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THE LIFE AND WORK
OF
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
INCLUDING PUBLIC ADDRESSES, HER OWN LETTERS
AND MANY FROM HER CONTEMPORARIES
DURING FIFTY YEARS
BY
IDA HUSTED HARPER
_A Story of the Evolution of the Status of Woman_
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS, PICTURES OF HOMES, ETC.
INDIANAPOLIS AND KANSAS CITY
THE BOWEN-MERRILL COMPANY
1898
COPYRIGHT 1898
BY
THE BOWEN-MERRILL COMPANY
TO WOMAN, FOR WHOSE FREEDOM
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
HAS GIVEN FIFTY YEARS OF NOBLE ENDEAVOR
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
[Illustration: SUSAN B. ANTHONY. IN THE CALIFORNIA CAMPAIGN. 1896.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOL. II.
CHAPTER XXX.
POLITICAL CANDIDATES--WRITING THE HISTORY. (1880-1881.) 515-532
Miss Anthony's rallying cry; letter on death of sister; Convention
at Indianapolis; Mass Meeting in Farwell Hall, Chicago; suffrage
advocates neither unmarried nor childless; Republican National
Convention refuses even "recognition" plank of former years;
Greenback-Labor Convention passes Woman Suffrage resolution in
spite of Dennis Kearney; Democratic Convention at Cincinnati
receives ladies with great courtesy but ignores their claims;
tribute of Commercial; Prohibition Convention adopts Suffrage
plank; interviews with Garfield and Hancock; correspondence of
General Garfield and Miss Anthony on Woman Suffrage; martyrdom to
writing the History; Thirteenth Washington Convention and memorial
service to Lucretia Mott; ridiculous press items on Skye terrier;
letter on sparing parents for children's sake; first volume of
History issued.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE LEGACY--NEBRASKA CAMPAIGN--OFF FOR EUROPE. (1881-1882-1883.) 533-550
National Association in Boston; badge presented Miss Anthony by
Philadelphia Citizens' Suffrage Association; comments of Traveller
and Globe; sweep of New England; tribute of Zerelda G. Wallace; no
welcome for Miss Anthony in Albany; letter on death of Garfield;
attends National W. C. T. U. Convention in Washington; Phillips'
seventieth birthday; Mrs. Eddy's handsome legacy; Fourteenth
Washington Convention; amusing suffrage debate in Senate; meeting
in Philadelphia; tributes from Elmira Free Press and Washington
Republic; favorable Senate and House Committee reports; campaign in
Nebraska; addresses Lincoln Club, Rochester; decides to go abroad;
Philadelphia Times account of Birthday reception; Mrs. Sewall's
description in Indianapolis Times of farewell honors; fine tributes
from Chicago Tribune and Kansas City Journal; N. Y. Times describes
departure for Europe.
CHAPTER XXXII.
MISS ANTHONY'S EUROPEAN LETTERS. (1883.) 551-579
On shipboard; in Liverpool and London; in Milan and Rome; in
Naples; in Zurich, Berlin, Cologne, Heidelberg; in Paris; back to
London; Mrs. Jacob Bright, Moncure D. Conway, Wm. Henry Channing,
Mrs. Rose, Stopford Brooke; speech at Prince's Hall; Helen Taylor,
Jane Cobden and others; speech at St. James Hall; Mrs. Mellen's
Fourth of July reception; Canon Wilberforce, Sarah Bernhardt;
Edinburgh; Elizabeth Pease Nichol, Priscilla Bright McLaren,
Professor Blackie, Dr. Jex-Blake; home of Harriet Martineau;
Dublin; Isabella M. S. Tod and others; trip through Ireland;
characteristic descriptions; John Bright, Hannah Ford, home of the
Brontes; Henrietta Mueller, Margaret Bright Lucas, Frances Power
Cobbe, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Mrs. Peter Taylor; home again.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS--VISIT TO NEW ORLEANS. (1884-1885.) 581-603
Welcome Home from Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, N. Y. Evening
Telegram, Cleveland Leader; unkind comment Cincinnati Times-Star;
dislike of interviewing Congressmen shown by letter to Wm. D.
Kelley; Warren Keifer in favor of Woman Suffrage; opposition of
Reagan, of Texas; members for and against Special Committee;
Douglass marriage; letters to young workers; death of Wendell
Phillips; Bishop Simpson on Woman Suffrage; fine speech before
Congressional Committee; Thomas B. Reed's report; letter from
Senator Palmer; Miss Anthony on Suffrage Bill in Parliament;
attitude of Presidential candidates; opposes resolution denouncing
dogmas and creeds; attack of Rev. W. W. Patton; Senator Palmer's
speech; trip to New Orleans; tribute of Picayune; Eddy legacy
received; working on History; Miss Anthony's dislike of literary
labor; Mrs. Stanton's seventieth birthday; letter from Harriet
Stanton Blatch.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
MANY TRIPS--FIRST VOTE ON SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT. (1886-1887.) 605-626
Miss Anthony's persistence with members of Congress; Eighteenth
Washington Convention; committee reports; canvass of the State of
Kansas; Municipal Suffrage Bill passed by Legislature; speaking
throughout Wisconsin; advice as to Church for holding convention;
History of Woman Suffrage and valuable work accomplished by it;
opinions of Mary L. Booth, Sarah B. Cooper and others; Nineteenth
Annual Convention; Senator Blair's bill for Woman Suffrage;
Senators Brown and Vest in opposition; Senators Dolph and Blair in
favor; remonstrance from Boston; the Vote; women incensed at
Ingalls; letter to Frances Willard on Prohibition Party; letter to
Olympia Brown against bringing suit under school suffrage law;
scores Senator Ingalls in Kansas; canvass of Indiana.
CHAPTER XXXV.
UNION OF ASSOCIATIONS--INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL. (1888.) 627-645
American Association proposes Union; negotiations to that end; plea
for Mrs. Stanton's election as president; Union completed;
International Council of Women; magnitude of preparations; Miss
Anthony's idea of a sermon; letter of Douglass on First Woman's
Rights Convention; letter of Maria Mitchell; efforts to secure Mrs.
Stanton's presence; comment of Baltimore Sun and N. Y. World;
Frances Willard's speech and letter to Union Signal; National and
International Councils formed; at Central Music Hall, Chicago;
letter urging women to go to National Political conventions; open
letter to General Harrison; Republican "free ballot" plank does not
include Women; dislike of "red tape;" speech at Columbus W. C. T.
