.'s surprise, freed from financ. anxiety, at Wom. Council, 813;
represents Govt. Reform, recep. by Mrs. McLean, spks. at funeral F.
Douglass, at Travel Club, lect. Lincoln, Va., death Adaline
Thomson, gave A. $1,000, sends thanks to contribs. to annuity
fund, 814;
at Drexel Instit., visits Mrs. Stn., goes to Police Court in
Rochester to have boys punished same as girls, at lect. on
lynching, tells audience col'd people treated no better in north
than south, takes Miss Wells home with her, 815;
discharges her stenog. because she refuses to write Miss Wells'
lets., impossible to refuse calls for help in suff. work, resigns
from Board St. Indus. Sch., her work for School, 816;
gratitude of girls, arrang. for long journey, 817;
invitations follow World's Fair, declines one but later accepts from
Calif. Wom. Cong., delight of exec, board, 819;
A. asks permis. to bring Anna Shaw, Mrs. Cooper sends money for
both, writes A. many loving lets., western towns want lect.,
starts for Calif., 820;
at Chicago, meets H. Hosmer, many interviews, at St. Louis, Missis.
Valley Cong., ovation, "75 roses," banquet, at Denver, misses
recep. com., at Boulder, 821;
recep. by Wom. Club, tribute Rocky Mountain News, Col. women owe
suffrage to her, trib. Times, all women under obligat. to her, 822;
knows not what to say to enfranchised women, lect. in Broadway
Theatre, ovation, compliments men, at Sen. Carey's, Cheyenne, 823;
distinguished aud. in Mrs. Stanford's private car, advises her to
watch case before Sup. Court, breakfast at Templeton, Salt Lake,
824;
guest of honor at Inter-Mountain Suff. Con., trib. Gov. West,
receps., banquet at Ogden, State Univers., Reno, 825;
spks. in opera house, Wom. Club recep., in lovely Calif., friends at
Oakland ferry, entertained by Rev. McLean, 826;
with Miss Shaw in pulpit, happiness at cordial recep., beautiful
scene at Wom. Cong., great ovation, 827;
spks. every day of Cong., "princess blood royal," 828;
immense audiences, guest of Mrs. Sargent, helps women organize suff.
campn., 829;
ad. Congregat. ministers' meet., spks. at Unit. Club dinner, teach.
institute, societies, Pres. Jordan invites to Stanford Univers.,
Mrs. Stanford sends passes and invites graduates' recep., 830;
social courtesies, Ebell Club, Alameda Co. Wom. Cong., in Yosemite,
big tree named for her, 831;
lect. in San Jose, guest Mrs. Knox Goodrich, ovation in Los Angeles,
at Riverside, Pasadena, Pomona, Whittiers, San Diego, 832;
recep. Hotel Florence, floral offerings, picnic at Olivewood, day at
Santa Monica, recep. Mrs. Severance, suff. meet., 833;
attitude of press, entertained by Emma Shafter Howard, spks. in
Oakland, in San Fr. Zion's Church to col'd people, at ministers'
meet., 834;
tells why they shd. favor wom, suff., at Calif. Suff. Assn., invited
to take part in 4th of July celebra., 835;
rides in procession, makes short speech, 836;
goes with Miss Shaw to Oakland, can not find audience, beautiful
farewell, 200 pages newspaper notices, 837;
apprecia. lets. from Calif. women, 838;
suff. res. at Topeka, throws eds. into hysterics, Chicago Herald
compares to Pope, 839;
reaches home daybreak, at Lakeside has nervous prostrat., 840;
papers prepare obit., friends and press show sympathy, trib. Wichita
Eagle, lets. from May, 841;
Pillsbury, Stanton, Cooper, 842;
no idea of giving up work, employs stenog., lect. bureau offer $100
a night, determ. to stay home, secret of vitality, 843;
suff. will lessen unfortunate mothers, men can not be just to each
other while unjust to women, money enough if justly distributed,
on "bloomers," men troubled about woman's dress, had to dress to
escape being old maids, 844;
women must cease to be subject class, recovers, goes to Ashtabula
con., papers put obit. notices away, at Mrs. Stn.'s 80th birthday,
845;
urged to be chmn. com. arrange., Mrs. Blake insists, A. shows
greater honor to have Wom. Council undertake it, 846;
Mrs. Sewall and Mrs. Avery obj., she shows suff. elephant must not
frighten outsiders, writes hundreds of lets. to assist Mrs.
Dickinson, criticises Mrs. Stn.'s speech on church, 847;
pays trib. to pioneers, reads lets. and teleg., N. Y. Sun compli.,
Tilton's testimonial, 848;
recep. by Mrs. Henry Villard, Mrs. Stn.'s birthday celebrated in
Anthony home, gives all workers full meed, trib. to Mrs. Dietrick,
mother's birthday, 849;
And. D. White presents wife, to Mrs. Sewall on death of husband,
trib. to Mrs. Dickinson, Mrs. Stanford, 850;
Wash, con., Utah admitted with wom. suff., 851;
Wom.'s Bible condemned, 852;
her indignat., speech for freedom of thought, 853;
vote for relig. liberty, 854;
contemplates resigning pres., agony of soul, no worse to criticise
Bible than statute laws, 855;
penitent lets. from Mrs. Avery and Mrs. Upton, position in regard to
Bible, regrets Mrs. Stn. shd. give time to commentary, talking
down to people, 856;
women wd. be no more superstit. than men if had broad life, polit.
rights lessen relig. bigotry, refuses to put prohib. or Bible
literature into Calif. campn., claims freedom of belief for all,
857;
at Mrs Grant's 70th birthday, "Nelly Bly" interview in N. Y. World,
Cuba, 858;
immortality, eternity, prayer, marriage, flowers, music, art,
favorite motto, bicycling, 859;
new woman needs common sense, cd. not give up freedom for marriage,
76th birthday celebrat. by Roch. P. E. Club, ad. col'd people at
Bath, arrang. to write biog., 860;
appeals for help in Calif. campn., lets. from Mrs. Sargent, Mrs.
Cooper, accepts, Harriet Cooper sends money, 861;
Rev. and Mrs. Gannett raise money to send her sec. with her, starts
for Calif., stops Ann Arbor, Chicago, statuette by Bessie Potter,
at Wom. Club, San Diego, Friday Morning Club, Los Angeles, praise
from Alice Moore McComas, at San Francisco, directs campn. from
Sargent residence, 862;
on St. Central Com., 863;
makes lists of all towns to have cons., in Sargent home, 864;
visits eds. of all San Francisco dailies with Mrs. Harper, cordial
recep., 866;
Examiner offers column on ed. page, A. fills it during campn.,
pleads with ed. Hearst to bring paper out for wom. suff., 867;
ed. Monitor will not see her, 868;
refuses to remain for campn. unless polit. part, endorse suff.
amend., at Repub. State Con., 869;
interviews in Examiner, before res. com., 870;
trib. from Mrs. Duniway, Mrs. McCann, prepares for Popu. con., 871;
enthusiastic recep. at con., at Prohib. con., at Demo. con., 872;
ad. res. com. for two minutes, 873;
rebukes con. for action on wom. suff. plank, at ratificat. meet. in
San Fr., 874, 875;
immense amt. of labor during campn., Cent. Club breakfast, social
courtesies, Ebell Club, Oakland, Fabiola Fete, 876;
other invitat., up Mt. Tamalpais, hardships of campn., no complaint,
at Wom. Cong., Portland, social events in Seattle, 877;
ad. Repub., Popu., and Demo. ratificat. meet. in San Fr.,
homesickness, longs to help Idaho, 878;
objects to "still hunt," people can not understand her on all
platforms, needs Mrs. Stn.'s help, sends res. to Natl. Repub.
Con., 879;
indignat. and contempt at plank adopted, holds her peace, 880;
triumphal tour of South. Calif., spks. from car plat., urges Miss
Willard not to hold W. C. T. U. con. in Calif., 881;
let. to Mrs. Peet on subject, shd. offend no voters, honors rec.
from W. C. T. U., 882;
no considera. from Repub. Cent. Com. "too many bonnets," 883;
at "Tom Reed" rally, 885;
photo. given for pledges, 889;
scenes witnessed in elect. booths, sympathy for Calif. wom., 891;
donates own services and those of sec., trib. to Calif. wom., their
remembrances, meets with State Assn., 892;
ovation, leaves for East, 893;
at Reno, Kansas City, perfect physical condit., banq. by Roch. P. E.
Club, N. Y. State Con., Natl. Wom. Council, Boston, visits in that
locality, 895;
Mrs. Chace's 90th birthday, ad. R. I. Suff. Con., in Eddy homestead
tells Mrs. Stn. of Calif. campn., funeral Maria Porter, securing
reminis. for biog., hon. member Chi. Wom. Club, Maj. Pond's
compli., offers $100 for lecture, 896;
never denies charges, urges women not to scramble for office, Book
of Prov. not much help in securing justice to women, constancy of
purpose, 897;
with ballot women wd. be vital force, women can not help polit.
parties, objects to calling God author of civil gov., cd. better
do God's work if had money, 898;
men trying to lift themselves by bootstraps, no time to speculate on
future life, opposed to educat. and property suff., think of dead
as when at best in life, 899;
trib. of Dr. H. W. Thomas, at Geneva, gifts from Mrs. Orr, Mrs.
Gross, Mrs. Hussey, greet. from Mrs. Henrotin, John W.
Hutchinson, 900;
Mrs. Dickinson, F. Willard invites to visit at Castile, ad. patients
Green sanitar., at lunch, ex. com. St. Fed. Clubs, arranges lect.
for Mrs. Stetson, starts for natl. con, at Des Moines, thinks
longingly of Wash., 901;
sleeps on $6,000 bed, compli. Chi. Wom. Club, at Callanan home,
pres. at natl. suff. con., victories in Utah and Idaho, 902;
reporter dresses her in royal purple and diamonds, advantage of
holding natl. cons. in Wash., Mrs. Sewall gives recep. to legis.
in her honor, 903;
ad. the guests, lunch, with Mrs. Wallace and G. W. Julian, recep. by
Mr. and Mrs. Dean, ad. Ind. Legislature, arrives home, friendship
for reporters, at Douglass birthday service, 904;
women's clubs of Rochester arrange 77th birthday recep. for A.,
comment of papers, 905;
trib. Post Express, Herald descrip. of recep., 906;
at the recep., day in Anthony home, greetings from individs. and
assns., trib. Mrs. Catt, at meet. Cuban League, 907;
hopes Cubans will remember their women, eulogy at funeral of Mrs.
Humphrey, urged not to delay biog., 908;
while in Calif. asks Mrs. Harper to write it, thinks will be little
to say, immense amt. of material, 909;
all sorted and arranged, 910;
in attic workrooms, 911;
difficult to remain home, rec. callers Monday evenings, dislikes
role of society or literary woman, 913;
chafes under old records, "living with the dead," lect. at Auburn
for Tuskegee Instit., ad. legis. com. at Albany, resolves never to
do it again, wants to celebrate sister's 70th birthday, finds
friends arranging for it, 914;
interview in Rochester Herald, trib. to life of sister Mary,
personal obligations, 915;
happiness over party, Sargent golden wedding, 916;
visits Mrs. Osborne, evenings of reminis. with Mrs. Stn., reading of
biog., lets. from all parts of world, greatest compli., medallion
and souvenir spoon, 917;
women can not rise in revolt agnst. fathers and sons, Mrs. Besant
and Theosophy, busy with work on this planet, 918;
thanks Sup. Judges of Idaho for decision on wom. suff., advises Ky.
Daught. of Rev. to commemorate deeds of women, hardships of
pioneer women, shd. demand rights Rev. fathers fought for,
honorary member Roch. D. A. R., 919;
woman's dependence on man does not win his respect, every dollar
helps wom. suff., women's sympathy easily aroused, do not strike
at root of public evils, urges women to work only for full suff.,
begin with voting precincts, 920;
opinion on poetry, God does not "punish" people, good men form third
parties and play into hands of enemy, 921;
week days sacred as Sunday, women shd. not ask for educat. and
property suff., objects to idea of pers. God, 922;
he is not respons. for human ills, can not influence voters by
prayer, telegram to nephew on wedding day, let. to F. Willard on
yellow journalism and prize fight, 923;
objects to threatening voters with woman's ballot, Miss Willard
sends conciliatory reply, urges her to come to World's and Natl.
W. C. T. U. Cons., no end of invitations, 924;
requests for opinions, amusing questions from county offic., A.'s
answer, hon. mem. Cuban League, Roch. Hist. Soc., Ladies of
Maccabees, etc., never recd. one dollar salary from Natl. Suff.
Assn., 925;
nor have any of offic., visits Thousand Islands, beautiful scenes,
starts for Adams, Mass., 926;
at Geneva, at O. St. Con., Alliance, ad. students Mt. Union Coll.,
S. J. May's Centennial, at Nashville Expo., spks. in Wom. Bldg.,
hearty greeting, 927;
recep. by pres. of Expo., compli. of American, entertained by pres.
Board of Lady Managers, ad. Lib. Cong. Relig., Fiske Univers.,
N. Y. Suff. Con., Geneva, criticises women for going into partisan
politics, defends "rings," 928;
"adroit statesman lost to world," gold. wed. Dr. and Mrs. E. M.
Moore, spks. Minneap., Madison, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Toledo,
ad. students Minn. Univers., contrast bet. first canvass of N. Y.
and present ovations, 929;
daily life and habits, 931;
great amt. of exercise, not dwelling on ills, work, dress, 932;
toilet, religion, medical practice, few visits, harmonious life with
sister, home in Rochester, 933;
A. enjoys kitchen, mother's wed. furniture, old pictures, 934;
bedroom, study, daily mail, 935;
work as pres. Natl. Suff. Assn., requests from men, women and
children, schools, clubs, libraries, authors, eds., 936;
poets, "cranks," adventurers, 937;
let. from child, slave to correspond., "if young women fail,
octogenarian will work harder," 938;
trib. to obscure women, devoting closing yrs. to permanent fund for
wom. suff. and Press Bureau, Hist. Soc. invites to Berkshire, 939;
official and pressing invit., she invites natl. suff. com. and other
friends, arrang. for family reunion, "Old Hive" swarms, 940;
pres. suff. com. meet. in rooms where played as child, 941;
lunch in Plunkett's Pavilion, Adams, pres. Hist, meet., pride and
happiness, trib. of Mrs. Catt, 942;
Mrs. Avery, Mrs. Upton, compared to Galileo, wd. turn Roman palaces
into orphan asylums, future pilgrimages to birth-place, 943;
trib. Mrs. Sewall, Mrs. Colby, love of justice, of home, 944;
trib. of Anna Shaw, tenderness, charity, love, great, ideal life,
945;
pres. Anthony reunion, New Eng. dinner, silent blessing, 946;
trip to Mt. Greylock, A. gayest of party, takes friends to all loved
spots, Quaker meet. house, 947;
own old home, room where born, worthy descendant noble race, task for
half-century to secure equal rights for women, 948;
contrast in condit. at begin. and end, her part, receives med. of
apprecia., face carved in capitol at Albany, 949;
trib. of women, Mrs. Sewall's analysis, "never forgets," F.
Willard's testimonial, 950;
Mrs. Stn. describes grand life, dedicates Reminiscences to A., 951;
"steadfast friend," A. not martyr, enjoyed work, retained
self-respect, always in good company, gov. by philos. rather than
emotion, compared to Napoleon, Gladstone, Lincoln, 952;
Garrison, own individuality, life's serene evening, 953;
ad. to Lincoln, "free women as you have slaves," 957;
ad. on Reconstruct. in 1865, Johnson's proclam. to Miss., ballot in
hand of every loyal citizen, 960;
ad. to Cong., eloquent demand for woman's enfranchis., 968;
newspaper trib. on 50th birthday, 972;
lets. and gifts, 974;
constitut. argu. deliv. in Monroe and Ontario counties, previous to
trial for voting, 1873, proving from Fed. and State constits.,
statutes and eminent men, right of women to franchise, 977;
newspaper comment on trial, 993;
scurrilous reports, famous silk dress, will make charming biog., 995;
Bread and Ballot speech deliv. 1870-1880, 996;
lect. on Social Purity deliv. in Chicago, 1875, 1004;
open let. to Benj. Harrison asking to interpret "free ballot" plank
in Repub. plat, as including women, 1013;
Demand for Party Recognition, deliv. in Kan., 1894, 1015.
ANTHONY, SUSIE B., 471, 552;
goes to Roch. with A., 609;
drowned, 648.
ANTHONY, WILLIAM, 947.
ARCHER, STEPHEN, A. hears preach, 39.
ARKELL, JAMES, writes play, 51.
ARKELL, WILLIAM J., 51.
ARNOLD, EDWIN, 554.
ARTHUR, CHESTER A., grants interview to A., 538;
rec. suff. delegates, 588.
ASHLEY, REV. MR., preaches agnst. equality for women, 79.
ATKINSON, MRS. WM. Y., reception to suff. con., 810.
AUCLERT, HUBERTINE, A. calls on, 562.
AVERY, DR. ALIDA C., accepts A.'s services for Colorado, 489;
hospitality, 493, 548;
work for S. Dak., 685.
AVERY, CYRUS MILLER, marries Rachel Foster, 644;
present to A., 707.
AVERY, ROSE FOSTER, 678.
AVERY, RACHEL FOSTER, 511;
arrang. lect. tour for A., 512; 527;
cor. sec. Natl. Assn., arrang. N. E. cons., 535; 538; 541;
manages Neb. campn., 545;
to accompany A. abroad, adopts name "Aunt Susan," 546;
starts for Europe with A., 550;
on shipboard, 552; 553; 555; 556; 558;
presented at court, 562; 564; 565; 566;
at Somerville club, 567;
death of mother, 603;
in Kansas, 625;
meets Stone in Boston, rec. plan of union of two soc. and list of
com., sec. of com., 628;
rec. list of Am. com., let. from A. urging union, 629;
cor. sec. unit, assns., 632;
arr. internat. council, 633;
marries, public work, 644;
continues after marriage, 645; 664;
arranges birthday banq. for A., 664; 676;
A. on pre-natal influ., birth of daught., gratitude to A., 678;
sends A. sister's furniture, 701;
gives recep. for A., 705; 707;
urges A. to go to Kan., 715;
in Kan. campn., gives $1,000, 719; 721;
at Chautauqua, 727;
gift to A., 741;
at opening World's Fair, 742;
sec. com. org. Wom. Cong., magnitude of work, respons. for success,
A.'s pride, 745; 753; 802;
secures annuity for A., 813;
wants A. to manage Stn. birthday, 847;
favors res. against Wom. Bible, 854;
asks A.'s forgiveness, 856; 895;
at Des Moines con., 902;
present to Mary Anthony, 916;
at Anthony homestead, 940;
at Berkshire Hist. meet., 943.
AVERY, SUSAN LOOK, entertains A., 654; 711;
A. at bien. Fed. of Clubs, 720.
BAKER, CHARLES S., M.C., favors admis. of Wy., 698; 713.
BAKER, ELLEN S., registers and votes, 424.
BAKER, MRS. GEORGE L., 832.
BAKER, GULA, 552.
BAKER, DR. HENRY A., Yosemite with A., 831.
BAKER, MRS. P. C., 832.
BALDWIN, ISABEL A., meets A. at ferry, 826;
pres. Alameda Co. suff. soc., 865.
BALGARNIE, FLORENCE, at Int'l. Council, let. 704;
in Kan. campn., 719.
BALLARD, ADELAIDE, 902.
BANGS, JUDGE, for wom. suff. in S. Dak., 687.
BANKER, HENRIETTA M., 708.
BANNISTER COUNTY SUPT., 288.
BARKER, RACHEL, A. hears preach., 40.
BARKER, MRS. H. M., nat'l ass'n funds keep up work in S. Dak., 680.
BARKER, REV. M., suff. amend. will go by default unless nat'l ass'n
helps, 680; 681.
BARNARD, HELEN, edits campn. paper, 509.
BARRON, MME. DE, entertains A., 561.
BARROWS, ISABEL, 793.
BARRY, LEONORA M., on A.'s birthday, 671;
in Col. campn., 752.
BARSTOW, HON. A. C., 87.
BARTLETT, REV. CAROLINE J., 702.
BARTOL, EMMA J., 548.
BARTON, CLARA, unrecognized by govt., 239; 276;
first appears at wom. suff. meet., 313; 314; 496;
at A.'s birthday banq., 665;
to A. in S. Dak., will help, 689.
BASCOM, EMMA C., 548; 612.
BASCOM, PRES., friendship for A., 612.
BATES, U. S., Atty.-Gen. Edw., citizen of U. S. means memb. of nation,
984;
infamous decis., 985.
BATES, FANNIE, 940.
BAYNE, JULIA TAFT, poem on Greylock, 13.
BEACH, REV. AND MRS. J. C., 288.
BEALE, GENERAL, 677.
BEATIE, MRS. ---- ----, 824.
BECK, JAMES B., SENATOR, opp. com. on rights of wom., 541.
BECKER, LYDIA E., 360;
A. meets in Eng., 553.
BECKWITH, P. D., for equal. of wom., 733.
BEECHER, CATHARINE, on divorce, 332;
agnst. wom. suff., 372;
points out Mrs. Woodhull's errors, 378;
wishes she had not, 379.
BEECHER, H. W., praise of Berkshire, 2;
W. R. sp. at Cooper Insti., 192;
assists Wom. Loyal League, 234;
agrees to lect. for wom. suff. movement, 252; 259;
on hay fever, 263;
describes manifold duties, can not work in organizations, 274;
sp. on pressing woman's claims at once, 276; 279;
endorses wom. suff., 284; 290; 308;
pres. Am. Suff. Assn., 328;
how to make audience laugh and cry, 334; 346; 347;
marriage of Richardson and Mrs. McFarland, 351; 373; 422;
magnetism, like elder brother to Tilton, devotion to Mrs. Tilton,
464;
birthday gift to A., 976.
BEECHER, REV. THOMAS K., theology, 125;
grants church for suff. meet., 178;
anecdote of, 373.
BELFORD, JAMES B., M. C., for wom. suff., 585.
BELL, JOHN C., M. C., ad. suff. con., 756.
BENNETT, JAMES GORDON, opp. wom. suff., 78.
BENNETT, SALLIE CLAY, 511; 607.
BEMIS, JULIA BROWN, 368.
BERNHARDT, SARAH., A. hears, 567; 733.
BERRY, MR. AND MRS. W. W., recep. to Woman's Council, 928.
BESANT, ANNIE, 577;
A. entertains, 704;
A. can not accept her ideas, 918.
BIDWELL, GEN. J. C., 404.
BIDWELL, ANNIE K., tries to secure suff. amend. from Calif. legis.,
863.
BIGELOW, JOHN, for wom. suff., 767.
BIGGS, CAROLINE ASHURST, 554.
BINGHAM, ANSON, in favor of wom. rights, 186.
BINGHAM, JOHN A., agnst. wom. suff., 382; 985; 986.
BIRD, FRANCIS W., speaks at suff. con., 533.
BISBEE, M. C., 590.
BLACKIE, PROF. JOHN STUART, converted by A. to wom. suff.; kisses her
hand, 570.
BLACKWELL, ALICE STONE, arrang. union of two assns., 628;
sends list of com., 629;
influence in favor of union, 630;
rec. sec. unit. assns., 632;
on S. Dak. com. 675; 676;
let. from A. on S. Dak. 683;
favors res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 854;
at Anthony homestead, 940.
BLACKWELL, REV. ANTOINETTE BROWN, Vice Pres. Wom. Temp. Con., 67;
demands equal rights, 74;
Bible enjoins no subjection of woman, 76;
urges A. to speak, 82; 83; 90; 93; 94;
refused right to speak at World's Temp. Con., 101;
marries, 128; 131;
jokes A. about bachelor, 142;
preaches in Rochester, 167;
biog. in cycloped., 170;
wd. use Hovey fund for church work, 171;
con. at Niagara, 175;
anecdote of A.'s trying to order breakfast, 176;
demands of married life, 178;
teasing let. on A.'s obtuseness, disappoint. when preaching at
Peterboro, 179;
opp. divorce res., 193;
patriotic ad. Wom. Loyal League, 229; 253;
woman's paper for Mrs. Stn.'s benefit, 299;
A. writes regard. wom. preachers and sermons, 634; 636.
BLACKWELL, ELLEN, 131; 132.
BLACKWELL, DR. ELIZ., originates Sanitary Commission, 239.
BLACKWELL, HENRY B., marries Lucy Stone, 130;
rec. sec. Equal Rights Assn., 260;
accompanies wife to Kan., criticises Greeley and Repubs., 275;
for defeat of wom. suff. in Kan., 304;
rec. sec. Am. Suff. Assn., 328;
offers res. that Am. Equal Rights Assn. be dissolved, 348;
votes for it, 349;
bus. man. Wom. Journal, 361;
writes A. to stand by Repub. party, 416;
cor. sec. Am. W. S. A., 627;
sec. com. on union, 629; 640; 675;
contrib. serv. to S. Dak., 695;
spks. at Chautauqua, 727;
congrat. A. on N. Y. campn., 773;
must have endors. of Repubs. and Popu. in Kan., 780;
Mrs. Johns must stand by her guns, 781;
urges A. to be Repub. or non-partis., 793;
favors res. against Wom. Bible, 854.
BLAINE, JAS. G., tyranny to count citizens in represent. while denying
ballot, 499;
not friend of wom. suff., 594;
death, Repub. leader, 739.
BLAIR, SEN. HENRY W., 500;
rep. in favor wom. suff., 543;
same, 590; 591;
humorous note to A., 606; 607;
secures vote in senate on 16th Amend, 617;
spks. for it, 620;
A. must "fight for life," 626;
ad. suff. con., 647;
at A.'s birthday banq., 664; 665;
by "pious fraud" reads let. from Eng. Suff. Soc., 704;
rep. in favor wom. suff., 718.
BLAKE, LILLIE DEVEREUX, 377;
defends A. in voting, 432; 446;
presents Wom. Dec. of Ind., 478;
on trial by jury, 479; 511;
in Neb. campn., 545;
interviews Gen. Hancock, 520; 628; 629;
in N. Y. campn., 761;
ad. N. Y. Consti. Con., 768;
at N. Y. Demo. Con., 775;
pres. Foremothers' dinner, 802;
A. must manage Stn. birthday, 846;
opp. res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 854.
BLATCH, ALICE, 553.
BLATCH, HARRIOT STANTON, trib. to A., 543;
A. visits, 554; 564;
apprec. let. to A. and Mrs. Stn., 602;
at A.'s birthday banq., 666;
ad. Nat'l Con., 675;
at Geneva, N. Y., 900.
BLINN, NELLIE HOLBROOK, pres. Calif. suff. assn., tries to sec. suff.
amend. from legis., on St. Suff. Com., 863;
at Rep. St. Con., 869.
BLOOMER, AMELIA, Sec. Wom. Temp. Con., 67;
dele. Syr. Tem. Con., 69; 83; 93;
gave name to Bloomer costume, let. defending it, 114; 380;
death, 803.
BLOSS, WM. C., 165.
BLUE, HON. RICHARD W., introduces municipal wom. suff. bill in Kan.
Senate, 611; 647.
BLUNT, GEN., 289.
"BLY, NELLIE," interview with A., 858.
BOGELOT, ISABELLE, ad. Sen. Com., 640.
BOND, MRS. CHARLES W., Recep. To Wom. Council, 895.
BOND, ELIZ. POWELL, 152.
BONNEY, C. C., pres. Wom. Cong. Aux., appoints coms., 745;
places A. on advis. com. of various congs., 748;
requests her to spk. for Civil Serv. Com., at Govt. Cong., 750.
BOOTH, MARY L., first pub. appearance, 131;
shows injustice to wom. teachers, 143;
longs to help suff., 146; 155; 316;
love for A., 458;
praises A. and Hist. Wom. Suff., declares belief in wom. suff., 615;
death, 660.
BOTTOME, MARGARET, 702;
tribute to A., 703.
BOWEN, THOS. B., SENATOR, 607.
BOWEN, "UNCLE SAM," 5.
BOWLES, REV. ADA C., at suff. con., 533; 636.
BOWMAN, BISHOP THOS., for wom. suff., 588.
BOYNTON, ELIZABETH, 360. (see Harbert.)
BOYNTON, H. V., 608.
BRADFORD, MARY C. C., invites A. to Colorado women's 4th of July, 775.
BRADLAUGH, CHARLES, 577.
BRADLEY, MR. AND MRS. BENJ., 652.
BRADWELL, JUDGE, 315;
urges measures to unite two suff. org., 350.
BRADWELL, MYRA W., tribute to A., 315; 346;
defends A. for voting, 443;
death, 757.
BRAYTON, HELEN, 812.
BREEDEN, REV. H. O., welc. natl. suff. con., 902.
BREIDENTHAL, JOHN W., ch. Kan. Popu. Com. will leave it with A. as to
her speeches, 794;
confident suff. amend. will carry, 796.
BRICE, MRS. CALVIN, 814.
BRICKNER, MAX, 731.
BRIGHAM, PROF., 76.
BRIGHT, ALBERT, 576.
BRIGHT, JACOB, endorses wom. suff., 368; 564;
presides over wom. suff. meet., 566;
advocates wom. suff. in Parliament, 567.
BRIGHT, JOHN, Lord Rector's ad., 556; 565; 575; 577;
workingmen need franchise, 996.
BRIGHT, URSULA M., demands franchise for married women, 563; 564; 565;
A. visits, son's admiration for her, 577.
BROADHEAD, M. C., 590.
BRODERICK, CASE, M. C., ad. suff. con., 756;
suggests wom. suff. plank for Kan. Repubs., 778;
tries to have it in plat., 779.
BRONTE, ANNE, CHARLOTTE AND EMILY, home and life, 576.
BROOKE, STOPFORD, discouraging attempts at temp. work, 564.
BROOKS, D. C., sustains suff. meet., 544.
BROOKS, JAMES, M. C., franks women's petitions, 268, 295;
thanked by women, 422.
BROOKS, BISHOP PHILLIPS, for wom. suff., 757.
BROOMALL, J. W., endorses wom. suff., 284.
BROTHERTON, ALICE WILLIAMS, 668.
BROWN, REV. ANTOINETTE L. (see Blackwell).
BROWN, B. GRATZ, argues for wom. suff., 266; 318; 415;
franchise a natural right, 979.
BROWN, BERIAH, misrepresents A., 401.
BROWN, CHARLOTTE EMERSON, 720.
BROWN, ELIZABETH, 369.
BROWN, MRS. H. B., 697.
BROWN, JOHN, sleeps in cabin of Merritt Anthony, 144;
memorial meet. in Rochester, 181; 184;
A. visits home and grave, defends his memory, 708.
BROWN, COL. JOHN, 4.
BROWN, REV. JOHN, on Kan. suff. com., 287.
BROWN, SEN. JOS. A., opp. wom. suff., 590;
speech in opp. to wom. suff., 617;
phys. strength nec. for voting, 620.
BROWN, MATTIE GRIFFITH, 234; 260; 327; 350.
BROWN, MAY BELLEVILLE, 726.
BROWN, REV. OLYMPIA, work in Kan., 286;
ballot for woman as well as negro, 304; 387;
on Repub. plat., 422;
defends A. in voting, 432;
A. is North Star, 608; 612;
suit under Wis. sch. suff. law, 624; 628; 629; 659;
A.'s birthday, 670;
in S. Dak., 684; 702.
BROWN, SARAH, 287.
BROWN, SUSAN ANTHONY, 942.
BROWNE, THOS. M., M. C., rep. in fav. wom. suff. 590;
has it printed, A. praises, 591.
BRUCE, SENATOR BLANCHE K., ad. suff. con., 756.
BRYANT, WM. CULLEN, trib. to Berkshire, 13;
condemns mob, 103;
favors wom. suff., 267;
ed. N. Y. Post favored wom. suff., 771.
BUCHANAN, JAMES, 150.
BUCKLEY, PROF. J. W., opp. co-educat., 156.
BUCKLEY, REV. JOHN H., Anna Shaw answers obj. to wom. suff., 710;
deb. suff. with A. Shaw, 727;
cold recep. from audience, 728.
BUDD, GOV. JAMES H., signs bill for suff. amend., 863;
places last on ticket, 889.
BUFFUM, JAS., 131.
BULLARD, LAURA CURTIS, 327; 350;
buys Revolution, 361;
gives it up, 363; 564;
let. and gift to A. on 50th birthday, 975.
BUNNELL, MRS. G. W., pres. Ebell Club, 876.
BURDETTE, ROBT. J., 862.
BURLEIGH, CELIA, 353.
BURLEIGH, WM. H., 69.
BURNETT, ASSEMBLYMAN, spks. agnst. wom. rights, 109.
BURNSIDE, GEN. AMBROSE E., 959.
BURR, FRANCES ELLEN, let. A.'s 50th birthday, 975.
BURT, MARY T., ad. N. Y. Consti. Con., 769.
BURTIS, SARAH ANTHONY, teach. in Anthony family, 22;
sec. first W. R. Con., 59;
reminis., 896.
BURTON, CAPTAIN, 552.
BUSH, COL. J. W., introduces A., 809.
BUSHNELL, DR. KATE, spks. at Central Music Hall, Chicago, 640.
BUTLER, GEN. BENJ. F., fine rep. in favor of wom. suff., 382;
let. on wom. right to vote under Constit., 429;
rep. in favor of remit. A.'s fine for voting, 451;
intercedes for inspectors, 452;
in favor of wom. suff., 454;
retained in Eddy will case, 540;
pres. candidate, 594;
fees in Eddy case, 598;
death, 737;
in New Orleans, 959;
Constit. authoriz. right of women to vote, 991.
BUTLER, JOSEPHINE E., writes A., 458;
A. hears speak, 576.
BUTLER, SENATOR AND MRS. MATT. C., 677.
BYRD, PROF. C. E., 808.
BUTLER, DAVID, GOV. (Of Neb.), introduces A., 380.
CADY, MARGARET LIVINGSTON, 279.
CAIRD, MONA, 577.
CALLANAN, JAMES AND MARTHA C., 676; 902.
CAMERON, SENATOR ANGUS, reports in favor wom. suff., 502.
CAMERON, SENATOR DON, grants ten seats to wom. in Repub. con., 518.
CAMP, HERMAN, agnst. wom. delegates, 70.
CAMPBELL, GOV. JOHN A., vetoes bill repealing wom. suff. in Wyoming,
407; 408.
CAMPBELL, MARGARET, in Col. campn, 492.
CAMPBELL, MARY GRAFTON, 830.
CANNON, HON. GEO. Q., 825.
CANTINE, EMMA, 927.
CAREY, JOSEPH M., SENATOR, ad. suff. con., 617; 756;
ad. N. Y. Consti. Con. in favor wom. suff., 769.
CAREY, MRS. JOSEPH M., 617; 823.
CARLISLE, JOHN G., Senator, 718.
CARPENTER, FRANK G., let. on A.'s birthday, 670.
CARPENTER, SEN. MATT. H., 337; 410;
U. S. has no well ordered system of jurisprudence, 451;
favors wom. suff., 500.
CARROLL, ANNA ELLA, plans Tenn. campn., 239.
CARTTER, SUP. JUDGE, agnst. wom. suff., 985.
CARY, ALICE, 316; 343;
writes for Revolution, home and receptions, 358;
cd. not write heart's deepest thoughts, prepares "Born Thrall" for
Rev., dies before finishing it, 359; 360; 368.
CARY, PHOEBE, 316;
poem on A.'s 50th birthday, 342; 343;
tries to unite suff. assns., 346;
proposed ed. of Revolution, 357;
writes for Revolution, home and receptions, 358;
note to A., 359; 360; 368.
CARY, SAMUEL F., declines to assist wom. temp, con., 97;
opp. woman's speaking, 101.
CASEMENT, GEN. J. S. AND MRS. FRANCES M., hospitality to A., 705.
CASWELL, L. B., M. C., reports in favor of wom. suff., 699.
CATT, CARRIE CHAPMAN, 675;
in S. Dak., 685;
shows no hope of success, 693;
"lonesome movement," 694;
A.'s unselfishness, 695;
illness acc't work in S. D., 696;
at Kan. con., 697;
in Col. campaign, 752;
entertains A., 753;
elect. nat'l organizer, 758;
in N. Y. campn., 761;
no hope of suff. in Kan. without party endors., 780;
opens campn. in Kan. City, 784;
ad. Popu. St. Con., 789;
situation in Kan., 792;
amendment will win., 795;
with A. on south. lect. tour, 806;
entertained by Memphis clubs, 807;
at New Or., Greenville, Jackson, 808;
New Decatur, Huntsville, trib. of News, 809;
favors res. against Wom. Bible, 854;
work in Calif. campn., 875;
first app. at Natl. Con., 878; 883;
entertains natl. com., 895;
birthday trib. to A., 907;
ad. N. Y. legis., 914;
western conferences, 929;
at Anthony homestead, 940;
trib. to A. at Berk. Hist. meet. compares to Galileo, future
pilgrimages to birthplace, 942.
CHACE, ELIZ. BUFFUM, 90th birthday, 896.
CHACE, JONATHAN, SENATOR, for suff., 621.
CHADWICK, REV. JOHN, 346.
CHAMBERS, REV. JOHN, calls wom. deleg. "scum of con.," 89;
insults Miss Brown on platform, 101.
CHANDLER, SENATOR, ZACH., 460.
CHANLER, MARGARET LIVINGSTONE, ad. N. Y. Consti. Con. in favor wom.
suff., 768.
CHANNING, W M. H., begin. of friendship for A., 58;
visits Anthony home, 60; 93;
defends Antoinette Brown at temp. con., 102;
prep. call for W. R. con. and leads it, 104;
audience at Albany refuses to hear, 108;
writes appeal for wom. suff., 110;
corporal awkward squad, 112;
opp. bloomer dress, 115;
compli. Hist. Wom. Suff. 531;
loves America, 554;
returns to early beliefs, 563;
death, 595.
CHANT, LAURA ORMISTON, ad. Sen. Com., spks. Central Music Hall,
Chicago, 640;
at A.'s birthday banq., 666; 672.
CHAPIN, REV. EDWIN H., 192.
CHAPMAN, MARIA WESTON, compli. A., 154.
CHAPMAN, MARIANA W., in N. Y. campn., 761;
pres. N. Y. Suff. Ass'n sends birthday greet. to A., 907;
ad. N. Y. legis., 914.
CHAPMAN, NANCY M., registers and votes, 424.
CHATFIELD, HANNAH, regis. and votes, 424.
CHEEVER, REV. GEO. B., 173; 174;
approves A.'s work, 182; 192.
CHENEY BROS., present to A., 549.
CHENEY, EDNAH D., at Fed. clubs, 721.
CHENEY, MR. AND MRS., gift to A., 976.
CHILD, LYDIA MARIA, 253; first ed. A. S. Standard, petit, for suff.
declared "inopportune" by Sumner, 265; 276; 549; 935.
CHILDS, GEO. W., 480;
gives A. money and souvenir, 538;
sends A. $100, 607;
death, 756.
CHOATE, JOSEPH H., pres. N. Y. Consti. Con., uses influence agnst.
wom. suff., 767;
votes agnst. suff. amend., fears to injure polit. prospects, 771.
CHOATE, MRS. JOSEPH H., petit, for suff., 764;
not represented by husb., 771.
CHURCHILL, MRS. JEROME, 404.
CLAFLIN, TENNIE C., 376.
CLAPP, ELIZA J., leaves A. $1,000, 763.
CLAPP, HANNAH H., introd. A. in '71, '95, 826.
CLARK, EMILY, temp. speaker, travels with A., 71; 87;
at Brick church meet., 90.
CLARK, HELEN BRIGHT, 576.
CLARK, JAMES G., 200.
CLARK, NANCY HOWE, Teacher's Trib. To Mr. and Mrs. A., 22; 47.
CLARK, SIDNEY M. C., 247;
endorses wom. suff. 284;
A. compliments, 960; 962.
CLARKSON, THOMAS, A. visits old home, 569.
CLAY, HENRY, preaches liberty attended by a slave, 42.
CLAY, LAURA, 511; 806; 807;
at Atlanta con., 811;
favors res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 854; 940.
CLAY, MARY B., 511; 628.
CLAY, MARY J. WARFIELD, 511; 806.
CLAY-KLOPTON, MRS., 809.
CLAYTON, COL. V. P., 812.
CLEMMER, MARY, describes con., trib. to A., 340; 360;
scene in senate when petits. were pres. 485;
scores Sen. Wadleigh, strong argument for wom. suff., 501; 548.
CLEVELAND, GROVER, 594;
rec. Wom. Intl. Council, 637;
signs bill admit. Utah, 851.
CLEVELAND, MRS. GROVER, rec. Wom. Intl. Council, 637.
CLYMER, ELLA DEITZ, 704.
COATES, SARAH CHANDLER, 895.
COBBE, FRANCES POWER, 368; 566; 577.
COBDEN, JANE, 565; 576.
COCHRAN, HON. JOHN, how to fool the women, 418.
COCKRELL, SEN. FRANCIS M., opp. wom. suff., 590; 591; 608; 677.
COFFEEN, HENEY A., M. C., ad. suff. con., 756.
COKE, LORD, on taxation without representation, 969.
COGSWELL, MR. ----, compli. A., 535.
COLBY, CLARA B., first meets A., 493; 511; 541;
manages Neb. campn., 541;
in Kan. campn., 609;
A.'s eloquence at Madison, 612; 628; 629;
council issue of Wom. Trib., 633;
at A.'s birthday banq., 666;
compli. in Wom. Trib., 671; 672;
on S. Dak. com., 675;
in campn., 685;
at Neb. and Kan. cons., 697;
in Atlanta, 811;
objects to res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 852; 857;
at Anthony homestead, 940;
at Berk. Hist. meet., trib. to A., love of justice, home,
life-work, 944;
Anthony homestead shd. be purchased, 945.
COLE, HON. A. N., sustains wom. delegates, 70.
"COLE, CATHARINE," 597.
COLEMAN, LUCY N., 178; 216; 229.
COLLINS, JENNIE, at Natl. Con., 337; 349.
COLLYER, RBT., endorses wom. suff., 284; 371; 372; 373;
beautiful pict. in pulpit, 802.
COLLYER, ROBT. LAIRD, spks. agnst. wom. suff., 316.
COLVIN, HON. ANDREW J., champions woman's rights, 189.
CONDIT, REV., opp. woman's rights, 88.
CONKLING, ROSCOE, 410; A.'s trial for voting, 441; 485;
defeats com. on wom. rights, 527.
CONWAY, MONCURE D., A. visits, 563;
delighted with A.'s speech, 565.
CONWAY, MRS. MONCURE D., 563.
CONWAY, MILDRED, 566.
COONLEY, LYDIA AVERY, 711; 720;
entertains A. dur. World's Fair, 750;
gift, 751; 841.
COOPER, HARRIET, affect, let. to A., 820;
meets A. at ferry, 826;
sends money for A. to come Calif, to help in suff. campn., 861;
meets A., 862;
rec. sec. campn. com., 863.
COOPER, PETER, 422.
COOPER, SARAH B., On Hist. Wom. Suff., 616;
pres. Calif. Wom. Cong., 819;
sends A. money to come to Calif., loving letters, 820;
meets A. and Miss Shaw at ferry, 826;
at Congreg. church, San Fr.;
pres. Woman's Cong., 827;
gives A. and Miss Shaw freedom of speech;
trib. to A., 828;
chmn. campn. com., consecrates herself to suff., 829;
takes A. to minister's meet., 830;
chmn. 4th July wom. com., refused permission for A. Shaw to speak,
gains her point, rides in procession, 836;
sympathy for A., 842;
appeals to A. for help in Calif. campn., 861;
meets at ferry, 862; 863;
suff. plank in Repub. platform, 871;
at Demo. St. Con., 872;
at Portland Wom. Cong., 877.
CORLISS, DR. HIRAM, 45; 902.
COUDERT, FREDERICK, for wom. suff., 764.
COUZINS, PHOEBE, 322; 327; 349; 360;
urges A. and Mrs. Stn. to resume head of Natl. Assn., 382;
presents Wom. Dec. of Ind. at Centennial, 478; 479;
compli. A.'s management of Wash. cons., 495;
welcomes suff. con. to St. Louis, recep. to A., 506;
ad. Cong. Com., 511; 517;
dele. to Natl. Prohib. Con., 520;
at Mott memorial serv., 527;
in Neb. campn., 545;
A. sends $100, 608;
meets A. at station, 609;
A. makes her life memb. of Natl. Assn., 659;
at A.'s birthday banq., 665;
A. gives money, 672.
COWAN, SEN. EDGAR, moves to strike "male" from D. C. Suff. Bill,
266; 422.
CRAMER, MRS., 381.
CRAMPTON, REV. R. C., 87.
CRAVATH, PRES. ERASTUS M., invites A. to ad. students Mt. Union Coll.,
928.
CRAWFORD, S. G., endorses wom. suff., 284.
CRITTENDEN, A. P., 390.
CROLY, "JENNY JUNE," 353; 720.
CROMWELL, OLIVER, 1014.
CROSBY, ABBY BURTON, 327.
CROWELL, EX-MAYOR, 248.
CROWLEY, RICHARD, U. S. Dist. Atty., examines A. for having voted, 427;
threatens to move trial into another county, 435;
does so, 436;
two hrs. speech in prosecut. A., 438;
says A. had fair trial by jury, 450.
CULVER, PRES. & MRS., 598.
CULVER, JUDGE E. D., 330.
CULVER, MARY, registers and votes, 424.
CUMMINGS, ---- ---- MISS, A.'s Birthday, 671.
CUNNINGHAM, STEPHEN M., 393.
CURTIS, ELIZ. BURRILL, ad. N. Y. legis., 914.
CURTIS, EUGENE T., spks. for suff., 762.
CURTIS FAMILY, 395.
CURTIS, GEO. WM., hissed at W. R. con., 163;
lect. on Fair Play for Women, dislikes term, "woman's rights," 167;
objects to Ernestine L. Rose, replies to A.'s criticism,
172; 233; 270;
stands by women, presents Mrs. Greeley's petit., 279;
argu. for wom. suff. bef. N. Y. Constit. Con., real support comes
from Repubs., 280;
endorses suff., 284; 373;
let. on A.'s birthday, 669;
death, 737;
ed. Harper's Weekly fav. wom. suff., 771;
daught. Eliz. Burrill ad. N. Y. legis., 914.
CURTIS, MARY B. F., votes, 447.
CURTIS, NEWTON M., ad. suff. con., 756.
CUTLER, HANNAH M. TRACY, lectures with A., 178; 629; 902.
DAHLGREN, MRS. ADMIRAL, 372;
petit. agnst. wom. suff., 377.
DALL, CAROLINE H., 131;
conservative con., 196; 253.
DALLAS, MARY KYLE, 316.
DANA, CHAS. A., not enough women ask for suff., 760.
DANA, RICHARD H., lect. against women, 59.
DANFORTH, JUDGE GEO. F., presides suff. meet., 762;
invites A. to meet Justices Appellate Court, 896.
DANIELS, ASSO. JUSTICE, P. V. citizenship means entire equality, 984.
DANIELS, HATTIE, 553.
