WORLD'S FAIR--CONGRESS OF REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN.
1893.
It is not surprising that Miss Anthony writes in her journal at the
beginning of the New Year, 1893: "The clouds do not lift from my spirit.
I am simply overwhelmed with the feeling that I can not make my way
through the work before me." Never a year in all her crowded life opened
with such a mountain of things to be attended to--suffrage conventions,
council meetings, the great Woman's Congress at the World's Fair, State
campaigns, Industrial School matters, lecture engagements--the list
seemed to stretch out into infinity, and it is no wonder that it
appalled even her dauntless spirit.
The first necessity was to get the Washington annual convention out of
the way. It had been set for an early date this winter, and she left
home January 5. Headquarters were at Willard's Hotel and the convention
opened in Metzerott's Music Hall, January 15, continuing the usual five
days. At the opening session Miss Anthony read beautiful tributes by
Mrs. Stanton to George William Curtis, John Greenleaf Whittier,
Ernestine L. Rose and Abby Hutchinson Patton, who had died during the
year, all earnest and consistent friends of woman's equality.
Resolutions were adopted recognizing the splendid services of Francis
Minor, Benjamin F. Butler, Abby Hopper Gibbons, Rev. Anna Oliver and a
number of other active and efficient workers who also had passed away.
Miss Anthony, in her president's address, gave a strong, cheery account
of the past year's work and an encouraging view of the future, and at
both day and evening sessions there were the usual number of able and
entertaining speeches. Reports were made by delegates from thirty-six
States. At the business meeting the question again came up of holding
the annual convention in Washington at the beginning of each new
Congress and in some other part of the country in alternate years. This
plan was vigorously opposed by Miss Anthony, who said in her protest:
The sole object, it seems to me, of this national organization is
to bring the combined influence of all the States upon Congress to
secure national legislation. The very moment you change the purpose
of this great body from National to State work you have defeated
its object. It is the business of the States to do the district
work; to create public sentiment; to make a national organization
possible, and then to bring their united power to the capital and
focus it on Congress. Our younger women naturally can not
appreciate the vast amount of work done here in Washington by the
National Association in the last twenty-five years. The delegates
do not come here as individuals but as representatives of their
entire States. We have had these national conventions here for a
quarter of a century, and every Congress has given hearings to the
ablest women we could bring from every section. In the olden times
the States were not fully organized--they had not money enough to
pay their delegates' expenses. We begged and worked and saved the
money, and the National Association paid the expenses of delegates
from Oregon and California in order that they might come and bring
the influence of their States to bear upon Congress.
Last winter we had twenty-three States represented by delegates.
Think of those twenty-three women going before the Senate
committee, each making her speech, and convincing those senators of
the interest in all these States. We have educated at least a part
of three or four hundred men and their wives and daughters every
two years to return as missionaries to their respective localities.
I shall feel it a grave mistake if you vote in favor of a movable
convention. It will lessen our influence and our power; but come
what may, I shall abide by the decision of the majority.
Miss Anthony was warmly supported by a number of delegates but the final
vote resulted: in favor, 37; opposed, 28.
Among the notable letters received by the convention was the following
from Lucy Stone: "Wherever woman suffragists are gathered together in
the name of equal rights, there am I always in spirit with them.
Although absent, my personal glad greeting goes to every one; to those
who have borne the heat and burden of the day, and to the strong, brave,
younger workers who have come to lighten the load and complete the
victory. We may surely rejoice now when there are so many gains won and
conceded, and when favorable indications are on every hand. The way
before us is shorter than that behind; but the work still calls for
patient perseverance and ceaseless endeavor. The end is not yet in
sight, but it can not be far away." Those who listened little thought
that this would be the last message ever received from that earnest
worker of fifty long years. Letters of greeting were sent to her and to
Mrs. Stanton. Miss Anthony was unanimously re-elected president.
She lingered for a few days' visit with Mrs. Greenleaf, who gave a
reception for her, at which Grace Greenwood was one of the receiving
party. She had a luncheon at Mrs. Waite's, wife of the Chief-Justice,
and after several other pleasant social functions, left Washington
February 1.[81] There was now a magnet in New York City and henceforth
she always arranged her hurried eastern trips so that she might spend a
few hours or days with Mrs. Stanton, when as in the old time, they wrote
calls, resolutions and memorials and made plans to storm the
strongholds.