U. celebration not well received.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CONVENTIONS FROM WASHINGTON TO SOUTH DAKOTA. (1889.) 647-661
Twenty-first Washington Convention; address before Unity Club,
Cincinnati; death of niece Susie B.; letters on Death; newspaper
comment on Dress; at Seidl Club on Coney Island and "Broadbrim's"
account; a round of lectures and conventions; letter of Harriet
Hosmer; canvass of South Dakota; Miss Anthony outlines plan of
campaign; nephew D. R. describes speech at Ann Arbor; "Andrew
Jackson-like responsibility"; work for South Dakota; description in
Washington Star.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
AT THE END OF SEVENTY YEARS. (1890.) 663-678
Consternation at idea of selling tickets for Birthday banquet;
description of banquet by Washington Star and N. Y. Sun; speeches
of Rev. F. W. Hinckley, Hon. J. A. Pickler, Mrs. Stanton and Miss
Anthony; congratulatory letters from distinguished people; eloquent
tributes from Boston Traveller and Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle; first Convention of United Associations; money for South
Dakota; in Washington society; letter on pre-natal influence.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE SOUTH DAKOTA CAMPAIGN. (1890.) 679-696
Appeals from South Dakota; Miss Anthony lays down the law regarding
National funds; pledges of Farmers' Alliance leaders; contributions
to campaign; goes to South Dakota; Farmers' Alliance and Knights of
Labor form new party and repudiate pledges for Woman Suffrage;
insults at Democratic Convention; Republican Convention has room
for Indian men but none for white women; Miss Anthony's cheerful
letters; hardships of campaign; Mrs. Howell's description of
meetings at Madison; Rev. Anna Shaw's account of crying babies and
drunken man; Mrs. Chapman Catt's summing-up of situation;
statistics of Defeat; Miss Anthony endorsed by State W. C. T. U.
and Suffrage Associations.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
WYOMING--MISS ANTHONY GOES TO HOUSEKEEPING. (1890-1891.) 697-716
Debate in Congress on admission of Wyoming; first majority report
from House Committee in favor of Sixteenth Amendment; Wimodaughsis;
in Boston; letter of sympathy from Lucy Stone; first triennial
meeting of National Woman's Council; Miss Anthony's joy;
Twenty-third Washington Convention; breakfast at Sorosis; letter
from ex-Secretary Hugh McCulloch; leaving Riggs House; letter
describing visits in New England; goes to housekeeping; kindness of
press and people; letter from Adirondacks and John Brown's home;
stirs up Rochester W. C. T. U.; at Chautauqua; describes meeting at
Lily Dale; happiness in keeping house; speaks at N. Y. State Fair;
invites Mrs. Stanton to share her home; calls meeting to admit
girls to Rochester University; speaks at Thanksgiving services in
Unitarian church; appeals from Kansas.
CHAPTER XL.
IGNORED BY THE PARTIES--APPOINTED TO OFFICE. (1892.) 717-735
Mrs. Stanton's last appearance at National Convention; Miss Anthony
made president; home life; attends biennial meeting Federation of
Woman's Clubs; bust made by Lorado Taft; letter approving Southern
Woman's Council; ignored by Republican National Convention at
Minneapolis; "every citizen" does not include Women; bowed out of
Democratic National Convention at Chicago; Frances Willard's
beautiful tribute; at People's National Convention in Omaha; Woman
Suffrage at Chautauqua; campaign of Kansas on Republican platform;
illustrates difference in treatment of same women now and forty
years ago; appointed on Board of Managers State Industrial School;
press comment; addresses mass meeting on including Women in
provisions of New Charter for Rochester; face sculptured on theater
in Dowagiac, Mich.; John Boyd Thacher asks his father's record;
Philip Schuyler objects to his stepmother's statue in company with
Miss Anthony's; Justice Rufus W. Peckham's tribute.
CHAPTER XLI.
WORLD'S FAIR--CONGRESS OF REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN. (1893.) 737-754
Miss Anthony opposes holding National Conventions outside
Washington; extended range of letters and invitations; urges those
who can not work to contribute money; opening of World's Fair;
Bertha Honore Palmer's words for women; Miss Anthony behind
movement to have women on Board of Managers; President and Board of
Lady Managers; Woman's Congress; Miss Anthony center of attraction;
compliments from Frances Willard and Lady Somerset; letter of
Florence Fenwick Miller; Suffrage leads at Congress; letters from
Mrs. Palmer, Mrs. James P. Eagle; speech on Religious Press;
pleasant visits in Chicago; tribute from Inter-Ocean; Woman
Suffrage granted in Colorado; preparing for New York and Kansas
amendment campaigns.
CHAPTER XLII.
THE SECOND NEW YORK CAMPAIGN. (1894.) 755-776
Speeches in Ann Arbor, Toledo, Baltimore and Washington; no creeds,
no politics in National-American Association; congratulations of
Chicago Journal; great New York campaign inaugurated to secure
Amendment from Constitutional Convention; headquarters in Anthony
home; Corresponding Secretary Mary S. Anthony reports amount of
work done; opening rally in Rochester; women of wealth and fashion
in New York and Brooklyn take part; N. Y. World describes the
movement; "Remonstrants" organize; Miss Anthony's opinion of them;
600,000 signatures secured; Joseph H. Choate, President of
Constitutional Convention, uses his influence against Woman
Suffrage Amendment; Miss Anthony and many other women address
delegates; representatives of the "Antis" speak in opposition;
Edward Lauterbach and other members support Amendment; Elihu Root,
Wm. P. Goodelle and others oppose; Amendment Defeated; tribute by
State president, Mrs. Greenleaf; appreciative letters; incorrect
report of speech at Spiritualist camp meeting; Miss Anthony,
Frances Willard, Lady Somerset and others at Republican State
Convention in Saratoga; starting for Kansas.
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE SECOND KANSAS CAMPAIGN. (1894.) 777-798
Miss Anthony insists that political State conventions must put
Woman Suffrage planks in their platforms; politicians try to
persuade Kansas women not to ask for them; dilemma of State
president, Mrs. Johns; letters of Mrs. Chapman Catt, Henry B.
Blackwell, Rev. Anna Shaw, showing uselessness of campaign without
Political endorsement; Miss Anthony's rousing letters to Woman's
State Committee, Republican leaders and Mrs. Johns; great speech at
Kansas City; action taken by Republican Woman's Convention;
Suffrage plank refused by Republican State Convention; fight for it
in Populist Convention; wild scene when secured; "not a test of
party fealty;" Prohibitionists adopt plank; Miss Anthony and Miss
Shaw censured by Republicans; Miss Anthony states their reasons and
takes a cheerful view; friendly words from Wm. Lloyd Garrison; her
brave declaration; scores Kansas Republicans in letter to Mr.
Blackwell; cordial support of Annie L. Diggs; Mrs. Johns and Mr.
Breidenthal hopeful; Amendment Defeated; possession of Limited
Suffrage a hindrance to securing Full Suffrage.
CHAPTER XLIV.
THE SOUTHERN TRIP--THE ATLANTA CONVENTION. (1895.) 799-817
Not cast down by Kansas defeat, Miss Anthony speaks at Nebraska
Convention; goes to New York State Convention at Ithaca; visits
Cornell University and speaks to girls of Sage College; addresses
National W. C. T. U. on Sunday at Cleveland, showing weakness of
all attempts at Reform unsupported by the Ballot; pleasant month in
New York City; letter on Y. M. C. A. for "woman's edition;"
invitation from Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones and Rev. H. W. Thomas to
take part in Liberal Religious Congress; addresses at Lexington,
Louisville, Memphis and New Orleans; complimentary reports of
Picayune, Shreveport Times, Birmingham News, Huntsville Tribune;
National-American Convention in Atlanta; courtesy of press, pulpit
and people; Seventy-fifth Birthday celebration and presentation of
Annuity of $800; second triennial of Woman's Council; speaks at
Douglass' funeral; stirs up the audience in Rochester at Ida B.
