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diff --git a/15220.txt b/15220.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb5314e --- /dev/null +++ b/15220.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21555 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony +(Volume 1 of 2), by Ida Husted Harper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) + Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her + Contemporaries During Fifty Years + + +Author: Ida Husted Harper + +Release Date: March 1, 2005 [EBook #15220] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUSAN B. ANTHONY *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Leonard Johnson and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +[Illustration HW: Susan B. Anthony] + +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 I +ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS, PICTURES OF HOMES, ETC. + +INDIANAPOLIS AND KANSAS CITY +THE BOWEN-MERRILL COMPANY +1899 + + + + +TO WOMAN, FOR WHOSE FREEDOM +SUSAN B. ANTHONY +HAS GIVEN FIFTY YEARS OF NOBLE ENDEAVOR +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED + + + + +PREFACE. + + +A biography written during the lifetime of the subject is unusual, but +to the friends of Miss Anthony it seemed especially desirable because +the reform in which she and her contemporaries have been engaged has +not been given a deserved place in the pages of history, and the +accounts must be gleaned very largely from unpublished records and +personal recollections. The wisdom of this course often has been +apparent in the preparation of these volumes. In recalling how many +times an entirely different interpretation of letters, scenes and +actions would have been made from that which Miss Anthony declared to +be the true one, the author must confess that hereafter all biographies +will be read by her with a certain amount of skepticism--a doubt +whether the historian has drawn correct conclusions from apparent +premises, and a disbelief that one individual can state accurately the +motives which influenced another. + +Most persons who have attained sufficient prominence to make a record +of their lives valuable are too busy to prepare an autobiography, but +there is only one other way to go down to posterity correctly +represented, and that is to have some one else write the history while +the hero still lives. If we admit this self-evident proposition, then +the question is presented, should it be published during his lifetime? +A reason analogous to that which justifies the writing, demands also +the publication, in order that denials or attacks may be met by the +person who, above all others, is best qualified to defend the original +statement. It seems a pity, too, that he should be deprived of knowing +what the press and the people think of the story of his life, since +there is no assurance that he will meet the book-reviewers in the next +world. + +These volumes may claim the merit of truthfully describing the +principal events of Miss Anthony's life and presenting her opinions on +the various matters considered. She has objected to the eulogies, but +the writer holds that, as these are not the expressions of a partial +biographer but the spontaneous tributes of individuals and newspapers, +no rule of good taste is violated in giving them a place. It is only +justice that, since the abuse and ridicule of early years are fully +depicted, esteem and praise should have equal prominence; and surely +every one will read with pleasure the proof that the world's scorn and +repudiation have been changed to respect and approval. Many letters of +women have been used to disprove the assertion so often made, that +women themselves do not properly estimate the labors of Miss Anthony in +their behalf. It can not be expected that the masses should understand +or appreciate her work, but the written evidence herein submitted will +demonstrate that the women of each decade most prominent in +intellectual ability, in philanthropy, in reform, those who represent +the intelligence and progress of the age, have granted to it the most +cordial and thorough recognition. + +There has not been the slightest attempt at rhetorical display, but +only an endeavor to tell in plain, simple language the story of the +life and work of one who was born into the simplicity and +straightforwardness of the Society of Friends and never departed from +them. The constant aim has been to condense, but it has not been an +easy task to crowd into limited space the history of nearly eighty +busy, eventful years, comprising a revolution in social and legal +customs. If the reader discover some things omitted which to him seem +vital, or others mentioned which appear unimportant, it is hoped he +will attribute them to an error of judgment rather than to an intention +to minimize or magnify unduly any person or action. + +The fact should be kept in mind that this is not a history of woman +suffrage, except in so far as Miss Anthony herself has been directly +connected with it. A number of women have made valuable contributions +to this movement whose lives have not come in contact with hers, +therefore they have not been mentioned in these pages, which have been +devoted almost exclusively to her personal labors and associations. +Many of those even who have been her warm and faithful friends have had +to be omitted for want of space. No one can know the regret this has +caused, or the conscientious effort which has been made to render exact +justice to Miss Anthony's co-workers. It was so difficult for her to +select the few pictures for which room could be spared that she was +strongly tempted to exclude all. Personal controversies have been +omitted, in the belief that nothing could be gained which would justify +handing them down to future generations. Where differences have existed +in regard to matters of a public nature, only so much of them has been +given as might serve for an object lesson on future occasions. + +In preparing these volumes over 20,000 letters have been read and, +whenever possible, some of them used to tell the story, especially +those written by Miss Anthony herself, as her own language seemed +preferable to that of any other, but only a comparatively small number +of the latter could be obtained. She kept copies of a few important +official letters, and friends in various parts of the country kindly +sent those in their possession. Every letter quoted in these volumes +was copied from the original, hence there can be no question of +authenticity. The autographs reproduced in fac-simile were clipped from +letters written to Miss Anthony. Her diaries of over fifty years have +furnished an invaluable record. The strict financial accounts of all +moneys received and spent, frequently have supplied a date or incident +when every other source had failed. A mine of information was found in +her full set of scrap-books, beginning with 1850; the History of Woman +Suffrage; almost complete files of Garrison's Liberator, the +Anti-Slavery Standard, and woman's rights papers--Lily, Una, +Revolution, Ballot-Box, Woman's Journal, Woman's Tribune. The reader +easily can perceive the difficulty of condensation, with Miss Anthony's +own history so closely interwoven with the periods and the objects +represented by all these authorities. + +The intent of this work has been to trace briefly the evolution of a +life and a condition. The transition of the young Quaker girl, afraid +of the sound of her own voice, into the reformer, orator and statesman, +is no more wonderful than the change in the status of woman, effected +so largely through her exertions. At the beginning she was a chattel in +the eye of the law; shut out from all advantages of higher education +and opportunities in the industrial world; an utter dependent on man; +occupying a subordinate position in the church; restrained to the +narrowest limits along social lines; an absolute nonentity in politics. +Today American women are envied by those of all other nations, and +stand comparatively free individuals, with the exception of political +disabilities. + +During the fifty years which have wrought this revolution, just one +woman in all the world has given every day of her time, every dollar of +her money, every power of her being, to secure this result. She was +impelled to this work by no personal grievance, but solely through a +deep sense of the injustice which, on every side, she saw perpetrated +against her sex, and which she determined to combat. Never for one +short hour has the cause of woman been forgotten or put aside for any +other object. Never a single tie has been formed, either of affection +or business, which would interfere with this supreme purpose. Never a +speech has been given, a trip taken, a visit made, a letter written, in +all this half-century, that has not been done directly in the interest +of this one object. There has been no thought of personal comfort, +advancement or glory; the self-abnegation, the self-sacrifice, have +been absolute--they have been unparalleled. + +There has been no desire to emphasize the hardships and unpleasant +features, but only to picture in the fewest possible words the many +consecutive years of unremitting toil, begun amidst conditions which +now seem almost incredible, and continued with sublime courage in the +face of calumny and persecution such as can not be imagined by the +women of today. Nothing has been concealed or mitigated. In those years +of constant aggression, when every step was an experiment, there must +have been mistakes, but the story would be incomplete if they were left +untold. No effort has been made to portray a perfect character, but +only that of a woman who dared take the blows and bear the scorn that +other women might be free. Future generations will read these pages +through tears, and will wonder what manner of people those were who not +only permitted this woman to labor for humanity fifty years, almost +unaided, but also compelled her to beg or earn the money with which to +carry on her work. If certain opinions shall be found herein which the +world is not ready to accept, let it be remembered that, as Miss +Anthony was in advance of public sentiment in the past, she may be +equally so in the present, and that the radicalism which we reject +today may be the conservatism at which we will wonder tomorrow. + +Those who follow the story of this life will confirm the assertion that +every girl who now enjoys a college education; every woman who has the +chance of earning an honest living in whatever sphere she chooses; +every wife who is protected by law in the possession of her person and +her property; every mother who is blessed with the custody and control +of her own children--owes these sacred privileges to Susan B. Anthony +beyond all others. This biography goes to the public with the earnest +hope that it may carry to every man a conviction of his imperative duty +to secure for women the same freedom which he himself enjoys; and that +it may impress upon every woman a solemn obligation to complete the +great work of this noble pioneer. + +[Autograph: Ida Husted Harper] + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + +VOL. I. + +CHAPTER I. + +ANCESTRY, HOME AND CHILDHOOD. (1550-1826.), 1-15 + +Berkshire Hills; noted persons born there; Anthony and Read genealogy; +military record; religious beliefs; education; marriage of father and +mother of Susan B. Anthony; her birth and childhood; characteristics of +mother; first factory built. + + +CHAPTER II + +GIRLHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE. (1826-1838.), 17-31 + +Removal to Battenville, N.Y.; manufacturing business; temperance and +labor questions; new house; Susan's factory experience; Quaker +discipline; the home school; first teaching; boarding-school life; +Susan's letters and journals. + + +CHAPTER III. + +FINANCIAL CRASH--THE TEACHER. (1838-1845.), 33-46 + +The panic; father's letters; teaching at Union Village; the home +sacrificed; life at Center Falls; more Quaker discipline; teaching at +New Rochelle; Miss Anthony's letters on slavery, temperance, medical +practice, Van Buren, etc.; teaching at Center Falls, Cambridge and Fort +Edward; proposals of marriage; removal to Rochester, N. Y. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE FARM HOME--END OP TEACHING. (1845-1850.), 47-55 + +Journey to Rochester; the farm home and life; teaching in Canajoharie; +a devotee of fashion; death of Cousin Margaret; weary of the +school-room; early temperance work; first public address; return home; +end of teaching. + + +CHAPTER V. + +ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE. (1850-1852.), 57-80 + +Conditions leading to a public career; her home the center of +reformers; temperance festival; first meeting with the Fosters, Mrs. +Stanton, Mrs. Bloomer, Lucy Stone, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Horace Greeley; +women silenced in men's temperance meeting at Albany, hold one of their +own; advice from Greeley and Mrs. Stanton; first Woman's State +Temperance Convention; men's State Temperance Convention in Syracuse +rejects women delegates; Rev. Samuel J. May and Rev. Luther Lee stand +by the women; Miss Anthony as temperance agent; her appeal to women; +attends her first Woman's Rights Convention at Syracuse; criticises +decollete dress; letters and speeches of Stanton, Mayo, Stone, Brown, +Nichols, Rose, Gage, Gerrit Smith, etc.; Bible controversy; vicious +comment of Syracuse Star, N.Y. Herald, Rev. Byron Sunderland, etc.; +platform of Human Rights. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +TEMPERANCE AND TEACHERS' CONVENTIONS. (1852-1853.), 81-105 + +Women's first appearance before Albany Legislature; Miss Anthony, Rev. +Antoinette Brown and Mrs. Bloomer speak in New York and Brooklyn by +invitation of S.P. Townsend and make tour of State; attack of Utica +Telegraph; phrenological chart; visit at Greeley's; women insulted and +rejected at temperance meeting in Brick Church, New York; abusive +speeches of Wood, Chambers, Barstow and others; Greeley's defense; +attack of N.Y. Commercial-Advertiser, Sun, Organ and Courier; first +annual meeting Women's State Temperance Society; letters from Gerrit +Smith and Neal Dow; right of Divorce; men control meeting; Mrs. Stanton +and Miss Anthony withdraw from Society; Samuel F. Gary declines to +attend Temperance Convention; characteristic advice from Greeley; Miss +Anthony attends State Teachers' Convention and raises a commotion; +Professor Davies' speech; disgraceful scene at World's Temperance +Convention in New York; Woman's Rights Convention mobbed; Cleveland +Convention; Miss Anthony and Rev. W.H. Channing call Woman's Rights +Convention in Rochester. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +PETITIONS--BLOOMERS--LECTURES. (1854.), 107-122 + +Development of character; securing petitions for better laws; Woman's +Rights Convention at Albany; ridiculous report of Representative +Burnett; Miss Anthony's speech; canvassing the State and raising the +funds; history of the Bloomer Costume, with interesting letters; +lecture trip to Washington; opinions on slavery; hard experiences; +conventions at Saratoga and Philadelphia; preparing to canvass New York +State. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FIRST COUNTY CANVASS--THE WATER CURE. (1855.), 123-136 + +Winter canvass of New York; extract from Rondout Courier; letter from +Greeley on Woman Suffrage; another proposal; applying the "water cure;" +hot meal for husbands, cold bite for wives; marriages of Lucy Stone and +Antoinette Brown; speaking at birthplace; Saratoga Convention; goes to +Worcester Hydropathic Institute; her letters from Boston and Worcester; +first Republican meeting; treatment at "water cure;" letter from Dr. +Rogers on marriage; takes out life insurance. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ADVANCE ALONG ALL LINES. (1856.), 137-148 + +Invited to act as agent for American Anti-Slavery Society; second +canvass of New York; her letters describing hardships of journey, +position of wives, etc.; Senator Foote's insolent report on petitions; +advice to a wife; preparing speech on Co-Education; its reception in +Troy; letter from Mary L. Booth on injustice to women teachers; meeting +at Saratoga; the raid at Osawatomie; letter to brother Merritt +regarding it; pathetic letter from Mary L. Booth; Greeley provoked; +Gerrit Smith on woman's dress; New York Convention; words of confidence +from Anti-Slavery Committee. + + +CHAPTER X. + +CAMPAIGNING WITH THE GARRISONIANS. (1857-1858.), 149-166 + +Political conditions; Miss Anthony's band of speakers; Abolition +meetings; Remond's speech; letter from Garrison; notes of her speeches; +Maria Weston Chapman; lecture trip to Maine; stormy State Teachers' +Convention at Binghamton; Mrs. Stanton's comment; letter of Miss +Anthony on family affection: the "raspberry experiment;" the "good old +times;" "health food cranks;" New York Convention in hands of mob; +stirring up teachers at Lockport; mass meeting at Rochester in +opposition to capital punishment; gift of Francis Jackson. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CONDITIONS PRIOR TO THE WAR. (1859.), 167-184 + +Scheme for Free Church; letter from Geo. Wm. Curtis on Woman's Rights; +Miss Anthony's letters on pecuniary independence, denial of human +rights, woman's individuality; criticism of Curtis; six weeks' +legislative work in Albany; convention in New York under difficulties; +extract from Tribune; Memorial to Legislatures; lecturing at New York +watering places; journey on boat to Poughkeepsie; anecdote of waiter at +hotel; incident of Quaker meeting in Easton; married women too busy to +help in fall canvass; letter of Rev. Thomas K. Beecher; incident at +Gerrit Smith's--the Solitude of Self; John Brown meeting; letters +regarding it from Pillsbury and Mrs. Stanton; Hovey Legacy; +correspondence with Judge Ormond, of Alabama; "We are your enemies!" + + +CHAPTER XII. + +RIFT IN COMMON LAW--DIVORCE QUESTION. (1860.), 185-205 + +Early Woman's Rights meetings not Suffrage conventions; Legal Status of +Woman outlined by David Dudley Field; Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton as +co-workers and writers; Tilton's description of the two; before the +N.Y. Legislature; Married Woman's Property Law; woman's debt to Susan +B. Anthony; Emerson on Lyceum Bureau; letters from Mary S. Anthony on +injustice to school-teachers; Beecher's lecture on Woman's Rights; +convention at Cooper Institute; Mrs. Stanton on Divorce; Phillips' +objections; Mrs. Dall's proper convention in Boston; battle renewed at +Progressive Friends' meeting; Miss Anthony's home duties; letter from +her birthplace; Anti-Slavery depository at Albany; Agricultural address +at Dundee; Miss Anthony's defiance of the law giving child to father. + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +MOB EXPERIENCE--CIVIL WAR. (1861-1862.), 207-224 + +Difference between Republicans and Abolitionists; Miss Anthony arranges +series of Garrisonian meetings; mobbed in every city from Buffalo to +Albany; Mayor Thacher preserves the peace at State capital; last +Woman's Rights Convention before the War; Miss Anthony's views on +motherhood; Phillips declares for War; letters on this subject from +Beriah Green and Miss Anthony; opinion on "Adam Bede;" letter on Rosa +Bonheur and Harriet Hosmer; N.Y. Legislature repeals laws recently +enacted for women; letters from Anna Dickinson and Greeley on the War; +Miss Anthony's opinion of private schools; attends her last Teacher's +Convention; in the Anti-Slavery lecture field; death of father. + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +WOMEN'S NATIONAL LOYAL LEAGUE. (1863-1864.), 225-240 + +Disbelief that the War would lead to Woman Suffrage; letters from +Tilton on Proclamation and Henry B. Stanton on condition of country; +Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton issue appeal to women to form National +Loyal League; organization in Church of the Puritans; Miss Anthony's +speech; they prepare eloquent Address to President Lincoln; +headquarters opened in Cooper Institute; petitions and letters sent out +by Miss Anthony; description of draft riots; letters regarding her +father and the sale of the home; lively note from Tilton; raising money +for League; almost 400,000 names secured; Sumner presents petitions in +Senate; letter from Sumner; merry letter from Phillips; first +anniversary of the League; Amendment XIII submitted by Congress; +closing of League headquarters; failure of the government to recognize +its distinguished women. + + +CHAPTER XV. + +MALE IN THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. (1865.), 241-253 + +Death of niece Ann Eliza McLean; letters on the loss of loved ones; +trip to Kansas; work among refugees and in brother's newspaper office; +appeals to return to the East; letters on division in Anti-Slavery +Society; Ottumwa speech on Reconstruction; an unpleasant night; address +to colored people at Leavenworth; Republicans object to a mention of +Woman Suffrage; Miss Anthony learns of motion for Amendment to Federal +Constitution to disfranchise on account of Sex, and immediately starts +eastward; confers with Mrs. Stanton and they issue appeal to women of +country to protest against proposed Fourteenth Amendment; Miss Anthony +holds meetings at Concord, Westchester and many other places; N.Y. +Independent supports women's demands. + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE NEGRO'S HOUR. (1866.), 255-270 + +Reconstruction period; Anti-Slavery Society declines coalition with +Woman's Rights Society; Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton issue strong call +for the reassembling in New York of Woman's Rights forces; Robert +Purvis and Anna Dickinson approve; convention meets in Dr. Cheever's +church; Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton present ringing Address to +Congress; Miss Anthony's speech for union of the two organizations; +Equal Rights Association formed; controversy of Phillips, Tilton, +Anthony, Stanton in Standard office; Standard's offer of space +rejected; Miss Anthony's speech at Equal Rights meeting in Albany; +abusive article from N.Y. World; mass meetings held and petitions +circulated to have women included in Fourteenth Amendment; Republicans +refuse to recognize their claims; Democrats favor them to defeat the +negroes; Miss Anthony complains of Standard's treatment; words from +friends and foes. + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +CAMPAIGNS IN NEW YORK AND KANSAS. (1867.), 271-294 + +Canvass of New York to secure Woman Suffrage Amendment to new State +Constitution; scurrilous comment of Buffalo Commercial; praise of Troy +Times; Miss Anthony rebukes selfish woman; always assumes the drudgery; +Beecher can not work in organizations; Lucy Stone's letters from Kansas +on action of Republicans; Beecher's speech in New York on Woman +Suffrage; Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton prepare Memorial to Congress; +Miss Anthony and Greeley break lances at Albany; Curtis stands by the +women; Mrs. Greeley's petition used to checkmate her husband; Anna +Dickinson's indignation; Kansas Republican Committee fights Woman +Suffrage; Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton go to Kansas; hardships of the +campaign; Mrs. Starrett's description of Miss Anthony; negroes oppose +woman suffrage; George Francis Train comes to the rescue; Suffrage +Amendment defeated; Leavenworth Commercial pays tribute; Miss Anthony, +Mrs. Stanton and Mr. Train make lecture tour from Omaha to Boston; +persecution by former friends. + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +ESTABLISHING THE REVOLUTION. (1868.), 295-311 + +Mr. Train and David M. Melliss furnish funds for starting Woman +Suffrage newspaper, The Revolution; comments of press; Mr. Train in +Dublin jail; Mrs. Stanton defends The Revolution; how women were +sacrificed; bright description of paper and editors; Equal Rights +Association divided between claims of woman and negro; Miss Anthony and +Mrs. Stanton delegates to Democratic National Convention at Tammany +Hall; their reception; Miss Anthony represents Workingwomen's +Association at National Labor Congress in New York; her suffrage +resolution rejected; her advice to women typesetters; sad case of +Hester Vaughan; S. C. Pomeroy and George W. Julian present Woman +Suffrage Amendments in Senate and House of Representatives. + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +AMENDMENT XV--FOUNDING OF NATIONAL SOCIETY. (1869.), 313-336 + +First National Convention in Washington; colored men object to Woman +Suffrage; first hearing before Congressional Committee; descriptive +letter from Grace Greenwood; Miss Anthony arraigns Republicans at +Chicago; Mrs. Livermore's tribute to Miss Anthony; speech at N.Y. Press +Club on woman's "proposing;" Fifteenth Amendment submitted; criticism +by The Revolution; Train withdraws from paper; Woman's Bureau; letters +from Mrs. Livermore, Anna Dickinson, Gail Hamilton; stormy session of +Equal Rights Association; Miss Anthony's speech against Amendment XV; +William Winter defends her; discussion of "free love" resolution; Equal +Rights platform too broad; founding of National Woman Suffrage +Association; forming of American Woman Suffrage Association; Miss +Anthony secures testimonial for Mrs. Rose; conventions at Saratoga and +Newport; Miss Anthony protests against paying taxes; Mr. and Mrs. Minor +claim woman's right to vote under Fourteenth Amendment; Miss Anthony +speaks at Dayton, O., on laws for married women; Mrs. Hooker's +description of her; Miss Anthony's speech at Hartford Convention; +anecdote of Beecher; Mrs. Hooker's account; letters from Dr. Kate +Jackson and Sarah Pugh; division in suffrage ranks. + + +CHAPTER XX. + +FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY--END OF EQUAL RIGHTS SOCIETY. (1870.), 337-350 + +Washington Convention; Miss Anthony's speech on striking "male" from +District of Columbia Bill; descriptions by Mrs. Fannie Howland, Hearth +and Home, Mrs. Hooker, Mary Clemmer; Fiftieth Birthday celebration and +comments of N.Y. Press; Phoebe Gary's poem; Miss Anthony's letter to +mother; begins with Lyceum Bureau; Robert G. Ingersoll comes to her +assistance; attack by Detroit Free Press; tribute of Chicago Legal +News; efforts to unite the two National Suffrage organizations; Union +Suffrage Society formed; end of Equal Rights Association. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +END OF REVOLUTION--STATUS OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE. (1870.), 351-370 + +McFarland-Richardson trial; letter from Catharine Beecher on Divorce; +financial struggle; touching letters; Mrs. Hooker offers to help; Alice +and Phoebe Gary; prospectus of The Revolution; giving up of the paper; +Miss Anthony's letter regarding it; in the lecture field; the little +Professor; Miss Anthony's strong summing-up of the Status of Woman +Suffrage; rejected by National Labor Congress in Philadelphia; attack +of Utica Herald; Second Decade Meeting in New York; Mrs. Davis' History +of the Movement for Twenty Years; death of nephew Thomas King McLean; +meeting with Phillips. + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +MRS. HOOKER'S CONVENTION--THE LECTURE FIELD. (1871.), 371-385 + +Mrs. Hooker undertakes Washington Convention; amusing letters from +Anthony, Stanton, Hooker, Wright; first appearance of Mrs. Woodhull; +accounts by Philadelphia Press, Washington Daily Patriot and National +Republican; resolution by Miss Anthony claiming right to vote under +Fourteenth Amendment; Declaration signed by 80,000 women; Catharine +Beecher and Mrs. Woodhull; Mrs. Stanton rebukes men who object to Mrs. +Woodhull; hard life of a lecturer; Mrs. Griffing, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. +Hooker on political party attitude; Phoebe Couzins pleads for the +National Association; Mrs. Woodhull at New York May Anniversary; charge +of "free love" refuted; forcible letter from Miss Anthony declaring for +one Moral Standard. + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +FIRST TRIP TO THE PACIFIC COAST. (1871.), 387-408 + +Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton cross the continent; newspaper comment; +Miss Anthony's letters from Salt Lake City; hostile treatment by San +Francisco press; description of trip to Yosemite; journey by boat to +Oregon; her letters on lecture experiences in Oregon and Washington; +ridicule of Portland Bulletin; misrepresentation of Territorial +Despatch; "cards" in papers of British Columbia; account of stage ride +back to San Francisco; banquet at Grand Hotel; journey eastward with +Sargent family; snowbound among the Rockies. + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +REPUBLICAN SPLINTER--MISS ANTHONY VOTES. (1872.), 409-429 + +National Convention declares women enfranchised under Fourteenth and +Fifteenth Amendments; Miss Anthony sustains this position before Senate +Judiciary Committee; friends in Rochester present testimonial; she +reads in Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly call to form New Party under +auspices of National Suffrage Association; her indignant remonstrance; +hastens to New York and prevents coalition; Liberal Republican +Convention at Cincinnati refuses to adopt Suffrage resolution; Miss +Anthony's comment; Republican Convention at Philadelphia makes first +mention of Woman; Mr. Blackwell's and Miss Anthony's letters regarding +this; Democratic Convention at Baltimore ignores Woman; Hon. John +Cochran tells how not to do it; Miss Anthony and Mrs. Gage urge women +to support Republican ticket; Miss Anthony states her Political +Position; her delight and Mrs. Stanton's doubts; letter from Henry +Wilson; Republican Committee summons her to Washington; she arranges +series of Republican rallies; sustains party only on Suffrage plank; +Miss Anthony Votes; newspaper comment; she is arrested; examination +before U.S. Commissioner; Judge Henry R. Selden and Hon. John Van +Voorhis undertake her case; Rochester Express defends her; letter on +case from Benjamin F. Butler. + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +TRIAL FOR VOTING UNDER FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. (1873.), 431-448 + +Miss Anthony's speech at Washington Convention; she appears before U.S. +District-Judge at Albany and bail is increased to $1,000; addresses +State Constitutional Commission; indicted by grand jury; becomes +unconscious on lecture platform at Ft. Wayne; votes again; call for +Twenty-fifth Suffrage Anniversary; Miss Anthony delivers her great +Constitutional Argument in twenty-nine post office districts in Monroe +Co.; District-Attorney moves her trial to another county; she speaks at +twenty-one places and Mrs. Gage at sixteen in that county; Rochester +Union and Advertiser condemns her; trial opens at Canandaigua; masterly +argument of Judge Selden; Justice Ward Hunt delivers Written Opinion +without leaving bench; declines to submit case to Jury or to allow it +to be polled; refuses new trial; spirited encounter between Miss +Anthony and Judge; newspaper comment; trial of Inspectors; Judge +refuses to allow Counsel to address Jury; opinion of Mr. Van Voorhis; +contributions sent to Miss Anthony by friends; death of sister Guelma +McLean; Miss Anthony's letter of grief to mother; generous gift of +Anson Lapham. + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO JURY OR FRANCHISE. (1874.), 449-465 + +Appeal to Congress to remit fine and declare Right to Trial by Jury; +report from House Committee for and against, by Butler and Tremaine; +from Senate Committee for and against, by Carpenter and Edmunds; pardon +of Inspectors by President Grant; Supreme Court decision in suit of +Virginia L. Minor against Inspectors for refusing her vote; +Representative Butler and Senator Lapham on Woman Suffrage; President +Grant's opinion; letter of Judge A.G. Riddle on chief obstacles; death +of Sumner; Miss Anthony's speech and letter on Women's Temperance +Crusade; lying telegram and N.Y. Herald's truthful report of +convention; letter by Miss Anthony, "honesty best policy;" suffrage +campaign in Michigan; Beecher-Tilton case. + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +REVOLUTION DEBT PAID--WOMEN'S FOURTH OF JULY. (1875-1876.), 467-482 + +Miss Anthony's annual struggle to hold Washington Convention; speech in +Chicago on Social Purity; comment of St. Louis Democrat and other +papers; hard lecture tour in Iowa; shooting of brother Daniel R.; +Revolution debt paid; commendation of press; Centennial Resolutions at +Washington Convention; establishing Centennial headquarters at +Philadelphia; Republicans again recognize Woman in National platform; +Miss Anthony and others present Woman's Declaration of Independence at +Centennial celebration; eloquent description; History of Woman Suffrage +begun; writes articles for Johnson's Encyclopedia. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +COLORADO CAMPAIGN--POLITICAL ATTITUDE. (1877-1878.), 483-498 + +Advocates of Woman Suffrage compelled to return to former policy of +demanding Sixteenth Amendment to Federal Constitution; letters from +Garrison and Phillips on this subject; descriptions by Mary Clemmer and +Washington papers of presenting Suffrage petitions in Congress; Lyceum +Bureau circular with comment of Forney; death of sister Hannah Mosher; +friendship of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton; tribute of Annie McDowell; +campaigning in Colorado; speaking in saloons; writing "Homes of Single +Women" in Denver; prayer-meeting in Capitol at Washington; Miss Anthony +urged not to miss another National Convention; Thirtieth Suffrage +Anniversary at Rochester; letter from J.H. Hayford relative to Woman +Suffrage in Wyoming; Miss Anthony defines her attitude in regard to +Political Parties. + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE REPORTS--COMMENT. (1879-1880.), 499-513 + +Vigorous resolutions at National Convention; Senator Morton's position +on Woman Suffrage; Senator Wadleigh scored by Mary Clemmer; first +favorable Senate Committee report; advance in public sentiment; +extracts from Indiana papers; bitter attacks of Richmond (Ky.) Herald +and Grand Rapids (Mich.) Times; interview in Chicago Tribune on Woman's +need of ballot for Temperance legislation; convention in St. Louis and +Miss Anthony's response to floral offering; death of Wm. Lloyd +Garrison; desire for a woman's paper; new workers; Washington +Convention; hospitality of Riggs House; death of mother. + + + + + +LIST OF AUTOGRAPHS. + + +ANTHONY, SUSAN B. +ANTHONY, HUMPHREY +ANTHONY, DANIEL +ANTHONY, LUCY READ +ANTHONY, COLONEL D.R. +ANTHONY, MARY S. +ANTHONY, SENATOR HENRY B. +A. BRONSON ALCOTT +AVERY, RACHEL FOSTER +BARTON, CLARA +BEECHER, HENRY WARD +BIGGS, CAROLINE ASHURST +BLACKWELL, ALICE STONE +BLACKWELL, REV. ANTOINETTE BROWN +BLACKWELL, DR. ELIZABETH +BLAIR, SENATOR HENRY W. +BLAKE, LILLIE DEVEREUX +BLOOMER, AMELIA +BOOTH, MARY L. +BRIGHT, URSULA M. +BROWN, SENATOR B. GRATZ +BROWNE, THOMAS M., M.C. +BUTLER, GENERAL BENJAMIN F. +BUTLER, JOSEPHINE E. +CAREY, SENATOR JOSEPH M. +CARY, ALICE +CARY, PHOEBE +CATT, CARRIE CHAPMAN +CHANNING, REV. WILLIAM HENRY +CHAPIN, REV. E.H. +CHAPMAN, MARIA WESTON +CHEEVER, REV. GEORGE B. +CHILD, LYDIA MARIA +CLAY, LAURA +CLEMMER, MARY +COBBE, FRANCES POWER +COBDEN, JANE +COLBY, CLARA BEWICK +COOPER, SARAH B. +CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM +DAVIS, PAULINA WRIGHT +DICKINSON, ANNA E. +DIGGS, ANNIE L. +DOLPH, SENATOR J.N. +DOUGLASS, FREDERICK +DOW, NEAL +EMERSON, RALPH WALDO +FAWCETT, MILLICENT GARRETT +FIELD, KATE +FORNEY, COLONEL JOHN W. +FOSTER, ABBY KELLY +FOSTER, STEPHEN S. +FOULKE, HON. WM. DUDLEY +FROTHINGHAM, REV. O.B. +GAGE, MATILDA JOSLYN +GARFIELD, PRESIDENT JAMES A. +GARRISON, WM. LLOYD +GIBBONS, ABBY HOPPER +GOODRICH, SARAH KNOX +GRANT, MRS. U.S. +GREELEY, HORACE +GREENWOOD, GRACE +HAMILTON, GAIL +HARPER, IDA HUSTED +HEARST, PHOEBE A. +HOAR, SENATOR GEORGE F. +HOOKER, ISABELLA BEECHER +HOSMER, HARRIET +HOWELL, MARY SEYMOUR +JACOBI, DR. MARY PUTNAM +JACKSON, FRANCIS +JULIAN, GEORGE W., M.C. +KELLEY, WILLIAM D., M.C. +KING, REV. THOMAS STARR +LAPHAM, SENATOR ELBRIDGE G. +LOGAN, MRS. JOHN A. +LOZIER, DR. CLEMENCE S. +LUCAS, MARGARET BRIGHT +MARTINEAU, HARRIET +McCULLOCH, SECRETARY HUGH +McLAREN, PRISCILLA BRIGHT +MERRICK, CAROLINE E. +MINOR, VIRGINIA L. +MITCHELL, MARIA +MORTON, SENATOR OLIVER P. +MOTT, LUCRETIA +NICHOL, ELIZABETH PEASE, +OWEN, ROBERT DALE, +PALMER, BERTHA HONORE, +PALMER, SENATOR THOMAS W., +PARKER, REV. THEODORE, +PHILLIPS, WENDELL, +PILLSBURY, PARKER, +POMEROY, SENATOR S.C., +POST, AMY, +PURVIS, HARRIET, +PURVIS, ROBERT, +REED, SPEAKER THOMAS B., +RIDDLE, JUDGE A.G., +ROSE, ERNESTINE L., +SARGENT, SENATOR A.A., +SARGENT, ELLEN CLARK, +SEWALL, MAY WRIGHT, +SHAW, REV. ANNA HOWARD, +SIMPSON, BISHOP MATTHEW, +SMITH, GERRIT, +SOMERSET, LADY HENRY, +SPOFFORD, JANE H, +STANFORD, JANE L., +STANFORD, SENATOR LELAND, +STANTON, ELIZABETH CADY, +STEVENS, THADDEUS, +STONE, LUCINDA HINSDALE, +STONE, LUCY, +SUMNER, CHARLES, +SWIFT, MARY WOOD, +TAYLOR, EZRA B., M.C., +TAYLOR, HELEN, +TAYLOR, MENTIA (MRS. PETER), +THOMPSON, GEORGE, M.P., +TILTON, THEODORE, +TODD, ISABELLA M.S., +TRAIN, GEORGE FRANCIS, +TYNG, REV. STEPHEN H., +UPTON, HARRIET TAYLOR, +WADE, SENATOR BENJAMIN F., +WALLACE, ZERELDA G., +WARREN, SENATOR FRANCIS E., +WHITE, SENATOR JOHN D., +WHITING, LILIAN, +WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF, +WILLARD, FRANCES E., +WILSON, VICE-PRESIDENT HENRY, + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + +VOL. I. + + +SUSAN B. ANTHONY, at the age of 76 + +"THE OLD HIVE," birthplace of father + of SUSAN B. ANTHONY + +HOME OF LUCY READ, mother of SUSAN B. ANTHONY + +WEST END OF KITCHEN IN OLD HOMESTEAD + +BIRTHPLACE OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY + +TEMPORARY HOME AT BATTENVILLE, N.Y. + +THE BATTENVILLE HOME + +HOME AT CENTER FALLS, N. Y. + +SUSAN B. ANTHONY at the age of 28 + +AUNT HANNAH, the Quaker preacher + +SUSAN B. ANTHONY at the age of 32 + +HUMPHREY ANTHONY at the age of 95 + +SUSAN B. ANTHONY at the age of 36 + +THE FARM-HOME NEAR ROCHESTER + +ERNESTINE L. ROSE + +FATHER AND MOTHER OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY + +LUCRETIA MOTT + +ELIZABETH CADY STANTON + +SUSAN B. ANTHONY at the age of 48 + +SUSAN B. ANTHONY at the age of 50, + from photograph by Sarony + +ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER + +DR. CLEMENCE S. LOZIER + +VIRGINIA L. MINOR + +JANE H. SPOFFORD + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +ANCESTRY, HOME AND CHILDHOOD. + +1550-1826. + + +Among the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts is a very beautiful place in +which to be born. It is famed in song and story for the loveliness of +its scenery and the purity of its air. It has no lofty peaks, no great +canyons, no mighty rivers, but it is diversified in the most +picturesque manner by the long line of Green Mountains, whose lower +ranges bear the musical name of "Berkshire Hills;" by rushing streams +tumbling through rocky gorges and making up in impetuosity what they +lack in size; by noble forests, gently undulating meadows, quaint +farmhouses, old bridges and bits of roadway which are a never-ending +delight to the artist. Writers, too, have found inspiration here and +many exquisite descriptions in prose and verse commemorate the beauties +of this region. + +Catharine Maria Sedgwick, the first woman in America to make a literary +reputation on two continents, was born at Stockbridge, and her stories +and sketches were located here. That old seat of learning, Williams +College, is situated among these foothills. In his summer home at +Pittsfield, Longfellow wrote "The Old Clock on the Stairs"; at +Stockbridge, Hawthorne builded his "House of the Seven Gables"; and +Lydia Sigourney poetically told of "Stockbridge Bowl" with "Its foot of +stone and rim of green." It was at Lenox that Henry Ward Beecher +created "Norwood" and "Star Papers." Here Charlotte Cushman and Fanny +Kemble came for many summers to rest and find new life. Harriet Hosmer +had her first dreams of fame at the Sedgwick school. The Goodale +sisters, Elaine and Dora, were born upon one of these mountainsides and +both embalmed its memory in their poems. Dora lovingly sings: + + Dear Berkshire, dear birthplace, the hills are thy towers, + Those lofty fringed summits of granite and pine; + No valley's green lap is so spangled with flowers, + No stream of the wildwood so crystal as thine. + Say where do the March winds such treasures uncover, + Such maple and arrowwood burn in the fall, + As up the blue peaks where the thunder-gods hover + In cloud-curtained Berkshire who cradled us all? + +Henry Ward Beecher said: + + This county of valleys, lakes and mountains is yet to be as + celebrated as the lake district of England and the hill country of + Palestine.... Here is such a valley as the ocean would be if, when + its waves were running tumultuous and high, it were suddenly + transformed and solidified.... The endless variety never ceases to + astonish and please.... It is indeed like some choice companion, of + rich heart and genial imagination, never twice alike in mood, in + conversation, in radiant sobriety or half-bright sadness; bold, + tender, deep, various. + +One has but to come into the midst of these hills to fall a victim to +their fascination, while to those who were born among them there is no +spot on earth so beautiful or so beloved. They have sent forth +generations of men and women, whose fame is as imperishable as the +marble and granite which form their everlasting foundations. Among the +noted men who have gone out from the Berkshire region are William +Cullen Bryant, Cyrus W. Field and brothers, Jonathan Edwards, Mark and +Albert Hopkins, Senator Henry L. Dawes, Governor Edwin D. Morgan, of +New York, George F. Root, the musical composer, Governor George N. +Briggs, of Massachusetts, Governor and Senator Francis E. Warren, of +Wyoming, the Deweys, the Barnards, a list too long for quoting. Oliver +Wendell Holmes, whose grandfather was a Berkshire man, wrote: + + Berkshire has produced a race which, for independent thought, + daring schemes and achievements that have had world-wide + consequences, has not been surpassed. We claim, also, that more of + those first things that draw the chariot of progress forward so + that people can see that it has moved, have been planned and + executed by the inhabitants of the 950 square miles that constitute + the territory of Berkshire than can be credited to any other tract + of equal extent in the United States. + +Of late years the world of wealth and fashion has invaded the Berkshire +country and there are no more magnificent summer homes than those of +Lenox, Stockbridge, Great Barrington and the neighboring towns. + +The first of the Anthony family of whom there is any record was +William, born in Cologne, Germany, who came to England during the reign +of Edward the Sixth and was made Chief Graver of the Royal Mint and +Master of the Scales, holding this office through the reigns of Edward +and Mary and part of that of Elizabeth. His crest and coat of arms are +entered in the royal enumeration. His son Derrick was the father of Dr. +Francis Anthony, born in London, 1550. According to the Biographia +Britannica, he was graduated at Cambridge with the degree of Master of +Arts and became a learned physician and chemist. Although a man of high +character and generous impulses, he was intolerant of restraint and in +continual conflict with the College of Physicians. He died in his +seventy-fourth year, and was buried in the church of St. Bartholomew +the Great, where his handsome monument still remains. He left a +daughter and two sons, both of the latter distinguished physicians. +From John, the elder, sprung the American branch of the family. His +son, John, Jr., born in Hempstead, England, sailed to America in the +ship Hercules, from that port, April 16, 1634, when he was twenty-seven +years old. He settled in Portsmouth, R.I., and became a land-owner, an +innkeeper and an office-holder. His five children who survived infancy +left forty-three children. One of these forty-three, Abraham, had +thirteen children, and his son William fourteen, his son, William, Jr., +four, his son David nine. + +It was just before the beginning of the Revolution that this David +Anthony, with his wife, Judith Hicks, moved from Dartmouth, Mass., to +Berkshire and settled near Adams at the foot of Greylock, the highest +peak in the mountain range. This was considered the extreme West, as +little was known of all that lay beyond. They brought two children with +them and seven more were born here in the shadow of the mountains. +Humphrey, the second son, born at Dartmouth, February 2, 1770, married +Hannah Lapham, who was born near Adams (then called East Hoosac), +November 11, 1773; and here, also, January 27, 1794, was born the first +of their nine children, Daniel, father of Susan B. Anthony. + +On the maternal side the grandfather, Daniel Read, was born at +Rehobeth, Mass., and said to be a lineal descendant and entitled to the +coat of arms of Sir Brianus de Rede, A.D. 1075; but he had too much of +the sturdy New England spirit to feel any special interest in the pomp +and pride of heraldry, and the family tree he prized most was found in +the grand old grove which shaded his own dooryard. Susannah Richardson, +his wife, was born at Scituate, Mass., and her family were among the +most wealthy and respected of that locality during the eighteenth +century. Both Reads and Richardsons removed to Cheshire, Mass., before +1770, and Daniel and Susannah were married there. It was but a few +months after this marriage when the first gun was fired at Lexington +and the whole country was ablaze with excitement. At the close of the +sermon, on a bright spring morning, the old minister, his voice +trembling with patriotic fervor, asked every man who was ready to +enlist in the Continental army to stand forth, and Daniel Read was the +first to step out into the aisle of the little meeting-house. Leaving +the girl-bride he entered the service and soon became conspicuous for +his bravery. He was one of the memorable expedition against Quebec +under Arnold, in 1775, and of the party commanded by Ethan Allen at the +capture of Ticonderoga. He was among that brave band from Cheshire +(Stafford's Hill) who fought under Colonel Stafford at Bennington. On +the 19th of October, 1780, he took part in the fatal fight of Stone +Arabia, under Col. John Brown, and served with honor throughout the +war. It was several years after peace had been declared and he had +returned home and settled down to the quiet life of a New England +farmer that, December 2, 1793, was born Lucy, the mother of Susan B. +Anthony. + +[Illustration: THE "OLD HIVE," ADAMS, MASS. + + BIRTHPLACE OF DANIEL, FATHER OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY.] + +Daniel Read was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1814 and +was elected to various public offices. He was a Whig in politics and +adhered always to staunch republican principles, but rose above +partisanship and was universally respected. Daniel and Susannah were +thrifty New England Puritans, leading members of the Baptist +denomination and parishioners of the widely known Elder Leland. The +cooking for Sunday always was done on Saturday, and the greater part of +every Sunday, regardless of weather, was spent at church. They and +their children sat through a service of two hours in the morning, ate a +generous lunch at the noon intermission, and were ready for another two +hours' sermon in the afternoon, through all the heat of summer and the +terrible cold of New England winter. + +Susannah Read remained always a devout and consistent Baptist, but +Daniel became, in later years, a thorough Universalist. Murray, the +founder of this church in England, had come to the Colonies before the +Revolutionary War, and by the close of the century the Universalists +were organized as a sect, holding general conventions and sending +itinerants among the people in the villages and country. Some of these +doubtless had penetrated to Adams and converted Daniel Read, who was +always liberal in his belief. He was an inveterate reader and pored +over a vast amount of theological discussion which attracted so much +attention in his day. The family moved from Cheshire to a suburb of +Adams called Bowen's Corners. Near their house was the tavern, its +proprietor known to all the people roundabout as "Uncle Sam" Bowen. He +and Daniel Read never wearied in setting forth the merits of "free +salvation." They were the only two persons in all that section of the +country who did not believe in a literal hell. It was the common +sentiment then that only those disbelieved in endless punishment who +had reason to be afraid of it, and, since both these men were exemplary +in every other respect, it was impossible for their friends to +understand their aberration. Susannah Read, in the language of that +time, "wore the skin off her knees," praying night and day that God +would bring her husband back into the fold, but her prayers never were +answered. Every Sunday regularly he accompanied her to church, and +faithfully contributed to the support of the preacher, but he died, at +the ripe old age of eighty-four, firm in his Universalist faith. + +Susannah was the care-taker of the family and looked after the farm, +inheriting the Richardson energy and thrift. Daniel was genial, +good-natured and very intelligent, but his health being impaired from +army service, he was willing she should take the lead in business +matters. The farm was one of only a hundred acres, but was carefully +and economically managed and, at their death, the Reads left about +$10,000, which was then considered a snug little fortune. Lucy, one of +seven children, was born into a home of peace and comfort and had a +happy and uneventful childhood. She attended the district school, was a +fair writer and speller and, like her father very fond of reading. She +learned to cook and sew, make butter and cheese, spin and weave, and +was very domestic in all her tastes. The Reads and Anthonys were near +neighbors, and although differing widely in religious belief, a subject +of much prominence in those days, they were on terms of intimate +friendship even before the ties were made still closer by marriage +between the two families. + +Both Anthonys and Laphams were Quakers as far back as the sect was in +existence. Both were families of wealth and influence, and when +Humphrey and Hannah were married she received from her parents a house +and thirty acres of land, which were entailed on her children. Silver +spoons are still in the family, which were part of her dowry more than +a century ago. Hannah Lapham Anthony was a most saintly woman and, +because of her beautiful religious character was made an elder and +given an exalted position on the "high seat."[1] + +[Illustration: HOME OF LUCY READ, ADAMS, MASS.] + +She was a very handsome brunette and was noted for the beauty and +elegance of her Quaker attire, her bonnets always being made in New +York. Humphrey never attained the "high seat;" he was too worldly. His +ambition was constantly to add more to his broad acres, to take a +bigger drove of cattle to Boston than any of his neighbors, and to get +a higher price for his own than any other Berkshire cheese would bring. +He had a number of farms and a hundred cows, while his wife made the +best cheese and was the finest housekeeper in all that part of the +country. The fame of her coffee and biscuits, apple dumplings and +chicken dinners, spread far and wide. Their kitchen was forty feet +long. One end was used for the dining-room, with the table seating +twenty persons, and in the other were the sink and the "penstock," +which brought water from a clear, cold spring high up in the mountains. +Here also were the huge fire-place, the big brick oven and the large +pantry. Then there were the spacious "keeping" or sitting-room, with +the mother's bedroom opening out of it, the great weaving-room with its +wheels and loom, and two bed-rooms for the "help" down stairs, while +above were the children's sleeping-rooms. Opening out of the kitchen +was a room containing the cheese press and the big "arch" kettle, and +near by was a two-story building where the cheese was stored. Up in the +grove was the saw-mill, and at the foot of the hill was the blacksmith +shop, where nails were made, horses shod, wagons and farm implements +mended and, later, scythes manufactured. On all the farms were fine +orchards of apples, plums, pears, cherries and quinces, among which +stood long rows of beehives with their wealth of honey. + +Here Daniel, father of Susan B. Anthony, grew to manhood in the midst +of comfort and abundance and in an atmosphere of harmony and love. The +Anthonys were broad and liberal in religious ideas, and in 1826, when +bitter dissensions regarding the divinity of Christ arose among the +Quakers, they followed Elias Hicks and were henceforth known as +"Hicksite Friends." This controversy divided many families, and on +account of it the orthodox brother, Elihu Anthony, insisted on removing +their aged father to his home in Saratoga, N.Y., to the great grief of +Humphrey, who claimed that the old gentleman was too childish to know +whether he was orthodox or Hicksite and ought not to be taken to "a new +country" in his declining years Hannah Anthony was ambitious for her +children and insisted that they should be placed where they might have +better educational facilities than in the little school at home. +Humphrey thought the boys could manage a farm and the girls weave good +cloth and make fine cheese without a boarding-school education. He +finally yielded, however, and Daniel and two daughters were sent to the +"Nine Partners," that famous Quaker boarding-school in Dutchess county, +N.Y. At the end of a year, Daniel, who was about nineteen, had made +such rapid progress that he was appointed teacher. The quaint +certificate given him by his associate teachers is still in existence +and reads: + + This may apprize the friends & relatives of D. Anthony, that, + during his residence with us, he has been an affectionate consort, + excellent, consistant in the School, of steady deportment and + conversation, being an example for us to follow when we are + separated. We sincerely wish his preservation in all things + laudable and believe we can with propriety hereunto set our names. + + Elihu Marshall, Charles Clement, John Taber, Stephen Willitz, Henry + Cox, Frederick A. Underhill, William Seamen. + +There is a still more highly valued testimonial from the principal, the +noble and dignified Richard F. Mott, who was held in loving reverence +by all the distinguished Quaker families that confided their sons and +daughters to his wise and tender care: + + Daniel Anthony has been an assistant here & we can aprise his + friends that he has faithfully discharged his duty in that + particular, has been a very agreeable companion & his conduct + remarkably correct & exemplary, which, joined to his pleasant & + obliging disposition, has gained him our esteem & affection. + + We sincerely wish his prosperity, spiritually & temporally, & shall + gratefully remember him and his services. + + On behalf of the sitting-room circle, R.F. MOTT. + Boarding School, 4 M., 1 D., 1814. + +The profession of teacher did not appeal to hard-headed Humphrey +Anthony, and when Daniel came back with his brain full of ambitious +projects and with a thorough distaste for farming, and his sisters, +with many airs and graces and a feeling of superiority over the girls +in the neighborhood, Father Anthony declared that no more children of +his should go away to boarding-school. The fact that young Daniel was +skilled in mechanics and mathematics, able to superintend intelligently +all the work on the farm and to make a finer scythe than any man in the +shop, did not modify the father's opinion. When John, the next boy, was +old enough and the mother began to urge that he be sent to school, the +father offered him his choice to go or to stay at home and work that +year for $100. This was a large sum for those days, it out-weighed the +mother's arguments, John remained at home and regretted it all the rest +of his life. + +[Illustration: WEST END OF KITCHEN IN OLD HOMESTEAD.] + +The Anthony and Read farms were adjoining a mile east of Adams, and lay +upon the first level or "bench" of the Green mountains. From their +door-yards the ascent of the mountains began, and only the Hoosac in a +deep ravine separated them from the base of "Old Greylock." The crops +were raised on the "intervale" and the cattle pastured on the mountain +side. Adams was then a sleepy New England village, and the Hoosac was a +lovely stream, whose waters were used for the flocks and for the grist +and saw-mills; but in later years the village became a manufacturing +center and the banks of the pretty river were lined for miles with +great factories. + +In early times wealthy Quakers had a school in their home or door-yard +for their own children. Those of the neighborhood were allowed to +attend at a certain price, and in this way undesirable pupils could be +kept out. At the Anthony residence this little school-house stood +beneath a great weeping willow beside the front gate, and among the +pupils was Lucy Read. She was the playmate of the sisters, and young +Dan was the torment of their lives, jumping out at them from unexpected +corners, eavesdropping to learn their little secrets and harassing them +in ways common to boys of all generations, and she never hesitated to +inform him that he was "the hatefullest fellow she ever knew." When +Daniel returned from boarding-school with all the prestige of several +years' absence, and was made master of the little home-school, one of +his pupils was this same Lucy Read, now a tall, beautiful girl with +glossy brown hair, large blue eyes and a fine complexion, the belle of +the neighborhood. The inevitable happened, childish feuds were +forgotten, and teacher and pupil decided to become husband and wife. +Then arose a formidable difficulty. The Anthonys were Quakers, the +Reads were Baptists, and a Quaker was not permitted to "marry out of +meeting." Love laughed at rules and restrictions eighty years ago, just +as it does to-day, and Daniel refused to let the Society come between +him and the woman of his choice, but Lucy had many misgivings. Thanks +to her father's ideas she had been brought up in a most liberal manner, +allowed to attend parties, dance and wear pretty clothes to her heart's +content, and it was a serious question with her whether she could give +up all these and adopt the plain and severe habits of the Quakers. She +had a marvelous voice, and, as she sang over her spinning-wheel, often +wished that she might "go into a ten-acre lot with the bars down" so +that she could let her voice out to its full capacity. The Quakers did +not approve of singing, and that pleasure also would have to be +relinquished. That the husband could give up his religious forms and +accept those of the wife never had been imagined. + +Love finally triumphed, and the young couple were married July 13, +1817. A few nights before the wedding Lucy went to a party and danced +till four o'clock in the morning, while Friend Daniel sat bolt upright +against the wall and counted the days which should usher in a new +dispensation. A committee was sent at once to deal with Daniel, and +Lucy always declared he told them he "was sorry he married her," but he +would say, "No, my dear, I said I was sorry that in order to marry the +woman I loved best, I had to violate a rule of the religious society I +revered most." The matter was carefully talked over by the elders, and +as he had said he was sorry he had to violate the rule, and as the +family was one of much influence, and as he was their most highly +educated and cultivated member, it was unanimously decided not to turn +him out of meeting.[2] Lucy learned to love the Friends' religion and +often said she was a much more consistent Quaker than her husband, but +she never became a member of the Society, declaring she was "not good +enough." She did not use the "plain language," though she always +insisted that her husband should do so in addressing her; nor did she +adopt the Quaker costume, but she dressed simply and wore little +"cottage" straw bonnets with strings tied demurely under her chin and +later had them made of handsome shirred silk, the full white cap-ruche +showing inside. She sang no more except lullabies to the babies when +they came, and then the Quaker relatives would laugh and ask her why +she did it. Her long married life was very happy, notwithstanding its +many hardships, and she never regretted accepting her Quaker lover. + +The previous summer Daniel had helped his father prepare the lumber and +build a large two-story addition to his house, and in return he gave to +his son the lumber for a new home, on a beautiful tract of ground +presented to the young couple by Father Read adjoining his own. While +this was being built they lived at the Read homestead, and the loom was +kept busy preparing the housekeeping outfit. In those days this was +made of linen, bleached and spun and woven by the women of the +household. Cotton was just coming into use, and Lucy Anthony was +considered very fortunate because she could have a few sheets and +pillow-cases which were half cotton. + +The manufacture of cotton becoming a prominent industry in New England +at this time, the alert mind of Daniel Anthony conceived the idea of +building a factory and using the waters of Tophet brook and of a rapid +little stream which flowed through the Read farm. This was done, and +proved a success from the beginning. A document is still in existence +by which "D. Read agrees to let D. Anthony have as much water from the +brook on his farm as will run through a hole six inches in diameter." +This was conveyed by an aqueduct, made from hollow logs, to the factory +where it turned the over-shot wheel and furnished power to the +twenty-six looms. The factory hands for the most part came down from +the Green mountain regions, glad of an opportunity never before enjoyed +of earning wages and supporting themselves. They were girls of +respectability, and, as was the custom then, boarded with the families +of the mill-owners. Those of the Anthony factory were divided between +the wife and Hannah Anthony Hoxie, a married sister. Lucy Anthony soon +became acquainted with the stern realities of life. Her third baby was +born when the first was three years and two months old. That summer she +boarded eleven factory hands, who roomed in her house, and she did all +the cooking, washing and ironing, with no help except that of a +thirteen-year-old girl, who went to school and did "chores" night and +morning. The cooking for the family of sixteen was done on the hearth +in front of the fire-place and in a big brick oven at the side. Daniel +Anthony was a generous man, loved his wife and was well able to hire +help, but such a thing was not thought of at that time. No matter how +heavy the work, the woman of the household was expected to do it, and +probably would have been the first to resent the idea that assistance +was needed. + +During the first seventeen years of this marriage eight children were +born. One died at birth and one at the age of two years. The eldest, +born July 1, 1818, was named for the wife of William Penn, who married +a member of the Anthony family, Gulielma Penn, which was contracted to +Guelma. Susan was the second child, born February 15, 1820, and named +for an aunt, Susan Anthony Brownell. She herself adopted the initial +"B" when older, but never claimed or liked the full name.[3] + +[Illustration: + + BIRTHPLACE OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY, ADAMS, MASS. + (BORN IN ROOM SHADED BY TREE.)] + +Lucy Read Anthony was of a very timid and reticent disposition and +painfully modest and shrinking. Before the birth of every child she was +overwhelmed with embarrassment and humiliation, secluded herself from +the outside world and would not speak of the expected little one even +to her mother. That mother would assist her overburdened daughter by +making the necessary garments, take them to her home and lay them +carefully away in a drawer, but no word of acknowledgment ever passed +between them. This was characteristic of those olden times, when there +were seldom any confidences between mothers and daughters in regard to +the deepest and most sacred concerns of life, which were looked upon as +subjects to be rigidly tabooed. Susan came into the world in a cold, +dreary season. The event was looked forward to with dread by the +mother, but when the little one arrived she received a warm and loving +welcome. She was born into a staid and quiet but very comfortable home, +where great respect and affection existed between father and mother. + +William Cullen Bryant, whose birth-place was but twenty miles distant, +wrote of this immediate locality: + + I stand upon my native hills again, + Broad, round and green, that in the summer sky, + With garniture of waving grass and grain, + Orchards and beechen forests, basking lie; + While deep the sunless glens are scooped between, + Where brawl o'er shallow beds the streams unseen. + +Each night in early childhood she watched the sun set behind the great +dome of "Old Greylock," that noble mountain-peak so famed in the +literature of Berkshire, from whose lofty summit one looks across four +States. "It lifts its head like a glorified martyr," said Beecher, and +Julia Taft Bayne wrote: + + Come here where Greylock rolls + Itself toward heaven; in these deep silences, + World-worn and fretted souls, + Bathe and be clean. + +To the child's idea its top was very close against the sky, and its +memory and inspiration remained with her through life. + +Susan was very intelligent and precocious. At the age of three she was +sent to the grandmother's to remain during the advent of the fourth +baby at home, and while there was taught to spell and read. Her memory +was phenomenal, and she had an insatiable ambition, especially for +learning the things considered beyond a girl's capacity. + +The mother was most charitable, always finding time amidst her own +family cares to go among the sick and poor of the neighborhood. One of +Susan's childish grievances, which she always remembered, was that the +"Sunday-go-to-meeting" dresses of the three little Anthony girls were +lent to the children of a poor family to wear at the funeral of their +mother, while she and her sisters had to wear their old ones. She +thought these were good enough to lend. She had no toys or dolls except +of home manufacture, but her rag baby and set of broken dishes afforded +just as much happiness as children nowadays get from a roomful of +imported playthings. + +To go to school the children had to pass Grandmother Read's, and they +were always careful to start early enough to stop there for a fresh +cheese curd and a drink of "coffee," made by browning crusts of rye and +Indian bread, pouring hot water over them and sweetening with maple +sugar. Then in the evening they would stop again for some of the +left-over, cold boiled dinner, which was served on a great pewter +platter, a big piece of pork or beef in the center and, piled all +round, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, beets, carrots, etc. The story runs +that, when the mother remonstrated with the children for bothering the +grandmother for what they could have at home, Susan replied, "Why, +grandma's potato peelings are better than your boiled dinners." The +Anthonys and Reads used white flour and real coffee on state occasions, +but very few families could afford such luxuries. + +One of the recollections of Grandmother Anthony's house is of the +little closet under the parlor stairs, where was set the tub of maple +sugar, and, while the elders were chatting over neighborhood affairs, +the children would gather like bees around this tub and have a feast. +Always when they left, they were loaded down with apples, doughnuts, +caraway cakes and other toothsome things which little ones love. Along +the edges of the pantry shelves hung rows of shining pewter porringers, +and the pride of the children's lives was to eat "cider toast" out of +them. This was made by toasting a big loaf of brown bread before the +fire, peeling off the outside, toasting it again, and finally pouring +over these crusts hot sweetened water and cider. The dish, however, +which was relished above all others was "hasty pudding," cooked slowly +for hours, then heaped upon a platter in a great cone, the center +scooped out and filled with sweet, fresh butter and honey or maple +syrup. + +In those days every sideboard was liberally supplied with rum, brandy +and gin, and every man drank more or less, even the elders and +preachers. When the farmers came down the mountain road with their +loads of wood or lumber, they always stopped at Grandfather Read's for +a slice of bread and cheese and a drink of hard cider, but the elders +and preachers were regaled with something stronger. This was the +custom, and criticism would have been considered fanatical. + +The little factory nourished and produced many yards of excellent +cotton cloth. A store was opened in one corner of the house to supply +the wants of the employes and neighbors, and the Anthonys enjoyed a +plenty and prosperity somewhat unusual where small incomes and close +economy were the rule. + +[Footnote 1: Her oldest daughter, Hannah, became a famous Quaker +preacher.] + +[Footnote 2: A wedding trip was taken to Palatine Bridge, Deerfield, +Union Springs, Farmington, Rochester and other points in New York +State, to visit relatives of both families, all the long journey being +made in a light one-horse wagon, many miles of it over corduroy roads.] + +[Footnote 3: Hannah was born September 15, 1821; Daniel Read, named for +father and grandfather, was born August 22, 1824; Mary S., April 2, +1827; Eliza Tefft, April 22, 1832, and Jacob Merritt, April. 19, 1834. +At the present writing, 1897, Susan, Daniel, Mary and Merritt still +survive, aged seventy-seven, seventy-three, seventy and sixty-three, +all remarkably vigorous in mind and body; a family of few words, quiet, +undemonstrative and yet knit together with bonds of steel, loyal to +each other in every thought and each ready to make any sacrifice for +the others.] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +GIRLHOOD AND SCHOOL-LIFE. + +1826--1838. + + +By 1826, Daniel Anthony had become so well-known for business +management that he received an offer from Judge John McLean, of +Battenville, Washington county, N.Y., who already had built a factory +there, to go into cotton manufacturing on an extensive scale, the judge +to furnish capital, Mr. Anthony executive ability. There was much +opposition from the two older families to having their children go so +far away (forty-four miles) and Lucy Anthony's heart was almost broken +at the thought of leaving her aged father and mother, but Daniel was +too good a financier to lose such an opportunity. So on a warm, bright +July morning the goods were started and the judge and his grandson, +Aaron McLean, came with a big green wagon and two fine horses to take +the family to Battenville. Young Aaron little thought as he lifted the +eight-year-old Guelma into the wagon that he was taking with him his +future wife. The new home was in a pretty village nestled among the +hills on the Battenkill. The first year the Anthonys lived in part of +Judge McLean's house, where were two slaves not yet manumitted, and the +children saw negroes for the first time and were dreadfully frightened. +Afterwards the family moved into an old but comfortable +story-and-a-half house where they remained several years. + +Meanwhile a great deal of expensive machinery had been put into the +factory and a large brick store erected. For a long time Daniel Anthony +had been very much interested in the temperance cause. At Adams he had +sold liquor, like every other merchant, but when a man was found by the +roadside frozen to death with an empty jug which told the story, +although Mr. Anthony had not sold him the rum, he resolved, as this was +only one of many distressing cases, to sell no more. He was the first +in that locality to put intoxicating liquors out of his store. + +He had not thought to discuss this question with Judge McLean when +their contract was made, and had gone to Troy and selected goods for +the store. The judge looked on while they were being unloaded and +finally asked, "Why, Anthony, where are the rum barrels?" "There aren't +any," he answered. "You don't expect to keep store without rum, do you? +If you don't 'treat,' nobody will trade with you," said the judge. +"Well, then I'll close the store," was the reply. It was opened; the +farmers would come in, look around, peer behind the counter, finally go +down cellar and make a search, and then declare they would not trade at +a temperance store; but, as they found here the best goods and lowest +prices, with square dealing, they could not afford to go elsewhere and +the store soon enjoyed a large business. + +When it was decided to build a number of tenement houses, the judge +said, "The men will not come to the 'raising' unless they can have +their gin." "Then the houses will not be raised," replied Mr. Anthony, +and sent out the invitations. His wife made great quantities of +lemonade, "training-day" gingerbread, doughnuts and the best of tea and +coffee. Everybody came, things went off finely, not an accident during +the day and all went home sober, having learned, for the first time, +that there could be a house-raising without liquor. + +[Illustration: + + TEMPORARY HOME OF THE ANTHONYS, BATTENVILLE, N.Y., 1826 + FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1897. SUSAN AND MERRITT IN FOREGROUND.] + +But the battle had to be fought continually. A saw-mill and a +grist-mill were built and no man was employed who drank to excess. The +tavern keeper, who had expected to reap a rich harvest from the +factory, was very indignant at the temperance regulations. He put every +temptation in the way of the mill-hands, but Daniel Anthony remained +firm. Among his papers are found several letters of repentance and +pledges from his men who had fallen from grace and wanted another +trial. He organized a temperance society, composed almost entirely of +his men and women employes. The pledge, as was the custom, required +"total abstinence from distilled liquor," but allowed wine and cider. +He also established an evening school for them, many never having had +any chance for an education, and it became unpopular not to attend. +This was in session also a few hours on Sunday. It was taught by Mr. +Anthony himself or his own family teacher without expense to the +pupils. Everything about the factory was conducted with perfect system +and order. Each man had a little garden around his house. Mr. Anthony +looked upon his employes as his family and their mental and moral +culture as a duty. Even thus early he was so strong an opponent of +slavery that he made every effort to get cotton for his mills which was +not produced by slave labor. + +The only persons ever allowed to smoke or drink intoxicants in the +Anthony home were Quaker preachers. The house was half-way between +Danby, Vt., and Easton, N.Y., where the Quarterly Meetings were held +and the preachers and elders stopped there on their way. In a closet +under the stairs were a case of clay pipes, a paper of tobacco and +demijohns of excellent gin and brandy, from which the "high seat" +brothers were permitted to help themselves. It is not surprising to +find in the annals that a dozen or more would drop in to get one of +Mrs. Anthony's good dinners and the refreshments above mentioned. + +In the spring of 1832 a brick-kiln was burned in preparation for the +new house. Mrs. Anthony boarded ten or twelve brick-makers and some of +the factory hands, with no help but that of her daughters Guelma, Susan +and Hannah, aged fourteen, twelve and ten. When the new baby came, +these three little girls did all the work, cooking the food and +carrying it four or five steps up from the kitchen to the mother's room +to let her see if it were nicely prepared and if the dinner-pails for +the men were properly packed. + +Soon after this, Mr. Anthony remarked that one of the "spoolers" was +ill and there was no one to do her work. Susan and Hannah had spent +many hours watching the factory girls, and at once raised a clamor to +take the place of the sick "spooler." The mother objected, but the +father, who always encouraged his children in their independent ideas, +interceded and finally they were allowed to draw straws to decide which +should go, the winner to divide her wages with the loser. The lot fell +to Susan, who worked faithfully every day for two weeks and received +full wages, $3. Hannah, with her $1.50, bought a green bead bag, then +considered the crowning glory of a girl's wardrobe. Susan purchased +half a dozen pale-blue coffee cups and saucers, which she had heard her +mother wish for, and presented them to her with a happy heart. + +The next summer the house was built, the finest in that part of the +country, a two-and-a-half-story brick with fifteen rooms and all the +conveniences then known. Quakers never celebrate Christmas, but the +Anthonys, having lived now for seven years in a Presbyterian +neighborhood, decided to give the children a Christmas party in the new +home. The walls had a beautiful hard finish, the woodwork was tinted +light green and the new flag-bottomed chairs were painted black. +Between the rough boots of the country youths and the chairs pushed or +tipped against the wall, both woodwork and plastering were almost +ruined, and the new house carried a lasting reminder of the +festivities. + +About this time Daniel Anthony was again brought under Quaker +criticism. On one of his journeys to New York he had bought a camlet +cloak with a big cape, as affording the best protection for the long, +cold rides he had to take. The Friends declared this to be "out of +plainness" and insisted that he leave off the cape and cease wearing a +brightly colored handkerchief about his neck and ears. Daniel, who was +beginning to be rather restive under these restraints, refused to +comply, but, as he was a valuable member, it was finally decided here +also to condone his offense. + +Through all those years Lucy Anthony went to Quaker meeting with her +husband. After public services were over, however, and the shutters +pulled up between the men's and the women's sides of the house for +business meeting, she was rigidly barred out. She would take her +children and walk about in the grave-yard outside while she waited for +Daniel, but, as the graves were all in a row without even a headstone +to distinguish them, this was not a very interesting pastime and the +wait was long and tedious. When the little girls went with the father +they also were shut out of the executive session where such momentous +questions were discussed as, "Are Friends careful to keep themselves +and their children from attending places of diversion?" "Are Friends +careful to refrain from tale-bearing and detraction?" "Are Friends +careful to send their children to school, and all children in their +employ?" + +One cold day, the mother being detained at home, ten-year-old Susan +received permission to go with her father. When the business meeting +began, she curled up quietly in a corner by the stove, thinking to +escape detection, but was spied out by one of the elders, a woman with +green spectacles, who tip-toed down from the "high seat" and said, "Is +thee a member?" "No, but my father is," replied Susan. "That will not +do, thee will have to go out." "My mother told me to stay in." "Thy +mother doesn't manage things here." "But my father told me to stay in." +"Neither thy father nor thy mother can say what thee shall do here; +thee will have to go out;" and taking the child by the arm she led her +into the cold vestibule. After remaining there until almost frozen, +Susan decided to go to the nearest neighbor's. When she opened the gate +a big dog sprung fiercely upon her. Her screams brought out the family +and she was taken into the house, where it was found the only injury +was a large piece bitten out of the new Scotch plaid cloak which she +had gone to meeting on purpose to exhibit. The affair created +considerable excitement, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony were very indignant, and +it ended in the father's making a "request" that his children be made +members of the Society, which was done. + +Daniel Anthony was by nature a broad, progressive man, and his family +were not brought up according to the strictest and narrowest +requirements of Quaker doctrine; while his wife, remembering the +liberal teachings of her Universalist father and her own girlish love +of youthful pastimes, went still further in making life pleasant for +the children. Through her influence the daughters secured many a pretty +article of wearing apparel, and, when there was a party whose hours +were later than the father approved, the mother managed to have them +spend the night with girls in the neighborhood. + +When the family first moved to Battenville the children went to the +little old-fashioned district school taught by a man in winter and a +woman in summer. None of the men could teach Susan "long division" or +understand why a girl should insist upon learning it. One of the women +maintained discipline by means of her corset-board used as a ferule. As +soon as Mr. Anthony finished the brick store he set apart one room +upstairs for a private school, employed the best teachers to be had and +admitted only such children as he wished to associate with his own. +When the new house was built a large room was devoted to school +purposes. This was the first in that neighborhood to have a separate +seat for each pupil, and, although only a stool without a back, it was +a vast improvement on the long bench running around the wall, the same +height for big and little. The girls were taught sewing as carefully as +reading and spelling, and Susan was noted for her skill with the +needle. A sampler is still in existence which she made at the age of +eleven, a fine specimen of needle-work with the family record +surrounded by a wreath of strawberries all carefully wrought in +crewels. There is also a bedquilt, the pieces sewed together with the +fine "over-and-over" stitch, and there are ruffles hemmed with stitches +so tiny they scarcely can be distinguished. An early teacher was a +cousin, Nancy Howe,[4] who was followed by another cousin, Sarah +Anthony, a graduate of Rensselaer Quaker boarding-school. Among the +teachers was Mary Perkins, just graduated from Miss Grant's seminary at +Ipswich, Mass., and a pupil of Mary Lyon, founder of Mt. Holyoke. She +was their first fashionably educated teacher and taught them to recite +poems in concert, introduced school books with pictures, little black +illustrations of Old Dog Tray, Mary and Her Lamb, etc., and gave them +their first idea of calisthenics. She loved music, and wished to attend +the village singing-school. Lucy Anthony sympathized with this desire +and interceded for her, but Daniel decided it would be setting a bad +example to the children and they would be wanting to sing.[5] + +Into this commodious home Lucy Anthony brought her aged father and +mother, and carefully tended them until the death of both within the +same year, aged eighty-four. In May, 1834, came the first great sorrow, +the death of little Eliza, aged two years, and the mother was +heart-broken. Her life was centered in her children, and she could not +be reconciled to giving up even one. After her own death, nearly fifty +years later, in her box of most sacredly guarded keepsakes, was found a +little faded pink dress of the dear child's which many times had been +moistened with the mother's tears. + +The children continued to attend this private school, and as Guelma and +Susan reached the age of fifteen, each in turn was installed as teacher +in summer when there were only young pupils. The factory now was at the +height of prosperity; there was only one larger in all that part of the +country, and Daniel Anthony was looked upon as a wealthy man. He was +much criticised for allowing his daughters to teach, as in those days +no woman worked for wages except from pressing necessity; but he was +far enough in advance of his time to believe that every girl should be +trained to self-support. In 1837, writing to Guelma at boarding-school, +he urges her to accept the offer of the principal to remain through the +winter as an assistant: + + I am fully of the belief that shouldst thou never teach school a + single day afterwards, thou wouldst ever feel to justify thy + course.... Thou wouldst seem to me to be laying the foundation for + thy far greater usefulness. Thy remaining through the winter, must, + however, be left solely to thyself, as it would be of little avail + for thee to stay and not be contented. Thy home, Guelma, is just + the same as when thou left it, and shouldst thou decide to spend + the winter months away, we will try to keep it the same until thy + return in the spring. Let me know if thou canst be content to + remain away a few months longer from thy mother's kitchen. + +[Autograph: + + Thy Father + Daniel Anthony] + +In the winter of 1837, at the age of seventeen, Susan taught in the +family of Doris and Huldah Deliverge, at Easton, a few miles from +Battenville, for $1 a week and board. The next summer she taught a +district school at the neighboring village, Reid's Corners, for $1.50 a +week and "boarded round," and proud was she to earn what was then +considered excellent wages for a woman. In the fall she joined Guelma +at boarding-school. The little circular, yellow with age, reads: + + DEBORAH MOULSON, having obtained an agreeable location in the + pleasant village of Hamilton, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, + intends, with the assistance of competent Teachers, to open + immediately a Seminary for Females.... + + Terms, $125 per annum, for boarding and tuition.... + + The inculcation of the principles of Humility, Morality and a love + of Virtue, will receive particular attention. + +[Illustration: + + THE BATTENVILLE HOME, BUILT IN 1833. + FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1897] + +This was Susan's first long absence from home, and her letters and +journals give a good idea of the thoughts and feelings of a girl at +boarding-school in those days. She developed then the "letter-writing +habit," which has clung to her through life. The letters of that time +were laborious affairs, often consuming days in the writing, commencing +even to children, "Respected Daughter," or "Son," and rarely exceeding +one or two pages. They were written with a quill pen on foolscap paper, +and almost wholly devoted to the weather and the sickness in the +family. The amount of the latter would be appalling to modern +households. The women's letters were written in infinitesimal +characters, it being considered unladylike to write a large hand. The +Anthonys were exceptional letter-writers. It cost eighteen cents to +send a letter, but Daniel Anthony was postmaster at Battenville, and +his family had free use of the mails. If he had had postage to pay on +all of homesick Susan's epistles it would have cost him a good round +sum. The rules of the school required these to be written on the slate, +submitted to the teacher and then carefully copied by the pupil, so it +is not unusual to find that a letter was five or six days in +preparation. For the same reason it is impossible to tell how much +sincerity there is in the frequent references to the "dear teacher" and +the "most excellent school." The "stilted" style of Susan's letters is +most amusing.[6] A few extracts will illustrate: + + I regret that Brothers and Sisters have not the privilege of + attending a school better adapted to their improvement, both in + Science and Morality; surely a District School (unless they have + recently reformed) is not an appropriate place for the cultivation + of the latter, although in the former they may make some partial + progress. Deborah has not determined to relinquish this school, + although she has not yet ascertained whether the income from it + will be equal to the expenditures; but if it should continue I + shall have a wish for Hannah and Mary to attend; as I think another + one can not be named so agreeable on all accounts as is Deborah + Moulson's at Hamilton. + +[Autograph: + + Much love to all the dear ones + I am your + Lucy Anthony] + +One may imagine that Susan got several credit marks when her teacher +corrected this on the slate. The lecturer on philosophy and science +came up from Philadelphia, and Susan tells her parents that "he is +quite an interesting man," and that "his lecture on Philosophy was far +more entertaining than I had dared to anticipate." Of the science +lecture she says: + + He had a microscope through which we had the pleasure of viewing + the dust from the wings of a butterfly, each minute particle of + which appeared as large as a common fly. He mentioned several very + interesting circumstances; but I must defer particularizing them + until I can have the privilege of verbally communicating them to my + dear friends at Battenville. Guelma joins with me in wishing love + distributed to all. + +Again she writes: + + Beloved Parents: The second Seventh day of my short stay in + Hamilton arrives and finds me scarcely capable of informing you how + the intervening moments have been employed; but I hope they have + not passed without some improvement. Indeed, we should all improve, + perceptibly too, were we to attend to the instructions which are + here given, for the advancement both of moral and literary + pursuits. May I improve in both; but it is far easier for us to + perceive where others should reform, than to observe and correct + our own imperfections, while perhaps our failings are completely + disgusting in the sight of others. I find it very difficult leaving + off old habits so as to have a vacuum for the formation of those + which are new and more advantageous. + + My letter will be short this week and I can assign no other cause + than that my ideas do not freely flow. The difference in weather is + quite material between this and our northern clime. Snow commenced + falling about 12 o'clock to-day and continued till evening; but, + Father, it was not such a storm as the one in which we travelled + during the second day of our journey to the beautiful and + sequestered shades of Hamilton. The cause of my neglecting to write + last week was not the absence of this mind from home, but that it + is obliged to occupy every moment in studies. + +A fire in Philadelphia gives her an opportunity for this bit of +description: + + I was requested, 5th day evening last, about 7 o'clock, by one of + the scholars, to step out and view the Aurora Borealis, which she + said was extremely brilliant and beautiful. When there I looked + towards the north, but discovered no light, and then to the zenith, + which was indeed very magnificent; "but," said I, "that does not + look like the Aurora, it is more like the light from a fire," and + upon investigation we found it so to be. The light appeared in the + east, we walked in that direction, when we beheld the flames + bursting forth in stupendous grandeur. Not a bell was heard, all + was calm, with the exception of the minds of some of the scholars + whose parents resided in the city. The scene indeed would have been + to the eye extremely pleasing, were it not for the reflection that + some of our fellow-beings were about being deprived of a home, and + perhaps lives also. We learned a few minutes after witnessing this + phenomena that the fire was occasioned by the conflagration of a + large board yard near Market Street Bridge. + +After many affectionate messages, she says: + + I have not had but one real homesick fit and that was one week from + the night Father left us. I felt then as if I were taking leave of + him again; in fact the tears have come into my eyes as I write that + last sentence; but do not suppose I carry a gloomy countenance all + the time, far be it from that, yet oft I think seriously of home + and the endearing ties which bind us together. Father, we will look + at the sentiments, and not the Orthography and Grammar of thy + letters, in which I did discover some errors. + +She frequently admits that her sister admonishes her, "Susan, thee +writes too much; thee should learn to be concise," but she delights in +letter-writing and says: + + Most of the girls are taking a walk this First day afternoon, but I + did not feel like enjoying myself by accompanying them as well as + in holding sweet communion in writing with those inestimable + friends I so dearly love, and arranging those thoughts in a manner + congenial to our feelings.... The query naturally arises, at least + to the thoughtful mind, How has our time since the last Annual + revolution of the Earth been employed? Have our minds become + improved from passing occurences, or do they remain in that + dormant-like state which so often degrades the human soul? + +She comes down from her lofty heights far enough to add, "It would have +afforded us the greatest pleasure imaginable to have dined on that +Goose in company with you on New Year's day." It is Susan's diary, +however, which affords the most satisfactory glimpses of her true +character, serious, devotional, deeply conscientious and strong in +affection: + + Five weeks have been spent in Hamilton and to what purpose? Has my + mind advanced either in Virtue or Literature? I fear that every + moment has not been profitably spent. O, may this careless mind be + more watchful in the future! O, may the many warnings which we + every day receive, tend to make me more attentive to what is right! + + We were cautioned by our dear Teacher to-day to beware of + self-esteem and of all signs that would indicate an untruth. We + were referred to the condition of Ananias and Sapphira, who + intended to deceive the Apostle. Would that I were wholly free from + that same Evil Spirit which tempted those persons in ancient times. + The Spirit of Truth must have dominion in the mind in order to + attain a state of happiness. + + * * * * * + + Resolves and resolves fill up my time. I resolve at night to do + better on the morrow, and when the morrow comes and I mingle with + my companions all the resolutions are obliterated.... In the + afternoon of Seventh day Deborah accompanied the scholars to Town + and visited the Academy of Arts and Sciences; beautiful indeed was + the sight. Nature, how bounteous and varied are thy works! On + beholding the splendid scene I was ready to exclaim, "O, Miracle of + Miracles," with the celebrated Naturalist when speaking of the + metamorphoses of insects. + +Her eyes troubled her then, as all through life, and in grieving over +it she says: "Often does their non-conformance mortify this frail heart +when attempting to read in class.... I arose at half-past five this +morning. [January 15.] I find it so much more advantageous." But the +next day she sleeps till half-past six and laments the fact. + + Received a severe reproof from Deborah this evening on account of + the listlessness which prevailed in the school, also the immorality + of some of the pupils' minds. O, that I could feel perfectly clear + of all the deviations which have been enumerated. O, Morality, that + I could say I possessed thy charms! O, the happiness of an innocent + mind, would that I could say mine was so, but it is too far from + it. I think so much of my resolutions to do better that even my + dreams are filled with these desires. + +The sin thus bitterly bewailed consisted in neglecting to use "thee" +and "thou" in addressing her schoolmates. She would wake up in the +night and mourn over it. One would judge from Deborah's continual +lectures that the school was made up of a lot of desperately wicked +girls sent her to be reformed, instead of a band of demure and saintly +little Quaker maidens. On the 31st Susan writes: + + Our class has not recited in Philosophy, Chemistry or Physiology, + nor have we read, since the 20th of this month, for the reason of + there being such a departure among the scholars from the paths of + rectitude. + +Later she records that a new teacher has arrived "to relieve Deborah of +some of her bodily labors," that "he is a stern-looking man," and that +she was "somewhat mortified that she could not give him the desired +definition of compendiums." + + The woman who sells molasses candy has been here, but when she + leaves she does not carry the confusion with her which she + causes.... Deborah requested eight of us larger girls to remain + last evening, for the purpose of reproving us. The cause was the + levity and mirthfulness which were displayed on Third day of the + week previous. She compared us to Judas Iscariot, who betrayed his + master with a kiss. She said there were those amongst us who would + surely have to suffer deep affliction for not attending to the + manifestations of truth within.--I have been guilty of much levity + and nonsensical conversation and have also permitted thoughts to + occupy my mind which should have been far distant, but I do not + consider myself as having committed any wilful offence. Perhaps the + reason I can not see my own defects is because my heart is + hardened. O, may it become more and more refined until nothing + shall remain but perfect purity. + + * * * * * + + 2nd mo. 11th day.--First day evening Deborah came down and sat with + us. In a few moments she called for her Bible, and in a short time + she read, "Jesus wept;" and then, after a long pause, she said, + "There are those present who, if they do not attend to what has + been said to them, will have their strings shortened, even as short + as this verse." This she said after having inquired on what subject + Abraham Loire preached in the morning and none of us was able to + tell. + + * * * * * + + 2nd mo. 12th day.--Deborah came down in the afternoon to examine + our writing. She looked at M.'s and gave her a severe reproof; she + then looked at C.'s and said nothing. I, thinking I had improved + very much, offered mine for her to examine. She took it and pointed + out some of the best words as those which were not well written, + and then she asked me the rule for dotting an i, and I acknowledged + that I did not know. She then said it was no wonder she had + undergone so much distress in mind and body, and that her time had + been devoted to us in vain. This was like an Electrical shock to + me. I rushed upstairs to my room where, without restraint, I could + give vent to my tears. She said the same as that I had been the + cause of the great obstruction in the school. If I am such a vile + sinner, I would that I might feel it myself. Indeed I do consider + myself such a bad creature that I can not see any who seems + worse.--And we had a new scholar to witness this scene! + +Think of causing all this anguish and humiliation to a young girl +because she did not know the rule for dotting an i! + + 2nd mo. 15th day.--This day I call myself eighteen. It seems + impossible that I can be so old, and even at this age I find myself + possessed of no more knowledge than I ought to have had at twelve. + Dr. Allen, a Phrenologist, gave us a short lecture this morning and + examined a few heads, mine among them. He described only the good + organs and said nothing of the bad. I should like to know the whole + truth. + +Susan relates with a good deal of satisfaction that she has written a +letter to a schoolmate at home, without putting it on the slate for the +teacher to see. A few days later Deborah sends for her. She "went down +with cheerfulness," but what was her astonishment to see Deborah with +the intercepted letter open in her hand! Susan closes her account of +the interview by saying, "Little did I think, when I was writing that +letter, that I was committing such an enormous crime." + +Learning that a young friend had married a widower with six children, +she comments in her diary, "I should think any female would rather live +and die an old maid." She has a cold and cough for which Deborah gives +her a "Carthartick," followed by some "Laudanum in a silver spoon." +"The beautiful spring weather," she says, "inhales me with fresh +vigor." She sees some spiderwebs in the schoolroom and, her domestic +habits asserting themselves, gets a broom and mounts the desks to sweep +them down, "little thinking of the mortification and tears it was to +occasion." Finally she steps upon Deborah's desk and breaks the hinges +on the lid. That personage is informed by an assistant teacher and +arrives on the scene: + + "Deborah, I have broken your desk." She appeared not to notice me, + walked over, examined the desk and asked the teacher who broke it. + "What! Susan Anthony step on my desk! I would not have set a child + upon it," she said, and much more which I can not write. "How came + you to step on it?" she asked, but I was too full to speak and + rushed from the room in tears. That evening, after we read in the + Testament, she said that where there was no desire for moral + improvement there would be no improvement in reading. There was one + by the side of her who had not desired moral improvement and had + made no advancement in Literature. + +This deliberate cruelty to one whose heart was bursting with sorrow and +regret! "Never will this day be forgotten," says the diary. In speaking +of this incident Miss Anthony said: "Not once, in all the sixty years +that have passed, has the thought of that day come to my mind without +making me turn cold and sick at heart." + +On one occasion when a composition had been severely criticised, Susan +blazed forth the inquiry why she always was censured and her sister +praised. "Because," was the reply, "thy sister Guelma does the best she +is capable of, but thou dost not. Thou hast greater abilities and I +demand of thee the best of thy capacity." Throughout this little record +are continual expressions of the pain of separation from the dear home, +of keen disappointment if the expected letter fails to come, and most +affectionate references to the beloved parents, brothers and sisters. +Even the austere Deborah is mentioned always with respect and kindness +for, notwithstanding her frequent censure, she inspired the girls with +love and reverence. + +Subsequent events show that this lady was failing rapidly with +consumption. Among the old letters, one from an assistant teacher to +Daniel Anthony, dated 1839, a year after Susan left school, says: "The +tender chord that so long confined our beloved Deborah to this world +was broken on the 25th day of the 4th month, and we trust her happy +spirit took its flight to realms of eternal felicity." Deborah Moulson +was a cultured and estimable woman, but she represented the spirit of +that age toward childhood, one of chilling severity and constant +repression, when reproof was as liberally administered as praise was +conscientiously withheld. + +[Footnote 4: Sixty-five years later, this cousin, Nancy Howe Clark, +aged eighty-seven, wrote Miss Anthony: + +"The year I spent at your father's was the happiest of my whole long +life. How well I remember the sweet voices saying 'Cousin Nancy,' and +the affectionate way in which I was received by your dear father and +mother. It had never been my fortune before to live in a household with +an educated man at its head, and I felt a little shy of your father but +soon found there was no occasion. Although it was a period of great +financial depression, he always found time to be social and kindly in +his family. He seemed to have an eye for everything, his business, the +school and every good work. I considered your father and mother a model +husband and wife and found it hard to leave such a loving home."] + +[Footnote 5: In later years the younger children were instructed on +piano and violin, and he enjoyed nothing better than listening to +them.] + +[Footnote 6: In reading them over, sixty years afterwards, she said +mournfully, "That has been the way all my life. Whenever I take a pen +in hand I always seem to be mounted on stilts." To those who are +acquainted with her simple, straightforward style of speaking, this +will seem hardly possible, yet it is probably one of the reasons which +led her, very early in her public career, to abandon all attempts at +written speeches.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +FINANCIAL CRASH--THE TEACHER. + +1838--1845. + + +The prosperous days of the Anthonys were drawing to a close. All +manufacturing industries of the country were in a ruinous state. The +unsound condition of the banks with their depreciated and fluctuating +currency had created financial chaos. Overproduction of cotton goods on +a credit basis, inordinate speculation, reduction of duties on +importations, produced the inevitable result, and the commercial world +began to totter on its foundations. The final ruin is foreshadowed in +the letters of Daniel Anthony. In one to his brother September 2, 1837, +he says: + + I am going next week on a tour of the eastern cities and when I + return shall be prepared to face the situation. My goods at present + will not sell for the actual cost of manufacturing. Van Buren's + message has just made its appearance. It is opposed to banks and + may operate unfavorably to business, but how it can be worse I + don't know. + +He writes from Washington to his wife, September 11: + + I arrived last evening--came in R. Road cars from Baltimore, 39 + miles, in two hours, over a barren and almost uncultivated tract of + country. The public buildings and one street called Pennsylvania + Avenue are all that are worth mention in this place.... As a + specimen of some of the big finery in the town, I will name one + room in Martin's [Van Buren's] house, 90 ft. by 42, the furniture + of which cost $22,000.... Our Congressmen are some like other + folks, they look out first for themselves. They have spent most of + this day in debating whether _they_ shall be paid in _specie_.... + There are Black Folks in abundance here, but they don't act as if + they were even under the pressure of hard times, much less the + cruelties that we hear of slaves having to bear. + +From New York he writes his brother: + + Such times in everything that pertains to business never were known + in this land before. To-day I have passed through Pine street and + have not seen one single box or bale of goods of any kind whatever. + Last year at this time a person could scarcely go through the + street without clambering over goods of all descriptions. A truck + cart loaded with merchandise is now a rare object. A bale of goods + can not be sold at any price. The countenances of all our best + business men are stretched out in a perpendicular direction and + when the times will let them come back into human shape not even + the wisest pretend to guess. Those that are out of all speculative + and ever-changing business may consider themselves in a Paradismal + state. + +In the spring of 1838 he writes to Guelma and Susan, at that time +twenty and eighteen years of age, to know if they feel that they +possibly can go alone from Philadelphia to New York, where he will join +them and bring them home; but evidently they decide they can not, for +Susan's journal speaks of "the happy moment when they run to the gate +to meet him." On the journey he tells them that his business is ruined, +they can not return to school and will have to give up their beautiful +and beloved new home. In recalling those times Miss Anthony says that +never in all her long life did she see such agony as her father passed +through during the dreadful days which followed. All that he had +accumulated in a lifetime of hard work and careful planning was swept +away, and there was scarcely a spot of solid ground upon which he could +plant his feet to begin the struggle once more. + +In her diary, speaking of an aunt who sympathizes with them and says it +will be hard to give up going with the people they have been accustomed +to, Susan observes, "I do not think that losing our property will cause +us ever to mingle with low company." She is now somewhat uncertain +about taking up teaching permanently, fearing she will "lose the habit +of using the plain language;" but May 22, 1838, she writes at Union +Village, now Greenwich: + + On last evening, which was First day, I again left my home to + mingle with strangers, which seems to be my sad lot. Separation was + rendered more trying on account of the embarrassing condition of + our business affairs. I found my school small and quite disorderly. + O, may my patience hold out to persevere without intermission. + +In the summer of 1838 the factory, store, home and much of the +furniture had to be given up to the creditors. Not an article was +spared from the inventory. All the mother's wedding presents, the +furniture and the silver spoons given her by her parents, the wearing +apparel of the family, even the flour, tea, coffee and sugar, the +children's school books, the Bible and the dictionary, were carefully +noted. On this list, still in existence, are "underclothes of wife and +daughters," "spectacles of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony," "pocket-knives of +boys," "scraps of old iron"--and the law took all except the bare +necessities. In this hour of extremity the guardian angel appeared in +the person of Joshua Read, a brother of Mrs. Anthony, from Palatine +Bridge, N.Y., who bid in all which the family desired to keep and +restored to them their possessions, making himself their lenient +creditor. + +The winter of 1839 Susan attended the home school, taught by Daniel +Wright, a fine scholar and remarkably successful teacher. This ended +her school days, and in her journal she says: "I probably shall never +go to school again, and all the advancement which I hereafter make must +be by my own exertions." + +In March, 1839, the family moved to Hardscrabble, a small village two +miles further down the Battenkill. They went on a cold, blustering day, +and one may imagine the feelings of Daniel and Lucy Anthony and their +older children as they turned away from their big factory, their +handsome home and the friends they had learned to love. Mrs. Anthony's +heart was overflowing with sorrow, for in less than five years she had +lost by death her little daughter, her father and mother, and now was +swept away her home hallowed by their beloved memories. + +In his prosperous days Daniel Anthony had built a satinet factory and a +grist-mill at Hardscrabble and, although these were mortgaged heavily, +he hoped to weather the financial storm and through them to build up +again his fallen fortunes. The family were soon comfortably established +in a large house which had been a hotel or tavern in the days when +lumber was cut in the Green mountains and floated down the river, an +immense building, sixty feet square, with wide hall and broad piazza. +They did not keep a hotel, but people were in the habit of stopping +here, as it was a half-way house to Troy, and they found themselves +obliged to entertain a number of travelers. + +Those were busy days for the family. Susan's journal contains many +entries such as, "Did a large washing to-day.... Spent to-day at the +spinning-wheel.... Baked 21 loaves of bread.... Wove three yards of +carpet yesterday.... Got my quilt out of the frame last 5th day.... The +new saw-mill has just been raised; we had 20 men to supper on 6th day, +and 12 on 7th day." But there were quilting-bees and apple-parings and +sleighing parties and many good times, for the elastic temperament of +youth rallies quickly from grief and misfortune. Susan went to +Presbyterian church one Sunday, and the gray-robed Quaker thus writes: + + To see them partake of the Lord's supper, as they call it, was + indeed a solemn sight, but the dress of the communicants bespeaks + nothing but vanity of heart--curls, bows and artificials displayed + in profusion about most of them. They say they can dress in the + fashion without fixing their hearts on their costume, but surely if + their hearts were not vain and worldly, their dress would not be. + +The attic in this old house was finished off for a ball-room; it was +said that great numbers of junk bottles had been laid under the floor +to give especially nice tone to the fiddles. The young people of the +village came to Daniel Anthony for permission to hold their +dancing-school here but, with true Quaker spirit, he refused. Finally +the committee came again and said: "You have taught us that we must not +drink or go about places where liquor is sold. The only other +dancing-hall in town is in a disreputable tavern, and if we can not +come here we shall be obliged to go there." So Mr. Anthony called a +council of his wife and elder daughters. The mother, remembering her +own youth and also having a tender solicitude for the moral welfare of +the young people, advised that they should have the hall. Mr. Anthony +at last agreed on condition that his own daughters should not dance. So +they came, and Susan, Guelma and Hannah sat against the wall and +watched, longing to join them but never doing it. They danced every two +weeks all winter; Mrs. Anthony gave them some simple refreshments, they +went home early, there was no drinking and all was orderly and +pleasant. + +[Illustration: + + THE HOME AT CENTER FALLS, N. Y., BUILT IN 1810. + THE PORCH LONG SINCE FALLEN AWAY. + FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1897. SUSAN, DANIEL, MARY, AND MERRITT IN + FOREGROUND.] + +The Quakers at once had Daniel Anthony up before the committee, there +was a long discussion, and finally they read him out of meeting +"because he kept a place of amusement in his house." Reuben Baker, one +of the old Quakers, said: "It is with great sorrow we have to disown +friend Anthony, for he has been one of the most exemplary members in +the Society, but we can not condone such an offense as allowing a +dancing-school in his house." + +Mr. Anthony felt this very keenly. He said: "For one of the best acts +of my life I have been turned out of the best religious society in the +world;" but he had kept his wife, his cloak and his ideas of right, and +was justified by his conscience. He continued to attend Quaker meeting +but grew more liberal with every passing year and, long before his +death, had lost every vestige of bigotry and believed in complete +personal, mental and spiritual freedom. In early life he had +steadfastly refused to pay the United States taxes because he would not +give tribute to a government which believed in war. When the collector +came he would lay down his purse, saying, "I shall not voluntarily pay +these taxes; if thee wants to rifle my pocket-book, thee can do so." +But he lived to do all in his power to support the Union in its +struggle for the abolition of slavery and, although too old to go to +the front himself, his two sons enlisted at the very beginning of the +war. + +Mr. Anthony had the name Hardscrabble changed to Center Falls, and was +made postmaster. Susan and Hannah secured schools, and Daniel R., then +not sixteen, went into the mill with his father. Susan had several +schools offered her and finally accepted one at New Rochelle. She went +down the Hudson by the steamboat American Eagle, her father going with +her as far as Troy. She speaks in her journal of several Louisiana +slaveholders being on board, the discussion which took place in the +evening and her horror at hearing them uphold the institution of +slavery. The pages of this little book show that this question and +those of religion and temperance were the principal subjects of +conversation in these days. One entry reads: "Spent the evening at Mr. +Burdick's and had a good visit with them, our chief topic being the +future state." Then she comments: "Be the future what it may, our +happiness in the present is far more complete if we live an upright +life." From the time she was seventeen is constantly expressed a +detestation of slavery and intemperance. Her life from the beginning +seems to have had a serious purpose. When asked, during the writing of +this biography, why her journals were not full of "beaux," as most +girls' were, she replied: "There were plenty of them, but I never could +bring myself to put anything about them on paper." There are many +references to their calling, escorting her to parties, etc., but +scarcely any expression of her sentiments toward them. One, of whom she +says: "He is a most noble-hearted fellow; I have respected him highly +since our first acquaintance," goes to see a rival, and she writes: "He +is at ----'s this evening. O, may he know that in me he has found a +spirit congenial with his own, and not suffer the glare of beauty to +attract both eye and heart." + +Again she says: "Last night I dreamed of being married, queerly enough, +too, for it seemed as if I had married a Presbyterian priest, whom I +never before had seen. I thought I repented thoroughly before the day +had passed and my mind was much troubled." This modest Quaker maiden +writes of receiving a newspaper from a young man: "Its contents were +none of the most polite; a piece of poetry on Love and one called +'Ridin' on a Rail,' and numerous little stories and things equally as +bad. What he means I can not tell, but silence will be the best +rebuke." Another who comes a-wooing she describes as "a real +soft-headed old bachelor," and remarks: "These old bachelors are +perfect nuisances to society." A friend marries a man of rather feeble +intellect, and she comments: "Tis strange, 'tis passing strange, that a +girl possessed of common sense should be willing to marry a +lunatic--but so it is." + +Miss Anthony went to New Rochelle as assistant in Eunice Kenyon's +boarding-school, but the principal being ill most of the time, she has +to take entire charge, and the responsibility seems to weigh heavily on +the nineteen-year-old girl. She speaks also of watching night after +night, with only such rest as she gets lying on the floor. She gives +some idea of the medical treatment of those days: "The Doctor came and +gave her a dose of calomel and bled her freely, telling me not to faint +as I held the bowl. Her arm commenced bleeding in the night and she +lost so much blood she fainted. Next day the Doctor came, applied a +blister and gave her another dose of calomel." + +She meets some colored girls from the school at Oneida and writes home: +"A strict Presbyterian school it is, but they eat, walk and associate +with the white people. O, what a happy state of things is this, to see +these poor, degraded sons of Afric privileged to walk by our side." On +Sunday she hears Stephen Archer, the great Quaker preacher, who was at +the head of a large Friends' boarding-school at Tarrytown, and says: + + He is a much younger man than I expected to see, and wears a sweet + smile on his face.... The people about here are anti-Abolitionist + and anti-everything else that's good. The Friends raised quite a + fuss about a colored man sitting in the meeting-house, and some + left on account of it. The man was rich, well-dressed and very + polite, but still the pretended meek followers of Christ could not + worship their God and have this sable companion with them. What a + lack of Christianity is this! There are three colored girls here + who have been in the habit of attending Friends' meeting where they + have lived, but here they are not allowed to sit even on the back + seat. One long-faced elder dusted off a seat in the gallery and + told them to sit there. Their father was freed by his master and + left $60,000, and these girls are educated and refined. + +Aaron McLean, who is soon to marry her sister Guelma, writes in answer +to this: "I am glad to hear that the people where your lot is cast for +the present are sensible and reasonable on that exciting subject. I +entreat you to be prudent in your remarks and not attempt to +'niggerize' the good old Friends about you. Above all, let them know +that you are about the only Abolitionist in _this_ vicinity." This +severe letter does not seem to have affected her very deeply for, on +the next day after receiving it, she writes her parents: "Since school +to-day I have had the unspeakable satisfaction of visiting four colored +people and drinking tea with them. Their name is Turpin, and Theodore +Wright of New York is their stepfather. To show this kind of people +respect in this heathen land affords me a double pleasure." Mr. McLean +evidently did not believe in woman preachers, for the radical Susan +writes him: + + I attended Rose street meeting in New York and heard the strongest + sermon on "The Vices of the City," that has been preached in that + house very lately. It was from Rachel Barker, of Dutchess county. I + guess if you could hear her you would believe in a woman's + preaching. What an absurd notion that women have not intellectual + and moral faculties sufficient for anything but domestic concerns! + +She does not hesitate to write to an uncle, Albert Dickinson, and +reprove him for drinking ale and wine at Yearly Meeting time. It seems +that then, as now, girls had a habit of writing on the first page of a +sheet, next on the third, then vertically on a page, etc. Uncle Albert +retorts: + + Thy aunt Ann Eliza says to tell thee we are temperate drinkers and + hope to remain so. We should think from the shape of thy letter + that thou thyself hadst had a good horn from the contents of the + cider barrel, a part being written one side up and a part the other + way, and it would need some one in nearly the same predicament to + keep track of it. We hope thy cranium will get straightened when + the answer to this is penned, so that we may follow thy varied + thoughts with less trouble. A little advice perhaps would be good + on both sides, and they that give should be willing to receive. See + to it that thou payest me down for this. + +This letter also gives an insight into the medical practice of the good +old times. A niece, Cynthia, is being treated for the dropsy by +"drinking copiously of a decoction made by charring wormwood in a close +vessel and putting the ashes into brandy, and every night being +subjected to a heavy sweat." It recommends plenty of blue pills and +boneset for the ague. Later, Susan writes of a friend who is "under the +care of both Botanical and Apothecary doctors." For hardening of wax in +the ear she sends an infallible prescription: "Moisten salt with +vinegar and drop it in the ear every night for six weeks; said to be a +certain cure." + +The staid and puritanical young woman is much disturbed at the +enthusiastic reception given President Van Buren at New Rochelle, and +writes home: + + We had quite a noise last Fifth day on the occasion of Martin's + passing through this village. A band of splendid music was sent for + from the city, and large crowds of people called to look at him as + if he were a puppet show. Really one would have thought an angelic + being had descended from heaven, to have heard and seen the + commotion. The whole village was in an uproar. Here was a mother + after her children to go and gaze upon the great man, and there was + a teacher rushing with one child by the hand and half a dozen + running after. Where was I? Why I, by mustering a little + self-government, concluded to remain at home and suffer the + President to pass along in peace. He was to dine at Washington + Irving's, at Tarrytown, and then proceed to the Capitol. + +Her extreme animosity is explained in a subsequent letter to Aaron +McLean: + + I regret to hear that the people of Battenville are possessed of so + little sound sense as to go 20 miles to shake hands with the + President at Saratoga Springs; merely to look at a human being who + is possessed of nothing more than ordinary men and therefore should + not be worshipped more than any mortal being, nor even so much as + many in the humble walks of life who are devoted to their God. Let + us look at his behavior and scan its effects on society. One day + while in New York was spent in riding through the streets preceded + by an extravagant number of military men and musicians, who were + kept in exercise on that and succeeding days of the week until all + were completely exhausted. On the next day, while he and his party + were revelling in their tents on luxuries and the all-debasing + Wine, many poor, dear children were crying for food and for water + to allay their thirst. On Friday evening he attended Park Theater + and on Monday Bowery Theater. Yes, he who is called by the majority + as most capable of ruling this republic, may be seen in the Theater + encouraging one of the most heinous crimes or practices with which + our country is disgraced.[7] Yes, and afterwards we find him + rioting at the Wine Table, the whole livelong night. Is it to be + wondered that there are such vast numbers of our population who are + the votaries of Vice and Dissipation? No, certainly not, and I do + not believe there ever will be less of this wickedness while a man + practising these abominable vices (in what is called a gentlemanly + manner) is suffered to sit at the head of our Government. + +The future orator and reformer is plainly foreshadowed in this burst of +indignation, to which Mr. McLean replies in part: + + I was agreeably disappointed in Van Buren's personal appearance. + From what I had heard of him as a little, smooth, intriguing + arch-magician, I expected his looks would bear that out but it was + far to the contrary. He is quite old and gray, very grave and + careworn. His dress was perfectly plain, not the least sign of + jewelry save his watch seal which was solid gold. I saw him drink + no wine, although there was plenty about him, nor did your father + and mother who saw him dine at the United States Hotel. If you do + not like him because he tastes wine, how can you like Henry Clay + who drinks it freely? Mr. Webster drinks wine also. At a Whig + festival got up in Boston in his honor, at which he and 1,200 other + Whigs were present, there were drunk 2,300 bottles of champagne, + two bottles to each man. Mr. Clay attended balls at the Springs. He + had a slave with him to wait on him and hand him water to clear out + his throat while he was speaking; and this while he was preaching + liberty and declaring what a fine thing this freedom is! + +While at New Rochelle Susan becomes greatly interested in the culture +of silk-worms, upon which the principal was experimenting. She writes +home full descriptions and urges them to ascertain if black mulberry +trees grow about there; she herself knew of one. She insists that the +sisters can teach school and take care of the silk-worms at the same +time, but evidently receives no encouragement as no more is heard of +the project. She retains the keenest interest in every detail of the +life at home. She sends some cherry stones to be planted because the +cherries were the largest and best she ever ate. A box of shells is +carefully gathered for brother Merritt, and sent with a grass linen +handkerchief for sister Mary. She sends back her mother's shawl for +fear she may need it more than herself. In the currant season she +writes that nothing in the world would taste so good as one of mother's +currant pies. She urges them to send her part of the family sewing to +do outside of school hours. She frequently walks down to Long Island +sound, a mile and a half away, and says at one time: + + The sun was passing toward the western horizon, and all seemed calm + and tranquil save the restless wash of the waves against the beach. + A gentle breeze from the water refreshed our tired bodies. To one + unaccustomed to such scenes it was like a glimpse into another + world. In the distance one could see the villages of Long Island, + but I could think only of that village called home, and I longed + every moment to be there. + +Her school commenced May 23 and closed September 6, a term of fifteen +weeks, for which she received $30, and she expresses her grief that, +after having paid for necessary clothes and incidentals, she has only +enough left to take her home. She reaches Center Falls in time to +assist in the final preparations for the wedding, on September 19, +1839, of her sister Guelma to Aaron McLean, a prosperous merchant at +Battenville. + +Susan's next school was in her home district at Center Falls, where she +was very successful. One incident is on record in regard to the "bully" +of the school. After having tried every persuasive method at her +command to compel obedience, she proceeded to use the rod. He fought +viciously, but she finally flogged him into complete submission and +never had any further trouble with him or the other boys. She was, +however, very tender-hearted toward children and animals. + +Among the outings enjoyed by the young people were excursions to +neighboring villages. There were no railroads, but every young man +owned his horse and buggy, and in pleasant weather a procession of +twenty vehicles often might be seen, each containing a happy couple on +their way to a supper and dance. On one occasion, according to the +little diary, the night was so dark they did not dare risk the ten-mile +drive home, as much of the road lay beside the river, so they continued +the festivities till daylight. Once a party went to Saratoga Springs, +and, to Miss Anthony's grief, her favorite young man invited another +girl, and she had a long, dreary drive trying to be agreeable to one +while her thought was with another. To add to the unpleasantness her +escort took this opportunity to ask her to give up teaching and preside +over a home for him. + +One winter was spent with relatives at Danby, Vt., and here, with the +assistance of a cousin, Moses Vail, who was a teacher, she made a +thorough study of algebra. Later, when visiting her irrepressible +brother-in-law, Aaron McLean, she made some especially nice cream +biscuits for supper, and he said, "I'd rather see a woman make such +biscuits as these than solve the knottiest problem in algebra." "There +is no reason why she should not be able to do both," was the reply. +There are many references in the old letters to "Susan's tip-top +dinners." + +She taught one summer in Cambridge, and then, for two years, in the +home of Lansing G. Taylor, at Fort Edward. Mrs. Taylor was the daughter +of Judge Halsey Wing. The journals of that date either were abandoned +or have been lost in the half century since then, and there is but one +letter in existence written during this very pleasant period. In it, +July 11, 1844, she says: + + As the week draws toward its close my mind travels to the dear home + roof. It seems to fly far hence to that loved father and mingle + with his spirit while he is wandering in the wilds of Virginia, and + it raises to the throne of grace an ardent wish for his safe + return. Oh, that he may make no change of land except for the + better! Then do my thoughts rest with my dear mother, toiling + unremittingly through the long day and at eve, seated in her + arm-chair, wrapt in solemn stillness, and later reclining on her + lonely pillow. How often, when I am enjoying the sweet hour of + twilight, do I think of the sadness that has so long o'ershadowed + her brow, and ardently entreat the God of love and mercy to give + her that peace which is found only in a resignation to his just and + holy will. How numerous are our favors! We have a comfortable + subsistence and health to relish it; but, more than this, we, as a + family, are bound together by the strongest ties of affection that + seem daily to grow stronger.... + + I arose this morning at half-past four. Two ladies from Albany are + visiting here, the beautiful Abigail Mott, a Friend and a + thorough-going Abolitionist and reformer, and Mrs. Worthington, a + strict Methodist. Mr. Taylor took eight of us to the Whig + convention at Sandy Hill yesterday, and I attended my first + political meeting. I enjoyed every moment of it. + +She also relates how Miss Mott would come to her room and expound to +her most beautifully the doctrine of Unitarianism, and then Mrs. +Worthington would come and pray with her long and earnestly to +counteract the pernicious effect of Miss Mott's heresies. While she was +accustomed to the liberal theology of the Hicksite Quakers, this was +the first time she ever had heard the more scholarly interpretation of +the Unitarian church. + +From 1840 to 1845 Susan and Hannah taught almost continuously, +receiving only $2 or $2.50 a week and board, but living with most rigid +economy and giving the father all they could spare to help pay interest +on the mortgage which rested on factory, mills and home. He gave his +notes for every dollar and, years afterwards, when prosperity came, +paid all of them with scrupulous exactness. It was in these early days +of teaching that Miss Anthony saw with indignation the injustice +practiced towards women. Repeatedly she would take a school which a +male teacher had been obliged to give up because of inefficiency and, +although she made a thorough success, would receive only one-fourth of +his salary. It was the custom everywhere to pay men four times the +wages of women for exactly the same amount of work, often not so well +done. + +Mr. Anthony went into his mills and performed the manual labor. In +partnership with Dr. Hiram Corliss he employed a number of men to cut +timber, going into the woods in the depths of winter personally to +superintend them. His wife would cook great quantities of provisions, +bake bread and cake, pork and beans, boil hams and roast chickens, and +go to the logging camp with him for a week at a time, and she used to +say that notwithstanding all the labor and anxiety of those days they +were among the happiest recollections of her life. + +At home the loom and spinning-wheel were never idle. The mill-hands +were boarded, transient travelers cared for, and every possible effort +made to enable the father to secure another foothold, but all in vain. +The manufacturing business was dead, there was no building to call for +lumber, people had no money, and, after a desperate struggle of five +years, the end came and all was lost. Mr. Anthony then spent months in +looking for a suitable location to begin life anew. He went to Virginia +and to Michigan, but found nothing that suited him. He and his wife +made a trip through New York, visiting a number of relatives on the +way, and were persuaded to examine a farm for sale near Rochester. It +proved to be more satisfactory than anything they had seen, and they +decided to take it. Joshua Read who, during all these years, had +carefully protected the portion which his sister, Mrs. Anthony, had +inherited from their father, took this to make the first payment on the +farm.[8] They then returned to Center Falls and began preparations for +what in those times was a long journey. + +One warm day in the summer of 1845, several Quaker elders had stopped +to dine at the Anthony home on their way to Quarterly Meeting. Hannah +and Susan were in the large, cool parlor working on the wonderful quilt +which was to be a part of Hannah's wedding outfit, when one of the +elders, a wealthy widower from Vermont, asked Susan to get him a drink. +He followed her out to the well and there made her an offer of +marriage, which she promptly refused. He pictured his many acres, his +fine home, his sixty cows, told her how much she looked like his first +wife, begged her to take time to consider and he would stop on his way +back to get her answer. She assured him that it would be entirely +unnecessary, as she was going with her father and mother to their new +home and did not want to marry. He could scarcely understand a woman +who did not desire matrimony, but was finally persuaded to gather up +his slighted affections and go on to Quarterly Meeting. + +On September 4, Hannah was married to Eugene Mosher, a merchant at +Easton. Daniel R. was now clerking at Lenox, Mass., so there were only +Susan, Mary and Merritt to go with the father and mother. All the +relatives bade them good-by as if forever, and the leave-taking was +very sorrowful, for it was the first permanent separation of the +family. + +[Footnote 7: In after years Miss Anthony greatly enjoyed attending a +good play.] + +[Footnote 8: In 1848, when the law was enacted allowing a married woman +to hold property, it was put in her name and she retained it till her +death.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE FARM HOME--END OF TEACHING. + +1845--1850. + + +On November 7, 1845, the parents and three children took the stage for +Troy, and from there went by railroad to Palatine Bridge for a short +visit to Joshua Read. The journey from here to Rochester was made by +canal on a "line boat" instead of a "packet," because it was cheaper +and because they wanted to be with their household goods. At Utica they +found two cousins, Nancy and Melintha Howe, waiting for the packet to +go west, but when they saw their relatives they gladly boarded the line +boat. Mrs. Anthony did the cooking for the entire party, in the +spotless little kitchen on the boat, and the young people, at least, +had a merry journey. + +The family arrived in Rochester late in the afternoon of November 14. +They landed at Fitzhugh street and went to the National Hotel. The +father had just ten dollars, and it was out of the question to remain +there over night; so he took the old gray horse and the wagon off the +boat, with a few necessary articles, and with his family started for +the farm, three miles west of the city. The day was cold and cheerless, +the roads were very muddy, and by the time they reached their +destination it was quite dark. An old man and his daughter had been +left in charge and had nothing in the way of food but cornmeal and +milk. Mrs. Anthony made a kettle of mush which her husband pronounced +"good enough for the queen." The only bed was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. +Anthony, and the rest slept on the floor. Next day the household goods +were brought from the city and all were soon busy putting the new home +in order. That was a long and lonesome winter. The closest neighbors +were the DeGarmos, and there were a number of other Quaker families in +the city. These called at once and performed every friendly office in +their power, but the hearts of the exiles were very sad and home-sick. +The cause of human freedom was then uppermost in many minds, and the +Anthonys found here congenial spirits in their strong anti-slavery +convictions, and numerous little "abolition" meetings were held during +that winter at their home and in those of their new friends. + +When spring opened, the surroundings began to assume a more cheerful +aspect. The farm was a very pretty one of thirty-two acres. The house +stood on an elevation, the long walk that led up to it was lined on +both sides with pinks, there were many roses and other flowers in the +yard, and great numbers of peach, cherry and quince trees and currant +and goose-berry bushes. The scenery was peaceful and pleasant, but they +missed the rugged hills and dashing, picturesque streams of their +eastern home. Back of the house were the barn, carriage-house and a +small blacksmith shop. Mrs. Anthony used to say that her happiest hours +were spent on Sunday mornings, when her husband would heat the little +forge and mend the kitchen and farm utensils, while she sat knitting +and talking with him, Quakers making no difference between Sunday and +other days of the week. He had learned this kind of work in boyhood on +his father's farm and always enjoyed the relaxation it afforded from +the cares and worries which crowded upon him in later years. + +Mr. Anthony put into his farm the energy and determination +characteristic of the man. He rose early; he ploughed and sowed and +reaped; he planted peach and apple orchards, and improved the property +in many ways, but it was unprofitable work. It seemed very small to him +after the broad acres of his early home, and he was accustomed to refer +to it as his "sixpenny farm." His life had been too large and too much +among men of the great business world to make it possible for him to be +content with the existence of a farmer. While he retained his farm +home, he very soon went into business in Rochester, connecting himself +with the New York Life Insurance Company, then just coming into +prominence, and used to say he made money enough out of that to afford +the luxury of keeping the farm. He was very successful, and continued +with this company the remainder of his life. + +On April 25, 1846, Miss Anthony received this invitation: + + At a meeting of the Trustees of the Canajoharie Academy held this + day, it was unanimously Resolved to offer you the Female Department + upon the terms which have heretofore been offered to the teachers + of that department, viz:--the tuition money of the female + department less 12-1/2 per cent., the teachers collecting their + tuition bills. Should these terms meet your views, please favor us + with an answer by return mail. The next term commences on the first + Monday of May proximo. + + We are Very Respectfully Yours, + JOSHUA READ, LIVINGSTON SPEAKER, GEORGE G. JOHNSON. + +Miss Anthony accepted in a carefully worded and finely written letter, +and arrived at the home of her uncle Joshua Saturday morning, May 2. He +had lived many years at Palatine Bridge, just across the river, was +school trustee, bank director, one of the owners of the turnpike, the +toll bridge and the stage line, and also kept a hotel. His two +daughters were well married, and Miss Anthony boarded with them during +all of her three years' teaching in Canajoharie. She found her uncle +very ill and being treated by the doctor "with calomel, opium and +morphine." In a conversation he told her that "her success would depend +largely upon thinking that she knew it all." Although there was now no +postmaster in the family, letter postage had been reduced to five +cents, and a voluminous correspondence is in existence covering the +period from 1846 to 1849. The school commenced with forty boys and +twenty-five girls, and the tuition was $5 per annum. The principal was +Daniel B. Hagar, a man whom Miss Anthony always loved to remember, +highly educated, a gentleman in deportment, kind, thoughtful, and +always ready to help and encourage the young teacher.[9] + +Here Miss Anthony was for the first time entirely away from Quaker +surroundings and influences, and her letters soon show the effects of +environment. The "first month, second day," expressions are dropped and +the "plain language" is wholly abandoned. She has more money now than +ever before and is at liberty to use it for her own pleasure. A love of +handsome clothes begins to develop. "I have a new pearl straw gypsy +hat," she writes, "trimmed in white ribbon with fringe on one edge and +a pink satin stripe on the other, with a few white roses and green +leaves for inside trimming." The beaux hover around; a certain +"Dominie," a widower with several children, is very attentive; another +widower, a lawyer, visits the school so often as to set all the gossips +in a flutter; a third is described as "very handsome, sleek as a ribbon +and the most splendid black hair I ever looked at." She takes many +drives with still another, "through a delightful country variegated +with hill and valley, past fields of newly-mown grass, splendid forests +and gently winding rivulets, with here and there a large patch of +yellow pond lilies." In writing to a relative she urges her to break +herself of "the miserable habit of borrowing trouble, which saps all +the sweets of life." At another time she writes: "I have made up my +mind that we can expect only a certain amount of comfort wherever we +may be, and that it is the disposition of a person, more than the +surroundings, that creates happiness." + +Her first quarterly examination, to be held in the presence of +principal, trustees and parents, is a cause of great anxiety. She +writes that her nerves were on fire and the blood was ready to burst +from her face, and she slept none the night previous. She wore a new +muslin gown, plaid in purple, white, blue and brown, two puffs around +the skirt and on the sleeves at shoulders and wrists, white linen +undersleeves and collarette; new blue prunella gaiters with +patent-leather heels and tips; her cousin's watch with a gold chain and +pencil. Her abundant hair was braided in four long braids, which cousin +Margaret sewed together and wound around a big shell comb. Everybody +said, "The schoolmarm looks beautiful," and "many fears were expressed +lest _some one_ should be so smitten that the school would be deprived +of a teacher." The pupils acquitted themselves with flying colors, and +the teacher then went to spend her vacation with her married sisters at +Easton and Battenville. They had "long talks and good laughs and cries +together," but she writes her parents that if they will make one visit +to this old home they will go back to Rochester thoroughly satisfied +with the new one. + +[Illustration: + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY. + AT THE AGE OF 28, FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE.] + +For the winter she buys a broche shawl for $22.50, a gray fox muff for +$8, a $5.50 white ribbed-silk hat, "which makes the villagers stare," +and a plum-colored merino dress at $2 a yard, "which everybody admits +to be the sweetest thing entirely;" and she wonders if her sisters "do +not feel rather sad because they are married and can not have nice +clothes." Miss Anthony may be said to have been at this time at the +height of her fashionable career. + +In the spring her pupils give an "exhibition" which far surpasses +anything ever before seen in Canajoharie. She writes: "Can you begin to +imagine my excitement? The nights seemed lengthened into days; the +hopes, the fears that filled my mind are indescribable. Who ever +thought that Susan Anthony could get up such an affair? I am sure I +never did, but here I was; it was sink or swim, I made a bold effort +and won the victory."[10] + +In June she attends her first circus, "Sands, Lent & Co., Proprietors." +About this time she writes of being invited to a military ball and +says: "My fancy for attending dances is fully satiated. I certainly +shall not attend another unless I can have a total abstinence man to +accompany me, and not one whose highest delight is to make a fool of +himself." She says in this letter: "The town election has just been +held and the good people elected a distiller for supervisor and a +rumseller for justice of the peace." + +In 1848 she shows the first signs of growing tired of teaching and +wonders if she is to follow it for a lifetime. She says: "I don't know +whether I am weary of well-doing, but oh, if I could only unstring my +bow for a few short months, I think I could take up my work with +renewed vigor." She is very homesick, after the two years' absence, and +so makes a visit to Rochester in August. For this she gets "a drab silk +bonnet shirred inside with pink, and her blue lawn and her brown silk +made over, half low-necked." She has "a beautiful green delaine and a +black braise [barege] which are very becoming." She wants a fancy hat, +a $15 pin and $30 mantilla, every one of which she resolves to deny +herself, but afterwards writes: "There is not a mantilla in town like +mine." + +In March, 1849, her beloved cousin Margaret, with whom she has been +living for the past two years, gives birth to a child and she remains +with her through the ordeal. In a letter to her mother immediately +afterwards, she expresses the opinion that there are some drawbacks to +marriage which make a woman quite content to remain single. She quotes +a little bit of domestic life: "Joseph had a headache the other day and +Margaret remarked that she had had one for weeks. 'Oh,' said the +husband, 'mine is the real headache, genuine pain, yours is a sort of +natural consequence.'" For seven weeks she is at Margaret's bedside +every moment when out of school, and also superintends the house and +looks after the children. There are a nurse and a girl in the kitchen, +but the invalid will eat no food which Cousin Susan does not prepare; +there is no touch so light and gentle as hers; her very presence gives +rest and strength. At the end of this time Margaret dies, leaving four +little children. Susan's grief is as intense as if she had lost a +sister, and she decides to remain no longer in Canajoharie. She writes: +"I seem to shrink from my daily tasks; energy and stimulus are wanting; +I have no courage. A great weariness has come over me." In all the +letters of the past ten years there has not been one note of discontent +or discouragement, but now she is growing tired of the treadmill. At +this time the California fever was at its height, hundreds of young men +were starting westward, and she writes: "Oh, if I were but a man so +that I could go!" + +Soon after coming to Canajoharie Miss Anthony joined the society of the +Daughters of Temperance and was made secretary. Her heart and soul were +enlisted in this cause. She realized the immense task to be +accomplished, and, even then, saw dimly the power that women might +wield if they were properly organized and given full authority and +sanction to work. As yet no women had spoken in public on this +question, and they had just begun to organize societies among +themselves, called Daughters' Unions, which were a sort of annex to the +men's organizations, but they were strongly opposed by most women as +being unladylike and entirely out of woman's sphere. + +On March 1, 1849, the Daughters of Temperance gave a supper, to which +were invited the people of the village, and the address of the evening +was made by Miss Anthony. She thus describes the occasion in a letter: + + I was escorted into the hall by the Committee where were assembled + about 200 people. The room was beautifully festooned with cedar and + red flannel. On the south side was printed in large capitals of + evergreen the name of "Susan B. Anthony!" I hardly knew how to + conduct myself amidst so much kindly regard. They had an elegant + supper. On the top of one pyramid loaf cake was a beautiful + bouquet, which was handed to the gentleman who escorted me (Charlie + Webster) and by him presented to me. + +The paper is interesting as the first platform utterance of a woman +destined to become one of the noted speakers of the century. While it +gives no especial promise of the oratorical ability which later +developed, it illustrates the courage of the woman who dared read an +address in public, when to do so provoked the severest criticism. The +following extracts are taken verbatim from the original MS.: + + Welcome, Gentlemen and Ladies, to this, our Hall of Temperance. We + feel that the cause we have espoused is a common cause, in which + you, with us, are deeply interested. We would that some means were + devised, by which our Brothers and Sons shall no longer be allured + from the _right_ by the corrupting influence of the fashionable + sippings of wine and brandy, those sure destroyers of Mental and + Moral Worth, and by which our Sisters and Daughters shall no longer + be exposed to the vile arts of the gentlemanly-appearing, gallant, + but really half-inebriated seducer. Our motive is to ask of you + counsel in the formation, and co-operation in the carrying-out of + plans which may produce a radical change in our Moral + Atmosphere.... + + But to the question, what good our Union has done? Though our Order + has been strongly opposed by ladies professing a desire to see the + Moral condition of our race elevated, and though we still behold + some of our thoughtless female friends whirling in the giddy dance, + with intoxicated partners at their side and, more than this, see + them accompany their reeling companions to some secluded nook and + there quaff with them from that Virtue-destroying cup, yet may we + not hope that an influence, though now unseen, unfelt, has gone + forth, which shall tell upon the future, which shall convince us + that our weekly resort to these meetings has not been in vain, and + which shall cause the friends of humanity to admire and + respect--nay, venerate--this now-despised little band of Daughters + of Temperance?... + + We count it no waste of time to go forth through our streets, thus + proclaiming our desire for the advancement of our great cause. You, + with us, no doubt, feel that Intemperance is the blighting mildew + of all our social connections; you would be most happy to speed on + the time when no Wife shall watch with trembling heart and tearful + eye the slow, but sure descent of her idolized Companion down to + the loathsome haunts of drunkenness; you would hasten the day when + no Mother shall have to mourn over a darling son as she sees him + launch his bark on the circling waves of the mighty whirlpool. + + How is this great change to be wrought, who are to urge on this + vast work of reform? Shall it not be women, who are most aggrieved + by the foul destroyer's inroads? Most certainly. Then arises the + question, how are we to accomplish the end desired? I answer, not + by confining our influence to our own home circle, not by centering + all our benevolent feelings upon our own kindred, not by caring + naught for the culture of any minds, save those of our own + darlings. No, no; the gratification of the _selfish_ impulses + _alone_, can never produce a desirable change in the Moral aspect + of Society.... + + It is generally conceded that it is our sex that fashions the + Social and Moral State of Society. We do not presume that females + possess unbounded power in abolishing the evil customs of the day; + but we do believe that were they en masse to discountenance the use + of wine and brandy as beverages at both their public and private + parties, not one of the opposite Sex, who has any claim to the + title of gentleman, would so insult them as to come into their + presence after having quaffed of that foul destroyer of all true + delicacy and refinement. + + I am not aware that we have any inebriate females among us, but + have we not those, who are fallen from _Virtue_, and who claim our + efforts for their reform, equally with the inebriate? And while we + feel it our duty to extend the hand of sympathy and love to those + who are wanderers from the path of Temperance, should we not also + be zealous in reclaiming those poor, deluded ones, who have been + robbed of their most precious Gem, Virtue, and whom we blush to + think belong to our Sex? + + Now, Ladies, all we would do is to do all in our power, both + individually and collectively, to harmonize and happify our Social + system. We ask of you candidly and seriously to investigate the + Matter, and decide for yourselves whether the object of our Union + be not on the side of right, and if it be, then one and all, for + the sake of erring humanity, come forward and _speed_ on the right. + If you come to the conclusion that the end we wish to attain is + right, but are not satisfied with the plan adopted, then I ask of + you to devise means by which this great good may be more speedily + accomplished, and you shall find us ready with both heart and hand + to co-operate with you. In my humble opinion, all that is needed to + produce a complete Temperance and Social reform in this age of + Moral Suasion, is for our Sex to cast their United influences into + the balance. + + Ladies! there is no Neutral position for us to assume. If we + sustain not this noble enterprise, both by precept and example, + then is our influence on the side of Intemperance. If we say we + love the Cause, and then sit down at our ease, surely does our + action speak the lie. And now permit me once more to beg of you to + lend your aid to this great Cause, the Cause of God and all + Mankind. + +The next day on the streets, so the letters say, everybody was +exclaiming, "Miss Anthony is the smartest woman who ever has been in +Canajoharie." Soon afterwards the school closed and, after spending the +summer visiting eastern relatives and friends, Miss Anthony returned to +Rochester in the autumn of 1849. The thing she remembers most vividly +is how she reveled in fruit. All the young orchards her father had +planted were now bearing, including a thousand peach trees, and for the +first time in her life she had all the peaches she wanted, and "lived +on them for a month." + +The years of 1850 and 1851 Daniel Anthony conducted his insurance +business in Syracuse and Susan remained at home, taking entire charge +of the farm, superintending the planting of the crops, the harvesting +and the selling. She also did most of the housework, as her mother was +in delicate health, her sister was teaching school and both brothers +were away. In the winter of 1852, she went into a school in Rochester +as supply for three months. She found, however, that her taste for +teaching was entirely gone, her work was without inspiration, her +interest and sympathy had become enlisted in other things. She longed +to take an active part in the two great reforms of temperance and +anti-slavery, which now were absorbing public attention; she could not +endure the narrow and confining life of the school-room, and so, in the +spring, she abandoned teaching forever, after an experience of fifteen +years. + +[Footnote 9: Nearly fifty years afterwards, when Mr. Hagar was at the +head of the Girls' High School, in Salem, Mass., Miss Anthony visited +him and was most cordially invited to address his pupils "on any +subject she pleased, even woman suffrage."] + +[Footnote 10: The play for this occasion was written by James Arkell, +father of W.J. Arkell, proprietor of the Judge. He was a pupil in the +boys' department of the old academy.