DARLING, ANNA B., 341.
DAVIES, CHARLES, LL.D., Pres. State Teach. Con., 98;
agnst. woman's right to speak, 99;
agnst. co-educa., 155;
reads first cable, 163.
DAVIS, EDWARD M., wants woman to wait till negro is enfranchised, 314;
pres. Cit. Suff. Assn. tenders A. recep., 546; 550;
death, 645.
DAVIS, MRS. EDWARD M., A. visits, 895.
DAVIS, ISABELLA CHARLES, letter to A., 773.
DAVIS, JOHN, M. C., ad. suff. con., 756.
DAVIS, OLIVE, 905.
DAVIS, PAULINA WRIGHT, at Syracuse W. R. Con., 72;
pres. cons., 1850-1851, 75;
work in 1840-48, 82;
discouraged with women, 130; 253; 327;
entertains A., Mrs. Stan, and Mrs. Hooker, 332; 349;
gives $500 to Rev., 356; 358;
arranges 20th suff. annivers., 367;
ill and sends for A., 368;
20 yrs. Hist. of W. R. movement, her early work, 369; 372; 375; 376;
at N. Y. con., 384;
death, 481.
DAVIS, WILLIAM H., invites A. to 4th of July celebration, rejoices in
her work, 835.
DAVITT, MICHAEL, asks all for wom., 575; 775.
DAWES, H. L., SENATOR, for suff., 621;
on A.'s birthday, 671.
DEAN, JOHN C. AND LILLIAN WRIGHT, 904.
DEBS, EUGENE V., invites A. to lecture, 503.
DE GARMO, RHODA, votes, 424;
death, 447.
DELAVAN, MRS. E. C., Wom. Temp. Con., 67.
DELIVERGE, DORIS AND HULDAH, employ A. as teacher, 24.
DE LONG, JAS. C., A. S. assn. formed at house, 210.
DEMOREST (MME.), LOUISE, 282.
DEPEW, CHAUNCEY M. for wom. suff., 764.
DEPUY, MARIA WILDER, 615.
DERAISMES, MARIA, 652.
D'ESTRIA, DORA (see Koltzoff Massalsky).
DETCHON, ADELAIDE, 566.
DEVOE, EMMA SMITH, 657;
offers services to A., 684.
DEVOE, J. H., invites A. to S. Dak., 657.
DEYO, REV. AMANDA, 702.
D'HERICOURT MME., 322.
DICKINSON, ALBERT, criticises A.'s style of let. writing, 40; 242.
DICKINSON, ANN ELIZA, 408.
DICKINSON, ANNA, her work, let. on war, 220;
aid to Union, 239; 246;
will work for wom. suff, 258;
first speech for W. R., 262; 276;
indignat. over refusal of N. Y. Constit. Con. to adopt wom, suff.,
280;
described by Nellie Hutchinson, criticises Phillips, declares
emancipated black woman no better off than slave, 303; 304; 309;
replies to Robt. Laird Collyer, 316;
first to suggest Amend. XV, wd. be needed, 317;
enthusiastic let., 320;
sp. "Nothing Unreasonable," 327;
tired of lecturing, devoted to A., 345;
gives Mrs. Phelps $1,000 through friendship for A., 360;
talks of editing Rev., 361; 370;
criticised for lect. on social questions, 469; 859;
let. and gifts to A. on 50th birthday, 975; 995.
DICKINSON, CHARLES, 575;
$300 to A, 707.
DICKINSON, DR. FRANCES, 575;
arranges Social Purity meet., 640;
Isabella Mem., 655.
DICKINSON, MARY LOWE, ad. suff. con., 756;
needs A.'s face at Sherry meet., 773;
pres. Wom. Council, 815;
urges A. to manage Stn. birthday, 846;
makes it a success, 847; 848;
trib. to A., 850;
New Years greet. to A., suff. cause most important, 901.
DIETRICK, ELLEN BATTELLE, death, trib. of A., 849.
DIGGS, ANNIE L., on Kan. wom. suff. com., 781;
pres. suff. mass meet. in Topeka, 787;
demands wom. suff. plank from Kan. Popu. con., 789;
shakes hands with delegates, 790;
writes A. glad Popu. con. endorses wom. suff., audiences in favor,
urges her to take part in campn., 795;
fav. res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 854.
DILKE, MRS. ASHTON, 651.
DINGEE, MARTHA PARKER, A., 609.
DIX, DOROTHEA, work in war, 239.
DOANE, BISHOP WM. CROSWELL, organizes remonstrants agnst. wom. suff.
765.
DODGE, MARY MAPES, 799.
DOGGETT, KATE N., 327;
entertains A., 330;
let. and gift to A. on 50th birthday, 976.
DOLLEY, DR. SARAH C., 446;
A. visits, 653.
DOLPH, SEN. JOSEPH N., on admis. Wash. Ter. with wom. suff., 607; 608;
speech in favor wom. suff., 618;
sympathy with wom. suff., 716.
DOLPH, MRS. JOSEPH N., 607.
DOUGLASS, FREDERICK, moves to Roch. and estab. North Star, 59;
visits Anthony home, 60; 93;
favors A. as sec. of temp. soc., 95; 163;
silenced by mob, 165;
flees to Eng., 181; 198;
on death of Stephen A. Douglas, 215; 216;
at funeral D. Anthony, 224; 233; 260;
brands Demo. help to women a trick, 263;
ridiculed by N. Y. World, 264; 270;
asks women to take back seat, 304;
deserts wom. for negro suff., 317;
forces indorse. Amend. XV, encounter with A., 323; 350;
at welcomes bolt from heaven or hell, 381;
Natl. Wom. Suff. Con., 377;
prayed with heels, 457; 527; 548;
ad. 30th suff. annivers., 495;
second marriage, 586;
let. on wom. suff. and first W. R. con., 634;
death, A. spks. funeral, 814; 904; 934.
DONLEVEY, ALICE, sec. Art Ass'n. desires to make A.'s statue, 734.
DOOLITTLE, HON. JAS. R., A. and Mrs. Hooker interview, 417.
DOSTER, JUDGE FRANK, for women suff. pl. in Kan. Popu. con., 789.
DOUGLAS, STEPHEN A., "King of Compromise," 215.
DOW, NEAL, pres. temp, con., 101;
society shd. control liquor traffic, 93;
on A.'s birthday, 670.
DOWNER, EZRA, leads mob, 211.
DOWNING, GEORGE, opp. wom. suff., 314.
DRAKE, GOV. FRANCIS M., welcomes Natl. Suff. con., 902.
DRAPER, MR. AND MRS. E. D., 282.
DU BOSE, MIRIAM HOWARD, arr. suff. con., 810;
A. visits, 812.
DUFFIELD, REV. GEO., 87.
DUNIWAY, ABIGAIL SCOTT, manages A.'s lecture tour, 395; 397; 398;
writes of A.'s success, 399;
comment on Repub. plank, 476;
A. sends $100, 592; 629;
congrat. A. on triumph in Cal., 871;
pres. Wom. Cong. invites A. to Portland, 877.
DUNSMORE, J. M., at Kan. Popu. con., 790.
EAGLE, GOV. JAS. B., introd. A. to aud., 649.
EAGLE, MRS. JAMES B., chmn. World's Fair com., urges A. to furnish
stenog. rep. of address, 749.
EASTMAN, MARY F., spks. at suff. con., 533; 607; 628;
rec. sec. Natl. Council, 639.
EATON, MR. (KAN.), 519.
EDDY, ELIZA JACKSON, A. visits, 131;
leaves large sum to A., 539;
legacy paid to A. and Lucy Stone, 598;
bequest used for Hist. Wom. Suff., 614.
EDDY, THE MISSES, determined to carry out mother's wishes, 540.
EDDY, SARAH J., meets A. first time, strong friendship, 601.
EDMUNDS, SENATOR GEO. F., presents petit. agnst. wom. suff., 377;
insult. report agnst. remitting A.'s fine for voting, 451;
compliments A., 511.
ELDER, P. P., opp. wom. suff. plank in Kan. Popu. plat., 788.
ELIOT, CHAS. W., Pres., remonstrates agnst. wom. suff., 620.
ELIOT, GEO., 733.
ELIOT, SENATOR THOMAS D., 236.
ELIOT, REV. T. L., 395.
ELIOT, MRS. T. L., 400.
ELIOT, REV. WM. G., 395;
soc. purity, on contagious diseases, 1005.
ELLET, E. F., cares for wronged mother and child, 202.
ELLIOTT, MAJOR, 407.
EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, accepts A.'s inv. to lecture, flowery
description women voting, 132;
not enough freedom under lyceum bureau, 190;
defers to wife, 251; 563;
"thorn in side of friend," 667;
"wholesome discontent," 714;
"men what mothers made," 1011.
EMERSON, MRS. RALPH WALDO, approves wom. suff., 251.
ERSKINE, HON. AND MRS. M. B., 611.
ESKRIDGE, C. V., opp. wom. suff., 281;
res. agnst., 283;
opp. wom. suff. at Kan. Repub. Con., 785.
ESTEE, MORRIS M., citizen's right to free ballot does not include
women, 642.
ESTLIN, MARY, 577.
EUSTIS, SENATOR, agnst. wom. suff., 608;
"nursing mother" argument, 618.
EVERHARD, CAROLINE MCCULLOUGH, woman governed more by principle and
less by prej., 854.
FAIR, SENATOR JAS. G., reports agnst. wom. suff., 543;
opp. wom. suff., 590.
FAIR, LAURA D., 391.
FAIRMAN, COL. HENRY CLAY, advocates wom. suff., 810.
FAITHFULL, EMILY, 368; 564.
FANNING, J. D., sustains A. at Teach. Con., 100.
FARNHAM, G. L., stands by A. at Teach. Con., 164;
invites A. to ad. Neb. Normal Sch., 728.
FARNHAM, ELIZA W., 252;
early work, 369.
FARWELL, CHAS. B., SENATOR, in favor wom. suff., 621.
FASSETT, MRS. J. SLOAT, 803.
FAWCETT, HENRY, 577.
FAWCETT, MILLICENT GARRETT, 577.
FENTON, MRS. REUBEN E., entertains A., 642.
FERGUSON. MRS. J. M., 808.
FERRY, SENATOR THOMAS W., pres. Centennial celebra. refuses
recognition to women, 477; 478;
presents wom. petit., 500;
introduces bill for 16th amend., 511;
reports in favor wom. suff., 543.
FIELD, JUSTICE AND MRS. STEPH. J., 677.
FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY, legal status of women, 185.
FIELD, KATE, ad. suff. con., 756;
scores A. for affiliating with Populists, 791.
FIELDS, ADELE M., petit, for wom. suff., 764.
FIERO, J. NEWTON, opp. to wom. suff., 769; 770.
FILLMORE, MILLARD, 329; present at A.'s trial, 436.
FISHER, P. M., chmn. 4th July com. inv. Miss Shaw to spk., 836.
FITCH, CHAS. E., trib. to A., 673.
FLOWER, GOV. ROSWELL P., appoints A. trustee St. Industrial School,
730;
recommends wom. in N. Y. Constit. Con., 758.
FOLGER, CHARLES J., women must not discuss social evil, 273.
FOLTZ, CLARA, tries to secure suff. amend. from Calif. legis., 863.
FOOTE, DR. E. B., 446.
FOOTE, HON. SAMUEL G., contemptuous report on wom. petit., 140.
FOOTE, W. W., opposes wom. suff. in Calif. Demo. Con., 874.
FORAKER, J. B., refuses to hear A. on wom. suff., 723.
FORD, ----, MR., composes music for song to A., 548.
FORD, HANNAH, A. visits, 576.
FORNEY, COL. JOHN W., fights under banner of A., 487.
FOSS (DRIVER), 394.
FOSTER, ABBY KELLY, first meets A., 63; 87; 88; 91;
A. center and soul of temp. cause, 93; 132; 150;
compli. A.'s anti-slav. work, 182;
encourages A., 222; 253;
early work, 369; 935.
FOSTER, J. ELLEN, 511; 525;
invites A. to ad. W. C. T. U. Con., 537;
loving message to A., 598; 723;
cares more for Repub. party than for suff., 785;
presents claims of wom. at Kan. Repub. Con., 786.
FOSTER, J. HERON, 527.
FOSTER, MRS. J. HERON, 527;
contrib. $500 to Neb., 545;
present, to A., 549;
death, 603.
FOSTER, JULIA T., 511; 527; 550; 701.
FOSTER, RACHEL G. (See AVERY).
FOSTER, STEPHEN S., first meets A., 63;
lect. under A.'s management, 138; 150; 208; 246;
loyal to women, 270;
suggests A. and Mrs. Stn. withdraw from E. R. Assn., 322.
FOULKE, WM. DUDLEY, 629;
ad. Natl. Am. con., 675;
chmn. Govt. Cong. World's Fair, women took more interest than men,
750.
FOWLER & WELLS, publish Hist. Wom. Suff., 530;
agreement with A., 599;
sell rights to A., 600.
FOWLER, PROFESSOR L. N., 83.
FOWLER, REV., opp. wom. rights, 70;
condemns women workers in reform, 89.
FOWLER, LYDIA F., at wom. temp. meet., 65;
entertains A., 83.
FOX, GEORGE, 569.
FOX, SISTERS, 58.
FRANCIS & LOUTREL, present A. with receipted bill, 468.
FRANKLIN, BENJ., in what freedom consists, poor need votes more than
rich, 990.
FREDERICK THE GREAT, 560.
FREDERICK, WILLIAM, 560.
FRELINGHUYSEN, SEN. F. F., 410; State Rights, 991.
FREMONT, JESSIE BENTON, 234; beautiful women at suff. con., 337.
FREMONT, GEN. JOHN C., proclaimed freedom to negroes, 959.
FROTHINGHAM, REV. O. B., 192; 322; 351; 563.
FULLER, MARGARET, 131;
early work, 369.
FULLER, CHIEF-JUSTICE MELVILLE W., 660.
FULTON, REV. JUSTIN, debates with A. at Detroit, 345.
FURNESS, REV. WM. H., 478.
GADEN, MINNA V., delight at A.'s visit to Calif., 819.
GAGE, FRANCIS D., 102;
holds W. R. meet. with A., 138;
at N. Y. con., 163; 178;
spks. for Wom. Loyal League, 233;
compli. of N. Y. Independ., 253;
Vice-pres. E. R. Assn., 260;
death, 595.
GAGE, MATILDA J., first appearance at W. R. con., 75;
answers Rev. Sunderland, 79;
spks. at Saratoga, 121; 327; 360;
pays A. $100, 365;
call for forming new party, 413;
urges wom. to work for Repub. party, 418;
speaks for Repub. platform, 422;
defends A. for voting, 432;
issues call for con., 434;
spks. in 16 places on "The U. S. on trial, not S. B. A.," present
at trial, 436;
manages Wash. con., 472;
opens Centennial headqrs., 475;
prepares Wom. Dec. of Ind., 476;
presents it, 478;
on habeas corpus, 479;
appeal for 16th Amend., 483; 495;
ad. to Pres. Hayes, 500;
edits Ballot-Box, 510; 511;
ad. Greenback Labor Con., 518;
work on Hist. of Wom. Suff., 531; 601;
sells Hist. rights to A., 613; 628; 659;
at A.'s birthday banq., 666;
let. to A. on 50th birthday, 975; 993.
GALILEO, A., born on his birthday, 943.
GANNETT. REV. W. C., let. on A.'s birthday, 670;
on Lowell, 712;
invites A. to spk. at Thanks, serv., 714;
sermons, 719; 730;
birthday recep. to A., 739; 806;
raises money for A. to take secy. to Calif., 862;
trib. to Mary Anthony, 916.
GANNETT, MARY LEWIS, let. on A.'s birthday, 670; 739; 806;
ad. on A.'s birthday, 860; 862;
presides at banq. to A., 895.
GARDNER, REV. C. B., does not favor wom. suff., 709.
GARFIELD, JAMES A., favors civil equality of women, not polit. equal,
520;
not ready for wom. suff., 521;
death, made no will, religion, 536.
GARRISON, ELLEN WRIGHT, marriage, 241;
"unchristian to sit in judgment," 301;
cares for A. while ill, 701; 895;
to A. on 50th birthday, 975.
GARRISON, WM. L., visits Anthony home, 60; 73;
scores temp. con. treatment of wom., 101; 102;
opposes bloomer dress, 115;
at home, 131;
thanks A. for hospitality, 141;
message to A., 151;
characteristic let., Mason, of Virginia, on Bunker Hill, 152;
abolit. without backbone, 161; 162; 182; 185; 192;
favors divorce res., 194;
urges A. to restore child to father, 203;
yields to A.'s logic, 204;
last W. R. meet. Albany, before war, 212;
people wait his word on war, 214;
A. hoped wd. redeem pledge to woman, 225;
believes Anti-Slav. Soc. shd. be disbanded, 245;
declines re-elect, as pres., 246; 259; 270; 284;
deserts woman for negro suff., 317;
too soon for 16th Amend., 484; 495;
death, 508; 529; 549;
fath. Mrs. H. Villard, 849; 935;
A. compared to, 953.
GARRISON,. MRS. W. L., at home, 131;
goes with A. to visit Mrs. Phillips, 219.
GARRISON, WM. L., JR., marriage, 241;
let. on A.'s birthday, 669; 675;
A. as guest while ill, 701;
sympathet. let. to A., 793; 895.
GEARY, GOV. JOHN W., favors women at ballot-box, 310.
GEORGE, SENATOR J. Z., reports agnst. wom. suff., 543; 718.
GIBBONS, ABBY HOPPER, 83; opp. divorce res., 194;
cares for wronged mother and child, 202; 304;
death, 737;
to A. on birthday, 974.
GILBERT, MARY F., 234.
GLADSTONE, WILLIAM E., 553;
act on wom. suff. bill, 593; 741;
A. compared to, 952.
GODSE, MR. AND MRS. W. S., 388.
GODDARD, MRS. J. WARREN, 764.
GOEG, MME. MARIE, 360.
GOODALE, DORA, Berkshire poem, 2.
GOODALE, ELAINE, 1.
GOODELLE, WM. P., opp. wom. suff., 771.
GOODRICH, SARAH L. KNOX, 405;
gift to A., 492;
asks Estee if "free ballot" plank includes women, 642;
work for S. Dak., 685;
entertains A., 831; 832; 863;
at Repub. St. Con., 869;
donat. to Calif. suff. campn., 888.
GORDON, ANNA, 609;
joy over A.'s laurels, 747.
GORDON, LAURA DE FORCE, 404;
arrang. lectures for A., 405;
at Natl. Lib. Con., 415;
tries to sec. suff. amend. from Calif. Legis., 863.
GORHAM, MRS. E. J., 833.
GOTTHEIL, RABBI, for wom. suff., 764.
GOUGAR, HELEN M., 541; 545; 626; 628; 629.
GOUGH, JOHN B., 60.
GOULD, FRANK, smothers wom. suff. plank, 873; 874.
GOVE, MARY S., early work, 369.
GRAHAM, JOHN, 352.
GRANT, U. S., 377;
recognition of citizen's rights, 417;
first to appoint women postmasters, 418;
pardons inspectors who recd. A.'s vote, 452;
appointed 5,000 wom. postmasters, 455;
did not protect negro's ballot, 522;
four million people made voters by Amend. XV., 991.
GRANT, MRS. U. S., 381;
70th birthday luncheon, A. rec. with her, 858.
GRAY, ALMEDIA, suit under Wis. school suff. law. 624.
GREATOREX, ELIZA, birthday gift to A., 976.
GREELEY, HORACE, advocates co-educat. at People's College, 64;
tells women how to manage con., 66; 83;
as host, 86;
shows up action of men at Brick church meeting, 89;
temp. tracts, church matters, 97;
condemns mob at W. R. con., 103;
pub. A.'s program without charge, 122;
favors woman in politics, believes she shd. judge for herself, 125;
disgruntled with suff. advocates, 146;
recog. rights of women, 147; 192;
thunders agnst. divorce, 194;
emancip. of negroes, 221;
A. hoped wd. redeem pledge to women, 225; 263;
ridicules ballot for woman, 267; 270;
encounter with A., 278;
chmn. suff. com. in N. Y. Constitut. Con., 279;
anger over wife's petit., forbids Mrs. Stn.'s name in Tribune, 280;
favors wom. suff. in May, opp. in Oct., 281; 290;
bids women stand aside, 300;
pres. Hester Vaughan meet., 309;
deserts wom. suff., 317;
at McFarland-Richardson marriage, 351;
does not desire help of women in campn., 420;
Repubs. fear his election, 421;
death, 428;
opp. wom. suff. in Constitut. Con. of 1867, 771;
urges workingmen to vote Whig ticket, 999.
GREELEY, MRS. H., 83;
as hostess, 86;
choice of husband, 87;
gets suff. petit. in own county, 279; 280; 304;
not represent. by husband, 771.
GREELEY, IDA, 279; 327.
GREEN, REV. BERIAH, 193; 208;
attitude of abolit. toward war, 214.
GREEN, DR. CORDELIA, 901.
GREEN, MRS. NEWTON, 642.
GREENLEAF, HALBERT S., friend of suff., 583; 713;
introd. res. for 16th Amend. in House, 718; 772; 806.
GREENLEAF, JEAN BROOKS, 711; 729;
indignation at omission of women in charter, 732;
recep. to A., 739;
nominated dele. to Consti. Con., 759;
work for wom. suff. amend. in N. Y., 760;
trib. to Mary S. Anthony, 761;
at suff. rally, 762;
before N. Y. Consti. Con., 768;
trib. to A., 772;
before res. Com. at Rep. con., 774;
at N. Y. Dem. con., 775; 806;
on Wom. Bible res. 856;
ad. on A.'s birthday, 860;
at Mary Anthony's recep., 816.
GREENWOOD, GRACE, describes women at suff. con., 314; 561; 566;
at A.'s recep., 739.
GREW, MARY, first meets A., 122; 193; 251;
congrat. A. on Wyoming, 676; 902.
GRIFFING, JOSEPHINE S., founds Freedmen's Bureau, 239; 260;
pres. D. C. Suff. Assn., 313; 327; 350; 372; 377;
suff. headqrs. at Capitol, encouraging signs, 381; 383; 387.
GRIFFITH, MRS., yields time to A., 609.
GRIFFITH, MATTIE, (See BROWN).
GRIMKE, ANGELINA. (See WELD).
GRIMKE, SARAH, early work, 369.
GRIPENBERG, BARONESS ALEXANDRA, 641.
GROSS, SAMUEL E., 750; 841.
GROSS, MRS. SAMUEL E., entertains A. during World's Fair, 750;
let. and gift to A., 751;
gift, 757;
presents A. $1,000, velvet cloak, etc., 803;
entertains A. in Chi. and St. Louis, 821;
gift to A., 841;
statuette with A.,862;
New Yrs. gift to A., 900;
present to Mary Anthony, 916.
GROTH, SOPHIA MAGELSSON, ad. Sen. Com., 640.
GROVER, A. J., at A.'s lecture in Chi., 468.
GULLEN, DR. AUGUSTA S., 658.
HAGAR, DANIEL B., principal Canajoharie Acad., girls' high school,
Salem, Mass., 49.
HAIR, MINETTE CHESHIRE, descrip. of rooms where biog. was writ., 910.
HALDERMAN, MAYOR JOHN A., 287.
HALE, JOHN P., 226.
HALE, HON. MATTHEW, opp. to wom. suff., 769; 770.
HALL, ISRAEL, gift to A., 492.
HALL, N. K., U. S. Dist. Judge, hears argu. in A.'s case, 428;
denies writ of hab. corp. and increases bail, 432;
present at A.'s trial but refuses to assist, 437.
HALL, OLIVIA B., gift to A., 492; 658;
hospitality and generos. to A., 755;
at Toledo, 756; 862.
HALL, DR. SARAH C., 697.
HALL, WM. B., election inspector, 423;
tried without being brought into court, 444.
HALLOCK, FRANCES V., 234.
HALLOCK, SARAH, 159.
HALLOWELL, WM. R., signs call for woman's temp, con., 67.
HALLOWELL, WILLIAM AND MARY, their home A.'s Mecca, 104; 446.
HALLOWELL, MARY, 177; Phillips' lunch, 217; 711; 806.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, right over subsistence, power over moral being,
385; 1007.
HAMILTON, EMERINE J., leaves $500 to A., 654.
HAMILTON, GAIL, bright let., 322.
HAMILTON, MARGARET V., 654.
HAMLIN, HANNIBAL, 339.
HAMMOND, NATH. J., St. Sen., 189.
HAMMOND, DR. WM. A., pres. Six O'clock Club, 648.
HAMPTON, WADE, pres. Demo. Natl. Con., 519.
HANAFORD, REV. PHEBE A., 322; 636.
HANCOCK, GEN., favors wom. claims, 520.
HARBERT, ELIZABETH BOYNTON, 360; 511;
welcomes suff. con., 517;
let. to A., 535;
first to suggest natl. celebrat. A.'s birthday, 542;
A. visits, 609; 628; 668.
HARLAN, SENATOR JAMES, grants wom. hearing before Senate com., 314.
HARPER, IDA H., State sec. Ind. arranges cons., 626;
cor. sec. campn. com. in Calif., 863;
chmn. Press com. visits with A., eds. daily papers in San Fr., 866;
work on papers, 867; 868;
at Rep. St. Con., 869;
descrip. of A. and Miss Shaw bef. res. com., 870;
scene in Dem. con., 873;
A. invites to write her biog., work begins, 909;
writing of book, 910;
in attic workrooms, 911;
visits with A. at Mrs. Osborne's, 917;
goes with A. to Sargent home, Thousand Islands, 926;
at Anthony homestead, 940.
HARPER, WINNIFRED, edits suff. dept. San Fr. Report, 866.
HARRIS, SENATOR, presents Woodhull petit., 375.
HARRISON, BENJAMIN, A. and Mrs. Sewall write open let., 642;
open let. from them on "free ballot" plank in Repub. plat., 1013.
HARRISON, MRS. BENJ., 660;
rec. Wom. Council, 703.
HARRISON, CARTER, escorts A. to plat. of Demo. Natl. Con., 519.
HASKELL, ASST. ATTY.-GEN. ELLA KNOWLES, at Wash. con., 851.
HASLAM, MRS., 572.
HATCH, REV. JUNIUS, indecent speech agnst. women, 76.
HAVEN, BISHOP GILBERT, spks. at suff. con., 322;
favors wom. suff., 588.
HAVENS, MR. AND MRS. F. C., entertain A., 877.
HAWLEY, GENEVIEVE LEL, priv. sec. to A., assists in biog., 909.
HAWLEY, GEN. JOSEPH R., refuses women permis. to read their Dec. of
Ind., 477; 478.
HAWTHORNE, REV. J. B., preaches agnst. wom. suff., 810.
HAY, MARY G., manag. meet, in N. Y. campn., 761;
ch. St. Cent. Com. Calif. campn., 863;
manages county cons., 864;
at Repub. St. Con., 869;
takes charge headqrs. in San Fr., 875.
HAY, JUDGE WM., helps A. at Saratoga con., 120;
assists A., dedicates and wills novel to her, 144; 157.
HAYES, RUTHERFORD B., 499;
forgets women, 500;
can not protect negro's ballot, 522;
friend of wom. suff., 757.
HAYES, MRS. RUTHERFORD B., at Luc. Mott memorial, 526.
HAYFORD, J. H., history of suff. law in Wyoming, 407;
on its working, 497.
HAZELTINE, L., rebukes A. for speaking in public, 143.
HAZEN, J. T., wd. not count votes of women, 70.
HEARST, PHOEBE A., compli. A., 677;
gives $1,000 to Calif, wom. suff. campn., 888;
respect for A., 889.
HEARST, WM. R., A. begs to bring Examiner out for wom. suff., 867.
HEBARD, MARY L., registers and votes, 424;
votes again, 434.
HEDENBERG, ISABELLA, 676.
HEMPHILL, GEN. ROBT. R., at suff. con., 811.
HEMPHILL, MRS. W. A., recep. to con., 810.
HENDERSON, MARY FOOTE, Vice-pres. Natl. Suff. Assn., 327.
HENDRICKS, THOMAS A., 594.
HENNESSY LADY, 575.
HENROTIN, ELLEN M., 702;
inv. natl. suff. assn. to Wom. Cong., 704;
vice-pres. Wom. Cong. Aux., 745;
asks A.'s advice and help, 748;
New Year's greeting to A., 900.
HENRY, JUDGE, introduces A., 492.
HENRY, PROF. JOSEPH, refuses Smithsonian Hall to women, 118.
HENRY, JOSEPHINE K., at Atlanta con., 811.
HEWITT, REV., condemns women's work in reforms, 89.
HEWITT, HON. ABRAM S., objects to wom. suff., 770.
HIGGINSON, REV. THOS. WENT., stands by women at Brick church meet., 88;
doubts propriety of hold. wom. temp. con., 96; 130; 132;
sermon on True Greatness, 133; 163; 270; 275;
endorses wom. suff., 284;
wants Lucy Stone to preside at con., 303; 328.
HILDRETH, MRS. E. S., 809.
HILL, DAVID B., recommends women in N. Y. Constit. Con., 758.
HILL, DAVID J., pres. Roch. Univers., favors admit. women, 713.
HILLS, MR. AND MRS. WM. HENRY, 571.
HINDMAN, MATILDA, in Col. campn., 492;
in Neb., 545;
in S. Dak., 685.
HINCKLEY, REV. FREDERICK W., ad. suff. con., 541; 632;
response at A.'s birthday banq., 666.
HINSON, EX-JUSTICE GEO., leads mob, 208.
HIRST, REV. A. C., 830.
HOAR, SENATOR GEO. F., hopes to see A. member of House, 485;
reports in favor wom. suff. and wom. to prac. bef. Sup. Court, 502;
champions wom. rights com., 540; 620;
let. on A.'s birthday, 669;
favorable report on wom. suff., 718.
HOCH, E. W., 778.
HOFFMAN, GOV. JOHN T., 353.
HOLLISTER, MRS. GEORGE, gift to A., 739.
HOLLOWAY, LAURA C., invites A. to ad. Seidl Club, 653.
HOLLOWAY, COL. WM. R., favors wom. suff., 547.
HOLMES, KATE TURNER, 878.
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL, Berkshire people, 2.
HOOKER, ISABELLA BEECHER, comes into suff. work, 331;
visits with A. and Mrs. Stn. at Mrs. Davis', greatly pleased, pays
trib. to both, 332;
optimist, view of suff. cause, own humility, praise for A., 334;
works 30 yrs. for wom. suff., tries to unite two wings of suff.
party, 335; 337;
writes of Sumner, 339;
reads husband's poem A.'s birthday, 342; 343; 350;
devises schemes for Rev., 356;
agrees to help edit, wishes name of paper changed, wants Mrs. Tilton
at Wash. con., 357;
urged by friends not to help Rev., declines, 358;
offers to take charge Wash. con., writes Mrs. Stan., 371;
"need not have another suff. con.," can get on without Mrs. Stan.,
372;
prominent speakers fail, 373;
devotion to cause, con. a success, valuable worker, 374;
refuses to hear Mrs. Woodhull, reconsiders, 375;
ad. Cong. Com., 376;
writes declaration and pledge, gives sister Catherine let. to Mrs.
Woodhull, 378;
result, 379;
hopes for woman's deliverance thro. Repub. party, 381;
repudiates Repub. and looks to Demo. for support, 382;
ad. Sen. Com., 410;
call for forming new party, 413; criticises A., 414;
interview with Doolittle at Natl. Demo. Con., 417;
lect. tour of Conn. with A., 456;
describes A.'s pathetic sp., 534; 628; 629;
at Natl. Rep. Con., Chic., 641; 664;
genius and intellect, 665;
A.'s birthday banq., 668; 705;
golden wed., 709;
ad. Cong. Coms., 718;
at Demo. Natl. Con. Chic., ad. com., remains in con. till morn.
hoping for chance to spk., 725;
A. wd. love to visit self and husb., 898;
birthday gift to A., 976.
HOOKER JOHN, poem on A.'s birthday, 342;
confidence in A., 462;
sympathy for A. in S. Dak., 689;
golden wed. 709; 899.
HOPPER, ISAAC T., 304.
HORTON, CHIEF-JUSTICE, A. H., congrat. A. on munic. suff. in Kan., 611;
opp. to suff. pl. in Rep. plat., 779;
begs wom. not to demand it, 782.
HOSMER, PRESIDENT, compli. A., 380.
HOSMER, HARRIET, wants Natl. Art. Assn. of women, 655; 656; 668;
work on statue Lincoln, 821.
HOUGH, SUSAN M., registers and votes, 424.
HOVEY, CHARLES F., 131; 132;
legacy for reform work, 182; 251;
after slavery was abolished intended his legacy for wom. suff., 269.
HOWARD, EMMA SHAFTER, 834; 877.
HOWARD, H. AUGUSTA, arranges suff. con., 810;
A. visits, 812.
HOWARD, GEN. O. O., 249.
HOWE, JUDGE ISAAC, introduces A., 657.
HOWE, JULIA WARD, 328;
chmn. com. for unit. two assns., 629; 638;
ad. Sen. com., 640; 675;
at Fed. Clubs, 720.
HOWE, MELINTHA, 47.
HOWE, NANCY (see CLARK.)
HOWELL, MARY SEYMOUR, in S. Dak., 685;
anec. of A., 690;
experience in poor hotel, landlady's comments, A.'s speech at
Madison on admis. of Wyoming, 691;
dramatic scene, 692;
in Kan. campn., 719;
sees gov. about appointing women, 730;
in N. Y. campn. 761;
speaks in Rochester, 762;
addresses N. Y. Constitut. Con., 769;
A.'s birthday, 860.
HOWELLS, WM. DEAN, for wom. suff., 764.
HOWLAND, EMILY, 676; 772;
A.'s love, 773;
spks. in Atlanta, 811;
opp. res. agnst. wom. Bible, 854;
visits Mrs. Osborne, 917.
HOWLAND, FANNIE, describes women at cong. hearing, 338.
HOWLAND, ISABEL, work in N. Y. campn., 773.
HOXIE, HANNAH ANTHONY, famous Quaker preacher, 6;
should come back to old homestead, 941;
in old Quaker church, 947.
HUBBELL, MR. AND MRS., recep. to con., 903.
HUBERWALD, FLORENCE, 808.
HUDSON, ELIZA, minority report wom. suff. plank at Kan. Popu. con.,
789.
HUGHES, MRS. (Gov.), dele. Wash, con., 851.
HUGO, VICTOR, telegram to suff. con., 496.
HULTIN, REV. IDA C., 702.
HUME, MRS. MILTON, 809.
HUMPHREY, L. H., St. Sen., asks A. to spk. at wife's funeral, 908.
HUMPHREY, MAUDE, entertains A., 739;
A.'s tribute at funeral, 908.
HUNT, DR. HARRIOT K., 131;
ready to work for wom. suff., 252.
HUNT, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE WARD, presides at A.'s trial, 436;
refuses to allow A. to testify but admits her testimony before
Com'r., 437;
delivers writ. opin. without leaving bench, 438;
directs jury to bring in verdict of guilty, refuses to poll jury,
denies new trial, spirited encounter with A., 439;
fines her $100, 440;
influenced by Conkling, condemned by newspapers, 441;
Van Voorhis' opinion of, 444;
few apologists, 449.
HUNTER, GEN. DAVID, freed million slaves, 959.
HUSSEY, CORNELIA COLLINS, on shipboard with A., 579;
New Yrs. gift to A., 900.
HUSTON, JOSEPH W., Sup. Judge, Idaho, decides in favor wom. suff., 919.
HUTCHINGS, ----, 393.
HUTCHINSON, ABBY, sings for women, 162;
death, 737;
(see Hutch. Family).
HUTCHINSON, ASA, favors wom. suff., 145.
HUTCHINSON FAMILY, sing for Loyal League, 227;
sing at wom. Centennial, 479.
HUTCHINSON, HENRY, in Kan. campn., 286; 291.
HUTCHINSON, JOHN, favors wom. suff., 146;
in Kan. campn., 286; 291; 665;
A.'s birthday banq., 668;
New Yrs. greet. to A., 900;
(see Hutchinson Family).
HUTCHINSON, NELLIE, describes Rev. office and editors, 301.
HUTCHINSON, VIOLA, in Kan. campn., 286; 291.
HYACINTHE, PERE, 369.
INGALLS, MRS. E. B., 821.
INGALLS, SENATOR JOHN J., farewell let. to A., 547;
votes agnst. wom. suff., 608;
votes agnst. 16th Amend., asks interview with A., 621;
proposes truce, 622;
Abilene speech agnst. suff., 625;
will not argue with a woman, 626;
willing to stand on wom. suff. plank, "obscene dogma," 726.
INGALLS, MRS. JOHN J., entertains A., 626.
INGERSOLL, ROBT. G., shows injustice of laws and declares for wom.
suff., 345; 764.
IRENE, SISTER, 391;
foundling hospital in N. Y., 1005.
IRISH, COL. JOHN P., introd. A., 834;
asks permis. for A. to ad. Calif. Demo. Con., 874.
IRVING, HENRY, A. hears.
IVENS, MRS. C. H., 833.
JACKSON, FRANCIS, 131;
gift to wom. rights cause, 166;
father of Mrs. Eddy, 539.
JACKSON, SENATOR HOWELL E., reports agnst. wom. suff., 543.
JACKSON, JAMES, 132; 539.
JACKSON, DR. KATE, let. to A., 335.
JACOBI, MARY PUTNAM, petit. for wom. suff., 764;
ad. N. Y. Consti. Con., 768; 802;
ad. N. Y. legis., 914.
JAMES, ALVAN, marries A.'s niece, 652.
JAMES, HELEN LOUISE MOSHER, 488;
lives in home of A., 513; 552;
marries, family spirit, 652; 659;
present to Mary S. Anthony, 916.
JAMESON, JUDGE, agnst. wom. suff., 985.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, urged ballot for workingmen, 998.
JENKINS, DEAN M., four workers instead of one, 176.
JENKINS, HELEN PHILLEO, stands by A. at teachers' convs., 176.
JENKINS, THERESE, pres. A.'s lect., 823; 824.
JENNEY, MRS. E. S., 762.
JEWELL, POSTMASTER-GEN., 334.
JEWELL, MRS., 357.
JEX-BLAKE, DR. SOPHIA, A. visits, 570; 575.
JOHNS, LAURA M., in Kan. campn., 609; 625; 628; 629;
ad. Wash. con., 647;
trib. to A., 671;
in S. Dak. 685;
begs A. to come to Kan., she shall get no wounds there, 715;
renews appeals, 719;
at Kan. Repub. Con., 726;
makes Repub. speeches, 728;
Repubs. and Popu. pledg. to suff. planks, 777;
president Repub. Wom. St. Assn., puts wom. suff. first, 778;
Repubs. trying to influ., worried about asking for planks, 779;
officers of natl. assn. write no hope without planks, bad advisers,
Mr. Blackwell urges to go before Repub. res. com., 780;
Anna Shaw writes will not spk. unless polit. parties endorse, 781;
efficient campn. manager, tries to secure pl., but will work for
Repubs. anyhow, 783;
A. writes not to listen to siren tongues, 784;
angry at A.'s Kan. City speech, president Repub. Wom. Con.,
criticises res. com. for not demand. pl., 785;
presents claims of wom. to Repub. Con., 786;
Repub. per se., 793; 794;
thinks suff. amend. will win, 795;
favors res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 854.
JOHNSON, ADELAIDE, makes bust of A., 677;
makes busts of Mrs. Stn., Mrs. Mott, 713; 722.
JOHNSON, ANDREW, southern in sympathy, 255;
subscribes for Rev., 297;
trial not so important as A.'s, 444;
proclam. to Mississippi, 960;
puts power in hands of rebels, 961;
claims to carry out purpose of Lincoln, 967.
JOHNSON, GEORGE G., 49.
JOHNSON, GEORGE W., vigorous sentiments
on W. R., 73.
JOHNSON, MARY H., 676.
JOHNSON, OLIVER, 161; 162;
resigns editorship A. S. Standard, 246; 349.
JOHNSON, PHILENA, inv. A. to S. Dak., 656;
A. sends $100, 695.
JOHNSTON, SUP. JUDGE, opp. to suff. pl. in Kan. Rep. plat., 779;
begs wom. not to demand it, 782.
JOHNSTON, R. J., faithful to A. and Revolution, 360.
JOHNSTON, SARAH, gift to A., 976.
JONES, BENJ., Garrisonian speaker, 150.
JONES, BEVERLY W., inspector who registered A., 423.
JONES, FERNANDO, 380.
JONES, MRS. FERNANDO, 380; 446.
JONES, J. ELIZABETH, Garrisonian speaker, 150; 178; 902.
JONES, JANE GRAHAM, 541.
JONES, REV. JENKIN LLOYD, invites A. to take part in Lib. Relig.
Cong., 804;
as Geo. Wash. went into Continent. Cong., 805.
JONES, SEN. JOHN P., arranges interview for A. with Pres. Arthur, 538;
assists A. at Repub. con., 723; 833.
JONES, DR. JONAS, 730.
JONES, PHEBE HOAG, 446;
death, last Abolit. in Albany, 536.
JORDAN, PRES. DAVID S., invites A. to Stanford Univers., 830.
JUDAH, MARY JAMESON, recep. for A., 807.
JULIAN, GEO. W., endorses wom. suff., 284;
offers amend. to Consti. enfranchising wom., 310;
bill enfranchising wom. in D. C., 311; 313; 317; 318; 375; 415; 904.
KALLOCH, I. S., opposes wom. suff., 281.
KEARTLAND, FANNY, 553.
KEARNEY, DENNIS, opp. wom. suff., 518;
refuses to hear A. spk., 519.
KEEFER, BESSIE STARR, ad. Sen. Com., 640.
KEENEY, E. J., marshal who arrested A. for voting, 426.
KEIFER, WARREN, M. C., for wom. suff., 584.
KEITH, ELIZA D., suff. dept. in San Fr. Bulletin, 866.
KEITH, WM. A., presents A. with painting of Yosemite, 934.
KEITH, MRS. WM. A., entertains A., 877.
KELLEY, FLORENCE, 564.
KELLEY, WM. D., M. C., endorses wom. suff. 233; 564;
A. begs to take up suff. ques., 584;
ad. suff. con., 647.
KELLOGG, ST. SEN. AND MRS. (Kan.), 644.
KENYON, EUNICE, boarding school, 39.
KETCHAM, SMITH G. AND EMILY B., 720.
KEYSER, HARRIET A., ad. N. Y. Consti. Con. 768.
KIMBALL, FLORA M., 833.
KIMBALL, MARY ROGERS, let. to A., 616.
KING, THOMAS STARR, 191; 834.
KINGSLEY, CHARLES, for wom. suff., 368.
KIRK, ELEANOR, visits Moyamensing prison, 309; 349; 353.
KIRKMAN, MRS. VAN LEER, recep. Wom. Council, 928.
KOLLOCK, REV. FLORENCE, 640.
KOLSOM, MAYOR JACOB C., welcomes suff. con., 626.
KOLTZOFF, MASSALSKY PRINCESS, 558.
KORANY, HANNAH K., ad. suff. con., 756.
KROUT, MARY H., A. at World's Fair, 751.
KUICHLING, MRS. EMIL, 730.
LABOULAYE, funeral, 561.
LAKE, LEONORA BARRY (see Barry).
LAPHAM, ANSON, loans A. $4,000 for Revolution, 354;
presents A. with her notes, 448;
gives A. $1,000, 468;
death, 481.
LAPHAM, ELBRIDGE G., believes in wom. suff., no man wd. sell right to
vote, 455;
prints women's addresses, 512;
report in favor wom. suff., 543; 590; 591.
LAPHAM, SEMANTHA VAIL, 772; 802; 847.
LAMARTINE, ALPHONSE DE, "universal suff. only basis," 969.
LANE, SENATOR JAMES H., wd. "colonize" negroes, 962.
LANE, MRS. JAMES H., 287.
LANGSTON, CHAS., negro orator against wom. suff., 286.
LANGSTON, JOHN M., A.'s kindness to, 286.
LANGSBERG, RABBI MAX, 714; 730.
LANGSBERG, MRS. MAX, 730.
LATTIMORE, PROF. AND MRS., entertain F. E. Willard and A., 472.
LAUTERBACH, EDWARD, has ad. on wom. suff. printed, 768;
ad. N. Y. Consti. Con. in favor wom. suff., 770;
ad. res. com. Rep. con. in favor, 774; 802.
LAWRENCE, MARG. STN., 302;
at A.'s birthday banq., 666; 917.
LEASE, MARY E., advocates suff. pl. in Kan. Popu. plat., 781.
LECKY, W. E. H., 1006.
LEE, Ex-Gov., Wyoming, 533.
LEE, KATE BECKWITH, A.'s face carv. in memory of father, 733.
LEE, REV. LUTHER, assists wom. delegates at temp. con., 70.
LEE, RICHARD HENRY, 478.
LELAND, CYRUS, refuses A.'s offer to speak during Kan. campn.,794;
thinks suff. amend. will carry, 796.
LEMON, GEORGE C., 676.
LEONARD, CLARA T., office-holder opp. wom. suff., 620.
LEWELLING, GOV. L. D., opp. to wom. suff. pl. in Kan. Popu. plat., 787;
speaks for wom. suff., 795.
LEWIS, DIO., women must only coax, 457; 282.
LEWIS, SYLVESTER, challenges A.'s vote, 426.
LEYDEN, MARGARET, registers and votes, 424.
LIBERTIUS, FRAU DR., 559.
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, too conservative, 207;
calls for troops, 213;
Loyal League sends address, 229; 255; 900;
A. compared to, 952;
always waited for voice of the people, 967.
LINCOLN, FRANK, 566.
LINN, DR. AND MRS. S. A., 860.
LIPPINCOTT, ANNIE, 566.
LIVERMORE, MARY A., 276; 315;
trib. to A., 316;
advises N. E. friends to forget differences, will write articles for
Rev., 320; 322;
res. condemning "free love," 324;
asks if Natl. Assn. was organized, 327;
and if A. will join her in west. lect. tour, 328;
merges Agitator into Wom. Jour. and is ed.-in-chief, 361;
A. wd. give million to suff., 676.
LOCKWOOD, BELVA A., defends A. in voting, 432; 479.
LOCKWOOD, MARY S., 814.
LOGAN, SENATOR JOHN A., champions wom. rights com., 540;
friend of wom. suff., 594.
LOGAN, MRS. JOHN A., on A.'s birthday, 670.
LOGAN, OLIVE, 316; 322; 326; 360.
LOGAN, MILLIE BURTIS, 917.
LONG, JOHN D., receives con., favors wom. suff., 533.
LONGFELLOW, REV. SAMUEL, advocates wom. suff., 193.
LONGLEY, MRS. M. B., 327.
LORD, FRANCES, 566.
LORING, GEO. B., M. C., introd. bill for 16th Amend., 511.
LOUCKS, H. L., pledges A. support Farmer's Alliance for wom. suff.,
684;
candidate for gov., does not mention wom. suff., 686.
LOUGHRIDGE, WM., M. C., endorses wom. suff., 284;
reports in favor wom. suff., 382;
pres. A.'s appeal for remis. of fine for voting, 450.