Wells' lecture on Lynching; resigns position on State Industrial
School Board.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE SECOND VISIT TO CALIFORNIA. (1895.) 819-838
Invitation from California Woman's Congress; Miss Anthony and Miss
Shaw have royal welcome at St. Louis, Denver, Cheyenne, Salt Lake
City, Reno; cordial reception at Oakland; beautiful scene at
Woman's Congress; eulogies of press; visit Stanford University;
entertained by many clubs and societies; go to Yosemite Valley;
joyfully received at San Jose, Los Angeles, Riverside, Pasadena,
Pomona, San Diego, Santa Monica; address Ministers' Meeting in San
Francisco; Mrs. Cooper's victory over Fourth of July Committee;
speak at the celebration; miss audience at Oakland; affectionate
farewell.
CHAPTER XLVI.
MRS. STANTON'S BIRTHDAY--THE BIBLE RESOLUTION. (1895-1896.) 839-862
Miss Anthony stirs up papers with resolution on Kansas men;
description by Chicago Herald; seized with nervous prostration at
Lakeside, O.; sympathy of people and press; secret of vitality;
letter on maternity hospitals; on "hard times;" on woman's dress;
Mrs. Stanton's birthday celebration; Miss Anthony magnanimously
refuses to take the lead; tribute from Tilton; appreciative letters
from Mary Lowe Dickinson, Mrs. Leland Stanford; Twenty-eighth
Annual Convention; Utah admitted with Woman Suffrage; women of
South Australia enfranchised; resolution against Woman's Bible;
speech on Religious Liberty; grief over action of convention; view
of the Bible; Suffrage will emancipate from Superstition; Nelly
Bly's racy interview; loud call from California; can not refuse but
goes to the Golden State.
CHAPTER XLVII.
THE CALIFORNIA CAMPAIGN. (1896.) 863-893
Effort to secure Woman Suffrage Bill from California Legislature;
State committees formed; county conventions; Mrs. Sargent's
hospitality; work of women throughout the State; attitude of press;
the Call declares for Woman Suffrage; Republican Convention; Miss
Anthony and Miss Shaw before platform committee; tributes to Mrs.
Duniway and Mrs. McCann; Populist Convention; Prohibition
Convention; Democratic Convention; women's ratification;
headquarters opened; principal speakers; great work of Miss
Anthony; social courtesies extended; goes to Portland and Seattle;
can not go to Idaho; Suffrage plank in National Republican
convention repudiated; tour of Southern California; letters to Miss
Willard and Mrs. Peet on holding National W. C. T. U. Convention in
California; action of Chairman Republican State Committee;
attempts of Women to speak at Political conventions; the Call
coerced; the orators "flunk;" Liquor Dealers fight Woman Suffrage;
efforts to register new voters; amount of money raised; Women
outwitted by State officials; Defeat; summing-up of vote; a
touching sight; pleasant campaign; State Suffrage Convention; Mrs.
Sargent's tribute; homeward bound.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
HER LETTERS--BIRTHDAY PARTY--BIOGRAPHY. (1896-1897.) 895-911
Reception in Rochester; never denies charges; urges women not to
"scramble" for office; Book of Proverbs; constancy of purpose;
women have nothing to do with Reform parties; objects to calling
God the author of Civil Government; men trying to lift themselves
by their bootstraps; no time for Speculation; opposes Educated and
Property Suffrage; eloquent tribute of Dr. H. W. Thomas; pleasant
letters from Mrs. Henrotin, John Hutchinson, Mrs. Dickinson;
National-American Convention in Des Moines; letter urging that all
National conventions be held at Washington; reception at
Indianapolis; addresses Indiana Legislature; kindness to reporters;
birthday of Frederick Douglass; Miss Anthony's great Birthday
reception in Rochester; compliments of Post-Express and Herald; the
day at Anthony home; Mrs. Chapman Catt's tribute; speech at Cuban
League; remarks at funeral of Mrs. Humphrey; beginning the
Biography; immense amount of material; description of attic
workroom.
CHAPTER XLIX.
CHARACTERISTIC VIEWS ON MANY QUESTIONS. (1897.) 913-930
Monday evenings at home; Miss Anthony dislikes role of Literary or
Society woman; declares she never again will speak before
Legislative Committee at Albany; Miss Mary Anthony's birthday;
Herald's interview; description by Democrat and Chronicle; remarks
of Rev. W. C. Gannett and others; assists at golden wedding; visits
Eliza Wright Osborne with Mrs. Stanton; her greatest compliment;
opinion on Women rising in Rebellion; on Mrs. Besant and Theosophy;
letter to Supreme Court of Idaho; on commemorating deeds of
Revolutionary Mothers; Sentiment no guarantee for Justice;
Subjection of Woman the cause of public Immorality; opposed to
asking Partial Suffrage for women; opinion on Poetry; God not
responsible for human ills; Sunday observance; objects to asking
for Educated and Property Suffrage; voters not influenced by
Religious arguments; refuses to join Miss Willard in attack on
"yellow journalism" and prize fighting; wide scope of invitations,
etc.; amusing letter of inquiry; never received salary from
National Association; visit to Thousand Islands; centennial of
Rev. Samuel J. May; at Nashville Exposition; criticises Women for
going into Partisan Politics and defends "rings;" Woman Suffrage
movement of the Present contrasted with that of the Past.
CHAPTER L.
HOME LIFE--THE REUNION--THE WOMAN. (1897.) 931-953
Daily habits of life; dress; harmonious relations of the two
sisters; description of Anthony home; outline of Miss Anthony's
vast private correspondence; her patience and conscientiousness;
objects to which close of life is being given; invited to
Berkshire; Suffrage Committee meeting in the "Old Hive" at Adams;
guest of Berkshire Historical Society; addresses of Mrs. Chapman
Catt, Mrs. Foster Avery, Mrs. Sewall, Mrs. Colby, Rev. Anna Shaw
and others; Anthony Reunion; picturesque old homestead; visit to
birthplace and loved spots of childhood; contrast in position of
Woman now and fifty years ago; Miss Anthony's part in securing
reforms; face carved in Capitol at Albany; tributes of Mrs. Sewall,
Miss Willard and Mrs. Stanton; Miss Anthony's characteristics;
compared to Napoleon, Gladstone, Lincoln, Garrison; finis.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Vol. II.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY in California Campaign, 1896 _Frontispiece_
HARRIET PURVIS _faces page_ 526
MENTIA TAYLOR 554
PRISCILLA BRIGHT MCLAREN 564
ELIZABETH PEASE NICHOL 568
MARGARET BRIGHT LUCAS 578
MISS ANTHONY AND MRS. STANTON writing the History of
Woman Suffrage 600
CAROLINE E. MERRICK 608
ZERELDA G. WALLACE 632
REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW 688
HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON 700
MAY WRIGHT SEWALL 746
MARY S. ANTHONY 760
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 780
RACHEL FOSTER AVERY 814
SARAH B. COOPER 828
ELLEN CLARK SARGENT 864
SARAH L. KNOX GOODRICH 888
ANTHONY RESIDENCE IN ROCHESTER 904
ATTIC WORK-ROOMS 910
MARY S. AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY 916
ANTHONY FAMILY AT REUNION 938
AT THE OLD HOMESTEAD 942
QUAKER MEETING-HOUSE, ADAMS, MASS 946
CHAPTER XXX.