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE. + +1850--1852. + + +Ill the conditions were such as to make it most natural for Miss +Anthony, when she reached the age of maturity, to adopt a public career +and go actively into reform work, and especially to enter upon that +contest to secure equal rights for those of her own sex, which she was +to wage unceasingly for half a century. Her father's mother and sister +were "high seat" Quakers, the latter a famous preacher. Her mother's +cousin, Betsey Dunnell White, of Stafford's Hill, was noted as the only +woman in that locality who could "talk politics," and the men used to +come from far and near to get her opinion on the political situation. +She was brought up in a society which recognizes the equality of the +sexes and encourages women in public speaking. In her own home the +father believed in giving sons and daughters the same advantages, and +in preparing the latter as well as the former for self-support. The +daughters were taught business principles, and invested with +responsibility at an early age. Two of them married, and the third was +of a quiet and retiring disposition; but in Susan he saw ability of a +high order and that same courage, persistence and aggressiveness which +entered into his own character, enabling him to make his way in the +business world and rally from his losses and defeats. He encouraged her +desire to go into the reforms which were demanding attention, gave her +financial backing when necessary, moral support upon all occasions, and +was ever her most interested friend and faithful ally. She received +also the sympathy and assistance of her mother, who, no matter how +heavy the domestic burdens, or how precarious her own health, was never +willing that she should take any time from her public work to give to +the duties of home, although she frequently insisted upon doing so. + +During Miss Anthony's stay at Canajoharie she went often to Albany and +there made the intimate acquaintance of Abigail Mott and her sister +Lydia, whose names are now a blessed memory with the leaders of the +abolition movement that still remain. Their modest home was a rallying +center for the reformers of the day, and here Miss Anthony met many of +the noted men and women with whom she was to become so closely +associated in the future. She reached home in 1849 to find a hot-bed of +discussion and fermentation. The first rift had been made in the old +common law, which for centuries had held women in its iron grasp, by +the passage, in April, 1848, of the Property Bill allowing a married +woman to hold real estate in her own name in New York. Previous to this +time all the property which a woman owned at marriage and all she might +receive by gift or inheritance passed into the possession of the +husband; the rents and profits belonged to him, and he could sell it +during his lifetime or dispose of it by will at his death except her +life interest in one-third of the real estate. The more thoughtful +among women were beginning to ask why other unjust laws should not also +be repealed, and the whole question of the rights of woman was thus +opened. + +In 1848, Spiritualism may be said to have had its birth, and the +remarkable manifestations of the Fox sisters brought numbers of people +to Rochester, where they had-removed as soon as they began to be widely +known. This form of religious belief soon acquired a large following, +causing much controversy and great excitement. + +The Society of Friends had divided on the slavery issue and Miss +Anthony found her family attending the Unitarian church, which soon +afterwards called William Henry Channing to its pulpit. Both he and +Samuel J. May, the father of Unitarianism in Syracuse, became her +steadfast friends and never-failing support in all the great work which +was developed in later years. + +[Illustration: + + AUNT HANNAH, THE QUAKER PREACHER. + FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE.] + +In July, 1848, the first Woman's Rights Convention had been held in +Seneca Falls and adjourned to meet in Rochester August 2. Miss +Anthony's father, mother and sister Mary had attended and signed the +declaration demanding equal rights for women, and she found them +enthusiastic upon this subject and also over Mrs. Stanton, Lucretia +Mott and other prominent women who had taken part. Her cousin, Sarah +Anthony Burtis, had acted as secretary of the convention. + +In 1849 Mrs. Mott published her admirable Discourse on Woman in answer +to a lyceum lecture by Richard H. Dana ridiculing the idea of civil and +political rights for women. In 1847 Frederick Douglass had brought his +family to Rochester and established his paper, the North Star. As soon +as Miss Anthony reached home she was taken by her father to call on +Douglass, and this was the beginning of another friendship which was to +last a lifetime. + +The year 1849 saw the whole country in a state of great unrest and +excitement. Eighty thousand men had gone to California in search of +gold. Telegraphs and railroads were being rapidly constructed, thus +bringing widely separated localities into close communication. The +unsettled condition of Europe and the famine in Ireland had turned +toward America that tremendous tide of immigration which this year had +risen to 300,000. The admission of Texas into the Union had +precipitated the full force of the slavery question. Old parties were +disintegrating and sectional lines becoming closely drawn. New +territories were knocking at the door of the Union and the whole nation +was in a ferment as to whether they should be slave or free. Threats of +secession were heard in both the North and the South. A spirit of +compromise finally prevailed and deferred the crisis for a decade, but +the agitation and unrest continued to increase. The Abolitionists were +still a handful of radicals, repudiated alike by the Free Soil Whigs +and Free Soil Democrats. Slavery, as an institution, had not yet become +a political issue, but only its extension into the territories. + +Such, in brief, was the situation at the beginning of 1850. It was a +period of grave apprehension on the part of older men and women, of +intense aggressiveness with the younger, who were eager for action. It +is not surprising then that an educated, self-reliant, public-spirited +woman who had just reached thirty should chafe against the narrow +limits of a school-room and rebel at giving her time and strength to +the teaching of children, when all her mind and heart were drawn toward +the great issues then filling the press and the platform and even +finding their way into the pulpit. Miss Anthony's whole soul soon +became absorbed in the thought, "What service can I render humanity; +what can I do to help right the wrongs of society?" At this time the +one and only field of public work into which women had dared venture, +except in a few isolated cases, was that of temperance. Miss Anthony +had brought her credentials from the Daughters' Union at Canajoharie +and presented them at once to the society in Rochester; they were +gladly accepted and she soon became a leader. In these days John B. +Gough was delivering his magnificent lectures throughout the country, +and Philip S. White, of South Carolina, was winning fame as a +temperance orator. + +The year 1850 was for her one of transition. A new world opened out +before her. The Anthony homestead was a favorite meeting place for +liberal-spirited men and women. On Sunday especially, when the father +could be at home, the house was filled and fifteen or twenty people +used to gather around the hospitable board. Susan always superintended +these Sunday dinners, and was divided between her anxiety to sustain +her reputation as a superior cook and her desire not to lose a word of +the conversation in the parlor. Garrison, Pillsbury, Phillips, Channing +and other great reformers visited at this home, and many a Sunday the +big wagon would be sent to the city for Frederick Douglass and his +family to come out and spend the day. Here were gathered many times the +Posts, Hallowells, DeGarmos, Willises, Burtises, Kedzies, Fishes, +Curtises, Stebbins, Asa Anthonys, all Quakers who had left the society +on account of their anti-slavery principles and were leaders in the +abolition and woman's rights movements. Every one of these Sunday +meetings was equal to a convention. The leading events of the day were +discussed in no uncertain tones. All were Garrisonians and believed in +"immediate and unconditional emancipation." In 1850 the Fugitive Slave +Law was passed and all the resources of the federal government were +employed for its enforcement. Its provisions exasperated the +Abolitionists to the highest degree. The house of Isaac and Amy Post +was the rendezvous for runaway slaves, and each of these families that +gathered on Sunday at the Anthony farm could have told where might be +found at least one station on the "underground railroad." + +Miss Anthony read with deep interest the reports of the woman's rights +convention held at Worcester, Mass., October, 1850, which were +published in the New York Tribune.[11] She sympathized fully with the +demand for equal rights for women, but was not yet quite convinced that +these included the suffrage. This, no doubt, was largely because Quaker +men did not vote, thinking it wrong to support a government which +believed in war. Even so progressive and public-spirited a man as +Daniel Anthony, much as he was interested in all national affairs, +never voted until 1860, when he became convinced it was only by force +of arms that the question of slavery could be settled. + +In 1851, the License Law having been arbitrarily repealed a few years +before, there was practically no regulation of the liquor business, nor +was there any such public sentiment against intemperance as exists at +the present day. Drunkenness was not looked upon as an especial +disgrace and there had been little agitation of the question. The wife +of a drunkard was completely at his mercy. He had the entire custody of +the children, full control of anything she might earn, and the law did +not recognize drunkenness as a cause for divorce. Although woman was +the greatest sufferer, she had not yet learned that she had even the +poor right of protest. Oppressed by the weight of the injustice and +tyranny of ages, she knew nothing except to suffer in silence; and so +degraded was she by generations of slavish submission, that she +possessed not even the moral courage to stand by those of her own sex +who dared rebel and demand a new dispensation. + +The old Washingtonian Society of the first half of the nineteenth +century, composed entirely of men, because reformed drunkards only +could belong to it, was succeeded by the Sons of Temperance, and these +had permitted the organization of subordinate lodges called Daughters +of Temperance, which, as subsequent events will show, were entitled to +no official recognition. It was in one of these, the only organized +bodies of women known at this time,[12] that Miss Anthony first +displayed that executive ability which was destined to make her famous. +During 1851 she was very active in temperance work and organized a +number of societies in surrounding towns. She instituted in Rochester a +series of suppers and festivals to raise the funds which she at once +saw were necessary before any efficient work could be done. An old +invitation to one of these, dated February 21, 1851, and signed by +Susan B. Anthony, chairman, reads: "The entertainment is intended to be +of such a character as will meet the approbation of the wise and good; +Supper, Songs, Toasts, Sentiments and short speeches will be the order +of-the evening; $1 will admit a gentleman and a lady" A newpaper +account says: + + The five long tables were loaded with a rich variety of provisions, + tastefully decorated and arranged. Mayor Samuel Richardson presided + at the supper table. After the repast was over, Miss Susan B. + Anthony, Directress of the Festival and President of the + Association, introduced these highly creditable sentiments, which + were greatly applauded by the assemblage: + + "The Women of Rochester--Powerful to fashion the customs of + society, may they not fail to exercise that power for the speedy + and total banishment of all that intoxicates from our domestic and + social circles, and thus speed on the day when no young man, be he + ever so _genteelly_ dressed or of ever so _noble_, origin, who + pollutes his lips with the touch of the drunkard's cup, shall + presume to seek the favor of any of our precious daughters. + + "Our Cause--May each succeeding day add to its glory and every hour + give fresh impetus to its progress...." + +Many other toasts were proposed which space forbids quoting, but the +following by one of the gentlemen deserves a place: + + The Daughters--Our characters they elevate, + Our manners they refine; + Without them we'd degenerate + To the level of the swine. + +It is curious how willing men have been, through all the centuries, to +admit that only the influence of women saves them from being brutes and +how anxious to confine that influence to the narrowest possible limits. + +[Autograph: + + Very truly and affectionately + Abby K. Foster] + +In the winter of 1851 Miss Anthony attended an anti-slavery meeting in +Rochester, conducted by Stephen and Abby Kelly Foster. This was her +first acquaintance with Mrs. Foster, who had been the most persecuted +of all the women taking part in the anti-slavery struggle. She had been +ridiculed, denounced and mobbed for years; and, for listening to her on +Sunday, men and women had been expelled from church. Her strong and +heroic spirit struck an answering spark in Miss Anthony's breast. She +accompanied the Fosters for a week on their tour of meetings in +adjoining counties, and was urged by them to go actively into this +reform. + +The following May she went to the Anti-Slavery Anniversary in Syracuse. +This convention had been driven out of New York by Rynders' mob in 1850 +and did not dare go back. On the way home she stopped at Seneca Falls, +the guest of Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, to hear again Wm. Lloyd Garrison and +George Thompson, the distinguished Abolitionist from England, who had +stirred her nature to its depths. Here was fulfilled her long-cherished +desire of seeing Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Their meeting is best +described in that lady's own words: "Walking home with the speakers, +who were my guests, we met Mrs. Bloomer with Miss Anthony on the corner +of the street waiting to greet us. There she stood with her good, +earnest face and genial smile, dressed in gray delaine, hat and all the +same color relieved with pale-blue ribbons, the perfection of neatness +and sobriety. I liked her thoroughly from the beginning." Both Mrs. +Stanton and Mrs. Bloomer on this occasion wore what is known as the +Bloomer costume. In the summer Miss Anthony went to Seneca Falls to a +meeting of those interested in founding the People's College. Horace +Greeley, Lucy Stone and herself were entertained by Mrs. Stanton. The +three women were determined it should be opened to girls as well as +boys. Mr. Greeley begged them not to agitate the question, assuring +them that he would have the constitution and by-laws so framed as to +admit women on the same terms as men, and he did as he promised, making +a spirited fight. Before the college was fairly started, however, it +was merged into Cornell University. + +This was Miss Anthony's first meeting with Lucy Stone and may be called +the commencement of her life-long friendship with Mrs. Stanton. These +women who sat at the dinner-table that day were destined to be recorded +in history for all time as the three central figures in the great +movement for equal rights. There certainly was nothing formidable in +the appearance of the trio: Miss Anthony a quiet, dignified Quaker +girl; Mrs. Stanton a plump, jolly, youthful matron, scarcely five feet +high; and Lucy Stone a petite, soft-voiced young woman who seemed +better fitted for caresses than for the hard buffetings of the world. + +Miss Anthony's public life may be said to have fairly begun in 1852. +The Sons of Temperance had announced a mass meeting of all the +divisions in the state, to be held at Albany, and had invited the +Daughters to send delegates. The Rochester union appointed Susan B. +Anthony. Her credentials, with those of the other women delegates, were +accepted and seats given them in the convention, but when Miss Anthony +rose to speak to a motion she was informed by the presiding officer +that "the sisters were not invited there to speak but to listen and +learn." She and three or four other ladies at once left the hall. The +rest of the women had not the courage to follow, but called them "bold, +meddlesome disturbers," and remained to bask in the approving smiles of +the Sons. They sought advice of Lydia Mott, who said the proper thing +was to hold a meeting of their own; so they secured the lecture-room of +the Hudson street Presbyterian church, and then went to the office of +the Evening Journal, edited by Thurlow Weed, to talk the situation over +with him. He told them they had done exactly right, and in his paper +that evening he announced their meeting and related their treatment by +the men. + +The night was cold and snowy. The little room was dark, the stove +smoked and the pipe fell down during the exercises, but the women were +sustained by their indignation and sense of justice and would not allow +themselves to be discouraged. Rev. Samuel J. May, who was in the city +attending the "Jerry Rescue" trials, seeing the notice of their +meeting, came to offer his assistance, accompanied by David Wright, +husband of Martha C. Wright and brother-in-law of Lucretia Mott. These +two, with a reporter, were the only men present at this little +assemblage of women who had decided that they could do something better +for the cause of temperance than being seen and not heard. + +Mr. May opened the meeting with prayer, and then showed them how to +organize. Mary C. Vaughn, of Oswego, was made president; Miss Anthony, +secretary; Lydia Mott, chairman of the business committee. Mrs. Vaughn +gave an address. A letter had been received from Mrs. Stanton so +radical that most of the ladies objected to having it read, but Miss +Anthony took the responsibility. She read, also, letters from Clarina +Howard Nichols and Amelia Bloomer, which had been intended for the +Sons' meeting. Mrs. Lydia F. Fowler, who happened to be lecturing in +Albany, spoke briefly, and Mr. May paid high tribute to the valuable +work of women in temperance and anti-slavery, declaring their influence +as indispensable to the state and the church as to the home. Miss +Anthony then said their treatment showed that the time had come for +women to have an organization of their own; and the final outcome was +the appointment of a committee, with herself as chairman, to call a +Woman's State Temperance Convention. + +She at once wrote to all parts of the State urging the unions to send +delegates, and received many encouraging replies. Horace Greeley wrote +as follows: + + I heartily approve the call of the Woman's Temperance Convention, + and hope it may result in good. To this end I would venture to + suggest: + + 1st. Hold an informal and private meeting before you attempt to + meet in public. There select your officers, your business + committees, etc., so that there shall be no jarring when you + assemble in public. + + 2d. Have your addresses and resolves carefully prepared beforehand. + Make them very short and pointed. Have them in type so that they + may appear promptly and simultaneously in the daily papers. If you + will send us a copy of them the night before we will endeavor to + print them with our proceedings of the meeting received by + telegraph. + + 3d. Be sure that your strongest thinkers speak and that the weaker + forbear, and that extraneous matters, so far as possible, are let + alone. + +It will be seen that by adopting these shrewd political methods there +would not be much left for the convention proper to do except listen to +the speeches, but it would be hard to compress into smaller space more +sensible advice. Mrs. Nichols wrote her: "It is most invigorating to +watch the development of a woman in the work for humanity: first, +anxious for the cause and depressed with a sense of her own inability; +next, partial success of timid efforts creating a hope; next, a faith; +and then the fruition of complete self-devotion. Such will be your +history." From Mrs. Stanton came cheering words: "I will gladly do all +in my power to help you. Come and stay with me and I will write the +best lecture I can for you. I have no doubt a little practice will make +you an admirable speaker. Dress loosely, take a great deal of exercise, +be particular about your diet and sleep enough. The body has great +influence upon the mind. In your meetings, if attacked, be cool and +good-natured, for if you are simple and truth-loving no sophistry can +confound you. As for my own address, if I am to be president it ought +perhaps to be sent out with the stamp of the convention, but as +anything from my pen is necessarily radical no one may wish to share +with me the odium of what I may choose to say. If so, I am ready to +stand alone. I never write to please any one. If I do please I am +happy, but to proclaim my highest convictions of truth is always my +sole object." + +After weeks of hard work, writing countless letters, taking numerous +trips to various towns, and making almost without assistance all the +necessary arrangements, the convention assembled in Corinthian Hall, +Rochester, April 20, 1852. The morning audience was composed entirely +of women, 500 being in attendance. Miss Anthony opened the meeting, +read the call, which had been widely circulated, and in a clear, +forcible manner set forth the object of the convention. The call urged +the women to "meet together for devising such associated action as +shall be necessary for the protection of their interests and of society +at large, too long invaded and destroyed by legalized intemperance." It +was signed by Daniel Anthony, William R. Hallowell and a number of +well-known men and women, many of whom were present and took part in +the discussions. Letters were read from distinguished persons and +strong resolutions adopted, among them one thanking the New York +Tribune for the kindness with which it had uniformly sustained women in +their efforts for temperance. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was elected +president; Mrs. Gerrit Smith, Mrs. E.C. Delavan, Antoinette L. Brown +and nine others, vice-presidents; Susan B. Anthony and Amelia Bloomer, +secretaries. In accepting the presidency, Mrs. Stanton made a powerful +speech, certain parts of which acted as a bombshell not only at this +meeting, but in press, pulpit and society. The two points which aroused +most antagonism were: + + 1st. Let no woman remain in the relation of wife with a confirmed + drunkard. Let no drunkard be the father of her children.... Let us + petition our State government so to modify the laws affecting + marriage and the custody of children, that the drunkard shall have + no claims on wife or child. + + 2d. Inasmuch as charity begins at home, let us withdraw our mite + from all associations for sending the Gospel to the heathen across + the ocean, for the education of young men for the ministry, for the + building up of a theological aristocracy and gorgeous temples to + the unknown God, and devote ourselves to the poor and suffering + around us. Let us feed and clothe the hungry and naked, gather + children into schools and provide reading-rooms and decent homes + for young men and women thrown alone upon the world. Good schools + and homes, where the young could ever be surrounded by an + atmosphere of purity and virtue, would do much more to prevent + immorality and crime in our cities than all the churches in the + land could ever possibly do toward the regeneration of the + multitude sunk in poverty, ignorance and vice. + +The effect of such declarations on the conservatism of half a century +ago hardly can be pictured. At this time the principal outlet for +women's activities was through foreign missionary work, and even in +this they were allowed no official responsibility. None of the many +charitable organizations which are now almost wholly in the hands of +women were in existence. In scarcely one State was drunkenness +recognized as cause for divorce, and yet when Mrs. Stanton made these +demands, the women throughout the country joined with the men in +denouncing them. Only a few of the broader and more progressive, who +were ahead of their age, sustained her. Among these were Miss Anthony, +Ernestine L. Rose, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Frances D. Gage and +Martha C. Wright. + +After six enthusiastic sessions and the forming of a strong +organization, the convention adjourned. Thus the first Woman's State +Temperance Society ever formed was due almost entirely to Susan B. +Anthony, because of her courage in demanding independent action and her +successful efforts in calling the convention which inaugurated it. The +executive committee met in May and appointed her State agent, "with +full power and authority to organize auxiliary societies, collect +moneys, issue certificates of membership and do all things which she +may judge necessary and expedient to promote the purposes for which our +society has been organized." + +The Men's State Temperance Society had issued an official call for a +convention to be held at Syracuse in June, containing these words: +"Temperance societies of every name are invited to send delegates." +Acting upon this invitation, the executive committee of the Woman's +State Temperance Society appointed Gerrit Smith, Susan B. Anthony and +Amelia Bloomer as delegates. Mr. Smith was not able to attend and, +after their experience at Albany, there were serious doubts in the +minds of the women whether they would be received. They were much +encouraged, however, by the receipt of a letter from Rev. Samuel J. +May, written June 14, saying: "The local committee are now in session. +I have just read your letter to them, and every member has expressed +himself in favor of receiving the delegates of the Woman's State +Temperance Society, just as the delegates of any other society, and +allowing them to take their own course, speak or not speak, as they +choose." + +Miss Anthony and Mrs. Bloomer went to Syracuse, and on the morning of +the convention received a call from Mr. May. He came to inform them +that their arrival had caused great excitement among the clergy, who +comprised a large portion of the delegates and threatened to withdraw +if the women were admitted. Their action had alarmed the other +delegates, who feared a disturbance in the convention, and they had +requested Mr. May, as probably having the most influence, to call upon +the ladies and urge them not to ask for recognition. When they told him +they should go to the meeting and present their credentials, he +expressed great satisfaction and said that was just the decision he had +hoped they would make. They quietly entered the hall and took seats +with other ladies at one side of the platform. Immediately Rev. +Mandeville, of Albany, turned his chair around with back to the +audience and, facing them, attempted to stare them out of countenance. +William H. Burleigh, secretary, read the annual report, which closed, +"We hail the formation of the Woman's State Temperance Society as a +valuable auxiliary." This precipitated the discussion. Rev. Mandeville +sprung to his feet and moved to strike out the last sentence. His +speech was filled with such venom and vulgarity as the foulest-mouthed +politician would hesitate to utter. He denounced the Woman's State +Temperance Society and all women publicly engaged in temperance work, +declared the women delegates to be "a hybrid species, half man and half +woman, belonging to neither sex," and announced finally that if this +sentence were not struck out he would dissolve his connection with the +society. + +A heated debate followed. Mr. Havens, of New York, offered an amendment +recognizing "the right of women to work in their proper sphere--the +domestic circle." Rev. May, of the Unitarian church, Rev. Luther Lee, +of the Wesleyan Methodist, Hon. A.N. Cole, a leading Whig politician, +and several others, defended the rights of the women in the most +eloquent manner, but were howled down. Miss Anthony made only one +attempt to speak and that was to remind them that over 100,000 of the +signers to a petition for a Maine Law, the previous winter, were women, +but her voice was drowned by Rev. Fowler, of Utica, shouting, "Order! +Order!" Herman Camp, of Trumansburg, the president, ruled that she was +not a delegate and had no right to speak. Amid great confusion the +question was put to vote and the decision of the chair sustained. As no +delegates had yet been accredited, everybody in the house was allowed +to vote, but the secretary, J.T. Hazen, announced that he did not count +the votes of the women! + +Rev. Luther Lee at once offered his church to the ladies for an evening +meeting. They had a crowded house, fine speeches and good music, while +the convention was practically deserted, not over fifty being present. +After a masterly speech by Mr. May and stirring remarks from Mr. Lee, +Mrs. Bloomer and others, Miss Anthony made the address of the evening, +which she had prepared for the men's convention, a strong plea for the +right of women to work and speak for temperance. Soon afterwards she +wrote her father: "I feel there is a great work to be done which none +but women can do. How I wish I could be daily associated with those +whose ideas are in advance of my own, it would enable me to develop so +much faster;" and then, notwithstanding all her rebuffs, she signed +herself, "Yours cheerily." + +The anti-slavery convention this year was held in Rochester, and Miss +Anthony had as a guest her dear friend, Lydia Mott, and again met +Garrison, Phillips, May, the Fosters, Pillsbury, Henry C. Wright and +others of that glorious band who together had received the baptism of +fire. Although intensely interested in the anti-slavery question she +did not dare think she had the ability to take up that work, but she +did resolve to give all her time and energy to the temperance cause. +The summer of 1852 was spent in traveling throughout the State with +Mrs. Vaughn, Mrs. Attilia Albro and Miss Emily Clark. They canvassed +thirty counties, organizing societies and securing 28,000 signatures to +a petition for the Maine Law. Miss Anthony sent out a strong appeal, +saying: + + Women, and mothers in particular, should feel it their right and + duty to extend their influence beyond the circumference of the home + circle, and to say what circumstances shall surround children when + they go forth from under the watchful guardianship of the mother's + love; for certain it is that, if the customs and laws of society + remain corrupt as they now are, the best and wisest of the mother's + teachings will soon be counteracted.... + + Woman has so long been accustomed to non-intervention with + law-making, so long considered it man's business to regulate the + liquor traffic, that it is with much cautiousness she receives the + new doctrine which we preach; the doctrine that it is her right and + duty to speak out against the traffic and all men and institutions + that in any way sanction, sustain or countenance it; and, since she + can not vote, to duly instruct her husband, son, father or brother + how she would have him vote, and, if he longer continue to + mis-represent her, take the right to march to the ballot-box and + deposit a vote indicative of her highest ideas of practical + temperance. + +It will be seen by this that already she had taken her stand on the +right of woman to the franchise. + +While at Elmira she happened into a teachers' convention and heard +Charles Anthony, of the Albany academy, a distant relative, make an +address on "The Divine Ordinance of Corporal Punishment." It was a +severe and cruel justification of the unlimited use of the rod, but, +although more than three-fourths of the teachers present were women, +not a word was uttered in protest. Throughout the proceedings not a +woman's voice was heard, none was appointed on committees or voted on +any question, and they were as completely ignored as so many outsiders. +Miss Anthony made up her mind that here also was a work to be done, and +that henceforth she would attend the State teachers' conventions every +year and demand for women all the privileges now monopolized by men. + +On September 8, 1852, she went to her first Woman's Rights Convention, +which was held at Syracuse. She had read with avidity the accounts of +the Ohio, Massachusetts, Indiana and Pennsylvania conventions, but this +was her first opportunity of attending one. At the preliminary meeting, +held the night before, she was made a member of the nominating +committee with Paulina Wright Davis, of Providence, R.I., chairman. +Mrs. Davis had come with the determination of putting in as president +her dear friend Elizabeth Oakes Smith, a fashionable literary woman of +Boston. Both attended the meeting and the convention in short-sleeved, +low-necked white dresses, one with a pink, the other with a blue +embroidered wool delaine sack with wide, flowing sleeves, which left +both neck and arms exposed. At the committee meeting next morning, +Quaker James Mott nominated Mrs. Smith for president, but Quaker Susan +B. Anthony spoke out boldly and said that nobody who dressed as she did +could represent the earnest, solid, hard-working women of the country +for whom they were making the demand for equal rights. Mr. Mott said +they must not expect all women to dress as plainly as the Friends; but +she held her ground, and as all the committee agreed with her, though +no one else had had the courage to speak, Mrs. Smith's name was voted +down. This is but one instance of hundreds where Miss Anthony alone +dared say what others only dared think, and thus through all the years +made herself the target for criticism, blame and abuse. Others escaped +through their cowardice; she suffered through her bravery. + +Lucretia Mott was made president, and the Syracuse Standard said: "It +was a singular spectacle to see this Quaker matron presiding over a +convention with an ease, grace and dignity that might be envied by the +most experienced legislator in the country."[13] Susan B. Anthony and +Martha C. Wright were the secretaries. Delegates were present from +Canada and eight different States. Letters were received from Angelina +Grimke Weld, William Henry Channing and others; Horace Greeley sent +much good advice; Garrison wrote: "You have as noble an object in view, +aye and as Christian a one too, as ever was advocated beneath the sun. +Heaven bless all your proceedings." Rev. A.D. Mayo said in a long +letter: + + I have never questioned what I believed to be the central principle + of the reform in which you are engaged. I believe that every mature + soul is responsible directly to God, not only for its faith and + opinions, but for its details of life. The assertion that woman is + responsible to man for her belief or conduct, in any other sense + than man is responsible to woman, I reject, not as a believer in + any theory of "woman's rights," but as a believer in that religion + which knows neither male nor female in its imperative demand upon + the individual conscience. + +George W. Johnson, of Buffalo, chairman of the State committee of the +Liberty party, sent $10 and these vigorous sentiments: "Woman has, +equally with man, the inalienable right to education, suffrage, office, +property, professions, titles and honors--to life, liberty and the +pursuit of happiness. False to our sex, as well as her own, and false +to herself and her God, is the woman who approves, or who submits +without resistance or protest, to the social and political wrongs +imposed upon her in common with her sex throughout the world." Mrs. +Stanton's letter, read with hearty approval by Miss Anthony, raised the +usual breeze in the convention. She suggested three points: + + Should not all women, living in States where they have the right to + hold property, refuse to pay taxes so long as they are + unrepresented in the government?... Man has pre-empted the most + profitable branches of industry, and we demand a place at his side; + to this end we need the same advantages of education, and we + therefore claim that the best colleges of the country be opened to + us.... In her present ignorance, woman's religion, instead of + making her noble and free, by the wrong application of great + principles of right and justice, has made her bondage but more + certain and lasting, her degradation more helpless and complete. + +In the course of her argument Lucy Stone said: + + The claims we make at these conventions are self-evident truths. + The second resolution affirms the right of human beings to their + persons and earnings. Is not that self-evident? Yet the common law, + which regulates the relation of husband and wife, and is modified + only in a few instances by the statutes, gives the "custody" of the + wife's person to the husband, so that he has a right to her even + against herself. It gives him her earnings, no matter with what + weariness they have been acquired, or how greatly she may need them + for herself or her children. It gives him a right to her personal + property, which he may will entirely away from her, also the use of + her real estate, and in some of the States married women, insane + persons and idiots are ranked together as not fit to make a will; + so that she is left with only one right, which she enjoys in common + with the pauper, the right of maintenance. Indeed, when she has + taken the sacred marriage vows, her legal existence ceases. And + what is our position politically? The foreigner, the negro, the + drunkard, all are entrusted with the ballot, all placed by men + politically higher than their own mothers, wives, sisters and + daughters! The woman who, seeing this, dares not maintain her + rights is the one to hang her head and blush. We ask only for + justice and equal rights--the right to vote, the right to our own + earnings, equality before the law; these are the Gibraltar of our + cause. + +Rev. Antoinette Brown, the first woman ever ordained to preach, +declared: + + Man can not represent woman. They differ in their nature and + relations. The law is wholly masculine; it is created and executed + by man. The framers of all legal compacts are restricted to the + masculine standpoint of observation, to the thoughts, feelings and + biases of man. The law then can give us no representation as women, + and therefore no impartial justice, even if the law-makers were + honestly intent upon this, for we can be represented only by our + peers.... When woman is tried for crime, her jury, her judges, her + advocates, all are men; and yet there may have been temptations and + various palliating circumstances connected with her peculiar nature + as woman, such as man can not appreciate. Common justice demands + that a part of the law-makers and law-executors should be of her + own sex. In questions of marriage and divorce, affecting interests + dearer than life, both parties in the compact are entitled to an + equal voice. + +Mrs. Nichols said in discussing the laws: + + If a wife is compelled to get a divorce on account of the + infidelity of the husband, she forfeits all right to the property + which they have earned together, while the husband, who is the + offender, still retains the sole possession and control of the + estate. She, the innocent party, goes out childless and portionless + by decree of law, and he, the criminal, retains the home and + children by favor of the game law. A drunkard takes his wife's + clothing to pay his rum bills, and the court declares that the + action is legal because the wife belongs to the husband. + +Hon. Gerrit Smith here made his first appearance upon the woman +suffrage platform, although he had written many letters expressing +sympathy and encouragement, and made a grand argument for woman's +equality. He closed by saying: "All rights are held by a precarious +tenure if this one right to the ballot be denied. When women are the +constituents of men who make and administer the laws they will pay due +consideration to woman's interests, and not before. The right of +suffrage is the great right that guarantees all others." Here also was +the first public appearance of Matilda Joslyn Gage, the youngest woman +taking part in the convention, who read an excellent paper urging that +daughters should be educated with sons, taught self-reliance and +permitted some independent means of self-support. A fine address also +was made by Paulina Wright Davis, who had managed and presided over the +two conventions held in 1850 and 1851 at Worcester, Mass.[14] + +The queen of the platform at this time was Ernestine L. Rose, a Jewess +who had fled from Poland to escape religious persecution. She was +beautiful and cultured, of liberal views and great oratorical powers. +Her lectures on "The Science of Government" had attracted wide +attention. Naturally, she took a prominent part in the early woman's +rights meetings. On this occasion she presented and eloquently +advocated the following resolution: + + We ask for our rights not as a gift of charity, but as an act of + justice; for it is in accordance with the principles of + republicanism that, as woman has to pay taxes to maintain + government, she has a right to participate in the formation and + administration of it; that as she is amenable to the laws of her + country, she is entitled to a voice in their enactment and to all + the protective advantages they can bestow; that as she is as liable + as man to all the vicissitudes of life, she ought to enjoy the same + social rights and privileges. Any difference, therefore, in + political, civil and social rights, on account of sex, is in direct + violation of the principles of justice and humanity, and as such + ought to be held up to the contempt and derision of every lover of + human freedom. + +During the debate Rev. Junius Hatch, a Congregational minister from +Massachusetts, made a speech so coarse and vulgar that the president +called him to order. As he paid no attention to her, the men in the +audience choked him off with cries of "Sit down! Shut up!" His idea of +woman's modesty was that she should cast her eyes down when meeting +men, drop her veil when walking up the aisle of a church and keep her +place at home. Miss Anthony arose and stated that Mr. Hatch himself was +one of the young ministers who had been educated through the efforts of +women, and she had always noticed those were the ones most anxious for +women to keep silence in the churches. This finished Mr. Hatch. + +A young teacher by the name of Brigham also attempted to define the +spheres of Mrs. Mott, Mrs. Stanton[15] and the other great advocates of +woman's freedom and declared: "Women ought to be keepers at home and +mind domestic concerns; he had no doubt the true object of this meeting +was not so much to acquire any real or supposed rights as to make the +speakers and actors conspicuous; he wished to urge upon them to claim +nothing masculine for women, for even in animals the spheres were +different. He had no objections to woman's voice being heard, but let +her seek out the breathing-holes of perdition to do her work." Mr. +Brigham was badly worsted in the argument which followed, and at the +next session he sent in a protest, declaring he had not had "justice." +He evidently did not see the satire of this complaint, since he himself +had been loudest in his refusal to do justice to woman. + +A heated discussion was called out by a resolution offered by Rev. +Antoinette L. Brown declaring that "the Bible recognizes the rights, +privileges and duties of woman as a public teacher, as in every way +equal with those of man; that it enjoins upon her no subjection that is +not enjoined upon him; and that it truly and practically recognizes +neither male nor female in Christ Jesus." Mrs. Rose closed the +discussion by saying: + + I can not object to any one's interpreting the Bible as he or she + thinks best; but I do object that such interpretation go forth as + the doctrine of this convention, because it is a mere + interpretation and not even the authority of the Book; it is the + view of Miss Brown only, which is as good as that of any other + minister, but that is all. For my part I reject both + interpretations. Here we claim human rights and freedom, based upon + the laws of humanity, and we require no written authority from + Moses or Paul, because those laws and our claim are prior even to + these two great men. + +Miss Brown's resolution was not adopted. Susan B. Anthony spoke briefly +but earnestly in behalf of the People's College and also of the Woman's +State Temperance Society, for which she asked their endorsement. She +then read the resolutions sent by Mrs. Stanton, all but one of which +were adopted. The Syracuse Journal commented: "Miss Anthony has a +capital voice and deserves to be made clerk of the Assembly." The +Syracuse Standard said of this convention: "It was attended by not less +than 2,000 persons. The discussions were characterized by a degree of +ability that would do credit to any deliberative body." The Journal +said: "No person can deny that there was a greater amount of talent in +the woman's rights convention than has characterized any public +gathering in this city during the last ten years, if ever before. The +appearance of all the ladies was modest and unassuming, though prompt, +energetic and confident. Business was brought forward, calmly +deliberated upon and discussed with unanimity and in a spirit becoming +true women, which would add an unknown dignity to the transactions of +public associations of the 'lords.'" The Syracuse Star, however, took a +different view: + + The women of the Tomfoolery Convention, now being held in this + city, talk as fluently of the Bible and God's teachings in their + speeches as if they could draw an argument from inspiration in + maintenance of their woman's rights stuff.... The poor creatures + who take part in the silly rant of "brawling women" and Aunt Nancy + men are most of them "ismizers" of the rankest stamp, Abolitionists + of the most frantic and contemptible kind and Christian (?) + sympathizers with such heretics as Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Parker + Pillsbury, O.C. Burleigh and S.S. Foster. These men are all woman's + righters and preachers of such damnable doctrines and accursed + heresies as would make demons of the pit shudder to hear. We have + selected a few appropriate passages from God's Bible for the + consideration of the infuriated gang at the convention. + +The New York Herald, under the elder Bennett, which from the beginning +of the demand had been the inveterate foe of equal rights for women, +contained the following editorial, September 12, 1852: + + The farce at Syracuse has been played out. We publish today the + last act, in which it will be seen that the authority of the Bible, + as a perfect rule of faith and practice for human beings, was voted + down, and what are called the laws of nature set up instead of the + Christian code. We have also a practical exhibition of the + consequences that flow from woman leaving her true sphere, where + she wields all her influence, and coming into public to discuss + morals and politics with men. The scene in which Rev. Mr. Hatch + violated the decorum of his cloth and was coarsely offensive to + such ladies present as had not lost that modest "feminine element" + on which he dwelt so forcibly, is the natural result of the conduct + of the women themselves who, in the first place, invited discussion + about sexes, and, in the second place, so broadly defined the + difference between the male and the female as to be suggestive of + anything but purity to the audience. The women of the convention + have no right to complain, but for the sake of his clerical + character, if no other motive influenced him, he ought not have + followed so bad an example. His speech was sound and his argument + conclusive, but his form of words was not in the best taste. The + female orators were the aggressors, but to use his own language he + ought not to have measured swords with a woman, especially when he + regarded her ideas and expressions as bordering upon the obscene. + But all this is the natural result of woman placing herself in a + false position. As Rev. Mr. Hatch observed, if she ran with horses + she must expect to be betted upon. The whole tendency of these + conventions is by no means to increase the influence of woman, to + elevate her condition or to command the respect of the other + sex.... + + How did woman first become subject to man, as she now is all over + the world? By her nature, her sex, just as the negro is and always + will be to the end of time, inferior to the white race and, + therefore, doomed to subjection; but she is happier than she would + be in any other condition, just because it is the law of her + nature.... + + What do the leaders of the woman's rights convention want? They + want to vote and to hustle with the rowdies at the polls. They want + to be members of Congress, and in the heat of debate subject + themselves to coarse jests and indecent language like that of Rev. + Mr. Hatch. They want to fill all other posts which men are + ambitious to occupy, to be lawyers, doctors, captains of vessels + and generals in the field. How funny it would sound in the + newspapers that Lucy Stone, pleading a cause, took suddenly ill in + the pains of parturition and perhaps gave birth to a fine bouncing + boy in court! Or that Rev. Antoinette Brown was arrested in the + pulpit in the middle of her sermon from the same cause, and + presented a "pledge" to her husband and the congregation; or that + Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, while attending a gentleman patient for a fit + of the gout or fistula in ano found it necessary to send for a + doctor, there and then, and to be delivered of a man or woman + child--perhaps twins.[16] A similar event might happen on the floor + of Congress, in a storm at sea or in the raging tempest of battle, + and then what is to become of the woman legislator? + +For months after this convention the discussions and controversies were +kept up through press and pulpit. The clergymen in Syracuse and +surrounding towns rang the changes on the cry of "infidel" as the +surest way of neutralizing its influence. Rev. Byron Sunderland, a +Congregational minister of Syracuse and afterwards chaplain of the +United States Senate, preached a sermon on the "Bloomer Convention." +Rev. Ashley, of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Syracuse, also preached a +sermon against equality for woman, which was put into pamphlet form and +scattered throughout the State. It called forth many protests, some +from the women of his own church. The clergymen selected the Star, the +most disreputable paper in the city, for the publication of their +articles. Rev. Sunderland was ably answered by Matilda Joslyn Gage over +the signature of "M." and replied in the Star: "If the author should +turn out to be a man, I should have no objection to point out his +inaccuracies through your columns, but if the writer is a lady, why, +really, I don't know what I shall do. If I thought she would consent to +a personal interview, I should like to see her." Some man, signing +himself "A Reader," having criticised him in a perfectly respectful +manner for making the above distinction, the reverend gentleman replied +to him through the Star: "His impertinence is quite characteristic. He +probably knows as much about the Bible as a wild ass' colt, and is +requested at this time to keep a proper distance. When a body is trying +to find out and pay attention to a lady, it is not good manners for 'A +Reader' to be thrust in between us." In all the speeches and articles +in favor of woman's rights there was not one which was not modest, +temperate and dignified. Almost without exception those in opposition +were vulgar, intemperate and abusive. + +No more brilliant galaxy of men and women ever assembled than at this +Syracuse convention, and the great question of the rights of woman was +discussed from every conceivable standpoint. Hundreds equally able have +been held during the last half century, and these extensive quotations +have been made simply to show that fifty years ago the whole broad +platform of human rights was as clearly defined by the leading +thinkers, and in as logical, comprehensive and dignified a manner, as +it is today. There was as much opposition among the masses of both men +and women against _all_ that they advocated as exists today against +their demand for the ballot, perhaps more; yet the close of the century +finds practically all granted except the ballot; the full right to +speak in public; nearly the same educational and industrial +opportunities; in many States almost equal legal rights, and not one +State now wholly under the English common law, which everywhere +prevailed at that time. The prejudice against all these innovations is +rapidly disappearing but it still lingers in regard to the yielding of +the suffrage, except in the four States where this also has been given. +In not one instance have these concessions been made in response to the +"voice of the people," but only because of the continued agitation and +unceasing efforts of a few of the more advanced and progressive +thinkers of each generation. + +[Footnote 11: The Tribune, at this time, was the only paper in New +York, and, with few exceptions, the only large newspaper in the +country, which treated the question of woman's rights in any but a +contemptuous, abusive manner.] + +[Footnote 12: They may have been preceded by the Moral Reform Societies +for the Rescue of Fallen Women, which originated in New York City, and +by a few Female Anti-Slavery Societies.] + +[Footnote 13: At the first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848, Mrs. Mott +and Mrs. Stanton were so opposed to having a woman for chairman that +they came near leaving the hall. Four years later Mrs. Mott is herself +the presiding officer.] + +[Footnote 14: Several of the speakers had weak, piping voices which did +not reach beyond a few of the front seats and, after one of these had +finished, Miss Anthony said: "Mrs. President, I move that hereafter the +papers shall be given to some one to read who can be heard. It is an +imposition on an audience to have to sit quietly through a long speech +of which they can not hear a word. We do not stand up here to be seen, +but to be heard." Then there was a protest. Mrs. Davis said she wished +it understood that "ladies did not come there to screech; they came to +behave like ladies and to speak like ladies." Miss Anthony held her +ground, declaring that the question of being ladylike had nothing to do +with it; the business of any one who read a paper was to be heard. Mr. +May, always the peacemaker, said Miss Anthony was right; there was not +a woman that had spoken in the convention who if she had been in her +own home would not have adjusted her voice to the occasion. "If your +boy were across the street you would not go to the door, put your head +down and say in a little, weak voice, 'Jim, come home;' but you would +fix your eye on him and shout, 'Jim, come home!' If the ladies, instead +of looking down and talking to those on the front seats, would address +their remarks to the farthermost persons in the house, all between +would hear."] + +[Footnote 15: Mrs. Mott was the mother of six and Mrs. Stanton of seven +children. Both were devoted mothers and noteworthy housekeepers.] + +[Footnote 16: No one of these ladies was married.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +TEMPERANCE AND TEACHERS' CONVENTIONS. + +1852--1853. + + +Miss Anthony came away from the Syracuse convention thoroughly +convinced that the right which woman needed above every other, the one +indeed which would secure to her all others, was the right of suffrage. +She saw that it was by the ballot men emphasized their opinions and +enforced their demands; she realized that without it women exercised +small influence upon law-makers and had no power to reward friends or +punish enemies. A sense of the terrible helplessness of being utterly +without representation came upon her with crushing force. The first +great cause of the injustice which pressed upon women from every point +was clearly revealed to her and she understood, as never before, that +any class which is compelled to be legislated for by another class +always must be at a disadvantage. She went home with these thoughts +burning in her soul, and again took up her work for temperance, but +much of her enthusiasm was gone. She felt that she was dealing with +effects only and was shut out from all influence over causes. She still +was loyal to her State society but the desire was growing strong for a +larger field. + +In January, 1853, she arranged for a meeting to be held in Albany to +secure a hearing before the Legislature and present petitions for a +Maine Law. Lucy Stone, whom she urged to make an address, wrote: "I +can't in conscience speak in favor of the Maine Law. It does not seem +to me to be based upon sound philosophy. Such a law will not amount to +much so long as there is not a temperance public sentiment behind it. +God bless your earnest and faithful spirit, Susan. I am glad the +temperance cause has so devoted and judicious a friend." She then +invited Rev. Antoinette Brown, who gave several reasons why she did not +think best to deliver the address and concluded: "But there is a better +way; you yourself must come to the rescue. You will read the appeal, +you can fit the address to it and you will do it grandly. Don't +hesitate but, in the name of everything noble, go forward and you shall +have our warmest sympathy." + +It was very hard to coax Miss Anthony into a speech in those days and +she finally persuaded the Reverend Antoinette to make the address. +There was a mass-meeting of all the temperance organizations in the +State at Albany, January 21, and as the women made no attempt to take +part in the men's meetings there was no disturbance. History is silent +as to what the men did at that time, but the women held crowded +sessions in the Baptist church, and in the Assembly chamber at night, +Miss Anthony presiding, and a number of fine addresses were made. The +rules were suspended one morning and the ladies invited to the +speaker's desk. Mrs. Vaughn read Mrs. Stanton's eloquent appeal praying +the Legislature to do one of two things: either give women a vote on +this great evil of intemperance, or else truly represent them by +enacting a Prohibitory Law. It was accompanied by the petition of +28,000 names which had been collected by a few women at immense labor +and expense during the past year. + +This was the first time in the history of New York that a body of women +had appeared before the Legislature, and in their innocence they had +full confidence that their request would be granted in a very short +time.[17] While they were still in Albany their petition was discussed +and a young member made a long speech against it, declared that women +were "out of their sphere" circulating petitions and coming before the +Legislature, and closed by saying, "Who are these asking for a Maine +Law? Nobody but women and children!" Miss Anthony then and there made a +solemn resolve that it should be her life work to make a woman's name +on a petition worth as much as a man's. + +S.P. Townsend, who had made a fortune in the manufacture of +sarsaparilla, happening to be at the Capitol, called upon the ladies +and invited them to come to New York and hold a meeting, offering to +advertise and entertain them. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Bloomer and Miss Brown +accepted his invitation and were entertained at his elegant home, and +also by Professor and Mrs. L.N. Fowler. He engaged Metropolitan Hall +(where Jenny Lind sang) for February 7, and the ladies spoke to an +audience of 3,000 at twenty-five cents admission. Mrs. Fowler presided, +and on the platform were Horace Greeley, who made a strong address, +Mrs. Greeley, Abby Hopper Gibbons and others. The Tribune and Post were +very complimentary, saying it was the first time a woman had spoken +within those walls and the meeting would compare favorably with any +ever held in the building. After it was over Mr. Townsend divided the +net proceeds among the three women. He also arranged for them to speak +in Broadway Tabernacle and in Brooklyn Academy of Music, each of which +was crowded to its capacity. + +During March and April they made a successful tour of the principal +cities in the State, Miss Anthony assuming the management and financial +responsibility. They went to Sing Sing, Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Troy, +Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo and other places, greeted +everywhere with large and attentive audiences attracted by the unusual +spectacle of women speaking in public. They lectured chiefly on +temperance, but asked incidentally for equal civil and political +rights. While they received from most of the papers respectful +treatment, they were sometimes viciously assailed. The Utica Evening +Telegraph gave the following false and malicious report: + + Miss SUSAN B. ANTHONY AND REV. A.L. BROWN ON THE STUMP.--Mechanics' + Hall was tolerably well filled last evening by persons wishing to + hear the above-named ladies "spout" about temperance. Seven-eighths + of the audience was composed of women, and there was noticeable an + absence of all rank, fashion and wealth. The _ladies_ proper of + Utica don't seem desirous of giving countenance to the silly + vagaries disseminated by these strong-minded women. We conceived a + very unfavorable opinion of this _Miss_ Anthony when she performed + in this city on a former occasion, but we confess that, after + listening attentively to her discourse last evening, we were + inexpressibly disgusted with the impudence and impiety evinced in + her lecture. Personally repulsive, she seems to be laboring under + feelings of strong hatred towards male men, the effect, we presume, + of jealousy and neglect. She spent some hour or so to show the + evils endured by the mothers, wives and daughters of drunkards. She + gravely announced that the evil is a great one, and that no remedy + might hopefully be asked from licentious statesmen nor from + ministers of the gospel, who are always well fed and clothed and + don't care for oppressed women. Prominent among the remedies which + she suggested for the evils which she alleges to exist, are + complete enfranchisement of women, allowing them the run of the + legislative halls, ballot-box, etc. With a degree of impiety which + was both startling and disgusting, this shrewish _maiden_ counseled + the numerous wives and mothers present to separate from their + husbands whenever they became intemperate, _and particularly not to + allow the said husbands to add another child to the family_ + (probably no _married_ advocate of woman's rights would have made + this remark). Think of such advice given in public by one who + claims to be a _maiden_ lady! + + Miss Anthony may be a very respectable lady, but such conversation + is certainly not calculated to enhance public regard for her.... + She announced quite confidently that wives don't de facto love + their husbands if they are dissipated. Everyday observation proves + the utter falsity of this statement, and if there is one + characteristic of the sex which more than another elevates and + ennobles it, it is the _persistency_ and intensity of woman's love + for man. But what does Miss Anthony know of the thousand delights + of married life; of the sweet stream of affection, of the golden + ray of love which beams ever through life's ills? Bah! Of a like + disgusting character was her advice to mothers about not using + stimulants, even when prescribed by physicians, for the benefit of + the young. What in the name of crying babies does Miss Anthony know + about such matters? + + In our humble judgment, it is by no means complimentary to wives + and mothers to be found present at such discourses, encouraging + such untruthful and pernicious advice. If Miss Anthony's ideas were + practically applied in the relations of life, women would sink from + the social elevation they now hold and become the mere _appendages_ + of men. Miss Anthony concluded with a flourish of trumpets, that + the woman's rights question could not be put down, that women's + souls were beginning to expand, etc., after which she gathered her + short skirts about her tight pants, sat down and wiped her + spectacles. + +A letter written to Miss Anthony by her father during this tour shows +that even thus early he recognized the utter inability of women to +effect great reforms without a vote: "I see notices of your meetings in +multitudes of papers, all, with a few exceptions, in a rejoicing mood +that woman at last has taken hold in earnest to aid in the reformation +of the mighty evils of the day. Yet with all this 'rejoicing' probably +not one of these papers would advocate placing the ballot in the hands +of woman as the easiest, quickest and most efficient way of enabling +her to secure not only this but other reforms. They are willing she +should talk and pray and 'flock by herself in conventions and tramp up +and down the State, footsore and weary, gathering petitions to be +spurned by legislatures, but not willing to invest her with the only +power that would do speedy and efficient work." + +At this time interest in the study of phrenology was at its height and +while Miss Anthony was in New York she had an examination made of her +head by Nelson Sizer (with Fowler & Wells) who, blindfolded, gave the +following character sketch: + + You have a finely organized constitution and a good degree of + compactness and power. There is such a balance between the brain + and the body that you are enabled to sustain mental effort with + less exhaustion than most persons. You have an intensity of emotion + and thought which makes your mind terse, sharp, spicy and clear. + You always work with a will, a purpose and a straightforwardness of + mental action. You seldom accomplish ends by indirect means or + circuitous routes, but unfurl your banner, take your position and + give fair warning of the course you intend to pursue. You are not + naturally fond of combat, but when once fairly enlisted in a cause + that has the sanction of your conscience and intellect, your + firmness and ambition are such, combined with thoroughness and + efficiency of disposition, that all you are in energy and talent is + enlisted and concentrated in the one end in view. + + You are watchful but not timid, careful to have everything right + and safe before you embark; but when times of difficulty and danger + arrive, you meet them with coolness and intrepidity. You have more + of the spirit of acquisition than of economy; you would rather make + new things than patch the old. Your continuity is not large enough. + You find it at times difficult to bring the whole strength of your + mind to bear upon a subject and hold it there patiently in writing + or speaking. You are apt to seize upon fugitive thoughts and + wander, unless it be a subject on which you have so drilled your + intellect as to become master of it. + + You have a full development of the social group. I judge that in + the main you have your father's character and talents and your + mother's temperament. You have the spirit of her nature, but the + framework in the main is like the father. You have large + benevolence, not only in the direction of sympathy but of + gratitude. You have frankness of character, even to sharpness, and + you are obliged to bridle your tongue lest you speak more than is + meet. You have mechanical ingenuity, the planning talent, and the + minds of others are apt to be used as instruments to accomplish + your objects. For instance, if you were a lawyer, you would arrange + the testimony and the mode of argument in such a way that the best + final result would be achieved. You judge correctly of the fitness + and propriety, as well as of the power, of the means you have to be + employed. You would plan a thing better than you could use the + tools to make it. Your reasoning organs are gaining upon your + perceptions. At fifteen your mind was devoted to facts and + phenomena; of late years you have been thinking of principles and + ideas. You are a keen critic, especially if you can put wit as a + cracker on your whip; you can make people feel little and mean if + they are so, and when you are vexed can say very sharp things. + + You are a good judge of character. You have a full development of + language devoted rather to accuracy and definiteness of meaning + than volubility; and yet I doubt not you talk fast when + excited--that belongs to your temperament. Your intellect is active + and your mind more naturally runs in the channel of intellect than + of feeling. It seeks an intellectual development rather than to be + developed through the affections merely. You have fair veneration + and spirituality but are nothing remarkable in these respects. Your + chief religious elements are conscience and benevolence; these are + your working religious organs, and a religion that does not gratify + them is to you "as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." + +Those who know Miss Anthony intimately will readily testify to the +accuracy of this analysis. It seems remarkable in view of the fact that +the examiner was in utter ignorance of the subject, and that, even if +he had known her name, she had not, at the age of thirty-three, +developed the characteristics which are now so familiar to the general +public. + +[Illustration: + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY. + AT THE AGE OF 32, FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE.] + +On this trip Miss Anthony was invited to spend an evening with Mr. and +Mrs. Greeley and met for the first time Charles A. Dana, Alice and +Phoebe Gary, Elizabeth F. Ellet, with a number of other literary men +and women of New York. Mr. Greeley himself opened the door for them and +sent them hunting through the house for a place to lay their wraps. +After awhile Mrs. Greeley came down stairs with a baby in her arms. She +had put her apron over its face and would not let the visitors look at +it "because their magnetism might affect it unfavorably." During the +evening she rang a bell and a man-servant came in. After a few words +with her he retired and presently brought in a big dish of cake, one of +cheese and a pile of plates, set them on the table and went out. There +was a long pause and Mr. Greeley said, "Well, mother, shall I serve the +cake?" "Yes, if you want to." So he went over to the table, took a +piece of cake and one of cheese in his fingers, putting them on a plate +and carrying to each, until all were served. The guests nibbled at them +as best they could and after a long time the man brought in a pitcher +of lemonade and some glasses and left the room. Mr. Greeley again +asked, "Well, mother, shall I serve the lemonade?" "Yes, if you want +to," she replied, so he filled the glasses, carried to each separately, +and then gathered them up one at a time, instead of all together on a +waiter. Both Mr. and Mrs. Greeley were thoroughly cordial and +hospitable, both intellectually great, but utterly without social +graces. Yet the conversation at their receptions was so brilliant that +the most elegantly served refreshments would have been an unwelcome +interruption. + +At another time, when Miss Anthony was visiting them, she asked Mrs. +Greeley if she would marry the same man again if she were single. +"Yes," said she, "if I wanted a worthy father for my children, but for +personal comfort I should prefer one who did not put his feet where I +fell over them every time I went into the room, who knew how to eat, +when to go to bed and how to wear his clothes." + +A World's Temperance Convention had been called to meet in New York +September 6 and 7, 1853, and a preliminary meeting was held May 12 in +Dr. Spring's old Brick Church on Franklin Square, where the Times +building now stands. The call invited "all friends of temperance" to be +present. After attending the Anti-Slavery Anniversary in New York, Miss +Anthony and Emily Clark went as representatives of the New York Woman's +Temperance Society, and Abby Kelly Foster and Lucy Stone were sent from +Massachusetts. The meeting was organized with Hon. A.C. Barstow, mayor +of Providence, chairman; Rev. R.C. Crampton, of New York, and Rev. +George Duffield, of Pennsylvania, secretaries. It was opened with +prayer, asking God's blessing on the proceedings about to take place. A +motion was made that all the gentlemen present be admitted as +delegates. Dr. Trail, of New York City, moved that the word "ladies" be +inserted, as there were delegates present from the Woman's State +Temperance Society. The motion was carried, their credentials received, +and every man and woman present became members of the convention. A +business committee of one from each State was appointed and a motion +was made that Susan B. Anthony, secretary of the Woman's Temperance +Society, be added to the committee. This opened the battle with the +opposition and one angry and abusive speech followed another. Abby +Kelly Foster, the eloquent anti-slavery orator, tried to speak, but +shouts of "order" drowned her voice and, after holding her position for +ten minutes, she finally was howled down. + +Almost the entire convention was composed of ministers of the Gospel. +Hon. Bradford R. Wood, of Albany, moved that, as there was a party +present determined to introduce the question of woman's rights and run +it into the ground, the convention adjourn sine die. He finally was +persuaded to withdraw this and substitute a motion that a committee be +appointed to decide who were members of the convention, although this +had been settled at the opening of the meeting by the accepting of +credentials. This committee consisted of Mr. Wood, Rev. John Chambers, +a Presbyterian clergyman of Philadelphia, and Rev. Condit, of New +Jersey. They were out fifteen minutes and reported that, as in their +opinion the call for this meeting was not intended to include female +delegates, and custom had not sanctioned the public action of women in +similar situations, their credentials should be rejected. And this +after they already had been accepted! + +Rev. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, pastor of the Unitarian church in +Worcester, Mass., at once resigned from the business committee and +withdrew from the meeting, as did also the women delegates and such +gentlemen, including several ministers, as thought the ladies had been +unjustly treated. They met at Dr. Trail's office and decided to call a +Whole World's Temperance Convention which should not exclude one-half +the world, and that the half which was doing the most effective work +for temperance. + +After they left the Brick Church meeting there were many speeches made +condemning the action of women in taking public part in any reforms, +led by Rev. Fowler, of Utica, Rev. Hewitt, of Bridgeport, Conn., and +Rev. Chambers. The last said he rejoiced that the women were gone, as +they were "now rid of the scum of the convention." Mayor Barstow, who +had threatened to resign rather than put the motion that Miss Anthony +should be on the business committee, made a speech which the press +declared too indecent to be reported. It must be remembered that this +entire discussion was founded on the mere proposal to place Miss +Anthony on a committee of a temperance meeting. Horace Greeley handled +these men without gloves in an article in the Tribune beginning: + + Rev. John! We have allowed you to be heard at full length; now you + and your set will be silent and hear us. Very palpably your palaver + about Mr. Higginson's motion is a dodge, a quirk, a most + contemptible quibble, reluctant as we are to speak thus + irreverently of the solemn utterances of a Doctor of Divinity. + Right well do you know, reverend sir, that the particular form or + time or fashion in which the question came up is utterly + immaterial, and you interpose it only to throw dust in the eyes of + the public. Suppose a woman had been nominated at the right time + and in the right way, according to your understanding of + punctilios, wouldn't the same resistance have been made and the + same row got up? You know right well that there would. Then what is + all your pettifogging about technicalities worth? The only question + that anybody cares a button about is this, "Shall woman be allowed + to participate in your World's Temperance Convention on a footing + of perfect equality with man?" If yea, the whole dispute turns on + nothing, and isn't worth six lines in the Tribune. But if it was + and is the purpose of those for whom you pettifog to keep woman off + the platform of that convention and deny her any part in its + proceedings except as a spectator, what does all your talk about + Higginson's untimeliness and the committee's amount to? Why not + treat the subject with some show of honesty? + +The women and their friends held a grand rally in the Broadway +Tabernacle the second day afterwards. Every foot of sitting and +standing room was crowded, although there was an admission fee of a +shilling. Miss Anthony presided and there was the strongest enthusiasm, +but perfect order was maintained. The following comment was made by the +New York Commercial-Advertiser: + + THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES.--On Saturday evening the Broadway + Tabernacle reverberated with the shrill, defiant notes of Miss Lucy + Stone and her "sisters," who have thrown down the gauntlet to the + male friends of temperance and declared not literally "war to the + knife" but conflict with tongues.... Henceforth the women's rights + ladies--including among them the misses, Lucy herself, Emily Clark, + Susan B. Anthony, Antoinette Brown, some Harriets and Angelinas, + Melissas and Hannahs, with a Fanny too (and more's the pity for it + is a sweet name) and sundry matrons whose names are _household_ + words in _newspapers_--are to be in open hostility to the regularly + constituted temperance agencies, under cover of association with + whom they have contrived to augment their notoriety. The delegates + at the Brick Church, who took the responsibility of knocking off + these parasites, deserve the thanks of the temperance friends the + Union through.... Such associations would mar any cause. Left to + themselves such women must fall into contempt; they have used the + temperance cause for a support long enough, and we are glad that + the seeming alliance has been thus formally disowned by the + temperance delegates. + +The New York Sun, Moses Beach, editor, said: + + The quiet duties of daughter, wife or mother are not congenial to + those hermaphrodite spirits who thirst to win the title of champion + of one sex and victor over the other. What is the love and + submission of one manly heart to the woman whose ambition it is to + sway the minds of multitudes as did a Demosthenes or a Cicero? What + are the tender affections and childish prattle of the family + circle, to women whose ears itch for the loud laugh and boisterous + cheer of the public assembly?... + + Could a Christian man, cherishing a high regard for woman and for + the proprieties of life feel that he was promoting woman's + interests and the cause of temperance by being introduced to a + temperance meeting by Miss Susan B. Anthony, her ungainly form + rigged out in bloomer costume and provoking the thoughtless to + laughter and ridicule by her very motions upon the platform? Would + he feel that he was honoring the women of his country by accepting + as their representatives women whom they must and do despise? Will + any pretend to say that women, whose tongues have dishonored their + God and their Savior, while uttering praise of infidels and infidel + theories, are worthy to receive the suffrages of their Christian + sisters?... + + We were much pleased with the remark made a few days since by one + of the most distinguished as well as refined and polished men of + the day on this very subject: "What are the rights which women + seek, and have not?" said he; and answering his own question, he + replied, "The right to do wrong! that alone is denied to them--that + is the only right appropriated exclusively by men, and surely no + true woman would seek to divide or participate in such a right." + +The Organ, the New York temperance paper, had this to say: + + The harmony and pleasantness of the meeting were disturbed by an + evidently preconcerted irruption of certain women, who have + succeeded beyond doubt in acquiring notoriety, however much they + may have failed in winning respect. The notorious Abby Kelly, the + Miss Stone whose crusade against the Christian doctrine on the + subject of marriage has shocked the better portion of society, and + several other women in pantaloons were present insisting upon their + right to share in the deliberations of the convention. + + We wish our friends abroad to understand that the breeze got up + here is nothing but an attempt to ride the woman's rights theory + into respectability on the back of Temperance. And what absurd, + infidel and licentious follies are not packed up under the general + head of woman's rights, it would puzzle any one to say. While, + however, we approve the act excluding the women at the Brick + Church, we feel bound to say that we regretted what seemed to us an + unnecessary acerbity on the part of some of the gentlemen opposing + them. What a load of extraneous, foolish and crooked people and + things the temperance cause has been burdened with during the years + of its progress! To our mind this conspiracy of women to crush the + cause by making it the bearer of their woman's rights absurdities, + is the saddest of all the phenomena of the reform. + +The New York Courier, James Watson Webb, editor, gave its readers the +following Sunday article: + + Anniversary week has the effect of bringing to New York many + strange specimens of humanity, masculine and feminine. Antiquated + and very homely females made themselves ridiculous by parading the + streets in company with hen-pecked husbands, attenuated + vegetarians, intemperate Abolitionists and sucking clergymen, who + are afraid to say "no" to a strong-minded woman for fear of + infringing upon her rights. Shameless as these females--we suppose + they _were_ females--looked, we should really have thought they + would have blushed as they walked the streets to hear the + half-suppressed laughter of their own sex and the remarks of men + and boys. The Bloomers figured extensively in the anti-slavery + amalgamation convention, and were rather looked up to, but their + intemperate ideas would not be tolerated in the temperance meeting + at the Brick Chapel.... + + A scene of the utmost confusion prevailed and there was a perfect + warfare of tongues; but, singular to _say_, the women were + compelled to hold their tongues and depart, followed by a number of + male Betties and subdued husbands, wearing the apparel of manhood, + but in reality emasculated by strong-minded women.... + + So the Bloomers put their credentials in their breeches pockets and + assembled at Dr. Trail's Cold Water Institute, where the men and + Bloomers all took a bath and a drink together. + +These sentiments were echoed by the newspapers, great and small, of the +entire country. Not a word in regard to "women's rights" had been +uttered at the Brick Church meeting except the right to have their +credentials from regularly-organized temperance societies accepted, and +the same privileges as other delegates granted. The continual reference +to the "warfare of tongues" is rather amusing in face of the fact that +no woman was allowed to speak and the talking was entirely monopolized +by men. Is it a matter of surprise that only a very limited number of +women had the courage to ally themselves with a movement which called +down upon them and their families such an avalanche of ridicule and +condemnation? + +Miss Anthony, on reaching home, immediately began active preparations +for the first annual meeting of the Woman's State Temperance Society, +which was to be held in Rochester. As usual she wrote hundreds of +letters, raised the money, printed and circulated the call, looked +after the advertising, engaged the speakers and took the whole +responsibility. The convention assembled in Corinthian Hall, June 1, +1853, with a large attendance. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the president, +after stating that the society had over 2,000 members, and was in a +most flourishing condition, said: + + It has been objected that we do not confine ourselves to the + subject of temperance, but talk too much about woman's rights, + divorce and the church.... We have been obliged to preach woman's + rights because many, instead of listening to what we had to say on + temperance, have questioned the right of woman to speak on any + subject. In courts of justice and legislative assemblies, if the + right of any person to be there is questioned, all business waits + until that point is settled. Now, it is not settled in the minds of + the masses that woman has any right to stand on an even pedestal + with man, look him in the face as an equal and rebuke the sins of + her day and generation. Let it be clearly understood then that we + are a Woman's Rights Society; that we believe it is woman's duty to + speak whenever she feels the impression to do so; that it is her + right to be present in all the councils of Church and State. + +Continuing, she took firm ground in favor of the right of a woman to be +divorced from an habitual drunkard, a position which brought upon her a +storm of censure from press, pulpit and society. She was strongly +supported, however, by the most prominent women of the day and received +many letters of approval, among them one from Lucy Stone, saying: "On +the divorce question, I am on your side, for the reason that +drunkenness so depraves a man's system that he is not fit to be a +father." Gerrit Smith wrote to the convention: + + I know not why it is not as much the duty of your sex as of mine to + establish newspapers, write books and hold public meetings for the + promotion of the cause of temperance. The current idea that modesty + should hold women back from such services is nonsense and + wickedness. Female modesty! female delicacy! I would that I might + never again hear such phrases. There is but one standard of modesty + and delicacy for both men and women; and so long as different + standards are tolerated, both sexes will be perverse and + corrupt.... The Quakers are the best people I have ever known, the + most serious and chaste and yet the most brave and resisting; but + there are no other people who are so little concerned lest women + get out of their sphere. None make so little difference between man + and woman. Others appear to think that the happiness and safety of + the world consist in magnifying the difference. But when reason and + religion shall rule, there will be no difference between man and + woman, in respect to the intellect, the heart or the manners. + +[Autograph: + + Very respectfully + your friend + Gerrit Smith] + +A stirring letter was sent by Neal Dow, expressing his great pleasure +that women were taking active and decided measures for the suppression +of intemperance, and closing: "It is absurd, therefore, to argue that +the community has no power to control this great evil; that any citizen +has the right to inflict it upon society, or that society should +hesitate to exercise its right and power of self-protection against +it." + +Many other letters were read from friends, among them Abby Kelly +Foster, who said to Miss Anthony: "So far as separate organizations for +women's action in the temperance cause are concerned, I consider you +the center and soul, without whom nothing could have been done +heretofore and I doubt whether anything would be done now." Strong +addresses were made by Rev. Channing, Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone, +Mrs. Nichols, Antoinette Brown, Mrs. Bloomer and others. + +When this association was formed a clause was placed in the +constitution allowing men to become members and to speak in all +meetings but making them ineligible to office. There were two reasons +for this: it was desired to throw the full responsibility on woman, +compelling her to learn to preside and to think, speak and act for +herself, which she never would do if men were present to perform these +duties for her; and it was feared that, on account of long habit, men +would soon take matters into their own hands and gain control of the +society, possibly to the extent of forbidding women to speak at the +meetings. Many of the ladies, however, objected to this clause, among +them Antoinette Brown, who refused to join the society on account of +it. So, yielding to the pressure, Mrs. Stanton, on this first +anniversary, said "as this seemed to many a violation of men's rights, +and as the women had now learned to stand alone, it might perhaps be +safe to admit men to all the privileges of the society, hoping, +however, that they would modestly permit woman to continue the work she +had so successfully begun." + +[Autograph: + + Very respectfully yours + Neal Dow] + +Miss Anthony, chairman of the committee on revising the constitution, +brought in a report in favor of admitting the men, which was vigorously +discussed. Before the close of this meeting the serious mistake of such +action was apparent. The men present monopolized the floor, tried to +have the name changed to the People's League, insisted that the society +should have nothing to do with any phase of woman's rights, and showed +their hand so plainly that Miss Anthony at once took the alarm and in +an indignant speech declared the men were trying to drive the women +from their own society. + +There was a strong undercurrent of opposition to Mrs. Stanton on +account of her radical views in regard to equal rights, divorce for +drunkenness and the subjection of woman to Bible authority, but those +opposing her being wholly inexperienced did not know how to prevent her +re-election. As the majority of the men, for obvious reasons, agreed +with them in wishing to get rid of Mrs. Stanton, they proceeded to +teach them political tactics, got out a printed opposition ticket and +defeated her for president by three votes. She was chosen +vice-president but emphatically declined. Miss Anthony was almost +unanimously re-elected secretary but refused to serve, stating that +"the vote showed they would not accept the principle of woman's rights +and, as she believed thoroughly in standing for the equality of woman, +she could not act as officer of such a society; besides, Mrs. Vaughn, +the newly elected president, had openly declared that 'principle must +sometimes be sacrificed to expediency.' She herself would never admit +this; her doctrine was, 'Do right, and leave the consequences with +God.'" Frederick Douglass and a number of others urged her in the most +earnest manner to remain, paying high tribute to her services and +pointing out how much they were needed, but in vain. + +Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton at once severed all connection with the +organization they had founded; it passed into the hands of a body of +conservative women, who believed they could accomplish by prayer what +these two knew never could be done except through legislation with a +constituency of women behind it. The society had a precarious existence +of one or two years and finally went to pieces. There was not another +strong, concerted movement of women in the cause of temperance for +twenty years.[18] Miss Anthony, although a total abstainer all her +life, was never again connected with a temperance organization. She has +steadfastly held to the opinion that the vital work for women is to +secure for themselves the ballot which, above all other agencies, will +make them an effective power for dealing not only with this but with +all moral questions. + +Relieved from her onerous duties in connection with the State society, +she at once set about working up the Whole World's Temperance +Convention in New York, for which she felt a personal responsibility. +Many of those who had seceded from the Brick Church meeting, including +Mr. Higginson himself, were beginning to doubt the propriety of holding +a separate convention. Miss Anthony was strongly in favor of it and +wrote Lucy Stone: + + We have not the slightest reason for supposing that we shall be + received at the World's Convention to be held September 5. The same + men that controlled the Brick Church meeting are to be the leading + spirits there. Not one of them, so far as I can learn, has + expressed a regret that the women-delegates were excluded last May; + how then can we entertain a hope that they will act differently in + September? We may pretend to go in good faith but there will be no + faith in us. If it is not too late I beg of you to see that the + call is issued and for the very day that the Old Fogies hold their + convention. + +Lucy Stone agreed with her and, through their efforts, the committee +were persuaded to send out the call. It was decided, however, to hold +the meeting September 1 and 2, just before the other, and then, while +the great crowds from all parts of the country were in the city, to +have a regular Woman's Rights Convention on the same date as that of +Rev. John Chambers et al. Miss Anthony received many cordial replies to +her numerous letters, and some not so cordial. Samuel F. Gary wrote in +his characteristic style: "You ask whether I will speak at a Whole +World's Temperance Convention to be held in New York during the World's +Fair. You will have observed that my humble name is signed to a call +for such a convention at that time and place, together with Chancellor +Walworth's and others of like distinction. Providence favoring, it is +my purpose to participate in the deliberations of that meeting and I +see no sufficient reason for another convention having the same object +in view." Possibly if Mr. Gary and "others of like distinction" had +been refused permission to speak a word or even to serve on a +committee, they might have been able to see "sufficient reason for +another convention." Horace Greeley sent the following: + + I may not be able to write you a long letter, as you request, but I + will give you a little confidential advice. All I know on + temperance (pretty nearly) I put into a tract which was long ago + printed at the Organ office.... Now, as to tracts: Make it your + first rule to Be Thorough. Most of our temperance tracts are too + short and flimsy and not calculated to convince reasoning beings. + Let each tract take up some one aspect of the question and exhaust + it, none of your fly-away five or six pages but from twelve to + thirty-two, the whole case presented in all its aspects and proved + up. Nothing less than this will do much good. + + Now as to church matters: The short and safe way is simply to set + them aside. If those who have outgrown the church do not introduce + the subject by treading on the old lady's corns, they can + effectually resist all interposition of shibboleths by the + followers of Pusey in all sects. Do not make the reform movement a + pretext for assaulting the church. In short, the whole question + with regard to the woman's movement is best solved by those engaged + in it going quietly and effectively on with their work. That will + soonest stop the mouths of gainsayers. "It does move, though," is + the true answer to all cavils. + + I can't be at your convention, and Mrs. Greeley is overwhelmed with + moving and babies. + +[Autograph: + + Yours, + Horace Greeley] + +While Miss Anthony was thus engaged, the State Teachers' Convention was +held in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, August 3, 1853, and true to her +resolve made the year previous she put aside everything else in order +to attend. According to the rules any one paying a dollar was entitled +to all the rights and privileges of the convention; so she paid her +dollar and took her seat. There were over 500 teachers in attendance, +two-thirds at least being women. For two entire days Miss Anthony sat +there, and during that time not a woman spoke; in all the deliberations +there was not the slightest recognition of their presence, and they did +not vote on any question, though all had paid the fee and were members +of the association. In a letter describing the occasion Miss Anthony +said: "My heart was filled with grief and indignation thus to seethe +minority, simply because they were men, presuming that in them was +vested all wisdom and knowledge; that they needed no aid, no counsel +from the majority. And what was most humiliating of all was to look +into the faces of those women and see that by far the larger proportion +were perfectly satisfied with the position assigned them." + +Toward the close of the second day's session the subject under +discussion was, "Why the profession of teacher is not as much respected +as that of lawyer, doctor or minister?" After listening for several +hours, Miss Anthony felt that the decisive moment had come and, rising +in her seat, she said, "Mr. President." A bombshell would not have +created greater commotion. For the first time in all history a woman's +voice was heard in a teachers' convention. Every neck was craned and a +profound hush fell upon the assembly. Charles Davies, LL. D., author of +Davies' text books and professor of mathematics at West Point, was +president. In full-dress costume with buff vest, blue coat and brass +buttons, he was the Great Mogul. At length recovering from the shock of +being thus addressed by a woman, he leaned forward and asked with +satirical politeness, "What will the lady have?" "I wish to speak to +the question under discussion," said Miss Anthony calmly, although her +heart was beating a tattoo. Turning to the few rows of men in front of +him, for the women occupied the back seats, he inquired, "What is the +pleasure of the convention?" "I move she shall be heard," said one man; +this was seconded by another, and thus was precipitated a debate which +lasted half an hour, although she had precisely the same right to speak +as any man who was taking part in the discussion. + +She stood during all this time, fearing to lose the floor if she sat +down. At last a vote was taken, men only voting, and it was carried in +the affirmative by a small majority. Miss Anthony then said: "It seems +to me you fail to comprehend the cause of the disrespect of which you +complain. Do you not see that so long as society says woman has not +brains enough to be a doctor, lawyer or minister, but has plenty to be +a teacher, every man of you who condescends to teach, tacitly admits +before all Israel and the sun that he has no more brains than a +woman?"--and sat down. She had intended to draw the conclusion that the +only way to place teaching upon a level with other professions was +either to admit woman to them or exclude her from teaching, but her +trembling limbs would sustain her no longer. + +The convention soon adjourned for the day and, as Miss Anthony went out +of the hall, many of the women drew away from her and said audibly: +"Did you ever see such a disgraceful performance?" "I never was so +ashamed of my sex." But a few of them gathered about her and said: "You +have taught us our lesson and hereafter we propose to make ourselves +heard." + +The next day, at the opening of the morning session, President Davies, +who had evidently spent the night in preparing the greatest effort of +his life, arose in all his majesty and was delivered of the following: + + I have been asked why no provisions have been made for female + lecturers before this association and why ladies are not appointed + on committees. I will answer: "Behold this beautiful hall! Mark + well the pilaster, its pedestal, its shaft, its rich entablature, + the crowning glory of this superb architecture, the different + parts, each in its appropriate place, contributing to the strength, + beauty and symmetry of the whole! Could I aid in bringing down this + splendid entablature from its proud elevation and trailing it in + the dust and dirt that surround the pedestal? No, never!" + +To quote further from Miss Anthony's letter: "Many of the ladies +readjusted their ribbons and laces and looked at each other as much as +to say, 'Beautiful, perfectly beautiful!' But a few there were whose +faces spoke scorn and utter contempt, and whose flashing eyes said: +'Such flattery as this adds insult to injury upon those of us who, +equally qualified with men, are toiling side by side with them for +one-half the salary. And this solely because of our sex!'" + +The women had no desire to pull down the building, entablature and all, +about the head of the magnificent Davies, but some of them were aroused +to the injustice with which they had so long been treated. To the +astonishment of the professor and his following, these resolutions were +presented by Mrs. Northrop, a teacher in the Rochester schools: + + _Resolved_, That this association recognizes the right of female + teachers to share in all the privileges and deliberations of this + body. + + _Resolved_, That female teachers do not receive an adequate and + sufficient compensation, and that, as salaries should be regulated + only according to the amount of labor performed, this association + will endeavor by judicious and efficient action to remove this + existing evil. + +An attempt was made to smother them, and when Mrs. Northrop asked why +they had not been read, the president blandly replied that he regretted +they could not be reached but other order of business preceded them. +Mrs. Northrop, having found her voice, proceeded to speak strongly on +the discrimination made against women in the matter of salaries, and +was ably supported by her sister, Mrs. J.R. Vosburg. J. D. Fanning, of +New York, recording secretary, asked that the resolutions be read, +which was done. Miss Anthony then made a forcible speech in their favor +and they were passed unanimously, to the utter amazement and +discomfiture of President Davies. + +She went home well satisfied with her work, and completed preparations +for the Whole World's Temperance Convention, which was held in New +York, September 1 and 2. Her zeal is amusingly illustrated by her +proposal to invite Victor Hugo and Harriet Martineau to speak. It was a +splendid assemblage, addressed by the leading men and women of the day, +the large hall packed at every session, the audience sitting hour after +hour, orderly but full of earnestness and enthusiasm. The New York +Tribune said of it: "This has been the most spirited and able meeting +on behalf of temperance that ever was held." + +The men's convention has a different record. New York, in the month of +September, 1853, was in a whirlwind of excitement. The first World's +Fair of the United States was in progress and people had gathered from +all parts of this and other countries. In order to reach these crowds, +many conventions had been called to meet in this city, among them the +two Temperance, the Anti-Slavery and the Woman's Rights. The Whole +World's Temperance and the Anti-Slavery closed just in time for the +opening of the World's Temperance and the Woman's Rights meetings. Rev. +Antoinette Brown was appointed a delegate from two different societies +to the World's Temperance Convention and, although they had every +reason to believe that no woman would be received, it was decided to +make the attempt in order to show their willingness to co-operate with +the men's associations in temperance work. + +Wendell Phillips accompanied her to Metropolitan Hall, where she handed +her credentials to the secretary and, after they were passed upon, the +president, Neal Dow, informed her that she was a member of the +convention. Later, when she arose to speak to a motion, he invited her +to the platform and then pandemonium broke loose. There were cries of +"order," "order," hisses, shouts of "she shall not speak," and above +all the voice of Rev. John Chambers, who, pointing his finger at her, +cried over and over, "Shame on the woman!" Miss Brown stood an hour and +a half on the platform, in the midst of this bedlam, not because she +was anxious to speak, but to establish the principle that an accredited +delegate to a world's convention should not be denied the right of +speech on account of sex; but she was finally compelled to leave the +hall. + +Win. Lloyd Garrison said: "I have seen many tumultuous meetings in my +day, but on no occasion have I ever seen anything more disgraceful to +our common humanity." Samuel F. Gary led in the opposition to Miss +Brown, offering a resolution that "women be not allowed to speak," and +afterwards declaring in his paper that he did it "because she tried to +force the question of woman's rights upon the convention." To this Rev. +William Henry Channing replied in a public address: "If any man says +that, _he lies_. She stood there simply asking her privilege as a +delegate." The New York Tribune said: "This convention has completed +three of its four business sessions and the results may be summed up as +follows: First day--Crowding a woman off the platform; second +day--Gagging her; third day--Voting that she shall stay gagged. Having +thus disposed of the main question, we presume the incidentals will be +finished this morning." + +This was not an exaggerated statement, as practically nothing was done +during the three days of the convention except to fight over the +question of allowing Miss Brown, an accepted delegate, an ordained +minister, a young, beautiful and modest woman, to stand upon their +platform and speak on the subject of temperance. Miss Anthony was a +witness to these proceedings, her Quaker blood rose to the boiling +point and she registered anew a solemn vow within herself that she +never would relax her efforts for one single day, if it took a +lifetime, until woman had the right of speech on every platform in the +land. + +The mob which had begun with the anti-slavery and gathered strength at +the temperance meeting, now turned its attention to the Woman's Rights +Convention in Broadway Tabernacle. The president was that lovely +Quaker, Lucretia Mott, and the speakers were among the greatest men and +women in the nation: Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Rev. +Channing, Rev. John Pierpont, Mrs. Rose, Lucy Stone, Frances D. Gage, +Miss Brown, Mrs. Nichols. In Miss Anthony's address she reviewed the +action of the recent teachers' convention at Rochester and closed by +saying: "A woman principal in that city receives $250, while a man +principal, doing exactly the same work, receives $650. In this State +there are 11,000 teachers and of these four-fifths are women. By the +reports it will be seen that of the annual State fund of $800,000, +two-thirds are paid to men and one-third to women; that is to say, +two-thirds are paid to one-fifth of the laborers, and the other +four-fifths are paid with the remaining one-third of the fund!" This +was the first appearance of Madame Mathilde Anneke, a highly-educated +German of noble family, a political exile from Hungary, and a friend of +Kossuth. That wonderful colored woman, Sojourner Truth, also was +present. + +The resolutions were, in effect, that "each human being should be the +judge of his or her sphere and that human rights should be recognized." +There never were, there never will be, grander speeches than those +which were made on this occasion, and yet the entire convention was in +the hands of a mob. The women, as well as the men, were greeted with +cries of "shut up," "sit down," "get out," "bow-wow," "go it, Susan," +and their voices drowned with hisses and cat-calls. The uproar was +indescribable, with shouting, yelling, screaming, bellowing, stamping +and every species of noise that could be made. Horace Greeley went down +among the crowd and tried to quiet them. The police were appealed to in +vain, and the meeting finally closed in the midst of tumult and +confusion. The Tribune under the management of Greeley, and the Evening +Post under that of William Cullen Bryant, condemned the rioters with +the greatest severity, but the other leading dailies of New York +sustained the mob spirit and made the ladies a target for ridicule and +condemnation. + +After leaving New York, Miss Anthony went to the Fourth National +Woman's Rights Convention at Cleveland, O., which was one of the +largest and most enthusiastic that had been held. It was attended by +many noted people, among them Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, always a +consistent advocate of woman's rights, and the proceedings were marked +with perfect order and propriety. Miss Anthony was continued at the +head of the finance committee, as it was found that no one could raise +so much money. The three weeks following she traveled through the +southern counties in New York and spoke in a number of villages. A year +before she had gone over the same ground and organized woman's +temperance societies. She found that, with the exception of one at +Elmira, none of these was in existence. The explanation in every +instance was that they had no money to secure lecturers, or to do any +practical work and, as all the members were wives and housekeepers, +they were not in a position to earn any. Miss Anthony makes this entry +in her journal: + + Thus as I passed from town to town was I made to feel the great + evil of woman's utter dependence on man for the necessary means to + aid reform movements. I never before took in so fully the grand + idea of pecuniary independence. Woman must have a purse of her own, + and how can this be so long as the law denies to the wife all right + to both the individual and the joint earnings? Reflections like + these convince me that there is no true freedom for woman without + the possession of equal property rights, and that these can be + obtained only through legislation. If this is so, then the sooner + the demand is made, the sooner it will be granted. It must be done + by petition, and this, too, of the very next legislature. How can + the work be started? We must hold a convention and adopt some plan + of united action. + +With her, to think was always to act. She reached Rochester on the +morning of election day, and went at once to the home of William and +Mary Hallowell, that home whose doors never were closed to her, where +for more than fifty years she was welcome day or night, where she +always turned for advice, assistance and sympathy and ever found them +in the fullest measure. She explained to them her idea of calling a +meeting in Rochester for the specific purpose of starting a petition +for more extended property rights to women. They encouraged the +project, and she then turned toward her other Mecca, the home of Maria +G. Porter. Three of the Porter sisters kept a private school in this +city for thirty years, while the eldest, Maria, made a home for them +and also took a select class of boarders. This was a literary center, +she often invited Miss Anthony to meet her distinguished guests, and +ever encouraged and sustained her public work. Mr. Channing was +boarding here, and when Miss Anthony unfolded her plan, he exclaimed, +"Capital! Capital!" and at once prepared an eloquent call for the +convention. This meant for her the writing of letters to scores of +influential people asking their signatures, which were almost +invariably given, and was followed by all the drudgery necessary for +every meeting of this kind. + +[Autograph: + + W. H. Channing] + +The convention opened Nov. 30 at Corinthian Hall, Rev. May presiding +and Rev. Channing the leading spirit. Two forms of the petition were +adopted, one for the just and equal rights of women in regard to wages +and children; the other for the right of suffrage. Miss Anthony was +appointed one of the lecturers, and also put in charge of the +petitions. Sixty women began circulating these, and she herself +canvassed her own city, lectured in a number of towns, and at the same +time made arrangements for a State suffrage convention to be held in +Albany February 14 and 15. At this time Parker Pillsbury wrote to Lydia +Mott: + + Is there work down among you for Susan to do? Any shirt-making, + cooking, clerking, preaching or teaching, indeed any honest work, + just to keep her out of idleness! She seems strangely + unemployed--almost expiring for something to do, and I could not + resist the inclination to appeal to you, _as a person of particular + leisure_, that an effort be made in her behalf. At present she has + only the Anti-Slavery cause for New York, the "Woman's Rights + Movement" for the world, the Sunday evening lectures for Rochester + and other lecturing of her own from Lake Erie to the "Old Man of + Franconia mountains;" private cares and home affairs and the + various et ceteras of _womanity_. These are about all so far as + appears, to occupy her seven days of twenty-four hours each, as the + weeks rain down to her from Eternal Skies. Do pity and procure work + for her if it be possible! + +[Footnote 17: From 1840 to 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ernestine L. +Hose, Lydia Mott and Paulina Wright (afterwards Davis), circulated +petitions for a Married Woman's Property Law and, in presenting them, +addressed a legislative committee several times.] + +[Footnote 18: The W.C.T.U. was organized in 1874 and the temperance +work passed almost entirely into the hands of women.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +PETITIONS----BLOOMERS----LECTURES. + +1854. + + +Considerable space has been given to detailed accounts of these early +conventions to illustrate the prejudice which existed against woman's +speaking in public, and the martyrdom suffered by the pioneers to +secure the right of free speech for succeeding generations. From this +time until the merging of all questions into the Civil War, such +conventions were held every year, producing a great revolution of +sentiment in the direction of an enlarged sphere for woman's activities +and a modification of the legal and religious restraints that so long +had held her in bondage. They have been fully described also in order +to indicate some of the causes which operated in the development of the +mind and character of Susan B. Anthony, transforming her by degrees +from a, quiet, domestic Quaker maiden to a strong, courageous, +uncompromising advocate of absolute equality of rights for woman. +Brought into close association with the most advanced men and women of +the age, seeing on every hand the injustice perpetrated against her sex +and hearing the magnificent appeals for the liberty of every human +being, her soul could not fail to respond; and having passed the age +when women are apt to consecrate themselves to love and marriage, it +was most natural that she should dedicate her services to the struggle +for the freedom of woman. She did not realize then that this would +reach through fifty years of exacting and unending toil, but even had +she done so, who can doubt that she freely would have given up her life +to the work? + +In the ten weeks before the State convention at Albany, 6,000 names +were secured for the petition that married women should be entitled to +the wages they earned and to the equal guardianship of their children, +and 4,000 asking for the suffrage. Miss Anthony herself trudged from +house to house during that stormy winter, many of the women slamming +the door in her face with the statement that they "had all the rights +they wanted;" although at this time an employer was bound by law to pay +the wife's wages to the husband, and the father had the power to +apprentice young children without the mother's consent, and even to +dispose of them by will at his death. One minister, in Rochester, after +looking her over carefully, said: "Miss Anthony, you are too fine a +physical specimen of woman to be doing such work as this. You ought to +marry and have children." Ignoring the insult, she replied in a +dignified manner: "I think it a much wiser thing to secure for the +thousands of mothers in this State the legal control of the children +they now have, than to bring others into the world who would not belong +to me after they were born." + +The State convention met in Association Hall, Albany, February 14, +1854. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, president, delivered a magnificent +address which Miss Anthony had printed and laid upon the desk of every +member of the Legislature; she also circulated 50,000 of these +pamphlets throughout the State. The convention had been called for two +days, but so great was the interest aroused and so popular were the +speakers in attendance that evening meetings were held for two weeks; +the questions under consideration were taken up by the newspapers of +Albany and the discussion spread through the press of the State, +finding able defenders as well as bitter opponents. A peculiar +illustration of the uncertain disposition of an audience was here +given. While in other places women had been prevented from speaking, +now they would not hear any but women, and whenever Mr. Channing or Mr. +May attempted to speak he was at once cried down in a good-natured but +effective manner. The women were greatly distressed at this, as these +men had been their strongest allies, their leaders, their educators; +but their appeals to the audience to listen to masculine eloquence were +made in vain. + +The petitions with their 10,000 names were presented in the Assembly, +and strongly advocated by Mr. Peters, and Mr. D. P. Wood, of Onondaga +county, but vehemently opposed by Mr. Burnett, of Essex. In his speech +against the petition asking only that married women might possess their +own wages and have equal guardianship of their children, he said: + + I hope before even this motion is put, gentlemen will be allowed to + reflect upon the important question whether these individuals + deserve any consideration at the hands of the Legislature. Whatever + may be their pretensions or their sincerity, they do not appear + satisfied with having unsexed themselves, but they desire to unsex + every female in the land and to set the whole community ablaze with + unhallowed fire. I trust, sir, the House may deliberate before we + suffer them to cast their firebrand into our midst. True, as yet, + there is nothing officially before us, but it is well known that + the object of these unsexed women is to overthrow the most sacred + of our institutions, to set at defiance the divine law which + declares man and wife to be one, and establish on its ruins what + will be in fact and in principle but a species of legalized + adultery. + + It is, therefore, a matter of duty, a duty to ourselves, to our + consciences, to our constituents and to God, who is the source of + all law and of all obligations, to reflect long and deliberately + before we shall even seem to countenance a movement so unholy as + this. Are we, sir, to give the least countenance to claims so + preposterous, disgraceful and criminal as are embodied in this + address? Are we to put the stamp of truth upon the libel here set + forth, that men and women in the matrimonial relation are to be + equal? We know that God created man as the representative of the + race; that after his creation, his Creator took from his side the + material for woman's creation; and that, by the institution of + matrimony, woman was restored to the side of man, and they became + one flesh and one being, he the head.... + + But we are now asked to have the ordinance of matrimony based on + jealousy and distrust; and, as in Italy, so in this country, should + this mischievous scheme be carried out to its legitimate results, + we, instead of reposing safe confidence against assaults upon our + honor in the love and affection of our wives, shall find ourselves + obliged to close the approaches to those assaults by the padlock. + +The petitions were referred to a select committee of the Senate and the +Assembly, which Miss Anthony addressed. The Albany Argus reported her +speech as follows: + + Miss Anthony said that she appeared on behalf of the signers of the + petitions and tendered to the Legislature thanks for the courteous + manner in which they had been received. They asked that husband and + wife should be tenants in common of property, but with a partition + upon the death of one; that a wife should be competent to discharge + trusts and powers, the same as a single woman; that the statute in + respect to married women's property should be made effectual, and + the wife's property descend as though she had been unmarried; that + married women should be entitled to execute letters testamentary + and of administration; that they should have power to make + contracts and transact business; that they should be entitled to + their own earnings, subject to their proportionate liability for + support of children; that post nuptial acquisitions should belong + equally to husband and wife; that married women should stand on the + same footing with single as parties or witnesses in legal + proceedings; that they should be equal guardians of their minor + children; that the homestead should be inviolable and inalienable + for widows and their children; that laws in relation to divorce + should be revised, and habitual drunkenness be made cause of + absolute divorce; that the preference of males in descent of real + estate should be abolished; that women should exercise the right of + suffrage, be eligible to all offices, occupations and professions, + entitled to act as jurors, eligible to employment in public + offices; that a law should be passed extending the masculine + designation in all statutes to females. + +The committee, James L. Angle, of Monroe county, chairman, presented a +dignified and respectful report, denying the petition for suffrage but +recommending that the laws be so changed as to allow the wife to +collect and control her own earnings if the family were neglected by +the husband, and to require the written consent of the mother to the +apprenticeship of her children. The Legislature, however, refused to +pass such a bill, as did all succeeding Legislatures until 1860. + +There was nothing but to go to work again, for Miss Anthony and her +co-laborers were determined not to relax their efforts until the +obnoxious laws against women were repealed. It was at this rallying of +the forces and renewing of the attack that Mr. Channing declared Miss +Anthony to be "the Napoleon of the movement," a title so appropriate +that it has clung to her to the present day. She had now thoroughly +systematized the work in New York and was appointed general agent. It +was decided to hold a series of conventions throughout the state for +the purpose of rolling up mammoth petitions to present to the +Legislature every session until they should be granted. Two strong +appeals, one written by Mrs. Stanton and one by Mr. Channing, were +widely circulated and a large corps of able speakers was engaged. All +this work the State committee assigned to Miss Anthony, but did not +provide her with one dollar to pay expenses. + +For many years thereafter she canvassed the State annually; held +meetings, organized societies and secured thousands of signatures, +without any guaranteed fund. Not only did she give all her time and +perform far greater labor than any other person engaged in this +movement, but she also took the whole financial responsibility. The +anxiety of this hardly can be imagined, but she was seldom discouraged, +never daunted. Her father had repaid the few hundred dollars she had +loaned him from her slender earnings as teacher in the days of his +adversity, and these she used freely without expectation of replacing +them. She never hesitated because she had not money but went boldly +forward, trusting to collections and contributions to pay expenses. +Sometimes she came out even, sometimes behind. In the latter case she +sent at once to her father who supplied the necessary funds, which were +repaid when there was a surplus. Had she waited to have the money in +hand, had she feared to take the chances, her work never would have +been done; and unless some one else had been developed who could and +would assume the risk and manage the business part of the State +campaigns, the progress of woman, slow as it has been, would have been +still longer delayed. The one ruling characteristic of her life ever +has been courage, moral and physical. There never have been hardships +which she feared to endure, never scorn, ridicule or abuse which she +did not dare face. While she might have risen to a high position and +commanded a large salary as teacher, or have lived at home in restful +comfort, she voluntarily chose the hardest field of work the world +offered, one shadowed with obloquy, holding out no prospect of money or +fame and no hope of success except through long and bitter conflict. + +Soon after the Albany convention Lucy Stone wrote: "God bless you, +Susan dear, for the brave heart that will work on even in the midst of +discouragement and lack of helpers. Everywhere I am telling people what +your State is doing, and it is worth a great deal to the cause. The +example of positive action is what we need.... Does not Channing +deserve the blessing of all the race for his fidelity to the cause of +women? I believe he understands better than any others, unless it be +Higginson and Phillips, just what we need. Give my love and best wishes +to the household of faith." Channing, when she wanted him to preside at +a meeting, answered facetiously: "Napoleon will not be surprised that a +corporal of an awkward squad hesitates to appear in command where the +general-in-chief is present." + +[Autograph: + + Affectionately + Lucy Stone] + +It was at the close of this Albany convention that Miss Anthony decided +to abandon the Bloomer costume. The subject had been occupying her +sleeping and waking hours for some time, and it was only after a long +and agonizing struggle that she persuaded herself to take the step. In +order to show how very serious a question this had been with the women, +it will be necessary to go into a somewhat detailed account of this +first movement toward dress reform. + +The costume consisted of a short skirt and a pair of Turkish trousers +gathered at the ankle or hanging straight, and was made of ordinary +dress materials. It was first introduced at the various "water cures" +to relieve sick and delicate women, often rendered so by their +unhealthful mode of dress, and was strongly recommended in the "water +cure" journals. When women began to go into public work, they could not +fail to recognize the disadvantages of the unyielding corsets, heavy, +quilted and stiffly-starched petticoats, five or six worn at one time +to hold out the long, voluminous dress skirts; and to feel that to be +consistent they must give freedom to the body. The proprietors of the +"water cures" were, for the most part, in touch with all reform +movements and their hospitality was freely extended to those engaged in +them. In this way the women had an opportunity to see the comfort which +the patients enjoyed in their loose, short garments, and began to ask +why they also should not adopt what seemed to them a rational dress. + +Hon. Gerrit Smith, of Peterboro, N.Y., the wealthy and influential +reformer and philanthropist, became an earnest advocate of this +costume, and his daughter, Elizabeth Smith Miller, a beautiful and +fashionable woman, was the first to put it on. In Washington she wore +it, made of the most elegant materials, during all her father's term in +Congress. She was soon followed by his cousin, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, +and with this social sanction it was adopted in 1851 and '52 by a small +number, including Lucy Stone, Amelia Bloomer, Dr. Harriet Austin, Celia +Burleigh, Charlotte Wilbour, the Grimke sisters, probably less than one +hundred in the whole country. In order to be entirely relieved from the +care of personal adornment, they also cut off their hair. Miss Anthony +was the very last to adopt the style. In May, 1852, she wrote Lucy +Stone that Mrs. Stanton had offered to make her a present of the +costume, but she would not wear it. In December she wrote again, dating +her letter from Mrs. Stanton's nursery, "Well, at last I am in short +skirt and trousers!" At this time she also sacrificed her abundant +brown tresses. + +The world was not ready for this innovation. There were no gymnasiums +or bicycles to plead for the appropriateness of the costume and it was +worn chiefly by women who preached doctrines for which the public was +no better prepared than for dress reform. The outcry against it +extended from one end of the country to the other; the press howled in +derision, the pulpit hurled its anathemas and the rabble took up the +refrain. On the streets of the larger cities the women were followed by +mobs of men and boys, who jeered and yelled and did not hesitate to +express their disapproval by throwing sticks and stones and giving +three cheers and a tiger ending in the loudest of groans.