THE LEGACY--NEBRASKA CAMPAIGN--OFF FOR EUROPE.
1881-1882-1883.
It had been decided this year of 1881 to take the anniversary meeting
into the very heart of New England, and for the first time the National
Association went to Boston, opening in Tremont Temple, May 26. The
address of welcome was made by Harriet H. Robinson, wife of
"Warrington," the well-known newspaper correspondent, and there were
several new speakers in the convention, including A. Bronson Alcott,
Mary F. Eastman, Anna Garlin Spencer, Frank Sanborn, ex-Governor Lee, of
Wyoming, the noted politician, Francis W. Bird, Harriette Robinson
Shattuck and Rev. Ada C. Bowles. The ladies had no cause to complain of
the hospitality of this conservative New England center. The Boston
Traveller expressed the general sentiment in saying:
The National Suffrage Association has reason to congratulate itself
on one of the most notable and successful conventions ever held.
Boston's attitude to her distinguished guests has been uniformly
hospitable, the audiences have been large and enthusiastic, the
press co-operative in every sense. The eminent women who are its
leaders are ladies whose acquaintance is an unmixed pleasure, and
not least in importance have been the friendships formed and
renewed at this meeting. The business management of the convention
has been superb; the sympathy between audience and speakers
reciprocal.
The guests received an invitation from Governor John D. Long to visit
the State House and were received by him in person. In his remarks he
said he believed women should vote, not because they are women but
because they are a part of the people and government should be of the
people regardless of sex; he thought the extension of suffrage to women
could not fail to give stability to the government. Mrs. Hooker thanked
him for coming to their support and in her letter describing the
occurrence she says: "Miss Anthony standing close to the governor said
in low; pathetic tones, 'Yes, we are tired, we are weary with our work.
For thirty years some of us have carried this burden, and now if we
might put it in the hands of honorable men, such as you, how happy we
would be.'" The ladies also accepted an invitation from Mayor Prince to
visit the city hall and were cordially received by him. They were
invited to inspect the great dry goods store of Jordan, Marsh & Co. and
see the arrangements for the comfort and pleasure of the employes many
of whom were women. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Robinson were
entertained at the Parker House by the famous Bird Club.
Miss Anthony received several beautiful floral offerings during the
convention, and also a handsome pin in the shape of a Greek cross. The
golden bar from which it was suspended bore the letters S. B. A., on the
points were the initials N. W. S. A., and on the reverse was engraved,
"Presented by the Citizens' Suffrage Association of Philadelphia as a
token of gratitude for her life-long devotion to the interests of
woman." The little presentation speech was made in a most tender and
graceful manner by May Wright Sewall. The Boston Globe in describing the
scene pays this compliment:
Miss Anthony was as deeply touched as she was surprised. Recovering
herself, she responded eloquently and in her usual interesting and
magnetic manner. Of all the eminent women who are here, no one is
such a favorite with a Boston audience as Susan B. Anthony. Her
courage and strength and the patient devotion of a life consecrated
to the advancement and the elevation of womanhood, her invincible
honor, her logic and her power to touch and sway all hearts, are
felt and reverently recognized. The young women of the day may well
feel that it is she who _has made life possible_ to them; who has
trodden the thorny paths and, by her unwearied devotion, has opened
to them the professions and higher applied industries; nor is this
detracting from those who now share with her the labor and the
glory. Each and all recognize the individual devotion, the purity
and singleness of purpose that so eminently distinguish Miss
Anthony.
The convention closed with a reception at the elegant home of Mrs. Fenno
Tudor, on Beacon Hill.
After leaving Boston, this distinguished body of women, made the sweep
of New England, holding conventions in Providence, R. I.; Portland, Me.;
Dover, Concord and Keene, N. H.; Hartford and New Haven, Conn. The
national board of officers received an infusion of new blood this year
through the election of May Wright Sewall, chairman executive committee,
and Rachel Foster, corresponding secretary. Miss Anthony writes, "It is
such a relief to roll off part of the burden on stronger, younger
shoulders." This entire round of conventions was arranged by Miss
Foster, a remarkable work for an inexperienced girl.
At Concord Miss Anthony was entertained in the family of her old friend
and co-laborer, Parker Pillsbury, and after her departure Mrs. Pillsbury
wrote: "I am so very happy to know you personally, and I thank you for
the compliment you bestow in asking me to enroll my name among the most
grand and noble women of our land. I shall enjoy being counted worthy to
place it in company with dear Miss Anthony. Mr. Cogswell says many men
(some members of the Legislature among them) in talking with him have
expressed unexpected satisfaction in the speeches of the convention just
holden--especially in yours, and he says, 'She is a host in herself, I
like her practical common sense.'"