POLITICAL CANDIDATES--WRITING THE HISTORY.
1880-1881.
During her May lecture trip Miss Anthony was formulating a scheme for a
series of conventions, opening and closing with a great mass meeting,
which should influence the national political conventions to recognize
in their platforms the rights of woman. As usual most of the women
opposed this plan and as usual Miss Anthony carried the day. The
following letters to Mrs. Spencer, national secretary, will serve as
specimens of hundreds which she wrote with her own hand, before every
similar occasion:
I want the rousingest rallying cry ever put on paper--first, to
call women by the thousand to Chicago; and second, to get every one
who can not go there to send a postal card to the mass convention,
saying she wants the Republicans to put a Sixteenth Amendment
pledge in their platform. Don't you see that if we could have a
mass meeting of 2,000 or 3,000 earnest women, June 2, and then
receive 10,000 postals from women all over the country, what a
tremendous influence we could bring to bear on the Republican
convention, June 3? We can get Farwell Hall for $40 a day, and I
think would do well to engage it for the 2d and 3d, then we could
make it our headquarters--sleep in it even, if we couldn't get any
other places.
Besides this, I want to make the best possible use of all our
speakers between June 3 and 21, when we shall have a mass meeting
in Cincinnati, the day before the Democratic convention. My
proposition is that I, as vice-president-at-large, call conventions
of two days each at a number of cities. We could divide our
speakers and thus fill in the entire two weeks between Chicago and
Cincinnati with capital good work. How does the plan strike you?
Can we summon the women from the vasty deeps--or distances? Can we
get 5,000 or 10,000 to send on their postals? Do the petitions
still come in? How many thousands of appeals and documents have you
had printed and how many have you sent out?
After the ball was set rolling she wrote:
A letter from Mrs. Stanton tells of her being on the verge of
pneumonia, and rushing home to rest and recruit. She is better and,
since she has been to the dinner-table, I infer she is well enough
to begin to work up the thunder and lightning for Indianapolis and
Chicago. Now won't you at once scratch down the points with which
you want to fire her soul and brain, and get her at work on the
resolutions, platform and address? She won't go out to lecture any
more this spring, and if you will only put her en rapport with your
thought she will do splendid work in the herculean task awaiting
us.
It is simply impossible for me to go to her at present, and we must
all give her our ideas in the rough, from time to time, and let her
weld them together as best she can; and then, as she says, when we
meet in Indianapolis we all will put in our happiest ideas,
metaphysical, political, logical and all other "cals," and make
these the strongest and grandest documents ever issued from any
organization of women. It does seem to me that if we can succeed in
grinding out just the right appeal, demand, or whatever it may be
called, the Republican convention must heed us. At any rate, we
will do our level best at a strong pull, a long pull and a pull all
together to compel them to surrender.
I enclose my list of May lecture engagements. I shall be able to
help in money from them soon, and better than I could in any other
way. I watch both Congress and our State legislatures, but the
"scamps" are vastly better at promising than fulfilling. The
politicians, of course, expect all this flutter and buncombe about
doing something for women in New York--in California--in Iowa--is
going to spike our guns and make us help the Republican party to
carry all before it; but we must not be thus fooled by them.
After a lecture at Waynesburg, Penn., when she had gone to her train at
4 A. M. to find it an hour late, she wrote on the ticket-office shelf,
by the light of a smoky lamp, this letter to her sister:
Just three years ago this day was our dear Hannah's last on earth,
and I can see her now sitting by the window and can hear her say,
"Talk, Susan." I knew she wanted me to talk of the future meetings
in the great beyond, all of them, as she often said, so certain and
so beautiful to her; but they were not to me, and I could not dash
her faith with my doubts, nor could I pretend a faith I had not; so
I was silent in the dread presence of death. Three years--and yet
what a living presence has she been in my thoughts all the days!
There has been scarcely one waking hour that I have not felt the
loss of her. We can not help trying to peer through the veil to
find the certainty of things over there, but nothing comes to our
eyes unless we accept the Spiritualistic testimony, which we can
not wholly do.
Well, only you and I are left of mother's four girls, and when and
how we also shall pass on is among the unknown problems of the
future. Of course I feel and know that your loss is far beyond
mine; for never was there a child who so faithfully devoted herself
to a mother, and made all other interests subserve that mother's
happiness as did you, and I feel, too, that but for you I never
could have done my public work.
The great series of conventions began with the May Anniversary, which
was held at Indianapolis, the 25th and 26th, in the Park Theater, Miss
Anthony presiding. All arrangements had been made and all expenses
assumed by the local suffrage society under the leadership of Mrs.
Sewall. The Sentinel, edited at that time by Colonel J. B. Maynard,
welcomed the convention in a strong editorial declaring for woman
suffrage in unmistakable terms. The very successful meetings closed with
a handsome reception tendered by Mrs. John C. New.
The mass meeting opened in Farwell Hall, Chicago, June 1, the day before
the Republican convention, with delegates from twenty-six States, and
continued in session three days. The welcoming address was made by
Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, the speakers comprised the most prominent
women of the nation, the audience numbered 3,000 and the enthusiasm was
unprecedented in all the records of this movement.[1] The History of
Woman Suffrage says:
The mass convention had been called for June 2, but the crowds in
the city gave promise of such extended interest that Farwell Hall
was engaged for June 1, and before the second day's proceedings
closed, funds were voluntarily raised by the audience to continue
the meeting the third day. So vast was the number of letters and
postals from women who desired to vote, that the whole time of each
session could have been spent in reading them--one day's mail alone
bringing them from twenty-three States and three Territories. Some
contained hundreds of names, others represented town, county and
State societies. Many were addressed to the different nominating
conventions, Republican, Greenback, Democratic, while the reasons
given for desiring to vote ranged from the simple demand, through
all the scale of those connected with good government and
morality. So highly important a contribution to history did the
Chicago Historical Society deem these expressions that it made a
formal request to be put in possession of all letters and postals,
with a promise that they should be carefully guarded in a
fire-proof safe.
A large parlor in the Palmer House was tendered to the ladies by the
proprietor for business meetings and for a reception room. They were
visited by a number of Republican delegates, many of whom were
thoroughly in favor of a suffrage plank in the platform and of giving
the ladies seats in the convention. A letter was sent to the chairman of
the Republican national committee, Don Cameron, signed by one hundred
and eighteen United States senators and representatives, asking that
seventy-six seats on the floor of the convention be given to as many
accredited delegates from the National Suffrage Association. Although
the veteran soldiers and sailors were liberally provided for, Mr.