LOWE, ROBT., M.P., opp. suff. for workingmen, and then proposes to
educate them, 997.
LOWELL, JOSEPHINE SHAW, petit. for wom. suff., 764; 802.
LOZIER, DR. CLEMENCE S., 234;
visits Moyamensing prison, 309; 349; 368;
faithfulness and generosity to A., 435; 446; 480; 495;
death, 645;
A. wears ring, 932;
let. and gift to A., on 50th birthday, 976.
LOZIER, DR. JENNIE DE LA M., 704.
LUCAS, MARGARET BRIGHT, 564; 565; 567; 576; 577;
on com. for internat. organization, 579.
LUCE, GOV. CYRUS G., introduces A., 617.
LUNDY, BENJAMIN, 935.
LUTHER, MARTIN, 559.
LYON, MARY, 706.
MACOMBER, MRS., greets natl. con. Iowa, 902.
MADISON, JAMES, voice in making laws, right of human nature, 979.
MAINE, HENRY C., spks. for suff., 762.
MAGUIRE, JAMES G., M. C., spks. for wom. suff. in Calif. campn., 874.
MANDERSON, MRS. CHAS. F., 660.
MANDEVILLE, REV., insults wom. delegates, 69.
MANN, CHARLES, pub. Vol. III Hist. Wom. Suff., 600.
MANN, REV. N. M., Garfield's relig., 536; 697.
MARSH, PRESIDENT, inv. A. to ad. Mt. Union Coll., 927.
MARSH, EDWIN F., inspector who reg. A., 423.
MARSH, HON. LUTHER R., pres. Repub. meet., 422.
MARTIN, GOV. JOHN A., signs Kan. munic. wom. suff. bill, 611.
MARTIN, GEORGE, ferries A. across Missouri river, 291.
MARTIN, ATTORNEY-GEN. LUTHER, each individ. equally free, 979.
MARTINEAU, HARRIET, A. visits home, 571.
MARVIN, WM., stands by A. at Teach. Con., 157.
MASON, MRS., in Neb., 545.
MASON, HUGH, M.P., presents wom. suff. bill in Parliament, 567.
MASON, REV. JOSEPH K., ad. suff. con., 762.
MASSON, PROF. DAVID, champions co-education, 570.
MATTHEWS, JUDGE STANLEY, constit. amendts. established polit. equal.
of all citizens, 991.
MAXWELL, CLAUDIA HOWARD, arr. suff. con., 810;
A. visits, 812.
MAY, REV. JOSEPH, 478.
MAY, SAMUEL J., friend of A., 58;
assists temp. women, 65;
encourages wom. dele. at Syracuse con., 69;
helps wom. meet., 70;
on wom. weak voices, 75;
audience at Albany refuses to hear, 108;
opp. Bloomer dress, 115;
comforting let. to A., 151;
congrat. A. on ad. on coëduca., 164; 208;
hissed at Roch., 209;
opp. Garrison meet. at Syracuse, 210;
but gives assistance, mobbed and burned in effigy, 211;
conducts funeral serv. D. Anthony, 224;
loyal to women, 270; 337; 350;
centennial birth. celebra., 927.
MAY, SAMUEL, JR., 132;
appoints A. agent for Am. Anti. Slav. Soc., 137;
recog. her ability, 148;
let. sympathy to A. when ill, 841.
MAYER, MRS. D. W., writes A. come to S. Dak., 682.
MAYNARD, COL. J. B., editorial in favor of wom. suff., 517.
MAYO, REV. A. D., on wom. rights, 73; 190;
tilt with A., 196.
MCADOW, CLARA L., 675.
MCBURNEY, REV. S. E., opp. wom. suff., 283.
MCCALL, JOHN A., let. to A., 136.
MCCANN, LUCY UNDERWOOD, indebtedness of women to A., 871.
MCCLINTOCK, MARY ANN, called first W. R. Con., 369.
MCCOID, MOSES A., rep. favor wom. suff., 590.
MCCOMAS, ALICE MOORE, praise for A., 862;
spks. for wom. suff. in Calif. campn., 875.
MCCOOK, GOV. AND MRS., of Colo., entertain A., 387.
MCCREADY, MRS., 131.
MCCULLOCH, CATHARINE WAUGH, 940.
MCCULLOCH, EX-SEC. HUGH, writes A., 704;
endors. wom. suff., 705.
MCDOWELL, ANNIE, trib. to A., 489;
dedicates song to her, 548.
MCDONALD, SEN. JOS. E., favors admit. woman to prac. before Sup.
Court, 502;
advocates com. on wom. rights, 527.
MCFARLAND, DANIEL, kills Richardson, acquitted on ground of insanity,
351; 353.
MCKAY, JUDGE, agnst. wom. suff., 985.
MCKEE, MRS., 405.
MCKENNA, LUKE, leads mob, 211.
MCLAREN, DR. AGNES, A. praises, 568.
MCLAREN, PRISCILLA BRIGHT, 565; 567;
loving let. to A., 569;
com. for internatl. organiza., 579.
MCLAREN, EVA MULLER, spks. at wom. suff. meet., 566.
MCLAUGHLIN, MAJOR FRANK, ch. Cal., Repub. Cent. Com. refuses wom.
suff. speakers place on Repub. plat. "too many bonnets," 883;
writes county chmn. to refuse them place, 884.
MCLEAN, AARON, takes Anthony family to Battenville, 17;
criticises A. for abolitionism, 39;
defends Van Buren, condemns Clay and Webster, 42;
marries A.'s sister, 43;
humorous letter on raspberry exper., 159.
MCLEAN, ANN ELIZA, trip with A., 218;
death, 241.
MCLEAN, GUELMA ANTHONY, born, 12;
marries Aaron McLean, 43;
registers and votes, 324;
death, 447.
MCLEAN, JUDGE JOHN, offers partnership to Mr. A., 17;
on rum drinking, 18.
MCLEAN, REV. JOHN K., 370;
in Yosemite, 393;
at Mirror Lake, 394;
invites A. and Miss Shaw into pulpit, 826.
MCLEAN, JOHN R., entertains A., 677.
MCLEAN, MRS. JOHN R., entertains A., 677;
recep. to A., 814;
70th birthday luncheon for Mrs. Grant, 858.
MCLEAN, THOMAS KING, death, 369.
MCLENDON, MRS. M. L., Atlanta Club, 811.
MCRAE, EMMA MONT, ad. Cong. Com., 511.
MCVICAR, MAYOR JOHN, welcomes natl. suff. con. Des Moines, 902.
MCVICKER, MRS., 824,
MEDILL, JOSEPH, trib. to A. in Chi. Tribune, 549; 572.
MEEKER, HON. EZRA V., 676.
MELLEN, MRS., 564; 565;
recep. to A. and Mrs. Stn., 566.
MELLEN, NATHANIEL, 566.
MELLISS, DAVID M., furnishes funds for The Revolution, 295;
stands by the paper, 299;
breakfast to A. and Mrs. Stn., 305; 308;
put $7,000 in Rev., 354.
MELLISS, ERNEST AND NORMAN, 407.
MENDENHALL, DINAH, death, leaves $1,000 to A., heirs refuse payment,
660.
MEREDITH, VIRGINIA C., 702.
MERIMAN, EMELIE J., 369.
MERIWETHER, ELIZABETH A., first appearance on Natl. plat., 607;
pres. Memphis Suff. Club, 807;
spks. Atlanta con., 811.
MERRIAM, MRS. A. B., 519.
MERRICK, JUDGE E. T., 597;
praise for A., 608; 807; 902.
MERRICK, CAROLINE E., 597;
ashamed of Sen. Eustis, let. to A., 608;
ad. suff. con., 639;
introd. A. in N. Orleans, 808.
MERRITT, MRS. JOHN J., 349.
MILBURN, REV. WM. HENRY, refuses represent. chamber to women, 118.
MILL, JOHN STUART, 337;
champions univers. suff. bill., 997.
MILLER, CAROLINE HALLOWELL, opp. res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 854.
MILLER, E. W., insulting sp. on wom. suff., 686;
disgraces Democ., 687.
MILLER, ELIZ. SMITH, first to wear Bloomer costume, 113; 304;
goes to Gov. Geary, 310; 327; 462;
visits Mrs. Osborne with A., 714; 762; 900; 918;
entertains A. and Mrs. Stn., 927.
MILLER, FLORENCE FENWICK, 564;
trib. to A. at World's Fair, 747.
MILLER, MR. AND MRS. LEWIS, 652.
MILLS, C. D. B., aids Garrison, meet., 211.
MILLS, HARRIET MAY, in N. Y. campn., 761; 773;
manages cons. in Calif., 864.
MILLS, W. H., 685.
MINOR, FRANCIS, first to claim wom. right to vote under Amend. XIV,
331; 338; 383;
argues before Sup. Court on woman's right to vote under Amend. XIV,
453;
death, 737.
MINOR, VIRGINIA L., pres. Mo. Assn., 315; 327;
claims wom. right to vote under Amend. XIV, 331; 383;
votes and carries case to Sup. Court, 453; 483;
gives A. compli. from W. Phillips, 494;
pres. suff. con., entertains A., 506;
in Neb. campn., 545; 546; 629;
tries to arr. for A. to ad. Catholics, 649; 659;
death, leaves A. $1,000, 803.
MITCHELL, SENATOR JOHN H., 406; 407;
mock trial on snow bound train, 408;
rep. in favor wom. suff., 502.
MITCHELL, MARIA, A. visits at Vassar, 622;
"too old to dare do nothing," 635;
death, 660.
MIXER, CAROLYN LOUISE, 679.
MOFFETT, MRS. P. A., 742.
MOORE, MRS. AND MRS. A. A., 877.
MOORE, E. M., fav. admit. wom. Roch. Univers., "boys are breadwinner,"
713;
gives A. medical certificate, 136;
spks. for suff., 762;
A. attends golden wedding, 929.
MOORE, REBECCA, 355;
Eng. corres. for Rev., 359; 560; 566; 567;
goes with A. to Edinburgh, 568.
MORGAN, GOV. E. D., signs Married Woman's Property Bill, 189.
MORGAN, JOHN T., SUP. JUDGE, Idaho, decides in favor wom. suff., 919.
MORGAN, JOHN T., SENATOR, opp. com. on wom. rights, 541.
MORSE, MRS. S. B., 349.
MORRILL, REV., 729.
MORRILL, GOV. E. N., 796; 797.
MORRIS, JUDGE, ESTHER, 479;
first wom. judge, 823.
MORRIS, HELEN LEWIS, 811.
MORRIS, DR. SARAH, 762.
MORTON, GOV. LEVI P., 561;
reappoints A. on board St. Indus. Sch., 731.
MORTON, SENATOR OLIVER P., argument for wom. suff., 500;
spks. on wom. suff., death, 501; 1014.
MOSHER, ARTHUR A., 598.
MOSHER, MRS. ARTHUR A., 598; 672.
MOSHER, EUGENE, marries A.'s sister, 46.
MOSHER, ANTHONY HANNAH, born, 12;
marries Eugene Mosher, 46;
registers and votes, 424;
recep. to inspect. of election, 453;
failing health, 487;
death, 488.
MOSHER, HELEN LOUISE (see James).
MOSHER, WENDELL PHILLIPS, marriage, 679.
MOTT, ABIGAIL, explains Unitarianism, 44; 58.
MOTT, ANNA C., friendship for A., 756.
MOTT, JAMES, at Syracuse W. R. Con., 72;
arranges suff. meet. in Phila., 119;
stands by women, 251; 756.
MOTT, LUCRETIA, Discourse on Women, 59;
pres. Syr. W. R. Con., opp. to woman as pres., first W. R. Con.,
72;
as mother, 76;
invites A. to visit, washes dishes and entertains guests, 122;
cheering let. to A., 130; 163;
confidence in A. and Mrs. Stn., 195;
Garrisonian and W. R. meet. at Albany, 212;
spks. Wom. Loyal League, 237;
opp. to disband. Anti-Slav. Soc., 246; 251;
trib. of Independent, 253;
parting words to con. in New York, 260;
true to woman's cause, 268; 303;
pres. first Wash. con., 313; 314;
A.'s unselfishness, 329;
adheres to Natl. Assn., 335;
Geo. Downing decl. man shd. dominate woman, 340;
goes to N. Y. conf. to unite suff. org., 346; 347; 348;
called first W. R. Con., 369;
gift to A., 370; 434;
sends A. money for law suit, 446;
pres. and spks. at wom. centennial meet. in Phila., drinks tea at
headqrs., 479;
sends tea and thanks to A., 480;
at 30th wom. rights annivers., 495;
attends last con., 496;
A.'s last sight of, 512;
death, character, 525;
memorial serv. at Wash. con., 526;
A.'s trib., 527;
suff. pioneer, 547; 549;
bust. by Ad. Johnson, 713; 854; 895; 915;
sentiment to bride and groom, 923; 934.
MOTT, LYDIA, 58; advises women to hold separate temp. meet., 65;
work in 1840-48, 82;
denies woman loses individuality in marriage, 170;
entertains reformers, 173;
in charge "depository," 199;
defends wronged mother, 200;
ministers to A., 202;
refuses to give up mother and child, 205;
old fraternity no more, 244; 246;
comforts A., 415;
dying, A. visits, 470;
death, A.'s tribute, 471; 536.
MOTT, REBECCA W., 260.
MOTT, RICHARD, staunch support of A., 756.
MOTT, RICHARD F., teacher Nine Partner's School, 8.
MOULSON, DEBORAH, school circular, 24;
school discipline, 28; 29; 30;
death, 31.
MOULTON, FRANK D., birthday gift to A., 976.
MULLIGAN, CHARLOTTE, 730.
MULLINOR, MR., on shipboard, 552.
MULLINOR, MR. AND MRS., entertain A., 575.
MULLER, MRS., meeting at house of, 555.
MULLER, HENRIETTA, 564; 565; 566;
takes A. to see Bernhardt, 567;
A. and Mrs. Stn's. visit, 576;
recep. for A., 577.
NAPOLEON I, A. thinks wd. have stood for freedom of women, 562;
A. compared to, 952;
"empire needs mothers," 1011.
NEBLETT, A. VIOLA, at Atlanta con., 811.
NELSON, JULIA B., in S. Dak. campn., 685;
at Neb. con., 697.
NEW, MRS. JOHN C., recep. for A., 517.
NEWMAN, BISHOP JOHN P., fav. wom. suff., 588.
NEWTON, REV. HEBER, favors wom. suff., 764
NEYMANN, MME. CLARA, in Neb. campn., 545;
first appearance on Natl. plat., 607; 628.
NICHOL, ELIZ. PEASE, A. visits, 568; 569; 570.
NICHOLS, CLARINA HOWARD, prophecy for A., 66;
injustice to wom. in divorce, 74; 93; 102; 178;
debt of Kan. women to, 480;
work on Hist. Wom. Suff., 529;
Kan. wom. give pict. to Hist., 530;
death, 595.
NICHOLS, SARAH HYATT, 720.
NICHOLSON, ELIZA J., 597.
NIGHTINGALE, FLORENCE, 239.
NOBLE, MRS. JOHN W., gives recep. in honor A., Mrs. Stn., L. Stone,
718.
NORDHOFF, CHAS., let. on A.'s birthday, 670.
NORTHROP, MRS., supports A.'s res. in Teach. Con., 100.
NORTHROP, PRES. CYRUS, introd. A. students Minnesota Univers., 929.
NYE, SENATOR JAS. W., endorses wom. suff., 284;
presides over suff. con., 377.
O'CONNOR, JOSEPH, 766.
OGLESBY, SENATOR R. J., insults women's petitions, 485.
OLIVER, REV. ANNA, 737.
OPDYKE, GEORGE, 329.
ORDWAY, EVELYN B., 808.
ORME, ELIZA, entertains A., England's first wom. lawyer, 564.
ORMOND, JUDGE JOHN J., offers to present suff. memorial in Ala. legis.
favors civil but not polit. rights for women, 183;
after raid on Harper's Ferry declares enmity, 184.
ORTH, G. S., M. C., ad. suff. con., 541.
ORR, ELDA A., pres. Nev. Assn. entertains A., 825;
New Years gift to A., 900.
OSBORNE, ELIZA WRIGHT, entertains A. and Eliz. Smith Miller, 714;
entertains A. and Mrs. Stn., 917.
OSCAR, PRINCE OF SWEDEN, 477.
OSGOOD, JULIA, travels with A., 569; 570; 573.
OTIS, BINA M., on Kan. wom. suff. com., 781.
OTIS, HARRISON G., disrespectful to A. and Miss Shaw, 834.
OTIS, JAMES, man without representation is without liberty, 989.
OWEN, J. J., ed. San Jose Mercury, compli. A., 394.
OWEN, RBT. DALE, supports Wom. Loyal League, chmn. Freedmen's Inquiry
Com., 235; 529.
OWEN, MRS. RBT. DALE, 349; 353.
OWEN, ROSAMOND DALE, 529.
PACKARD, HON. JASPER A., presents A. to Ind. Legis., 904.
PAINE, THOMAS, right of voting is primary right, 990.
PALMER, GEN. (Colorado), 564.
PALMER, GOV. (Ill.), 315.
PALMER, BERTHA HONORE, at Wom. Council, 702;
ad. at opening World's Fair, 742;
fine qualif. for pres. board lady manag., remark. record, courtesy
to A., 744;
in sympathy with wom. suff., pres. Wom. Cong. Auxil.,745;
asks A. for suggestions, 748;
thanks her for fair mindedness, 749.
PALMER, SENATOR T. W., rep. in favor wom. suff., 590; 591;
urges A. to keep up suff. agitation, 593;
masterly sp. on 16th Amend., 596; 637;
let. on A.'s birthday, 670.
PALMER, SENATOR AND MRS., recep. for Wom. Council, 637.
PARKER, JANE MARSH, at A.'s birthday banq., 666;
organizes club agnst. suff., 766.
PARKER, JULIA SMITH, ad. Cong. Com., 446; 511;
at Lucretia Mott's, 512.
PARKER, MARGARET E., at Phila. Centennial, 479; 565;
A. visits, 577;
com. for internatl. organization, 579.
PARKER, THEO., A. visits him in study, 131;
"only noise and dust of wagon," 195.
PATTERSON, MR. AND MRS. THOMAS M., entertain A. friends of wom.
suff., 821.
PATTON, ABBY HUTCHINSON (see Htchis'n.).
PATTON, LUDLOW, 260.
PATTON, REV. W. W., preaches agnst. wom. suff., 596.
PAYNE, SENATOR AND MRS., 677.
PEABODY, ELIZ., 131; 756.
PEASE, DR. R. W. AND HANNAH F., 211.
PECKHAM, LILIE, 327.
PECKHAM, JUSTICE, RUFUS W., pays fine trib. to charac. of A., 735.
PEDRO, DOM, 477.
PEFFER, SENATOR WILLIAM A., ad. suff. con., 756.
PEET, MRS. B. STURTEVANT, tries to sec. suff. amend. from Calif.
Legis., 863;
A. writes obj. to Natl. W. C. T. U. Con. in San Fr., 882.
PELLET, SARAH, at Saratoga con., 121.
PENCE, LAF., M. C., addresses suff. con., 756.
PENNOCK, DEBORAH, 601.
PERKINS, GEO. C., 685.
PERKINS, MARY (see Randall).
PERKINS, SARAH M., 628; 629.
PERRY, A. L., invites A. to Berkshire Hist. Soc. meet, 939.
PETERS, JUDGE, advoc. suff amend., 796.
PETERS, O. G. AND ALICE, 676.
PETTINGELL, ABBY L., 772.
PETTIGREW, SENATOR R. F., 676.
PHELPS, ELIZ. B., establishes Wom. Bureau, 320; 327; 341; 349;
gives up Wom. Bureau, 360; 480.
PHILLEO HELEN (see Jenkins).
PHILLIPS, WENDELL, visits Anthony home, 60;
goes with Antoinette Brown to World's Temp. Con., 101; 102;
opp. Bloomer dress, 115;
gives A. $50 for first canvass of N. Y., 122;
refuses to let her pay it back, 128; 131; 132;
spks. at N. Y. wom. rights con., 147; 162;
on gift of Jackson to wom. rights cause, 165;
approves A.'s N. Y. canvass, 171;
lashes the mob, 174;
prepares suff. memorial to legis., 175; 182; 185; 192; 193;
opp. divorce resolutions, 194;
attitude grieves A. and Mrs. Stn., 195;
praises A., 196; 197;
urges A. to restore child to father, 203;
can not feel for woman, 204;
declares for war, 214;
refuses check for lect., 217;
A. hoped wd. redeem pledge to woman, 225;
A. "salt of earth," 226; 233;
lively let. on A.'s getting Mrs. Stn. to invite him to speak, 237;
urges A. to return East, 244;
on disbanding Anti. Slav. Soc., 245;
elected pres. A. S. Soc., 246;
no freedom without ballot, objects to union of A. S. and W. R. Soc.,
256;
prevents the union, 259;
argues against trying to strike "male" from N. Y. consti., 261;
declines to sustain demands of women, 270;
refuses to give money from Jackson fund, 275;
endorses wom. suff., 284; 290;
bids woman stand aside, 300;
and wait for negro, 304;
gives preference to negro suff., 317;
wom. suff. intellectual theory, 323;
first meet. with A. since dif. of opinion on Amend. XIV, 370; 373;
will help toward Amend. XVI;
A. stands at head of suff. movement, 495;
replies to A.'s 70th birthday greet., faith in her, 538;
announces Eddy legacy to A., 539;
tells of suit to break will, 540; 548; 549;
Harvard ad., 557; 568; 577; death, 587; 593; 859; 985;
freedom without ballot is mockery, 990.
PHILLIPS, MRS. WENDELL, 219.
PICKLER, ALICE M., presents claims S. Dak., suff., 675;
works for wom. 688;
at Wash. con., 851.
PICKLER, J. A., M. C., response A.'s birthday banq., 666; 675;
stands by wom. suff., 688.
PILLSBURY, PARKER, visits Anthony home, 60;
facetious let. to L. Mott on A.'s work, 105; 150;
great eloquence, 152;
men's rights, 157; 162;
preaches in Rochester, 167;
on John Brown execution, 180;
spks. at John Brown meet., 181;
on divorce, 195;
ridicules Dall con., 196; 198;
let. of sympathy to A., 224;
urges A. to return East, 244;
on div. in Anti-Slav. Soc., 246;
resigns editorship of Standard, 262;
abused by N. Y. World, 264;
refuses to edit Standard unless it declares for women, 269;
loyal to women, 270;
Susan cd. extinguish argu. with thimble, 273; 290;
editor Revolution, 296; 297; 299; 301; 302; 309;
offers res. that Equal Rights Assn. be transferred to Union Suff.
Soc., 349;
work on Rev., 354;
"A. works like plantation of slaves," 356; 357;
faithful to Rev., 360;
"your meed of praise be sung over your grave," 363; 380;
at A.'s lect. in Chicago, 468; 535; 587;
urges A. to visit his home, 702;
symp. for A. when ill, 842;
A. visits, 895.
PILLSBURY, PARKER MRS., praises A., 535;
urges A. to visit her, 702; 895.
POMEROY, SENATOR S. C., 248;
contrib. money and franking privilege, 283:
endorses wom. suff., 284;
offers amend. to Fed. Constit. enfranchising women, 310;
opens first Wash. suff. con., 313; 317;
tells ladies they must accept every help in politics, 375;
pres. candidate, 594;
ballot for negro, 962;
gift and let. to A. on 50th birthday, 974.
POMEROY, MRS. S. C., birthday gift to A., 976.
POND, ASST. U. S. DIST. ATTY., examines A. for having voted, 427.
POND, MAJOR JAMES B., compli. A. and offers $100 for parlor lect., 896.
PORTER, MARIA G., A.'s friend, 104; 711;
90th birthday, 845;
death, 896.
PORTER, SAM. D., Pillsbury's adjectives, 181.
POST, AMALIA, secures suff. bill in Wyoming, 408;
suff. pioneer, 823.
POST, AMY, 195;
testimonial to A., 412;
at 30th suff. annivers., 495;
death, 660.
POST, ISAAC, home rendezvous for runaway slaves, 61.
POTTER, BISHOP H. C., for wom. suff., 764.
POTTER, BESSIE, makes statuette of A. and Mrs. Gross, 862.
POTTER, HELEN, famous impersonator, gift to A., 488; 548;
present to A., 549.
POWDERLY, HANNAH, on A.'s birthday, 671.
POWDERLY, TERENCE V., on A.'s birthday, 671;
invites A. to spk. at Omaha, 726.
POWELL, AARON, in Garrisonian meet., 150; 161;
mobbed, 165;
tries to give A.'s breakfast order, 177; 208;
deputized to give notice of union A. S. and W. R. Soc., 256;
refrains from doing so, 259;
editorial revision in Standard feared, 262;
full adv. rates for women's notices, 268.
POWELL, ELIZ. (see Bond).
POWELL, MAUDE, 566.
PLATT, SENATOR ORVILLE H., 699.
PLUMB, SENATOR P. B., opp. wom. suff., 281;
for wom. suff., 621.
PLUTARCH, "equality causes no war," 968.
PRIESTMAN, THE MISSES, A. visits, 577.
PRINCE, MAYOR (BOSTON), 519;
receives suff. con., 534.
PROUDFIT, ELIZABETH FORD, 612.
PRUYN, MRS. JOHN V. L., pres. remonstrants agnst. wom. suff., presents
res., 765.
PRYN, REV. ABRAM, ad. John Brown meet., 181.
PUGH, SARAH, first meets A., 122; 131; 246; 251;
appreciates A. and the Rev., 335; 340; 350;
sends gift to A., 412;
present to A., 416; 496; 527;
death, 595.
PULVER, MARY, registers and votes, 424;
votes again, 434.
PURINTON, MR. AND MRS. JAS. W., 624.
PURVIS, HARRIETT, 527.
PURVIS, ROBERT, 246;
demands equal rights for women, 257; 260;
willing to postpone own enfranch. in favor of women, 269;
loyal to women, 270;
rebukes son for opp. wom. suff., 314; 420; 527;
ad. at A.'s birthday recep. in Phila., 547;
presents testimonial from Natl. Suff. Assn., 548;
gift to A., 549;
A. writes on death of Phillips, 587; 664;
at A.'s birthday banq., 666;
let. from A. on Gladstone, 741.
PUTNAM, REBECCA SHEPARD, 234; 802.
QUARLES, RALPH P., SUP. JUDGE, Idaho, decides in favor wom. suff., 919.
QUAY, SENATOR MATTHEW S., 718.
QUINCY, EDWARD, 162.
RAINES, JUDGE THOMAS, for wom. suff., 762.
RAINSFORD, REV. W. S., signs petit. for wom. suff., 764.
RAMSEY, S. A., help of natl. assn. gives hope to S. Dak., 679.
RAMSEY, STATE SENATOR (N. Y.), 189.
RANDALL, SUPERINTENDENT, encourages A. in pub. speak., 143.
RANDALL, ANNA T., 342.
RANDALL, MARY PERKINS, teacher in Anthony home, 22; 394.
RANSOM, C. R., executor Eddy will, 539.
RAPER, J. H.,479.
READ, DANIEL, grandfather Susan B., ancestry, marriage, military
service, 4;
political record, religious belief, 5;
literary taste, business matters, 6;
sideboard well supplied, 15;
military rec. makes A. Daught. of Rev., 919.
READ, JOSHUA, rescues Mr. Anthony's goods from sheriff, 35;
protects sister's inheritance and pays for farm, 45;
invites A. to teach in Canajoharie, 49; 121.
READ, LUCY, (See Anthony).
READ, SUSANNAH RICHARDSON, grandmother Susan B., born, 4;
business qualities, 6.
REAGAN, JOHN H., M. C., opp. wom. suff., 585.
REASON, CHAS. L., 157.
REED, CHARLES WESLEY, brings in minor. rep. in fav. wom. suff. pl.
and makes fight for it in Calif. Demo. Con., 873.
REED, KITTY, let. greet. natl. suff. con., 902.
REED, THOS. B., champions wom. rights com., 540;
rep. favoring wom. suff., 590; 677;
let. on A.'s 70th birthday, 669;
"at 11th hr. all will flock in," 716;
fails to spk. for wom. suff. in Calif. campn., 885; 902; 677.
REID, WHITELAW, A.'s 50th birthday, 974.
REMOND, CHARLES LENOX, A. drives with, 131;
in Garrisonian meet., 150;
A. describes sp., 152; 246.
REMOND, SARAH, in Garrisonian meet., 150.
RESSE, COUNTESS DE, 558.
REVELS, SENATOR HIRAM, 243.
REYNOLDS, MRS., 780.
REYNOLDS, MARK W., invites Train to Kan., 287;
takes to woods, 288.
REYNOLDS, WM. A., 167; 279.
RICE, VICTOR M., stands by A. in St. Teach. Con., 120.
RICH, GOV. AND MRS. (WYOMING), 823.
RICHARDS, BISHOP (UTAH), 824.
RICHARDS, MR. AND MRS. F. S., 825.
RICHARDRON, MISS, 564.
RICHARDSON, ABBY SAGE, unhappy married life, ability, marries A. D.
Richardson, 351;
persecuted, public sentiment in her favor, 352;
meets A. in Denver, 492.
RICHARDSON, ALBERT D., killed by McFarland, married on his deathbed,
351.
RICHARDSON, MR. AND MRS. F. M., 832.
RICHARDSON, MAYOR SAMUEL, presides at temp. festival, Rochester, 62.
RICHARDSON, SUSANNAH (see Read).
RICHER, LEON, 562.
RIDDLE, JUDGE A. G., 337;
ad. House Com. for wom. suff., 376;
ad. Wash. Con. 377;
chief drawbacks to wom. suff., 455; 647; 660.
RIPLEY, GEO., 563.
RISTORI, A. hears, 558.
ROBINSON, GOV. CHARLES, 273;
endorses wom. suff., 284; 285;
takes Mrs. Stn. on speaking tour of Kan., 286; 287; 290.
ROBINSON, EMILY, wom. suff. pioneer, 722.
ROBINSON, HARRIET H., welcomes suff. con. to Boston, 533; 534.
ROBINSON, MARIUS, ed. Anti-Slav. Bugle, 722.
ROCHAMBEAU, COUNT, 477.
ROCKEFELLER, JOHN D., for wom. suff., 764.
ROGERS, NATHANIEL P., 616.
ROGERS, DR. SETH, Worcester Hydro. Institute, 131; 132;
let. agnst. individ. annihilat. in marriage, 135.
ROOT, EHIHU, opp. wom. suff. amend. in N. Y. Consti. Con., 767;
presents petit. agnst., 769;
supports it, 771.
ROOT, LIEUT.-GOV. J. P., let. A.'s 50th birthday, 974.
ROOT, FRANCIS T., responds for Ind. legis. at recep. for A., 904.
ROSE, ERNESTINE L., justice of wom. suff., 75;
interpretation of Bible, 77;
work in 1840-48, 82;
prejudice agnst. on acct. of religious beliefs, 117;
president suff. con., 121; 163; 185; 193;
favors divorce res., 194;
at Albany, 212;
patriotic speech Wom. Loyal League, 229; 237; 309;
repudiates "free love" res., 325; 327;
leaves for Eng., 329;
early work, 369;
back from Eng., 458; 530;
delight to see A. in Eng., 553; 554: 563;
death, 737;
never banished from suff. ass'n. because of religious belief, 853;
935.
ROSECRANS, MAJOR-GEN. WM. S., 233.
ROSEWATER, EDWARD, deb. suff. with A., 545.
ROSS, SENATOR E. G., franks wom. suff. documents, 283.
ROSS, JOHN W., welcomes suff. con., D. C., 756.
ROUTT, GOV. JOHN L., speaks for wom. suff., 491; 821.
ROUTT, MRS. JOHN L., entertains A. and Miss Shaw, 821.
ROWAN, ST. SENATOR, ad. natl. suff. con., 902.
RUSSELL. FRANCES E., assists Loyal League, 234;
writes for Rev., 359.
RYE, MISS, 555.
SAGE, RUSSELL, signs petit. for wom. suff., 764.
SAGE, MRS. RUSSELL, A. guest at Emma Willard dinner, 753.
ST. JOHN, COL. JOHN P., 496.
SALVADOR, A., ed. Le Soir, wishes to interview A., 561.
SANBORN, FRANK, approves wom. suff., 251;
speaks at suff. con., 533.
SANFORD, DR. AND MRS. J. E., 802; 806;
70th birthday recep. to Mary Anthony, 916.
SAND, GEORGE, 733;
"independence is happiness," 1008.
SANDERS, MRS. HENRY M., petit. for wom. suff., 764; 802.
SARGENT, A. A., declares for woman's rights, 405; 406; 407; 408;
presents A.'s appeal for remission of fine for voting, 450;
intercedes for inspectors, 452;
defends woman's petitions, 486; 495;
arg. for wom. suff., 500; 501;
favors admit. wom. to practice before Supreme Court, 502;
returns to Calif., friend of wom. suff., 507;
U. S. Minister to Berlin, 553;
genuine Repub., 559.
SARGENT, ELLA, 560.
SARGENT, ELLEN CLARK, entertains A. as guest, 405;
while snow bound on eastward journey, 406; 407; 480;
urges A. not to be troubled, 494; 495;
returns to Calif., personal characteris., 507; 509; 512; 553;
genuine Repub., 559;
asks Estee Chairman Natl. Repub. Con. if "free ballot" plank
includes women, 642;
work for S. Dak., 685;
entertains A. during Wom. Cong., 829;
gift to A. and Miss Shaw, 832;
made pres. Calif. Suff. Assn., 835;
asks A. to help in campn., 861;
directs it with A., 862;
on committees, 863;
entertains A. and Miss Shaw during campn., 864;
gives up entire home to work, her services and money, 865;
at Repub. St. Con., 869;
at Popu., Prohib. and Demo. Cons., 872; 888;
scenes in election booths, 891;
trib. to A.'s services in Calif., 892.
SARGENT, DR. ELIZ., A. visits in Zurich, 559;
in Yosemite with A., 831;
arrang. county cons. in Calif, campn., successful results, 864;
head of literary com. and petit. work, contributes money, 865;
suff. work on San Fr. Post, 866.
SARGENT, GEORGE, 408.
SARGENT, MR. AND MRS. JAMES, 772;
A. assists at golden wedding, 916;
entertain A. at Thous. Is., 926.
SAUNDERS, ALVIN, SENATOR, ad. suff. con., 541.
SAXE, REV. ASA, spks. for wom. suff., 762.
SAXON, ELIZABETH LYLE, ad. Cong. Com., 511;
in Neb. campn., 545;
in Kan. campn., 609; 808.
SAXTON, GEN. RUFUS, approves equal rights for women, 272;
negroes still enslaved, 964.
SCATCHERD, ALICE, secures admission wom. dele. to Lib. Con., 576;
com. for internatl. organizat., 579;
ad. Senate Com., 640.
SCHENCK, ELIZ. B., 327.
SCHIEFFELIN BROTHERS, 234.
SCHOFIELD, MARTHA, A. visits industrial school, 812.
SCHUMACHER, MR. AND MRS. ADOLPH, entertain A., 652.
SCHURMAN, PRES. JACOB GOULD, welcomes suff. con., invites to visit
Cornell, 800.
SCHURZ, CARL, opponent wom. suff., 415.
SCHUYLER, MARY M. HAMILTON, Art. Assn. desire to make statue rep.
Philanthropy, 734;
stepson obj. to having name coupled with A.'s, 735.
SCHUYLER, PHILIP, obj. to stepmother's statue by side of A., 734;
enjoins Art Assn., she wd. resent attempt to couple name with A.'s,
defeat in court of appeals, 735.
SCOTT, CHARLES F., urg. Mrs. Johns to call off women, 778.
SCOTT, FRANCIS M., ad. N. Y. Consti. Con. in opp. wom. suff., 769.
SEARS, JUDGE T. C., assails wom. suff., 281;
res. agnst. it, 283.
SEDGWICK, CATHARINE MARIA, born in Berkshire, 1.
SELDEN, HENRY. R., women have valid claim to vote, 425;
assures A. of this, 424;
tells her she has committed no crime, 426; 427;
appears for A. before U. S. Commiss., 428;
argues for writ of habeas corpus, gives bail for A., 432;
wishes he had heard her argument first, 433;
defends her at trial, 436;
argument before jury, 437;
demands jury be polled and moves for new trial, 439;
Judge Hunt's action indefensible, 441;
Van Voorhis' trib., 445;
A. has argument printed, 446;
prepares appeal to Cong. in A.'s case;
Hunt's action judicial outrage, 449; 994.
SENEY, GEO. E., M. C., opp. wom. suff., 590.
SEVERANCE, CAROLINE M., 131; 252; 260;
signs call for Am. Suff. Assn., 328;
entertains A., 832.
SEVERANCE, MRS. MARK SIBLEY, recep. for A., 833.
SEVERANCE, SARAH M., work for S. Dak., 685;
spks. for wom. suff. in Calif. campn., 875.
SEWALL, MAY WRIGHT, first app. on natl. suff. plat., 495;
presents flowers to A. at St. Louis, 507; 511;
arranges suff. con. Indpls., 517; 527;
presentation speech to A., 534;
chmn. natl. ex. com., 535;
appears bef. House Com., 541; 545;
description of honors paid A. on departure for Europe, 547;
A. at New Orleans Expo., 597;
applies lash to own back, 600;
entertains A., 623; 626;
chmn. com. on union of two assns., 628; 629;
skill as pres. offic., 632;
arranges internat. council, 633;
originates idea of permanent Councils, 639;
made cor. sec., 641;
open let. to Gen. Harrison, 642;
introduces A. to Classical School, 650;
arranges birthday banq. for A., 664;
presides, 665; 676;
A. visits, 698;
present to A., 707;
at Fed. of Clubs, 720; 721;
spks. at Rochester, 740;
at opening World's Fair, 742;
ch. com. org. Wom. Cong., A. glories in her work, 745;
A.'s popularity at World's Fair, 746;
entertains A. during World's Fair, 750;
presides at lunch to Internat. Council, 751; 821; 841;
wants A. to manage Stn.'s birthday, 847;
death of husband, A.'s sympathy, 850;
receives State officials in honor of A., 903;
at Anthony homestead, 940;
at Berk. Hist, meet., 944;
A.'s character, 950;
open let. to Gen. Harrison on "free ballot" pl. in Repub. plat.,
1013.
SEWALL, SAMUEL E., endorses wom. suff., 284; 373;
birthday gift to A., 976.
SEWALL, MRS. SAMUEL E., congratulat. let. to A., 640;
birthday gift to A., 976.
SEWALL, THEODORE L., at World's Fair, 750;
death, 850.
SEWARD, MRS. W. H., favors divorce, 195.
SEYMOUR, GOV. HORATIO, heads opposit. to A. S. meet., 210;
ad. Demo. mass meet. N. Y., 305;
pres. Natl. Demo. Con., 306.
SEYMOUR, HORATIO, JR., leads disturbance at A. S. meet., 208.
SEYMOUR, MARY F., reports wom. council, 637;
death, 757.
SHAFROTH, MRS. JOHN F., at Wash. con., 851.
SHARKEY, WM. L., Provis. Gov. Miss., 961.
SHARSWOOD, JUDGE, agnst. wom. suff., 985.
SHATTUCK, HARRIETTE ROBINSON, spks. at suff. con. Boston, 533; 541;
in Neb. campn., 545; 628.
SHAW, REV. ANNA HOWARD, in Kan., 625; 629;
accepts proposals for union, 630; 636;
beginning of friendship with A., 645;
first appears on Natl. plat., 647; 652;
at A.'s birthday banq., 665;
appeal for S. Dak., 675; 676;
must not attack Christian relig., 678;
goes to S. Dak., 681;
writes A. people anxious for her to come, 682;
scores State com., better not cut loose from A., 683; 684;
at Repub. con. seats for Indians, none for wom., 687;
rebukes con., in Black Hills, 688;
gets courage from A., longs for mother, 689;
A.'s experience with crying baby, 692;
her own experience, A.'s retort in case of drunken man, 693;
at Deadwood, 694;
hardest campn. ever known, 696;
at Rochester, 698;
first pres. Wimodaughsis, 700;
at Wom. Council, 702;
christens Avery baby, 705;
present to A., 707;
in Adirondacks, 708; at Chautauqua, 709;
J. H. Buckley's obj. to wom. suff. from relig. standpoint, 710;
at West. N. Y. Fair, 711;
vice-pres.-at-large Natl. Am. Assn., 717;
in Kan. campn., 719;
shut out of churches bec. spoke at spiritual meet., will speak on
suff. anywhere, 720;
at Kan. Repub. con., at Omaha Popu. con., 726;
deb. suff. with Dr. Buckley at Chau., 727;
recep. at Hall of Philos., 728;
spks. in N. Y. campn., 761;
will not work for wom. suff. in Kan. unless politic. part. endorse
it, weakness of wom., 781;
opens campn. in Kan. City, 784;
demands Repub. Wom. con., ask for suff. plank, 785;
ad. res. com. at Repub. St. con., 786;
ad. suff. mass. meet. in Topeka, 787;
ad. Popu. St. con., 789;
shakes hands with dele., telegram Kan. Prohib. con. adopts wom. suff.
plank, 790;
finishes Kan. engagements, 792; 793;
Mrs. Diggs urges return to Kan., 795;
in Atlanta, 811;
in Columbus, 812;
invit. to Calif. Wom. Cong., 820;
at Chi. St. Louis, Denver, entertained by Gov. and Mrs. Routt, 821;
enthusiastic greet. in Broadway Thea., 823;
preaches Tabernacle, Salt Lake, "politic. sermon," 824;
preaches in theater; at Inter-Mount. Suff. Assn., receptions, banq.
in Ogden, at Reno, Nev., 825;
spks. in theat., in Calif., at Oakland ferry, in Dr. McLean's
pulpit, 826;
in Congreg. church San Fr., at Wom. Cong., 827;
spks. every day, royal welcome, 828;
all in love with, preaches in synagogue, helps org. suff. campn.,
829;
ad. Congreg. ministers' meet., Unit. Club dinner, Stanford Univers.,
830;
social courtesies, Yosemite, names big tree S. B. A., at San Jose,
831;
Los Angeles, Riverside, Pasadena, Pomona, San Diego, 832;
Olivewood, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, 833;
spks. in Oakland, in Method. ch., San Fr., at ministers' meet., 834;
meets with Calif. Suff. Assn., 835;
4th July com. refuse to let spk., reconsider, she rides in proces.
and makes sp., 836;
goes to Oakland, can not find audience, starts homeward, 837;
goes to Chicago, 839;
stricken with fever, 840;
favors res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 854;
spks. at county cons. in Calif., in Sargent residence, 864;
at Repub. St. Con., 869;
bef. res. com., 871;
ad. Dem. res. com. for two min., 873;
scores con. for action on wom. suff. pl., at ratificat. meet. in San
Fr., 874;
spks. every night dur. campn. and donates serv. of sec., 875; 883;
at "Tom Reed" rally, Oakland, 885;
photo. given for pledges, 889;
at Salt Lake, Kan. City, banq. at Roch., 895;
R. I. suff. con., 896;
A's 77th birthday, 907;
present to Mary Anthony, 916;
visits Mrs. Osborne, 917;
A.'s letters like Paul's Epistles, 924;
spks. at western conferences, 929;
at Anthony homestead, 940;
at A.'s right hand, 942;
at Berk. Hist. meet., trib. to A., her belief in men and women,
great, ideal life, 945.
SHAW, FRANCIS G., gives A. $100 for Rev., 355.
SHAW, SARAH B., 282.
SHELDON, ELLEN H., serv. for Natl. Assn., 700.
SHIPPEN, REV. RUSH R., ad. suff. con., 607.
SHERMAN, GEN. WM. T., 249.
SHERMAN, MRS. GEN., agnst. wom. suff., 377.
SIMONTON, J. W., at press dinner, 316.
SIMPSON, JERRY, M. C., ad. suff. con. 756.
SIMPSON, BISHOP MATTHEW, 337; favors wom. suff., 588.
SIZER, NELSON, phrenolog. chart of A., 85.
SKIDMORE, MR. AND MRS. THOS. J., hospitality, love of liberty, 710.
SLAYTON (Lect. Bureau), tells A. she has ruined lect. prospects, 468;
cempli. circular of A.'s lect., 486.
SLOCUM, MRS., interviews Gen. Hancock, 520.
SMALLEY, GEO. W., 246.
SMITH, ABBY, 446.
SMITH, MRS. E. O., at Calif. Dem. Con., 872.
SMITH, ELIZ. OAKES, at Syracuse W. R. Con., 72; 316;
death, 756.
SMITH, MR. AND MRS. FRANK M., entertain A., 877.
SMITH, JUDGE G. W., agnst. wom. suff., 283.
SMITH, GERRIT, suff. greatest of all rights, 75;
one standard of morals, 93;
advocates Bloomer costume, 113;
in Cong., 118;
wom. must get rid of poverty and disabling dress, 147;
sleeps in church, 179;
insane, 181;
Garrison. meet. at Albany, 212;
donation Loyal League, 234; 270; 279;
endorses wom. suff., 284;
bids wom. stand aside for negro, 300;
"nothing to fear from women," 301; 350;
helps A. pay expenses of trial, 446;
death, 467;
gave land to negroes, 708; 935.
SMITH, MRS. GERRIT, vice-pres. Wom. Temp. Con., 67.
SMITH, GOLDWIN, opp. wom. suff., 698.
SMITH, HANNAH WHITALL, 541.
SMITH, JULIA (see Parker).
SMITH, LEWIA C., testimonial to Judge Selden, 446;
testimonial and gift for A., 558.
SMITH, MRS. M. F., 808.
SMITH, MRS. NICHOLAS, 327.
SOLOMONS, SELINA, poem to A., 881.
SOMERSET, LADY HENRY, approves A.'s bust, 722;
farewell teleg. to A., 729;
A. has true sign of greatness, endorses her sp. on temp. at World's
Fair, 747;
in Twilight Park, 773;
at Repub. Con., Saratoga, 774.
SOMERVILLE, MARY, endorses wom. suff., 368.
SORBIER, MADAME, tries to sec. suff. amend. from Calif. Legis., 863.
SOULE, REV. DR., 550.
SOUTHWICK, SARAH, 902.
SOUTHWORTH, LOUISA, 623;
entertains bus. com. natl. suff. assn., leading suff. rep.,
friendship and generosity to A. and to assn., 801;
cares for A. in illness, 840.
SPENCE, CATHERINE H., ad. suff. con., 756.
SPENCER (JUDGE) MRS., tries to sec. suff. amend. from Calif. Legis.,
863.
SPENCER, REV. ANNA GARLIN, speaks at suff. con., 533, 702.
SPENCER, SARA ANDREWS, engrosses Wom. Dec. of Ind., 478; 479;
petit. work, 484; 495;
strong res. at Natl. Con., 499.
SPERRY, GEORGE B., 831.
SPERRY, MRS. AUSTIN, treas. wom. suff. campn., com. in Calif., 863;
at Repub. St. Con., 869;
treas. Suff. Assn., valuable assistance, 888.