There was comfort in a letter received at this time from Elizabeth
Boynton Harbert, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association and one
of the Inter-Ocean staff:
Before entering upon our usual business talk, I want to wish you
all beautiful and peaceful things this summer morning, and tell you
of a rare and genuine tribute to yourself which brought tears of
gladness to my own eyes when I heard it. In talking to some of the
old workers, I referred to your life-long sacrifice and wondered
how we could develop a similar spirit in our younger women, when
Mrs. Zerelda Wallace said with great impressiveness: "My dear
sisters, I want to say this, and to say it with a profound
realization of all that it means, that to me, the person who, next
to Jesus Christ himself, has shown to the world a life of perfect
unselfishness, is Susan B. Anthony." I tell you this, my dear
friend, because I believe such a tribute from such a woman will
lighten some of the burdens.
Many similar letters were now received every year, and were as sweet and
fragrant flowers in a pathway which had contained more thorns than
roses.
In the hot summer of 1881 Miss Anthony went again to Albany to spend the
last weeks with another friend, Phebe Hoag Jones, who passed away July
27. She was the intimate associate of Lydia Mott and the last of that
little band of Abolitionists so conspicuous in the Democratic stronghold
of Albany for many years preceding the war. At her death Miss Anthony
felt that she had no longer an abiding place in the State capital, and
expressed this feeling in a letter to Mrs. Spofford, who replied: "You
speak of no longer having a home in Albany. Why, the best homes in that
city should be gladly opened to you, and some day those people will wake
up and wonder why they did not take you in their arms and hearts and
help you in your work."[5]
All the letters during this summer are filled with sorrow over the
assassination, long suffering and death of President Garfield. After all
was ended Miss Anthony wrote to a friend:
In the reported death-bed utterances of our President, the only one
which has grated on my ears was that in answer to the query whether
he had made a will: "No, and he did not wish one, as he could trust
the courts to do justice to his wife and children." How little even
the best of men see and feel the dire humiliation and suffering to
the wife, the widow, who is left to the justice of the courts! My
heart aches because of man's insensibility to the cruelty of thus
leaving woman. How can we teach them the lesson that the wife
suffers all the torment under the law's assuming her rights to her
property and her children, which the husband would, should it
assume similar ownership and control over him, his property and
children after his wife's death.
What a twelve weeks these have been, and what a funeral pall has
rested upon us the past week. Every nook and corner, every
mountaintop and valley is shrouded in sorrow for this crime against
the nation. Today the ministers are preaching their sermons on the
life and character of Garfield. Our Unitarian, Mr. Mann, made his
special point on the fact that all the people of every sect had
united in endorsement of Garfield's religion, which was most
emphatically one of life and action, natural, without cant or
observance of the outward rites and ceremonies. There is no report
of even a minister's being asked to pray with him. When the bells
told of the people's day of special prayer for his life, he
exclaimed, "God bless the people," but covered his face, as much as
to say, "Nothing but science can determine this case."
In the late summer and fall Mrs. Stanton had a tedious and alarming
attack of malarial fever, and Miss Anthony was greatly distressed
because some of her family insisted that it was produced by the long,
hard strain of the work on the History. She writes: "It is so easy to
charge every ill to her labors for suffrage, while she knows and I know
that it is her work for woman which has kept her young and fresh and
happy all these years. Mrs. Stanton has written me that during her
illness 'she suffered more from her fear that she never should finish
the History than from the thought of parting with all her friends.'"
The National Prohibition Alliance, which met in New York, October 18,
invited her to take an official part in its proceedings. She declined to
do so but attended the meeting and, after a visit to Mrs. Stanton, went
to Washington to the national convention of the W. C. T. U. She had
three reasons for this: 1st, she understood there was to be an attempt
to supersede Miss Willard, to whom she had become very much attached;
2d, an effort was to be made to commit the association to woman
suffrage; and 3d, she had made up her mind to see President Arthur on
business connected with her own organization. She sat in the convention
through all the three days' sessions and, on motion of Mrs. J. Ellen
Foster, was invited to address it and was introduced by Miss Willard in
words of strong approval. A prominent woman who was opposed to Miss
Willard's re-election went among the delegates, assuring them in the
most solemn manner that Miss Willard had insulted every one of them by
introducing Miss Anthony on the platform, as she did not recognize God.
"Well," replied one of them, an Indianapolis woman, "I don't know about
that, but I do know that God has recognized her and her work for the
last thirty years."