Cameron granted only ten seats to the women, and those not to the
association in its official capacity but as "guest" tickets for seats on
the platform. Miss Anthony was allowed _ten_ minutes before a
_sub_-committee to present the argument for a suffrage plank. It was
favorably regarded by scattered members of various delegations, but the
platform was silent on the subject.
The Republican convention of 1880 did not even adopt the "recognition"
planks of 1872 and 1876, and all the demonstrations of this great mass
meeting of women had not the slightest influence, because made by a
disfranchised class. Before closing they adopted a resolution that they
would support no party which did not endorse the political equality of
woman; but all the "support" which they could give or withhold was not
likely to be considered of much value by political leaders.
Miss Anthony and four others attended the Greenback-Labor Convention, a
few days later, in the same city. They were well received. Mrs. Gage
read the suffrage memorial in open session and Miss Anthony was
permitted to address the convention. This privilege was violently
opposed by Dennis Kearney, who said that "his wife instructed him before
he left California not to mix up with woman suffragists, and if he did
she would meet him at the door with a flat-iron when he came home."
Failing to frighten the convention with Mrs. Kearney's flat-iron, he
declined to hear Miss Anthony's speech and left the hall in disgust. The
committee refused to incorporate a suffrage plank in its platform, but
the next day in convention, after the nominations were concluded, a
delegate introduced an equal suffrage resolution which passed by a large
majority.
The delegates and speakers of the National Association then held
meetings at Milwaukee, Wis., Bloomington, Ill., Grand Rapids, Mich.,
Lafayette and Terre Haute, Ind., and reached Cincinnati in time for the
Democratic National Convention, June 22. They were received here with
unexpected courtesy. Mayor Prince, of Boston, and Mr. Eaton, of Kansas,
presented their request for seats, and sixteen were granted them on the
floor of the house, just behind the delegates. A committee room was
placed at their disposal and their notices and placards were printed by
the convention. A hearing was given before the platform committee, with
no limit as to time, and after several had spoken the others were
invited to do so. The chairman, Henry Watterson, declared himself in
favor of the plank desired. The delegations from Maine, New York and
Kansas also were favorable. Miss Anthony was escorted to the platform
upon the arm of Carter Harrison, amid wild applause, given a seat beside
the presiding officer, Wade Hampton, and the clerk was ordered to read
the address which she presented.[2] After all this parade, however, the
platform contained not the slightest reference to the claims of women
or, in fact, to their existence. The results of the appeal to the
Republican and Democratic conventions were precisely the same, except
that the latter administered the dose with chivalry.
The National Prohibition Convention at Bloomington, Ill., officially
invited the suffrage advocates to meet with them and participate in
their proceedings. Phoebe Couzins was sent as a delegate, and the
convention adopted the following plank: "We also demand that women
having privileges as citizens in other respects, shall be clothed with
the ballot for their own protection, and as a rightful means for the
proper settlement of the liquor question." This body, it will be
noticed, not only demanded the ballot for woman but told her what she
would be expected to do with it.
While not at all surprised, Miss Anthony was greatly disgusted with the
action of the Republican and Democratic conventions, but, determined to
leave nothing undone, she soon afterwards called upon General Garfield
at Mentor. He was cordial and expressed himself in favor of equality for
woman in matters of education, work, wages and civil rights, but was not
ready to declare himself in favor of the suffrage and, as was always the
case, urged that the issue be not pressed during _that_ campaign. Mrs.
Blake and others visited General Hancock, the Democratic candidate, and
the New York Sun reports the interview in part:
Mrs. Blake said the delegation had come to ask the general what
hope the woman suffrage party might entertain in case any measure
came before him, as President, which bore upon granting women the
ballot. The general replied that the movement was a growing one,
and that everything which tended toward the amelioration of woman's
condition had his sympathy. In the course of conversation he said
that women should be paid equally with men for the same work
equally well performed.
Mrs. Slocum said that the delegation desired a decided expression
from him as to whether he would or would not veto any measure
favorable to woman suffrage that might come before him as
President. The general replied that if such a measure were voted
upon by Congress as a constitutional amendment, it would not come
before the President. If, however, Congress accorded women the
right to vote in the District of Columbia, he certainly would offer
no obstruction.
Mrs. Blake asked if he considered women as "people."
"Undoubtedly," replied the general. "He would be a bold man who
would undertake to say they were not."
"Then, general," said Mrs. Blake, "we ask nothing more than what
you say in your letter of acceptance: 'It is only by a full vote,
a free ballot and a fair count that the people can rule in fact, as
required by the theory of our government.'"
"I am perfectly willing," said General Hancock, "that you should
say I take my stand on that paragraph in my letter of acceptance."
In order to exhaust every resource, Miss Anthony, on August 17,
addressed this letter to each of the presidential candidates:
As vice-president-at-large of the National Woman Suffrage
Association, I am instructed to ask you if, in the event of your
election, you, as President of the United States, would recommend
to Congress the submission to the several legislatures of a
Sixteenth Amendment to the National Constitution, prohibiting the
disfranchisement of United States citizens on account of sex. What
we wish to ascertain is whether you, as President, would use your
_official influence_ to secure to the women of the several States a
_national guarantee_ of their right to a voice in the government on
the same terms with men. Neither platform makes any pledge to
secure political equality to women--hence we are waiting and hoping
that one candidate or the other, or both, will declare favorably,
and thereby make it possible for women, with self-respect, to work
for the success of one or the other or both nominees. Hoping for a
prompt and explicit statement, I am, sir, very respectfully yours.
General Hancock did not so much as acknowledge the receipt of this, but
General Garfield answered promptly, writing with his own hand:
Your letter of the 17th inst. was duly received. I take the liberty
of asking your personal advice before I answer your official
letter. I assume that all the traditions and impulses of your life
lead you to believe that the Republican party has been and is more
nearly in the line of liberty than its antagonist, the Democratic
party; and I know you desire to advance the cause of woman. Now, in
view of the fact that the Republican convention has not discussed
your question, do you not think it would be a violation of the
trust they have reposed in me, to speak "as their nominee"--and add
to the present contest an issue which they have not authorized?
Again, if I answer your question on the ground of my own private
opinion, I shall be compelled to say that, while I am open to the
freest discussion and fairest consideration of your question, I
have not yet reached the conclusion that it would be best for woman
and for the country that she should have the suffrage. I may reach
it; but whatever time may do to me, that fruit is not yet ripe on
my tree. I ask you, therefore, for the sake of your own question,
do you think it wise to pick my apples now? Please answer me in the
frankness of personal friendship.
With kind regards, I am, very truly yours.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Please answer me in the frankness of personal
friendship. With kind regards, I am very truly yours. Garfield"]
Under date of September 9 Miss Anthony sent a spirited reply:
Yours of the 25th ult. has waited all these days that I might
carefully consider it.