SPOFFORD, MR. AND MRS., welcome A., 701;
leave Riggs House, 705.
SPOFFORD, JANE S., elect. treas. Natl. Suff. Assn., 407;
hospitality to A., 512;
A. writes to give up con., 526; 527;
Albany people shd. take A. in their arms, 536;
A.'s let. on shipboard, 551;
let. from A., 562; 629; 632; 633; 643;
thoughtfulness for A., 672; 676; 679;
pays S. Dak. bills, 680;
recep. to Wom. Council, 702;
valu. assist. to A., 743.
SQUIER, ELLEN HOXIE, 653; 802.
SQUIER, LUCIEN, 653.
SPRAGUE, HOMER B., 337.
SPRAKER, LIVINGSTON, 49.
SPRINGER, WM. M., M. C., obj. to admit. Wy. with wom. suff., 698.
STAMBACH, DR. IDA, entertains A., 881.
STAFFORD, COL., 4.
STAFFORD, BROWN, 121.
STAFFORD, JOHN, 121.
STANFORD, JANE L., 607; 660;
A. in private car, case before Supreme Court, 824;
sends passes to A. and Miss Shaw, and invites to first graduates'
reception, 830;
trib. of self and husb. to A. and Mrs. Stn., 850; 851;
belief in wom. suff. 876;
assist. in Calif. wom. suff. campn., 888.
STANFORD, SENATOR LELAND, sends A. and Mrs. Stn. passes, 390;
keen perceptions, 607;
in favor Amend. XVI, 621;
contrib. S. Dak., 676;
death, 756;
appreciates A. and Mrs. Stn., predicts advancement of woman, 851.
STANFORD, SENATOR AND MRS., recep. to Wom. Council, 637.
STANSBURY, L. M., 780.
STANTON, ELIZABETH CADY, first impression of A., 64;
advice to pub. speakers, writes to please self, 66;
elected pres. State Temp. Con., 67;
divorce and practical relig., 68;
opp. to woman as pres. of first con., 72;
co-education, bondage of relig., 73;
as mother, 76;
work in 1840-'48, 82;
woman's right to speak in public, 92;
admit men to Woman's Temp. Soc., 94;
objected to as pres. of society, 95;
ad. N. Y. Legis., 108;
appeal for rights of women, 110;
Bloomer costume, 113;
renounces it, 115;
drawbacks to her efforts for women, 130;
takes turns with A. in writing and baby-tending, 142;
congrat. A. on stirring up teachers, 157;
appeals for equal rights, 175;
martyrdom of John Brown, what she will say to St. Peter, 181; 185;
will obey Napoleon, 187;
describes A. and self working together, 188;
ad. N. Y. legis., 189;
declares for divorce, 193;
replies to Greeley, Luc. Mott approves, 195;
blows struck at men's stronghold, 196;
on divorce at Friends' meet., 197;
offers to help A. on agricult. sp., 199; 208;
hissed at Roch. anti-slav. meet., 209;
Garrisonian meet at Albany, 212;
on "Adam Bede," prepares anti-slav. ad., 217; 221;
call for Loyal League, 226;
spks. for League, 227;
pres. League, 229; 234;
lively let. from Phillips, 237;
humiliation of women at seeing negro placed above their heads, 239;
love for A., 244; 246; 249;
petit. Cong. for wom. suff., 250;
urges women to work for suff., 251; 253;
sounds alarm when men show signs of treachery, 256;
eloquent demand for wom. suff., 257; 259;
last moments of con., 260;
influenced by eloquence of Phillips and Tilton but repudiates it,
261;
easily psychologized, 262;
compliments Democrats, 263;
ridiculed by N. Y. World, 264; 265;
will sign every petit. if necessary, scores "old guard," 268;
protests agnst. negro's receiv. rights denied women, 269;
comes to meetings rested and refreshed, ad. joint coms. of N. Y.
legis. on new constit., 273;
memorial to Cong., 277;
before N. Y. Consti. Con., 278; 279;
encounter with Greeley, name forbidden in Tribune, 280; 282;
goes into Kansas campn., 283;
unpleasant nights, 284;
homage for her talents, 285;
tour of Kan. with ex-Gov. Robinson, 286;
invites Train to assist, 287; 290;
arranges lect. tour with Train, at polls, 291;
praised by Leav. Commercial, 292;
admiration of Mr. Train, defers to A.'s judgment, tour with A. and
Train, 293;
censured and repudiated by friends for alliance with Train, claims
right to accept his aid for wom. suff., 294;
begins The Revolution, abuse of N. Y. Times, 295;
comment N. Y. Independent, Cin'ti Enquirer, 296;
descrip. of Revolution, wom. have lost self-respect, 297;
defends The Revolution, 298;
on desire to edit paper, 299;
objects to treatment by Equal Rights Assn., Revolution an individ.
matter, 300;
described by Nellie Hutchinson, 302;
presides at Equal Rights Assn., 303;
Blackwell praises work in Kan., independent com. formed, 304;
attends Demo. mass meet. in N. Y., comment of Sun, 305;
attends Natl. Demo. Con. in Tammany Hall, 306;
finishes home at Tenafly, 308; 309;
goes to Gov. Geary in behalf of Hester Vaughan, 310; 314;
western tour, 315; 316;
almost alone in demanding word "sex" in Fifteenth Amend., 318;
writes old friends to ignore the past, 320;
presides Equal Rights Assn., 322;
presides Natl. Suff. Assn., 327; 328;
describes Newport con., 329; 330;
forms friendship with Mrs. Hooker, 332; 337;
ad. Cong. com., 338; 339;
described by Mary Clemmer, 340; 343; 344;
urges union of suff. orgz'tns and offers to resign office, 347;
forbids use of name for pres., women protest, at Apollo Hall con.,
at dissolut. of Equal Rights Assn., 348; 349;
mass meeting in McFarland-Richardson case, 352;
beautiful appearance, 353;
no salary on Revolution, 354;
objects to change name of Rev., "Rosebud" will not answer, 357; 358;
declines to serve longer as editor, 360;
urges A. to roll load off her shoulders, 361; 362; 366; 368;
work in 1845, called first W. R. con., 369;
wants A. for pres. of assn. but willing to exalt Mrs. Hooker, 371;
sends $100 to Wash. con., 372;
bet. two fires, 374;
answers men who object to Mrs. Woodhull, 379;
no faith in Repub. party, 382;
supports Mrs Woodhull, 383;
chmn. Natl. com., 384;
starts to Calif., 387;
bliss in marriage if both equals, 388;
first sp. in San Fr., visits Mrs. Fair in jail, 390;
sympathizes with her, goes to Yosemite, 392;
can not mount pony, hard trip, 393; 396;
ad. Sen. com., 410;
call for forming new party, 413;
criticises A., 414;
let. to N. Y. World urging Demo. to stand by women, 416;
let. from Cochran, 418;
not grateful to Repubs., "white mules turn long ears," 420;
spks. on Repub. plat. in N. Y., 422;
defends A. in voting, 432; 434;
annual protest agnst. Wash. con., 467;
objects to A.'s lecture on Social Purity, 468;
opens Centennial headqrs., 475;
prepares wom. Dec. of Ind., 476;
refused permis. to read Dec., 477;
evils of manhood suff., 479;
begins Hist. of Wom. Suff., 480;
at Mrs. Davis' funeral, 481;
appeal for 16th Amend., 483;
hates lecturing, thankful for abuse, friendship for A., 488;
her children's love for A., 489;
prayer-meet. in Cap. at Wash., 494; 495;
re-elect. pres. Natl. Assn., 496;
strong res. at Natl. Con., 499;
ad. to Pres. Hayes, 500; 507;
corres. editor Ballot-Box, 510;
writes res. and ad., 516;
work on Hist., 524;
tries to vote, 525;
A. compels to attend cons., pres. at Wash. con., 526;
eulogy on Luc. Mott, 527; 528;
valuable work on Hist. Wom. Suff., 531;
present is time to write history, 532;
entertainment by Bird Club, Boston, 534;
illness, fears of not finish. history, 537; 540; 541;
sails for Europe, 543;
always strength to A., 544;
urges A. to come to Eng., 546; 547; 549; 553;
calls on Channing in Eng., 554; 564;
spks. at Prince's Hall, 565;
spks. at St. James Hall, 566;
advises suff. for married women, 568;
Mrs. McLaren appreciates, 569; 575; 576; 577;
confidence of Eng. women, 579;
open let. on Douglass marriage, 585;
prepares natl. con. report, begins work on Vol. III Hist. of Wom.
Suff., 592;
advises women to work for Rep. party, 594;
res. denounc. dogmas and creeds, 595;
rebukes Rev. Patton for sermon agnst. woman suff., upholds A.'s
remarks, 596;
work on Hist. Wom. Suff., 599;
ease-loving nature, A. urges to work, Mrs. Sewall pities,
"exercises by lying down," 600;
women complain of use of "blue pencil," 601;
70th birthday, "Pleasures of old age," let. H. Stanton Blatch., 602;
æsthetic cons., 605;
revises History proofs, sells rights to A., fine ability, 613;
adv. A. to burn old letters, 625;
advised not to take presidency united assns., 628; 629;
willing to decline, but lets. insist she shall take presidency, 630;
A. spks. in her favor, 631;
elect. pres., 632; 633;
friendship for A., coming back to Amer. to do best work, 635;
dreads ocean trip, can not come to Council, A. brings her and shuts
her up to write sp., 636;
at recep. for Wom. Council, 637;
trib. of Fr. Willard, 638;
ad. Sen. com., 640; 642; 654; 659; 664;
looks like Lord Chief. Just., 665;
response at A.'s birthday banq., thorn in side, meets A. in London,
oblig. to her, 667;
inspiration to A., 668;
A. will have her under thumb, ad. Cong. Coms., presides Natl. Am.
Assn., 674;
honored to go abroad as its represent., farewell, 675;
The Matriarchate, 702; 703;
re-elect. pres. natl. assn., 704;
keep home and be cremat. in own oven, 707;
returns to Amer., A. urges to make home with her and prepare
writings for posterity, 712;
goes for month's visit to A., sits for bust by Ad. Johnson, sp. in
favor opening Roch. Univers. to women, cartoon in Utica paper, 713;
settled in N. Y., children urge to give up work, paper on Solitude
of Self, ovation at con., begs scepter be transfer. to A., elect.
hon. pres. natl. assn., last app. at Wash. con., 717;
ad. Cong. Coms., recep. in Wash., 718; 719; 729;
trib. to disting. dead, 737;
natl. com. sends greet. to, 739;
paper for Educat. Cong. World's Fair, 751;
ad. to N. Y. women contrib. to Sun, 763;
prep. call for natl. con., 801;
cosy home, 802;
thanks A. for read. her papers, 811;
memorial to Fred. Douglass, 814;
A. visits to tell about cons., etc., 815;
portrait at Utah Con., 825;
let. sympathy to A., 842;
80th birthday, 845;
all wom. shd. pay tribute, 846;
birthday sp., 847;
magnific. fête, Tilton's testimonial, 848;
recep. by Mrs. H. Villard, birthday celebrat. in Roch., 849;
extolled by Sen. Stanford, 851;
prepares Woman's Bible, res. agnst. introd. in natl. suff. con., 852;
always announc. to be her individ. work, 853;
always in advance of times, A. defends her, 854;
urges that she and A. resign office, 855;
A. tells her she is talking down to people in her Bible commentary,
856;
and says suff. wd. take women out of relig. bigotry, urges not to
send Bible literature to Calif., 857;
women only class left to fight battles alone, 879;
A. wishes she were young and strong, 880; 896; 915;
at Mrs. Osborne's, 917;
A. writes of Mrs. Besant and Theosophy, 918;
at Geneva, 927; pict. in Anthony parlor, 934;
A.'s magnanimity, honesty, heroism, tenderness, "to be wedded to an
idea may be holiest and happiest of marriages," dedicates
Reminiscences, 951;
to "my steadfast friend.," 952;
ad. to Pres. Lincoln, "free women as you have slaves," 957;
ad. to Cong., eloquent demand for woman's enfranchisement, 968;
birthday gift to A., 976;
Repubs. will lose power to protect black men in right to vote, 1016.
STANTON, MR. AND MRS. GERRIT, 654.
STANTON, HARRIOT, (See Blatch).
STANTON, HENRY B., on condition of country, urges A. to gird on armor,
226.
STANTON, MRS. HENRY B., Greeley's revenge, 280; 972.
STANTON, THEODORE AND MARGUERITE, 532;
take A. to Chamber of Deputies, to St. Cloud, to station, 561.
STARRETT, HELEN EKIN, compares A. and Mrs. S. when in Kan., 273;
how A. won all hearts, 285; 287.
STARRETT, REV. WM., 287.
STEARNS, JUDGE J. B., introd. A., 656; 902.
STEARNS, SARAH BURGER, 656.
STEBBINS, GILES AND CATHARINE F., old friends of A., 658;
visit A., 711;
golden wed., 896.
STEBBINS, REV. H. H., for wom. suff., 762.
STEBBINS, DR. HORATIO, 830.
STEPHENS, PROF. KATE, in Germany, 560.
STETSON, CHARLOTTE PERKINS, opp. res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 854;
visits A. and spks. in Rochester, 901.
STERN, JUDGE, ad. wom. suff. con., 762.
STEVENS, THADDEUS, tries to have women included in Amend. XIV, 250;
bids women stand aside for negro, 267; 318;
elective franchise inalienable right, 979;
Amendment XIV, 1016.
STEVENSON, DR. SARAH HACKETT, at Fed. Clubs, 720;
let. from A. on maternity hospital, 843.
STILLMAN, JAS. W., 350.
STEWART, SEN. WM., favors wom. suff., 500.
STOCKER, ALICE M., Calif. Dem. Con., 872.
STONE, LUCINDA HINSDALE, 379.
STONE, LUCY, first meets A., 64;
unjust laws for women, 73;
does not favor Maine law, 81; 87; 90;
on divorce, 93;
assists Whole World Temp. Con., 96;
commends A., praises Channing, 111;
writes A. regarding Bloomers, 115;
defends costume, but abandons it, 116;
marries, 128;
playful letter on marriage, 130;
will retire from public work, 135; 139;
encourages A. to speak in public, 145;
shows legal posit. of women, has faith in A., 146;
pres. N. Y. con., 147;
sympathetic let., 151;
care of children, 162;
trustee of Jackson fund, 165;
wd. use Hovey fund for test cases, 171; 185;
opp. divorce res., 195;
pres. Loyal League meet., 229; 234;
petit. for Cong. action, 250; 253;
favors union of A. S. and W. R. Soc., 256;
abused by N. Y. World, 264;
campn. in Kan., money from Jackson fund for it, treachery of Repub.
Com., censures Tribune and Independent, 275; 281;
wants Mrs. Stn. to edit paper, 299;
A. desires her to edit paper, 300; 303;
Repub. party false unless it protects woman, 304;
repudiates "free love" res., 325; 328;
chmn. ex. com. Am. Suff. Assn., 329;
for dissolution of E. R. Assn., 349;
asst. ed. Wom. Jour., 361;
early work, 369;
asks A.'s attitude toward parties, 497;
Eddy legacy, 539; 540;
on com. for union of two assns., 627;
meets A. in Boston, submits plan, 628;
appoints conf. com., 629; 630;
chmn. ex. com. united assns., 632; 634;
at recep. for Wom. Council, 637;
trib. of Fr. Willard, 638;
let. on A. birthday, 668;
let. greet. Natl. Am. Con., 675;
authoriz. A. to sign name, 676;
requests women celebrate admiss. Wyoming, 699;
invites A. to Mass. suff. annivers., sympathizes with illness, 701;
at Wom. Council, had stood beside A. on many a battlefield, 703;
hon. pres. Natl. Am. Assn., 717;
at recep. in Wash., 718; 729;
last let. to natl. con., greeting sent her, 738;
memorial serv. at Wash. con., 756; 935.
STORRS, WM. C., U. S. Commissr., 426;
examines A. for having voted, 427.
STOUT, IRA, 164.
STOWE, CALVIN E., endorses wom. suff., 284.
STOWE, DR. EMILY H., 658.
STOWE, HARRIET BEECHER, will help Revolution, 356;
gives name as ed., later declines, 358; 360; 548; 902; 935.
STRATTON, SEN. AND MRS. FRED., entertain A., 877.
STRONG, HARRIET R., 832.
STUDWELL, EDWIN A., 349; 368.
STUDWELL, MRS. EDWIN A., 349.
SULLIVAN, ISAAC N., _Sup. Judge_, Idaho, decides in favor wom. suff.,
919.
SULLIVAN, MARGARET B., on shipboard with A., 579.
SUMNER, CHAS., work for emancip., 226;
presents petit. for emancip. in Senate, 235;
writes A. must "blast idea of property in man," 236;
acknowl. indebtedness to A., 238;
efforts to omit "male" in Amend. XIV, 256;
L. M. Child's petit. "inopportune," 265;
concedes right to disfranchise taxpayers, 269;
bids women stand aside, 300; 317;
interested in suff. hearing, 339; 373;
did not realize women felt degredat. of disfranchise, 411;
never a public word for woman, 456;
ext. from great sp., 968;
all citizens entitled to equal rights, 979;
no doubt but women have constit. right to vote, 981; 1014;
negro enfranchisement, 1015;
wrote 19 pp. foolscap to keep "male" out of Amend. XIV, 1016.
SUNDERLAND, REV. BYRON S., attacks W. R. women, 79.
SUTRO, MAYOR ADOLPH, welcomes Wom. Cong., San Fr., 827.
SWEET, ADA C., 607.
SWEET, EMMA B., priv. sec. to A., 843;
goes with her to Calif., 862;
in the campn., 892.
SWIFT, JOHN F., 892.
SWIFT, MARY WOOD, on Calif. wom. suff.
campn. coms., 863;
at Repub. St. Con., 869;
pres. Century Club, entertains A., 876;
elect. pres. Calif. Suff. Assn., 892;
valuable services, 893.
SWIFT, RICHARD L., mob at A. S. meet., 209.
SWING, DAVID, quotation from, 667.
TAFT, LORADO, bust of A., sex nothing to do with art, 721;
Miss Willard's compli. 722.
TANEY, CHIEF JUSTICE ROGER B., decision in Dred Scott case, 454;
citizens those who conduct govt. through representatives, 984;
infamous decision, 985.
TANNER, MARY PRIESTMAN, 576; 577.
TAYLOR, ALBERTA CHAPMAN, 810.
TAYLOR, EZRA B., M. C., rep. in favor wom. suff., 590;
conducts fight for wom. suff., 607; 651;
secures Cong. rep. in favor wom. suff., 699;
gives credit to Mrs. Upton, 700; 705.
TAYLOR, HELEN, 337; 565; 577.
TAYLOR, MR. AND MRS. LANSING G., A. teaches in family of, 44.
TAYLOR, MENEIA (MRS. PETER), 555; 577.
TAYLOR, HON. T. T., introd. munic. wom. suff. bill in Kan. legis., 611.
TELLER, SENATOR HENRY M., ad. suff. con., 756.
TELLER, MRS. HENRY M., at Wash, con., 851.
TERRY, ELLEN, A. hears, 555.
THACHER, MAYOR GEO. H., declares for free speech, 211;
protects Garrison meet., 212; 733.
THACHER, JOHN BOYD, asks record of father, fails to put suff. wom. on
N. Y. Board Lady Manag., 733.
THATCHER, JUDGE, 287.
THAYER, JOHN M., ad. on Mary Anthony's birthday, 916;
poem to A. at Berkshire Hist. meet., 944;
ad. on A.'s birthday, 860.
THOMAS, REV. H. W., introd. A. in Chicago, 617;
her great heart like Christ, 805;
trib. to A. "saint of liberty," 900;
introd. A. at Lib. Cong. Relig. Nashville, 928.
THOMAS, MR. AND MRS. JOHN W., recep. to Wom. Council, 928.
THOMAS, M. LOUISE, 511; 550;
treas. Natl. Council, 639;
A. visits, 654.
THOMAS, MARY F., 629.
THOMASSON, MRS. J. P., 563;
recep. for A. and Mrs. Stn., 565; 567.
THOMPSON, ELIZABETH, gives A. $1,000 for History, 524;
pres. Art. Assn. desiring to make A.'s statute, 734.
THOMPSON, GEO., 63;
encourages Wom. Loyal League, 233;
spks. at first annivers. 237;
rebukes America for slavery, 996.
THOMSON, ADELINE, first meets A., 122; 327; 527; 538;
present to A., 549; 550;
entertains A. at Cape May, 624;
love for A., 651;
gift to A., 741;
death, gives A. $1,000, 814.
THOMSON, ANNIE, first meets A., 122; 527;
present to A., 549; 814.
THURMAN, SENATOR ALLEN G., insults wom. petit., 485; 486.
THURSTON, SARAH A., on Kan. wom. suff. com., 781.
TIFFANY & CO., 278.
TILTON, ELIZ. R., funeral of baby, 308; 346;
demure, motherly, sweetness needed, 357;
selects poetry for Rev., 359; 360;
during Beecher-Tilton trouble, 461;
beautiful character, not wicked, 463;
love and veneration for pastor, 464;
born into Plymouth church, pitiable condition, crushed, 465;
let. to A. on 50th birthday, 975;
gift, 976.
TILTON, THEODORE, "noise-making twain," A. and Mrs. Stn., 188;
gets Beecher's sp. in Independent, 192;
A.'s "sphere," 217;
on Emancip. Proclam., millenium on the way, 225;
announces birth of son, 232;
supports A.'s plan, proposes E. R. Assn., strong ed. in N. Y.
Independent, 252;
favors union of A. S. and W. R. Soc., 256; 259; 260;
argues agnst. trying to strike "male" from N. Y. constit., 261; 264;
270;
refuses to champion wom. suff. in 1867, 281; 290;
res. to send A. to Natl. Demo. Con., 305;
deserts wom. suff. for negro suff., 317;
wom. suff. presented as "intellect. theory," 323;
tries to unite suff. assns., 346;
made pres. Union Society, 348; 349;
sends com. to Am. Suff. Assn. proposing union, 350; 357;
assists Mrs. Bullard in ed. Rev., 361; 368;
at Lib. Repub. Con., 415;
derides women, 419;
A.'s affection for, 463;
brilliant and attractive, Beecher's love for, 464;
respect for wife, 465;
testimonial to A. and Mrs. Stn., 848;
let. on A.'s 50th birthday, 975;
gift, 976.
TOD, ISABELLA M. S., entertains A., 572; 573.
TOWNS, MIRABEAU L., has ad. on wom. suff. printed, 768.
TOWNSEND, HARRIET A., 741.
TOWNSEND, S. P., arranges temp. meet, for A. and others, 83.
TOURGEE, ALBION W., 754.
TRAIN, GEO. FRANCIS, offers assist. to wom. suff. campn. in Kan., 286;
first sp. at Leav., 287;
obj. to hard route, says A. knows how to make man ashamed, speaking
tour, 288;
dons evening dress before speaking, attacks Gen. Blunt, advice to
sick people, 289;
will furnish money for wom. suff. paper, A. proprietor, praised by
D. R. Anthony, 290;
fails to reach Atchison, makes final arrange. with A. at St. Joe for
paper and lect. trip, 291;
method of speaking, personal descript., 292;
pays all expenses for lect. tour of himself, A. and Mrs. Stn., 293;
scored by suff. advocates, 294;
furnishes funds for The Revolution and reserves space for his own
opinions, 295;
comment N. Y. Independ., 296;
defended by Mrs. Stn., 297;
goes abroad, is put into Dublin jail, 298;
not able to meet all financ. obligat. to Rev., 299; 301; 308;
withdraws from paper, 319;
put in $3,000, 354; 408.
TRALL, DR., 88.
TREMAINE, LYMAN, rep. agnst. A.'s appeal
for remission of fine, shows ignorance of matter, 450.
TRUESDALE, SARAH, registers and votes, 424.
TRUMAN, COMMISSIONER, 597.
TRUMBULL, SENATOR LYMAN, 410.
TRUTH, SOJOURNER, at W. R. con., 103.
TRYGG, ALLI, ad. Senate Com., 640.
TUCKER, GIDEON J., for wom. suff., 767.
TUCKER, JOHN RANDOLPH, M. C., opp. wom. suff., 590;
rep. agnst. wom. suff., 607.
TUDOR, MRS. FENNO, 534.
TUPPER, REV. MILA (Maynard), at Wash. Wom. Council, 702;
in Calif. campn., 875.
TURNER, BISHOP HENRY M., favors wom. suff., 588;
spks. with A., 812.
TUTTLE, REV. J. H., 165.
TYNG, REV. STEPHEN H., 233.
UNDERWOOD, Judge, women have right to vote, 985.
UPTON, HARRIET TAYLOR, 652;
influ. Cong. Com. report, 700; 705; 812; 820;
on Wom. Bible res., 856;
at Anthony homestead, 940;
at Berkshire Hist. Meet., 943.
VAIL, MOSES, teaches A. algebra, 43.
VAN BUREN, MARTIN, at Tarrytown, New York, his habits, 41;
at Saratoga, 42;
urged ballot for workingmen, 998.
VANCE, SENATOR ZEBULON B., rep. agnst. wom. suff., 718.
VAN DYCK, HENRY H., ST. SUPT., opposes co-education, 156.
VAN PELT, ADA, 826.
VAN VOORHIS, JOHN, M. C., retained in A.'s case, 428;
shows mistake of giving bail, 433;
defends her in trial at Canandaigua, 436;
defends inspectors, refused permiss. to ad. jury, opinion of case
after 24 years, 444;
trib. to Judge Selden, 445;
prepares appeal to Cong., declares trial by jury annihilated, 449;
favors wom. suff., 543.
VAUGHAN, HESTER, accused of murdering child, 309;
pardoned and sent back to Eng., 310.
VAUGHN, MARY C., pres. temp. meet., 65; 82; 95.
VEST, GEORGE G., SENATOR, opposes com. on wom. rights, 540;
speech in opp. to wom. suff., 619;
harrowing picture, too much "gush," 620.
VIBBERT, GEORGE H., 328.
VILLARD, MRS. HENRY, daught. W. L. Garrison, recep. to A. and Mrs.
Stn., 849.
VINCENT, JOHN H., learn law of love from God's women, 708;
invites A. to Chautauqua, 727.
VOSBURG, MRS. J. R., stands by A. in Teach. Con., 100.
VROOMAN, MRS. HENRY, entertains A., 877.
WADE, SENATOR BENJAMIN F., encourages Wom. Loyal League, 233;
argues for wom. suff., 266; 317.
WADLEIGH, SENATOR BAINBRIDGE, insults wom. petit., 485;
opp. wom. suff., scored by Mary Clemmer, 501.
WAGENER, MR., agnst. wom. suff. pl. in Kan. Repub. plat., 780.
WAGNER, SILAS J., advises inspect. not to register women, 426.
WAIT, ANNA C., in Kan. campn., 609.
WAITE, JUDGE C. B., 315;
compli. Hist. Wom. Suff., 531.
WAITE, CHIEF-JUSTICE MORRISON R., decides agnst. woman's right to vote
under Amend. XIV, 453.
WAITE, MRS. MORRISON R., recep. to A. in Wash., 739.
WALKER, MR. AND MRS. T. B., entertain A., 723.
WALLACE, CELIA WHIPPLE, 641.
WALLACE, ZERELDA G., ad. Cong. com., 511;
trib. to A., "Christ-like," 535; 617;
pres. petit. for wom. suff., 620; 626;
let. urg. A. for. pres. united assns., 631; 652;
will work in S. Dak. only under A.'s direction, 683;
detained by illness, apprecia. of A., 685; 708;
at Chautauqua, 709;
at Mrs. Sewall's with A., 904.
WALLIS, JUDGE AND SARAH B., 405.
WALTERS, BISHOP, favors wom. suff., 588.
WALWORTH, REV. CLARENCE A., ad. N. Y. Constit. Con. in opp. to wom.
suff., 769; 770.
WASHINGTON, BOOKER, A. spks. with for Tuskeegee Instit., 914.
WASHINGTON, ASSOC.-JUST. BUSHROD, citizens have right to franchise and
office, 984; 986.
WASHINGTON, GEORGE, 805; 900.
WASSON, REV. D. A., sermons and presence inspire A., 133.
WATKINS, LETITIA V., canvasses Kan., 625.
WATSON, ELIZABETH LOWE, 405;
entertains A., 831.
WATTERSON, HENRY, favors wom. suff. 519; 725.
WATTLES, SUSAN E., suff. work in Kan., 178.
WARD, ELIZA T., 632.
WARDALL, POPU. CHMN., in Calif, campn., 883.
WARDALL, ALONZO, inv. A. to S. Dak., 657;
pres. claims of State at Wash, con., 675;
urges A. to come S. Dak., 679;
at Minneap., pledges A. supp. of Farm. Alli. for wom. suff., 684;
at Kan. Popu. Con., 790.
WARDALL, ELIZABETH M., let. to A., 679;
campn. report, 694;
A. sends $100, 695.
WARNER, SEN. WILLARD, presides at wom. suff. con., 377.
WARNER, CHAS. DUDLEY, praises A., 334.
WARNER, DANIEL J., advises women to be registered, 426.
WARREN, SEN. FRANCIS E., working of wom. suff. in Wy., 716;
fav. com. rep. on wom. suff., 718; 823.
WARREN, MRS. FRANCIS E., 823.
WARREN, BISHOP HENRY W., favors wom. suff., 588.
WAY, REV. AMANDA M., 328.
WAYMIRE, JUDGE AND MRS. J. A., entertain A., 877.
WEBB, ALFRED, 572; 575.
WEBB, RICHARD D., 572.
WEBB, THOMAS, 575.
WEBSTER, DANIEL, 593.
WEBSTER, PROF. HELEN L., wants Wom. Suff. Hist. for Wellesley, 754.
WEED, THURLOW, assists temp. women, 65; 329.
WELD, ANGELINA GRIMKE, 73;
spks. for Loyal League, 227;
for wom. suff., 229;
early work, 369.
WELD, THEODORE D., 233.
WELLMAN, ALICE H., entertains A., 877.
WELLS, MAYOR (SALT LAKE), 388.
WELLS, EMMELINE B., pres. Utah assn., 825;
at natl. suff. con., 902.
WELLS, IDA B., lect. in Roch., interrupt. by theolog. stu., A. comes
to defense, takes her home, 815;
stenographer refuses to work for her, 816.
WELLSTOOD, JESSIE M., 568.
WENTWORTH, "LONG JOHN," 468.
WEST, GOVERNOR (UTAH), recep. to A., 825.
WHALEY, J. C. C., 307.
WHEELER, VICE-PRES. WILLIAM A., presents wom. petit., 500.
WHELPLEY, A. W., arrang. lect. for A., 648.
WHIPPLE, REV. A. B., invites A. to annual meet. Berkshire Hist. Soc.,
940;
places meet. in her charge, 942.
WHIPPLE, EDWIN P., lectures for Loyal League, 233.
WHITE, PRES. ANDREW D., compli. Hist. Wom. Suff., 531;
wife one of A.'s kind, 850.
WHITE, ARMENIA S., urges A. to visit her, 702; 895.
WHITE, BETSEY DUNNELL, A.'s aunt, talks politics, 57.
WHITE, JOHN D., M. C., champions wom. rights com., 540;
rep. in favor wom. suff., 543;
tries to get wom. suff. com., 585.
WHITE, MRS. LOVELL, arrang. trip for A. to Mt. Tamalpais, 877.
WHITE, PHILIP S., 60.
WHITING, JOHN H., 676.
WHITING, LILLIAN, trib. to A., 672; 673.
WHITING, MR. AND MRS. WM., A, visits, 705.
WHITNEY, BISHOP, 824.
WHITNEY, ADELINE D. T., opp. wom. suff., 620.
WHITTIER, JOHN G., A. calls on, 525;
let. on A.'s birthday, 669;
death, 737.
WHITTLE, DR. EWING, recep. to A. and Mrs. Stn., 579.
WHYTE, SENATOR PINKNEY, 485.
WILBERFORCE, CANON, A. hears on temp., 567.
WILBOUR, CHARLOTTE B., 234; 327;
ad. Wash. con., 337;
arrang. 50th birthday recep. for A., 341; 349;
for union of two suff. assns., 350; 368; 561.
WILBUR, JULIA A., stands by A. in Teach. Con., 155.
WILCOX, BIRDSEYE, heads pro-slavery mob, 208.
WILDE, LADY, 565.
WILDER, MAYOR CARTER, pres. Repub. meet., 422;
friendship for A., 615.
WILDER, D. WEBSTER, praises Hist. Wom. Suff. and A., 615.
WILDER, SAMUEL, friendship for A., 615.
WIGHAM, ELIZA, 568; 570.
WIGHAM, MR. AND MRS. HENRY, 572.
WIGHAM, JANE SMEALE, 570.
WILKES, REV. ELIZA TUPPER, 831.
WILLCOX, ALBERT O., 676.
WILLCOX, HAMILTON, 313.
WILLARD, FRANCES E., asks A. to sit on plat. at lect. in Roch.,
472; 496;
A. does not coincide with views, 505;
has lever but no fulcrum, 506; 511;
introd. A. at Natl. W. C. T. U. con. in Wash., 537;
favors State rights on suff. ques., A. criticises and tells her
Prohib. party will throw wom. suff. overboard, prophecy
fulfilled, 594;
A. visits, 609;
corres. with A. regard. suff. plank in Prohib. plat., 622; 631;
sp. and let. about A. at Wom. Council, 638;
presents constit. for Councils of Women, 639;
ad. Sen. com., presides Central Music Hall, Chicago, 640;
let. on A.'s birthday, 669; 685;
presides trienni. meet. Woman's Council, introd. A. as one of double
stars, 702;
suff. day at Chautauqua, 709;
at Fed. Clubs, 720;
urges A. to visit her and have bust made by L. Taft; "wom. wd. not
allow male grasshop. on lawn," 721;
will have A.'s bust in Senate and White House, one man has seen her
great soul, 722;
describes A. at two natl. polit. cons., "such souls meet God," 725;
farewell teleg. to A., 729;
delight over A.'s laurels at World's Fair, Lady Henry's compli., 747;
in Twilight Park, 773;
at Repub. con., Saratoga, describes A. before res. com., 774;
century's foremost figure, 775;
introd. A. to W. C. T. U. gospel meet., Cleveland, as ordained of
God, declares for wom. suff., 800;
A. begs to withdraw W. C. T. U. con. from Calif., 857;
A. repeats the entreaty, 881;
accedes to request, 882;
depart. for Europe, 883;
sends tele. of greet. on A.'s return from Calif., invites her to
sanitarium in Castile., 901;
sends roses for A.'s birthday, 906;
asks A. to join in protest agnst. yellow journal. and prize fight.,
923;
when she refuses, writes affect. let., urges to come to World's and
Natl. W. C. T. U. Cons., 924;
testimonial to A's character, courage, self-sacrifice, integrity,
personal kindness, in next world women will stand on plane of
perfect equality, 950.
WILLARD, MARY B., let. to A., 804.
WILLIAM, EMPEROR, 559.
WILLIAMS, HARRIET W., 400.
WILLIAMS, MARY HAMILTON, 434.
WILLIAMS, SARAH L., editor Ballot-Box, 509; 510.
WILLIS, SARAH L., birthday gift to A., 672; 711;
contrib. N. Y. suff. campn., 772; 806.
WILSON, VICE-PRES. HENRY, acknowledges indebtedness to A., 238;
wd. keep wom. suff. separate from negro suff., 266;
bill to enfranchise women in D. C., 311; 317;
spks. for wom. suff., 322;
pres. at suff. con., 377;
advocates wom. suff., 417;
Repubs. ought to recognize women, 418;
appreciates A.'s suggestions, 420; 454.
WINCHESTER, MARGARET E., 348; 349; 368.
WINDEYER, MISS, ad. natl. suff. con., 756.
WING, JUDGE HALSEY, 44.
WINSLOW, DR. CAROLINE B., 902.
WINTER, WILLIAM, pays trib. to A., 323.
WOLF, HON. SIMON, ad. Wash. suff. con., 756.
WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY, 934.
WOOD, HON. B. R., opp. wom. delegates, 88.
WOOD, HON. D. P., advocates wom. rights, 109.
WOOD, DR. RUTH M., suff. work in Leavenworth, 609.
WOOD, SAMUEL N., urges wom. suff. be discussed
in Kan., 274;
plans meet., 283; 287.
WOODALL, WM., M.P., pres. at wom. suff. meet., 566;
amends suff. bill, 593.
WOODRUFF, PRESIDENT (Utah), 825.
WOODHULL, VICTORIA C., goes before Cong. Com. with memorial, fine
presence, 375;
first app. on suff. plat., scene described, 376;
"veins contain ice," 377;
advent creates commotion, 378;
vanquishes Cath. Beecher, defended by Mrs. Stn., 379;
at suff. con. in N. Y., papers use this as reproach to movement,
makes strong argument, 383;
issues call for con. to form new party, 413;
tries to secure control of suff. con., 413; 414; 596.
WOODS, MRS. M. C., 902.
WORDEN, MRS., 195; 249.
WORTHINGTON, MRS., 44.
WRIGHT, DANIEL, teacher of A., 35.
WRIGHT, DAVID, at wom. temp. meet., 65.
WRIGHT, FRANCES, early work, 369; 935.
WRIGHT, MARTHA C., sec. wom. rights' con., 72;
pres. wom. rights' con., 131;
Garrison. meet. at Albany, 212; 249; 260;
let. of friendship to A., 301; 368;
called first W. R. Con., 369;
sarcasm regard. Cath. Beecher, comments on Wash. politicians, 372;
comforts A., 415;
only hope for suff. movement lies in A., elected pres. of assn.,
458;
death, A.'s grief, 467; 917.
YATES, EDMUND, 422.
YATES, ELIZ. UPHAM, spks. at Atlanta con., 811;
favors res. agnst. Wom. Bible, 854;
in Calif. campn., 864;
at Rep. St. Con., 869;
makes 100 speeches, 875.
YOUNG, PROF. C. HOWARD, 920.
YOUNG, JOHN RUSSELL, compli. A., 384.
YOUNG, VIRGINIA D., 757.
ZAHNER, REV. LOUIS, pays trib. to Anthony family, 942.
FOOTNOTES:
[137] Lists of names not included in index will be found in footnotes on
pp. 284, 327, 353, 566, 590, 621, 772.
INDEX TO SUBJECTS.
ABOLITIONISTS, 39, 40, 44, 59;
meetings, in Anthony home, 48, 60, 61;
A.'s first meeting with, 60, 63; 78, 198;
attitude in 1861, 207;
canvass under A.'s management, 208;
at beginning of War, 214;
need of in 1863, 226;
dissensions among, 244-247;
one wing demands negro suff., 256;
refuse to stand for woman suff., 265;
almost all desert women, 268, 270;
Lucy Stone on, 275; 311, 498;
Robert Purvis on A.'s services to, 547; 567;
in Scotland, 568, 570;
in Ireland, 572, 575; 724;
Southern prej. against A., 740;
same, 812; 924;
A. speaks on at Fiske Univers., 928;
pictures in A.'s home, 934, 935;
foresight of, 1010.
ADDRESSES, APPEALS, TESTIMONIALS, etc., A.'s for temp. and woman
suff., 71;
for better laws in N. Y., 110;
memorial to all Legislatures in 1859, 175;
first to Cong. for Woman Suff. in 1865, 250;
Woman's Rights Soc. to Cong. in 1866, 259, 968;
A. and Mrs. Stanton to Cong. for woman suff. in 1867, 277;
to women on polit. parties in 1872, 418;
A.'s to Cong. to remit her fine for voting, 450;
Natl. Wom. Suff. Assn. at Centennial in 1876, 475; 483;
Wom. Natl. Loyal League to President Lincoln, 957;
Natl. Wom. Rights Conv. to Cong. in 1866, 968.
AMENDMENTS to U. S. Constitution, 13th, 238;
dif. of opinion on A.'s attitude, 245;
14th, "male" first used, protest of A., Mrs. Stanton and Lucy Stone,
250;
_Independent_ criticises, 252;
Sumner would avoid "male," 256;
women implore not to be excluded, 267;
campaign for woman suff. in Kansas, 274;
same, 281 et seq.;
efforts for in N. Y., 278-280;
Pomeroy, Julian and Wilson present resolutions for woman suff. in
1868, 310, 311, 317;
first effort to secure woman suff. in U. S. Constn., 313;
15th adopted, first suggested by Anna Dickinson, 317;
dispute over in Equal Rights Assn., A. demands it shall include
women, 323, 324;
Francis Minor on woman's right to vote under 14th, 331;
A. on same, 338;
A. will never cease working for 16th, 343;
Natl. Wom. Suff. Assn. on right of women to vote under 14th, 377;
attempt to make 14th and 15th enfranch. women, 409-411;
A. and other women vote in 1872, 423-453;
women vote again, 434;
woman's right to vote under 14th, 431, 432;
Mrs. Minor attempts to vote under 14th, 453;
it does not confer suffrage, 454;
for woman suff. submitted in Mich., 459;
defeated, 461;
beginning of systematic efforts for 16th, 483;
war amends. will fail to protect black men, 500;
Mrs. Stanton on same, 1016;
for woman suff. submitted in Neb., 544, 545;
in Ore., 592;
A.'s argument for 16th before Congressl. Coms. in 1884, 588;
defeat of woman suff. in Ore., 592;
Palmer in U. S. Senate, on 16th, 596;
first vote in Senate on, 617, 621;
for woman suff. in S. Dak., A. canvasses for, 656;
urged to assist, 679;
Natl. Assn. contributes to, 675;
campaign for, 679 et seq.;
16th in Cong. in 1891, 718;
for woman suff. in charter of Rochester, 731;
woman suff. carried in Col., 753;
Kas. Legis. submits, 754;
campaign for, 777;
Calif. Legis. submits, 820;
campaign for, 863;
causes of its defeat, 886 et seq.;
Secy. of State breaks his word, 890;
Idaho Sup. Court decides only majority of votes cast on amend.
necessary to carry, 918;
war amends. and woman suff., 979-984;
16th not necessary, Sumner on, 981;
Grant on 15th, 991;
A. on efforts to keep "male" out of 14th, 1016;
A.'s speech in Kas. for woman suff., 1015-1021.
AMERICA, her women envied, viii; position of woman compared to Gr.
Brit., 257;
Europe compared to, 558;
Sargent's love of, 559;
A. longs for, hope of women, 562;
public schools, 564;
mountains, 571;
institutions compared, 571;
railroads, 572;
A. steps on shore, 579;
U. S. an oligarchy, not a republic, 982.
AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, formed, 328;
efforts at union with Natl. Assn., 346, 347;
concluded, 627-632; 674.
AMUSEMENTS, early dances, 36;
theatre, 41;
school exhibition, circus, ball, 51;
A.'s festival in Rochester, 62;
picnic, 175;
Irving and Terry, 555;
Ristori, 558;
opera in Paris, 561;
Court Theater in London, 564;
Bernhardt, 567; 802;
see Receptions.
ANCESTRY, 3, 4.
ANECDOTES, A. on grandmother's cooking, 14;
Susan and the elders, 21;
in boarding school, 29, 30;
the dancing school, 36;
on women's voices, 75;
at Greeley home, 86;
A. at Teachers' Conv., 98;
the minister's advice to A., 108;
Bloomers, 113;
church at Canajoharie, 121;
water cure, 126;
women afraid of A., 127;
cold dinners for wives, 128;
man's horror of woman's speaking, 143;
A.'s raspberry experiment, 159;
waiter refuses A.'s order, 176;
effect of Mrs. Blackwell's sermon on Gerrit Smith, 179;
Mayo on Marriage, 196;
A. on ownership of slaves and children, 204;
a Kansas experience, 248;
encounter in _Standard_ office bet. A. and Phillips, Tilton and Mrs.
Stanton, 261;
why Mrs. Stanton looked fresh and A. tired, 273;
A. and Greeley on ballot and bullet, 278;
Mrs. Greeley's petition, 279;
Greeley's revenge, 280;
Geo. Francis Train in Kas. campaign, 289;
women in penitentiary, 309;
of Beecher family, 373;
of Catharine Beecher and Mrs. Woodhull, 378;
A.'s first taste of wine, 400;
Douglass prayed with heels, 457;
man and his children in Neb., 493;
Dennis Kearney and the suffragists, 518;
A. and Skye terrier, 527;
Edinburgh professor, 570;
Killarney babies, 573;
Jacob Bright's son, 577;
A. and St. Paul, 595;
Dr. Patton, 596;
Mrs. Stanton "exercising," 600;
the yellow dog, 617;
Sen. Blair's little jokes, 606, 626;
women and Indians in Repub. conv., 687;
A. and cyclone, 690;
low ebb of humanity, 690;
hotel in S. Dak., 691;
children and motherhood in S. Dak., 692;
A. and drunkard, 693;
co-education in Rochester Univers., 713;
A. and her bust carved by a man, 721;
A. and Miss Shaw at Kas. Popu. Conv., 788, 790;
Dem. delegates in Calif., 874;
A. and Mrs. Sargent on election night, 891;
A. and the palace, 943;
mother's mop stops mill, 944;
the wife's false teeth, 988;
Howard Mission, 1011.
ANNUITY presented to A., 813;
writes to contributors, 814.
ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, A. attends first meeting, 63; 70, 101, 129;
Bazar in 1855, 132;
A. invited to act as agent, 137;
arrangements made, 148;
canvass, 150 et seq.;
Bazar money lost, 172; 173;
suffrage needs spirit of, 177;
A.'s efforts for appreciated, 182;
close connect. with Woman's Rights in Southern mind, 183;
depot of supplies at Albany, 199; 217;
dissensions, Phillips' attitude, A.'s, Pillsbury's, Garrison's,
244-246;
at time of Reconstruction, 256-270;
same, 281, 304, 322-326;
meet. in Phila., 267;
compared to woman's cause, 415
(see Abolitionists, Negroes, Slavery).
ANTI-SUFFRAGISTS, in 1852, 76-80;
first move in Washtn., 377;
petition from New Eng., 620;
in S. Dak. campaign, 695;
protest against admis. of Wy., 698;
alliance with liquor dealers in Col., 753;
organization and work in N. Y. woman suff. campaign, 765;
amusing instance in Rochester, A.'s and newspaper comment, 766;
size of petitions, 769;
alliance with liquor dealers in N. Y., 770;
friendship of Joseph H. Choate, 767, 771;
lone represent. in Calif. campaign, 873;
charge suff. will destroy womanly instincts, 944, 945;
Miss Shaw denies their theory that man is the head, woman the heart,
945.
ART, A. at N. Y. Acad. of Design, productions of women, 219;
in Europe, 557-561;
Harriet Hosmer on Natl. Assn., 655;
A.'s portrait, 677;
New York Assn., 734;
A.'s feeling towards art, 859
(see Sculpture).
ASSOCIATION FOR ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN, objects to A., 446.
"AUNT" SUSAN, A. objects to name, 546.