She had the pleasure of seeing Miss Willard triumphantly re-elected, an
equal suffrage resolution adopted and a department of franchise
established. "So the Christian craft of that great organization has set
sail on the wide sea of woman's enfranchisement," she comments. At the
close of the convention this amusing card was sent to the press: "All
presidents of State delegations represented in the National W. C. T. U.
desire to explain, in refutation of a statement in the Post of October
31, that, so far from 'capturing the convention,' Miss Susan B. Anthony
made no effort to influence their delegations in public or in private,
and is not, nor ever has been, a member of the W. C. T. U., either
local, State or national, hence has had no part in its deliberations."
The President, who was an old schoolmate of her brother Daniel R.,
granted her a pleasant interview, arranged by Senator Jones, of Nevada,
in which she urged him to recommend in his message to Congress a
standing committee on the rights of women and also a Sixteenth Amendment
which should enfranchise them. The reporters learned of this interview
and, as a result, newspapers throughout the country used a portion of
their valuable space in describing "how President Arthur squeezed Susan
B. Anthony's hand!"
On the way home she stopped in Philadelphia and, with Rachel Foster and
Adeline Thomson, called on George W. Childs, who gave to her $50 for
"the cause," and to each of them one of his rare china cups and saucers.
On November 7 work on the History was again resumed. The 29th was
Wendell Phillips' seventieth birthday and Miss Anthony wrote him a
letter of congratulation, telling him that she always had found comfort
in the thought that, when there were differences between them, she had
had his respect if not his approval. He replied with the following
affectionate note: "Hearty thanks for your congratulations. The band
grows smaller month by month. We ought to stand closer together. You and
I have differed as all earnest souls must. I trust each always believed
the other to be true in spirit. I know I always did, touching yourself.
You are good to assure me you have had the same faith in me, and I hope
when you reach threescore and ten, some kind friend will cheer you with
equally generous and welcome words."
The last entry in the diary for 1881 says: "The year closes down on a
wilderness of work, a swamp of letters and papers almost hopeless." She
attacked it, however, with that sublime courage which was ever her
strongest characteristic, and at the end of the first week of the new
year the heaviest part of the burden was lifted from her shoulders by
the receipt of this letter from Mr. Phillips:
DEAR SUSAN: Our friend Mrs. Eliza Eddy, Francis Jackson's daughter,
died a week ago Thursday. At her request, I made her will some
weeks before. Her man of business, devoted to her for twenty-five
years, Mr. C. R. Ransom (ex-president of one of our banks) is the
executor. He and I were present and consulted, and we know all her
intentions and wishes from long talks with her in years gone by.
After making various bequests, she ordered the remainder divided
equally between you and Lucy Stone. There is no question whatever
that your portion will be $25,000 or $28,000. I advised her, in
order to avoid all lawyers, to give this sum to you outright, with
no responsibility to any one or any court, only "requesting you to
use it for the advancement of the woman's cause."
After all the years of toil without financial recompense, of struggling
to accomplish her work with wholly insufficient means, of depending from
month to month on the few dollars which could be gathered in, Miss
Anthony's joy and gratitude scarcely could find expression in words. She
answered at once:
Your most surprising letter reached me last evening. How worthy the
daughter of Francis Jackson! How it carries me back to his generous
gift of $5,000; to that noble, fatherly man and that quiet, lovely
daughter in his home. Never going to Boston during the past fifteen
years, I had lost sight of her, though I had not forgotten her by
any means. How little thought have I had all these years that she
cherished this marvellous trust in me, and now I recognize in her
munificent legacy your own faith in me, for such was her confidence
in you that I feel sure she would not have thus willed, if you had
not fully endorsed her wish. So to you, my dear friend, as to her,
my unspeakable gratitude goes out. May I prove worthy the care and
disposal of whatever shall come into my hands. Will you, as my
friend and Mrs. Eddy's, ever feel free to suggest and advise me as
to a wise use thereof? I am very glad it was your privilege to be
with her through these years of her loneliness. I am pleased that
you and Mr. Ransom propose to appropriate something to her faithful
brother James, and most cheerfully do I put my name to the paper
you enclose, with the fullest confidence that you would ask of me
nothing but right and justice to all parties.
A few days afterwards she received another letter from Mr. Phillips:
You remember Mrs. Bacon (Mrs. Eddy's daughter) died about a week
after she did. Her husband (who Mrs. Eddy knew would disturb her
will if he could) is trying ostensibly to break it, really to force
you and Lucy Stone to buy him off. The grounds on which he objects
to the will are "that she was of unsound mind; that I and her
executor exercised over her an undue influence in urging her to
leave her money as she did; and that she did not know how much she
was willing away." The truth is, we never said one word to her. It
was her own plan entirely to leave it to woman's rights. Mr. Bacon
knows there is not a ghost of a chance of his succeeding. The
executor and I have retained Benjamin F. Butler and mean to fight
to have Mrs. Eddy's will executed as she wished. The Misses Eddy
sustain the will and wish it carried out to the letter, and say if
it is broken they shall give their portion to the woman's rights
cause, to you and Lucy. I'll tell you when any news is to be had.