[19] Sometimes +these demonstrations became so violent that the women were obliged to +seek refuge in a store and, after the mob had grown tired of waiting +and dispersed, they would slip out of the back door and find their way +home through the alleys. Their husbands and children refused to be seen +with them in public, and they were wholly ostracized by other women. +Mrs. Bloomer was at this time publishing a paper called the Lily, which +was the organ for the reforms of the day. Its columns were freely used +to advocate the short dress, the paper thus became the target of attack +and, because the costume had no distinctive name, it was christened +with that of the editor, much to her grief. Later a substitute for the +trousers was adopted, consisting of high shoes with buttoned gaiters +fitting in the tops and extending up over the leg, and an effort was +made to change the name to the "American costume," but the people would +not have it and "Bloomer" it will remain for all time. An extract from +one of her unpublished letters will show how all the women felt on this +subject. After protesting against connecting it with the question of +woman's rights, she says: + + It is only one of our rights to dress comfortably. Many have put on + the short dress who have never taken any part in the woman's rights + movement and who have no idea they are going to be any less womanly + by such a change. I feel no more like a man now than I did in long + skirts, unless it be that enjoying more freedom and cutting off the + fetters is to be like a man. I suppose in that respect we are more + mannish, for we know that in dress, as in all things else, we have + been and are slaves, while man in dress and all things else is + free. I admit that we have "got on the pantaloons," but I deny that + putting them on is going to make us any the less womanly or any the + more masculine and immodest. On the contrary, I feel that if all of + us were less slaves to fashion we would be nobler women, for both + our bodies and minds are now rendered weak and useless from the + unhealthy and barbarous style of dress adopted, and from the time + and thought bestowed in making it attractive. A change is demanded + and if I have been the means of calling the attention of the public + to it and of leading only a few to disregard old customs and for + once to think and act for themselves, I shall not trouble myself + about the false imputations that may be cast upon me. + +[Autograph: Amelia Bloomer] + +Mrs. Bloomer wore the costume eight years, but very few held out +one-fourth of that time. With the exception of Gerrit Smith, all the +prominent men, Garrison, Phillips, Channing, May, were bitterly opposed +to the short dress and tried to dissuade the women from wearing it by +every argument in their power. The costume, however, was adopted as a +matter of principle, and for it they suffered a martyrdom which would +have made burning at the stake seem comfortable. It requires far more +heroism to bear jibes and jeers for one's personal appearance than for +one's opinions. No pen can describe what these women endured for the +two or three years in which they tried to establish this principle, +through such sacrifices as only a woman can understand. So long as they +were upheld by the belief that they were giving strength to the cause +they loved, they bravely submitted to the persecution, but when they +realized that they were injuring instead of helping it, endurance +reached its limit. Mrs. Stanton was the first to capitulate, and as she +had tried to induce the others to wear the costume so she endeavored to +persuade them to abandon it. She wrote to Miss Anthony and Lucy Stone: +"I know what you must suffer in consenting to bow again to the tyranny +of fashion, but I know also what you suffer among fashionable people in +wearing the short dress; and so, not for the sake of the cause, nor for +any sake but your own, take it off! We put it on for greater freedom, +but what is physical freedom compared with mental bondage?" In agony of +spirit as to whether the cause was helped or hindered by wearing it, +and ready to put aside all personal feeling in the matter, Miss Anthony +appealed to Lucy Stone, who answered: + + Now, Susan, it is all fudge for anybody to pretend that a cause + which deserves to live is impeded by the length of your skirt. I + know, from having tried through half the Union, that audiences + listen and assent just as well to one who speaks truth in a short + as in a long dress; but I am annoyed to death by people who + recognize me by my clothes, and when I travel get a seat by me and + bore me for a whole day with the stupidest stuff in the world. Then + again, when I go to each new city a horde of boys pursue me and + destroy all comfort. I have bought a nice new dress, which I have + had a month, and it is not made because I can't decide whether to + make it long or short. Not that I think any cause will suffer, but + simply to save myself a great deal of annoyance and not feel when I + am a guest in a family that they are mortified if other persons + happen to come in. I was at Lucretia Mott's a few weeks ago, and + her daughters took up a regular labor with me to make me abandon + the dress. They said they would not go in the street with me, and + when Grace Greenwood called and others like her, I think it would + have been a real relief to them if I had not been there. James and + Lucretia defended me bravely. + +This was received by Miss Anthony while at the Albany convention, and +she wrote: + + Your letter caused a bursting of the floods, long pent up, and + after a good cry I went straight to Mrs. Stanton and read it to + her. She has had a most bitter experience in the short dress, and + says she now feels a mental freedom among her friends that she has + not known for two years past. If Lucy Stone, with all her power of + eloquence, her loveliness of character, who wins all that hear the + sound of her voice, can not bear the martyrdom of the dress, who + can? Mrs. Stanton's parting words were, "Let the hem out of your + dress to-day, before to-morrow night's meeting." I have not obeyed + her but have been in the streets and printing offices all day long, + had rude, vulgar men stare me out of countenance and heard them say + as I opened the door, "There comes my Bloomer!" O, hated name! I + have been compelled to attend to all the business here, as at + Rochester. There every one knew me, knew my father and brother, and + treated me accordingly, but here I am known only as one of the + women who ape men--coarse brutal men! Oh, I can not, can not bear + it any longer. + +To this Lucy Stone replied: + + I am sure you are all worn out or you would not feel so intensely + about the dress. I never shed a tear over it in my life or came + within a thousand ages of martyrdom on account of it; and to be + compelled to travel in rain and snow, mud and dirt, in a long dress + would cost me more in every respect than the short dress ever did. + I don't think I can abandon it, but I will have two skirts. I have + this feeling: Women are in bondage; their clothes are a great + hindrance to their engaging in any business which will make them + pecuniarily independent, and since the soul of womanhood never can + be queenly and noble so long as it must beg bread for its body, is + it not better, even at the expense of a vast deal of annoyance, + that they whose lives deserve respect and are greater than their + garments should give an example by which woman may more easily work + out her own emancipation?... It is a part of the "mint, anise and + cumin," and the weightier matters of justice and truth occupy my + thoughts more. + +She did abandon the costume, however, before the year was ended, as did +most of the others. The establishment of gymnasiums and the +encouragement of athletic sports among women eventually made a short +dress an acknowledged necessity, and the advent of the bicycle so +thoroughly swept away the old prejudice that the word "Bloomers" no +longer strikes terror to the heart, nor does the wearing of a short +skirt ostracise a woman and destroy her good works. Miss Anthony wore +hers a little over a year. It was not very different from the bicycle +dress of the present day, the skirt reaching almost to the shoe tops +and made of satin or heavy merino, and yet for years afterwards she was +described as attending meetings in "the regulation bombazine Bloomers," +and it was impossible to convince people to the contrary until they had +seen her with their own eyes. She herself said in regard to it: "I felt +the need of some such garments because I was obliged to be out every +day in all kinds of weather, and also because I saw women ruined in +health by tight lacing and the weight of their clothing; and I hoped to +help establish the principle of rational dress. I found it a physical +comfort but a mental crucifixion. It was an intellectual slavery; one +never could get rid of thinking of herself, and the important thing is +to forget self. The attention of my audience was fixed upon my clothes +instead of my words. I learned the lesson then that to be successful a +person must attempt but one reform. By urging two, both are injured, as +the average mind can grasp and assimilate but one idea at a time. I +have felt ever since that experience that if I wished my hearers to +consider the suffrage question I must not present the temperance, the +religious, the dress, or any other besides, but must confine myself to +suffrage." With the exception of that one year, Miss Anthony always has +been particular to follow, in a modified and conservative form, the +prevailing styles, and has fought strenuously the repeated efforts to +graft any kind of dress reform on the suffrage movement. + +In March, 1854, after getting back into long skirts, Miss Anthony +decided to go to Washington with Mrs. Rose, and see how the propaganda +of equal rights would be received at the capital of the nation. This +was her first visit to that city and she enjoyed it, but the meetings +were not a financial success. Great prejudice existed against Mrs. Rose +on account of her alleged infidelity, there was no interest in the +question of woman's rights, and Washington was not a good field for +lectures of any sort, Congress furnishing all the oratory for which the +public cared. The papers were kind about publishing notices, but with +the exception of the Star, gave no reports. Chaplain Milburn refused to +let them have the Representative chamber for a Sunday lecture, "because +Mrs. Rose was not a member of any church." Miss Anthony replied that +"our country stood for religious as well as civil liberty." He +acknowledged the truth of this but still refused the use of the room. +Then they applied to Professor Henry for permission to speak in the +hall of the Smithsonian Institute, and he told them that "it was +necessary to avoid the discussion of any exciting questions there, and +it would disturb the harmony of feeling for a woman to speak, so he +hoped they would not ask permission of the board of regents." They had +several good audiences, however, while in the city, made many warm +friends and were handsomely entertained at the home of Gerrit Smith, +then in Congress. + +They went to Alexandria and to Baltimore, where they had much better +houses, but everywhere were warned not to touch on the question of +slavery. Miss Anthony was terribly disgusted with the general +shiftlessness she saw about the hotels and boarding-houses, and was in +a state of pent-up indignation to see on every hand the evils of +slavery and not be allowed to lift her voice against them, but later +writes in her journal: "This noon I ate my dinner without once asking +myself, 'Are these human beings who minister to my wants slaves who can +be bought and sold?' Yes, even I am growing accustomed to slavery; so +much so that I cease to think of its accursed influence and calmly eat +from the hands of the bondman without being mindful that he is such. O, +Slavery, hateful thing that thou art thus to blunt the keen edge of +conscience!" The landlord failing to have her called in time for the +train, she complains: + + There is no promptness, no order, no system down here. The + institution of slavery is as ruinous to the white man as to the + black.... Three northern servants, engineered by a Yankee + boarding-house keeper, would do more work than a dozen of these + slaves. The free blacks, who receive wages, do no more than the + others. Such is the effect of slavery upon labor. I can understand + why northern men make the most exacting overseers; they require an + amount of work from the slave equal to what they would from the + paid white laborer of the north. + +From Baltimore Miss Anthony went to Philadelphia, where she found +herself among friends, and as wherever two or three were gathered +together in those days they always decided to hold a woman's rights +meeting, James Mott sallied forth to arrange for one in the Quaker +city, and she comments in her diary: "O, how good it seems to have some +one take the burden off my shoulders!" They visited, made excursions, +attended anti-slavery meetings and also spiritual seances, which were +then attracting great attention. Of the many discussions which arose as +to existence or non-existence after death, she writes: "The negative +had reason on their side; not an argument could one of us bring, except +an intuitive feeling that we should not cease to exist. If it be true +that we die like the flower, what a delusion has the race suffered, +what a vain dream is life!" + +Miss Anthony went from here to New York, Brooklyn and Albany, and then +to her old home at Battenville, stopping with relatives and friends at +each place and speaking in the interest of the petitions. An example of +the courage required to go into a strange town and arrange for a +meeting may be given by an extract from one of many similar letters: + + I speak in this village to-morrow night; had written a gentleman + but he was away, so I had all the work to do myself. I first called + on the Methodist minister to get his church. I stated my business + and he asked: "What are you driving at? Do you want to vote and be + President?" I answered that I did not personally aspire to the + presidency, but when the nation decided a woman was most competent + for that office, I would be willing she should fill it. "Well," + said he, "if the Bible teaches anything, it is that women should be + quiet keepers at home and not go gadding round the country;" and + much more. In all my traveling, in short or long skirts, I have + never been treated so contemptuously, so insultingly, as by this + same wretch of a minister. He is void of the first spark of + reverence for humanity, therefore must be equally so for God. Just + now his pious church bell is ringing for prayer-meeting; I have + half a mind to go, to see if he warns his flock to beware of my + heresies. From him I went to the Wesleyan Methodist minister, and + what a contrast! He thought I wanted the church for to-night and + said: "We have our prayer-meeting, but will adjourn it for you." + This kindness made me so weak, the tears came in spite of me, and I + explained the rowdy treatment of the other minister. I have had a + varied experience ever since I left Easton. Verily, I am embarked + in an unpopular cause and must be content to row up stream. + +In May she went to the great Anti-Slavery Anniversary in New York. In +August she attended the State Teachers' Convention at Oswego. Victor M. +Rice, of Buffalo, was president and accorded her every courtesy and +encouragement. The question of woman's right to speak had been settled +at the Rochester convention the previous year and never again was +disputed, so she turned her attention to the right of women to hold +office in the association and to fill the position of principal in the +public schools, which called forth vigorous discussion. She secured the +election of a woman as one of the vice-presidents. The Oswego press +declared: "Miss Anthony made the speech of the convention; in grace of +oratory and in spirit and style of thought it fully vindicated her +claim to woman's right to speak in public. Her arguments were good, her +speaking talents of the first order, and we hope that when men answer +such pleas as she made, they will do it in a manly and generous +spirit." + +She saw at this time that a Temperance and also an Anti-Nebraska +Convention were to be held this month at Saratoga Springs, and at once +conceived the idea of calling a woman's rights meeting for the same +week. The time was short but she wrote urgent letters to Lucy Stone, +Antoinette Brown, Ernestine Rose and Lucretia Mott. At the appointed +time, every one failed to come. Each, supposing all the rest would be +there, had allowed some other duty to keep her away. The meeting had +been advertised and Miss Anthony was in despair. Judge William Hay, of +Saratoga, always her faithful friend, had made the arrangements and he +encouraged her to go ahead. In those days she had no faith in herself +as a speaker. She was accustomed to raise the money, marshal the +forces, then take the onerous position of secretary and let the orators +come in and carry off all the glory. She spoke only when there was +nobody else who could or would do so. In the present emergency she +could utilize her one written speech and she was fortunate enough to +find at the hotel Matilda Joslyn Gage and Sarah Pellet, a graduate of +Oberlin, who consented to help her out. St. Nicholas Hall was crowded +at both sessions. Twenty-five cents admission was charged, many tracts +were sold, she paid all expenses, gave each of her speakers $10 and had +a small balance left. She needed it, for while at Saratoga her purse +had been stolen with $15, all she possessed. + +In 1854 the Missouri Compromise had been repealed, trouble in Kansas +had reached its height, the Know Nothing party was at its zenith, the +Whigs were demoralized and the Free Soilers were gaining the +ascendency. This anti-Nebraska meeting at Saratoga may be said to have +witnessed the birth of the Republican party. It possessed an additional +interest for Miss Anthony, who attended all its sessions, from the fact +that her brother, Daniel R., made on this occasion his first political +speech. He had just returned from Kansas and could describe from +personal observation the outrages perpetrated in that unhappy +territory. After leaving Saratoga, Miss Anthony spoke in many places on +the way to Rochester, among them Canajoharie, the scene of her last +teaching. Her experience here is described in a letter home: + + The trustees of the Methodist church said I could have it for my + meeting, but the minister protested and put the key into his + saintly pocket. Brown Stafford said to him, "Keep that key, if you + dare! I guess Uncle Read and Uncle John Stafford and I have done + enough to build and sustain that church to warrant us in having our + say about it full as much as you, sir;" and he was compelled to + give up the key. Uncle Read went to aunt and said: "I have not + thought of going to an evening meeting in a long time, but I will + go tonight if it kills me." So they went, also the very best of the + folks from both sides of the river, and I seldom have spoken + better. Uncle seemed very much pleased, and when Aunt Mary and the + trustees urged me to take the school again, he said: "No, some one + ought to go around and set the people thinking about the laws and + it is Susan's work to do this." + +Miss Anthony reached home, October 1, after seven months' constant +travel and hard work, and on the 17th went to the National Woman's +Rights Convention at Philadelphia and gave the report for New York. It +was through her determined efforts, overcoming the objection that she +was an atheist and declaring that every religion or none should have an +equal right on their platform, that Mrs. Rose was made president. She +met here for the first time Anna and Adeline Thomson, Sarah Pugh and +Mary Grew, and was the guest of James and Lucretia Mott, who +entertained twenty-four visitors in their hospitable house during all +the convention. This is the quaint invitation sent her by Mrs. Mott: +"It will give us pleasure to have thy company at 338 Arch street, where +we hope thou wilt make thy home. We shall of course be crowded, but we +expect thee and shall prepare accordingly. We think such as thyself, +devoted to good causes, should not have to seek a home." Wm. Lloyd +Garrison sat at her right hand at table and Miss Anthony at her left. +At the conclusion of each meal she had brought in to her a little cedar +tub filled with hot water and washed the silver, glass and fine china, +Miss Anthony drying them with the whitest of towels, while the +brilliant conversation at the table went on uninterrupted. + +At the close of 1854, Miss Anthony decided to make a thorough canvass +of every county in New York in the interest of the petitions to the +Legislature, a thing no woman ever had dreamed of doing. Most of the +papers responded cordially to her request that they publish her +notices. Mr. Greeley wrote: "I have your letter and your programme, +friend Susan. I will publish the latter in all our editions, but return +your dollars. To charge you full price would be too hard and I prefer +not to take anything." As she had not a dollar of surplus left from her +year's work she went in debt, with her father as security, for the +hand-bills which she had printed to announce her meetings. These were +folded and addressed by her brother Merritt and a young relative, Mary +Luther, his future wife, and under the direction of her father were +sent two weeks in advance to sheriff and postmaster, accompanied by a +letter from Miss Anthony requesting that they be put up in a +conspicuous place. She then wrote Wendell Phillips asking if any funds +were available from the Philadelphia convention, and he replied "no," +but sent a personal check for $50. With this money in her pocket, and +without the promise of another dollar, she started out alone, at the +beginning of winter, to canvass the great State of New York. + +[Footnote 19: At the top of their voices they shouted such doggerel as +this: + +"Heigh ho, +Thro' sleet and snow, +Mrs. Bloomer's all the go. +Twenty tailors take the stitches, +Plenty of women wear the breeches, +Heigh ho, +Carrion crow!" + +And this: + +"Gibbery, gibbery gab, +The women had a confab +And demanded the rights +To wear the tights. +Gibbery, gibbery gab." +*/] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FIRST COUNTY CANVASS----THE WATER CURE. + +1855. + + +Miss Anthony left home on Christmas Day, 1854, and held her first +meeting at Mayville, Chautauqua Co., the afternoon and evening of the +26th. On her expense account is the item: "56 cents for four pounds of +candles to light the courthouse." The weather was cold and damp and the +audiences small, although people were present from eight towns, +attracted by curiosity to hear a woman. At the evening session a "York +shilling" admittance fee was charged. At Sherman, the next evening, +there was a large audience and the diary says: "I never saw more +enthusiasm on the subject; even the orthodox churches vied with each +other as to which should open its doors." + +The plan adopted was to hold these meetings every other day, allowing +for the journey from place to place; but whenever distances would +permit, one was held on the intervening day. Occasionally Miss Anthony +had the assistance of another speaker, but more than half the meetings +were conducted with the little local help she could secure. In the +afternoon she would read half of her one and only speech and try to +form a society, but there was scarcely a woman to be found who would +accept the presidency. In the evening she would read the other half, +sell as many tracts as possible and secure names to the petitions. In +almost every instance she found the sheriff had put up her posters, +inserted notices in the papers, had them read in the churches and +prepared the courthouse for her. From only one of the sixty counties +did she receive an insulting reply to her letters, and this was from +Schoharie. The postmasters also pasted her hand-bills in a conspicuous +place, and they were a source of much amusement and comment. Most of +the towns never had been visited by a woman speaker, and wagon-loads of +people would come from miles around to see the novelty. The audiences +were cold but respectful and, as a rule, she was treated decently by +the county papers. Occasionally a smart editor would get off the joke +about her relationship to Mark Antony, which even then had become +threadbare, and invariably the articles would begin, "While we do not +agree with the theories which the lady advocates." Most of them, +however, paid high tribute to her ability as a speaker and to the +clearness, logic and force of her arguments. A quotation from the +Rondout Courier will illustrate: + + At the appointed hour a lady, unattended and unheralded, quietly + glided in and ascended the platform. She was as easy and + self-possessed as a lady should always be when performing a plain + duty, even under 600 curious eyes. Her situation would have been + trying to a non-self-reliant woman, for there was no volunteer + co-operator. The custodian of the hall, with his stereotyped + stupidity, had dumped some tracts and papers on the platform. The + unfriended Miss Anthony gathered them up composedly, placed them on + a table disposedly, put her decorous shawl on one chair and a very + exemplary bonnet on another, sat a moment, smoothed her hair + discreetly, and then deliberately walked to the table and addressed + the audience. She wore a becoming black silk dress, gracefully + draped and made with a basque waist. She appears to be somewhere + about the confines of the fourth luster in age, of pleasing rather + than pretty features, decidedly expressive countenance, rich brown + hair very effectively and not at all elaborately arranged, neither + too tall nor too short, too plump nor too thin--in brief one of + those juste milieu persons, the perfection of common sense + physically exhibited. Miss Anthony's oratory is in keeping with all + her belongings, her voice well modulated and musical, her + enunciation distinct, her style earnest and impressive, her + language pure and unexaggerated. + +Judging from other friendly notices this must be an accurate +description of Miss Anthony at the age of thirty-five. The experiment +of a woman on the platform was too new, however, and the doctrines she +advocated too unpopular for it to be possible that she should receive +fair treatment generally, and there were few papers which described her +in as unprejudiced a manner as the one quoted. A letter from her father +during this trip said: "Would it not be wise to preserve the many and +amusing observations by the different papers, that years hence, in your +more solitary moments, you and maybe your children can look over the +views of both the friends and opponents of the cause?" This was the +beginning of the scrap books carefully kept up for nearly half a +century. + +The journal for that year gives a detailed account of the hardships of +this winter, one of the coldest and snowiest on record. Many towns were +off the railroad and could be reached only by sleigh. After a long ride +she would be put for the night into a room without a fire, and in the +morning would have to break the ice in the pitcher to take that sponge +bath from head to foot which she never omitted. All that she hoped from +a financial standpoint was to pay the expenses of the trip, and had she +desired fame or honor, she would not have sought it in these remote +villages. The diary relates: + + At Olean, not a church or schoolhouse could be obtained for the + lecture and it would have had to be abandoned had not the landlord, + Mr. Comstock, given the use of his dining-room.... + + At Angelica, nine towns represented; crowded house, courtroom + carpeted with sawdust. A young Methodist minister gave his name for + the petition, but one of his wealthy parishioners told him he + should leave the church unless it was withdrawn.... + + At Corning, none of the ministers would give the notice of our + meeting, which so incensed some of the men that they went to the + printing office, struck off handbills and had boys standing at the + door of the churches as the people passed out. Who was responsible + for the Sabbath breaking?... + + At Elmira, took tea at Mrs. Holbrook's with Rev. Thomas K. Beecher. + His theology, as set forth that evening, is a dark and hopeless + one. He sees no hope for the progress of the race, does not believe + that education even will improve the species. I find great apathy + wherever the clergy are opposed to the advancement of women. + +In February Miss Anthony suspended her canvass long enough to go to +Albany to the State convention and present the petitions. In response +to her request to be present Horace Greeley wrote: "You know already +that I am thoroughly committed to the principle that woman shall decide +for herself whether she shall have a voice and vote in legislation or +shall continue to be represented and legislated for exclusively by man. +My own judgment is that woman's presence in the arena of politics would +be useful and beneficent but I do not assume to judge for her. She must +consider, determine and act for herself. Moreover, when she shall in +earnest have resolved that her own welfare and that of the race will be +promoted by her claiming a voice in the direction of civil government, +as I think she ultimately will do, then the day of her emancipation +will be very near. That day, I will hope yet to see." + +Her mission accomplished, Miss Anthony plunged again into the ice and +snow of northern New York. At Albany a wealthy and cultured Quaker +gentleman had been an attentive and interested listener, and when she +took the stage a few days later at Lake George, she found not only that +he was to be her fellow-passenger, but that he had a thick plank +heated, which he asked permission to place under her feet. Whenever the +stage stopped he had it re-heated, and in many ways added to the +comfort of her journey. At the close of the next meeting to her +surprise she found his fine sleigh waiting filled with robes and drawn +by two spirited gray horses, and he himself drove her to his own +beautiful home presided over by a sister, where she spent Sunday. In +this same luxurious conveyance she was taken to several towns and, +during one of these trips, was urged in the most earnest manner to give +up the hard life she was leading and accept the ease and protection he +could offer. But her heart made no response to this appeal while it did +urge her strongly to continue in her chosen work. + +All through the Schroon Lake country the snow was over the fences and +the weather bitterly cold. At Plattsburg, Miss Anthony was a guest at +Judge Watson's. Before leaving Rochester she had had a pair of high +boots made to protect her from the deep snows, which were so much +heavier than she was accustomed to that they almost ruined her feet. +She was at that time an ardent convert to the "water cure" theories +and, after suffering tortures from one foot especially, she came home +from the afternoon meeting, put it under the "penstock" in the kitchen +and let the cold water run over it till it was perfectly numb, then +Crapped it up in flannels. That evening it did not hurt her a particle, +and concluding that what was good for one foot must be good for two, +she put both under the "penstock" till they were almost congealed. In +the morning she scarcely could get out of bed, all the pain having +settled in her back, but in spite of protests from the family she +resumed her journey. All the way to Malone, she had to hold fast to the +seat in front of her to relieve as much as possible the motion of the +cars. She managed to conduct her afternoon and evening meetings, and +then went on to Ogdensburg, where she stopped with a cousin. The next +morning she hardly could move and the women of the family had to help +her make her toilet. Nothing they could say would persuade her to +remain; she was advertised to speak at Canton and proposed to do it if +she were alive, so she was carried out, put into a sleigh and driven +seventeen miles actually doubled up with her head on her knees. She +finished the two meetings and then resolved on heroic measures. Arising +at 4 A.M. she rode in a stage to within ten miles of Watertown, took +the cars to that city and went to a hotel. Here she ordered the +chambermaid to bring several buckets of ice water into her room and, +sitting down in a tub, she had them poured on her back, then wrapping +up in hot blankets went to bed. The next morning she was apparently +well and held her meetings. + +At Auburn, Mrs. Stanton came over from Seneca Falls to assist and they +were entertained by Martha C. Wright. As a usual thing Miss Anthony +stopped at a hotel but after the first session some one in her audience +would be so pleased with her that she was sure to be invited into a +comfortable home for the rest of her stay. One cold spring day she was +to speak at Riverhead, L.I. Reaching the courthouse, at 1 o'clock, she +found it swept and garnished and a good fire but not a person in sight +except the janitor; so she sat down and waited and finally one man +after another dropped in, until there were perhaps a dozen. Not at all +discouraged, she began her speech. Presently the door opened a little +and she saw a woman's bonnet peep in but it was quickly withdrawn. This +was repeated a number of times but not one ventured in. Whether each +woman saw her own husband and was afraid to enter, or whether she did +not dare face the other women's husbands, there was not one in the +audience. The men heard her through, bought her tracts and signed the +petition. Having decided there was nothing dangerous about her, they +came back in the evening, bringing their wives and neighbors. + +She closed her campaign May 1, having made a thorough canvass of +fifty-four counties, during which she sold 20,000 pamphlets. The total +receipts for the four months were $2,367, and the expenses were $2,291, +leaving a balance of $76. Out of this she sent Mr. Phillips the $50 he +had advanced, but he returned it saying he thought she had earned it. + +The diary relates that it was the common practice in those days for the +husband, upon coming to an eating station, to go in and get a hot +dinner, while the wife sat in the car and ate a cold lunch. It tells of +an old farmer who came with his wife to her lecture and went into the +dining-room for the best meal the tavern afforded, while the wife sat +in the parlor and nibbled a little food she had brought with her. Miss +Anthony and her companions were the only women who dared go out when +the train stopped, to walk up and down for air and exercise, and they +were considered very bold for so doing. + +In 1855, to Miss Anthony's great regret, Lucy Stone and Antoinette +Brown were married. Both were very active in the reforms of the day, +and there was such a dearth of effective workers she felt that they +could ill be spared. Their semi-apologetic letters and her +half-sorrowful, half-indignant remonstrances are both amusing and +pathetic. They assure her that marriage will make no difference with +their work, that it will only give them more power and earnestness. She +knew from observation that the married woman who attempts to do public +work must neglect either it or home duties, and that the advent of +children necessarily must compel the mother to withdraw practically +from outside occupation. She was not opposed to marriage per se, but +she felt that such women as Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown might make +a sacrifice and consecrate themselves to the great needs of the world +which were demanding the services of the ablest women. + +In May Miss Anthony went as usual to the Anti-Slavery Anniversary. In +regard to this her father wrote: "Were I in your place I should like to +attend these anniversaries. The women are soon to have their rights and +should there be any slavery left in the world after they are liberated, +it should be your business to help clear it out." Very few of those who +were actively engaged in the effort to secure equal rights for women +had the slightest conception of the half century and more of long and +steady work before them. To their minds the demand seemed so evident, +so just and so forcible, that prejudice and opposition must yield in a +short time and the foundation principles of the government be +established in fact as well as in theory. + +From New York she went to her birthplace, Adams, Mass., and spoke in +the Baptist church. Just as she began, to her amazement, her Quaker +grandfather eighty-five years old came up the aisle and sat down on the +pulpit steps. While he had been very anxious that she should speak and +that her lecture should be well advertised she had not expected him to +be present, as he was not in the habit of entering an orthodox church. +She stopped at once, gave him her hand and assisted him to a seat in +the pulpit, where he listened with deep interest. When she finished he +said: "Well, Susan, that is a smart talk thee has given us tonight." + +After Miss Anthony returned home, outraged nature asserted itself and +at every moment the pain in her back was excruciating. She went to a +doctor for the first time in her life and was given a fly-blister and +some drugs to put in whiskey. The last two she threw away but applied +the blister, which only increased her misery. She suffered terribly all +summer but was busy every moment writing a new speech and sending out +scores of letters for a second woman's rights convention which had been +called to meet at Saratoga in August. Most of the replies were +favorable. T.W. Higginson wrote: "With great pleasure will I come to +Saratoga Springs on August 15 and 16. It is a capital idea to have a +convention there, coax in some curious fashionables and perhaps make +those who come to scoff, remain to pray." Lucretia Mott sent a letter +full of good cheer. From Mrs. Stanton, overwhelmed with the cares of +many little children, came this pathetic message: "I can not go. I have +so many drawbacks to all my efforts for women that every step is one of +warfare, but there is a good time coming and I am strong and happy in +hope. I long to see you, dear Susan, and hear of your wanderings." + +Paulina Wright Davis said, in discussing the convention; "I get almost +discouraged with women. They will work for men, but a woman must ride +in triumph over everything before they will give her a word of aid or +cheer; they are ready enough to take advantage of every step gained, +but not ready to help further steps. When will they be truer and +nobler? Not in our day, but we must work on for future generations." +Lucy Stone, enjoying her honeymoon at the Blackwell home near +Cincinnati, wrote in a playful mood: "When, after reading your letter, +I asked my husband if I might go to Saratoga, only think of it! He did +not give me permission, but told me to ask Lucy Stone. I can't get him +to govern me at all.... The Washington Union, noticing our marriage, +said: 'We understand that Mr. Blackwell, who last fall assaulted a +southern lady and stole her slave, has lately married Miss Lucy Stone. +Justice, though sometimes tardy, never fails to overtake her victim.' +They evidently think him well punished. With the old love and good will +I am now and ever, + +LUCY STONE (only)." + +[Illustration: H Anthony + + AT THE AGE OF 95, IN HIS OWN ROOM AT THE OLD HOMESTEAD.] + +On the way to Saratoga Miss Anthony stopped at Utica for the State +Teachers' Convention and was appointed to read a paper at the next +annual meeting on "Educating the Sexes Together." This action showed +considerable advance in sentiment during the two years since this same +body at Rochester debated for half an hour whether a woman should be +allowed to speak to a motion. She called the Woman's Rights Convention +to order in Saratoga, August 15, 1855, and Martha C. Wright was made +president. The brilliant array of speakers addressed cultured audiences +gathered from all parts of the country at this fashionable resort. The +newspapers were very complimentary; the Whig, however, declared, "The +business of the convention was to advocate woman's right to do wrong." +It was here that Mary L. Booth, afterwards for many years editor of +Harper's Bazar, made her first public appearance, acting as secretary. + +She decided to go for a while to the Worcester Hydropathic Institute +conducted by her cousin, Dr. Seth Rogers, and she found here complete +change and comparative rest, although occupying a great deal of her +time in sending out tracts and petitions. Her account-books show the +purchase of 600 one-cent stamps, each of which meant the addressing of +an envelope with her own hand, and her letters to her father are full +of directions for printing circulars, etc. She was, however, enabled to +take some recreation, a thing almost unknown in her busy life. On +September 18 she attended the Massachusetts Woman's Rights Convention, +and wrote home: + + I went into Boston with Lucy Stone and stopped at Francis + Jackson's, where we found Antoinette Brown and Ellen Blackwell, a + pleasant company in that most hospitable home. As this was my first + visit to Boston, Mr. Jackson took us to see the sights; and then we + dined with his daughter, Eliza J. Eddy, returning in the afternoon. + In the evening, we attended a reception at Garrison's, where we met + several of the literati, and were most heartily welcomed by Mrs. + Garrison, a noble, self-sacrificing woman, loving and loved, + surrounded with healthy, happy children in that model home. Mr. + Garrison was omnipresent, now talking with and introducing guests, + now soothing some child to sleep, and now, with his wife, looking + after the refreshments. There we met Caroline H. Dall, Elizabeth + Peabody, Mrs. McCready, the Shakespearian reader, Caroline M. + Severance, Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, Charles F. Hovey, Wendell Phillips, + Sarah Pugh and others. Having worshipped these distinguished people + afar off, it was a great satisfaction to meet them face to face. + + Saturday morning, with Mr. and Mrs. Garrison and Sarah Pugh, I + visited Mount Auburn. What a magnificent resting-place! We could + not find Margaret Fuller's monument, which I regretted. I spent + Sunday with Charles Lenox Remond at Salem, and we drove to Lynn + with his matchless steeds to hear Theodore Parker preach a sermon + which filled our souls. We discussed its excellence at James + Buffum's where we all dined. Monday Mr. Garrison escorted me to + Charlestown; we stood on the very spot where Warren fell and + mounted the interminable staircase to the top of Bunker Hill + Monument. Then we called on Theodore Parker; found him up three + nights of stairs in his library which covers that whole floor of + his house; the room is lined with books to the very top--16,000 + volumes--and there at a large table in the center of the apartment + sat the great man himself. It really seemed audacious in me to be + ushered into such a presence and on such a commonplace errand as to + ask him to come to Rochester to speak in a course of lectures I am + planning, but he received me with such kindness and simplicity that + the awe I felt on entering was soon dissipated. I then called on + Wendell Phillips in his sanctum for the same purpose. I have + invited Ralph Waldo Emerson by letter and all three have promised + to come. In the evening with Mr. Jackson's son James, Ellen + Blackwell and I went to see Hamlet. In spite of my Quaker training, + I find I enjoy all these worldly amusements intensely. + + Returning to Worcester, I attended the Anti-Slavery Bazaar. I + suppose there were many beautiful things exhibited, but I was so + absorbed in the conversation of Mr. Higginson, Samuel May, Jr., + Sarah Earle, cousin Seth Rogers and Stephen and Abby Foster, that I + really forgot to take a survey of the tables. The next day Charles + F. Hovey drove with me out to the home of the Fosters where we had + a pleasant call.[20] + +[Autograph: Theodore Parker] + +Miss Anthony visited a baby show but she considered it "a sad +exhibition, unless it may be the crude and rude beginning of arousing +an interest in the laws which govern the production of strong, healthy, +beautiful children." She heard Mr. Higginson preach every Sunday, and +of one sermon on the "Secret Springs of True Greatness" she writes +home: + + The minister read from the Book of Esdras in the Apocrypha. It is + astonishing that such a beautiful and forcible exemplification of + the governing principle of life should have been cast aside as + doubtful by those who presumed to sit in judgment upon the revealed + will of the Almighty. That they did fail to perceive in this the + divine stamp, proves all the more conclusively to me that we, who + have the experience of all past generations to enlighten our + understanding and deepen our convictions, are infinitely more + competent to discern between the good and evil in that wonderful + book than were any king-appointed councils of olden times. + +During Mr. Higginson's absence his place was filled by Rev. David A. +Wasson, who was temporarily a resident of the "water cure." His sermons +and his daily companionship were a revelation to Miss Anthony of a +higher intellectual and spiritual life than she had known before, and +she records in her diary: "It is plain to me now that it is not sitting +under preaching that I dislike, but the fact that most of it is not of +a stamp that my soul can respond to." While in Worcester she went to +her first Republican meeting and heard John P. Hale. Her cousin +escorted her to a seat on the platform and Mr. Hale gave her a cordial +welcome. She was the only woman present, although several peeped in at +the door but had not the courage to enter. She also heard Henry Wilson, +Charles Sumner and Anson Burlingame, and writes: "Had the accident of +birth given me place among the aristocracy of sex, I doubt not I should +be an active, zealous advocate of Republicanism; unless, perchance, I +had received that higher, holier light which would have lifted me to +the sublime height where now stand Garrison, Phillips and all that +small but noble band whose motto is 'No Union with Slaveholders.'" + +She was at this time becoming deeply interested in politics but had not +dreamed that she herself ever would enter the ranks of political +speakers. In October she complains of her restlessness and her anxiety +to go home, but she is not strong and knows it would be impossible to +keep up the treatment there, so she says: "Because of this, and because +of my great desire to be able to do what now seems my life work, I have +decided to stay awhile longer." But in this same letter she adds: "If +Merritt is sick and needs me I will go to him at once. My waking and +sleeping thoughts are with him." This young brother had insisted upon +going West to seek his fortune and was taken ill in Iowa. At one time +when he asked for some money he had saved, and his father, thinking he +was too young to be trusted, did not let him have it, Miss Anthony +wrote: "It is too bad to treat him like a child. Let him make a blunder +even; it will do much more to develop him than the judgment of father, +mother and all the brothers and sisters. He ought to have the +privilege, since it is clearly his right, to invest his money exactly +as he pleases and I hope he will yet be trusted at least with his own +funds." + +To a woman who is publishing a paper and complains that her efforts are +neither helped nor appreciated, she replies: "Every individual woman +who launches into a work hitherto monopolized by men, must stand or +fall in her own strength or weakness. Whatever we manufacture we must +study to make it for the interest of the community to purchase. If we +fail in this, we must improve the work.... Each of us individually has +her own duties to perform and each of us alone must work out her life +problem." + +In October the National Woman's Rights Convention was held in +Cincinnati but she was unable to attend. It was the only one she missed +from 1852 until the breaking out of the war, when they were abandoned +for a number of years, and she felt so distressed that she wrote to +Rochester and persuaded her sister Mary to get leave of absence from +school and go in her place. We know she has a very pretty bonnet this +fall, for she says: "It is trimmed with dark green ribbon, striped with +black and white, and for face trimming, lace and cherry and green +flowers with the least speck of blue." She grieves because her married +sisters never have time to write her, and says: + + But so it is; every wife and mother must devote herself wholly to + home duties, washing and cleaning, baking and mending--these are + the must be's; the culture of the soul, the enlargement of the + faculties, the thought of anything or anybody beyond the home and + family are the may be's. When society is rightly organized, the + wife and mother will have time, wish and will to grow + intellectually, and will know that the limits of her sphere, the + extent of her duties, are prescribed only by the measure of her + ability. + +Her daily treatment at the "water cure" is thus described: "First thing +in the morning, dripping sheet; pack at 10 o'clock for forty-five +minutes, come out of that and take a shower, followed by a sitz bath, +with a pail of water at 75 deg. poured over the shoulders, after which dry +sheet and then, brisk exercise. At 4 P.M. the programme repeated, and +then again at 9 P.M. My day is so cut up with four baths, four +dressings and undressings, four exercisings, one drive and three +eatings, that I do not have time to put two thoughts together." Miss +Anthony recovered her health, either as a result of the treatment or of +the rest and the long rides which she took daily with her cousin as he +made his round of visits. While he was indoors she sat in the chaise +enjoying the sunshine and fresh air and reading some interesting book. +The journal shows that during the fall she read Sartor Resartus, +Consuelo, bits from Gerald Massey, Villette, Gaskell's Life of +Charlotte Bronte, Corinne, and a number of other works. Dr. Rogers, the +intimate friend of Thoreau and Emerson, was a cultured gentleman, +liberal in his views, strong in his opinions, yet tender, sympathetic +and companionable. Many of his beautiful letters to Miss Anthony have +been preserved. In speaking of political cowardice and corruption, he +says: "Were it not for the thunder and lightning of the Garrisonians to +purify the moral atmosphere, we would all sink into perdition +together." His love of liberty is thus expressed: + + I believe in the absolute freedom of every human being so long as + the rights of others are left undisturbed. Conformity too often + cuts down our stature and makes us Lilliputians, no longer units + but unities. Help me to stand alone and I will help you to right + the universe. Better, a thousand times better, that societies, + friendships even, never were formed, that we all were Robinson + Crusoes, than that the terrible tragedy of soul-annihilation + through conformity be so conspicuous in the drama of human life. + How many wives do you see who are not acting this tragedy? How many + husbands who do not applaud? Hence degeneracy after marriage, more + directly of the wife than the husband, but too often of both. + +As soon as Miss Anthony reached home, the last of November, she began +preparing for another winter campaign in the interest of the petitions, +and also for a course of lectures to be given in Rochester by the +prominent men of the day. Lucy Stone wrote her at this time: "Your +letter full of plans reaches me here. I wish I lived near enough to +catch some of your magnetism. For the first time in my life I feel, day +after day, completely discouraged. When my Harry sent your letter to me +he said, 'Susan wants you to write a tract, and I say, Amen.' When I go +home I will see whether I have any faith in nay power to do it.... +Susan, don't you lecture this winter on pain of my everlasting +displeasure. I am going to retire from the field; and if you go to work +too soon and kill yourself, the two wheelhorses will be gone and then +the chariot will stop." + +Arguments were of no avail, however, when the field was waiting and the +workers few, and while Miss Anthony was ever ready to excuse others, +she never spared herself. She decided before starting to take out a +policy in the New York Life Insurance Company. The medical certificate +given on December 18, 1855, by Dr. Edward M. Moore, the leading surgeon +of western New York, read as follows: "Height, 5 ft. 5 in.; figure, +full; chest measure 38 in.; weight, 156 lbs.; complexion, fair; habits, +healthy and active; nervous affections, none; character of respiration, +clear, resonant, murmur perfect; heart, normal in rhythm and valvular +sound; pulse 66 per minute; disease, none. The life is a very good +one." And so it has proved to be, as she has paid her premiums for over +forty years.[21] + +Just before she was ready to start on her long lecture tour in the +interest of educational, civil and political rights for women, she +received a letter, which was an entire surprise and added a new feature +to the work to which she was devoting her time and energy. + +[Footnote 20: At this Boston convention Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a +flowery description of the changed condition when women should vote and +the polls would be in a beautiful hall decorated with paintings, +statuary, etc. The women were very much worried, fearing that the +politicians would be frightened at the idea of so much respectability.] + +[Footnote 21: The president of the company, John A. McCall, in a +personal letter, written December 21, 1897, just forty-two years +afterwards, says: "That you may be spared for many, many years to your +numerous friends and admirers is the wish of this company and its +officials."] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ADVANCE ALONG ALL LINES. + +1856. + + +The letter which Miss Anthony received with so much pleased surprise +was from Samuel May, Jr., cousin of Rev. S.J. May. He was secretary of +the American Anti-Slavery Society, which had its headquarters in +Boston; Wm. Lloyd Garrison was its president, and among its officers +were Wendell Phillips, Francis Jackson, Charles Hovey, Stephen and Abby +Kelly Foster, Parker Pillsbury, Maria Weston Chapman, the most +distinguished Abolitionists of the day. This letter read: + + The executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society desire + to engage you as an agent, for such time between now and the first + of May next as you may be able to give. Will you let us know what + your engagements are, and, if you can enter into this agency, when + you will be ready to commence? The committee passed no vote as to + compensation. We would like to be informed what would be + acceptable. It is quite probable that your field of service at + first would be western and central New York. An early answer will + much oblige. + +A previous chapter has told how Miss Anthony longed to take part in +anti-slavery work, and behold here was the coveted opportunity! And +then to have such a recognition of her ability by this body of men and +women, who represented the brains and conscience of this period of +reforms, was the highest compliment she could receive. The salary, even +though small, would relieve her from the pressing anxiety of making +each day's work pay its own expenses, and while she should be laboring +in a reform in which she was greatly interested, she could at the same +time even more effectually advance the cause which lay nearest to her +heart. But the woman's rights meetings already announced by posters, +what should be done in regard to them? She finally decided to hold them +during January with Frances D. Gage, initiate her and then leave her to +fill the remainder of the winter's engagements. So she accepted Mr. +May's offer and at his request planned a route and arranged meetings +for a number of speakers. Stephen S. Foster wrote, "I shall give myself +entirely into your power, only stipulating for the liberty of speech." + +[Autograph: Stephen S. Foster] + +Miss Anthony started with Mrs. Gage January 4, 1856. As many of their +meetings were off the railroad, there was a hard siege ahead of them. +The diary says: "January 8: Terribly cold and windy; only a dozen +people in the hall; had a social chat with them and returned to our +hotel. Lost more here at Dansville than we gained at Mount Morris. So +goes the world.... January 9: Mercury 12 deg. below zero but we took a +sleigh for Nunda. Trains all blocked by snow and no mail for several +days, yet we had a full house and good meeting." Extracts from one or +two letters written home will give some idea of this perilous journey: + + HALL'S CORNERS, January 11, 8-1/2 o'clock. + + Just emerged from a long line of snowdrifts and stepped at this + little country tavern, supped and am now roasting over a hot stove. + Oh, oh, what an experience! No trains running and we have had a + thirty-six mile ride in a sleigh. Once we seemed lost in a drift + full fifteen feet deep. The driver went on ahead to a house, and + there we sat shivering. When he returned we found he had gone over + a fence into a field, so we had to dismount and plough through the + snow after the sleigh; then we reseated ourselves, but oh, the poor + horses!... + + WENDTE'S STATION, January 14, 12-1/2 o'clock P. M. + + Well, well, good folks at home, these surely are the times that try + women's souls. After writing you last, the snows fell and the winds + blew and the cars failed to go and come at their appointed hours. + We could have reached Warsaw if the omnibus had had the energy to + come for us. The train, however, got no farther than Warsaw, where + it stuck in a snowdrift eleven feet deep and a hundred long, but we + might have kept that engagement at least. Friday morning we went to + the station; no trains and no hope of any, but a man said he could + get us to Attica in time for an evening meeting, so we agreed to + pay him $5. He had a noble pair of greys and we floundered through + the deepest snowbanks I ever saw, but at 7 o'clock were still + fourteen miles from Attica. + + We stopped at a little tavern where the landlady was not yet twenty + and had a baby fifteen months old. Her supper dishes were not + washed and her baby was crying, but she was equal to the occasion. + She rocked the little thing to sleep, washed the dishes and got our + supper; beautiful white bread, butter, cheese, pickles, apple and + mince pie, and excellent peach preserves. She gave us her warm + bedroom to sleep in, and on a row of pegs hung the loveliest + embroidered petticoats and baby clothes, all the work of that young + woman's fingers, while on a rack was her ironing perfectly done, + wrought undersleeves, baby dresses, embroidered underwear, etc. She + prepared a 6 o'clock breakfast for us, fried pork, mashed potatoes, + mince pie, and for me, at my especial request, a plate of delicious + baked sweet apples and a pitcher of rich milk. Now for the moral of + this story: When we came to pay our bill, the dolt of a husband + took the money and put it in his pocket. He had not lifted a hand + to lighten that woman's burdens, but had sat and talked with the + men in the bar room, not even caring for the baby, yet the law + gives him the right to every dollar she earns, and when she needs + two cents to buy a darning needle she has to ask him and explain + what she wants it for. + + Here where I am writing is a similar case. The baby is very sick + with the whooping cough; the wife has dinner to get for all the + boarders, and no help; husband standing around with his hands in + his pockets. She begs him to hold the baby for just ten minutes, + but before the time is up he hands it back to her, saying, "Here, + take this child, I'm tired." Yet when we left he was on hand to + receive the money and we had to give it to him. We paid a man a + dollar to take us to the station, and saw the train pull out while + we were stuck in a snowdrift ten feet deep, with a dozen men trying + to shovel a path for us; so we had to come back. In spite of this + terrible weather, people drive eight and ten miles to our meetings. + +On January 20, Mrs. Gage was called home by illness in her family, +leaving Miss Anthony to finish the campaign alone. This destroyed all +plans for her work with the anti-slavery committee, as no inducement +could have been offered which would cause her to abandon these woman's +rights meetings after having advertised them. She requested Mr. May to +release her and he did so, stipulating however that she should inform +him as soon as she was at liberty. She begged various speakers to +assist her but received no favorable replies. Lucy Stone wrote, "I wish +you had a good husband; it is a great blessing." Her intense desire for +help may be judged by a letter to Martha C. Wright in regard to a +meeting which had been announced for Auburn: "Mrs. Gage has gone; now, +dear Mrs. Wright, won't you give an address? Be brave and make this +beginning. You can speak so much better, so much more wisely, so much +more everything than I can; do rejoice my heart by consenting. I wish I +could see you tonight; I'm sure I could prevail upon you. Yours +beseechingly." She got no aid from any quarter, and went on alone +through the dreary winter. To those who were to advertise her meetings +she said: "I should like a particular effort made to call out the +teachers, seamstresses and wage-earning women generally. It is for them +rather than for the wives and daughters of the rich that I labor." + +In February she returned to Rochester to look after Mr. Garrison's +lecture and entertained him at her home. As it had been decided not to +hold a convention at Albany she took this opportunity to go there and +present the petitions to the Legislature. They were referred to the +Senate Judiciary Committee, Samuel G. Foote, chairman. Mr. Foote was a +lawyer, prominent in society, the father of daughters, and yet reported +as follows on the petition asking that a woman might control her wages +and have the custody of her children: + + The committee is composed of married and single gentlemen. The + bachelors, with becoming diffidence, have left the subject pretty + much to the married gentlemen. They have considered it with the aid + of the light they have before them and the experience married life + has given them. Thus aided, they are enabled to state that the + ladies always have the best place and choicest titbit at the table. + They have the best seat in the cars, carriages and sleighs; the + warmest place in winter and the coolest in summer. They have their + choice on which side of the bed they will lie, front or back. A + lady's dress costs three times as much as that of a gentleman; and + at the present time, with the prevailing fashion, one lady occupies + three times as much space in the world as a gentleman. It has thus + appeared to the married gentlemen of your committee, being a + majority (the bachelors being silent for the reason mentioned, and + also probably for the further reason that they are still suitors + for the favors of the gentler sex) that if there is any inequality + or oppression in the case, the gentlemen are the sufferers. They, + however, have presented no petitions for redress, having doubtless + made up their minds to yield to an inevitable destiny. + + On the whole, the committee have concluded to recommend no measure, + except that they have observed several instances in which husband + and wife have both signed the same petition. In such case, they + would recommend the parties to apply for a law authorizing them to + change dresses, so that the husband may wear petticoats, and the + wife breeches, and thus indicate to their neighbors and the public + the true relation in which they stand to each other. + +The Albany Register said "this report was received with roars of +laughter." Judge Hay, Lydia Mott and a number of Miss Anthony's friends +wrote her not to be discouraged at this insult, but it may be imagined +that she took up the work again with a heart filled with resentment and +indignation. She had many peculiar experiences during her travels and +had to listen to many a chapter of family history which was far from +harmonious. On one occasion a friend was pouring into her ears an +account of the utter uncongeniality between herself and husband, +largely because he was wholly unappreciative of her higher thoughts and +feelings. As an example she related that when they visited Niagara +Falls and her soul was soaring into the seventh heaven of glory, +majesty and sublimity, he exclaimed, "What a magnificent water power +this would be, if utilized;" and that he did it on purpose to shock her +sensibilities. Miss Anthony finally said: "Now, my dear, the trouble is +you fail to recognize that your husband is so constituted that he sees +the practical while you feel only the sentimental. He does not jar your +feelings any more by his matter-of-fact comments than you jar his by +flying off into the realms of poetry on every slight provocation." She +then recalled a number of similar instances which the wife had detailed +as illustrating the husband's cruelty, impressing upon her that they +were born with different temperaments and neither had any right to +condemn the other. At the end of this conversation, the woman, weeping, +put her arms around Miss Anthony and said: "You have taught me to +understand my husband better and love and respect him more than I had +learned to do in all my long years of living with him." + +In March Garrison wrote, thanking her and her family for their generous +hospitality, concluding, "Nowhere do I visit with more real +satisfaction." He told her that he had had to give up his lecture +engagements on account of the heavy snows, but she had gone straight +through with hers. She now closed her series of meetings and went home +to arrange for Theodore Parker's lecture. Antoinette Brown Blackwell +wrote her: "I hear a certain bachelor making a number of inquiries +about Susan B. Anthony. This means that we shall look for another +wedding in our sisternity before the year ends. Get a good husband, +that's all, dear." + +On Miss Anthony's return from the May anti-slavery meeting in New York, +she received a reminder from the president of the State Teachers' +Association that she would be expected to read her paper on +"Co-Education" before that body in August. This recollection had been +keeping her awake nights for some time. It had been an easy thing to +present a resolution or make a five-minute speech, but it was quite +another to write an hour's lecture to be delivered before a most +critical audience. As was always her custom in such a dilemma, she +turned to Mrs. Stanton, who responded: + + Your servant is not dead but liveth. Imagine me, day in and day + out, watching, bathing, dressing, nursing and promenading the + precious contents of a little crib in the corner of my room. I pace + up and down these two chambers of mine like a caged lioness, + longing to bring nursing and housekeeping cares to a close. Come + here and I will do what I can to help you with your address, if you + will hold the baby and make the puddings. Let Antoinette and Lucy + rest in peace and quietness thinking great thoughts. It is not well + to be in the excitement of public life all the time, so do not keep + stirring them up or mourning over their repose. You, too, must + rest, Susan; let the world alone awhile. We can not bring about a + moral revolution in a day or a year. Now that I have two daughters, + I feel fresh strength to work for women. It is not in vain that in + myself I feel all the wearisome care to which woman even in her + best estate is subject. + +Together they ground out the address, taking turns at writing and baby +tending, and then she went home. It seemed to her that in order to +prove the absolute equality of woman with man she ought to present this +as an oration instead of reading it as an essay; so she labored many +weary hours to commit it to memory, pacing from one end of the house to +the other, and when these confines became too small rushing out into +the orchard, but all in vain. It was utterly impossible for her, then +or ever, to memorize the exact words of anything. + +The lecture, occupying an entire evening, was given before a large +audience in Rand's Hall, Troy, and cordially received. At its close Mr. +L. Hazeltine of New York, president of the association, took Miss +Anthony by the hand, saying: "Madam, that was a splendid production and +well delivered. I could not have asked for a single thing different +either in matter or manner; but I would rather have followed my wife or +daughter to Greenwood cemetery than to have had her stand here before +this promiscuous audience and deliver that address." Superintendent +Randall, of the city schools of New York, over-hearing the +conversation, said: "Father Hazeltine, I fully agree with the first +part of your remark but dissent entirely from the latter. I should be +proud if I had a wife or daughter capable of either writing or reading +that paper as Miss Anthony has done." She was invited by the +Massachusetts teachers who were present to come to their State +convention at Springfield and give the address, which she did. It was +afterwards delivered at a number of teachers' institutes. Mary L. Booth +had written her: + + I am glad that you will represent us at the Troy gathering. You + will bear with you the gratitude of very many teachers whose hearts + are swelling with repressed indignation at the injustice which you + expose, but who have not grown strong enough yet to give open + utterance to words which would jeopardize the positions on which + they depend for support. There is not a female principal in + Brooklyn or New York whose salary exceeds the half of that of the + male principals. Each female principal and assistant is required to + attend the normal school under penalty of loss of position, while + male teachers are excused from such attendance. There are plenty of + indignation meetings among us. + +In August Miss Anthony planned a meeting at Saratoga and, as on a +previous occasion, every speaker failed her, nor could she find among +the visitors one who could help her out. As she was not in the habit of +giving up what she undertook, she went through the meeting alone, +making the speeches herself. Her faithful friend Judge Hay[22] came to +her rescue with a donation of $20 and she was just able to pay +expenses. + +The public was not in a mood for woman's conventions. The presidential +campaign was at its height, with three tickets in the field, and the +troubles in Kansas were approaching a crisis. In September came the +news of the raid at Osawatomie and that thirty out of the fifty +settlers had been killed by the "border ruffians." This brought +especial gloom to the Anthony homestead, as the dispatches also stated +that the night before the encounter, John Brown had slept in the cabin +of the young son Merritt, and for weeks they were unable to learn +whether he were among the thirty who died or the twenty who lived. At +last the welcome letters came which related how the coffee was just +ready to be put on the table in the cabin when the sound of firing was +heard, and how without waiting to drink it, John Brown and his little +band rushed to the conflict. The old hero gave strict orders to Merritt +not to leave the house, as he had been very ill, but as soon as they +were out of sight he seized his gun, staggered down to the bank of the +Marais du Cygne and was soon in the thick of the fight. When it was +over he crawled on his hands and knees back to his cabin, where he lay +ill for weeks, entirely alone and uncared for. A letter from Miss +Anthony to this brother shows the tender, domestic side of her nature, +which the public is seldom permitted to see: + +[Illustration: + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY. + AT THE AGE OF 36. FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE.] + + How much rather would I have you at my side tonight than to think + of your daring and enduring greater hardships even than our + Revolutionary heroes. Words can not tell how often we think of you + or how sadly we feel that the terrible crime of this nation against + humanity is being avenged on the heads of our sons and brothers.... + Wednesday night, Mr. Mowry, who was in the battle, arrived in town. + Like wild fire the news flew. D.R. was in pursuit of him when + father reached his office. He thought you were not hurt. Mother + said that night, "I can go to sleep now there is a hope that + Merritt still lives;" but father said: "I suppose I shall sleep + when nature is tired out, but the hope that my son has survived + brings little solace to my soul while the cause of all this + terrible wrong remains untouched."... + + Your fish pole never caught so luscious a basketful as it has this + afternoon. I made a march through the peach orchard with pole in + hand to fish down the soft Early Crawfords that had escaped even + the keen eyes of father and mother when they made their last + detour. As the pole reached to the top-most bough and down dropped + the big, fat, golden, red-cheeked Crawfords, thought went away to + the owner of the rod, how he in days gone by planted these little + trees, pruned them and nursed them and now we were enjoying the + fruits of his labor, while he, the dear boy, was away in the + prairie wilds of Kansas. I thought of many things as I walked + between the rows to spy out every ambushed, not enemy but friend of + the palate. With the haul made I filled the china fruit dish and + then hallooed for Mary L. and Ann Eliza to see what I had found, + and down they came for a feast. I shall send Aaron and Guelma the + nicest ones and how I wish my dearest brother could have some to + cool his fevered throat. + + Evening.--Father brings the Democrat giving a list of killed, + wounded and missing, and the name of our Merritt is not therein, + but oh! the slain are sons, brothers and husbands of others as + dearly loved and sadly mourned. + + Later.--Your letter is in to-day's Democrat, and the Evening + Advertiser says there is "another letter from our dear brother in + this morning's Shrieker for Freedom." The tirade is headed + "Bleeding Kansas." The Advertiser, Union and American all ridicule + the reports from Kansas, and even say your letters are gotten up in + the Democrat office for political effect. I tell you, Merritt, we + have "border ruffians" here at home--a little more refined in their + way of outraging and torturing the lovers of freedom, but no less + fiendish. + +Miss Anthony was busy through September and October securing speakers +for the national convention. She still believed that her chief strength +lay in her executive ability. Having written Lucy Stone that she could +not and would not speak, the latter answered: "Why do you say the +people won't listen to you, when you know you never made a speech that +was not attentively heard? All you need is to cultivate your power of +expression. Subjects are so clear to you that you can soon make them as +clear to others." In response to an invitation to the Hutchinson family +to sing at the convention, Asa wrote: "The time is coming, I hope, when +we can do something for the glorious cause which you are so nobly +advocating." John added: "It would rejoice my heart to be at the +convention and help along, with the one talent God has given me, the +greatest reform ever attempted by lovers of the human race." Miss +Anthony asked Mary L. Booth, at that time just beginning to attract +attention by her fine translations, to speak at the coming convention +and received this touching response: + + The hope of yet aiding the cause is the polar star which guides all + my efforts. If it were possible I would do this directly, but the + fashion of the times has made me a dependant and home aid would + scarcely be extended to me in this. I am trying to make myself + independent. Fortune now promises favorable things. If I succeed, + count on me. All that I can do, I will, to rescue my sex from the + fetters which have chafed me so bitterly, from the evils of the + giant system which makes woman everywhere a satellite. I have drank + of the cup which is offered as the wine of woman's life, and have + found the draught frothy and unsatisfactory. Now am I willing, if + successful, to give all to purchase her a purer aliment. I have + faith enough in the cause to move mountains, but if I speak at + present I forfeit all claims on my home forever. + +Lucy Stone when appealed to with the intimation that she was losing +interest in the work, replied: "Now that I occupy a legal position in +which I can not even draw in my own name the money I have earned or +give a valid receipt for it when it is drawn or make any contract, but +am rated with fools, minors and madmen, and can not sign a legal +document without being examined separately to see if it is by my own +free will, and even the right to my own name questioned, do you think +that, in the grip of such pincers, I am likely to grow remiss?... I am +not at all sanguine of the success of the convention. However much I +hope, or try to hope, the old doubt comes back. My only trust is in +your great, indomitable perseverance and your power of work." + +That the answers were not always favorable and that the women +constantly found themselves between two fires, the following letters +will show. Horace Greeley, who heretofore had been so friendly, wrote: + + The only reason why I can not publish your notices in our news + columns is that my political antagonists take advantage of such + publications to make the Tribune responsible for the anti-Bible, + anti-Union, etc., doctrines, which your conventions generally put + forth. I do not desire to interfere with your "free speech." I + desire only to secure for myself the liberty of treating public + questions in accordance with my own convictions, and not being made + responsible for the adverse convictions of others. I can not, + therefore, print this programme without being held responsible for + it. If you advertise it, that is not in my department, nor under my + control.[23] + +From Gerrit Smith came these emphatic opinions: + + You invite me to attend the woman's convention in New York. It will + not be in my power to do so. You suggest that I write a letter in + case I can not attend, but so peculiar and offensive are my views + of the remedy for woman's wrongs, that a letter inculcating them + would not be well received. Hence, I must not write it. I believe + that poverty is the great curse of woman, and that she is powerless + to assert her rights, because she is poor. Woman must go to work to + get rid of her poverty, but that she can not do in her present + disabling dress, and she seems determined not to cast it aside. She + is unwilling to sacrifice grace and fashion, even to gain her + rights; albeit, too, that this grace is an absurd conventionalism + and that this fashion is infinite folly. Were woman to adopt a + rational dress, a dress that would not hinder her from any + employment, how quickly would she rise from her present degrading + dependence on man! How quickly would the marriage contract be + modified and made to recognize the equal rights of the parties to + it! And how quickly would she gain access to the ballot-box. + +Thus one man refused to assist the cause because its advocates were too +radical, and another because they were not radical enough; or, in other +words, each wanted the women to be and to do according to his own +ideas. + +The Seventh National Woman's Rights Convention met in the Broadway +Tabernacle, New York, November 25 and 26. Lucy Stone presided and +Wendell Phillips was one of the prominent speakers. The election was +over, the mob spirit temporarily quieted, and the convention was not +disturbed except when certain of the men attempted to make long +speeches or introduce politics. The audience had come to hear women +plead their own cause and insisted that this should be the program. + +In this fall of 1856 Miss Anthony renewed her engagement with the +anti-slavery committee, writing Mr. May: "I shall be very glad if I am +able to render even the most humble service to this cause. Heaven knows +there is need of earnest, effective radical workers. The heart sickens +over the delusions of the recent campaign and turns achingly to the +unconsidered _whole question_." The committee answered: "We put all New +York into your control and want your name to all letters and your hand +in all arrangements. We like your form of posters; by all means let 'No +Union with Slaveholders' be conspicuous upon them." An extract from a +letter received from Mr. May, the secretary, dated October 22, shows +the estimate placed upon her services by the committee: + + The Anti-Slavery Society wants you in the field. I really think the + efficiency and success of our operations in New York this winter + will depend more on your personal attendance and direction than + upon that of any other of our workers. We need your earnestness, + your practical talent, your energy and perseverance to make these + conventions successful. The public mind will be sore this winter, + disappointment awaits vast numbers, dismay will overtake many. We + want your cheerfulness, your spirit--in short, yourself. + +[Footnote 22: In 1854 Judge William Hay brought out a new edition of +his romance, Isabel D'Avalos, the Maid of Seville, with a sequel, The +Siege of Granada, dedicated as follows: + + TO + SUSAN B. ANTHONY + whose earnestness of purpose, honesty of intention, + unintermitted industry, indefatigable perseverance, + and extraordinary business-talent, + are surpassed only by the virtues which have illustrated her life, + devoted, like that of Dorothea Dix, + TO THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY. + +In a letter to her he said: "I have placed in my will a bequest to you, +the only person to whose care I would willingly entrust them, that at +my death the manuscripts and plates of this work are to be your +absolute property. I sincerely desire and faintly hope that you may +derive some pecuniary benefit from them."] + +[Footnote 23: Three years before Mr. Greeley had written to the +suffrage convention at Cleveland: "I recognize most thoroughly the +right of woman to choose her own sphere of activity and usefulness If +she sees fit to navigate vessels, print newspapers, frame laws and +select her rulers, I know no principle that justifies man in placing +any impediment to her doing so." The letter used above shows, however, +that not even so great a paper as the Tribune could endure the +misrepresentation heaped upon every one who advocated the unpopular +doctrine of woman's rights.] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +CAMPAIGNING WITH THE GARRISONIANS. + +1857--1858. + + +One scarcely could imagine a more unfavorable time than the winter of +1857 for a campaign under the Garrisonian banner of "No Union with +Slaveholders." The anti-slavery forces were divided among themselves, +but were slowly crystallizing into the Republican party. The triumph of +the Democrats over Republicans, Know Nothings and Whigs at the recent +presidential election had warned these diverse elements that it was +only by uniting that they could hope to prevent the further extension +of slavery. The "Dred Scott decision" by the Supreme Court of the +United States, declaring "slaves to be not persons but property" and +the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional and void, had roused a +whirlwind of indignation throughout the Northern States. Those who were +seeking to prevent the extension of slavery into the Territories were +stigmatized by their opponents as traitors defying the Constitution. +While this supported the claim of the Garrisonians that the +Constitution did sanction slavery and protect the slaveholder, yet the +majority of the anti-slavery people were not ready to accept the +doctrine of "immediate and unconditional emancipation, even at the cost +of a dissolution of the Union." The Republicans had polled so large a +vote as to indicate that further extension of slavery could be +prevented through that organization, and they were excessively hostile +toward any element which threatened to antagonize or weaken it. Thus +into whatever town Miss Anthony took her little band, the backbone of +the Garrison party, they had to encounter not only the hatred of the +pro-slavery people, but also the enmity of this new and rapidly +increasing Republican element, which at this time did not stand for the +abolition of slavery, but simply for no further extension. + +The first year of Mr. Buchanan's administration was marked by a severe +and widespread financial stringency. A decade of unparalleled +prosperity, with its resultant speculation and expansion of business, +was followed by heavy losses, failures and panic. The whole year of +1857 was one continued struggle and vain effort to ward off the +impending crisis. To make the situation still more trying the winter +was one of great severity, so it is not surprising, accustomed though +she was to hardships and disappointments, that Miss Anthony should have +found this series of meetings the most disheartening experience of her +life. She engaged Stephen and Abby Foster, Parker Pillsbury, Aaron M. +Powell, Benjamin and Elizabeth Jones, Charles Remond and his sister +Sarah, the last two educated and refined colored people; marked out +routes, planned the meetings, kept three companies of speakers +constantly employed, and spared herself no labor, no exposure, no +annoyance. She found that envy, jealousy and other disagreeable traits +were not confined to one sex, but that it required quite as much tact +and judgment to deal with men as with women. She had the usual +experience of a manager, speakers complaining of their routes, refusing +to go where sent, falling ill at the most critical times, and continual +fault-finding from the people who stayed at home and did nothing. + +She had been working for the public long enough to expect all this, but +was distressed beyond measure because she could not make the meetings +pay for themselves. For reasons already mentioned the audiences were +small and collections still smaller. At her woman's rights lectures she +had encountered indifference and ridicule; now she was met with open +hostility. In every town a few friends rallied around and extended +hospitality and support, but the ordeal was of that kind which leaves +ineffaceable marks on the soul. For all this she was paid $10 a week +and expenses; not through any desire to be unjust, but because the +committee were having a hard struggle to secure the necessary funds to +carry on their vast work. Her last woman's rights campaign had left her +in debt and she could not provide herself with a new wardrobe for this +tour, but records in her diary at the beginning of winter: "A +double-faced merino, which I bought at Canajoharie ten years ago, I +have had colored dark green and a skirt made of it. I bought some green +cloth to match for a basque, and it makes a handsome suit. With my +Siberian squirrel cape I shall be very comfortable." + +Lucy Stone wrote: "I know how you feel with all the burden of these +conventions and it is not just that you should bear it. There is not a +man in the whole anti-slavery ranks who could do it. I wish I could +help you but I can not. You are one of those who are sufficient unto +themselves and I thank God every day for you. Antoinette can not come +because she is so busy with that baby!" From Mr. May came these +comforting words: "We sympathize in all your trials and hope that +fairer skies will be over your head before long. Garrison says, 'Give +my love to Susan, and tell her I will do for her what I would hardly do +for anybody else.' I hope from that he means to attend your Rochester +and Syracuse conventions.... You must be dictator to all the agents in +New York; when you say, 'Go,' they must go, or 'Come,' they must come, +or 'Do this,' they must do it. I see no other way of getting along, and +I am sure to your gentle and wholesome rule they will cheerfully defer. +God bless you all; and if you don't get pay in money from your +audiences, you will have the satisfaction of knowing you have given +them the hard, solid truth as they never had it before." + +These meetings often took the form of debates between the speakers and +the audience, and frequently lasted till midnight. Of one place Miss +Anthony says in her diary, "All rich farmers, living in princely style, +but no moral backbone;" at another time: "I spoke for an hour, but my +heart fails me. Can it be that my stammering tongue ever will be +loosed? I am more and more dissatisfied with my efforts." The diary +shows that they had many delightful visits among friends and many good +times sandwiched between the disagreeable features of their trip, and +that everywhere they roused the community to the highest pitch on the +slavery question. She gives a description of one of these gatherings at +Easton: + + That Sunday meeting was the most impressive I ever attended. Aaron + and I had spoken, Charles Remond followed, picturing the contumely + and opprobrium everywhere heaped upon the black man and all + identified with him, the ostracism from social circles, etc. At the + climax he exclaimed: "I have a fond and loving mother, as true and + noble a woman as God ever made; but whenever she thinks of her + absent son, it is that he is an outcast." He sank into his seat, + overwhelmed with emotion, and wept like a child. In a moment, while + sitting, he said: "Some may call this weak, but I should feel + myself the less a man, if tears did not flow at a thought like + that." The whole audience was in sympathy with him, all hearts were + melted and many were sobbing. When sufficiently composed he rose + and related, in a subdued and most impressive manner, his + experience at the last village we visited where not one roof could + be found to shelter him because he had a black face. At the close + of his speech several men came up, handed us money and left the + house because they could not bear any more, while others crowded + around and assured him that their doors were open to him and his + sister. + +From the home of her dear friend Elizabeth Powell,[24] where she had +gone for a few days' rest, she writes: "At Poughkeepsie, Parker +Pillsbury spoke grandly for freedom. I never heard from the lips of man +such deep thoughts and burning words. In the ages to come, the +prophecies of these noble men and women will be read with the same +wonder and veneration as those of Isaiah and Jeremiah inspire today. +Now while the people worship the prophets of that time, they stone +those of their own." Mr. Garrison wrote her: + + I seize a moment to thank you for your letter giving an account of + your anti-slavery meetings and those of the Friends of Progress. I + am highly gratified to learn that the latter followed the example + of the Progressive Friends at Longwood in favor of a dissolution of + our blood-stained American Union. I meant to have sent to you in + season some resolutions or "testimony" on the subject, but + circumstances prevented. I felt perfectly satisfied however that + all would go right with you and Aaron and Oliver Johnson present to + enforce the true doctrine. You must have had a soul-refreshing + time, even though there appear to have been present what Emerson + calls "The fleas of the convention."... On Wednesday, there was a + great popular demonstration here to inaugurate the statue of + Warren. Think of Mason, of Virginia, the author of the Fugitive + Slave Bill, being one of the speakers on Bunker Hill! + +[Autograph: + + Yours for the triumph of liberty, + Wm. Lloyd Garrison] + +On this great tour Miss Anthony became so thoroughly aroused that she +could no longer confine herself to written addresses, which seemed cold +and formal and utterly unresponsive to the inspiration of the moment. +She threw them aside and used them thereafter only on rare occasions. +Her speeches from that time were made from notes or headings and among +those used during the winter of 1857 are the following: + + Object of meeting; to consider the fact of 4,000,000 slaves in a + Christian and republican government.... Everybody is anti-slavery, + ministers and brethren. There are sympathy, talk, prayers and + resolutions in ecclesiastical and political assemblies. Emerson + says "Good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they be + executed;" so anti-slavery prayers, resolutions and speeches avail + nothing without action.... Our mission is to deepen sympathy and + convert it into right action; to show that the men and women of the + North are slave-holders, those of the South slave-owners. The guilt + rests on the North equally with the South, therefore our work is to + rouse the sleeping consciences of the North.... No one is ignorant + now. You recognize the facts which we present. We ask you to feel + as if you, yourselves, were the slaves. The politician talks of + slavery as he does of United States banks, tariff or any other + commercial question. We demand the abolition of slavery because the + slave is a human being, and because man should not hold property in + his fellowman. The politician demands it because its existence + produces poverty and discord in the nation and imposes taxes on + free labor for its support, since the government is dominated by + southern rule.... We preach revolution; the politicians reform. We + say disobey every unjust law; the politician says obey them, and + meanwhile labor constitutionally for repeal. + +Accompaning these notes are many special incidents illustrating the +evils of slavery. With Miss Anthony's strong, rich voice, her powerful +command of language and her intensity of feeling in regard to her +subject, it may be imagined that her speeches were eloquent appeals and +roused to action both her friends and her enemies. Some meetings were +successful financially, others failures, and her report to the +committee in the spring showed that she lacked $1,000 of having paid +the total expenses, including salaries of speakers. A few of the +committee were inclined to the opinion that meetings should not have +been held in places where they would not pay, but that noble woman, +Maria Weston Chapman, said: "My friends, if all you say is true, +regarding this young woman's business enterprise, practical sagacity +and platform ability, I think $1,000 expended in her education and +development for this work is one of the best investments that possibly +could have been made." At the unanimous request of the committee Miss +Anthony remained in office and during the year canvassed the entire +state with her speakers. Mr. May wrote: "We cheerfully pay your +expenses and want to keep you at the head of the work." + +[Autograph: + + Yours in affectionate remembrance, + MW Chapman"] + +In March she was invited to go to Bangor, Me., and speak on woman's +rights, in a course which included Henry Wilson, Gough, Phillips, +Beecher and other notables. For this she was paid $50 and expenses, the +first large sum she had received for a lecture, and it gave her much +hope and courage. While in Maine she spoke a number of times, going +from point to point in sleigh or wagon through snow, slush and mud. The +press was very complimentary.[25] + +In August Miss Anthony attended the State Teachers' Convention at +Binghamton, and here created another commotion by introducing the +following: + + _Resolved_, That the exclusion of colored youth from our public + schools, academies, colleges and universities is the result of a + wicked prejudice. + + _Resolved_, That the expulsion of Miss Latimer from the normal + school at Albany, when after six months of successful scholarship + it was discovered that colored blood coursed in her veins, was mean + and cruel. + + _Resolved_, That a flagrant outrage was perpetrated against the + teachers and pupils of the colored schools of New York City, in + that no provision was made for their attendance at the free + concerts given to the public schools. + + _Resolved_, That the recent exclusion of the graduates of the + colored normal school of New York City, from the public diploma + presentation at the Academy of Music, was a gross insult to their + scholarship and their womanhood. + + _Resolved_, That all proscription from educational advantages and + honors, on account of color, is in perfect harmony with the + infamous decision of Judge Taney--"that black men have no rights + which white men are bound to respect." + +After considerable uproar these were referred to a select committee on +which were placed two ladies, Mary L. Booth and Julia A. Wilbur, both +strong supporters of Miss Anthony. The committee brought in a majority +report in favor of the resolutions but this make-shift minority report +was adopted: "In our opinion the colored children of the State should +enjoy equal advantages of education with the white." Miss Anthony then +proceeded to throw another bomb by presenting this resolution: + + Since the true and harmonious development of the race demands that + the sexes be associated together in every department of life; + therefore + + _Resolved_, That it is the duty of all our schools, colleges and + universities to open their doors to woman and to give her equal and + identical educational advantages side by side with her brother man. + +This opened the flood gates. Motions to lay on the table, to refer to a +committee, etc., were voted down. A few strong speeches were made in +favor, but most of them were in opposition and very bitter, insisting +that "it was sought to uproot the theory and practice of the whole +world." The antique Professor Davies was in his element. He declared: +"Here is an attempt to introduce a vast social evil. I have been trying +for four years,[_i.e._ ever since Miss Anthony's first appearance at a +teachers' convention] to escape this question, but if it has to come, +let it be boldly met and disposed of. I am opposed to anything that has +a tendency to impair the sensitive delicacy and purity of the female +character or to remove the restraints of life. These resolutions are +the first step in the school which seeks to abolish marriage, and +behind this picture I see a monster of social deformity." + +Another speaker, whose name is lost in oblivion, said in tones which +would melt a heart of stone: "Shall an oak and a rose tree receive the +same culture? Better to us is the clear, steady, softened, silvery +moonlight of woman's quiet, unobtrusive influence, than the flashes of +electricity showing that the true balance of nature is destroyed. Aye, +better a thousand times is it than the glimmering ignus fatuus rising +from decayed hopes and leading the deluded follower to those horrible +quagmires of social existence--amalgamation and Mormonism." + +Prof. John W. Buckley, of Brooklyn, opposed the resolution in coarse +and abusive language. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Henry +H. Van Dyck demolished its last hope when he demanded with outstretched +arm and pointed finger: "Do you mean to say you want the boys and girls +to room side by side in dormitories? To educate them together can have +but one result!" + +The Binghamton Daily Republican said: "Miss Anthony vindicated her +resolutions with eloquence, force, spirit and dignity, and showed +herself a match, at least, in debate for any member of the convention. +She was equal if not identical. Whatever may be thought of her notions +or sense of propriety in her bold and conspicuous position, personally, +intellectually and socially speaking, there can be but one opinion as +to her superior energy, ability and moral courage; and she may well be +regarded as an evangel and heroine by her own sex." + +The woman who advocated co-education in those days was indeed in a +"bold and conspicuous position." The resolutions were lost by a large +majority. Even if every man present had voted against them, there were +enough women to have carried them had they voted in the affirmative. +The Republican said: "If the lady members had voted so as to be heard +we know not what would have been the result; but their voices, to say +the least, have not been ordained by the Creator to be equal or +identical with man's, and are drowned by his louder sounds." Mrs. +Stanton's opinion can best be learned by an extract from a letter: + + I see by the papers that you have once more stirred that pool of + intellectual stagnation, the educational convention. What an + infernal set of fools those schoolmarms must be! Well, if in order + to please men they wish to live on air, let them. The sooner the + present generation of women dies out, the better. We have idiots + enough in the world now without such women propagating any more.... + The New York Times was really quite complimentary. Mr. Stanton + brought every item he could find about you. "Well, my dear," he + would say, "another notice of Susan. You stir up Susan, and she + stirs the world." I was glad you went to torment those devils. I + guess they will begin to think their time has come. I glory in your + perseverance. O, Susan, I will do anything to help you on. You and + I have a prospect of a good long life. We shall not be in our prime + before fifty, and after that we shall be good for twenty years at + least. If we do not make old Davies shake in his boots or turn in + his grave, I am mistaken. + +The proceedings of the convention were published in full in the New +York Tribune, and Miss Anthony received letters of commendation from +Judge William Hay, Charles L. Reason, superintendent of the New York +city colored schools, and many others. William Marvin, of Binghamton, +wrote: "The sympathy of the people here, during the teachers' +association, was decidedly with you. A vote from the audience would +have carried any one of your resolutions." + +In the autumn the anti-slavery meetings were resumed, and Miss Anthony +was unsparing of herself and everybody else. Parker Pillsbury +complained: "What a task-mistress our general agent is proving herself. +I expect as soon as women get command, an end will have come to all our +peace. We shall yet have societies for the protection of men's rights, +in the cause of which many of us will have to be martyrs." Her brother, +Daniel R., was sending frequent letters from Kansas containing graphic +descriptions of the terrible condition of affairs in that unhappy +territory, and scathing denunciations of the treachery of northern +"dough faces," thus fanning the fires of patriotism that glowed in her +breast and filling her with renewed zeal for the cause to which she was +giving her time and strength. During these days she wrote a cherished +sister: + + Though words of love are seldom written or spoken by one of us to + the other, there must ever remain the abiding faith that the heart + still beats true and fond. Our family is now so widely separated + that our enjoyment must consist in soul communing. Indeed, I almost + believe in the power of affection to draw unto itself the yearning + heart of the absent one. What the modern Spiritualist tells of + feeling the presence of departed friends and enjoying their loving + ministrations, I sometimes imagine to be true, not of the spirits + of those gone hence, but of those still in the body who are + separated from us. I often pass blessed moments in these sweet, + silent communings.... Every day brings to me new conceptions of + life and its duties, and it is my constant desire that I may be + strong and fearless, baring my arm to the encounter and pressing + cheerfully forward, though the way is rough and thorny. + + I have just returned from the hardest three weeks' tour of + anti-slavery meetings I have had yet, so cold and disheartening. + The masses seem devoid of conscience and looking only for some new + expedient to accomplish the desired good; but in every town there + are some true spirits who walk in God's sunlight and do what is + right, trusting results to the great Immutable Law.... I wish all + the dear ones would write me more often. Though I am sure of their + affection, yet when the soul is burdened and one is surrounded by + strangers, a letter from a loved one brings healing to the spirit, + and I need it more than I can tell. + +There is scarcely a letter to her own family, in the large number +preserved, which does not express a longing for love and sympathy, a +craving that no public career, no devotion to any cause, however +absorbing, ever eradicates from the human soul. + +Although so fully occupied, Miss Anthony did not neglect the beloved +cause of woman. This year, however, when she attempted to arrange for +the annual convention, she found to her dismay that every one of the +speakers whom she always depended upon was unable to be present because +of maternal duties. Some were anticipating an event, others had very +young infants, and the older women were kept at home by expected or +recently arrived grandchildren. She was used to overcoming obstacles, +but the conditions on this occasion were too much for her and, with +feelings which can not well be put into language, she was obliged to +give up the national convention, the only one omitted from 1850 to +1861. + +Amidst the hard work and many disappointments of the year, there is one +gleam of humor in what was known to the family as "Susan's raspberry +experiment." During her wanderings she visited her friend Sarah Hallock +who had made a great success of raspberry culture, selling 40,000 +baskets during the season, and she did not see why she could not do +quite as well. She unfolded her plan to her father, who supported her +in that as in everything and gave her as much ground as she desired. +While at home for a short time she had this underdrained and prepared, +$100 worth of raspberry plants set out and staked; then went away and +left the family to look after them. The father was in the city all day +attending to business, the sister Mary teaching school, the mother was +not well and there was no one else but the hired man, who knew nothing +about the culture of raspberries and was otherwise occupied; so the +bushes took their chances. + +The fame of the experiment, however, spread far and wide, the +newspapers announced that Miss Anthony had bought a large farm and +stocked it with raspberries; that she had abandoned the platform and +taken up fruit culture. She received scores of letters asking +information as to the best plants and most successful methods, others +begging her not to give up public work, and many from friends who had +no end of fun at her expense. The bushes grew and bore fruit enough to +give the family a number of delicious meals. Then a very cold winter +followed and there was no one to care for the tender plants. In +December came a letter from the irrepressible brother-in-law, Aaron +McLean: "As to your raspberry 'spec,' I regret to tell you it has 'gone +up.' The poor, little, helpless things expired of a bad cold about two +weeks since. Do you remember that text of Scripture, which says, 'She +who by the plow would thrive, herself must either hold or drive'? It +has cost you $200 to learn the truth of it." Her sister Mary wrote: "I +hope, Susan, when you get a husband and children, you will treat them +better than you did your raspberry plants, and not leave them to their +fate at the beginning of winter." + +It was a deep regret to Miss Anthony that she could not give the +necessary time and care to make this experiment a success, as she was +anxious to encourage women to go into the pursuit of agriculture, +horticulture, floriculture, anything which would take them out of +doors. In a letter to Mr. Higginson she says: "The salvation of the +race depends, in a great measure, upon rescuing women from their +hothouse existence. Whether in kitchen, nursery or parlor, all alike +are shut away from God's sunshine. Why did not your Caroline Plummer, +of Salem, why do not all of our wealthy women leave money for +industrial and agricultural schools for girls, instead of ever and +always providing for boys alone?" This is one of the many instances +where Miss Anthony foreshadowed reforms and improvements which have +been fulfilled in the present generation. + +In 1858 is presented same routine of unremitting work which +characterized so many previous years. The winter was given up to +anti-slavery meetings with their attendant hardships. Miss Anthony has +great scorn for those who talk regretfully of the "good old days." She +thinks one lecture season under the conditions which then existed would +be an effectual cure to any longing for them one might have. The +conveniences of modern life, bathrooms with plenty of hot water, +toiletrooms, steam-heated houses, gas and hundreds of comforts so +common at the present time that one scarcely can realize they have not +always existed, were comparatively unknown. One of the greatest trials +these travellers had to endure was the wretched cooking which was the +rule and not exception among our much-praised foremothers. In one of +the old diaries is this single ejaculation, "O, the crimes that are +committed in the kitchens of this land!" In those days the housewife +could not step around the corner and buy for two cents a cake of yeast +which insured good bread, but the process of yeast-making was long and +difficult and not well understood by the average housekeeper, so a +substitute was found in "salt risings," and a heavy indigestible mass +generally resulted. White flour was little used and was of a poor +quality. Baking powder was unknown and all forms of cakes and warm +bread were made with sour milk and soda, easily ruined by too much or +too little of the latter. In no particular did the table compare +favorably with that of modern families. + +[Illustration: THE FARM-HOME NEAR ROCHESTER, N.Y., 1845-65.] + +The anti-slavery and woman's rights lecturers always accepted private +hospitality when offered, for reasons of economy and, as many of the +people who favored these reforms were seeking light in other directions +also, they were very apt to find themselves the guests of "cranks" upon +the food question and were thus made the subject of most of the +experiments in vogue at that period. On one occasion Miss Anthony, +Aaron Powell and Oliver Johnson were entertained by prominent and +well-to-do people in a town near New York, who had not a mouthful for +any of the three meals except nuts, apples and coarse bran stirred in +water and baked. At the end of one day the men ignominiously fled and +left her to stay over Sunday and hold the Monday meeting. She lived +through it but on Tuesday started for New York and never stopped till +she reached Delmonico's, where she revelled in a porterhouse steak and +a pot of coffee. + +During these winter meetings all of the men broke down physically and +their letters were filled with complaints of their heads, their backs, +their lungs, their throats and their eyes. Garrison wrote at one time: +"I hope to be present at the meeting but I can not foresee what will be +my spinal condition at that time, and I could not think of appearing as +a 'Garrisonian Abolitionist' without a backbone." Miss Anthony never +lost a day or missed an engagement, although it may be imagined that +she had many hours of weariness when she would have been glad to drop +the burden for a while. On March 17 she writes: "How happy I am to lay +my head on my own home pillow once more after a long four months, +scarcely stopping a second night under one roof." Mr. May wrote in +behalf of the committee: "We rejoice with you in the success of your +meetings and in all your hopes for the upspringing of the good seed +sown by the faithful joint labors of you and your gallant little band. +We have made the following a committee of arrangements for the annual +meeting: Garrison, Phillips, Quincy, Johnson and Susan B. Anthony." + +So she at once girded on her armor and began to prepare for the May +anniversary and, being determined the National Woman's Rights +Convention should not be omitted this year, she conducted also an +extensive correspondence in regard to that. Referring to all this +drudgery Lucy Stone urged: "Don't do it; quit common work such as a +common worker could do; and don't mourn over us and our babies. We are +growing workers. I know you are tired with your four months' work, but +it is not half so hard as taking care of a child night and day. I shall +not assume any responsibility for another convention till I have had my +ten daughters." But Miss Anthony knew that this "common work," this +hiring halls, raising money and advertising meetings was just what +nobody else could or would do. She understood also that while the other +women were at home "growing workers," somebody must be in the field +looking after the harvest. + +Abby Hutchinson, the only sister in the famous family of singers, wrote +from their Jersey home, Dawnwood: "I want so much to help you; I have +longed to do some good with my voice but public life wears me out very +fast." Nevertheless she came and sang for them. Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. +Brown Blackwell brought new babies into the world a few weeks before +the convention, to Miss Anthony's usual discomfiture. She wrote to the +latter: "Mrs. Stanton sends her love to you and says if you are going +to have a large family, go right on and finish up as she has done. She +has only devoted eighteen years out of the very heart of her existence +to this great work. But I say, stop now." + +The convention in Mozart Hall followed close upon the Anti-Slavery +Anniversary, Miss Anthony presided and there were the usual +distinguished speakers, Phillips, Pillsbury, Garrison, Douglass, +Higginson, Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Gage, Mrs. Rose, and, for the first +time, George William Curtis spoke on the woman's rights platform. +Notwithstanding this array of talent, the convention through all its +six sessions was threatened with a mob, encouraged by the Herald and +other New York papers. The disturbance at times was so great the +speakers could not be heard, even Curtis was greeted with hisses and +groans, but Miss Anthony stood at the helm unterrified through all and +did not leave her post until the last feature of the program was +completed and the convention adjourned. She was growing accustomed to +mobs. + +In August, 1858, she attended the teachers' convention at Lockport. The +sensational feature of this meeting was the reading by Professor Davies +of the first cablegram from England, a message from the Queen to the +President. The press reports show that she took a prominent part in the +proceedings and possibly merited the name which some one gave her of +"the thorn in the side of the convention." These annual gatherings were +very largely in the nature of mutual admiration societies among the +men, who consumed much of the time in complimenting each other and the +rest of it in long-winded orations. During this one Miss Anthony arose +and said that, as all members had the same right to speak, she would +suggest that speeches should be limited so as to give each a chance. +She made some of the men furious by stating that they spoke so low they +could not be heard. + +At another time she suggested that, as there were only a few hours left +for the business of the convention, they should not be frittered away +in trifling discussions, saying, "if she were a man she would be +ashamed to consume the time in telling how much she loved women and in +fulsome flattery of other men." She moved also that they set aside the +proposed discussion on "The Effects of High Intellectual Culture on the +Efficiency and Respectability of Manual Labor," and take up pressing +questions. When one man was indulging in a lot of the senseless twaddle +about his wife which many of them are fond of introducing in their +speeches, she called him to order saying that the kind of a wife he +had, had nothing to do with the subject. She introduced again the +resolution demanding equal pay for equal work without regard to sex. A +friend wrote of this occasion: "She arraigned those assembled teachers +for their misdemeanors as she would a class of schoolboys, in perfect +unconsciousness that she was doing anything unusual. We women never can +be sufficiently thankful to her for taking the hard blows and still +harder criticisms, while we reaped the benefits." + +The press reports said: "Miss Anthony has gained in the estimation of +the teachers' convention, and is now listened to with great attention." +She gave her lecture on "Co-Education" to a crowded house of Lockport's +prominent citizens, introduced by President George L. Farnham, of +Syracuse, always her friend in those troublous days. By this time more +than a score of the eminent educators of the day had become her +steadfast friends, and they welcomed her to these conventions, aiding +her efforts in every possible manner. Rev. Samuel J. May, who had +delivered an address, upon his return home wrote: "You are a great +girl, and I wish there were thousands more in the world like you. Some +foolish old conventionalisms would be utterly routed, and the legal and +social disabilities of women would not long be what they are." Miss +Anthony herself, writing to Antoinette Blackwell, said: "I wish I had +time to tell you of my Lockport experience; it was rich. I never felt +so cool and self-possessed among the plannings and plottings of the few +old fogies, and they never appeared so frantic with rage. They +evidently felt that their reign of terror is about ended." + +October, 1858, brought another crucial occasion. In Rochester, a young +man, Ira Stout, had been condemned to be hung for murder. A number of +persons strongly opposed to capital punishment believed this a suitable +time to make a demonstration. It was not that they doubted the guilt of +Stout, but they were opposed to the principle of what they termed +judicial murder. As the Anthonys and many of the leading Quaker +families, Frederick Douglass and a number of Abolitionists shared in +this opinion, it was not surprising that Miss Anthony undertook to get +up the meeting. In a cold rain she made the round of the orthodox +ministers but none would sign the call. The Universalist minister, Rev. +J.H. Tuttle, agreed to be present and speak. She secured thirty or +forty signatures, engaged the city hall and advertised extensively. The +feeling against Stout was very strong and there was a determination +among certain members of the community that this meeting should not be +held. Huge placards were posted throughout the city, urging all opposed +to the sentiments of the call to be out in force, a virtual invitation +to the mob. + +When the evening arrived, October 7, the hall was filled with a crowd +of nearly 2,000, a large portion of whom only needed the word to break +into a riot. Miss Anthony called the assemblage to order and Frederick +Douglass was made chairman, but when he attempted to speak, his voice +was drowned with groans and yells. Aaron M. Powell, William C. Bloss +and others tried to make themselves heard but the mob had full sway. +Miss Anthony was greeted with a perfect storm of hisses. Finally the +demonstrations became so threatening that she and the other speakers +were hurried out of the hall by a rear door, the meeting was broken up +and the janitor turned out the lights. No attempt was made by the mayor +or police to quell the disturbance and mob law reigned supreme. + +The brightest ray of sunshine in the closing days of 1858 was the +following letter from Mr. Phillips: "I have had given me $5,000 for the +woman's rights cause; to procure tracts on that subject, publish and +circulate them, pay for lectures and secure such other agitation of the +question as we deem fit and best to obtain equal civil and political +position for women. The name of the giver of this generous fund I am +not allowed to tell you. The only condition of the gift is that it is +to remain in my keeping. You, Lucy Stone and myself are a committee of +trustees to spend it wisely and efficiently." The donor proved to be +Francis Jackson, the staunch friend of the emancipation of woman as +well as the negro. + +[Autograph: + + With much respect and esteem, + Francis Jackson"] + +[Footnote 24: Now Elizabeth Powell Bond, dean of Swarthmore College for +many years.] + +[Footnote 25: The Bangor Jeffersonian said: "Miss Anthony is far from +being an impracticable enthusiast. Dignity, conscientiousness and +regard for the highest welfare of her sex, are the impressions which +one receives of her. Doubtless all (if any there were) who went to +scoff, remained to pray for the success of the doctrine she advocated. +Personally she is good-looking, of symmetrical figure and modest and +ladylike demeanor." + +The Bangor Whig was equally favorable. The Ellsworth American said: +"Her enunciation is very clear and remarkably distinct, yet there is +nothing in it of the unfeminine character and tone which people had +been led to expect from the usual criticisms of the press. The lecture +itself, as an intellectual effort, was satisfactory as well to those +who dissented as to those who sympathized with its positions and +arguments. It was fruitful in ideas and suggestions and we doubt not +many a woman, and man too, went home that night, with the germ of more +active ideas in their heads than had gathered there for a twelvemonth +before."] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CONDITIONS PRIOR TO THE WAR. + +1859. + + +Among Miss Anthony's many schemes for regenerating the world was one to +have a Free church in Rochester, after the manner of Theodore Parker's +in Boston, similar to an ethical society, where no doctrines should be +preached and all should be welcome, contributing what they chose. This +was in her mind for years, and at the beginning of 1859 she engaged +Corinthian Hall for Sunday evenings, her good friend, William A. +Reynolds, as usual making her a reduced rate; and here Antoinette Brown +Blackwell and Parker Pillsbury each preached for a month. She tried to +engage Mrs. Stanton for a year and also Aaron M. Powell, but the +financial support was too uncertain and the project had to be +abandoned. All her life, however, Miss Anthony cherished the hope of +seeing this Free church established and sustained. She arranged a +series of lectures for this winter. George William Curtis accepted her +invitation in this characteristic letter: + + I think of no title for your course, but why have any? Why not say + simply, "A Course of Independent Lectures?" To call them woman's + rights would damn them in advance, so strong is prejudice. The only + one I have at all suited to your purpose is "Fair Play for + Women."[26] I hate the words "woman's rights," nor do they properly + describe my treatment of the question which, in my mind, is not one + of sex but of humanity. My lecture is a plea for the recognition of + the equal humanity of women and an assertion that they have rights + not as women but as human beings. In respect to terms, I leave it + with you. I usually receive $50, but you will understand that I + should prefer to pay the expenses myself rather than that you or + any one interested should expend a penny; so if you can not justly + give me anything, I shall be content. + +[Autograph: + + Yours very faithfully + George William Curtis] + +Miss Anthony always came out of these lecture courses in debt, but she +would call upon her friends or borrow from sister or father enough to +make up the deficit, and replace the loan out of her scanty earnings. +She persisted in having them to educate the public on the progressive +questions of the day. At this time the long, severe mental and physical +strain of years began to be felt in her one weak spot, and the old +trouble with her back asserted itself. From every quarter came urgent +appeals for her assistance. At first she answered: "If New York calls a +constitutional convention for next spring, this will be a capital +winter to strike heavy blows for freedom and equality such as we shall +not have for a long time to come. I am ready just as soon as the armies +can be marshaled and equipped." But later she wrote: + + It is being forced upon me that nature orders me to stay quietly at + home this winter and it may be that it is to enable me to get a + greater literary culture than I possibly could, amidst the hurry + and bustle of continual meetings. Somehow I can not philosophize + away a shrinking from going into active work. I can not get up a + particle of enthusiasm or faith in the success, either financial or + spiritual, of another series of conventions. For the past five + years I have gone through this routine and something within me + keeps praying to be spared from more of it. There has been such a + surfeit of lecturing, the people are tired of it. Then I never was + so poor in purse and I fear to end another campaign with a heavy + debt to still further encroach upon my small savings. I can not + bear to make myself dependent upon relatives for the food I eat and + the clothes I wear; I never have done it and hope I may never have + to. Perhaps I may feel a renewed faith in myself and my work but + the past years have brought me so much isolation and spiritual + loneliness, although in the midst of crowds, that I confess to a + longing to stay for awhile among my own people. + +The commands of the physician were imperative that she should avoid all +fatigue and nervous excitement, but her pen was not idle, and the time +which she hoped to devote to the reading of many books was occupied in +sending out letters, petitions, appeals and the various documents +necessary to keep the work going. In answer to an invitation from the +Friends of Human Progress she wrote: + + To be esteemed worthy to speak for woman, for the slave, for + humanity, is ever grateful to me, and I regret that I can not be + with you at your annual gathering to get for myself a fresh + baptism, a new and deeper faith. I would exhort all women to be + discontented with their present condition and to assert their + individuality of thought, word and action by the energetic doing of + noble deeds. Idle wishes, vain repinings, loud-sounding + declamations never can bring freedom to any human soul. What woman + most needs is a true appreciation of her womanhood, a self-respect + which shall scorn to eat the bread of dependence. Whoever consents + to live by "the sweat of the brow" of another human being + inevitably humiliates and degrades herself.... No genuine equality, + no real freedom, no true manhood or womanhood can exist on any + foundation save that of pecuniary independence. As a right over a + man's subsistence is a power over his moral being, so a right over + a woman's subsistence enslaves her will, degrades her pride and + vitiates her whole moral nature. + +To her brother Daniel R., in Kansas, who was somewhat skeptical on the +woman question, she sent this strong letter: + + Even the smallest human right denied, is large. The fact that the + ruling class withhold this right is prima facie evidence that they + deem it of importance for good or for evil. In either case, + therefore, the human being is outraged. It, perchance, may matter + but little whether Kansas be governed by a constitution made by her + bona fide settlers or by people of another State or by Congress; + but for Kansas to be denied the right to make her own constitution + and laws is an outrage not to be tolerated. So the constitution and + laws of a State and nation may be just as considerate of woman's + needs and wants as if framed by herself, yet for man to deny her + the right to a voice in making and administering them, is + paralleled only by the Lecompton usurpation. For any human being or + class of human beings, whether black, white, male or female, tamely + to submit to the denial of their right to self-government shows + that the instinct of liberty has been blotted out. + + You blunder on this question of woman's rights just where thousands + of others do. You believe woman unlike man in her nature; that + conditions of life which any man of spirit would sooner die than + accept are not only endurable to woman but are needful to her + fullest enjoyment. Make her position in church, State, marriage, + your own; everywhere your equality ignored, everywhere made to feel + another empowered by law and time-honored custom to prescribe the + privileges to be enjoyed and the duties to be discharged by you; + and then if you can imagine yourself to be content and happy, judge + your mother and sisters and all women to be. + + It was not because the three-penny tax on tea was so exorbitant + that our Revolutionary fathers fought and died, but to establish + the principle that such taxation was unjust. It is the same with + this woman's revolution; though every law were as just to woman as + to man, the principle that one class may usurp the power to + legislate for another is unjust, and all who are now in the + struggle from love of principle would still work on until the + establishment of the grand and immutable truth, "All governments + derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." + +She wrote Lydia Mott: "The new encyclopedia is just out and I notice in +regard to Antoinette Brown Blackwell that it gives a full description +of her work up to the time of her marriage, then says: 'She married +Samuel Blackwell and lives near New York.' Not a word of the splendid +work she has done on the platform and in the pulpit since. Thus does +every married woman sink her individuality." This brought from Lydia a +spirited answer: + + For my part, when you speak of the individuality of one who is + truly married being inevitably lost, I think you mistake. If there + ever was any individuality it will remain. I don't believe it is + necessary for development that the individual must always force + itself upon us. We naturally fall into the habits and frequently + the train of thought of those we love and I like the expression + "we" rather than "I." I never feel that my interests and actions + can be independent of the dear ones with whom I am surrounded. Even + the one who seems to be most absorbed may, in reality, possess the + strongest soul. This standing alone is not natural and therefore + can not be right. I am sure one of these days you will view this + matter from a different standpoint. + +Miss Anthony so far yielded as to reply: "Institutions, among them +marriage, are justly chargeable with many social and individual ills +but, after all, the whole man or woman will rise above them. I am sure +my 'true woman' never will be crushed or dwarfed by them. Woman must +take to her soul a purpose and then make circumstances conform to this +purpose, instead of forever singing the refrain, 'if and if and if!'" +But later when one woman failed to keep a lecture engagement because +her husband wanted her to go somewhere with him, and another because +her husband was not willing she should leave home, she again poured out +her sorrows to her friend: + + There is not one woman left who may be relied on, all have "first + to please their husband," after which there is but little time or + energy left to spend in any other direction. I am not complaining + or despairing, but facts are stern realities. The twain become one + flesh, the woman, "we"; henceforth she has no separate work, and + how soon the last standing monuments (yourself and myself, Lydia), + will lay down the individual "shovel and de hoe" and with proper + zeal and spirit grasp those of some masculine hand, the mercies and + the spirits only know. I declare to you that I distrust the power + of any woman, even of myself, to withstand the mighty matrimonial + maelstrom! + + But how did I get into this dissertation? If to you it seems + morbid, pardon the pen-wandering. In the depths of my soul there is + a continual denial of the self-annihilating spiritual or legal + union of two human beings. Such union, in the very nature of + things, must bring an end to the free action of one or the other, + and it matters not to the individual whose freedom has thus + departed whether it be the gentle rule of love or the iron hand of + law which blotted out from the immortal being the individual + soul-stamp of the Good Father. How I do wish those who know + something of the real social needs of our age would rescue this + greatest, deepest, highest question from the present + unphilosophical, unspiritual discussers. + +As might be expected, the legacy of $5,000 brought not only a flood of +requests from all parts of the country, but some division of opinion +among those who had it in control. Miss Anthony would use all of it in +the work of propaganda, lectures, conventions, tracts and newspaper +articles. Lucy Stone wished to use part in suits to prove the +unconstitutionality of the law which taxes women and refuses them +representation. Antoinette Blackwell wanted a portion to establish a +church where she could spread the doctrine of woman's rights along with +the gospel. Most of the women lecturers and some of the men wished to +be engaged immediately at a fixed salary. Miss Anthony writes for +advice to Phillips, who replies: "Go ahead with your New York plan as +sketched to me. I am willing to risk spending $1,000 on it. Never +apologize as if you troubled me; it is my business as much as yours, +and I am only sorry to be of so little help." Brief records in the +little diary say: + + Sister Mary and I passed New Year's Day, 1859, most quietly and + happily in the dear farm-home. Mother is in the East with sister + Hannah, and father dined in the city with sister Guelma, who sent + us a plate of her excellent turkey.... In the afternoon Mary and I + drove to Frederick Douglass' and had a nice visit; stayed to tea + and listened to a part of his new lecture on "Self-Made Men."... + Father and Mary gone to their work in the city, and I am writing on + my lecture "The True Woman." Ground out four commercial-note pages + in five mortal hours, but they are strong.... Ten degrees below + zero. Mother home; no writing today; all talk about the eastern + folks.... Antoinette Blackwell preached here yesterday, and we have + had a good visit together today. Just helped two fugitive slaves, + perhaps genuine and perhaps not.... Went to the city to hear A.A. + Willit's lecture on "A Plea for Home." Gives woman a place only in + domestic life--sad failure.... Twenty letters written and mailed + today. Took tea with the Hallowells. Am glad to learn that the + money forwarded to the Anti-Slavery Bazar and lost was sent by a + man instead of a woman.... Heard Bayard Taylor on "Life in + Lapland." Hundreds could not gain admittance. Curtis lectured on + "Fair Play for Women"; great success, but I feel that he has not + yet been tried by fire. Afterwards visited with Curtis and Taylor, + and Mr. Curtis said: "Rather than have a radical thinker like Mrs. + Rose at your suffrage conventions, you would better give them up. + With such speakers as Beecher, Phillips, Theodore Parker, Chapin, + Tilton and myself advocating woman's cause, it can not fail." + +[Autograph: + + Respectfully yours, + E.H. Chapin"] + +Miss Anthony did not hesitate to criticise even Mr. Curtis, writing him +in reference to his great lecture, "Democracy and Education": "When all +the different classes of industrial claimants for a voice in the +government were enumerated, there was not one which could be +interpreted to represent womanhood. Hence only the few who know that +with George William Curtis, the words 'man,' 'people,' 'citizens,' are +not, as with the vast majority of lecturers, mere glittering +generalities, can understand that his grand principles of democracy are +intended to be applied to woman equally with man. I listen for the +unthinking masses and pray that every earnest, manly spirit shall help +make women free." In reply Mr. Curtis closed a long and cordial letter +by saying: "Believe me that I have thought of the point you make but +the greater statement must inevitably include the less." She scribbled +a comment on the back of this for her own satisfaction: "Men still the +greater, women the less." + +The last of January Miss Anthony went to Albany to attend the +anti-slavery convention and remained six weeks during the legislative +session to work in the interest of the women's petitions and the +Personal Liberty Bill. This was a season of great enjoyment for her, +notwithstanding much tramping about in the rain and snow and many +discouraging experiences with the Legislature. She writes a friend: +"Well, I am a member of the lobby but lacking the two most essential +requisites, for I neither accept money nor have I any to pay out. Dr. +Cheever speaks tonight in the Assembly chamber on 'The Guilt of the +Slave Traffic and of the Legislation by which it is Supported.' I have +been going about all day to collect enough to defray his expenses." + +Phillips, Garrison, Pillsbury and all the host were at the convention. +They dined in Lydia Mott's simple little home and had a merry time. +Between the meetings the party visited the Legislature, Geological +Hall, Palmer's studio and other places of interest and managed to get a +bit of holiday recreation. Miss Anthony stayed with her friend Miss +Mott, visited Rev. Mayo, called often on Thurlow Weed, went to Troy to +hear Beecher lecture on "The Burdens of Society," to Hudson to hear +Phillips on "Toussaint L'Ouverture" and, whenever she could spare a day +from her work with the Legislature, held woman's rights meetings in +neighboring towns; thus every hour was filled to overflowing. + +In March she finished her lecture, "The True Woman," and plunged into +the preparations for the approaching woman's rights convention. She +also indulged the love for gardening which her busy life so seldom +permitted and, judging from her diary, must have given the hired men +more attention than they ever received before or afterwards: + + Uncovered the strawberry and raspberry beds.... Worked with Simon + building frames for the grape vines in the peach orchards.... Set + out eighteen English black currants, twenty-two English + gooseberries and Muscadine grape vines, also Lawton + blackberries.... Worked in the garden all day, then went to the + city to hear Dr. Cheever; few there, but grand lecture. How he + unmasked the church hypocrites!... Wrote reports of the lecture + for Standard and Liberator, and helped father plan the new + kitchen.... Finished setting out the apple trees and the 600 + blackberry bushes, then took the 6 o'clock train for Seneca Falls. + Hot and dusty, and I am very, very tired. + +[Autograph: Wendell Phillips] + +She spoke in various towns all the way to New York where she arrived in +time to attend the Anti-Slavery Anniversary and make final arrangements +for the convention in Mozart Hall, May 12. She had written asking +Lucretia Mott to preside, who answered, "I am sure there needs not a +better presiding officer than thyself," but agreed to come. When the +hour arrived the hall was so packed that it was impossible for Mrs. +Mott to reach the platform and Miss Anthony was obliged to open the +meeting. This convention, like several which preceded it, was greatly +disturbed by noise and interruptions from the audience, until finally +it was turned over to Wendell Phillips who "knew better than any one +else how to play with and lash a mob and thrust what he wished to say +into their long ears." At the end of his speech Miss Anthony +immediately adjourned the convention, to prevent violent +demonstrations. The Tribune said: + + The woman's rights meeting last night was well calculated to + advance the cause that the reformers met to plead. The speakers + were comparatively so temperate, while sundry voters were so + intemperate in demonstrating their folly, rudeness, ignorance and + indecency, that almost any cause which the one pleaded and the + other objected to would be likely to find favor with order-loving + people. The presence of a single policeman might have preserved + perfect order, saved the reputation of our city before crowds of + strangers and given hundreds an opportunity to hear. Of course it + being a meeting that women were to address, as "women have no + rights in public which men are bound to maintain," there was no + policeman present. + +The disturbances at these conventions were not so much because the mob +objected to the doctrine of woman's rights as that they were addressed +by the leading anti-slavery speakers and therefore had to bear the +odium attached to that hated cause. + +A strong memorial, asking for equal social, civil and political rights +for women and based on the guarantees of the Declaration of +Independence, was prepared by a committee consisting of Miss Anthony, +Mr. Phillips and seven others, to be presented to every legislature in +the Union. By the time the legislatures met in 1860, political affairs +had reached a crisis and the country was in a state of unrest and +excitement which made it impossible to secure consideration for this or +any other question outside the vital issues that were pressing, +although it was presented in several States. + +Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton wrote an eloquent appeal to be circulated +with the petitions to rouse public sentiment. Armed with this the +former began correspondence with speakers in reference to a summer and +fall campaign of the state. The diary shows that she actually found +time to attend a picnic, but as she was called upon for a speech while +there the day was not wholly wasted. There are also references to +"moonlight rides," and one entry records: "Mr. ---- walked home with +me; marvelously attentive. What a pity such powers of intellect should +lack the moral spine!" + +Out of the Francis Jackson fund Mr. Phillips sent Miss Anthony $1,500 +for her extensive campaign. She engaged speakers to come into New York +in different months, and July 13 opened the series with Antoinette +Blackwell at Niagara Falls. From here they made the round of the +watering places, Avon, Clifton, Trenton Falls, Sharon, Saratoga, +Ballston Spa and Lake George, where persons of wealth and prominence +were gathered from all parts of the Union. In some places they spoke in +a grove to thousands of people; at others in hotel parlors, and +everywhere met a friendly spirit and respectful treatment. + +Miss Anthony did not forget to go to Poughkeepsie this summer, and stir +up the teachers at their annual meeting. Antoinette Blackwell says of +this trip: "I shall always recollect our journey on the boat with two +or three dozen teachers, and your walking the deck with one and +another, talking about women and their rights, in school and out of +school, in the most matter-of-fact way, although it was plainly evident +that most of them would sooner have listened to a discussion on the +rights of the Hottentots." The teacher who was her chief support at +these conventions was Helen Philleo.[27] There were very few of them in +those days who had the courage to help fight this battle for their own +interests. At the last session she announced a woman's rights meeting +and many remained to attend it. + +After the summer resorts were closed the meetings were continued in the +principal towns. Mrs. Blackwell thus describes an incident in the Fort +William Henry hotel: "I remember a rich scene at the breakfast table. +Aaron Powell was with us and the colored waiter pointedly offered him +the bill of fare. Miss Anthony glanced at it and began to give her +order, not to Powell in ladylike modesty, but promptly and +energetically to the waiter. He turned a grandiloquent, deaf ear; +Powell fidgeted and studied his newspaper; she persisted, determined +that no man should come between her and her own order for coffee, +cornbread and beefsteak. 'What do I understand is the full order, sir, +for your party?' demanded the waiter, doggedly and suggestively. Powell +tried to repeat her wishes, but stumbled and stammered and grew red in +the face. I put in a working oar to cover the undercurrent of laughter, +while she, coolly unconscious of everything except that there was no +occasion for a 'middleman,' since she was entirely competent to look +after her own breakfast, repeated her order, and the waiter, looking +intensely disgusted, concluded to bring something, right or wrong." + +While at Easton among her old friends Miss Anthony attended Quaker +meeting and the spirit moved her to speak very forcibly, as she relates +in a letter: "A young Quaker preacher from Virginia, who happened to be +there, said: 'Christ was no agitator, but a peacemaker; George Fox was +no agitator; the Friends at the South follow these examples and are +never disturbed by fanaticism.' This was more than I could bear; I +sprung to my feet and quoted: 'I came into the world not to bring peace +but a sword.... Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites that +devour widow's houses!' Read the New Testament, and say if Christ was +not an agitator. Who is this among us crying 'peace, peace, when there +is no peace?'--and sat down." It is a matter of regret that she did not +tell what became of the gentleman from Virginia. + +Miss Anthony writes to Mary Hallowell, during these days: "I am more +tired than ever before and know that I am draining the millpond too low +each day to be filled quite up during the night, but I am having fine +audiences of thinking men and women. Oh, if we could but make our +meetings ring like those of the anti-slavery people, wouldn't the world +hear us? But to do that we must have souls baptized into the work and +consecrated to it." + +Mrs. Blackwell's domestic affairs will not permit any further lecturing +and Miss Anthony says in a letter to her: "O, dear, dear, how I do wish +you could have kept on with me. I can't tell you how utterly awful is +the suspense these other women keep me in: first, they can't, then they +can, then they won't unless things are so and so; and when I think +everything is settled, it all has to be gone over again. The fact is I +am not fit to deal with anybody who is not terribly in earnest." To +this she replies: "Dear child, I'm sorry I can not help you, but pity a +poor married woman and forgive. The ordeal that I have been going +through, four sewingwomen each giving about two days, no end of little +garments to alter and to make, with a husband whose clothes as well as +himself have been neglected for three months, the garden to be covered +up from the frost, shrubs to transplant, winter provisions to lay in +and only one good-natured, stupid servant to help with all. This, +Susan, is 'woman's sphere.'" + +As Miss Anthony never approved of a woman's neglecting her household +for any purpose, she urged no more but sought elsewhere for assistance. +There was not one unmarried woman except herself in all the corps of +available speakers and, while some of them could make a trip of a few +weeks, not one could be depended on for steady work. In October she +secured Mrs. Tracy Cutler for awhile, and later Frances D. Gage, J. +Elizabeth Jones and Lucy N. Coleman, but was obliged to hold many +meetings alone. These were continued at intervals through the fall of +1859 and the winter and spring of 1860, and numerous pages of foolscap +are still in existence containing a carefully kept account of the +expenses. Each meeting was made partly to pay for itself, the lecturers +received $12 a week, Miss Anthony herself taking only this sum, and it +may be believed that no more extended and effective propaganda work +ever was accomplished with the same amount of money. While this was +being done, she also assisted Clarina Howard Nichols and Susan E. +Wattles to plan an important campaign in Kansas with money furnished +from the Jackson fund. + +She received the following characteristic letter from Rev. Thomas K. +Beecher when she asked for the use of his church in Elmira: "I will +answer for myself and afterwards append the decision of the trustees. +Anybody with good moral character and clean feet is welcome to use our +meeting house, if they like, but were I you I should prefer Holden's +Hall. But, lastly, I should shrink from holding such a meeting. I fear +that you will come to pain of disappointment when your enthusiasm is +chilled and bruised against the stone walls of Elmira apathy. More +people will attend at Holden's Hall than at church. So speaks in brief, +yours with hearty respect." + +Mrs. Blackwell writes her teasingly about what she calls her +obtuseness, going straight ahead with her work, never knowing when she +was snubbed or defeated, giving the undiluted doctrine to people +without ever perceiving their frantic efforts to escape, and ignoring +all the humorous features of the campaigns. Miss Anthony retorts: "You +might give some of the funny things at your own expense, but tell just +as many as you please at mine. You see I have always gone with such a +blind rush that I never had time to see the ridiculous, and blessed for +me and my work and my happiness that I did not." Another invariable +habit was never to notice complaints written to her. She always +answered the business points but entirely ignored complainings, charges +against other people and all extraneous matters. + +She relates a significant incident which occurred during this summer +campaign when she and Antoinette Blackwell spent a Sunday at Gerrit +Smith's. He had established at Peterboro and was maintaining at his own +expense a Free church. Mrs. Blackwell, under the influence of Theodore +Parker, Chapin and other liberal thinkers, had become very broad in her +doctrines, and was greatly pleased at an opportunity to preach for Mr. +Smith, thinking to find perfect appreciation and sympathy. After church +Miss Anthony went to her room and found her weeping bitterly, but she +begged to be left to herself. When more composed she sent for her and +told how in the midst of her sermon, when she felt herself surpassing +anything she ever had done, she heard a gentle snore, and looking down +beheld Mr. Smith sound asleep! She was terribly disappointed and now +had made up her mind there was but one thing for the human soul, and +that was to live absolutely within itself. There is no friend, no +relative, who can enter into the depths of another individuality. A +husband and wife may be very happy together; in all the little +occurrences which really make up the sum of everyday life, they may be +perfectly congenial; but there will be times when each will feel the +other separated by an immeasurable distance. Henceforth she would enjoy +what solace there was in her religious faith for herself but would +expect no other soul to share it with her. "This was to me a wonderful +revelation," said Miss Anthony, "and I realized, as never before, that +in our most sacred hours we dwell indeed in a world of solitude." + +[Autograph: Antoinette Brown Blackwell] + +On December 2, 1859, occurred that terrible tragedy in the country's +history, the execution of John Brown for the raid on the United States +arsenal at Harper's Ferry. The nation was shaken as by a great +earthquake. Its dreadful import was realized perhaps by none so +strikingly as by that little band of Abolitionists who never had +wavered in their belief that slavery must ultimately disrupt the Union. +When the country was paralyzed with horror and uncertainty, they alone +dared call public meetings of mourning and indignation. It was natural +that in Rochester they should turn to Susan B. Anthony for leadership. +Without a moment's hesitation for fear of consequences she engaged +Corinthian Hall and set about arranging a meeting for the evening of +that day. Parker Pillsbury wrote: + + Can you not make this gathering one of a popular character? What I + mean is will not some sturdy Republican or Gerrit Smith man + preside, another act as secretary and several make addresses? Only + we must not lose the control. I do not believe that any observance + of the day will be instituted outside our ranks. I am without + tidings from the "seat of war" since Tuesday evening; and do not + know what we shall hear next. My voice is against any attempt at + rescue. It would inevitably, I fear, lead to bloodshed which could + not compensate nor be compensated. If the people dare murder their + victim, as they are determined to do, and in the name of law, he + dares and is prepared to die and the moral effect of the execution + will be without a parallel since the scenes on Calvary eighteen + hundred years ago, and the halter that day sanctified shall be the + cord to draw millions to salvation. + +[Autograph: Parker Pillsbury] + +Miss Anthony found that beyond the little band of Abolitionists not a +person dared give her any assistance. Her diary says: "Not one man of +prominence in religion or politics will publicly identify himself with +the John Brown meeting." She went from door to door selling tickets and +collecting money. Samuel D. Porter, a prominent member of the Liberty +party, assisted her, as did that circle of staunch Quaker friends who +never failed her in any undertaking; Frederick Douglass had been +obliged to flee to England. An admission fee of fifty cents kept out +the rabble, and not more than 300 were present. The masses of the +people, even those in full sympathy, were afraid to attend. Rev. Abram +Pryn, a Free church minister, made a fine address, and Parker Pillsbury +spoke as never before. Mr. Porter said: "This was the only occasion +that ever matched Pillsbury's adjectives." Miss Anthony presided and +there was no disturbance. The surplus receipts were sent to John +Brown's family. + +Mrs. Stanton wrote shortly afterwards, urging her to come to Seneca +Falls: "Indeed it would do me great good to see some reformers just +now. The death of my father, the worse than death of my dear cousin +Gerrit,[28] the martyrdom of that great and glorious John Brown, all +conspire to make me regret more than ever my dwarfed and perverted +womanhood. In times like these every soul should do the work of a +fullgrown man. When I pass the gate of the celestials and good Peter +asks me where I wish to sit, I will say: 'Anywhere so that I am neither +a negro nor a woman. Confer on me, great angel, the glory of white +manhood, so that henceforth I may feel unlimited freedom.'" + +In this year of 1859, Charles F. Hovey, a wealthy merchant of Boston, a +radical in religion and a noted reformer and philanthropist, left +$50,000 to be expended in securing equal rights for women, the +abolition of slavery, and other reforms, at the discretion of Wendell +Phillips, Wm. Lloyd Garrison and the other executors. As slavery was +abolished four years later, a considerable portion of this was used for +the cause of woman. + +Early in December the anti-slavery committee insisted that Miss Anthony +should resume the management of their conventions, as they wished to +hold a series throughout the large cities of the State and had been +unable to find any one who could so successfully conduct them. Abby +Kelly Foster, though often critical and censorious, wrote her regarding +one of her speeches: "It is a timely, noble, clear-sighted and fearless +vindication of our platform. I want to say how delighted both Stephen +and myself are to see that you, though much younger than some others in +the anti-slavery school, have been able to appreciate so entirely the +genius of our enterprise." The distinguished George B. Cheever, of the +Church of the Puritans in New York, one of the few orthodox clergymen +who stood with the Abolitionists in those early days, wrote Miss +Anthony: "May God be with you and guide and bless you in your efforts. +That is the strength we all need and must have if we accomplish +anything good and permanent in this terrible conflict." + +[Autograph: George B. Cheever] + +A single instance will show how closely the question of woman's rights +was connected with that of anti-slavery in the popular mind. When Miss +Anthony and Mrs. Blackwell were at Fort William Henry, at the head of +Lake George, they spoke one evening in the hotel parlors. There were a +number of southerners present and many of them were delighted with the +meeting, whose doctrines were entirely new to them, and made liberal +contributions. The next day the speakers left in the stage with one of +these, Judge John J. Ormond and his two daughters, of Tuscaloosa, Ala. +He told Miss Anthony he had been instrumental in securing many laws +favorable to women in that state and it would be a pleasure to him to +see that their memorial was presented to the Alabama Legislature. When +she reached home she sent it to him with the following letter: + + Enclosed is a copy of our woman's rights memorial. Will you give me + a full report of the action taken upon it?... I hope you and your + daughters arrived home safe. Say to the elder I shall be most happy + to hear from her when she shall have fairly inaugurated some noble + life work. I trust each will take to her soul a strong purpose and + that on her tombstone shall be engraved her own name and her own + noble deeds instead of merely the daughter of Judge Ormond, or the + relict of some Honorable or D. D. When true womanhood shall be + attained it will be spoken of and remembered for itself alone. My + kindest regards to them, accompanied with the most earnest desire + that they shall make truth and freedom the polar star of their + lives. + +To this Judge Ormond made cordial reply, October 17, 1859: + + DEAR MADAM: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your + letter of the 2d inst., with the papers enclosed. The petition to + the Legislature will be presented by the senator from this county + and I will apprise you of the action had upon it. My daughters are + obliged to you for the interest you take in them. To a certain + extent I agree with you as to the duties of woman. I am greatly in + favor of her elevation to her proper sphere as the equal of man as + to her civil rights, the security of her person, the right to her + property and, where there is a separation after marriage, her equal + right with the father to the custody and education of the children. + All this as a legislator I have endeavored to accomplish, making + large innovations upon the ancient common law. If I differ from you + as to her political rights, it is because I think that, from + political as well as moral considerations, she is unfit for, indeed + incapacitated from, the performance of most of the duties which are + now performed by men as members of the body politic; but there are + many avocations and professions now exclusively occupied by men + which women are as well, perhaps better fitted to fill. I hope + these will soon be thrown open to an active competition of both + sexes. + +Then came the raid on Harper's Ferry and all its terrible consequences, +and in December Judge Ormond wrote again: + + MADAM: In redemption of my promise to tell you the fate of the + woman's rights petition to our Legislature, I have the honor to + inform you that it was virtually rejected, being laid on the table. + I interested a distinguished member of our Senate in its + presentation and, in addition, wrote a letter which under ordinary + circumstances would have insured its respectful consideration. But + after your petition was forwarded came the treasonable and + murderous invasion of John Brown. The atrocity of this act, + countenanced as it manifestly was by a great party at the North, + has extinguished our last spark of fraternal feeling. Whilst we are + all living under a Constitution which secures to us our right to + our slaves, the results of which are in truth more beneficial to + the whole North, and especially to the New England States, than to + us, you are secretly plotting murderous inroads into our peaceful + country and endeavoring to incite our slaves to cut the throats of + our wives and children. Can you believe that this state of things + can last? We now look upon you as our worst enemies and are ready + to separate from you. Measures are in progress as far as + practicable to establish non-intercourse with you and to proscribe + all articles of northern manufacture or origin, including New + England teachers. We can live without you; it remains to be seen + how you will get along without us. You will probably find that + fanaticism is not an element of national wealth or conducive to the + happiness or comfort of the people. + + In conclusion, let me assure you this is written more in sorrow + than in anger. I am not a politician and have always been a + strenuous friend of the Union. I am now in favor of a separation, + unless you immediately retrace your steps and give the necessary + guarantees by the passage of appropriate laws that you will + faithfully abide by the compromises of the Constitution, by which + alone the slaveholding States can with honor or safety remain in + the Union. But that this will be done, I have very little hope, as + "madness seems to rule the hour;" and as you have thus constituted + yourselves our enemies, you must not be surprised at finding that + we are yours. + +[Footnote 26: A critic said of this: "It is the most faultless +presentation of the question to which I have listened. Mr. Curtis takes +the broadest view of the subject, his logic in its sweep is convincing +as demonstration itself. His satire is cutting, but not bitter; his wit +keen as a Damascus blade. He came out bravely for the suffrage." For +forty years the advocates of equal rights have been using this lecture +as one of their strongest documents.] + +[Footnote 27: By an odd coincidence, while this chapter was being +written a letter came to Miss Anthony from Dean M. Jenkins, of Detroit, +which said: "Enclosed please find my check to help on the good work to +which you have devoted your life. You see I have almost pardoned you +for saying, 'I have never quite forgiven you for marrying Helen Philleo +and taking her away from the suffrage work.' In place of one worker you +now have four. Mrs. Jenkins made a convert of me. Our daughter, Mrs. +Spalding, is as earnest a worker for the suffrage cause as her mother, +and our son is a defender of his mother's principles...."] + +[Footnote 28: He had become temporarily insane on account of the +persecution he suffered in connection with the John Brown raid.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +RIFT IN COMMON LAW--DIVORCE QUESTION. + +1860. + + +During the first decade of its history the movement toward securing a +larger liberty for women was known by the comprehensive term "woman's +rights." At its inception, under the English common law which +everywhere prevailed, woman was legally a part of man's belongings, one +of his chattels. Restrained by custom from speaking in public or +expressing herself through the newspapers, she had been silent under +the oppression of ages. When at length she found her voice there were +so many wrongs to be righted that she scarcely knew which first should +receive attention. Those early meetings could not be called woman +suffrage conventions, for many who advocated all the other reforms +which they considered either disbelieved in or were indifferent to the +franchise. It was only the Anthonys, Stantons, Stones, Roses, +Garrisons, Phillips of this great movement for woman's liberty who were +philosophical enough to see that the right of suffrage was the +underlying principle of the whole question; so it was not for many +years, not until practically all other demands had been granted, that +they were finally resolved into a suffrage organization, pure and +simple. At the beginning of 1860 the laws relating to women, as briefly +stated by the great jurist, David Dudley Field, were as follows: + + The elective franchise is confined entirely to men. A married woman + can not sue for her services, as all she earns legally belongs to + the husband, whereas his earnings belong to himself, and the wife + legally has no interest in them. Where children have property and + both parents are living, the father is the guardian. In case of the + wife's death without a will, the husband is entitled to all her + personal property and to a life interest in the whole of her real + estate to the entire exclusion of the children, even though this + property may have come to her through a former husband and the + children of that marriage still be living. If the husband die + without a will, the widow is entitled to one-third of the personal + property and to a life interest in one-third only of the real + estate. In case a wife be personally injured, either in reputation + by slander, or in body by accident, compensation must be recovered + in the joint name of herself and her husband, and when recovered it + belongs to him. On the other hand, the wife has no legal claim in a + similar case in regard to the husband. The father may by deed or + will appoint a guardian for the minor children, who may thus be + taken entirely away from the jurisdiction of the mother at his + death. Where both parents are dead, the children shall be given to + the nearest of kin and, as between relatives of the same degree of + consanguinity, males shall be preferred. No married woman can act + as administrator in any case. + +One can not but ask why, under such laws, women ever would marry, but +in those days virtually all occupations were closed to them and the +vast majority were compelled to marry for support. In the few cases +where women had their own means, they married because of the public +sentiment which considered it a serious reproach to remain a spinster +and rigorously forbade to her all the pleasures and independence that +are freely accorded to the unmarried woman of today. And they married +because it is natural for women to marry, and all laws and all customs, +all restrictions and all freedom, never will circumvent nature. + +On February 3 and 4, 1860, the State Woman's Rights Convention was held +at Albany in Association Hall, an interesting and successful meeting. +At its close, in a letter to Mrs. Wright, Miss Anthony said: "Mr. Anson +Bingham, chairman of the judiciary committee, will bring in a radical +report in favor of all our claims, but previous to doing so he wishes +our strongest arguments made before the committee and says Mrs. Stanton +must come. I wish you would slip over there and make her feel that the +salvation of the Empire State, at least of the women in it, depends +upon her bending all her powers to move the hearts of our law-givers at +this time. I should go there myself this very night but I must watch +and encourage friends here." Mrs. Stanton replied to her urgent appeal: +"I am willing to do the appointed work at Albany. If Napoleon says +cross the Alps, they are crossed. You must come here and start me on +the right train of thought, as your practical knowledge of just what is +wanted is everything in getting up the right document." + +The readers of history never will be able to separate Miss Anthony's +addresses from Mrs. Stanton's; they themselves scarcely could do it. +Some of the strongest ever written by either were prepared without the +assistance of the other, but most of their resolutions, memorials and +speeches were the joint work of both. Miss Anthony always said, "Mrs. +Stanton is my sentence maker, my pen artist." No one can excel Miss +Anthony in logic of thought or vigor of expression; no one is so +thoroughly supplied with facts, statistics and arguments, but she finds +it difficult and distasteful to put them into written form. When, +however, some one else has taken her wonderful stock of material and +reduced it to shape, she is a perfect critic. Her ear is as carefully +attuned to the correct balance of words as that of a skilled musician +to harmony in music. She will detect instantly a weak spot in a +sentence or a paragraph and never fail to suggest the exact word or +phrase needed to give it poise and strength. + +Mrs. Stanton had a large house and a constantly increasing family, +making it exceedingly difficult to find time for literary work; so when +a state paper was to be written, Miss Anthony would go to Seneca Falls. +After the children were in bed, the two women would sit up far into the +night arranging material and planning their work. The next day Mrs. +Stanton would seek the quietest spot in the house and begin writing, +while Miss Anthony would give the children their breakfast, start the +older ones to school, make the dessert for dinner and trundle the +babies up and down the walk, rushing in occasionally to help the writer +out of a vortex. Many an article which will be read with delight by +future generations was thus prepared. Mrs. Stanton describes these +occasions in her charming Reminiscences: + + It was mid such exhilarating scenes that Miss Anthony and I wrote + addresses for temperance, anti-slavery, educational and woman's + rights conventions. Here we forged resolutions, protests, appeals, + petitions, agricultural reports and constitutional arguments, for + we made it a matter of conscience to accept every invitation to + speak on every question, in order to maintain woman's right to do + so. It is often said by those who know Miss Anthony best, that she + has been my good angel, always pushing and guiding me to work. With + the cares of a large family, perhaps I might in time, like too many + women, have become wholly absorbed in a narrow selfishness, had not + my friend been continually exploring new fields for missionary + labors. Her description of a body of men on any platform, + complacently deciding questions in which women had an equal + interest without an equal voice, readily roused me to a + determination to throw a fire-brand in the midst of their assembly. + + Thus, whenever I saw that stately Quaker girl coming across my lawn + I knew that some happy convocation of the sons of Adam were to be + set by the ears with our appeals or resolutions. The little + portmanteau stuffed with facts was opened and there we had what + Rev. John Smith and Hon. Richard Roe had said, false interpretation + of Bible texts, statistics of women robbed of their property, shut + out of some college, half-paid for their work, reports of some + disgraceful trial--injustice enough to turn any woman's thoughts + from stockings and puddings. Then we would get out our pens and + write articles for papers, a petition to the Legislature, letters + to the faithful here and there, stir up the women in Ohio, + Pennsylvania or Massachusetts, call on the Lily, the Una, the + Liberator, the Standard, to remember our wrongs. We never met + without issuing a pronunciamento on some question. + + In thought and sympathy we were one, and in the division of labor + we exactly complemented each other. In writing we did better work + together than either could do alone. While she is slow and + analytical in composition, I am rapid and synthetic. I am the + better writer, she the better critic. She supplied the facts and + statistics, I the philosophy and rhetoric, and together we made + arguments which have stood unshaken by the storms of nearly fifty + long years.