BIBLE, in boarding school, 29, 30;
favors woman's equality, 76;
interpretation of, 77;
used against women, 78; 79;
relation to matrimony, 109;
teaches women should stay at home, 119;
A. on Apocrypha, 132;
A. quotes it on peace, 177;
read by A.'s mother, 513, 558;
miracles, 563;
different interpret. of, 595;
A. objects to discussion on, confutes St. Paul, 595; 616;
Bible and woman suff., 617-619;
A. on Proverbs, 897.
BIBLE WOMAN'S, res. against of Natl. Wom. Suff. conv., discussion and
vote, 852-854;
A.'s indignation, 853;
letter to Mrs. Stanton on resigning presidency, 855;
to her cabinet on their "methods of the inquisition," 855;
interview regarding matter, 856;
Mrs. Stanton's work on Bible not needed, 856;
objects to mixing woman suff. with religious doctrine, 857;
Mrs. Greenleaf's view, 856.
BICYCLE, costume for, 844;
A.'s opinion of, 859.
BILLS, see Laws and Legislatures.
BIOGRAPHY, reasons for writing during lifetime of subject, v, vi;
methods of writing, vi-ix;
Mrs. Blatch would write, 544;
A. thinks she will leave nothing for posterity, 712;
preparations for writing, 860;
writer selected, immense amount of material, work begun, 909;
the "attic workrooms," 910;
A.'s restiveness over literary work, 913;
chapters read to Mrs. Stanton, 917;
work suspended for summer, 926;
A. will make charming one, 995.
BIRTHDAYS, birth of A., 13;
18th birthday, 29;
celebrat. of 50th, 341;
A. congrat. Phillips on 70th, 538;
celebrat. of A.'s first suggested, 542;
A.'s 73d celebrated in Phila., 546;
Mrs. Stanton's 70th, 602;
Kas. grants Munic. Suff. on A.'s 67th, 611;
A.'s 70th, her distress over charging for banquet tickets, 663;
amusing letters on same, 664;
the banquet, gifts, toasts, letters, newspaper comment, etc.,
664-674;
her contemporaries, 672;
73d, in Rochester, 739;
74th, flag presented, 757;
75th, banquet, "annuity" presented, 813;
Maria Porter's, 845;
Mrs. Stanton's 80th, 845-849;
A. celebrates her mother's, 850;
A. assists at Mrs. Grant's 70th, 858;
A.'s 76th in Roch., 860;
90th of Eliz. Buffam Chace, 896;
Frederick Douglass' in Rochester, 904;
reception in Rochester on A.'s 77th, 905;
Mary S. Anthony's 70th, 914;
100th of Saml. J. May, 927;
newspaper comment on A.'s 50th, 972;
letters from eminent people on same, 974.
BISHOPS, in favor of woman suff., 588;
Vincent, 708, 727;
Phillips Brooks, 757;
Doane organizes anti-suff. soc., 765;
Turner, 812.
BLOOMERS, 84; 91;
description of, 112;
by whom worn, ridicule of public, 113;
arguments for, 114;
letters on, 114-116;
final abandonment, 117; 844.
BOARDS, women on in Eng., 564, 565;
N. Y. World's Fair, 734;
of Lady Managers for Columb. Expos., 744, 748;
Woman's of Tenn. Expos., 927.
BREAD AND BALLOT, A.'s lecture on, 472, 546, 996.
BUSTS. See Sculpture.
CALLS, for first Wom. St. Temp. Conv., 66, 67;
for second, 92;
for Women's World's, 96;
for Wom. Rights Conv. in Rochester, 104;
for forming Loyal League, 226;
for first W. R. Conv. after War, 256;
for Natl. Wom. Suff. Conv. of 1872, 410;
of women to form new party, A. repudiates, 413;
for Natl. Wom. Suff. Conv. in New York in 1873, 434;
A. on omission of woman suff. from Call for Intl. Council of Women,
634;
of prominent New York women in suff. campaign of 1894, 764;
A. prepares for Natl. Suff. Conv. of 1895, 801.
CAMPAIGNS, first St. campaign for woman suff., in N. Y. in 1867, 271
et seq.;
for woman suff. amend. in Kansas, 274 et seq.;
discomforts of, 284, 285;
Geo. Francis Train's part in, 286 et seq.;
close in Leavenworth, 291;
A. in Col. in 1877, hard and pleasant experiences, difference in
women, 489-492;
in Neb. in 1882, work of A. and assistants, 544, 545;
in S. Dak., perplexities, hardships, humorous features, treachery
of polit. parties, insults, etc., 679-696;
in Kas. in 1892, 728;
A.'s advice on Kansas, every woman can help, 742;
same, 754;
in Col. in 1893, woman suff. granted, 752;
great campaign for woman suff. in N. Y. in 1894, 755 et seq.;
same in Kas., 777 et seq.;
A. reviews history of, 799;
objects to Bible or Prohib. in Calif., 857;
A. begged to assist in Calif., consents, 861;
greeted by South. Calif., arrives in San Fr., 862;
great campaign for woman suff. in 1896, 863 et seq.;
in Kas. in 1867, 1016;
in other States, 1017.
CANVASSES, A. and others in N. Y. for temp., 71;
same, 103;
for Woman's Rights, 105;
unpleasant experience, 108;
A.'s long work, 111;
first of N. Y. for woman suff., 122 et seq.;
for Woman's Rights in 1856, 138 et seq.;
for Anti-Slavery, graphic pictures, 150 et seq.;
for rights of women in 1860, 175, 178;
for Anti-Slavery in 1861, 208 et seq.;
for Equal Rights in 1866, 265;
A. bore all the burdens, 273;
of Conn. in 1874, 456;
of Mich. for suff. amend. in 1874, 460;
of Iowa in 1875, hard conditions, 470;
of Kas. in 1886, 609-611;
of Wis., 612;
of Kas. in 1887, 625;
of Ind., 626;
of S. Dak. in 1890, 656;
same, 679-696;
of Kas. in 1892, 719;
same, 728;
of N. Y. in 1894, 759-763;
of Kas. in 1894, 784, 785, 796;
only women come to meetings, 1019
(see Campaigns).
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, A. organizes meeting in protest, ends in mob, 164.
CASES (see Trials).
CHARACTERISTICS,[138] clear-sightedness, 141, 182, 185, 261, 519, 758,
929;
courage, moral and physical, 43, 72, 111, 156, 158, 163, 164, 181,
190, 197, 202, 208-212, 272, 291, 292, 391, 396, 412, 428, 436,
468, 469, 534-542, 549, 583, 656, 689, 692, 773, 782, 783, 786,
799, 854, 855, 857, 901, 952, 974, 994;
duty and principle, devotion to, 116, 117, 218, 222, 224, 482, 542,
679, 907;
energy and perseverance, 36, 55, 105, 127, 148, 157, 179, 188, 190,
213, 221, 251, 288, 314, 414, 496, 581, 667, 772, 944, 973, 974,
994;
executive ability, 62, 110, 154, 323, 473;
expediency, disdain for, 95, 214, 262, 953;
generosity, 20, 217, 329, 494, 508, 545, 592, 599, 608, 659, 695,
707, 711, 763, 796, 849, 892, 925;
injustice, sense of, viii, 29, 30, 81, 107, 844;
judgment, 150, 225, 293, 425, 638, 654, 857, 871, 882;
justice, love of, 134, 169, 270, 592, 919, 944;
kindness of manner, 285, 550, 597, 674, 838, 946, 972;
optimism and cheerfulness, 587, 638, 660, 688, 773, 800, 877, 898,
938, 953;
philosophy and logic, 185, 380, 511, 644, 648, 666, 672, 714;
presiding, gift for, 163, 174, 637;
self-sacrifice, viii, 127, 190, 273, 316, 323, 335, 396, 460, 480,
489, 504, 550, 615, 667, 671, 744, 772, 846, 891, 892, 944, 950;
sense of humiliation and insult, 238, 268, 269, 584;
sensitiveness, 28, 29, 30, 120, 168, 542, 583, 584;
unselfishness, 384, 535, 695, 731, 735, 975
(see chart of head, 85; Domestic Traits, Love of Family, Newspapers,
Tributes).
CHILDREN, hardships of A.'s mother, 12, 19;
severity of early days, 31; 52;
Mrs. Mott's and Mrs. Stanton's, 76;
Mrs. Greeley's, 86, 97;
A.'s answer to minister, 108;
A. on "baby show," 132;
mothers' trials, 139;
Mrs. Stanton on, 142;
maternity and conventions, 158, 162;
Lucy Stone and Mrs. Stanton on, 162;
A.'s care of Mrs. Stanton's, 142, 187, 213, 219;
woman's immortal product, 193;
mother no right to, sad story, 200;
care of is a profession, 213;
A.'s care of, 213;
illegitimate, 216, 656, 844;
A. would educate in public schools, 221;
baby panacea for woman suff., 267;
woman's right to have, 296;
_The Revolution_, A.'s child, 362;
Mrs. Stanton's belong to A., 489;
Neb. man wants credit, 493;
alleged effect of woman suff. in regard to, 504;
A.'s care of nieces, 513;
great number among suffragists, 517;
impudent advice, 517;
must suffer disgrace of parents' hostility to woman suff., 529;
A.'s experience with woman and babies in Killarney, 573;
God held responsible, 574;
brought for A. to take in arms, 610;
A. on pre-natal influence, 678;
men suckle babies, 687; 690;
trying experiences with in S. Dak. campaign, 692;
Mrs. Stanton's, 713, 717;
A. would turn palace into orphan asylum, 943
(see Guardianship).
CHINESE, A. compares status with women, 398; 986.
CHURCHES, St. Bartholomew the Great, 3;
A.'s maternal grandparents members of Baptist, 5;
later Universalist, 5;
paternal, Quakers, 6;
record Anthony and Read families, 5, 6, 7, 11, 21;
father disciplined by Quakers, 10, 20, 36;
A. on Lord's Supper, 36; 38;
attitude toward colored people, 39;
on a woman's preaching in 1839, 40;
first knowledge of Unitarianism, 44;
attends that church, 58; 65;
Mrs. Stanton on in 1852, 67, 68; 70;
bondage for women, relation to woman's rights, 73, 79, 90;
Brick Ch. (N. Y.), 87, 96;
Mrs. Stanton demands women in councils of, 92;
Greeley on, 97;
effort to secure for women's meetings, 119, 121;[139]
A. on preaching, 133;
efforts for Free Church in Rochester, 167;
Beecher's at Elmira, 178;
Free Church at Peterboro, Antoinette Blackwell's sermon and Gerrit
Smith's nap, 179;
Zion's colored, 209;
attitude toward slavery, 228; 248;
relation to negroes, 249;
Ch. of Puritans, 227, 259, 276;
last woman suff. conv. in, 278;
fear of woman suff., 506;
relig. of Garfield, 536;
sectarianism in England, 554;
in Italy, 556-558;
in Cologne, 559;
in London, 564;
waning intellects return to childish teachings, 563;
Stopford Brooke's, 564;
in Ireland, 572;
convent at Kenmare, 573;
Natl. Assn. discusses creeds and dogmas, 595;
A. and Mrs. Stanton's encounter with Dr. Patton, 596;
orthodox preferred for suff. convs., 612;
A. demands all creeds shall be recd. on natl. woman suff. platform,
631;
objects to creeds and negations, 634;
Catholic in St. Louis, 649;
A. protests against theology in suff. platform, 655;
orthodox indifferent to feelings of liberals, 678;
on prohibition and woman suff. in S. Dak., 693;
proportion of women in, 710;
Unit. in Roch., 712, 714;
boycott Miss Shaw for speaking to Spiritualists, her answer, 720;
no creed in Natl. Suff. Assn., 757;
in Calif., 826, 831-834;
A. objects to Mrs. Stanton's attack on, 847;
A. on bigotry and religious freedom, 854;
woman suff. destroys superstition, 857;
open to suff. speakers in Calif., 876, 877, 886;
in Des Moines, 902; 927;
A. attends Unit. in Rochester, 933;
absorbs work of women, 1010 (see Bible, God, Ministers).
CITIZENSHIP, must be basis for suff., 310;
established by 14th amend., 317;
decis. in Dred Scott case, 454;
Sumner on rights conferred by, 979;
according to U. S. Constitu., 983-987.
_Clubs_, of men or of men and women, Press (N. Y.) gives dinner to
women in 1869, 316;
Albemarle (London), 564;
Six O'clock (Washtn.), 647;
Seidl (N. Y.), 653;
Authors' Uncut Leaves (N. Y.), 802;
Practical Progress (Columbia), 812;
Travel (Washtn.), 814;
Mercantile (St. Louis), 821;
Unitarian (San Fr.), 830;
addressed by A. in Calif., 876;
Men's Club (Auburn, N. Y.), 914;
Historical Soc. (Berkshire, Mass.), 939-946
(see Organizations of Women).
COEDUCATION, first efforts for, 64;
Mrs. Stanton demands, 73; 130;
A.'s effort to prepare paper on, 142;
its reception, 143;
resolution for in 1857, leads to social evil, 155;
to Mormonism and amalgamation, 156; 164.
COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, beginning of A.'s work for women in, 660; 676;
A. would open gates on Sunday, 720;
A.'s bust made for, 721, 722;
N. Y. woman's board, 734; 737, 740, 741;
A. on Mrs. Palmer's dedication sp., 742;
A.'s part in securing recog. of women, 742-744;
Board of Lady Managers, 744, 748;
Woman's Congress, 745-748;
wonderful ovation to A., 746-748;
same, 752;
Temp. Congress, 747;
pre-eminence of woman suff., 748;
A.'s part in many Congresses, 748-750;
Press Congress, A.'s sp., 749;
Educatl. Cong., 751;
effect on Calif., 819.
COMMITTEE ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE, effort to secure from Congress, 527;
debate on among Senators in 1880, 540;
fight for in 1884, 584.
COMMITTEES, attempt to put A. on temp. in 1853, 88;
on union of two suff. assns., 627-629;
in N. Y. Constitl. Conv., on woman suff., 767, 768;
amend. campaign in Kas., 781;
for Calif. woman suff. campaign, 863, 865;
res. coms. of the polit. convs., 870, 872, 873
(see Campaigns, Congress).
COMPARISONS, A. to Napoleon, 110;
to Christ, 703;
to Christ, to Washington, 805;
to Pope Leo, 840;
to Niagara, 892;
to Washington and Lincoln, 900;
to St. Paul, 924;
to Galileo, 943;
Napoleon, Gladstone, Lincoln, 952;
Garrison, 953.
CONGRESS, U. S., N. Y. _Herald_ on women in, 79;
Wom. Loyal League petitions for emancip. of slaves, 226-238;
first appealed to for Wom. Suff., 250;
N. Y. _Indpt._ on, 253;
address of Wom. Rights Soc. in 1866, 259;
debates woman suff. in 1866, 266;
A. and Mrs. Stanton send address to, 277;
bills for Wom. Suff. in 1868, 310;
appeal sent by women in 1869, 314;
A. urges to enfranchise women of D. C., 338;
Act under which A. was indicted, 437;
A. appeals to remit her fine for voting, 449;
majority and minority reports, 450-452;
treatment by Senate of petits. for woman suff. in 1877, 485;
Sen. Hoar hopes to see A. there, 485;
condemned for treatment of women, 499-501;
A. watches and distrusts, 516;
members attend mem. serv. to Lucretia Mott, 526;
opposed to Wom. Suff. Com., 540;
attitude of members on woman suff., 250, 256, 266, 310, 317, 337,
375, 377, 405, 410, 411, 454, 455, 457, 477, 485, 500, 501, 502,
507, 543, 583, 584, 590, 596, 617-621, 688, 698, 699, 716, 718,
778, 969, 985;
A. dislikes to interview members, 583;
vote on Wom. Suff. Com. in 1884, 585;
A. watches, 591, 603;
persistence with, 605-608;
same, 622;
Sen. Blair's humor, 606, 626;
action on admission of Wy. with woman suff., 698, 699;
A.'s constant watchfulness, 716;
efforts to secure recog. of women at Columb. Expos., 743, 744;
admits Utah with woman suff., 851;
A. demands no members be admitted unless elected by a maj. of all
voters, black and white, 963, 967;
power to create voters, 966;
address of Natl. Wom. Rights Conv. in 1866, 968;
fails in its highest duty, 970;
as representatives of women, 970;
right to control suff., 981;
Repub. record on wom. suff., 1018.
CONGRESSES, Woman's, in Paris, 434, 496, 652;
Woman's, Miss. Valley, 728, 821;
Woman's at Columb. Expos., 745-748, 750, 751;
Liberal Religious, 804, 805;
Woman's Calif. in 1895, 819, 827-829, 831;
in 1896, 871;
in Ore., 877.
CONSTITUTION, U. S., protects slavery, 149, 184, 207;
Sumner on, 235; 248;
A. begins 30-years' war to amend, 249;
"male" first introduced, protest of A., Mrs. Stanton and Lucy Stone,
250;
_Independent_ speaks, 253; 257;
first effort to amend for woman suff., 313;
B. F. Butler on its power over woman suff., 429;
A. asks for broad interpret., 440;
does not confer suffrage on any one, 453;
arguments for right of women to vote under its provisions, 483;
compact with slavery broken, 958;
base use of it by President Johnson, 961;
bring legislation up to Constitu., 970;
protest against introd. word "male," 970;
A.'s sp. on woman's right to vote under its provisions, 977-992;
distinguished testimony for, 979-991.
CONSTITUTIONS, STATE, Phillips, Tilton, A. and Mrs. Stanton on
striking out "male" from N. Y., 261;
woman suff. in Utah, 825, 851;
while "male" remains women should not help men, 839;
of N. Y. guarantees woman suff., 979
(see Amendments).
CONSTITUTIONAL ARGUMENT, on right of women to vote, delivered by A.
previous to her trial for voting, 977-992;
newspaper comment, 993.
CONVENTIONS, first Woman's Rights, 59;
in Worcester, 61, 75;
Men's Temp. silence women in 1852, 64;
first Wom. St. Temp., 66;
Greeley's advice, 66;
Men's Temp. reject women delegates, 68;
Teachers' at Elmira, 71;
Woman's Rights at Syracuse, 72;
Mrs. Mott and Mrs. Stanton had objected
to woman pres., 72;
lofty character of first Wom. Rights Convs., 80;
World's Temperance in New York, 1853, 87;
women rejected, hold own meeting, abuse, 88-92;
second Woman's St. Temp., 92;
men gain control, 94;
Women's Whole World's, 96, 100;
A.'s first address to St. Teachers', 98;
not supported by women, 98, 99, 100;
Davies' sp., 99;
sustained by a few, 100;
Men's Whole World's Temp., Antoinette Brown rejected, 101;
Woman's Rights in 1853, 102;
in Cleveland, 103;
in Rochester, 105;
before the War, 107;
in Albany, 108;
A. again goes to Teachers' for rights of women, 120;
Wom. Rights in Phila., 121;
Teachers' in Utica, 130;
Wom. Rights in Boston, 131;
Teachers' in Troy, 143;
Wom. Rights in New York, 147;
Teachers' in Binghamton, 155;
Wom. Rights in New York in 1858, under mob rule, 162;
A. stirs up Teachers' in Lockport, 163, 164;
Anti-Slavery in Albany in 1859, 173;
Wom. Rights in New York, the mob, 174;
Wom. Rights in Albany in 1860, 186;
Conservatives' in Boston, 196;
A. and Pillsbury on, 197;
Wom. Rights, last before War, 212;
A.'s dislike of giving up, 213, 215, 218;
results of A.'s labors in Teachers', 221, 222;
Anti-Slavery in Phila., 234;
first Wom. Rights after War, 256 et seq.;
N. Y. Constitl., A. arranges to present petitions, tilt with
Greeley, 278;
latter checkmated, 279;
his anger, 280;
first for woman suff. held in Washtn., 313;
woman suff. at Hartford, 333;
second of Natl. Wom. Suff. Assn., 337;
woman suff. in New York in 1870, 368;
third of Natl. Wom. Suff. Assn. in Washtn., managed by Mrs. Hooker,
371 et seq.;
appearance of Mrs. Woodhull, 375;
woman suff. in New York in 1871, excitement over Mrs. Woodhull, 383;
Natl. Wom. Suff. in 1872, struggle to secure woman suff. under 14th
amend., 409-411;
woman suff. in New York, A. thwarts scheme for alliance with
Woodhull party, 414;
women attend Natl. Liberal in 1872, 415;
Natl. Repub. in 1872, woman's plank, 416;
Natl. Wom. Suff. in Washtn. in 1873, 431;
woman suff. in New York in 1873, 434;
Natl. Woman Suff. of 1874, 453;
in New York, adverse accounts, 458;
Natl. Wom. Suff. of 1875, A. conquers all objections to, 467;
A. misses Natl. Suff. for first time, 472;
Natl. Wom. Suff. of 1876 arranges to celebrate Centennial, 474;
Natl. Wom. Suff. Assn. in 1877, 484 et seq.;
A. misses May Anniv. first time, 488;
of Natl. Wom. Suff. Assn. in 1878, need of A.'s management and Mrs.
Stanton's presence, prayer meet. in Capitol, 494;
30th annivers. celebr. in Rochester, 495;
last attended by Lucretia Mott, 496;
Natl. Wom. Suff. of 1879, 499-501;
Natl. Suff. Assn. in 1880, 511;
A. plans great series in 1880 and overcomes opposition, 515;
begins at Indpls., 517;
mass meet. in Chicago, 517;
other cities, 519;
Natl. polit. convs. appealed to by women in 1880, 518-520;
A.'s amusing attempt to postpone Natl. Suff. of 1881, compels Mrs.
Stanton's attendance, 526;
same, 532;
Natl. Assn. In New England, 533;
W. C. T. U. in 1881 adopts franchise dept. but repudiates influence
of A., 537, 538;
Natl. Wom. Suff. of 1882, 540;
in Phila., 541;
in Nebraska in 1882, 544, 545;
Natl. Wom. Suff. of 1883, 546;
Liberal in Eng., 575, 576, 577;
A.'s efforts for Intl. Wom. Suff., 578;
Natl. Wom. Suff. in 1884, 588;
holiday refused dept. women to attend, 588;
Natl. polit. in 1884 appealed to by women, 594;
Natl. Wom. Suff. in 1885, 595;
Mrs. Stanton's satire on esthetic convs., 605;
Natl. Suff. in 1886, 607;
in Kas. in 1886, 609-611;
in Wis. and Ills., 611;
in Mich., 617;
Natl. Wom. Suff. in 1887, 617;
in Indiana, 623;
in Kansas in 1887, 625;
in Indiana, 626;
Fred. Douglass on first Woman's Rights, 634;
Natl. Wom. Suff. of 1888, 639;
Natl. polit. in 1888 appealed to by suffragists, 641, 642;
in Iowa, Kas., Neb., 644;
of 1889, 647;
in New York, 651;
Akron, O., 652;
in Kas., Ind., Wis., 655;
Minn., 656;
of Natl. Amer. Wom. Suff. Assn. in 1890, 674;
Farmers' Alliance and Knights of Labor in S. Dak., act. on woman
suff., 685, 686;
same of Democrats, 686;
of Repubs. 687;
in Neb., in Kas., in Iowa, 697;
in N. Y., 698;
in Mass., 701;
Natl. Wom. Suff. of 1891, 703;
in Ohio, Conn., 705;
Natl. Suff. of 1892, Mrs. Stanton's last appear., A. made pres., 717;
in Mich., 720;
A. urges Southern women to hold, 722;
Natl. polit. for 1892, 723-727;
Kas. St. Repub. adopts woman suff. plank, 726;
Miss. Valley, 728;
N. Y. State in 1892, pioneers and modern workers contrasted, 729;
Natl. Wom. Suff. of 1893, 737;
the conv. taken from Washtn., A.'s opposition, 738;
in N. Y., Penn., 753;
in Mich., 755;
in O., 756;
Natl. Wom. Suff. of 1894, 756;
Constitl. of N. Y. in 1894, treatment of woman suff. amend., 767-771;
N. Y. St. Repub., A. and others ask woman suff. plank, Miss
Willard describes scene, 774;
Democratic, asked for same, 775;
Kas. Repub. refuses woman suff. plank, 785-787;
Popu. adopts, 787-790;
Prohib., 790;
Dem. anti-plank, 796;
Neb. St. Suff., 799;
N. Y. same, 800;
Natl. Woman. Suff. of 1895 in Atlanta, 810-812;
in St. Louis, 821;
in Utah, 825;
in Calif., 835;
in O., 845;
Natl. Wom. Suff. in 1896, 851;
at beginning of Calif. suff. campaign, 864;
Repub. St. in Calif. adopts woman suff. plank, 871;
Popu. and Prohib., same, 872;
Dem. refuses, 872;
efforts of women with delegates, 869-874;
Idaho polit. convs. on woman suff., 879;
W. C. T. U. withdrawn from Calif. in 1896, 881, 882;
Calif. St. Suff. of 1896, 892;
Natl. Wom. Suff. of 1897, 901;
A. opposed to holding outside of Washtn., 903;
A. begged to come to O., 927;
N. Y. St. Suff., A. speaks on "rings" and women in politics, 928;
round of convs. in Middle West, contrast between past and present,
929;
Natl. Wom. Rights in 1866 sends memorial to Congress, 968;
Natl. Repub. of 1872 on equal rights, Natl. Liberal, same, Calif.
Repub., same, 991.
COOPER INSTITUTE, Beecher's sp. in 1860, 192;
meet. of Wom. Loyal League, 229;
headqrs. of same, 230; 264, 274, 303;
meeting in Hester Vaughan case, 309;
Anna Dickinson speaks for woman suff., 327;
polit. meet. of women in 1872, 422.
DEATHS, of Deborah Moulson, 31;
maternal grandparents and baby sister, 35;
cousin Margaret, 52;
of father, 222;
niece, 241;
nephew, 369;
Greeley, 428;
sister Guelma, 447;
Sumner, 456;
Gerrit Smith, Mrs. Wright, 467;
Lydia Mott, 471;
Mrs. Davis, Anson Lapham, 481;
sister Hannah, 488;
Garrison, A.'s tribute, 508;
of mother, 512;
Lucretia Mott, A.'s great loss, 525;
memorial service, 526;
Phoebe Jones, 536;
Garfleld, A.'s comment, 536;
Wendell Phillips, 587;
Wm. Henry Channing, Sarah Pugh, Frances D. Gage, Mrs. Nichols, 595;
General Grant, 598;
Mrs. Julia Foster, 603;
Dr. Lozler, E. M. Davis, A. Bronson and Louisa M. Alcott, 645;
niece Susie B., 648;
Emerine J. Hamilton, 654;
Mrs. Riddle, Amy Post, Mary L. Booth, Maria Mitchell, Dinah
Mendenhall, 660;
Ellen Sheldon, 700;
Julia T. Foster, 701;
A. on Blaine's, 739;
distinguished suffragists in 1893, 737;
same in 1894, 756;
Mrs. Bloomer, Mrs. Minor, 803;
Frederick Douglass, Adeline Thompson, 814;
Mrs. Dietrick, 849;
Mr. Sewall, 850;
Maria Porter, 896;
how to remember the dead, 899;
in 1896, 902;
Mrs. Humphrey's, 908.
DEBATES, on Divorce in Wom. Rights Conv. of 1860, 194;
on Wom. Suff. in Cong., 1866, 266;
in U. S. Senate on creating Wom. Suff. Com., 540;
same on 16th amend., 617-621;
Sen. Ingalls refuses to debate with woman, 626;
in Cong. on admission of Wy. with woman suff., 698, 699;
Rev. Miss Shaw and Dr. Buckley at Chautauqua, 727;
on woman suff. in N. Y. Constitl. Conv., 770;
in Kas. St. Popu. Conv. on woman suff., 789;
on Woman's Bible in Natl. Suff. Conv., 853.
DECISIONS, of Judge Hunt on A.'s voting, 438;
U. S. Sup. Ct. on women's voting under 14th amend., 453; 735;
Mich. Sup. Ct. on Munic. Suff. for women, 740;
Idaho Sup. Court only majority of votes cast on amend. necessary to
carry, 918;
U. S. Sup. Ct. on women's entering public lands, 983;
Dred Scott, 454, 984;
others, 985.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 253, 475;
women's in 1876, 476-479;
Sen. Morton on, 500;
compared to Emancip. Proc., 957; 960;
should protect rights of women, 977;
gives women right to vote, 977, 978.
DEMOCRATS, 59, 149, 211;
would not fear to act, 216; 263, 264;
embarrass Repubs. by approving woman suff., 265, 266, 267;
in Kas. campaign for woman suff., 284, 287, 291;
press comment, 293;
A. and Mrs. Stanton attend Natl. Conv. of 1868, 305;
insulted by it, 306; 311;
nothing expected from, 365;
Mrs. Hooker on, 381, 382;
in Wyoming, 407, 411;
women attend Natl. Conv. in 1872, 417, 418; 419, 420;
A.'s attitude toward, 422;
on A.'s registering to vote, 426;
Natl. Conv. of 1876 on wom. suff., 476;
Natl. Conv. of 1880, 519;
A. criticises women for helping, 523;
opposed to Wom. Suff. Com. in Congress, 585;
Natl. Conv. of 1888, 641;
disgraceful treatment of woman suff. in S. Dak., 686;
Natl. Conv. of 1892 grants hearing to women, Miss Willard describes,
725;
on woman suff. in Col., 753;
in N. Y. refuse to make women delegates, 758;
one exception, 759;
N. Y. St. Conv. refuses woman suff. plank, 775;
action in Kas. toward woman suff., 796;
scene on night of conv. in Calif., 874;
Maguire stands by women, 874;
invite A. to address ratif. meeting, 878;
in Idaho, 879;
attitude toward woman suff. speakers, 884;
abolish property qualif. for voting, 998;
Greeley on, 999;
in Kas. in 1867, oppose woman suff., 1016, 1017;
in Col. in 1893, 1017;
on Prohibition, 1017;
op. woman suff. in Kas., 1018.
DISFRANCHISEMENT, degradation of, 318, 382, 584;
A. points out disadvantages of to Pres. Garfield, 523;
Mrs. Stanton's speech, 703;
A.'s view, 711, 712; 801;
way for women to be free from, 918, 996 et seq.;
attempt to disfranchise negroes, 960 et seq.
DISSENSIONS, objections to recording, vii, 245, 336, 530.
DIVORCE, 61;
Mrs. Stanton demands intemperance should be cause for, 67;
law against wife, 74;
Mrs. Stanton again demands, 92;
debate in Wom. Rights Conv. of 1860, 193;
Phillips on, 194, 196;
A. on, 194; aftermath, 194 et seq.;
Mrs. Stanton's sp. at meet. of Progressive Friends, 197;
Catharine Beecher on, 352; 854.
DOMESTIC SPHERE, women should stay at home, 76, 78, 119;
wife of present and future, 134;
Willits on, 172; 178, 193;
N. Y. _Times_' opinion, 295;
effect of woman suff. on, 504, 505;
U. S. Senators on, 617-620;
in S. Dak., 686 (see Marriage).
DOMESTIC TRAITS, of mother, 6;
of grandmothers, 7, 14;
hard work of mother and daughters, 12, 19;
A.'s needlework, 22; 30, 36, 42;
biscuits and algebra, 43; 45;
A. as nurse, 52;
on the farm, 55;
as cook, 60;
suffragists declared to be without, 76;
Lucretia Mott's, 122;
A.'s love of young brother, 133;
housekeeping too exacting, 134;
wife's work in early days, 139;
A. assists Mrs. Stanton with children, 142, 187, 213, 219;
her work at home, 197;
her farming, 215; 216, 218;
helps at brother's "infare," 235; 243;
nursing of brother D. R., 470;
other instances, 471;
Rochester paper on, 476;
poor housekeeping unpardonable sin, 491;
buys linen in Belfast, 575;
goes to housekeeping, remembrance of friends, gifts, etc., 706, 707;
her delight, 710;
her hospitality and her cooking, 711;
sends for Mrs. Stanton, 712;
enjoyment of home, 719 (see Journals).
DRESS, of grandmother, 6;
of mother, 11;
of children lent, 14;
of father, 20;
A.'s plaid cloak, 21; 22;
A.'s criticism, 36;
her early love of, 50, 51, 52;
Mrs. Stanton on, 66;
A. on low-necks, 72; 84;
A. opposes mixing dress reform with suff., 117;
A.'s in 1855, 124, 134;
wife and breeches, 141;
Gerrit Smith on, 147; 151;
A.'s in 1860, 197; 252;
of suff. advocates, 337;
of A. at 50th birthday party, 342;
Mrs. Stanton's, 353;
A.'s in 1873, 435;
shameful account of A.'s in 1874, 458;
true description, 459;
gifts on starting to Europe, 549;
A.'s on board steamer, 550, 552;
shopping in Italy, 557;
Lewia Smith's lace, 558;
Rachel Foster's court costume, 562;
A.'s garnet velvet, 567;
her taste in, Mrs. Stanton's satire, 605;
A.'s clothes after a campaign, 612;
Miss Willard describes A.'s, 638;
amusing newspaper comment, 651;
Rev. Anna Shaw's in pulpit, 826;
women had to dress to please men, 844;
A.'s at 75, 858;
according to reporters, 903;
Mary S. Anthony on 70th birthday, 916;
A.'s fastidiousness and love of beautiful things, 932;
A.'s clothes "worn by a lady," 995.
EDUCATION, demand for women, 73;
A. on public schools, 221;
of women, 582;
qualif. for suff., 899, 922 (see Co-education).
EMANCIPATION, attitude of Republicans and Abolitionists in 1857, 148,
149;
Judge Ormond on, 184; 207;
Greeley on, 221;
A.'s speeches on, 222;
Tilton on proclamation, 225;
H. B. Stanton on same, 226;
efforts of Repubs. for, 226, 235;
of Woman's Natl. Loyal League, 226 et seq., 230;
Sumner on, 235;
Phillips believes ballot necessary for, A. same, Garrison differs,
245;
Pillsbury's attitude, 246;
Wom. Natl. Loyal League prays Lincoln to grant, 957-959 (see
Petitions, Wom. Natl. Loyal League).
ENCYCLOPEDIA, treatment of women, 170;
A. writes for Johnson's, 481, 802.
EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION, movement for in 1866, 256;
Phillips objects to including women, 256, 259, 267;
A. presents resolution for, 259;
formed, 260;
first meet. in Boston, attitude of _Standard_, 262;
meet. in Albany, polit. differences arise, 263;
meet. in Cooper Institute, 264;
abuse of _World_, 264;
first annivers. in New York, 276 et seq.;
committee objects to _The Revolution_ in its headqrs., 298;
persecutions, 299;
not responsible for _The Revolution_, 300;
second annivers., women insulted, 303;
abandoned for negro, 304;
form independent com., which memorializes Repub. Conv., Tilton
advises they go to Democratic, 304, 305;
third annivers., attacks on A. and Mrs. Stanton, 322;
tilt between A. and Douglass, 323, 324;
discussion on "free love," 325;
platform too broad, "cranks" take advantage, 326;
Mrs. Livermore on, 327;
merged into Union Wom. Suff. Society, 348, 349.
EXPEDIENCY, A. objects to word, 95, 214; 262;
Beecher on, 276;
Republican cry, 409; 415; 953.
EXPOSITIONS, first World's Fair, 101;
Centennial of 1876, women open headqrs., 474;
attempt to secure recognition, 476-480;
hold their own celebr., 478;
visits of Lucretia Mott, 479, 480;
New Orleans, 597;
Atlanta, 845;
Tennessee, 927 (see Columbian Exposition).
FACTORY, first cotton factory of father, 11, 15;
moved to Battenville, 17;
temperance rules, 18;
treatment of employes, 19;
A.'s experience in, 20;
prosperity, 23;
financial crash, 33-35;
vain struggle to maintain, 45;
after 60 years, 944, 947.
FARMERS' ALLIANCE, of S. Dak., record on woman suff., 657;
agree to support, 684;
false to pledges, 685, 686.
FINANCE, A.'s accounts used in writing Biog., vii; ambition of
grandfather, 6;
prosperity in 1837, 15;
panic of 1838, 33;
hard struggle, 45;
A. raises money in 1852, 68;
in 1853, 92;
ability to raise money, 92, 103, 120;
never waited for money in hand, 111;
for canvass of N. Y. in 1855, 122 et seq.;
receipts for first St. canvass, 128;
in 1857, Maria Weston Chapman on A.'s worth, 154;
A. almost discouraged, 168; 173;
Anti-Slavery lectures, 178;
raising money for Wom. Loyal League, 232, 234, 237;
for Kas. campaign, 282;
A.'s struggle to support _The Revolution_, 298, 299, 308, 319, 354
et seq.;
cost of publishing, 354;
A. shows efforts to meet expenses, 362;
status at the end, 363;
A.'s lecture receipts, 364;
heavy cost of trial for voting, help of friends, 446;
willing to lose money to speak on suff., 460, 461;
always assumes expenses, 468;
last debt of _The Revolution_ paid, 472;
comments of press, 473;
Centennial headqrs., 475, 480;
in Col. campaign of 1877, 492;
proceeds of two lecture seasons, 508;
for woman's paper, 509; 595;
connected with Hist. of Wom. Suff., 599, 600, 613, 616;
cost of first Intl. Council of Women, 633;
A.'s financial Natl. Conv. reports, 642;
expenses of 70th birthday banquet, 663, 664;
in S. Dak. campaign, 675. 676, 680-685;
of Natl. Conv. in 1891, 703;
Rachel Foster for Kas. work, 719;
A. lectures to "keep pot boiling," 741;
for Kas. campaign, 742;
A.'s joy over contributions, 742;
in N. Y. campaign, 759, 760, 763, 772;
in Kas. campaign, 780, 785, 796;
A. urges strict accounts, 806;
gives all she earns to suff., 813;
for Calif. Woman's Cong., 820;
in Calif. campaign, 861, 864;
same, 865, 888;
pathetic incidents, 889;
A.'s contribution, bills all paid, 892;
A.'s lack of funds, 898;
services contributed, 925;
in Anthony home, 933 (see Funds).
FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE, A.'s father believed in, 23;
A. thinks women must have, 104;
right over subsistence enslaves will, 169; 324;
evils resulting from lack of, 385;
same, 389; 653;
its relation to virtue, 844;
same, 1007, 1008;
pleasure of, 1008;
parents prefer marriage for daughters, 1008;
lack of it in marriage, 1009;
mothers of poor should be taught self-help, 1011.
FLAG, 550, 665;
presented to A. by women of Col. and Wy., 757;
A.'s hope for five suff. stars, 879.
FLOWERS, 53, 198;
from workingwoman in Calif., 405; 464;
A.'s response in St. Louis, more used to stones, 507;
had more thorns, 536;
on 70th birthday, 670, 671; 675, 707, 757;
75 roses, 821;
in San Fr., 827;
in South. Calif., 832, 833; 848;
kind A. likes, 859;
on A.'s train, 881; 892, 893;
sent by Miss Willard, 906; 907.
FOOD, grandmother's cooking, 7, 14;
mother's, 18, 19, 42, 45, 47;
the goose, 27; 43;
A.'s love of fruit, 55;
cooking, 60;
at Greeley's, 87;
women eat cold victuals, 128;
eating in early days, 139;
peaches in home orchard, 145;
in good, old time, 160;
"cranks" on, 161; 172;
A. and the bill of fare, 176; 200;
Phillips' lunch, 217;
A.'s lunches in 1863, 234;
"real coffee" in 1865, 242;
in Kansas in pioneer days, 284;
diet prescribed by Geo. Francis Train, 289;
Beecher's before speaking, 334;
while snowed in Rocky Mts., 407;
while campaigning in Col., 491;
fruit in England, 554;
in Italy, 556;
milk in Naples, 557;
dinner at Zurich, 559;
breakfast in bed, 561;
strawberries in Scotland, 569;
luncheons and breakfasts, 571;
two Irish scenes, 574;
no mutton in America, 575;
experiences in S. Dak., 691;
at Mt. Holyoke, 706;
A.'s cooking, 711;
her dietary, 931;
at the Anthony Reunion, 946.
FOURTH OF JULY, 330;
in Salt Lake City, 389;
women celebrate at Centennial of 1876, 475;
in London, 566;
in Kas., 609;
in S. Dak., 690;
women celebr. admis. of Wy., 699;
A. invited to Col., 775;
in San Fr., struggle for Miss Shaw to speak, 835-837.
FREE LOVE, first discussed by Equal Rights Assn., indignant protest
and repudiation, 325;
charges of N. Y. _Tribune_, attitude of Natl. Wom. Suff. Assn., 383;
resolutions, 384;
A.'s view, 390; 402;
A.'s condemnation, 462, 463;
insulting placards in Col., 492.
FUNDS, Jackson, 166, 171, 175, 178, 275, 539;
Hovey, 182, 196, 199, 234, 251, 269, 275, 282;
A. desires Standing Fund, 939.
GARRISONIANS, 133;
A. begins campaign with, 149 (see Abolitionists).
GENEALOGY, Anthony and Read families, 3, 4, 12.
GIFTS, on A.'s 50th birthday, 342, 974-976;
to _The Revolution_, 354-356; 370, 416;
for costs of A.'s trial, 446;
Anson Lapham, 448, 468;
Dansville Sanitarium, 452;
of brother, 459;
Francis and Loutrel, 468;
to Centennial headqrs., 475, 479, 480;
Helen Potter, 488;
Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Goodrich, 492;
A.'s to others, 508;
Mrs. Thompson to Hist. of Wom. Suff., 524;
Phila. Assn. to A., 534;
G. W. Childs, 538, 607;
on going abroad, 547-550;
A. to Oregon campaign, 592;
Mrs. Mendenhall, 660;
on A.'s 70th birthday, 671, 672;
to A. on going to housekeeping, 707;
on A.'s 73d birthday, 739;
from Phila. friends, 741;
from Chicago friends, 751;
Mrs. Hall, 756;
on 74th birthday, 757;
Mrs. Southworth to A. and Natl. Assn., 801;
Mrs. Gross, 803;
"annuity" to A., 813;
during illness in 1895, 841;
to take secy, to Calif., 862;
A. to Calif. campaign, Calif. women to her, 892;
New Year's, 1897, 900;
on 77th birthday, 907;
on Mary S. Anthony's 70th, 916;
A. mourns that small gifts cannot be recorded, 938 (see Finance,
Funds).
GOD, JESUS, etc., 68, 77;
blessing asked on conv., 87;
Creator's intentions, 109;
Christ an agitator, 177;
God will bless woman suff., 272;
Christ on Divorce, 352;
improve upon Christ's methods, 373;
A.'s unselfishness next to Christ's, 535;
God recognizes A.'s work, 537;
pictures of Christ in Italy, 556, 557; 563;
Lord and temp. movement, 567;
God sends children, 574;
wife compared to Christ, 595;
Creator's intentions toward women, 617; 620;
A. objects to mention of in woman suff. platform, 655;
Christ-like spirit of A., 703, 805;
A. on people who know God's wishes, 853;
women live in air with Jesus and angels, 857;
A. on God in Govt., 898;
needs money to do God's work, 898;
on God's special interference, 921;
on personal God, 923;
on miraculous intervention, 923;
God divided head and heart equally, 945;
woman accountable to God only, 1011 (see Church).
GRANGE, 652;
petition for woman suff., 767;
in Calif., 886.
GUARDIANSHIP, EQUAL, drunkard keeps children, 74;
A. secures petitions for in 1853, 105, 108;
rejected by Legis. with insult, 109;
A.'s sp. for, 110;
laws in 1860, 186;
granted by N. Y. Legis., 190;
repealed, 219;
example from Mass., 200 et seq.; 988.
HALLS, Albany, _Association_, 104, 186, 212;
_Tweddle_, 263;
Ann Arbor, _University_, 755;
Boston, _Music Hall_, 214;
Chicago, _Farwell_, 515, 517;
Denver, _Broadway Theater_, 823;
Duluth, _Masonic Temple_, 656;
Leavenworth, _Chickering_, 649;
Memphis, _Young Men's Hebrew Assn._, 807;
New Orleans, _Tulane_, 597;
New York, _Apollo_, 348, 352, 368, 383, 434;
_Broadway Tabernacle_, 89, 102, 147;
_Metropolitan_, 101;
_Mozart_, 174;
_Steinway_, 322;
_Tammany_, 305 (see _Cooper Institute_);
Oakland, _Tabernacle_, 837;
Rochester, _Corinthian_, 67, 92, 98, 105, 167, 180, 209;
San Francisco, _Golden Gate_, 827, 829, 830, 835, 892;
_Metropolitan Temple_, 834, 874, 878, 893;
_Platt's_, 390;
_Woodward's Pavilion_, 836;
Saratoga, _St. Nicholas_, 121;
St. Louis, _Memorial_, 649;
_Mercantile Library_, 469;
Syracuse, _Convention_, 211;
Troy, _Rand's_, 143;
Utica, _Mechanics'_, 210;
Washington, _Lincoln_, 337, 484, 511, 526, 546, 659;
_Smithsonian Institute_, 118.
HARDSHIPS (see Campaigns, Canvasses, Lecture Bureaus, Persecutions).
HEADQUARTERS, of Wom. Natl. Loyal League, 230;
Centennial of Natl. Wom. Suff. Assn., 475 et seq.;
Natl. Suff. Assn. in Washtn., 700;
Mrs. Southworth's contrib. to, 801;
in Calif., 862, 864, 875.
HEALTH, Mrs. Stanton on in 1852, 66;
effect of fashions, 112;
A.'s cold bath, 125;
convert to water cure, 126;
results of, 129;
at sanitarium, 134;
medical certificate, 136;
men speakers break down, 161;
effect of hard work on A., 168, 169;
powers of endurance, 408;
prostrated in Ft. Wayne in 1873, 433;
physical condition in 1877, 486;
Mrs. Stanton's illness not due to work for suff., 537;
effects of S. Dak. campaign, 696;
A.'s illness in Boston, 701;
illness in 1895, 840;
secret of health, 843;
after Calif, campaign, 895;
of A. and Mrs. Stanton after 50 yrs.' work, 917;
dependent on natural, not supernatural laws, 923;
laws observed by A., 931;
does not think of bodily ills or disagreeable things, 932;
medicine and physicians, 933.
HEARINGS, first granted to women by Congressl. Com., 314;
second, 338;
Sumner on, 339;
Mary Clemmer on, 340;
of Mrs. Woodhull and others, 375;
in 1872, on right of women to vote under 14th and 15th Amends., 410;
in 1880, 511;
in 1882, 541;
in 1884, A.'s address, 588;
A. has speeches printed, 591;
in 1886, 607;
in 1888, 640;
in 1890, 674;
in 1892, 718;
at Natl, Repub. Conv. of 1892, 723;
at Dem., 725;
Congressl. in 1894, member asks why never held before, 758;
in 1896, 851.
HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE, first move towards writing, 475;
beginning, 480;
financial help recd., 524;
A.'s restiveness, 525;
Mrs. Nichols' assistance, A. orders names of opponents to be
published, 529;
1st Vol. published, cost of pictures, favorable comment of press and
prominent people, imperfections, services of the three authors,
Mrs. Stanton replies to critics, rest of material stored, 530-532;
Mrs. Stanton's fears, may not live to finish, 537;
presented to Senators, 541;
A.'s longing to be through, 542;
2d Vol. finished, 543;
A. looks for in Rome, 553; 565;
work on 3d Vol., A.'s restiveness, 592; 595;
financial status, 599;
serious and amusing difficulties, 601;
A.'s dislike of it all, 602;
3d Vol. finished, 603; 608;
immense outlay, 612;
tribute to authors, synopsis of work, extensive donations, 613, 614;
commendation, 614-616;
sales, desire for 4th Vol., 616;
A. begs Mrs. Stanton to write, 712; 754;
Miss Willard's estimate, 951.