We are doing our best to protect your interests.
This was the beginning of litigation which continued for three years,
and was a source of annoyance to Miss Anthony in other respects besides
being deprived of the money. The fact of the bequest naturally being
heralded far and wide by the newspapers, appeals and demands for a share
of it poured in from all quarters, and she had much difficulty in
persuading people that she had not the money already in her hands to be
divided.
In company with Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony arrived in Washington January
16, 1882, to attend the Fourteenth Annual Convention. The effort to
secure a special committee on woman suffrage which had failed in the
Forty-sixth Congress was successful in the Forty-seventh, through the
championship of Senators Hoar and John A. Logan, Representatives John D.
White, of Kentucky, Thomas B. Reed and others. There was bitter
opposition by Senator Vest, of Missouri, who declared it to be "a step
toward the recognition of woman suffrage, which has nothing in it but
mischief to the institutions and to the society of the whole country."
In his zeal he dropped into poetry, saying,
"A woman's noblest station is retreat,
Her fairest virtues fly from public sight,"
and so, of course, she had no need of a special committee. It was
vigorously opposed also by Senator Beck, of Kentucky, who said "the
colored women's votes could be bought for fifty cents apiece;" and by
Senator Morgan, of Alabama, who made a stump speech on "dissevered
homes, disbanded families, pot-house politicians seated at the fireside
with another man's wife, women fighting their way to the polls through
crowds of negroes and ruffians," etc.[6] It was carried in the Senate by
a vote of 35 to 23; in the House, a month later, by a vote of 115 to 84.
Miss Anthony says of this in her diary: "If the best of worldly good had
come to me personally, I could not feel more joyous and blest."
In addition to the usual distinguished array of speakers were Rev.
Frederick Hinckley, Representative G. S. Orth, of Indiana, Senator
Saunders, of Nebraska, Clara B. Colby, Harriette R. Shattuck and Helen
M. Gougar, all new on the National platform. The Senate committee on
woman suffrage just appointed, granted a hearing January 20, and at its
close expressed a desire to hear other speakers among the ladies on the
following day. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton presented each of the
members of the committee with the first volume of the History of Woman
Suffrage.
The convention closed with the usual handsome reception at the Riggs
House and immediately afterwards most of the speakers went to
Philadelphia, where Rachel Foster had arranged for another
convention.[7] This was held at St. George's Hall, January 23, 24, 25,
welcomed by Rev. Charles G. Ames, and was highly successful. A pleasant
feature of this occasion was a luncheon given by that revered Quaker and
temperance worker, Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith, of Germantown, to twelve
of the prominent speakers.
The two historians hastened back to their work, which was interrupted
only by Miss Anthony's going to the New York State Suffrage Convention
held in Chickering Hall, February 1. Calls for her presence and help
came from many parts of the country. "O, how I long to be in the midst
of the fray," she writes, "and here I am bound hand and foot. I shall
feel like an uncaged lion when this book is off my hands." On February
15, her birthday was celebrated by suffrage clubs in many places,[8] but
she refused to be drawn out of her retreat, where she was remembered
with telegrams, newspaper notices and gifts. In quoting a complimentary
reference from the Rochester Herald, the Elmira Free Press commented:
The Herald says too little. Miss Anthony has labored for the most
part without money, and from pure love of the principle to which
she has devoted her life. She is as good a knight as has enlisted
in any crusade, and has sacrificed as much and been as faithful and
true. She has been thrice true, indeed, because of the ridicule
showered on her as a woman trying to do a man's work. No man ever
had the courage of his convictions as much as she. It takes a bold
spirit to stand up against the dangers of gunpowder in the
old-time, legitimate way; but it is a braver one that withstands
ridicule and that mean cunning which makes wit of every act looking
toward the advancement of women. The Free Press has perhaps had as
many of the frowns of this "good gray poet" of the woman's cause as
anybody. It has seen enough of them to know, however, that behind
that somewhat frigid exterior is a sensitiveness which would well
become a girl of sixteen rather than a lady of sixty-two and which
shows that the woman is always the woman; and it wants to present
its compliments to the bravest and grandest old lady within the
circle of its acquaintance.
The Washington Republic furnished another example of the pleasant things
said:
Miss Anthony, whom we know well and of whom we can speak from
personal experience, is so broad in her charity, so cosmopolitan in
her sympathies, that she will stand, without fearing speck or soil,
beside any publican or sinner whose eyes have been opened to see
the good in woman's rights, and who is willing to help on the work
in his own way. For herself she never deviates from the principles
she espoused when, stepping upon the rostrum to plead for
disfranchised women, she determined that her life work should be
endeavoring to procure for her sex all the rights and privileges of
which exclusively male legislation had for ages defrauded them.