[29] + +In 1878 Theodore Tilton gave this graphic description: "These two +women, sitting together in their parlors, have for the last thirty +years been diligent forgers of all manner of projectiles, from +fireworks to thunderbolts, and have hurled them with unexpected +explosion into the midst of all manner of educational, reformatory, +religious and political assemblies, sometimes to the pleasant surprise +and half welcome of the members; more often to the bewilderment and +prostration of numerous victims; and in a few signal instances, to the +gnashing of angry men's teeth. I know of no two more pertinacious +incendiaries in the whole country; nor will they themselves deny the +charge. In fact, this noise-making twain are the two sticks of a drum +for keeping up what Daniel Webster called 'the rub-a-dub of +agitation.'" + +On March 19, 1860, Mrs. Stanton presented her address to a joint +session of the Legislature at Albany, occupying the speaker's desk and +facing as magnificent an audience as ever assembled in the old Capitol. +It was a grand plea for a repeal of the unjust and oppressive laws +relating to women, and it was universally said that its eloquence could +not have been surpassed by any man in the United States. A bill was +then in the hands of the judiciary committee, simply an amendment of +the Property Law of 1848, to which Andrew J. Colvin objected as not +liberal enough. Miss Anthony gave him a very radical bill just +introduced into the Massachusetts Legislature, which he examined +carefully, adding several clauses to make it still broader. It was +accepted by the committee, composed of Messrs. Hammond, Ramsey and +Colvin, reported to the Senate and passed by that body in February. It +was concurred in by the Assembly the day following Mrs. Stanton's +speech, and signed by Governor Edwin D. Morgan.[30] This new law +declared in brief: + + Any property, real and personal, which any married woman now owns, + or which may come to her by descent, etc., shall be her sole and + separate property, not subject to control or interference by her + husband. + + Any married woman may bargain, sell, etc., carry on any trade or + perform any services on her own account, and her earnings shall be + her sole and separate property and may be used or invested by her + in her own name. + + A married woman may buy, sell, make contracts, etc., and if the + husband has willfully abandoned her, or is an habitual drunkard, or + insane, or a convict, his consent shall not be necessary. + + A married woman may sue and be sued, bringing action in her own + name for damages and the money recovered shall be her sole + property. + + Every married woman shall be joint guardian of her children with + her husband, with equal powers, etc., regarding them. + + At the decease of the husband the wife shall have the same property + rights as the husband would have at her death. + +This remarkable action, which might be termed almost a legal +revolution, was the result of nearly ten years of laborious and +persistent effort on the part of a little handful of women who, by +constant agitation through conventions, meetings and petitions, had +created a public sentiment which stood back of the Legislature and gave +it sanction to do this act of justice. While all these women worked +earnestly and conscientiously to bring about this great reform, there +was but one, during the entire period, who gave practically every month +of every year to this purpose, and that one was Susan B. Anthony. In +storm and sunshine, in heat and cold, in seasons of encouragement and +in times of doubt, criticism and contumely, she never faltered, never +stopped. Going with her petition from door to door, only to have them +shut in her face by the women she was trying to help; subjecting +herself to the jeers and insults of men whom she need never have met +except for this mission; held up by the press to the censure and +ridicule of thousands who never had seen or heard her; misrepresented +and abused above all other women because she stood in the front of the +battle and offered herself a vicarious sacrifice--can the women of New +York, can the women of the nation, ever be sufficiently grateful to +this one who, willingly and unflinchingly, did the hardest pioneer work +ever performed by mortal? + +Miss Anthony divided the winter of 1860 between the anti-slavery and +the woman's cause. As she had very little on hand (!) she arranged +another course of lectures for Rochester, inviting A.D. Mayo, Ralph +Waldo Emerson, Thomas Starr King and others. These speakers were in the +employ of the lyceum bureau, but were so restricted by it that they +could give their great _reform_, lectures only under private +management. At the close of Emerson's he said to Miss Anthony that he +had been instrumental in establishing the lyceum for the purpose of +securing a freedom of speech not permitted in the churches, but he +believed that now he would have to do as much to break it up, because +of its conservatism, and organize some new scheme which would permit +men and women to utter their highest thought. She was in the habit of +arranging many of her woman's rights meetings in different towns when +Phillips or others were to be there for a lyceum lecture, thus securing +them for a speech the following afternoon. + +[Autograph: Cordially yours, T.S. King] + +A letter received this winter from her sister Mary is interesting as +showing that the belief in equal rights for women was quite as strong +in other members of the family. She had been requested by the board of +education to fill the place of one of the principals who was ill, and +gives the following account: + + I was willing to do the best I could to help out, so the next + morning, with fear and trembling, I faced the 150 young men and + women, many of whom, like their fathers and mothers before them, + felt that no woman had the ability to occupy such a place. All went + well until it was noised about that I should expect as much salary + as had been paid the principal. To establish such a precedent would + never do, so a man from a neighboring town was sent for post-haste, + but the moment he began his administration the boys rebelled. After + slates and books had been thrown from the window and I had been + obliged to guard him from their snowballs on his way home, he + decided teaching, in that place at least, was not his "sphere" and + refused to return. + + Next morning the committee asked me to resume the management. I + answered: "No person can fill the place of a long-tried teacher, + but I in a measure succeeded--yet not one of you would entertain + the idea of paying me as much as the principal. You sent to another + town for a man, who has made an absolute failure, and yet you do + not hesitate to pay him the full salary for the time he was here. + If you will be as just to me, I will resume the work and do my + best--on any other conditions I must decline." They agreed to the + proposition, I finished the term and for the first time on record a + woman received a principal's salary! + +A little later Miss Mary continues the story: + + You know the principal of Number Ten has been ill nearly two + months. I asked him if Miss Hayden, who took his place, was to + receive his salary. He replied: "Do you think after the money has + been audited to me, I ought to turn around and give it all to her?" + Said I: "If the board are willing to pay you $72 a month while you + are sick and pay her the same, all right; but if only one is to + receive that salary, I say, and most emphatically, she is the one." + He wanted to know if I was not aware that mine was the only case + where such a thing had been done in Rochester. I told him I was + heartily glad I had been the means of having justice done for once, + and was really in hopes other women teachers would follow my + example and suffer themselves no longer to be duped. + +Miss Hayden however was obliged to accept $25 a month for doing exactly +the work for which the man received $72 during all his illness. To keep +her from making trouble, the board gave her a small present with the +understanding that it was not to be considered as salary. A short time +afterwards Miss Mary wrote again: "A woman teacher on a salary of $20 a +month has just been ill for a week and another was employed to take her +place; when she recovered, she was obliged to have the supply teacher's +salary deducted from her own. So I posted down to the superintendent's +office and had another decidedly plain talk. He owned that it was +unjust but said there was no help for it." + +In the winter of 1860, Henry Ward Beecher delivered his great woman's +rights speech at Cooper Institute, New York. At that time his name was +a power in the whole world and his masterly exposition of the rights of +women is still used as one of the best suffrage leaflets. Miss Anthony +tells in her diary of meeting Tilton and of his amusing account of the +struggle they had to get this speech published in the Independent. Her +little visits to New York and Boston always inspired her with fresh +courage, for here she would meet Theodore Parker, Frothingham, Cheever, +Chapin, Beecher, Greeley, Phillips, Garrison, the great spirits of that +age, and all in perfect sympathy with what she represented. + +The Tenth National Woman's Rights Convention assembled in Cooper +Institute, May 10, 1860. Miss Anthony called it to order and read a +full and interesting report of the work and progress of the past year. +The usual eloquent speeches were made by Phillips, Mrs. Rose, Rev. +Beriah Green, Mary Grew, Rev. Samuel Longfellow, brother of the poet, +and others. The warmest gratitude was expressed "toward Susan B. +Anthony, through whose untiring exertions and executive ability the +recent laws for women were secured." A hearty laugh was enjoyed at the +expense of the man who shouted from the audience, "She'd a great deal +better have been at home taking care of her husband and children." The +proceedings were pleasant and harmonious, but next morning the whole +atmosphere was changed and Elizabeth Cady Stanton did it with a little +set of resolutions declaring that, under certain conditions, divorce +was justifiable. She supported them by an address which for logic of +argument, force of expression and beauty of diction never has been, +never can be surpassed. No such thoughts ever before had been put into +words. She spoke on that day for all the women of the world, for the +wives of the present and future generations. The audience sat +breathless and, at the close of the following peroration, burst into +long-continued applause: + + We can not take our gauge of womanhood from the past but from the + solemn convictions of our own souls, in the higher development of + the race. No parchments, however venerable with the mold of ages, + no human institutions, can bound the immortal wants of the royal + sons and daughters of the great I Am--rightful heirs of the joys of + time and joint heirs of the glories of eternity. If in marriage + either party claim the right to stand supreme, to woman, the mother + of the race, belongs the scepter and the crown. Her life is one + long sacrifice for man. You tell us that among all womankind there + is no Moses, Christ or Paul--no Michael Angelo, Beethoven or + Shakespeare--no Columbus or Galileo--no Locke or Bacon. Behold + those mighty minds so grand, so comprehensive--they themselves are + _our_ great works! Into you, O sons of earth, goes all of us that + is immortal. In you center our very life, our hopes, our intensest + love. For you we gladly pour out our heart's blood and die, knowing + that from our suffering comes forth a new and more glorious + resurrection of thought and life. + +This speech set the convention on fire. Antoinette Blackwell spoke +strongly in opposition, Mrs. Rose eloquently in favor. Mr. Phillips was +not satisfied even with the motion to lay the resolutions on the table +but moved to expunge them from the journal of the convention, which, he +said, had nothing to do with laws except those that rested unequally +upon women and the laws of divorce did not. It seems incredible that +Mr. Phillips could have taken this position, when by the law the wife +had no legal claim upon either property or children in case of divorce, +and, even though the innocent party, must go forth into the world +homeless and childless; in the majority of States she could not sue for +divorce in her own name nor could she claim enough of the community +property to pay the costs of the suit. Miss Anthony said: + + I hope Mr. Phillips will withdraw his motion. It would be contrary + to all parliamentary usage that when the speeches which advocated + them are published in the proceedings, the resolutions should not + be. I wholly dissent from the point that this question does not + belong on our platform. Marriage has ever been a one-sided + contract, resting most unequally upon the sexes. Woman never has + been consulted; her wish never has been taken into consideration as + regards the terms of the marriage compact. By law, public sentiment + and religion, woman never has been thought of other than as a piece + of property to be disposed of at the will and pleasure of man. This + very hour, by our statute books, by our so-called enlightened + Christian civilization, she has no voice whatever in saying what + shall be the basis of this relation. She must accept marriage as + man proffers it, or not at all. + + And then again, on Mr. Phillips' own ground, the discussion is + perfectly in order, since nearly all the wrongs of which we + complain grow out of the inequality, the injustice of the marriage + laws, that rob the wife of the right to herself and her children + and make her the slave of the man she marries. I hope, therefore, + the resolutions will be allowed to go out to the public, that there + may be a fair report of the ideas which actually have been + presented here and that they may not be left to the mercy of the + press. + +Abby Hopper Gibbons supported Mr. Phillips, but Mr. Garrison favored +the publication of the resolutions. The motion to expunge them from the +minutes was lost. + +[Autograph: + + Yours affectionately + Ernestine L. Rose] + +This discussion stirred the country from center to circumference, and +all the prominent newspapers had editorials favoring one side or the +other. It produced the first unpleasantness in the ranks of those who +had stood together for the past decade. Greeley launched thunderbolts +against the right of divorce under any circumstances, and Mrs. Stanton +replied to him in his own paper. Lucy Stone, who just before the +convention had written to Mrs. Stanton, "That is a great, grand +question, may God touch your lips," now took sides with Phillips. To +Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony came letters from far and wide, both +approving and condemning. Mrs. William H. Seward and her sister, Mrs. +Worden, wrote that it not only was a germane question to be discussed +at the convention but that there could be no such thing as equal rights +with the existing conditions of marriage and divorce. From Lucretia +Mott came the encouraging words: "I was rejoiced to have such a defense +of the resolutions as yours. I have the fullest confidence in the +united judgment of Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony and I am glad +they are so vigorous in the work." Parker Pillsbury sent a breezy note: +"What a pretty kettle of hot water you tumbled into at New York! Your +marriage and divorce speeches and resolutions you must have learned in +the school of a Wollstonecraft or a Sophie Arnaut. You broke the very +heart of the portly Evening Post and nearly drove the Tribune to the +grave." + +For the censure of the world at large they did not care, but Phillips' +defection almost broke their hearts. He was their ideal of the brave +and the true and always before they had had his approval and assistance +in every undertaking. Miss Anthony wrote Mrs. Stanton: "It is not for +you or for me, any more than for Mr. Phillips, to dictate our platform; +that must be fixed by the majority. He is evidently greatly distressed. +I find my only comfort in that glorious thought of Theodore Parker: +'All this is but the noise and dust of the wagon bringing the harvest +home.' These things must be, and happy are they who see clearly to the +end." And to her friend Amy Post: "It is wonderful what letters of +approval we are receiving, some of them from the noblest women of the +State, not connected in any way with our great movement but +sympathizing fully with our position on the question of divorce. I only +regret that history may not see Wendell Phillips first and grandest in +the recognition of this great truth; but he is a man and can not put +himself in the position of a wife, can not feel what she does under the +present marriage code. And yet in his relations to his own wife he is +the embodiment of chivalry, tenderness and love." + +In a letter to Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton said: "We are right. My +reason, my experience, my soul proclaim it. Our religion, laws, +customs, all are founded on the idea that woman was made for man. I am +a woman, and I can feel in every nerve where my deepest wrongs are +hidden. The men know we have struck a blow at their greatest +stronghold. Come what will, my whole soul rejoices in the truth I have +uttered. One word of thanks from a suffering woman outweighs with me +the howls of Christendom." + +Notwithstanding all that had passed, Miss Anthony wrote Mr. Phillips +for money from the Hovey fund to publish the report of the convention +containing these very resolutions, and he sent it accompanied with a +cordial letter. With his generous disposition he soon recognized the +fact that it was eminently proper to agitate this question of divorce, +in order to make it possible for a woman to secure release from a +habitual drunkard, or a husband who treated her with personal violence +or willfully abandoned her, and to have some claim on their property +and a right to their children, if she were the innocent party. Before +three months he wrote Miss Anthony, "Go ahead, you are doing grandly," +and he spoke many times afterwards on their platform. During the height +of this discussion Miss Anthony was in Albany and Rev. Mayo, thinking +to annihilate her, said: "You are not married, you have no business to +be discussing marriage." "Well, Mr. Mayo," she replied, "you are not a +slave, suppose you quit lecturing on slavery." + +As a result of this agitation a little clique of women in Boston, led +by Caroline H. Dall, announced that they would hold a convention which +should not be open to free discussion but should be "limited to the +subjects of Education, Vocation and Civil Position." They drew to +themselves a small body of conservatives and it was thought might start +a new movement, but the meeting had no permanent results. Parker +Pillsbury said of it: "With the exception of Phillips, no soul kindled +with volcanic fire was permitted a solitary spark. O, such a meeting! +Beautiful as parlor theatricals, but as a bold shriek for freedom or a +protest against tyrant laws, not a sparrow on the housetop could have +been more harmless." Miss Anthony wrote at this time: "Cautious, +careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and +social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really +in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's +estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their +sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and +bear the consequences." + +In June she and Mrs. Stanton went to a large meeting of Progressive +Friends at Waterloo, where the latter read this same speech on divorce +and then, to quote Miss Anthony's own words, "As usual when she had +fired her gun she went home and left me to finish the battle." In this +case it lasted several days, but Mrs. Stanton knew she could count upon +her friend to defend her to the last ditch. Miss Anthony was always on +the skirmish line. She would interview the married women who could not +leave home and children, get their approval of her plans and then go to +the front. Once or twice a year she would gather her hosts for a big +battle, but the rest of the time she did picket duty, acted as scout +and penetrated alone the enemy's country. Between meetings she would +find her way home, make over her old dresses and on rare occasions get +a new one. This she called "looking after the externals." Then, as her +mother was an invalid, she would clean the house from top to bottom and +do a vast amount of necessary work. + +In her diary are many such entries as these: "Washed all the shutters. +Took up the carpet this morning.... Whitewashed the kitchen today.... +Helped the girl wash this morning; in the afternoon ironed six shirts, +and started for New York at 4 o'clock. Was a little bit tired." At one +time, with the help of a seamstress, she made fourteen shirts, +stitching by hand all the collars, bosoms and wristbands, and, as this +woman had worked in the Troy laundry, she taught Miss Anthony to +clear-starch and iron them. Each summer she managed to be home long +enough to assist with the canning, pickling and preserving. The little +journal gives the best glimpses of her daily life, usually only a hasty +scrawl of a few lines but containing many flashes of humor and wisdom. +Thus the records run: + + Crowded house at Port Byron. I tried to say a few words at opening, + but soon curled up like a sensitive plant. It is a terrible + martyrdom for me to speak.... Very many Abolitionists have yet to + learn the A B C of woman's rights.... The Boston Congregationalist + has a scurrilous article. Shall write the editor.... It is + discouraging that no man does right for right's sake, but + everything to serve party.... I find such comfort in Aurora Leigh + when I am sorely pressed.... Heard Stephen A. Douglas today; a low + spectacle for both eye and ear.... Gave my lecture on "The True + Woman" at Penn Yan teachers' institute. Some strange gentleman + present supported my plea for physical culture for girls.... Had a + talk with Frederick Douglass. He seems to have no faith in simple + and abstract right.... Lost patience this morning over a lamp and + suffered vastly therefor. Why can I not learn self-control?... + Company came and found me out in the garden picking peas and + blackberries--and hoopless.... A fine-looking young colored man on + train presented me with a bouquet. Can't tell whether he knew me or + only felt my sympathy.... Am reading Buckle's History of + Civilization and Darwin's Descent of Man. Have finished his Origin + of Species. Pillsbury has just given me Emerson's poems.... + +Miss Anthony did not fail to put aside everything long enough to attend +the State Teachers' Convention at Syracuse. The right of women to take +part had now become so well established that it needed no further +defense, but she still fought for equal pay for equal services, and +equal advantages of education for colored children, and each year found +her views gaining a stronger support from both men and women. After +this convention she continued her meetings, anti-slavery and woman's +rights, and during the summer visited again her birthplace at Adams, +Mass., writing home: + + Found grandfather working in the oat field, just think of it, + ninety-and-a-half years old! But in honor of my arrival he remained + home and visited all the afternoon. How hard the women here work, + and how destitute they are of all the conveniences. It is perfectly + barbarous when they have plenty of money. I borrowed a calico dress + and sunbonnet and with the cousins climbed to the very top of Old + Greylock. Later I visited the "Daniel House," as grandfather calls + our old home. I rambled through the orchard, but the spice-apple + tree is dead and the little tree in the corner that we children + loved so well. I visited the old spring up in the pasture, and + thought how many times the tired feet of mother and grandmother had + trod those paths--and the little brook runs over the stones as + merry and beautiful as ever. + +From here she went to Boston to attend a meeting of the Hovey fund +committee and urged them to establish a "depository" at Albany with +Lydia Mott in charge, which was done. This depot of supplies of +literature, etc., for the anti-slavery cause, and central meeting place +for its friends, was continued throughout the war. The Mott sisters, +cousins of James, lovely and cultured Quaker women, had a little home +in Maiden Lane and kept a gentlemen's furnishing store, making by hand +the ruffled shirtbosoms and other fine linen. As their home had been so +long the center for the reformers of the day, the committee were glad +to put Lydia in charge of this depository, at a small salary, and she +conducted an extensive correspondence for them during several years. +Miss Anthony stayed with her till everything was arranged and in good +running order. In July she had received the following invitation: + + By a unanimous vote of the Union Agricultural Society of Dundee a + resolution was passed to tender you an invitation to deliver the + annual address at our next fair. We know it is a departure from + established usage, but your experience as one of a brave band of + radical reformers will have taught you that only by gradual steps + and continued efforts can the prejudices of custom be overcome and + the rights of humanity maintained. Woman's rights are coming to be + respected more and more every year, and we hope you will aid us in + demonstrating that a woman can deliver as profitable an address at + an agricultural fair as can a lord of creation.... + + Yours respectfully, WILLIAM HOUSE, _Secretary, per_ D. S. BRUNER. + +To refuse such an opportunity was not to be thought of, so she +accepted, and then wrote Mrs. Stanton, who answered: "Come on and we +will grind out the speech. I shall expect to get the inspiration, +thoughts and facts from you, and will agree to dress all the children +you bring." + +She found a cordial welcome when she reached Dundee, October 17. It +rained so hard her address was deferred till the next day, as it had to +be delivered out of doors, so she visited the "art" and "culinary" +departments of the fair, and records in her diary: "I have just put an +extra paragraph in my speech on bedquilts and bad cooking." Her stage +was a big lumber wagon, and her desk the melodeon of James G. Clark, +the noted singer and Abolitionist, who held an umbrella over her head +to keep off the rain. The diary says: "More than 2,000 feet were +planted in the mud, but I had a grand listening to the very end." The +speech was a great success and was published in full in the Dundee +Record, occupying the entire front page. It was a fine exposition of +modern methods of farming and a strong plea for beautifying the home, +giving the children books and music and making life so pleasant they +would not want to leave the country for the city. These ideas at that +time were new and attracted much attention and favorable comment. This +was the first instance of a woman's making an address on such an +occasion. + +At the close of 1860 an incident occurred which attracted wide +attention and strikingly illustrated Miss Anthony's unflinching courage +and firm persistence when she felt she was right. One evening in +December she was in Albany at the depository with Lydia Mott when a +lady, heavily veiled, entered and in a long, confidential talk told her +story, which in brief was as follows: She was the sister of a United +States senator and of a prominent lawyer, and in her younger days was +principal of the academy and had written several books. She married a +distinguished member of the Massachusetts Senate and they had three +children. Having discovered that her husband was unfaithful to her and +confronted him with the proofs, he was furious and threw her down +stairs, and thereafter was very abusive. When she threatened to expose +him, he had her shut up in an insane asylum, a very easy thing for +husbands to do in those days. She was there a year and a half, but at +length, through a writ of habeas corpus, was released and taken to the +home of her brother. Naturally she longed to see her children and the +husband permitted the son to visit her a few weeks. When she had to +give him up she begged for the thirteen-year-old daughter, who was +allowed to remain for two weeks, and then the father demanded her +return. The mother pleaded for longer time but was refused. She prayed +her brother to interfere but he answered: "It is of no use for you to +say another word. The child belongs by law to the father and it is your +place to submit. If you make any more trouble about it we'll send you +back to the asylum." + +Then in her desperation she took the child and fled from the house, +finding refuge with a Quaker family, where she stayed until she learned +that her hiding-place was discovered, and now as a last resort she came +to these women. They assured the unhappy mother that they would help +her and, upon making careful inquiry among her friends, found that, +while all believed her sane, no one was willing to take her part +because of the prominence of her brothers and husband. Finally it was +decided that Miss Anthony should go with the mother and child to New +York and put them in a safe place, so they were directed to disguise +themselves and be at the train on Christmas afternoon. Miss Anthony +went on board and soon saw a woman in an old shawl, dilapidated bonnet +and green goggles, accompanied by a poorly dressed child, and she knew +that so far all was well, but she found the woman in a terrible state +of nervousness. She had met her brother coming out of another car where +he had just placed his young son to return to boarding-school, after a +happy vacation at home, while his sister with her child was fleeing +like a criminal; but fortunately he had not recognized her. + +Miss Anthony and her charges reached New York at 10 o'clock at night +and went through snow and slush to a hotel but were refused admittance +because it did not take women "unaccompanied by a gentleman." They made +their weary way to another, only to be met with a similar refusal. +Finally she thought of an acquaintance who had had a wretched +experience with a bad husband and was now divorced, and she felt that +sympathy would certainly impel this woman to give them shelter. When +they reached the house they found her keeping boarders and she said all +would leave if they learned she was "harboring a runaway wife." It was +then midnight. They went in the cold arid darkness to a hotel on +Broadway, but here the excuse was made that the house was full. Miss +Anthony's patience had reached its limit and she declared: "I know that +is not so. You can give us a place to sleep or we will sit in this +office all night." The clerk threatened to call the police. "Very +well," was the reply, "we will sit here till they come and take us to +the station." At last he gave them a room without a fire, and there, +cold, wet and exhausted, they remained till morning. Then they started +out again on foot, as they had not enough money left to hire a +carriage. + +They went to Mrs. Rose but she could not accommodate them; then to Abby +Hopper Gibbons, who sent them to Elizabeth F. Ellet, saying if they +could not find quarters to come back and she would care for them. Mrs. +Ellet was not at home. All day they went from place to place but no one +was willing to accept the responsibility of sheltering them, and at +night, utterly worn out, they returned to Mrs. Gibbons. She promised to +keep the mother and child until other arrangements could be effected, +and Miss Anthony left them there and took the 10 o'clock train back to +Albany. She arrived toward morning, tired out in mind and body, but +soon was made comfortable by the ministrations of her faithful friend +Lydia. + +[Autograph: Abby Hopper Gibbons] + +It was not long before the family became convinced that Miss Anthony +knew the whereabouts of mother and child and then began a siege of +persecution. She had at this time commenced that never-to-be-forgotten +series of anti-slavery conventions which were mobbed in every town from +Buffalo to Albany. In the midst of all this excitement and danger, she +was constantly receiving threats from the brothers that they would have +her arrested on the platform. They said she had broken the laws and +they would make her pay the penalty; that their sister was an "ugly" +woman and nobody could live with her. To this she replied: "I have +heard there was Indian blood in your family; perhaps your sister has +got a little of it as well as yourselves. I think you would not allow +your children to be taken away from you, law or no law. There is no +reason or justice in a woman's submitting to such outrages, and I +propose to defy the law and you also." + +If she had been harassed only by these men, it would have caused her no +especial worry, but letters and telegrams from friends poured in urging +her to reveal the hiding-place and, most surprising of all, both +Garrison and Phillips wrote that she had abducted a man's child and +must surrender it! Mr. Phillips remonstrated: "Let us urge you, +therefore, at once to advise and insist upon this woman's returning to +her relatives. Garrison concurs with me fully and earnestly in this +opinion, thinking that our movement's repute for good sense should not +be compromised by any such mistake." In a letter from Mr. Garrison +covering six pages of foolscap, he argued: "Our identification with the +woman's rights movement and the anti-slavery cause is such that we +ought not unnecessarily involve them in any hasty and ill-judged, no +matter how well-meant, efforts of our own. We, at least, owe to them +this--that if for any act of ours we are dragged before courts we ought +to be able to show that we acted discreetly as well as with good +intentions." Both men spoke kindly and affectionately but they were +unable to view the question from a mother's or even from a woman's +standpoint. Miss Anthony replied to them: + + I can not give you a satisfactory statement on paper, but I feel + the strongest assurance that all I have done is wholly right. Had I + turned my back upon her I should have scorned myself. In all those + hours of aid and sympathy for that outraged woman I remembered only + that I was a human being. That I should stop to ask if my act would + injure the reputation of any movement never crossed my mind, nor + will I now allow such a fear to stifle my sympathies or tempt me to + expose her to the cruel, inhuman treatment of her own household. + Trust me that as I ignore all law to help the slave, so will I + ignore it all to protect an enslaved woman. + +At the anti-slavery convention in Albany Mr. Garrison pleaded with her +to give up the child and insisted that she was entirely in the wrong. +He said: "Don't you know the law of Massachusetts gives the father the +entire guardianship and control of the children?" "Yes, I know it," she +replied, "and does not the law of the United States give the +slaveholder the ownership of the slave? And don't you break it every +time you help a slave to Canada?" "Yes, I do." "Well, the law which +gives the father the sole ownership of the children is just as wicked +and I'll break it just as quickly. You would die before you would +deliver a slave to his master, and I will die before I will give up +that child to its father." It was impossible for even such great men as +Garrison and Phillips to feel for a wronged and outraged woman as they +could for a wronged and outraged black man. Miss Anthony wrote at this +time: "Only to think that in this great trial I should be hounded by +the two men whom I adore and reverence above all others!" Through all +this ordeal her father sustained her position, saying: "My child, I +think you have done absolutely right, but don't put a word on paper or +make a statement to any one that you are not prepared to face in court. +Legally you are wrong, but morally you are right, and I will stand by +you." + +Mrs. Elizabeth F. Ellet, author of Women of the Revolution and other +works, cared for and protected the unfortunates, obtained sewing for +the mother and helped her to live in peaceful seclusion for a year. She +was placed in the family of a physician who watched her closely and +testified, as did all connected with her, that she was perfectly sane. +According to her letters still in existence, the husband took +possession of her funds in bank, drew all the money due to her from her +publishers and forbade them to pay her any more from the sale of her +books, as he had a legal right to do. In this extremity one of the +brothers sent her some money through Miss Mott, who stood as firm as +Miss Anthony in the face of threat and persecution. At length, feeling +safe, the mother let the little girl go to Sunday-school alone and at +the door of the church she was suddenly snatched up, put into a close +carriage and in a few hours placed in possession of the father. The +mother and her friends made every effort to secure the child, but the +law was on the side of the father and they never succeeded. + +[Footnote 29: At Miss Anthony's request only such speeches are +published in the appendix of this biography as were prepared entirely +without the co-operation of Mrs. Stanton.] + +[Footnote 30: In a letter to Miss Anthony regretting that no action was +taken on the suffrage question, Mr. Colvin wrote: "The more reflection +I give, the more my mind becomes convinced that in a republican +government we have no right to deny woman the privileges she claims. +Besides, the moral element which those privileges would bring into +action would, in my judgment, have a powerful influence in perpetuating +our form of government."] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +MOB EXPERIENCE----CIVIL WAR. + +1861--1862. + + +The beginning of 1861 found the country in a state approaching +demoralization. Lincoln had received a majority of the electoral vote +but far from a majority of the popular vote. The victory was so narrow +that the Republicans did not feel themselves strong enough for +aggressive action, and the party was composed of a number of diverse +elements not yet sufficiently united to agree upon a distinctive +policy. Its one cohesive force was the principle of no further +extension of slavery, but there was no thought among its leaders of any +interference with this institution in the States where it already +existed. They accepted the interpretation of the Constitution which +declared that it sanctioned and protected slavery, but were determined +that the Territories should be admitted into the Union as free States. +While many of them were in favor of emancipation, they expected that in +some way this question would be settled without recourse to extreme +measures, and they feared the effect, not only on the South but on the +North, of the forcible language and radical demands of the +Abolitionists. + +The latter were roused to desperation. Never for an instant did they +accept the doctrine that the North should be satisfied merely by the +prevention of any further spread of slavery; they believed the system +should be exterminated root and branch. They were angered at the +reserved and dispassionate language of Lincoln and alarmed at the +threats of the secession of the South, which must result either in +putting it forever beyond the power of the government to interfere with +slavery, or in terrorizing it into making such concessions as would +enable the slave power to intrench itself still more strongly under the +protection of the Constitution. + +At this critical moment, therefore, the Abolitionists put forth every +effort to rouse public sentiment to the impending dangers. They +gathered their forces and sent them throughout New England, New York +and the Western States, bearing upon their banners the watchwords, "No +Compromise with Slaveholders. Immediate and Unconditional +Emancipation." One detachment, under the intrepid leadership of Susan +B. Anthony, arranged a series of meetings for New York in the winter of +1861. This party was composed of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Rev. Samuel J. +May, Rev. Beriah Green, Aaron M. Powell and Stephen S. Foster; but one +after another gave out and went home, while Miss Anthony still remained +at the helm. The series began at Buffalo, January 3, in St. James Hall. +The mob was ready for them and, led by ex-Justice George Hinson and +Birdseye Wilcox, hissed, hooted, yelled and stamped, making it utterly +impossible for the speakers to be heard. Prominent among the disturbers +were young Horatio Seymour and a son of ex-President Fillmore. The +police refused to obey the orders of a Republican mayor and joined in +the efforts of the mob, which held carnival two entire days, finally +crowding upon the platform and taking possession; and in the midst of +the melee the gas was turned off. Miss Anthony stood her ground, +however, until lights were brought in, and then herself declared the +meeting adjourned. + +In towns where there were not enough people to create a disturbance, +the meetings passed off quietly, but they were mobbed and broken up in +every city from Buffalo to Albany. Democratic officials encouraged the +mob spirit and where Republicans might have wished to oppose it, they +were too cowardly to do so. The meetings were advertised for three days +in Rochester, beginning January 12, and, as the newspapers occupied +many columns with a discussion as to whether they would be broken up +here as elsewhere, the opposition was thoroughly aroused and the +turbulent elements had time to become fully organized. The board of +aldermen were called together to consider whether means could not be +found to prevent Mr. Reynolds allowing the use of Corinthian Hall, +which had been rented for the occasion, and whether it would not be +wise to issue an order forbidding the owner of any public building to +let it to the Abolitionists; but finally adjourned without action. + +The mob, under the lead of Constable Richard L. Swift, fully answered +all expectations. As Miss Anthony stepped forward to open the meeting, +she was greeted with a broadside of hisses and ironical applause. When +Mrs. Stanton began her address her voice was drowned in jeers and +groans and, although she persevered for some time, she was unable to +complete a single sentence. Rev. May attempted to speak and was met by +yells, and stamping of feet. A Southerner in the audience rose and +said: "Well, I may as well go back to Kentucky, for this is ahead of +any demonstration against free speech I ever saw in the South;" but he +was stopped by cries of, "Put him out!" The men kept on their hats, +smoked pipes and cigars, stamped, bellowed, swore, and bedlam reigned. +The acting mayor, sheriff and chief of police were present, but not an +arrest was made. Mrs. Stanton finally left the platform, but Miss +Anthony courageously maintained her position until the chief of police +mounted the rostrum and declared the meeting adjourned. Even then the +rioters refused to go out of the hall, and the speakers were obliged to +leave under protection of the police amid the hooting and howling of +the rabble. All wanted to give up the rest of the meetings, but Miss +Anthony declared they had a right to speak and it was the business of +the authorities to protect them, and persisted in finishing the series +as advertised. On Sunday the only place where they were allowed to hold +services was in Zion's colored church. The house was filled, morning +and evening, and they were left in peace. + +At Port Byron the meeting was broken up by the throwing of cayenne +pepper on the stove. When the speakers reached Utica, where Mechanics' +Hall had been engaged, they learned that the board of directors had met +and decided it should not be used, in direct violation of the contract +with Miss Anthony, who had spent $60 on the meeting. They found the +doors locked and a large crowd on the outside. The mayor was among them +and begged her not to attempt to hold a meeting. In reply she demanded +that the doors be opened. He refused but offered to escort her to a +place of safety. She answered: "I am not afraid. It is you who are the +coward. If you have the power to protect me in person, you have also +the power to protect me in the right of free speech. I scorn your +assistance." She declined his proffered arm, but he persisted in +escorting her through the mob. As no hall could be had they held their +meeting at the residence of her host, James C. DeLong, and formed an +anti-slavery organization. The instigator of the opposition in Utica +was ex-Governor Horatio Seymour. Of the meeting at Rome, Miss Anthony +wrote: + + Last evening there was a furious organized mob. I stood at the foot + of the stairs to take the admission fee. Some thirty or forty had + properly paid and passed up when a great uproar in the street told + of times coming. It proved to be a closely packed gang of forty or + fifty rowdies, who stamped and yelled and never halted for me. I + said, "Ten cents, sir," to the leader, but he brushed me aside, big + cloak, furs and all, as if I had been a mosquito, and cried, "Come + on, boys!" They rushed to the platform, where were Foster and + Powell who had not yet commenced speaking, seated themselves at the + table, drew out packs of cards, sang the Star-Spangled Banner and + hurrahed and hooted. After some thirty or forty minutes, Mr. Foster + and Aaron came down and I accompanied them back to Stanwix Hotel, + where the gang made desperate efforts to get through the entrance + room in pursuit of the "damned Abolitionists." The Republican paper + called us pestiferous fanatics and infidels, and advised every + decent man to stay away. Were the Republicans true at this crisis, + we not only should be heard quietly, as in past years, but should + have far larger audiences; and yet a hundred unmolested conventions + would not have made us a tithe of the sympathizers this one + diabolical mob has done. + +Mr. May was in favor of giving up the conventions and was especially +anxious that one should not be attempted in Syracuse, which city, he +said, had always maintained freedom of speech and he did not want the +record broken; but still, if they insisted upon coming he would do all +in his power to help them. Miss Anthony was firm, replying: "If +Syracuse is capable of maintaining free speech the record will not be +broken; if it is not capable, it has no right to the reputation." +Convention Hall was engaged and Mr. May and Mr. C.D.B. Mills lent every +possible assistance, but the Abolitionists encountered here the worst +opposition of all. The hall was filled with a howling, drunken, +infuriated crowd, headed by Ezra Downer, a liquor dealer, and Luke +McKenna, a pro-slavery Democrat. Even Mr. May, who was venerated by all +Syracuse, was not allowed to speak. Rotten eggs were thrown, benches +broken, and knives and pistols gleamed in every direction. The few +ladies present were hurried out of the room, and Miss Anthony faced +that raging audience, the only woman there. The Republican chief of +police refused to make any effort toward keeping order. The mob crowded +upon the platform and took possession of the meeting, and Miss Anthony +and her little band were forced out of the hall. They repaired to the +residence of Dr. R.W. and Mrs. Hannah Fuller Pease, which was crowded +with friends of the cause. That evening the rioters dragged through the +streets hideous effigies of Susan B. Anthony and Rev. S.J. May, and +burned them in the public square. + +Not at all daunted or discouraged, Miss Anthony took her speakers +forthwith into the very heart of the enemy's country, the capital of +the State. Albany had at that time a Democratic mayor, George H. +Thacher. As soon as the papers announced the coming of the +Abolitionists, over a hundred prominent citizens addressed a petition +to the mayor to forbid their meeting for fear of the same riotous +demonstrations which had disgraced the other cities. He replied at +considerable length, saying that he had taken an oath to support the +Constitutions of the United States and the State of New York, that both +guaranteed the right of free speech to all citizens, and while he was +mayor he intended to protect them in that right. + +On the day of the convention he called at the Delevan House for Miss +Anthony and Mrs. Stan ton, now reinforced by Lucretia Mott, Martha C. +Wright, Gerrit Smith and Frederick Douglass, and accompanied them to +Association Hall. They found it packed to the doors. The mayor went on +the platform and announced that he had placed policemen in various +parts of the hall in citizens' clothes, and that whoever made the least +disturbance would be at once arrested. Then he laid a revolver across +his knees, and there he sat during the morning, afternoon and evening +sessions. Several times the mob broke forth, and each time arrests were +promptly made. Toward the close of the evening he said to Miss Anthony: +"If you insist upon holding your meetings tomorrow, I shall still +protect you, but it will be a difficult thing to hold this rabble in +check much longer. If you will adjourn at the close of this session I +shall consider it a personal favor." Of course she willingly acceded to +his request. He accompanied the ladies to their hotel, the mob +following all the way. + +This closed the series of conventions. With a Republican mayor in every +other city, there had been no attempt at official protection; and yet +it may be remembered, in extenuation, that it is always easier for the +party out of power than for the one in power to stand for principle; +the former has nothing to lose. The Republicans at this time were +panic-stricken and staggering under the weight of responsibility +suddenly laid upon them; and the Abolitionists, by their radical +demands and scathing criticism, were adding to their difficulties. +There can be no justification, however, for any official who is too +cowardly or too dishonest to fulfill the duties of his office. + +Immediately upon the close of this anti-slavery meeting, the State +Woman's Rights Convention was held in Albany, February 7 and 8. Mr. +Garrison, Mrs. Rose, Lucretia Mott and many of the old brilliant galaxy +were among the speakers. They little thought that this was the last +convention they would hold for five years, that a long and terrible war +would cast its shadow over every household before they met again, that +differences would arise in their own ranks, and that never more would +they come together in the old, fraternal spirit that had bound them so +closely and given them strength to bear the innumerable hardships which +so largely had been their portion. + +After the Albany meeting, Miss Anthony at once began preparations for +the National Woman's Rights Convention in New York in May. The date was +set, the Tabernacle secured and many of the speakers engaged, but in +the meantime the affairs of the nation had become more and more +complicated; the threatened secession of the Southern States had been +accomplished; the long-expected, long-dreaded crisis seemed close at +hand; the people were uncertain and bewildered in the presence of the +dreadful catastrophe. All thought, all interest, all action were +centered in the new President. The whole nation was breathlessly +awaiting the declaration of Lincoln's policy. To call any kind of +meeting which had an object other than that relating to the +preservation of the Union seemed almost a sacrilege. Letters poured in +upon Miss Anthony urging her to relinquish all idea of a convention, +but she never had learned to give up. Even after the fall of Sumter and +the President's call for troops, the letters were still insisting that +she declare the meeting postponed; but it was not until the abandonment +of the Anti-Slavery Anniversary, which always took place the same week, +and until she found there were absolutely no speakers to be had, that +she finally yielded. + +About this time she takes care of a sister with a baby, and writes Mrs. +Stanton: "O this babydom, what a constant, never-ending, all-consuming +strain! We should never ask anything else of the woman who has to +endure it. I realize more and more that rearing children should be +looked upon as a profession which, like any other, must be made the +primary work of those engaged in it. It can not be properly done if +other aims and duties are pressing upon the mother." And yet so great +was her spirit of self-sacrifice that in this same letter she offers to +take entire charge of Mrs. Stanton's seven children while she makes a +three months' trip abroad. At a later date, when caring for a young +niece, she says: "The dear little Lucy engrosses most of my time and +thoughts. A child one loves is a constant benediction to the soul, +whether or not it helps to the accomplishment of great intellectual +feats." + +The watchword of the Abolitionists ever had been "Peace." Under the +leadership of Garrison, their policy had been one of non-resistance. +When war actually was precipitated, when the South had fired upon the +stars and stripes and the tread of marching feet resounded through +every northern city, they were amazed and bewildered. Instinctively +they turned to their great leaders for guidance. In Music Hall, Boston, +April 21, 1861, to an audience of over 4,000, Wendell Phillips made +that masterly address, justifying "this last appeal to the God of +Battles," and declaring for War. It was one of the matchless speeches +of all history, and touched the keynote which soon swelled into a grand +refrain from ocean to ocean. But even then there were those who waited +for the declaration of Garrison, the great pioneer of Abolitionism. A +letter written by Rev. Beriah Green to Miss Anthony, May 22, expresses +the sentiment which pervaded the minds of many Abolitionists at this +period: + + I looked forward to the Anti-Slavery Anniversary with the keenest + pleasure and hope. I should see luminous faces; I should bear the + voice of wisdom; I should gather strength and courage and return to + my task-garden refreshed and quickened. But when I read the + official notice in the Standard and Liberator of the grounds on + which the meeting was given up, "that nothing should be done at + this solemn crisis needlessly to check or divert the mighty current + of popular feeling which is now sweeping southward with the + strength and impetuosity of a thousand Niagaras," I was surprised + and puzzled. I have read Phillips' War Speech, marked the tenor and + spirit of the Liberator, seen the stars and stripes paraded in the + Standard, perused James Freeman Clarke's sermon, and I feel more + desolate and solitary than ever. Mrs. Stanton, too, is for War for + the Union, and I say to myself: "How will Susan Anthony and Parker + Pillsbury and all the other old comrades be affected by these signs + of the times?" + +Miss Anthony replied in the same strain: + + A feeling of sadness, almost of suffocation, has been mine ever + since the first announcement that the anti-slavery meeting was + postponed. I can not welcome the demon of expediency or consent to + be an abettor, by silence any more than by word or act, of wicked + means to accomplish an end, not even for the sake of emancipating + the slaves. I have tried hard to persuade myself that I alone + remained mad, while all the rest had become sane, because I have + insisted that it is our duty to bear not only our usual testimony + but one even louder and more earnest than ever before.... The + Abolitionists, for once, seem to have come to an agreement with all + the world that they are out of time and place, hence should hold + their peace and spare their rebukes and anathemas. Our position to + me seems most humiliating, simply that of the politicians, one of + expediency not principle. I have not yet seen one good reason for + the abandonment of all our meetings, and am more and more ashamed + and sad that even the little Apostolic number have yielded to the + world's motto--"the end justifies the means." + +As the long, hard winter's work had left her very tired she gladly +turned to that haven of refuge, the farm-home. The father, who was +willing always to put the control of affairs into her capable hands, +took this opportunity to make a long-desired trip to Kansas, going the +first of May and returning in September. She assumed the entire +management of the farm, put in the crops, watched over, harvested and +sold them; assisted her mother with the housework and the family sewing +and, by way of variety, pieced a silk quilt and wove twenty yards of +rag carpet in the old loom. She found time, more-over, to go to the +Progressive Friends' meeting at Junius and to attend the State +Teachers' Convention at Watertown. She also managed a large +anti-slavery Fourth of July meeting at Gregory's grove, near Rochester, +securing a number of distinguished speakers. In writing her, relative +to this meeting, Frederick Douglass said: "I rejoice not in the death +of any one, yet I can not but feel that, in the death of Stephen A. +Douglas, a most dangerous person has been removed. No man of his time +has done more than he to intensify hatred of the negro and to +demoralize northern sentiment. Since Henry Clay he has been the King of +Compromise. Yours for the freedom of man and of woman always." + +[Autograph: Frederick Douglass] + +From her diary may be obtained an idea of the busy life which only +allowed the briefest entries, but these show her restlessness and +dissatisfaction: + + Tried to interest myself in a sewing society; but little + intelligence among them.... Attended Progressive Friends' meeting; + too much namby-pamby-ism.... Went to colored church to hear + Douglass. He seems without solid basis. Speaks only popular + truths.... Quilted all day, but sewing seems to be no longer my + calling.... I stained and varnished the library bookcase today, and + superintended the plowing of the orchard.... The last load of hay + is in the barn; all in capital order. Fitted out a fugitive slave + for Canada with the help of Harriet Tubman.... The teachers' + convention was small and dull. The woman's committee failed to + report. I am mortified to death for them.... Washed every window in + the house today. Put a quilted petticoat in the frame. Commenced + Mrs. Browning's Portuguese Sonnets. Have just finished Casa Guidi + Windows, a grand poem and so fitting to our terrible struggle.... I + wish the government would move quickly, proclaim freedom to every + slave and call on every able-bodied negro to enlist in the Union + army. How not to do it seems the whole study at Washington. Good, + stiff-backed Union Democrats would dare to move; they would have + nothing to lose and all to gain for their party. The present + incumbents have all to lose; hence dare not avow any policy, but + only wait. To forever blot out slavery is the only possible + compensation for this merciless war. + +All through the chroniclings of the monotonous daily life is the cry: +"The all-alone feeling will creep over me. It is such a fast after the +feast of great presences to which I have been so long accustomed." +During these days she reads Adam Bede, and thus writes Mrs. Stanton: + + I finished Adam Bede yesterday noon. I can not throw off the + palsied oppression of its finale to poor, poor Hetty--and Arthur + almost equally commands my sympathy. He no more desired to wrong + her or cause her one hour of sorrow than did Adam, but the impulse + of his nature brooked no restraint. Should public sentiment + tolerate such a consummation of love--or passion, if it were not + love? (But I believe it was, only the impassable barrier of caste + forbade its public avowal.) If such a birth could be left free from + odium and scorn, contempt and pity from the world, it would be a + thousand times more holy, more happy, than many of those in legal + marriage. It will not do for me to read romances; they are too real + to shake off. What is the irresistible power so terrifically + pictured in both Hetty and Arthur, which led them on to the very + ill they most would shun? + + To crown the result I went to the colored church to hear Sallie + Holley, but she did not come. Mrs. Coleman was in the pulpit and + read a poem of Gerald Massey on Peace, spoke a few minutes and said + she saw Miss Anthony present and hoped she'd occupy the time. Then + rang round the house the appalling cry of "Miss Anthony." There was + no escape, and I staggered up and stammered out a few words and sat + down--dead, killed--thoroughly enraged that I had not spent the + forenoon in making myself ready at least to read something, instead + of poring over Adam Bede. + +To this Mrs. Stanton replies: "You speak of the effect of Adam Bede on +you. It moved me deeply, and The Mill on the Floss is another agony. +Such books as these explain why the 'marriage question' is +all-absorbing. O, Susan, are you ever coming to visit me again? It +would be like a new life to spend a day with you. How I shudder when I +think of our awful experience with those mobs last winter, and yet even +now I long for action." Miss Anthony was equally restive in her own +seclusion which, although by no means an idle one, had shut her from +the great outside world that at this hour seemed to cry aloud for the +best service of every man and woman. In January, 1862, she went to Mrs. +Stanton's and together they prepared an address for the State +Anti-Slavery Convention to be held at Albany, February 7 and 8, and +here in the society of Garrison and Phillips, she received fresh +inspiration. Soon after reaching home, at Phillips' request, she +arranged a lecture for him in Rochester. After paying all expenses, she +sent him a check--there is no record of its size--but he returned a +portion, saying: + + DEAR SUSAN: Thank you, but you are too generous. I can't take such + an awful big lion's share, even to satisfy your modesty. Put the + enclosed, with my thanks, into your own pocket, as a slight + compensation for all your trouble. Remember and pay my successor + not one cent more than you can afford.... I had to charter a + locomotive all to myself to get back from Oswego in time for + Rondout. Riding in the darkness with the engineer through the snow + gave me time to think of the pleasant group and supper I missed the + night before at the Hallowells. Kind regards to them. Tell Mrs. + Hallowell her lunch tasted good about midnight, as I entered + Syracuse. + +Miss Anthony managed the usual series of lectures this winter. When she +sent Mr. Tilton his check he returned this rollicking answer: + + DEAR S.B.A.: I received your letter and its enclosure, which latter + has already vanished like April snow, to pay the debts of the + subscriber.... Our morning ride with our good friend Frederick + gives me pleasure whenever I think of it. Those pictures of Mount + Hope and the waterfall were better than any in the Academy of + Design. As to yourself, I have had some talk with Rev. Oliver + Johnson about your "sphere," and we both agree that you are + defrauding some honest man of his just due. I recommend that you + form an acquaintance, with a view to prospective results for life, + with some well-settled, Old-School Presbyterian clergyman, and send + me some of the cake. + +[Autograph: Theodore Tilton] + +In 1862, as the previous year, Miss Anthony was determined to hold a +National Woman's Rights Convention in New York, but her efforts met +with no favorable response and so, for the second time, she was obliged +to give up the annual protest which seemed to her a sacred duty. She +did not then acknowledge, nor has she ever admitted, that there is any +question of more vital importance than that relating to the freedom of +woman. Defeated here she decided to start out again in the anti-slavery +lecture field, since, as she wrote her friend Lydia: "It is so easy to +feel your power for public work slipping away if you allow yourself to +remain too long snuggled in the Abrahamic bosom of home. It requires +great will-force to resurrect one's soul." In her tour she visited +Adams, accompanied by her loved niece, Ann Eliza McLean, and wrote back +an amusing account of how she lectured the male relatives for requiring +their women folks to use worn-out cook-stoves, broken kitchen utensils +and all sorts of inconvenient things in the household. While there she +went with a large party of relatives over the mountains to see the +wonderful Hoosac Tunnel, now well under way. One day she spoke to an +audience on the very top of the Green mountains. On this trip, having +for a rarity a little leisure, she visited the art galleries of New +York and wrote: + + My very heart of hearts has been made to rejoice in the work of two + of earth's noblest women--Harriet Hosmer and Rosa Bonheur. Twice + have I visited the Academy of Design and there have I sat in + silent, reverential awe, with eyes intent upon the marble face of + Harriet Hosmer's Beatrice Cenci. I have no power to express my + hope, my joy, my renewed faith in womanhood. In the accomplishment + of that grand work of the sculptor's chisel, making that cold + marble breathe and pulsate, Harriet Hosmer has done more to ennoble + and elevate woman than she possibly could have done by mere words, + it matters not how Godlike; though I would not ignore true words, + for it is these which rouse to action the latent powers of the + Harriet Hosmers.... Even the rude and uncultivated seem awed into + silence when they come into the presence of that sleeping, but + speaking purity. Rosa Bonheur is the first woman who has dared + venture into the field of animal painting, and her work not only + surpasses anything ever done by a woman, but is a bold and + successful step beyond all other artists. Mark another significant + fact: The three greatest productions of art during the past three + years are by women--Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh, Rosa + Bonheur's Horse Fair and Harriet Hosmer's Beatrice Cenci--and these + triumphs are in three of its most difficult and exalted + departments. + +In April she took Mrs. Stanton's four boys from Seneca Falls to New +York, and cared for them while the family were removing to that city. +In May she attended the New York Anniversary and the New England +convention in Boston, and on the Fourth of July the celebration at +Framingham, and during this time gave many addresses on anti-slavery. +When in Boston she had a delightful visit with the Garrisons, and +called on Mrs. Phillips with Mrs. Garrison, one of the few persons +admitted to the invalid's seclusion. + +While all the women were giving themselves, body and soul, to the great +work of the war, the New York Legislature, April 10, 1862, finding them +off guard, very quietly amended the law of 1860 and took away from +mothers the lately-acquired right to the equal guardianship of their +children. They also repealed the law which secured to the widow the +control of the property for the care of minor children. Thus at one +blow were swept away the results of nearly a decade of hard work on the +part of women, and wives and mothers were left in almost the same +position as under the old common law. Had one woman been a member of +the Legislature, such an act never would have been possible; but the +little band who for ten years had watched and toiled to protect the +interests of their sex, were in the sanitary commission, the hospitals, +at the front, on the platform in the interest of the Union, or at home +doing the work of those who had gone into the army, and this was their +reward! Miss Anthony's anger and sorrow were intense when she heard of +the repeal of the laws which she had spent seven long years to obtain, +tramping through cold and heat to roll up petitions and traversing the +whole State of New York in the dead of winter to create public +sentiment in their favor. In her anguish she wrote Lydia Mott: + + Your startling letter is before me. I knew some weeks ago that + abominable thing was on the calendar, with some six or eight + hundred bills before it, and hence felt sure it would not come up + this winter, and that in the meantime we should sound the alarm. + Well, well; while the old guard sleep the "young devils" are wide + awake, and we deserve to suffer for our confidence in "man's sense + of justice;" but nothing short of this could rouse our women again + to action. All our reformers seem suddenly to have grown politic. + All alike say: "Have no conventions at this crisis; wait until the + war excitement abates;" which is to say: "Ask our opponents if they + think we had better speak, or rather if they do not think we had + better remain silent." I am sick at heart, but I can not carry the + world against the wish and will of our best friends. What can we do + now when even the motion to retain the mother's joint guardianship + is voted down? Twenty thousand petitions rolled up for that--a hard + year's work--the law secured--the echoes of our words of gratitude + in the Capitol scarcely died away, and now all is lost! + +This year began the acquaintance with Anna Dickinson, whose letters are +as refreshing as a breeze from the ocean: + + The sunniest of sunny mornings to you, how are you today? Well and + happy, I hope. To tell the truth I want to see you very much + indeed, to hold your hand in mine, to hear your voice, in a word, I + want _you_--I can't have you? Well, I will at least put down a + little fragment of my foolish self and send it to look up at + you.... I work closely and happily at my preparations for next + winter--no, for the future--nine hours a day, generally; but I + never felt better, exercise morning and evening, and never touch + book or paper after gaslight this warm weather; so all those talks + of yours were not thrown away upon me. + + What think you of the "signs of the times?" I am sad always, under + all my folly;--this cruel tide of war, sweeping off the fresh, + young, brave life to be dashed out utterly or thrown back shattered + and ruined! I know we all have been implicated in the "great + wrong," yet I think the comparatively innocent suffer today more + than the guilty. And the result--will the people save the country + they love so well, or will the rulers dig the nation's grave? + + Will you not write to me, please, soon? I want to see a touch of + you very much. + +[Autograph: + + Very Affectionately Yours + Anna E. Dickinson] + +Early in September Greeley writes her: "I still keep at work with the +President in various ways and believe you will yet hear him proclaim +universal freedom. Keep this letter and judge me by the event." + +Miss Anthony thus lectures Mrs. Stanton because she has a teacher and +educates her children at home: "I am still of the opinion that whatever +the short-comings of the public schools your children would be vastly +more profited in them, side by side with the very multitude with whom +they must mingle as soon as school days are over. Any and every private +education is a blunder, it seems to me. I believe those persons +stronger and nobler who have from childhood breasted the commonalty. If +children have not the innate strength to resist evil, keeping them +apart from what they must inevitably one day meet, only increases their +incompetency." + +In the summer of 1862 Miss Anthony attended her last State Teachers' +Convention, which was held in Rochester, where she began her labors in +this direction. In 1853 she had forced this body to grant her a share +in their deliberations, the first time a woman's voice had been heard. +For ten years she never had missed an annual meeting, keeping up her +membership dues and allowing no engagement to interfere. Year after +year she had followed them up, insisting that in the conventions women +teachers should hold offices, serve on committees and exercise free +speech; demanding that they should be eligible to all positions in the +schools with equal pay for equal work; and compelling a general +recognition of their rights. All these points, with the exception of +equal pay, had now been gained and there was much improvement in +salaries. + +Her mission here being ended, she turned her attention to other fields; +but for the privileges which are enjoyed by the women teachers of the +present day, they are indebted first of all to Susan B. Anthony.[31] + +After speaking at intervals through the summer, she started on a +regular tour early in the fall, writing Lydia Mott: "I can not feel +easy in my conscience to be dumb in an hour like this. I am speaking +now extempore and more to my satisfaction than ever before. I am amazed +at myself, but I could not do it if any of our other speakers were +listening to me. I am entirely off old anti-slavery grounds and on the +new ones thrown up by the war. What a stay, counsel and comfort you +have been to me, dear Lydia, ever since that eventful little temperance +meeting in that cold, smoky chapel in 1852. How you have compelled me +to feel myself competent to go forward when trembling with doubt and +distrust. I never can express the magnitude of my indebtedness to you." + +A letter from Abby Kelly Foster at this time said: "I am especially +gratified to know that you have entered the field in earnest as your +own speaker, which you ought to have done years ago instead of always +pushing others to the front and taking the drudgery yourself." Miss +Anthony was very successful, each day gaining more courage. Her sole +theme was "Emancipation the Duty-of the Government." A prominent +citizen of Schuyler county wrote her after she had spoken at +Mecklinburg: "There is not a man among all the political speakers who +can make that duty as plain as you have done." Her whole heart was in +the work and she was constantly inspired by the thought that the day of +deliverance for the slave was approaching. + +[Illustration: + + FATHER AND MOTHER OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY. + AGED 60, FROM DAGUERREOTYPES] + +At the height of her enthusiasm came the heaviest blow it would have +been possible for her to receive. She had come home for a few days, and +the Sunday morning after election was sitting with her father talking +over the political situation. They had been reading the Liberator and +the Anti-Slavery Standard and were discussing the probable effect of +Lincoln's proclamation, when suddenly he was stricken with acute +neuralgia of the stomach. He had not had a day's illness in forty years +and had not the slightest premonition of this attack. He lingered in +great suffering for two weeks and died on November 25, 1862. + +No words can express the terrible bereavement of his family. He had +been to them a tower of strength. From childhood his sons and daughters +had carried to him every grief and perplexity and there never had been +a matter concerning them too trivial to receive his careful attention. +In manhood and womanhood they still had turned to him above all others +for advice and comfort, even the grandchildren receiving always the +same loving care. Between husband and wife there ever had been the +deepest, truest affection. He was far ahead of his time in his +recognition of the rights of women. Years before he had written to a +brother: "Take your family into your confidence and give your wife the +purse." He was never willing to enter into any pleasure which his wife +did not share. They tell of him that once the daughters persuaded him +to remain in town on a stormy evening and go to the Hutchinson concert. +As they were driving home he said: "Never again ask me to do such a +thing; I suffered more in thinking of your mother at home alone than +any enjoyment could possibly compensate." A short time before his death +he and his wife went to Ontario Beach one afternoon and did not return +till 10 o'clock. When asked by the daughters what detained them, the +mother answered that they had a fish supper and then strolled on the +beach by moonlight; and on their laughing at her and saying she was +worse than the girls, she replied: "Your father is more of a lover +today than he was the first year of our marriage." + +He was a broad, humane, great-hearted man, always mindful of the rights +of others, always standing for liberty to every human being. +Public-spirited, benevolent and genial in disposition, his loss was +widely mourned. The family's devoted friend, Rev. Samuel J. May, +conducted the funeral services, at which Frederick Douglass and several +prominent Abolitionists paid affectionate tribute, expressing "profound +reverence for Mr. Anthony's character as a man, a friend and a +citizen." Many letters of sympathy were received by Miss Anthony, but +nothing brought consolation to her heart; her best and strongest friend +was gone. Parker Pillsbury expressed her sorrow when he wrote: "You +must be stricken sore indeed in the loss of your constant helper in the +great mission to which you are devoted, your counselor, your consoler, +your all that man could be, besides the endearing relation of father. +What or who can supply the loss?" + +There had not been a day in her life which had not felt his presence. +She went forth to every duty sustained by his cheery and brave +encouragement. With her father's support she could face the opposition +and calumny of the world, and when these became too great she had but +to turn again to him for the fullest sympathy and appreciation. He had +inspired all she had done and with his wise advice and financial aid +had assisted in the doing. When he passed away she felt the foundations +taken from beneath her feet. For a little while she was stunned and +helpless, and then the old strength came slowly back. The same +spiritual force that had upheld her so many years still spoke to her +soul and bade her once more take up life's duties. + +[Footnote 31: A few years after the war, Miss Anthony chancing to be in +Binghamton at the time of a teachers' convention went in. Immediately +the whole body rose to give her welcome, she was escorted to the +platform and, amid great applause, invited to address them.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +WOMEN'S NATIONAL LOYAL LEAGUE. + +1863--1864. + + +It was with a sore and heavy heart that Miss Anthony again turned to +her public work, but she was impelled by the thought that it would have +been her father's earnest wish, and also by the feeling that work alone +could give relief to the sorrow which overwhelmed her. She was bitterly +disappointed that the "old guard" persisted in putting the question of +the rights of women in the background, thus losing the vantage points +gained by years of agitation. She alone, of all who had labored so +earnestly for this sacred cause, was not misled by the sophistry that +the work which women were doing for the Union would compel a universal +recognition of their demands when the war was ended. Subsequent events +showed the correctness of her judgment in maintaining that the close of +the war would precipitate upon the country such an avalanche of +questions for settlement that the claims of women would receive even +less consideration than heretofore had been accorded. Next to this +cause, however, that of the slaves appealed to her most strongly and +she willingly continued her labors for them, trusting that the day +might come when Garrison, Phillips, Greeley and the other great spirits +would redeem their pledges and unite their strength in securing justice +for women. + +On January 11, 1863, Miss Anthony received this letter from Theodore +Tilton: "Well, what have you to say to the proclamation? Even if not +all one could wish, it is too much not to be thankful for. It makes the +remainder of slavery too valueless and precarious to be worth keeping. +The millenium is on the way. Three cheers for God!... I had the +pleasure of dining yesterday with Wendell Phillips in New York. Shall I +tell you a secret? I happened to allude to one Susan Anthony. 'Yes,' +said he, 'one of the salt of the earth.'" On the 16th came this from +Henry B. Stanton: "I date from the federal capital. Since I arrived +here I have been more gloomy than ever. The country is rapidly going to +destruction. The army is almost in a state of mutiny for want of its +pay and for lack of a leader. Nothing can carry the North through but +the Southern negroes, and nobody can marshal them into the struggle +except the Abolitionists. The country was never so badly off as at this +moment. Such men as Lovejoy, Hale and the like have pretty much given +up the struggle in despair. You have no idea how dark the cloud is +which hangs over us.... We must not lay the flattering unction to our +souls that the proclamation will be of any use if we are beaten and +have a dissolution of the Union. Here then is work for you. Susan, put +on your armor and go forth!" + +From many prominent men and women came the same cry, and so she did +gird on her armor and go forth. The latter part of February she took up +her abode with Mrs. Stanton in New York. Herculean efforts were being +made at this time by the Republicans, under the leadership of Charles +Sumner, to secure congressional action in regard to emancipation. A +widespread fear existed that the President's proclamation might not +prove sufficient, that some way of overriding it might be found, and +there was much anxiety to secure such an expression of public sentiment +as would justify Congress in submitting an amendment to the United +States Constitution which should forever abolish slavery. This could +best be done through petitions, and here Miss Anthony recognized her +work. An eloquent appeal was sent out, enclosing the following: + + CALL FOR A MEETING OF THE LOYAL WOMEN OF THE NATION. + + In this crisis it is the duty of every citizen to consider the + peculiar blessings of a republican form of government, and decide + what sacrifices of wealth and life are demanded for its defense and + preservation.... No mere party or sectional cry, no technicalities + of constitutional or military law, no methods of craft or policy, + can touch the heart of a nation in the midst of revolution. A grand + idea of freedom or justice is needful to kindle and sustain the + fires of a high enthusiasm. + + At this hour the best word and work of every man and woman are + imperatively demanded. To man, by common consent, are assigned the + forum, camp and field. What is woman's legitimate work and how she + may best accomplish it is worthy our earnest counsel one with + another.... Woman is equally interested and responsible with man in + the final settlement of this problem of self-government; therefore + let none stand idle spectators now. When every hour is big with + destiny and each delay but complicates our difficulties, it is high + time for the daughters of the Revolution in solemn council to + unseal the last will and testament of the fathers, lay hold of + their birthright of freedom and keep it a sacred trust for all + coming generations. + + To this end we ask the loyal women of the nation to meet in the + Church of the Puritans, New York, on Thursday, the 14th of May + next. Let the women of every State be largely represented both in + person and by letter. + + On behalf of the Woman's Central Committee, + + ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, SUSAN B. ANTHONY. + +An immense audience, mostly women, assembled in Dr. Cheever's famous +church. Miss Anthony called the convention to order and nominated Lucy +Stone for president. Stirring addresses were made by Mrs. Stanton and +the veteran anti-slavery speaker, Angelina Grimke Weld, while the +Hutchinson family with their songs added inspiration to the occasion. +Miss Anthony presented a series of patriotic resolutions with the +following spirited address: + + There is great fear expressed on all sides lest this shall be made + a war for the negro. I am willing that it shall be. It is a war + which was begun to found an empire upon slavery, and shame on us if + we do not make it one to establish the freedom of the + negro--against whom the whole nation, North and South, East and + West, in one mighty conspiracy, has combined from the beginning. + Instead of suppressing the real cause of the war, it should have + been proclaimed not only by the people but by the President, + Congress, Cabinet and every military commander. Instead of + President Lincoln's waiting two long years before calling to the + aid of the government the millions of allies whom we have had + within the territory of rebeldom, it should have been the first + decree he sent forth. By all the laws of common sense--to say + nothing of laws military or civil--if the President, as + commander-in-chief of the army and navy, could have devised any + possible means whereby he might hope to suppress the rebellion + without the sacrifice of the life of one loyal citizen, without the + sacrifice of one dollar of the loyal North, it was clearly his duty + to have done so. Every interest of the insurgents, every dollar of + their property, every institution, every life in every rebel State + even, if necessary, should have been sacrificed, before one dollar + or one man should have been drawn from the free States. How much + more then was it the President's duty to confer freedom on the + millions of slaves, transform them into an army for the Union, + cripple the rebellion and establish justice, the only sure + foundation of peace. I therefore hail the day when the government + shall recognize that this is a war for freedom. + + We talk about returning to "the Union as it was" and "the + Constitution as it is"--about "restoring our country to peace and + prosperity--to the blessed conditions which existed before the + war!" I ask you what sort of peace, what sort of prosperity, have + we had? Since the first slave ship sailed up the James river with + its human cargo and there, on the soil of the Old Dominion, it was + sold to the highest bidder, we have had nothing but war. When that + pirate captain landed on the shores of Africa and there kidnapped + the first stalwart negro and fastened the first manacle, the + struggle between that captain and that negro was the commencement + of the terrible war in the midst of which we are today. Between the + slave and the master there has been war, and war only. This is but + a new form of it. No, no; we ask for no return to the old + conditions. We ask for something better. We want a Union which is a + Union in fact, a Union in spirit, not a sham. By the Constitution + as it is, the North has stood pledged to protect slavery in the + States where it existed. We have been bound, in case of + insurrections, to go to the aid, not of those struggling for + liberty but of the oppressors. It was politicians who made this + pledge at the beginning, and who have renewed it from year to year. + These same men have had control of the churches, the + Sabbath-schools and all religious institutions, and the women have + been a party in complicity with slavery. They have made the large + majority in all the churches throughout the country and have, + without protest, fellowshipped the slaveholder as a Christian; + accepted proslavery preaching from their pulpits; suffered the + words "slavery a crime" to be expurgated from all the lessons + taught their children, in defiance of the Golden Rule, "Do unto + others as you would that others should do unto you." They have + meekly accepted whatever morals and religion the selfish interest + of politics and trade dictated. + + Woman must now assume her God-given responsibilities and make + herself what she is clearly designed to be, the educator of the + race. Let her no longer be the mere reflector, the echo of the + worldly pride and ambition of man. Had the women of the North + studied to know and to teach their sons the law of justice to the + black man, they would not now be called upon to offer the loved of + their households to the bloody Moloch of war. Women of the North, I + ask you to rise up with earnest, honest purpose and go forward in + the way of right, fearlessly, as independent human beings, + responsible to God alone for the discharge of every duty. Forget + conventionalisms; forget what the world will say, whether you are + in your place or out of it; think your best thoughts, speak your + best words, do your best works, looking to your own consciences for + approval. + +The fourth resolution, asking equal rights for women as well as +negroes, was seriously objected to by several who insisted that they +did not want political rights. Lucy Stone, Mrs. Weld, Mrs. Rose and +Mrs. Coleman made strong speeches in its favor, and Miss Anthony said: + + This resolution merely makes the assertion that in a genuine + republic, every citizen must have the right of representation. You + remember the maxim "Governments derive their just powers from the + consent of the governed." This is the fundamental principle of + democracy, and before our government can be placed on a lasting + foundation, the civil and political rights of every citizen must be + practically established. This is the meaning of the resolution. It + is a philosophical statement, made not because women suffer, not + because slaves suffer, not because of any individual rights or + wrongs--but as a simple declaration of the fundamental truth of + democracy proclaimed by our Revolutionary fathers. I hope the + discussion will no longer be continued as to the comparative rights + or wrongs of one class or another. This is the question before us: + Is it possible that peace and union shall be established in this + country, is it possible for this government to be a true democracy, + a genuine republic, while one-sixth or one-half of the people are + disfranchised? + +The resolution was adopted by a large majority. A business meeting was +held in the afternoon to decide upon the practical work, and again the +room was crowded. Miss Anthony was in the chair. There were women of +all ages, classes and conditions, and the assembly was pervaded with +deep and solemn feeling. The following was unanimously adopted: "We, +loyal women of the nation, assembled in convention this 14th day of +May, 1863, hereby pledge ourselves one to another in a Loyal League, to +give support to the government in so far as it makes a war for +freedom." Mrs. Stanton was elected president and Miss Anthony secretary +of the permanent organization. A great meeting was held in Cooper +Institute in the evening. An eloquent address to President Lincoln, +read by Miss Anthony, was adopted and sent to him.[32] Powerful +speeches were made by Ernestine L. Rose and Rev. Antoinette Blackwell, +a patriotic address to the soldiers was adopted, and the convention +closed amid great enthusiasm. + +At subsequent meetings it was decided to confine the work of the League +to the one object of securing signatures to petitions to the Senate and +House of Representatives, praying for an act emancipating all persons +of African descent held in involuntary servitude. They set their +standard at a million names. Their scheme received the commendation of +the entire anti-slavery press, and of prominent men and women in all +parts of the country. The first of June headquarters were opened in +Room 20, Cooper Institute, and the great work was begun. Miss Anthony +prepared and sent out thousands of petitions accompanied by this +letter: + + THE WOMEN'S NATIONAL LOYAL LEAGUE TO THE WOMEN OF THE REPUBLIC: We + ask you to sign and circulate this petition for the entire + abolition of slavery. Remember the President's proclamation reaches + only the slaves of rebels. The jails of loyal Kentucky are today + filled with Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama slaves, advertised to + be sold for their jail fees "according to law," precisely as before + the war! While slavery exists anywhere there can be freedom + nowhere. There must be a law abolishing slavery. We have undertaken + to canvass the nation for freedom. Women, you can not vote or fight + for your country. Your only way to be a power in the government is + through the exercise of this one, sacred, constitutional "right of + petition;" and we ask you to use it now to the utmost. Go to the + rich, the poor, the high, the low, the soldier, the civilian, the + white, the black--gather up the names of all who hate slavery, all + who love liberty, and would have it the law of the land, and lay + them at the feet of Congress, your silent but potent vote for human + freedom guarded by law.... + +Every day and every hour were given to the Loyal League. All through +the hot summer Miss Anthony remained at her post in Cooper Institute, +scattering her letters far and wide, pushing into the field every woman +who was willing to work, sending out lecturers to stir up the people, +directing affairs with the sagacity of an experienced general, sparing +no one who could be pressed into service, and herself least of all. On +July 15, during the New York Draft Riots, she writes home: "These are +terrible times. The Colored Orphan Asylum which was burned was but one +block from Mrs. Stanton's, and all of us left the house on Monday +night. Yesterday when I started for Cooper Institute I found the cars +and stages had been stopped by the mob and I could not get to the +office. I took the ferry and went to Flushing to stay with my cousin, +but found it in force there. We all arose and dressed in the middle of +the night, but it was finally gotten under control." + +Miss Anthony had many heartaches during these trying times and longed +more and more for that strength which had been taken from her forever. +Writing to her mother of her brother Daniel R.'s election as mayor of +Leavenworth, Kan., she says: "O, how has our dear father's face flitted +before me as I have thought what his happiness would have been over +this honor. Last night when my head was on my pillow, I seemed to be in +the old carriage jogging homeward with him, while he happily recounted +D.R.'s qualifications for this high post and accepted his election as +the triumph of the opposition to rebels and slaveholders. Every day I +appreciate more fully father's desire for justice to every human being, +the lowest and blackest as well as the highest and whitest, and my +constant prayer is to be a worthy daughter." + +On the anniversary of his death she writes again to her mother: "It has +seemed to me last night and today that I must fly to you and with you +sit down _in the quiet_. It is torture here with not one who knew or +cared for the loved one. It is sacrilege to speak his name or tell my +grief to those who knew him not. O, how my soul reaches out in yearning +to his dear spirit! Does he see me, will he, can he, come to me in my +calm, still moments and gently minister and lift me up into nobler +living and working?" + +In a letter to her, relative to the sale of the home, the mother uses +these touching words: "If it had been my heart that had ceased to beat, +all might have gone on as before, but now all must go astray. I know I +ought to get rid of this care, and Mary and I should not try to live +here alone, but every foot of ground is sacred to me, and I love every +article bought by the dear father of my children." On this subject Miss +Anthony writes to her sister Mary: + + Your letter sent a pang to my very heart's core that the dear old + home, so full of the memory of our father, must be given up. I do + wish it could be best to keep it, and yet I do not think he will be + less with us away from that loved spot, for my experience in the + past months disproves such feeling. Every place, every movement, + almost, suggests him. Last evening, I strolled west on Forty-fifth + street to the Hudson river, a mile or more. There was newly-sawed + lumber there and the smell carried me back, back to the old sawmill + and childhood's days. I looked at the beautiful river and the + schooners with their sails spread to the breeze. I felt alone, but + my mind traversed the entire round of the loved ones. I doubt if + there be any mortal who clings to loves with greater tenacity than + do I. To see mother without father in the old home, to feel the + loneliness of her spirit, and all of us bereft of the joy of + looking into the loved face, listening to the loved tones, waiting + for his sanction or rejection--O, how I could see and feel it all! + + The rest of us have our work to engross us and other objects to + center our affections upon, but mother now lives in her children, + and I often feel as if we did too little to lighten her heart and + cheer her path. Never was there a mother who came nearer to knowing + nothing save her own household, her husband and children, whether + high in the world's esteem or crucified, the same still with her + through all. If we sometimes give her occasion to feel that we + prized father more than her, it was she who taught us ever to hold + him thus above all others. Our high respect and deep love for him, + our perfect trust in him, we owe to mother's precepts and vastly + more to her example. And, by and by, when we have to reckon her + among the invisible, we shall live in remembrance of her wise + counsel, tender watching, self-sacrifice and devotion not second to + that we now cherish for the memory of our father--nay, it will even + transcend that in measure, as a mother's constant and ever-present + love and care for her children are beyond those of a father. + +A bit of mirth comes into the somber atmosphere with a note from +Theodore Tilton: + + To SUSAN B. ANTHONY, ADJUTANT-GENERAL--Since of late you have been + bold in expressing your opinion that the draft should be + strenuously enforced and that the broken ranks of our brave armies + should be supplied with new men, it will serve to show you how + great the difference is between those who _say_ and those who _do_, + if I inform you--as in duty bound I do hereby--that I know a little + lady only half your size who doubles your zeal in all these + respects and who, without waiting for your tardy example, presented + on her own account to the government on Thursday last a new man, + weighing nine pounds, to be enrolled among the infantry of the + United States. + +Miss Anthony undertook the great work of this National Loyal League +without the guarantee from any source of a single dollar. The expenses +were very heavy; office rent, clerk hire, printing bills, postage, +etc., brought them up to over $5,000, but as usual she was fertile in +resources for raising money. All who signed the petition were requested +to give a cent and in this way about $3,000 were realized. A few +contributions came in, but the demands were infinite for every dollar +which patriotic citizens could spare, and the league felt desirous of +paying its own way. To assist in this, she arranged a course of +lectures at Cooper Institute. Among those who responded to her call +were Hon. William D. Kelley, Edwin P. Whipple, Theodore D. Weld, Rev. +Stephen H. Tyng, Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, George William +Curtis, Frances D. Gage and several others. Most of these donated their +services and others reduced their price. Letters of commendation were +received from editors, ministers, senators and generals. George +Thompson, the British Abolitionist and ex-member of Parliament, gave +hearty sympathy and co-operation. + +[Autograph: + + Respectfully + Stephen H. Tyng] + +Benjamin F. Wade wrote: "You may count upon any aid which I am +competent to bestow to forward the object of your league. As a member +of Congress, you shall have my best endeavors for your success, for a +cause more honorable to human nature or one that promised more benefit +to the world, never called forth the efforts of the patriot or +philanthropist." From Major-General Rosecrans came the message: "The +cause in which you are engaged is sacred, and would ennoble mean and +sanctify common things. You have my best wishes for continued success +in your good work." + +[Autograph: + + My hearty sympathy + In extreme haste, + Very Sincerely + Geo Thompson] + +In December, 1863, Miss Anthony went to Philadelphia to attend the +great meeting which celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the +founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and was strengthened and +encouraged by the lofty and enthusiastic addresses and the renewed +expressions of friendship and fealty to herself. + +The work of securing the petitions was rapidly and energetically pushed +during the winter and spring of 1864. Miss Anthony gave all her time to +the office.[33] During the year and a half of her arduous labors, she +received from the Hovey Committee $12 a week. As she boarded with Mrs. +Stanton at a reduced price she managed to keep her expenses within this +limit. She writes home: "I go to a restaurant near by for lunch every +noon. I take always strawberries with two tea-rusks. Today I said, 'All +this lacks is a glass of milk from my mother's cellar,' and the girl +replied, 'We have very nice Westchester county milk.' So tomorrow I +shall add that to my bill of fare. My lunch costs, berries, five cents, +rusks five, and tomorrow the milk will be three." There is reason to +believe, however, that she often would have been glad to afford a +second dish of strawberries. + +The Hovey Committee sent $155, Gerrit Smith $200, Schieffelin Brothers, +Druggists, $100, and Jessie Benton Fremont, $50. In her great need of +funds, Miss Anthony decided to appeal to Henry Ward Beecher and she +relates how, as she was wearily climbing Columbia Heights to his home, +she felt a hand on her shoulder and heard a hearty voice say: "Well, +old girl, what do you want now?" It was Mr. Beecher himself who, the +moment she explained her mission, said: "I'll take up a collection in +Plymouth church next Sunday." The result of this was $200. The +carefully kept books still in existence show that when the accounts of +the league were closed, there was a deficit of $4.72 to settle all +indebtedness, and this Miss Anthony paid out of her own pocket! + +In January the brother Daniel R. came East for his beautiful young +bride, and the mother from her quiet farm-nook sends her petition to +New York. She can not manage the "infare" unless Susan comes home and +helps. So she drops the affairs of government long enough to skim +across the State and lend a hand in preparing for this interesting +event, and then back again to her incessant drudgery, made doubly hard +by financial anxiety. + +[Autograph: + + Faithfully yours, + Robert Dale Owen] + +During all this work of the Loyal League, Miss Anthony found her +strongest and staunchest support in Robert Dale Owen, who was then in +New York by appointment of President Lincoln as chairman of the +Freedman's Inquiry Commission. She was also in constant communication +with Senator Charles Sumner, who was most anxious that the work should +be hastened. The blank petitions were sent in great sacks to him at +Washington, and distributed under his "frank" to all parts of the +Union. On February 9, 1864, he presented in the Senate the first +installment. The petitions from each State were tied by themselves in a +large bundle and endorsed with the number of signatures. Two +able-bodied negroes carried them into the Senate chamber, and Mr. +Sumner presented them, saying in part: + + These petitions are signed by 100,000 men and women, who unite in + this unparalleled number to support their prayer. They are from all + parts of the country and from every condition of life.... They ask + nothing less than universal emancipation, and this they ask + directly at the hands of Congress. It is not for me to assign + reasons which the army of petitioners has forborne to assign; but I + may not improperly add that, naturally and obviously, they all feel + in their hearts, what reason and knowledge confirm, not only that + slavery is the guilty origin of the rebellion, but that its + influence everywhere, even outside the rebel States, has been + hostile to the Union, always impairing loyalty and sometimes openly + menacing the national government. The petitioners know well that to + save the country from peril, especially to save the national life, + there is no power in the ample arsenal of self-defense which + Congress may not grasp; for to Congress under the Constitution, + belongs the prerogative of the Roman Dictator to see that the + republic receives no detriment. Therefore to Congress these + petitioners now appeal. + +After an earnest discussion by the Senate the petition was referred to +the Select Committee on Slavery and Freedom, whose chairman was Thomas +D. Eliot, of Massachusetts. Immediately afterwards several thousand +more blank petitions were sent out, accompanied by a second appeal +which closed: "Shall we not all join in one loud, earnest, effectual +prayer to Congress, which will swell on its ear like the voice of many +waters, that this bloody, desolating war shall be arrested and ended by +the immediate and final removal by statute law and amended +Constitution, of that crime and curse which alone has brought it upon +us?" + +[Autograph: Charles Sumner] + +In answer to an invitation to be present at the first anniversary of +the Women's National Loyal League, Senator Sumner wrote: + + I can not be with you for my post of duty is here. I am grateful to + your association for what you have done to arouse the country to + insist on the extinction of slavery. Now is the time to strike and + no effort should be spared. The good work must be finished, and to + my mind nothing seems to be done, while anything remains to be + done. There is one point to which attention must be directed. No + effort should be spared to castigate and blast the whole idea of + _property in man_, which is the corner-stone of the rebel + pretension and the constant assumption of the partisans of slavery, + or of its lukewarm opponents. Let this idea be trampled out and + there will be no sympathy with the rebellion, and there will be no + such abomination as slave-hunting, which is beyond question the + most execrable feature of slavery itself. + +As Miss Anthony herself had asked so many favors of Wendell Phillips, +she thought it would be a good idea to have Mrs. Stanton invite him to +make an address at this anniversary; but he was not in the least +deceived, as his reply shows: + + DEAR MRS. STANTON: Your S.B.A. thinks she is very cunning. As if I + did not see a huge pussy under that meal! She has been so modest, + humble, ashamed, reluctant, apologetic, contrite, self-accusing + whenever the last ten years she has asked me to do anything, go + anywhere, speak on any topic! Now she makes you pull the chestnuts + out of the fire and thinks I do not see her waiting behind. Ah, the + hand is the hand of Esau, the voice is the voice of Jacob, wicked, + sly, skulking, mystifying Jacob. Why don't "secretaries" write the + official letters? How much they leave the "president" to do! + Naughty idlers, those secretaries! Well, let me thank Miss + Secretary Anthony for her gentle consideration; then let me say + I'll try to speak, as you say, fifteen minutes.... Remember me + defiantly to S.B.A. + +In the midst of all this correspondence came a letter from a sweetheart +of her girlhood, now a prominent officeholder in Ohio, stating that he +was a widower but would not long remain one if his old friend would +take pity upon him. It is sincerely to be hoped that the secretary of +the Loyal League found time at least to have one of her clerks answer +this epistle. + +The meeting was held in the Church of the Puritans, May 12, 1864, and +soul-stirring speeches were made by Phillips, Mrs. Rose, Lucretia Mott, +George Thompson, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony. The report of the +executive committee showed that a debt of $5,000, including $1,000 for +postage alone, had been paid; that 25,000 blank petitions had been sent +out; that the league now numbered 5,000 members, and that branch Loyal +Leagues had been formed in many cities. Strong resolutions were adopted +demanding not only emancipation but enfranchisement for the negroes. +The entire proceedings of the convention illustrated how thoroughly the +leading women of the country understood the political situation, how +broad and comprehensive was their grasp of public affairs, and with +what a patriotic and self-sacrificing spirit they performed their part +of the duties imposed by the great Civil War. + +By August, 1864, the signatures to the petitions had reached almost +400,000. Again and again Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson had written +Miss Anthony that these petitions formed the bulwark of their demand +for congressional action to abolish slavery. Public sentiment on this +point had now become emphatic, the Senate had passed the bill for the +prohibition of slavery, and the intention of the House of +Representatives was so apparent that it did not seem necessary to +continue the petitions. The headquarters in Cooper Institute were +closed, and the magnificent work, which from this center had radiated +throughout the country, found its reward in the proposition by +Congress, on February 1, 1865, for Amendment XIII to the Federal +Constitution: + + Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment + for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall + exist in the United States, or any place subject to their + jurisdiction. + +The faithful, untiring, persistent chief of this Women's National Loyal +League was Susan B. Anthony, whose only material reminder of that great +achievement for the freedom of the slave is the arm-chair in which, for +the past thirty-five years, she has sat and conducted her vast +correspondence in the interest of liberty for the half of humanity +still in bondage; yet in the blessed thought that her efforts were an +important factor in securing freedom for millions of her +fellow-creatures, she has been rewarded a thousandfold. But what words +can express her sense of humiliation when, at the close of this long +conflict, the government which she had served so faithfully still held +her unworthy a voice in its councils, while it recognized as the +political superiors of all the noble women of the nation, the negro men +just emerged from slavery and not only totally illiterate but also +densely ignorant of every public question? + +[Autograph: Elizabeth Blackwell] + +There never can be an adequate portrayal of the services rendered by +the women of this country during the Civil War, but none will deny +that, according to their opportunities, they were as faithful and +self-sacrificing as were the men. A comparison of values is impossible, +but women's labors supplemented those of men, and together they wrought +out the freedom of the slave and the salvation of the Union. Among the +great body of women, a few stand out in immortal light. The plan of the +vital campaign of the Tennessee, one of the great strategic movements +of history, was made by Anna Ella Carroll. The work of Dorothea Dix, +government superintendent of women nurses, with its onerous and +important duties, needs no eulogy. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, fresh from +England and an intimacy with Florence Nightingale, originated the +Sanitary Commission. No name is held in more profound reverence than +that of Clara Barton, for her matchless services upon the battlefield +among the dead and dying. To Josephine S. Griffing belongs the full +credit of founding the Freedmen's Bureau, which played so valuable a +part in the help and protection of the newly emancipated negroes. Who +of all the public speakers rendered greater aid to the Union than the +inspired Anna Dickinson? Yet not one of these ever received the +slightest official recognition from the government. In the cases of +Miss Carroll, Dr. Blackwell and Mrs. Griffing, the honors and the +profits all were absorbed by men. Neither Dorothea Dix nor Clara Barton +ever asked for a pension. All of these women at the close of the war +appealed for the right of suffrage, a voice in the affairs of +government; but such appeals were and still are treated with +contemptuous denial. The situation was thus eloquently summed up by +that woman statesman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton: + + The lessons of the war were not lost on the women of this nation; + through varied forms of suffering and humiliation, they learned + that they had an equal interest with men in the administration of + the government, alike enjoying its blessings or enduring its + miseries. When in the enfranchisement of the black men they saw + another ignorant class of voters placed above their heads, and + beheld the danger of a distinctively "male" government, forever + involving the nations of the earth in war and violence; and + demanded for the protection of themselves and children, that + woman's voice should be heard and her opinions in public affairs be + expressed by the ballot, they were coolly told that the black man + had earned the right to vote, that he had fought and bled and died + for his country. + +[Footnote 32: See Appendix for this address.] + +[Footnote 33: She was assisted from time to time by Mrs. Stanton, Lucy +Stone, Charlotte B. Wilbour, Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, Mary F. Gilbert, +Frances V. Hallock, Mattie Griffith (Brown), Rebecca Shepard (Putnam), +and Frances M. Russell, all donating their services. The bookkeeper and +the clerks were paid small salaries from the office receipts.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +"MALE" IN THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. + +1865. + + +Soon after closing the league headquarters, Miss Anthony went to Auburn +to attend the wedding of Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Jr., and Ellen, daughter +of her dear friend Martha C. Wright and niece of Lucretia Mott, a union +of two families very acceptable to the friends of both. From this scene +of festivity she returned home to meet a fresh sorrow in the sudden +death, almost at the hour of her arrival, of Ann Eliza, daughter of her +eldest sister Guelma and Aaron McLean, the best beloved of all her +nieces. She was twenty-three years old, beautiful and talented, a good +musician and an artist of fine promise. In her Miss Anthony had +centered many hopes and ambitions, and the letters show that she was +always planning and working for her future as she would have done for +that of a cherished daughter. She was laid to rest on the silver +wedding anniversary of her parents. Miss Anthony writes: "She had +ceased to be a child and had become the fullgrown woman, my companion +and friend. I loved her merry laugh, her bright, joyous presence, and +yet my loss is so small compared to the awful void in her mother's life +that I scarcely dare mention it." + +Months afterwards she wrote her sister Hannah: "Today I made a +pilgrimage to Mount Hope. The last rays of red, gold and purple fringed +the horizon and shone serenely on the mounds above our dear father and +Ann Eliza. What a contrast in my feelings; for the one a subdued sorrow +at the sudden ending of a life full-ripened, only that we would have +basked in its sunshine a little longer; for the other a keen anguish +over the untimely cutting off in the dawn of existence, with the hopes +and longings but just beginning to take form, the real purpose of life +yet dimly developed, a great nature but half revealed. The faith that +she and all our loved and gone are graduated into a higher school of +growth and progress is the only consolation for death." + +At another time she wrote her brother: "This new and sorrowful reminder +of the brittleness of life's threads should soften all our expressions +to each other in our home circles and open our lips to speak only words +of tenderness and approbation. We are so wont to utter criticisms and +to keep silence about the things we approve. I wish we might be as +faithful in expressing our likes as our dislikes, and not leave our +loved ones to take it for granted that their good acts are noted and +appreciated and vastly outnumber those we criticise. The sum of home +happiness would be greatly multiplied if all families would +conscientiously follow this method." + +There were urgent appeals in these days from the lately-married brother +and his wife for sister Susan to come to Kansas and, as no public work +seemed to be pressing, she started the latter part of January, 1865. +She stopped in Chicago to visit her uncle Albert Dickinson, was +detained a week by heavy storms, and reached Leavenworth the last day +of the month. Of her journey she wrote home: + + I paid a dollar for a ride across the Mississippi on the ice. When + we reached Missouri all was devastation. I asked the conductor if + there were not a sleeper and he replied, "Our sleeping cars are in + the ditch." Scarcely a train had been over the road in weeks + without being thrown off the track. We were nineteen hours going + the 200 miles from Quincy to St. Joe. Twelve miles out from the + latter we had to wait for the train ahead of us to get back on the + rails. I was desperate. Any decent farmer's pigpen would be as + clean as that car. There were five or six families, each with half + a dozen children, moving to Kansas and Nebraska, who had been shut + up there for days. A hovel stood up the bank a little way and + several of the men went there and washed their faces. After + watching them enjoy this luxury for a while I finally rushed up + myself and asked the woman in charge if she would sell me a cup of + coffee. She grunted out yes, after some hesitation, and while she + was making it, I washed my face and hands. When she handed me my + drink she said, "This is no rye; it is real coffee." And so it was + and I enjoyed it, brass spoon, thick, dingy, cracked cup and all. + +This was Miss Anthony's first visit to Kansas and she found much to +interest her in Leavenworth--caravans of emigrants long trains of +supplies for the army, troops from the barracks crowds of colored +refugees, the many features of frontier life so totally different from +all she had seen and known in her eastern home. The prominence of her +brother brought many distinguished visitors to his house, she enjoyed +the long carriage drives and the days were filled with pleasant duties, +so that she writes, "I am afraid I shall get into the business of being +comfortable." On her birthday, February 15, the diary shows that she +wagered a pair of gloves with the family physician that it would not +rain before morning, and on the 16th is recorded: "The bell rang early +this morning and a boy left a box containing a pair of gloves with the +compliments of the doctor." In March one entry reads: "The new +seamstress starts in pretty well but she can not sew nicely enough for +the little clothes. We shall have to make those ourselves." + +This life of ease proved to be of short duration. Her brother was +renominated for mayor and plunged at once into the thick of a political +campaign, while Miss Anthony went to the office to help manage his +newspaper, limited only by his injunction "not to have it all woman's +rights and negro suffrage." The labor, however, which she most enjoyed +was among the colored refugees. Soon after the slaves were set free +they flocked to Kansas in large numbers, and what should be done with +this great body of uneducated, untrained and irresponsible people was a +perplexing question. She went into the day schools, Sunday-schools, +charitable societies and all organizations for their relief and +improvement. The journal shows that four or five days or evenings every +week were given to this work and that she formed an equal rights league +among them. A colored printer was put into the composing-room, and at +once the entire force went on strike. The diary declares "it is a +burning, blistering shame," and relates her attempts to secure other +work for him. She met at this time Hiram Revels, a colored Methodist +preacher, afterwards United States senator from Mississippi. + +During these months she was in constant receipt of letters pressing her +to return to the East. Phillips said: "Come back, there is work for you +here." From Lydia Mott came the pathetic cry: "Our old fraternity is no +more; we are divided, bodily and spiritually, and I seem to grow more +isolated every day." Pillsbury wrote: "We do not know much now about +one another. We called a meeting of the Hovey Committee and only +Whipple and I were present. Why have you deserted the field of action +at a time like this, at an hour unparalleled in almost twenty +centuries? If you watch our papers you must have observed that with you +gone, our forces are scattered until I can almost truly say with him of +old, 'I only am left.' It is not for me to decide your field of labor. +Kansas needed John Brown and may need you. It is no doubt missionary +ground and, wherever you are, I know you will not be idle; but New York +is to revise her constitution next year and, if you are absent, who is +to make the plea for woman?" Mrs. Stanton insisted that she should not +remain buried in Kansas and concluded a long letter: + + I hope in a short time to be comfortably located in a new house + where we will have a room ready for you when you come East. I long + to put my arms around you once more and hear you scold me for my + sins and short-comings. Your abuse is sweeter to me than anybody + else's praise for, in spite of your severity, your faith and + confidence shine through all. O, Susan, you are very dear to me. I + should miss you more than any other living being from this earth. + You are intertwined with much of my happy and eventful past, and + all my future plans are based on you as a coadjutor. Yes, our work + is one, we are one in aim and sympathy and we should be together. + Come home. + +Miss Anthony's own heart yearned to return, but the workers were so few +in Kansas and so many in the Eastern States. that she scarcely knew +where the call of duty was strongest. At the close of the war her mind +grasped at once the full import of the momentous questions which would +demand settlement and she felt the necessity of placing herself in +touch with those who would be most powerful in moulding public +sentiment. The threatened division in the Abolitionist ranks and the +reported determination of Mr. Garrison to disband the Anti-Slavery +Society, filled her with dismay and she sent back the strongest +protests she could put into words: + + How can any one hold that Congress has no right to demand negro + suffrage in the returning rebel States because it is not already + established in all the loyal ones? What would have been said of + Abolitionists ten or twenty years ago, had they preached to the + people that Congress had no right to vote against admitting a new + State with slavery, because it was not already abolished in all the + old States? It is perfectly astounding, this seeming eagerness of + so many of our old friends to cover up and apologize for the + glaring hate toward the equal recognition of the manhood of the + black race. Well, you will be in New York to witness, perhaps, the + disbanding of the Anti-Slavery Society--and I shall be away out + here, waiting anxiously to catch the first glimpse of the spirit of + the meeting. But Phillips will be glorious and genial to the end. + All through this struggle he has stood up against the tide, one of + the few to hold the nation to its vital work--its one necessity, + moral as military--absolute justice and equality for the black man. + I wish every ear in this country might listen to his word. + +A letter from Mr. Phillips said: "Thank you for your kind note. I see +you understand the lay of the land and no words are necessary between +you and me. Your points we have talked over. If Garrison should resign, +we incline to Purvis for president for many, many reasons. We (Hovey +Committee) shall aid in keeping our Standard floating till the enemy +comes down." All the letters received by Miss Anthony during May and +June were filled with the story of the dissension in the Anti-Slavery +Society. + +It is not a part of this work to go into the merits of that discussion. +In brief, Mr. Garrison and his followers believed that, with the +ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery was forever abolished +in the United States and there was no further need of the Anti-Slavery +Society which he himself had founded. Phillips and his following held +that "no emancipation can be effectual and no freedom real, unless the +negro has the ballot and the States are prohibited from enacting laws +making any distinction among their citizens on Account of race or +color." There were minor differences of opinion respecting men and +measures, but the above are the fundamental points which led to the +first breach that had occurred for a quarter of a century in the ranks +of the great anti-slavery leaders, who had borne a persecution never +equalled in the history of our country. It resulted, at the May +Anniversary in New York, in Garrison's declining a re-election to the +presidency of the society, which he had held for thirty-two years, and +in the election of Phillips. + +Those most intimately connected with Miss Anthony sustained the +position of Mr. Phillips--Mrs. Stanton, Parker Pillsbury, Robert +Purvis, Charles Remond, Stephen Foster, Lucretia and Lydia Mott, Anna +Dickinson, Sarah Pugh--and she herself was his staunchest defender. +Believing as strongly as she did that the suffrage is the very +foundation of liberty, that without it there can be no real freedom for +either man or woman, she could not have done otherwise, and yet, so +great was her reverence and affection for Mr. Garrison, it was with the +keenest regret she found herself no longer able to follow him. She +writes: "I am glad I was spared from witnessing that closing scene. It +will be hard beyond expression to leave him out of our councils, but he +never will be out of our sympathies. I hope you will refrain from all +personalities. Pro-slavery signs are too apparent and too dangerous at +this hour for us to stop for personal adjustments. To go forward with +the great work pressing upon the society, without turning to the right +or the left, is the one wise course." + +Parker Pillsbury was made editor of the Standard in place of Oliver +Johnson, and was assisted by George W. Smalley, who had married an +adopted daughter of Wendell Phillips. Mr. Pillsbury wrote Miss Anthony +soon after the anniversary: + + We could not see how the colored race were to be risked, shut up in + the States with their old masters, whom they had helped to conquer + and out of whose defeat their freedom had come; so we voted to keep + the machinery in gear until better assurances were given of a free + future than we yet possess. We have offended some by our course. I + am sorry, but it was Mr. Garrison who taught me to be true to + myself. To my mind, suffrage for the negro is now what immediate + emancipation was thirty years ago. If we emancipate from slavery + and leave the European doctrine of serfdom extant, even in the + mildest form, then the colored race, or we, or perhaps both, have + another war in store. And so my work is not done till the last + black man can declare in the full face of the world, "I am a man + and a brother." + +In June, as the expected little stranger had arrived safe, Miss Anthony +accepted an invitation to deliver the Fourth of July address at +Ottumwa, and then went through her inevitable agony whenever she had a +speech to prepare. She took the stage for Topeka, finding among her +fellow-passengers her relative, Major Scott Anthony, with Mr. +Butterfield of the Overland Dispatch, and the long, hot, dusty ride was +enlivened by an animated discussion of the political questions of the +day. During this drive over the unbroken prairies, she made the +prediction that, given a few decades of thrift, they would be dotted +with farms, orchards and villages and the State would be a paradise. + +Miss Anthony was among the first of the Abolitionists to declare that +the negroes must have the suffrage, one of the most unpopular ideas +ever broached, and she writes: "As fearless, radical and independent as +my brother is, he will not allow my opinions on this subject to go into +his paper." At Topeka she spoke to a large audience in the Methodist +church on this question. In order to reach Ottumwa she had to ride 125 +miles by stage in the heat of July, and her expenses were considerable. +No price had been guaranteed for her address, but she learned to her +surprise that she was expected to make it a gratuitous offering, as was +the custom on account of the poverty of the people. They came from +miles around and were enthusiastic over her speech on "President +Johnson's Mississippi Reconstruction Proclamation." The Republicans +insisted that she should put her notes in shape for publication, but +urged her to leave out the paragraph on woman suffrage.[34] + +The other speakers were Sidney Clark, M.C., and a professor from +Lawrence University. They were entertained by a prominent official who +had just built a new house, the upper story of which was unfinished. It +was divided into three rooms by hanging up army blankets, and each of +the orators was assigned to one of these apartments. Miss Anthony was +so exhausted from the long stage-ride, the speaking and the heat, that +she scarcely could get ready for bed, but no sooner had she touched the +pillow than she was assailed by a species of animals noted for the +welcome they extended to travellers in the early history of Kansas. Her +dilemma was excruciating. Should she lie still and be eaten alive, or +should she get up, strike a light and probably rouse the honorable +gentlemen on the other side of the army blankets? A few minutes decided +the question; she slipped out of bed, lighted her tallow dip and +reconnoitered. Then she blew out her light, and sat by the window till +morning. + +She spoke at Lawrence in the Unitarian and the Congregational churches, +and August 1, the thirty-first anniversary of England's emancipation of +the slaves in the West Indies, she addressed an immense audience in a +grove near Leavenworth. She discussed the changed condition of the +colored people and their new rights and duties, and called their +attention to the fact that not one of the prominent politicians +advertised was there; pointed out that if they possessed the ballot and +could vote these men into or out of office, all would be eager for an +opportunity to address them; and then drew a parallel between their +political condition and that of women. At this time she received a +second intimation of what was to come, when prominent Republicans +called upon her and insisted that hereafter she should not bring the +question of woman's rights into her speeches on behalf of the negro. + +A few days afterwards Miss Anthony was seated in her brother's office +reading the papers when she learned to her amazement that several +resolutions had been offered in the House of Representatives +sanctioning disfranchisement on account of sex. Up to this time the +Constitution of the United States never had been desecrated by the word +"male," and she saw instantly that such action would create a more +formidable barrier than any now existing against the enfranchisement of +women. She hesitated no longer but started immediately on her homeward +journey, stopping in Atchison, where she was the guest of ex-Mayor +Crowell. Senator Pomeroy called, accompanied her to church and arranged +for her to address the colored people next day. She lectured also in +St. Joseph, Mo. At Chillicothe one of the editors sent word that if she +would not "lash" him he would print her handbills free of charge. Here +she addressed a great crowd of colored people in a tobacco factory. At +Macon City she spoke to them in an abandoned barracks, and slept in a +slab house. Her night's experience at Ottumwa was repeated here, except +that the army of invaders were fleas. The next day she was invited to +the Methodist minister's home and his church placed at her disposal, +where she addressed a large white audience. Of her speech in St. Louis +she wrote: + + Sunday afternoon I spoke to the colored people in an old slave + church in which priests used to preach "Servants, obey your + masters;" and in which slaves never dared breathe aloud their + hearts' deepest prayer for freedom. The church was built by actual + slaves with money they earned working odd hours allowed them by + their masters. The greatest danger for these people now lies in + being duped by the priests and Levites who used to pass them by on + the other side but who, now that they have become popular prey, + wildly run to and fro to do them good--that is, get their money and + give themselves easy, fat posts as superintendents, missionaries, + teachers, etc. The country is full of these soul-sharks, men who + haven't had brains enough to find pulpits or places in the free + States. + +As Miss Anthony took the train for Chicago, a woman-thief picked her +pocket but she caught her and, without any appeal to the police, +compelled her to deliver up the stolen goods. At Chicago she lectured +several times, visited the Freedmen's Commission, heard General Howard, +called on General Sherman, went to the board of trade, where she was +greatly shocked at the roaring of the "bulls and bears," and had +pleasant visits with relatives in the city and adjacent towns, speaking +at a number of these places. She lectured at Battle Creek and Ann +Arbor, arriving at Rochester September 23. Pausing only for a brief +visit, she went on to New York to fulfill the purpose which brought her +eastward. She stopped at Auburn to counsel with Mrs. Wright and Mrs. +Worden, but found both very dubious about reviving interest in woman's +rights at this critical moment. After a night of mapping out the +campaign with Mrs. Stanton, she started out bright and early the next +morning on that mission which she was to follow faithfully and +steadfastly, without cessation or turning aside, for the next thirty +years--to compel the Constitution of the United States to recognize the +political rights of woman! The days were spent in hunting up old +friends and supporters of the years before the war and enlisting their +sympathies in the great work now at hand; and the evenings were +occupied with Mrs. Stanton in preparing an appeal and a form of +petition praying Congress to confer the suffrage on women.[35] This was +the first demand ever made for Congressional action on this question. +The Fourteenth Amendment, as proposed, contained in Section 2, to which +the women objected, the word "male" three times, and read as follows: + + Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States + according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of + persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the + right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for + president and vice-president of the United States, representatives + in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the + members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the _male_ + inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and + citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for + participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of + representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the + number of such _male_ citizens shall bear to the whole number of + _male_ citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. + +If it had been adopted without this word "male," all women would have +been virtually enfranchised, as men would have let women vote rather +than have them counted out of the basis of representation. Thaddeus +Stevens made a vigorous attempt to have women included in the +provisions of this amendment. + +[Autograph: Thaddeus Stevens] + +A letter written by Mrs. Stanton to Martha Wright is a sample of +hundreds which were sent to friends in all parts of the country: + + I enclose you the proof of the memorial which Susan and I have just + been getting up for Congress. I have been writing to Mr. Garrison + to make some mention of us, "the only disfranchised class now + remaining," in his last Liberator. It is fitting that we should be + recognized in his valedictory. We have now boosted the negro over + our own heads, and we had better begin to remember that + self-preservation is the first law of nature. Will you see if you + can get our petition in your city and county papers? Sign it + yourself and send it to your representatives in Senate and + Congress, and then try to galvanize the women of your district into + life. Some say: "Be still; wait; this is the negro's hour." We + believe this is the hour for everybody to do the best thing for + reconstruction. + +Miss Anthony found the leaders among the men so absorbed with their +interest in the male negro that they had given little thought to the +suffrage as related to women; but the Hovey Committee appropriated $500 +to begin the petition work. She went to Concord and held a parlor +meeting attended by Emerson, Alcott, Sanborn and other sages of that +intellectual center, stating what the women desired to accomplish. +After she finished, Emerson was appealed to for an opinion but said: +"Ask my wife. I can philosophize, but I always look to her to decide +for me in practical matters." Mrs. Emerson replied without hesitation +that she fully agreed with Miss Anthony in regard to the necessity for +petitioning Congress at once to enfranchise women, either before this +great body of negroes was invested with the ballot or at the same time. +Mr. Emerson and the other gentlemen then assured her of their sympathy +and support. + +[Autograph: R. Waldo Emerson] + +She presented her claims at the annual anti-slavery meeting in +Westchester and at many other gatherings. She went also to Philadelphia +to visit James and Lucretia Mott and interest Mary Grew and Sarah Pugh +and all the friends in that locality; then back to New York with +tireless energy and unflagging zeal. She wrote articles for the +Anti-Slavery Standard, sent out petitions and left no stone unturned to +accomplish her purpose. The diary shows the days to have been well +filled: + + Went to Tilton's office to express regrets at not being able to + attend their tin wedding. He read us his editorial on Seward and + Beecher. Splendid!... Went to hear Beecher, morning and evening. + There is no one like him.... Spent the day at Mrs. Tilton's and + went with her to Mrs. Bowen's.... Listened to O.B. Frothingham, + "Justice the Mother of Wisdom."... Put some new buttons on my + cloak. This is its third winter.... Excellent audience in Friends' + meeting house, at Milton-on-the-Hudson. Visited the grave of Eliza + W. Farnham.... Went over to New Jersey to confer with Lucy Stone + and Antoinette Blackwell.... Called at Dr. Cheever's, and also had + an interview with Robert Dale Owen.... Went to Worcester to see + Abby Kelly Foster and from there to Boston.... Found Dr. Harriot K. + Hunt ready for woman suffrage work. Took dinner at Garrison's. Saw + Whipple and May, then went to Wendell Phillips'.... Spent the day + with Caroline M. Severance, at West Newton. She is earnest in the + cause of women.... Returned to New York and commenced work in + earnest. Spent nearly all the Christmas holidays addressing and + sending off petitions. + +Henry Ward Beecher and Theodore Tilton entered heartily into the plans +of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton. Mr. Tilton proposed that they should +form a National Equal Rights Association, demanding suffrage for +negroes and for women, that Mr. Phillips should be its president, the +Anti-Slavery Standard its official organ; and Mr. Beecher agreed to +lecture in behalf of this new movement. Mr. Tilton came out with a +strong editorial in the Independent, advocating suffrage for women and +paying a beautiful tribute to the efficient services in the past of +those who were now demanding recognition of their political rights: + + A LAW AGAINST WOMEN.--The spider-crab walks backward. Borrowing + this creature's mossy legs, two or three gentlemen in Washington + are seeking to fix these upon the Federal Constitution, to make + that instrument walk backward in like style. For instance, the + Constitution has never laid any legal disabilities upon woman. + Whatever denials of rights it formerly made to our slaves, it + denied nothing to our wives and daughters. The legal rights of an + American woman--for instance, her right to her own property, as + against a squandering husband; or her right to her own children as + against a malicious father--have grown, year by year, into a more + generous and just statement in American laws. This beautiful result + is owing in great measure to the persistent efforts of many noble + women who, for years past, both publicly and privately, by pen and + speech, have appealed to legislative committees and to the whole + community for an enlargement of the legal and civil status of their + fellow-countrywomen. Signal, honorable and beneficent have been the + works and words of Lucretia Mott, Lydia Maria Child, Paulina Wright + Davis, Abby Kelly Foster, Frances D. Gage, Lucy Stone, Caroline H. + Ball, Antoinette Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady + Stanton and many others. Not in all the land lives a poor woman or + a widow who does not owe some portion of her present safety under + the law to the brave exertions of these faithful laborers. + + All forward-looking minds know that, sooner or later, the chief + public question in this country will be woman's claim to the + ballot. The Federal Constitution, as it now stands, leaves this + question an open one for the several States to settle as they + choose. Two bills, however, now lie before Congress proposing to + array the fundamental law of the land against the multitude of + American women by ordaining a denial of the political rights of a + whole sex. To this injustice we object totally! Such an amendment + is a snap judgment before discussion; it is an obstacle to future + progress; it is a gratuitous bruise inflicted on the most tender + and humane sentiment that has ever entered into American politics. + If the present Congress is not called to legislate _for_ the rights + of women, let it not legislate _against_ them. Americans now live + who shall not go down into the grave till they have left behind + them a republican government; and no republic is republican that + denies to half its citizens those rights which the Declaration of + Independence and a true Christian democracy make equal to all. + Meanwhile, let us break the legs of the spider-crab. + +[Footnote 34: See Appendix for full speech.] + +[Footnote 35: As the question of suffrage is now agitating the public +mind, it is the hour for woman to make her demand. Propositions already +have been made on the floor of Congress to so amend the Constitution as +to exclude women from a voice in the government. As this would be to +turn the wheels of legislation backward, let the women of the nation +now unitedly protest against such a desecration of the Constitution, +and petition for that right which is at the foundation of all +government, the right of representation. Send your petition when signed +to your representative in Congress, at your earliest convenience. + +ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, LUCY STONE.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE NEGRO'S HOUR. + +1866. + + +The reconstruction period of our government was no less trying a time +than the four years of warfare which preceded it. The Union had been +preserved but the disorganization of the Southern States was complete. +Lincoln, whose cool judgment, restraining wisdom and remarkable genius +for understanding and persuading men never had been more needed, was +dead by the hand of an assassin. In his place was a man, rash, +headlong, aggressive, stubborn, distrusted by the party which had +placed him in power. This chief executive had to deal not only with the +great, perplexing questions which always follow upon the close of a +war, but with these rendered still more difficult by the great mass of +bewildered and helpless negroes, ignorant of how to care for +themselves, with no further claims upon their former owners, and yet +destined to live among them. The immense Republican majority in +Congress found itself opposed by a President, southern in birth and +sympathy and an uncompromising believer in State Rights. + +The southern legislatures, while accepting the Thirteenth Amendment, +which prohibited slavery, passed various laws whose effect could not be +other than to keep the negro in a condition of "involuntary servitude." +To the South these measures seemed to be demanded by ordinary prudence +to retain at least temporary control of a race unfitted for a wise use +of liberty; to the North they appeared a determination to evade the +provisions of the Thirteenth Amendment, and Congress decided upon more +radical measures. One wing of the old Abolitionists, under the +leadership of Phillips, had steadfastly insisted that there could be no +real freedom without the ballot. Several attempts had been made to +secure congressional action for the enfranchisement of the negro, which +the majority of Republicans had now come to see was essential for his +protection, and these resulted finally in the submission of the +Fourteenth Amendment. Charles Sumner stated that he covered nineteen +pages of foolscap in his effort so to formulate it as to omit the word +"male" and, at the same time, secure the ballot for the negro. + +When Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton sounded the alarm, the old leaders +in the movement for woman's rights came at once to their aid, but they +were soon to meet with an unexpected and serious disappointment. In +January Miss Anthony went to the anti-slavery meeting at Boston, full +of the new idea of consolidating the old Anti-Slavery and the Woman's +Rights Societies under one name, that of the Equal Rights Association. +She was warmly supported by Tilton, Lucy Stone, Powell and others, but +to their amazement they found Mr. Phillips very cool and discouraging. +He said this could be done only by amending the constitution of the +Anti-Slavery Society, which required three months' notice. Still they +did not dream of his opposing the proposition and so deputized Mr. +Powell to give the formal notice, in order that it might be acted upon +at the coming May Anniversary. On the way back the New York delegation +discussed this new plan enthusiastically, and Miss Anthony wrote home +that there was a strong wish in the society to widen its object so as +to include universal suffrage, believing this to be the case. The +necessary steps at once were taken for calling a national woman's +rights meeting to convene in New York the same week as the Anti-Slavery +Anniversary, and the following call was issued setting forth its +principal objects: + + Those who tell us the republican idea is a failure, do not see the + deep gulf between our broad theory and our partial legislation; do + not see that our government for the last century has been but a + repetition of the old experiments of class and caste. Hence the + failure is not in the principle, but in the lack of virtue on our + part to apply it. The question now is, have we the wisdom and + conscience, from the present upheavings of our political system to + reconstruct a government on the one enduring basis which never yet + has been tried--Equal Rights to All? + + From the proposed class legislation in Congress, it is evident we + have not yet learned wisdom from the experience of the past; for, + while our representatives at Washington are discussing the right of + suffrage for the black man as the only protection to life, liberty + and happiness, they deny that "necessity of citizenship" to woman, + by proposing to introduce the word "male" into the Federal + Constitution. In securing suffrage but to another shade of manhood, + while disfranchising 15,000,000 women, we come not one line nearer + the republican idea. Can a ballot in the hand of woman and dignity + on her brow, more unsex her than do a scepter and a crown? Shall an + American Congress pay less honor to the daughter of a President + than a British Parliament to the daughter of a King? Should not our + petitions command as respectful a hearing in a republican Senate as + a speech of Victoria in the House of Lords? Do we not claim that + here all men and women are nobles--all heirs apparent to the + throne? The fact that this backward legislation has roused so + little thought or protest from the women of the country but proves + what some of our ablest thinkers already have declared, that the + greatest barrier to a government of equality is the aristocracy of + its women; for while woman holds an ideal position above man and + the work of life, poorly imitating the pomp, heraldry and + distinction of an effete European civilization, we as a nation + never can realize the divine idea of equality. + + To build a true republic, the church and the home must undergo the + same upheavings we now see in the state; for while our egotism, + selfishness, luxury and ease are baptized in the name of Him whose + life was a sacrifice, while at the family altar we are taught to + worship wealth, power and position, rather than humanity, it is + vain to talk of a republican government. The fair fruits of + liberty, equality and fraternity must be blighted in the bud till + cherished in the heart of woman. At this hour the nation needs the + highest thought and inspiration of a true womanhood infused into + every vein and artery of its life; and woman needs a broader, + deeper education such as a pure religion and lofty patriotism alone + can give. From the baptism of this second Revolution should she not + rise up with new strength and dignity, clothed in all those + "rights, privileges and immunities" which shall best enable her to + fulfill her highest duties to humanity, her country, her family and + herself? + + On behalf of the National Woman's Rights Central Committee, + + ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, _President_; SUSAN B. ANTHONY, _Secretary_. + +Letters both encouraging and discouraging were received. Robert Purvis, +one of the most elegant and scholarly colored men our country has +known, whose father was a Scotchman and mother a West Indian with no +slave blood, sent this noble response: "....I can not agree that this +or any hour is 'especially the negro's.' I am an anti-slavery man +because I hate tyranny and in my nature revolt against oppression, +whatever its form or character. As an Abolitionist, therefore, I am for +the equal rights movement, and as one of the confessedly oppressed +race, how could I be otherwise? With what grace could I ask the women +of this country to labor for my enfranchisement, and at the same time +be unwilling to put forth a hand to remove the tyranny, in some +respects greater, to which they are subjected? Again wishing you a +successful meeting, I am very gratefully yours." + +[Autograph: Robert Purvis] + +Anna Dickinson, who had come upon the scene of action since the last +woman's rights convention five years before, wrote Miss Anthony that +she should be present but was not sure that she was yet ready to speak: +"I'm a great deal of a Quaker--I don't like to take up any work till I +feel called to it. My personal interest is perhaps stronger in that of +which thee writes me than in any other, but my hands are so full just +now. I see what I shall do in the future, and I hope the near future. +Wait for me a little--forbear, and I honestly believe I'll do thee some +good and faithful service; I don't mean wait for me, but be patient +with me. I write this out of my large love for and confidence in thee. +I will talk to thee more of it by end of the month when I see thee in +Boston and put my mite in thy hands; till then believe me, dear friend, +affectionately and truly thine." + +At the business meeting of the anti-slavery convention the proposition +was made by the National Woman's Rights Committee that, as all there +was left for the society to do was to secure suffrage for the negro, +and as the woman's society also was working for universal suffrage, +they should merge the two into one, and in that way the same +conventions, appeals, petitions, etc., would answer for both. To this +Mr. Phillips vigorously objected because the necessary three months' +notice had not been given! As Mr. Powell had been delegated the +previous January to give this, there could be no other conclusion than +that he had refrained from doing so. There was considerable discussion +on the question but, as president of the Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. +Phillips' influence was supreme and the coalition was declined. + +The Woman's Rights Convention met in Dr. Cheever's church, May 10, +1866, with a large audience present. It was their first meeting since +before the war, and while it had many elements of gladness, yet it was +not unmixed with sorrow. Mr. Garrison was absent, the first rift had +been made in the love and gratitude in which for many years Mr. +Phillips had been held, and a vague feeling of distrust and alarm was +beginning to creep over the women, lest, after all these years of +patient work, they were again to be sacrificed. + +Miss Anthony presented a ringing set of resolutions, and splendid +addresses were given by Mrs. Stanton, Theodore Tilton and Henry Ward +Beecher. Mr. Phillips then made a long and eloquent speech which was +rapturously received by the audience, but which filled the leaders with +sadness, because of the skillful evasion of the disputed question which +they never had expected from this staunch friend. Miss Anthony read an +address to Congress[36] which was adopted with unanimous approval. At +the close of the convention a business session was held, at which she +offered a resolution declaring that, since by the act of emancipation +and the Civil Rights Bill, the negro and woman now had the same civil +and political status, alike needing only the ballot, therefore the time +had come for an organization which should demand universal suffrage; +and that hereafter their society should be known as the American Equal +Rights Association. She supported this by an able speech in which she +said: + + For twenty years we have pressed the claims of woman to the right + of representation in the government. Each successive year after + 1848, conventions were held in different States, until the + beginning of the war. Up to this hour we have looked only to State + action for the recognition of our rights; but now, by the results + of the war, the whole question of suffrage reverts back to the + United States Constitution. The duty of Congress at this moment is + to declare what shall be the basis of representation in a + republican form of government. There is, there can be, but one true + basis, viz.: that taxation and representation must be inseparable; + hence our demand must now go beyond woman--it must extend to the + farthest limit of the principle of the "consent of the governed," + as the only authorized or just government. We therefore wish to + broaden our woman's rights platform and make it in name what it + ever has been in spirit, a human rights platform. As women we can + no longer claim for ourselves what we do not for others, nor can we + work in two separate movements to get the ballot for the two + disfranchised classes, negroes and women, since to do so must be at + double cost of time, energy and money.... Therefore, that we may + henceforth concentrate all our forces for the practical application + of our one grand, distinctive, national idea--universal suffrage--I + hope we will unanimously adopt the resolution before us, thus + resolving ourselves into the American Equal Eights Association. + +Notwithstanding the rebuff they had received from the Anti-Slavery +Society, this resolution was unanimously adopted and the Woman's Rights +Society which had existed practically for sixteen years was merged into +the American Equal Rights Association to work for universal suffrage. A +constitution was adopted and officers chosen.