HOME LIFE, in Adams, 5-15;
in Battenville, 17-35;
in Center Falls (Hardscrabble), 35-46;
near Rochester, 47 et seq.;
in Rochester, beginning, 231; 706;
in 1897, 913, 931-939;
A. on beautifying country homes, 200;
Abrahamic bosom, 218 (see Domestic Traits, Love of Family).
HOMES FOR SINGLE WOMEN, A.'s lecture, visit to Alice Cary, 359;
A. writes it in Denver, 493.
HONORARY MEMBERSHIP, Chicago Woman's Club, 896;
Rochester D. A. R., 919;
other organizations, 925.
HOUSE OF COMMONS, A. visits, 553, 563, 567.
HUMANITIES, CHARITIES, etc., A.'s interest in, 60;
women fail to lay ax at root of difficulty, 920; 1004 et seq.
IMMIGRATION AND IMMIGRANTS, 59;
in S. Dak., 687, 690, 694, 695;
efforts to secure votes of, 887 (see Citizenship, Naturalization).
IMMORTALITY, A.'s ideas of, 119, 242, 508, 516, 650, 859, 899.
INDIANS, in Repub. conv. in S. Dak., 687;
preferred to white women, 762.
INDIFFERENCE OF WOMEN, 73, 98, 130, 251;
should be shocked into action, 366;
Mrs. Stanton on, 382; 456;
A.'s strong statement, 641;
in Calif, suff. campaign, 866.
INDIRECT INFLUENCE, dangers of, 590.
INDUSTRIES, PROFESSIONS, etc., demand for woman's admission to, 73;
to law, 74; 79;
Greeley on woman's right to enter, 147;
A. urges agriculture for women, 160;
on status of workingwomen, 333;
women may practice bef. Sup. Ct., 502;
dentistry in Berlin, 559;
law in Gr. Brit., 564;
medicine in, 570;
indebtedness to woman suff. advocates, 80, 740, 822, 848, 949, 973,
976 (see Labor).
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, N. Y. St., A. appointed trustee, 730;
her work, 733, 737, 816;
recognizes girls, need of women on boards, resigns, 817.
INFIDELITY, woman suff. advocates charged with, 77-79, 91;
Mrs. Rose's, 118, 121; 147, 311;
woman suff. leads to, 401;
suff. advocates and Dr. Patton, 596;
A. stands for infidel's rights, 631;
same, 655, 854.
INSURANCE, N. Y. Life, father connected with, 49, 55;
A. insures in, 136.
INTEMPERANCE, in early days, 15, 18, 19;
A.'s tilt with uncle, 40;
on Martin Van Buren, 41;
Whig festivals, 42;
no disgrace, 61;
Mrs. Stanton demands shall be cause for divorce, 67;
wives and drunken husbands, 74, 84;
in London, 564;
in Ireland, 573;
A. on woman's vote, 655;
specimen of man's govt. in S. Dak., 693;
women greatest sufferers from, statistics, root of the evil, 1004;
effects of, 1005;
in Chicago, women's petition spurned, 1012 (see Laws, Liquor
Dealers).
INTERNATIONAL, COUNCIL OF WOMEN, its conception, carrying forward,
first great meeting in Washtn., newspaper comment, speeches,
permanent organization, 633-639;
during Columb. Expos., 745.
INTERVIEWS, A. on Beecher-Tilton case, 461;
effect of woman suff. on saloons, 505;
source of the opposition, 506;
Mrs. Blake with Gen. Hancock on woman suffrage, 520;
requested of A. by editor of _Le Soir_ in Paris, 561;
impressions of Gr. Brit., 581;
change in public men, and on woman of the future, 582;
contrast between pioneer and modern suffragists, 729;
on N. Y. anti-suftragists, 766;
on her alliance with Popu. party, 791;
in Chicago in 1895, 821;
in Denver, 823;
on the Bible and the Woman's Bible, 856;
of "Nelly Bly" in N. Y. _World_, 858;
in San Fr. _Examiner_, 870;
on Sister Mary's 70th birthday and early life, 915;
on "rings" and "bosses," 928.
INVITATIONS, specimens of, 740, 753, 803, 924.
JOURNALS, MISS ANTHONY'S, used in writing Biog., vii;
in boarding school, 24 et seq.;
in 1838, 34;
in girlhood days, 35, 36, 38, 39;
woman's financ. independ., 104;
first St. canvass for Wom. Rights, 125 et seq.;
in 1856, 138;
almost discouraged, 151;
daily doings in 1859, 172, 173;
life at home and abroad in 1860, 197, 198;
in 1862, 216;
public work in 1865, 252;
on Chas. Sumner, 269;
on 50th birthday, 344;
in 1870, 346; 362;
work for woman suff. conv. in New York, 368;
on treatment in San Francisco, 392;
stage driver, 394;
the "reform world," 395;
trip by boat in 1871, 395;
Calif. experiences, 404;
snowed in in the Rocky Mts., 406-408;
our ship nearly lost, 415;
joy over Repub. action in 1872, 419;
on death of Greeley, 428;
on outrage of her trial, 441;
on death of Sumner, 456;
on degraded labor of women and "coaxing" women, 457;
on Beecher-Tilton case, 463;
on death of Martha C. Wright, 467;
of Lydia Mott, 471;
on Frances Willard, 472;
on writing the History, 480, 525, 542;
on Anson Lapham, 481; 532, 535;
on W. C. T. U., 537; 541;
while in Europe, 560;
in Scotland, 569;
in Ireland, 575;
in England, 577;
shrinks from pleading with politicians, 583;
on inefficient women, 586;
no blame for any one, 587;
on Miss Eddy, 601;
on literary "style," 601;
racy comments on writing the History, 602;
work in Congress, 607, 608;
on Phoebe Couzins, 608;
in Chicago, St. Louis, Leavenworth, 609; 623;
on Mrs. Stanton's refusal to come to Intl. Council, 636;
tricks of saloon element, 649;
Grant mementoes at Mt. McGregor, 653;
unmarried mothers, 656;
on Chief Just. Fuller, 660;
on Harriot Stanton Blatch, 675;
first housekeeping experiences, 711;
amusing bits in 1891, 714;
on Popu. party, 727;
on divinely-appointed male head of family, 730;
overwhelmed with work, 737, 739;
on death of Blaine, 739; 785;
"alliance" with Populists, 791;
on Robt. Collyer, 802; 843;
the $6,000 bed, 902;
on thinking of past, 914.
JURIES, men judge women, 74;
A. demands women have one of their peers, 309;
Gov. Geary declares need of women on, 310;
right to trial by under Constitu., 429;
Judge refuses to have polled in A.'s trial, 439;
A. pleads for jury of her peers, 440;
opinions of press, 441-443;
of John Van Voorhis, 444;
same, 449;
of Judge Selden, 449;
A.'s appeal to Congress, 449;
majority and minority reports, 450-453;
mothers with infants, 618, 619;
A. accused of trying to influence by speeches before her trial,
993-995.
LABOR, the wife's wages, 74, 108, 110;
proceeds of wife's work, 139;
A. demands vote for workingwomen, 263;
rebuke to married ex-teacher, 272;
workingmen's influence compared to women's, 306;
_The Revolution's_ efforts for wage-earning women, assn. formed, 307;
Labor Congress for women's rights, but not for suff., 307;
A. teaches workingwomen to organize, 307;
A. to women typesetters, 308;
on women wage-earners, 333;
rejected as delegate to Labor Cong, in Phila., 366;
gratitude of workingwomen, 405;
women a millstone, 457;
Greenback-Labor party on woman suff., 518;
workingwoman's need of ballot, 523;
farmers enfranchised in Gr. Brit., 593;
workingwomen welcomed in N. O., 597;
telegrams to A. from leaders, 671;
action of Knights of Labor on woman suff. in S. Dak., 685, 686;
A. addresses workingwomen in Omaha, 726;
organizations petition for woman suff., 766;
press in Calif, in favor of, 868;
debt of wage-earn, women to A., 740, 976;
on workingwoman's need of suff., 996-1003;
wage-earning men in England wanted bread, not ballot, 996;
ballot granted, 997;
excellent results, 997, 998;
political preferences, 998;
political power behind strikes, 999;
statistics of women's wages, 999;
why their strikes fail, 999, 1000;
women's great need of franchise, 1000;
wages not regulated by supply and demand, 1001;
give women same power as men, 1002;
effect of taking work from home to factory, 1006;
reward of virtue, 1007;
women must be self-supporting and enfranchised, 1007;
temptations to wage earners, 1007, 1008 (see Industries).
LAWS, women's property rights, adopted, 58;
Fugitive Slave, License repealed, husband's rights under, 61;
Maine Law, 70, 71;
Lucy Stone on, 81;
nobody wants but women, 83;
Common Law on women, 74;
conv. to secure better ones, 104;
A. canvasses for, 105, 108;
petitions presented and petitioners abused, 109;
A. argues for, 110;
arranges series of convs. for, 110;
hard work of canvass, 111;
for women, in 1860, 185;
for equal guardianship repealed in N. Y., 219;
A.'s scathing review of laws and wives' protest, 331;
Ingersoll shows injustice to women, 345;
for remitting fines, 449;
women admitted to practice before U. S. Sup. Ct., 502;
A. criticises Garfield's saying just to women, 536;
School Suff. in N. Y. partial failure, 730;
show men cannot be trusted to legislate for women, 966;
use of masculine pronouns, 982, 983, 990;
for married women, 987;
can't own false teeth, 988;
all made by men, women cannot testify in court, 1009 (see
Guardianship, Property Rights).
LECTURE BUREAUS, hardships under, 154;
conservatism of, 191;
first estab., A. and Mrs. Stanton employed, 344;
in 1871, 380;
Iowa experiences, 470; 472;
Slayton's circular on A.'s speeches, her endurance, 486;
Mrs. Stanton's dislike, 488;
hardships of tours, 490, 493;
in 1878, 495;
A.'s proceeds under, 508; 595, 598, 602;
in 1888, 644;
A. declines $100 per night, 843.
LECTURES, A. arranges course in Roch., 167, 190, 217;
tour under Train's manage., 293;
work in 1870, 364;
newspaper comment, 387;
general results of, 502;
tour of Mich, in 1893, wide range of invitations to speak, 740, 753;
in N. Y., 741;
in Cinti., 741;
in Kas. and Ills., 751;
in N. Y., 753;
in Ann Arbor, 755;
in Baltimore, 756;
in Phila., 776;
A. and Mrs. Catt in South. States, 806-810;
A. in S. C. and Va., 812, 814;
at Drexel Ins., 815;
power to draw audiences, 816;
thro' the West to Calif., 821-826;
offer from Major Pond, 896;
man asks A. how many she has given, 925 (see Speeches).
LEGACIES, Francis Jackson's for Woman's Rights, 165;
opinions as to expenditure, 171;
Charles F. Hovey's for various reforms, 182;
Mrs. Eddy's to A. and Lucy Stone, 539;
litigation, appeals for the money, 540;
legacy paid, only instance, 598;
A. besieged, 599;
use of, 600;
of Emerine J. Hamilton to A., 654;
of Mrs. Mendenhall, 660;
of Eliza J. Clapp, 763;
of Mrs. Minor, 803;
of Adeline Thompson, 814 (see Funds).
LEGISLATURES, A.'s grandfather member of Mass., 4;
women first address N. Y., 81;
action on Wom. Rights petitions, 109;
contemptuous report, 140;
A.'s efforts for Personal Liberty Bill, 173;
Mrs. Stanton addresses N. Y. in 1860, 186;
N. Y. repeals equal guard. law, 219;
need of women in, 220;
in South at close of War, 255;
Mrs. Stanton at Albany in 1867, 273;
Ills. addressed by women in 1869, 315;
Mich. submits woman suff. amend., 459;
Col. same in 1877, 489;
A. watches and distrusts, 516;
Neb. submits woman suff. amend. in 1882, 544;
action on negro suff., A.'s appeal that woman suff. be submitted to,
589;
Kas. grants Munic. Suff., 611;
A. addresses N. Y. in 1887, 622;
Wy. on woman suff., 699;
A. addresses N. Y. in 1891, 719;
A. addresses Mich., it confers Munic. Suff. on women, 740;
Col. submits woman suff. amend. in 1893, 752;
Kas. same, 754;
N. Y. orders constitl. conv., makes women eligible as delegates, 758;
Calif. submits woman suff. amend., 820;
same, 863;
A. addresses Indiana, 904;
A. addresses N. Y. for last time, 914;
Kas. voted against negro suff. 963;
submitted three suff. amends. in 1867, 1016.
LETTERS OF MISS ANTHONY, used in writing Biog., vii;
from boarding school, 24 et seq.;
on Lord's Supper, 36;
colored people, 39, 40;
women preachers, 40;
Van Buren and wine-drinking, 41;
silk worms, 42;
family love, 44;
first temp. meet., 53;
growing ambition, 70;
Bloomer costume, 116;
ministers and churches, 119, 121; 122;
numbers of, 131;
the wife's existence, 134;
canvass of 1856, 138;
begging for help, 140;
to brother Merritt on Kas., 144;
woman's dependence, 146;
Remond's and Pillsbury's speeches, 152;
large families, 162;
will rout old fogies, 164;
on spiritual loneliness, 168;
urges women to discontent, 169;
right of self-representation, 169;
loss of individuality in marriage, 170;
wife's annihilation, 171;
criticises Curtis, 172;
suff. needs consecrated souls, 177;
trouble with women lecturers, 177;
no time for humor, 179;
salvation of women depends on Mrs. Stanton, 186;
conservative people, 197;
from birthplace, 198;
describes mobs, 210;
children, 213;
approaching war, 214;
Adam Bede, 216;
sculpture and painting, 219;
repeal of equal guard. law in N. Y., 220;
public schools, 221;
her power of speaking, 222;
love for father, mother and home, 231;
on death, 241;
tenderness in family, 242;
trip to Kansas in 1865, 242;
negro suffrage, 245;
church and negroes, 249;
treatment of _Anti-Slavery Standard_, 268;
hearing before N. Y. Constitl. Conv., heresies and orthodoxies, 279;
struggle to raise money for Kas. campaign, 282;
hardships of, 284, 285;
protest against taxes, 330;
to mother about 50th birthday, 343;
on uniting two suff. assns., 347;
funds for _The Revolution_, 354, 355;
sorrow at giving it up, heavy debts incurred, 362;
résumé of situation as to woman suff. in 1870, 365;
criticising Mrs. Stanton's readiness to give up, 373;
Natl. Suff. Conv. of 1871, 373;
Social Purity, double standard of morals and woman's dependence, 384;
love in marriage, Wyoming, 388;
polygamy, 388-390;
man-visions, 390;
trip to Yosemite, 392;
interest in reforms, 394;
Mrs. Stanton's overshadowing, 396;
lecturing in Oregon, 395-399;
abuse in San Francisco, Fair case, regret at not speaking more
boldly, 396;
Chinese and women, 398; 399;
beauties of Ore. and Washtn., 399;
stage riding, 399, 403;
devotion of friends, 412;
Mrs. Woodhull and attempt to form new party, 413;
Repub. plank in 1872, 419, 420;
attitude toward political parties, 422;
account of her voting in 1872, 424;
of her arrest and examination, 428;
to mother on death, 447;
women's temperance crusade, 457;
marriage, honesty best policy, and no outsiders in family life, 459;
no rest, canvass of Mich. in 1874, 460;
not working for personal reward, 480;
to mother on love and duty, 482;
to Lucy Stone on partisanship, 497, 498;
on death of Garrison, 508;
on death of mother, 513;
specimen of A.'s stirring appeals to workers, preparing to influence
polit. convs., 515, 516;
to presidential candidates, 521;
to Garfield, 522;
criticises women for supporting either pres. candidate, 523;
hopes Repubs. may help women, 524;
compelling Mrs. Stanton to attend convs., 526;
children must bear parents' record, 529;
death of Garfield, 536;
Mrs. Stanton's work and health, 537;
to Phillips on 70th birthday, 538;
appreciation of Mrs. Eddy's legacy, 539;
passing of old workers, 544;
revolutionary letters returned in Germany, 559;
letters from Europe, 551-578;
converts Edinburgh prof., 570;
to Wm. D. Kelley to push woman suff. in Cong., 584;
to Mrs. Stanton on Douglass marriage and amalgamation, 586;
death of Wendell Phillips, 587;
close watch on Congress, 591;
Gladstone's action, 593;
to Frances Willard on refusal of woman plank by Prohibs. in 1884,
594;
on inability to write, Mrs. Stanton's love of ease, 600;
Miss Eddy, 601;
on Kas. meetings in 1887, 609;
heterodox and orthodox churches for conv., 612;
advises Wis. women to avoid legal decisions, 624;
union of two suff. assns., 628, 629;
declining presidency and urging elect. of Mrs. Stanton, 631;
ordained and non-ordained women ministers, 634;
lack of concerted action by women, 641;
open letter to Gen. Harrison in 1888, 642, 1013;
dislike of "red tape," immense correspondence, 643;
death and immortality, 650;
best campaign methods, 657, 658, 659;
Prohibition and woman suff., 657;
"Andrew Jackson-like methods," 659;
immense circulation of literature, 659;
on selling tickets for her birthday banquet, 663, 664;
union of two assns., 674;
value of social functions, 677;
disregard of orthodox Christians for feelings of liberals, 678;
pre-natal influence, 678;
love for Washtn. City, 679;
on financial management of S. Dak. campaign, 681, 682;
W. C. T. U. and suff. campaign in S. Dak., 683;
hardships of, 688;
criticises commission to S. Dak., 690;
visits to Holyoke and Cheshire, 705;
to John Brown's grave, 708;
meeting at Lily Dale, Miss Shaw answers Dr. Buckley, 710; 711;
begging Mrs. Stanton to end her days in Rochester, 712;
agrees to help in Kas., 715;
objects to male sculptor for her bust, 721;
urges Southern women to organize, 722;
first trip to Europe, 739;
never dreamed of stenographer, 741;
joy of having worked for liberty, 741;
on situation in Kas., 741;
women make burden heavy for others, 742; 745;
Kas. campaign, 754;
lack of organization, votes of drunkards, 763;
corrects report of sp. on orthodoxy, 774;
scores Repub. party in Kas., 779;
to Kas. Woman's Campaign Com. on plank, 781;
to Repub. leader, same, 783;
to Mrs. Johns, 784;
joy over Populist plank, 792;
repudiates Kas. Repubs., 793, 794;
on speaking in Kas., 794;
Y. M. C. A. and wom. suff., 804;
majority rule, financial mistake, 806;
to contribs. to annuity, 814;
first serv. of stenographer, 843;
virtue and financial independence, 844;
"trusts" and woman suff., dress, 844;
all organizns. should celebrate Stanton birthday, 846;
suff. elephant and horned head must stand back, 847;
objects to Mrs. Stanton's attack on church, 847;
desire to give all an opportunity, 849;
tribute to Mrs. Dietrick, 849;
to Mr. Sewall, 850;
grief at action of Natl. Suff. Assn. on Woman's Bible, 855;
Spanish inquisition methods, 855;
Mrs. Stanton writes down instead of up in Woman's Bible, 856;
religious superstition, refuses to mix relig. or temp. discuss. in
Calif. suff. campaign, 857;
begging W. R. Hearst to favor woman suff. in _Examiner_, 867;
longing for home, 878;
to Idaho women, 878;
to Mrs. Stanton, 879;
woman plank of Natl. Repub. Conv. of 1896, 880;
urging Miss Willard to withdraw Natl. W. C. T. U. Conv. from Calif,
in 1896, 881;
to Mrs. Sturtevant Peet on same, 882;
opposed to public denial of charges, 897;
urging women not to scramble for office, 897;
prefers her own wisdom to Solomon's, 897;
secret of her success, 897;
declines alliance with political parties, 898;
objects to making God author of Govt., 898;
need of money for her work, 898;
on educated and property suffrage, 899;
same, 922;
think of dead as in vigor of life, 899;
holding Natl. Convs. in Washtn., 903;
the writing of her Biog., 909;
dislike of groping in past, 914;
greatest compliment, 917;
impossibility of "insurrection" of women, 918;
Theosophy, Christian Science, etc., 918;
to Sup. Court of Idaho thanking for broad decision, 919;
to D. A. R. on Revolutionary mothers, 919;
every dollar given helps woman suff., 920;
suffrage great need of women working in charities and reforms, 920;
objects to asking for partial suff., 920;
on poetry, 921;
God's special interference, 921;
Sunday no more sacred than other days, 922;
personal God, 922;
miraculous intervention, 923;
compared to St. Paul's, 924;
foolishness of women's attacking public evils until they get suff.,
924;
number of cities visited, 925;
giving her services, 925;
to man asking how many times she had lectured, 925;
toil of correspondence, 935;
endless requests, 936;
amusing instances, 937;
loving messages, 938.
LETTERS OF OTHERS, number used in writing Biog., vii;
Anthony family life in 1836, 22;
father on daughter's teaching, 24;
to A. in boarding school, 27;
panic of 1838, 33, 34;
Washtn. City, 33;
Aaron McLean on negroes, 39;
Uncle Albert scores A., 40;
Van Buren, drinking and dancing, 42;
to woman's temp. meet, in 1852, 65;
Greeley on Wom. Temp. Conv., 66;
Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Nichols encourage A.'s temp. work, 66;
Mayo and Geo. W. Johnson on woman's rights, 73;
Gerrit Smith, same, 75;
Lucy Stone on Maine Law, 81;
A.'s father on woman suff. in 1853, 85;
Neal Dow, 93;
Abby Kelly Foster on A., 93;
Lucy Stone on Divorce, 93;
Gerrit Smith on female modesty, 93;
Saml. F. Cary on Wom. Temp. Conv., 96;
Greeley on Temp. Conv. and Church, 97;
Pillsbury on A.'s industry, 105;
Lucy Stone, 111;
Bloomers, 114-116;
Mrs. Mott, 122;
Greeley's offer, 122;
father advises to save newspaper clippings, 125;
Greeley on Woman's Rights, 125;
father on same, 129;
Lucy Stone on her marriage, 130, 139;
T. W. Higginson, Mrs. Stanton, Paulina Wright Davis, 130;
freedom in marriage, 135;
Lucy Stone on retiring from work, 135;
John A. McCall, 136;
Anti-Slav. Com., 137;
Mrs. Stanton on children and work, 142;
Mary L. Booth on teachers, 143;
on woman's sad position, 146;
the Hutchinsons, 146;
Lucy Stone on wife's position, 146;
Greeley on free speech, 146;
Gerrit Smith on woman's dress, 147;
Samuel May, 148;
and Lucy Stone encouraging A., 151;
Wm. Lloyd Garrison, 152, 161;
Mrs. Stanton on Teachers' Conv., 157;
Lucy Stone and Abby H. Patton, 162;
Phillips on Jackson legacy, 165;
Curtis on Woman's Rights, 167, 172;
Lydia Mott on loss of individuality in marriage, 170;
Phillips, 171;
Thos. K. Beecher, 178;
Pillsbury on execution of John Brown, 180;
Mrs. Stanton on white manhood, 181;
Abby Kelly Foster, Geo. B. Cheever, 182;
Judge Ormond on Wom. Rights and Anti-Slavery, 183, 184;
Mrs. Stanton will cross the Alps, 187;
A. J. Colvin, 189;
Mary S. Anthony on injustice to teachers, 191, 192;
on Divorce, from noted people, 195-197;
Pillsbury on Boston conv., 197;
Mrs. Stanton will dress A.'s thoughts, 199;
Garrison and Phillips on returning child to mother, 203;
Beriah Green on Abolitionists, 214;
Phillips and Tilton on lectures in Rochester, 217;
Anna Dickinson on War, 220;
Greeley on Lincoln, 221;
Tilton and Stanton on Emancip. Proclam., 226;
mother on sale of home, 231;
Tilton on birth of child, 232;
noted men on Wom. Loyal League, 233;
Sumner on slavery, 236;
Phillips on A.'s cleverness, 237;
Mrs. Stanton and others urge A. to return East, 244;
Pillsbury on negro suffrage, 246;
Mrs. Stanton on women's first appeal to Cong. for suff., 251;
Purvis approving woman suff., 258;
Anna Dickinson on speaking for suff., 258;
Beecher on "hay fever," 263;
Mrs. Stanton on petitions for woman suff. in 1866, 268;
Lucretia Mott on same, 268;
Purvis on negro suff., 269;
Gen. Rufus Saxton for rights of women, 272;
Beecher on dislike of working in organizations, 274;
Lucy Stone on woman and negro suff. in Kas. and on Hovey Fund, 275;
Anna Dickinson on adverse suff. rep. of N. Y. Constitl. Conv., 280;
Mrs. Starrett describes A. in 1867, 285;
Mrs. Stanton on A.'s judgment, 293;
on Train and _The Revolution_, 297, 298;
Lucy Stone and others on woman's paper, 299;
Mrs. Stanton on treatment of herself and A. by Equal Rights Assn., 300;
on _The Revolution_, 301;
Grace Greenwood on A. and her associates, 314;
Mrs. Livermore in appreciation of A., 316;
Train withdraws from _The Revolution_, 319;
Mrs. Stanton on forgiveness, 320;
Mrs. Livermore on _The Revolution_, 321;
Anna Dickinson to A., 321;
Gail Hamilton, same, 322;
Mrs. Livermore on Equal Rights Assn., A.'s lectures and Natl. Wom.
Suff. Assn., 328;
Mrs. Mott on A.'s labor for others, 329;
Mrs. Hooker on admiration for A. and Mrs. Stanton, 332;
on A. and other pioneers, 334;
Dr. Kate Jackson, Sarah Pugh on _The Revolution_, 335;
Mary Clemmer on Natl. Suff. Conv. of 1870, 340;
Mrs. Stanton on anything for peace, 347;
Catharine Beecher on Divorce, 352;
Mary S. Anthony urges A. to give up _The Revolution_, 356;
Mrs. Hooker on taking the paper, 357, 358;
Mrs. Stanton opposed to changing name, 357;
get rid of paper, 361;
Pillsbury on giving it up, 363;
Mrs. Hooker, Mrs. Stanton and others on the Natl. Suff. Conv. of
1871, 371-374;
Mrs. Hooker asks noted men to speak, 373;
on Sister Catharine and Mrs. Woodhull, 378;
Mrs. Stanton on Social Purity, 379;
interest in woman suff. felt in Washtn., 381;
encouraging signs in Congress, 381;
Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Hooker on Repub. party, 382;
Phoebe Couzins on Natl. Assn., 383;
Mary S. Anthony on case of Mrs. Fair, 392;
Mrs. Duniway on A.'s lectures in Ore., 399;
indignant husbands and wives in Victoria, B. C., 402;
Blackwell urges women to support Repub. party, 416;
Cochran to Mrs. Stanton, 418;
Henry Wilson to A., 420;
Mrs. Stanton's bitterness against polit. parties, 420;
B. F. Butler on woman's right to vote under U. S. Constn., 429;
same, favoring woman suff., Senator Lapham, same, 455;
A. G. Riddle on great strength and little working power of woman
suff. cause, 455;
lets. of faith in A., 458;
Lucretia Mott, 480;
Garrison opposed to 16th amend., Phillips in favor, 484;
Mary Clemmer on treatment of woman suff. petits. by U. S. Senate,
485;
Mrs. Stanton on friendship for A., 488;
Annie McDowell tribute to A. in Phila. _Press_, 489;
Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Sargent, Mrs. Minor and Miss Couzins on prayer
meet. in Capitol, need of A.'s management of natl. convs., 494;
to 30th annivers. in Rochester, 495;
Mary Clemmer on woman suffrage, 501;
lady asking forgiveness, 505;
Sens. and Reps. ask seats for women, 518;
Garfield to A. on woman suffrage, 521;
Mrs. Stanton on A.'s "dragooning," 526;
on Hist. of Wom. Suff., 532;
Mrs. Pillsbury to A., 535;
Mrs. Harbert on her love and Zerelda G. Wallace's, 535;
Phillips' cordial letter, 538;
Mrs. Eddy's legacy, 539;
lawsuit, 540;
Mrs. Blatch on writing Biog., 544;
Sen. Ingalls, 547;
Rochester people to A. when starting abroad, 548;
Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Sargent welcome her, 553;
editors of _Italian Times_ ask A. to write, 557;
to A. from editor of _Le Soir_, 561;
Mrs. McLaren on A.'s visit, 569;
Mrs. Bright on A.'s impression on son, 577;
Bishop Simpson on woman suff., 588;
eminent foreigners, 588;
Sen. Palmer urges agitation for woman suff., 593;
J. Ellen Foster, 598;
Mrs. Sewall on A.'s energy, 600;
Mrs. Blatch on friendship of mother and A., 602;
Mrs. Stanton on esthetic convs., 605;
Sen. Blair on A.'s persistence, 606;
G. W. Childs, 607;
Mrs. Merrick, 608;
Olympia Brown, 608;
Sen. Anthony, Mary L. Booth, D. W. Wilder, Sarah B. Cooper on Hist.
of Wom. Suff., 614-616;
Miss Booth on woman suff., 615;
Mary Rogers Kimball, 616;
Sen. Ingalls, 622;
Mrs. Stanton advises A. to destroy letters, 625;
Lucy Stone on union of two suff. assns., 628;
Alice Stone Blackwell on same, 628;
Zerelda G. Wallace and others on A. or Mrs. Stanton for pres., 630,
631;
Fred. Douglass on first Woman's Rights Conv., 634;
Maria Mitchell on work, 635;
Mrs. Stanton's friendship for A. but she won't come to Intl.
Council, 635;
Miss Willard on A. at Council, 638;
tribute from Mrs. S. E. Sewall, 640;
Miss Shaw's first let. to A., 645;
Adeline Thompson's love for A., 651;
Marie Deraismes, 652;
Laura C. Holloway, 653;
Harriet Hosmer, 655;
from S. Dak., 656;
nephew D. R. on his aunt Susan, 658;
Mrs. Sewall, Mrs. Avery on A.'s 70th birthday banquet, 664;
on 70th birthday from Lucy Stone, Whittier, Miss Willard, Curtis,
Garrison, Hoar, Reed, Olympia Brown, Mrs. Logan, Mr. and Mrs.
Gannet, T. W. Palmer, Nordhoff, F. G. Carpenter, Mrs. Johns, etc.,
668-671;
Lillian Whiting on A.'s contemporaries, 672;
Mrs. Livermore, Mary Grew, Lucy Stone, 676;
Mrs. Avery on woman's gratitude to A., 678;
to A. regarding S. Dak. campaign in 1890, 679, 680;
Miss Shaw on financial management of, 683;
Mrs. Wallace on A.'s leadership, 683, 685;
Miss Shaw's account of treatment by S. Dak. Repub. Conv., 687;
John Hooker, Clara Barton, Anna Shaw on campaign, 689;
Mrs. Howell's account of A.'s and her experiences, 690, 691;
same by Miss Shaw, 692, 693;
Mrs. Catt's summing up, 693;
her tribute to A., 695;
N. M. Mann, 697;
E. B. Taylor, 700;
Lucy Stone inviting A. to Mass. Conv., on A.'s illness, 701;
from the Pillsburys, 702;
Mrs. Bottome, on A.'s "Christ-like spirit," 703;
Sen. Blair's "pious fraud," 704;
Secy. McCulloch, Miss Balgarnie, 704;
Charles Dickinson, 707;
Mrs. Stanton on home of one's own, 707;
Miss Willard on Chautauqua, 709;
Mrs. Johns begs A.'s help for Kas., 715, 719;
members of Cong. on woman suff., 716;
Mrs. Stanton, 717;
Mrs. Susan Look Avery on A.'s popularity, 720;
A. objects to male sculptor for her bust, Miss Willard protests, Mr.
Taft's apology, Lady Somerset's approval, 721, 722;
Miss Willard on loneliness of great spirits, 725;
Bishop Vincent, 727;
Mrs. Greenleaf on taxation without representation, 732;
on carving A.'s face on theatre in Mich., 733;
John Boyd Thacher, 733;
last message from Lucy Stone, 738;
wide range of letters to A., 740;
Mrs. Sewall on A. during Columb. Expos., 746;
Frances Willard, Lady Somerset, Florence Fenwick Miller on same, 747;
to A. during Columb. Expos., 748;
Mrs. Palmer, 748, 749;
Mrs. Eagle, 749;
Mary H. Krout on A. at World's Fair, 751;
A. W. Tourgee, 754;
to A. on N. Y. campaign in 1894, 773;
Miss Willard on A. before N. Y. Repub. Conv., 774;
Col. women invite A., 775;
Mrs. Johns on party action, 777, 778;
Case Broderick and others on woman suff. in Kas. campaign, 778;
Mrs. Johns on planks, 779;
Mrs. Catt, same, 780;
Mr. Blackwell, same, 780;
Rev. Anna Shaw, same, 781;
to A. on alliance with Popu. party, 791;
Mrs. Catt on attitude of polit. parties in Kas., 792;
Garrison on life of reformer, 793;
Mr. Breidenthal, 794, 796;
Mrs. Diggs to A. on campaign, 795;
Mrs. Johns, Mrs. Catt on same, 795;
Mary B. Willard, Jenkyn Lloyd Jones, 804, 805;
H. W. Thomas, 805;
Mrs. Stanton on A.'s reading her speeches, 811;
invitation to Calif., 819;
Mrs. Cooper's welcome, 820;
to A. from Fourth of July Com., 835;
from Calif. friends, 838;
Samuel May urging A. to rest, 841;
Parker Pillsbury, Mrs. Cooper, Mrs. Stanton, same, 842;
Mrs. Blake on Mrs. Stanton's 80th birthday celebr., 846;
Tilton on same and debt of women to her and A., 848;
Mary Lowe Dickinson's tribute to A., 850;
Mrs. Stanford, same, 850;
Mrs. Greenleaf on Woman's Bible, 856;
begging A. to assist In Calif. suff. campaign, 861, 862;
Mrs. McComas on A.'s coming, 862;
Mrs. Harper in San Fr. _Call_ on appearance of women before Repub.
St. Com., 870;
Mrs. Duniway, Mrs. McCann on A. in campaign, 871;
Mrs. Harper in _Call_ on action of Dem. St. Conv., 873;
Mrs. Stanton longs to help in campaign, women left to fight alone,
879;
sent out by Calif. liquor dealers, 886;
Major Pond, 896;
H. W. Thomas on crowning woman, 900;
Mrs. Henrotin, 900;
John W. Hutchinson, 900;
Mary Lowe Dickinson, 901;
Mrs. Catt on A.'s 77th birthday, 907;
"the attic work-room," 910;
Miss Willard to A. on agreeing to differ, 924;
from N. Y. county official, 925;
extent and variety of A.'s correspond., 935-938;
Berkshire Hist. Soc. to A., 939, 940;
Mrs. Stanton on her book and A.'s, 951;
on A.'s 50th birthday, Sen. S. C. Pomeroy, Lieut.-Gov. J. P. Root,
D. R. Anthony, Whitelaw Reid, Abby Hopper Gibbons, 974;
Frances Ellen Burr, Laura Curtis Bullard, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Eliz.
R. Tilton, Ellen Wright Garrison, Anna E. Dickinson, 975;
Mary S. Anthony, Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, Kate N. Doggett, 976;
Mrs. Sewall to Gen. Harrison in 1888, 1013.
LIQUOR DEALERS, 17, 51, 71, 650;
in S. Dak. campaign, 695;
in Col. campaign, 753;
in Kas. campaign, 779;
same, 784;
same, 786; 835;
in Calif., 882, 886, 887 (see Intemperance).
LOVE AFFAIRS, 38;
in 1840, 43;
in 1845, 46;
in 1846, 50;
in 1855, 126; 142, 175;
Tilton on, 218;
in 1863, 237;
in Oregon, 400;
opinions of on and off stage, 555;
if A. had married, 860; 972, 973.
LOVE OF FAMILY, 20, 31, 42, 45;
letter to brother Merritt in Kas., 144;
to sister, 158; 161;
longs to stay at home, 168;
affection between father and mother, 223;
A.'s love of father, mother and home, 231; 242, 279;
A. in Yosemite, 394;
mother's birthday, 403; 434, 447;
devotion during brother D. R.'s illness, 470, 471; 482, 492, 493;
affection of A.'s mother, 512;
A.'s letter to sister, 516;
A.'s thought for nieces and nephews, 552; 557;
memory of mother, 558;
longing for sister, 562;
recognizes her powers, 578;
family helped A., 668;
Miss Shaw's love for mother, 689; 916, 944.
MARRIAGE, of grandparents, 4, 6;
of parents, 10;
A.'s comment as girl, 30, 39;
of Sister Guelma, 43;
of Hannah, 46;
drawbacks to, 52;
under Common Law, 74;
intemperance and, 84;
Mrs. Greeley on, 87;
Lucy Stone, 91;
effect on women's public work, 128, 151, 158, 178;
A.'s answer to minister, 108;
N. Y. legislator's idea of, 109;
degeneracy in, 135;
picture of early days, 139;
great privileges of wives, 140;
different temperaments, 141;
A. objects to twaddle about wives, 163;
woman's position compared to man's, 169;
wife's loss of name, 170, 183;
A. protests against wife's loss of individuality and
self-annihilation, 170;
true woman not dwarfed by, 170, 171;
Lydia Mott disagrees, 171;
good effect on suff., 176;
moments of solitude, 180;
wife's name on tombstone, 183;
why women marry, 186;
wife should be supreme, 193;
Mrs. Stanton on, 193;
one-sided contract, 194;
A.'s tilt with Mayo, 196;
A. the picket, married women the army, 197;
rights of husbands, 204;
in Adam Bede, 216;
married life of A.'s parents, 223;
A. scores wife for advocating low wages for women, 272;
how husbands represent wives, 279, 491, 771;
A. on women's proposing, 316;
wives object to A.'s statements, 331;
Catharine Beecher and Mrs. Woodhull on, 378;
A. on love in, 388;
in Victoria, B. C., 402;
incidents in Washtn. Ty., 403;
A. on mistake of outside confidences, 459;
opposed to second, wives should not live with unfaithful husbands,
463, 1009;
should be only for love, 469;
women should travel first, 559;
Platonic friendship, 568;
of Frederick Douglass, A.'s view, 586;
objects to crucifying wives according to St. Paul, 595;
U. S. Sens. on effect of woman suff., 618-620;
Rachel Foster's, A.'s feelings, 644, 645;
of "Robert Elsmere," 648;
of niece Helen Louise Mosher, 652;
A. on mutual love, 654;
of nephew Wendell Mosher, 679;
Hooker golden wedding, "no speeches," 709;
anti-suffragists put forward by husbands, 766;
A. on Mrs. Sewall's, 850;
idea of true marriage, 859;
woman a doll or a drudge, 860;
golden wedding of Sargents, 916;
sentiment for nephew's, 923;
golden wedding of Dr. and Mrs. E. M. Moore, 929;
woes confided to A., 936;
wedded to a principle holiest of marriages, 951;
A.'s golden wedding, 975;
legal slavery in, 987;
must be luxury not necessity for women, 1007;
statistics, 1008;
parents rather daughters marry than work, 1008;
laws must be same for husbands and wives, 1009;
God will curse mothers for endowing children with father's sins,
1010;
God thy law, thou mine, 1011.
MEDALLION, A.'s made in 1897, 917.
MEDICAL PRACTICE in early times, 30, 39, 40, 49;
"water cure," 91, 112, 126; 129;
at Worcester Institute, 131;
its methods, 134.
MINISTERS, Murray (Univ.), 5;
Quaker preachers, 6, 15, 19;
A. on women in 1838, 40;
first ordained, 74;
women educate, 68, 76;
S. J. May, 65, 69, 151, 270, 927;
Luther Lee, 70;
Channing, 73, 102, 104, 110, 112;
Higginson, 88;
treatment of women speakers in early days, 69-80, 87-92, 101, 102,
119, 121, 125;[140] 133; 165;
Quaker preacher at Easton, 177; 181;
Beecher's power, 464;
Stopford Brooke, 564;
Dr. Patton in Washtn., 596;
Baptist in Kas., 610;
sign anti-suff. petition, 620;
A. on ordained and non-ordained women, 634;
conduct Intl. Council services, 636;
in S. Dak. on "original packages," 657;
N. M. Mann, 697;
women at Natl. Council, 702;
A. asks one if willing to be disfranchised, 709;
Miss Shaw answers Dr. Buckley, 710;
W. C. Gannett, 712, 714, 719, 916;
Dr. J. M. Buckley deb. woman suff., 727;
A. comments on Thanksgiving sermons, 729;
Robert Collyer, 802;
Jenkyn Lloyd Jones, 804, 805;
H. W. Thomas, 805, 900;
J. B. Hawthorne attacks woman suff., 810;
in Salt Lake City on Rev. Anna Shaw's address, 824;
A. addresses in San Francisco, 830, 834;
why they have no polit. influence, 834;
coming to aid of woman suff., 856;
Louis Zahner (Adams), 942 (see Church).
MISSOURI COMPROMISE, 121, 149.
MOBS, in New York in 1853, 101-103, 163;
against Bloomer costume, 113;
in Rochester, 165;
Phillips' power over, 174;
throughout N. Y., 208, et seq.;
A.'s account, 210; 217;
N. Y. draft riots, 230.
MT. HOPE CEMETERY, Anthony burial place, 218, 241, 445, 719.
MUSIC, mother's voice, 10;
Quaker ideas, 11;
in Anthony family, 23;
the Hutchinson's in 1867, 286, 291;
Ristori's, 558;
A.'s feeling towards, 859.
NATIONAL COUNCIL. OF WOMEN, organized in 1888, 639;
first triennial, 702;
work for Columb. Expos., 745;
second triennial, 812-814;
manage celebr. of Mrs. Stanton's 80th birthday, 845-848;
in Boston, 895; 901;
at Nashville Expos., not a suff. meeting, 927 (see International
Council).
NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, founded, officers, 327;
Mrs. Livermore on, 328;
meetings in Saratoga and Newport, 329;
annual conv. in Washtn. in 1870, 337;
efforts to unite with American Assn., 346-350;
conv. in 1871, managed by Mrs. Hooker, 371 et seq.;
conv. of 1872, struggle over 14th amend., 409;
A. objects to connection with Mrs. Woodhull's new party, 413;
saves meeting from disgrace, 414;
conv. of 1873, 431;
in New York, 434;
conv. of 1874, 453;
of 1875, 467;
action relating to Centennial of 1876, 474;
conv. of 1877, 483 et seq.;
of 1878, distress over A.'s absence, prayer meet. in Capitol, 494;
conv. of 1879, 499-501;
in St. Louis, 506;
conv. of 1880, 511;
of 1881, 526;
Mrs. Mott's adherence, 527;
first conv. in New England, 533-535;
conv. of 1882, 540;
of 1883, 546;
of 1884, 588;
of 1885, 595;
of 1886, 607;
unites with American, 627-632;
A. describes its liberal platform, 631;
responsible for Intl. Council of Women, 633 et seq.;
conv. of 1888, 639;
sends delegates to polit. convs. of 1888, 641;
natl. conv. of 1889, 647;
of 1890, 674;
incorporation, 676;
contributes to South Dakota campaign, 675, 676, 680-685;
conv. of 1891, 703;
conv. of 1892, Mrs. Stanton's last appearance, A. made pres., 717;
conv. of 1893, 737;
successful effort to take annual conv. from Washtn., A.'s oppositn.,
738;
connection with Columb. Expos., 748;
conv. of 1894, 756;
no section, creed or politics, 757;
help in Kas. campaign, 780;
sends greetings to Prohib. Conv., 790;
old workers rebel against "red tape," 805;
A.'s advice, 806;
conv. of 1895 in Atlanta, 810-812;
turns Mrs. Stanton's birthday celebr. over to Woman's Council,
845-847;
conv. of 1896, 851, 858;
Woman's Bible res., 852;
A.'s sp. against, 853;
conv. of 1897 in Des Moines, 901;
sends greeting on A.'s birthday, 907;
an officer 55 yrs. without salary, 925.
NATURALIZATION, as applied to men and to women, 983;
what rights it confers, 986 (see Citizenship, Immigrants).
NEGROES, A. first sees, 17;
objects to treatment in church, 39;
takes tea with, 40;
inferiority declared, 78;
comments on in Washtn. in 1854, 118;
humiliation of, 152;
resolutions on at Teachers' Conv., 155;
efforts to free by emancipation, 226 et seq.;
placed above women, 240;
A.'s work for in Kas., 243;
A. addresses in Kansas and Mo., 248, 249;
their relation to church, 249;
after the War, 255;
Purvis on "negro's hour," 258;
Phillips and Tilton declare their rights paramount to women's, 261;
women sacrificed to, 266;
"the negro's hour," 267-270;
Lucretia Mott on, 268;
Purvis refuses to put negroes before women, 269;
oppose suff. for women, 275;
women sacrificed for, 284;
treachery to women, 286;
leading men declare this is negro's hour, 300;
women abandoned for, 304;
position of black woman, 304;
oppose women on own platform, 314;
A.'s attitude toward, 315;
effect of suffrage on, will lead to outrages, 318;
placed above women, 323;
A. on "the negro's hour," 498;
amends. will fail to protect, 500;
Repubs. can not protect in use of ballot, 522;
A. on Douglass marriage and amalgamation, 586;
A. addresses in Atlanta and S. C., 812;
no better treated in North than South, 815;
discharges stenog. who refuses to serve, 816;
in Calif. campaign, 868, 875;
A. addresses church in San Fr., 834;
speaks at church fair, 860;
Pres. Johnson's proclam. disfranchising, 960;
A. protests, 961 et seq.;
"colonization" proposed, 962;
efforts of States to disfranchise, testimony refused in courts,
imprisoned for debt, 964;
long-continued misrepresentations of, 965;
ballot only guarantee of freedom, 966;
rights as citizens, 979;
discussion of right to vote, 979 et seq.;
status compared to married white women, 987;
failure of attempts to deport, 1010;
Repubs. approve A.'s demand for negro but not for woman suff., 1015;
Mrs. Stanton declares 14th amend. will not protect in right to vote,
1016 (see Anti-Slavery, Slavery).
NEWSPAPERS, list used in writ. Biog., vii; treatment of early demand
for Woman's Rights, 61, 77-83, 89-92, 264, 267, 271, 272, 367, 504;
comment on A.'s voting, 424;
on her trial, 441;
on paying debts of _The Revolution_, 473;
wide notice of A., 502;
changed tone of press, 503, 752, 929;
her apprec. of its power, 510, 904;
efforts for woman's paper, 509;
kindness to reporters, 583, 904;
papers emphasize trivial things, 617;
on dress and woman suff., 651;
reporters of early days, 654;
endless requests for A.'s opinions, 740, 753, 803, 925;
to write for "women's editions," 803;
hysterical editors, 839;
on A.'s illness in 1895, 841;
A. on "yellow journals," 923;
desire for Wom. Suff. Press Bureau, 939;
at Anthony Reunion, 942;
birthday comment, 972;
on A.'s sp. before trial, 993 (see Interviews, _The Revolution_).