On February 8, Miss Anthony spoke at Warsaw, the guest of Mrs. Maud
Humphrey; and for the next week the journal says: "Trying all these days
to get to the bottom of my piles of accumulated letters." On her
seventy-third birthday the Political Equality Club gave a reception at
the pleasant home of Rev. and Mrs. W. C. Gannett, and presented her with
a handsome silver teapot, spirit lamp and tray. Mrs. George Hollister
gave her a set of point lace which had belonged to her mother, the
daughter of Thurlow Weed; and there were numerous other gifts. She wrote
to Mrs. Avery on the 23d: "It is just ten years ago this morning, dear
Rachel, since we two went gypsying into the old world. Well, it was a
happy acquaintance we made then and it has been a blessed decade which
has intervened. Ten years of constant work and thought, but ten years
nearer the golden day of jubilee!"
She arranged a meeting at the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, March 1,
for May Wright Sewall, president National Council of Women, to speak on
the approaching Woman's Congress at the World's Fair. On March 6 she
began a brief lecture tour, speaking in Hillsdale, Detroit, Saginaw, Bay
City, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Battle Creek, Charlotte and in Toledo. Nine
evening addresses, several receptions, and over a thousand miles of
travel in twelve days, was not a bad record for a woman past
seventy-three.[82]
Among the pleasant letters received through the winter were several from
the South. Miss Anthony was especially appreciative of the friendship of
southern women, as her part in the "abolition" movement in early times
had created a prejudice against her, and in later days the sentiment for
suffrage had not been sufficient to call her into that part of the
country, where she might form personal acquaintances and friendships.
She had, during these months, earnest letters from the women of Italy
asking for encouragement and co-operation in their struggles. Many
letters came also from teachers, stenographers and other wage-earning
women, full of grateful acknowledgment of their indebtedness to her.
There were invitations enough for lectures to fill every month in the
year, ranging from the Christian Association at Cornell to the
Free-thinkers' Club in New York, and covering all the grades of belief
or non-belief between the two. She was asked to contribute to a
symposium on "The Ideal Man," to write an account of "The Underground
Railroad," and to give so many written opinions on current topics of
discussion that to have complied would have kept her at her desk from
early morning until the midnight hour.
In a letter to a friend she said: "The other day a millionaire who wrote
me, 'wondered why I didn't have my letters typewritten.' Why, bless him,
I never, in all my fifty years of hard work with the pen, had a writing
desk with pigeonholes and drawers until my seventieth birthday brought
me the present of one, and never had I even a dream of money enough for
a stenographer and typewriter. How little those who have realize the
limitations of those who have not."
She wrote to Robert Purvis at this time: "What a magnificent opening
speech Gladstone made, and how splendid his final remarks: 'It would be
misery for me if I had foregone or omitted in these closing years of my
life any measure it was possible for me to take towards upholding and
promoting the cause--not of one party or one nation, but of all parties
and all nations.' So can you and I say with Gladstone, we should be
miserable but for the consciousness that we have done all in our power
to help forward every measure for the freedom and equality of the races
and the sexes."
In April she lectured at a number of places in New York to add to the
limited fund which kept the pot boiling at home.[83] She also went to
Buffalo to talk over Industrial School matters with Mrs. Harriet A.
Townsend, president of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union,
which had proved so great a success in that city. On the 28th she spoke
before the Woman's Columbian Exposition Committee of Cincinnati, "to a
very fashionable and representative audience," the Enquirer said. For
this lecture she received $125. During the spring she wrote the Woman's
Tribune:
How splendidly Kansas women voted, and now come suffrage amendments
in Colorado, New York and Kansas! Well, we must buckle on our armor
for a triple fight, and we must shout more loudly than ever to our
friends all over the country for money to help these States.
Although Kansas is the most certain to carry the question,
nevertheless we must organize every school district of every county
of each State in which the battle of the ballot for woman is to be
fought. _Organize_, _agitate_, _educate_, must be our war cry from
this to the day of the election.