[37] Mrs. Stanton thus +describes the last moments of the convention: "As Lucretia Mott uttered +her few parting words of benediction, the fading sunlight through the +stained windows falling upon her pure face, a celestial glory seemed +about her, a sweet and peaceful influence pervaded every heart, and all +responded to Theodore Tilton when he said this closing meeting was one +of the most beautiful, delightful and memorable which any of its +participants ever enjoyed." + +A short time thereafter Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton, Mr. Phillips and +Mr. Tilton were in the Standard office discussing the work. Mr. +Phillips argued that the time was ripe for striking the word "white" +out of the New York constitution, at its coming convention, but not for +striking out "male." Mr. Tilton supported him, in direct contradiction +to all he had so warmly advocated only a few weeks before, and said +what the women should do was to canvass the State with speeches and +petitions for the enfranchisement of the negro, leaving that of the +women to come afterward, presumably twenty years later, when there +would be another revision of the constitution. Mrs. Stanton, entirely +overcome by the eloquence of these two gifted men, acquiesced in all +they said; but Miss Anthony, who never could be swerved from her +standard by any sophistry or blandishments, was highly indignant and +declared that she would sooner cut off her right hand than ask the +ballot for the black man and not for woman. After Phillips had left, +she overheard Tilton say to Mrs. Stanton, "What does ail Susan? She +acts like one possessed." Mrs. Stanton replied, "I can not imagine; I +never before saw her so unreasonable and absolutely rude." + +She was obliged to leave immediately to keep an engagement, but as soon +as she was at liberty went straight to Mrs. Stanton's home, and found +her walking up and down the long parlors, wringing her hands. She threw +her arms around Miss Anthony, exclaiming: "I never was so glad to see +you. Do tell me what is the matter with me? I feel as if I had been +scourged from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet!" They sat +down together and went over the whole conversation, and she then saw +and felt most keenly the insult and degradation concealed in the +proposition of the two men, and agreed with Miss Anthony that she would +sacrifice her life before she would accept it. + +This incident illustrates one marked difference in these two women, +each so strong in her own characteristics. Mrs. Stanton in the presence +of brilliant intellect and elegant culture at times would seem to be +entirely psychologized, even though the arguments used were in direct +conflict with her own instincts and judgment. On the contrary, no +eloquence, no persuasiveness of manner, no magnetic power could induce +Miss Anthony for one moment to abandon her convictions of truth and +justice. Mrs. Stanton's disposition was one of extreme suavity which +loved to please, while Miss Anthony's nature was rugged, unflinching +and stern in upholding the right without regard to expediency. + +On May 31 both the Anti-Slavery Society and the Equal Rights +Association held large meetings in Boston. The latter, in conformity +with its new name, announced that "any member of the audience, man or +woman, was entitled to speak on the topics under debate and would be +made welcome." This had been the rule always in the old woman's rights +conventions, but it was reaffirmed now in order to show the broad and +catholic spirit of the new organization. At this Boston meeting Anna +Dickinson made her first speech for the rights of woman. It was one of +those bursts of inspiration which no pen can reproduce, and was +received by the audience with cheer upon cheer. She gave $100 to the +cause, assuring them of her services henceforth, and Miss Anthony wrote +of her, "She is sound to the heart's core." + +The great work of rolling up petitions, not only to Congress but to the +New York Constitutional Convention, was then commenced. The executive +board of the Standard offered to lease to the Equal Rights Association +office-room and a certain amount of space in the paper. These, however, +were put at such a price and placed under such restrictions as it was +thought unwise to accept. All the matter submitted would be subject to +"editorial revision," even though the association paid for the space, +and as Mr. Pillsbury had resigned the editorship and Mr. Powell had +taken it, they decided they could not trust the "editorial revision." +The women had done so vast an amount of gratuitous work for the +Standard in past years, that they felt themselves entitled to more +liberal treatment. The editor had written, only a short time before, of +the excellent service Miss Anthony had rendered in straightening out +the accounts. She also had secured numerous subscribers, sending in as +many as thirty at a time from some of her meetings. + +For the purpose of arousing public interest in the approaching New York +Constitutional Convention, an equal rights meeting was held at Albany, +in Tweddle Hall, November 21. To make this a success Miss Anthony spent +many weeks of hard work. The diary notes that, among other things, she +directed and sent out 1200 complimentary tickets.[38] At this Albany +convention political differences began to appear. Mrs. Stanton +complimented the Democrats for the assistance they had rendered; +Frederick Douglass objected to their receiving any credit, branding +their advocacy as a trick of the enemy, and there were frequent sharp +encounters. Miss Anthony made an extended speech, of which there is but +this newspaper report: + + She referred to the assertion of Horace Greeley, that while women + had the abstract right to suffrage the great majority of them did + not wish it. So they told us when we said the negro ought to be + free; he did not wish it; he was contented and happy. As we replied + relative to the negro, so do we regarding women. If they do not + desire the right to vote, it is an evidence of the depth to which + they have been degraded by its deprivation. A woman clerk, in the + New York Mercantile Library, told her that during the war the + salaries of the male clerks all had been raised, but not those of + the women, and a man's, who held an inferior position, had been + increased to $300 more than her own. The clerk said that if she had + been a voter she did not believe such injustice would have been + perpetrated. In Rochester the salaries of the male teachers in the + public schools were raised $100 per annum while the small salaries + of the women were still further reduced. In Auburn $200 additional + compensation was voted to the male teachers and $25 to the women, + who thereupon held a meeting and passed an ironical resolution + thanking the board for their liberal allowance. The board then + required them to sign a paper saying they did not intend an insult, + and those who did not make such recantation were discharged. The + speaker then referred to the power of the ballot. No politician + dared oppose the eight-hour agitation, because the workingman held + the franchise. Give the workingwoman a vote and she, too, can + protect herself. + +A form of petition was approved asking that women might be members of +the coming Constitutional Convention and vote on the new constitution. +Respectful reports were made by the New York papers with the exception +of the World, which said in a long and abusive article: + + Altogether the ablest, most dignified and best-balanced man in the + body is Frederick Douglass, and there is a deep feeling for him for + United States senator in spite of the drift of the convention, + which is evidently in favor of Susan B. Anthony; notwithstanding + which Elizabeth Cady Stanton is likewise a candidate with + considerable strength, favoring as she does the Copperheads, the + Democratic party and other dead and buried remains of alleged + disloyalty. Susan is lean, cadaverous and intellectual, with the + proportions of a file and the voice of a hurdy-gurdy. She is the + favorite of the convention. Mrs. Stanton is of intellectual stock, + impressive in manner and disposed to henpeck the convention which + of course calls out resistance and much cackling.... Susan has a + controlling advantage over her in the fact that she is unencumbered + with a husband. As male members of Congress rarely have wives in + Washington, so female members will be expected to be without + husbands at the capital.... + + Parker Pillsbury, one of the notabilities of the body, is a + good-looking white man naturally, but has a cowed and sneakish + expression stealing over him, as though he regretted he had not + been born a nigger or one of these females.... Lucy Stone, the + president of the convention, is what the law terms a "spinster." + She is a sad old girl, presides with timidity and hesitation, is + wheezy and nasal in her pronunciation and wholly without dignity or + command.... Mummified and fossilated females, void of domestic + duties, habits and natural affections; crack-brained, rheumatic, + dyspeptic, henpecked men, vainly striving to achieve the liberty of + opening their heads in presence of their wives; self-educated, + oily-faced, insolent, gabbling negroes, and Theodore Tilton, make + up the less than a hundred members of this caravan, called, by + themselves, the American Equal Rights Association. + +On December 6 and 7 a mass meeting was held in Cooper Institute, Miss +Anthony presiding. There were the usual effective speeches and large +and appreciative audiences present at every session. From New York the +speakers went at once to Rochester and held a two days' convention +there. The forces then divided and, under the management of Miss +Anthony, held meetings in a large number of the towns of western and +central New York, to arouse public sentiment in favor of giving women a +representation at the Constitutional Convention. + +Meanwhile the petitions asking Congress to include women in the +proposed Fourteenth Amendment were rapidly pushed, and as soon as ten +or twelve thousand names were secured they were sent at once to +Washington, as the resolution was then under discussion. And here came +the revelation which had been for some time foreshadowed--the +Republicans refused to champion this cause! From the founding of the +Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, women had been always its most loyal +supporters, bearing their share of the odium and persecution of early +days. When the Republican party was formed, the leading women of the +country had allied themselves with it and given faithful service during +the long, dark years which followed. All the Abolitionists and +prominent Republicans had upheld the principle of equal rights to all, +and now, when the test came, they refused to recognize the claims of +woman! Some of the senators and representatives declined to present the +petitions sent from their own districts; others offered them merely as +petitions for "universal suffrage," carefully omitting the word "woman" +and trusting that it would be inferred they meant suffrage for the +negro men. + +Even Charles Sumner, who so many times had acknowledged his +indebtedness to Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and the other women who were +now asking for their rights, presented a petition from Massachusetts, +headed by Lydia Maria Child, with the declaration that he did it under +protest and that it was "most inopportune." Mrs. Child was the first +and one of the ablest editors of the Anti-Slavery Standard, and had +battled long and earnestly for the freedom of the slave at the cost of +her literary popularity; but now when she asked that she might receive +the rights of citizenship at least at the same time they were conferred +upon the freedman, her plea was declared "most inopportune." + +The Democrats in Congress, who never had favored or assisted in any way +the so-called woman's rights doctrines, seized upon this opportunity to +harass the Republicans and defeat negro suffrage. They not only +presented the women's petitions but made long and eloquent speeches in +their favor, using with telling force against the Republicans their own +oft-repeated arguments for equal rights to all. In the midst of this +agitation, the District of Columbia Suffrage Bill being under +discussion, Edgar Cowan, a Pennsylvania Democrat, moved to strike out +the word "male," and thus precipitated a debate which occupied three +entire days in the Senate. Among the Republicans Benjamin F. Wade and +B. Gratz Brown made splendid arguments for woman suffrage and announced +their votes in favor of the measure. Senator Wilson, from +Massachusetts, declared himself ready at any and all times to vote for +a separate bill enfranchising women, but opposed to connecting it with +negro suffrage. The vote in the Senate to strike the word "male" from +the proposed bill resulted: yeas, 9; nays, 47; in the House, yeas, 49; +nays, 74--68 not voting. A number of members in both Houses who +believed in woman suffrage voted "no" because they preferred to +sacrifice the women rather than the negroes.[39] + +[Autograph: B.F. Wade] + +[Autograph: With the respects of B. Gratz Brown] + +The Republican press was equally hostile to the proposition to +enfranchise women. Mr. Greeley, who in times past had been so staunch a +supporter of woman's rights, now said in the New York Tribune: + + A CRY FROM THE FEMALES,--.... Our heart warms with pity towards + these unfortunate creatures. We fancy that we can see them, + deserted of men, and bereft of those rich enjoyments and exalted + privileges which belong to women, languishing their unhappy lives + away in a mournful singleness, from which they can escape by no art + in the construction of waterfalls or the employment of + cotton-padding. Talk of a true woman needing the ballot as an + accessory of power, when she rules the world by a glance of her + eye! There was sound philosophy in the remark of an Eastern + monarch, that his wife was sovereign of the empire, because she + ruled his little ones and his little ones ruled him. The sure + panacea for such ills as the Massachusetts petitioners complain of, + is a wicker-work cradle and a dimple-cheeked baby. + +The New York Post, which under Mr. Bryant's editorship had favored the +enfranchisement of women, also took ground against it now, and this was +the attitude of Republican papers in all parts of the country. The +Democratic press was opposed, except when it could make capital against +the Republicans by espousing it. + +In November Miss Anthony went to a great anti-slavery meeting in +Philadelphia. Between the two sessions, Lucretia Mott invited about +twenty of the leading men and women to lunch with her. At her request +Miss Anthony acted as spokesman and, in behalf of the women, begged Mr. +Phillips to reconsider his position and make the woman's and the +negro's cause identical, but here, in the presence of the women who had +stood shoulder to shoulder with him in all his hard-fought battles of +the last twenty years, he again refused, declaring that their time had +not yet come. Miss Anthony sent the most impassioned appeals to the +Joint Committee of Fifteen, with Thaddeus Stevens as chairman, which +had charge of the congressional policy on reconstruction, urging that +if they could not report favorably on the petitions, at least they +would not interpose any new barrier against woman's right to the +ballot; but, although Mr. Stevens had ever been friendly to the claims +of women, he refused to recognize them now. Everywhere they were met by +the cry, "This is the negro's hour!" + +It was a long time before the women could believe that the Republicans +and Abolitionists, who had advocated their cause for years, would +forsake them at this critical moment. The letters written during this +period showed the agony of spirit they endured as they beheld one after +another repudiating their demands and setting them aside in favor of +the negro. Not only did the men thus abandon the cause of equal rights +but, by their specious arguments, they persuaded many of the women that +it was their duty to sacrifice their own claims and devote themselves +to securing suffrage for the colored men. This indignant letter from +Mrs. Stanton to one of the "old guard," who at first declined to +circulate petitions, will serve as an example of many which were sent +to the women: + + I have just read your letter, and it would have been a wet blanket + to Susan and me were we not sure that we are right. With three + bills before Congress to exclude us from all hope of representation + in the future, I thank God that _two_ women of the nation felt the + insult and decided to rouse the rest to use the only right we have + in the government--the right of petition. If the petition goes with + our names alone, ours be the glory, and the disgrace to all the + rest! We have sent out 1,000 franked by Representative James + Brooks, of the New York Express, and if they come back to us empty, + Susan and I will sign all of them, that every Democratic member may + have one to shame those hypocritical Republicans. When your + granddaughters hear that against such insults you made no protest, + they will blush for their ancestry. + +This letter from Lucretia Mott shows that some men remained true to the +woman's cause: "My husband and myself cordially hail this movement. The +negro's hour came with his emancipation from cruel bondage. He now has +advocates not a few for his right to the ballot. Intelligent as these +are, they must see that this right can not be consistently withheld +from women. We pledge $50 toward the necessary funds." At this time +Miss Anthony in a strong and earnest letter showed the injustice of the +Standard's behavior: + + How I do wish the good old Standard would preach the whole gospel + of the whole loaf of republicanism; but I am sorry to say the + present indications are that it will extend even less favor to us + than ever before. I gather this from Mr. Powell's announcement to + me last week that henceforth, if I were not going to give my + personal efforts to the Standard, he should not publish notices of + our meetings except at "full advertising rates." I was not a little + startled but answered: "Of course I shall say the Standard is the + truest and best paper for negro suffrage; but I can not say that it + is so for woman suffrage." He said he saw this and hereafter we + must pay for all notices. + +[Illustration: Lucretia Mott] + + Now, I do complain of this and with just cause, so long as $2,000 + of the sainted Hovey's money are sunk annually in the struggle to + keep the Standard afloat, while Mr. Hovey's will expressly says: + "In case chattel slavery should be abolished before the expenditure + of the full amount, the residue shall be applied toward securing + woman's rights," etc. Mr. Pillsbury told the Hovey Committee last + winter, after abolition was proclaimed, that he could not in + conscience accept his salary from them as editor of the Standard + for another year unless it should advocate woman's claims equally + with those of the negro. + +In her diary she writes: "Even Charles Sumner bends to the spirit of +compromise and presents a constitutional amendment which concedes the +right to disfranchise law-abiding, tax-paying citizens." Robert Purvis +again expressed his cordial sympathy: "I am heartily with you in the +view 'that the reconstruction of the Union is a work of greater +importance than the restoration of the rebel States;' and that it +should be in accordance with the true republican idea of the personal +rights of all our citizens, without regard to sex or color. If the +settlement of this question upon the comprehensive basis of equal +rights and impartial justice to all should require the postponement of +the enfranchisement of the colored man, I am willing for the delay, +though it should take a decade of years to 'fight it out on that +line.'" Mr. Purvis frequently said in the debates of those days that he +would rather his son never should be enfranchised than that his +daughter never should be, as she bore the double disability of sex and +color and, by every principle of justice, should be the first to be +protected. + +As the struggle for the enfranchisement of the negro grew more intense, +and the entire burden of it fell upon the Republican party, its members +became more and more insistent that the women should not jeopardize the +claims of the colored man by pressing their own. Miss Anthony, Mrs. +Stanton and a few others of the stronger and more independent women +declared they would not suffer in silence the injustice and insult of +having this great body of ignorant men granted the political rights +which were denied intelligent women; nor would they submit without +protest to having a million ballots added to the mass which already +were sure to be cast against the enfranchisement of women if ever the +question came to a popular vote. As a result of their stand for +justice, they found themselves utterly deserted by all the great +leaders with whom they had labored so earnestly and harmoniously for +many years--Garrison, Phillips, Greeley, Curtis, Tilton, Higginson, +Douglass, Gerrit Smith. Of all the old Abolitionists only four--Samuel +J. May, Robert Purvis, Parker Pillsbury and Stephen S. Foster--remained +loyal to their standard. There was not one of the men repudiating them +who did not believe thoroughly in the principle of woman's full right +to the ballot. The women simply were sacrificed to political +expediency; set aside without a moment's hesitation in obedience to the +party shibboleth. "This is the negro's hour!" + +[Footnote 36: See Appendix for this address.] + +[Footnote 37: 'WHEREAS, by the war, society is once more resolved into +its original elements, and in the reconstruction of our government we +again stand face to face with the broad question of natural rights, all +associations based on special claims for special classes are too narrow +and partial for the hour; therefore, from the baptism of a second +Revolution, purified and exalted by suffering, seeing with a holier +vision that the peace, prosperity and perpetuity of the republic rest +on Equal Rights to All, we, today assembled in our Eleventh National +Woman's Rights Convention, bury the woman in the citizen, and our +organization in that of the American Equal Rights Association. + +_President_, Lucretia Mott; _vice-presidents_, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, +Theodore Tilton, Frederick Douglass, Josephine S. Griffing, Frances D. +Gage, Robert Purvis, Martha C. Wright, Rebecca W. Mott; _corresponding +secretaries_, Susan B. Anthony, Caroline M. Severance, Mattie Griffith; +_treasurer_, Ludlow Patton; _recording secretary_, Henry B. Blackwell.] + +[Footnote 38: Mr. Beecher was invited to one of the preliminary +meetings held during the summer and thus replied: "I can not come to +Syracuse, much as I should like to, for I am, from the middle of +August, a victim of ophthalmic catarrh, often called hay-fever or hay +cold, which unfits me for any serious duty except that of sneezing and +crying. That which the prophet longed for--that his eyes might become a +fountain of tears--I have, unlonged for, and I am persuaded that +Jeremiah would never have asked for it a second time, if he had but +once tried it. The visit to Gerrit Smith's is tempting but at this, +like many another good thing, I look and pass on."] + +[Footnote 39: See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II; p. 103.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +CAMPAIGNS IN NEW YORK AND KANSAS. + +1867. + + +The first three months of 1867 were spent by Miss Anthony and a corps +of speakers in a series of conventions throughout the State of New York +in order to secure for women a representation in the Constitutional +Convention. The history of these was that of many which had preceded +them, large crowds and much enthusiasm in some places, small audiences +and chilling receptions at others. The press comments were generally +fair, but occasionally there was a weak attempt at wit or satire. For +instance, the editor of the Buffalo Commercial thus replied through his +columns to a polite note from Miss Anthony enclosing an advertisement +of the convention and requesting that the blank space left be filled +with the names of places where tickets usually were sold, the bill to +be sent to her: + + By reference to the notice which we publish elsewhere, it will be + seen that we have complied with the request of Susan, except in + giving the names of places where tickets are to be had. "The bars + of the principal hotels" suggested itself; but then it occurred to + us that perhaps some of our strong-minded female fellow-citizens + might not like to go to these places for cards of admission. Then + we thought of inserting "for freight or passage apply to the + captain on board;" but we did not know whether Susan or Elizabeth + was captain, and a row might have resulted, in which case the + former would probably become "black-eyed Susan." We finally + concluded not to meddle with the matter but to let Susan and + Elizabeth do as the man insisted upon doing who enacted the part of + the king in the play, and who profanely declared that as he _was_ + king, he would die just where he d---- pleased. The girls can sell + tickets just where "they've a mind ter." We may not be able to give + the proposed meeting "frequent editorial notice;" still the + probabilities are that we shall allude to it if we live and do + well, and we shan't charge Susan a cent for our services. We would + not have it said, nor would we have you, "O Susan, Susan, lovely + dear," imagine that we are ag'in "the one true basis of a genuine + republic." + +And yet, after all this, the freedom-loving General Rufus Saxton had +the courage to preside at the meeting and introduce the speakers. He +subsequently wrote: "I pray that God will bless your noble work and +that, sooner than you think, woman shall be admitted to her proper +place, where God intended she should be, and to exclude her from which +must, like any other great wrong, bring misery and sorrow." The Troy +Times said: + + The last time we heard Miss Anthony speak was in 1861, shortly + after the election of Lincoln when, it will be remembered, she was + mobbed from city to city. Since then time and the various + undertakings in which she has engaged have apparently had no effect + upon her, unless to render her more eloquent and more sanguine of + the ultimate righting of all wrongs, and to inspire additional + enthusiasm for a cause to which she has clung with a perseverance + deserving admiration. She is very choice in the selection of words + and phrases, speaks in an earnest, attractive monotone, and really + made one of the most eloquent and sensible speeches for female + suffrage to which we ever listened. + +At Fairfield, Herkimer Co., Miss Anthony spoke in the presence of a +large number of students from the academy and, at the close of her +address, there were vigorous calls for the wife of the principal, who +was known to be opposed to any phase of so-called woman's rights. She +finally responded and, in the course of her remarks, said that when she +was a teacher she used to believe that women should receive the same +salary as men, but since she had married and realized the +responsibilities of a man of family, she had been converted to the +belief that men should receive more than women. Miss Anthony at once +retorted: "It would seem then, that so long as you were earning your +own living you wanted a good salary, but so soon as you give your +services to a husband, you want him to receive the value of both your +work and his own, regardless of those women who still have to support +themselves and very often a family." The fact that the lady was her +hostess did not save her from this merited rebuke, which was heartily +appreciated and enjoyed by the students. + +In these tours the burden of the preliminary arrangements always was +assumed by Miss Anthony. When Mrs. Stanton and she reached a place +where a meeting was to be held, the former would go at once to bed, +while the latter rushed to the newspaper offices to look after the +advertising, then to the hall to see that all was in readiness, and +usually conducted the afternoon session alone. In the evening Mrs. +Stanton would appear, rested and radiant, and read a carefully written +address, while Miss Anthony, exhausted and having had no time to +prepare a speech, would make a few impromptu remarks as best she could. +Then the papers would comment on the difference between the beautiful +and amiable Mrs. Stanton and the aggressive and jaded Miss Anthony, and +attribute it to the fact that one was a wife and the other a +spinster.[40] + +At Albany Miss Anthony arranged with Charles J. Folger, chairman of the +Senate Judiciary Committee, for an address by Mrs. Stanton, which was +given January 13, 1867, before the joint committees, in the Assembly +chamber, crowded with men and women. She based her claim on the +assumption that when a new constitution is demanded, the State is +resolved into its original elements and all the people have a right to +a voice in its reconstruction, supporting her position by an imposing +array of legal authorities. Of the discussion by the legislators, which +followed the address, Mr. Pillsbury wrote to the Hallowells: "Their +arguments against universal suffrage Susan could have extinguished with +her thimble." + +While Miss Anthony was in Albany she learned that a member from New +York City had presented a bill to license houses of ill-repute, and she +protested to Judge Folger. He told her that this was a subject which +could not be publicly discussed, especially by women. She replied that +if there were any attempt to pass the bill she would arouse the women +and it should be discussed from one end of the State to the other. The +bill never was taken up. + +In answer to an invitation to be present at Albany, Mr. Beecher sent +his regrets as follows: + + I should certainly come and contribute my share of influence if I + were not tied hand and foot. I am to preside and speak on Wednesday + night in my own church; on Thursday I preside and introduce a + lecturer at the Academy of Music, in Brooklyn; on Friday, at Cooper + Institute, I have a speech to make for the starving people of the + South; and on Saturday, at the same place, a speech for the + Cretans. These are but the punctuations of my main business, which, + just now, is to write a novel for Bonner, at which I am working + every forenoon. I have also a matter of two sermons every week to + prepare. I write these details, because our friend Studwell + intimates to me that you feel I do not care to be identified with + this movement in such a way as to take the unpopularity of the + women chiefly engaged in it. I should be unwilling to have you + think so. I have never belonged even to an anti-slavery society, + Christian or heathen. I am willing to take my stand with anybody on + great issues or objects, but in regard to the organizations and + instruments by which to attain the end, I have always let others + work their way and I mine. I think there is a touch of wildness in + my blood (some of my ancestors must have nursed an Indian breast) + which is impatient of the harness and so I have always worked on my + own hook. I am surprised to see how rapidly the thoughts of + intelligent men and women are ameliorating on this question. It + needs only that women should have a conscience educated to this + duty of suffrage, and it will be yielded. + +Early in March the Legislature of Kansas submitted two amendments, one +enfranchising the negroes and one the women. State Senator Samuel N. +Wood wrote Miss Anthony that an equal rights convention had been called +to meet in Topeka, April 2, and urged her to send out the strongest +speakers to canvass the State in behalf of the woman suffrage +amendment. This was the first time the enfranchisement of women ever +had been presented for a popular vote and its advocates were most +anxious that it should be carried. Neither Miss Anthony nor Mrs. +Stanton could go to Kansas at this time, so they appealed to Lucy +Stone, begging her to make the campaign. Since her marriage, twelve +years before, she had been practically out of public work, insisting +that she had lost her power for speaking. Miss Anthony assured her that +if she would take the platform it would come back to her, and Mr. +Blackwell joined in the entreaty. He gave up his business position to +accompany his wife and they made a thorough canvass of that State +during April and May. Mr. Phillips was unwilling that any money from +the Jackson fund should be used for this purpose, as he did not want +the question agitated at this time, but as Miss Anthony and Lucy Stone +constituted a majority of the committee, they appropriated $1,500 for +it. Even thus early in the contest the Republican managers began to +show their hand. Lucy Stone wrote from Atchison May 9: + + I should be glad to be with you tomorrow at the equal rights + convention in New York and to know this minute whether Phillips has + consented to take the high ground which sound policy, as well as + justice and statesmanship require. Just now there is a plot here to + get the Republican party to drop the word "male," and canvass only + for the word "white." A call has been signed by the chairman of the + Republican State Central Committee, for a meeting at Topeka on the + 15th, to pledge the party to that single issue. As soon as we saw + it and the change of tone in some of the papers, we sent letters to + all those whom we had found true, urging them to be at Topeka and + vote for both words. Till this action of the Republicans is + settled, we can affirm nothing. Everywhere we go, we have the + largest and most enthusiastic meetings and any one of our audiences + would give a majority for women; but the negroes are all against + us. _These men ought not to be allowed to vote before we do_ + because they will be so much more dead weight to lift. + +Again she wrote of the situation in Kansas: + + The Tribune and Independent alone, if they would urge universal + suffrage as they do negro suffrage, could carry this whole nation + upon the only just plane of equal human rights. What a power to + hold and not use!.... They must take it up. I shall see them the + very first thing when I get home. At your meeting next Monday + evening, I think you should insist that all of the Hovey fund used + for the Standard and anti-slavery purposes since slavery was + abolished, must be returned with interest to the three causes which + by the express terms of the will were to receive _all_ of the fund + when slavery should be ended. I trust you will not fail to rebuke + the cowardly use of the terms "universal," "impartial" and "equal," + applied to hide a dark skin and an unpopular client.... I hope not + a man will be asked to speak at the convention. If they volunteer, + very well, but I have been for the last time on my knees to + Phillips, Higginson or any of them. If they help now, they should + ask us and not we them. + +On May 9 and 10 the Equal Rights Association held its first anniversary +in New York, at the Church of the Puritans. Cordial and encouraging +letters were received from Lydia Maria Child, Anna Dickinson, Clara +Barton, Mary A. Livermore and many other distinguished women. While +there were the usual number of able speeches, the strongest discussion +was on the following resolution, offered by Miss Anthony: "The proposal +to reconstruct our government on the basis of manhood suffrage, which +emanated from the Republican party and has received the recent sanction +of the American Anti-Slavery Society, is but a continuation of the old +system of class and caste legislation, always cruel and proscriptive in +itself and ending, in all ages, in national degradation and +revolution." Henry Ward Beecher spoke eloquently in its favor, saying +in part: + +[Autograph: + + Yours truly, + L. Maria Child.] + + I am not a farmer, but I know that spring comes but once in the + year. When the furrow is open is the time to put in your seed, if + you would gather a harvest in its season. Now, when the red-hot + plowshare of war has opened a furrow in this nation, is the time to + put in the seed. If any say to me, "Why will you agitate the woman + question when it is the hour for the black man?" I answer, it is + the hour for every man and every woman, black or white. The bees go + out in the morning to gather the honey from the morning-glories. + They take it when they are open, for by 10 o'clock they are shut, + never to open again. When the public mind is open, if you have + anything to say, say it. If you have any radical principles to + urge, any higher wisdom to make known, don't wait until quiet times + come, until the public mind shuts up altogether. + + We are in the favored hour; and if you have great principles to + make known, this is the time to advocate them. I therefore say + whatever truth is to be known for the next fifty years in this + nation, let it be spoken now--let it be enforced now. The truth + that I have to urge is not that women have the right of + suffrage--not that Chinamen or Irishmen have that right--not that + native born Yankees have it--but that suffrage is the inherent + right of mankind.... I do not put back for a single day the black + man's enfranchisement. I ask not that he should wait. I demand that + this work should be done, not upon the ground that it is + politically expedient now to enfranchise black men; but I propose + that you take expediency out of the way, and put a principle which + is more enduring in the place of it--manhood and womanhood suffrage + for all. That is the question. You may just as well meet it now as + at any other time. You will never have so favorable an occasion, so + sympathetic a heart, never a public reason so willing to be + convinced as today.... I believe it is just as easy to carry the + enfranchisement of all as of any one class, and easier than to + carry it class after class. + +[Autograph: + + and believe me + very truly yours, + H. W. Beecher] + +The resolution was adopted unanimously, as was also a memorial to +Congress, written by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, asking most +earnestly that the negro should be enfranchised, but just as earnestly +that the suffrage should be conferred on woman at the same time. The +leading thought was expressed in these beautiful words: + + We believe that humanity is one in all those intellectual, moral + and spiritual attributes out of which grow human responsibilities. + The Scripture declaration is, "So God created man in his own image, + male and female created he them," and all divine legislation + throughout the realm of nature recognizes the perfect equality of + the two conditions; for male and female are but different + conditions. Neither color nor sex is ever discharged from obedience + to law, natural or moral, written or unwritten. The commandments + thou shalt not steal, or kill, or commit adultery, recognize no + sex; and hence we believe that all human legislation which is at + variance with the divine code, is essentially unrighteous and + unjust.... + + Women and colored men are loyal, liberty-loving citizens, and we + can not believe that sex or complexion should be any ground for + civil or political degradation. Against such outrage on the very + name of a republic we do and ever must protest; and is not our + protest against this tyranny of "taxation without representation" + as just as that thundered from Bunker Hill, when our Revolutionary + fathers fired the shot which shook the world?... We respectfully + and earnestly pray that, in restoring the foundations of our + nationality, all discriminations on account of sex or race may be + removed; and that our government may be republican in fact as well + as form; A GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE, AND THE WHOLE PEOPLE; FOR THE + PEOPLE, AND THE WHOLE PEOPLE. + +This was the last convention ever held in the old historic Church of +the Puritans. It soon passed into other hands, and where once sparkled +and scintillated flashes of repartee and gems of oratory, now glitter +and shine the magnificent jewels in the great establishment of Tiffany. + +After this May Anniversary Miss Anthony prepared to go before the New +York Constitutional Convention with speeches and petitions for the +recognition of women in the new constitution. The necessary +arrangements involved an immense amount of labor, and her diary says: +"My trips from Albany to New York and back are like the flying of the +shuttle in the loom of the weaver." At this hearing, June 27, 1867, +after Mrs. Stanton had finished her address she announced that they +would answer any questions, whereupon Mr. Greeley said in his drawling +monotone: "Miss Anthony, you know the ballot and the bullet go +together. If you vote, are you ready to fight?" Instantly she retorted: +"Yes, Mr. Greeley, just as you fought in the late war--at the point of +a goose-quill!" After the merriment had subsided, he continued: "When +should this inalienable right of suffrage commence for young men and +foreigners? Have we the right to say when it shall begin?" Miss Anthony +replied: "My right as a human being is as good as that of any other +human being. If you have a right to vote at twenty-one, then I have. +All we ask is that you shall take down the bars and let the women and +the negroes in, then we will settle all these matters." The Tribune +report said this was received with "loud and prolonged applause." + +Miss Anthony continued with great vivacity: "Can you show me any class +possessed of the franchise which is shut out of schools or degraded in +the labor market, or any class but women and negroes denied any +privilege they show themselves possessed of capacity to attain? Since +you refuse to grant woman's demand, tell her the reason why. Men sell +their votes; but did any one ever hear of their selling their right to +vote? We demand that you shall recognize woman's capacity to vote." The +newspaper account ended: "She closed by demanding the right to vote for +women as an inalienable one, and predicted that from its exercise would +follow the happiest results to man, to woman, to the country, to the +world at large; and took her seat amidst warm expressions of approval." +In writing to her mother of this occasion she said: + +[Illustration: Elizabeth Cady Stanton] + + We had to rush up by Wednesday night's boat, without any + preparation, and passed the ordeal last night, members asking + questions and stating objections. At the close the cheerful face + and cordial hand of our good Mr. Reynolds were presented to me. Mr. + Ely also came up to be introduced, saying he knew my father and + brother well, but had never had the pleasure of my acquaintance. + Ah, when my "wild heresies" become "fashionable orthodoxies," won't + my acquaintance be a pleasure to other Rochester people, too? + George William Curtis was delighted--said the impression made upon + the members was vastly beyond anything he had imagined possible. It + is always a great comfort to feel that we have not distressed our + _cultured friends_. + + Mrs. Stanton is going to slip out to Johnstown to spend Sunday with + her mother. How I wish I could slip out to Rochester to sit a few + hours in my mother's delightful east chamber, but I must hie me + back to New York by tonight's boat instead. + +In a letter from George William Curtis, he declared: "You may count +upon me not to be silent when, whether by my action or another's, this +question comes before the convention." Petitions were presented by +various members, signed by 28,000 men and women, asking that the +constitution be so amended as to secure the right of suffrage to the +women of New York. One of these was headed by Margaret Livingston Cady, +mother of Mrs. Stanton, one by Gerrit Smith, one by Henry Ward Beecher, +and all contained many influential names. Mr. Greeley was chairman of +the committee on suffrage and, as Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton knew he +would seize upon this occasion to repeat his hackneyed remark, "The +best women I know do not want to vote," they wrote Mrs. Greeley to roll +up a big petition in Westchester. So she got out her old chaise and, +with her daughter Ida, drove over the county, collecting signatures. +After all the others had been presented, Mr. Curtis arose and said: +"Mr. Chairman, I hold in my hand a petition signed by Mrs. Horace +Greeley and 300 other women of Westchester asking that the word 'male' +be stricken from the constitution." As Mr. Greeley was about to make an +adverse report, his anger and embarrassment, as well as the amusement +of the audience, may be imagined.[41] + +A magnificent argument in behalf of the petitions was made by Mr. +Curtis, and the discussion lasted several days; but the committee +handed in an adverse report, which was sustained by a large majority of +the convention. When this result was announced, Anna Dickinson wrote +Miss Anthony: + + My blood boiled, my nerves thrilled, as I read from day to day the + reports of the convention debate. Reasons urged for the + enfranchisement of paupers, of idiots, of the ignorant, the + degraded, the infamous--none for women! The exquisite care with + which men guard their own rights in the most vulnerable of their + sex--the silence, the scorn, the ridicule with which they pass by + or allude to our claims--great God! it is too much for endurance + and patience. Daily I pray for a tongue of flame and inspired lips + to awaken the sleeping, arouse the careless, shake to trembling and + overthrow the insolence of opposition.... After men and women have + alike borne the burden and heat of battle, to mark the absolute + silence with which these men regard the rights of half the race, + while they squabble and wrangle, debate and contend, for exact + justice to the poorest and meanest man--to mark this spectacle is + to be filled with alternate pity and disgust. + +Naturally the women felt highly indignant at the treatment they had +received, especially from the Republican party, which was so deeply +indebted for their services and from which they had every reason to +expect recognition and support, and they did not hesitate freely to +express themselves. Soon after their defeat at Albany Mr. Curtis wrote: +"I beg you and your friends to understand that the _real_ support of +this measure, the support from conviction, comes from men who believe +in Republican principles, and not from the Democracy as such." While a +close analysis might prove the truth of this assertion, the women were +not able to find comfort in the fact. As a party, the Republicans were +opposed to their claims, and with the immense majority of its members +completely under the domination of party, the result could be nothing +but defeat. Not only was this the case, but the leaders, who dictated +its policy and directed its action, although avowed believers in the +political rights of women, did not hesitate to sacrifice them for the +success of the party. + +Lucy Stone and her husband had returned from Kansas the last of May, +reporting a good prospect for carrying the woman suffrage amendment; +but the Republicans there soon became frightened lest the one +enfranchising the negro should be lost and, in order to lighten their +ship, decided to throw the women overboard. Although the proposition +had been submitted by a Republican legislature and signed by a +Republican governor, the Republican State Committee resolved to remain +"neutral," and then sent out speakers who, with the sanction of the +committee, bitterly assailed this amendment and those advocating it. +Prominent among these were P.B. Plumb, I.S. Kalloch, Judge T.C. Sears +and C.V. Eskridge. The Democratic State Convention vigorously denounced +the amendment. The State Temperance Society endorsed it, and this +aroused the active enmity of the Germans. Eastern politicians warned +those of Kansas not to imperil the negro's chance by taking up the +woman question. Mr. Greeley, who at the beginning of the campaign +warmly espoused woman suffrage in Kansas,[42] soured by his experience +in the New York Constitutional Convention, withdrew the support of the +Tribune and threw his influence against the amendment. Even the +Independent, under the editorship of Tilton, was so dominated by party +that, notwithstanding the appeals of the women, it had not one word of +endorsement. There was scarcely a Republican home in that State which +did not take one or the other of these papers, looking upon its +utterances as inspired, and their influence was so great that their +support alone could have carried the amendment. + +Such was the situation when Miss Anthony started with Mrs. Stanton for +Kansas, hoping to turn the tide. She learned, however, to her great +disappointment, that no more money was available from the Jackson or +the Hovey fund. The proposed campaign would call for so large an amount +that any other woman would have given up in despair. Even the stock of +literature had been exhausted and there was nothing left in the way of +tracts or pamphlets. Undaunted, she set forth under a blazing July sun +and tramped up and down Broadway soliciting advertisements for the +fly-leaves of the new literature she meant to have printed.[43] She +then visited various friends who were interested in the woman's cause, +and received such sums as they could spare, but their number was not +large and the demands were numerous. She also sent out many appealing +letters, like this to her friend Mrs. Wright: + + Mrs. Stanton and I start for Kansas Wednesday evening, stopping at + Rochester just to look at my mother and my dear sister, sick so + long, and I devoting scarce an hour to her the whole year. How will + the gods make up my record on home affections? + + You see our little trust fund--$1,800--of Jackson money is wrenched + from us. The Hovey Committee gave us our last dollar in May, to + balance last year's work, and I am responsible for stereotyping and + printing the tracts, for the New York office expenses, and for Mrs. + Stanton and myself in Kansas, in all not less than $2,000. Not one + of the friends wants the Kansas work to go undone, and to do it, + both tracts and lecturers must be sent out. We need money as never + before. I have to take from my lean hundreds, that never dreamed of + reaching thousands, to pay our travelling expenses. It takes $50 + each for bare railroad tickets. We are advertised to speak every + day--Sundays not excepted--from September 2, one week from today, + to November 6. What an awful undertaking it looks to me, for I know + Kansas possibilities in fare, lodging and travelling. I never was + so nearly driven to desperation--so much waiting to be done, and + not a penny but in hope and trust. Oh, if somebody else could go + and I stay here, I could raise the money; but there is no one and I + must go. We must not lose Kansas now, at least not from lack of + work done according to our best ability. + +Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton left New York August 28, 1867. It was +necessary then to change cars several times to reach Atchison, their +first appointment, and the trains being late they missed connections +and were finally stranded at Macon City over Sunday. They found that +while Mr. Wood had made out a very elaborate plan for their meetings +and had posters printed for each place, these still remained piled up +in the printing office. After making a two weeks' tour of the principal +towns with Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony saw that an entire new program +was necessary, that the meetings must be better advertised and there +must be a central distributing point for tracts, etc., so she stationed +herself at Lawrence. Senators Pomeroy and Ross gave the full use of +their "franking" privilege and the former contributed $50 besides. + +The Republicans called a mass meeting at Lawrence, September 5, of +citizens from all parts of the State, "for consultation concerning the +best method for _defeating_ the proposition to strike the word 'male' +from the Constitution of Kansas, and for arranging a canvass of the +State in opposition to this amendment." A newspaper account said: + + On motion of Judge G. W. Smith, Messrs. T. C. Sears, Rev. S. E. + McBurney and C. V. Eskridge were appointed a committee on + resolutions, and reported the following, which were unanimously + adopted: + + _Resolved_, That we recognize the doctrine of manhood suffrage as a + principle of the Republican party, supported by reason, experience + and justice. + + _Resolved_, That we are unqualifiedly opposed to the dogma of + "Female Suffrage," and while we do not recognize it as a party + question, the attempt of certain persons within the State, and from + without it, to enforce it upon the people of the State, demands the + unqualified opposition of every citizen who respects the laws of + society and the well-being and good name of our young commonwealth. + + On motion, the executive committee were instructed to open a + campaign based upon the foregoing resolutions; and an Anti-Female + Suffrage Committee appointed of one member from each county. + +At the beginning of the campaign, Republican leaders and newspapers +were in favor of woman suffrage, but when it was feared that its +advocacy would hazard the chances of negro suffrage, they repudiated +the amendment. While it was by no means certain that all women when +enfranchised would vote the Republican ticket, there was no doubt +whatever that the negroes would, and so it was party expediency to +sacrifice the women. Notwithstanding the opposition of both Republican +and Democratic politicians, the woman suffrage advocates had large and +friendly audiences and the amendment would have been carried beyond a +doubt, if it had had the continued sanction of Republican leaders. In +October, stung by the reproaches of the women, a number of influential +Republicans from different parts of the country[44] sent out an appeal +which was published in the newspapers of Kansas, but this was wholly +offset by the active opposition of the State Committee. + +The hardships of a campaign in the early days of Kansas scarcely can be +described. Much of the travelling had to be done in wagons, fording +streams, crossing the treeless prairies, losing the faintly outlined +road in the darkness of night, sleeping in cabins, drinking poor water +and subsisting on bacon, soda-raised bread, canned meats and +vegetables, dried fruits and coffee without cream or milk, sweetened +with sorghum. The nights offered the greatest trial, owing to a species +of insect supposed to breed in the cotton wood trees. In one of her +letters home Miss Anthony says: "It is now 10 A. M. and Mrs. Stanton is +trying to sleep, as we have not slept a wink for several nights, but +even in broad daylight our tormentors are so active that it is +impossible. We find them in our bonnets, and this morning I think we +picked a thousand out of the ruffles of our dresses. I can assure you +that my avoirdupois is being rapidly reduced. It is a nightly battle +with the infernals.... Twenty-five years hence it will be delightful to +live in this beautiful State, but now, alas, its women especially see +hard times, and there is no poetry in their lives." She was not given +to complaining but again she writes: + + It is enough to exhaust the patience of Job, the slip-shod way in + which telegraph, express and postoffices are managed here. It is + almost impossible to arrange for halls or to get literature + delivered at the point where it is sent. We speak in school houses, + barns, sawmills, log cabins with boards for seats and lanterns hung + around for lights, but people come twenty miles to hear us. The + opposition follow close upon our track, but they make converts for + us. The fact is that most of them are notoriously wanting in right + action toward women. Their objections are as low and scurrilous as + they used to be in the East fifteen or twenty years ago. There is a + perfect greed for our tracts, and the friends say they do more + missionary work than we ourselves. If our suffrage advocates only + would go into the new settlements at the very beginning, they could + mould public sentiment, but they wait until the comforts of life + are attainable and then find the ground occupied by the enemy. + +Of course they were guests in some beautiful homes, free from all +discomforts, but these were the exceptions. A striking instance of the +first reception usually accorded the two ladies is given by Mrs. +Starrett, in her Kansas chapter in the History of Woman Suffrage: + + All were prepared beforehand to do Mrs. Stanton homage for her + talents and fame, but many persons who had formed their ideas of + Miss Anthony from the unfriendly remarks in opposition papers had + conceived a prejudice against her. Perhaps I can not better + illustrate how she everywhere overcame and dispelled this prejudice + than by relating my own experience. A convention was called at + Lawrence, and the friends of woman suffrage were asked to entertain + strangers who might come from abroad. Ex-Governor Robinson asked me + to entertain Mrs. Stanton. We had all things in readiness when I + received a note stating that she had found relatives in town with + whom she would stop, and Miss Anthony would come instead. I hastily + put on bonnet and shawl, saying, "I won't have her and I am going + to tell Governor Robinson so." + + At the gate I met a dignified Quaker-looking lady with a small + satchel and a black and white shawl on her arm. Offering her hand + she said, "I am Miss Anthony, and I have been sent to you for + entertainment during the convention."... Half disarmed by her + genial manner and frank, kindly face, I led the way into the house + and said I would have her stay to tea and then we would see what + farther arrangements could be made. While I was looking after + things she gained the affections of the babies; and seeing the door + of my sister's sick-room open, she went in and in a short time had + so won the heart and soothed instead of exciting the nervous + sufferer, entertaining her with accounts of the outside world, that + by the time tea was over I was ready to do anything if Miss Anthony + would only stay with us. And stay she did for over six weeks, and + we parted from her as from a beloved and helpful friend. I found + afterwards that in the same way she made the most ardent friends + wherever she became personally known. + +The physical discomforts could have been borne without a murmur, but it +was the treachery of friends, both East and West, which brought the +discouragement and heart-sickness. One of the active opponents who +canvassed the State was Charles Langston, the negro orator, whose +brother John M. had met with much kindness from Miss Anthony and her +family before the war. When one considers how these women had spent the +best part of their lives in working for the freedom of the negro, their +humiliation can be imagined at seeing educated colored men laboring +with might and main to prevent white women from obtaining the same +privileges which they were asking for themselves. It was a bitter dose +and one which women have been compelled to take in every State where a +campaign for woman suffrage has been made. + +The Hutchinsons--John, his son Henry and lovely daughter Viola--were +giving a series of concerts, travelling in a handsome carriage drawn by +a span of white horses. As they had one vacant seat, they were carrying +Rev. Olympia Brown, a talented Universalist minister from +Massachusetts, who had been canvassing the State for several months, +and she spoke for suffrage while they sang for both the negro and +woman. Hon. Charles Robinson, the first Free State governor of Kansas, +volunteered to take Mrs. Stanton in his carriage and pay all expenses. +Their hard trip killed a pair of mules and a pair of Indian ponies. +Miss Anthony directed affairs from her post at Lawrence and made +herculean efforts to raise money for the campaign, which thus far was +dependent on the collections at the meetings. There was scarcely a hope +of victory. + +On the 7th of October came a telegram from George Francis Train, who +was then at Omaha, largely interested in the Union Pacific railroad. He +had been invited by the secretary and other members of the St. Louis +Suffrage Association to go to Kansas and help in the woman's campaign. +Accordingly he telegraphed that if the committee wanted him he was +ready, would pay his own expenses and win every Democratic vote. Miss +Anthony never had seen Mr. Train; she merely knew of him as very +wealthy and eccentric. The Republicans not only had forsaken the women +but were waging open war upon them. The sole hope of carrying the +amendment was by adding enough Democratic votes to those of Republicans +who would not obey their party orders to vote against it. Every member +of the woman suffrage committee who could be communicated with--Rev. +and Mrs. Starrett, Rev. John S. Brown and daughter Sarah, Judge +Thatcher and others--said that Mr. Train was an eloquent speaker and +advised that he be invited, so the following telegram was sent: "Come +to Kansas and stump the State for equal rights and woman suffrage. The +people want you, the women want you. S. N. Wood, M. W. Reynolds, +Charles Robinson, Mrs. J. H. Lane, E. Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony." + +Mr. Train accepted and Miss Anthony at once began laying out a route +for him and telegraphed: "Begin at Leavenworth Monday, October 21. Yes, +with your help we shall triumph. All shall be ready for you." If she +had had any political experience, she would have made his appointments +along the railroad, whose employes were largely Irish, with whom he was +very popular on account of his Fenian affiliations; but in her +ignorance, she arranged for most of the meetings in small towns off the +railroads, where the inhabitants were chiefly Republicans. + +Mark W. Reynolds, editor of the Democratic paper at Lawrence, agreed to +accompany him; but when the time arrived, although Mr. Reynolds had +joined in the telegram of invitation, he took to the woods, going on a +buffalo hunt without any excuse or explanation. Mr. Train made his +first speech at Leavenworth, Mayor John A. Halderman presiding, Colonel +D. R. Anthony, Rev. William Starrett and other Republicans on the +platform. Laing's Hall was packed with Irishmen and when he first +mentioned woman suffrage all of them hissed, but after he pointed out +the absurdity of letting the negroes vote and shutting out their own +mothers and wives, the tide turned and they cheered for the women. The +next meeting was at Lawrence, and here Mr. Train objected decidedly to +the route marked out, saying it was too rough a trip for any man, and +as Mr. Reynolds had deserted him he was for giving up the tour. Not so +Miss Anthony; she said: "Your offer and his were accepted in good +faith. The engagements have been made and hand-bills sent to every +post-office within fifty miles of the towns where meetings are to be +held. The next announcement is for Olathe tomorrow night. I shall take +Mr. Reynolds' place. At one o'clock I shall send a carriage to your +hotel. You can do as you please about going. If you decline I shall go +there and to all the other meetings alone." He replied: "Miss Anthony, +you know how to make a man feel ashamed." + +The next day when the carriage came to the Starretts, for Miss Anthony, +Mr. Train was in it and, with her heart in her throat, she took her +seat beside him. The situation was entirely unforeseen and decidedly +embarrassing, but she never turned back, never allowed any earthly +obstacle to stand in her way. There was a crowded house at Olathe and +when the meeting closed two young men announced that they had been sent +to take Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Train to Paola, and they would have to +leave at 4 A. M. Miss Anthony was the guest of Rev. and Mrs. J. C. +Beach. Next morning they started on time in a pouring rain, stopping at +a little wayside inn for breakfast at six. The meeting was at eleven, +in the Methodist church. + +After it was over the county superintendent of schools, Mr. Bannister, +took them to Ottawa in a lumber wagon. The steady rain had put the +roads in a fearful condition and by the time they reached the river +bottoms it was very dark and pouring in torrents. The driver lost his +way and brought them up against a brush fence. Mr. Train jumped out of +the vehicle, took off his coat so that his white shirtsleeves would +show and thus guided the team back to the road; then he and the county +superintendent took turns walking in front of the horses. The river +finally was crossed and they reached Ottawa at 9 o'clock. Mr. Train was +very fastidious and, no matter how late the hour, never would appear in +public before he had changed his gray travelling suit for full dress +costume with white vest and lavender kid gloves, declaring that he +would not insult any audience by shabby clothes. This evening he made +no exception and so, while he went to the hotel, Miss Anthony, wet, +hungry and exhausted, made her way straight to the hall to see what had +become of their audience. + +She found that it had been taken in charge by General Blunt, one of the +Republican campaign orators, and as she entered, he was making a +violent attack on woman suffrage. Her arrival was not noticed and she +concluded to sit quietly down in a corner and let matters take their +course. A stairway led from some lower region up to the platform and, +just as the speaker was declaring, "This man Train is an infernal +traitor and a vile copperhead," Mr. Train appeared at the top of the +stairs. The audience broke into a roar, and in a few moments he had the +general under a scathing fire. + +From Ottawa they travelled, still in a lumber wagon, to Mound City and +then to Fort Scott, where they had an immense audience. After the +meeting Train went to the newspaper office and wrote out his speech, +which filled two pages of the Monitor, and Miss Anthony and the friends +spent all of Sunday in wrapping and mailing these papers. From here +they drove to Humboldt in a mail wagon, stopping for dinner at a little +"half-way house," a cabin with no floor. Miss Anthony retains a lively +recollection of this place, for the hostess brought a platter of fried +pork, swimming in grease, and in her haste emptied the contents the +whole length of her light gray travelling dress. They found many people +ill, and Mr. Train always prescribed not a drop of green tea, not a +mouthful of pork, though that was the only meat they could get, plenty +of fruit, though there was none to be had in Kansas, and a thorough +bath every morning, although there was not enough water to wash the +dishes. During this trip he stopped at hotels, but Miss Anthony usually +was invited to stay with families who were either her personal friends +or warm advocates of the cause she represented. + +So on they went, to Leroy, Burlington, Emporia, Junction City. It was 9 +o'clock when they reached the last and, as usual, Miss Anthony had to +make her speech without change of dress, and a half hour later Mr. +Train stepped on the platform, refreshed and resplendent. His first +words were: "When Miss Anthony gets back to New York she is going to +start a woman suffrage paper. Its name is to be The Revolution; its +motto, 'Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and +nothing less.' This paper is to be a weekly, price $2 per year; its +editors, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury; its proprietor, +Susan B. Anthony. Let everybody subscribe for it!" Miss Anthony was +dumbfounded. During the long journey that day, he had asked her why the +equal rights people did not have a paper and she had replied that it +was not for lack of brains but want of money. "Will not Greeley and +Beecher and Phillips and Tilton advance the money?" "No, they say this +is the negro's hour and no time to advocate woman suffrage." "Well," +said he, "I will give you the money." She had not taken him seriously +and was amazed when he made this public statement, announcing name, +price, editors, motto and everything complete. + +[Autograph: Sincerely, Geo. Francis Train] + +They spoke at Topeka and Wyandotte and reached Leavenworth the Sunday +previous to election. Mr. Train spent the evening at Colonel Anthony's, +entertaining them in his inimitable manner till midnight, and after he +left the colonel declared that "he knew more about more things than any +man living." Governor Robinson and Mrs. Stanton were to close the +campaign in this city the day before election, and the meeting had been +thoroughly advertised, but at the last moment they telegraphed that +they would be unable to arrive till evening, so it was decided that Mr. +Train should remain at Leavenworth to speak in the afternoon, and Miss +Anthony should keep the engagement at Atchison, announcing Mr. Train +for the evening. This she did, but at night, when a great crowd had +assembled, a telegram brought word that the cars were off the track and +he could not reach that city. There was nothing for her to do but make +a short speech and adjourn the meeting. + +Mr. Train had promised Miss Anthony that he really would advance the +money to start a paper and, in addition, had proposed to defray all the +expenses of Mrs. Stanton and herself if they would join him in a +lecture tour of the principal cities on the way eastward. It was +essential, therefore, for her to have a talk with him before she could +make a definite statement to Mrs. Stanton, and her only chance for this +was to cross the Missouri river and wait for the belated train from +Leavenworth. She found the ferryboats had stopped running for the +night, but George Martin, chairman of the suffrage committee of +Atchison, offered to take her across in a skiff. Undaunted, she seated +herself therein and in the dense darkness was safely landed on the +opposite shore. Here she boarded the cars and went to St. Joseph where +she met Mr. Train, made the necessary arrangements and returned to +Leavenworth by the first train. + +On election day the Hutchinsons, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, in open +carriages, visited all the polling-places in Leavenworth, where the two +ladies spoke and the Hutchinsons sang. Both amendments were +overwhelmingly defeated, that for negro suffrage receiving 10,843 +votes, and that for woman suffrage 9,070, out of a total of about +30,000. These 9,000 votes were the first ever cast in the United States +for the enfranchisement of women. How many of them were Republican and +how many Democratic, and how much influence Mr. Train may have had one +way or another, never can be known; but it is a significant fact that +Douglas county, the most radical Republican district, gave the largest +vote against woman suffrage, and Leavenworth, the strongest Democratic +county, gave the largest majority in its favor. + +The Commercial, the Democratic paper of this city, said: + + When we consider the many obstacles thrown in the way of the + advocates of this measure, the indifference with which the masses + look upon anything new in government and their indisposition to + change, the degree of success of these advocates is not only + remarkable, but one of which they have a just right to feel proud. + To these two ladies, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, + to their indomitable will and courage, to their eloquence and + energy, is due much of the merit of the work performed in the + State.... While in the recent election these ladies were not + successful to the full extent of their wishes, they have the + consciousness of knowing that their work has been commensurate with + the combined efforts of party organization, congressmen, senators, + press and ministers to enfranchise the negro, and that the people + of Kansas are not more averse to giving the franchise to woman than + to the black man. + +During the campaign the usual order was for Miss Anthony to speak the +first half hour, making a clear, concise, strong argument for suffrage +as the right of an American citizen, pleading for the negro as well as +for the women, and urging men to vote for both amendments. She then was +followed by Mr. Train, who insisted that it would be one of the +grossest outrages to give suffrage to the black man and not to the +white woman, and pleaded earnestly that the women of Kansas should be +enfranchised. In this he was sincere, as he believed thoroughly that +women ought to have the ballot. He was an inimitable mimic and was +unsparing in his ridicule of those Republicans who had battled so +valiantly for equal rights but now demanded that American women should +stand back quietly and approvingly and see the negro fully invested +with the powers denied to themselves. He had a remarkable memory, an +unequalled quickness of repartee, a peculiar gift of improvising +epigrams and, while erratic, was a brilliant and entertaining speaker. +He was at this time about thirty-five, nearly six feet tall, a handsome +brunette, with curling hair and flashing dark eyes, the picture of +vigorous health. He was exquisitely neat in person and irreproachable +in habits, and had a fine courtliness of bearing toward women which +suggested the old-school gentleman. Miss Anthony often said that all +the severe criticisms made upon him for years had not been able to +impair the respect with which he inspired her during that most trying +campaign. Mrs. Stanton, essentially an aristocrat and severe in her +judgment of men and manners, spoke most highly of Mr. Train in her +Reminiscences. + +Some of the friends in Kansas were opposed to the contemplated lecture +tour, and letters were received from the East urging that it be +abandoned. Mrs. Stanton was accustomed to defer to Miss Anthony in such +matters.[45] The latter felt that they had been deserted by their old +friends and supporters and the breach was too wide to be soon healed. +Here was a man of wealth and high personal character, who offered to +arrange a lecture tour of the principal cities of the country, pay all +expenses and at the end of the journey furnish capital for a paper. It +seemed to her she could best serve the cause she placed above all else +by accepting the offer, and she did so. + +As time was limited, Miss Anthony had to make arrangements for hall, +etc., by telegraph, which cost Mr. Train $100. The series commenced in +Omaha, November 19, and continued in Chicago, Springfield. St. Louis, +Louisville, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, +Albany, Springfield (Mass.), Worcester, Boston and Hartford, ending +with a great meeting in Steinway Hall, New York, December 14. Mr. Train +engaged the most elegant suites of rooms in the best hotels for the +ladies, secured the finest halls, and this was remembered as the only +luxurious suffrage tour they ever had made. There was a railway wreck +between Louisville and Cincinnati, and he chartered a special train in +order that they might keep their engagement at the latter place. This +trip cost him $3,000. + +Where heretofore the Democratic papers had been abusive and some, at +least, of the Republican papers complimentary, the tone was now +completely reversed. Because they had affiliated with Mr. Train, the +former had nothing but praise, and for the same reason the latter were +unsparing in their denunciations, and were bitterly indignant at the +women for accepting from Mr. Train and other Democrats the help which +they themselves had positively refused. They insisted that the +Democrats only used woman suffrage as a club to beat negro suffrage, +which doubtless was true of many, but Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton +claimed the right to accept proffered aid without looking behind it for +the motive. The opposition, however, did not arise alone from the press +and the politicians. From the leading advocates of suffrage came a +vehement protest against any partnership with George Francis Train. The +old associates wrote scores of letters expressing their personal +allegiance, but refusing to attend the meetings and repudiating the +connection of Mr. Train with the woman suffrage movement. Miss Anthony +was made to realize to the fullest extent the feeling which had been +aroused, but the last entry in the diary says: "The year goes out, and +never did one depart that had been so filled with earnest and effective +work; 9,000 votes for woman in Kansas, and a newspaper started! The +Revolution is going to be work, work and more work. The old out and the +new in!" + +[Footnote 40: Helen Skin Starrett, in her Kansas reminiscences, says: +"Miss Anthony always looked after Mrs. Stanton's interests and comfort +in the most cheerful and kindly manner. I remember one evening in +Lawrence when the hall was crowded with an eager and expectant +audience. Miss Anthony was there early, looking after everything, +seats, lights, ushers, doorkeepers. Presently Governor Robinson said to +her, 'Where's Mrs. Stanton? It's time to commence.' 'She's at +Mrs.----'s waiting for some of you men to go for her with a carriage,' +was the reply. The hint was quickly acted upon and Mrs. Stanton, fresh, +smiling and unfatigued, was presented to the audience."] + +[Footnote 41: His intense feeling on the matter is thus described in +the History of Woman Suffrage: + +"A few weeks after this he met Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony at one of +Alice Cary's Sunday evening receptions. As he approached, both arose +and with extended hands exclaimed most cordially, 'Good evening, Mr. +Greeley.' But his hands hung limp by his side, as he said in measured +tones: 'You two ladies are the most maneuvering politicians in the +State of New York. I saw in the manner my wife's petition was +presented, that Mr. Curtis was acting under instructions, and I saw the +reporters prick up their ears.' Turning to Mrs. Stanton, he asked, 'You +are so tenacious about your own name, why did you not inscribe my +wife's maiden name, Mary Cheney Greeley, on her petition?' 'Because,' +she replied, 'I wanted all the world to know that it was the wife of +Horace Greeley who protested against her husband's report.' 'Well,' +said he, 'I understand the animus of that whole proceeding, and I have +given positive instructions that no word of praise shall ever again be +awarded you in the Tribune, and that if your name is ever necessarily +mentioned, it shall be as Mrs. Henry B. Stanton!' And so it has been to +this day."] + +[Footnote 42: Womanhood suffrage is now a progressive cause beyond fear +of cavil. It has won a fair field where once it was looked upon as an +airy nothing, and it has gained champions and converts without number. +The young State of Kansas is fitly the vanguard of this cause, and the +signs of the agitation therein hardly allow a doubt that the +citizenship of women will be ere long recognized in its laws. Fourteen +out of twenty of its newspapers are in favor of making woman a +voter.... The vitality of the Kansas movement is indisputable, and +whether defeated or successful in the present contest, it will still +hold strongly fortified ground.--New York Tribune, May 29, 1867.] + +[Footnote 43: From the Howe Sewing Machine Co., she got $150; from the +Samuel Browning Washing Machine Co., $100; from Dr. Dio Lewis' +Gymnasium, $100, and from Madame Demorest's Fine Millinery and +Patterns, a considerable sum; besides a donation of $100 from Mr. and +Mrs. E. D. Draper, of Massachusetts, and $150 from Sarah B. Shaw, +mother of Mrs. George Wm. Curtis; and in this way raised partly enough +to print 50,000 tracts.] + +[Footnote 44: Charles Robinson, S. N. Wood, Samuel C. Pomeroy, E. G. +Ross, Sidney Clark, S. G. Crawford, _Kansas;_ James W. Nye, _Nevada;_ +William Loughridge, _Iowa;_ Robert Collyer, _Illinois;_ George W. +Julian, H. D. Washburn, _Indiana;_ R. E. Trowbridge, John F. Driggs, +_Michigan;_ Benjamin F. Wade, _Ohio;_ J. W. Broomall, William D. +Kelley, _Pennsylvania;_ Henry Ward Beecher, Gerrit Smith, George +William Curtis, _New York;_ Dudley S. Gregory, George Polk, John G. +Foster, James L. Hayes, Z. H. Pangborn, _New Jersey;_ Wm. Lloyd +Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Samuel E. Sewall, Oakes Ames, +_Massachusetts;_ William Sprague, T. W. Higginson, _Rhode Island;_ +Calvin E. Stowe, _Connecticut_.] + +[Footnote 45: "I take my beloved Susan's judgment against the world, I +have always found that when we see eye to eye we are sure to be right, +and when we pull together we are strong. After we discuss any point and +fully agree, our faith in our united judgment is immovable, and no +amount of ridicule and opposition has the slightest influence, come +from what quarter it may."] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +ESTABLISHING THE REVOLUTION. + +1868. + + +The first entry in the diary of 1868, January 1, reads: "All the old +friends, with scarce an exception, are sure we are wrong. Only time can +tell, but I believe we are right and hence bound to succeed." +Immediately after the meeting at Steinway Hall, Mr. Train had brought +with him to call on Miss Anthony, David M. Melliss, financial editor of +the New York World, and they entered into an agreement by which the two +men were to supply the funds for publishing a paper until it was on a +paying basis. It was to be conducted by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton +in the interests of women, and Mr. Train and Mr. Melliss were to use +such space as they desired for expressing their financial and other +opinions. The first number was issued January 8, a handsome quarto of +sixteen pages. + +Ten thousand copies were printed and, under the congressional frank of +Representative James Brooks, of New York, were sent to all parts of the +country. The advent of this element in the newspaper world created a +sensation such as scarcely ever has been equalled by any publication. +From hundreds of clippings a few characteristic examples are selected. +The New York Sunday Times said: + + THE LADIES MILITANT.--It is out at last. If the women as a body + have not succeeded in getting up a revolution, Susan B. Anthony, as + their representative, has. Her Revolution was issued last Thursday + as a sort of New Year's gift to what she considered a yearning + public, and it is said to be "charged to the muzzle with literary + nitre-glycerine." If Mrs. Stanton would attend a little more to her + domestic duties and a little less to those of the great public, + perhaps she would exalt her sex quite as much as she does by + Quixotically fighting windmills in their gratuitous behalf, and she + might possibly set a notable example of domestic felicity. No + married woman can convert herself into a feminine Knight of the + Rueful Visage and ride about the country attempting to redress + imaginary wrongs without leaving her own household in a neglected + condition that must be an eloquent witness against her. As for the + spinsters, we have always said that every woman has a natural and + inalienable right to a good husband and a pretty baby. When, by + proper "agitation," she has secured this right, she best honors + herself and her sex by leaving public affairs behind her, and + endeavoring to show how happy she can make the little world of + which she has just become the brilliant center. + +The New York Independent, the great organ of the Congregationalists, +had this breezy editorial: + + The Revolution is the martial name of a bristling and defiant new + weekly journal, the first number of which has just been laid on our + table. When we mention that it is edited by Mr. Parker Pillsbury + and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, all the world will immediately + know what to expect from it. Those two writers can never be accused + of having nothing to say, or of backwardness in saying it. Each has + separately long maintained a striking individuality of tongue and + pen. Working together, they will produce a canvas of the Rembrandt + school--Mrs. Stanton painting the high lights and Mr. Pillsbury the + deep darks. In fact, the new journal's real editors are Hope and + Despair. Beaumont and Fletcher were intellectually something alike; + but Mrs. Stanton and Mr. Pillsbury are totally different. The lady + is a gay Greek, come forth from Athens; the gentleman is a sombre + Hebrew, bound back to Jerusalem. We know of no two more striking, + original, and piquant writers. What keen criticisms, what + knife-blade repartees, what lacerating sarcasms we shall expect + from the one! What solemn, reverberating, sanguinary damnations we + shall hear from the other! + + Conspicuous among the new journal's contributors is that great + traveller, hotel-builder, epigrammatist and kite-flyer, Mr. George + Francis Train. So The Revolution, from the start, will arouse, + thrill, edify, amuse, vex and nonplus its friends. But it will + compel attention; it will conquer a hearing. Its business + management is in the good hands of Miss Susan B. Anthony, who has + long been known as one of the most indefatigable, honest, + obstinate, faithful, cross-grained and noble-minded of the famous + women of America. It only remains to add that, as "the price of + liberty is eternal vigilance," so the price of The Revolution is + two dollars a year. + +The Cincinnati Enquirer in a complimentary notice said: "Mrs. Elizabeth +Cady Stanton's Revolution grows with each additional number more spicy, +readable and revolutionary. It hits right and left, from the shoulder +and overhand, at every body and thing that opposes the granting of +suffrage to females as well as males. The Revolution is mourning over +no lost cause, but is aggressive, bold and determined to win one dear +to its heart." New York's society paper, the Home Journal, commented: +"The Revolution is plucky, keen and wide awake, and although some of +its ways are not at all to our taste, we are glad to recognize in it +the inspiration of the noblest aims, and the sagacity and talent to +accomplish what it desires. It is on the right track, whether it has +taken the right train or not;" while the Chicago Workingman's Advocate +declared: "We have no doubt it will prove an able ally of the labor +reform movement." The Boston Commonwealth observed approvingly: "It is +edited by Mrs. E.C. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, whose names are +guarantees of ability and character. Their effusions are able, +pertinent and courageous." + +To quote from Mrs. Stanton: "Radical and defiant in tone, it awoke +friends and foes alike to action. Some denounced it, some ridiculed it, +but all read it. It needed just such clarion notes, sounded forth long +and loud each week, to rouse the friends of the movement from the +apathy into which they had fallen after the war." Miss Anthony went to +Washington to introduce the paper and returned with a list of +distinguished subscribers, including President Johnson himself! The +following from Mrs. Stanton will show how criticising letters usually +were answered: + + I know that you would feel that we were right if I could talk with + you. If George Francis Train had done for the negro all that he has + done for woman the last three months, the Abolitionists would + enshrine him as a saint. The attacks on Susan and me by a few + persons have been petty and narrow, but we are right and this nine + days' wonder will soon settle itself. Of course, people turn up the + whites of their eyes, but time will bring them all down again. We + have reason to congratulate ourselves that we have shocked more + friends of the cause into life than we ever dreamed we had--persons + who never gave a cent or said a word for our movement are the most + concerned lest Susan and I should injure it. Mr. Train has some + extravagances and idiosyncrasies, but he is willing to devote his + energies to our cause when no other man is, and we should be + foolish not to accept his aid. To think of Boston women holding a + festival to aid the Anti-Slavery Standard, while their own + petitions are ignored in the Senate of the United States! Women + have been degraded so long they have lost all self-respect. If we + love the black man as well as ourselves we shall fulfill the Bible + injunction. The anti-slavery requirement to love him better is a + little too much for human nature. + +A few members of the executive board of the Equal Rights Association +made a strong attempt to prevent the editors of The Revolution from +occupying the room at No. 37 Park Row, used for their headquarters. +Miss Anthony soon showed, however, that she had made herself personally +responsible for the rent, that while she was overwhelmed with the work +of the Kansas campaign letters were continually sent her asking if she +could not somehow get the money to pay it, and that as soon as she +returned, she borrowed $100 on her own note and paid it in full. So she +held possession and the committee, after voting itself out at one +session, voted itself back at the next, and finally abandoned the room. + +On the very day the first copy of The Revolution appeared, Mr. Train +announced that he was going to England immediately. Miss Anthony says +in her diary: "My heart sank within me; only our first number issued +and our strongest helper and inspirer to leave us! This is but another +discipline to teach us that we must stand on our own feet." Mr. Train +gave her $600 and assured her that he had arranged with Mr. Melliss to +supply all necessary funds during his short absence, but she felt +herself invested with a heavy responsibility. A few days later Mrs. +Stanton said in a letter to a friend: + + Our paper has a monied basis of $50,000 and men who understand + business to push it. Train is engaging writers and getting + subscribers in Europe. It will improve in every way when we are + thoroughly started. Just now we are fighting for our life among + reformers; they pitch into us without mercy. We are trying to make + the Democrats take up our question, for that is the only way to + move the Republicans. Subscribers come in rapidly, beyond our most + sanguine expectations. The press in the main is cordial, but looks + askance at a political paper edited by a woman. If we had started a + "Lily" or a "Rosebud" and remained in the region of sentiment, we + should have been eulogized to the skies, but here is something + dangerous. + +Instead of Mr. Train's securing writers and subscribers in Europe, he +was arrested for complicity with the Fenians the moment he made his +first speech, and spent the year in a Dublin jail. He wrote that the +finding of fifty copies of The Revolution in his possession was an +additional reason for his arrest, as the officials did not stop to read +a word, the name was sufficient. While Mr. Train continued his +contributions to the paper during his residence in jail, he was not +able to meet his financial obligations to it. Mr. Melliss made heroic +efforts to pay in his quota, but the days were full of anxiety for +everybody connected with The Revolution. Miss Anthony was used to such +care. She had been the financial burden-bearer of every reform with +which she had been connected, but to this crushing weight was added +such a persecution as she never had experienced before, even in the +days of pro-slavery mobs. Then the attacks had been made by open and +avowed enemies, and she had had a host of staunch supporters to share +them and give her courage; now her persecutors were in ambush and were +those who had been her nearest and dearest friends; and now she was +alone except for Mrs. Stanton and Mr. Pillsbury. Even they were labored +with, and besought to renounce one who seemed to have complete mastery +over them and was leading them to destruction, but nothing could shake +their allegiance. The excuse for this persecution was that the Equal +Rights Association was injured by the publication of The Revolution. + +That there should be a paper published in the interest of the rights of +women had been the dream of the advocates for many years. Antoinette +Blackwell had written Miss Anthony several years before: "I wish we had +the contemplated paper for Mrs. Stanton's especial benefit. I am afraid +it will be too late for her when we get it fairly established, which +does not promise to be very soon. Lucy believes her own talents lie in +other directions, and gives no approval to the plan for herself." Lucy +Stone had written: "We must have a paper and dear, brave, sensible Mrs. +Stanton must be the editor." And at another time: "I feel very proud of +Mrs. Stanton, she is so strong and noble. When we have a new paper she +must be the editor." + +Mrs. Stanton, with her house and her large family, had no desire for +this position. Miss Anthony herself was not a writer, and many times of +late years had agitated the question of raising money to have Lucy +Stone and her husband at the head of a paper, they having now signified +their willingness to hold such a place. The founding of The Revolution +was totally unexpected and its editors accepted it only because of the +great need of a medium through which the cause of woman might be +thoroughly advocated. There was not the slightest desire to enter into +rivalry with anybody or to antagonize the Republicans. If the latter +had been willing to furnish the money to start a paper, or had allowed +space in their own publications, the favor would have been most gladly +accepted. Had the members of the Equal Rights Association raised a fund +to establish an organ, so much the better, but although the subject had +been talked of for years, the capital had not been forthcoming. There +was no attempt to make the association responsible for the opinions of +The Revolution, as this letter from Mrs. Stanton indicates: + + Susan and I, though members of the Equal Rights Association, do + many things outside that body for which no one is responsible. The + idea of starting a paper under its auspices, or as an organ for it, + never entered our minds. We went to Kansas as individuals; personal + friends outside that association gave us money to go and + contributed the funds to start a paper. We object to that + resolution of censure, first, because we were outside its province; + second, because it was an outrage to repudiate Susan and me, who + have labored without cessation for twenty years and had just + returned from a hard three months' campaign. For any one to + question our devotion to this cause is to us amazing. The treatment + of us by Abolitionists also is enough to try the souls of better + saints than we. The secret of all this furor is Republican spite. + They want to stave off our question until after the presidential + campaign. They can keep all the women still but Susan and me. They + can't control us, therefore the united effort of Republicans, + Abolitionists and certain women to crush us and our paper. + +In showing how the women were sacrificed, The Revolution said: + + Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith and Wendell Phillips, + with one consent, bid the women of the nation stand aside and + behold the salvation of the negro. Wendell Phillips says, "One idea + for a generation," to come up in the order of their importance. + First negro suffrage, then temperance, then the eight-hour + movement, then woman suffrage. Three generations hence, woman + suffrage will be in order! What an insult to the women who have + labored thirty years for the emancipation of the slave, now when he + is their political equal, to propose to lift him above their heads. + Gerrit Smith, forgetting that our great American idea is + "individual rights," on which Abolitionists have ever based their + strongest arguments for emancipation, says: "This is the time to + settle the rights of races; unless we do justice to the negro we + shall bring down on ourselves another bloody revolution, another + four years' war, but we have nothing to fear from woman, she will + not avenge herself!" Woman not avenge herself? Look at your asylums + for the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the insane, and there behold the + results of this wholesale desecration of the mothers of the race! + Woman not avenge herself? Go into the streets of your cities at the + midnight hour, and there behold those whom God meant to be queens + in the moral universe giving your sons their first lessons in + infamy and vice. No, you can not wrong the humblest of God's + creatures without making discord and confusion in the whole social + system. + +In regard to the bitter persecution waged upon the two women, Ellen +Wright Garrison said in a letter to Miss Anthony: "This sitting in +judgment upon those whose views differ from our own, pouring vials of +wrath on their heads and calling in the outside and prejudiced public +to help condemn, is unwise and un-Christian." Her mother, Martha +Wright, who at first was inclined to blame, wrote in the spring of +1868: "As regards the paper, its vigorous pages are what we need. I +regret the idiosyncrasies of Mr. Train, as they give occasion to the +sons and daughters of the Philistines to rejoice, and the children of +the uncircumcised only wanted a good excuse to triumph. Shall you be at +the May meeting? I will not be there under any circumstances without +you and Susan and our good friend Parker; so whatever may become of Mr. +Train or of the paper, count me now and ever as your true and +unswerving friend." + +The following graphic description, by the correspondent, Nellie +Hutchinson, was published in the Cincinnati Commercial: + + There's a peculiarly resplendent sign at the head of the third + flight of stairs, and obeying its directions I march into the north + corridor and enter The Revolution office. Nothing so very terrible + after all. The first face that salutes my vision is a youthful + one--fresh, smiling, bright-eyed, auburn-crowned. It belongs to one + of the employes of the establishment, and its owner conducts me to + a comfortable sofa, then trips lightly through a little door + opposite to inform Miss Anthony of my presence. + + I glance about me. What editorial bliss is this! Actually a neat + carpet on the floor, a substantial round table covered by a pretty + cloth, engravings and photographs hung thickly over the clear white + walls. Here is Lucretia Mott's saintly face, beautiful with eternal + youth; there Mary Wollstonecraft looking into futurity with earnest + eyes. In an arched recess are shelves containing books and piles of + pamphlets, speeches and essays of Stuart Mill, Wendell Phillips, + Higginson, Curtis. Two screens extend across the front of the room, + inclosing a little space around the two large windows which give + light, air and glimpses of City Hall park. Glancing around the + corner we see editor Pillsbury seated at his desk by the further + window. Opposite is another desk covered with brown wrappers and + mailing books. Close against the screen stands yet another, at + which sits the bookkeeper, an energetic young woman who ably + manages all the business affairs of The Revolution. There's an + atmosphere of womanly purity and delicacy about the place; + everything is refreshingly neat and clean, and suggestive of + reform. + + Ah! here comes Susan--the determined--the invincible, the Susan who + is possibly destined to be Vice-President or Secretary of State + some of these days! What a delicious thought! I tremble as she + steps rapidly toward me and I perceive in her hand a most + statesmanlike roll of MSS. The eyes scan me coolly and + interrogatively but the pleasant voice gives me a yet pleasanter + greeting. There's something very attractive, even fascinating in + that voice--a faint echo of the alto vibration--the tone of power. + Her smile is very sweet and genial, and lights up the pale, worn + face rarely. She talks awhile in her kindly, incisive way. "We're + not foolishly or blindly aggressive," says she, tersely; "we don't + lead a fight against the true and noble institutions of the world. + We only seek to substitute for various barbarian ideas, those of a + higher civilization--to develop a race of earnest, thoughtful, + conscientious women." And I thought as I remembered various + newspaper attacks, that here was not much to object to. The world + is the better for thee, Susan. + + She rises; "Come, let me introduce you to Mrs. Stanton." And we + walk into the inner sanctum, a tiny bit of a room, nicely carpeted, + one-windowed and furnished with two desks, two chairs, a little + table--and the senior editor, Mrs. Stanton. The short, substantial + figure, with its handsome black dress and silver crown of curls, is + sufficiently interesting. The fresh, girlish complexion, the + laughing blue eyes and jolly voice are yet more so. Beside her + stands her sixteen-year-old daughter, who is as plump, as jolly, as + laughing-eyed as her mother. We study Cady Stanton's handsome face + as she talks on rapidly and facetiously. Nothing little or mean in + that face; no line of distrust or irony; neither are there wrinkles + of care--life has been pleasant to this woman. + +[Illustration: + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY. + AT THE AGE OF 48.] + + We hear a bustle in the outer room--rapid voices and laughing + questions--then the door is suddenly thrown open and in steps a + young Aurora, habited in a fur-trimmed cloak, with a jaunty black + velvet cap and snowy feather set upon her dark clustering curls. + What sprite is this, whose eyes flash and sparkle with a thousand + happy thoughts, whose dimples and rosy lips and white teeth make so + charming a picture? "My dear Anna," says Susan, starting up, and + there's a shower of kisses. Then follows an introduction to Anna + Dickinson. As we clasp hands for a moment, I look into the great + gray eyes that have flashed with indignation and grown moist with + pity before thousands of audiences. They are radiant with mirth + now, beaming as a child's, and with graceful abandon she throws + herself into a chair and begins a ripple of gay talk. The two + pretty assistants come in and look at her with loving eyes; we all + cluster around while she wittily recounts her recent lecturing + experience. As the little lady keeps up her merry talk, I think + over these three representative women. The white-haired, comely + matron sitting there hand-in-hand with her daughter, intellectual, + large-hearted, high-souled--a mother of men; the grave, energetic + old maid--an executive power; the glorious girl, who, without a + thought of self, demands in eloquent tones justice and liberty for + all, and prophesies like an oracle of old. + + May we not hope that America's coming woman will combine these + salient qualities, and with all the powers of mind, soul and heart + vivified and developed in a liberal atmosphere, prove herself the + noblest creature in the world? And so I leave them there--the + pleasant group--faithful in their work, happy in their hopes. + +On May 14, 1868, the American Equal Rights Association held its second +anniversary in Cooper Institute. Mrs. Stanton, who had a wholesome +dread of anything disagreeable, was determined not to go, but Miss +Anthony declared that to stay away would be showing the "white feather" +and that, as their enemies had been many weeks working up a sentiment +against them, their presence would prove they had nothing to fear. When +the convention assembled, Lucretia Mott, the president, being absent on +account of the recent death of her husband, Colonel Higginson said to +Miss Anthony: "Now we want everything pleasant and peaceable here, do +we not?" "Certainly," she replied. "Well then, we must have Lucy Stone +open this meeting." "Why so," asked Miss Anthony, "when Mrs. Stanton is +first vice-president? It would be not only an insult to her but a +direct violation of parliamentary usage. I shall never consent to it." +Finding that, nevertheless, there was a scheme to carry out this plan, +she put Mrs. Stanton on the alert and, as the officers filed on the +platform, gave her a gentle push to the front, whereupon she opened the +convention with the utmost suavity. + +It was here that these pioneers of the movement for woman suffrage had +the humiliation of hearing Frederick Douglass announce that it was +women's duty to take a back seat and wait till the negro was +enfranchised before they put in their claim. Rev. Olympia Brown and +Lucy Stone both declared the Republican party false to its principles +unless it protected women as well as colored men in their right to +vote, and in his report on the Kansas campaign, Mr. Blackwell, after +speaking of the splendid work of Lucy Stone, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton +and Miss Brown, said: "Their eloquence and determination gave great +promise of success; but, in an inopportune moment, Horace Greeley and +others saw fit in the Constitutional Convention to report adversely to +woman suffrage in New York, which influenced the sentiment in the +younger western State and its enterprise was crushed. Even the +Republicans in Kansas set their faces against the extension of suffrage +to women." + +Throughout the entire convention there was much resentment on the part +of the women at the manner in which they had been abandoned in favor of +the negro. During the same week, at the anti-slavery meeting in +Steinway Hall, Anna Dickinson, in the midst of an impassioned speech, +declared: "The position of the black woman today is no better than +before her emancipation from slavery. She has simply changed masters +from a white owner to a black husband in many cases." She demanded +freedom and franchise for woman as for man, irrespective of color; and, +while giving Mr. Phillips credit for his years of service in the cause +of woman, took occasion to enter her protest against the tenor of a +portion of his morning address--in effect, that woman's rights must be +set aside until the rights of the black man were fully secured. + +As there was so much cavilling and faultfinding on the part of many of +the Equal Rights Association at every forward and radical step taken by +Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, they formed an independent committee of +themselves, Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of Gerrit Smith, Mrs. +Horace Greeley and Abby Hopper Gibbons, daughter of Isaac T. Hopper, +the noted Abolitionist, and wife of a prominent banker. These ladies +sent a memorial to the Republican National Convention, which met in +Chicago and nominated General Grant, but it never saw the light after +reaching there. Snubbed on every hand by the Republicans, they +determined to appeal to the Democrats. On June 27 Miss Anthony and Mrs. +Stanton attended a mass convention addressed by Governor Seymour, +calling out the following editorial from the New York Sun: + + The fact that Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Susan B. Anthony + were the only ladies admitted upon the platform at Cooper + Institute, may be regarded as not only committing them to Governor + Seymour's views, but as committing the approaching Democratic + convention, in whose behalf he spoke, to the doctrine of woman + suffrage. Therefore, whether Miss Anthony is received as a delegate + to the July convention, it is clear that female suffrage must be + incorporated among the planks of the national Democratic platform; + and if Governor Seymour, who is a remarkably fine-looking man, is + nominated, he will receive the undivided support of the women of + the North, which will more than compensate for the loss of the + negro vote of the South. + +At the meeting of the Equal Rights Committee, held in New York, a +half-sarcastic resolution was offered by Theodore Tilton and adopted by +the committee declaring that as "Miss Susan B. Anthony, through various +published writings in The Revolution, had given the world to understand +that the hope of the woman's rights cause rests more largely with the +Democratic party than with any other portion of the people; therefore +she be requested to attend the approaching National Democratic +Convention in New York for the purpose of fulfilling this cheerful hope +by securing in the Democratic platform a recognition of woman's right +to the elective franchise." + +Miss Anthony ignored the sarcasm, and with Mrs. Stanton at once +prepared a memorial.[46] The convention met and dedicated Tammany Hall +on July 4, 1868. This was the first time since the war that the +southern Democrats had joined with the northern in national convention +and, conservative as they naturally were and separated as they had been +from all the woman's rights agitation which had kept the North stirred +up for the past decade, one can imagine their amazement when Miss +Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and a few other ladies walked into the great hall +and occupied reserved seats at the left of the platform. Their memorial +was sent to the president, Horatio Seymour, and by him handed to the +secretary, who read it amid jeers and laughter. It was then referred to +the resolution committee where it slept the sleep of death. The special +correspondent of the Chicago Republican thus describes the scene when +the memorial was presented: + + Susan B. Anthony appeared to the convention like Minerva, goddess + of wisdom. Her advent was with thunders, not of applause, but of + the scorn of a degenerate masculinity. The great Horatio said, with + infinite condescension, that he held in his hand a memorial of the + women of the United States. The name of Miss Anthony was greeted + with a yell such as a Milton might imagine to rise from a conclave + of the damned. "She asked to plead the cause of her sex; to demand + the enfranchisement of the women of America--the only class of + citizens not represented in the government, the only class without + a vote, and their only disability, the insurmountable one of sex." + As these last significant words, with more than significant accent + and modulation, came from the lips of the knightly, the courtly + Horatio, a bestial roar of laughter, swelling now into an almost + Niagara chorus, now subsiding into comparative silence, and again + without further provocation rising into infernal sublimity, shook + the roof of Tammany. Sex--the sex of women--was the subject of this + infernal scorn; and the great Democratic gathering, with yells and + shrieks and demoniac, deafening howls, consigned the memorial of + Susan B. Anthony to the committee on resolutions. + +The World, the Herald, the Democratic press generally, spoke of this +incident in satirical and half-contemptuous tones, and the few papers +which treated it seriously declared in effect that, if they had to take +the "nigger," they might as well add woman to the unpalatable dose. A +petition from the Workingmen's Association to this same convention, +demanding a "greenback plank" in the platform, was received with great +respect and the plank put in as requested--offering the very strongest +object lesson of the superiority of an enfranchised over a +disfranchised class. It was not that the convention had more respect +for the workingman, per se, but they feared his vote and so adopted the +greenback plank in order to placate him, and then nominated for +President the most ultra of gold bond-paying advocates. + +The Revolution took up with great earnestness the cause of +workingwomen, investigated their condition and published many articles +in regard to it. A meeting was called at the office of The Revolution +and a Workingwoman's Association formed, with officers chosen from the +various occupations represented, which ranged from typesetters to +ragpickers. In September the National Labor Union Congress was held in +Germania Hall, New York, and Miss Anthony was selected to represent +this association. Mr. J. C. C. Whaley, a master workman from the great +iron mills of Philadelphia, presided and she was cordially received. A +committee on female labor was formed with her as chairman, and reported +a strong set of resolutions, urging the organization of women's trades +unions, demanding an eight-hour law and equal pay in all positions, and +pledging support to secure the ballot for women. + +After an extended discussion the words "to secure the ballot" were +stricken out, and a resolution adopted that "by accepting Miss Anthony +as a delegate, the Labor Congress did not commit itself to her position +on female suffrage." Here was this great body of men, honestly anxious +to do something to ameliorate the condition of workingwomen, and yet +denying to them the ballot, the strongest weapon which the workingman +possessed for his own protection; unable to see that by placing it in +the hands of women, they would not only give to them immense power but +would double the strength of all labor organizations. + +Miss Anthony gave a large amount of time to the cause of workingwomen, +taught them how to organize among themselves, stirred up the newspapers +to speak in their behalf, and interested in them many prominent women +and also "Sorosis," that famous club, which had just been formed. In +addressing women typesetters she said: "The four things indispensable +to a compositor are quickness of movement, good spelling, correct +punctuation and brains enough to take in the idea of the article to be +set up. Therefore, let no young woman think of learning the trade +unless she possesses these requisites. Without them there will be only +hard work and small pay. Make up your minds to take the 'lean' with the +'fat,' and be early and late at the case precisely as men are. I do not +demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value. +Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you +are in their service as workers, not as women." + +The diary says in October, "Blue days these." Mr. Train was still in +the Dublin jail. Mr. Melliss was doing his part manfully, subscribers +were constantly coming in, but no paper can be sustained by its +subscription-list. Miss Anthony wrote hundreds of letters in its +interests, and walked many a weary mile and had many an unpleasant +experience soliciting advertisements, but the Republicans were hostile +and the Democrats had no use for The Revolution. Invariably the more +liberal-minded men would say: "We advertise in the Tribune and +Independent, and your paper will reach few homes where one or the other +is not taken;" which was true. All the business and financial +management devolved upon Miss Anthony, and she was untrained in this +department. She labored all the day and late into the night over these +details, longing to be in the field and pushing the cause by means of +the platform, as she had been accustomed to do, and yet feeling that +through the paper she could reach a larger audience. Her diary shows +that, notwithstanding past differences, she still visited at Phillips', +Garrison's, Greeley's and very often at Tilton's. In August she tells +of attending the funeral of the baby in the family of the last, the +departure from the usual customs, the house filled with sunshine, the +mother dressed in white, and the inspired words of Mr. Beecher. + +She is invited to Flushing, Oswego and various places to address +teachers' institutes and occasionally to give a lyceum lecture and, +regardless of all fatigue, goes wherever a few dollars may be gathered. +Mrs. Stanton finishes her new home at Tenafly, N. J., and Miss Anthony +enjoys slipping over there for a quiet Sunday. Mrs. Stanton did most of +her editorial work at home and Mr. Pillsbury stayed in the office. + +The last battle for 1868 was made in what was known as the Hester +Vaughan case. When Anna Dickinson lectured in New York before the +Workingwoman's Association she told the story of Hester Vaughan: A +respectable English girl, twenty years old, married and came to +Philadelphia only to find that the husband had another wife. She then +secured employment at housework and was seduced by a man who deserted +her as soon as he knew she was to become a mother. She wandered about +the streets and finally, in the dead of winter, after being alone and +in labor three days, her child was born in a garret and she lay on the +floor twenty-four hours without fire or food. When discovered the child +was dead and the mother had nearly perished. Circumstances indicated +that she might have killed the child. Four days after its birth, she +was taken to prison, where she was kept for five months, then tried, +found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. She had now been in jail ten +months. + +The Revolution and the Workingwoman's Association, headed by Miss +Anthony, took up the case, not so much because of the individual as to +call attention to the wrongs constantly perpetrated against woman. They +created such a public sentiment that a great meeting was held in Cooper +Institute, where Horace Greeley presided and a number of well-known men +and women took part, including Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Rose, Dr. Lozier and +Eleanor Kirk.[47] Speaking briefly but to the point Miss Anthony +submitted resolutions demanding that women should be tried by a jury of +their peers, have a voice in making the laws and electing the officers +who execute them; and declaring for the abolition of capital +punishment. These were adopted with enthusiasm and the meeting, by +unanimous vote, asked the governor of Pennsylvania for an unconditional +pardon for the girl, while over $300 were subscribed for her benefit. +Through Miss Anthony arrangements were made for Mrs. Stanton and +Elizabeth Smith Miller to carry to Governor Geary a memorial from the +Workingwoman's Association in behalf of Hester Vaughan. During their +interview the governor declared emphatically that justice never would +be done in such cases until women were in the jury-box. These efforts, +supplemented by others afterwards made in Philadelphia, resulted in his +granting the pardon, and the girl was assisted back to her home in +England. + +Although The Revolution suffered the anxieties inseparable from the +launching of a new paper, it found much reason for encouragement. A +number of prominent men and newspapers, during the year, had come out +boldly in favor of woman suffrage and there seemed to be a considerable +public sentiment drifting in that direction; but there were signs even +more hopeful than these. Immediately upon the assembling of Congress, +in December, 1868, Senator S. C. Pomeroy, of Kansas, presented a +resolution as an amendment to the Federal Constitution providing that +"the basis of suffrage in the United States shall be that of +citizenship; and all native or naturalized citizens shall enjoy the +same rights and privileges of the elective franchise; but each State +shall determine by law the age," etc. + +[Autograph: + + Very Cordially + & Truly + S.C. Pomeroy] + +A few days later George W. Julian, of Indiana, offered a similar +amendment in the House of Representatives, as follows: "The right of +suffrage in the United States shall be based upon citizenship, and +shall be regulated by Congress; and all citizens of the United States, +whether native or naturalized, shall enjoy this right equally, without +any distinction or discrimination whatever founded on sex." + +[Autograph: Geo W. Julian] + +The last of December Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, and Mr. +Julian introduced bills to enfranchise women in the District of +Columbia, the latter including also the women in the Territories. A +review of the situation in The Revolution of December 31, said: + + In our political opinions, we have been grossly misunderstood and + misrepresented. There never was a time, even in the re-election of + Lincoln, when to differ from the leading party was considered more + inane and treasonable. Because we made a higher demand than either + Republicans or Abolitionists, they in self-defense revenged + themselves by calling us Democrats; just as the church at the time + of its apathy on the slavery question revenged the goadings of + Abolitionists by calling them "infidels." If claiming the right of + suffrage for every citizen, male and female, black and white, a + platform far above that occupied by Republicans or Abolitionists + today, is to be a Democrat, then we glory in the name, but we have + not so understood the policy of modern Democracy. Though The + Revolution and its founders may have been open to criticism in many + respects, all admit that we have galvanized the people into life + and slumbering friends to action on this question. + +[Footnote 46: On the Sunday before, the two ladies were invited to +breakfast at the home of Mr. Melliss, with the president of the +National Labor Union and a number of prominent men from Wall street, to +talk over their prospects in the convention.] + +[Footnote 47: Dr. Clemence Lozier and Mrs. Eleanor Kirk went to +Moyamensing prison to see the unfortunate girl. In passing the +different cells they noticed many women prisoners and one of the ladies +asked the inspector if he could give any idea of the cause of the +downfall of these women. "Yes," he replied, "faith in men."] + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +AMENDMENT XV--FOUNDING OF NATIONAL SOCIETY. + +1869. + + +Notwithstanding the protests and petitions of the women, the Fourteenth +Amendment had been formally declared ratified July 28, 1868, the word +"male" being thereby three times branded on the Constitution. In the +resolutions of Senator Pomeroy and Mr. Julian, however, they found new +hope and fresh courage. They had learned that the Federal Constitution +could be so amended as to enfranchise a million men who but yesterday +were plantation slaves. Here, then, was the power which must be invoked +for the enfranchisement of women. From the office of The Revolution +went out thousands of petitions to the women of the country to be +circulated in the interests of an amendment to regulate the suffrage +without making distinctions of sex. It was decided that a convention +should be held in Washington in order to meet the legislators on their +own ground. A suffrage association had been formed in that city with +Josephine S. Griffing, founder of the Freedmen's Bureau, president; +Hamilton Willcox, secretary. This was the first ever held in the +capital, and it brought many new and valuable workers into the field. +Clara Barton here made her first appearance at a woman suffrage +meeting, and was a true and consistent advocate of the principle from +that day forward. + +The venerable Lucretia Mott presided, and Senator Pomeroy opened the +convention with an eloquent speech, January 19, 1869. A feature of this +occasion was the appearance of several young colored orators, speaking +in opposition to suffrage for women and denouncing them for +jeopardizing the black man's claim to the ballot by insisting upon +their own. One of them, George Downing, standing by the side of +Lucretia Mott, declared that God intended the male should dominate the +female everywhere! Another was a son of Robert Purvis, who was +earnestly and publicly rebuked by his father. Edward M. Davis, +son-in-law of Lucretia Mott, also condemned the women for their +temerity and severely criticised the resolutions, which demanded the +same political rights for women as for negro men. + +Miss Anthony called on Senator Harlan, of Iowa, chairman of the +District committee, who readily granted the women a hearing which took +place January 26, when she and Mrs. Stanton gave their arguments. This +was the first congressional hearing ever granted to present the +question of woman suffrage. An appeal was sent to Congress praying that +women should be recognized in the next amendment. In her letter to the +Philadelphia Press, Grace Greenwood thus described the leading spirits +of the convention: + + Near Lucretia Mott sat her sister, Martha Wright, a woman of + strong, constant character and rare intellectual culture; Mrs. Cady + Stanton, of impressive and beautiful appearance, in the rich prime + of an active, generous and healthful life; Miss Susan B. Anthony, + looking all she is, a keen, energetic, uncompromising, + unconquerable, passionately earnest woman; Clara Barton, whose name + is dear to soldiers and blessed in thousands of homes to which the + soldiers shall return no more--a brave, benignant-looking woman.... + + Miss Anthony followed in a strain not only cheerful, but + exultant--reviewing the advance of the cause from its first + despised beginning to its present position, where, she alleged, it + commanded the attention of the world. She spoke in her usual + pungent, vehement style, hitting the nail on the head every time, + and driving it in up to the head. Indeed, it seems to me, that + while Lucretia Mott may be said to be the soul of this movement, + and Mrs. Stanton the mind, the "swift, keen intelligence," Miss + Anthony, alert, aggressive and indefatigable, is its nervous + energy--its propulsive force.... + + To see the three chief figures of this great movement sitting upon + a stage in joint council, like the three Fates of a new + dispensation--dignity and the ever-acceptable grace of scholarly + earnestness, intelligence and beneficence making them prominent--is + assurance that the women of our country, bereft of defenders or + injured by false ones, have advocates equal to the great demands of + their cause. + +[Autograph: + + Yours affectionately + Grace Greenwood] + +Immediately after this convention, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, by +invitation of a number of State suffrage committees, made a tour of +Chicago, Springfield, Bloomington, Galena, St. Louis, Madison, +Milwaukee and Toledo, speaking to large audiences. At St. Louis they +were met by a delegation of ladies and escorted to the Southern Hotel, +and then invited by the president of the State association, Mrs. +Virginia L. Minor, to visit various points of interest in the city. At +Springfield, Ill., the lieutenant-governor presided over their +convention, and Governor Palmer and many members of the legislature +were in the audience. With the Chicago delegation, Mrs. Livermore, +Judge Waite, Judge Bradwell, Mrs. Myra Bradwell, editor of the Legal +News, and others, they addressed the legislature. At Chicago, in Crosby +Music Hall, the meeting was decidedly aggressive. Miss Anthony's +resolutions stirred up the politicians, but she defended them bravely, +according to report: + + She stood outside of any party which threw itself across the path + of complete suffrage to woman, and therefore she stood outside of + the Republican party, where all her male relatives and friends were + to be found. Republican leaders had told them to wait; that the + movement was inopportune; but all the time had continued to put up + bars and barriers against its future success. No woman should + belong at present to either party; she should simply stand for + suffrage.... She protested against any Republicans saying that Mrs. + Stanton or herself had laid a straw in the way of the negro. + Because they insisted that the rights of women ought to have equal + prominence with the rights of black men, it was assumed that they + opposed the enfranchisement of the negro. She repelled the + assumption. She arraigned the entire Republican party because they + refused to see that all women, black and white, were as much in + political servitude as the black men. + +At this meeting Robert Laird Collyer (not the distinguished Robert +Collyer) made a long address against the enfranchisement of women, +mixing up purity, propriety and pedestals in the usual incoherent +fashion. He was so completely annihilated by Anna Dickinson that no +further defense of the measure was necessary. Suffrage societies were +organized in Chicago, Milwaukee and Toledo. In her account of this +convention, Mrs. Livermore wrote of Miss Anthony: + + She is entirely unlike Mrs. Stanton, notwithstanding the twain have + been fast friends and diligent co-laborers for a quarter of a + century.... Miss Anthony is a woman whom no one can know thoroughly + without respect. Entirely honest, fearfully in earnest, energetic, + self-sacrificing, kind-hearted, scorning difficulties of whatever + magnitude, and rigidly sensible, she is the warm friend of the + poor, oppressed, homeless and friendless of her own sex. Her labors + in their behalf are tireless and judicious. You think her plain + until she smiles, and then the worn face lights up so pleasantly + and benignly that you forget to criticise and your heart warms + towards her. Knowing her great goodness, and how she has devoted + her life to hard, unpaid work for the negro slave and for woman, we + can never read jibes and jeers at her expense without a twinge of + pain. Let the press laugh at her as it may, she is a mighty power + among both men and women, and those who really love as well as + respect her are a host. + +In this winter of 1869 the Press Club of New York made the startling +innovation of giving a dinner to which ladies were invited. Among the +guests were Phoebe and Alice Gary, Mary L. Booth, Elizabeth Oakes +Smith, Olive Logan, Mary Kyle Dallas and Miss Anthony. J. W. Simonton, +of the Associated Press, was toast-master. Not having had the slightest +intimation that she was expected to speak, Miss Anthony was called upon +to respond to the question, "Why don't the women propose?" Without a +moment's hesitation she arose and said: "Under present conditions, it +would require a good deal of assurance for a woman to say to a man, +'Please, sir, will you support me for the rest of my life?' When all +avocations are open to woman and she has an opportunity to acquire a +competence, she will then be in a position where it will not be +humiliating for her to ask the man she loves to share her prosperity. +Instead of requesting him to provide food, raiment and shelter for her, +she can invite him into her home, contribute her share to the +partnership and not be an utter dependent. There will be also another +advantage in this arrangement--if he prove unworthy she can ask him to +walk out." It will be seen by this original and daring reply that Miss +Anthony could not attend a dinner party even without creating a +sensation. + +The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, and the +Fourteenth establishing the citizenship of the negro, did not prove +sufficient to protect him in his right of suffrage and, although Sumner +and other Republican leaders contended that another amendment was not +necessary for this, the majority of the party did not share this +opinion and it became evident that one would have to be added.[48] +Those proposed by Pomeroy and Julian securing universal suffrage were +brushed aside without debate, and the following was submitted by +Congress to the State legislatures, February 27, 1869: + + 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. + +Amendment XIV had settled the status of citizenship. "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." Now came the next measure to protect the citizen's right +to vote, which proposed to guard against any discrimination on account +of race, of color, of previous condition, but by the omission of the +one word "sex," all women still were left disfranchised. At this time +the leading Republicans believed in universal suffrage. Garrison, +Phillips, Greeley, Sumner, Tilton, Wilson, Wade, Stevens, Brown, Julian +and many others had publicly declared their belief in the right of +woman to the ballot, but now driven by party necessity, they repudiated +their principles, and deferred the day of her freedom for generations. +Yet it was not forgotten still carefully to include her in the basis of +representation, fully to make her amenable to the laws, and strictly to +hold her to her share of taxation. In reference to this The Revolution +said: + + The proposed amendment for "manhood suffrage" not only rouses + woman's prejudices against the negro, but on the other hand his + contempt and hostility toward her.... Just as the Democratic cry of + a "white man's government" created the antagonism between the + Irishman and the negro, which culminated in the New York riots of + 1863, so the Republican cry of "manhood suffrage" creates an + antagonism between black men and all women, which will culminate in + fearful outrages on womanhood, especially in the Southern States. + While we fully appreciate the philosophy that every extension of + rights prepares the way for greater freedom to new classes and + hastens the day of liberty to all, we at the same time see that the + immediate effect of class enfranchisement is greater tyranny and + abuse of those who have no voice in the government. Had Irishmen + been disfranchised in this country, they would have made common + cause with the negro in fighting for his rights, but when exalted + above him, they proved his worst enemies. The negro will be the + victim for generations to come, of the prejudice engendered by + making this a white man's government. While the enfranchisement of + each new class of white men was a step toward his ultimate freedom, + it increased his degradation in the transition period, and he + touched the depths when all men but himself were crowned with + citizenship. + + Just so with woman, while the enfranchisement of all men hastens + the day for justice to her, it makes her degradation more complete + in the transition state. It is to escape the added tyranny, + persecutions, insults, horrors which will surely be visited upon + her in the establishment of an aristocracy of sex in this republic, + that we raise our indignant protest against this wholesale + desecration of woman in the pending amendment, and earnestly pray + the rulers of this nation to consider the degradation of + disfranchisement. Our Republican leaders see that it is a + protection and defense for the black man, giving him new dignity + and self-respect, and making his rights more sacred in the eyes of + his enemies. It is mockery to tell woman she is excluded from all + political privileges on the ground of _respect_; since the laws and + constitutions for her, in common with all disfranchised classes, + harmonize with the degradation of the position. + +In their protest against this discrimination and their insistence that +the word "sex" should be included in the Fifteenth Amendment, Miss +Anthony and Mrs. Stanton stood practically alone. Most of the other +women allowed themselves to be persuaded by the politicians that it was +their duty to step aside and wait till the negro was invested with this +highest attribute of citizenship. + +In the first issue of The Revolution for 1869 appeared this letter from +George Francis Train, who had just been released from the Dublin jail +and had returned to America: + + ....I knew the load I had to carry in the woman question, but you + did not know the load you had to carry in Train. When the poor + man's horse fell and broke his leg, the crowd sympathized. "How + much you pity?" asked the Frenchman; "I pity man $20." I saw that + the theoretical breeching had broken in Kansas, and with voice, + with pen, with time and, what none of your old friends did, with + purse, I threw myself into the battle. + + With your remarkable industry and extraordinary executive ability + you have astonished all by your success. You remember I begged you + never to stop to defend me but to push on to victory. Now both + parties are neck and neck to see who shall lead the army of + in-coming negro voters. Woman already begins to creep. Soon she + will walk and legislate. No sneers, no low jokes, no obscene + remarks are now bandied about. The iceberg of prejudice is moving + down the Gulf Stream of a wider liberty and will melt away with the + bigotry of ages. The ball is rolling down the hill. You no longer + need my services. The Revolution is a power. Would it not be more + so without Train? Had you not better omit my name in 1869? Would it + not bring you more subscribers, and better assist the noble cause + of reform? Although the Garrisonians have so ungenerously attacked + me, perhaps they will do as much for you as I have. If so, tell + them, confidentially, the thousands I have devoted to the cause, + and guarantee the haters of Train that his name shall not appear in + The Revolution after January 1. I can not better show my + unselfishness than by asking you to forget my honest exertions for + equal rights and equal pay for women, and to shut me out of The + Revolution in future, in order to bring in again "the apostates." + +Although Mr. Train continued to supply funds and to send an occasional +letter for a few months longer, his active connection with the paper +ceased after its first year. In the issue of May 1 it contained the +following editorial comment: + + Our readers will find Mr. Train's valedictory in another column. + Feeling that he has been a source of grief to our numerous friends + and, through their constant complaints, an annoyance to us, he + magnanimously retires. He has always said that as soon as we were + safely launched on the tempestuous sea of journalism, he should + leave us "to row our own boat." Our partnership dissolves today. + Now we shall look for a harvest of new subscribers, as many have + written and said to us again and again, if you will only drop + Train, we will send you patrons by the hundred. We hope the fact + that Train has dropped _us_ will not vitiate these promises. Our + generous friend starts for California on May 7, in the first train + over the Pacific road. He takes with him the sincere thanks of + those who know what he has done in the cause of woman, and of those + who appreciate what a power The Revolution has already been in + rousing public thought to the importance of her speedy + enfranchisement. + +The heading of the financial department and the column of Wall street +gossip, which had given so much offense, were removed, and the paper +became purely an advocate of the rights of humanity in general and +women in particular. Up to this time the editorial rooms had been in +the fourth story of the New York World building, and the paper was +printed on the fifth floor of another several blocks away, with no +elevator in either. Miss Anthony made the trip from one to the other +and climbed the seven flights of stairs half a dozen times a day for +sixteen months. In 1869, Mrs. Elizabeth B. Phelps, a wealthy and +practical philanthropist of New York City, purchased a large and +elegant house on East Twenty-third street, near the Academy of Design, +which she dedicated as the "Woman's Bureau." She proposed to rent the +rooms wholly for women's clubs and societies and for enterprises +conducted by women. The first floor was taken by The Revolution. The +handsome and spacious parlors above were to be used for receptions, +readings, concerts, etc., and it was Mrs. Phelps' intention to make the +Bureau a center, not only for the women of New York, but for all those +who might visit the city. + +Notwithstanding all that had passed, Miss Anthony did not abate her +labors for the Equal Rights Association and she worked unceasingly for +the success of the approaching May Anniversary in New York, securing, +among other advantages, half fare on all the railroads for delegates. +Hundreds of letters were sent out from The Revolution office to +distinguished people in all parts of the country and cordial answers +were received, showing that the hostility against the paper and its +editors was principally confined to a very small area. A private letter +from Mrs. Stanton says: "We have written every one of the old friends, +ignoring the past and urging them to come. We do so much desire to sink +all petty considerations in the one united effort to secure woman +suffrage. Though many unkind acts and words have been administered to +us, which we have returned with sarcasm and ridicule, there are really +only kind feelings in our souls for all the noble men and women who +have fought for freedom during the last thirty years." + +Under date of April 4, Mary A. Livermore wrote Miss Anthony, asking if +she could secure a pass for her over the Erie road, and saying: "I have +written to the New England friends to let bygones be bygones and come +to the May meeting. It seems to me personal feelings should be laid +aside and women should all pull together." After telling of the +excellent prospects of her own suffrage paper, the Agitator, just +started in Chicago, she continues: "It seems as if everybody who does +not like The Revolution is bound to take the Agitator, which is very +well, since they are detachments of the same corps. We must keep up a +good understanding and work together. If you want to let people know +there is no rivalry between us, you can announce that I am to send your +paper fortnightly letters from the West detailing the progress of +affairs here." + +A cheery letter from Anna Dickinson says: "Work has run in easy grooves +this winter--not that the travel has not often been exhausting and the +roads wearisome; but that every one in this western world is ablaze +with the grand question. Thank God, and hurrah! I feel in both moods. I +hope you and that adorable cherub, E.C.S., are well, and that +everything is flourishing as it should flourish with two such saints. +As for me, the finger of care touches lightly; furthermore I am in a +doubly delectable condition by reason of having my face set towards +home, and beyond home is a vista of my Susan's countenance. Please, my +dear, can't you meet this sinner at Cortlandt street, and then the +sinner and the saint will have all the afternoon together somewhere, +and that seems almost too good to be true?" + +This was the beginning of a correspondence with Gail Hamilton, who +wrote: "I regret to say that I can neither honor nor shame your +anniversary with my presence. I have been out on a sixteen-months' +cruise, fighting single handed for equal rights, and am now hauled up +in dock for repairs. But you, I am sure, will be glad to know that, +though much battered and tempest-tossed, I came into port with all sail +set and every rag of bunting waving victory. This is a private note to +you, and as you are but a landsman yourself, you will never know if my +ropes are not knotted sailor-fashion." + +[Autograph: + + Very respectfully + Gail Hamilton] + +The third aniversary of the Equal Rights Association opened at Steinway +Hall, May 12, 1869, Mrs. Stanton presiding, and proved to be the most +stormy and unsatisfactory meeting ever held. The usual brilliant galaxy +of speakers was present, besides a number of prominent men and women +who were just beginning to be heard on the woman suffrage platform. +Among these were Olive Logan, Phoebe Couzins, Madam D'Hericourt, a +French physician and writer, Rev. Phoebe A. Hanaford, Rev. O.B. +Frothingham, Hon. Henry Wilson, Rev. Gilbert Haven and others. There +were also more delegates from the West, headed by Mrs. Livermore, than +had been present at any previous meeting. The usual number of fine +addresses were made and all promised fair, but Stephen S. Foster soon +disturbed the harmony by suggesting that it was time for Miss Anthony +and Mrs. Stanton to withdraw from the association, as they had +repudiated its principles and the Massachusetts society could no longer +co-operate with them. This called forth indignant speeches from all +parts of the house, and he was soon silenced.[49] + +[Autograph: + + Yours very truly + O.B. Frothingham] + +Frederick Douglass and several other men attempted to force the +adoption of a resolution that "we gratefully welcome' the pending +Fifteenth Amendment prohibiting disfranchisement on account of race and +earnestly solicit the State legislatures to pass it without delay." +Miss Anthony declared indignantly that she protested against this +amendment because it did not mean equal rights; it put 2,000,000 +colored men in the position of tyrants over 2,000,000 colored women, +who until now had been at least the equals of the men at their side. +She continued: + + The question of precedence has no place on an equal rights + platform. The only reason it ever forced itself here was because + certain persons insisted that woman must stand back and wait until + another class should be enfranchised. In answer we say: "If you + will not give the whole loaf of justice to the entire people, if + you are determined to extend the suffrage piece by piece, then give + it first to women, to the most intelligent and capable of them at + least. I remember a long discussion with Tilton and Phillips on + this very question, when we were about to carry our petitions to + the New York Constitutional Convention. Mr. Tilton said that we + should urge the amendment to strike out the word 'white,'" and + added: "The question of striking out the word 'male' we, as an + equal rights association, shall of course present as an + intellectual theory, but not as a practical thing to be + accomplished at this convention." Mr. Phillips also emphasized this + point; but I repudiated this downright insolence, when for fifteen + years I had canvassed the entire State, county by county, with + petition in hand asking for woman suffrage! To think that those two + men, among the most progressive of the nation, should dare look me + in the face and speak of this great principle for which I had + toiled, as a mere intellectual theory! + + If Mr. Douglass had noticed who applauded when he said "black men + first and white women afterwards," he would have seen that it was + only the men. When he tells us that the case of black men is so + perilous, I tell him that even outraged as they are by the hateful + prejudice against color, he himself would not today exchange his + sex and color with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. + +Mr. Douglass--"Will you allow me a question?" + +Miss Anthony--"Yes, anything for a fight today." + +Mr. Douglass--"I want to inquire whether granting to woman the right of +suffrage will change anything in respect to the nature of our sexes." + +Miss Anthony--"It will change the nature of one thing very much, and +that is the dependent condition of woman. It will place her where she +can earn her own bread, so that she may go out into the world an equal +competitor in the struggle for life; so that she shall not be compelled +to take such positions as men choose to accord and then accept such pay +as men please to give.... It is not a question of precedence between +women and black men; the business of this association is to demand for +every man, black or white, and every woman, black or white, that they +shall be enfranchised and admitted into the body politic with equal +rights and privileges." + +As everybody in the hall was allowed to vote there was no difficulty in +securing the desired endorsement of an amendment to enfranchise negro +men and make them the political superiors of all women. There never had +been a convention so dominated by men. Although the audience refused to +listen to most of them and drowned their voices by expressions of +disapproval and calls for the women speakers, they practically wrested +the control of the meeting from the hands of the women and managed it +to suit themselves. + +This was Mrs. Livermore's first appearance at one of these +anniversaries and she created a commotion by introducing this +resolution: "While we recognize the disabilities which legal marriage +imposes upon woman as wife and mother, and while we pledge ourselves to +seek their removal by putting her on equal terms with man, we +abhorrently repudiate 'free loveism' as horrible and mischievous to +society, and disown any sympathy with it." It was the first time the +subject had been brought before a woman's rights convention and its +introduction was indignantly resented by the "old guard." Lucy Stone +exclaimed: "I feel it is a mortal shame to give any foundation for the +implication that we favor 'free loveism.' I am ashamed that the +question should be raised here. There should be nothing at all said +about it. Do not let us, for the sake of our own self-respect, allow it +to be hinted that we helped to forge a shadow of a chain which comes in +the name of 'free love.' I am unwilling that it should be suggested +that this great, sacred cause of ours means anything but what we have +said it does. If any one says to us, 'Oh, I know what you mean, you +mean free love by this agitation,' let the lie stick in his throat." + +Mrs. Rose followed with a strong protest, saying: "I think it strange +that the question of 'free love' should have been brought upon this +platform. I object to Mrs. Livermore's resolution, not on account of +its principles, but on account of its pleading guilty. When a man tries +to convince me that he is not a thief, then I take care of my coppers. +If we pass this resolution that we are not 'free lovers,' people will +say, 'It is true that you are, for you try to hide it.' Lucretia Mott's +name has been mentioned as a friend of 'free love,' but I hurl back the +lie into the faces of those who uttered it. We have been thirty years +in this city before the public, and it is an insult to all the women +who have labored in this cause; it is an insult to the thousands and +tens of thousands of men and women who have listened to us in our +conventions, to say at this late hour, 'We are not free lovers.'" + +The charge of "free love" was vigorously repudiated by Miss Anthony +also, who closed the discussion by asserting: "This howl comes from the +men who know that when women get their rights they will be able to live +honestly and not be compelled to sell themselves for bread, either in +or out of marriage. There are very few women in the world who would +enter into this relationship with drunkards and libertines provided +they could get their subsistence in any other way. We can not be +frightened from our purpose, the public mind can not long be prejudiced +by this 'free love' cry of our enemies." Olive Logan poured oil upon +the troubled waters in a graceful speech, and the subject was dropped. + +At each recurring anniversary the conviction had been growing that the +term "equal rights" was too comprehensive, permitting entirely too much +latitude as to speakers and subjects. Ever themselves having been +repressed and silenced, when at last women made a platform on which +they had a right to stand, they declared first of all for "free +speech." They would not refuse to any human being what so long had been +denied to them and, as a result, fanatics, visionaries and advocates of +all reforms flocked to this platform, delighted to find such audiences. +According to the tenets of the association, all speakers must have +equal rights on their platform and there was no escape. Sometimes it +was nothing more harmful than a man with a map to explain how the +national debt could be paid without money, or a woman with a system of +celestial kites by which she proposed to communicate with the other +world. Occasionally the advocates of various political theories would +secure possession, consuming the time and diverting attention from the +main issue. At the convention just closed, the hobby-riders were +present in greater force than ever before and it seemed imperative that +some means should be adopted to shut them out thereafter. It was +proposed to change the name to Woman Suffrage Association, which would +bar all discussion of a miscellaneous character. There was a strong +objection to this, however, because such action required three months' +notice. + +At the close of the convention a reception was held at the Woman's +Bureau, Saturday evening, May 15, 1869, and attended by women from +nineteen States who had come as representatives to the Equal Rights +Association.