ALABAMA, Birmingham, _News_, 809;
Huntsville, _Evening Tribune_, 809.
ARKANSAS, Little Rock, _The Woman's Chronicle_, 722.
CALIFORNIA, on A.'s first visit in 1871, 392, 404, 405;
of South. Calif. in 1895, 834;
in woman suff. campaign of 1896, 866-869;
9,000 clippings, 868;
Alameda, 868, 891;
Berkeley, 868;
Oakland, _Enquirer_, 834; 868;
Los Angeles, 868;
_Times_, unfriendly to women, 834;
caricatures A., 868;
Sacramento, _Record-Union_, 868;
San Diego, _Union_, 833; 868;
San Jose, _Mercury_, 394; 868;
San Francisco, _Bulletin_, 829;
has suff. dept., 866;
_Call_, 829, 866;
work for woman suff. in St. Repub. Conv., 869;
women delegates before com., 870;
report smothered in Dem. Conv., 873;
women's mass meet., 878;
ceases support, 885;
_Chronicle_, A.'s banquet in 1871, 405;
Woman's Cong., 828, 829;
action in woman suff. campaign, 867;
_Examiner_, Woman's Cong., 829;
action in woman suff. campaign, 867;
work for woman suff. in Dem. St. Conv., 872;
_Monitor_, 867;
_Post_, 829;
assists woman suff. campaign, 866;
_Report_, same, 866;
_Star_, 868;
_Voice of Labor_, 868.
COLORADO, press supports woman suff. in 1893, 753;
Denver, _News_, trib. to A., 388; 821;
Colorado women indebted to, 822;
rep. of lecture, 823;
_Times_, 822;
_Tribune_, 388.
CONNECTICUT, Hartford, _Courant_, 339;
_Post_, 333.
DAKOTA, SOUTH, 688.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Washington, _Capital_, 486;
_Daily Patriot_, 376;
_Kate Field's Washington_, 791;
_National Republican_, Wom. Suff. Conv. of 1871, 377;
petits. for woman suff., 485;
_Republic_, 542;
_Star_, A.'s meet, in 1854, 118;
petits. for woman suff., 1877, 485;
descript. of A. in 1889, 660;
70th birthday, 665;
_Union_, 130;
_Woman's Campaign_, 509;
_Woman's Tribune_, Intl. Council numbers, 633; 641;
A.'s 70th birthday number, 671.
GEORGIA, Atlanta, _Constitution_, Natl. Suff. Conv., 810;
A.'s and Miss Shaw's sp., 811;
_Sunny South_, 810.
ILLINOIS, country press on A.'s Social Purity lect., 469;
Chicago, _Agitator_, 321, 361;
_Daily News_, A. and _The Revolution_, 473;
the Skye terrier, 527; 531;
_Herald_, 651;
A. like Pope, 840;
_Inter-Ocean_, Mary H. Krout on A. at Columb. Expos., 751;
_Journal_, 757;
_Legal News_, trib. to A., 346;
A.'s trial, 443, 757;
_Republican_, 306;
_Tribune_, A.'s reticence and truthfulness, 462;
interview with, 505;
fine tribute to, 549;
sp. at Press Cong., 750;
_Union Signal_, Miss Willard's trib. to A., 638;
grandeur of loneliness, 725;
_Voice_, 844;
Springfield, _Republic_, 517.
INDIANA, Indianapolis, _News_, 866;
_Sentinel_, 517;
_Times_, 547;
Terre Haute, _Express_, 503.
IOWA, Sioux City, _Daily Times_, 387.
KANSAS, Iola, _Register_, 778;
Kansas City, _Journal_, 550;
Leavenworth, _Commercial_, 292;
_Times_, 787;
Topeka, _State Journal_, 789;
Wichita, _Eagle_, 841.
KENTUCKY, Richmond, _Herald_, 504.
LOUISIANA, New Orleans, _Daily States_, 598;
_Picayune_, trib. to A., 597;
on her lectures, 807;
_Times-Democrat_, 598;
Shreveport, _Times_, 808.
MAINE, Bangor, _Jeffersonian_, 154;
Ellsworth, _American_, 154.
MARYLAND, Baltimore, _Sun_, interview bet. A. and Doolittle, 417;
A.'s presiding, 637.
MASSACHUSETTS, Adams, _Freeman_, 942;
Boston, _Anti-Slavery Standard_, 174, 188, 214, 233, 245;
Pillsbury made editor, 246; 251, 252, 261;
attitude toward woman suff., 262;
same, 265, 268, 269;
A.'s assistance, 263; 275;
women aid, 297;
_Commonwealth_, 297;
_Congregationalist_, 198;
_Globe_, trib. to A., 534;
a woman President, 725;
_Liberator_, 174, 188, 214, 233, 251;
_Traveller_, Natl. Suff. Conv., 533;
Lillian Whiting on A.'s birthday, 672;
_Woman's Journal_, 361, 419;
Worcester, _Spy_, 994.
NEWSPAPERS--_Continued._
MICHIGAN, press on A.'s speeches in 1874, 460;
in 1893, 740;
Bay City, _Tribune_, 740;
Detroit, _Free Press_, 345;
Grand Rapids, _Times_, 504.
MISSOURI,
St. Louis, _Globe-Democrat_, A.'s personality, 469;
same, 506;
her sp. when flowers were presented, 507;
_Post_, 495;
_Republic_, 925.
NEBRASKA, Omaha, _Bee_, 544;
_Herald_, 544;
_Republican_, 544.
NEW YORK, press on woman suff. in campaign of 1894, 763;
Albany, _Journal_, 65;
_Law Journal_, 443;
_Register_, 141;
Auburn, _Bulletin_, 993;
_Daily Advertiser_, 714;
Binghamton, _Republican_, 156;
Brooklyn, _Times_, 651;
Buffalo, _Commercial_ 271;
_Express_, trib. to A., 473;
A. and Spiritualists, 773;
Canandaigua, _Times_, 441;
Dundee, _Record_, 200;
Elmira, _Advertiser_, 803;
_Free Press_, 542;
Fayetteville, _National Citizen_, 510, 530;
Geneva, _Courier_, 993;
New York City, _Business Women's Journal_, 757;
_Christian Advocate_, 727;
_Democrat_, 384;
_Commercial Advertiser_, abuses temp. women in 1853, 90;
on A.'s voting, 425;
same, 994;
_Courier_, abuses temp. women in 1853, 91;
trib. to A., 973;
_Evening Mail_, 973;
_Evening Post_, 83, 103, 195;
op. woman suff., 267;
same, 771;
A.'s trial, 994;
_Evening Telegram_, 581;
_Globe_, 973;
_Graphic_, cartoons A., 424;
trib. to A., 473;
absurd comment, 528;
_Harper's Weekly_, 771;
_Hearth and Home_, 339;
_Herald_, attacks suff. advocates, 78, 306;
trib. to A. and suff. conv., 458;
A.'s birthday, 973;
_Home Journal_, 297;
_Independent_, 192;
"the spider crab," 252; 275;
fails the women, 281;
_The Revolution_ and its editors, 296;
Mary Clemmer's trib. to A., 340;
on Senators receiving women's petitions, 485;
A.'s birthday, 974;
_Organ_, 91, 97;
_Outlook_, 766;
_Recorder_, 771;
_Standard_, 384;
_Sun_, abuses temp. women in 1853, 90;
Democrats and woman suff. plank, 305;
A.'s voting, 425;
her trial, 442, 462; 530, 651;
birthday banq., 665;
on petit. for woman suff., 760;
Mrs. Stanton's articles, 763; 848;
_Times_, 157;
_The Revolution_ and editors, 295;
A.'s depart. for Europe, 550;
birthday, 972;
_Tribune_, 61;
rep. of first woman's temp. conv., 66; 83;
sustains woman's right to speak, 89, 101, 102; 103;
assists A., 122; 147, 157;
Wom. Rights Conv., mob rule, 1859, 174; 195;
ridicules woman suff., 267; 275;
refuses to print Mrs. Stanton's name, 280;
woman suff. in Kas., 281;
Wm. Winter's trib. to A., 323;
charges "free love," 383;
compliments A., 384;
on birthday, 972;
_Whig_, 131;
_World_, abuses suff. pioneers, 264, 306;
A.'s birthday, 341;
art. against woman suff., 497;
on A.'s presiding, 637;
N. Y. City women in 1894, 764;
Nelly Bly interview with A., 858;
A.'s trial, 995;
Rochester, _Democrat and Chronicle_, 145, 423;
A.'s trial, 442;
truthfulness, 462;
trib. to A., 473;
30th Wom. Rights Anniv., 496;
A.'s lect. on Bread and Ballot, 546;
her impressions of Europe, 581;
70th birthday, 673;
appoint. to office and Chamber of Commerce sp., 731;
favors woman suff., 762;
A. and Popu. party, 791;
77th birthday, 905;
Mary A.'s birthday, 915;
A.'s sp. before trial, 993;
_Herald_, 542;
A.'s housewarming, 707;
A.'s birthday, 906;
Mary A.'s birthday, 915;
_North Star_, 59;
_Post-Express_, A.'s voting, 424, 425;
trib. to A., 428;
on paying debts of _Revolution_, 473;
on "quality and quantity," 766;
on 77th birthday celebr., 906;
Rochester's opinion of A., 995;
_Union and Advertiser_, before the War, 145;
on women's voting in 1872, 424;
calls A. corruptionist, 436;
Rondout, _Courier_, 124;
Seneca Falls, _Lily_, 114, 188;
Syracuse, _Journal_, 77;
_Standard_, 72, 77, 729;
_Star_, abuses suffragists, 77;
same, 79;
other papers, 729;
Troy, _Times_, 272;
Utica, _Herald_, 367;
_Observer_, A.'s trial, 443;
trib. to A., 473;
_Evening Telegraph_, 83.
OHIO, Cincinnati, _Commercial_, _The Revolution_ and its editors,
301;
trib. to A., 519;
_Enquirer_, on _The Revolution_, 296;
A.'s paying debts, 473;
_Times-Star_, 582;
Cleveland, _Leader_, A. and woman of future, 582;
sp. to W. C. T. U., 800;
Dayton, _Herald_, 331;
Toledo, _Ballot Box_, 509;
_Blade_, on A.'s voting, 425; 509.
OREGON, Portland, _Bulletin_, 397;
_Herald_, 397;
_New Northwest_, 398;
_Oregonian_, 397.
PENNSYLVANIA, Philadelphia, _Press_, Grace Greenwood on first suff.
conv. in Washtn., 314;
A.'s appeal to Congressl. Com., 376;
Mrs. Woodhull, 377;
Forney on woman suff., 487;
_Sunday Republic_, 489;
_Times_, 547;
Pittsburg, _Leader_, 995.
RHODE ISLAND, Providence, _Una_, 188.
SOUTH CAROLINA, Columbia, _The Pine Tree State_, 812.
TENNESSEE, Memphis, _Appeal_, 807;
_Avalanche_, A.'s dress, 651; 807;
_Scimitar_, 807;
Nashville, _American_, 928.
WASHINGTON, Olympia, _Standard_, 401;
Seattle, _Despatch_, 401.
WYOMING, Cheyenne, _Tribune_, 387.
BRITISH COLUMBIA, Victoria, _Colonist_, 402.
FRANCE, _La Citoyenne, La Femme_, 562;
_Le Soir_, 561.
ITALY, Rome, _Italian Times_, 561.
NON-PARTISANSHIP, A. declares for in 1869, 315;
in 1872, 416, 419, 422;
in 1878, 497, 498;
in 1880, 523;
on importance of, 657, 683;
of Natl. Wom. Suff. Assn., 757;
A.'s in Calif, campaign, 879;
scores N. Y. women for going into partisan politics, 928.
ORGANIZATIONS OF WOMEN, Daught. of Temp. in Canajoharie, 53;
in Rochester, 62;
snubbed at Albany, hold own meet., 64, 65;
N. Y. Wom. St. Temp. Soc., 68, 69, 87, 92, 95;
N. Y. Working-woman's Assn. in 1868, 307;
meet. at Cooper's Institute for Hester Vaughan, 309, 310;
Assn. for Advance. of Women, 446;
Harriet Hosmer on women's clubs, 655;
Genl. Fed. of Wom. Clubs, 720, 877;
Daught. Am. Rev., 919;
Buffalo, Educat. and Indust. Union, 741;
Scribblers' Club, 803;
Chicago, Jewish Woman's Council, 921;
Woman's Club, 821, 896, 902;
Denver, Woman's Club, 822;
Des Moines, Woman's Club, 903;
Los Angeles, Friday Morn. Club, 862;
Memphis, 807;
Minneapolis, Woman's Council, 929;
New Orleans, Woman's Club, 597;
Portia, 807;
Arena, 808;
New York, Woman's Suff. League, 802;
Press Club, 924;
Sorosis, 307, 654, 704, 924;
Oakland, Ebell, 831, 876;
Orange, Woman's Club, 924;
Philadelphia, New Century, 705, 753, 799;
Portland (Ore.), Woman's Club, Woman's Union, 877;
Rochester, Educat. and Indust. Union, 901;
Ignorance, 709;
Political Equality, 651, 658, 698, 707, 739, 849, 860, 895, 915, 917;
clubs in Roch. give recep. to A., 905, 906;
San Diego, 833, 862;
San Francisco, 830;
Century and others, 876;
Seattle, Woman's Century, 877;
Shreveport, Hypatia, 808;
Syracuse, Political Equality, 762;
Topeka, Equal Suff., 786;
Washington, Wimodaughsis, 700, 718;
London (Eng.), Somerville, 564, 567;
Natl. Wom. Suff. Soc., 564
(see those specially mentioned).
PASSES, R. R., furnished by Senator Stanford, 390;
by D. R. Anthony, 796;
by Mrs. Stanford, 830, 888.
PERSECUTIONS, viii, 190, 299, 301, 929
(see Mobs, Newspapers, Pioneers, Temperance).
PERSONAL APPEARANCE, of grandmother, 6;
of mother, 9;
of A. in 1846, 50;
in 1851, 64; 113;
in 1855, 124;
in 1857, 154; 264, 273;
in 1869, 302, 316; 333, 342, 346;
in 1876, 469; 504, 505, 506;
child's opinion, 577; 582, 583;
in 1886, 605; 637, 638, 660, 714, 729, 751;
in 1896, 858; 928, 933, 973.
PETITIONS, for Maine Law, 70, 71;
presented to Legis., 81;
for property rights, guard. of children and suff., 105, 108;
presented, 109;
continued, 111;
insulting recep. in 1856, 140;
Mrs. Stanton and A. for civil and polit. rights of women, in 1860,
175;
A.'s sacrifices for, 190;
to emancipate slaves, 230 et seq.;
to N. Y. Constl. Conv. for woman suff., 262, 263, 264;
to Cong. to include women in 14th Amend., 265;
for woman suff. to N. Y. Constitl. Conv., 278;
Greeley checkmated, 279;
of 80,000 women to vote in 1871, 378, 431;
A.'s to Cong. to remit fine for voting, 449, 450;
in 1876-7 for 16th Amend., dif. of opinion, 483-485;
Mary Clemmer describes recep. in Cong., 485;
in 1879, 500;
comments of Mary Clemmer, 501;
great number in 1880, 511;
to Natl. Repub. Conv. of 1880, 517;
preserved by Chicago Hist. Soc., 518;
to Greenback-Labor, 518;
to Democratic, 519;
to Prohib., 520;
vast number of women for suff., 589;
for and against suff. in 1887, 620;
for represent. of women at Columb. Expos., 743, 744;
in N. Y. campaign of 1894, 760;
eminent signers, 764;
vast numbers, 766, 767, 773;
of antis, 766;
for woman suff. in Calif., 873, 888;
for woman suff. ignored in Cong., 970;
of Chicago women for Liquor Law, 1012.
PHRENOLOGY, A. in 1837, 30;
chart of head, 85.
PICKPOCKETS, A.'s pocket picked at Saratoga, 121;
at Chicago by woman, 249.
PIONEERS, persecution and abuse, viii, 69 et seq., 76 et seq., 83 et
seq., 88 et seq., 101, 107; 138;
A.'s pioneer work, 190;
life in Kas., 247, 248, 284;
Mrs. Hooker's tribute to, 334;
first speakers for woman suff., 369; 384;
Mary L. Booth on, 615;
Sarah B. Cooper, 616;
Miss Willard, 638;
A. in temperance, 643;
products of, 765, 822, 848; 944, 973.
PLANKS, woman suff. refused by Natl. Liberal Conv. in 1872, 415;
Natl. Repub. adopts, 416;
Natl. Dem. refuses, 417, 418;
in natl. polit. convs. of 1876, 476;
convs. of 1880, 518, 519;
adopted by Prohib., 520;
in 1884, 594;
in Repub. Natl. platform of 1888 not intended for women, 642;
the one presented by Natl. Suff. Assn. to Rep. Conv. of 1892 for
adoption, 723;
the one adopted, 724;
Prohibs. have woman suff. plank, 726;
for woman suff, adopted by Kas. Repubs., 726;
action of Popu. Natl. Conv. in 1892, 727;
struggle to secure woman suff. plank from Kas. Repubs. in 1894,
777-787;
A.'s great sp. demanding planks, 784, 785;
action of Popu. Conv., 787-790;
text of plank adopted, 789;
Prohib. Conv. adopts one, 790;
A.'s joy over, 792;
for woman suff. by St. Repub. Conv. of Calif. in 1894, 863;
action of St. polit. convs. in Calif. on woman suff. in 1896,
869-874;
on women, adopted by Repub. Natl. Conv. of 1896, contempt of women
for it, 880;
Gen. Harrison asked to include women in that of Repub. plat. in
1888, 1013;
planks in polit. plat. necessary for woman suff., 1015 et seq.
(see Political Parties).
POEMS, Berkshire Hills, 1, 13; 63;
on Bloomers, 113;
Phoebe Cary on A.'s 50th birthday, 342;
"Old Gal" in Oregon, 397; 668; 804;
to A. in Calif., 881;
A.'s remarks on poetry, 921; 937, 944.
POLITICAL PARTIES, Whigs, A.'s grandfather, 5;
in Boston, 42; 44, 59, 121, 149;
Know Nothings, 121, 149;
A. repudiates proposed party of Mrs. Woodhull and others, 413;
attitude of parties toward women, 506;
Greenback-Labor, 518; 584;
in 1884, 594;
A. on third parties, 622;
action in Col. on woman suff., 780;
action in Idaho, 879;
action in Calif., 878, 884;
A. on women's power to help reform parties, 898;
workingmen in Eng. toward, 998;
same and negroes in U. S., 999
(see Non-Partisanship, Planks, Democrats, Republicans and other
parties).
POLYGAMY, A.'s views on, 388-390.
POPULISTS, natl. conv. of 1892, res. com. refuses to hear A. and Miss
Shaw, action on woman suff., 726, 727;
on woman suff. in Col., 753;
Kas. St. Conv. in 1894 on woman suff. plank, 787-790;
excitement over A.'s and Miss Shaw's endors., 788-791;
A.'s attitude toward, 788, 791, 794;
results of campaign, 796, 797;
press in Calif. in favor of woman suff., 868;
St. Conv. adopts plank, 872;
invite A. to address ratifi. meet., 878;
in Idaho, 879;
attitude toward woman speakers in Calif., 883;
silenced by Democrats, 884, 885;
in Alameda Co., 891;
for woman suff. in Col., 1017;
in Kas., 1018;
adopt res. for, 1021.
POSTMASTERS, women, Grant appoints first, 418, 455.
PRAYER, 44;
cannot replace votes, 457;
meet. in Natl. Capitol, Mrs. Stanton on, 494;
and politics, 643;
A.'s ideas in regard to, 709;
practice, 859;
thinks it would have little effect on voters, 923.
PRESIDENTS, Martin Van Buren, 41, 42;
A. on woman, 119;
Buchanan's adminis., 150;
Lincoln in 1861, 207, 213;
criticised by A., 227;
delays to free slaves, 227;
address to from Wom. Loyal League, 229, 957;
Johnson's incapacity, 255;
he subscribes for _The Revolution_, 297;
Grant and Wilson, 418;
Grant remits inspectors' fines, 453;
appoints women postmasters, 455;
Hayes ignores women in message, 499;
receives delegates, 500;
Garfield on woman suff., 520, 521;
A. asks candidates' views on, 521;
urges Arthur to recommend woman suff., 538;
he receives suff. delegates, 588;
Cleveland receives Intl. Council of Women, 637;
Boston _Globe_ on women, 725;
Hayes favors woman suff., 757;
Johnson's proclam. to Miss. in 1865, 960;
A. scores him for, 961 et seq.;
power of to create voters, 965, 966;
Lincoln always governed by voice of people, 967;
Grant on 15th Amend., 991;
Harrison urged to include women in letter of acceptance, 1013.
PROFESSIONS (see Industries).
PROHIBITIONISTS, natl. conv. adopts woman suff. plank in 1880, 520;
Natl. Alliance invites A., 537;
A. scores for refusing woman suff. plank in 1884, 594;
Miss Willard asks A.'s advice as to plank, her answer, 622;
A.'s speech does not please, 644;
in S. Dak., 657, 681, 683;
took best men out of Congress, 709;
adopt woman suff. plank in 1892, 726;
Kas. St. Conv. adopts woman suff. plank, 790;
vote for it, 797;
woman suff. more important, 857;
St. Conv. in Calif, adopts woman suff. plank, 872;
A. objects to connecting prohibit. with woman suff. campaign, 882.
PRONOUNS, masculine and feminine, 982, 983, 990.
PROPERTY RIGHTS FOR WOMEN, first law for, 58;
common law, 74;
women first work for, 82;
convention and petitions for, 105;
A. canvasses for, 105, 108;
petitioners abused, 109;
A.'s argument for, 110;
arranges series of convs., 110;
hard work of canvass, 111;
bill secured from N. Y. Legis. in 1860, 189;
owed to suffragists, 549;
in England, 563
(see Laws, Marriage).
PUBLIC CAREER, A.'s reasons for entering, 57 et seq.;
fairly begun, 64;
gradual transformation, 107; 925.
QUAKERS, evolution of A., viii, 107;
Anthony family, 6;
Hicksites, 7;
"high seat," 6, 19, 57;
home schools, 9;
object to marriage of A.'s father, 10;
on music, 10, 11, 23;
discipline A.'s father for dress, 20;
for allowing dancing, 36;
attitude toward children, 21;
toward taxes, 37;
father disowned, 37; 44;
in Rochester, 48;
A. first away from, 50;
reformers, on voting, 61;
attitude toward women, 93;
toward capital punish., 165;
A. and young preacher, 177;
never fail A., 181;
meet, at Waterloo, 197; 201, 216;
John Bright, 565;
in England, 569, 571;
in Ireland, 572;
settled all questions discussed in "Robert Elsmere," 648;
Mrs. Mendenhall, 660;
view of Bible, 856;
A. member of, 933;
feelings of ancients if they could come back in 1897, 941;
old meeting house of Anthony family, 947.
RECEPTIONS AND SOCIAL FUNCTIONS, in 1839, 36;
temp. supper in 1849, 53;
temp. festival in Rochester in 1851, 62;
at Lydia Mott's, 173;
with Cary sisters, 343, 358;
A.'s 50th birthday, 341;
in New York in 1870, 368;
to pardoned election inspectors, 453;
in San Fran. in 1871, 405;
in New York in 1873, 435;
in Washtn., 512;
in Indpls., 517;
in Washtn. in 1881, 527;
in Boston, 535;
in Washtn., 1882, 541;
in St. Louis, 546;
A.'s 73d birthday in Phila., 546;
in London, 555, 563-568;
Rachel Foster recd. by Queen, A.'s remarks, 562;
in Edinburgh, 569;
at home of Harriet Martineau, 571;
in Ireland, 572;
in London, 577;
in Liverpool, 579;
in New Orleans, 597;
in Racine, 611;
in Indpls., 623;
Mrs. Ingalls', 626;
to Intl. Council of Women in 1888, 637;
in Chicago, 641;
in Washtn., 647;
in St. Louis, 649;
at Park Hotel, New York, 651;
Akron, O., 652;
Seidl Club at Brighton Beach, newspaper account, 653, 654;
70th birthday dinner, 672;
in Washtn., A. appreciates value of, 677;
in Ft. Scott, 697;
in Rochester, 698;
of Natl. Council, 702; 704;
in Phila., 705;
in A.'s own home, 707;
in Washtn., 718;
in Chicago, 720;
in Senate chamber, Topeka, 726;
in Washtn., 739;
at Columb. Expos., 744, 746, 750, 751;
in New York, 753;
in Ann Arbor, 755;
in Syracuse, 752;
New Century Club, Phila., 799;
in N. Y., 802;
New year's in Roch., 806;
in Ky., 806;
in Memphis, 807; 809;
in Atlanta, 810;
in Columbia, 812;
in Washtn., 814;
in St. Louis, 821;
in Denver, 821, 822;
in Cheyenne, 823;
in Salt Lake, 824, 825;
in Calif., 830-834;
in New York, 849;
in Washtn., 858;
in San Diego and Los Angeles, 862;
in Stockton, 872;
in North. Calif., 876, 877;
in Portland, 877;
in Seattle, 878;
in Des Moines, 903;
in Indpls., 903;
in Rochester, 895;
in Boston, 895;
in Providence, 896;
in Nashville, 927, 928;
Anthony reunion in 1897, 942.
RECONSTRUCTION, A.'s speech on in 1865, 247;
trying period, 255;
A. opposes on basis of male suff., 276;
protest against it, 277;
A.'s sp. in Kas. in 1865, 960.
REFORMERS, A. encouraged to join, 57;
meet at Anthony home, 60;
pictures of in A.'s study, 935;
always stoned, women grow more tender, 945;
few live to succeed, 948.
RELIGION (see Church, God, Humanities, Infidelity, Immortality, etc.)
REMINISCENCES of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 712, 951.
REPORTS, adverse of N. Y. Constitl. Conv. on woman suff., 280;
Anna Dickinson on, 280;
adverse Congressl. of 1871, strong minority of B. F. Butler and
others, 382;
Senate adverse, 1872, 411;
A.'s trial for voting, where found, 436, 446;
Cong. on A.'s petition to remit fine for voting, Tremaine's,
Butler's, Edmunds', Carpenter's, 450-453;
U. S. Senators in 1879 in favor of report for 16th Amend., 500, 501;
for and against in 1882 and 1883, 543;
Congressl. Coms. on woman suff. in 1884, Reed's opinion, 590;
A.'s and Mrs. Stanton's toil over report of Natl. Suff. Conv., 592;
Congressl. Coms. in 1886, 607;
coms. on union of two suff. assns., 630;
of Intl. Council of Women, 637;
A.'s financial report of 1888, 642;
Congressl., first in favor of 16th Amend., 699, 700;
on 16th Amend. in 1891, 718;
great N. Y. campaign of 1894, 760, 772;
com. in constitl. conv. on woman suff., 770, 771;
woman suff. in Calif. Dem. Conv. "smothered," but finally presented,
873, 874;
Mrs. Sargent's, as pres. Calif. St. Suff. Assn., tribute to A., 892.
REPRESENTATION, BASIS OF, declared by 14th Amend., 250;
but one true basis, 260;
shall be citizenship, 310;
women counted in and refused suff., 499;
Pres. Johnson's act, 961-963;
suff. should form, 970 (see Taxation).
REPRESENTATION, INDIRECT, 74, 279, 491, 590, 771.
REPUBLIC, how it differs from monarchy, 982.
REPUBLICANS, birth of party, 121;
A. attends first meet., 133;
growth of party, 149;
attitude in 1861, 207, 210, 211, 212;
efforts for emancip. of slaves, 226, 235;
in Kas. in 1865, 248; 255;
for negro suff., 256;
refuse to stand for woman suff., 265;
press opposed, 266, 267;
continued refusal, 269;
oppose woman suff. amend, in Kas. in 1867, 275; 276;
Curtis defends party, 280;
its leaders sacrifice women, 281;
their record in Kas., 281;
official action to defeat woman suff. amend., 283;
a few stand by women, 284;
results, 291;
press comment, 293; 304;
Natl. Conv. snubs women, 305; 311;
A. on attitude of leaders, 315;
all believe in woman suff., 317;
position in 1870, 365, 366;
in 1871, 381;
Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Hooker on, 382;
in Wyoming, 407, 411;
party expediency, 409;
plank of Natl. Conv. in 1872, 416;
A. urged to support and partly agrees, 416, 417;
sends out address, 418;
criticised but rejoices, 419;
Mrs. Stanton pessimistic, 420;
Henry Wilson encourages, 420;
com. sends for A., plank ignored, 421;
women speak, 422;
A. offends by sticking to suff. instead of politics, 422;
on A.'s registering to vote, 426;
woman's plank in Natl. Conv. of 1876, 476;
A. on woman's allegiance to, 497, 498;
support woman's paper, 509;
cannot fool the women, 516;
refuse women recognition at Natl. Conv. of 1880, some delegates
dissent, 518;
Garfield discusses their attitude toward woman suff., 521;
A. reviews their position and urges him to rise above party, 522;
A. hopes they will finally help women, 524;
voting record in Congress on woman suff., 584, 585;
A. and Mrs. Stanton advise women to work for, 594;
A. shows record on woman suff., 623;
suffragists appeal in vain to Natl. Conv. of 1888, 641;
ladies interview Harrison, Estee destroys their hopes, 642;
treatment of woman suff. in S. Dak., 687;
Natl. Conv. Com. of 1892 grants hearing to A., but cannot carry
plank, 723;
women delegates present, 724;
Kas. St. Conv. greets A., adopts woman suff. plank, Ingalls
endorses, 726;
on woman suff. in Col., 753;
in N. Y. refuse to elect women delegates, 758;
A.'s name refused, 759;
N. Y. St. Conv. refuses woman suff. plank, 774;
woman's connection with in Kas., 778;
attitude of Kas. politicians in 1894, 778-787;
same, 794;
same, 797;
their early record, 779;
political work with women, 778-784;
Woman's Assn. in Kas., 778, 783, 785;
A. states her attitude toward, 792;
A. repudiates in Kas., 793, 794;
their part in defeating suff. amend., 797;
favor woman suff. in Calif., 863;
St. conv. declares for it, 869-871;
invite A. to address ratification meeting, 878;
in Idaho, 879;
Natl. Conv. in 1896 rejects A.'s plank, adopts ridiculous
substitute, 879;
anger of women, 880;
treachery of Central Com. in Calif., 883, 884;
the orators silent, Thos. B. Reed fails the women, 885;
in Alameda Co., 891;
United States Senators put "male" in Constitu., 970;
Natl. Conv. of 1872 on equal rights, 991;
enfranchised negroes and received their support, 999;
Gen. Harrison asked to include women in platform adopted by Natl.
Conv. of 1888, 1013;
approve of negro but not of woman suff., 1015;
action on 14th Amend., 1016;
Mrs. Stanton tells cannot protect black men, 1016;
opp. woman suff. in Kas. in 1867, 1016, 1017;
approve in Col. in 1893, 1017;
give prohib. in Kas., 1017;
also munic. suff, for women, 1017;
for full suff., 1018;
in Congress, 1018;
Kas. League of Rep. Clubs refuses to endorse, 1018;
must choose between women and low constituents, 1019;
would drive women to Populists, 1020;
adopt res. for woman suff., 1021.
RESOLUTIONS, on Bible, 76;
equal pay for women teachers in 1853, 100;
color question in schools, 155;
coeducation in 1857, 155;
Mrs. Stanton on Divorce, 193;
National Loyal League in 1863, 227;
women's as well as negroes' rights, 229;
for an Equal Rights Assn., 259, 260;
A. on proposed 14th Amend, in 1867, 276;
Kas. Repubs. to defeat woman suff. amend, in 1867, 283;
Equal Rights Assn. censuring A. and Mrs. Stanton, 300;
same advising them to go to Democrats, 305;
of Labor Congress in 1868, 307;
in Hester Vaughan's case, for jury of women, 309;
in Cong, in 1868 for woman suff., 310, 311;
15th Amend, dispute in Equal Rights Assn., 323, 324;
Mrs. Livermore on "free love," 324;
on woman's right to vote under 14th Amend., 331;
Ingersoll on equal laws for women, 345;
in 1871 on right of women to vote under 14th Amend., 377;
indirectly on "free love," 384;
declaring 14th and 15th Amends, enfranchise women, 410;
attempt to secure res. from Natl. Liberal Conv. of 1872, 415;
personal rights and criminal prosecution of A. for voting, 431;
trial of A., 434;
exclusion of women from Centennial, 474;
treatment of woman's petitions by Cong., ignoring of women in Pres.
Hayes' message, tyranny of Fed. Govt. over women, etc., 499;
res. for woman suff. by Greenback party, 519;
A.'s departure for Europe, 548;
disfranch. of Utah women, 607;
Blair's on 16th Amend., 617;
Am. Wom. Suff. Assn. on union with Natl., 627;
Farmers' Alliance and Knights of Labor in S. Dak. on woman suff.,
686;
Natl. Popu. Conv. adopts woman suff., 727;
of N. Y. Anti-Suff. Society in 1894, 765;
on woman suff. proposed by Kas. politician, 778;
wom. suff. endorsed by Repub. and Popu. parties in Kas., 784;
of Kas. Wom. Repub. Assn., 785;
woman suff. res. refused by Kas. Repub. St. Conv., 786;
res. against in Dem. St. Conv., 796;
A. on women's refusing to help men while "male" is in Constitu., 839;
on Woman's Bible by Natl. Suff. Assn., 853;
on woman suff. at Dem. St. Conv. in Calif, in 1896, 874;
Repubs. and Populists in Kas. adopt res. for woman suff., 1021.
REUNION OF ANTHONY FAMILY in Adams, Mass., in 1897, 939-947.
REVOLUTION, woman suff. will cause, 620;
impossible for women, 918;
excusable only in enslaved, 1002;
women driven to it in temp, work, 1003.
REVOLUTION, THE, first notice of, 290;
A.'s delight, 294;
paper started, editors and editorials, financial struggle, etc.,
295-311;
petitions for woman suff., 313;
Train withdraws from, 319;
offices moved, 320;
end of paper, 354-364;
prospectus, Alice Gary's story, its contributors, 359;
A. will pay immense debt, 362;
efforts to do so, 441, 459, 460, 468;
last dollar paid, 472;
comments of press, 473; 509, 655, 951.
RIGGS HOUSE, home of A. for 12 winters, 512;
loses home there, 705.
SCHOOL LIFE, of father at "Nine Partners'," 8;
of mother, 9;
in Anthony home, 9, 19, 22, 23, 35;
A. in boarding school, 24-34.
SCRAP BOOKS, used in writing Biog., vii, 910;
begun in 1855, 125;
of N. Y. campaign, 762;
visit to Calif., 837.
SCULPTURE, A. will have statue in Washtn., 669;
bust of A. by Adelaide Johnson, 677;
Mrs. Stanton by same, 713;
of A. by Lorado Taft, amusing corres., 721, 722;
A.'s face carved on theater, 733;
proposed statue of Mrs. Schuyler, 734;
Harriet Hosmer's Lincoln, 821;
A.'s statuette by Bessie Potter, 862;
in N. Y. Capitol, 949;
would have bronze if not a woman, 973.
SEASICKNESS, 395, 552, 555.
SEX DISTINCTIONS, 69, 74. 76;
woman inferior by nature, 78; 79, 84, 89, 90, 93, 109;
let man compare woman's position with his, 169; 306, 324;
Kentucky editor's view, 504;
God intended none, 945.
SLAVERY, in N. Y., 17;
in Washtn., 33; 38;
A.'s comments in 1839, 39; 59;
Fugitive Slave Law, underground R. R., 61;
A. on slaves in Washtn., 118;
transition period, 149;
A.'s speeches on, 153; 172, 173;
South. attitude on, 184; 204;
conditions in 1861, 207;
efforts to abolish by emancip., 226 et seq.;
A.'s appeals, 227, 230;
A. on slaveholders, 228;
Sumner on, 236;
abolished by 13th Amend., 238;
of woman, 333; 427;
for feeding fugitive slave, 440;
Purvis on A.'s part in abolishing, 547;
makes people unjust to each other, 844;
pictures in A.'s study, 934;
blighting effects on women and children, 957;
compact of U. S. Constitu. broken, 958;
under new form, 964 et seq.;
political slavery of white women, 966;
of wives and negro men, 987-989;
industrial in England, 996
(see Anti-Slavery, Constitution, Negroes).
SOCIAL EVIL, 53, 54;
coeducation leads to, 155;
A. blocks license of in N. Y., 273;
Mrs. Stanton on double standard, 379;
A. on same, 385;
compared to Mormonism, 390;
Fair-Crittenden case, 391;
woman suff. leads to, 401;
bill in San Fran., 404;
A.'s Social Purity lect., 468, 469;
woman's ballot needed, 500;
abroad, 555;
A. on Bethany Home, 656;
objects to punishing women and letting men go free, 815;
statistics, 1005;
ravages of disease, 1005;
attempts to license, 1006;
causes of, 1006;
poverty leads to, 1007;
in the home, 1009;
in Chicago, 1012.
SOCIAL PURITY, A.'s strong speech in Chicago, St. Louis and other
places, distress of friends, comments of press, 468, 469, 472;
full speech, 1004.
SOLITUDE OF SELF, wife needs, 134;
A. longs for, 168;
necessary in marriage, 179, 180; 216;
Mrs. Stanton's sp., 717.
SOUTH, attitude before War, 184, 207;
view of Slavery and Woman's Rights, 183; 209, 210;
action of Legis. after War, 255;
Prohibitionists conciliate, 594;
A. urges its women to hold suff. conv., 722;
her interest in them, 740;
A. and Mrs. Catt make tour of, 806-810
(see Negroes).
SOUVENIR SPOON, 917.
SPEECHES OF MISS ANTHONY, first ever made, 53;
Mrs. Stanton's help, 66; 77;
dislike of speaking, 82;
tour of N. Y. in 1853, 83;
in Teach. Conv., 98;
on pay of women, 102; 105;
bef. Legis. com. in 1854, 109;
first sp. in Washtn., 117;
trying exper., 119, 121;
in Oswego, Saratoga, no faith in self, 120;
first St. canvass, 123 et seq.;
at birthplace, 129;
does not speak for rich, begs help, 140;
struggle with sp. on Coeducation, 142;
different impressions made, 143;
at Saratoga in 1856, 143;
Lucy Stone encourages, 145;
feels discouraged, 151;
synopsis of Anti-Slav, sp., 153;
discards written ones, 153;
in Me., 154;
in Binghamton, 156;
Mrs. Stanton rejoices in, 157;
on Coeducation, friendly words, 164;
A.'s comp. to Mrs. Stanton's, their work together, 187;
on Marriage and Divorce, 194;
at Agr. Fair on modern farm life, 199;
sp. sometimes a failure, 216;
improves, 222;
in 1863 on Emancipation, 227;
on equal rights, 229;
on Reconstruction, 247;
to negroes, 248, 249;
demanding Equal Rights Assn., 260;
discriminations against women, 263;
inalienable right of suff., 278;
to women typesetters, 308;
at N. Y. Press Club on woman's proposing, 316;
strong sp. on 15th Amend., 323;
slavery of woman and need of ballot for wage-earners, 333;
at Congressl. hearing in 1870 on woman's right to vote under 14th
Amend., 338;
at 50th birthday recep., 343;
distrusts power to speak, 344;
appeal to Congressl. Com. in 1871, 376;
in the West, 387;
in Salt Lake City, 388-390;
in Calif., 391-394;
in Oregon, 396-400;
in Washtn. Ty., 401;
in Victoria, 402;
in Calif. again, 403-405;
woman's right to vote under 14th and 15th Amends., 410;
three ways of securing woman suff., 431;
right to vote under 14th Amend., 433;
great Constitl. Argument, 435, 436;
protest against conviction for voting, 439;
women's need to vote instead of sing and pray against liquor
traffic, 457;
on Social Purity, 468;
when flowers were presented in St. Louis, 507;
on Lucretia Mott, 527;
at 63d birthday reception on early comrades, would have worked the
same for man's enfranchis., 547;
in London, 564, 565, 566, 569;
in Edinburgh, 568;
at Congressl. hearing of 1884, for 16th Amend., 588;
injecting Bible in woman suff. discussions, 595;
at New Orleans in 1884, 597;
in Ills., 609;
in Kas., comments of press, incidents, 609-611;
spirit wouldn't soar, 611;
in Wis. Senate chamber, 612;
inconsistency of women, 623;
scores Sen. Ingalls, 625;
in Chicago in 1888, 641;
to W. C. T. U. in Columbus, O., no emotions, coldly recd., 643;
in Cincinnati, 648;
in Ark., St. Louis, Jefferson City, Leavenworth, 649;
to Seidl Club (N. Y.), 654;
nephew D. R. on sp. at Ann Arbor, 658;
at 70th birthday banquet, 668;
at Madison, S. Dak., 691;
West. N. Y. Fair, 711;
Thanksgiving services in 1891, 714;
Woman's Rights Annivers. in Salem, O., 722;
before Natl. Repub. Conv. Com., 724;
in Topeka, 726;
in Roch. Chamber of Commerce on munic. suff. for women, 731;
plea not to take annual suff. convs. from Washtn., 738;
in Mich, in 1893, 740;
great triumph at Columb. Expos., 746, 747, 748;
sensation at Press Cong., 749;
on Government, 750;
on receiving flag, on annual reunions in Washtn., 757;
in N. Y. campaign of 1894, 761-763;
in constitl. conv., 767;
Spiritualists and woman suff., 773;
opening campaign in Kansas City, 784, 785;
at Popu. St. Conv., 788;
places equal rights before creeds or politics, 793;
Gospel Temp. meet. in Cleveland, 800;
Pilgrim Mothers' Dinner, 802;
many invitations for, 803;
tour of South, 806-809;
Atlanta conv., 811;
in S. C. and Va., 812;
at Douglass memorial service, 814;
in St. Louis, 821;
in Denver on woman and franchise, 823;
audience introd. to A. in Cheyenne, 824;
in Salt Lake City, 825;
in Reno, 825;
Woman's Cong. in San Fr., 828, 829, 830;
at Palo Alto, 830;
Oakland, 831, 834, 837;
San Jose, 831;
Los Angeles, Pasadena, Pomona, 832;
San Diego, 833;
San Fran., 834;
at 4th of July celebr. in same, 836;
inspiration of, 838;
Mrs. Stanton's 80th birthday celebr., 848;
on Woman's Bible, demands religious liberty, condemns bigotry, 853;
power to draw audiences, 861;
in Calif. campaign, 864;
at Rep. St. Conv. in Calif., 870;
during campaign, at all times and places, 875-879;
at Woman's Cong. in Portland, Ore., in Seattle, 877;
her non-partisanship, 879;
in South. Calif. from rear platform of car, 881;
farewell to Calif., 893;
in Reno, Kas. City, 895;
before Ind. Legis., 904;
to Cuban League, 908;
at Mrs. Humphrey's funeral, 908;
last sp. before N. Y. Legis. Com., 914;
100th birthday of Saml. J. May, 927;
at Fiske University, 928;
on "rings" and women in politics, 928;
contrast between ovations of present and abuse of past, 929;
on Reconstruction, in 1865, 960 et seq.;
Constitutional Argument, right of women to vote under U. S.
Constitu. delivered previous to trial for voting, 977;
Woman Wants Bread Not the Ballot, 996-1003;
on Social Purity in 1875, 1004;
Demand for Party Recognition in Kas. campaign of 1894, 1015
(see Lectures).
SPEECHES OF OTHERS, Mrs. Stanton on Divorce, 67;
Lucy Stone on posit. of women, 73;
Antoinette Brown, same, 74;
Mrs. Nichols on Divorce, 74;
Mrs. Rose on Woman Suff., 75;
young minister and young teacher on woman's sphere, 76;
Mrs. Rose on Bible, 77;
Mrs. Stanton on right to speak, 92;
objections to women's, 65, 69, 76, 78, 84, 88, 92, 99, 101, 119, 143
(see Mobs);
Remond on Slavery, 152;
Davies on Coeducation a Social Evil, 155;
Curtis on Fair Play for Women, 167;
A. criticises, 172;
Phillips' power, 174, 214;
comparison between A.'s and Mrs. Stanton's and manner of writing
together, 187, 188;
Mrs. Stanton before Legis. at Albany in 1860, 189;
Henry Ward Beecher on Woman's Rights, 192;
Mrs. Stanton in N. Y. on Divorce, 193;
at Friends' Meeting in Waterloo, 197;
Sumner on Emancipation, 235;
Beecher on enfranchising women at same time as negroes, 276;
women on right to vote under 14th Amend., 432;
Mrs. Gage on A.'s arrest for voting, 436;
Judge Selden at A.'s trial for voting, 437;
Mrs. Stanton's in Eng., 565, 566;
of English women, 576, 577;
John Bright's, 577;
Warren Keifer and others for Wom. Suff. Com., 584;
Reagan opposed, 585;
on 16th Amend., Sens. Blair, Brown, 617;
Dolph, 618;
Vest, 619;
Blair, 621;
A. shuts Mrs. Stanton up to prepare sp., 636;
Miss Willard on pioneer suffragists, 638;
at A.'s 70th birthday banquet, 665;
Hinckley, Purvis, Pickler, 666;
Mrs. Stanton, 667;
Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Blatch, Mr. Foulke and others at union of two
assns., 674, 675;
at Natl. Council of Women in 1891, 702;
Lucy Stone, 703;
Sen. Ingalls on woman suff., 726;
Mrs. Palmer at Columb. Expos., 742;
in N. Y. campaign of 1894, 761;
suffragists and antis in constitl. conv., 768-771;
Mrs. Greenleaf on A.'s work in N. Y. campaign, 772;
at Kas. Popu. Conv., 789;
Mrs. Catt in South, 806-809;
Mrs. Stanton on A.'s reading hers, 811;
Miss Shaw's in St. Louis, 821;
in Denver, 823;
in Cheyenne, 823;
in Salt Lake, 824, 825;
in Reno, 825;
Gov. West of Utah, 825;
Mayor Sutro of San Fr., 827;
Miss Shaw's in Calif. in 1895, 826-837;
in 1896, 864;
before Repub. St. Com., 871;
Dem. St. Conv., 874;
ratification meeting, 874; 875;
of women during campaign, 875-884;
Mrs. Catt, 875, 878;
treatment of women speakers in Calif. campaign, 883, 884;
action of men speakers, 885;
Thos. B. Reed silenced, 885;
Mr. Gannett on Anthony sisters, 916;
at Anthony Reunion, Mrs. Catt, 942;
Mrs. Avery, 943;
Mrs. Upton, 943;
D. R. Anthony, 944;
Mrs. Sewall, 944;
Mrs. Colby, 944;
Miss Shaw, 945;
Sumner on Equal Rights to All, 968
(see Lectures).
SPIRITUALISM, beginning of, 58;
A.'s comments, 119, 158;
men and women spirits, 413;
A. and Miss Shaw at Lily Dale, 710;
action of churches, 720;
A. dares to thank, 773; 918.
STATUES (see Sculpture).