First.--The Republican party did run well for a season in the "line
of liberty," but since 1870, its congressional enactments, majority
reports, Supreme Court decisions, and now its presidential
platform, show a retrograde movement--not only for women but for
colored men--limiting the power of the national government in the
protection of United States citizens against the injustice of the
States, until what we gained by the sword is lost by political
surrenders. We need nothing but a Democratic administration to
demonstrate to all Israel and the sun the fact, the sad fact, that
all is lost by the Republican party. I mean, of course, the one
vital point of national supremacy in the protection of United
States citizens in the enjoyment of their right to vote, and the
punishment of States or individuals thereof, for depriving citizens
of the exercise of that right. The first and fatal mistake was in
ceding to Rhode Island the right to "abridge" the suffrage to
foreign born men; and to all the States to "deny" it to women, in
direct violation of the principle of _national supremacy_. From
that time, inch by inch, point by point has been surrendered, until
it is only in name that the Republican party is the party of
national supremacy. Grant did not protect the negro's ballot in the
presidential election of 1876--Hayes can not in 1880--nor will
Garfield be able to do so in 1884--for the "scepter has departed
from Judah."
Second.--For the candidate of a party to add to the discussions of
the contest an issue unauthorized or unnoted in its platform, when
that issue is one vital to its very life, it seems to me would be
the grandest act imaginable. For doing that very thing, with regard
to the protection of the negroes of the South, you are today
receiving more praise from the best men of the party than for any
and all of your utterances inside the line of the platform. I know,
if you had in your letter of acceptance, or in your New York
speech, declared yourself in favor of "perfect equality of rights
for women, civil and political," you would have touched an electric
spark which would have fired the hearts of the women of the entire
nation, and made the triumph of the Republican party more grand and
glorious than any it ever has seen.
Third.--As to picking fruit before it is ripe! Allow me to remind
you that very much fruit is never picked; some is nipped in the
bud; some is worm-eaten and falls to the ground; some rots on the
trees before it ripens; some, too slow in ripening, is bitten by
the early frosts of autumn; while some rare, ripe apples hang until
frozen and worthless on the leafless boughs! Really, Mr. Garfield,
if after passing through the war of the rebellion and sixteen years
in Congress; if after seeing and hearing and repeating that _no
class_ ever got justice and equality of chances from any government
except it had the power--the ballot--to clutch them for itself; if
after all your opportunities for growth and development, you can
not yet see the truth of the great principle of individual
self-government; if you have reached only the idea of
class-government, and that, too, of the most hateful and cruel
form--bounded by sex--there must be some radical defect in the
ethics of the party of which you are the chosen leader.
No matter which party administers the government, women will
continue to get only subordinate positions and half pay, not
because of the party's or the President's lack of chivalric regard,
but because, in the nature of things, it is impossible for any
government to protect a disfranchised class in equality of chances.
Women, to get justice, must have political freedom. But pardon this
long trespass upon your time and patience, and please bear in mind
that it is not for the many good things the Republican party and
its nominee have done in extending the area of liberty that I
criticise them, but because they have failed to place the women of
the nation on the plane of political equality with men. I do not
ask you to go beyond your convictions, but I do most earnestly beg
you to look at this question from the standpoint of the
woman--alone, without father, brother, husband, son--battling for
bread. It is to help the millions of these unfortunate ones that I
plead for the ballot in the hands of all women.
With great respect for your frank and candid talk with one of the
disfranchised, I am, very sincerely yours.
On the strength of Hancock's perfectly non-committal interview and
Garfield's frank letter, several of the prominent Democratic women
rushed into a campaign for that party, whereupon Miss Anthony called
them down in vigorous language. After expressing her indignation at the
many false newspaper reports of her correspondence and interview with
General Garfield, she said:
He has always stood ready to aid us in getting our demand before
Congress, and was one of the three who reported in favor of a
special woman suffrage committee in the House the last session. He
has actually done a thousand things a thousand times more friendly
to woman suffrage than Hancock now _talks_ of doing. Then, again,
Hancock has given us no public statement that, if elected, he will
recommend a Sixteenth Amendment in his inaugural; and in his
letter of acceptance he said nothing more that can be twisted into
suffrage for women than Garfield did in his, and there is no more
in the Democratic platform that can be thus construed than there is
in the Republican.
I never intended that the National Association should accept any
sort of "under the ink or between the lines" as favorable pledges;
and before _I_ shall consent to put my name to any document
favoring either candidate, I must see in black and white, in the
candidate's own pen tracks, something to warrant such favoring.
Mere gallantry will not do.
During the campaign which followed, neither she nor the other leading
women of the country did any public work, and both parties lost the
splendid services which would have been gladly rendered had they
recognized the simple principle of justice. When the success of Garfield
was practically assured, Miss Anthony wrote to a friend on the evening
of election day: "I am fairly holding my breath tonight, waiting for the
morning reports, as I feel it will be an overwhelming triumph for the
Republican party. If their majority should be immense, perhaps it will
give them courage and strength to speak for woman--and so let us hope
and hope on."
As Mrs. Stanton's health forbade her going on the lecture platform in
the autumn of 1880, and as Miss Anthony had now enough money ahead to
dare claim a little leisure from public work, they decided to settle
down to the serious business of writing the History of Woman Suffrage.
For this purpose Miss Anthony went to Tenafly in October and ensconced
herself in Mrs. Stanton's cosy home among the "blue hills of Jersey."
The work already was advanced far enough to show that it could not
possibly be restricted to the one volume into which it had enlarged from
the 500-page pamphlet at first intended, and the task loomed up in an
appalling manner. Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, the generous patron of so
many progressive movements, gave Miss Anthony $1,000 for immediate
expenses and so they went on with the work, delving among old papers and
letters, compiling, cutting, pasting, writing and re-writing, sending
over and over to the women of different States for local history, going
into New York again and again to see the publishers, and performing all
the drudgery demanded by such an undertaking, which can be appreciated
only by the few who have experienced it.
Miss Anthony hated this kind of work and it was torture for her to give
up her active life and sit poring over the musty records of the past.
Her diary contains the usual impatient expressions of this feeling, and
in her letters to friends she says: "O, how tired and sick I am of
boning down to facts and figures perpetually, and how I long to be set
free from what to me has been a perfect prison for the last six months!"
She stuck to it with Spartan heroism, however, knowing that otherwise it
never would be done, but she was not unwilling occasionally to sally
forth and fill a lecture engagement or attend a convention. At the Rhode
Island annual meeting she made the principal address, and the next day
went, with Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, to Danbury, Mass., to call on John G.
Whittier. Almost his first words were, "And so our dear Lucretia Mott is
gone!" She had died the evening before, November 11, aged nearly
eighty-eight.
Miss Anthony had expected her death, but was inexpressibly grieved to
lose from out her life that sweet presence which had been an inspiration
for thirty years, whose staunch support had never failed, even when
friends were fewest and fortune at its lowest ebb. In times of greatest
perplexity she could slip down to the Philadelphia home for sympathy and
encouragement, and there was always a corner in the pocketbook from
which a contribution came when it was most needed. If ever any human
character was without a flaw it was that of Lucretia Mott. Her motto was
"Truth for authority, not authority for truth." She faded away like a
spirit and her dying words, whispered many times during the last day or
two, were, "O, let me go, let this little standard bearer go!" For
freedom, for peace, for temperance, for equality, she was indeed the
standard bearer through all her long and beautiful life.
On election day, prompted no doubt by the unconquered and unconquerable
Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton made an effort to vote. This act created much
excitement and called forth columns of comment in the newspapers, to the
great amusement of the two conspirators in their quiet retreat.