Today's mail brought $100 to our national treasury from Mrs. P. A.
Moffett, of Fredonia. How my heart leaped for joy as I read her
letter and again and again looked at her check, and how I
ejaculated over and over, "O that a thousand of our good women who
_wish_ success to our cause would be moved thus to send in their
checks!" Only a very few can go outside to work, but many can
contribute money to help pay the expenses of those who do leave all
their home-friends, comforts and luxuries. If the many who stay at
home and wish, could only believe for a moment that we who go out
not knowing where our heads will rest when night comes, really love
our homes as they love theirs, they would vie with each other to
throw in their mite to make the path smooth for the wayfarers. But
we, every one of us who can speak acceptably, must do all in our
power to persuade the men of these States to vote for the
amendment. Do let us all take to ourselves new hope and courage for
the herculean task before us. Who will send the next $100? O, that
we had $10,000 to start with!
Miss Anthony and Mrs. Avery met at Mrs. Sewall's for a conference on
Woman's Congress matters and then went to Chicago to attend, by
invitation, the formal opening of the Columbian Exposition May 1, 1893.
Miss Anthony wrote: "Mrs. Palmer's speech was very fine, covering full
equality for woman." Her address the year before at the dedication
ceremonies contained one of the noblest tributes ever paid to women,
closing with these beautiful sentences: "Even more important than the
discovery of Columbus, which we are gathered together to celebrate, is
the fact that the general government has just discovered woman. It has
sent out a flashlight from its heights, so inaccessible to us, which we
shall answer by a return signal when the exposition is opened. What will
be its next message to us?" Upon this occasion she was even more
eloquent. Her keen expose of the absurd platitudes in regard to woman's
sphere, and her fine defence of women in the industrial world, deserve a
place among the classics.
Since Miss Anthony's part in this great world's exposition must
necessarily be condensed into small space, it seems most satisfactory to
place it all together. It has been related in the chapter of 1876 how
women were denied practically all governmental recognition in the
Centennial. They were determined that this should not be the case in
1893. As early as 1889 she began making plans to this effect and
conferring with other prominent women. Several officials, who were in
positions to influence action on this question, had declared that
"those suffrage women should have nothing to do with the World's Fair;"
and as some women whose social prestige might be needed were likely to
be frightened off if suffrage were in any way connected with the matter,
Miss Anthony felt the necessity of moving very discreetly. As "those
suffrage women" had been behind every progressive movement that ever had
been made in the United States for their own sex, it was hardly possible
that they would not be the moving force in this. Miss Anthony was not
seeking for laurels, however, either for herself or for her cause, but
only to carry her point--that women should participate in this great
national celebration and that they should do this with the sanction and
assistance of the national government. In her plans she had the valuable
backing of Mrs. Spofford, who made it possible for her to remain in
Washington every winter, gave the use of the Riggs House parlors for
meetings and aided in many other ways.
Miss Anthony went quietly about among the ladies in official life whom
she could trust, and as a result various World's Fair meetings were held
at the hotel, participated in by Washington's influential women, and a
committee appointed to wait upon Congress and ask that women be placed
on the commission. She did not appear at these gatherings, and only her
few confidantes knew that she was behind them. Meanwhile it was
announced early in January, 1890, that the World's Fair Bill had been
brought before the House, and Miss Anthony at once prepared a petition
asking for the appointment of women on the National Board of Management.
This was placed in the hands of ladies of influence and in a few days
one hundred and eleven names were obtained of the wives and daughters of
the judges of the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, senators, representatives,
army officials; as distinguished a list as could be secured in the
national capital.
This petition was presented to the Senate January 12. It requested that
women should be placed on the board with men, but instead, the bill was
passed in March creating a commission of men and authorizing them to
appoint a number of women to constitute a "Board of Lady Managers."
These 115 appointments were intended to be practically of a
complimentary nature, it was not expected that the women would take any
prominent part, and no particular rule was observed in their selection.