With eyes steadily fixed upon the goal she has in view, neither the
jeers nor ridicule of the crowds without, nor the jealous asides of
those claiming to be workers in the same cause, have had power to
distract her attention or make her turn from her labor to answer or
rebuke.
The last of April the second volume of the History was completed and its
editors found to their dismay that they still had enough material on
hand for a third huge volume. Mrs. Stanton sailed for Europe with her
daughter Harriot, and after Miss Anthony had read the last bit of proof
and seen all safe at the publishers, she obeyed an urgent call from the
women at Washington and hastened thither to look after the congressional
committees on woman suffrage.
She was fortunate in her friends at court at this time, having two
cousins, Elbridge G. Lapham and Henry B. Anthony, in the United States
Senate, and her lawyer, John Van Voorhis, of Rochester, in the House of
Representatives, all in favor of woman suffrage, and the two cousins on
the "select committee" of the Senate. On June 5, 1882, this committee
made a report in favor of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of
the United States, signed by the Republican senators, E. G. Lapham, T.
W. Ferry, H. W. Blair and H. B. Anthony. The minority report took the
ground that suffrage was a matter which should be regulated solely by
the States, not by Congress, and was signed by J. Z. George and Howell
E. Jackson (Dems.), and James G. Fair (Rep.).
The following year, March 1, 1883, the House committee, John D. White,
chairman, presented a favorable report. This was the first time woman
suffrage had received a majority report from a Senate or House
committee.[9]
[Illustration: Autograph: "Very sincerely, John D. White"]
When Miss Anthony returned home she found this bright note from Harriot
Stanton, dated Paris: "... Dear Susan, you often seem to me like a
superb warhorse. You are completely swallowed up in an idea, and it's a
glorious thing to be. Carlyle says, 'The end of man is an Action, not a
Thought,' and what a realization of that truth has your life been. You
have never stopped for idle culture or happy recreations. You are
possessed by a moral force, and you act. You are a Deed, not a
Thinking.... I should love to be your biographer. You are to other women
of your time just what Greek architecture is to Gothic. I long to carve
your literary image, and know I could."
If Miss Anthony had any hope of rest it was soon dispelled. The
legislature of Nebraska had submitted a woman suffrage amendment, and
the women of that State called upon the National Association for
assistance. After a vast amount of preliminary correspondence she left
Rochester September 2, and travelled westward, leaving a trail of
newspaper interviews in her wake, as she was intercepted by reporters at
every city. En route she wrote to her friend Mrs. Nichols: "Only think,
I shall not have a white-haired woman on the platform with me, and shall
be alone there of all the pioneer workers. Always with the 'old guard' I
had perfect confidence that the wise and right thing would be said. What
a platform ours then was of self-reliant, strong women! I felt sure of
you all, and since you earliest ones have not been with us, Mrs.
Stanton's presence has ever made me feel that we should get the true and
brave word spoken. Now that she is not to be there, I can not quite feel
certain that our younger sisters will be equal to the emergency, yet
they are each and all valiant, earnest and talented, and will soon be
left to manage the ship without even me."
The opening convention was held in Boyd's Opera House, Omaha, September
26, 27, 28. The Bee was ironical and contemptuous in its treatment,
heading its report "Mad Anthony's Raid." The Herald, under control of a
young son of U. S. Senator Hitchcock, was vulgar and abusive, referring
to the question as a "dead issue." The Republican, edited by D. C.
Brooks, replied:
PRETTY LIVELY "DEAD ISSUE."--During the three days' sessions of the
woman suffrage convention, we estimate that 7,000 people were in
attendance. The Republican, in its three daily issues, and its
coming weekly issue, will have laid the proceedings in full before
about 75,000 readers, and the Bee and Herald will have given them
nearly as many more. For a "dead issue" we submit this is a pretty
respectable showing. Considered as a series of political meetings,
the suffrage convention had more hearers than all the Democratic
meetings and conventions held in Omaha during the last five years.
The audiences were truly representative, embracing the business,
professional and working interests of our city, and composed very
largely of voters and citizens influential in politics.
The next convention was held in Lincoln with the same crowded houses.
The newspapers were fair in their reports. The National Association
raised $5,000 by contributions, mostly from outside the State. Miss
Anthony gave her time and services and over $1,000 in money besides all
she collected. Mrs. Foster and daughters contributed $500. Eleven
speakers were kept in the field,[10] and all the complicated series of
meetings was arranged and managed by Rachel Foster, assisted by Mrs.