Toward the end of 1880, Miss Anthony wrote to the treasurer, Mrs.
Spofford, asking if she did not think it would be best to omit the
National Convention of 1881, giving as reasons that there had been such
a surfeit of conventions during the past year and that she was very busy
with the History. Mrs. Spofford was much surprised, for Miss Anthony
never had been known to yield in the matter of holding this annual
meeting, even when all others were opposed, but she advised against
postponement and by the next mail received this reply:
I feel exactly as you do about having the convention. I have never
for a moment felt ready _not_ to hold it. I wrote you under Mrs.
Stanton's orders not to tell you how I felt, as that would be sure
to influence you. Now I have read her your letter and told her my
determination was to go ahead. She won't promise to attend, she
never does, but I never fail to take her with me when I am on the
spot, as I shall be when the time comes next January. So you may
save us each a bedroom away up, no matter how lofty--you know I
love the fresh air of the high heavens. Don't give yourself one
moment's uneasiness in regard to the convention. I am going to set
about it and am bound to make it one of the best, if not the best
ever held in Washington, and you shall have Mrs. Stanton too,
unless I miss my guess.
At the same time came the following from Mrs. Stanton: "Your kind
invitation I fully appreciate, and feel that the pleasure of seeing you
is one of the compensations of these conventions, which I dread more
than I can tell. But Susan says truly that when she is at hand, she
always dragoons me into what she considers my duty, so I never venture
to say what I will or will not do. Although I have solemnly vowed I will
go nowhere this winter, I should not be surprised if I found myself in
Lincoln Hall the middle of January."
[Illustration: Harriet Purvis (Signed: "Harriet Purvis")]
The Thirteenth Annual Convention of the National Association opened
January 18, 1881, Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the chair. The first session
was devoted to a memorial service for Lucretia Mott. The stage was
decorated with draperies and flowers and a large portrait of Mrs. Mott
stood on an easel. An exquisite floral harp was presented by the colored
citizens of the District. In the audience were many distinguished
people, including Mrs. Hayes and her guests from the White House,
members of the Supreme Court and of Congress, and other noted
personages. The music was rendered by the colored choir of St.
Augustine's Church. Miss Anthony said in part: "The highest tribute she
could pay was that during the past thirty years she had always felt sure
she was right when she had the sanction of Lucretia Mott. Next to that
of her own conscience she most valued the approval of her sainted
friend; and it was now a great satisfaction that in all the differences
of opinion as to principles and methods in their movement, Mrs. Mott had
stood firmly with the National Association, of which she was, to the day
of her death, the honored and revered vice-president." Short and
touching addresses were made by Mrs. Sewall, Miss Couzins, Frederick
Douglass and Robert Purvis, and the eulogy was delivered by Mrs.
Stanton.
There was an effort during this convention to secure in Congress a
"standing committee on the rights of women." It was ably advocated by
Senator McDonald and defeated largely through the smooth manipulation of
Roscoe Conkling. The convention closed with a reception and supper for
the delegates, given by Mrs. Spofford at the Riggs House.
Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton went from Washington to the home of Mrs.
Mott, where they were welcomed by her daughters, who sent for Sarah
Pugh, and the old friends had a lovely day, made sacred by reminiscences
of the dear one gone forever. For more than a quarter of a century this
had been Miss Anthony's stopping-place when in Philadelphia,[3] but she
was welcomed at once into another beautiful home, that of the wife and
daughters of J. Heron Foster, founder of the Pittsburg Dispatch. All
were deeply interested in the great question, and Julia and Rachel
henceforth were ranked among the most earnest and valued workers.
It was soon afterwards that a reporter of the Chicago News started the
following paragraph:
Susan B. Anthony has never condescended to love a man but she
lavishes a heap of affection on a little gray Skye terrier which
she takes around with her wherever she goes. This dog was given her
by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and having recently lost a favorite
Newfoundland pet, she accepted the frolicsome Skye with hearty
gratitude. She has taught the apt brute every variety of trick and
its intelligence seems to be unlimited. The little creature sleeps
on her bed, eats from her hand, has blankets, gold and silver
collars and every kind of ornament and comfort. Miss Anthony is
accompanied by this accomplished canine everywhere, and during the
recent convention in Washington "Birdie," as the dog is called,
occupied a prominent place on the platform, either cuddled up in
her voluminous lap or coiled in a frowsy heap at her feet.
This was copied into many newspapers throughout the country, often
accompanied by editorial comment, facetious, disapproving, and sometimes
deducing from this text the solemn fact that every woman's nature must
have something to love, or that while women were so frivolous they had
no right to ask for the ballot. This extract from a half-column
editorial in the New York Graphic will serve as an example:
There is something wrong here. If Miss Anthony were to carry around
with her a Newfoundland or a good bloodhound the spectacle would
have nothing incongruous in it. If she would make a pet of a
six-barrelled revolver and another of a large club that would be
appropriate. But a Skye terrier, a miserable, little, whining pup,
a coached, coddled and coaxed dog making repeated journeys in a
basket and fed on crackers and milk--what sort of a thing is this
for a person of reformative powers to be associated with? It is an
argument in favor of woman's rights that women are capable of all
the masculinity necessary to voting and the making of laws; but who
ever heard of a President, a senator, a member of the House of
Representatives, a legislator of any kind, going about with a sick
dog in his arms, soothing the little wretch into its proper sleep,
providing it with its regular nourishment and superintending its
morning awakenings and the accompanying ablutions?
Women can never come to the head of the government, can never
assist to a large extent in its management, until they reform these
weaknesses. It isn't necessary that they should chew tobacco and
swear, and perhaps they needn't smoke cigars and drive fast horses;
but their leaders must abandon the pet dog, the favorite kitten,
the especial hen and the abominable bird. They may still sew and
still wear the petticoat; but if they enter politics they must
submit to the hard raps that men expect, without putting their
hands to their eyes and sobbing that their feelings have been hurt.
There must be reform, and Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton must set
about it in earnest and at once.
A Skye terrier for Miss Anthony! Merciful heavens! after all these
years has it come to this? Catnip for Julius Caesar! Boneset tea and
black stockings with garters for Alexander the Great! A locket with
hair in it on the bosom of the first Napoleon! A Skye terrier! We
have fallen upon evil days.
Under this in her scrap-book Miss Anthony wrote, "Doesn't this cap the
climax?" Of course, there was not the slightest foundation for the
paragraph. Miss Anthony never owned a dog or any pet animal, not from
dislike but because she felt that humanity needed all her time and
affection.
Work on the History was at once resumed, as its editors were now
convinced that it never could be finished except by the hardest kind of
labor without cessation. Of the able assistance rendered by many women
throughout the country, perhaps that of Clarina Howard Nichols was the
most valuable. She possessed not only great literary ability but also
the true editorial instinct and was one of the few left of the "old
guard." Out of her fine memory she wove a number of delightful chapters,
all written while lying on her back an almost helpless invalid and over
seventy years old. She had long ago gone to California to be with her
children, and Miss Anthony's weekly letters to her were of the most
loving character and answered in the same affectionate strain. Mrs.