[50] At their earnest request, it was decided to form a new +organization to be called the National Woman Suffrage Association, +whose especial object should be a Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal +Constitution, securing the ballot to the women of the nation on equal +terms with men. A convention of officially appointed delegates was at +that time impracticable, as there were but few local suffrage societies +and still fewer State organizations. It was thought that although it +might not be formed by delegates elected for this specific object, it +would be sufficient for working purposes until the next spring when, +the required three months' notice having been given, a permanent +organization might be effected. Accordingly, a constitution was adopted +and officers elected.[51] The following week at Cooper Institute Anna +Dickinson made her great speech for the rights of women, entitled +"Nothing Unreasonable," to inaugurate the new National Woman Suffrage +Association, and before an immense audience she pleaded for woman with +the same beauty and eloquence as in days past she had pictured the +wrongs of the slave and urged his emancipation. + +The association was organized May 15, and on the 17th Mrs. Livermore +wrote Miss Anthony from Boston: "I hope you are rested somewhat. I am +very sorry for you, that you are carrying such heavy burdens. If you +and I lived in the same city, I would relieve you of some of them, for +I believe we might work together, with perhaps an occasional collision. +Now I want you to answer these two questions: 1st.--Did you do anything +in the way of organizing at the Saturday evening reunion, and if so, +what? That Equal Rights Association is an awful humbug. I would not +have come on to the anniversary, nor would any of us, if we had known +what it was. We supposed we were coming to a woman suffrage convention. +2d.--If Mrs. Stanton will not go West to a series of meetings this fall +and winter, would you dare undertake it with me alone? We must have +strong people of established reputations. 'Only the Stanton, the +Anthony, and the Livermore,' that is what the Chicago Tribune says...." +Later, while still in Boston, she wrote again: + + You are mistaken in thinking I exhorted the formation of a national + suffrage association the Saturday night after the New York + convention; I only advised talking it up. All agreed that it ought + to be formed but that a preliminary call should be issued first. I + am for a national organization with Mrs. Stanton, president, and + with you as one of the executive committee, but I want it arrived + at compatibly with parliamentary rules.... And now having asserted + myself, let me say that I sympathize more with your energy and + earnestness which lead you to override forms and rules than I do + with the awfully proper and correct spirit that waits till + everybody consents before it does anything. I have no doubt but we + all shall join the National Association, each State by its elected + members, when we hold our great Western Woman Suffrage Convention + in Chicago next fall. Mrs. Stanton and you must both be present; we + probably shall all vote together then to go into the National + Association. Remember you are to make that series of conventions + with me. I am depending on you. + +The next November, in answer to a circular signed by Lucy Stone, Julia +Ward Howe, Caroline M. Severance, T.W. Higginson and George H. Vibbert, +a call was issued resulting in a convention at Cleveland, O., to form +another national suffrage association on the following basis of +representation: "The delegates appointed by existing State +organizations shall be admitted, provided their number does not exceed, +in each case, that of the congressional delegation of the State. Should +it fall short of that number, additional delegates may be admitted from +local organizations, or _from no organization whatever_, provided the +applicants be actual residents of the State they claim to represent." +The American Suffrage Association was thus formed, with twenty-one +States represented; Henry Ward Beecher, president; Henry B. Blackwell, +Amanda Way, recording secretaries; Lucy Stone, chairman executive +committee. + +In the midst of her exacting duties and many annoyances, Miss Anthony +found time to write numerous letters and obtain a testimonial for +Ernestine L. Rose, who was about to return with her husband to England, +after having given many years of valuable service to the women of +America. She secured a handsome sum of money and a number of presents +for her, and Mrs. Rose went on board ship laden with flowers and very +happy and grateful. Miss Anthony wrote to Lucretia Mott: "Was it not a +little funny that this unsentimental personage should have suggested +the thing and stirred so many to do the sentimental, and yet could not +even take the time to go to the wharf and say good-by? I spent Sunday +evening with her and it is a great comfort to me that I helped others +contribute to her pleasure." On the back of this letter, which was sent +to her sister, Martha Wright, Mrs. Mott penned: "Think of the +complaints made of Susan when she does so much and puts others up to +doing, and always keeps herself in the background." + +In the summer of 1869, under the auspices of the National Association, +large and successful conventions were held at Saratoga and Newport in +the height of the season. Of the former The Revolution said: "That a +woman suffrage convention should have been allowed to organize in the +parlors of Congress Hall, that those parlors should have been filled to +their utmost capacity by the habitual guests of the place, that such +men as ex-President Fillmore, Thurlow Weed, George Opdyke and any +number of clergymen from different parts of the country, should have +been interested lookers-on, are significant facts which may well carry +dismay to the enemies of the cause. That the whole convention was +conducted by women in a dignified, orderly and business-like manner, is +a strong intimation that in spite of all which has been said to the +contrary, women are capable of learning how to manage public affairs." + +The following comment was made by Mrs. Stanton on the Newport +convention: "So, obeying orders, we sailed across the Sound one bright +moonlight night with a gay party of the 'disfranchised,' and found +ourselves quartered on the enemy the next morning as the sun rose in +all its resplendent glory. Although trunk after trunk--not of +gossamers, laces and flowers, but of suffrage ammunition, speeches, +petitions, resolutions, tracts, and folios of The Revolution--had been +slowly carried up the winding stairs of the Atlantic, the brave men and +fair women, who had tripped the light fantastic toe until the midnight +hour, slept heedlessly on, wholly unaware that twelve apartments were +already filled with the strong-minded invaders.... The audience +throughout the convention was large, fashionable and as enthusiastic as +the state of the weather would permit." + +The Fourth of July was celebrated by the association in a beautiful +grove in Westchester county, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton, Judge E.D. +Culver and others making addresses. Weekly meetings of as many of its +members as were in New York were held at the Woman's Bureau, a large +number of practical questions relating to women were brought forward, +and there was constant agitation and discussion. A note from the tax +collector called forth this indignant answer from Miss Anthony: + + I have your polite note informing me that as publisher of The + Revolution, I am indebted to the United States in the sum of $14.10 + for the tax on monthly sales of that journal. Enclosed you will + find the amount, but you will please understand that I pay it under + protest. The Revolution, you are aware, is a journal the main + object of which is to apply to these degenerate times the great + principle for which our ancestors fought, that taxation and + representation should go together. I am not represented in the + United States government, and yet it taxes me; and it taxes me, + too, for publishing a paper the chief purpose of which is to rebuke + the glaring inconsistency between its professions and its + practices. Under the circumstances, the federal government ought to + be ashamed to exact this tax of me.... + +On September 10 Miss Anthony attended the Great Western Woman Suffrage +Convention at Chicago, where she spoke several times and was cordially +received. She was the guest of Mrs. Kate N. Doggett, founder of the +Fortnightly Club. From here she went to the St. Louis convention, +October 6 and 7, which was especially distinguished because of the +resolutions presented by Francis Minor, a prominent lawyer of that +city, with an argument to prove that, under the Fourteenth Amendment, +women already had a legal right to vote. These were supported by his +wife, Virginia L. Minor, in a strong speech. They were the first thus +to interpret this amendment. Ten thousand extra copies of The +Revolution containing the resolutions and this speech were published, +laid on the desk of every member of Congress, sent to the leading +newspapers and circulated throughout the country. For a number of years +the National Suffrage Association held to this construction of the +amendment, until it was decided to the contrary by the Supreme Court of +the United States. + +Conventions were held in Cincinnati and Dayton, O. At the latter Miss +Anthony gave a scathing review of the laws affecting married women, the +control which they allowed the husband over the wife, children and +property, making, however, no attack upon men but only upon laws. Each +of the other speakers, all of whom were married, in turn took up the +cudgel, and proceeded to tell how good her own husband was, and to say +that if Miss Anthony only had a good husband she never would have made +that speech, but each admitted that the men were better than the laws. +In her closing remarks Miss Anthony used their own testimony against +them and created great merriment in the audience. Whenever she +commented on existing conditions or on general principles, individual +men and women were sure to rush into the fray, making a personal +application and waxing highly indignant. The Dayton Herald said of her +evening address: "She made a clear, logical and lawyerlike argument, in +sprightly language, that women being persons are citizens, and as +citizens, voters. We think that none who examine her authorities and +line of discussion can avoid her conclusions, and we are certain that +many of the ablest jurists of the land have the honor (logically and +legally) to coincide in her argument." + +In 1869 Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker came actively into the suffrage +work and proved a valuable ally. She had been much prejudiced against +Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton by newspaper reports and by the +misrepresentations of some of her acquaintances, and in order to +overcome this feeling Paulina Wright Davis arranged that the three +should visit her for several days at her home in Providence, R.I., +saying in her invitation: "I once had a prejudice against Susan B. +Anthony but am ashamed of it. I investigated carefully every charge +made against her, and I now know her to be honest, honorable, generous +and above all petty spites and jealousies." Mrs. Hooker was so +delightfully disappointed in the two ladies that she became at once and +forever their staunchest friend and advocate. To Caroline M. Severance +she wrote: + + I have studied Miss Anthony day and night for nearly a week, and I + have taken the testimony of those who have known her intimately for + twenty years, and all are united in this resume of her character: + She is a woman of incorruptible integrity and the thought of guile + has no place in her heart. In unselfishness and benevolence she has + scarcely an equal, and her energy and executive ability are bounded + only by her physical power, which is something immense. Sometimes + she fails in judgment, according to the standard of others, but in + right intentions never, nor in faithfulness to her friends. I + confess that after studying her carefully for days, and under the + shadow of ----'s letters against her, and after attending a + two-days' convention in Newport engineered by her in her own + fashion, I am obliged to accept the most favorable interpretation + of her which prevails generally, rather than that of Boston. Mrs. + Stanton, too, is a magnificent woman, and the truest, womanliest + one of us all. I have spent three days in her company, in the most + intense, heart-searching debate I ever undertook in my life. I have + handled what seemed to me to be her errors without gloves, and the + result is that I love her as well as I do Miss Anthony. I hand in + my allegiance to both as the leaders and representatives of the + great movement. + +Mrs. Hooker set about arranging a mass convention at her home in +Hartford, Conn., and upon Miss Anthony's expressing some doubt as to +being present, she wrote: "Here I am at work on a convention intended +chiefly to honor Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, and behold the +Quakeress says maybe she can not come! I won't have the meeting if you +are going to flunk. It has been a real consolation to me in this +wearisome business to think you would for once be relieved from all +responsibility and come as orator and guest. Don't fail me." + +The convention, which closed October 29, was a great success and a +State society was formed with a distinguished list of officers. The +Hartford Post gave considerable space to Miss Anthony's address, +saying: + + Miss Anthony is a resolute, substantial woman of forty or fifty, + exhibiting no signs of age or weariness. Her hair is dark, her head + well formed, her face has an expression of masculine strength. If + she were a man you would guess that she was a schoolmaster, or a + quiet clergyman, or perhaps a business man and deacon. She pays no + special attention to feminine graces, but is not ungraceful or + unwomanly. In speaking her manner is self-possessed without ranting + or unpleasant demonstrations, her tones slightly monotonous. Long + experience has taught her a candid, kindly, sensible way of + presenting her views, which wins the good will of her hearers + whether they accept them or not. She said in part: + + "How different is this from the assemblages that used to greet us + who twenty years ago commenced to agitate the enfranchisement of + woman. We begin to see the time, which we shall gladly welcome, + when we shall not be needed at the front of the battle. Of late + years, the country has been occupied in discussing the claim of man + to hold property in his fellow-man, and has decided the question in + the negative. Still another form of slavery remains to be disposed + of; the old idea yet prevails that woman is owned and possessed by + man, to be clothed and fed and cared for by his generosity. All the + wrongs, arrogances and antagonisms of modern society grow out of + this false condition of the relations between man and woman. The + present agitation rises from a demand of the soul of woman for the + right to own and possess herself. It is said that as a rule man + does sufficiently provide for woman, and that she ought to remain + content. The great facts of the world are at war with this + assumption. + + "For example, I see in the New York Herald 1,200 advertisements of + people wanting work. Upon examination, 500 of them come from women + and 300 more are from boarding-house keepers; and we may therefore + say that eight of the twelve hundred advertisements are from women + compelled to rely upon their own energies to gain their food and + clothing. Every morning from 6 to 7 o'clock you may see on the + Bowery and other great north and south avenues of New York, troops + of young girls and women, with careworn or crime-stained faces, + carrying their poor lunch half-concealed beneath a scanty shawl. If + the facts were in accordance with the common theory, we should not + see these myriads of women thus thrust out to get their living. + Society must either provide great establishments maintained by + taxation to care for women, or else the doors of all trades and + callings must be thrown wide open to them.... This woman's movement + promises an entire change of the conditions of wages and support. + The status of woman can not be materially changed while the + subsistence question remains as at present." + +Miss Anthony was entertained at the home of Governor Jewell, afterwards +Postmaster-General. One morning she went over to Mrs. Hooker's and +found all her guests at the breakfast table, Henry Ward Beecher, Wm. +Lloyd Garrison, Mrs. Severance, Mrs. Davis and others. She received a +hearty welcome and Mrs. Hooker insisted she should sit down and have a +cup of tea or coffee. Mr. Beecher joined in the entreaty, saying: "Now, +Miss Anthony, you know you have to make a big speech today. When I want +to be very effective and make people cry, I drink a cup of tea before +speaking; when I want to be very clever and make them laugh, I drink +coffee; but when I want them to cry half the time and laugh the other +half, I take a cup of each." + +In a letter to Miss Anthony after she returned home Mrs. Hooker said: +"I am astonished at the praise I receive for my part in the convention, +and humbled too, for I realize how worthy of all these pleasant and +commendatory words you and others have been all these years, and what +have you received--or rather what have you not received? Thank God, +that is all over now and you are to have blue sky and clear sailing. It +must be through suffering we enter the gates of peace." But the peace +was a long way off and the hardest struggle was yet to come! A little +later Mrs. Hooker wrote to a friend: + + I can't tell you how my heart swells--but there is present within + me one undercurrent of feeling that will come to the surface ever + and anon, viz., the wonderful dignity, strength and purity of the + early workers in this reform. I can't wait for history to do them + justice; I want to make history today, and so far as in me lies I + will do it. I have come in at the death and get a large share of + the glory, and lo, here are these, a great company, who have been + in the field for thirty years, and a whole generation has passed + them by unrecognized. Every one here says, "Our noble friend Susan + has carried the day right over the heads of all of us." Said one of + our editors, Charles Dudley Warner, a man of finest taste and + culture, when he had been praising the dignity and power of the + whole platform: "Susan Anthony is my favorite. She was the only + woman there who never once thought of herself. You could see in her + every motion and in her very silence that the cause was all she + cared for, self was utterly forgotten." + +He had indeed struck the key note to Miss Anthony's strongest +characteristic, utter forgetfulness of self, total self-abnegation, +self-sacrifice without a consciousness that it was such. Mrs. Hooker's +statement that she "had come in at the death" shows the strong faith of +most of these early workers that it would be only a brief time until +the rights they claimed would be recognized and granted; but she +herself has labored faithfully yet another thirty years without +breaking down the Chinese Wall of opposition. + +One object of Mrs. Hooker in calling this Hartford convention was to +see if she could not bring together what were now becoming known as +"the New York and Boston wings of the suffrage party," but she +comments: "We have decided to give up our attempts at reconciliation; +we have neither time nor strength to spare, and if we had, they would +probably fail." + +In December Miss Anthony went to the Dansville Sanitarium for a few +days and after her return, Dr. Kate Jackson, so widely known and loved, +wrote her: "Since your visit here, through which I obtained somewhat of +an insight into your struggles and labors, I have been in special +sympathy with you. I do admire the liberal and comprehensive spirit +which you and Mrs. Stanton show in allowing both sides of a question to +be fairly discussed in your paper, and in giving any woman who does +good work for her race in any field the credit for it, even though she +may not exactly agree with you on all points. The spirit of +exclusiveness is not calculated to push any reform among the masses.... +Our house and hearts are always open to you. I want to send you +something more than good wishes and so enclose a little New Year's gift +to you, with my love and earnest prayers for your success." + +The lovely Quaker, Sarah Pugh, wrote from Philadelphia: + + Dear Susan: Not "Dear Madam," or "Respected Friend," according to + our stately fashion, for my heart yearns too warmly toward thee and + thy work for such formality. Would it were in my power to help thee + more in thy onward way, for it must be onward even though opponents + fill it with stumbling-blocks. Lucretia Mott is firm in her + adherence to New York--not but that she can work, if the way + offers, in all organizations which labor for the same end. My + opinion of The Revolution may be expressed in what was said of + another paper: "It fights no sham battles with enemies already + defeated. It is true, good men and women not a few stumble at it, + object to it and in some cases antagonize it, but nobody despises + it. An affectation of contempt is not contempt." + +Scores of similar letters were received from the early workers in the +cause. It is unnecessary to enter further into a discussion of this +division in the ranks of the advocates of woman suffrage. The +conscientious historian must perform some unpleasant duties, hence it +could not be passed without notice. The mass of correspondence on this +question has been carefully sifted and that which would give pain to +others, even though it would magnify the subject of this work, has been +rigorously excluded. Most of the writers and those whom they criticised +have ended their labors and passed from the scene of action. No good +can be accomplished, either to the individuals or to the reform, by +inflicting these personalities upon future generations. Among earnest, +forceful, aggressive leaders of any great movement, there must arise +controversies because of these strong characteristics, but the chief +interest of mankind lies not in the individuals but in the results +which they were able to accomplish. A comparison of the position of +woman today with that which she occupied at the beginning of the +agitation in her behalf, fifty years ago, offers more eloquent +testimony to the efforts of those heroic pioneers than could be put +into words by the most gifted pen. + +[Footnote 48: It is claimed, on good authority, that Anna Dickinson was +the first to suggest that such an amendment would be required, as early +as 1866, in a consultation with Theodore Tilton and Frederick Douglass +at the National Loyalists' Convention in Philadelphia, as the only sure +method of protecting the freedmen. See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. +II, p. 327.] + +[Footnote 49: In reference to this unwarranted attack, the noted +writer, William Winter, said in the New York Tribune: + +"Noble, virtuous, honorable women are a country's greatest wealth, and +when, from petty envy or jealousy, any one attempts with private +innuendoes or public assaults to blacken a fair name which has long +stood before the nation representing a principle, it is an injury not +only to the individual but to the moral sense of the nation, and all +true people are interested in maintaining its integrity and power. +Susan B. Anthony has stood before this nation twenty years, earnestly +devoted to every good work. As a teacher in the schools of New York for +fifteen years, she bears from superintendents the highest testimonials +to her faithfulness and ability. Her noble labors in the temperance +cause are known throughout the State, and in association with the true +men and women who fought the anti-slavery battle, she was equally +faithful and earnest, finishing her work by getting up a petition for +the black man's freedom of 400,000 names--the largest ever presented in +Congress. For woman's enfranchisement her labors have been unremitting +and unwearied for the last eighteen years. She is a frank, generous, +self-sacrificing woman, of a kind, tender nature, firm principle, great +executive ability, and in every relation of life true as the needle to +the pole. Her motto has ever been, 'Let the weal and the woe of +humanity be everything to me; their praise and their blame of no +effect.'"] + +[Footnote 50: Maine 3, Vermont 1, New Hampshire 1, Massachusetts 5, +Rhode Island 2, Connecticut 1, New Jersey 7, Pennsylvania 3, Illinois +3, Ohio 3, Wisconsin 1, Minnesota 1, Missouri 3, Kansas 2, Nebraska 1, +California 5, District of Columbia 3, Washington Territory 1-46. The +remainder of the one hundred members who joined the association that +evening resided in different parts of the State of New York.] + +[Footnote 51: _President_, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. _Vice-presidents_, +Elizabeth B. Phelps, N.Y.; Anna Dickinson, Penn.; Kate N. Doggett, +Ill.; Madame Anneke, Wis.; Lucy Elmes, Conn.; Mattie Griffith Brown, +Mass.; Mrs. Nicholas Smith, Kan.; Lucy A. Snow, Maine; Elizabeth B. +Schenck, Cal.; Josephine S. Griffing, D.C.; Paulina Wright Davis, R.I.; +Mary Foote Henderson, Phoebe W. Cousins, Mo. _Corresponding +secretaries_, Laura Curtis Bullard, Ida Greeley, Adelaide Hallock. +_Recording secretaries_, Abby Burton Crosby, Sarah E. Fuller. +_Treasurer_, Elizabeth Smith Miller. _Executive committee_, Ernestine +L. Rose, Charlotte B. Wilbour, Mathilda F. Wendt, Mary F. Gilbert, +Susan B. Anthony. _Advisory counsel_, Matilda Joslyn Gage, N.Y.; Mrs. +Francis Minor, Mo.; Adeline Thomson, Penn,; Mrs. M.B. Longley, Ohio; +Mrs. J.P. Root, Kan.; Lilie Peckham, Wis.] + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY--END OF EQUAL RIGHTS SOCIETY. + +1870. + + +Conventions and conventions for fifty years, without a break, planned +and managed by one woman--was there ever a similar record? The year +1870 opened with the Second National Woman Suffrage Convention, in +Lincoln Hall, Washington, D. C., January 19. It had been advertised for +two days, but the interest was so great that it was continued through +the third day and evening. Mrs. Stanton was in the chair and the papers +united in praising the beauty, dignity and elegant attire of the women +on the platform. A long table at the Arlington Hotel was reserved for +them, and Miss Anthony relates that as they were all going into the +dining-room one day, Jessie Benton Fremont beckoned to her and when she +went over to the table where the general and she were sitting, she said +in her bright, pretty way: "Now tell me, did you hunt the country over +and pick out a score of the most beautiful women you could find to melt +the hearts of our congressmen?" + +Letters of warm approval were read from John Stuart Mill and Helen +Taylor, of England; Professor Homer B. Sprague, of Cornell University; +Bishop Simpson, of the Methodist church; Senator Matthew H. Carpenter, +and many other distinguished persons. A number of senators and +representatives addressed the meetings, as did also Hon. A.G. Riddle, +of the District of Columbia, Rev. Samuel J. May, Charlotte B. Wilbour, +Isabella Beecher Hooker, and the usual corps of well-known suffrage +speakers. Jennie Collins, the Lowell factory girl, electrified the +audience by discussing the great question from the standpoint of the +workingwomen. All the New York dailies sent women reporters, a +comparatively new feature at conventions. + +A hearing was arranged before the joint committees for the District of +Columbia, and a number of the ladies made short addresses. Mrs. Stanton +based her remarks on the unanswerable argument of Francis Minor at the +St. Louis convention a few months before, the first assertion of +woman's right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment. Miss Anthony +said: + + We are here for the express purpose of urging you to present in + your respective bodies, a bill to strike the word "male" from the + District of Columbia Suffrage Act and thereby enfranchise the women + of the District. We ask that the experiment of woman suffrage shall + be made here, under the eye of Congress, as was that of negro + suffrage. Indeed, the District has ever been the experimental + ground of each step toward freedom. The auction-block was here + first banished, slavery here first abolished, the freedmen here + first enfranchised; and we now ask that women here shall be first + admitted to the ballot. There was great fear and trepidation all + over the country as to the results of negro suffrage, and you + deemed it right and safe to inaugurate the experiment here; and you + all remember that three days' discussion in 1866 on Senator Cowan's + proposition to strike out the word "male." Well do I recollect with + what anxious hope we watched the daily reports of that debate, and + how we longed that Congress might then declare for the + establishment in this District of a real republic. But conscience + or courage or something was wanting, and women were bidden still to + wait. + + When, on that March day of 1867, the negroes of the District first + voted, the success of that election inspired Congress with + confidence to pass the proposition for the Fifteenth Amendment, and + the different States to ratify it, until it has become a fixed fact + that black men all over the nation not only may vote but sit in + legislative assemblies and constitutional conventions. We now ask + Congress to do the same for women. We ask you to enfranchise the + women of the District this very winter, so that next March they may + go to the ballot-box, and all the people of this nation may see + that it is possible for women to vote and the republic yet stand. + There is no reason, no argument, nothing but prejudice, against our + demand; and there is no way to break down this prejudice but to + make the experiment. Therefore, we most earnestly urge it, in full + faith that so soon as Congress and the people shall have witnessed + its beneficial results, they will go forward with a Sixteenth + Amendment which shall prohibit any State from disfranchising any of + its citizens on account of sex. + +A letter from Mrs. Fannie Howland in the Hartford Courant thus +describes the hearing: + + Senator Hannibal Hamlin, chairman, presented to them successively + the gentlemen of the committee, who took their seats around a long + table. Mrs. Stanton stood at one end, serene and dignified. Behind + her sat a large semicircle of ladies, and close about her a group + of her companions, who would have been remarkable anywhere for the + intellectual refinement and elevated expression of their earnest + faces. Opposite sat Charles Sumner, looking fatigued and worn, but + listening with alert attention. So these two veterans in the cause + of freedom were fitly and suggestively brought face to face. + + The scene was impressive. It was simple, grand, historic. Women + have often appeared in history--noble, brilliant, heroic women; but + _woman_ collectively, impersonally, today asks recognition in the + commonwealth--not in virtue of hereditary noblesse--not for any + excellence or achievement of individuals, but on the one ground of + her possessing the same rights, interests and responsibilities as + man. There was nothing in this gathering at the Capitol to touch + the imagination with illusion, no ball-room splendor of light, + fragrance and jewels, none of those graceful enchantments by which + women have been content to reign through brief dynasties of beauty + and briefer fealties of homage. The cool light of a winter morning, + the bare walls of a committee room, the plain costumes of everyday + use, held the mind strictly to the actual facts which gave that + group of representative men and women its moral significance, its + severe but picturesque unity. Some future artist, looking back for + a memorable illustration of this period, will put this new + "Declaration of Independence" upon canvas, and will ransack the + land for portraits of those ladies who spoke for their countrywomen + at the Capitol, and of those senators and representatives who gave + them audience. Mrs. Stanton was followed by Miss Anthony, morally + as inevitable and impersonal as a Greek chorus, but physically and + intellectually individual, intense, original, full of humor and + good nature. + +The Hearth and Home, in Photographs of our Agitators, thus depicts Miss +Anthony on this occasion: + + She is the Bismarck; she plans the campaigns, provides the + munitions of war, organizes the raw recruits, sets the squadrons in + the field. Indeed, in presence of a timid lieutenant, she sometimes + heads the charge; but she is most effective as the directing + generalissimo. Miss Anthony is a quick, bright, nervous, alert + woman of fifty or so--not at all inclined to + embonpoint--sharp-eyed, even behind her spectacles. She presides + over the treasury, she cuts the Gordian knots, and when the + uncontrollables get by the ears at the conventions, she is the one + who straightway drags them asunder and turns chaos to order again. + In every dilemma, she is unanimously summoned. As a speaker, she is + angular and rigid, but trenchant, incisive, cutting through to the + heart of whatever topic she touches. + +Mrs. Hooker wrote: "There were congratulations without stint; but +Sumner, grandest of all, approaching us said in a deep voice, really +full of emotion: 'I have been in this place, ladies, for twenty years; +I have followed or led in every movement toward liberty and +enfranchisement; but this meeting exceeds in interest anything I ever +have witnessed.'" In her weekly letter to the Independent, Mary Clemmer +wrote of this convention: + + I am glad to say that it was not mongrel--in part a dramatic + reading, in part a concert, and in part an organ advertisement; but + wholly a convention whose leaders, in dignity and intellect, were + fully the peers of the men whose councils they besieged and + arraigned. There was Mrs. Stanton--smiling, serene, and + motherly--just the woman whose hand laid upon a young man's arm, + whose voice speaking to him, could do so much to hold him back from + evil. There was Susan Anthony--anxious, earnest and importunate, + sarcastic, funny and unconventional as ever. Among all the company, + "Susan" is the most violently and the most unjustly abused. To be + sure, she can be very provocative of such speech. She sometimes has + a lawless way of talking and acting, which men think wonderfully + fascinating in a belle, but utterly unforgivable in a plain, + middle-aged woman. Moreover, "Susan's" utter abnegation to her + cause, her passion for it, sometimes carries her on to "ways and + means" not altogether tenable--in fine, she will offend your taste + and mine; but this is only the outside and a very small side of + Susan Anthony. A man, and more than a man--a woman who can deny + herself, ignore herself, for a principle, for what she believes to + be the truth, whether we believe it or not, is at least entitled to + our respect. + + Susan B. Anthony has a strong, earnest and loving nature; her + devotion to her sex is an utterly absorbing and absolute passion. + Born and nurtured a Quaker, she transgresses no prejudice, even of + education, when she stands forth everywhere and in all places the + unflinching, unwearied, never-to-be-put-down champion of woman. In + the better age, when the woman of the future shall be man's equal + in law, in education, in labor, in labor's rewards; when time shall + have softened the asperities of the present, and the crudeness of + the personal shall be buried forever in the grave, Susan B. Anthony + will live as one of the truest friends that woman ever had. + +[Autograph: Mary Clemmer] + +Sarah Pugh wrote Miss Anthony to stop over in Philadelphia and visit +Mrs. Mott and herself on her way home from Washington, adding, "We are +true to you." In accepting the invitation, Miss Anthony said: "I pray +every day to keep broad and generous towards all who scatter and +divide, and hope I may hold out to the end. The movement can not be +damaged, though some particular schemes may, by any ill-judged action. +The wheels are secure on the iron rails, and no 'National' or +'American'--no New York or Boston--assumption or antagonism can block +them. Individuals may jump on or off, yet the train is stopped thereby +but for a moment." + +A letter to her from the California association declares: "We will +split into a thousand pieces before we will prove false to you, who +have so long borne the heat and burden of the day." The heat and burden +had indeed been great, and one less strong in body and less heroic in +soul would have sunk under them. Although she was still weighed down by +the terrible financial struggle of The Revolution, the storm of +opposition which it had aroused was passing away and the old friends +and many new ones were flocking around the intrepid standard bearer, +whom neither fear nor favor could induce to swerve from the straight +line marked out by her own convictions and conscience. Miss Anthony +would soon complete a half-century, and her friends resolved to +commemorate it in a worthy manner. Handsomely engraved cards were sent +out, reading: + + The ladies of the Woman's Bureau invite you to a reception on + Tuesday evening, February 15, 1870, to celebrate the Fiftieth + Birthday of Susan B. Anthony. On this occasion her friends will be + afforded an opportunity to testify their appreciation of her twenty + years' service in behalf of woman. ELIZABETH B. PHELPS, ANNA B. + DARLING, CHARLOTTE B. WILBOUR. + +There had been hard work to persuade Miss Anthony to accept this +testimonial, but she was very happy that evening when the spacious +parlors were crowded with the leading men and women of the day. +Although her opinions and methods had been many times attacked by the +newspapers, they now united in cordial congratulations. The New York +World, in a long account, thus described the affair: + + A large number of friends and admirers of the private virtues and + public services of Miss Anthony assembled at the Woman's Bureau in + Twenty-third street last evening to congratulate the lady upon this + auspicious anniversary, and to wish her the customary "many happy + returns of the day." The parlors were dazzling with light, the + atmosphere laden with perfume, the walls covered with beautiful + works of art, and the sweet sounds of women's laughter and silvery + voices filled the apartments. Miss Susan B. Anthony stood at the + entrance of the front parlor to receive her numerous friends. She + wore a dress of rich shot silk, dark red and black, cut square in + front, with a stomacher of white lace and a pretty little cameo + brooch. All female vanities she rigorously discarded--no hoop, + train, bustle, panier, chignon, powder, paint, rouge, patches, no + nonsense of any sort. From her kindly eyes and from her gentle + lips, there beamed the sweetest smiles to all those loving friends + who, admiring her really admirable efforts in the cause of human + freedom, her undaunted heroism amid a dark and gloomy warfare, were + glad to press her hand and show their appreciation of her character + and achievements. + +Every daily paper in the city had some pleasant comment, while scores +of loving and appreciative letters were received. Accompanying these +were many beautiful gifts and also checks to the amount of $1,000.[52] + +[Illustration: + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY + AT THE AGE OF 50, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY SARONY.] + +After the guests had assembled, Isabella Beecher Hooker announced that +Anna T. Randall would read a poem written for the occasion by Phoebe +Gary.[53] She was followed by Mrs. Hooker, who read some delightfully +humorous verses from her husband, John Hooker, dedicated to Miss +Anthony. There were more poetical tributes, recitations by Sarah Fisher +Ames and other well-known elocutionists, and then a call for the +recipient of all these honors. Miss Anthony stepped forward, completely +overwhelmed and, after stammering her thanks for the unexpected ovation +of the evening, said in a voice which broke in spite of her +self-control: "If this were an assembled mob opposing the rights of +women I should know what to say. I never made a speech except to rouse +people to action. My work is that of subsoil plowing.... I ask you +tonight, as your best testimony to my services, on this, the twentieth +anniversary of my public work, to join me in making a demand on +Congress for a Sixteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote, and +then to go with me before the several legislatures to secure its +ratification; and when the Secretary of State proclaims that that +amendment has been ratified by twenty-eight States, then Susan B. +Anthony will stop work--but not before." + +When all was over, before she slept, Miss Anthony wrote this +characteristically tender little note to the one who never was absent +from her mind: + + MY DEAR MOTHER: It really seems tonight as if I were parting with + something dear--saying good-by to somebody I loved. In the last few + hours I have lived over nearly all of life's struggles, and the + most painful is the memory of my mother's long and weary efforts to + get her six children up into womanhood and manhood. My thought + centers on your struggle especially because of the proof-reading of + Alice Gary's story this week. I can see the old home--the + brick-makers--the dinner-pails--the sick mother--the few years of + more fear than hope in the new house, and the hard years since. And + yet with it all, I know there was an undercurrent of joy and love + which makes the summing-up vastly in their favor. How I wish you + and Mary and Hannah and Guelma could have been here--and yet it is + nothing--and yet it is much. + + My constantly recurring thought and prayer now are that the coming + fraction of the century, whether it be small or large, may witness + nothing less worthy in my life than has the half just closed--that + no word or act of mine may lessen its weight in the scale of truth + and right. + +Then there is the bare mention of a luncheon a few days before with +Alice and Phoebe Cary, Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Hooker. What a treat would +have been a resume of the conversation of that gifted quintette of +women! + +Mrs. Stanton was ill and could not attend the reception, which was a +great disappointment to Miss Anthony. They had shared so much trouble +that she felt most anxious they should share this one great pleasure. +In the diary at midnight is recorded: "Fiftieth birthday! One +half-century done, one score years of it hard labor for bettering +humanity--temperance--emancipation--enfranchisement--oh, such a +struggle! Terribly stormy night, but a goodly company and many, many +splendid tributes to my work. Really, if I had been dead and these the +last words, neither press nor friends could have been more generous and +appreciative." + +This beautiful anniversary was a sweet oasis in the severe monotony of +a life which had been filled always with hard work, criticism and +misrepresentation, although it was only a public expression of the +numerous and strong friendships which had been many times manifested in +private. The birthday celebration served also to disprove the +oft-repeated assertion that all women conceal their age, but though +Miss Anthony made this frank avowal of her fifty years, there was +scarcely a newspaper which did not introduce its comments with the +usual silly and threadbare remarks. + +After the people began to recover in a social, intellectual and +financial way from the effects of the Civil War, the lyceum bureau +became a marked feature in literary life. The principal bureaus were in +New York, Boston and Chicago. Their managers engaged the best speakers +and each season marked out a route, made the appointments, advertised +extensively and sent them throughout the country. They paid excellent +prices, assuming all responsibility, and engagements with them were +considered very desirable. Under the management of the New York bureau, +Mrs. Stanton began a tour in November, 1869. Miss Anthony at this time, +while well-known from one end of the country to the other, had not +gained a reputation as a platform orator. She thoroughly distrusted her +own power to make a sustained speech of an entire evening, and at all +conventions had placed others on the program for the principal +addresses, presided herself, if necessary, and kept everything in +motion. + +By the winter of 1870, however, the bureau began to receive +applications from all parts of the United States for lectures from her, +and Mrs. Stanton being ill for a month, Miss Anthony went as her +substitute. She proved so acceptable that in February, March and April +she was engaged by the bureau for many places in Pennsylvania, Ohio, +Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, and received a considerable sum for her +services, besides securing a number of subscribers and some liberal +donations for The Revolution. In her journal she speaks of the good +audiences, the enthusiasm and the many prominent callers at most of the +places. At Mattoon she had a day and a night with Anna Dickinson and +wrote: "I found her the most weary and worn I had ever seen her, and +desperately tired of the lecture field. Her devotion to me is +marvelous. She is like my loving and loved child." + +At Peoria, the editor of the Democratic paper stated that the laws of +Illinois were better for women than for men. Colonel Robert G. +Ingersoll, whom she never had seen, was in the audience, and sent a +note to the president of the meeting, asking that Miss Anthony should +not answer the editor but give him that privilege. He then took up the +laws, one after another, and, illustrating by cases in his own +practice, showed in his eloquent manner how cruelly unjust they were to +women and proved how necessary it was that women should have a voice in +making them. He also offered the following resolution, which was +unanimously adopted: "We pledge ourselves, irrespective of party, to +use all honorable means to make the women of America the equals of men +before the law." + +In Detroit Rev. Justin Fulton occupied one evening in opposition to +woman suffrage, and Miss Anthony replied to him the next. An audience +of a thousand gathered in Young Men's Hall at each meeting. The Free +Press had a most scurrilous review of the debate in which it said: + + The speakeress rattled on in this strain until a late hour, saying + nothing new, nothing noble, not a word that would give one maid or + mother a purer or better thought. She drew no pictures of love in + the household--she did not seem to think that man and wife could + even stay under the same roof. She was not content that any woman + should be a bashful, modest woman, but wanted them to be like her, + to think as she thought.... People went there to see Susan B. + Anthony, who has achieved an evanescent reputation by her strenuous + endeavors to defy nature. Not one woman in a hundred cares to vote, + cares aught for the ballot, would take it with the degrading + influences it would surely bring.... Old, angular, sticking to + black stockings, wearing spectacles, a voice highly suggestive of + midnight Caudleism at poor Anthony, if he ever comes around, though + he never will. If all woman's righters look like that, the theory + will lose ground like a darkey going through a cornfield in a light + night. If she had come out and plainly said, "See here, ladies, see + me, I am the result of twenty years of constant howling at man's + tyranny," there would never have been another "howl" uttered in + Detroit. Or, if she had plainly said, in so many words, "I am going + to lecture on bosh, for the sake of that almighty half-dollar per + head--take it as bosh," people would have admired her candor, + though forming the same conclusions without her assistance.... + +Myra Bradwell, the able editor of the Chicago Legal News, paid the +following tribute: "Miss Anthony is terribly in earnest on this +suffrage question. We fully agree with her that the great battle-ground +in the first instance should be in Congress.... She is now fifty, and +the best years of her life have been devoted solely to the cause of +woman. She has never turned aside from this object but has always been +in the field, defending her principles against all assaults with an +ability which has not only won the admiration of her friends but the +respect of her enemies." + +She made many new acquaintances on this tour, and one entry in the +diary is: "Quite a novel feature this--to have people quarrel as to who +shall have the pleasure of entertaining me as their guest!" She +returned to New York on Saturday, April 30, and on Sunday the diary +says: "Spent the day at Mrs. Tilton's and heard Beecher preach a +splendid sermon on 'Visiting the Sins of the Parents on the Children.'" + +Various friends of the woman suffrage cause had decided that something +must be done to unite the two national organizations. An editorial in +the Independent to this effect was followed by a call for a conference +to meet at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, April 6, signed by Theodore Tilton, +Phoebe Cary, Rev. John Chadwick and a number of others. The meeting was +duly held, and the venerable Lucretia Mott, who now rarely left home, +came all the way from Philadelphia to use her influence toward a +reconciliation. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton were lecturing in the +West and the former telegraphed: "The entire West demands united +national organization for the Sixteenth Amendment, this very +congressional session, and so does Susan B. Anthony." Mrs. Stanton +wrote to the conference: "I will do all I can for union. If I am a +stumbling-block I will gladly resign my office. Having fought the world +twenty years, I do not now wish to turn and fight those who have so +long stood together through evil and good report. I should be glad to +have all united, with Mr. Beecher or Lucretia Mott for our general.... +I am willing to work with any and all or to get out of the way +entirely, that there may be an organization which shall be respectable +at home and abroad." + +The representatives of the American Association insisted that they had +offered the olive branch at the time of their organization and it had +been refused. This olive branch had been a suggestion that the National +Association should consider itself a local society and become auxiliary +to the American. After a protracted but fruitless discussion of over +four hours, they withdrew from the room, declining to accept or to +suggest any overtures. The proposition made by the callers of the +conference was that the two associations should merge into one, with a +new constitution embodying the best features of both, and with a board +of officers elected from the two existing organizations. Even the +friendly offices of Lucretia Mott, which never before were disregarded, +failed to effect a union, and the many letters from mutual friends were +equally ineffective. In her regular letter to The Revolution Miss +Anthony said: + + There is but one feeling all through this glorious West, and that + is that it is a sin to have a divided front at this auspicious + moment. Since my last I have had splendid meetings in Quincy, + Farmington, Elwood, Mendota, Peru, La-Salle, Batavia, Peoria and + Champaign in Illinois, and in Sturgis and Jonesvine, Michigan. I + can tell you with emphasis that the fields are white unto + harvest--waiting, waiting only the reapers. And it is a shame--it + is a crime--for any of the old or new public workers to halt by the + way to pluck the motes out of their neighbors' eyes. Not one of us + but has blundered; yet if only we are in earnest, each will + forgive, in the faith that the others, like herself, mean right. + How any one can stand in the way of a united national organization + at an hour like this, is wholly inexplicable. + +Just before the May Anniversary Mrs. Stanton published the following +card in The Revolution: "It is a great thing for those who have been +prominent in any movement to know when their special work is done, and +when the posts they hold can be more ably filled by others. Having, in +my own judgment, reached that time, at the present anniversary of our +association I must forbid the use of my name for president or any other +official position in any organization whatsoever." + +The anniversary had been advertised for Irving Hall, but when it was +found that colored people would not be admitted to that building, it +was changed to Apollo Hall, and opened May 10 with Mrs. Stanton +presiding. At the business meeting in the afternoon, with +representatives present from nineteen States, the proposition of the +conference committee was considered. According to the report in The +Revolution there was much feeling on the part of the younger women +against any organization which did not have Miss Anthony and Mrs. +Stanton at the head, but at their earnest request, made in the interest +of harmony, it was finally voted to accept the name Union Woman +Suffrage Society, and Mr. Tilton for president. + +On May 14, 1870, the Saturday after the suffrage convention, a number +of the old Equal Rights Association came together at a called meeting +in New York, which is thus described in The Revolution of May 19: + + One of the most interesting as well as important events of the past + week, was the transfer of the American Equal Rights Association to + the new Union Woman Suffrage Society. This was done on Saturday in + the spacious parlors of Mrs. Margaret E. Winchester in Gramercy + Place, Mrs. Stanton occupying the chair in the absence of the + president, Lucretia Mott. Henry B. Blackweil presented this + resolution: + + "WHEREAS, The American Equal Rights Association was organized in + 1866 in order to secure equal rights to all American citizens, + especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color, or + sex; and, _whereas_, Political distinctions of race are now + abolished by the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth + Amendments; and _whereas_, Arrangements have been made by the + formation of woman suffrage associations for the advocacy of the + legal and political rights of women as a separate question; and, + _whereas_, An unnecessary multiplication of agencies for the + accomplishment of a common object should always be avoided; + therefore + + "_Resolved,_ That we hereby declare the American Equal Eights + Association dissolved and adjourned sine die." + + Parker Pillsbury offered the following as a substitute: + + "WHEREAS, At a meeting of the executive committee held in Brooklyn, + March 3, 1870, it was voted, on motion of Oliver Johnson, that 'it + is inexpedient to hold any public anniversary of the American Equal + Rights Association, and that in our judgment it is expedient to + dissolve said body; but as we have no authority to effect such + dissolution, an informal business meeting of the association be + held in New York, during the coming anniversary week, to consider + and act upon this subject; and on motion of Lucy Stone, it was + voted that this business meeting be held on Saturday, May 14, 1870, + at 10 A.M., at the home of Mrs. Margaret E. Winchester;' therefore + + "_Resolved,_ That instead of terminating our existence as an + association, we do hereby transfer it, together with all its books, + records, reports or whatsoever appertains to it, and unite it with + the Union Woman Suffrage Society, organized in New York, May 10, + 1870." + + A long and earnest discussion succeeded.... At last, after two + hours, the vote was reached by the previous question, with this + result: + + For dissolution, Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell--2. For transfer, + Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Parker Pillsbury, Susan B. Anthony, + Theodore Tilton, Paulina Wright Davis, Phoebe W. Couzins, Edwin A. + Studwell, Mrs. Studwell, Mrs. John J. Merritt, Mrs. Robert Dale + Owen, Margaret E. Winchester, Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, Charlotte B. + Wilbour, Eleanor Kirk, Jennie Collins, Elizabeth B. Phelps, Miss + Chichester, Mrs. S.B. Morse--18. + +Thus ended the existence of the American Equal Rights Association, +formed in May, 1866, for the purpose of securing to negroes and women +the rights of citizenship. These having been obtained for the negro +men, women were left the only class denied equality, and the question +therefore became simply one of woman's rights. + +At the first anniversary of the American Woman Suffrage Association, +the next November, which also was held in Cleveland, this letter was +presented: + + FRIENDS AND CO-WORKERS: We, the undersigned, a committee appointed + by the Union Woman Suffrage Society in New York, May, 1870, to + confer with you on the subject of merging the two organizations + into one, respectfully announce: + + 1st. That in our judgment no difference exists between the objects + and methods of the two societies, nor any good reason for keeping + them apart. 2d. That the society we represent has invested us with + full power to arrange with you a union of both under a single + constitution and executive. 3d. That we ask you to appoint a + committee of equal number and authority with our own, to consummate + if possible this happy result. + + Yours, in the common cause of woman's enfranchisement, Isabella + Beecher Hooker, Samuel J. May, Charlotte B. Wilbour, Josephine S. + Griffing, Laura Curtis Bullard, Gerrit Smith, Sarah Pugh, Frederick + Douglass, Mattie Griffith Brown, James W. Stillman--Theodore + Tilton, ex officio. + +The acceptance of this proposition was strongly urged by Judge +Bradwell, of Chicago, and the committee on resolutions recommended "the +appointment of a committee of conference, of like number with the one +appointed by the Union Suffrage Society with a view to the union of +both organizations." After a spirited discussion, this resolution was +rejected. The National Association, having exhausted all efforts for +reconciliation and union, never thereafter made further overtures. Two +distinct organizations were maintained, and there were no more attempts +at union for twenty years. + +[Footnote 52: For selections from newspapers and letters and the list +of presents see Appendix.] + +[Footnote 53: + + We touch our caps, and place to night + The victor's wreath upon her. + The woman who outranks us all + In courage and in honor. + + While others in domestic broils + Have proved by word and carriage, + That one of the United States + Is not the state of marriage, + + She, caring not for loss of men, + Nor for the world's confusion, + Hap carried on a civil war + And made a "Revolution." + + True, other women have been brave, + When banded or hus-banded, + But she has bravely fought her way + Alone and single-handed. + + And think of her unselfish life, + Her generous disposition, + Who never made a lasting prop + Out of a proposition. + + She might have chose an honored name, + and none had scorned or hissed it; + Have written Mrs. Jones or Smith, + But, strange to say, she Missed it. + + For fifty years to come may she + Grow rich and ripe and mellow, + Be quoted even above "par," + "Or any other fellow;" + + And spread the truth from pole to pole, + and keep her light a-burning + Before she cuts her stick to go + To where there's no returning. + + Because her motto grand hath been + The rights of every human + And first and last, and right or wrong, + She takes the part of woman. + + "A perfect woman, nobly planned," + To aid, not to amuse one: + Take her for all in all, we ne'er + Shall see the match of Susan. +*/] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +END OF REVOLUTION--STATUS OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE. + +1870. + + +Immediately after the Suffrage Anniversary in May, 1870, Miss Anthony +and Mrs. Stanton decided to call a mass meeting of women to discuss the +questions involved in the McFarland-Richardson trial, which had set the +country ablaze with excitement. The case in brief was that McFarland +was a drunken, improvident husband, and his wife, Abby Sage, was +compelled to be the breadwinner for the family, first as an actress and +later as a public reader. She was a woman of education, refinement and +marked ability, and enjoyed an intimate friendship with some of the +best families of New York. Boarding in the same house with her was +Albert D. Richardson, a prominent newspaper man, a stockholder in the +Tribune and a special favorite of Mr. Greeley. He befriended Mrs. +McFarland, protected her against the brutality of her husband and +learned to love her. It was understood among their mutual friends that +when she was legally free they would be married. She secured her +divorce; and a few days later McFarland walked into the Tribune office, +shot and fatally wounded Richardson. Some hours before he died, Mrs. +McFarland was married to him, Revs. Henry Ward Beecher and O.B. +Frothingham officiating, in the presence of Mr. Greeley and several +other distinguished persons. McFarland was tried, acquitted on the +ground of insanity, given the custody of their little son and allowed +to go free. + +Press and pulpit were rent with discussions and, although the general +verdict was that if McFarland were insane he should be placed under +restraint and not permitted to retain the child, Mrs. Richardson was +persecuted in the most cruel and unmerciful manner. The women of New +York especially felt indignant at the result of the trial. Miss Anthony +offered to take the responsibility of a public demonstration, with Mrs. +Stanton to make the address. She sent out 3,000 handsome invitations to +the leading women of the city. Before the meeting a number of +cautionary letters were received, of which this from Miss Catharine +Beecher will serve as a sample: + + I am anxious for your own sake and for the sake of "our good + cause," that you should manage wisely your very difficult task. + There is a widespread combination undermining the family state, and + we need to protect all the customs as well as the laws that tend to + sustain it. In doing this, we need to discriminate between what is + in bad taste and evil in its tendencies, and what is in direct + violation of a moral law. The custom that requires a man to wait a + year after the death of one wife before he takes another, it is + usually in bad taste and inexpedient to violate, but there are + cases in which such violation is demanded and is lawful. + + But the law of marriage demanding that in _no_ case a man shall + seek another wife while his first one lives is always imperative. + Then the question of divorce arises, and here the Lord of morality + and religion, who sees the end from the beginning, has decided that + only one crime can justify it. A woman may separate from her + husband for abuse or drunkenness and not violate this law, but + neither party can marry again without practically saying, "I do not + recognize Jesus Christ as the true teacher of morals and religion." + If Mrs. McFarland were sure she could prove adultery, she was + morally free to marry again; but could she be justified on any + other ground without denying the authority of the Lord Jesus + Christ? Is not here a point where you need to be very cautious and + guarded? + + I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you on Tuesday at Apollo + Hall. Very truly and affectionately your friend. + +The following account is taken from The Revolution: + + On May 17, long before the hour appointed, Apollo Hall was filled. + Ministers had preached and editors written their ambiguous views on + the justice of the McFarland verdict. Reporters had interviewed the + murderer and described (probably from imagination) the conduct and + statements of Mrs. Richardson. John Graham had informed a gaping + public what should be and what was the opinion of every decent + woman in New York in regard to the guilt of this heart-broken + widow, thus making it extremely difficult to feel the actual state + of the public pulse on this all-important subject. Mrs. Stanton's + lecture clearly expressed the convictions of the intelligent and + right-minded. Never before in the annals of metropolitan history + had there been such an assemblage of women, and it was an equally + noticeable fact that they were the earnest, deep-thinking women of + the times.[54] + + Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton were greeted with the heartiest + applause, and as soon as silence was obtained, the former said it + was the first time in her life that she had addressed a public + audience composed exclusively of women, and it was natural that she + should feel somewhat embarrassed under circumstances so peculiar. + This quaint observation brought down the house. After a few more of + her downright and invigorating remarks, she introduced Mrs. + Stanton, who was robed in quiet black, with an elegant lace shawl + over her shoulders and her beautiful white hair modestly ornamented + with a ribbon. Her appearance was very motherly and winning. Great + applause followed her address, and as she took her seat Celia + Burleigh read the resolutions adopted on Monday by Sorosis, which + were heartily reaffirmed by all present. After remarks by Miss + Anthony, Jenny June Croly, Mrs. Robert Dale Owen, Eleanor Kirk and + others, a petition to Governor Hoffman, asking that McFarland be + placed in an insane asylum, was enthusiastically endorsed. + +So great was the desire that a similar meeting was held in Brooklyn. +These assemblies threw the newspaper's into convulsions of horror that +modest and shrinking women should dare discuss such questions, advocate +the same moral standard for both sexes, criticise judge, jury and laws, +and demand a different kind of justice from that which men were in the +habit of dealing out. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton came in for their +usual lion's share of censure, but they had so long offered themselves +as a vicarious sacrifice that they had learned to take criticism and +abuse philosophically. For weeks afterwards, however, they received +letters from unhappy wives in all parts of the country, thanking them +for their attitude in this affair, and pouring out the story of their +own wretchedness. + +Miss Anthony had little time to think about either the reproof or the +approval, for the next day after this meeting saw the beginning of one +of the most sorrowful tragedies in her life--the giving up of The +Revolution! The favorable financial auspices under which it was +launched have been described, and an imperfect idea given of the storm +of opposition it encountered because of the alliance with Mr. Train. He +put into the paper about $3,000 and severed his connection with it +after sixteen months. Mr. Melliss continued his assistance for nearly +the same length of time, contributing altogether $7,000. He was its +staunch supporter as long as his means would allow, but at length +became apprehensive that it never would reach a paying basis and, as he +was not a man of wealth, felt unable to advance more money. + +From a pecuniary point of view things looked very dark for The +Revolution. Every newspaper, in its early days, swallows up money like +a bottomless well. The Revolution had started on an expensive basis; +its office rent was $1,300 per annum; it was printed on the best of +paper, which at that time was very costly; typesetting commanded the +highest prices. Partly as a matter of pride and partly for the interest +of the paper, Miss Anthony was not willing to reduce expenses. At the +end of the first year The Revolution had 2,000, and at the end of the +second year 3,000 bona fide, paying subscribers, but these could not +sustain it without plenty of advertising, and advertisers never lavish +money on a reform paper. Mr. Pillsbury's valuable services were given +at a minimum price, Mrs. Stanton received no salary and Miss Anthony +drew out only what she was compelled to use for her actual expenses. +She was exhausted in mind and body from the long and relentless +persecution of those who once had been her co-workers, but to the world +she showed still the old indomitable spirit. Her letters to friends and +relatives at this time, appealing for funds to carry on the paper, are +heart-breaking. A dearly loved Quaker cousin, Anson Lapham, of +Skaneateles, loaned her at different times $4,000. To him she wrote: + + My paper must not, shall not go down. I am sure you believe in me, + in my honesty of purpose, and also in the grand work which The + Revolution seeks to do, and therefore you will not allow me to ask + you in vain to come to the rescue. Yesterday's mail brought + forty-three subscribers from Illinois and twenty from California. + We only need time to win financial success. I know you will save me + from giving the world a chance to say, "There is a woman's rights + failure; even the best of women can't manage business." If I could + only die, and thereby fail honorably, I would say "amen," but to + live and fail--it would be too terrible to bear. + +To Francis G. Shaw, of Staten Island, who sent $100, she wrote: "I +wonder why it is that I must forever feel compelled to take the rough +things of the world. Why can't I excuse myself from the overpowering +and disagreeable struggles? I can not tell, but after such a day as +yesterday, my heart fails me--almost. Then I remember that the promise +is to those only who hold out to the end--and nerve myself to go +forward. I am grateful nowadays for every kind word and every dollar." +On the back is inscribed: "My pride would not let me send this, and I +substituted merely a cordial note of thanks." Her letters home during +this dark period are too sacred to be given to the public. The mother +and sisters were distressed beyond expression at the merciless +criticism and censure with which she had been assailed, and begged her +to withdraw from it all to the seclusion of her own pleasant home, but +when she persisted in standing by her ship, they aided her with every +means in their power. Her sister Mary loaned her the few thousands she +had been able to save by many years' hard work in the schoolroom, and +the mother contributed from her small estate. + +Her brother Daniel R., a practical newspaper man, assured her that he +was ready at any time to be one of a stock company to support the +paper, but that it was useless to sink any more money in the shape of +individual subscriptions. He urged her to cut down expenses, make it a +semi-monthly or monthly if necessary, but not to go any more deeply in +debt, saying: "I know how earnest you are, but you stand alone. Very +few think with you, and they are not willing to risk a dollar. You have +put in your all and all you can borrow, and all is swallowed up. You +are making no provision for the future, and you wrong yourself by so +doing. No one will thank you hereafter. Although you are now fifty +years old and have worked like a slave all your life, you have not a +dollar to show for it. This is not right. Do make a change." Her sister +Mary spent all her vacation in New York one hot summer looking after +the business of the paper, while Miss Anthony went out lecturing and +getting subscribers. After returning home she wrote: + + You can not begin to know how you have changed, and many times + every day the tears would fill my eyes if I allowed myself a moment + to reflect upon it. I beg of you for your own sake and for ours, do + not persevere in this work unless people will aid you enough to do + credit to yourself as you always have done. Make a plain statement + to your friends, and if they will not come to your rescue, go down + as gracefully as possible and with far less indebtedness than you + will have three months from now. It is very sad for all of us to + feel that you are working so hard and being so misunderstood, and + we constantly fear that, in some of your hurried business + transactions, your enemies will delight to pick you up and make you + still more trouble. + +At this time, in a letter to Martha C. Wright, Mr. Pillsbury said: +"Susan works like a whole plantation of slaves, and her example is +scourge enough to keep me tugging also." With her rare optimism, Miss +Anthony never gives up hoping, and on January 1, 1870, writes to Sarah +Pugh: "The year opens splendidly. December brought the largest number +of subscriptions of any month since we began, and yesterday the largest +of any day. So the little 'rebel Revolution' doesn't feel anything but +the happiest sort of a New Year." + +A movement was begun for forming a stock company of several wealthy +women, on a basis of $50,000, to relieve Miss Anthony of all financial +responsibility, making her simply the business manager. Paulina Wright +Davis already had given $500, and January 1, 1870, her name appeared as +corresponding editor. Isabella Beecher Hooker took the liveliest +interest in the paper and was very anxious that it should be continued. +She devised various schemes for this purpose and finally decided that +her sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and herself would give The +Revolution their personal influence and that of their large circle of +friends, by putting their names on the staff of editors. Early in +December, 1869, she sent the following: + + We will give our names as corresponding editors for your paper for + one year and agree to furnish at least six articles apiece and also + to secure an original article from some friend every other week + during the year. We agree to do this without promised compensation, + but on the condition that you will change the name of the paper to + The True Republic, or something equally satisfactory to us; and + that you will pay us equally for this service according to your + ability, you yourself being sole judge of that. + + H.B. STOWE, I.B. HOOKER. + +This was written while they were in New York City, and on her way home +Mrs. Hooker wrote, while on board the train, an enthusiastic letter +regarding details of the work, ending, after she arrived: "I give you +my hand upon it. I have read the above to my two Mentors, and they +approve in the main." In a few days, she said in a long letter: + + I wish Mrs. Stanton's "editorial welcome" to us might be in the + dignified style of her best essays or speeches, not in the least + gossipy or familiar, but stately and full of womanly presence. She + ought to have a copy of Mrs. Stowe's editorial the moment it is + written, for approval and suggestion. If Mr. Pillsbury would stay + for a month or two and initiate Phoebe Cary, and we all work well + as we mean to, I think she might get on.... I shall go to the + Washington convention to work, not to speak. Tilton should be + secured by all means--his wife, too. Our parlor needs her demure, + motherly, angelic sweetness, as much as our platform needs him. + These little, quiet, domestic women are trump cards, nowadays. I + wish we had a whole pack of them.... Mr. Burton will hunt up a + capital motto or heading, and he will write, I am sure. Mrs. Jewell + met me in the street and said, "Is it true that you and Mrs. Stowe + are going to help The Revolution?" I told her what we proposed and + she was much delighted. + +In reply to a letter asking her opinion, Mrs. Stanton wrote: "As for +changing the name of The Revolution, I should consider it a great +mistake. We are thoroughly advertised under the present title. There is +no other like it, never was, and never will be. The establishing of +woman on her rightful throne is the greatest of revolutions. It is no +child's play. You and I know the conflict of the last twenty years; the +ridicule, persecution, denunciation, detraction, the unmixed bitterness +of our cup for the last two, when even friends have crucified us. We +have so much hope and pluck that none but the Good Father knows how we +have suffered. A journal called 'The Rose-bud' might answer for those +who come with kid gloves and perfumes to lay immortelle wreaths on the +monuments which in sweat and tears we have hewn and built; but for us, +and that great blacksmith of ours who forges such red-hot thunderbolts +for Pharisees, hypocrites and sinners, there is no name but The +Revolution." + +Miss Anthony consulted many newspaper men and all advised against the +proposed change, saying that experience had shown this to be fatal to a +paper. Acting upon this advice, and also upon her own strong +convictions, she decided to retain the original title. Meanwhile, +tremendous pressure had been brought to bear upon Mrs. Hooker and Mrs. +Stowe not to identify themselves with The Revolution. After Mrs. +Stowe's salutatory had been prepared, Mrs. Hooker wrote as follows: + + I think the name should not be changed. If you change it in + deference to our wishes and against good advice, it would lay an + obligation on us that we could ill endure. Already I was feeling + uneasy under the thought, and Mrs. Stowe actually said to me that + she should prefer greatly to write as contributor and would do just + as much work as if called editor. She settled down on consenting to + be corresponding editor; and Mrs. Davis and I will be assistant + editors. I will write for The Revolution and work for it just as + hard as I can, sending out a circular through Connecticut asking + contributions to it. + + Later--Since reading Mrs. Stanton on the Richardson-McFarland case, + I feel disinclined to be associated with her in editorial work. I + want to say this very gently; but I have no time for + circumlocution.... + +[Autograph: Alice Cary] + +The promised contributions did not materialize, and The Revolution +received no aid of any description. The struggle was bravely continued +throughout the first five months of 1870. The Cary sisters were devoted +friends of Miss Anthony and deeply interested in the paper, and some of +their sweetest poems had appeared in its columns. Their beautiful home +was just three blocks below The Revolution office, and she spent many +hours with them. These frequent calls, breakfasts and luncheons were +much more delightful to her than their Sunday evening receptions, +although at those were gathered the writers, artists, musicians, +reformers and politicians of New York, besides eminent persons who +happened to be in the city. It was a literary center which never has +been equalled since those lovely and cultured sisters passed away. In +her lecture on "Homes of Single Women," Miss Anthony thus describes one +of her visits: + +[Autograph: Phoebe Cary] + + I shall never forget the December Sunday morning when a note came + from Phoebe asking, "Will you come round and sit with Alice while I + go to church?" Of course I was only too glad to go; and it was + there in the cheery sick-room, as I sat on a cushion at the feet of + this lovely, large-souled, clear-brained woman, that she told me + how ever and anon in the years gone by, as she was writing her + stories for bread and shelter, her pen would run off into facts and + philosophies of woman's servitude that she knew would ruin her book + with the publishers, but which, for her own satisfaction, she had + carefully treasured, chapter by chapter, as her heart had thus + overflowed. "I am now," she said, "financially free, where I could + write my deepest and best thought for woman, and now I must die. O, + how much of my life I have been compelled to write what men would + buy, not what my heart most longed to say, and what a clog to my + spirit it has been." + + As she sat there, reading from those chapters, her sweet face, her + lustrous eyes, her musical voice all aglow as with a live coal from + off the altar, I said: "Alice, I must have that story for The + Revolution!" "But I may never be able to finish it," she objected. + "We'll trust to Providence for that," I replied; and the last five + months of The Revolution carried The Born Thrall to thousands of + responsive hearts. But, alas, nature gave way and she was never + well enough to put the finishing touches to those terribly + true-to-life pictures of the pioneer wife and mother. + +The poetry for The Revolution was selected by Mrs. Tilton, who had rare +literary taste and discrimination. The exquisite child articles, +entitled "Dot and I" and signed Faith Rochester, were written by +Francis E. Russell. It had a corps of foreign correspondents, among +them the English philanthropist, Rebecca Moore. The distinguished list +of contributors and the broad scope of The Revolution may be judged +from its prospectus for 1870.[55] The chances of its paying expenses, +however, did not increase, and the hoped-for stock company never was +formed. Mr. Pillsbury had been most anxious for the past year to be +released from his editorial duties, and had remained only because he +could not bear to desert the paper in its distress. Mrs. Stanton, +engaged in the lecture field, had sent only an occasional article, and +now declined to continue her services longer without a salary. One +person who stood by Miss Anthony unflinchingly through all this trying +period was the publisher, R.J. Johnston, who never once failed in +prompt and efficient service, and gave the most conscientious care to +the make-up of the paper. Although her indebtedness to him finally +reached the thousands, he remained faithful up to the printing of the +very last number, and his was the first debt she paid out of the +proceeds of her lyceum lectures. + +When Mrs. Phelps had opened the Woman's Bureau and invited The +Revolution to take an office therein, Miss Anthony had warned her that +it might keep other organizations of women away; but she was willing to +take the risk. It resulted as prophesied. Not even the strong-minded +Sorosis would have its clubrooms there, nor would any other society of +women, and after a year's experiment, she gave up her project, rented +the building to a private family and The Revolution moved to No. 27 +Chatham street. The generous Anna Dickinson, because of her friendship +for Miss Anthony, presented Mrs. Phelps with $1,000, as a recompense +for any loss she might have sustained through The Revolution. Mrs. +Phelps being very ill that winter, added a codicil to her will giving +Miss Anthony $1,000 to show that she had only the kindest feelings for +her. + +At the beginning of 1870, a stock company was formed and the Woman's +Journal established in Boston. Mrs. Livermore merged her Chicago paper, +the Agitator, into this new enterprise (as she had proposed to do into +The Revolution the year previous) removed to Boston and became +editor-in-chief; Lucy Stone was made assistant editor and H.B. +Blackwell business manager. This paper secured the patronage of all +those believers in the rights of women who were not willing to accept +the bold, fearless and radical utterances of The Revolution. The latter +had exhausted the finances of its friends and had no further resources. +The strain upon Miss Anthony, who alone was carrying the whole burden, +was terrible beyond description. Never was there a longer, harder, more +persistent struggle against the malice of enemies, the urgent advice of +friends, against all hope, than was made by this heroic woman. As the +inevitable end approached she wrote of it to Mrs. Stanton, who +answered: "Make any arrangement you can to roll that awful load off +your shoulders. If Anna Dickinson will be sole editor, I say, glory to +God! Leave me to my individual work, the quiet of my home for the +summer and the lyceum for the winter.... Tell our glorious little Anna +if she only will nail her colors to that mast and make the dear old +proprietor free once more, I will sing her praises to the end of time." + +Anna Dickinson very wisely concluded that she was not suited for an +editor. Laura Curtis Bullard was much interested in reform work, +possessed of literary ability and very desirous of securing The +Revolution. Theodore Tilton, who was editing the New York Independent +and the Brooklyn Daily Union, promised to assist her in managing the +paper. Miss Anthony at last agreed to let her have it, and on May 22, +1870, the formal transfer was made. She received the nominal sum of one +dollar, and assumed personally the entire indebtedness. She had this +dollar alone to show for two and a half years of as hard work as ever +was performed by mortal, besides all the money she had earned and +begged which had gone directly into the paper. During that time $25,000 +had been expended, and the present indebtedness amounted to $10,000 +more. + +Miss Anthony could not view this giving up of The Revolution so +philosophically as did Mrs. Stanton; she was of very different +temperament. Into this paper she had put her ambition, her hope, her +reputation. The stronger the opposition, the firmer was her +determination not to yield, nor was it a relief to be rid of it. She +would have counted no cost too great, no work too hard, no sacrifice +too heavy, could she but have continued the publication. Not only was +it a terrible blow to her pride, but it wrung her heart. She could bear +the triumph of her enemies far better than she could the giving up of +the means by which she had expected to accomplish a great and permanent +good for women and for all humanity. On the evening of the day when the +paper passed out of her hands forever, she wrote in her diary, "It was +like signing my own death-warrant;" and in a letter to a friend she +said, "I feel a great, calm sadness like that of a mother binding out a +dear child that she could not support." To the public she kept the same +brave, unruffled exterior, but in a private letter, written a short +time afterwards, is told in a few sentences a story which makes the +heart ache: + + My financial recklessness has been much talked of. Let me tell you + in what this recklessness consists: When there was need of greater + outlay, I never thought of curtailing the amount of work to lessen + the amount of cash demanded, but always doubled and quadrupled the + efforts to raise the necessary sum; rushing for contributions to + every one who had professed love or interest for the cause. If it + were 20,000 tracts for Kansas, the thought never entered my head to + stint the number--only to tramp up and down Broadway for + advertisements to pay for them. If to meet expenses of The + Revolution, it was not to pinch clerks or printers, but to make a + foray upon some money-king. None but the Good Father can ever begin + to know the terrible struggle of those years. I am not complaining, + for mine is but the fate of almost every originator or pioneer who + ever has opened up a way. I have the joy of knowing that I showed + it to be possible to publish an out-and-out woman's paper, and + taught other, women to enter in and reap where I had sown. + + Heavy debts are still due, every dollar of which I intend to pay, + and I am tugging away, lecturing amid these burning suns, for no + other reason than to keep pulling down, hundred by hundred, that + tremendous pile. I sanguinely hope to cancel this debt in two years + of hard work, and cheerfully look forward to the turning of every + possible dollar into that channel. If you today should ask me to + choose between the possession of $25,000 and the immense work + accomplished by my Revolution during the time in which I sank that + amount, I should choose the work done--not the cash in hand. So, + you see, I don't groan or murmur--not a bit of it; but for the good + name of humanity, I would have liked to see the moneyed men and + women rally around the seed-sowers. + +Parker Pillsbury wrote her after he returned home: "No one could do +better than you have done. If any complain, ask them what they did to +help you carry the paper. I am glad you are relieved of a load too +heavy for you to bear. Worry yourself no more. Work of course you will, +but let there be no further anxiety and nervousness. Suffrage is +growing with the oaks. The whirling spheres will usher in the day of +its triumph at just the right time, but your full meed of praise will +have to be sung over your grave." + +The motto of The Revolution, "The True Republic--Men, their rights and +nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less," was succeeded by +"What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." It was +transformed into a literary and society journal, established in elegant +headquarters at Brooklyn, inaugurated with a fashionable reception, and +conducted by Mrs. Bullard for eighteen months, when she tired of it, or +her father tired of advancing money, and it passed into other hands. + +When Miss Anthony had her accounts audited by an expert, he stated that +The Revolution was in a better financial condition than was the New +York Independent at the end of its first five years. She had just begun +to realize her power as a lyceum lecturer and was in constant demand at +large prices. The last two months before giving up the paper, she sent +in from her lectures, above all her expenses, $1,300. She always felt +that, with this source of revenue, she could have sustained and in time +put it on a paying basis, as her subscription list was rapidly +increasing, she had learned the newspaper business, and The Revolution +was gaining the confidence of the public. But the experience came too +late and she was driven to the wall--not a single friend would longer +give her money, assistance or encouragement to continue the paper. To +this day, she will take up the bound volumes with caressing fingers, +touch them with pathetic tenderness, and pore over their pages with +loving reverence, as one reads old letters when the hands which penned +them are still forever. + +Miss Anthony did not waste a single day in mourning over her great +disappointment. In fact, between May 18, when she agreed to give up The +Revolution, and May 22, when the transfer actually was made, she went +to Hornellsville and lectured, receiving $150 for that one evening. +There are not many instances on record where a woman starts out alone +to earn the money with which to pay a debt of $10,000. Very few of the +advocates of woman suffrage contributed a dollar toward the payment of +this debt, which had nothing in it of a personal nature but had been +made entirely in the effort to advance the cause. Miss Anthony worked +unceasingly through winter's cold and summer's heat, lecturing +sometimes under private auspices, sometimes under those of a bureau, +and herself arranging for unengaged nights. As she had all her expenses +to pay and continued to contribute from her own pocket whenever funds +were needed for suffrage work, it was six years before "she could look +the whole world in the face for she owed not any man." + +She started at once on a western tour, lecturing through Ohio, Kansas +and Illinois, speaking in the Methodist church at Evanston, June 3, +1870. Dr. E.O. Haven, president of the university, (afterwards Bishop) +in presenting her endorsed woman suffrage. At Bloomington she held a +debate with a young professor from the State Normal School. The manager +asked if she would take $100 instead of half the receipts, as agreed +on. She replied that if the prospects were so good as to warrant him in +making this offer, she was just Yankee enough to take her chances. This +was a shrewd decision, as her half amounted to $250. The professor +opposed the enfranchisement of women because they could not fight. As +is the case invariably with men who make this objection, he was a very +diminutive specimen, and Miss Anthony could not resist observing as she +commenced her speech: "The professor talks about the physical +disabilities of women; why, I could take him in my arms and lift him on +and off this platform as easily as a mother would her baby!" Of course +this put the audience in a fine humor. + +In every place she was entertained by representative people and +received many social courtesies. She returned to Rochester July 27, +spent just twelve hours at home, then hastened eastward, travelling by +night in order to reach the Saratoga convention on the 28th. This was +held under the auspices of the New York State Association, and managed +by the secretary, Matilda Joslyn Gage. Miss Anthony was paid $100, for +the first time in the history of conventions. Mrs. Gage wrote: "She is +heavily burdened with debt, no one has made so great sacrifices all +these years, and she deserves the money." During the summer she sent to +a friend in England this summing up of the condition of the suffrage +movement in the United States: + + The secret of the present inaction is that all our best suffrage + men are in the Republican party and must keep in line with its + interests, make no demands beyond its possibilities, its safety, + its sure success. Hence, just now, while that party is trembling + lest it should fall into the minority, and thus give place to the + Democracy in 1872, it dares not espouse woman suffrage. So our + friends quietly drop our demand on Congress for a Sixteenth + Amendment, since to press that body to a vote would compel the + Republican members to show their hands; and if those who have in + private spoken for woman suffrage should not make a false public + record, the number in favor would commit the majority of their + party to our question; and by so doing give its opponents fresh + opportunity to appeal to the ignorant masses, which must inevitably + throw it out of power. The extension of the ballot to woman is a + question of intelligence and culture, and is sure to have enrolled + against it every narrow, prejudiced, small-brained man in all + classes. This being the state of things, our movement is at a + dead-lock. Practical action, political action, therefore, is almost + hopeless until after the presidential election of 1872; and after + that for still another four years, unless the Republican party + should be defeated and the Democracy come into power. + + Just as soon as the Republicans are out of power, they will betake + themselves to the study of principles and begin to preach and + promise. Hence I devoutly pray without ceasing for the overthrow of + that purse-proud, corrupt, cowardly party; not that I expect from + the Democracy anything better than their antecedents promise, but + that I know such chastisement, such retirement, is the only means + by which conscience and courage can be injected into the heads and + hearts of the Republicans, the only way to make them see the + political necessity of enfranchising the women of the country, and + thereby securing their gratitude and through it their vote to place + and hold that party in power. + + Then as to our woman suffrage organizations: There are first, the + Cleveland movement with all the strategy and maneuvering of its + semi-Republican managers, assented to and accepted by the women in + their train; then the Fifth Avenue Union Committee affair, which + seems not less likely to be under Republican man-power. With Mrs. + Stanton's utter refusal to stand at the helm of the National, and + our merging it into the Union Society, and with my transferring The + Revolution to the new company--we, E.C.S. and S.B.A., have let slip + from our hands all control of organizations and newspapers; thus + leaving them, I fear, to drift together into the management of mere + politicians. All are lulled into the strictest propriety of + expression, according to the gospel of St. Republican. And unless + that saint shall enact some new and more blasphemous law against + woman, which shall wake our confiding sisterhood into a sense of + their befoolment, you will neither see nor hear a word from + suffrage society or paper which will be in the slightest out of + line with the plan and policy of the dominant party. Nothing less + atrocious to woman than was the Fugitive Slave Law to the negro, + can possibly sting the women of this country into a knowledge of + their real subserviency, and out of their sickening sycophancy to + the Republican politicians associated with them. + + So while I do not pray for anybody or any party to commit outrages, + still I do pray, and that earnestly and constantly, for some + terrific shock to startle the women of this nation into a + self-respect which will compel them to see the abject degradation + of their present position; which will force them to break their + yoke of bondage, and give them faith in themselves; which will make + them proclaim their allegiance to woman first; which will enable + them to see that man can no more feel, speak or act for woman than + could the old slaveholder for his slave. The fact is, women are in + chains, and their servitude is all the more debasing because they + do not realize it. O, to compel them to see and feel, and to give + them the courage and conscience to speak and act for their own + freedom, though they face the scorn and contempt of all the world + for doing it! + +Not another woman possessed this strong grasp of the whole situation, +this deep comprehension of the abject condition of women, the more +hopeless because of their own failure to feel or resent it. + +During the summer Miss Anthony attended the National Labor Congress in +Philadelphia. A great strike of bookbinders had been in progress in New +York and she had advised the women to take the vacant places. They were +denied admission to all labor unions and their only chance of securing +work was when the men and their employers disagreed. This gave a +pretext for those who were opposed to a representation of women in +labor conventions, and a bitter fight was made upon accepting her as a +delegate. Charges of every description were preferred against her which +she refuted in a spirited manner, but her credentials were finally +rejected. The newspapers took up the fight on both sides, the +opposition to Miss Anthony being led by the New York Star, always +abusive where the question of woman's rights was concerned. During this +controversy the Utica Herald contained a disgraceful editorial, saying: + + Who does not feel sympathy for Susan Anthony? She has striven long + and earnestly to become a man. She has met with some rebuffs, but + has never succumbed. She has never done any good in the world, but + then she doesn't think so. She is sweet in the eyes of her own + mirror, but her advanced age and maiden name deny that she has been + so in the eyes of others. Boldly she marched, and well, into the + presence of 200 horrid male delegates of the Labor Congress, and + took somebody's seat.... Susan felt very much like a grizzly bear + unable to get at its tormentor. She had gone to the length of her + chain and couldn't get her claws into any one's hair. She could + only sit and glare. + + At length Susan's case came up for consideration, and the congress + committed the crowning act of rashness and, without a thought of + the consequences, made an everlasting enemy of Susan Anthony by + ruling her out of the convention as a delegate. This was the + unkindest cut of all. "A lone, lorn old critter," with whom + everything "goes contrairie," was denied the solace of being + counted the one-two-hundreth part of a man by a labor convention! + We may well believe that Susan wept with sorrow at the blindness of + man, and our sympathy if not our tears is freely offered. But so + goes the world. This is not the first time that "man's inhumanity + to woman" has made Miss Anthony mourn and, as it is not her first + rebuff, we counsel her to seek admission again to the ranks of her + sex, and cease to cast reproach upon it by struggling to be a man. + +When some of the women remonstrated, the editor replied that he had not +supposed there was one woman in Utica who believed in equal rights. + +Paulina Wright Davis had been actively arranging for a great convention +in New York to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the first woman's +rights convention in Massachusetts, which was held at Worcester, in +October, 1850. That one had been managed almost wholly by Mrs. Davis +and she had presided over its deliberations, therefore it seemed proper +for her to be the central figure in celebrating its second decade. The +New England suffrage people declined to take part in this meeting and, +for some reason, Mr. Tilton's Union Society was decidedly averse to it. +Mrs. Davis finally became ill from anxiety and overwork and joined her +entreaties to Mrs. Stanton's that Miss Anthony should drop her lectures +and come to New York; so she started for that city September 30, +determined that Mrs. Davis' scheme should not be a failure. The entries +in her journal give some idea of her energetic and unwearied action: + + As soon as I reached New York I went to Dr. Lozier's for lunch, + then to see Mrs. Phelps. All in despair about the decade meeting. + Went at once to consult Alice and Phoebe Cary; from them to Mrs. + Winchester, found her just home from Europe; then to Julia Brown + Bemis, and thence to Murray street to see Mr. Studwell; then to + Tenafly on the evening train.... Back to New York the next morning, + to Tilton's, to Curtis', to Mrs. Wilbour's, and then to Providence + to see Mrs. Davis. Beached there late at night, woke her up and we + talked till morning. She was terribly distressed at the thought of + giving up the decade and in the morning I telegraphed to New York + that it _must_ go on.... Went there by first train, had all the + newspaper notices of its abandonment countermanded and new ones put + in, and an item sent out by Associated Press. Too late for last + train to Tenafly and had to hire a carriage to take me there. + +Her time was then divided between working on speeches with Mrs. Stanton +and rushing over to New York to prepare for this meeting. On October 19 +she writes: "Ground out the resolutions, and took the afternoon train +for the city. Met Martha Wright and Mrs. Davis at the St. James Hotel." + +There was a great reception the next afternoon in the hotel parlors, +and the convention met at Apollo Hall, October 21, the whole of the +arrangements having been made in three weeks. Mrs. Davis presided, +everybody had been brought into line and it was a notable gathering. +Cordial and approving letters to Mrs. Davis were read from Jacob +Bright, Canon Kingsley, Frances Power Cobbe, Emily Faithfull, Mary +Somerville, Emelie J. Meriman (afterwards the wife of Pere Hyacinthe), +and other distinguished foreigners. Miss Anthony spoke strongly against +their identifying themselves with either of the parties until it had +declared for woman suffrage, urging them to accept every possible help +from both but to form no alliance, as had been proposed. The feature of +the occasion was "The History of the Woman's Rights Movement for Twenty +Years," carefully prepared by Mrs. Davis.[56] In addition to this +valuable work, she contributed $300 to the expenses of the meeting. It +was an unqualified success and her letters were full of warmest +gratitude to Miss Anthony. + +In November the latter resumed her lecturing tour which was arranged by +Elizabeth Brown, who had been her head clerk in The Revolution office. +The first of December she attended the Northwestern Woman Suffrage +Convention at Detroit. Here she received a telegram to hasten home and +arrived just in time to stand by the death-bed of a dear nephew, Thomas +King McLean, twenty-one years old, brother of the beloved Ann Eliza who +had died a few years before, and only son of her sister Guelma. He was +a senior of brilliant promise in Rochester University. His death was a +heavy blow to all the family and one from which his mother never +recovered. + +With her debts pressing upon her and an array of lecture engagements +ahead, Miss Anthony could neither pause to indulge her own grief nor to +console and sympathize with the loved ones. The very night of the +funeral she again set forth. By the New Year she had lessened her debt +$1,600. This trip extended through New York and Pennsylvania, to +Washington and into Virginia. Of the last she writes: "A great work to +be done here but the lectures can not possibly be made to pay +expenses." In Philadelphia she spoke in the Star course, was the guest +of Anna Dickinson and was introduced to her audience by Lucretia Mott, +then seventy-seven years old. The diary relates that Mrs. Mott came +next morning before 8 o'clock to give her $20, saying it was very +little but would show her confidence and affection. The lecture given +on this tour was entitled "The False Theory" and was highly commended +by the press. It never was written and probably never twice delivered +in the same words, Miss Anthony always depending largely upon the +inspiration of the occasion. + +The middle of December she slipped back to Rochester to see her +bereaved sister, and speaks of their receiving a letter of sympathy +from Rev. J.K. McLean, which, she says, "is the first philosophical +word that has been spoken." While at home she was invited to the +Hallowells' to see Wendell Phillips, their first meeting since their +sad difference of opinion concerning the Fourteenth Amendment. They had +a cordial interview and she went with him to his lecture in the +evening. The entry in the journal that night closes with the +underscored sentence, "Phillips is matchless." + +[Footnote 54: On the platform or in the audience were to be seen the +beloved Quaker, Mrs. John J. Merrit, of Brooklyn, Margaret E. +Winchester, Mrs. Theodore Tilton, Mrs. Edwin A. Studwell, Catharine +Beecher--her plain face illuminated with the fire of indignation--Jenny +June Croly, writing rapidly for the New York World, Cora Tappan, Hannah +Tracy Cutler, president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, Phoebe +Couzins, Mrs. Benjamin F. Butler, Mrs. James Parton, better known as +Fanny Fern, Charlotte B. Wilbour, Elizabeth B. Phelps, two nieces of +Mrs. U. S. Grant, Laura Curtis Bullard. Frances Dietz Hallock, Ella +Dietz Clymer, Anne Lynch Botta, Mary F. Gilbert, Mrs. Moses Beach, +Julia Ward Howe, and many other well-known women.] + +[Footnote 55: The demands for woman everywhere today are for a wider +range of employment, higher wages, thorough mental and physical +education, and an equal right before the law in all those relations +which grow out of the marriage state. While we yield to none in the +earnestness of our advocacy of these claims, we make a broader demand +for the enfranchisement of woman, as the only way in which all her just +rights can be permanently secured. By discussing, as we shall +incidentally, leading questions of political and social importance, we +hope to educate women for an intelligent judgment upon public affairs, +and for a faithful expression of that judgment at the polls. + +As masculine ideas have ruled the race for six thousand years, we +especially desire that The Revolution shall be the mouth piece of +women, to give the world the feminine thought in politics, religion and +social life; so that ultimately in the union of both we may find the +truth in all things. On the idea taught by the creeds, codes and +customs of the world, that woman was made for man, we declare war to +the death, and proclaim the higher truth that, like man, she was +created by God for individual moral responsibility and progress here +and forever. + +Our principal contributors this year are: Anna Dickinson, Isabella +Beecher Hooker, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Alice and Phoebe Cary, Olive +Logan, Mary Clemmer, Mrs. Theodore Tilton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Phoebe +Couzins, Elizabeth Boynton and others; and foreign, Rebecca Moore, +Lydia E. Becker and Madame Marie Goeg. + +The Revolution is an independent journal, bound to no party or sect, +and those who write for our columns are responsible only for what +appears under their own names. Hence, if old Abolitionists and +Slaveholders, Republicans and Democrats, Presbyterians and +Universalists, Catholics and Protestants find themselves side by side +in writing on the question, of woman suffrage, they must pardon each +other's differences on all other points, trusting that by giving their +own views strongly and grandly, they will overshadow the errors by +their side.] + +[Footnote 56: Frances Wright, from Scotland, in 1828 was the first +woman to speak on a public platform in this country. Ernestine L. Rose, +from Poland, gave political lectures in 1836; Mary S. Gove, of New +York, lectured oil woman's rights in 1837; Sarah and Angelina Grimke, +from South Carolina, commenced their anti-slavery speeches in 1837, and +Abby Kelly, of Massachusetts, in 1839; Eliza W. Farnham, of New York, +lectured in 1843; between 1840 and 1845 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Paulina +Wright (afterwards Davis) and Ernestine L. Rose circulated petitions +for a bill to secure property rights for married women, and several +times addressed committees of the New York Legislature; Margaret Fuller +gave lectures in Massachusetts, in 1845; Lucy Stone spoke for the +rights of women in 1847. The first woman's rights convention was called +by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright and Mary Ann +McClintock, at Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848; Susan B. Anthony made her +first speech on temperance in 1849. From 1850 the number of women +speakers rapidly increased.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +MRS. HOOKER'S CONVENTION--THE LECTURE FIELD. + +1871. + + +A large correspondence was conducted in regard to the Third National +Convention, which was to be held in Washington in January, 1871. +Isabella Beecher Hooker, who had all the zeal of a new convert, created +some amusement among the old workers by offering to relieve them of the +entire management of the convention, intimating that she would avoid +the mistakes they had made and put the suffrage work on a more +aristocratic basis. To Mrs. Stanton she wrote: + + I have proposed taking the Washington convention into my own hands, + expenses and all; arranging program, and presiding or securing help + in that direction, if I should need it. I shall hope to get Robert + Collyer, and a good many who might not care to speak for "the + Union" but would speak for me. I should want from you a pure + suffrage argument, much like that you made before the committee at + Washington last winter. I know you are tired of this branch, but + you are fitted to do a great work still in that direction.... Won't + you promise to come to my convention, without charge save + travelling expenses, provided I have one? I am waiting to hear from + Susan, Mrs. Pomeroy and you, and then shall get Tilton's approval + and the withdrawal of the society from the work, if they have + undertaken it, and go ahead. + +Mrs. Stanton consented gladly and wrote the other friends to do +likewise, saying: "I should like to have Susan for president, as she +has worked and toiled as no other woman has, but if we think best not +to blow her horn, then let us exalt Mrs. Hooker, who thinks she could +manage the cause more discreetly, more genteelly than we do. I am ready +to rest and see the salvation of the Lord." On their rounds the letters +came to Martha Wright, the gentle Quaker, who commented with the fine +irony of which she was master: "It strikes me favorably. It would be a +fine thing for Mrs. Hooker to preside over the Washington convention, +while her sister, Catharine Beecher, was inveighing against suffrage, +for the benefit of Mrs. Dahlgren and others. Perhaps she is right in +thinking that Robert Collyer and a good many others who would not care +to speak for 'the Union,' would speak for her--I for one would be glad +to have her try it! If 'Captain Susan' would consent to be placed at +the head of the association, there could not be a more suitable and +just appointment." + +Mrs. Stanton wrote that her lecture engagements would not permit her to +go to Washington and she would send $100 instead. Mrs. Hooker replied: + + Your offer just suits me, and of myself I should accept $100 with + thankfulness, and excuse you, as you desire, but Susan looked + disgusted and said, "She must appear before the Congressional + committees, at any rate." I had not thought of that, but of course, + if you were in Washington, it would be absurd not to be on our + platform; and so I don't know what to say. You will talk more + forcibly than any one else, and in committee you are invaluable. + Still, I want your money, and I could do without you on the + platform.... I fully expect, to accomplish far more by a convention + devoted to the purely political aspect of the woman question, than + by a woman's rights convention, however well-managed; and this, + because the time has come for this practical work--discussion has + prepared the way, now we must have the thing, the vote itself. It + just occurs to me that you might write an argument for the + committee, which I would read, but of course your presence is most + desirable, and I incline to have you on hand for this last, great + effort; for it does seem to me that _we need not have another + convention_ in Washington, but only a select committee to work + privately every winter, and send for speakers, etc., when the + committees are ready to grant hearings. + +It is the part of wisdom to suppress Mrs. Stanton's reply to this, but +she sent it to Martha Wright, who answered her: + + You can imagine what success Mrs. Hooker will have with those wily + politicians. She thinks they will come serenely from their seats to + the lobby, when she tries "all the means known to an honest woman." + I fear the means known to _the other sort_ would meet a readier + response. I forget which of the senators it was, last winter, who + said rudely to Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Griffing, "You just call us out + because you like to."... Mrs. Hooker will find it no easy matter to + hook them on to _her_ platform, but she will be wiser after trying. + She is mistaken in considering the cause so nearly won, but it + would be as impossible for her to realize the situation as it was + for Rev. Thomas Beecher to be convinced that Mr. Smith saw more + clearly than he. "Do you mean," said this potentate, "to bring down + the whole Beecher family on your head?" "No," was the reply, "do + you mean to bring the whole Smith family on to yours?" + +The following circular letter was sent to Curtis, Phillips and other +prominent men: + + A convention has been announced at Washington, for January 11 and + 12, to push the Sixteenth Amendment. The management is solely in my + hands, and I alone assume the financial responsibility. I go to + Washington January 1 to spend some days enlisting members of + Congress in this purely political question, and securing short + speeches from them on our platform. I have neither State nor + national society behind me, but am attempting to carry on a + convention with this single aim--to awaken Congress and, through + it, the country, to the fact that a Sixteenth Amendment is needed, + in order to carry out the principles of the Declaration of + Independence; and that we women are tired of petitioning, and would + fain begin to vote without delay. Will you speak for _me_ in the + day or the evening, and much oblige your sincere friend, ISABELLA + B. HOOKER. + +Evidently they would not speak, even "for me," and Mrs. Hooker sends +around this note of explanation to the "old guard:" "I know of no +gentlemen outside of members of Congress, that can help us at all, who +can come. Beecher, Collyer, Curtis and Phillips are all unable. If you +think of any one else it would be worth while to invite, please write +me at once. I have such a strong determination that members shall +understand how much we are in earnest at this time, and how we won't +wait any longer, that it does seem to me they will take up a burden of +speech themselves, and work also. Mr. Sewall, of Boston, writes me that +he will urge Mr. Sumner, as I requested, and other members, but thinks +they can not need it." + +Miss Anthony, however, declined to be snubbed, subdued or displaced, +and wrote to Mrs. Stanton in the following vigorous style: + + Mrs. Hooker's attitude is not in the least surprising. She is + precisely like every new convert in every reform. I have no doubt + but each of the Apostles in turn, as he came into the ranks, + believed he could improve upon Christ's methods. I know every new + one thought so of Garrison's and Phillips'. The only thing + surprising in this case is that you, the pioneer, should drop, and + say to each of these converts: "Yes, you may manage. I grant your + knowledge, judgment, taste, culture, are all superior to mine. I + resign the good old craft to you altogether." To my mind there + never was such suicidal letting go as has been yours these last two + years. + + But I am now teetotally discouraged, and shall make no more + attempts to hold you up to what I know is not only the best for our + cause, but equally so for yourself, from the moral standpoint if + not the financial. O, how I have agonized over my utter failure to + make you feel and see the importance of standing fast and holding + the helm of our good ship to the end of the storm. Mr. Greeley's + "On to Richmond" backdown was not more sad to me, not half so sad. + How you can excuse yourself, is more than I can understand. + +Mrs. Stanton commented to Mrs. Wright: "For your instruction in the +ways of the world, I send you Susan's letter. You see I am between two +fires all the time. Some are determined to throw me overboard, and she +is equally determined that I shall stand at the masthead, no matter how +pitiless the storm." + +Mrs. Hooker found hers was a greater task than she had anticipated and +finally wrote Miss Anthony: "God knows, and you ought to know, that any +one who undertakes a convention has put self-seeking one side and is +nearer to being a martyr, stake, fagots and all, than any of us care to +be unless called by duty with a loud and unmistakable call. I shirked +the labor last year and pitied you because so much fell upon you, and +out of pure love to you and to the cause determined this time to take +all I could on my own shoulders, but you must come and help out." + +Mrs. Stanton still persisted in her determination not to go to this +convention but Miss Anthony cancelled eight or ten lecture engagements, +at from $50 to $75 each, in order to be present in person and see that +the affair was properly managed. Mrs. Hooker, however, was fully equal +to the occasion, her convention was a marked success and she proved to +be one of the most valuable acquisitions to the ranks of workers for +woman suffrage. She soon learned that the opposition to be overcome was +far greater than she had imagined, and after nearly thirty years' +effort, not even in her own State have women been able to secure their +enfranchisement. It seems, however, a bit of poetic justice that this +convention, which was to lift the movement for woman suffrage to a +higher plane than it ever before had occupied, should have been the +first to invite to its platform Victoria C. Woodhull, whose advent +precipitated a storm of criticism compared to which all those that had +gone before were as a summer shower to a Missouri cyclone. + +[Illustration: Isabella Beecher Hooker] + +On December 21, 1870, Mrs. Woodhull had gone to Washington with a +memorial praying Congress to enact such laws as were necessary for +enabling women to exercise the right to vote vested in them by the +Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This was +presented in the Senate by Harris, of Louisiana, and in the House by +Julian, of Indiana, referred to the judiciary committees and ordered +printed. She had taken this action without consulting any of the +suffrage leaders and they were as much astonished to hear of it as were +the rest of the world. When they arrived at the capital another +surprise awaited them. On taking up the papers they learned that Mrs. +Woodhull was to address the judiciary committee of the House of +Representatives the very morning their convention was to open. Miss +Anthony hastened to confer with Mrs. Hooker, who was a guest at the +home of Senator Pomeroy, and to urge that they should be present at +this hearing and learn what Mrs. Woodhull proposed to do. Mrs. Hooker +emphatically declined, but the senator said: "This is not politics. Men +never could work in a political party if they stopped to investigate +each member's antecedents and associates. If you are going into a +fight, you must accept every help that offers." + +Finally they postponed the opening of their convention till afternoon +and, on the morning of January 11, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Hooker, Paulina +Wright Davis and Hon. A. G. Riddle appeared in the judiciary committee +room. None of them had met Mrs. Woodhull, whom they found to be a +beautiful woman, refined in appearance and plainly dressed. She read +her argument in a clear, musical voice with a modest and engaging +manner, captivating not only the men but the ladies, who invited her to +come to their convention and repeat it. Mrs. Hooker and Judge Riddle +also addressed the committee and Miss Anthony closed the proceedings +with a short speech, thus reported by the Philadelphia Press: + + She said few women had persecuted Congress as she had done, and she + was glad that new, fresh voices were heard today. "But, gentlemen," + she continued, "I entreat you to bring this matter before the + House. You let our petition, presented by Mr. Julian last winter, + come to its death. I ask you to grant our appeal so that I can lay + off my armor, for I am tired of fighting. The old Constitution did + not disfranchise women, and we begged you not to put the word + 'male' into the Fourteenth Amendment. I wish, General Butler, you + would say _contraband_ for us. But, gentlemen, bring in a report of + some kind, either for or against; don't let the matter die in + committee. Make it imperative that every man in the House shall + show whether he is for or against it." Mrs. Hooker caught the + refrain as Miss Anthony sat down, and said: "Pledge yourselves that + we shall have a hearing before Congress." + +The Daily Patriot, of Washington, gave this account of the opening of +the convention: + + About 3 o'clock the principal actors came upon the stage in Lincoln + Hall. In the center of the front row was Paulina Wright Davis, a + stately, dignified lady with a full suit of frosted hair. On her + right was Isabella Beecher Hooker, the ruling genius of the + assembly, of commanding voice and look, and evidently at home on + the rostrum. On the left was Josephine S. Griffing, of this city, + wearing the calm, imperturbable expression which is so eminently + her characteristic. Further on was Susan B. Anthony, "the hero of a + hundred fights," but still as eager for the fray as when she first + enlisted under the banner of woman's rights.... Then came the two + New York sensations, Woodhull and Claflin, both in dark dresses, + with blue neckties, short, curly brown hair, and nobby Alpine hats, + the very picture of the advanced ideas they are advocating. All + were fresh from the scene of their contest in the Capitol, wreathed + with smiles, flushed with victory, and evidently determined to let + the world know that the goal of their ambition was nearly reached; + that Congress had virtually surrendered at discretion, and + hereafter they were to be considered part and parcel of that great + body denominated American citizens. + + Mrs. Hooker introduced Victoria Woodhull, saying it was her first + attempt at public speaking, but her heart was so in the movement + that she was determined to try. She advanced to the front of the + platform, but was so nervous that she required the assuring arm of + the president and her kindly voice to give her courage to proceed. + When she did, it was with a perceptible tremor in her tones. After + an apology, she read her memorial, which had been presented to the + judiciary committee, reported the result of her interview with + them, and said she had the assurance that it would be favorably + reported, and that the heart of every man in Congress was in the + movement. Thus ended the first effort of the great Wall street + broker as a public speaker. + +She was followed by Josephine S. Griffing, Lillie Devereux Blake, +Frederick Douglass and others. Judge Riddle made the address of the +evening. Senator Nye, of Nevada, presided over one evening session; +Senator Warner, of Alabama, over one; and Senator Wilson, of +Massachusetts, over another. The correspondent of the Philadelphia +Press wrote: "Mrs. Woodhull sat sphynx-like during the convention. +General Grant himself might learn a lesson of silence from the pale, +sad face of this unflinching woman. No chance to send an arrow through +the opening seams of her mail.... She reminds one of the forces in +nature behind the storm, or of a small splinter of the indestructible; +and if her veins were opened they would be found to contain ice." The +National Republican thus describes one session: + + The attendance yesterday morning clearly demonstrated that the + woman's movement has received an immense addition in numbers, + quality and earnestness.... Miss Anthony, with her face all aglow, + her eyes sparkling with indignation, said that a petition against + suffrage had been presented in the Senate by Mr. Edmunds, signed by + Mrs. General Sherman, Mrs. Admiral Dahlgren and others. She was + glad the enemies of the movement at last had shown themselves. They + were women who never knew a want, and had no feeling for those who + were less fortunate. They had boasted that if necessary they could + get one thousand more signatures of the best women in the land to + their petition. What are a thousand names, and who are the best + women in the land? In answer to the one thousand the advocates of + suffrage could bring tens, aye, hundreds of thousands of women who + desire the ballot for self-protection. The fight had now commenced + in earnest, and it would not be ended until every woman in this + broad land was vested with the full rights of citizenship. + +The tenor of all the speeches was the right of women to vote under the +recently adopted Fourteenth Amendment. There was an absence of the +usual long series of resolutions, and all were concentrated in the +following, presented by Miss Anthony: + + Whereas, The Fourteenth Article of the Constitution of the United + States declares that all persons born or naturalized in the United + States are citizens thereof, and of the State wherein they reside, + and as such entitled to the unabridged exercise of the privileges + and immunities of citizens, among which are the rights of the + elective franchise; therefore + + _Resolved_, That the Congress of the United States be earnestly + requested to pass an _act declaratory_ of the true extent and + meaning of the said Fourteenth Article. + + _Resolved_, That it is the duty of American women in the several + States to apply for registration at the proper times and places, + and in all cases when they fail to secure it to see that suits be + instituted in the courts having jurisdiction, and that their right + to the franchise shall secure general and judicial recognition. + +In presenting the resolutions she said that if Congress failed to do +what was asked, and if the courts decided that "persons" are not +citizens, then the women had another resource; they could go back to +first principles and push the Sixteenth Amendment. A national woman +suffrage and educational committee of six was formed, herself among the +number; and a large book was opened containing a "Declaration and +Pledge of Women of the United States," written by Mrs. Hooker, +asserting their belief in their right to the suffrage and their desire +to use it. This was signed within a few months by 80,000 women and +presented to Congress. The following spring large numbers attempted to +vote in various parts of the country. + +The advent of Mrs. Woodhull on the woman suffrage platform created a +wide-spread commotion. The old cry of "free love" was redoubled, the +enemies exulted loud and long, the friends censured and protested. +Regarding this matter, Mrs. Hooker wrote: + + My sister Catharine says she is convinced now that I am right and + that Mrs. Woodhull is a pure woman, holding a wrong social theory, + and ought to be treated with kindness if we wish to win her to the + truth. Catharine wanted me to write her a letter of introduction, + so that when she went to New York she could make her acquaintance + and try to convince her that she is in error in regard to her views + on marriage. I gave her the letter and she is in New York now. When + she sees her she will be just as much in love with her as the rest + of us. Imagine the Dahlgren coterie when they get Catharine to + Washington to fight suffrage and find her visiting Victoria and + proclaiming her sweetness and excellence. + +The rest of the story is told in a subsequent letter: "Sister Catharine +returned last night. She saw Victoria and, attacking her on the +marriage question, got such a black eye as filled her with horror and +amazement. I had to laugh inwardly at her relation of the interview and +am now waiting for her to cool down!" + +The men especially were exercised over the new convert to suffrage and +flooded the ladies with letters of protest. To one of these Mrs. +Stanton replied: + + In regard to the gossip about Mrs. Woodhull I have one answer to + give to all my gentlemen friends: When the men who make laws for us + in Washington can stand forth and declare themselves pure and + unspotted from all the sins mentioned in the Decalogue, then we + will demand that every woman who makes a constitutional argument on + our platform shall be as chaste as Diana. If our good men will only + trouble themselves as much about the virtue of their own sex as + they do about ours, if they will make one moral code for both men + and women, we shall have a nobler type of manhood and womanhood in + the next generation than the world has yet seen. + + We have had women enough sacrificed to this sentimental, + hypocritical prating about purity. This is one of man's most + effective engines for our division and subjugation. He creates the + public sentiment, builds the gallows, and then makes us hangmen for + our sex. Women have crucified the Mary Wollstonecrafts, the Fanny + Wrights, the George Sands, the Fanny Kembles, of all ages; and now + men mock us with the fact, and say we are ever cruel to each other. + Let us end this ignoble record and henceforth stand by womanhood. + If Victoria Woodhull must be crucified, let men drive the spikes + and plait the crown of thorns. + +[Autograph: Lucinda Hinsdale Stone] + +Immediately after the Washington convention, Miss Anthony went to fill +a lecture engagement at Kalamazoo, the arrangements made by her friend, +the widely-known and revered Lucinda H. Stone. She spoke also at Grand +Rapids and other points in Michigan. At Chicago she was fortunate +enough to have a day with Mrs. Stanton, also on a lecturing tour, and +then took the train for Leavenworth. At Kansas City the papers said she +made "the success of the lecture season." She spoke in Leavenworth, +Lawrence, Topeka, Paola, Olathe and other places throughout the State. +Although it was very cold and the half-frozen mud knee deep, she +usually had good audiences. At Lincoln, Neb., she was entertained at +the home of Governor Butler and introduced by him at her lecture. At +Omaha her share of the receipts was $100. At Council Bluffs she was the +guest of her old fellow-worker, Amelia Bloomer. Cedar Rapids and Des +Moines gave packed houses. She lectured in a number of Illinois towns, +taking trains at midnight and at daybreak; and, waiting four hours at +one little station, the diary says she was so thoroughly worn-out she +was compelled to lie down on the dirty floor. On the homeward route she +spoke at Antioch College, and was the guest of President Hosmer's +family. According to the infallible little journal: "The president said +he had listened to all the woman suffrage lecturers in the field, but +tonight, for the first time, he had heard an _argument_; a compliment +above all others, coming from an aged and conservative minister." + +She spoke also at Wilberforce University, at Dayton, Springfield, +Crestline, and in Columbus before the two Houses of the Legislature. At +Salem she ran across Parker Pillsbury, who was lecturing there. When +she took the train at Columbus "there sat Mrs. Stanton, fast asleep, +her gray curls sticking out." Then again into Michigan she went, +speaking at Jackson, Lansing, Ann Arbor and other cities. Mrs. Stanton +had preceded her and it was many times said that her lecture needed +Miss Anthony's to make it complete. Then to Chicago, where she spoke at +a suffrage matinee in Farwell Hall and at the Cook county annual +suffrage convention, and dined at Robert Collyer's; back to Iowa, +speaking at Burlington, Davenport, Mount Pleasant and Ottumwa; over +into Nebraska once more, from there returning to Illinois; into +Indiana, thence to Milwaukee and points in Wisconsin; and once more to +Chicago, where, as was often the case, she was the guest of Mr. and +Mrs. Fernando Jones; from here across to Painesville and other towns in +northern Ohio; then on to numerous places in western New York, and +finally home to Rochester, April 25, having slept scarcely two nights +in the same bed for over three months. + +Such is the hard life of the public lecturer, the most exhausting and +exacting which man or woman can experience. During all this long trip +Miss Anthony had met everywhere a cordial welcome and had been +entertained in scores of delightful homes. Her speech on this tour was +entitled "The New Situation," and was a clear and comprehensive +argument to prove that the Fourteenth Amendment gave women the right to +vote. Although composed largely of legal and constitutional references, +it was not written but drawn from the storehouse of her wonderful +memory, aided only by a few notes. + +At the close of the Washington convention the advocates of woman +suffrage honestly believed that the battle was almost won. They felt +sure Congress would pass the enabling act, permitting them to exercise +the right that they claimed to be conferred by the Fourteenth +Amendment, in which claim they were sustained by some of the best +constitutional lawyers in the country. The agricultural committee room +in the Capitol was placed at the disposal of the national woman +suffrage committee, who put Josephine S. Griffing in charge. The latter +part of January she wrote: + + Our room is thronged. Yesterday and today no less than twelve wives + of members of Congress were here and large numbers of the + aristocratic women of Washington. Blanche Butler Ames assures me + that all her sympathies are with us. President Grant's sister, Mrs. + Cramer, has been here and given her name, saying that Mrs. Grant + sent her regards and sympathized with our movement, and that she + had refused from principle to sign Mrs. Sherman's protest.... The + daily press is on its knees and is publishing long editorials in + our favor. You ask if this is a Republican dodge. I do not know. I + feel as Douglass did, ready to welcome the bolt from heaven or hell + that shivers the chains. If the Republicans hope to save their + lives by our enfranchisement, let them live. + +Mrs. Hooker wrote from Washington: "Everything conspires to bring about +the early confirmation of our hopes. Republicans are discovering that +without this new, live issue, they are dead, and once more party +necessity is to be God's opportunity. Let us, who know so many good men +and true who are in this party, be thankful that through it, rather +than through the Democratic, deliverance is to come, for to owe +gratitude to a pro-slavery party would nearly choke my thanksgiving." + +To this Mrs. Stanton replied: "That is not the point, but which party, +as a party, has the best record on our question. For four years I have +chafed under the Republican maneuvering to keep us still. Let me call +your attention to my speech on the Fifteenth Amendment, in which I said +'this is a new stab at womanhood, to result in deeper degradation to +her than she has ever known before.'... Sometimes I exclaim in agony, +'Can nothing raise the self-respect of women?' I despise the Republican +party for the political serfdom we suffer today, under the heel of +every foreign lord and lackey who treads our soil. If all of you have +turned to such idols, I will go alone to Jerusalem." + +When the judiciary committee made its adverse report[57] which was +merely that Congress had not the power to act, most of the friends were +not discouraged but believed another committee would decide +differently. Mrs. Hooker, however, was at the boiling point of +indignation over the report and reversed her decision in regard to the +Republican party, writing: "Thank God! that party is dead; every one +here knows it, feels it, and is waiting to see what will take its +place. A great labor and woman suffrage party is ready to spring into +life, and a hundred aristocratic Democrats are pledged to the work. You +can have no conception of the new conditions unless you are here in the +midst of things and read the telegrams from all parts of the country. +Early next winter we shall be declared voting citizens." She then +quotes a number of prominent Democratic politicians whom she has +interviewed and who have given her reason for having faith in that +party. But many of the women were fooled then by both political +parties, just as they have continued to be up to the present time. + +A letter from Phoebe Couzins expressed the sentiment of numbers which +were received this spring: "We made a grand mistake in giving up the +National. If you and Mrs. Stanton think best, as your fingers are on +the pulse of the people, let us resolve the Union Society into the +National Association. So say Mr. and Mrs. Minor, but whatever is done, +the two grand women who have the qualifications for leadership _must be +at the head_; the cause will languish until you are back in your old +places." + +The suffrage anniversary was held in Apollo Hall, New York, May 11 and +12, 1871. Mrs. Griffing read an able report on the work at Washington +the previous winter. There were strong objections by a number of ladies +to sitting on the platform with Mrs. Woodhull, but Mrs. Stanton said +she should be sandwiched between Lucretia Mott and herself and that +surely would give her sufficient respectability. She made a fine +constitutional argument, to which the most captious could not object. +The excitement created by her appearance at the Washington meeting was +mild compared to that in New York City where she was becoming so +well-known. The great dailies headed all reports, "The Woodhull +Convention." The injustice and vindictiveness of the Tribune, that +paper which once had been the champion of woman's cause, were +especially hard to bear. It rang the changes upon the term "free love," +insisted that, because the women allowed Mrs. Woodhull to stand upon +their platform and advocate suffrage, they thereby indorsed all her +ideas on social questions, and by every possible means it cast odium on +the convention. + +There is no doubt that the advocates of "free love," in its usually +accepted sense, did endeavor to insinuate themselves among the suffrage +women and make this movement responsible for their social doctrines, +but every great reform has to suffer from similar parasites. The lives +of Miss Anthony, Mrs. Mott, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Hooker, Mrs. Davis, and +of all the old and tried leaders in this cause, form the strongest +testimony of their utter repudiation of any such heresy. It was +impossible, however, for the world in general to understand their broad +ground that it was their business to accept valuable services without +inquiring into the private life of the persons who offered them. If +this were a mistake, these pioneers, who fought single-handed such a +battle as the women of later days can not comprehend, had to learn the +fact by experience. + +The notorious Stephen Pearl Andrews prepared a set of involved and +intricate resolutions which were read by Paulina Wright Davis, the +chairman, without any thought of their possessing a deeper meaning than +appeared on the surface, but they fell flat on the convention, and were +neither discussed nor voted upon. The papers got possession of them, +nevertheless, declared that they were adopted as part of the platform, +read "free love" between the lines, and used them as the basis of many +ponderous and prophetic editorials. + +A national committee was formed of one woman from each State, with Mrs. +Stanton as chairman, of which the New York Standard, edited by John +Russell Young, said: "Miss Susan B. Anthony holds a modest position, +but we can well believe that in any movement for the enfranchisement of +women, like MacGregor, wherever she sits will be the head of the +table." The New York Democrat commented: "She deals with facts, not +theories, but just gets hold of one nail after another and drives it +home.... Her words were to the point, as they always are, and abounded +in telling hits in every direction." Even the Tribune was generous +enough to say: "The ranks of the agitators with whom Captain Anthony is +identified contain no one more indiscreet, more reckless or more +honest. We have no sort of sympathy with the object to which the fair +captain is now devoting her life; but we know no person before the +country more single-minded, sincere and unselfish and, for these +reasons, more honestly entitled to the regard of a public which will +always appreciate upright intentions and disinterested devotion." + +In the closing days of May, she wrote to her old paper, The Revolution: + + Your "Stand by the Cause," this week, is the timely word to the + friends of woman suffrage. The present howl is an old trick of the + arch-fiend to divert public thought from the main question, viz: + woman's equal freedom and equal power to make and control her own + conditions in the state, in the church and, most of all, in the + home. + + Though the ballot is the open sesame to equal rights, there is a + fundamental law which can not be violated with impunity between + woman and man, any more than between man and man; a law stated a + hundred years ago by Alexander Hamilton: "Give to a man a right + over my subsistence, and he has power over my whole moral being." + Woman's subsistence is in the hands of man, and most arbitrarily + and unjustly does he exercise his consequent power, making two + moral codes: one for himself, with largest latitude--swearing, + chewing, smoking, drinking, gambling, libertinism, all winked + at--cash and brains giving him a free pass everywhere; another + quite unlike this for woman--she must be immaculate. One hair's + breadth deviation, even the touch of the hem of the garment of an + _accused_ sister, dooms her to the world's scorn. Man demands that + his wife shall be above suspicion. Woman must accept her husband as + he is, for she is powerless so long as she eats the bread of + dependence. Were man today dependent upon woman for his + subsistence, I have no doubt he would very soon find himself + compelled to square his life to an entirely new code, not a whit + less severe than that to which he now holds her. In moral + rectitude, we would not have woman less but man more. + + It is to put an end to such heresies as the following, from the + Rochester Democrat, that all women should most earnestly labor. + That paper begs us not to forget, "that what may be pardonable in a + man, speaking of evils generally, may and perhaps ought to be + unpardonable in one of the presumably better sex; because there can + not and must not be perfect equality between men and women when the + disposition to do wrong is under discussion. Women are permitted to + be as much better than men as they choose; but there ought to be no + law, on or oft the statute books, recognizing their social and + political right to be worse or even as bad as men; and it is + shameful that intelligent women should claim such a right, or even + dare to mention it at all." No human being or class of human beings + would venture to talk thus to equals. It is only because women are + dependent on men that such cowardly impudence can be dished out to + them day after day by puny legislators and editors, themselves + often reeking in social corruption which should banish them forever + from the presence of womanhood. Yours for an even-handed scale in + morals as well as politics, SUSAN B. ANTHONY. + +[Footnote 57: The committee reported January 30, 1871, John A. Bingham, +of Ohio, chairman. The minority report, signed by Benjamin F. Butler, +of Massachusetts, and William Loughridge, of Iowa, is perhaps the +strongest and most exhaustive argument ever written on woman's right to +vote under the Constitution. It is given in full in the History of +Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, p. 464.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +FIRST TRIP TO THE PACIFIC COAST. + +1871. + + +At the close of the New York convention Miss Anthony, Rev. Olympia +Brown and Josephine S. Griffing went with Mrs. Hooker to Hartford for a +short visit, which it may be imagined was one protracted "business +session." Then Miss Anthony hastened to her own home to prepare for a +long journey, as she and Mrs. Stanton had decided to make a lecture +tour through California. She left Rochester the last day of May, and +met Mrs. Stanton in Chicago where a reception was given them by the +suffrage club, in its elegant new headquarters. They spoke in a number +of cities en route and attended numerous handsome receptions held in +their honor. At Denver they were entertained by Governor and Mrs. +McCook. Their audiences were large and enthusiastic, the press +respectful and often cordial and appreciative.[58] At Laramie City they +were accompanied to the station by a hundred women whom Mrs. Stanton +addressed from the platform. A letter written by Miss Anthony during +the journey contains these beautiful paragraphs: + + We have a drawing-room all to ourselves, and here we are just as + cozy and happy as lovers. We look at the prairie schooners slowly + moving along with ox-teams, or notice the one lone cabin-light on + the endless plains, and Mrs. Stanton will say: "In all that there + is real bliss, if only the two are perfect equals, two loving + people, neither assuming to control the other." Yes, after all, + life is about one and the same thing, whether in the prairie + schooner and sod cabin, or the Fifth Avenue palace. Love for and + faith in each other alone can make either a heaven, and without + these any home is a hell. It is not the outside things which make + life, but the inner, the spirit of love which casteth out all + devils and bringeth in all angels. + + Ever since 4 o'clock this morning we have been moving over the soil + that is really the land of the free and the home of the + brave--Wyoming, the Territory in which women are the recognized + political equals of men. Women here can say: "What a magnificent + country is ours, where every class and caste, color and sex, may + find equal freedom, and every woman sit under her own vine and fig + tree." What a blessed attainment at last; and that it should be + here among these everlasting mountains, midway between the Atlantic + and Pacific, seems significant of the true growth of the + individual--the center pure, the heart-beats free and equal. + +At Salt Lake City they were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. W.S. Godbe, and +were presented to their audience by Mayor Wells, who afterward took +them to call on his five wives. The second evening they were introduced +by Bishop Orson Pratt. From here Miss Anthony writes to The Revolution: + + If I were a believer in special providences, I should say that our + being in Salt Lake City at the dedication of the New Liberal + Institute was one. On Sunday morning, July 2, this beautiful hall + of the Liberal party--Apostate party, the Saints call it--was well + filled. The services consisted of invocations, hymns and brief + addresses. Messrs. Godbe, Harrison, Lyman and Lawrence seem to be + the advance-guard--the high priests of the new order--and as they + sang their songs of freedom, poured out their rejoicings over their + emancipation from the Theocracy of Brigham, and told of the + beatitudes of soul-to-soul communion with the All-Father, my heart + was steeped in deepest sympathy with the women around me and, + rising at an opportune pause, I asked if a woman and a stranger + might be permitted to say a word. At once the entire circle of men + on the platform arose and beckoned me forward; and, with a Quaker + inspiration not to be repeated, much less put on paper, I asked + those men, bubbling over with the divine spirit of freedom for + themselves, if they had thought whether the women of their + households were today rejoicing in like manner? I can not tell what + I said--only this I know, that young and beautiful, old and + wrinkled women alike wept, and men said, "I wanted to get out of + doors where I could shout." + + The transition of this people into the new life is complicated--is + heartrending. Remember that when these men began their rebellion + against Brigham, it was simply a protest against his tyranny--his + exorbitant tithing system--a mere refusal to render tribute unto + him; not at all a disavowal of the Morman religion or of polygamy. + But as bond after bond has burst, this last, strongest and tightest + one of plurality of wives is beginning to snap asunder. To + illustrate: One man, a noble, loving, beautiful spirit--nothing of + the tyrant, nothing of the sensualist--with four lovely wives, + three of whom I have seen, and in the homes of two of whom I have + broken bread, with thirteen loved and loving children--wakes up to + the new idea. Four women's hearts breaking, three sets of children + who must leave their father that the one-wife system may be + realized! I can assure you my heart aches for the man, the women + and the children, and cries, "God help them, one and all." + + Where the man is a brutal tyrant, the problem is comparatively + easy. What we have tried to do is to show them that the principle + of the subjection of woman to man is the point of attack; and that + woman's work in monogamy and polygamy is one and the same--that of + planting her feet on the ground of self-support. The saddest + feature here is that there really is nothing by which these women + can earn an independent livelihood for themselves and their + children, no manufacturing establishments, no free schools to + teach. Women here, as everywhere, must be able to live honestly and + honorably without the aid of men, before it can be possible to save + the masses of them from entering into polygamy or prostitution, + legal or illegal. Whichever way I turn, whatever phase of social + life presents itself, the same conclusion comes: "Independent bread + alone can redeem woman from her curse of subjection to man." + + I attended the Liberals' Fourth of July celebration. Their + beautiful hall was packed; their souls were on fire with their new + freedom. Never since the first reading of the Declaration of + Independence in 1776, were its great truths responded to with such + real and deep feeling as on this occasion. I did not intrude myself + on them again--but my soul, too, was on fire for freedom for my + sex, as was that of every wife and daughter in that assembly. But + these men have yet to learn to loose the bonds of power over the + women by their side, precisely as have the men in the States and + the world over. + + Here is missionary work--not for any "thus saith the Lord" canting + priests or echoing priestesses by divine right, but for great, + Godlike, humanitarian men and women, who "feel for those in bonds + as bound with them." No Phariseeism, no shudders of Puritanic + horror, no standing afar off; but a simple, loving, fraternal clasp + of hands with these struggling women, and an earnest work with + them--not to ameliorate but to abolish the whole system of woman's + subjection to man in both polygamy and monogamy. + +In a letter home she says: + + Our afternoon meeting of women alone was a sad spectacle. There was + scarcely a sunny, joyous countenance in the whole 300, but a vast + number of deep-lined, careworn, long-suffering faces--more so, + even, than those of our own pioneer farmers' and settlers' wives, + as I have many times looked into them. Their life of dependence on + men is even more dreadful than that of monogamy, for here it is + two, six, a dozen women and their great broods of children each and + all dependent on the one man. Think of fifteen, twenty, thirty + pairs of shoes at one strike, or as many hats and dresses!... + + But when I look back into the States, what sorrow, what broken + hearts are there because of husbands taking to themselves new + friendships, just as really wives as are these, and the legal wife + feeling even more wronged and neglected. I have not the least doubt + but the suffering there equals that here--the difference is that + here it is a religious duty for the man to commit the crime against + the first wife, and for her to accept the new-comer into the family + with a cheerful face; while there the wrong is done against law and + public sentiment. But even the most devoted Mormon women say it + takes a great deal of grace to accept the other wives, and be just + as happy when the husband devotes himself to any of them as to + herself, yet the faithful Saint attains to such angelic heights and + finds her glory and the Lord's in so doing. The system of the + subjection of woman here finds its limit, and she touches the + lowest depths of her degradation. + + The empire totters and Brigham feels the ground sliding from under + his feet. These men will be very likely to try the "variety" plan + of Stephen Pearl Andrews, but the women will hate that even worse + than polygamy. One man came to me relating a new vision, direct + from Christ himself, to that effect, and I said: "Away with your + man-visions! Women propose to reject them all, and begin to dream + dreams for themselves." + +While at Salt Lake they received complimentary passes to California and +throughout that State, from Governor Leland Stanford, always a helpful +friend to woman suffrage. They reached San Francisco July 9, and took +rooms at the Grand Hotel, at that time the best in the city. Their +coming had been heralded by the press and they experienced the royal +California welcome, receiving flowers, fruit, calls and invitations in +abundance. Mrs. Stanton made her first speech in Platt's Hall to an +audience of 1,200; all seemed delighted and the papers were very +complimentary. At that time the whole coast was much excited over the +murder of A.P. Crittenden by Laura D. Fair, and the entire weight of +opinion was against her. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, always ready to +defend their sex, determined to hear the story from her own lips, +hoping for the sake of womanhood to learn some mitigating +circumstances. The afternoon papers came out with an attack upon them +for making this visit to the jail, and in the evening at Miss Anthony's +first lecture there was an immense audience, including many friends of +Crittenden, determined that there should be no justification of the +woman who killed him. + +Miss Anthony made a strong speech on "The Power of the Ballot," which +was well received until she came to the peroration. Her purpose had +been to prove false the theory that all women are supported and +protected by men. She had demonstrated clearly the fact that in the +life of nearly every woman there came a time when she must rely on +herself alone. She asserted that while she might grant, for the sake of +the argument, that every man protected his own wife and daughter, his +own mother and sister, the columns of the daily papers gave ample +evidence that man did not protect woman as woman. She gave sundry facts +to illustrate this point, among them the experience of Sister Irene, +who had established a foundling hospital in New York two years before, +and at the close of the first year reported 1,300 little waifs laid in +the basket at the door. These figures, she said, proved that there were +at least 1,300 women in that city who had not been protected by men. +She continued impressively: "If all men had protected all women as they +would have their own wives and daughters protected, you would have no +Laura Fair in your jail tonight." + +Then burst forth a tremendous hissing, seemingly from every part of the +house! She had heard that sound in the old anti-slavery days and +quietly stood until there came a lull, when she repeated the sentence. +Again came a storm of hisses, but this time they were mingled with +cheers. Again she waited for a pause, and then made the same assertion +for the third time. Her courage challenged the admiration of the +audience, which broke out into a roar of applause, and she closed by +saying: "I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the +protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I +take my stand." + +The next morning, however, she was denounced by the city papers as +having vindicated the murder and justified the life which Mrs. Fair had +led! Those who had not heard the lecture believed these reports, and +other papers in the State took up the cry. Even the press of New York +and other eastern cities joined in the chorus, but the latter was much +more severe on Mrs. Stanton, who in newspaper interviews did not +hesitate to declare her sympathy for Mrs. Fair; and yet for some +reason, perhaps because Miss Anthony had dared refer boldly to crime in +high places in San Francisco, the batteries there were turned wholly +upon her. In her diary she says: "Never in all my hard experience have +I been under such fire." So terrific was the onslaught that no one +could come to her rescue with a public explanation or defense. Miss +Anthony had cut San Francisco in a sore spot and it did not propose to +give her another chance to use the scalpel. She attempted to speak in +adjacent towns but her journal says: "The shadow of the newspapers hung +over me." At length she resolved to cancel all her lecture engagements +and wait quietly until the storm passed over and the public mind grew +calm. She writes in her diary, a week later: "Some friends called but +the clouds over me are so heavy I could not greet them as I would have +liked. I never before was so cut down." She tells the story to her +sister Mary, who replies: + + I am so sorry for you. It will spoil your pleasure, and then I + think of that load of debt which you hoped to lighten, yet I should + have felt ashamed of you if you had failed to say a word in behalf + of that wretched woman. I am sick of one-sided justice; for the + same crime, men glorified and women gibbeted. If your words for + Mrs. Fair have made your trip a failure, so let it be--it is no + disgrace to you. It is scandalous the way the papers talk of you, + but stick to what you feel to be right and let the world wag. + +On July 22, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton started for the Yosemite +Valley, a harder trip in those days even than now. It is best described +in her own words: + + Mrs. Stanton, writing to The Revolution, and S.B.A., scribbling + home, are thirty miles out of the wonderful valley of the + Yosemite.... We shall have compassed the Calaveras Big Trees and + the Yosemite Valley in twelve days out from Stockton, where we + expect to arrive August 2. Mrs. Stanton is to speak there Thursday + night and I at San Jose, where I shall learn whether the press has + forgiven me. We both lecture the rest of the week, and Sunday get + into San Francisco, speak at different points the 7th and 8th, and + on the 9th go to the Geysers and stay two nights; then out again + and on with meetings almost every night till the end of the month. + We shall visit lakes Donner and Tahoe and some other points of + interest as they come in our reach. Mr. Hutchings would not take a + penny for our three days' sojourn in the valley, horses and all, so + our trip is much less expensive than we had anticipated. + + With our private carriage we drove three miles nearer the top of + the mountain than the stage passengers go. Mrs. Stanton and I each + had a pair of linen bloomers which we donned last Thursday morning + at Crane's Flats, and we arrived at the brow of the mountain at 9 + o'clock. Our horses were fitted out with men's saddles, and Mrs. + Stanton, perfectly confident that she would have no trouble, while + I was all doubts as to my success, insisted that I should put my + foot over the saddle first, which I did by a terrible effort. Then + came her turn, but she was so fat and her pony so broad that her + leg wouldn't go over into the stirrup nor around the horn of a + sidesaddle, so after trying several different saddles she commenced + the walk down hill with her guide leading her horse, and commanded + me to ride on with the other. By this time the sun was pouring down + and my horse was slowly fastening one foot after another in the + rocks and earth and thus carefully easing me down the steeps, while + my guide baited me on by saying, "You are doing nicely, that is the + worst place on the trail," when the fact was it hardly began to + match what was coming. + + At half-past two we reached Hutchings', and a more used-up mortal + than I could not well exist, save poor Mrs. Stanton, four hours + behind in the broiling sun, fairly sliding down the mountain. I had + Mr. Hutchings fit out my guide with lunch and tea, and send him + right back to her. About six she arrived, pretty nearly jelly. We + both had a hot bath and she went supperless to bed, but I took my + rations. Presently John K. McLean and party, of Oakland, came in. + They had scaled Glacier Point that day and were about as tired and + fagged as we. The next day Mrs. Stanton kept her bed till nearly + noon; but I was up and on my horse at eight and off with the McLean + party for the Nevada and Vernal Falls.... + + Saturday morning, with Stephen M. Cunningham for my guide, I went + up the Mariposa trail seven miles to Artist's Point, and there + under a big pine tree, on a rock jutting out over the valley, sat + and gazed at the wondrous walls with their peaks and spires and + domes. I could take in not only the whole circuit of the mountain + tops but the valley enshrined below, with the beautiful Merced + river meandering over its pebbly bed among the grass and shrubs and + towering pines. We reached the hotel at 7 P.M.--tired--tired. Not a + muscle, not one inch of flesh from my heels to my hands that was + not sore and lame, but I took a good rub-off with the powerful + camphor from the bottle mother so carefully filled for me, and went + to bed with orders for my horse at 6 A.M. + + Sunday morning's devotion for Minister McLean and the Rochester + strong-minded was to ride two and a half miles to Mirror lake, and + there wait and watch the coming of the sun over the rocky spires, + reflected in the placid water. Such a glory mortal never beheld + elsewhere. The lake was smooth as finest glass; the lofty granite + peaks with their trees and shrubs were reflected more perfectly + than costliest mirror ever sent back the face of most beautiful + woman, and as the sun slowly emerged from behind a point of rock, + the thinnest, flakiest white clouds approached or hung round it, + and the reflection shaded them with the most delicate, yet most + perfect and richest hues of the rainbow. And while we watched and + worshipped we trembled lest some rude fish or bubble should break + our mirror and forever shatter the picture seemingly wrought for + our special eyes that Sunday morning. Then and there, in that holy + hour, I thought of you, dear mother, in the body, and of dear + father in the beyond, with eyes unsealed, and of Ann Eliza and + Thomas King. I talked to John of them and wondered if they too sat + not with us in that holy of holies not made with hands. O, how + nothing seemed man-made temples, creeds and codes! + +At San Jose Miss Anthony was the guest of Rev. and Mrs. Charles G. +Ames. Her audience was small but appreciative, and the Mercury, edited +by J.J. Owen, said: "After all the mean notices by certain of the daily +papers in San Francisco, her hearers were astonished at the masterly +character of her address. She held her audience delighted for an hour +and forty minutes." From here she went to the Geysers, riding on the +front seat with driver Foss, and she says in her diary: "On the way out +he explained to me the philosophy of fast driving down the steep +mountain sides; and on the way back he unfolded to me the sad story of +his life." + +Miss Anthony spoke at a number of small towns but it did not seem +advisable for her to try again in San Francisco, so she devoted herself +to contributing in every possible way to the success of Mrs. Stanton's +lectures. On August 22 the latter completed her tour and left for the +East, but Miss Anthony decided to accept the numerous calls to go up +into Oregon and Washington Territory. She went to Oakland for a brief +visit with Mrs. Randall, the Mary Perkins who used to teach in her +childhood's home more than thirty years before, and her diary says: +"They are glad to see me and we have enjoyed talking over old times. +They are wholly oblivious to our reform agitation and I am glad to get +out of it for a while." But a few days later she called on the Curtis +family, who were interested in reforms, and wrote: "I got back into my +own world again and the springs of thought and conversation were +quickly loosened. It is marvelous how far apart the two worlds are." +She started on the ship Idaho for Portland, August 25. The sea was very +rough, they were seven days making the trip and, judging from the +almost illegible entries in the diary, it was not a pleasant one: + + 1st day.--I feel forlorn enough thus left alone on the ocean but I + am in for it and bound to go through.... Before 6 o'clock my time + came and old ocean received my first contribution. + + 2d day.--Strong gale and rough sea. Tried to dress--no use--back to + my berth and there I lay all day. Everybody groaning, babies + crying, mothers scolding, the men making quite as much fuss as the + women. + + 3d day.--Tried to get up but in vain. In the afternoon staggered up + on deck--men stretched out on all sides looking as wretched as I + felt--glad to get back to bed. Captain sent some frizzled ham and + hard tack, with his compliments. Sea growing heavier all the time. + + 4th day.--Terribly rough all night. Could not sleep for the thought + that every swell might end the ship's struggles. Felt much nearer + to the dear ones who have crossed the great river than to those on + this side. Out of sight of land all day and ship making only two + and a half miles an hour. + + 5th day.--The same pitching down into the ocean's depths, the same + unbounded waste of surging waters, but a slight lessening of the + sea-sickness. + + 6th day.--Quite steady this morning. Went on deck and met several + pleasant people. Took my spirit-lamp and treated the captain's + table to some delicious tea. + + 7th day.--First word this morning, "bar in sight." The shores look + beautiful. All faces are bright and cheery and many appear not seen + before. I felt well enough to discuss the woman question with + several of the passengers. Arrived at Portland at 10 P.M., glad + indeed to touch foot on land again. + +In the first letter home she says: + + Abigail Scott Duniway, editor of the New Northwest, was my first + caller this morning. I like her appearance and she will be business + manager of my lectures. The second caller was Mr. Murphy, city + editor of the Herald, and the third Rev. T.L. Eliot, of the + Unitarian church, son of Rev. William Eliot, of St. Louis. I am to + take tea at his house next Monday. I am not to speak until + Wednesday, and thus give myself time to get my head straightened + and, I hope, my line of argument. Mrs. Duniway thinks I will find + two months of profitable work in Oregon and Washington Territory, + but I hardly believe it possible. If meetings pay so as to give me + hope of adding to my $350 in the San Francisco Bank (my share of + the profits on Mrs. Stanton's and my lectures, which we divided + evenly), making it reach $2,000 or even $1,000 by December first, I + shall plod away. + + I miss Mrs. Stanton, still I can not but enjoy the feeling that the + people call on _me_, and the fact that I have an opportunity to + sharpen my wits a little by answering questions and doing the + chatting, instead of merely sitting a lay figure and listening to + the brilliant scintillations as they emanate from her + never-exhausted magazine. There is no alternative--whoever goes + into a parlor or before an audience with that woman does it at the + cost of a fearful overshadowing, a price which I have paid for the + last ten years, and that cheerfully, because I felt that our cause + was most profited by her being seen and heard, and my best work was + making the way clear for her. + +Miss Anthony could not entirely recover from the disappointment of her +reception in San Francisco, but a letter written to Mrs. Stanton, just +before her first lecture in Oregon, shows no regrets but a wish that +she had put the case even more strongly: + + I am awaiting my Wednesday night execution with fear and trembling + such as I never before dreamed of, but to the rack I must go, + though another San Francisco torture be in store for me.... The + real fact is we ought to be ashamed of ourselves that we failed to + say the whole truth and illustrate it too by the one terrible + example in their jail. That would have caused not me alone but both + of us to be hissed out of the hall and hooted out of that Godless + city--Godless in its treading of womanhood under its heel. I assure + you, as I rolled on the ocean last week feeling that the very next + strain might swamp the ship, and thinking over all my sins of + omission and commission, there was nothing undone which haunted me + like that failure to speak the word at San Francisco over again and + more fully. I would rather today have the satisfaction of having + said the true and needful thing on Laura Fair and the social evil, + with the hisses and hoots of San Francisco and the entire nation + around me, than all that you or I could possibly experience from + their united eulogies with that one word unsaid. To my mind the + failure to put our heads together and work up that lecture grows + every day a greater blunder, if nothing more. It was like going + down into South Carolina and failing to illustrate human oppression + by negro slavery. I hope you are not haunted with it as I am. God + helping me, I will yet ease my spirit of the load. + +After this lecture she wrote again: + + The first fire is passed. I send you the Bulletin and Oregonian + notices. I have not seen the Democratic paper--the Herald--but am + told it says Miss Anthony failed to interest her audience. Not a + person stirred save when I made them laugh. But tomorrow night's + audience will tell the people's estimate. My speech then will be on + the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Last night I made the San + Francisco speech, but was not nearly so free and easy in the + brain-working; still I got my points clearly stated. The wet + blanket is now somewhat off. I hope to present the fact of our + right to vote under these amendments with a great deal more + freedom. If I am able to do so, I shall talk to women alone + Saturday afternoon on the social evil; then, if interest warrants, + answer objections Monday evening, and close here. I have contracted + for one-half the gross receipts of evening and the entire receipts + of afternoon lectures. + + I want to tell you that with my gray silk I wore a pink bow at my + throat and a narrow pink ribbon in my hair! Mrs. Duniway is + delighted, so you see my tide is turning a little from that + terrible, killing experience. _You_ never received such wholesale + praise--_I_ never such wholesale censure. But enough; it is a + comfort to get a little outside assurance again. + +Miss Anthony met with a friendly reception from the press of Oregon. +She was extensively interviewed by the leading papers and reported in a +complimentary manner. The Oregonian thus closed a column account: "The +audience, which listened attentively and with evident deep interest to +this address, was large and chiefly composed of the intelligent portion +of our citizens. Miss Anthony talked clearly, more concisely than the +average speaker, kept the thread of her logic well in hand and, it must +be confessed, made a strong argument, though we can hardly admit that +it was conclusive. She is a fluent speaker and well sustains the cause +she advocates." The Herald said in a lengthy interview: "Her +conversation is fluent and concise, each word expressing its full +complement of meaning. Her system of argument is logical and, in +contradistinction to the sex in general, she does not depend on mere +assertions but gives proofs to carry conviction."[59] + +The Bulletin thus began a fine report: "As a speaker she has the happy +faculty of presenting her subject in a clear and convincing manner. Her +style is forcible and argumentative. She contents herself with +facts--presenting them in plain language, resting her case upon these, +unaided by sophistry and the blinding influence of oratory." This +paper, however, was very severe upon her doctrines, declaring +editorially that they were "mischievous, revolutionary and +impracticable, and would result in anarchy in homes and chaos in +society." Mrs. Duniway's paper, the New Northwest, said: "Miss Anthony +is a stirring and vigorous worker, a profound and logical speaker, has +a truly wonderful influence over her audiences and produces conviction +wherever she goes.... She has a peculiarly happy manner of using the +right word in the right place, never hesitates in her language, and is +evidently as brimful of argument at the close of her lectures as at +their beginning. She has awakened the dormant feelings of duty and true +womanhood in many a woman's heart in Portland, and scores of ladies in +our community who never before gave the question a moment's +consideration are now eager for the ballot." + +From Portland Miss Anthony wrote to The Revolution: + + There is something lovely in this Oregon climate beyond any I have + yet known on either side the Rocky mountains. It is neither too hot + nor too cold, but a delightful medium which I enjoy as I sit this + second September Sunday in my room at the St. Charles Hotel, with + its windows opening upon the broad and beautiful Willamette. I am + surprised at the size of this city, and the evidences of business + and solid wealth all about.... + + John Chinaman too is here, cooking, washing and ironing, quiet and + meek-looking as in San Francisco. The Republicans of this coast, + like the Democrats, talk and resolve against him for political + effect, merely to cater to the ignorant voters of their party. They + say he can not be naturalized on account of some stipulation in the + old treaty with China, when they know or ought to know that the + Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments have as effectually blotted the + word "white" out of all United States treaties and naturalization + laws, as out of all the State and Territorial constitutions and + statutes. Their pretence that the Chinaman may not become a citizen + of the United States, precisely the same as an African, German or + Irishman, is matched only by their denial of citizenship to the + women of the entire nation. Under the old regime it was the negro + with whom we had to make common cause in our demand for the + practical recognition of our right to representation. In snatching + the black man from our side, the Republicans, out of pure sympathy + doubtless, lest we should be without any "male" compeer in our + degradation, leave the innocent Chinaman to comfort and console us. + Are we not most unreasonable in our dissatisfaction with the + company our fathers and brothers constitutionally rank with + us--idiots, lunatics, convicts, Chinamen? + +While sailing up the Columbia, Mrs. Duniway wrote Mrs. Stan ton: "Miss +Anthony has been holding large meetings in Portland, Salem and Oregon +City, and has conquered the press and brought the whole fraternity to +terms. She has also succeeded in holding important and successful +meetings at The Dalles, and is now returning with me from a series of +lectures in Walla Walla. We find the people everywhere enthusiastic and +delighted. Her fund of logic, fact and fun seems inexhaustible. She +speaks three and four consecutive evenings in one place, and each time +increases the interest. We are all justly proud of her." + +At Walla Walla the church doors were closed to her but she spoke in the +schoolhouse. At Salem all the judges of the supreme court were in her +audience and afterward called on her. She had good houses everywhere +but money was hard to get, and she speaks in her letters of being +almost frantic lest she may not be able to meet her notes on January +first, "the one cherished dream of this year's work." + +In a letter from Olympia describing the journey she said: "Here I am, +October 22, at the head of Puget Sound. This was my route--Portland, +down the Willamette river twelve miles to the Columbia; then down that +river one hundred miles to the mouth of the Cowlitz, Monticello; then +ninety miles stage-ride, full sixty of it over the roughest kind of +corduroy. Twenty-five miles to Pumphrey's Hotel, arriving at 6 p.m.; +supper and bed; called up at 2 o'clock, and off again at +2:30--perfectly dark--lantern on each side of coach--fourteen miles to +breakfast at 7, horses walked every step of the way; eighteen more, +walk and corduroy, to dinner; then thirty miles of splendid road, and +arrival here at 5:30 p.m." At Seattle, November 4, she wrote home: + + For the first time I have seen the glory of the sunrise upon the + entire Coast Range. The whole western horizon was one fiery glow on + mountain tops, all cragged and jagged from two miles in height down + to the line of perpetual snow. It has been very tantalizing to be + on this wonderful Puget Sound these ten days, and never see the + clouds and fogs lift themselves long enough to give a vision of the + majestic mountains on either side. My one hope now is that they may + rise on both sides at the same time; but the rainy season has + fairly set in. It has rained part of every twenty-four hours since + we reached Olympia ten days ago. The grass and shrubbery are as + green and delightful as with us in June, and roses and other + flowers are blooming all fragrant and fresh. The forests are + evergreen--mainly firs and cedars--and on the streets here are + maple and other deciduous trees. The feeling of the air is like + that during the September equinoctial storm. The sound, from twenty + to forty miles wide, with inlets and harbors extending full two or + three miles into the land, is the most beautiful sheet of water I + ever have seen. + + I go to Port Madison this afternoon, and on Monday to Port Gamble; + back to Olympia for the Territorial Convention Wednesday; then down + to Portland and thence southward. I have traveled 1,800 miles in + fifty-six days, spoken forty-two nights and many days, and I am + tired, tired. Lots of good missionary work, but not a great deal of + money. + +The last letter from Portland, November 16, said: + + The mortal agony of speaking again in Portland is over, but the + hurt of it stings yet. I never was dragged before an audience so + utterly without thought or word as last night and, had there been + any way of escape, would have taken wings or, what I felt more + like, have sunk through the floor. It was the strangest and most + unaccountable condition, but nothing save bare, bald points stared + me in the face. Must stop; here is card of Herald reporter. + + Before the reporter left, some ladies called, among them Mrs. + Harriet W. Williams, at whose house we all used to stop in Buffalo, + in the olden days of temperance work. She is like a mother to me. + Mrs. Eliot, wife of the Unitarian minister, also came. They formed + a suffrage society here Tuesday with some of the best women as + officers. What is more and most of all I received a letter from a + gentleman, enclosing testimonials from half a dozen of the + prominent men of the city, asking an interview looking to marriage! + I also received a serenade from a millionaire at Olympia. If any of + the girls want a rich widower or an equally rich bachelor, here is + decidedly the place to get an offer of one. But tell brother Aaron + I expect to survive them all and reach home before the New Year, as + single-handed and penniless as usual.[60] + +Miss Anthony was invited to address the legislature while at Olympia. +Notwithstanding her extreme need of money she donated the proceeds of +one lecture to the sufferers by the Chicago fire. Usually she had good +audiences but occasionally would fall into the hands of persons +obnoxious to the community and the meeting would be a failure. She +writes in her diary, "It seems impossible to escape being sacrificed by +somebody." The press of Washington was for the most part very +favorable. The Olympia Standard said: "We had formed a high opinion of +the ability of the lady and her remarkable talent as a public speaker, +and our expectations have been more than realized. She presents her +arguments in graceful and elegant language, her illustrations are ample +and well chosen, and the hearer is irresistibly drawn to her +conclusions.... There is no gainsaying the sound logic of her +arguments. They appeal to a sense of right and justice which ought not +longer be denied." There was sometimes, however, a discordant note, as +may be shown by the following from the Territorial Despatch, of +Seattle, edited by Beriah Brown: + + It is a mistake to call Miss Anthony a reformer, or the movement in + which she is engaged a reform; she is a revolutionist, aiming at + nothing less than the breaking up of the very foundations of + society, and the overthrow of every social institution organized + for the protection of the sanctity of the altar, the family circle + and the legitimacy of our offspring, recognizing no religion but + self-worship, no God but human reason, no motive to human action + but lust. Many, undoubtedly, will object that we state the case too + strongly; but if they will dispassionately examine the facts and + compare them with the character of the leaders and the inevitable + tendency of their teachings, they must be convinced that the + apparently innocent measure of woman suffrage as a remedy for + woman's wrongs in over-crowded populations, is but a pretext or + entering wedge by which to open Pandora's box and let loose upon + society a pestilential brood to destroy all that is pure and + beautiful in human nature, and all that has been achieved by + organized associations in religion, morality and refinement; that + the whole plan is coarse, sensual and agrarian, the worst phase of + French infidelity and communism.... + + She did not directly and positively broach the licentious social + theories which she is known to entertain, because she well knew + that they would shock the sensibilities of her audience, but + confined her discourse to the one subject of woman suffrage as a + means to attain equality of competitive labor. This portion of her + lecture we have not time to discuss. Our sole purpose now is to + enter our protest against the inculcation of doctrines which we + believe are calculated to degrade and debauch society by + demolishing the dividing lines between virtue and vice. It is true + that Miss Anthony did not openly advocate "free love" and a + disregard of the sanctity of the marriage relation, but she did + worse--under the guise of defending women against manifest wrongs, + she attempts to instil into their minds an utter disregard for all + that is right and conservative in the present order of society. + +Apparently Mr. Brown did not approve of woman suffrage. According to +his own statement Miss Anthony confined her entire discourse to the one +point of competitive labor. The editorial was founded wholly upon his +own depraved imagination. + +Miss Anthony went into British Columbia and spoke several times at +Victoria. The doctrine of equal rights was entirely new in that city +and on the first evening there was not a woman in the hall. At no +succeeding lecture were twenty women present, although there were fair +audiences of men. The press was respectful in its treatment of speaker +and speeches, but some of the "cards" which were sent to the papers +were amusing, to say the least.[61] + +The journal depicts the hardships of a new country, the poor hotels, +the long stage-rides, the inconvenient hours, etc. At one place, where +there was an appalling prospect of spending Sunday in the wretched +excuse for a hotel, a lady came and took her to a fine, new home and +Miss Anthony was delighted; but when the husband appeared he announced +that he "did not keep a tavern," and so, after her evening lecture, she +returned to her former quarters, the wife not daring to remonstrate. +After meeting one woman who had had six husbands, and at least a dozen +whose husbands had deserted them and married other women without the +formality of a divorce, she writes in her journal, "Marriage seems to +be anything but an indissoluble contract out here on the coast." +Meanwhile she had received urgent invitations from California once more +to try her fortune in that State. After lecturing to crowded houses at +Oregon City, Eugene and other points, she continued southward, her +rough experience on shipboard deciding her to go by stage. From +Roseburg she wrote her mother, November 24: + + I am now over one hundred miles on my stage-route south, and + horrible indeed are the roads--miles and miles of corduroy and then + twenty miles of "Joe Lane black mud," as they call it, because old + Joseph Lane settled right here in the midst of it. It is heavy clay + without a particle of loam and rolls up on the wheels until rim, + spokes and hub are one solid circle. The wheels cease to turn and + actually slide over the ground, and then driver and men passengers + jump out and with chisels and shingles cut the clay off the wheels. + + * * * * * + + How my thought does turn homeward, mother. I wanted always to be at + home every recurring birthday of yours so long as you remained this + side with us. I can not this year, but in spirit I shall be with + you all that day, as I am so very, very often on every other day. + +The courtesy of a seat outside with the driver was usually extended to +her and she picked up much information in regard to the people and +customs, some of it perhaps not wholly reliable. On this journey she +encountered a drenching rain and heavy snow, and finally was driven +inside. When they stopped for the night she had a little, cold bedroom, +sometimes next to the bar-room, where the carousing kept her awake all +night. She wrote home from Yreka, November 28: + + Last evening I lectured in the courthouse to a splendid audience, + and speak again this afternoon at 2 o'clock to answer objections. + Several lawyers threaten to be on hand and force me to the wall on + legal points, but we shall see. Then at four I am to drive with + Mrs. Jerome Churchill, and at seven board the stage again for Red + Bluff, 125 miles, riding steadily all tonight and the next day and + night. It is snowing here and southward, which delays us more and + more every day. + + I rode three miles yesterday for a full view of Mount Shasta, but + the summit was hidden by a dense fog, and I saw only one of its + side-points called the crater; so all hope of seeing this lofty + snow-peak is over, unless it should clear off and I see it by + moonlight as I go out tonight. This long stage route is a new and + interesting experience to me, and I am so glad I returned this way. + The first day, in spite of the corduroy ruckabuck jouncing, I felt + a sort of halo of joy hovering around me. It was indescribable; it + was like a benediction of "well done, decided right." + +From the diary: + + Snow storm today but a fine moonlight view of Mount Shasta at + night. Rode all night in the stage, splendid sunrise view of Castle + Rock. Today through Sacramento canyon, fine day and grand scenery. + Supped at 9 P.M. and then nine of us were packed into a short wagon + and did not arrive at Red Bluff till 3 A.M.... No arrangements had + been made for my lecture. Sheriff refused to let me have the + courthouse. Secured the schoolhouse, but no fire and small audience + after all my hard trip to get here. Called at 2:30 A.M. to take the + stage again.... Reached Chico at last. Mr. Allen, agent of General + Bidwell, met me, and such a good cup of coffee and cosy, + comfortable time as his wife Emma gave me! Good audience, although + heavy storm.... At Marysville spoke in the theater to a small but + select audience. Expenses $20 over receipts. The fates are opposed + to my financial success, and the interest is piling up on my + debts.... Mrs. Laura de Force Gordon and a dozen other ladies met + me at Sacramento, and she and I went on to San Francisco where I + found thirty letters awaiting me at the Grand Hotel. + +The flurry of prejudice against Miss Anthony had died out and she +accepted an invitation for a public address signed by a number of +influential citizens. She spoke several times to good audiences and was +fairly treated by the press, but she was too frank and outspoken to be +very popular, especially at that time. The people were greatly stirred +up over what was known as the Holland Social Evil Bill, which was under +consideration by the board of supervisors and had roused public opinion +to white heat, both in favor and in opposition. Miss Anthony naturally +made a fight against it, calling a meeting of women only and explaining +to them, point by point, its vicious propositions. This provoked both +favorable and adverse criticism by the press. At Mayfield she was a +guest at the handsome home of Judge and Mrs. Sarah Wallis. Mrs. Knox, +Mrs. Watson, Mrs. McKee and a big omnibus load drove up from San Jose, +seventeen miles. She spoke at a number of neighboring towns and the +sympathizers with the cause she represented were delighted with her +masterly efforts, but she felt everywhere the need of a good manager to +make her lectures a financial success. On December 15 her friends in +San Francisco tendered her a reception and banquet at the Grand Hotel. +All the newspapers in the city gave complimentary accounts, of which +the following from the Chronicle will serve as a specimen: + + The friends of Miss Susan B. Anthony, to the number of about fifty, + comprising the more prominent leaders of the suffrage movement, + assembled in the parlors of the Grand Hotel last evening. After an + hour spent in social conversation and the interchange of + congratulations upon the bright prospects of the cause they + represent, the guests were ushered into the spacious dining-hall, + where a bountiful collation had been spread.... + + Miss Anthony said: "....I go from you freighted with a burden of + love and gratitude, and no greetings have been more precious than + those of working men and women. Tonight when the woman who earns + her livelihood by selling flowers through the hotel came to the + door of the parlor and, presenting me with the beautiful bouquet + which I hold in my hand, asked, 'Will you accept this because you + have spoken so nobly for us poor workingwomen?' it brought tears to + my eyes, unused to weeping. I felt a thrill of gratitude that I had + been permitted to prosecute this work. We who are seated around + this board may have all the rights we need; we are not working for + ourselves, but for those now suffering around us. For them, our + sisters, and for future generations must we labor...." + + She took her seat amid warm applause. A number of brief, pithy + speeches were made and all dispersed with a hearty Godspeed to the + talented lady in whose behalf they had assembled. + +Laura de Force Gordon had arranged a number of lectures for Miss +Anthony on the route eastward. At Nevada City she was the guest of A. +A. Sargent, the newly elected United States senator, and his wife, both +earnest friends of woman suffrage.[62] The rainy season had set in and +the diary says: "These storms which bring new life and hope to farmers +and miners, mean empty benches for me." The mud, snow and wind in +Nevada were terrible. At Virginia City, where she lectured, she was +snowed in for several days and finally left in a six-horse sleigh, in +the midst of a blinding storm, on Christmas Day. + +[Autograph: + + I wish you a successful + meeting, and encouraging + progress for your cause. + Resp'y + A. A. Sargent.] + +She arrived at Reno to find that the Sargents, whom she expected to +join on their way to Washington, had passed through a day or two before +but, as they were delayed by snowdrifts, she overtook them at Ogden, +and enjoyed the privileges of their luxurious staterooms until they +reached Chicago. It happened most fortunately that the Sargents were +supplied with inexhaustible hampers of provisions, for the trip from +Ogden to Chicago occupied twelve days. Senator Mitchell and family, of +Oregon, and several other friends were on the train, but with all the +pleasant companionship and all the entertainment which could be +devised, the journey was long and tedious. The ever-faithful diary +contains a brief record of each day: + + December 28.--The western-bound train arrived at noon, eight days + from Omaha, a happy set of people to be so far along on their + journey. We left Ogden at 3 p. M., three packed sleeping-cars. All + went smoothly to Bitter Creek, then we waited three or four hours + for an extra engine to take us up the grade. + + December 29.--Starting and backing, then starting and backing + again. Prospect very discouraging. Mr. Sargent makes the tea, + unpacks the hampers and serves as general steward, but draws the + line at washing the dishes. We women-folks take that as our part. + Delayed all night at Percy. Here overtook the passenger train which + left Ogden last Monday. + + December 30.--Detained all day and all night at Medicine Bow. Four + passenger trains packed into two, and long freight trains passed us + in the night. + + December 31.--Left Medicine Bow at noon, went through deep snow + cuts ten miles in length. One heavy passenger and two long freight + trains in front of us. Reached Laramie at 10 P.M. Thus closes 1871, + a year full of hard work, six months east, six months west of the + Rocky mountains; 171 lectures, 13,000 miles of travel; gross + receipts $4,318, paid on debts, $2,271. Nothing ahead but to plod + on. + +A few blank pages in an old account-book tell the rest of the story: + + January 1, 1872.--Laramie City. On Pullman car "America," Union + Pacific R.R. Lay here all night and breakfasted at railway hotel. + J.H. Hayford, editor Laramie Sentinel, told us of the bill to + repeal the woman suffrage law in Wyoming. The law had been passed + by a Democratic legislature as a jest, but five Democrats voted for + repeal and four Republicans against it, in one house, and in the + other, three Republicans voted against and every Democrat for the + repeal. Governor Campbell, a Republican, vetoed this repeal bill + and woman suffrage still stands, as a Territorial legislature can + not pass a bill over the governor's veto.... Here we are at noon, + stuck in a snowdrift five miles west of Sherman, on a steep grade, + with one hundred men shovelling in front of us. Dined, Mr. Sargent + officiating, on roast turkey, jelly, bread and butter, spice cake + and excellent tea. At dark, wind and snow blowing terrifically, but + a bright sky. + + January 2.--Still stationary. The railroad company has supplied the + passengers with dried fish and crackers. Mrs. Sargent and I have + made tea and carried it throughout the train to the nursing + mothers. It is the best we can do. Five days out from Ogden! This + is indeed a fearful ordeal, fastened here in a snowbank, midway of + the continent at the top of the Rocky mountains. They are melting + snow for the boilers and for drinking water. A train loaded with + coal is behind us, so there is no danger of our suffering from + cold. Mr. Sargent, Mr. Mitchell and Major Elliott walked to Sherman + and an old man drove them back at dusk with two ponies. The train + had moved up to Dale creek bridge and drawn into a long snow-shed. + Here, we remained all night and, with the rarified air and the + smoke from the engine, were almost suffocated, while the wind blew + so furiously we could not venture to open the doors. + + January 3.--Bright sunshine and perfectly calm. Ernest and Norman + Melliss, sons of David M. Melliss, of New York City, came into our + car from the other train, which is twelve days from Ogden. How they + do revive The Revolution experiences, Train and the Wall street + gossip! Stood still in the snow-shed till noon and reached Sherman + about 6 P.M. Mr. Sargent had brought some potatoes which we roasted + on top of the stove and they proved a delicious addition to our + meal. In the car "Sacramento" we had a mock trial, Judge Mitchell + presiding and the jury composed of women. He wrote out a verdict, + which the women insisted on bringing in, not because they agreed + with it but because they wanted to please him and the other men, + but I rebelled and hung the jury! + + January 4.--Morning found us still at Sherman and we did not move + till 1 P.M. There is another train ahead of us, and here we are, + four passenger trains pushing on for Cheyenne. The people from the + different ones visit among each other. Half-way to Granite Canyon + the snowplow got off the track and one wheel broke, so a dead + standstill for hours. Reached Granite Canyon at dark, a whole day + getting there from Sherman, and remained over night. + + January 5.--Bright and beautiful. Reached Cheyenne at 11:30 A.M. + Little George Sargent coaxed his papa to let him walk over the + bridge to the town and fell through and broke his arm. Mrs. + Sargent, after holding him till the bone was set, fainted. + Afterwards I called on Mrs. Amalia Post. It was at her house the + Cheyenne women met and went in a body to Governor Campbell's + residence in 1869, and announced their intention of staying till he + signed the woman suffrage bill, which he did without further delay. + Met the governor and several other notables. At 1:30 P.M. our train + was off at first-class speed, and oh, what joy in every face! + + January 6.--Arrived at Omaha at 3 P.M. Found letter from brother + D.R., enclosing pass to Leavenworth and saying he had passes for me + from there to Chicago and eastward. If I go to L. I shall miss the + Washington convention, where I am so badly needed. If it had not + been for this vexatious delay I could have had a day or two there + and several more at Rochester. Now I must push straight on. It is + my hard fate always to sacrifice affection and pleasure to duty and + work. + + January 7.--All the baggage had to be rechecked at Omaha and when I + insisted upon attending to my own, because I had found that the + only safe way, Mr. Sargent looked so offended that I at once handed + over my checks. + + January 8.--Arrived at Chicago at 3 A.M. Went at once to my aunt + Ann Eliza Dickinson's and visited with her till 7 o'clock, had + breakfast and went to Fort Wayne depot where, as I feared, I found + one of my checks called for the wrong piece of baggage; so I took + one trunk, left the baggage-master to hunt up the other, and + started straight for Washington on a train without a sleeper. + + January 9.--Passed Pittsburg at 2 A.M. Breakfasted at Altoona on + top of the Alleghanies; scenery most beautiful, but not on so grand + a scale as among the Rockies. + +This is the last entry. It is hardly necessary to add that Miss Anthony +reached Washington in time for the opening of the convention on the +morning of January 10. To the question whether she were not very tired, +she replied: "Why, what would make me tired? I haven't been doing +anything, for two weeks!" + +[Footnote 58: Miss Anthony's lecture was a decided success, judged +either by the number and intelligence of those present or the able +manner in which she discussed the salient points pertaining to woman +suffrage. She displayed an ability, conciseness and force that must +have carried conviction to every impartial listener.... Her visit here +has done more to advance the cause of woman suffrage than can now be +fully appreciated. She has sown the germ of a movement which can not +fail to inoculate our people with a belief in the justice of her cause +and the injustice of longer depriving the more intelligent, purer and +consequently better portion of our inhabitants of that greatest of +boons, the ballot.--Sioux City Daily Times. + +Miss Anthony's lecture was full of good, sound common sense, and an +opponent of woman suffrage said it was the best speech he ever heard on +the subject. Wyoming was highly complimented as being the first +Territory to recognize the equality of woman, and pronounced as much +ahead of her eastern sisters in civilization as she is higher in +altitude. The lecture abounded with gems of wit, humor and pathos, and +the audience would willingly have listened another hour.--Cheyenne +Tribune. + +The press sneers at Miss Anthony, men tell her she is out of her proper +sphere, people call her a scold, good women call her masculine, a +monstrosity in petticoats; but if one-half of her sex possessed +one-half of her acquirements, her intellectual culture, her +self-reliance and independence of character, the world would be the +better for it.--Denver News. + +A large and attentive audience filled the Denver theater last night to +hear Miss Susan B. Anthony, champion of the "new departure in +politics," called the woman suffrage movement. The fact that there was +not sitting room for all who came is evidence of deep interest in the +subject, or great curiosity to hear the lady speak.... It is impossible +to give an outline of her speech. It was a string of strong arguments +put in a straightforward, clear and vigorous way, eliciting favor and +inviting the attention of the audience throughout. The lecture was +suggestive, and of the kind that sets people to thinking.--Denver +Tribune.] + +[Footnote 59: Notwithstanding this tribute, the Herald printed a long +string of verses with this introduction: "We trust our readers will not +miss the perusal of this piece of rhythmical irony. It is certainly one +of the happiest hits we have seen for many a day. No one can mistake +the allusion to the 'Old Gal.' who has been so recently among us +'tooting her horn.'" + + "Along the city's thoroughfare, + A grim Old Gal with manly air + Strode amidst the noisy crowd, + Tooting her horn both shrill and loud; + Till e'en above the city's roar, + Above its din and discord, o'er + All, was heard, 'Ye tyrants, fear! + The dawn of freedom's drawing near-- + Woman's Rights and Suffrage.' + + "A meek old man, in accents wild, + Cried,'Sal! turn back and nurse our child!' + She bent on him a withering look, + Her bony fist at him she shook. + And screeched, 'Ye brute! ye think I'm flat + To mend your clo'es and nurse your brat? + Nurse it yourself; I'll change the plan, + When I am made a congressman-- + Woman's Rights and Suffrage,'" etc. +*/] + +[Footnote 60: Coming from The Dalles, the boat tied up for the night at +Umatilla Landing. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Duniway walking on shore saw a +man sitting in front of a little corner grocery and stopped to ask some +questions. They found that when a boy he had run away from home in Miss +Anthony's own neighborhood, had never written back and his family had +long believed him dead. After some conversation he consented that she +might write to his mother and then in his softened mood insisted that +they should have a glass of wine. Miss Anthony was a total abstainer +but not wishing to offend him, took one sip from a glass of Angelica +and then the ladies hurried back to the boat. Some one who had seen the +occurrence spread the story and the result was an Associated Press item +sent broadcast, stating that, since coming to the coast, Miss Anthony +was visiting saloons and associating with low characters.] + +[Footnote 61: Two examples will suffice: + +"EDITOR COLONIST: I have read with a feeling of thankfulness the letter +of 'A Male Biped,' in this day's Colonist. The writer deserves the +thanks of every good woman in the land for the bold and able manner in +which he has administered a shaking to a shrewish old mischief-maker +who, having failed to secure a husband herself, is tramping the +continent to make her more fortunate sisters miserable by creating +dissensions in their households. O, why do not some of our divines or +lawyers upset this woman's sophistries, and convince even her that +woman's true sphere is in 'submitting herself to her husband,' and +religiously fulfilling the marriage vows the wise organizers of society +have prescribed? + + A WIFE AND A MOTHER." + +"MR. EDITOR: America, the home of many humbugs, which produced Brigham +Young, Barnum, Home, the medium, and many others, has, it appears, +another human curiosity in Miss Anthony. This specimen from over the +way comes amongst us, and because our ladies fail to recognize or +encourage her in her vagaries, she gets very rabid and snarls and snaps +at the 'women of Victoria who had so sunk their womanhood that they +were happy even in their degradation.' The degradation referred to is +that of whipping, which this female firebrand appears to believe is the +rule hers. Surely the complete immunity from castigation of such a +noxious creature as Miss Anthony is sufficient answer to this libel. +Men in British Columbia no more countenance bad husbands than do the +women a quack apostle in petticoats. They look upon such persons as +sexual mistakes, like the two-headed lady or the four-legged baby, and +as safe guides on social questions as George Francis Train is in +politics. + + AN INSULTED HUSBAND." + +And yet during the few days she was in Victoria no leas than half a +dozen women came to her to protest against the law which allowed the +husband to whip his wife.] + +[Footnote 62: During Mr. Sargent's candidacy for the Senate, a +California newspaper objected that he was in favor of woman suffrage, +and called for a denial of the truth of the damning charge. He took no +notice of it until a week or two later, when a suffrage convention met +in San Francisco; he then went before that body and delivered a radical +speech in favor of woman's rights, taking the most advanced grounds. +When he was through he remarked to a friend, "They have my views now, +and can make the most of them. I would not conceal them to be +senator."--History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, p. 483.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +REPUBLICAN SPLINTER----MISS ANTHONY VOTES. + +1872. + + +The leading women in the movement for suffrage, supported by some of +the ablest constitutional lawyers in the country, continued to claim +the right to vote under the following: + + FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, JULY 28, 1868. + + SECTION 1. 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 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, + nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection + of the laws. + + FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT, MARCH 30, 1870. + + SECTION 1. 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. + +Many of the Republican leaders admitted that these amendments might be +construed to include women, but were silenced by the cry of "party +expediency." The fear of defeating the attempt to enfranchise the +colored male citizen made them refuse to add the word "sex" to the +Fifteenth Amendment, which would have placed this question beyond +debate and put an end to the agitation that has continued for thirty +years. The women insisted that the exigency which compelled the +ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment by the various State +legislatures was strong enough to carry it, even with the word "sex" +included. Having failed to gain this point, the National Association +determined to maintain the position that women were already +enfranchised, and embodied it in the call for the Washington convention +of 1872: "All those interested in woman's enfranchisement are invited +to consider the 'new departure'--women already citizens, and their +rights as such secured by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of +the Federal Constitution." + +The same position was re-asserted in the resolutions adopted at that +meeting, which declared that "while the Constitution of the United +States leaves the qualifications of electors to the various States, it +nowhere gives them the right to deprive any citizen of the elective +franchise which is possessed by any other citizen; the right to +regulate not including the right to prohibit the franchise;" that +"those provisions of the several State constitutions which exclude +women from the franchise on account of sex, are violative alike of the +letter and spirit of the Federal Constitution;" and that "as the +Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution have +established the right of women to the elective franchise, we demand of +the present Congress a declaratory act which shall secure us at once in +the exercise of this right." + +Miss Anthony and other leaders officially asked the privilege of +addressing the Senate and House upon this momentous question. This was +refused, as contrary to precedent, but a hearing was granted before the +Senate Judiciary Committee,[63] Friday morning, January 12. Not only +the committee room but the corridors were crowded. Mrs. Stanton and +Mrs. Hooker spoke grandly,[64] and as usual Miss Anthony was chosen to +clinch the argument, which she did as follows: + + You already have had logic and Constitution; I shall refer, + therefore, to existing facts. Prior to the war the plan of + extending suffrage was by State action, and it was our boast that + the National Constitution did not contain a word which could be + construed into a barrier against woman's right to vote. But at the + close of the war Congress lifted the question of suffrage for men + above State power, and by the amendments prohibited the deprivation + of suffrage to any citizen by any State. When the Fourteenth + Amendment was first proposed in Congress, we rushed to you with + petitions praying you not to insert the word "male" in the second + clause. Our best friends on the floor of Congress said to us: "The + insertion of that word puts up no new barrier against woman; + therefore do not embarrass us but wait until we get the negro + question settled." So the Fourteenth Amendment with the word "male" + was adopted. + + Then, when the Fifteenth was presented without the word "sex," we + again petitioned and protested, and again our friends declared that + the absence of that word was no hindrance to us, and again begged + us to wait until they had finished the work of the war. "After we + have enfranchised the negro we will take up your case." Have they + done as they promised? When we come asking protection under the new + guarantees of the Constitution, the same men say to us that our + only plan is to wait the action of Congress and State legislatures + in the adoption of a Sixteenth Amendment which shall make null and + void the word "male" in the Fourteenth, and supply the want of the + word "sex" in the Fifteenth. Such tantalizing treatment imposed + upon yourselves or any class of men would have caused rebellion and + in the end a bloody revolution. It is only the close relations + existing between the sexes which have prevented any such result + from this injustice to women. + + Gentlemen, I should be sure of your decision could you but realize + the fact that we, who have been battling for our rights now more + than twenty years, feel precisely as you would under such + circumstances. One of the most ardent lovers of freedom (Senator + Sumner) said to me two winters ago, after our hearing before the + committee of the District: "I never realized before that you or any + woman could feel the disgrace, the degradation of disfranchisement + precisely as I should if my fellow-citizens had conspired to + deprive me of my right to vote." Although I am a Quaker and take no + oath, yet I have made a most solemn "affirmation" that I will never + again beg my rights, but will come to Congress each year and demand + the recognition of them under the guarantees of the National + Constitution. + + What we ask of the Republican party is simply to take down its own + bars. The facts in Wyoming show how it is that a Republican party + can exist in that Territory. Before women voted, there was never a + Republican elected to office; after their enfranchisement, the + first election sent one Republican to Congress and seven to the + Territorial Legislature. Thus the nucleus of a Republican party + there was formed through the enfranchisement of women. The + Democrats, seeing this, are now determined to disfranchise them. + Can you Republicans so utterly stultify yourselves, can you so + entirely work against yourselves, as to refuse us a declaratory + law? We pray you to report immediately, as Mrs. Hooker has said, + "favorably, if you can; adversely, if you must." We can wait no + longer. + +The committee reported adversely on the question of woman's right to +vote under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. + +At the close of the convention, Miss Anthony hastened to her home in +Rochester, which she had not seen since her departure to California +eight months before. Soon after her arrival she was invited to meet a +number of her acquaintances at the home of her dear friend, Amy Post, +and give them an account of her experiences on the Pacific slope. At +its conclusion she was surprised by the presentation of a purse +containing $50, with a touching address by Mrs. Post asking her to +accept it as a testimonial of the appreciation in which her friends and +neighbors held her work for woman and humanity. At the same time she +received a gift of money from Sarah Pugh, in an envelope marked, "For +thine own dear self." In her acknowledgment she says: + + The tears started when I read your sweet letter. Were it not for + the loving sympathy and confidence of the little handful of + ever-faithful such as you, my spirit, I fear, would have fainted + long ago. There are yourself, dear Lucretia and her equally dear + sister, Martha, who never fail to know just the moment when my + purse is drained to the bottom and to drop the needed dollar into + it. It is really wonderful how I have been carried through all + these years financially. I often feel that Elijah's being fed by + the ravens was no more miraculous than my being furnished with the + means to do the great work which has been for the past twenty years + continuously presenting itself--yes, presenting itself, for it has + always come to me. My thought has been to escape the hardships but + they come ever and always, and so I try to accept the situation and + work my way through as best I can. + +[Autograph: + + My love and good wishes are + always flowing toward thyself and + dear Mrs Stanton-- + + Thine truly + Amy Post] + +She was soon off again, lecturing in various cities and towns, going as +far west as Nebraska. Early in April, while waiting at a little +railroad station in Illinois, a gentleman came in and handed her a copy +of Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly containing this double-leaded +announcement: + + The undersigned citizens of the United States, responding to the + invitation of the National Woman Suffrage Association, propose to + hold a convention at Steinway Hall, in the city of New York, the + 9th and 10th of May. We believe the time has come for the formation + of a new political party whose principles shall meet the issues of + the hour and represent equal rights for all. As women of the + country are to take part for the first time in political action, we + propose that the initiative steps in the convention shall be taken + by them.... This convention will declare the platform of the + People's party, and consider the nomination of candidates for + President and Vice-President of the United States, who shall be the + best possible exponents of political and industrial reform.... + + ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, SUSAN E. ANTHONY, + ISABELLA B. HOOKER, MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE. + +It was followed by the call of Mrs. Woodhull and others for a delegate +convention to form a new party. Miss Anthony was thunderstruck. Not +only had she no knowledge of this action, but she was thoroughly +opposed both to the forming of a new party and to the National +Association's having any share in such a proceeding. She immediately +telegraphed an order to have her name removed from the call, and wrote +back indignant letters of protest against involving the association in +such an affair. A month prior to this, on March 13, she had written +Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Hooker from Leavenworth: + + We have no element out of which to make a political party, because + there is not a man who would vote a woman suffrage ticket if + thereby he endangered his Republican, Democratic, Workingmen's or + Temperance party, and all our time and words in that direction are + simply thrown away. My name must not be used to call any such + meeting. I will do all I can to support either of the leading + parties which may adopt a woman suffrage plank or nominee; but no + one of them wants to do anything for us, while each would like to + use us.... + + I tell you I feel utterly disheartened--not that our cause is going + to die or be defeated, but as to my place and work. Mrs. Woodhull + has the advantage of us because she has the newspaper, and she + persistently means to run our craft into her port and none other. + If she were influenced by _women_ spirits, either in the body or + out of it, in the direction she steers, I might consent to be a + mere sail-hoister for her; but as it is, she is wholly owned and + dominated by _men_ spirits and I spurn the control of the whole lot + of them, just precisely the same when reflected through her woman's + tongue and pen as if they spoke directly for themselves. + +After sending this letter she had supposed the question settled until +she saw this notice, hence her anger and dismay can be imagined. + +The regular anniversary meeting of the National Association was to +begin in New York on May 9, and on the 6th Miss Anthony reached the +city to prevent, if possible, the threatened coalition with the +proposed new party. She engaged the parlors of the Westmoreland Hotel +for headquarters and then hastened over to Tenafly to get Mrs. Stanton. +As soon as the suffrage committee opened its business session, Mrs. +Woodhull and her friends appeared by previous arrangement made during +Miss Anthony's absence in the West, and announced that they would hold +joint sessions with the suffrage convention the next two days at +Steinway Hall. It was only by Miss Anthony's firm stand and indomitable +will that this was averted, and that the set of resolutions which they +brought, cut and dried, was defeated in the committee. She positively +refused to allow them the use of Steinway Hall, which had been rented +in her name, and at length they were compelled to give up the game and +engage Apollo Hall for their "new party" convention. Mrs. Stanton and +Mrs. Hooker called her narrow, bigoted and headstrong, but the +proceedings of the "people's convention" next day, which nominated Mrs. +Woodhull for President, showed how suicidal it would have been to have +had it under the auspices of the National Suffrage Association. + +The forces of the latter, however, were greatly demoralized, the +attendance at the convention was small, and Mrs. Stanton refused to +serve longer as president. Miss Anthony was elected in her stead and, +just as she was about to adjourn the first evening session, to her +amazement Mrs. Woodhull came gliding in from the side of the platform +and moved that "this convention adjourn to meet tomorrow morning at +Apollo Hall!" An ally in the audience seconded the motion, Miss Anthony +refused to put it, an appeal was made from the decision of the chair, +Mrs. Woodhull herself put the motion and it was carried overwhelmingly. +Miss Anthony declared the whole proceeding out of order, as the one +making the motion, the second, and the vast majority of those voting +were not members of the association. She adjourned the convention to +meet in the same place the next morning and, as Mrs. Woodhull persisted +in talking, ordered the janitor to turn off the gas. + +The next day, almost without assistance and deserted by those who +should have stood by her, she went through with the remaining three +sessions and brought the convention to a close. In her diary that +evening is written: "A sad day for me; all came near being lost. Our +ship was so nearly stranded by leaving the helm to others, that we +rescued it only by a hair's breadth." She stopped at Lydia Mott's and +then at Martha Wright's for comfort and sympathy, finding them in +abundant measure, and reached home strengthened and refreshed, ready +again to take up the work. + +At the request of many suffrage advocates, Miss Anthony and Laura De +Force Gordon went to the National Liberal Convention, at Cincinnati, +May 2, 1872, with a resolution asking that as liberal Republicans they +should hold fast to the principles of the Declaration of Independence +and recognize the right of women to the franchise. The ladies were +politely treated and invited to seats on the platform, but were not +allowed to appear before the committee and no attention was paid to +their resolution. They expected no favors from the presiding officer, +Carl Schurz, the foreign born, always a bitter opponent of woman +suffrage, but they had hoped for assistance from B. Gratz Brown, George +W. Julian, Theodore Tilton and other leading spirits of the meeting, +who had been open and avowed friends; but it was the old, old +story--political exigency required that women must be sacrificed, and +this so-called Liberal convention was no more liberal on this subject +than all which had preceded it. Miss Anthony is quoted in an interview +as saying: + + You see our cause is just where the anti-slavery cause was for a + long time. It had plenty of friends and supporters three years out + of four, but every fourth year, when a President was to be elected, + it was lost sight of; then the nation was to be saved and the slave + must be sacrificed. So it is with us women. Politicians are willing + to use us at their gatherings to fill empty seats, to wave our + handkerchiefs and clap our hands when they say smart things; but + when we ask to be allowed to help them in any substantial way, by + assisting them to choose the best men for our law-makers and + rulers, they push us aside and tell us not to bother them. + +On June 7 Miss Anthony and other prominent suffrage leaders attended +the National Republican Convention, at Philadelphia, which adopted the +following compromise: + + The Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the loyal + women of America for their noble devotion to the cause of freedom; + their admission to wider fields of usefulness is received with + satisfaction; and the honest demands of any class of citizens for + equal rights should be treated with respectful consideration. + +At the close of this meeting, the faithful Sarah Pugh slipped $20 into +Miss Anthony's hand, telling her to go and confer with Mrs. Stanton. +She did so and they prepared a strong letter for the New York World, +calling upon the Democrats at Baltimore to adopt a woman suffrage plank +if they did not wish to compel the women of the country to work for the +success of the Republican ticket. Immediately after the Philadelphia +convention, Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the Woman's Journal, wrote +Miss Anthony: + + I have given my views to Mrs. Stanton as to the wisdom of + concentrating the woman suffragists in support of the Republican + candidates and platform. I think if this is done earnestly, + heartily and unselfishly, upon the ground of anti-slavery principle + and of progressive tendencies, a strong and general reaction will + set in and that, instead of "recognition," as in 1872, we shall + have endorsement and victory in 1876.... I believe you love the + cause better than yourself. I hope that you will see the wisdom of + accepting the resolution in the friendly, generous spirit of the + convention and, by accepting it, making it mean what we desire it + should, which we can do if we will. + +To this she replied on June 14: + + Your note is here. My view of our true position is to hold + ourselves as a balance of power, "to give aid and comfort," as the + Springfield Republican says, to the party which shall inscribe on + its banners "Freedom to Woman." If I am a Republican or Liberal or + Democrat per se and work for the party right or wrong, then I make + of myself and my co-workers no added power for or against the one + which adopts or rejects our claim for recognition. + + I do not expect any _man_ to see and act with me here, but I do not + understand how any _woman_ can do otherwise than refuse to accept + any party which ignores her sex. I will not work with a party today + on the war issues or because it was true to them in the olden time; + but I will work with the one which accepts the living, vital issue + of today--freedom to woman--and I scarcely have a hope that + Baltimore will step ahead of Philadelphia in her platform. Grant's + recognition of citizens' rights evidently _means_ to include women, + and Wilson's letter openly and boldly declares the new mission of + Republicanism. I, therefore, now expect to take the field--the + stump, if you please to call it so--for the Republican party, but + not because of any of its nineteen planks save the fourteenth, + which makes mention of woman, although faintly. It is "the promise + of things not seen," hence I shall clutch it as the drowning man + the floating straw, and cling to it until something stronger and + surer shall present itself. It is a great step to get this first + recognition; it carries the discussion of our question legitimately + into every school district and every ward meeting of the + presidential canvass. It is what my soul has waited for these seven + years. From this we shall go rapidly onward. + +Miss Anthony and Mrs. Hooker attended the National Democratic +Convention at Baltimore, July 9. The latter some time before had +repudiated her life-long allegiance to the Republican party, because of +its treatment of woman's claims, and had declared her belief that their +only chance was with the Democrats. The Baltimore Sun thus describes an +interview in the corridor between the Hon. James R. Doolittle, +president of the convention, and Miss Anthony and Mrs. Hooker: "Mr. +Doolittle's erect and commanding figure was set off to great advantage +by his elegantly-fitting dress-coat; Mrs. Hooker, tall and erect as the +lord of creation she was bearding, with her abundant tresses of +beautiful gray and her intellectual, sparkling eyes; Miss Anthony, the +peer of both in height, with her gold spectacles set forward on a nose +which would have delighted Napoleon; the two ladies attired in rich +black silk--the attention of the few who lingered was at once attracted +to the picture." But Mr. Doolittle justified his name, as far as +extending any assistance was concerned, and the ladies had not even +seats on the platform. + +As an example of the way in which the politicians tried not to do it +and yet seem to sufficiently to secure such small influence as the +women might possess, may be quoted a letter from Hon. John Cochran, of +New York City, to Mrs. Stanton, his cousin: "I think Baltimore should +speak on the subject. I am sorry Cincinnati did not. Any baby could say +that fourteenth formula in the Philadelphia platform; but I would say +something more if I said anything at all. Come, see if you can rig up +this shaky plank and give something not quite suffrage, but so like it +that all the female Sampsons will vote that it is good." The Baltimore +convention, however, could not be induced to adopt even a rickety plank +which might fool the women. Miss Anthony writes in her diary: "The +Democrats have swallowed Cincinnati, hoofs, horns and all. No hope for +women here." + +While the Republican plank was unsatisfactory, it was the first time +Woman ever had been mentioned in a national platform and so many +glittering hopes were held out by the Republican leaders that the +officers of the National Association felt justified in giving their +influence to this party. They were the more willing to do this as +General Grant, the nominee, had been the first President to appoint +women postmasters and was known to be friendly to their claim for equal +opportunities, and as Henry Wilson, candidate for Vice-President, was +an avowed advocate of woman suffrage. Therefore, Miss Anthony, +president, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, chairman of the executive +committee, on July 19 sent out a ringing address which began: + + Women of the United States, the hour for political action has come. + For the first time in the history of our country, woman has been + recognized in the platform of a large and dominant party. + Philadelphia has spoken and woman is no longer ignored. She is now + officially recognized as a part of the body politic.... We are told + that the plank does not say much, that in fact it is only a + "splinter;" and our Liberal friends warn us not to rely upon it as + a promise of the ballot to women. What it is, we know even better + than others. We recognize its meagerness; we see in it the timidity + of politicians; but beyond and through all, we see a promise of the + future. It is the thin side of the entering wedge which shall break + woman's slavery in pieces and make us at last a nation truly + free--a nation in which the caste of sex shall fall down by the + caste of color, and humanity alone be the criterion of all human + rights. The Republican has been the party of ideas; of progress. + Under its leadership, the nation came safely through the fiery + ordeal of the rebellion; under it slavery was destroyed; under it + manhood suffrage was established. The women of the country have + long looked to it in hope, and not in vain; for today we are + launched by it into the political arena, and the Republican party + must hereafter fight our battles for us. This great, this + progressive party, having taken the initiative step, will never go + back on its record. + +In July Miss Anthony, continuing the correspondence with Mr. Blackwell, +wrote: + + Letters are pouring in upon me because of my announcement that I + shall work for the Republican party, second only in numbers and + regret to those of 1868--because of my accepting Train's words, + works and cash, given me to push on the cause of woman suffrage as + best I knew. It is marvelous that the friends can not see what a + gain it is to have the question of woman's claims introduced into + politics. It is the hour I have longed and worked for with might + and main because I have seen that so soon as we could get this, the + editors and orators of both parties must of necessity discuss the + subject pro and con, and of course the party which introduced it + favorably into politics, must be the one to give the reasons for so + doing. + + As I endured the growling when I was charged with giving too much + "aid and comfort" to the Democracy, because I thanked them for what + they did to agitate our demand in Congress and out, I think I shall + be equal to the fire now for affiliating with the Republicans. You + did me the grossest injustice in the Woman's Journal, when you + called me a "woman suffrage Democrat," just as gross as the + Liberals will be likely to do, when they shall call me a "woman + suffrage Republican." I belong to neither party, and approve of one + or the other only as it shall speak and work for the + enfranchisement of woman. Had Cincinnati declared for woman, and + Philadelphia not, I should have worked with might and main for the + Liberals. All I know or care of parties now and until women are + free, is "woman and her disfranchised--crucified!" + +It is most touching to observe Miss Anthony's joy over this +quasi-recognition on the part of Republicans, the more especially at +the beginning of the campaign. In her journal of July 26 she says: "It +is so strange that all can not see the immense gain to us to have the +party in power commit itself to a respectful treatment of our claims. +Already the tone of the entire Republican press is elevated. It is +wonderful to see the change. None but the Liberals deride us now, and +Theodore Tilton stands at their head in light and scurrilous +treatment." To her old friend Mrs. Bloomer, she sent this rallying cry: +"Ho for the battle now! The lines are clearly drawn.... Slight as is +the Republicans' mention of our claim in their plank, it surely is +vastly more and better than the disrespect of no mention at all by the +Democrats, coupled with the fact that their nominee, Mr. Greeley, is an +out-and-out opponent of our movement, and does not now refrain from +saying to earnest suffrage women that he 'neither desires our help nor +believes we are capable of giving any.'" + +To Mrs. Stanton she wrote: "The Democrats have now abandoned their old +dogmas and accepted those of the Republicans, while the latter have +stepped up higher to labor reform and woman suffrage. Forney's +editorial in the Philadelphia Press of July 11 states positively that +the woman suffrage cause is espoused by the Republican party. I tell +you the Fort Sumter gun of our war is fired, and we will go on to +victory almost without a repulse from this date." But Mrs. Stanton +could not share in her optimism, and replied: "I do not feel jubilant +over the situation; in fact I never was so blue in my life. You and Mr. +Blackwell write most enthusiastically, and I try to feel so and to see +that the 'Philadelphia splinter' is something. Between nothing and +that, there is no choice, and we must accept it. With my natural pride +of character, it makes me feel intensely bitter to have my rights +discussed by popinjay priests and politicians, to have woman's work in +church and State decided by striplings of twenty-one, and the press of +the country in a broad grin because, forsooth, some American matrons +choose to attend a political convention. Now do I know how Robert +Purvis feels when these 'white mules' turn round their long left ears +at him. But let the Democrats and Liberals do what they may, the cat +will mew, the dog will have his day. Dear friend, you ask me what I +see. I am under a cloud and see nothing." + +Under date of August 19, Henry Wilson wrote Miss Anthony: "Your +cheerful and cheering note came to me in Indiana. In great haste I can +only say that I like its spirit, believe in its doctrines, and will +call the attention of the Republican committees, both national and New +York, to your suggestions, and trust and believe that much good may +result from carrying into effect its suggestions." + +On July 16 Miss Anthony had received a telegram from Washington to come +at once for a conference with the Republican committee. Her sister and +mother were very ill and she would not leave them, even for such a +summons. On the 24th another telegram came, but it was not until the +29th that she felt safe in leaving the invalids. When she reached +Washington, the chairman of the committee said: "At the time we sent +our first telegram we were panic-stricken and had you come then, you +might have had what you pleased to carry out your plan of work among +the women; but now the crisis has passed and we feel confident of +success; nevertheless, we will be glad of your co-operation." He gave +her a check of $500, to which the New York committee added $500 more, +to hold meetings in that State. + +[Autograph: Henry Wilson] + +The same change of feeling was noticeable in the press. Immediately +after the Baltimore convention, when it looked as if Greeley might be +elected, the Republican newspapers were filled with appeals to the +women, and the plank was magnified to suit any interpretation they +might choose, but as the campaign progressed and the danger passed, it +was almost wholly ignored by both press and platform. The Republicans +did, however, employ a number of women speakers during the campaign, +but Miss Anthony received no money except this $1,000, all of which she +expended in public meetings. The first was at Rochester, September 20, +and, the daily papers said, "far surpassed any rally held during the +season." Mayor Carter Wilder presided, and the speakers were Mrs. +Stanton, Mrs. Gage and Rev. Olympia Brown. The series closed with a +tremendous meeting at Cooper Institute, Hon. Luther R. Marsh presiding, +and Peter Cooper, Edmund Yates and a number of other prominent men on +the stage. Henry Ward Beecher had agreed to preside and to speak at +this meeting, but at the last moment was called away. + +Miss Anthony was considerably at variance with some of the Republican +politicians, however, because she and her associates, through all the +campaign, persisted in speaking on the woman's plank in the platform +and advocating equal suffrage, instead of ignoring these points, as the +men speakers did, and making the fight on the other issues of the +party. Her position is best stated in one of her own letters to Mrs. +Stanton early in the autumn: + + If you are ready to go forth into this canvass saying that you + endorse the party on any other point or for any other cause than + that of its recognition of woman's claim to vote, _I_ am not and I + shall not thus go. To the contrary, I shall work for the Republican + party and call on all women to join me, precisely as we thanked the + Democrats of Wyoming and Kansas, and Hon. James Brooks and Senator + Cowan, viz: for what that party has done and promises to do for + woman, nothing more, nothing less. + + Then again, I shall not join with the Republicans in hounding + Greeley and the Liberals with all the old war anathemas of the + Democracy. Greeley and all the Liberals are just as good and true + Republicans as ever; and the fact that old pro-slavery men propose + to vote for him no more makes him pro-slavery than the drunkards' + or rum-sellers' vote for him makes him a friend and advocate of the + liquor traffic. My sense of justice and truth is outraged by the + Harpers' cartoons of Greeley and the general falsifying tone of the + Republican press. It is not fair for us to join in the cry that + everybody who is opposed to the present administration is either a + Democrat or an apostate. + + I shall try to be "careful and not captious," as you suggest, but + more than all, I shall try not to run myself or my cause into the + slough of political schemes or schemers. And I pray you, be prudent + and conscientious, and do not surrender one iota of true principle + or of our philosophy of reform to aid mere Republican partisanship. + +Miss Anthony never has abandoned this position and the leading +advocates of woman suffrage stand with her squarely upon the ground +that no party, whatever its principles, shall have their sanction and +advocacy until it shall make an unequivocal declaration in favor of the +enfranchisement of women and support this by means of the party press +and platform. + +There was a desire on the part of many women to test the right to vote +which they claimed was conferred on them by the Fourteenth Amendment, +and in 1872 a number in different places attempted to cast their +ballots at the November election. A few were accepted by the +inspectors, but most of them were refused. On Friday morning, November +1, Miss Anthony read, at the head of the editorial columns of the +Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the following strong plea: + + Now register! Today and tomorrow are the only remaining + opportunities. If you were not permitted to vote, you would fight + for the right, undergo all privations for it, face death for it. + You have it now at the cost of five minutes' time to be spent in + seeking your place of registration and having your name entered. + And yet, on election day, less than a week hence, hundreds of you + are likely to lose your votes because you have not thought it worth + while to give the five minutes. Today and tomorrow are your only + opportunities. Register now! + +There was nothing to indicate that this appeal was made to men only, it +said plainly that suffrage was a right for which one would fight and +face death, and that it could be had at the cost of five minutes' time. +She was a loyal American citizen, had just conducted a political +campaign, was thoroughly conversant with the issues and vitally +interested in the results of the election, and certainly competent to +vote. She summoned her three faithful sisters and going to the registry +office of the Eighth ward (in a barber's shop) they asked to be +registered. There was some hesitation, but Miss Anthony read the +Fourteenth Amendment and the article in the State constitution in +regard to taking the oath, which made no sex-qualification, and at +length their names were duly entered by the inspectors, Beverly W. +Jones and Edwin F. Marsh, Republicans; William B. Hall, Democrat, +objecting. Miss Anthony then called upon several other women in her +ward, urging them to follow her example, and in all fifteen registered. +The evening papers noted this fact and the next day enough women in +other wards followed their example to bring the number up to fifty. + +The Rochester Express and the Democrat and Chronicle (Republican) noted +the circumstance, expressing no opinion, but the Union and Advertiser +(Democratic) denounced the proceeding and declared that "if the votes +of these women were received the inspectors should be prosecuted to the +full extent of the law." This attack was kept up till the day of +election, November 5, with the result of so terrorizing the inspectors +that all refused to accept the votes of the women who had registered +except those in the Eighth ward where the ballots of the fifteen[65] +were received. + +In a letter to Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony says: "Well, I have been and +gone and done it, positively voted this morning at 7 o'clock, and swore +my vote in at that. Not a jeer, not a rude word, not a disrespectful +look has met one woman. Now if all our suffrage women would work to +this end of enforcing the constitutional supremacy of National over +State law, what strides we might make from now on; but oh, I'm so +tired! I've been on the go constantly for five days, but to good +purpose, so all right. I hope you too voted." + +The news of the acceptance of these votes was sent by the Associated +Press to all parts of the country and created great interest and +excitement. There was scarcely a newspaper in the United States which +did not contain from one to a dozen editorial comments. Some of these +were flippant or abusive, most of them non-committal but respectful, +and many earnest, dignified and commendatory;[66] a few, notably the +New York Graphic, contained outrageous cartoons. + +Immediately after registering Miss Anthony had gone to a number of the +leading lawyers in Rochester for advice as to her right to vote on the +following Tuesday, but none of them would consider her case. Finally +she entered the office of Henry R. Selden, a leading member of the bar +and formerly judge of the court of appeals. He listened to her +attentively, took the mass of documents which she had brought with +her--Benjamin F. Butler's minority report, Francis Minor's resolutions, +Judge Riddle's speech made in Washington in a similar case the year +previous, various Supreme Court decisions, an incontrovertible array of +argument--and told her he would give her an answer on Monday. She +called then and he said: "My brother Samuel and I have spent an entire +day in examining these papers and we believe that your claim to a right +to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment is valid. I will protect you in +that right to the best of my ability." + +Armed with this authority she cast her vote the next day, and advised +the other women to do the same. As the inspectors hesitated to receive +the votes, Miss Anthony assured them that should they be prosecuted she +herself would bear all the expenses of the suit. They had been advised +not to register the women by Silas J. Wagner, Republican supervisor. +All three of the inspectors and also a bystander declared under oath +that Daniel J. Warner, the Democratic supervisor, had advised them to +register the names of the women; but on election day this same man +attempted to challenge their votes. This, however, already had been +done by one Sylvester Lewis, who testified later that he acted for the +Democratic central committee. The general belief that these ladies +voted the Republican ticket may have influenced this action. + +About two weeks after election, Monday, November 18, Miss Anthony +received a call from Deputy United States Marshal E.J. Keeney who, amid +many blushes and much hesitation and stammering, announced that it was +his unpleasant duty to arrest her. "Is this your usual method of +serving a warrant?" she calmly inquired. The marshal, thus encouraged, +produced the necessary legal document.[67] As she wished to make some +change in her dress, he told her she could come down alone to the +commissioner's office, but she refused to take herself to court, so he +waited until she was ready and then declined her suggestion that he put +handcuffs on her. She had intended to have suit brought against those +inspectors who refused to register the women, but it never had occurred +to her that those who voted would themselves be arrested. + +Under date of November 27, Judge Selden wrote her: "I suppose the +commissioner will, as a matter of course, hold you for trial at the +circuit court, _whatever your rights may be in the matter._ In my +opinion, the idea that you can be charged with a _crime_ on account of +voting, or offering to vote, when you honestly believed yourself +entitled to vote, is simply preposterous, whether your belief _were +right or wrong_. However, the learned gentlemen engaged in this +movement seem to suppose they can make a crime out of your honest +deposit of your ballot, and _perhaps_ they can find a respectable court +or jury that will be of their opinion. If they do so I shall be greatly +disappointed." + +Miss Anthony and the fourteen other ladies who voted, went before U. S. +Commissioner Storrs, U. S. District-Attorney Crowley and Assistant U. +S. District-Attorney Pond, and were ordered to appear for examination +Friday, November 29. Following is a portion of the examination of Miss +Anthony by the commissioner: + + Previous to voting at the 1st district poll in the Eighth ward, did + you take the advice of counsel upon your voting?--Yes, sir.--Who + was it you talked with?--Judge Henry E. Selden.--What did he advise + you in reference to your legal right to vote?--He said it was the + only way to find out what the law was upon the subject--to bring it + to a test case.--Did he advise you to offer your vote?--Yes, + sir.--State whether or not, prior to such advice, you had retained + Mr. Selden. No, sir.--Have you anything further to say upon Judge + Selden's advice?--I think it was sound.--Did he give you an opinion + upon the subject?--He was like the rest of you lawyers--he had not + studied the question.--What did he advise you?--He left me with + this opinion: That he was a conscientious man; that he would + thoroughly study the subject of woman's right to vote and decide + according to the law.--Did you have any doubt yourself of your + right to vote?--Not a particle. + + Cross-examination--Would you not have made the same efforts to vote + that you did, if you had not consulted with Judge Selden?--Yes, + sir.--Were you influenced in the matter by his advice at all?--No, + sir.--You went into this matter for the purpose of testing the + question?--Yes, sir; I had been resolved for three years to vote at + the first election when I had been at home for thirty days before. + +It is an incident worthy of note that this examination took place and +the commissioner's decision was rendered in the same dingy little room +where, in the olden days, fugitive slaves were examined and returned to +their masters. While the attorneys were endeavoring to agree upon a +date for the hearing of arguments, Miss Anthony remarked that she +should be engaged lecturing in central Ohio until December 10. "But you +are supposed to be in custody all this time," said the +district-attorney. "Oh, is that so? I had forgotten all about that," +she replied. That night she wrote in her diary: "A hard day and a sad +anniversary! Ten years ago our dear father was laid to rest. This +evening at 7 o'clock my old friend Horace Greeley died. A giant +intellect suddenly gone out!" + +The second hearing took place December 23 in the common council +chamber, in the presence of a large audience which included many +ladies, the newspapers stating that it had rather the appearance of a +social gathering than an arraignment of criminals. Of those on trial +one paper said: "The majority of these law-breakers were elderly, +matronly-looking women with thoughtful faces, just the sort one would +like to see in charge of one's sick-room, considerate, patient, +kindly." + +At Judge Selden's request, Hon. John Van Voorhis, one of the ablest +lawyers in Rochester, had been associated with himself for the defense. +Both made strong, logical arguments, and Miss Anthony herself spoke +most earnestly in behalf of the three inspectors, who also had been +arrested. The commissioner held all of them guilty, fixed their bail at +$500 each, and gave them until the following Monday to furnish it. All +did so except Miss Anthony, who refused to give bail and applied for a +writ of habeas corpus from U. S. District-Judge N. K. Hall. The +Rochester Express, which stood nobly by her through this ordeal, said +editorially: + + Miss Anthony had a loftier end in view than the making of a + sensation when she registered her name and cast her vote. The act + was in harmony with a life steadily consecrated to a high purpose + from which she has never wavered, though she has met a storm of + invective, personal taunt and false accusation, more than enough to + justify any person less courageous than she in giving up a warfare + securing her only ingratitude and abuse. But Miss Anthony has no + morbid sentiment in her nature. There is at least one woman in the + land--and we believe there are a good many more--who does not whine + others into helping her over a hard spot, or even plead for help, + but bravely helps herself and puts her hand to the plough without + turning back. Those who are now regarding her as practically + condemned to State prison or the payment of a fine of $500, need + not waste their sympathy, for she would suffer either penalty with + heroic cheerfulness if thereby she might help bring about the day + when the principle "no taxation without representation" meant + something more than it does. In writing lately to a friend, she + thus expressed herself: + + "Yes, I hope you will be present at the examination, to witness the + grave spectacle of fifteen native born citizens, of sound mind and + not convicted of any crime, arraigned in the United States criminal + courts to answer for the offense of illegal voting, when the United + States Constitution, the supreme law of this land, says, 'All + persons born or naturalized in the United States ... are citizens; + no State shall deny or abridge the privileges or immunities of + citizens;' and 'The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied.' + The one question to be settled is, are personal freedom and + personal representation inherent rights and privileges under + democratic-republican institutions, or are they things of + legislation, precisely as under old monarchical governments, to be + given and taken at the option of a ruling class or of a majority + vote? If the former, then is our country free indeed; if the + latter, then is our country a despotism, and we women its victims!" + +Under date of December 12, Benjamin F. Butler, then a member of +Congress, wrote Miss Anthony regarding her case: + + 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. + But the difficulty is, the courts long since decided that the + constitutional provisions do not act upon the citizens, except as + guarantees, ex proprio vigore, and in order to give practical force + to them there must be legislation. As, for example, in trial by + jury, a man can invoke the Constitution to prevent his being tried, + in a proper case, by any other tribunal than a jury; but if there + is no legislation, congressional or other, to give him a trial by + jury, I think, under the decisions, it would be very difficult to + see how it might be done. Therefore, the point is for the friends + of woman suffrage to get congressional legislation. + +[Autograph: Benjamin F. Butler] + +The results of the trial showed that General Butler was right in +thinking that further legislation would be required to enable women to +vote under the Constitution of the United States. It proved also that a +judge could set aside the right of a citizen to a trial by jury, +supposed to be guaranteed by every safeguard which could be thrown +around it by this same Constitution. + +[Footnote 63: Present, Lyman Trumbull, Illinois, chairman; Roscoe +Conkling, New York; F.F. Frelinghuysen, New Jersey; Matthew H. +Carpenter, Wisconsin.] + +[Footnote 64: See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, pp. 499 and 506.] + +[Footnote 65: Susan B. Anthony, Mary S. Anthony, Guelma Anthony McLean, +Hannah Anthony Mosher, Rhoda De Garmo, Sarah Truesdale, Mary Pulver, +Lottie B. Anthony, Nancy M. Chapman, Susan M. Hough, Hannah Chatfield, +Margaret Leyden, Mary Culver, Ellen S. Baker, Mary L. Hebard (wife of +the editor of the Express).] + +[Footnote 66: When a jurist as eminent as Judge Henry R. Selden +testifies that he told Miss Anthony before election that she had a +right to vote, and this after a careful examination of the question, +the whole subject assumes new importance.... How grateful to Judge +Selden must all the suffragists be! He has struck the strongest and +most promising blow in their behalf that has yet been given. Dred Scott +was the pivot on which the Constitution turned before the war. Miss +Anthony seems likely to occupy a similar position now.--New York +Commercial Advertiser. + +The arrest of the fifteen women of Rochester, and the imprisonment of +the renowned Miss Susan B. Anthony, for voting at the November +election, afford a curious illustration of the extent to which the +United States government is stretching its hand in these matters. If +these women violated any law at all by voting, it was clearly a statute +of the State of New York, and that State might safely be left to +vindicate the majesty of its own laws. It is only by an over-strained +stretch of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments that the national +government can force its long finger into the Rochester case at +all.--New York Sun. + +Whatever may be said of Susan B. Anthony, there is no doubt but she has +kept the public mind of the country agitated upon the woman's rights +question as few others, male or female, could have done. She has +displayed very superior judgment and has seldom been led into acts of +even seeming impropriety. She has won the respect of all classes by her +ability, her consistency and her spotless character, and she today +stands far in advance of all her co-workers in the estimation of the +people. The fact that she voted at Rochester at the presidential +election has created no little commotion on the part of the press, but +if women are to become voters, who but the one who has taken the lead +in the advocacy of that right should be among the first to cast the +vote?--Toledo Blade. + +We pause in the midst of our pressing duties to admire the zeal and +courage which find in the course of these ladies a challenge to battle, +while evils a thousandfold worse, such as bribery, etc., are permitted +to pass unnoticed.... The ladies who voted in this city on the 5th of +this month did so from the conviction that they had a constitutional +right to the ballot. In that they may or may not have been mistaken, +but they certainly can not be justly classed with the ordinary illegal +voter and repeater. The latter always vote for a pecuniary +consideration, knowingly and intentionally violating our laws to get +gain. The former voted for a principle and to assert what, they esteem +a right. The attempt by insinuation to class them among the ordinary +illegal voters will react upon its movers.--Rochester Evening Express.] + +[Footnote 67: Complaint has this day been made by ---- on oath before +me, William C. Storrs, commissioner, charging that Susan B. Anthony, on +or about the fifth day of November, 1872, at the city of Rochester, N. +Y., at an election held in the Eighth ward of the city of Rochester +aforesaid, for a representative in the Congress of the United States, +did then and there vote for a representative in the Congress of the +United States, without having a lawful right to vote and in violation +of Section 19 of an act of Congress approved May 31, 1870, entitled "An +act, to enforce the right of citizens of the United States to vote in +the several States of this Union and for other purposes."] + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +TRIAL FOR VOTING UNDER FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. + +1873. + + +In the midst of these harassing circumstances Miss Anthony made the +usual preparations for holding the annual woman suffrage convention in +Washington, January 16 and 17, 1873, and presided over its +deliberations. In her opening speech she said: + + There are three methods of extending suffrage to new classes. The + first is for the legislatures of the several States to submit the + question to those already voters. Before the war this was the only + way thought of, and during all those years we petitioned the + legislatures to submit an amendment striking the word "male" from + the suffrage clause of the State constitutions. The second method + is for Congress to submit to the several legislatures a proposition + for a Sixteenth Amendment which shall prohibit the States from + depriving women citizens of their right to vote. The third plan is + for women to take their right under the Fourteenth Amendment of the + National Constitution, which declares that all persons are + citizens, and no State shall deny or abridge the privileges or + immunities of citizens. + + Again, there are two ways of securing the right of suffrage under + the Constitution as it is, one by a declaratory act of Congress + instructing the officers of election to receive the votes of women; + the other by bringing suits before the courts, as women already + have done, in order to secure a judicial decision on the broad + interpretation of the Constitution that all persons are citizens, + and all citizens voters. The vaults in yonder Capitol hold the + petitions of 100,000 women for a declaratory act, and the calendars + of our courts show that many are already testing their right to + vote under the Fourteenth Amendment. I stand here under indictment + for having exercised my right as a citizen to vote at the last + election; and by a fiction of the law, I am now in custody and not + a free person on this platform. + +Among the forcible resolutions adopted were one asserting "that States +may regulate all local questions of property, taxation, etc., but the +inalienable personal rights of citizenship must be declared by the +Constitution, interpreted by the Supreme Court, protected by Congress, +and enforced by the arm of the Executive;" and another declaring "that +the criminal prosecution of Susan B. Anthony by the United States, for +the alleged crime of exercising the citizen's right of suffrage, is an +act of arbitrary and unconstitutional authority and a blow at the +liberties of every citizen of this nation." Mrs. Gage, Mrs. Stanton, +Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Rev. Olympia Brown and others made +ringing speeches on the right of women to vote under the Fourteenth +Amendment, defended the course of Miss Anthony and denounced her +arrest. This was the tenor of all the addresses. She was unanimously +elected president for the ensuing year, notwithstanding prison walls +loomed up before her; and then she hastened back to prepare for her +legal battle. + +Miss Anthony met her counsel at Albany, and on January 21 Judge Selden +made a masterly argument before U.S. District-Judge N.K. Hall, in +support of her demand for a writ of habeas corpus, and asked the +discharge of the prisoner on the grounds: 1st, That in the act +complained of she discharged a duty or, at all events, exercised a +right, instead of committing a crime; that she had a constitutional and +lawful right to offer her ballot and to have it received and counted; +that she, as well as her brothers, was entitled to express her choice +as to the persons who should make, and those who should execute the +laws, inasmuch as she, as well as they, would be bound to observe them. +2d, That, if she had not that right, she in good faith believed that +she had it and, therefore, her act lacked the indispensable ingredient +of all crime, a corrupt intention. + +The judge denied the writ and increased her bail to $1,000. From the +first Miss Anthony had been determined not to recognize the right of +the courts to interfere with her exercise of the franchise, and again +she refused to give bail, insisting that rather than do this she +preferred to go to jail. Judge Selden, however, in kindness of heart, +said there were times when a client must be guided by advice of her +counsel, and himself went on her bond. As she came out of the courtroom +she met her other lawyer, Mr. Van Voorhis, and told him what had been +done. He exclaimed, "You have lost your chance to get your case before +the Supreme Court by writ of habeas corpus!" In her ignorance of legal +forms she had not understood this, and at once she rushed back and +tried to have the bond cancelled, but, to her bitter disappointment, +this was impossible. When she demanded of Judge Selden, "Did you not +know that you had estopped me from carrying my case to the Supreme +Court?" he replied with his old-time courtesy, "Yes, but I could not +see a lady I respected put in jail." + +The following day, January 22, the commission then in session at Albany +for the purpose of revising the State Constitution was addressed by +Miss Anthony on woman's right to vote under the Constitution of the +United States. Her attorneys, Selden and Van Voorhis, were present and, +when she finished, the former said to her, "If I had heard this address +first I could have made a far better argument before Judge Hall." +Immediately following the judge's decision, Miss Anthony was indicted +by the grand jury.[68] + +During this winter she attended the Ohio and Illinois Suffrage +conventions, and in a number of cities in these States and in Indiana +made her great constitutional argument on the right of women to vote +under the Fourteenth Amendment. Every newspaper in the country took up +the points involved and the interest and agitation were wide-spread. +She spoke at Ft. Wayne on February 25, an intensely cold night. Above +her was an open scuttle, from which a stream of air poured down upon +her head, and when half through her lecture she suddenly became +unconscious. She was the guest of Mrs. Mary Hamilton Williams, and was +taken at once to her home where she received every possible kindness +and attention. As soon as she recovered consciousness she begged that +steps be taken immediately to keep the occurrence from the Associated +Press, as she feared that, on account of her mother's extremely +delicate health, the shock and anxiety would prove fatal. Three nights +later, although not wholly recovered, she spoke to a large audience at +Marion, Ind.; the diary says, "going on the platform with fear and +trembling." + +She returned home, and on March 4 cast her ballot at the city election +without any protest. Only two other ladies could be induced to vote, +Mrs. Mary Pulver and Mrs. Mary S. Hebard. All of the others who had +voted in the fall were thoroughly frightened, and their husbands and +other male relatives were even more panic-stricken. + +In the midst of her own perplexities Miss Anthony did not forget to +issue the call[69] for the May Anniversary in New York, where she made +an address, detailing the incidents of her arrest and defending her +rights as a citizen. All the speeches and letters of the convention +were deeply sympathetic, and among the resolutions bearing on this +question was one stating that since the underlying principle of our +government is equality of political rights, therefore "the trial of +Susan B. Anthony, though ostensibly involving only the political status +of woman, in reality questions the right of every man to share in the +government; that it is not Susan B. Anthony or the women of the +republic who alone are on trial today, but it is the government of the +United States, and that as the decision is rendered for or against the +political rights of citizenship, so will the men of America find +themselves free or enslaved." + +A reception was given by Dr. Clemence Lozier, founder of the Woman's +Homeopathic College of New York, who was always Miss Anthony's faithful +and devoted friend, never shaken in her trust by any storm that raged. +During the darkest days of her paper, The Revolution, when the +generosity of all others had been exhausted, Dr. Lozier gave her $50 +every Saturday for many weeks and helped her by so much to bear the +weight of the financial burden. For more than a quarter of a century +her hospitable doors were always ajar for her, and it was to be +expected that, at this crucial moment, she would again express her +loyalty. + +Miss Anthony's trial was set for the term of court beginning May 13, +and she decided to make a canvass of Monroe county, not to argue her +own case but in order that the people might be educated upon the +constitutional points involved. Commencing March 11, she spoke in +twenty-nine of the post-office districts. Being informed that +District-Attorney Crowley threatened to move her trial into another +county because she would prejudice the jury, she notified him she would +see that that county also was thoroughly canvassed, and asked him if +she were prejudicing a jury by reading and explaining the Constitution +of the United States. + +The speech delivered by Miss Anthony during these weeks was a +masterpiece of clear, strong, logical argument in defense of woman's +right to the ballot which never has been equalled.[70] Her audiences +were large and attentive and public sentiment was thoroughly aroused. +One of the papers gives this description: "Miss Anthony was fashionably +dressed in black silk with demi-train, basque with flowing sleeves, +heavily trimmed in black lace; ruffled white lace undersleeves and a +broad, graceful lace collar; with a gold neck chain and pendant. Her +abundant hair was brushed back and bound in a knot after the fashion of +our grandmothers." + +When the time for trial came, true to his promise, District-Attorney +Crowley obtained an order removing the cause to the U.S. Circuit Court +which was held at Canandaigua. This left just twenty-two days and, +calling to her aid Matilda Joslyn Gage, Miss Anthony spoke in +twenty-one places on the question, "Is it a crime for a United States +citizen to vote?" and Mrs. Gage in sixteen on "The United States on +trial, not Susan B. Anthony." Their last meeting was held in +Canandaigua the evening before the trial, and resolutions against this +injustice toward woman were heartily endorsed by the audience. The +Rochester Union and Advertiser condemned her in unmeasured terms, +having editorials similar to this: + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY AS A CORRUPTIONIST.--We give in another column + today, from a legal friend, a communication which shows very + clearly that Miss Anthony is engaged in a work that will be likely + to bring her to grief. It is nothing more nor less than an attempt + to corrupt the source of that justice under law which flows from + trial by jury. Miss Anthony's case has passed from its gayest to + its gravest character. United States courts are not stages for the + enactment of comedy or farce, and the promptness and decision of + their judges in sentencing to prison culprits convicted before them + show that they are no respecters of persons. + +Many influential newspapers, however, spoke in the highest terms of her +courage and ability and the justice of her cause.[71] + +The trial[72] opened the afternoon of June 17, at the lovely village of +Canandaigua, Associate-Justice Ward Hunt on the bench, U.S. +District-Attorney Richard Crowley prosecuting, Hon. Henry R. Selden and +John Van Voorhis, Esq., defending. Miss Anthony, most of the ladies who +had voted with her, and also Mrs. Gage, were seated within the bar. On +the right sat the jury. The courtroom was crowded, many prominent men +being present, among them ex-President Fillmore. Judge Hall, of +Buffalo, was an interested spectator and Miss Anthony's counsel +endeavored to have him try the case with Judge Hunt in order that, if +necessary, it might go to the Supreme Court, which was not possible +with only one judge, but he refused. + +[Illustration HW: + + No one loves you and thanks + God more sincerely for your great + work for women than I do-- + + Lovingly Yours + C S Lozier] + +It was conceded that Miss Anthony was a woman and that she voted on +November 5, 1872. Judge Selden, for the second time in all his +practice, offered himself as a witness, and testified that he advised +her to vote, believing that the laws and Constitution of the United +States gave her full authority. He then proposed to call Miss Anthony +to testify as to the intention or belief under which she voted, but the +Court held she was not competent as a witness in her own behalf. After +making this decision, the Court then admitted all the testimony, as +reported, which she gave on the preliminary examination before the +commissioner, in spite of her counsel's protest against accepting the +version which that officer took of her evidence. The prosecution simply +alleged the fact of her having voted. Mr. Selden then addressed the +judge and jury in a masterly argument of over three hours' duration, +beginning: + + The defendant is indicted under the 19th Section of the Act of + Congress of May 31, 1870 (16th St. at L., 144), for "voting without + having a lawful right to vote." The words of the statute, so far as + they are material in this case, are as follows: + + "If at any election for representative or delegate in the Congress + of the United States, any person shall knowingly ... vote without + having a lawful right to vote ... every such person shall be deemed + guilty of a crime ... and on conviction thereof shall be punished + by a fine not exceeding $500, or by imprisonment for a term not + exceeding three years, or by both, in the discretion of the Court, + and shall pay the costs of prosecution." + + The only alleged ground of illegality of the defendant's vote is + that she is a woman. If the same act had been done by her brother + under the same circumstances, the act would have been not only + innocent but honorable and laudable; but having been done by a + woman it is said to be a crime. The crime therefore consists not in + the act done but in the simple fact that the person doing it was a + woman and not a man. I believe this is the first instance in which + a woman has been arraigned in a criminal court merely on account of + her sex.... + + Women have the same interest that men have in the establishment and + maintenance of good government; they are to the same extent as men + bound to obey the laws; they suffer to the same extent by bad laws, + and profit to the same extent by good laws; and upon principles of + equal justice, as it would seem, should be allowed, equally with + men, to express their preference in the choice of law-makers and + rulers. But however that may be, no greater absurdity, to use no + harsher term, could be presented, than that of rewarding men and + punishing women for the same act, _without giving to women any + voice in the question which should he rewarded and which punished_. + + I am aware, however, that we are here to be governed by the + Constitution and laws as they are, and that if the defendant has + been guilty of violating the law, she must submit to the penalty, + however unjust or absurd the law may be. But courts are not + required to so interpret laws or constitutions as to produce either + absurdity or injustice, so long as they are open to a more + reasonable interpretation. This must be my excuse for what I design + to say in regard to the propriety of female suffrage, because with + that propriety established there is very little difficulty in + finding sufficient warrant in the Constitution for its exercise. + This case, in its legal aspects, presents three questions which I + propose to discuss. + + 1. Was the defendant legally entitled to vote at the election in +question? + + 2. If she was not entitled to vote but believed that she was, and + voted in good faith in that belief, did such voting constitute a + crime under the statute before referred to? + + 3. Did the defendant vote in good faith in that belief? + +He argued the case from a legal, constitutional and moral standpoint +and concluded: + + One other matter will close what I have to say. Miss Anthony + believed, and was advised, that she had a right to vote. She may + also have been advised, as was clearly the fact, that the question + as to her right could not be brought before the courts for trial + without her voting or offering to vote, and if either was criminal, + the one was as much so as the other. Therefore she stands now + arraigned as a criminal, for taking the only step by which it was + possible to bring the great constitutional question as to her right + before the tribunals of the country for adjudication. If for thus + acting, in the most perfect good faith, with motives as pure and + impulses as noble as any which can find place in your honor's + breast in the administration of justice, she is by the laws of her + country to be condemned as a criminal, she must abide the + consequences. Her condemnation, however, under such circumstances, + would only add another most weighty reason to those which I have + already advanced, to show that women need the aid of the ballot for + their protection. + +The district-attorney followed with a two hours' speech. Then Judge +Hunt, without leaving the bench, delivered a written opinion[73] to the +effect that the Fourteenth Amendment, under which Miss Anthony claimed +the authority to vote, "was a protection, not to all our rights, but to +our rights as citizens of the United States only; that is, the rights +existing or belonging to that condition or capacity." At its conclusion +_he directed the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty_. + +Miss Anthony's counsel insisted that the Court had no power to make +such a direction in a criminal case and demanded that the jury be +permitted to bring in its own verdict. The judge made no reply except +to order the clerk to take the verdict. Mr. Selden demanded that the +jury be polled. Judge Hunt refused, and at once discharged the jury +without allowing them any consultation or asking if they agreed upon a +verdict. Not one of them had spoken a word. After being discharged, the +jurymen talked freely and several declared they should have brought in +a verdict of "not guilty." + +The next day Judge Selden argued the motion for a new trial on seven +exceptions, but this was denied by Judge Hunt. The following scene then +took place in the courtroom: + + Judge Hunt.--(Ordering the defendant to stand up). Has the prisoner + anything to say why sentence shall not be pronounced? + + Miss Anthony.--Yes, your honor, I have many things to say; for in + your ordered verdict of guilty you have trampled under foot every + vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil + rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike + ignored. Robbed of the fundamental privilege of citizenship, I am + degraded from the status of a citizen to that of a subject; and not + only myself individually but all of my sex are, by your honor's + verdict, doomed to political subjection under this so-called + republican form of government. + + Judge Hunt.--The Court can not listen to a rehearsal of argument + which the prisoner's counsel has already consumed three hours in + presenting. + + Miss Anthony.--May it please your honor, I am not arguing the + question, but simply stating the reasons why sentence can not, in + justice, be pronounced against me. Your denial of my citizen's + right to vote, is the denial of my right of consent as one of the + governed, the denial of my right of representation as one of the + taxed, the denial of my right to a trial by a jury of my peers as + an offender against law; therefore, the denial of my sacred right + to life, liberty, property and-- + + Judge Hunt.--The Court can not allow the prisoner to go on. + + Miss Anthony.--But your honor will not deny me this one and only + poor privilege of protest against this high-handed outrage upon my + citizen's rights. May it please the Court to remember that, since + the day of my arrest last November, this is the first time that + either myself or any person of my disfranchised class has been + allowed a word of defense before judge or jury-- + + Judge Hunt.--The prisoner must sit down--the Court can not allow +it. + + Miss Anthony.--Of all my prosecutors, from the corner grocery + politician who entered the complaint, to the United States marshal, + commissioner, district-attorney, district-judge, your honor on the + bench--not one is my peer, but each and all are my political + sovereigns; and had your honor submitted my case to the jury, as + was clearly your duty, even then I should have had just cause of + protest, for not one of those men was my peer; but, native or + foreign born, white or black, rich or poor, educated or ignorant, + sober or drunk, each and every man of them was my political + superior; hence, in no sense, my peer. Under such circumstances a + commoner of England, tried before a jury of lords, would have far + less cause to complain than have I, a woman, tried before a jury of + men. Even my counsel, Hon. Henry R. Selden, who has argued my cause + so ably, so earnestly, so unanswerably before your honor, is my + political sovereign. Precisely as no disfranchised person is + entitled to sit upon a jury, and no woman is entitled to the + franchise, so none but a regularly admitted lawyer is allowed to + practice in the courts, and no woman can gain admission to the + bar--hence, jury, judge, counsel, all must be of the superior + class. + + Judge Hunt.--The Court must insist--the prisoner has been tried + according to the established forms of law. + + Miss Anthony.--Yes, your honor, but by forms of law all made by + men, interpreted by men, administered by men, in favor of men and + against women; and hence your honor's ordered verdict of guilty, + against a United States citizen for the exercise of the "citizen's + right to vote," simply because that citizen was a woman and not a + man. But yesterday, the same man-made forms of law declared it a + crime punishable with $1,000 fine and six months' imprisonment to + give a cup of cold water, a crust of bread or a night's shelter to + a panting fugitive tracking his way to Canada; and every man or + woman in whose veins coursed a drop of human sympathy violated that + wicked law, reckless of consequences, and was justified in so + doing. As then the slaves who got their freedom had to take it over + or under or through the unjust forms of law, precisely so now must + women take it to get their right to a voice in this government; and + I have taken mine, and mean to take it at every opportunity. + + Judge Hunt.--The Court orders the prisoner to sit down. It will not + allow another word. + + Miss Anthony.--When I was brought before your honor for trial, I + hoped for a broad and liberal interpretation of the Constitution + and its recent amendments, which should declare all United States + citizens under its protecting aegis--which should declare equality + of rights the national guarantee to all persons born or naturalized + in the United States. But failing to get this justice--failing, + even, to get a trial by a jury _not_ of my peers--I ask not + leniency at your hands but rather the full rigor of the law. + + Judge Hunt--The Court must insist--[Here the prisoner sat down.] + The prisoner will stand up. [Here Miss Anthony rose again.] The + sentence of the Court is that you pay a fine of $100 and the costs + of the prosecution. Miss Anthony.--May it please your honor, I will + never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. All the stock in trade I + possess is a debt of $10,000, incurred by publishing my paper--The + Revolution--the sole object of which was to educate all women to do + precisely as I have done, rebel against your man-made, unjust, + unconstitutional forms of law, which tax, fine, imprison and hang + women, while denying them the right of representation in the + government; and I will work on with might and main to pay every + dollar of that honest debt, but not a penny shall go to this unjust + claim. And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all + women to the practical recognition of the old Revolutionary maxim, + "Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God." + + Judge Hunt.--Madam, the Court will not order you to stand committed + until the fine is paid. + +Thus ended the great trial, "The United States of America _vs._ Susan +B. Anthony." From this date the question of woman suffrage was lifted +from one of grievances into one of Constitutional Law. + +This was Judge Hunt's first criminal case after his elevation to the +Supreme Bench of the United States. He was appointed at the +solicitation of his intimate friend and townsman, Roscoe Conkling, and +had an interview with him immediately preceding this trial. Mr. +Conkling was an avowed enemy of woman suffrage. Miss Anthony always has +believed that he inspired the course of Judge Hunt and that his +decision was written before the trial, a belief shared by most of those +associated in the case. + +Miss Anthony says in her journal: "The greatest judicial outrage +history ever recorded! No law, logic or demand of justice could change +Judge Hunt's will. We were convicted before we had a hearing and the +trial was a mere farce." Some time afterwards Judge Selden wrote her: +"I regard the ruling of the judge, and also his refusal to submit the +case to the jury, as utterly indefensible." Scarcely a newspaper in the +country sustained Judge Hunt's action. The Canandaigua Times thus +expressed the general sentiment in an editorial, soon after the trial: + + The decisions of Judge Hunt in the Anthony case have been widely + criticised, and it seems to us not without reason. Even among those + who accept the conclusion that women have not a legal right to vote + and who do not hesitate to express the opinion that Miss Anthony + deserved a greater punishment than she received, we find many + seriously questioning the propriety of a proceeding whereby the + proper functions of the jury are dispensed with, and the Court + arrogates to itself the right to determine as to the guilt or + innocence of the accused party. If this may be done in one + instance, why may it not in all? And if our courts may thus + arbitrarily direct what verdicts shall be rendered, what becomes of + the right to trial "by an impartial jury," which the Constitution + guarantees to all persons alike, whether male or female? These are + questions of grave importance, to which the American people now + have their attention forcibly directed through the extraordinary + action of a judge of the Supreme Court. It is for them to say + whether the right of trial by jury shall exist only in form, or be + perpetuated according to the letter and spirit of the Constitution. + +The New York Sun scored the judge as follows: + + Judge Hunt allowed the jury to be impanelled and sworn, and to hear + the evidence; but when the case had reached the point of the + rendering of the verdict, he directed a verdict of guilty. He thus + denied a trial by jury to an accused party in his court; and either + through malice, which we do not believe, or through ignorance, + which in such a flagrant degree is equally culpable in a judge, he + violated one of the most important provisions of the Constitution + of the United States. It is hardly worth while to argue that the + right of trial by jury includes the right to a verdict by the jury, + and to a free and impartial verdict, not one ordered, compelled and + forced from them by an adverse and predetermined court. The + language of the Constitution of the United States is that "in all + criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy + and public trial by an impartial jury." Do the words an "impartial + jury" mean a jury directed and controlled by the court, and who + might just as well, for all practical purposes, be twelve wooden + automatons, moved by a string pulled by the hand of the judge? + +The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle commented: + + In the action of Judge Hunt there was a grand, over-reaching + assumption of authority, unsupported by any point in the case + itself, but adopted as an established legal principle. If there is + such a principle, Judge Hunt did his duty beyond question, and he + is scarcely lower than the angels so far as personal power goes. + The New York Sun assumes that there is no such principle; that if + there were, "Judge Hunt might on his own _ipsedixit_, and without + the intervention of a jury, fine, imprison or hang any man, woman + or child in the United States." And the Sun proceeds to say that + Judge Hunt "must be impeached and removed. Such punishment for the + commission of a crime like his against civil liberty is a + necessity. The American people will not tolerate a judge like this + on the bench of their highest court. To do it would be to submit + their necks to as detestable a tyranny as ever existed on the face. + of the earth. They will not sit quietly by to see their liberties, + red and radiant with the blood of a million of their sons, silently + melted away in the judicial crucible of a stolid and tyrannical + judge of their Federal Court." This is forcible, certainly; but it + ought to be speedily decided, at least, whether there is such a + legal principle as we have mentioned. + +The Utica Observer gave this opinion: + + We have sought the advice of the best legal and judicial minds in + our State in regard to the ruling of Justice Ward Hunt in the case + of Susan B. Anthony. While the written opinion of the judge is very + generally commended, his action in ordering a verdict of guilty to + be entered, without giving the jury an opportunity of saying + whether it was their verdict or not, is almost universally + condemned. Such a case never before occurred in the history of our + courts, and the hope is very general that it never will again. + Between the indictment and the judgment stands the jury, and there + is no way known to the law by which the jury's power in criminal + cases can be abrogated. The judge may charge the jury that the + defense is invalid; that it is their clear duty to find the + prisoner guilty. But beyond this he can not properly go. He has no + right to order the clerk to enter a verdict which is not the + verdict of the jury. In doing this thing Justice Hunt outraged the + rights of Susan B. Anthony. It would probably puzzle him to tell + why he submitted the case of the inspectors to the jury after + taking the case of Miss Anthony out of their hands. It would also + puzzle his newspaper champions. + +The Legal News, of Chicago, edited by Myra Bradwell, made this +pertinent comment: "Judge Ward Hunt, of the Federal Bench, violated the +Constitution of the United States more in convicting Miss Anthony of +illegal voting, than she did in voting; for he had sworn to support it, +and she had not." + +The Albany Law Journal, however, after indulging in a few vulgar +platitudes on the fact of Miss Anthony's having admitted that she was a +woman, declared that Judge Hunt transcended his rights but that "if +Miss Anthony does not like our laws she'd better emigrate!" This legal +authority failed to advise where she could emigrate to find laws which +were equally just to men and to women. It might also have answered the +question, "Should a woman be compelled to leave the land of her +nativity because of the injustice of its laws?" + +Miss Anthony's trial closed on Wednesday and she remained in +Canandaigua to attend that of the three inspectors, which followed at +once. She was called as a witness and inquired of Judge Hunt: "I should +like to know if the testimony of a person convicted of a crime can be +taken?" "They call you as a witness, madam," was his brusque reply. +Later, thinking to trap her, he asked, "You presented yourself as a +female, claiming that you had a right to vote?" Quick as a flash came +her answer: "I presented myself not as a female, sir, but as a citizen +of the United States. I was called to the ballot-box by the Fourteenth +Amendment, not as a female but as a citizen." + +The inspectors were defended by Mr. Van Voorhis but, after the +testimony was introduced, the judge refused to allow him to address the +jury. He practically directed them to bring in a verdict of guilty, +saying, "You can decide it here or go out." The jury returned a verdict +of guilty. The motion for a new trial was denied. One of the inspectors +(Hall) had been tried and convicted without being brought into court. +They were fined $25 each and the costs of the prosecution but, although +neither was paid, they were not imprisoned at that time. + +When asked for his opinion on the case, after a lapse of twenty-four +years, Mr. Van Voorhis gave the following: + + There never before was a trial in the country of one-half the + importance of this of Miss Anthony's. That of Andrew Johnson had no + issue which could compare in value with the one here at stake. If + Miss Anthony had won her case on the merits, it would have + revolutionized the suffrage of the country and enfranchised every + woman in the United States. There was a pre-arranged determination + to convict her. A jury trial was dangerous, and so the Constitution + was openly and deliberately violated. + + The Constitution makes the jury, in a criminal case, the judges of + the law and of the facts. No matter how clear or how strong the + case may appear to the judge, it must be submitted to the jury. + That is the mandate of the Constitution. As no one can be convicted + of crime except upon trial by jury, it follows that the jury are + entitled to pass upon the law as well as the facts. The judge can + advise the jury on questions of law. He can legally do no more. If + he control the jury and direct a verdict of guilty, he himself is + guilty of a crime for which impeachment is the remedy. + + The jury in Miss Anthony's case was composed of excellent men. None + better could have been drawn anywhere. Justice Hunt knew that. He + had the jury impanelled only as a matter of form. He said so in the + inspectors' case. He came to Canandaigua to hold the Circuit Court, + for the purpose of convicting Miss Anthony. He had unquestionably + prepared his opinion beforehand. The job had to be done, so he took + the bull by the horns and directed the jury to find a verdict of + guilty. In the case of the inspectors he refused to defendants' + counsel the right of addressing the jury. + + Judge Hunt very adroitly, in passing sentence on Miss Anthony + imposing a fine of $100, refused to add, what is usual in such + cases, that she be imprisoned until the fine be paid. Had he done + so, Miss Anthony would have gone to prison, and then taken her case + directly to the Supreme Court of the United States by writ of + habeas corpus. There she would have been discharged, because trial + by jury had been denied her. But as Miss Anthony was not even held + in custody after judgment had been pronounced, she could not resort + to habeas corpus proceedings and had no appeal. + + But the outrage of ordering a verdict of guilty against the + defendant was not the only outrage committed by this judge on these + trials: + + It was an outrage to refuse the right of a defendant to poll the +jury. + + It was an outrage for the judge to refuse to hold that if the + defendant believed she had a right to vote, and voted in good faith + in that belief, she was not guilty of the charge. + + It was an outrage to hold that the jury, in considering the + question whether she did or did not believe she had a right to + vote, might not consider that she took the advice of Judge Selden + before she voted, and acted on that advice. + + It was an outrage to hold that the jury might not take into + consideration, as bearing upon the same question, the fact that the + inspectors and supervisor of election looked into the question, and + came to the conclusion that she had the right to be registered and + vote, and told her so, and so decided. + + It was an outrage for the judge to hold that the jury had not the + right to consider the defendant's motive, and to find her innocent + if she acted without any intent to violate the law. + + In the case of the inspectors, it was an outrage to refuse + defendants' counsel the right to address the jury. + + It was an outrage to refuse to instruct the jury that if the + defendants, being administrative officers, acted without any + criminal motive but in accordance with their best judgment, and in + perfect good faith, they were not guilty. + +Judge Selden has passed to his eternal rest and lies beneath a massive +monument of granite in beautiful Mount Hope cemetery. Mr. Van Voorhis +thus paid tribute to his associate in this noted case: "His argument on +the constitutional points involved is one of the ablest and most +complete to be found in history. As a lawyer he had no superior; he was +a master in his profession. He had a most discriminating mind and a +marvellous memory. He was familiar with the books, and possessed a +power of statement equal to that of Daniel Webster. I predict that the +verdict of history will be that Judge Selden was right and the Court +wrong upon the constitutional question involved in this case." + +To the heavy debts of The Revolution which, with all her efforts, Miss +Anthony had been able to reduce but a fraction, were now added the +costs of this suit. She did not propose to pay the fines, but she did +intend to see that the inspectors were relieved of all expense in +connection with the trial. Her indomitable courage did not fail her +even in this emergency, and as usual she was sustained by the +substantial appreciation of her friends. Letters of sympathy and +financial help poured in from acquaintances and strangers in all parts +of the country. Indignation meetings were held and contributions sent +also by various reform clubs and societies.[74] All were swallowed up +in the heavy and unavoidable expenses of the suits of herself and the +inspectors. Neither of her lawyers ever presented a bill. She had 5,000 +copies made of Judge Selden's argument on the habeas corpus at Albany, +which she scattered broadcast. She also had printed 3,000 pamphlets, at +a cost of $700, containing a full report of the trial, and sent them to +all the law journals in the United States and Canada, to the +newspapers, etc. The Democrat and Chronicle said of this book, "We +believe it is the most important contribution yet made to the +discussion of woman suffrage from a legal standpoint." None of the +other cases ever were brought to trial.[75] + +Miss Anthony had no fears of not being able to raise money to pay her +debts if she could be free to give her time to the lecture platform, +but an entire year had been occupied with her trial, and the money +received during this period had been required to meet its expenses. She +had a vital reason, however, for feeling that she could not leave +home--the rapidly-failing health of her beloved sister Guelma, her +senior by only twenty months, for more than half a century her close +companion, and for the past eight years living under the same roof. Her +heart had been broken by the death, a few years before, of her two +beautiful children just at the dawn of manhood and womanhood, and the +fatal malady consumption met with no resistance. Day by day she faded +away, the physician holding out no hope from the first. Her mother, now +eighty years of age, was completely crushed; the sister Mary was +principal of one of the city schools and busy all day, and Miss Anthony +felt it her imperative duty to remain beside the invalid, even could +she have overcome her grief sufficiently to appear in public. +Invitations to lecture came to her from many points but she refused +them and remained by the gentle sufferer day and night.[76] At daybreak +on November 9 the loved one passed away, and the tender hands of +sisters and of the only daughter performed the last ministrations.[77] + +With Miss Anthony the love of family was especially intense as she had +formed no outside ties, and the parents, the brothers and sisters +filled her world of affection. The sundering of these bonds wrenched +her very heartstrings and upon every recurring anniversary the anguish +broke forth afresh, scarcely assuaged by the lapse of years. A short +time after this last sorrow she writes: + + MY DEAR MOTHER: How continually, except the one hour when I am on + the platform, is the thought of you and your loss and my own with + me! How little we realize the constant presence in our minds of our + loved and loving ones until they are forever gone. We would not + call them back to endure again their suffering, but we can not help + wishing they might have been spared to us in health and vigor. Our + Guelma, does she look down upon us, does she still live, and shall + we all live again and know each other, and work together and love + and enjoy one another? In spite of instinct, in spite of faith, + these questions will come up again and again.... She said you would + soon follow her, and we know that in the nature of things it must + be so. When that time comes, dear mother, may you fall asleep as + sweetly and softly as did your eldest born; and as the sands of + life ebb out into the great eternal, may all of us be with you to + make the way easy. It does seem too cruel that every one of us must + be so overwhelmingly immersed in work, but may the Good Father help + us so to do that there may be no vain regrets for things done or + left undone when the last hour comes. + +A beautiful incident cast a flood of light through the heavy shadows of +this trying year, and made November 27 in truth a day of Thanksgiving +for one brave woman. At his urgent invitation, Miss Anthony had spent +it in the home of her cousin, Anson Laphain, at Skaneateles. After a +pleasant day, as she sat quietly and sadly by the window, watching the +deepening twilight, the noble-hearted cousin took from his desk her +notes for $4,000, which he had so generously loaned her during the +stormy days of The Revolution, cancelled all and presented them to her. +She was overwhelmed with surprise and when she attempted to express her +gratitude, he stopped her with words of respect, confidence and +encouragement which seemed to roll away a stone from her heart and in +its place put new hope, ambition and strength. + +[Footnote 68: ... Good and lawful men of the said District, then and +there sworn and charged to inquire for the said United States of +America, and for the body of said District, do, upon their oaths, +present, that Susan B. Anthony now or late of Rochester, in the county +of Monroe, with force and arms,... did knowingly, wrongfully and +unlawfully vote for a Representative in the Congress of the United +States for the State of New York at large, and for a Representative in +the Congress of the United States for said twenty-ninth Congressional +District, without having a lawful right to vote in said election +district (the said Susan B. Anthony being then and there a person of +the female sex), as she, the said Susan B. Anthony then and there well +knew, contrary to the form of the statute of the United States of +America in such case made and provided, and against the peace of the +United States of America and their dignity, etc.] + +[Footnote 69: The Twenty-fifth Woman Suffrage Anniversary will be held +in Apollo Hall, New York, Tuesday, May 6, 1873. Lucretia Mott and +Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who called the first woman's rights convention +at Seneca Falls in 1848, will be present to give their reminiscences. +That convention was scarcely mentioned by the local press; now, over +the whole world, equality for woman is demanded. In the United States, +woman suffrage is the chief political question of the hour. Great +Britain is deeply agitated upon the same topic. Germany has a princess +at the head of its national woman's rights organization. Portugal, +Spain and Russia have been roused. In Rome an immense meeting, composed +of the representatives of Italian democracy, was recently called in the +Coliseum; one of its resolutions demanded a reform in the laws relating +to woman and a re-establishment of her natural rights. Turkey, France, +England, Switzerland, Italy, sustain papers devoted to woman's +enfranchisement. A Grand International Woman's Rights Congress is to be +held in Paris, in September of this year, to which the whole world is +invited to send delegates, and this congress is to be under the +management of the most renowned liberals of Europe. Come up, then, +friends, and celebrate the silver wedding of the woman suffrage +movement. Let our twenty-fifth anniversary be one of power; our reform +is everywhere advancing, let us redouble our energies and our courage. +SUSAN B. ANTHONY, _President_; MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, _Chairman Executive +Committee_.] + +[Footnote 70: See Appendix for speech in full.] + +[Footnote 71: See Appendix for newspaper comment.] + +[Footnote 72: A full report of this trial, testimony, arguments of +counsel, etc., may be found in the History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, +beginning page 647.] + +[Footnote 73: Can a judge with propriety prepare a _written_ opinion +before he has heard all the arguments in a case?] + +[Footnote 74: The Buffalo suffrage club sent $100; the Chicago club, +through Mrs. Fernando Jones, $75; the Milwaukee club, through Madame +Anneke, $50; the Milwaukee "radicals," $20; the New York club, through +Lillie Devereux Blake, $50; the patients at the Dansville Sanitarium, +$30. Dr. Lozier sent $30; Lucretia Mott, $30; Dr. E.B. Foote, of New +York, $25; Phebe Jones, of Albany, $25; Dr. Sarah Dolley, of Rochester, +$20; the Hallowells, $25; the Glastonbury Smith sisters, $20; and from +men and women in all parts of the country came sums from fifty cents +upwards, all amounting to over $1,100. Gerrit Smith sent at first $30 +to help defray the expenses of the trial, and after it was over a draft +for $100, saying: "I send you herewith the money to pay your fine. If +you shall still decline doing so, then use it at your own discretion to +promote the cause of woman suffrage." Mrs. Lewia C. Smith raised a +purse of $100 among Rochester friends and presented it as a testimonial +to Judge Selden, in the name of the Women Tax-Payers' Society. Miss +Anthony gave a lecture in Corinthian Hall for the benefit of the +inspectors, which netted about $180.] + +[Footnote 75: The first Woman's Congress, afterwards called the +Association for the Advancement of Women, was organized during the +autumn of this year. To the call were appended the names of most of the +noted women of the day, but Miss Anthony's was conspicuously absent. +Her most intimate friends being among the signers, and supposing she +was to be also, made inquiry as to the reason and received this answer: +1st, Her name beginning with A would have had to head the list; 2d, Her +title as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association would +have had to be given; 3d, She could not be managed. Miss Anthony was so +greatly amused at these reasons that she quite forgave the omission of +her name.] + +[Footnote 76: And yet on November 4 she stole away long enough to go to +the polling-place and again offer her vote. It was refused, she found +her name had been struck from the register, and thus ended that +battle.] + +[Footnote 77: Three of the brave Rochester women who went to the polls +at the election of 1872, died within one year: Guelma Anthony McLean, +Mary B.F. Curtis and Rhoda De Garmo.