Colby. Miss Anthony herself spoke in forty counties, free transportation
being given her by all the railroads in the State. On October 13, she
held the famous debate at Omaha with Edward Rosewater, editor of the
Bee, in the presence of an immense audience. Everywhere her meetings
were perfect ovations, people coming in from a radius of twenty-five
miles; and outside of Lincoln and Omaha, there was no audience-room
large enough to hold the crowds.
A splendid force of Nebraska women conducted the campaign in behalf of
the State. Every effort possible was made in the brief space of six
weeks, but the masses of voters were not prepared for the question, most
of the leading newspapers opposed it, and the women had no help from
either of the political parties. In spite of these fatal drawbacks, the
suffrage amendment received about one-third of the total vote.[11]
Miss Anthony returned home by way of St. Louis, where Mrs. Minor gave a
large reception in her honor. When she reached Rochester she was invited
by the Lincoln Club, one of the leading political organizations of the
city, to give her address, "Woman Wants Bread, not the Ballot." The
Democrat and Chronicle said in its report: "The large audience-room of
the city hall was completely filled, and many extra seats were brought
in. A number of prominent ladies and gentlemen occupied seats upon the
platform. W. E. Werner, president of the club, in introducing the
speaker, said it was fitting the hall should be full to overflowing with
an audience anxious to hear the greatest advocate of one of the greatest
questions of the day."
Miss Anthony had made a short trip to Washington immediately upon her
return from Nebraska, to confer with the select committees on woman
suffrage and also to make final arrangements for the approaching
National Convention. It met in Lincoln Hall, January 23, 24 and 25,
1883, and she presided over its deliberations.
In response to many urgent letters written by Mrs. Stanton from England,
and encouraged by friends at home who felt that she needed a long rest
after more than thirty years of uninterrupted public work, Miss Anthony
decided to make a trip abroad. As Rachel Foster contemplated a few
years' study in Europe, the pleasant arrangement was made that she
should undertake the financial management of the journey, act as
interpreter and give Miss Anthony the care and attention her loving
heart would suggest.[12] Miss Anthony's sixty-third birthday being near
at hand, the friends in Philadelphia, led by the Citizens' Suffrage
Association, Edward M. Davis, president, tendered her a reception, which
circumstances rendered it necessary to hold on the 19th instead of the
15th of February. The Philadelphia Times gave this account:
The parlor of the Unitarian church was filled to overflowing on the
occasion of the farewell reception to Miss Susan B. Anthony. After
prayer by Rev. Charles G. Ames, Robert Purvis, who presided, said
in a brief and earnest address: "I have the honor, on behalf of the
National Suffrage Association, to present to you these resolutions
testifying to their high regard, confidence, and affection." After
the applause which the resolutions evoked, Mr. Purvis continued: "I
present these with feelings which I can not express in words, for
my thoughts take me back in vivid recollection to those stormy
periods of persecution and outrage when you, Miss Anthony, with the
foremost in the ranks of the Abolitionists, battled for the freedom
and rights of the enslaved race. You have lived, with many
compeers, to see the glorious result of your labors in redeeming
from the infamy and degradation of chattelism 4,000,000 slaves.
That done, your attention was turned to the greater question--in
view of numbers--of woman's emancipation from civil and political
debasement."
Upon rising to reply Miss Anthony received an ovation. She said: "I
feel that I must speak, because if I should hear all these words of
praise and remain silent, I should seem to assent to tributes which
I do not wholly deserve. My kind friends have spoken almost as if I
had done the work, or the greater part of it, alone, whereas I have
been only one of many men and women who have labored side by side
in this cause. Philadelphia has had the honor of giving to the
world a woman who led the way in this noble effort. Lucretia Mott
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were active in the good work ere my
attention had been called to it. It was through their influence
that I was led to consider and accept the then new doctrine. Alone
I should have been as a mere straw in the wind.... I have known
nothing the last thirty years save the struggle for human rights on
this continent. If it had been a class of men who were
disfranchised and denied their legal rights, I believe I should
have devoted my life precisely as I have done in behalf of my own
sex. I hope while abroad that I shall do something to recommend our
work here, so as to make them respect American women and their
demand for political equality...."