Nichols hesitated to use the names of those who had been most violent in
their opposition to the rights of women, because she disliked to make
their children blush for them, but Miss Anthony wrote:
History ought to be true, and the men and women who at the time
enjoyed the glory of opposing us ought to be known to posterity
even if it is to their children's sorrow; just as those who
suffered the torments of ridicule and hatred then, now enjoy the
rewards, and their children and grandchildren glory in their
ancestors. Robert Dale Owen's daughter, in writing up the Indiana
Constitutional Convention and her father's opponents, withheld
their names from sympathy for their children. I have told her, that
as she now rejoices in what was then considered her father's
reproach, so she should let the children of those men hang their
heads now for what then was their father's pride. Isn't that fair?
Garrison used to say, "Where there is a sin, there must be a
sinner." When people understand that their descendants and all
Israel will know of their deeds, a hundred years hence, maybe they
will learn to be and do better.
I am a genuine believer in the doctrine of letting the seed bear
its fruit on the sower's own ground. For us not to give the names
of our opponents, but only of those who were wise and good, not
only would not be true history, but would rob the book of one-half
its interest. If all persons felt that their children must suffer
for their wrong-doings, they would be more cautious, but the belief
that all their ill record is to be hidden out of sight helps them
to go on reckless of truth and justice. It is not in malice or
with a desire to make any one suffer, but to be true to history
that every name should stand and be judged as the facts merit.
Miss Anthony in reality seldom carried out this theory, but usually
desired that personal failings should not be recorded and handed down to
posterity. She scarcely could be persuaded to allow the bare facts in
many instances to be stated lest surviving relatives should be hurt
thereby.
Without knowing where the money was to be obtained for publishing the
History but determined that it should be done, Miss Anthony pushed on
the work. The steel engravings cost $126 apiece and where women were
unable or unwilling to pay for their own, she herself assumed the
responsibility. To Mrs. Nichols she wrote: "I shall have your picture
and that of Ernestine L. Rose if it takes the last drop in the
bucket."[4] Because of the unpopularity of the subject the large firms
would not consider the publication of this work, which it was now found
would fill two huge volumes, but arrangements were concluded finally
with Fowler & Wells. In their great anxiety to get their work before the
public while they yet lived to see it properly done, each chapter was
hurried to the publishers the moment it was completed and immediately
stereotyped and printed, which made revising, condensing and
re-arranging impossible.
The first volume was issued in May, 1881, a royal octavo of 900 pages,
bringing the record down to the beginning of the Civil War. It is not an
exaggeration to say that no history during the century had been more
favorably received by the press. The New York dailies contained from one
to two or more columns of most complimentary reviews. The National
Citizen and Ballot-Box gave up almost an entire edition to notices of
the History taken from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and other
papers, with not a disparaging criticism. Most of them echoed the
sentiment of the New York Sun: "We have long needed an authentic and
exhaustive account of the movement for the enfranchisement of women;"
and of the Chicago News: "The appearance of this book, long expected by
the friends, is not only an important literary occurrence, but it is a
remarkable event in the history of civilization." The personal
commendations from such men as President Andrew D. White, of Cornell
University, Hon. C. B. Waite, of Chicago, Rev. William Henry Channing,
and from scores of eminent women, would in themselves require several
chapters.
Nobody realized so well as the authors the imperfections of the work,
but when one considered that it had to be gathered piecemeal from old
letters, personal recollections, imperfect newspaper reports, mere
scraps of material which never had been put into shape as to time and
place, the result was remarkable. They were indeed correct in their
assertion that no one but the actual participants ever could have
described the early history of this movement to secure equal rights for
women. "We have furnished the bricks and mortar," they said, "for some
future architect to rear a beautiful edifice." These "bricks and mortar"
were supplied almost wholly by Miss Anthony, who, from the beginning,
had carefully preserved every letter, newspaper clipping and report, and
whose persistent and endless labor in collecting facts, dates, etc.,
never can be estimated or sufficiently appreciated; and it is not
probable that any more forcible or graceful pens than those of Mrs.
Stanton and Mrs. Gage ever will be found to enhance their splendid work.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Truly yours as ever, Matilda Joslyn Gage"]
So unanimous and hearty was the reception of this book, to which they
had devoted every moment of spare time for five years, that they felt
encouraged to spend the next five, if necessary, upon the other volume,
which the mass of material now demanded; but if all the criticism had
been unfavorable and everybody had declared the work not needed, they
still would have gone straight on to the finish, because they realized
so strongly the value of putting into permanent form the story of the
struggle for the emancipation of woman. Many letters were received
urging that it was too soon to write this history, to which Mrs. Stanton
invariably responded in her humorous way: "Well, we old workers might
perhaps have 'reminisced' after death, but I doubt if the writing
mediums could do as well as we have done with our pens. You say the
history of woman suffrage can not be written until it is accomplished.
Why not describe its initiative steps? The United States has not
completed its grand experiment of equality, universal suffrage, etc.,
and yet Bancroft has been writing our history for forty years. If no one
writes up his own times, where are the materials for the history of the
future?"
Before the task should be resumed, however, there must be a little rest
and a great deal of work of another kind. The diary says: "Had a man
today and toted all my documents out to the barn, storing them in big
boxes, then packed my winter clothes away in the attic, so that my room
might be renovated for Theodore Stanton and his bride from Paris." Miss
Anthony then returned home, filled several lecture engagements and in
May started for Massachusetts, stopping at Tenafly to take Mrs. Stanton
with her in order that she might not escape.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The Chicago press gave very satisfactory reports of this meeting,
but the Springfield Republic was vulgar and abusive, called the ladies
"withered beldames," "cats on the back roof," and advised them to "go
home and attend to their children, if they had any, and if not, to
engage in that same occupation as soon as they could regularly do so."
The charge being so often made that the leaders of the suffrage movement
were a lot of old maids and childless wives, Miss Anthony prepared a
list showing that sixteen of the most prominent were the mothers of
sixty-six children. Of the pioneers she herself was the only one who
never married. Of the younger speakers Phoebe Couzins was the only one
who remained single.
[2] The Cincinnati Commercial said at this time: "Miss Anthony is the
same clear, calm reasoner--a woman of the same firm convictions and with
the same forcible, dignified and essentially womanly manner of
expressing them--that she has always been. While in Cincinnati she is
the guest of her cousin, Mrs. A. B. Merriam, of Walnut Hills, where many
call upon her and find a talk with a woman so earnest and fine in
intellectual power to be a genuine satisfaction. On the 'woman
question,' she is hopeful but not a hopeless enthusiast. She is too
clear-headed for that, and has overcome too many obstacles not to
appreciate the requisite momentum and the force necessary to produce it.
Her life is great in that it has made a larger life and higher work
possible to other women, who share her aspirations without her
invincible strength to carve their way."
[3] This and the hospitable homes of Robert and Harriet Purvis, Sarah
Pugh, and Adeline and Annie Thomson, sisters of J. Edgar Thomson.
[4] The women of Kansas contributed $75 toward Mrs. Nichols' picture as
a testimonial to her suffrage work in that State.