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO JURY OR FRANCHISE. + +1874. + + +Miss Anthony's case continued to attract widespread attention, Judge +Hunt's arbitrary action finding few apologists even among opponents of +woman suffrage. It was finally decided by her counsel and herself to +make an appeal to Congress for the remission of the fine, which, if +granted, would be in effect a declaration of the illegality of Judge +Hunt's act and a precedent for the future. Judge Selden based his +authority for such an appeal on a case in the United States Statutes at +Large, chap. 45, p. 802, where a fine of $1,000 and costs, illegally +imposed upon Matthew Lyon under the Alien and Sedition Laws, 1799, were +refunded with interest to his heirs. Mr. Van Voorhis found an authority +also in an act passed by the British Parliament in 1792, correcting the +departure from the common law, in respect to the rights of juries, by +Lord Mansfield and his associates in the cases of Woodfall and Shipley. +This act was passed through the exertions of Lord Camden and Mr. Fox in +order to prevent the erroneous decisions of the judges from becoming +the law of England. + +Both of the attorneys keenly resented the action of Judge Hunt, Mr. +Selden pronouncing it "the greatest judicial outrage ever perpetrated +in the United States;" and Mr. Van Voorhis asserting that "trial by +jury was completely annihilated in this case, and there is no remedy +except to appeal to the justice of Congress to remit the fine and +declare that trial by jury does and shall exist in this country." The +appeal, or petition, was prepared and Miss Anthony carried it to +Washington when she went to the National Convention, January 15, 1874. +It was an able document, reciting the facts in the case and the action +of the judge, and concluding: + + Your petitioner respectfully submits that, in these proceedings, + she has been denied the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to + all persons accused of crime, the right of trial by jury and the + right to have the assistance of counsel for their defense. It is a + mockery to call hers a trial by jury; and, unless the assistance of + counsel may be limited to the argument of legal questions, without + the privilege of saying a word to the jury upon the question of the + guilt or innocence in fact of a party charged, or the privilege of + ascertaining from the jury whether they do or do not agree to the + verdict pronounced by the Court in their name, she has been denied + the assistance of counsel for her defense. + + Of the decision of the judge upon the question of the right of your + petitioner to vote, she makes no complaint. It was a question + properly belonging to the Court to decide, was fully and fairly + submitted to the judge, and of his decision, whether right or + wrong, your petitioner is well aware she can not here complain. But + in regard to her conviction of crime, which she insists, for the + reasons above given, was in violation of the principles of the + common law, of common morality, of the statute under which she was + charged, and of the Constitution--a crime of which she was as + innocent as the judge by whom she was convicted--she respectfully + asks, inasmuch as the law has provided no means of reviewing the + decisions of the judge, or of correcting his errors, that the fine + imposed upon your petitioner be remitted, as an expression of the + sense of this high tribunal that her conviction was unjust. + +This was presented in the Senate by A.A. Sargent, of California, and in +the House by William Loughridge, of Iowa, and was referred to the +judiciary committees. In May, Lyman Tremaine, from the House Judiciary +Committee, reported adversely on the petition in a lengthy document, +which incorporated a letter from District-Attorney Crowley, urging the +committee "not to degrade a just judge and applaud a criminal;" and +declaring that "Miss Anthony's trial was fair and constitutional and by +an impartial jury." (!) Mr. Tremaine's report said: "Congress can not +be converted into a national court of review for any and all criminal +convictions where it shall be alleged the judge has committed an +error." Thus did he deliberately ignore the point at issue, the refusal +of a trial by jury. It concluded by saying: "Since the discussion of +this question has arisen in the committee, the President has pardoned +Miss Anthony for the offense of which she was convicted and this seems +to furnish a conclusive reason why no further action should be taken by +the judiciary committee." (!) The learned gentleman probably referred +to the pardon of the inspectors by the President. Miss Anthony had not +asked executive clemency for herself. + +Benjamin F. Butler presented an able and exhaustive minority report +which closed with the following declaration: "Therefore, because the +fine has been imposed by a court of the United States for an offense +triable by jury, without the same being submitted to the jury, and +because the court assumed to itself the right to enter a verdict +without submitting the case to the jury, and in order that the judgment +of the House of Representatives, if it concur with the judgment of the +committee, may, in the most signal and impressive form, mark its +determination to sustain in its integrity the common law right of trial +by jury, your committee recommend that the prayer of the petitioner be +granted." + +In June George F. Edmunds made an adverse report from the Senate +Judiciary Committee in this remarkable language: "That they are not +satisfied that the ruling of the judge was precisely as represented in +the petition, and that if it were so, the Senate could not legally take +any action in the premises, and they move that the committee be +discharged from the further consideration of the petition, and that the +bill be postponed indefinitely." + +Senator Matthew II. Carpenter presented a long and carefully prepared +minority report which concluded: + + Unfortunately the United States has no "well-ordered system of + jurisprudence." A citizen may be tried, condemned and put to death + by the erroneous judgment of a single inferior judge, and no court + can grant him relief or a new trial. If a citizen have a cause + involving the title to his farm, if it exceed $2,000 in value, he + may bring his cause to the Supreme Court; but if it involve his + liberty or his life, he can not. While we permit this blemish to + exist on our judicial system, it behooves us to watch carefully the + judgments inferior courts may render; and it is doubly important + that we should see to it that twelve jurors shall concur with the + judge before a citizen shall be hanged, incarcerated or otherwise + punished. + + I concur with the majority of the committee that Congress can not + grant the precise relief prayed for in the memorial; but I deem it + to be the duty of Congress to declare its disapproval of the + doctrine asserted and the course pursued in the trial of Miss + Anthony; and all the more for the reason that no judicial court has + jurisdiction to review the proceedings therein. + + I need not disclaim all purpose to question the motives of the + learned judge before whom this trial was conducted. The best of + judges may commit the gravest of errors amid the hurry and + confusion of a nisi prius term; and the wrong Miss Anthony has + suffered ought to be charged to the vicious system which denies to + those convicted of offenses against the laws of the United States a + hearing before the court of last resort--a defect it is equally + within the power and the duty of Congress speedily to remedy. + +When Miss Anthony returned to Rochester in February, she found the +inspectors were about to be put into jail because, acting under advice, +they still refused to pay their fines. She wrote Benjamin F. Butler, +who replied under date of February 22: "I would not, if I were they, +pay, but allow process to be served; and I have no doubt the President +will remit the fine if they are pressed too far." They were imprisoned +February 26. Miss Anthony went at once to the jail and urged them not +to pay the fine, for the sake of principle, promising to see that they +were soon released. She waded through a heavy snow to consult her +attorneys and then to the newspaper offices to talk with the editors in +regard to the prisoners, reaching home at dark, and in her diary that +night she writes, "I could not bear to come away and leave them one +night in that dolorous place." + +She went out for a few lectures in neighboring towns, and at the +Dansville Sanitarium was presented by the patients with a purse of $62. +Arriving in Rochester at 7 A. M., March 2, she went straight to the +jail and breakfasted with the inspectors; then to see the marshal and +succeeded in having them released on bail. She did not reach home till +1 p. M., and here she found this telegram from Senator Sargent: "I laid +the case of the inspectors before the President today. He kindly orders +their pardon. Papers are being prepared." Benjamin F. Butler also had +interceded with the President and sent Miss Anthony a telegram of +congratulation on the result. In a few days the inspectors were +pardoned and their fines remitted by President Grant. They were in jail +just one week and during that time received hundreds of calls, while +each day bountiful meals were sent them by the women whose votes they +had accepted. After their pardon a reception was given them at the home +of Miss Anthony's sister, Mrs. Mosher, by the ladies of the Eighth +ward, and in the spring they were re-elected by a handsome majority. +Miss Anthony's fine stands against her to the present day. + +This case was the dominating feature of the National Convention at +Washington in the winter of 1874; the key-note of all the speeches and +the arguments before the judiciary committees was woman's right to vote +under the Fourteenth Amendment. The women did not relinquish this claim +until all ground for it was destroyed by a decision of the United +States Supreme Court in 1875, in the case of Virginia L. Minor, of St. +Louis. Francis Minor, a lawyer of that city, was the first to assert +that women were enfranchised by both the letter and the spirit of the +Fourteenth Amendment, and, acting under his advice, his wife attempted +to register for the presidential election of 1872. Her name was refused +and she brought suit against the inspector for the purpose of making a +test case. After an adverse decision by the lower courts, the case was +carried to the Supreme Court of the United States and argued before +that tribunal by Mr. Minor, at the October term, 1874. It is not too +much to say that no constitutional lawyer in the country could have +improved upon this argument in its array of authorities, its keen logic +and its impressive plea for justice.[78] + +The decision was adverse, the opinion of the court being delivered +March 29, 1875, by Chief-Justice Waite, himself a strong advocate of +the enfranchisement of women. The court admitted that "women are +persons and citizens," but found that the "National Constitution does +not define the privileges and immunities of citizens. The United States +has no voters of its own creation. The National Constitution does not +confer the right of suffrage upon any one, but the franchise must be +regulated by the States. The Fourteenth Amendment does not add to the +privileges and immunities of a citizen; it simply furnishes an +additional guarantee to protect those he already has. Before the +passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, the States had the +power to disfranchise on account of race or color. These amendments, +ratified by the States, simply forbade that discrimination, but did not +forbid that against sex." + +This is in direct contradiction to the decision of Chief-Justice Taney +in the Dred Scott case: "The words 'people of the United States' and +'citizens' are synonymous terms and mean the same thing; they describe +the _political body who, according to our republican institutions, form +the sovereignty and 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." + +Although Miss Anthony and her co-workers still believed that, with a +true interpretation, women were voters under these amendments, they +were obliged to accept the decision of the highest court of appeal. +They then returned to the work of petitioning Congress for a Sixteenth +Amendment to the National Constitution which should prohibit +disfranchisement on account of sex. They continued also the original +plan of endeavoring to secure amendments to the constitutions of the +different States abolishing the word "male" as a qualification for +voting.[79] Bitterly disappointed at the decision of the Supreme Court, +it was nevertheless a source of pride to the women that they had made +their claim for representation in the government, carried it to the +highest tribunal and gone down in honorable defeat. + +[Illustration HW: Yours truly Virginia L. Minor] + +Miss Anthony never hesitated to ask the most distinguished men to speak +on the woman suffrage platform, and Henry Wilson writes from the +chamber of the Vice-President his regrets that he can not accept her +invitation. Benjamin F. Butler replies: "As a rule I have refused to +take part in any convention in the District of Columbia about any +matter which might come before Congress. I have gone farther out of my +way in that regard in the matter of woman suffrage than in any other. +Having given evidence that I am most strongly committed to the +legality, propriety and justice of granting the ballot to woman, I do +not see how I can add anything to it. Hoping that your cause may +succeed, I have the honor to be, very truly yours." + +Her cousin, Elbridge G. Lapham, M. C., of New York, says in a letter: +"I am persuaded the time is fast hastening when woman will be accorded +the exercise of the right your association demands. With that secured, +many other advantages, now denied, will surely and speedily follow. I +can see no valid objection to the right of suffrage being conferred, +while there are many and very cogent reasons in favor of it. As has +been said, you may go on election day to the most degraded elector you +can find at the polls, who would sell his vote for a dollar or a dram, +and ask him what he would take for his _right to vote_ and you couldn't +purchase it with a kingdom." + +[Autograph: Elbridge G. Lapham] + +She found it possible even to interview the President of the United +States on this question. During a conversation with General Grant one +day on Pennsylvania Avenue, she said, "Well, Mr. President, what are +you going to do for woman suffrage?" In a hearty, pleasant way he +answered, "I have already done more for women than any other President, +I have recognized the right of 5,000 of them to be postmasters." There +were always distinguished men to champion this cause, but the chief +drawback was expressed in a letter from that staunch supporter, Hon. +A.G. Riddle, in 1874: + + There is not, I think, the slightest hope from the courts; and just + as little from politicians. They never will take up this cause, + never! Individuals will, parties never--till the thing is done. The + Republicans want no new issues or disturbing elements. The + Democrats are certain that the Republicans are about to dissolve; + and they want to hold on as they are. Both think this thing may, + perhaps will come, but now is not the time; and with both, there + never will be a "now." The trouble is that below all this lies the + fact that man can govern alone and that, though woman has the + right, man wants to do it; and if she wait for him to ask her, she + will never vote. + + There never was a cause with so much unembodied strength, and with + so little working power; and the problem is how to vitalize and + organize it. One of two things, I think, must occur; either man + must be made to see and feel, as he never has done yet, the need of + woman's help in the great field of human government, and so demand + it; or woman must arise and come forward as she never has, and take + her place. I still think that one of the main hindrances is with + women. The fact is, that the worst bugbear is the never-seen, + ever-felt law of caste which has always walled woman around, and + which few have the courage to step over. + +[Autograph: + + Sincerely yours + A.G. Riddle] + + At the close of the convention Miss Anthony accepted the invitation + of Mrs. Hooker, the State president, to join her in a month's tour + through Connecticut. They spoke in nineteen different cities and + towns, Mrs. Hooker assuming all financial responsibility and paying + Miss Anthony $25 for each lecture. They had excellent audiences and + were entertained in many beautiful homes. In Miss Anthony's diary, + March 11, she says: "Senator Sumner died today, the noblest Roman + of them all; true to the negro, but never a public word for woman. + How I have pleaded with him for years, and he always admitted that + his principles logically carried out gave woman an equal guarantee + with man." + + In the spring of 1874 the women's temperance crusade began in + Rochester and, although their methods were very different from + those Miss Anthony would have employed, she met with them at their + request to help them organize. After this was effected they called + on her for a speech and she said in brief: + + I am always glad to welcome every association of women for any good + purpose, because I know that they will quickly learn the + impossibility of accomplishing any substantial end. Women never + realize their inability to effect a reform until they attempt it, + and then they find how closely interwoven with politics are all + such matters, and how entirely without political power are they + themselves.... Now my good women, the best thing this organization + will do for you will be to show you how utterly powerless you are + to put down the liquor traffic. You never can talk down or sing + down or pray down an institution which is voted into existence. You + never will be able to lessen this evil until you have votes. + Frederick Douglass used to tell how, when he was a Maryland slave + and a good Methodist, he would go into the farthest corner of the + tobacco field and pray God to bring him liberty; but God never + answered his prayers until he prayed with his heels. And so, dear + friends, He never will answer yours for the suppression of the + liquor traffic until you are able to pray with your ballots.[80] + +Miss Anthony's sentiments on this question are further expressed in a +letter to her brother Daniel R., editor Leavenworth Times: + + I like the Times' article on the women's whiskey war. Emerson says, + "God answers only such prayers as men themselves answer." After + ignorant and helpless mothers have transmitted to their children + the drunkard's appetite, God can not answer their prayers to + prevent them from gratifying it. But this crusade will educate the + women who engage in it to use the one and only means of regulating + or prohibiting the traffic in liquor--that of the ballot. As soon + as they find this crusade experiment a failure, which they + certainly will, because all spasmodic, sensational religious + efforts are transient and fleeting, they will realize the enduring + strength and usefulness of the franchise. However little that is + permanent may come of this movement, it is good in itself because + anything is better for women than tame submission to the evils + around them; and when they find kind words, entreaties and tears + avail nothing, they will surely try the virtue of stones (votes) to + bring down the great demon that desolates their homes. + +An entry in the journal made soon afterward says: "I dropped into the +Industrial Congress today and was invited to speak. I told the men that +the degraded labor of women made them quite as heavy a millstone round +the necks of working-men as is the Heathen Chinese." And a few days +later: "Dr. Dio Lewis called today, and I went to hear him speak this +evening. Same old story--men make and break the laws, and women by love +and persuasion must soften their hearts to abandon their wickedness. +Never a hint that women should have anything to do with the making and +enforcing of the laws. They must only coax." + +The diary shows over one hundred letters written by Miss Anthony's own +hand in arranging for the May Anniversary in New York, while she sat at +the bedside of her mother, who was very ill. Many cordial answers were +received, among them one from Josephine E. Butler, of England. Mary L. +Booth thus closed her reply: "Pray believe that I always hold you in +affectionate remembrance as one of the most sincere, earnest and +disinterested women whom it has ever been my fortune to meet, and whom +I shall always be glad to hear from or to see." Mrs. Stanton sent an +extract from a letter of Martha C. Wright, saying: "Our only hope is in +the gradual accession of thinking men and women, and in our indomitable +Susan." + +At Miss Anthony's earnest desire, Mrs. Wright was elected president of +the association and this proved to be her last appearance on that +platform which she had graced for many years. An interesting feature of +the meeting was the presence of the veteran worker, Ernestine L. Rose, +who was back from England on a visit. During this May meeting a +telegram was sent over the country stating: "Miss Anthony stalked down +the aisle with faded alpaca dress to the top of her boots, blue cotton +umbrella and white cotton gloves, perched herself on the platform, +crossed her legs, pulled out her snuff-box and passed it around. On the +platform were Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Gage, Mrs. Rose and other +noted women, all dressed in unmentionables cut bias, and smoking penny +drab cigars. Susan was quite drunk." The New York Herald, which rarely +had a good word for the suffrage conventions, in a long and respectful +account of this same meeting, said: + + There was a perfume of Fifth Avenue about the audience. Carriages + in livery rolled up to the door. The striking contrast of this + audience with that of other years, in the almost perfect conformity + of the manner and dress of the women to those of other women who + rule in the fashionable world and are supposed to look down upon + these knights-errant of the sex, was not greater than that between + the treatment of Miss Anthony now and in other times. In former + years they came to scoff at this wiry and resolute champion of her + sex. Now every word she utters is received with almost reverent + rapture. Yesterday brought together as intelligent and perhaps as + refined an audience of ladies as might he gathered in the city. + Miss Anthony was dressed with her usual simplicity in black silk. + She read the call for the convention and made thereon one of her + characteristic addresses, full of fire and prophecy. + +During the summer of 1874 Miss Anthony lectured in many places in +Massachusetts and New York, striving to pay the interest and reduce by +a little her pressing debts, and slipping home occasionally to see her +mother who was carefully tended by the devoted sister Mary. At one of +these times she writes in her diary: "It is always so good to get into +my own humble bed." August 22 she sent a letter of congratulation on +his fiftieth birthday to her brother Daniel R. After referring to the +$50 he sent to her at the close of her half century, she says: + + Though I can not return my love and wishes in the same kind, they + are none the less for your joy and peace in the future, neither is + my rejoicing less over the success of your first half of life. From + your many experiences, whether they have been such as you would + have chosen or not, strength, growth, discipline have resulted, and + sometimes I think all the adverse winds of life are needed to check + our ever-rising vain-glory in our own power and success.... + Whatever comes to those closely united by marriage or by blood, the + one lesson from recent developments in Brooklyn is that none of the + parties ever should take in an outside person as confidant. If the + twain can not themselves restore their oneness, none other can. If + parents and children, brothers and sisters, can not adjust their + own differences among themselves, it is in vain they look to + friends outside. + + What lessons we are having that not only is honesty the best + policy, but that there is nothing but most dreadful disaster in any + policy which is not based on absolute honesty. The fact is, nothing + is worth the getting, if that has to be done by cunning, falsehood, + deception. Whether it be wealth, position, office or the society of + one we love, if we have to steal it, though it may be sweet and + seemingly real and lasting, the exposure of the illicit means of + gaining it is sure to come, and then the thing itself turns to + dross. When will the children of men learn this fact, that nothing + pays but that which is obtained fairly, openly and honestly? + +This year the Michigan Legislature submitted a woman suffrage amendment +to the voters, and Miss Anthony decided to canvass the State. To do +this would ruin her own lecture season for the autumn, and those in +charge of the suffrage campaign could offer her no salary. She did not +hesitate, however, but without any financial guarantee, began her work +there September 24. On the eve of going she wrote to a friend: "I leave +home without having had one single week of rest this summer--not this +year, indeed, nor for twenty-five years." She made a forty days' +canvass, taking out three days for the Illinois convention at Chicago, +and during that time spoke in thirty-five different places. Everywhere +she addressed immense and enthusiastic crowds. She was frequently +preceded by Senator Zach. Chandler, speaking for the Republican party, +and often her audiences were much larger than the senator's.[81] Toward +the close of the campaign she wrote home: + + If these meetings of mine were only by and in favor of an + enfranchised class, they would carry almost the solid vote of every + town for the measure advocated; but alas, they are for a class + powerless to help or hinder any party for good or for evil. It is + wonderful to see how quickly the prejudices yield to a little + common sense talk. If only we had speakers and time, we could carry + the vote of this State, but we have neither, and so all we can hope + for is a respectable minority. I enclose $200 left above travelling + expenses, hall rent, etc., from collections and the sale of my + trial pamphlets. If I could have had even a twenty-five cents + admission, I should have cleared over $1,000, but I could not have + it said that I went to Michigan, at such a crisis, to make money + for myself; it would have ruined the moral effect of my work. Now + they are calling on me from Washington to stay in that city all + next winter to get our measure considered by Congress, but I ought + to go to work to earn money, for I need it if ever anybody did. If + I have to get it, however, at the cost of losing our golden + opportunity there, it will be too dear a price to pay. + +Miss Anthony was correct in her forecast, the suffrage amendment was +defeated in Michigan by more than three to one, but there is no doubt +her able canvass contributed largely to secure "a respectable +minority." + +In the summer of 1874 the so-called Beecher-Tilton scandal, which had +been smouldering a long time, burst into full blaze. Miss Anthony had +been for many years on intimate terms with all the parties in this +unfortunate affair, and there was a persistent rumor that she had at +one time received a confession from Mrs. Tilton which, if given by her +to the public, would settle the vexed question beyond a doubt. It is +scarcely possible to describe the pressure brought to bear to force her +to disclose what she knew. During her lecture tours of that summer and +fall, while the trial was in progress before the church committee, she +never entered a railroad car, an omnibus or a hotel but there was +somebody ready to question her. In every town and city she was called +upon for an interview before she had time to brush off the dust of +travel. One of the New York papers detailed a reporter to follow her +from point to point, catch every word she uttered, ferret out all she +said to her friends and in some way extort what was wanted. She often +remarked that "in this case men proved themselves the champion gossips +of the world." + +Papers which had befriended her and her cause reminded her of this fact +and urged her to return the favor by telling them what she knew. +Telegrams and letters poured in upon her from strangers and friends, +some commending and begging her to continue silent; others censuring +and urging her to tell the whole story. Lawyers connected with the case +wrote her the shrewdest of pleas, telling her how the other side were +trying to defame her character and urging her to speak in self-defense; +but it is a significant fact that she received no official summons +either during the church committee investigation or the trial in court. + +The Chicago Tribune, having failed to secure an interview, said: "Miss +Anthony keeps her own counsel in this matter with a resolution which +would do credit to General Grant." Several papers manufactured +interviews with her out of whole cloth. Everybody else, man or woman, +who had the slightest knowledge of the affair, rushed into print, but +under all the pressure she remained as immovable and silent as the +granite mountains amid which she was born. The universal desire to have +her speak was because of the value placed upon her integrity and +veracity. John Hooker, the eminent lawyer of Hartford, Conn., +brother-in-law of Mr. Beecher, voiced the opinion of her friends when +he wrote under date of November 9, 1874: "A more truthful person does +not live. The whole world could not get her to go into a conspiracy +against one whom she believed to be innocent. I have perfect confidence +in her truthfulness and always stoutly assert it." + +The New York Sun expressed the general sentiment of the press when it +said in this connection: "Miss Anthony is a lady whose word will +everywhere be believed by those who know anything of her character." +Her home paper, the Democrat and Chronicle, paid this tribute: "Whether +she will make any definite revelations remains to be seen, but whatever +she does say will be received by the public with that credit which +attaches to the evidence of a truthful witness. Her own character, +known and honored by the country, will give importance to any +utterances she may make." + +Most of the charges made against her during this ordeal were so +manifestly absurd they did not need refuting, but the oft-repeated +assertions that she believed in what was popularly termed "free love" +were a source of great annoyance. In a letter written at this time to +Elizabeth Smith Miller she thus definitely expressed herself: "I have +always believed the 'variety' system vile, and still do so believe. I +am convinced that no one has yet wrought out the true social system. I +am sure no theory can be correct which a mother is not willing for her +daughter to practice. Decent women should not live with licentious +husbands in the relation of wife. As society is now, good, pure women, +by so living, cover up and palliate immorality and help to violate the +law of monogamy. Women must take the social helm into their own hands +and not permit the men of their own circle, any more than the women, to +be transgressors." + +To Mr. Hooker, on this same subject, she wrote: "In my heart of hearts +I hate the whole doctrine of 'variety' or 'promiscuity.' I am not even +a believer in second marriages after one of the parties is dead, so +sacred and binding do I consider the marriage relation." A few extracts +from her diary during these days will show the trend of her thoughts: + + Silence alone is all there is for me at present. I appreciate as + never before the value of having lived an open life.... The parlor, + the street corner, the newspapers, the very air seem full of social + miasma.... Sad, sad revelations! There is nothing more demoralizing + than lying. The act itself is scarcely so base as the lie which + denies it.... It is almost an impossibility for a man and a woman + to have a close, sympathetic friendship without the tendrils of one + soul becoming fastened around the other, with the result of + infinite pain and anguish.... The great financial rings, Christian + Union, Life of Christ and Plymouth church, the three in one, most + powerful trinity, seem to have subsidized the entire New York + press. + +In her positive refusal to speak the word which would criminate a +woman, Miss Anthony was actuated by the highest sense of honor. She +loved Mr. and Mrs. Tilton as her own family. She had enjoyed the +hospitality of their beautiful home and seen their children grow up +from babyhood. Mrs. Tilton was one of the loveliest characters she ever +had known, an exquisite housekeeper, an ideal mother; a woman of wide +reading and fine literary taste, of sunny temperament and affectionate +disposition. To violate the confidence of such a woman, given in an +hour of supreme anguish, would have been treachery unparalleled. In +answer to the charge that Mrs. Tilton was a very weak or a very wicked +woman, Miss Anthony always maintained that none ever was called upon to +suffer such temptation. On the one hand was her husband, one of the +most brilliant writers and speakers of the day, a man of marvellously +attractive powers in the home as well as in the outside world. At his +table often sat Phillips, Garrison, Sumner, Wilson and many other +prominent men, who all alike admired and loved him. + +On the other hand was her pastor, the most powerful and magnetic +preacher and orator not only in Brooklyn but in the nation. When he +spoke on Sunday to his congregation of 3,000 people, there was not a +man present but felt that he could get strength by touching even the +hem of his garment. If his power were such over men, by the law of +nature it must have been infinitely greater over women. Since it was +thus irresistible in public, how transcendent must it have been in the +close and intimate companionship of private life! + +The house of the Tiltons was the second home of Mr. Beecher, and +scarcely a day passed that he did not visit it. He found here the +brightness, congeniality, sympathy and loving trust which every human +being longs for. The choicest new literature was sent hither for the +delicate appreciation it was sure to receive. When he came in from his +Peekskill country place with great baskets of flowers, the most +beautiful always found their way to this household. Miss Anthony +recalls one occasion when Mrs. Tilton, slipping her hand through her +arm, drew her to the mantelpiece over which hung a lovely water color +of the trailing arbutus, and said, "My pastor brought that to me this +morning." At another time, when she went on Saturday evening to stay +over Sunday, Mrs. Tilton said, as she dropped into a low chair: "Mr. +Beecher sat here all the morning writing his sermon. He says there is +no place in the world where he can get such inspiration as at +Theodore's desk, while I sit beside him in this little chair darning +the children's stockings." + +In all of these and many similar occurrences Miss Anthony saw nothing +but a warm and sincere friendship. To Mr. Tilton Mr. Beecher was as a +father or an elder brother. He had placed the ambitious and talented +youth where he could achieve both fame and fortune, had introduced him +into the highest social circles and shown to the world that he regarded +him as his dearest confidential friend, and for years the two men had +enjoyed the closest and strongest intimacy. Mrs. Tilton had been born +into Plymouth church, baptized by Mr. Beecher, had taught in his Sunday +school, visited at his home. He loved her as his own, and she adored +him as a very Christ. To these two great intellectual and spiritual +magnets, first to one, then to the other, she was irresistibly and +uncontrollably drawn. When troubles arose and the two became bitterly +hostile, her situation was most pitiable. After matters had culminated +and the battle was on, Beecher still spoke of her as "the beloved +Christian woman," and Tilton, as "the whitest-souled woman who ever +lived." Weak she may have been through her emotions, never wilfully +wicked, and far less sinning than sinned against. She was wholly +dominated by two powerful influences. Between the upper and the nether +millstone her life was crushed. + +[Footnote 78: For full report see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, +p. 715.] + +[Footnote 79: This has been accomplished (1897) in four States, +Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho.] + +[Footnote 80: The W.C.T.U. did not recognize this fact at the time of +their organization but in 1881 they established a franchise department +and many of them now advocate suffrage.] + +[Footnote 81: Not far from three times as many were at Miss Anthony's +lecture as gathered to hear Senator Chandler.--Jackson Patriot. + +One of the largest audiences ever in the opera house gathered last +evening on the occasion of the lecture of Miss Susan B. +Anthony.--Adrian Times and Expositor. + +Probably the largest audience ever assembled in Clinton Hall convened +to hear-Miss Susan B. Anthony, the celebrated expounder of the rights +of women.--Pontiac Gazette. + +Since the great Children's Jubilee there has not been so large an +audience in the Academy of Music as that assembled to hear Miss +Anthony's lecture.--East Saginaw Daily Republican. + +Miss Anthony spoke at Hillsdale to a densely crowded opera house, while +full 1,000 people were unable to gain admission.--Grand Rapids Post. + +Miss Susan B. Anthony spoke last evening to the largest audience that +ever greeted a lecturer in Marshall, and we have had Mrs. Stanton, +Theodore Tilton, Mark Twain and Olive Logan. She had at least 1,200 +hearers.--Telegram to Detroit Evening News. + +Last evening the aisles were double-seated, and the anterooms, +staircases and vestibules densely packed with standing hearers. No such +house ever was had at this place. She spoke with wonderful power. At +Pigeon, between trains, she spoke to a great throng who would not +consider her strength and take "no" for an answer.--Three Rivers +Reporter. + +A woman with whose public sayings and doings we have been familiar +since the fall of 1867, and for whom our respect and admiration has +never wavered during that period, spoke to the largest indoor audience +ever assembled in this village. The courthouse was literally packed, +and the speaker had to stand on a table in front of the judge's +desk.--Cassopolis National Democrat.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +REVOLUTION DEBT PAID--WOMEN'S FOURTH OF JULY. + +1875-1876. + + +At the close of 1874, December 28, the cause of woman suffrage lost a +strong supporter by the death of Gerrit Smith. Miss Anthony felt the +loss deeply, as he had been her warm personal friend for twenty-five +years and always ready with financial aid for her projects; but she +suffered a keener shock one week later when the news came of the sudden +death of Martha C. Wright, January 4, 1875. She says in her diary: "It +struck me dumb, I could not believe it; clear-sighted, true and +steadfast almost beyond all other women! Her home was my home, always +so restful and refreshing, her friendship never failed; the darker the +hour, the brighter were her words of encouragement, the stronger and +closer her support. I can not be reconciled." + +But for this earnest advocate there could be no cessation of work and +the 14th of January found her again in Washington at the National +Convention. These annual meetings, with their advertising, hall rent, +expenses of speakers, etc., were costly affairs. Before every one Miss +Anthony always received scores of letters from the other workers +begging that it might be given up for that year, insisting that for +various reasons it would be a failure, and declaring that they could +not and would not attend. Mrs. Stanton usually headed the list of the +objectors, for she hated everything connected with a convention. On the +back of one of these vehement protests, carefully filed away, is +written in Miss Anthony's penmanship, "Mrs. Stanton's chronic letter +before each annual meeting." She never paid the slightest heed to any +of these appeals, but went straight ahead, wheeled all of them into +line, engaged the speakers, raised the money and carried the convention +to a finish. When the funds were lacking she advanced them from her +own, usually ending one or two hundred dollars out of pocket. Then she +went about among the friends and secured enough to replace the loan or, +failing in this, worked so much the harder to make it up out of her +earnings. + +On her way home from Washington, Miss Anthony stopped for a visit with +her loved cousin Anson Lapham and on leaving he handed her a check for +$1,000, saying, "Susan, this is not for suffrage but for thee +personally." Nevertheless she at once applied it on the debt still +hanging over her from The Revolution. Francis & Loutrel, of New York, +who had furnished her with paper, letter-heads, etc., also presented +her at this time with their receipted bill for $200. + +In the winter of 1875, Miss Anthony prepared her speech on "Social +Purity" and gave it first at the Grand Opera House, Chicago, March 14, +in the Sunday afternoon Dime lecture course.[82] When she reached the +opera house the crowd was so dense she could not get inside and was +obliged to go through the engine room and up the back way to the stage. +The gentleman who was to introduce her could not make his way through +the throng and so this service was gracefully performed by "Long John" +Wentworth, who was seated on the stage. At the close of the address, to +her surprise, A. Bronson Alcott, Parker Pillsbury and A.J. Grover came +up to congratulate her. She had not known they were in the city. Mr. +Alcott said: "You have stated here this afternoon, in a fearless +manner, truths that I have hardly dared to think, much less to utter." +No other speaker, man or woman, ever had handled this question with +such boldness and severity and the lecture produced a great sensation. +Even the radical Mrs. Stanton wrote her she would never again be asked +to speak in Chicago, and Mr. Slayton said that she had ruined her +future chances there; nevertheless she was invited by the same +committee the following winter. + +It was given at several places in Wisconsin, Illinois,[83] Iowa, Kansas +and Missouri to crowded houses and the newspaper comments were varied. +On the occasion of its delivery in Mercantile Library Hall, St. Louis, +in the Star lecture course, the Democrat said: "The audience was large +and composed of the most respectable and intelligent of our citizens, a +majority being ladies. Miss Anthony is one of the most remarkable women +of the nineteenth century--remarkable for the purity of her life, the +earnestness with which she promulgates her peculiar views, and the +indomitable courage and perseverance with which she bears defeat and +misfortune. No longer in the bloom of youth--if she ever had any +bloom--hard-featured, guileless, cold as an icicle, fluent and +philosophical, she wields today tenfold more influence than all the +beautiful and brilliant female lecturers that ever flaunted upon the +platform as preachers of social impossibilities." + +The metropolitan press generally acknowledged the necessity for such a +lecture and complimented Miss Anthony's courage in undertaking it, but +the country papers were greatly distressed, as a specimen extract will +show: + + There is very little satisfaction in observing that Miss Anthony is + following in the wake of Anna Dickinson, in publicly lecturing upon + subjects that no modest woman ought, in respect for her sex, to + acknowledge that she is so familiar with. Miss D. expatiates upon + the "Social Evil," and Miss A. enlarges upon "Social + Purity"--topics that maidenly delicacy, we repeat, should refuse to + discuss. It would be suggestively coarse for a married woman to + deliberately select such questionable themes for a public + discourse; but these two ladies are spinsters yet, and spinsters + are presumed to be wholly innocent of the necessary + information--are supposed, in truth, to be too pure-minded to + contemplate vice in its most repulsive shape, not to say analyze + it, and dwell oratorically before the world upon its nauseous + details. The women's crusade against liquor effected nothing, for + the simple reason that women were out of their proper sphere in + attempting it; but if so, how much more do they degrade their sex + when they go out of the way to ask us to believe that they are + intimate with a corruption infinitely more debasing and more + destructive? The best lecture a woman can give the community on + "moral purity" is the eloquent one of a spotless life. The best + discourse she can furnish us on the sad "evil" alluded to is the + sincerity of her profound ignorance of the subject. + +A woman suffrage bill was under consideration by the legislature of +Iowa and Miss Anthony felt that missionary work ought to be done in +that State, so she wrote to the friends in one hundred different towns, +offering to speak for $25 or one-half the gross receipts. Sixty of them +accepted and during the spring and autumn of 1875 she filled these +engagements, the sixty lectures averaging $30 apiece. In order to reach +the different places she had to take trains at all hours of the night, +occasionally to ride in a freight car, sometimes to drive twenty-five +or thirty miles across country in mud and snow and prairie winds, and +frequently to go on the platform without having eaten a mouthful or +changed her dress. Even these ills were not so hard to bear as the +cold, dirty rooms, hard beds, and poorly cooked food sometimes found in +small hotels. Frequently she had to sit by the kitchen stove all day as +not a bedroom would have a fire and the only sitting-room contained the +bar and was black with tobacco smoke. The path of the lecturer is +uphill, over stony roads, with briar hedges on both sides. + +While Miss Anthony was in attendance at the May Suffrage Anniversary in +New York, a telegram came announcing that her brother Daniel R., of +Leavenworth, had been shot and fatally wounded. Her friends feeling +that they could not go through with the meeting without her, retained +the telegram until after her speech in the evening, and then she could +get no train before the next day. She did not go to bed that night but, +in the midst of her grief, she examined every bill for the convention +and put each in an envelope with the money to pay it. In the early +morning she took a local train for Albany and stopped off to bid a last +farewell to her old friend, Lydia Mott, who was dying of consumption. +Her sisters met her at the Rochester station with wrapper, slippers and +comfortable things for the sickroom, and she learned that her brother +was still alive. Telegrams came to her at intervals during the journey, +and, after a most distressing delay at Kansas City, she finally reached +Leavenworth at midnight, May 14, and was gladly received by her brother +who had watched the clock and counted her progress every hour. The +shooting had grown out of some criticisms in his paper. The ball had +fractured the clavicle and severed the subclavian artery. His devoted +wife and brother Merritt were in constant attendance. + +Then began the long struggle for life. For nine weeks Miss Anthony sat +by his bedside giving the service of a born nurse, added to the +gentleness of a loving sister. At the end of the first month the +physicians decided on a continued pressure upon the artery above the +wound to prevent the constant rush of blood into the aneurism which had +formed. Owing to its peculiar position this could be done only by +pressing the finger upon it, and so the family and friends took turns +day and night, sitting by the patient and pressing upon this vital +spot. After five weeks, to the surprise of the whole medical +fraternity, the experiment proved a success and recovery was no longer +doubtful. The papers were filled with glowing accounts of Miss +Anthony's devotion, seeming to think it wonderful that a woman whose +whole life had been spent in public work should possess in so large a +degree not only sisterly affection but the accomplishments of a trained +nurse.[84] + +Miss Anthony took back to Rochester her little four-year-old niece and +namesake, Susie B., and many touching entries in her journal show how +closely the child entwined itself about her heart. She found that Lydia +Mott still lived, and, allowing herself only two days' rest after all +the hard weeks of physical and mental strain, she went to Albany to +stay with her friend till the end came, a month later. The diary of +August 20 says: "There passed out of my life today the one who, next to +my own family, has been the nearest and dearest to me for thirty +years." + +On October 2, 1875, she heard Frances E. Willard lecture for the first +time, and comments, "A lovely, spirited and spiritual woman, +characterized by genuine Christian simplicity." Miss Anthony was a +guest with Miss Willard at the home of Professor and Mrs. Lattimore. +When they reached the hall Miss Willard asked her to sit on the +platform, but Miss Anthony declined, saying, "No, you have a heavy +enough load to carry without taking me." November 4 Miss Anthony gave +her lecture on "Social Purity" in Rochester, introduced by Judge Henry +R. Selden, and writes, "I had a most attentive and solemn listening." +The rest of the year was spent in finishing the interrupted lectures in +Iowa, and the beginning of 1876 found her in the far West with so many +engagements that she decided, for the first time in all the years, not +to go to Washington to the National Convention. This was in the capable +hands of Mrs. Gage, who was then president; so she sent an encouraging +letter and a liberal contribution. + +Miss Anthony still continued on her weary round-through the inclement +winter and spring, sometimes lecturing to meager and sometimes to +crowded houses but netting an average of $100 a week, which was +religiously applied to the payment of the debt. She returned to Chicago +to lecture again in the Dime course, Sunday, March 26, and says in her +diary: "An immense audience, hall packed, my speech was free, easy and +happy, my audience quick to see and appreciate." The address on this +occasion was "Bread and the Ballot."[85] She returned at once to Iowa, +Kansas and Missouri, and by May 1, 1876, was able to write, "The day of +Jubilee for me has come. I have paid the last dollar of The Revolution +debt!" It was just six years to the very month since she had given up +her cherished paper and undertaken to pay off its heavy indebtedness, +and all her friends rejoiced with her that it was finally rolled from +her shoulders and she was free. Even the newspapers offered +congratulations in pleasant editorial paragraphs.[86] In a long notice, +the Chicago Daily News said: + + Her paper lived a few years and then went down. In the heart of the + woman whose hopes went down with it, the little paper that cost so + much and died so prematurely occupies, perhaps, the place which in + other women's hearts is occupied by the remembrance of a baby's + face, now shrouded in folds of white satin and hushed in death. But + The Revolution left behind a debt of several thousand dollars. + Susan B. Anthony was poor, yet she stepped forward and assumed, + individually, the entire indebtedness. By working six years and + devoting to the purpose all the money she could earn she has paid + the debt and interest. And now, when the creditors of that paper + and others who really know her, whatever they may think of her + political opinions, hear the name of Susan B. Anthony, they feel + inclined to raise their hats in reverence. + +The Rochester Post-Express thus voiced the opinion of her own +townspeople: + + The thousands of friends of the plucky and noble woman of whom we + speak will rejoice with her over this success. There are a good + many men who have hidden behind their wives' petticoats for a much + smaller sum than $10,000. It should be remembered, furthermore, + that Miss Anthony has labored indefatigably in the cause of woman + suffrage, paying her own expenses most of the time; has undergone a + contemptible and outrageous persecution at the hands of the United + States court for violating the election laws; has bent for months + over the bed of a brother wounded almost to death by an assassin's + bullet; has watched tenderly over the steps of an aged mother; and + has always, everywhere, been the soul of helpfulness and + benevolence. Here is an example, in a woman, who our laws say is + not fit to exercise the active and defensive privilege of + citizenship, that puts to shame the lives of ninety-nine in every + hundred men. + +It is not surprising that the letters of her friends during these past +months should speak of "the pale, sad face, so worn by lines of care +and toil," but now all was over and she returned home. To rest? Far +from it. The third day found her en route for New York to attend the +Suffrage Anniversary, May 10 and 11. + +The thinking women of the country were justly indignant, in this great +centennial year of the Republic, at the high-handed manner in which +they had been ignored in the vast preparations for its celebration, in +spite of their protests and in face of the fact that women had +purchased $100,000 of the centennial stock issued to pay expenses. It +had been decided at the Washington convention that the National +Association should open headquarters in Philadelphia, and at this May +meeting Miss Anthony was made chairman of the 1876 campaign committee. +The resolutions adopted show the spirit of the convention: + + WHEREAS, The right of self-government inheres in the individual + before governments are founded, constitutions framed or courts + created; and _whereas_, Governments exist to protect the people in + the enjoyment of their natural rights, and when one becomes + destructive of this end, it is the right of the people to resist + and abolish it; and _whereas_, The women of the United States for + one hundred years have been denied the exercise of their natural + right of self-government; therefore + + _Resolved_, That it is their natural right and most sacred duty to + rebel against the injustice, usurpation and tyranny of our present + government. + + WHEREAS, The men of 1776 rebelled against a government which did + not claim to be of the people, but on the contrary upheld the + "divine right of kings;" and _whereas_, The women of this nation + today, under a government which claims to be based upon individual + rights, in an infinitely greater degree are suffering all the + wrongs which led to the war of the Revolution; and _whereas_, the + oppression is all the more keenly felt because our masters, instead + of dwelling in a foreign land, are our husbands, fathers, brothers + and sons; therefore + + _Resolved_, That the women of this nation, in 1876, have greater + cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution, than had the men of + 1776. + + _Resolved_, That with Abigail Adams we believe "the passion for + liberty can not be strong in the breasts of those who are + accustomed to deprive their fellow-creatures of liberty;" that, as + she predicted in 1776, "we are determined to foment a rebellion, + and will not hold ourselves bound by laws in which we have no voice + or representation." + + WHEREAS, We believe in the principles of the Declaration of + Independence and of the Constitution of the United States, and that + a true republic is the best form of government in the world; and + _whereas_, This government is false to its underlying principles in + denying to women the only means of self-government, the ballot; and + one-half of the citizens of this nation, after a century of boasted + liberty, are still political slaves; therefore + + _Resolved_, That we protest against calling the present centennial + a celebration of the independence of the _people_ of the United + States. + + _Resolved_, That we meet in our respective towns and districts on + the Fourth of July, 1876, and declare ourselves no longer bound to + obey laws in whose making we have had no voice and, in presence of + the assembled nations of the world gathered on this soil to + celebrate our nation's centennial, demand justice for the women of + this land. + +Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Gage had long had in view the +preparation of a history of the woman's rights movement, which they +expected to be a pamphlet of several hundred pages, and they offered +this as a premium to every one who should send $5 toward the +contemplated headquarters.[87] Fifty-two women responded at once, and +with this $260 they ventured to rent fine, large parlors in a desirable +part of Philadelphia and fit them up in an attractive manner. By the +laws of Pennsylvania a married woman could not make a contract and Miss +Anthony, being the only femme sole, was obliged to assume the financial +responsibility. She and Mrs. Gage took charge of the headquarters May +25, and issued the following announcement: + + The National Woman Suffrage Association has established its + Centennial headquarters in Philadelphia at No. 1431 Chestnut + street. The parlors, in charge of the officers of the association, + are devoted to the special work of the year, pertaining to the + centennial celebration and the political party conventions; also to + calls, receptions, etc. On the table a Centennial autograph book + receives the names of visitors.... + + On July 4th, while the men of this nation and the world are + rejoicing that "all men are free and equal" in the United States, a + declaration of rights for women will be issued from these + headquarters, and a protest against calling this Centennial a + celebration of the independence of the people, while one-half are + still political slaves. Let the women of the whole land, on that + day, in meetings, in parlors, in kitchens, wherever they may be, + unite with us in this declaration and protest; and immediately + thereafter send full reports for record in our centennial book, + that the world may see that the women of 1876 know and feel their + political degradation no less than did the men of 1776. + + In commemoration of the twenty-eighth anniversary of the first + woman's rights convention, the National Suffrage Association will + hold in Philadelphia, July 19 and 20, of the present year, a grand + mass convention, in which eminent reformers from the new and the + old world will take part. + +From these headquarters eloquent letters were written to the national +political conventions and sent by delegations of prominent women, +asking for a woman suffrage plank. The Democrats ignored the question +in their platform; the Republicans adopted the following: "The +Republican party recognizes with approval the substantial advance +recently made toward the establishment of equal rights for women by the +many important amendments effected by the Republican legislatures, in +the laws which concern the personal and property relations of wives, +mothers and widows, and by the election and appointment of women to the +superintendence of education, charities and other public trusts. The +honest demands of this class of citizens for additional rights, +privileges and immunities should be treated with respectful +consideration." In a letter from Mrs. Duniway, of Oregon, she says, +"Well, the Republicans have thickened the old sop and re-served it." + +The women were determined to obtain a recognition at the centennial +celebration to be held July 4, in Independence Square. "It is the hour, +the golden hour, for woman to speak her word which shall roll down our +second century as has man's Fourth of July manifesto through the last +one hundred years," wrote Miss Anthony. Then she and Mrs. Stanton and +Mrs. Gage put their heads together and framed a document which had all +the holy fire of the immortal Declaration of Independence, and this +they proposed to have made a part of the-great day's proceedings.[88] +Their efforts to this end, their repulse and their subsequent action +are so delightfully described in the History of Woman Suffrage that it +would be presumptuous to attempt to improve upon it. Their utmost +efforts could obtain but four seats on the platform. Miss Anthony had a +ticket as reporter for her brother's paper. The earnest request of Mrs. +Stanton, president of the National Suffrage Association, to General +Joseph R. Hawley, president of the Centennial Commission, not that the +women might read but simply might present their declaration, was +refused on the ground that the program could not be changed. The report +thus continues: + + As President Grant was not to attend the celebration, the acting + Vice-President, Thomas W. Ferry, representing the government, was + to officiate in his place and he, too, was addressed by note, and + courteously requested to make time for the reception of this + declaration. As Mr. Ferry was a well-known sympathizer with the + demands of woman for political rights, it was presumable that he + would render his aid. Yet he was forgetful that in his position + that day he represented, not the exposition, but the government of + a hundred years, and he too refused; thus the simple request of + woman for a half moment's recognition on the nation's centennial + birthday was denied by all in authority. + + While the women of the nation were thus absolutely forbidden the + right of public protest, lavish preparations were made for the + reception and entertainment of foreign potentates and the myrmidons + of monarchial institutions. Dom Pedro, emperor of Brazil, a + representative of that form of government against which the United + States is a perpetual defiance and protest, was welcomed with + fulsome adulation, and given a seat of honor near the officers of + the day; Prince Oscar of Sweden, a stripling of sixteen, on whose + shoulders rests the promise of a future kingship, was seated near. + Count Rochambeau of France, the Japanese commissioners, high + officials from Russia and Prussia, from Austria, Spain, England, + Turkey, representing the barbarism and semi-civilization of the + day, found no difficulty in securing recognition and places of + honor upon that platform, where representative womanhood was + denied. + + Though refused by their own countrymen a place and part in the + centennial celebration, the women who had taken this presentation + in hand were not to be conquered. They had respectfully asked for + recognition; now that it had been denied, they determined to seize + upon the moment when the reading of the Declaration of Independence + closed, to proclaim to the world the tyranny and injustice of the + nation toward one-half its people. Five officers of the National + Suffrage Association, with that heroic spirit which has ever + animated lovers of liberty in resistance to tyranny, determined, + whatever the result, to present the Woman's Declaration of Rights + at the chosen hour. They would not, they dared not sacrifice the + golden opportunity to which they had so long looked forward; their + work was not for themselves alone, nor for the present generation, + but for all women of all time. The hopes of posterity were in their + hands and they determined to place on record for the daughters of + 1976 the fact that their mothers of 1876 had asserted their + equality of rights, and impeached the government of that day for + its injustice toward woman. Thus, in taking a grander step toward + freedom than ever before, they would leave one bright remembrance + for the women of the next Centennial. + + That historic Fourth of July dawned at last, one of the most + oppressive days of that terribly heated season. Susan B. Anthony, + Matilda Joslyn Gage, Sara Andrews Spencer, Lillie Devereux Blake + and Phoebe Couzins made their way through the crowds under the + broiling sun to Independence Square, carrying the Woman's + Declaration of Rights. This declaration had been handsomely + engrossed by Mrs. Spencer and signed by the oldest and most + prominent advocates of woman's enfranchisement. Their tickets of + admission proved an open sesame through the military and all other + barriers, and a few moments before the opening of the ceremonies, + these women found themselves within the precincts from which most + of their sex were excluded. + + The declaration of 1776 was read by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, + about whose family clusters so much of historic fame. The close of + his reading was deemed the appropriate moment for the presentation + of the Woman's Declaration. Not quite sure how their approach might + be met--not quite certain if at this final moment they would be + permitted to reach the presiding officer--these ladies arose from + their seats at the back of the stage and walked down the aisle. The + bustle of preparation for the Brazilian hymn covered their advance. + The foreign guests, the military and civil officers who filled the + space directly around the speaker's stand, courteously made way, + while Miss Anthony in fitting words presented the Declaration. Mr. + Ferry's face paled, as bowing low, with no word, he received it, + and it thus became a part of the day's proceedings; the ladies + turned, scattering printed copies as they deliberately passed up + the aisle and off the platform. On every side eager hands were + stretched; men stood on seats and asked for them, while General + Hawley, thus defied and beaten in his audacious denial to women of + the right to present their Declaration, shouted, "Order, order!" + + Going out through the crowd, they made their way to a platform + erected for the musicians in front of Independence Hall. Here on + this historic ground, under the shadow of of Washington's statue, + back of them the old bell which proclaimed "liberty to all the land + and all the inhabitants thereof," they took their places, and to a + listening, applauding crowd, Miss Anthony read a copy of the + Declaration just presented to Mr. Ferry. It was warmly applauded at + many points, and after again scattering a number of printed copies, + the delegation descended from the platform and hastened to the + convention of the National Association. A meeting had been + appointed at 12 o'clock, in the First Unitarian church, where Rev. + William H. Furness preached for fifty years, but whose pulpit was + then filled by Joseph May, a son of Rev. Samuel J. May. They found + the church crowded with an expectant audience, which greeted them + with thanks for what they had just done; the first act of this + memorable day taking place on the old centennial platform in + Independence Square, the last in a church so long devoted to + equality and justice. + + The venerable Lucretia Mott, then in her eighty-fourth year, + presided. Belva A. Lockwood took up the judiciary, showing the way + that body lends itself to party politics. Matilda Joslyn Gage spoke + upon the writ of habeas corpus, pointing out what a mockery to + married women was that constitutional guarantee. Lucretia Mott + reviewed the progress of the reform from the first convention. Sara + Andrews Spencer illustrated the evils arising from two codes of + morality. Lillie Devereux Blake spoke upon trial by jury; Susan B. + Anthony upon taxation without representation, illustrating her + remarks by incidents of unjust taxation of women during the present + year. Elizabeth Cady Stanton pictured the aristocracy of sex and + the evils arising from manhood suffrage. Judge Esther Morris, of + Wyoming, said a few words in regard to suffrage in that territory. + Phoebe Couzins, with great pathos, told of woman's work in the war. + Margaret Parker, president of the women's suffrage club of Dundee, + Scotland, and of the newly formed International W.C.T.U., declared + this was worth the journey across the Atlantic. Mr. J.H. Raper, of + Manchester, England, characterized it as the grandest meeting of + the day, and said the patriot of a hundred years hence would seek + for every incident connected with it, and the next Centennial would + be adorned by the portraits of the women who sat upon that + platform. + + The Hutchinsons were present and in their best vein interspersed + the speeches with appropriate and felicitous songs. Lucretia Mott + did not confine herself to a single speech but, in Quaker style, + whenever the spirit moved made many happy points. As her sweet and + placid countenance appeared above the pulpit, the Hutchinsons burst + into, "Nearer, My God, to Thee." The effect was marvellous; the + audience at once arose, and spontaneously joined in the hymn. For + five long hours of that hot midsummer day, that crowded audience + listened earnestly to woman's demand for equality of rights before + the law. When the meeting at last adjourned, the Hutchinsons + singing, "A Hundred Years Hence," it was slowly and reluctantly + that the great audience left the house. + +The headquarters were kept open for two months, the weekly receptions +were largely attended and the rooms each day crowded with visitors. The +immense autograph book was signed by hundreds, most of whom also +affixed their names to the Woman's Declaration of Rights. Lucretia Mott +always came in after attending the mid-week meeting of the Friends, and +the ladies had a pot of tea ready for her coming.[89] When she left she +never failed to hand them $5 "to pay for the trouble she had made," her +contributions in this way amounting to $50. George W. Childs gave $100, +Dr. Clemence Lozier, $100, Ellen C. Sargent, $50, Elizabeth B. Phelps, +$50, Miss Anthony herself contributed $175, and altogether about two +hundred people donated nearly $1,700, all of which was expended in +keeping up the headquarters and printing and circulating thousands of +documents. When the accounts were audited they showed a balance of just +$4.64. + +At this time Mrs. Mott sent Miss Anthony this little note, accompanied +by a large package of fine tea: "I forgot to take the tea I promised +thee, so please accept it now. Thank thee for so oft remembering me +with the delicious drinks of it. After leaving thee so hurriedly +yesterday, I feared that thou wast still short of an even balance, and +now enclose another $10 for thy own personal use. It is too hard for +our widely extended national society to suffer thee to labor so +unceasingly without a consideration." But Miss Anthony did not work for +personal reward and said in a letter to her old friend Clarina Howard +Nichols: "The Kansas women say, 'All we have of freedom we owe to Mrs. +Nichols and yet we never have given her a testimonial.' Well, you and I +and all who labor to make the conditions of the world better for coming +generations, must find our testimonials in the good accomplished +through our work." + +As soon as the Centennial headquarters were closed Miss Anthony +proceeded to carry out her cherished plan of writing the history of the +woman's rights movement. She had sent the most peremptory orders to +Mrs. Stanton not to make a lecture engagement before December 1, so +that in August, September, October and November they might prepare this +history. She then shipped to Mrs. Stanton's home several large trunks +and boxes full of letters, reports and various documents which she had +carefully preserved during the past quarter of a century, and the first +day of August they set to work. The entries in the diary for the next +two months give some idea of her state of mind: "I am immersed to my +ears and feel almost discouraged.... The work before me is simply +appalling.... The prospect of ever getting out a satisfactory history +grows less each day.... Would that the good spirits in my own brain +would come to the rescue!... O, these old letters! It makes me sad and +tired to read them over, to see the terrible strain I was under every +minute then, have been ever since, am now and shall be, I think, the +rest of my life."[90] + +On August 24 occurred the death of Paulina Wright Davis and, at the +husband's request, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton spoke at the funeral. +The former felt that again she had lost a friend who never could be +replaced. Mrs. Davis was a woman of beauty, culture, wealth and social +position and a life-long advocate of woman suffrage. In October the +dear cousin Anson Lapham passed away, and in the diary that night was +written: "No man except my father ever gave me such love and +confidence, and his acts were equal to his faith." + +[Autograph: + + With truest and tenderest friendship for my co-workers, I am as ever, + Pauline Wright Davis.] + +Work was pressing upon her from every side. In the spring of this year +she had been engaged by the editors of Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia +to write the chapter on suffrage and prepare the biographies of a +number of eminent women. Amidst all the other cares of the summer and +fall, she had been endeavoring to collect the materials for these +sketches, having the usual experience. Some failed to answer; others +wrote asking a score of questions; many sent four times as many words +as were requested, with the statement that not one single line could be +cut out; while a number forwarded a mass of unintelligible matter and +requested her to make a good sketch out of it. The history also was +occupying her waking and sleeping thoughts, and the depleted condition +of her pocket-book foreshadowed the necessity of another lecture tour. +Meanwhile, the mother at home was growing very feeble, and on +Thanksgiving Day Miss Anthony wrote to her: "I feel as if I were +robbing myself of the last moments which I may ever have to be with +you, but I can not see the way clear to stay at home this coming +winter. It is ever thus with me, so hard to know which is the strongest +duty, the one that ought to be done first, and so I grope on in the +dark. That I am always away from home may look to the world as if I +care less for it than other people, whereas my longing for it almost +makes me weak; but you, dear mother, understand my love." + +[Footnote 82: See Appendix for full speech.] + +[Footnote 83: At Carbondale she addressed the students of the Normal +School, the day after her lecture, emphasizing the necessity of woman's +being able to care for herself, urging them to marry only for love and +not for support, and to look upon marriage as a luxury and not a +necessity. She was a little doubtful as to the effect of this talk upon +both faculty and students, but one of the professors called to tell her +how fitting was every word and how he had longed to have just those +things said. The girl students sent her a handsome bouquet as she was +taking her train.] + +[Footnote 84: President M.B. Anderson, of Rochester University, wrote a +friend in this connection: "I always remember Miss Anthony as an angel +of mercy in the house of a sister who was crushed by the loss of a +son."] + +[Footnote 85: See Appendix for full speech.] + +[Footnote 86: From a large number of clippings, the following are +selected as specimens: + +Miss Anthony has now earned the money and discharged the last +obligation of her paper. This is the work of a brave and good woman.... +She is a woman who pays her debts and sets a watch upon her +lips.--Cincinnati Enquirer. + +It is the fashion among fools of both sexes to sneer at Susan B. +Anthony and use her name to point witless jokes. But it seems to +us--and we differ from her most emphatically on the question of woman +suffrage--that her brave, unselfish life reflects a credit on womanhood +which the follies of a thousand others can not remove.--Utica Observer. + +"She has paid her debts like a man," says an exchange. Like a man? Not +so. Not one man in a thousand but would have "squealed," "laid down" +and settled at ten or twenty cents on the dollar. As people go in this +wicked world, it is no more than fair to say in good faith that Miss +Anthony is a very admirable person. She is in business, as in other +matters, one of the few--the select few--who steer by their own compass +and not by the shifting winds.--Buffalo Express. + +Miss Susan B. Anthony has done a noble thing, which deserves to be +widely known. She has lectured 120 times during this season and has +paid off the last debt of The Revolution. That she has felt obliged to +work thus for years when thousands of men avail themselves of the +privileges of the bankrupt act, is a phenomenal exhibition of personal +honor. A woman is thoroughly qualified to plead for the claims of her +own sex when she respects the rights of human nature so keenly.--New +York Graphic. + +We are thankful to see the recognition accorded to the worth of our +townswoman. She has been often misjudged and sometimes abused; but +unfalteringly and unselfishly she has devoted herself to her life-work, +and despite cavilling and sneers, has deeply impressed her thought upon +the age in which she has been placed. Her executive talent has +unceasingly declared itself and her character has been without +reproach. She is today a power in the land, respected even by those who +oppose her. She may not witness the full triumph of her cause; but her +fame as a brave, truthful and consistent advocate of a conquering cause +is secure. Even in her lifetime she is receiving something of the +reward to which her fidelity to principle entities her.--Rochester +Democrat and Chronicle.] + +[Footnote 87: When this work finally was issued at $15 per set, every +one of these pledges was carefully fulfilled, necessarily at a great +pecuniary loss.] + +[Footnote 88: For full text of this magnificent document see History of +Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, p. 31.] + +[Footnote 89: The little teapot and the cup and saucer which she used +now stand upon Miss Anthony's sideboard.] + +[Footnote 90: To this work, which these women expected to accomplish in +four months, they gave every day that could be spared from other duties +for the next ten years!] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +COLORADO CAMPAIGN--POLITICAL ATTITUDE. + +1877-1878. + + +The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of +Virginia L. Minor rendered useless any further efforts to obtain +suffrage under the National Constitution until it should be amended for +this special purpose. The agitation of the last eight years, however, +had not been without its value. The student of history will observe +that the ablest constitutional arguments ever made in favor of the +practical application of the great underlying principles of our +government, were those of Benjamin F. Butler, A.G. Riddle, Henry R. +Selden, William Loughridge, Francis Minor, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth +Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage on the right of women to vote +under the Fourteenth Amendment. These were reviewed by the newspapers +and law journals and widely discussed by the people, while the +congressional debates, published in the Record, became a part of +history. + +Although from the standpoint of justice these arguments were +unanswerable, they did not succeed in establishing the political rights +of women, and the advocates therefore were compelled to return to their +former policy of demanding a Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, +which should protect them as the Fifteenth protected the negroes. To +this end, in November, 1876, an earnest appeal was sent out by Mrs. +Stanton, president; Miss Anthony, secretary; and Mrs. Gage, chairman of +the executive committee of the National Association, asking the women +to secure petitions for the amendment and send them to the annual +meeting. Two letters received by Miss Anthony in January, 1877, +illustrate the wide difference of opinion which prevailed. Wm. Lloyd +Garrison wrote: + + You desire me to send you a letter, to be read at the Washington + convention, in favor of a petition to Congress, asking that body to + submit to the several States a Sixteenth Amendment securing + suffrage for all, irrespective of sex. On fully considering the + subject, I must decline doing so, because such a petition I deem to + be quite premature. If its request were complied with by the + present Congress--a supposition simply preposterous--the proposed + amendment would be rejected by every State in the Union, and in + nearly every instance by such an overwhelming majority as to bring + the movement into needless contempt. Even as a matter of + "agitation," I do not think it would pay. Look over the whole + country and see in the present state of public sentiment on the + question of woman suffrage what a mighty primary work remains to be + done in enlightening the masses, who know nothing and care nothing + about it and, consequently, are not at all prepared to cast their + vote for any such thing. I think it is a mistake to look for a + favorable consideration of the question on the part of legislators + under such circumstances. More light is needed for the popular + mind. + +In the early days of the anti-slavery agitation, Mr. Garrison never +waited for the popular mind to become prepared but, by the ploughshare +of bold, aggressive action, he turned up the soil and made it ready for +the seed. When "more light" was needed, by vigorous effort he stirred +up a blaze which illuminated the world. + +From Wendell Phillips came the old-time clarion note: "I think you are +on the right track--the best method to agitate the question--and I am +with you, though, between you and me, I still think the individual +States must lead off and that this reform must advance piecemeal, State +by State. But I mean always to help everywhere and every one." + +The convention met in Lincoln Hall, January 16 and 17. Although there +had been but a few weeks for the work, petitions asking a Sixteenth +Amendment were received from twenty-six different States, aggregating +over 10,000 names. The History says: "To Sara Andrews Spencer we are +indebted for the great labor of receiving, assorting, counting, +rolling-up and planning the presentation of the petitions. It was by a +well-considered coup d'etat that, with her brave coadjutors, she +appeared on the floor of the House and gave each member a petition from +his own State. Even Miss Anthony, always calm in the hour of danger, on +finding herself suddenly whisked into those sacred enclosures, amid a +crowd of stalwart men, spittoons and scrap-baskets, when brought +vis-a-vis with our champion, Mr. Hoar, hastily apologized for the +intrusion, to which the honorable gentleman promptly replied, 'I hope, +madam, yet to see you on this floor in your own right and in business +hours too.'" + +The spectacle is variously described.[91] The trustworthy correspondent +of the Independent, Mary Clemmer, looked at the proceedings with a +woman's eyes and, in her weekly letter, thus vented her indignation: + + A few read the petitions as they would any other, with dignity and + without comment; but the majority seemed intensely conscious of + holding something unutterably funny in their hands. They appeared + to consider it a huge joke. The entire Senate presented the + appearance of a laughing-school practising side-splitting and + ear-extended grins. Mr. Wadleigh leaned back in his chair and shook + with laughter, after portraying to his next neighbor, Pinkney + Whyte, of Maryland, the apparition of Pinkney's landlady descending + upon the polls like a wolf on the fold, to annihilate his election. + Oglesby, erst warrior of Illinois, spake with such endearing + gallantry of his "dear constituents," whom he did all his wit could + do to make ridiculous, that the Senate laughed, and even Roscoe + Conkling, who never condescends to sneer at a woman in public, + turned and listened and smiled his most sardonic smile. Then + Thurman blew his loudest regulation blast--sure portent of + approaching battle--and rose and moved that the petition be + referred to the committee on public lands, of which Oglesby is + chairman. At this proposition--intended to be equally humorous and + contemptuous--the whole Senate laughed aloud. + + There was one senator man enough and gentleman enough to lift the + petition from this insulting proposition. It was Senator Sargent, + of California, the husband of the woman who, though a senator's + wife, is brave enough to be the treasurer of the National Suffrage + Association. He turned to Mr. Thurman and demanded for the petition + of more than 10,000 women at least the courtesy which would be + given to any other.... Then the craven Senate declared Thurman's + motion, which was only an insult, carried. Let it be recorded of + the Senate of the Forty-fifth Congress that the one petition which + it received as a preposterous joke and treated with utter contempt + and outrage was that of tens of thousands of the mothers, wives and + daughters of the land. + + The Capital of Sunday was perfectly correct when it said: "The + ladies managed the business badly. If they had employed the female + lobby, the venerable Solons would have softened and thrown open + their doors as readily as their hearts." It seems an ungracious + thing to say; but it is the truth. The woman who wins her way with + the majority of these men is the siren of the gallery and the + anteroom, who sends in her card and her invitation to the senator + at his desk. She never talks of "rights." She cares for no "cause" + but her own cause of ease and pelf. She shakes her tresses, + "banged" and usually blonde; she lifts her alluring eyes, and nine + times out of ten makes him do as she listeth. No wonder when the + earnest appeal of honest women reaches his hands, he has neither + response, honor nor justice to give it. + +Miss Anthony had been speaking in all parts of the country for a +quarter of a century and generally had been her own manager. The +preceding year she had given the Slayton Lyceum Bureau a partial trial +and at the beginning of 1877 made a contract with it, commencing the +last of January. The entire first page of the circular for the season +was devoted to this new engagement and began: + + The manager takes pride in announcing the name of Susan B. Anthony, + the most earnest, fearless advocate of the ballot for woman. She + has hitherto confined herself entirely to this one question, which + to her is most sacred and righteous, but this season we are to have + something different, as will be seen from the titles of her new + lectures. Her great speeches, "Woman and the Sixteenth Amendment," + and "Woman wants Bread, not the Ballot," will still be called for, + and committees will have their choice in all cases.... A certain + gentleman frequently wrote us last year to avoid "all night rides" + after his lectures; Miss Anthony never makes such a request. She + can lecture every night in the season.... When a list of fifty or + one hundred engagements has been mapped out and fixed, nothing but + an act of God will prevent her filling them.... Of nearly fifty + consecutive lectures, delivered by Miss Anthony last spring in the + State of Illinois alone, only two failed to realize a profit.... + She is always making converts among the men as well as the women. + +Among the notices quoted is one from Col. John W. Forney, of the +Philadelphia Press, saying: "I must accept woman suffrage as I did +negro emancipation; as a necessity made urgent and imperative by the +times in which we live. Put me down then, if you please, as being an +ardent woman's rights man, fighting under the banner of Susan B. +Anthony, and proud of following such a leader." + +[Autograph: + + Very truly yours. + J W Forney] + +Miss Anthony found both advantages and disadvantages in this new +arrangement; for while it relieved her of much responsibility, it took +away the control of her own time and movements, a situation which she +soon found very trying. She lectured through February and March, but by +this time her sister, Mrs. Hannah Mosher, whose failing health had sent +her to Kansas in the hope of benefit, was declared by the physicians +beyond recovery. Miss Anthony's first impulse was to hasten to her +side, but she was confronted with her lecture engagements and told that +it would be impossible to release her until May. She was almost +desperate to be with the loved one and at last could bear it no longer, +so telegraphing Mr. Slayton to cancel everything after April 5, +regardless of consequences, she took the train at Chicago and reached +Leavenworth on the 7th. She found her sister rapidly declining with the +same inexorable disease which had claimed another four years before, +and at once installed herself beside the invalid, who was rejoiced +indeed to have her companionship and ministrations. All that loving +hands could do she had had from husband, children and brothers, but she +had longed for the presence of her sister and it filled her with joy +and peace. + +In just a week, though her heart was breaking, Miss Anthony was obliged +to return to Illinois to fill four or five engagements in places which +threatened claims for damages if this were not done. She hastened back +to Leavenworth, reaching the bedside of her sister at midnight, April +20, and scarcely leaving it a moment until the end came, May 12. +Between herself and this sister, just nineteen months younger, +beautiful in character and strong in affection, there ever had existed +the closest sympathy. For the last decade they had been separated only +by a dooryard, they had shared each other's every joy and sorrow, and +the severing of these ties of over a half-century seemed more than she +could endure. + +She remained at Leavenworth,[92] trying to renew her strength and +courage, until the last of June, when she returned to Rochester, taking +with her the orphaned daughter Louise. Many comforting letters and +tokens of affection came to her during these months, among them a gift +of $100 from Helen Potter, the famous impersonator. Her imitations of +Gough, Ristori, Charlotte Cushman, Anna Dickinson, Mrs. Stanton and +even Miss Anthony herself were most remarkable. During the Centennial +they had become warm personal friends, and in giving the money she +said: "Now, this is not for any society or committee or cause, but for +your very self." + +Mrs. Stanton wrote her: "Do be careful, dear Susan, you can not stand +what you once did. I should feel desolate indeed with you gone." When +the lecturing had commenced she again wrote: "As I go dragging around +in these despicable hotels, I think of you and often wish we had at +least the little comfort of enduring it together. When is your agony +over?" Referring to a young woman speaker who was being spoiled by +flattery, she said: "We should be thankful, Susan, for the ridicule and +abuse on which we have fed." To one who tried to make trouble between +Miss Anthony and herself she sent this reply: "Our friendship is of too +long standing and has too deep roots to be easily shattered. I think we +have said worse things to each other, face to face, than we have ever +said about each other. Nothing that Susan could say or do could break +my friendship with her; and I know nothing could uproot her affection +for me." And to Miss Anthony she wrote: "I send you letters from _our_ +children. As the environments of the mother influence the child in +prenatal life, and you were with me so much, there is no doubt you have +had a part in making them what they are. There are a depth and +earnestness in these younger ones and a love for you that delight my +heart." Such letters as these are scattered thickly through the +correspondence of nearly fifty years, and while Miss Anthony seldom put +her own feelings into words, her absolute loyalty and devotion to Mrs. +Stanton during all the half-century bear their own testimony. + +The talented contributor to the Philadelphia Sunday Republic, Annie +McDowell, paid a beautiful tribute to Miss Anthony at this time, +illustrating how much she was loved by women: + + "Some one wishes to know which of the advocates of woman's rights + we think the ablest. Why, Susan B., of course. Without her, the + organization would have been utterly broken to pieces and + scattered. She is the guiding spirit, the executive power that + leads the forlorn hope and brings order out of chaos. Others seek + to promote their own interests, but Susan, earnest, honest, + self-sacrificing, much-enduring, thinks only of the work she has in + hand, and speculates solely on the chances of living long enough to + accomplish it. She has given up home, friends, her profession of + teacher and the modest competence acquired by her labor; has been + caricatured, ridiculed, maligned and persecuted, but has never + turned aside or faltered in the work to which she has given her + life. Whatever may be the opinion of the conservative or fogy world + with regard to Susan B. Anthony, those who know her well and have + watched her career most attentively, know her to be rich in all the + best and most tender of womanly virtues, and possessed of as brave + and noble a spirit and as great integrity of character as ever fell + to the lot of mortal woman." + +The legislature of Colorado had submitted the question of woman +suffrage to be voted on October 2, 1877, and notwithstanding the +lucrative business under the lyceum bureau, Miss Anthony could not +resist offering her services to the women of Colorado with their little +money and few speakers. From Dr. Alida C. Avery, president of the State +Suffrage Association, came the quick response: "Your generous proposal +was duly received, and laid before the executive committee, who +resolved that the thanks of the association be tendered you for your +friendly offer, which we gratefully accept." + +Although inured to hardship, Miss Anthony found this Colorado campaign +the most trying she ever had experienced, not excepting that of Kansas +ten years before. The country was new, many of the towns were off the +railroad among the mountains and in most of them woman suffrage never +had been heard of; there was no one to advertise the meetings, nobody +to meet her when she reached her destination, hotels were of the most +primitive nature and there were few public halls. There were, of +course, some oases in this desert, and occasionally she found a good +hotel or was hospitably entertained in a comfortable home. At one place +she spoke in the railroad station to about twenty-five men who could +not understand what it was she wanted them to do, though all were +voters. Sometimes a landlord would clear out the hotel dining-room and +she would gather her audience there, but they would have to stand and +soon would grow tired. The mining towns were filled with a densely +ignorant class of foreigners, and some of the southern counties were +almost wholly populated by Mexicans. It was to these men that an +American woman, her grandfather a soldier of the Revolution, appealed +for the right of women to representation in this government. + +To reach Del Norte Miss Anthony rode sixty-five miles by stage over a +vast, arid tract evidently once the bed of an inland sea, but the +terrible discomforts of the journey were almost overlooked in the +enjoyment of the magnificent scenery. She travelled all the next night; +at Wagon Wheel Gap the stage stopped for a while and, taking a cup, she +went alone down to the river, drank of its icy waters and stood a long +time absorbed in the glory of the moonlight on the mountain peaks. In +all this weary journey of two days, she was the only woman in a stage +filled with men. When she reached Lake City she was delightfully +entertained, finding her hostess to be a college graduate, and spoke in +the evening from a dry-goods box on the courthouse steps to an +enthusiastic audience of a thousand persons. Ouray was the next place +marked on the route sent her, but to reach it would require a ride of +fifty miles over a dangerous mountain trail or a three days' journey of +150 miles around, for which she must hire a private conveyance, so she +gave it up. + +She rested one whole day and night and started at 6 A.M. on a buckboard +for the next place, wound around the mountainsides by the picturesque +Gunnison river, and reached her destination at 5 o'clock. She found a +disbeliever of equal rights in her landlady, whom she describes as "a +weak, silly woman and a wretched cook and housekeeper." To be an +opponent of suffrage and a poor housekeeper Miss Anthony always +regarded as two unpardonable sins. The husband, however, intended to +vote for it. At the next stopping-place her hostess was a cultured +woman, her house neatly kept and meals well-cooked, and she wanted to +vote. The husband in this case was violently opposed and expected to +cast his ballot against the amendment. Thus it is that wives are +"represented by their husbands." + +On she went, over mountain and through canyon, across the "great +divide," sometimes having large audiences, more often only a handful, +and enduring every possible hardship in the way of travel, sleep and +food. At Oro City she lectured in a saloon, as she had done at a number +of places, and Governor Routt, happening to be in town, stood by her +and spoke also in favor of woman suffrage. At many places she slept on +a straw-filled tick laid on planks, with sometimes a "corded" bed for a +luxury. A door with a lock scarcely ever was found. Once she had a room +with a board partition which extended only half-way up, separating it +from one adjoining where half a dozen men slept. It is hardly necessary +to say that this was a wakeful night and the dawn was hailed with +rejoicing. At Leadville the gold fever was at its height and she spoke +in a big saloon to the roughest crowd she had encountered. They were +good-natured, however, and when they saw she was coughing from the +tobacco smoke, put out their pipes and made up for the sacrifice by +more frequent drinks. At Fair Play she found the Democratic editor had +placarded the town with bills announcing in big letters: "A New +Version! Suffrage! Free Love in the Ascendency. Anthony! On the Gale +Tonight." The citizens were indignant, there was a large and respectful +audience, Miss Anthony was introduced by Judge Henry and resolutions +were unanimously passed denouncing the posters. + +On election day, her work finished, she started on a stage ride of +eighty-five miles to Denver. The collections at her twenty-four +meetings amounted to $165. Her fare to Colorado and return, exclusive +of some passes furnished by her brother and including sleeper and +meals, was $100, and her expenses during the tour more than used up the +other $65, so it hardly could be called a good financial speculation. +Soon afterwards she received from Mr. and Mrs. Israel Hall, of Ann +Arbor, Mich., a deed for 320 acres of well-timbered land in St. Francis +county, Ark., "as a tribute to her life-work for woman suffrage and +especially her hard campaign in Colorado." There came also a letter +from the ever-generous and faithful Mrs. Knox Goodrich, of San Jose, +Cal., with a draft for $50 "to be used for your campaign expenses;" and +in her diary Miss Anthony writes: "It is a great comfort, after all +these years of financially unrequited work, to receive such marks of +appreciation." + +At Denver she met Margaret Campbell, of Iowa, and Matilda Hindman, of +Pennsylvania, who also had been campaigning in Colorado. They had an +amusing time comparing notes, but as Mrs. Campbell had travelled in her +own carriage with her husband, and Miss Hindman had spoken mostly in +towns along the railroad, their experiences had been less picturesque +and less harrowing. She also met here Abby Sage Richardson, who was +giving a course of readings in Denver. It was in this locality that her +sister Hannah had spent many weary weeks the year before, seeking for +health, and Miss Anthony hunted up every person who had known her, +hoping each would recall some incident of her stay; visited every spot +her sister had loved, and felt the whole place haunted with her +hallowed memory. + +Dr. Alida C. Avery was going East for some time, but was to leave two +young women medical students in her house and she invited Miss Anthony +to stay there while she remained in Denver. She was soon installed in +the large, airy front chamber of this lovely home, looking down on a +grassy and well-irrigated lawn and outward towards the rugged and +massive Rocky mountains. It was an inspiring spot and, as she had +promised a new lecture for the Slayton Bureau, she decided to remain +and write it here. Her surroundings recalled the many charming homes +made and maintained by unmarried women whom she had visited, and so in +the three weeks that she enjoyed Dr. Avery's hospitality, she wrote her +lecture, "Homes of Single Women." During this time she spoke at +Boulder; and also in the opera house at Denver under the auspices of a +committee, receiving $100. + +She started, October 23, on a long lecture tour arranged for her +through Nebraska,[93] Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin, which +lasted the remainder of the year. She almost perished with cold and +fatigue before it was finished but found some compensation in the $30 a +night which the lectures yielded. At this time she received an urgent +request from a San Francisco lecture committee to come to that State, +but was unable to accept. "If I only could have sister Mary with me +over Sunday in these dull and lonely little towns, I could stand it the +rest of the week," she wrote; and to a friend who sent her an account +of a visit to her mother: "I am very glad you do go occasionally to see +dear mother, sitting there in her rocking-chair by the window as life +ebbs out and out. O, how I fear the final ebb will come when I am away, +but still I hope and trust it may not, and work and work on." + +As Miss Anthony was still under contract with the lecture bureau, she +was once more compelled to forego the satisfaction of attending the +annual convention in Washington, January 8 and 9, 1878, but as in 1876 +she sent $100 of the money she had worked so hard to earn. "It is not +quite just to myself to do it," she wrote a friend, "but if the women +of wealth and leisure will not help us, we must give both the labor and +the money." While this convention was a success as to numbers and +enthusiasm, several things occurred which the ladies thought might have +been avoided if Miss Anthony had been in command with her cool head and +firm hand. Especially was this true in regard to a prayer meeting which +some of the religious zealots, in spite of the most urgent appeals from +the other members, persisted in holding in the reception room of the +Capitol directly after a morning session of the convention. The affair +itself was most inopportune but, to make it still worse, the cranks and +bores who always are watching for an opportunity, gained control and +turned it into a farce. + +In her disgust and wrath Mrs. Stanton wrote Miss Anthony: "Mrs. Sargent +and I did not attend the prayer meeting. As God has never taken a very +active part in the suffrage movement, I thought I would stay at home +and get ready to implore the committee, having more faith in their +power to render us the desired aid." Mrs. Sargent, with her usual calm +and beautiful philosophy, wrote: "Do not let yourself be troubled. We +can not take down and rebuild without a great deal of dirt and rubbish, +and we must endure it all for the sake of the grand edifice that is to +appear in due time. Work and let work, each in her own way. We can not +all work alike any more than we can look alike. We must not require +impossibilities. All action helps us, it shows life; inaction, we know, +means death. I hope you can be with us next convention. The women of +this country and of the world owe you a debt they never can repay. I +know, however, that you will get your reward." + +Virginia L. Minor sent this earnest plea: "Can not you and Mrs. +Stanton, before another convention, manage in some way to civilize our +platform and keep off that element which is doing us so much harm? I +think the ship never floated that had so many barnacles attached as has +ours.... I have a compliment for you, my dear. Wendell Phillips has +just told a reporter of the St. Louis Post that, 'of all the advocates +of the woman's movement, Miss Anthony stands at the head.'" + +In her usual racy style Phoebe Couzins concluded her description by +saying: "It seems very strange that when you are not about, things +generally break loose and no woman can be found who unites the +moderation, brains and common sense necessary to carry matters to a +respectable conclusion. That meeting was like those they used to have +in the District of Columbia. Not until the National Association, in the +persons of Mrs. Stanton and yourself, came to the rescue and raised +them to a dignified standard did they attain any degree of hearing from +the thoughtful people of the capital." And so Miss Anthony determined +that no lecture bureau should keep her away from another National +convention. + +The entire year of 1878, with the exception of the three summer months, +was spent in the lecture field. On July 19 Miss Anthony and other +workers arranged a celebration at Rochester of the thirtieth +anniversary of the first woman's rights convention. This was held in +place of the usual May Anniversary in New York and was attended by a +distinguished body of women. The Unitarian church, in spite of the +intense heat, was filled with a representative audience. The noble +Quaker, Amy Post, now seventy-seven years old, who had been the leading +spirit in the convention of thirty years before, assisted in the +arrangements. The usual brilliant and logical speeches were made by +Mrs. Mott, Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Mrs, Gage, Dr. Lozier, Mrs. +Spencer, Mrs. Sargent, Frederick Douglass, Miss Couzins and others. +This was the first appearance on the National platform of Mrs. May +Wright Sewall, of Indianapolis, from that time one of the leaders of +the movement. Almost one hundred interesting and encouraging letters +were received from Phillips, Garrison, Senator Sargent, Frances E. +Willard, Clara Barton and many others in this country and in England. + +This was the last convention Lucretia Mott ever attended, and she had +made the journey hither under protest from her family, for she was +nearly eighty-six years old, but her devoted friend Sarah Pugh +accompanied her. She spoke several times in her old, gentle, +half-humorous but convincing manner and was heard with rapt attention. +As she walked down the aisle to leave the church, the whole audience +arose and Frederick Douglass called out with emotion, "Good-by, +Lucretia." The convention received a telegram of congratulation from +the International Congress at Paris, presided over by Victor Hugo. Mrs. +Stanton was re-elected president and Miss Anthony chairman of the +executive committee. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle said: + + The assemblage was composed of as fine a body of American women as + ever met in convention or anywhere else. Among them were many noted + for their culture and refinement, and for their attainments in the + departments of literature, medicine, divinity and law. As Douglass + said, to which the president bowed her acquiescence, any cause + which could stand the test of thirty years' agitation, was bound to + succeed. The foremost ladies engaged in the movement today are + those who initiated it in this country and have bravely and grandly + upheld their cause from that day to this. Among them we must first + speak of Susan B. Anthony, one of the most sensible and worthy + citizens of this republic, a lady of warm and tender heart but + indomitable purpose and energy, and a resident of whom Rochester + may well be proud. + +Miss Anthony was very tired after the labors of this convention and was +glad to remain with the invalid mother while sister Mary went to the +White mountains for rest and change. She received an invitation from +the board of directors to address the Kansas State Fair in September, +and also one from Col. John P. St. John, Republican candidate for +governor, to speak at a Grand National Temperance Camp Meeting near +Lawrence, but was obliged to decline both. + +During the summer of 1878 reports were so constantly circulated +declaring woman suffrage a failure in Wyoming that Miss Anthony wrote +to J.H. Hayford, postmaster and editor of the Sentinel at Laramie City, +in regard to one of these in the New York World, which paper declared +it would vouch for the integrity of the writer. She received the +following answer: + + The enclosed slander upon Wyoming women I had seen before, but did + not deem it worthy reply. Some of my Cheyenne friends took pains to + ascertain the writer and they assure me (and the Cheyenne papers + have published the fact) that he is a worthless, drunken dead-beat, + who worked out a ten days' sentence on the streets of that city + with a ball and chain to his leg. + + I have not time to go into a detailed history of the practical + working of woman suffrage in Wyoming, but I can add my testimony to + the fact that its effect has been most salutary and beneficial. Not + one of the imaginary evils which its opponents predicted has ever + been realized here. On this frontier, where the roughest element is + supposed to exist, and where women are so largely in the + minority--even here, under these adverse circumstances, _woman's + influence has redeemed our politics_. Our elections are conducted + as quietly and civilly as any other public gatherings. Republicans + are not always elected, the most desirable men are not always + elected, perhaps; but the influence of our women is almost + universally given for the best men and the best laws, and we would + as soon be without woman's assistance in the government of the + family as in that of the Territory. + + After having tried the experiment for nine years, it is safe to say + there is not one citizen of the Territory--man or woman--who + desires good order, good laws and good government, who would be + willing to see it abolished. Woman's influence in the government of + our Territory is a terror only to evil-doers, and they, and they + only, are the ones who desire its repeal. Such base slanders as the + specimen you sent me excite in the minds of Wyoming citizens only + feelings of disgust and contempt for the author, and wonder at the + ignorance of any one who is gullible enough to believe them. + +In August she received a letter from Lucy Stone, asking if she had been +correctly reported by the papers as saying that "the suffragists would +advocate any party which would declare for woman suffrage," to which +she replied: + + I answer "yes," save that I used the pronoun "I" instead of the + word "suffragists." I spoke for myself alone, because I know many + of our women are so much more intensely Republican or Democratic, + Hard-Money or Green-back, Prohibition or License, than they are + "Equal Rights for All," that now, as in the past, they will hold + the question of woman's enfranchisement in abeyance, while they + give their money and their energies to secure the success of one or + another of the contending parties, even though it wholly ignore + their just claim to a voice in the government. It is not that I + have no opinions or preferences on the many grave questions which + distract and divide the parties; but it is that, in my judgment, + the right of self-government for one-half the people is of far more + vital consequence to the nation than any or all other questions. + + This has been my position ever since the abolition of slavery, by + which the black race were raised from chattels to citizens, and + invested also with civil rights equally with the cultured, + tax-paying, white women of the country. Have you forgotten the cry + "This is the negro's hour," which came back to us in 1866, when we + urged the Abolitionists to make common cause with us and demand + suffrage _as a right_ for all United States citizens, instead of + asking it simply as an _expediency_ for only another class of men? + Do you not remember, too how the taunt "false to the negro" was + flung into the face of every one of us who insisted that it was + "humanity's hour," and that to talk of "freedom without the ballot" + was no less "mockery" to woman than to the negro? + + If, in those most trying reconstruction years, I could not + subordinate the fundamental principle of "Equal Rights for All" to + Republican party necessity for negro suffrage--if, in that fearful + national emergency, I would not sacrifice the greater to the + less--I surely can not and will not today hold any of the far less + important party questions paramount to that most sacred principle + of our republic. So long as you and I and all women are political + slaves, it ill becomes us to meddle with the weightier discussions + of our sovereign masters. It will be quite time enough for us, with + self-respect, to declare ourselves for or against any party upon + the intrinsic merit of its policy, when men shall recognize us as + their political equals, duly register our names and respectfully + count our opinions at the ballot-box, as a constitutional + right--not as a high crime, punishable with "$500 fine or six + months' imprisonment, or both, at the discretion of the court." + + If all the "suffragists" of all the States could see eye to eye on + this point, and stand shoulder to shoulder against every party and + politician not fully and unequivocally committed to "Equal Rights + for Women," we should become at once a moral balance of power which + could not fail to compel the party of highest intelligence to + proclaim woman suffrage the chief plank of its platform. "In union + alone there is strength." Until that good day comes, I shall + continue to invoke the party in power, and each party struggling to + get into power, to pledge itself to the emancipation of our + enslaved half of the people; and in turn, I shall promise to do all + a "subject" can do, for the success of the party which thus + declares its purpose "to undo the heavy burdens and let the + oppressed go free." + +[Footnote 91: That women will, by voting, lose nothing of man's +courteous, chivalric attention and respect is admirably proven by the +manner in which Congress, in the midst of the most anxious and +perplexing presidential conflict in our history, received their appeals +for a Sixteenth Amendment protecting the rights of women. In both +Houses, by unanimous consent, the petitions were presented and read in +open session, and the most prominent senators impressed upon the Senate +the importance of the question.... The ladies naturally feel greatly +encouraged by the evident interest of both parties in the proposed +amendment.--Washington Star. + +The time has evidently arrived when demands for a recognition of the +personal, civil and political rights of one-half--unquestionably the +better half--of the people can not be laughed down or sneered down, and +recent indications are that they can not much longer be voted down. The +speaker of the House set a commendable example by proposing that the +petitions be delivered in open session, to which there was no +objection. The early advocates of equal rights for women--Hoar, Kelley, +Banks, Kasson, Lawrence and Lapham--were, if possible, surpassed in +courtesy by those who are not committed, but are beginning to see that +a finer element, in the body politic would clear the vision, purify the +atmosphere and help to settle many vexed questions on the basis of +exact and equal justice. In the Senate the unprecedented courtesy was +extended to women of half an hour's time on the floor and while this +kind of business has usually been transacted with an attendance of from +seven to ten senators, it was observed that only two out of the +twenty-six who had Sixteenth Amendment petitions to present were out of +their seats.--National Republican.] + +[Footnote 92: For the first time in twenty years Miss Anthony missed +the May Suffrage Anniversary in New York City.] + +[Footnote 93: At Beatrice, Neb., Miss Anthony met for the first time +Mrs. Clara B. Colby, who said in a bright letter received soon +afterwards: "Everybody was delighted with your lecture, except one man +who sat there with a child on each arm, and he said you never looked at +him or gave him a bit of credit for it."] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +SENATE COMMITTEE REPORT--PRESS COMMENT. + +1879-1880. + + +At the beginning of 1879 Miss Anthony put all lecture work aside until +after the Washington convention, January 9 and 10. The thunderbolts +forged by the resolution committee were a little more fiery even than +those of former years, and the combined workmanship of the two Vulcans, +Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, is quite apparent, with vivid sparks +from the chairman, Mrs. Spencer: + + _Resolved_, That the Forty-fifth Congress, in ignoring the + individual petitions of more than 300 women of high social standing + and culture, asking for the removal of their political + disabilities, while promptly enacting special legislation for the + removal of those of every man who petitioned, illustrates the + indifference of Congress to the rights of a sex deprived of + political power. + + WHEREAS, Senator Blaine says it is the very essence of tyranny to + count any citizens in the basis of representation who are denied a + voice in the laws and a choice in their rulers; therefore + + _Resolved_, That counting women in the basis of representation, + while denying them the right of suffrage, is compelling them to + swell the number of their tyrants and is an unwarrantable + usurpation of power over one-half the citizens of this republic. + + WHEREAS, In President Hayes' last message, he makes a truly + paternal review of the interests of this republic, both great and + small, from the army, the navy and our foreign relations, to the + ten little Indians in Hampton, Va., our timber on the western + mountains, and the switches of the Washington railroads; from the + Paris Exposition, the postal service, the abundant harvests, and + the possible bulldozing of some colored men in various southern + districts, to cruelty to live animals and the crowded condition of + the mummies, dead ducks and fishes in the Smithsonian + Institute--yet forgets to mention 20,000,000 women robbed of their + social, civil and political rights; therefore + + _Resolved_, That a committee of three be appointed to wait upon the + President and remind him of the existence of one-half the American + people .... + + WHEREAS, All the vital principles involved in the Thirteenth, + Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments have been denied in their + application to women by courts, legislatures and political parties; + therefore + + _Resolved_, That it is logical that these amendments should fail to + protect even the male African for whom said courts, legislatures + and parties declare they were expressly designed and enacted. + + WHEREAS, The general government has refused to exercise federal + power to protect women in their right to vote in the various States + and Territories; therefore + + _Resolved_, That it should forbear to exercise federal power to + disfranchise the women of Utah, who have had a more just and + liberal spirit shown them by Mormon men than Gentile women in the + States have yet received from their rulers. + + WHEREAS, The proposed legislation for Chinese women on the Pacific + slope and for outcast women in our cities, and the opinion of the + press that no respectable woman should be seen in the streets after + dark, are all based upon the presumption that woman's freedom must + be forever sacrificed to man's license; therefore + + _Resolved_, That the ballot in woman's hand is the only power by + which she can restrain the liberty of those men who make our + streets and highways dangerous to her, and secure the freedom which + belongs to her by day and by night. + +An address to President Hayes, asking that in his next message he +recommend that women should be protected in their civil and political +rights, was signed by Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Gage. Several +ladies, by appointment, had a private audience in the President's +library and a courteous and friendly hearing. The petition for a +Sixteenth Amendment was sent in printed form to every member of +Congress, presented in the Senate by Vice-President Wheeler and, at the +request of Senator Ferry, was read at length and referred to the +committee on privileges and elections. This was done by the special +desire of its chairman, Senator Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana, who +stated that he wished to bring in a report in favor of the +amendment.[94] + +[Autograph: O.P. Morton] + +Before the committee could act upon this question Senator Morton passed +away. An adverse report was presented by his successor, Senator +Bainbridge Wadleigh, of New Hampshire, June 14, 1878. Among many severe +scorings received by this honorable gentleman, the following from Mary +Clemmer will serve as an example: + + ... You can not be unconscious of the fact that a new race of + women is born into the world who, while they lack no womanly + attribute, are the peers of any man in intellect and aspiration. It + will be impossible long to deny to such women that equality before + the law granted to the lowest creature that crawls, if he happen to + be a man; denied to the highest creature that asks it, if she + happen to be a woman. + + On what authority, save that of the gross regality of physical + strength, do you deny to a thoughtful, educated, tax-paying person + the common rights of citizenship because she is a woman? I am a + property-owner, the head of a household. By what right do you + assume to define and curtail for me my prerogatives as a citizen, + while as a tax-payer you make not the slightest distinction between + me and a man? Leave to my own perception what is proper for me as a + lady, to my own discretion what is wise for me as a woman, to my + own conscience what is my duty to my race and to my God. Leave to + unerring nature to protect the subtle boundaries which define the + distinctive life and action of the sexes, while you as a legislator + do everything in your power to secure to every creature of God an + equal chance to make the best and most of himself. + + If American men could say, as Huxley says, "I scorn to lay a single + obstacle in the way of those whom nature from the beginning has so + heavily burdened," the sexes would cease to war, men and women + would reign together, the equal companions, friends, helpers and + lovers that nature intended they should be. But what is love, + tenderness, protection, even, unless rooted in justice? Tyranny and + servitude, that is all, brute supremacy, spiritual slavery. By what + authority do you say that the country is not prepared for a more + enlightened franchise, for political equality, if even six women + citizens, earnest, eloquent, long-suffering, come to you and demand + both? + +All the women's papers expressed indignation, and there was general +rejoicing when, at the next election, Mr. Wadleigh was superseded by +Hon. Henry W. Blair. + +The first favorable consideration this question ever received from the +Senate was the minority report of this committee, signed by Senators +George F. Hoar, John H. Mitchell and Angus Cameron, an unanswerable +argument for the enfranchisement of women.[95] It declared that "the +people of the United States are committed to the doctrine of universal +suffrage by their constitution, their history and their opinions, and +by it they must stand or fall." One week later the bill admitting women +to practice before the Supreme Court passed the Senate, grandly +advocated by Senators McDonald, Sargent and Hoar. + +[Autograph: I am yrs very truly Geo F Hoar] + +After the convention Miss Anthony went to Tenafly with Mrs. Stanton for +a few days, to aid in disentangling the mass of material which was +being prepared for the History; then started again into the lecture +field, commencing at Skowhegan, Me. She lectured through New Hampshire +and Vermont, taking long sleigh-rides from point to point, through wind +and sleet, but comforted by the thought that many of her audience had +done likewise to receive the gospel she preached. On her way westward +she stopped at home for one short day, the first for four months, and +then started on the old route through the States of the Middle West, +this year adding Kentucky to the list. It is not essential to a full +appreciation of her work to follow in detail these tours, which +extended through a number of years and were full of pleasant as well as +disagreeable features; nor is it possible to quote extensively the +comments of the press. Miss Anthony undoubtedly has been as widely +written up as any lecturer, and she seldom received less than a column +in each paper of every town visited. Large numbers of these notices +have been carefully preserved in those wonderful scrap-books which +cover a period of fifty years. + +At first her demands seemed so radical and the idea of a woman on the +platform was so contrary to the precedent of all the ages, that the +tone of the press, almost without exception, was contemptuous or +denunciatory. As the justice of her claims began to dawn upon the minds +of enlightened people, as many other prominent women joined in +advocating the same reforms, and as these were adopted, one after +another, without serious consequences, the public mind awakened to the +remarkable change which was being wrought, and in a large measure gave +its approval. When the masses of people throughout the country came to +see and hear and know Miss Anthony, they resented the way in which she +had been misrepresented. There was in her manner and words so much of +dignity, earnestness and sincerity that "those who came to scoff +remained to pray," and this change of sentiment was nowhere so marked +as in the newspapers. Even those who differed radically from her views +paid tribute to the persistence with which she had urged them and the +sacrifices she had made for them during the past thirty years. Not only +had there been developed a recognition of her high purposes and noble +life, but also of her great intellectual ability and clear +comprehension of all the issues of the day. An extract from the Terre +Haute Express, February 12, 1879, illustrates this: + + Miss Anthony's lecture was full of fine passages and strong + appeals, and replete with well-stated facts in support of her + arguments. She has wonderful command of language, and her speech at + times flows with such rapidity that no reporter could do her + justice or catch a tithe of the brilliance of her sayings. + Moreover, there are not half of our public men who are nearly so + well posted in the political affairs of our country as she, or who, + knowing them, could frame them so solidly in argument. If the women + of the nation were half so high-minded or even half so earnest, + their title to the franchise might soon be granted.[96] + +Another Indiana paper thus voiced the changing sentiment: "The fact is, +that like the advance agent of any great reform--especially if a +woman--Susan B. Anthony has been so belied and maligned by the press in +years gone by that many who do not stop to think had come to believe +her a perfect ogre, a cross-grained, incongruous old maid whom nobody +could like, when the truth of the matter is, one has but to look at and +listen to her, either in public or private, to realize that she is a +pure, generous, deep-thinking, womanly woman. Simply because she has +lived her own life, spoken her own thoughts and stood upon her own +platform, the masses have condemned her; but history has already +recorded her as one of the most earnest, hard-working reformers of the +day. If the women of this country only knew how many changes and +ameliorations have been made in the laws regarding themselves through +her unselfish, persistent efforts, at her approach they would all rise +up and call her blessed." But that there still existed editors of the +old-time caliber, this extract from the Richmond, Ky., Herald, October +29, 1879, shows: + + Miss Anthony is above the medium height for women, dresses plainly, + is uncomely in person, has rather coarse, rugged features and + masculine manners. Her piece, which doubtless she has been studying + for thirty or forty years, was very well delivered for a woman, + containing no original thought, but full of old hackneyed ideas, + which every female suffrage shrieker has hurled from the stump + against "ignorant men and small boys," for time out of mind all + over this country and every other country where they could command + an audience of curious people willing to throw away an hour or two + on a vain, futile and foolish harangue, proposing to transform men + into women and women into men. Such dissatisfied females should not + hurl anathemas at men, forsooth, because they happened to be born + into the world women instead of men. God alone is responsible for + the difference between the sexes, and he is able to bear it. Men + are not to blame that women are women, for there is not a man in + this whole land who wouldn't rather have a boy baby than a gal baby + any time. There never was a newly-married man when he learned that + his first born was a girl, that didn't try to tear out his hair by + the roots because it wasn't a boy.... If this tirade against men is + to be persisted in, we see no escape for man except to quit his + foolishness and have no more children, unless he can have some sort + of guarantee that they will all be boys. It will have come to a + strange pass indeed when the good women of this land, who, as + mothers, have the nurture, training and admonition of every boy + from his cradle to mature manhood, are unwilling to trust in the + hands of their own offspring the destinies of the nation. + +That such an attack can not be attributed to sectional prejudice may be +proved by this extract from a column of vituperation in the Grand +Rapids, Mich., Times, during this same trip, headed "Spinster Susan's +Suffrage Show:" + + A "miss" of an uncertain number of years, more or less brains, a + slimsy figure, nut-cracker face and store teeth, goes raiding about + the country attempting to teach mothers and wives their duty.... As + is the yellow-fever to the South, the grasshopper to the plains, + and diphtheria to our northern cities, so is Susan B. Anthony and + her class to all true, pure, lovely women. The sirocco of the + desert blows no hotter or more tainting breath in the face of the + traveller, than does this woman against all men who do not believe + as she does, and no pestilence makes sadder havoc among them than + would Susan B. Anthony if she had the power. The women who make + homes, who are sources of comfort to husbands, fathers, brothers, + sisters or themselves, who wish to keep sacred all that goes to + make their lives noble, refined and worth the living, will be as + diametrically opposed to the lecturer of last evening as are most + intelligent men. Susan B. Anthony may find her remedy in suffrage, + but alas! there is no remedy for us against Susan and her ilk. + +Each lecture usually was followed by letters not only from friends but +from entire strangers, asking her forgiveness for having misjudged her +so many years, and closing something like this from a lady in St. Paul, +Minn.: "For the last ten years your name has been familiar to me +through the newspapers, or rather through newspaper ridicule, and has +always been associated with what was pretentious and wholly unamiable. +Your lecture tonight has been a revelation to me. I wanted to come and +touch your hand, but I felt too guilty. Henceforth I am the avowed +defender of woman suffrage. Never again shall a word of mine be heard +derogatory to the noble women who are working with heart and hand for +the best welfare of humanity." + +A two-column interview in the Chicago Tribune during this tour gives +Miss Anthony's views on many public matters, concluding thus: + + "If men would only think of the question without paying attention + to prejudice or precedent, simply as one of political economy, they + would soon begin to regard woman, and woman's rights, just as they + regard themselves and their own rights," said she. + + "The W.C.T.U. are doing good work, are they not?" + + "Yes, Miss Willard is doing noble work, but I can not coincide with + her views, and my new lecture, 'Will Home Protection Protect,' will + combat them. The officer who holds his position by the votes of men + who want free whiskey, can not prosecute the whiskey-sellers. The + district-attorney and the judge can not enforce the law when they + know that to do so will defeat them at the next election. If women + had votes the officials would no longer fear to enforce the law, as + they would know that though they lost the votes of 5,000 + whiskey-sellers and drinkers, they would gain those of 20,000 + women. Miss Willard has a lever, but she has no fulcrum on which to + place it." + + "Where do you find the strongest antipathy to woman suffrage?" + + "In the fears of various parties that it might he disastrous to + their interests. The Protestants fear it lest there should be a + majority of Catholic women to increase the power of that church; + the free-thinkers are afraid that, as the majority of + church-members are women, they would put God in the Constitution; + the free-whiskey men are opposed because they think women would + vote down their interests; the Republicans would put a suffrage + plank in their platform if they knew they could secure the majority + vote of the women, and so would the Democrats, but each party fears + the result might help the other. Thus, you see, we can not appeal + to the self-interest of anybody and this is our great source of + weakness." + +It was decided to bold this year's May Anniversary in St. Louis instead +of New York, and all arrangements having been made by Virginia L. Minor +and Phoebe Couzins, the convention opened formally on the evening of +May 7, to quote the newspapers, "in the presence of a magnificent +audience which packed every part of St. George's Hall, crowding gallery +and stairs and leaving hardly standing room in the aisles." They also +paid many compliments to the intellectual character of the audience, +its evident sympathy with the cause for which the convention was +assembled, and the elegant costumes worn by the ladies both in the body +of the house and on the platform. Mrs. Minor presided and a beautiful +address of welcome was delivered by Miss Couzins. The ladies were +invited to the Merchants' Exchange by its president, and also visited +the Fair grounds by invitation of the board. Miss Couzins gave a +reception at her home, and the evening before the convention opened, +Mrs. Minor entertained the delegates informally. Of this latter +occasion the Globe-Democrat said: + + Miss Susan B. Anthony, perhaps the only lady present of national + reputation, commanded attention at a glance. Her face is one which + would attract notice anywhere; full of energy, character and + intellect, the strong lines soften on a closer inspection. There is + a good deal that is "pure womanly" in the face which has been held + up to the country so often as a gaunt and hungry specter's crying + for universal war upon mankind. The spectacles sit upon a nose + strong enough to be masculine, but hide eyes which can beam with + kindliness as well as flash with wit, irony and satire. Angular she + may be--"angular as a Lebanon Shakeress" she said the New York + Herald once termed her--but if so, the irregularities of outline + were completely hidden under the folds of the modest and dignified + black silk which covered her most becomingly. + +At this convention occurred that touching scene which has been so often +described, when May Wright Sewall presented Miss Anthony, to her +complete surprise, with a beautiful floral offering from the delegates. +The Globe-Democrat thus reports: + + Miss Anthony, visibly affected, responded: "Mrs. President and + Friends: I am not accustomed to demonstrations of gratitude or of + praise. I don't know how to behave tonight. Had you thrown stones + at me, had you called me hard names, had you said I should not + speak, had you declared I had done women more harm than good and + deserved to be burned at the stake; had you done anything, or said + anything, against the cause which I have tried to serve for the + last thirty years, I should have known how to answer, but now I do + not. I have been as a hewer of wood and a drawer of water to this + movement. I know nothing and have known nothing of oratory or + rhetoric. Whatever I have done has been done because I wanted to + see better conditions, better surroundings, better circumstances + for women. Now, friends, don't expect me to make any proper + acknowledgments for such a demonstration as has been made here + tonight. I can not; I am overwhelmed." + +As the association wished to continue Mrs. Stanton at the head, they +created the office of vice-president-at-large and elected Miss Anthony +to fill it. Senator Sargent's term having expired, he returned with his +family to San Francisco, and Mrs. Jane H. Spofford was elected national +treasurer in place of Mrs. Sargent, who had served so acceptably for +six years. Her return to California was deeply regretted by Miss +Anthony. From the time of their first acquaintance, on that long +snow-bound journey in 1871, they had been devoted friends, and on all +her annual trips to Washington she was a guest at the spacious and +comfortable home of the Sargents. The senator always was a true and +consistent friend of suffrage, and frequently said to Miss Anthony: +"Tell my wife what you want done and, if she indorses it, I will try to +bring it about." Mrs. Sargent was of a serene, philosophical nature, +with an unwavering faith in the evolution of humanity into a broader +and better life. She was thoroughly without personal ends to serve, +ready to receive new ideas and those who brought them, weigh them +carefully in her well-balanced mind and pronounce the judgment which +was usually correct. The closing of their Washington house was a severe +loss to the many who had enjoyed their free and gracious hospitality. + +On May 24, 1879, Miss Anthony received notice of the death of her old +and revered fellow-laborer, Wm. Lloyd Garrison. She could not attend +the funeral but wrote at once, saying in part: + + The telegrams of the last few days had prepared us for this + morning's tidings that your dear father and humanity's devoted + friend had passed on to the beyond, where so many of his brave + co-workers had gone before; and where his devoted life-companion, + your precious mother, awaited his coming.... It is impossible for + me to express my feelings of love and respect, of honor and + gratitude, for the life, the words, the works, of your father; but + you all know, I trust, that few mortals had greater veneration for + him than I. His approbation was my delight; his disapproval, my + regret.... That each and all of you may strive to be to the + injustice of your day and generation what he was to that of his, is + the best wish--the best aspiration--I can offer. Blessed are you + indeed, that you mourn so true, so noble, so grand a man as your + loved and loving father. + +In her diary that night she wrote: "I sent a letter, but how paltry it +seemed compared to what was in my heart. Why can I not put my thought +into words?" + +The last of May she went home, having lectured and worked every day +since the previous October. She records with much delight that she has +now snugly tucked away in bank $4,500, the result of her last two +lecture seasons. During the one just closed she spoke 140 nights, +besides attending various conventions. This bank account did not +represent all she had earned, for she always gave with a lavish hand. +How much she has given never can be known, but in the year 1879, for +instance, one friend acknowledges the receipt of $50 to enable her to +buy a dress and other articles so that she can attend the Washington +convention. Another writes: "I have just learned that the $25 you +handed me to pay my way home from the meeting had been given you to pay +your own." To an old and faithful fellow-worker, now in California, she +sends by express a warm flannel wrapper. There is scarcely a month +which does not record some gift varying from $100 in value down to a +trinket for remembrance. Each year she contributed $100 to the suffrage +work, besides many smaller sums at intervals, and the account-books +show that her benefactions were many. She never spared money if an end +were to be accomplished, and never failed to keep an engagement, no +matter at what risk or expense. On several occasions she chartered an +engine, even though the cost was more than she would receive for the +lecture. As she was now approaching her sixtieth birthday, relatives +and friends were most anxious that she should lay aside part of her +earnings for a time when even her indomitable spirit might have to +succumb to physical weakness, but she herself never seemed to feel any +anxiety as to the future. + +Notwithstanding her own disastrous experiment, Miss Anthony never +ceased to desire a woman's paper, one which not only should present the +questions relating directly to women but should be edited and +controlled entirely by women, and discuss all the issues of the day. +Scattered through the correspondence of years are letters on this +subject, either wanting to resurrect The Revolution or to start a new +paper. At intervals some wealthy woman would seem half-inclined to +advance money for the purpose and then hope would be revived, only to +be again destroyed. During the summer of 1872 a clever journalist, Mrs. +Helen Barnard, had edited a paper called the Woman's Campaign, +supported by Republican funds. Miss Anthony had hoped to convert this +into her ideal paper after the election, and spent considerable time in +trying to form a stock company. A large amount was subscribed but not +enough, and all was returned by Mrs. Sargent, then national treasurer. +Sarah L. Williams, editor of the woman's department of the Toledo +Blade, started a bright suffrage paper called the Ballot-Box and edited +it for several years. Miss Anthony assisted her in every possible way, +and spoiled the effect of many a fine speech by asking at its close for +subscribers to this paper. In 1878, '79 and '80 she secured 2,500 +names. In 1878 Mrs. Williams turned her paper over to Matilda Joslyn +Gage, who added National Citizen to the title. Miss Anthony's and Mrs. +Stanton's names were placed at the head as corresponding editors, and +the paper was ably conducted by Mrs. Gage, but it had not the financial +backing necessary to success; when Miss Anthony ceased lecturing, new +subscribers no longer came and, after much tribulation, it finally +suspended in 1881. + +While Miss Anthony continued for many years to cherish this idea of a +distinctively woman's paper, the daily press grew more and more +liberal, devoting larger space to the interests of women every year, +and she became of the opinion that possibly the most effective work +might be accomplished through this medium. She held, however, that +there should be one woman upon each paper whose special business it +should be to look after this department, and who should be permitted to +discuss not only the "woman question" but all others from a woman's +standpoint. As newspapers are now managed, the readers have only man's +views of all the vital issues attracting public attention. Woman +occupies a subordinate position and must write on all subjects in a +spirit which will be acceptable to the masculine head of the paper; so +the public gets in reality his thought and not hers. She had come to +see, also, that the newspaper work should be a leading and distinctive +feature of the National Association to a far greater extent than +hitherto had been attempted, and which, until of late years, had not +been possible. No man or woman ever had a higher opinion of the +influence of the press, which she considered the most powerful agency +in the world for good or for evil. + +In the summer of 1879, Miss Anthony received from her friend, A. +Bronson Alcott, a complimentary ticket for three seasons of lectures at +the Concord School of Philosophy; but the living questions of the day +were too pressing for her to withdraw to this classic and sequestered +retreat, outside the busy and practical world. + +[Autograph: A. Bronson Alcott] + +During the decade from 1870 to 1880, there was a large accession of +valuable workers to the cause of woman suffrage and many new friends +came into Miss Anthony's life. Among these were May Wright Sewall; the +sisters, Julia and Rachel Foster; Clara B. Colby; Zerelda G. Wallace; +Frances E. Willard; J. Ellen Foster; the wife and three talented +daughters of Cassius M. Clay, Mary B., Laura and Sallie Clay Bennett; +M. Louise Thomas; Elizabeth Boynton Harbert and others, who became her +devoted adherents and fellow-workers, and whose homes and hospitality +she enjoyed during all the years which followed. + +At the close of her lecture season in 1879 she was able to spend +Christmas and New Year's at her own home for the first time in many +years; but she left on January 2 to fill engagements, reaching +Washington on the eve of the National Convention, which assembled at +Lincoln Hall, January 21, 1880. As Mrs. Stanton was absent, Miss +Anthony presided over the sessions. During this meeting, 250 new +petitions for a Sixteenth Amendment, signed by over 12,000 women, were +sent to Congress, besides over 300 petitions from individual women +praying for a removal of their political disabilities. These were +presented by sixty-five different representatives. Hon. T.W. Ferry, of +Michigan, in the Senate, and Hon. George B. Loring, of Massachusetts, +in the House, introduced a resolution for a Sixteenth Amendment. This +with all the petitions was referred to the judiciary committees, each +of which granted a hearing of two hours to the ladies. Among the +delegates who addressed them was Julia Smith Parker, of Glastonbury, +Conn., at that time over eighty years old, who with her sister Abby +annually resisted the payment of taxes because they were denied +representation, and whose property was in consequence annually seized +and sold. Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace, the mother so beautifully pictured +in Ben Hur, addressed a congressional committee for the first time, and +among the other speakers were Mrs. Gage, Mrs. Blake, Miss Couzins, Mrs. +Emma Mont McRae, of Indiana, and Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon, of +Louisiana. It was at this hearing that Senator Edmunds complimented +Miss Anthony by saying, "Most speeches on this question are platform +oratory; yours is argument." Through the influence of Hon. E.G. Lapham, +all these addresses were printed in pamphlet form. + +During this convention Miss Anthony was the guest of Mrs. Spofford, +whose husband was proprietor of the Riggs House. The place of hostess, +which had been so beautifully filled by Mrs. Sargent, was assumed at +once by Mrs. Spofford, a lady of culture and position. For twelve years +a suite of rooms was set apart for Miss Anthony in this commodious +hotel whenever she was at the capital, whether for days or for months, +and she received every possible courtesy and attention, without price. +Miss Anthony wrote her many times: "You can not begin to know what a +blessing your home is to me, or how grateful I am to you for its +comfort and luxury. You are indeed Mrs. Sargent's successor in love and +hospitality, and my hope is always to deserve them." + +After a brilliant reception at the Riggs House to the delegates, Miss +Anthony left for Philadelphia, in company with the venerable Julia +Smith Parker, and went to Roadside, the suburban home of Lucretia Mott, +"where," she writes, "it was a wonderful sight to see the two +octogenarians talking together, so bright and wide awake to the +questions of the present." She never again saw Lucretia Mott or heard +her sweet voice. + +[Illustration HW: Jane H. Spofford] + +The health of Miss Anthony's mother was now so precarious that she did +not dare go far from home and a course of lectures was arranged for her +through Pennsylvania by Rachel Foster, a young girl of wealth and +distinction, who was growing much interested in the cause of woman and +very devoted to Miss Anthony personally. Frequent trips were made to +the home in Rochester through the inclement weather, and toward the +last of March she saw that the end was near and did not go away. The +beloved mother fell asleep on the morning of April 3, 1880, the two +remaining daughters by her side. She was in her eighty-seventh year, +her long life had been passed entirely within the immediate circle of +home, but her interest in outside matters was strong. The husband and +children, in whatever work they were engaged, felt always the +encouragement of her sanction and sympathy. Her ambition was centered +in them, their happiness and success were her own; she was content to +be the home-keeper, to have the house swept and garnished and the +bountiful table ready for their return, finding a rich reward in their +unceasing love and appreciation. She was extremely fond of reading, had +read the Bible from cover to cover many times, and could give the exact +location and wording of many texts of Scripture. She enjoyed history, +was familiar with the works of Dickens and Scott and knew by heart The +Lady of the Lake. In old age, when memory failed, she lived among +historical personages and characters in books and would speak of them +as persons she had known in her youth. As the four children gathered +about the still form and looked lovingly upon the placid face, they +could not remember that she ever had spoken an unkind word. And so, +with tenderness and affection, they laid her to rest by the side of the +husband whose memory she had so faithfully cherished for eighteen +years. + +A month later Miss Anthony again set forth on the weary round, leaving +her sister Mary in the lonely house with two young nieces, Lucy and +Louise, whose education she was superintending. Just before going she +wrote to Rachel Foster: "Yes, the past three weeks are all a +dream--such constant watching and care and anxiety for so many years +all taken away from us! But my mother, like my father, if she could +speak would bid us 'go forward' to greater and better work. She never +asked me to stop at home when she was living, not even after she became +feeble, but always said, 'Go and do all the good you can;' and I know +my highest regard for her and for my father and sisters gone before +will be shown by my best and noblest doing." + +[Footnote 94: In 1874, when a bill was pending to establish the +Territory of Pembina, Senator Sargent wished to so amend it as to +incorporate woman suffrage. After he had finished a matchless argument, +in which he was supported by Senators Stewart, of Nevada, and +Carpenter, of Wisconsin, Senator Morton made one of those grand +speeches for which he was famous. He based his demands for woman +suffrage on the Declaration of Independence, whose principles, he +declared, did not apply to man alone but to the human family; and he +demonstrated that no man or woman could "consent" to a government +except through a vote. + +For Sargent's and Morton's speeches see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. +II, pp. 546 and 549.] + +[Footnote 95: For full text see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, p. +138.] + +[Footnote 96: Miss Anthony lectured in Terre Haute under the auspices +of the young men's Occidental Literary Club, Eugene V. Debs, president +and one of its founders.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony +(Volume 1 of 2), by Ida Husted Harper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUSAN B. 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