STATUS OF WOMAN, in home, church, school, society, laws, industries,
State, etc., changes wrought, A.'s part in them, viii, ix, 822,
848, 948 (see Newspapers).
SUFFRAGE, greatest of rights, 75;
A.'s opinion of its value, 81;
necessary for negro, 245-248;
Lucy Stone on negro, 275;
Beecher on inalienable right, 276;
A., same, 278;
attitude of _The Revolution_, 311;
secured to negroes by 15th Amend., 317;
value of the right, 455;
Sen. Dolph on, 618;
Natl. Repub. Conv. on, 642;
same, 724;
men vote simply because men, 769;
A.'s plea for negro suff., 960 et seq.;
Sumner on value of, 968;
Lord Coke on connection with taxes, 969;
distinguished testimony as to right of 979-981.
SUFFRAGE, WOMAN,[141] A.'s doubt of its necessity, 61;
her first declaration for, 71;
her first conv., 72;
justice of, 75;
faith of early workers it would soon be granted, 82, 107, 129, 335,
372, 381;
underlying principle of rights of women, 185;
denied at close of war, 238-240;
first appeal to Cong., 250;
noted men favor, 251, 252;
N. Y. _Independent_ demands, 252;
Purvis approves, 258;
A.'s demand that U. S. Constn. shall grant, 260;
repudiated by Repubs. and Abolits., 265;
debate in Cong., 266;
agony of leaders among women, 268-270;
Labor Congress opposes, 307;
resolutions for in Cong. in 1868, 310, 311;
denied will lead to antagonism and outrage, 318;
A.'s demand that 15th Amend, shall contain, 323;
Natl. Assn. formed, 326;
divis. of forces, 328, 336;
right to under 14th Amend., 331, 338;
A.'s plea for experiment in D. of C., 338;
thinks movement can not be stopped, 340;
Union Suffrage Society formed, 348;
friends prefer the Natl. Assn., 383;
A.'s résumé of situation in 1870, 365;
early advocates, 369;
great petition of 1871, 378;
favorable outlook, 381;
attempts to secure under 14th Amend., 409 et seq.;
compared to Anti-Slav. cause, 415;
A. and other women vote in 1872, 423 et seq.;
again, 434;
refused, 447;
power of U. S. Constn. over, 429, 453;
three ways of securing, 431;
as a right, 432;
in foreign countries, 434;
A. defends her right of, 439;
men do not need or want it, lacks working power, 456;
value in temp. work, 457, 505;
women's Centennial declaration, 477;
treatment of petitions by Cong., 485;
in Wy., 497; in proposed Ty. of Pembina, 500;
Mary Clemmer scores Congressl. report, 501;
new workers in 1880, 511;
letters of A. and Garfield on, 521, 522;
adopted by W. C. T. U., 537;
in England, 563, 567, 568, 581, 593;
Congressl. and State action compared, 589;
Mary L. Booth on, 615;
effect on family life depicted by Sens. Brown, Eustis, Vest and
others, 617-620;
A. declares platform free to all creeds, 631, 655;
campaign in S. Dak., 679;
relation to temp., 683;
debate in Cong. on Wy., 698;
at Chautauqua, 708, 709, 727;
in New Zealand, 733;
connection with Columb. Expos., 742-744;
same, 748;
A. and Lady Somerset on relation to temp., 747;
in Congresses on Govt., 750;
granted in Col., 753;
campaign for In N. Y., 758;
in Kas., 777;
exec. com. in Cleveland, Mrs. Southworth's gift, 801;
relation of suff. to home, 828, 829;
influence of ministers, 834;
relation of "trusts" to, 844;
indebtedness of all women to its advocates, 80, 740, 822, 848, 948,
973;
in Utah and S. Australia, 852;
should not be entangled with other issues, 857;
Calif. campaign, 863;
advocates can not offend any class, 882, 924;
attitude of liquor traffic toward, 886 (see Liquor Dealers);
A. on attitude of polit. parties, 898;
her idea of property and educatl. qualifications, 899, 922;
need of for civic reform, 920;
A. objects to partial, 798, 920;
change in press and audiences, 929;
does not destroy womanly instincts, 944, 945;
gains of 50 yrs., 949;
appeal to Pres. Lincoln for, 957;
appeal to Cong. for, 968;
taxation and, 969;
necessary to preserve republic, 971;
A.'s Constitl. argument for, 977;
as guaranteed by U. S. Constitn., 977-992;
inalienable right, 979;
Sen. B. Gratz Brown on, 979;
Sumner on, 981;
wage earners' great need of, 996-1003;
will make new balance of power, 1002;
A.'s sp. on necessity of party support to carry amend. for, 1015;
contributions to (see Finance, Funds, Gifts, also Amendments,
Congress, Constitutions, Conventions, Disfranchisement, Negroes,
Newspapers, Pioneers, Planks, Resolutions, Temperance, etc.).
SUFFRAGE, PARTIAL, municipal granted in Kas., 611;
A. on justice and need of, 731;
effects of, 732;
Mich. Legis. grants, declared unconstitl., 740;
a hindrance to full suff., 798;
School Suff., in Wis., 624;
in N. Y., 730;
objections to, 920.
SUPREME COURT OF U. S., Dred Scott decis., 149;
applied to women, 454, 984;
on women's voting under 14th Amend., 453;
women admitted to practice before, 502; 526;
women will sit in, 582;
on women's entering public lands, 983;
13th Amend., 986;
of N. Y., decision on Mrs. Schuyler's statue, tribute to A., 735;
of Mich. declares Munic. Suff. for women unconstitl., 740;
of Idaho decides only majority of votes cast on amend. necessary to
carry, 918;
of D. C. denies right of women to vote under 14th Amend., 985;
of Wyoming upholding it, 985.
TAXATION, Quaker attitude toward, 37;
women should refuse, 73;
without representation applied to women, 170;
A. and Mrs. Stanton protest against, 277;
spirited letter from A. on paying taxes, 330;
protest against without representation, 441;
Mary Clemmer on taxation without representation, 501;
of Smith sisters in Conn., 511;
A. shows conditions in Roch., N. Y., 731;
Mrs. Greenleaf on, 732;
Miss Willard on, 800;
A. on taxpayers' suff., 899, 922;
without representation, opinion of Lord Coke, 969;
of Sumner, 979;
early law in N. Y., 982;
James Otis on, 989.
TEACHERS AND TEACHING, testimonial of Daniel Anthony's in 1814, 8;
in Anthony home sch., 9;
discipline, 22;
father wishes daughters to teach, 23, 24;
Deborah Moulson, 24 et seq.;
A.'s beginning, 23, 24;
in Union Village, 34;
in Center Falls, 37;
New Rochelle, 38, 39;
Cambridge and Ft. Edward, 44;
injustice to women, 45;
in Canajoharie, 49;
grows tired, 51, 52;
ends in Rochester, 55;
ignoring of teachers, 71;
same and A.'s speech in 1853, 98;
women do not support her, 99;
sustained by a few, 100;
difference in salaries, 102;
A. again at conv. for rights of women, 120;
conv. at Utica shows advance, 130;
at Troy, A. on Coeducation, injustice in New York, 143;
at Binghamton, 155;
at Lockport, A.'s keen thrusts, 163;
at Poughkeepsie, Antoinette Brown Blackwell's amusing account, 176;
Mary S. Anthony on injustice to, 191, 192;
conv. at Syracuse, A. still demanding rights, 198;
attends last conv., results of labors, 221, 222;
salaries of men and women, 263;
A. addresses in San Francisco, 830;
Mary S. Anthony, 915;
indebtedness to A., 976;
get only subordinate positions, 1001.
TELEGRAMS, Train in Kas. campaign, 287;
Repubs. call A. to Washtn., 421;
inspector's fine remitted, 452; 461, 547, 548;
A. affirms belief in woman suff., 652;
on 70th birthday, 671;
on admis. of Wy., 691;
from Lady Somerset and Miss Willard, 729;
to Miss Shaw from Oakland, 837;
on Mrs. Stanton's birthday, 848;
death of Mr. Sewall, 850;
from Miss Willard, 901;
come to Ohio, 927.
TEMPERANCE, principles of A.'s father, 17, 18, 19, 37;
Daughters' Unions, 53, 62;
A.'s first sp., 53;
organizes in Rochester, 60, 62;
insulted in meeting of Sons, holds woman's, 64, 65;
first Wom. State Society and convention, 66-68;
A. made St. organizer, 68;
women rejected and insulted at men's meeting in Syracuse, 69;
hold their own, 70;
signatures for Maine Law, A.'s appeal, demands suffrage, 70, 71;
Lucy Stone on Maine Law, 81;
first hearing of women before N. Y. Legis., 82;
tour of A. and others in 1853, 83;
World's Conv. in New York, 87;
women rejected and hold own meeting, 88-92;
reports of N. Y. papers, 89-91;
second conv. Women's St. Temp. Society, 92;
men gain control, 94;
A. and Mrs. Stanton withdraw, 95;
Women's Whole World's Conv., 96, 100;
Greeley on tracts, 97;
S. F. Cary opposed, 97, 102;
Men's Whole World's Conv., Antoinette Brown rejected, 101;
A.'s first sip of wine, 400;
A. tells "crusaders" in 1874 to work for vote instead of singing and
praying, letter on same, 457;
Stopford Brooke in Eng., 564;
meeting in Crystal Palace, 567;
in Ireland, 572, 573;
A. does not ask suff. because of temp, vote, 655;
is total abstainer, 683;
speaks at Cong. of Columb. Expos., 747;
objects to connecting temp. with woman suff., 882;
women driven to revolution in work for, 1003;
petitions spurned, 1012
(see Intemperance, Prohibition, W. C. T. U.).
TESTIMONIALS, of people and assns. to A. on going abroad, 547, 548.
TRIALS AND CASES, McFarland-Richardson, 351-353;
Fair-Crittenden, 391-392, 396;
of Susan B. Anthony for voting, under 14th Amend., 425-454;
arrest, 426;
examination, 427;
B. F. Butler's opinion, 429;
denial of writ of habeas corpus, 432;
her canvass of two counties, 435;
sp. of Judge Selden, 437;
denial of trial by jury, 439;
sentence and her protest, 439;
opinions of press, 441;
trial of Inspectors, 444;
contributions of friends, 446;
appeal to Congress, 449;
majority and minority reports, 450-452;
pardon of Inspectors, 452;
newspaper comment, 993;
Election Inspectors in St. Louis for receiving vote of Mrs. Minor,
453;
Beecher-Tilton, 461;
Schuyler statue, 734.
TRIBUTES, of William Winter, 323;
Mary Clemmer, 340;
Phoebe Cary, 342;
Myra Bradwell, 346;
Sen. Edmunds' to speech, 512; 535;
Rochester friends, 548;
Chicago _Tribune_, 549;
Mary H. Krout in 1893, 751;
Mrs. Greenleaf in N. Y. campaign, 772;
Tilton in 1895, 848;
Mary Lowe Dickinson, Mrs. Stanford, 850;
Mrs. Sargent, 892;
Dr. H. W. Thomas, 900;
Mrs. Catt, 942;
Mrs. Colby, 944;
Miss Shaw, 945;
Mrs. Sewall, Miss Willard, 950;
Mrs. Stanton, 951;
on 50th birthday, 972 (see Birthdays, Letters, Newspapers,
Resolutions, Speeches, Traits of Character).
UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES, SCHOOLS, etc., Nine Partners, 8;
home schools, 9, 19, 22, 35;
Mt. Holyoke, 23;
Miss Moulson's boarding school, 24;
Friends' Sch. at Tarrytown, 39;
Cornell, 64;
People's College, 64, 77;
Normal Sch. (Ills.), 469;
Neb. St. Univers., 545;
Glasgow, 556;
Coll. of France, 561;
Edinburgh, 570;
Trinity, 575;
Rugby, Oxford, Somerville, St. Margaret's, 575;
Bishops' (Tex.), 598;
weak-minded female seminary, 624;
Lincoln Institute (Kas.), 649;
Girls' Classical Sch. (Indpls.), 650;
Mich. St. Univers., 658;
Phila. Normal, 705;
Mt. Holyoke, 706;
Rochester, 713;
Wellesley Coll., 754;
Keuka College, 773;
Girls' Normal Sch. (Phila.), 776;
Cornell, Sage College, 800;
Vassar, 803;
Drexel Institute, 815;
Nevada St. Univers., 825;
Leland Stanford Jr., 830;
Normal Sch. (San Jose), 831;
Tuskeegee Institute, 914;
Mt. Union Coll. (O.), 927;
Fiske, 928;
Minn. St. Univ., 929.
VOICES, weak ones of women, 75;
A.'s voice, 77;
same, 153;
women's poor voices, 157;
A. on men's voices, 163;
A.'s in 1867, 272;
pioneers' and modern women's contrasted, 729;
A.'s at 75, 823; 893.
WAR, record of family in Revolution, 4;
in Civil, 37;
last Wom. Rights Conv. before, 212, 213;
Phillips on, 214;
Anna Dickinson on, 220;
outlook in 1863, 226;
woman's duty in, 227, 228, 230;
woman's services, 239;
lesson for women, 239;
woman's position after, 256, 280;
ravages in Europe, 562;
A.'s effort to secure results of Revolution for women, 919;
Civil, a step toward progress, 958;
work of women in, 1015.
WEDDINGS (see Marriage).
WIVES (see Divorce, Guardianship, Laws, Marriage, Property Rights).
WOMAN'S BUREAU, estab. in N. Y., 320;
Natl. Wom. Suff. Assn. formed there, 326;
weekly meetings, 330;
celebr. of A.'s 50th birthday, 341;
clubs object to _The Revolution_ office, Anna Dickinson's gift, 360.
WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION, 96;
A. addresses in Rochester, 457;
needs votes, 505;
A. attends conv. in Washtn., Miss Willard introduces, delegates
disapprove, society adopts woman suff., 537;
delegates repudiate A.'s influence, 588;
A. addresses in Kas., in Ills., 609;
petitions for woman suff. in 1887, 620;
A.'s addresses too practical for, 643; 674;
in S. Dak., 681, 683;
to A. on religious matters, 677;
A. addresses in Rochester against third party, 709;
petitions in N. Y. for woman suff., 766;
speeches in constitl. conv., 769;
Miss Willard introd. A. in Cleveland, might as well be dogs as
without a vote, 800, 801;
Cong. in St. Louis, 821;
recep. to A. in Utah, 825;
A. asks Miss Willard to withdraw conv. from Calif., 857;
request granted, its women work for suff., 882;
attitude toward A., 882, 901;
A. declines to join protest against "yellow" journalism and
prize-fighting, 923, 924.
WOMAN OF FUTURE, A. urges outdoor life, 160;
the true woman, 170;
physical culture, 198;
her ideal of, 582;
same, 860.
WOMEN'S NATIONAL LOYAL LEAGUE, great work in 1863, 225-240;
address to Pres. Lincoln, 957.
WOMAN'S RIGHTS, first conv., 59;
N. Y. _Tribune_, 61;
in Worcester, 61, 75;
A. demands, 71;
her first conv., 72;
Mayo, Geo. W. Johnson, Lucy Stone on, 73;
Antoinette Brown, Mrs. Nichols, 74;
Gerrit Smith, Mrs. Rose, 75;
opposition of young minister and teacher, 76;
abuse of advocates, 76-80;
gains made, 80; 84, 90, 91, 92;
Mrs. Stanton on right to speak, 92;
Gerrit Smith on, 98;
N. Y. conv. of 1853, A.'s vow, 102;
mob rules, 103;
conv. in Rochester, 105;
courage required for early meetings, 119;
Greeley on, 126;
conv. of 1856, in New York, 147;
conv. of 1858 under mob rule, 162;
Geo. Wm. Curtis on, 167;
A.'s tilt with, 172;
conv. in New York in 1859, the mob rules, 174;
from Southern standpoint, 183, 184;
gradual merging into Suffrage, 185;
in Albany in 1860, 186;
Henry Ward Beecher on, 192;
conv. of 1860 in New York and Divorce question, 193, 194;
retarded by War, 225;
foundation of democracy, 229;
first conv. after War, 256 et seq.;
Anna Dickinson's first speech for, 262;
sacrificed to negro, woman avenges herself, 301; 304;
divisions among workers for not recorded, 336;
earliest advocates, 369;
25th annivers. first conv., 434;
30th anniv., 495;
Fred. Douglass recalls first conv., 634;
annivers. of first conv. in Salem, O., 722;
conv. of 1866 sends address to Congress, 968 (see Suffrage, Woman).
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 754;
A. tells should work for woman suff., 804.
FOOTNOTES:
[138] Superficial and inadequate grouping.
[139] In later years churches have been so freely opened for woman
suffrage meetings that it would be impossible to tabulate them.
[140] In later years this attitude changed, and it would be impossible
to list the instances of their helpfulness.
[141] Only a reference to principal points is possible. Its various
phases are listed under their respective heads.
INDEX TO PLACES.
ALABAMA,
Birmingham, 809;
New Decatur, 809;
Tuscaloosa, 183.
ARKANSAS,
Ft. Smith, 649;
Helena, 649;
Little Rock, 649.
CALIFORNIA, 52, 59, 341;
A.'s first visit, 1871, 390;
help in S. D. campaign, 685; 738;
Woman's Cong., A. visits, 819, 826;
urged to help woman suff. campaign, 861;
the campaign, 863;
results, 890; 922;
Alameda, 865;
Berkeley, 865;
Chico, 404;
Geysers, 394;
Los Angeles, first visit, 832;
second, 862;
Marysville, 404;
Mayfield, 405;
Mt. Shasta, 404;
Oakland, A.'s first visit, 394;
second, 826; 831, 834;
fails to find hall, 837; 865, 876, 885;
Palo Alto, 830;
Pasadena, 832;
Pomona, 832;
Red Bluff, 404;
Sacramento, 869-872;
San Diego, A.'s first visit, 832;
second, 862;
San Francisco, A.'s first visit, 390; 396; 405; 493;
Woman's Congress, 819, 827;
a suff. meet., 829; 834;
St. Conv., 835;
4th of July, 835; 862;
woman suff. headqrs., 864;
same, 875;
liquor dealers, 886;
St. Suff. Conv., 892;
San Jose, 394, 405, 831;
San Luis Obispo, 881;
Santa Barbara, 881;
Santa Cruz, 831;
Santa Monica, 833;
Truckee, 826;
Whittier, 832;
Yosemite Valley, A. visits, 392;
trees named, 831;
Yreka, 403.
COLORADO,
A. canvasses for woman suff., 489;
granted, 752; 757;
invites A. to celebr., 775; 780;
party records, 1017;
Boulder, 493;
Del Norte, 490;
Denver, A.'s first visit, 387; 492;
writes lecture, 493;
visit in 1895, 821;
Lake City, 490;
Leadville, "free love" placards, 491;
Oro City, 491;
Ouray, 491;
Wagon Wheel Gap, 490.
CONNECTICUT,
canvass for woman suff., 456; 622;
Bridgeport, 89;
Glastonbury, 511;
Hartford, 293;
first Wom. Suff. Conv., 332; 387, 535;
Hooker golden wed., 709;
Meriden, 705;
New Haven, 535.
DAKOTA, 541, 666.
SOUTH DAKOTA,
canvass for woman suff., 656;
A.'s great work, 659;
help of Natl. Assn., 675, 684;
campaign of 1890, 679;
action of polit. convs., 686, 687;
results, 694, 696; 780;
Aberdeen, 657, 686;
Brookings, 657;
De Smet, 657;
Huron, Farmers' Alliance, 657, 685; 695;
Madison, 657;
A.'s sp., 691;
Mitchell, 657, 687;
Parker, 657;
Pierre, 657, 695;
Redfield, 657;
Sioux Falls, 657;
St. Lawrence, 657;
Watertown, 657;
Yankton, 657.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,
bill for woman suff., 266, 311;
A. argues for, 338;
Anacostia, 814;
Washington, father visits in 1838, 33;
A.'s first visit in 1854, 117;
goes for _The Revolution_, 297;
first woman suff. conv. held, 313;
in 1870, 337; 370;
conv. of 1871, 371;
suff. headqrs. in Capitol, 381;
A. comes from Calif., 408;
conv. of 1872, 410;
A. meets Natl. Rep. Com., 421;
conv. of 1873, 431;
A. takes her case for voting, 450;
conv. 1874, 453;
of 1875, 467;
of 1876, 472;
of 1877, 484;
of 1878, prayer meet. conv., 494;
of 1879, 499;
of 1880, 511;
of 1881, 526;
W. C. T. U. Conv., 537;
Natl. Suff. of 1882, 540;
of 1883, 546; 549;
of 1884, 588;
of 1885, 595;
A.'s Congressl. work, 605, 607;
conv. of 1886, 607;
A.'s amusing start for, 612;
conv. of 1887, 617;
union of suff. assns., 630;
first Intl. Council of Wom., 636;
Natl. Suff. Conv. of 1888, 639;
of 1889, 647; 660;
70th birthday, 664;
conv. of 1890, 674;
A.'s social life, 677;
love for, 679;
Wimodaughsis, 700;
Natl. Council, 702;
Natl. Suff. Conv. of 1891, 702;
A. leaves Riggs House, 705;
Mrs. Stanton's last appearance, 1892, 717;
conv. of 1893, 737;
of 1894, 756; 778;
Natl. Council, 812;
75th birthday, 813;
conv. of 1896, 851;
A. longs for, 901; 903, 1005.
GEORGIA, 757;
Atlanta, 758;
Natl. Suff. Conv., 810;
Columbus, 812.
IDAHO,
campaign for woman suff., 878;
granted, 902;
A. on Sup. Ct. decis., 919.
ILLINOIS, 345, 364, 433, 469;
Batavia, 347;
Bloomington, 364, 519;
Natl. Prohib. Conv., 520;
Carbondale, 469;
Champaign, 347;
Chicago, 242;
A. visits in 1865, 249; 293, 305, 315, 316, 321, 330;
lecture bureau, 344; 361, 380, 387;
trunk lost, 408; 446, 460;
speaks on Social Purity, 468;
on Bread and Ballot, 472; 515, 608, 617, 640;
Natl. Repub. Conv., 641; 655;
Fed. of Clubs, 720, 721;
Natl. Dem. Conv., 725;
World's Fair opens, 742;
Wom. Cong., 745; 793, 799, 821, 840, 862;
$6,000 bed, 902; 929, 1004;
Elwood, 347;
Evanston, 364, 609;
Farmington, 347;
Harvey, 751;
Lake Bluff, 609;
Lake Geneva, 609;
LaSalle, 347;
Mattoon, 345;
Mendota, 347;
Peoria, 345;
Peru, 347;
Quincy, 347;
Sandwich, 611;
Springfield, 293, 315.
INDIANA, 345, 380, 433;
canvass for wom. suff., 626;
Bloomington, 626;
Evansville, 623, 626;
Ft. Wayne, 433, 626;
Indianapolis, 516;
Natl. Suff. Conv., 517; 623;
A. calls on Gen. Harrison, 641;
at Classical Sen., 650; 698, 821; 903;
A. addresses Legis., 904; 1013;
Kokomo, 626;
Lafayette, 519, 623, 626;
Logansport, 626;
Madison, 626;
Marion, 434;
Muncie, 626;
New Albany, 626;
Richmond, 623;
Rushville, 655;
South Bend, 626;
Terre Haute, 503, 519, 626;
Vincennes, 626;
Wabash, 626.
IOWA,
A. canvasses for woman suff., 469; 470, 493;
Ames, 644;
Burlington, 380;
Cedar Rapids, 380;
Council Bluffs, 380;
Davenport, 380;
Des Moines, 380, 698, 728;
Natl. Suff. Conv., 901;
Mt. Pleasant, 380;
Ottumwa, 380;
Sioux City, 688.
KANSAS,
early days, 121;
John Brown's raid, 144; 169;
A. plans campaign, 178;
first visit, 242;
pioneer discomforts, 247;
Lucy Stone canvasses, 274;
campaign of 1867, 281;
A. and Mrs. Stanton go, 283; 364, 469, 493, 496, 519;
canvass in 1887, 609;
munic. suff. for women, 611;
canvass of 1887, 625;
calls A. to assist, 715;
canvass of 1892, 719;
polit. convs., 726;
Legis. submits wom. suff., 754, 755;
campaign for in 1894, 777; 920;
patriotism, 960;
early amends., 1016;
party records, 1017, 1018; 1020;
Abilene, 611;
Ingalls' sp., 625;
Anthony, 611;
Atchison, 248, 291, 626, 697;
Burlington, 290;
Emporia, 290, 644;
Florence, 611;
Fort Scott, 289, 608, 611, 697, 840;
Humboldt, 289;
Hutchinson, 611, 796;
Independence, 611;
Junction City, 290;
Kansas City, 379, 471;
A. sp. on planks, 784, 1015;
Lawrence, 248, 285, 286, 287, 288, 379, 611;
Leavenworth A. visits in 1865, 242; 248;
woman suff. campaign 1867, 287, 290, 291; 379, 408;
A. nurses brother, 471;
sister's death, 487; 608;
false report on woman suff., 622; 644, 648;
A. in munic. campaign, 649; 697, 785, 799, 840;
Leroy, 290;
Lincoln, 610;
Mound City, 289;
Olathe, 288, 379;
Ottawa, 288;
Ottumwa, A.'s sp. in 1865, 247, 960;
Paola, 288, 379;
Salina, 609, 610;
Topeka, 274, 275, 290, 379, 785, 786;
Popu. conv., 1894, 787;
A.'s advice to women, 839;
Wichita, 611;
Repub. St. conv., 655;
Winfield, 611;
Wyandotte, 290.
KENTUCKY, 230, 502, 806, 919;
Lexington, 806;
Louisville, 293, 806, 877;
Milan, 806;
Owensboro, 806;
Paducah, 806;
Wilmore, 806.
LOUISIANA, 806;
New Orleans, A.'s first visit, 597;
second, 807;
Shreveport, 808.
MAINE, 519;
Bangor, 154;
Portland, 535;
Skowhegan, 502.
MARYLAND,
Baltimore, A. visits in 1854, 118;
Natl. Dem. Conv., 417; 756.
MASSACHUSETTS,
Laws for wives, 200; 265, 459;
Adams, Anthony family settle, 3, 4;
Read family same, 5, 9;
A. born, 13;
Anthonys leave, 17;
grandfather hears A. speak, 129;
A. visits in 1860, 198;
in 1887, 624; 926;
Anthony Reunion in 1897, 939;
changed conditions, 944;
A.'s birthplace, 947;
Berkshire Hills, beauty of, 1, 2, 13;
noted people, 1, 2;
Beecher, Holmes and Goodale sisters on, 2;
Bryant, Julia Taft Bayne, 13;
A. visits in 1889, 653;
in 1897, 947;
Boston, Van Buren visits, 42; 72;
Wom. Rights Conv., 1855, 131;
Anti-Slavery Soc., 137; 182;
W. R. Conv. 1860, 196;
A. visits for anti-slav., 199;
Phillips' sp. 1861, 214;
A. visits, 219; 252, 256;
Equal Rights Assn., 262; 293, 332, 335;
lecture bureau, 344;
_Wom. Journal_ estab., 361;
Natl. Suff. Conv., 533;
Phillips' funeral, 588; 597, 598, 628;
remonstrants, 695;
A.'s illness, 701; 895;
Bowen's Corners, 5, 948;
Bunker Hill, 132, 153, 277;
Charleston, 132;
Cheshire, 4, 5, 706;
Concord, A. speaks in, 251;
invited to Sch. of Philos., 510;
Danbury, 525;
Dartmouth, 3, 4;
Framingham, 219;
Green Mts., 1, 9, 947;
Greylock Mt., 3, 9, 13, 199;
A. visits in 1897, 947;
Lenox, 1, 3, 46;
Lexington, 4;
Lynn, 131;
Magnolia, 624;
Medford, 895;
Rehobeth, 4;
Salem, 49, 131;
Scituate, 4;
Springfield, 293;
Stafford's Hill, 4, 57;
Stockbridge, 1, 3;
West Newton, 252;
Worcester, 61, 75, 88;
Hydropathic Ins., 131, 132, 133; 252, 293.
MICHIGAN,
father visits in 1844, 45; 345;
A. canvasses in 1874, 460;
munic. suff., 740;
Ann Arbor, 380;
St. conv., 755; 862;
Battle Creek, 249, 720, 740;
Bay City, 740;
Charlotte, 740;
Detroit, 176;
A.'s lect., 1870, 345; 369, 658, 740;
Dowagiac, 733;
Grand Rapids, 379, 519, 720, 740, 929;
Hillsdale, 740;
Jackson, 380;
Jonesville, 347;
Kalamazoo, 379, 929;
Lansing, 380, 740;
Saginaw, 740;
Sturgis, 347.
MINNESOTA,
Duluth, 656;
Minneapolis, 656;
Natl. Repub. Conv., 723; 929;
St. Paul, 505.
MISSISSIPPI,
Johnson's Reconstruct. Proclam., 960;
Greenville, 808;
Jackson, 808.
MISSOURI,
in 1865, 242; 469, 493, 806;
Chillicothe, 249;
Jefferson City, 649;
Kansas City, 785, 895;
Macon City, 249;
St. Louis, A. addresses negroes in 1865, 249; 286, 293, 315;
Mr. Minor's sp., 330;
Mrs. M. attempts to vote, 453;
A. speaks on Social Purity, 469;
suff. conv. 1878, 506; 546, 598, 609, 649;
A. visits in 1895, 821;
Natl. Repub. Conv., 879;
St. Joseph, 248, 291.
NEBRASKA,
A. canvasses for woman suff., 544;
Beatrice, 493, 727;
St. conv., 799;
Fremont, 697;
Lincoln, 380, 545;
Omaha, 286, 293, 380, 408, 544, 545, 616, 644;
Peru, 728.
NEVADA,
Nevada City, 405;
Reno, 406, 825, 895;
Virginia City, 406.
NEW HAMPSHIRE,
Concord, 535, 702, 895;
Dover, 535;
Keene, 535.
NEW JERSEY,
Cape May, 624;
Orange, 802;
Tenafly, 309, 368, 502, 525, 533, 707.
NEW YORK,
first Wom. St. Temp. Conv., 67;
convs. for better laws, 110;
A. canvasses for Woman's Rights, 123;
for Abolitionists, 148, 149;
second canvass, 208;
for woman suff. amend. in 1867, 271; 369, 459, 519;
Constitl. Conv., 758;
campaign for woman suff. in 1894, 759-773; 785;
Adirondacks, 708;
Albany, 44;
A. meets Lydia Mott, 58;
driven out of temp. meet., holds another, 64, 65;
women first appear bef. Legis., 82; 88, 105;
Wom. Rights Conv. 1854, 108; 125;
petitions presented in 1856, 140;
A. works in Legis., 173; 186;
A. and Mrs. Stanton before Legis., 189;
anti-Slav. depot, 199;
runaway mother, 200;
mayor prevents mob in 1861, 211;
last Wom. Rights Conv. before war, 212;
Anti-Slav. Conv. of 1862, 217;
Equal Rights Conv. of 1866, 263;
A. and Mrs. Stanton before Legis., 273;
before Constitl. Conv., 278; 293;
A. denied habeas corpus, 432;
addresses Constitl. Com., 433;
A. no home, 536;
bef. Legis., 622;
same, 1892, 719;
anti-suff. org., 765, 766;
Constitl. Conv. meets, women address, vote taken, 767-772;
A.'s face carved in Capitol, 949;
Angelica, 124;
Attica, 139;
Auburn, 127, 140, 241, 249, 714, 914, 917;
Avon, 176;
Ballston Spa, 176;
Battenkill, 17, 35, 37;
Battenville, Anthonys remove to, 17; 22, 24, 41, 43, 51, 119, 896;
Bensonhurst, 753;
Binghamton, A. stirs up Teach. Conv., 155; 222;
Brighton, 733;
Brighton Beach, 653;
Buffalo, 73, 83;
mob rule in 1861, 208; 271, 293, 446, 730, 741, 762;
Brockport, 845;
Brooklyn, A. first speaks in, 83;
teachers' salaries in 1856, 143; 353, 363, 464, 653;
St. Suff. Conv., 753; 761, 763;
anti-suff. org., 765;
Byron Center, 642;
Cambridge, 44;
Canajoharie, A. goes to teach in 1846, 49; 51;
gives first speech, 53;
trustee refuses church, 121;
Canandaigua, A.'s trial for voting, 436;
inspector's trial, 443;
Castile, 901;
Catskills, 773;
Center Falls, 37;
A. teaches in, 43;
family leave, 46;
Chautauqua, 708, 709;
Miss Shaw's debate with Dr. Buckley, 727;
Clifton, 176;
Corning, 124;
Dansville, 138, 446, 452;
Deerfield, 10;
Dundee, 199;
Elmira, 71, 124;
Thos. K. Beecher, 178;
Easton, 19, 24, 46, 51;
anti-slav. meet., 152;
A. and Quaker preacher, 177;
Fairfield, 272;
Farmington, 10;
Fayetteville, 601;
Fort Edward, 44;
Fort William Henry, scene at hotel, 176;
A. and Southern Judge, 183; 653;
Geneva, 900, 927;
A. defends "rings," 928;
George, Lake, attentive Quaker, 126; 176;
Gregory's Grove, 215;
Hall's Corners, 138;
Hardscrabble, 35, 37;
Hempstead, 654;
Hornellsville, 364, 448;
Hudson, 83;
Ithaca, 800;
Jamaica, 753;
Jamestown, 642;
Johnstown, 592;
Junius, 215;
Lily Dale (Cassadaga Lake), 710, 728, 773;
Lockport, 163;
A. lect. on Coeducation, 164;
Long Island, 42;
Long Pond, 653;
Lyons, 652;
Manitou Beach, 709;
Mayville, A. begins first canvass for Woman's Rights, 123;
Mecklinburg, 222;
Milton-on-the-Hudson, 252;
Mt. McGregor, 653;
Mt. Morris, 138;
Newburgh, 847;
Newport, first woman suff. meeting, 330;
New Rochelle, A. teaches in, 37, 39;
Van Buren's visit, 41; 42;
New York City, father visits in 1838, 34;
A. attends church in 1839, 40;
Rynder's mob, 63;
A. first speaks in, 83; 86;
Brick Church meet., 87;
women's meet., 89;
Whole World's Temp. Conv., 96;
same, 100;
mob rule, 101;
Wom. Rights Conv., 102;
Anti-Slav. Anniv., 129;
teachers' salaries, 1856, 143;
Wom. Rights Conv. 1856, 147;
of 1857, mob rules, 162;
same in 1859, 174;
Beecher's Wom. Rights lect., 192;
conv. of 1860, 193;
A. with runaway child, 201;
Wom. Rights Conv. of 1861 given up, 213;
again in 1862, 218;
A. in art gallery, 219;
Natl. Loyal League org., 226;
draft riots, 230;
May annivers. after War, 246;
Wom. Rights Conv., 1866, 256, 259;
again, 264;
Equal Rights Assn., 1867, 276; 293, 305, 307, 309;
Press Club dinner, 316;
Woman's Bureau, 320;
lecture bureau, 344;
Fifth Ave. Suff. Conf., 346;
Equal Rights Com. meet., 348;
McFarland-Richardson trial, 352; 356;
20th anniv. wom. suff., 367;
Natl. Conv., 1871, 383;
foundlings, 391;
Mrs. Woodhull and suff. conv., 414;
conv. 1873, 434; 446;
in 1874, 458; 470, 474, 488, 537;
Mrs. Stanton's 70th birthday, 603; 607;
St. conv., 1889, 651; 654;
Mrs. Stanton's home, 712; 739, 753;
campaign for woman suff., 761;
prominent women in, 763;
anti-suff. soc., 766; 768, 801, 802, 815;
Mrs. Stanton's 80th birthday, 845; 895, 896, 968, 1005;
Nunda, 138;
Niagara Falls, husband fails to appreciate, 141; 175, 896;
Olean, 124;
Oneida, 39;
Ontario Beach, 223;
Oswego, A. at St. Teach. Conv., 120;
Palatine Bridge, 10, 35, 47, 49;
Penn Yan, 198;
Peterboro, 113;
Gerrit Smith's church, 179;
Plattsburg, water cure experience, 126;
Port Byron, 198, 210;
Poughkeepsie, 83;
Pillsbury's sp., 152;
A. stirs up Teach. Conv., 176;
Reid's Corners, 24;
Richmond, 753;
Riverhead, women afraid to attend lecture, 127; 753;
Rochester, parents visit on wedding tour in 1817, 10;
father buys farm in 1845, 45;
family removes to, 47; 52;
A.'s farm life, 55;
Spiritualism, 58;
first Wom. Rights Conv. meets, 59;
Fred. Douglass removes to, 59;
temperance and Abolitionism, 60, 62; 64;
first Wom. St. Temp. Conv., 67;
anti-slav. conv., 71; 83;
second St. Temp. Conv., 92;
A.'s first St. Teach. Conv., 98;
Wom. Rights Conv. of 1853, 104;
A.'s first exper. in canvass., 108;
Sunday night lect., 135; 140;
anti-capital punish. meet., mob rules, 164;
Free Church meet., 167;
John Brown meet., 180;
A.'s lect. course, 190;
mob rule in 1861, 208;
Phillips' and Tilton's lectures, 217;
A. attends last Teach. Conv., 221; 249, 264, 293, 365, 370, 380,
387, 412;
women's Repub. meet., 422;
A. votes, 423; 446;
visits inspectors in jail, 452; 471, 472, 488;
30th anniv. Wom. Rights Conv., 495;
death of mother, 512;
A. lect. on Bread and Ballot, 546;
publishing Hist., 601; 615, 651, 658;
St. Suff. Conv., 698;
A. goes to housekeeping, 706;
St. Fair, 711;
Mrs. Stanton's visit, 713:
Thanksgiving, 714;
Mount Hope, 719;
charter meet., 731; 740;
headqrs. suff. campaign 1894, 760;
opening meet., 762;
anti-suff. soc., 766; 791, 800, 802;
defends negroes, 815;
Mrs. Stanton's birthday, 849;
A.'s birthday, 860;
home from Calif., 895; 896, 901;
Douglass' birthday, 904;
A.'s 77th celebr., 905;
Cuban League, 907;
A.'s Biog. begun, 909;
Monday evenings, 913;
Mary Anthony's birthday, 914;
Anthony home, 933;
Rome, mob rule in 1861, 210;
Rondout, 124;
Saratoga Springs, new country, 7;
Van Buren visits, 41;
A. visits in 1840, 43;
Wom. Rights Conv. in 1854, 120;
in 1855, 130, 131;
in 1856, 143; 176;
Wom. Suff. Conv. in 1869, 329;
in 1870, 365; 653, 706;
St. polit. convs., 775, 776;
Sandy Hill, 44;
Schoharie, 124;
Seneca Falls, first Wom. Rights Conv., 59;
A. meets Mrs. Stanton and Lucy Stone, 63, 64; 181;
A. and Mrs. Stanton write speeches, 187; 219;
Sherman, 123;
Sharon, 176;
Sing Sing, 83;
Skaneateles, 354;
Stone Arabia, 4;
Syracuse, 55, 58, 63;
women silenced in temp. conv., 69;
A.'s first Wom. Rights Conv., 72; 79, 83;
A. at St. Teach. Conv., 198;
mob rule in 1861, 211; 293;
St. conv., 729; 762;
May's 100th birthday, 927;
Tarrytown, 39, 41;
Thousand Islands, 926;
Ticonderoga, 4;
Trenton Falls, 176;
Troy, 36, 37, 47, 83;
A. speaks on Coeducation in 1856, 143; 198;
Union Springs, 10;
Union Village, 34;
Utica, 47, 70, 83, 89;
A.'s lect. on Coeducation, 130;
mob rule in 1861, 210; 713, 766;
Warsaw, 138, 711, 739;
Waterloo, 197;
Watertown, 215;
Wendte's Station, 138;
Westchester, 251;
Mrs. Greeley's petition, 279; 330.
OHIO, 345, 364, 433;
Alliance, 927;
Akron, 652;
Ashtabula, 845;
Cincinnati, 130;
A. misses Woman's Rights Conv. of 1855, 134; 293, 331;
Natl. Lib. Conv., 415; 515;
Dem. Natl. Conv., 519; 648, 741;
Cleveland, Wom. Rights Conv. 1853, 103; 147, 293;
Am. Wom. Suff. Assn. formed, 328;
second conv., 349; 623, 679;
W. C. T. U. meet., 800;
Columbus, 380, 643;
Crestline, 380;
Dayton, 331, 380;
Lakeside, 840;
Mentor, 520;
Painesville, 380, 704;
Salem, 380, 722;
Springfield, 380;
Toledo, 315, 316, 740;
25th suff. annivers., 756; 929;
Warren, 651, 704, 820.
OREGON,
votes on woman suff., 592; 738;
Eugene, 403;
Oregon City, 399, 403;
Portland, A.'s first visit, 395, 400;
Woman's Cong., 877;
Roseburg, 403;
Salem, 399;
The Dalles, 399;
A.'s first taste of wine, 400.
PENNSYLVANIA, 345, 369;
Altoona, 408;
Bradford, 720;
Hamilton, A. attends boarding school in, 24, 26, 27;
Kennett Square, 601;
Philadelphia, 24, 26, 34, 88, 119;
Wom. Rights Conv. of 1854, 121;
at Lucretia Mott's, 122;
anti-slav. meet., 234; 251;
A. and Phillips at Anti-Slav. meet. in 1866, 267; 340;
Labor Cong., 367;
Natl. Repub. Conv. 1872, 416;
women's part in Centennial, 474; 512;
mass meet. in 1880, 517;
A.'s homes in, 527;
testimonial to A., 534; 538;
Natl. Suff. Conv., 541;
farewell recep. to A., 546, 547;
sets sail, 550; 603, 622;
conv. Am. Assn., 627; 650;
wedding of niece, 652;
654, 660, 705, 719, 753, 776, 799, 802, 814, 858;
Somerton, 814;
Waynesburg, 516.
_Rhode Island_, 525;
Newport, Wom. Suff. Conv. 1869, 329;
Portsmouth, 3;
Providence, 72, 87;
A. visits, 332, 368; 535, 896;
Valley Falls, 896.
SOUTH CAROLINA, 757;
Aiken, 812;
Columbia, 812.
TENNESSEE, 806, 964;
Memphis, 807;
Nashville, A. visits, Woman's Council, 927.
TEXAS, 59;
Marshall, 598.
UTAH,
bill to disfranch. women, 607;
admis. to Union, 851;
A.'s advice to women, 897;
woman suff. granted, 902;
Ogden, 406;
Salt Lake City, A.'s first visit, 388;
second, 824.
VERMONT, Danby, 19;
A. visits, 43; 46.
VIRGINIA,
father visits in 1844, 44; 177, 370;
Alexandria, 118;
Culpepper, 812;
Harper's Perry, 180, 181;
Lincoln, 814.
WASHINGTON, 608;
Olympia, 399, 400;
Port Gamble, 400;
Port Madison, 400;
Seattle, 399;
Tacoma, 652;
Walla Walla, 399.
WISCONSIN, 469, 493;
suit for wom. suff., 624; 625;
Eau Claire, 612;
Evansville, 612;
Grand Rapids, 612;
Green Bay, 612;
LaCrosse, 612;
Madison, 315;
A.'s sp. in St. House, 612; 929;
Milwaukee, 315, 316, 380, 446, 519, 612;
St. Conv., 655;
Oshkosh, 612;
Racine, 609, 611;
Ripon, 612;
Waukesha, 612.
WYOMING,
A.'s tribute to, 388;
polit. record on woman suff., 407, 411;
Repubs. and woman suff., 411;
slanders on woman suff., 497; 676, 691;
debate on admission, 698;
women delegates to Natl. Repub. Conv., 724; 757;
Cheyenne, 408;
A. visits in 1895, 823;
Granite Canyon, 408;
Laramie City, 387, 407;
Medicine Bow, 407;
Sherman, 407.
VICTORIA, B. C., 402.
CANADA, 216, 703;
Montreal, 653;
Quebec, 4;
Toronto, 658.
CUBA, 858;
A.'s sp. on, 908.
EUROPE,
A. visits in 1883, farewell receptions, gifts, newspaper comment,
departure, 546-550;
letters describing tour, 551-578;
compared to America, 558;
blotting out of women, 562;
interview on arrival home, 581;
Hist. of Wom. Suff. in libraries, 614;
work for Intl. Council of Wom., 633.
ENGLAND,
London, Anthony ancestry, 3;
A. visits, 553, 554, 562;
speaks for Natl. Suff. Soc., 565;
in St. James Hall, 566;
sight-seeing, receptions, etc., 562-568, 575-578; 704;
Basingstoke, 554, 562;
Bayswater, 553;
Bedford Park, 563;
Birmingham, 576;
Cambridge, 3;
Haworth, Brontë Sisters, 576;
Hempstead, 3;
Leamington, 573, 575;
Leeds, 575, 576, 577;
Liverpool, A. arrives, 553;
departs, 579;
Manchester, 576;
Oxford, 575;
Rugby, 575;
Stratford, 575;
Tunbridge Wells, 563;
woman suff. in, 563, 567, 568, 581, 593;
farmers enfranchised, 593;
wage-earners same, results, 996-998.
SCOTLAND,
Ambleside, 571;
Callander, trunk lost, 570;
Edinburgh, 568-571;
Kirkstone Pass, 571;
Patterdale, 571;
Penrith, 571.
IRELAND, 59;
Belfast, 573;
Connemara, 574;
Cork, 572, 573;
Dublin, 575;
Galway, 574;
Killarney, mother and babies, 573;
Macroom, 573;
Youghal, 575.
FRANCE,
greeting to A., 652;
Basle, 555;
Calais, 555;
Paris, 561, 562.
GERMANY,
Cologne, Anthony ancestry, 3;
A. visits, 559;
Alsace and Lorraine, 561;
Berlin, A. visits, 559;
mail declared incendiary, 559;
Heidelberg, 560;
Mayence, 560;
Munich, 559;
Nuremberg, 559;
Potsdam, 560;
Strasburg, 560;
Worms, 559.
HUNGARY, 103.
ITALY,
Capri, 557;
Florence, 558;
Genoa, 556;
Milan, 555, 558;
Naples, 556;
Palermo, 557;
Pompeii, 556;
Rome, A. visits, 555;
Vesuvius, 557;
Vatican, 558;
palace and orphan asylum, 943.
SWITZERLAND, 603;
Zurich, 559.
POLAND, 75, 369.
AUSTRALIA, SOUTH,
woman suff. granted, 853.
NEW ZEALAND,
woman suff. granted, 733.
* * * * *
[Transcriber's Notes:
The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious
errors:
1. p. 844 disfranchished --> disfranchised
2. p. 1034 conferference --> conference
3. p. 1035, men's govt., 393 --> men's govt., 693
4. p. 1043 municiipal --> municipal
5. p. 1133 canvassses --> canvasses
6. p. 1133 conferference --> conference
7. Punctuation has been standardized in the Index
8. Images and autographs located within a paragraph have been
moved to the end of the paragraph, which may be on a different page.
Also, many occurrences of mismatched quotes remain as they were in the
original.
End of Transcriber's Notes]
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