Letters, telegrams, flowers and gifts were received in great
numbers.[13]
May Wright Sewall had this graphic description in the Indianapolis
Times, owned and edited by Col. Wm. R. Holloway, an earnest advocate of
woman suffrage:
The few days spent in Philadelphia by Miss Anthony prior to sailing
were a series of fetes. She spoke to over one thousand girls of the
Normal School on the public duties of women; was officially invited
to visit the Woman's Medical College; was given a reception by the
New Century Club; was tendered a complimentary dinner by Mrs. Emma
J. Bartol, in her own elegant home, where ten courses were served
and toasts were drunk to the guest of honor.... Letters of
introduction, quite unsolicited, poured in from friends and
countrymen personally unknown to her, who thus showed their desire
to facilitate her meeting with the stars of various desirable
circles abroad. At the public reception, Robert Purvis presented
the following testimonial, beautifully engrossed on vellum, and
encased in garnet velvet with gold borders:
"_Resolved_, That the National Woman Suffrage Association of the
United States does hereby testify its appreciation of the life-long
devotion of Susan B. Anthony to the cause of woman; that it
acknowledges her as the chief inspirer of women in their struggle
for personal liberty, for civil equity, and for political equality;
that as one of the foremost of American women it commends her to
the women of foreign lands.
"_Resolved_, That the members of the association rejoice in the
approaching holiday of their beloved leader; that they will follow
her wanderings with affection and sympathy; that during her absence
they will steadfastly uphold the principles to which her life has
been devoted; that on her return they will welcome her to a
resumption of her labors and hold themselves ready to work under
her able and devoted leadership."
Among the numerous letters and telegrams were messages from Wendell
Phillips, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Mary Clemmer,
Helen Potter, Emma C. Bascom and Dr. Alida C. Avery.... Probably no
testimony was more enjoyed than the following:
"ROCHESTER, N. Y., THE HOME OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY: In this open
letter old friends and neighbors unite with all who honor the
birthday of its true citizen, and express the sincere wish that
Miss Anthony in her sojourn in strange lands may find what she has
in full measure here at home--a genuine appreciation of her true
womanliness, her sturdy adherence to honest conviction and her
heroic stand, against all opposition, for the higher education and
enfranchisement of women. Wishing her Godspeed and a safe return,
we, the undersigned, do not need to assure her that neither the
triumphs nor the defeats of her future public life will change our
estimation of her, for to us she will ever remain what her life
among us has proved her to be--a good, true woman, self-consecrated
to the cause of woman in every land."
The signatures include the names of eighty of the leading men and
women of Rochester; among them editors of the papers of both
parties, pastors of the prominent churches, university professors,
bankers, politicians, etc. Honor, if tardy, surely comes at last to
the prophet in her own country. A song written for the occasion and
inscribed to Miss Anthony, by Annie E. McDowell, one of the first
editors of a woman's paper, was splendidly sung by Mr. Ford, the
composer, who had set it to music.
Among the telegrams was this from her brother, D. R. Anthony:
"Sixty-three years have crowned you with the honor and respect of the
people of America, and with the love of your brothers and sisters."
From the friends in Washington, D. C., came a plush case, on whose satin
lining rested an exquisite point lace fichu and sleeve ruffles. A New
York gentleman sent $100 to be used toward the purchase of an India
shawl, writing: "I don't believe in woman suffrage, but I do believe in
Susan B. Anthony." The Cheney Brothers sent a handsome black silk dress
pattern; Helen Potter, a steamer rug; the Fosters, a travelling bag;
Adeline and Annie Thomson, a silver cup; Robert Purvis, a gold-handled
umbrella, and there were various other tokens of remembrance. Many of
the leading papers contained an editorial farewell, with a hearty
compliment and Godspeed. The Chicago Tribune, edited by Joseph Medill,
offered this tribute:
The best known and most popular woman in the United States, engaged
in public work, is Susan B. Anthony, the co-worker of Wm. Lloyd
Garrison, Lydia Maria Child, Wendell Phillips, Lucretia Mott and
others in the anti-slavery movement, and the fellow-laborer of
Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the woman's rights movement. She ranks
first among the warriors in this latter contest, because she has
lived her life in its service and there has been no side issue to
it. Neither father nor mother, husband nor children, have diverted
her mind from her hobby, or led her to cease for a day from the
prosecution of the task she set out to accomplish.... Miss Anthony
is an American woman whom the better class of English people
particularly, and of foreigners generally, will delight to honor,
and one that her country-women are pleased to have represent them.
She is, in point of character and ability, one of the few of her
sex who have made themselves a name and a place in the history of
her time....
She has had occasion to speak sharply, to lecture women severely,
when in her heart she would have preferred to praise; but women
love her dearly all the same, and trust her implicitly. In
integrity, stainless honor and generosity of sentiment and of deed
she has no peer. She has stood the storm of raillery and abuse she
aroused, as the leader of the "shrieking sisterhood," with perfect
equanimity, and while others were cowed by the ridicule which was
hardest of all to bear, Miss Anthony busied herself using this
opportunity to show to women the real opinion of them entertained
by the stronger sex.
Only those who are aware of the great and beneficent changes made
in the laws relating to the rights of property, for instance, can
at all estimate the good accomplished by these brave women. Almost
all the leaders in the movement are gone. Mrs. Stanton and Miss
Anthony, both elderly women, now remain in the work, and Miss
Anthony alone still labors with the old-time zeal and freedom. She
is at her best mentally and physically, and is likely to live many
years to follow up the work she is now doing. The best lesson that
women can learn from her life is that success in any one thing is
secured only by the sacrifice of many others, and that for a woman
to reach the highest place in her chosen pursuit is for her to work
with an eye single to it, counting it a privilege to forego
pleasures and affections which tend to distract and divide
attention. Miss Anthony knew this secret of success, as she has
proven.
When the history of the reform work done in this country in this
century is written, no individual laborer will have higher praise
than that which belongs to Miss Anthony. Honest, sincere, tolerant
and kind, she has won the homage of her adversaries; for while
there is but a small minority of men and women who believe in woman
suffrage, there are none who fail to pay tribute to the sterling
qualities of this representative woman.
The Kansas City Journal said good-by in these graceful words: "Susan B.
Anthony will celebrate her sixty-third birthday tomorrow, and in a few
days will sail for England.... She goes abroad a republican
queen--uncrowned to be sure, but none the less of the blood royal, and
we have faith that the noblest men and women of Europe will at once
recognize and welcome her as their equal. Fair winds waft her over the
sea and home again!"
The two ladies sailed from Philadelphia on the morning of February 23,
and a special dispatch to the New York Times thus announced their
departure:
Miss Susan B. Anthony, accompanied by Miss Rachel Foster, embarked
on the British Prince, of the American Steamship Line, at 9 o'clock
this morning, for Liverpool. Notwithstanding the cold and cheerless
weather, quite a number of persons stood patiently on the wharf,
facing the raw and snow-laden air which blew from the river,
waiting to see the steamer get under way and to catch a glimpse of
the celebrated champion of woman's rights. A little before 10
o'clock Miss Anthony came out of her stateroom with several friends
and, bidding them a final farewell, watched with sober countenance
as they passed down the gang-plank. Among those present were Miss
Mary Anthony, of Rochester, Miss Julia Foster, Miss Thomson, a
sister of the first president of the Pennsylvania R. R.; Rev. Dr.
Soule, formerly of Scotland; Mrs. M. Louise Thomas and Edward M.
Davis....
Miss Anthony was attired in a black silk dress and wore a black
velvet bonnet. A beaver-lined satin circular was drawn tightly
about her form. She retired immediately to her stateroom, where a
pleasant surprise awaited her in the shape of a handsome silk flag,
the gift of a friend, which was suspended in a corner of the room.
Her eyes rested upon the tasty and comfortable apartment, bearing
numerous evidences of the kindly feeling and good wishes of her
friends, with visible enjoyment and emotion.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] This comment applies with equal force to Albany today. It is the
only city in the United States where Miss Anthony has not a standing
invitation to a number of hospitable homes.
[6] For full report of debate see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III,
p. 198.
[7] Miss Anthony, Mrs. Sewall and Mrs. Jane Graham Jones remained over
one day to appear before the House committee, presenting arguments in
favor of abolishing the word "male" from the Constitution of Dakota
before admitting it as a State.
[8] This national celebration of Miss Anthony's birthday by suffrage
clubs was first suggested by Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, in her
department, "Woman's Kingdom," in the Chicago Inter-Ocean.
[9] For full text of reports see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III.,
p. 263.
[10] Mrs. Sewall, Mrs. Gougar, Miss Couzins, Mrs. Minor, Mrs. Saxon,
Miss Hindman, Mrs. Shattuck, Mrs. Mason, Madame Neymann, Mrs. Blake and
Miss Anthony.
[11] After the election some of the students of the State University
placed an effigy of Miss Anthony in a coffin and with torches and
pallbearers started in a funeral procession. They were met by another
crowd of students who, to preserve the honor of the university,
overpowered them and took the effigy away.
[12] It was on this trip that, as "Miss Anthony" seemed too formal and
"Susan" too familiar, Miss Foster adopted the endearing title "Aunt
Susan." After they returned and a few of the younger workers most
closely associated with her began to use this name, Miss Anthony did not
object; but when it came into general use and not only older women and
comparative strangers, but men also, and the newspapers, fell into the
habit of calling her "Aunt Susan," she was very much annoyed and never
heard or saw the name without an inward protest.
[13] Among the letters was the following from Senator John J. Ingalls:
"I see by the papers that you are about to depart for Europe. Though I
do not sympathize with the opinions whose advocacy has made you famous,
yet I am not insensible to the great value of the example of your
courageous and self-denying labors to the cause of American womanhood. I
hope that none but prosperous gales may follow your ship, that your
visit may be happy, and that your life may be spared till your
aspirations are realized."