While perhaps in some States they were not the ablest who might have
been found, they were, as a board, fairly representative. To bring this
great body into harmonious action and guide it along important lines of
work, required a leader possessed of a combination of qualities rarely
existing in one person--not only the highest degree of executive ability
but self-control, tact and the power of managing men and women. They
were found, however, in the woman elected to preside over this board,
Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer, of Chicago. At the close of the exposition it
was universally conceded that she had proved herself pre-eminently the
one woman in all the country for this place. Her record, during the
several years that she held this very responsible position, is one of
the most remarkable ever made by any woman.
At the time Miss Anthony prepared her petition to Congress for
representation, no action had been taken by any organized body of women
in the country, and if she had not been on the field of battle in
Washington and acted at the very moment she did, the bill would have
passed Congress without any provision for women. They would have had no
recognition from the government, no appropriations for their work, no
official power, and their splendid achievements at the Columbian
Exposition, which did more to advance the cause of women than all that
had been accomplished during the century, would have been lost to the
world. Having secured this great object, she asked no office for herself
or for any other woman. On several public occasions, in the early months
of the fair, she refused to speak or to sit on the platform, lest she
might embarrass the President of the Board of Lady Managers by
committing her to woman suffrage. Mrs. Palmer, however, showed her the
most distinguished courtesy, in both public and private affairs,
inviting her to the platform and including her in the social functions
at her own residence. Miss Anthony soon felt that she was in full
sympathy with herself in every measure which tended to secure for women
absolute equality of rights, a point which Mrs. Palmer emphasized in the
most unmistakable language in her eloquent address delivered in the
Woman's Building, at the close of the exposition.
In these circumscribed limits it will be impossible to give any adequate
account of that greatest of all accomplishments of women at the World's
Fair--the Woman's Congress--whose proceedings fill two large volumes in
the official report. In order that intellectual as well as material
progress should be presented, it had been decided to hold a series of
congresses which should bring together a representation of the great
minds of the world. C. C. Bonney was made president of the Congress
Auxiliary; Mrs. Palmer, president, and Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin,
vice-president of the Woman's Branch. Although women were to participate
in all, Mr. Bonney desired to have one composed of them alone. To assist
Mrs. Henrotin, who had been made acting president, as well as to further
insure the success of this congress, Mr. Bonney appointed May Wright
Sewall chairman, and Rachel Foster Avery secretary, of the committee of
organization, and they were assisted by an efficient local committee.
As president and secretary of the National Council of Women, and Mrs.
Sewall vice-president of the International Council, no two could have
been secured with so wide a knowledge of the organizations of women
throughout the world and the best methods of securing their
co-operation. The magnitude of their labors can be appreciated only by
an examination of the official report. The fact of their merging into
this congress the International Council of Women, which was to have been
held in London that year, was one of the most potent elements of its
success. Miss Anthony wrote Mrs. Sewall: "The suffrage work has missed
you, oh, so much, still I would not have had you do differently. I glory
in Rachel's and your work this year beyond words."
The World's Congress of Representative Women, which opened May 15,
1893, was the largest and most brilliant of any of the series which
extended through the six months of the fair, and was considered by many
the most remarkable ever convened. Twenty-seven countries and 126
organizations were represented by 528 delegates. During the week
eighty-one meetings were held in the different rooms of the Art Palace.
There were from seven to eighteen in simultaneous progress each day and,
according to official estimate, the total attendance exceeded 150,000
persons. The fifteen policemen stationed in the building stated that
often hundreds of people were turned away before the hour of opening
arrived, not only the audience-rooms but the halls and ante-rooms being
so crowded that no more could enter the building, which held 10,000.
All who were in attendance at this congress, all who read the accounts
in the Chicago daily papers, will testify that it is not the bias of a
partial historian which prompts the statement that Susan B. Anthony was
the central figure of this historic gathering. Every time she appeared
on the stage the audience broke into applause; when she rose to speak,
they stood upon the seats and waved hats and handkerchiefs. People
watched the daily program and when she was advertised for an address,
there was a rush from other halls and an impenetrable jam in the
corridors. Again and again she was obliged to call upon a stout
policeman to make a way for her through the throngs which pressed about
her, anxious to get even a sight of her face. No matter what department
of the congress she visited, whether of education, religion,
philanthropy or industries, the audience demanded a speech and would not
be satisfied until it was made.[84] Large numbers of the women who gave
addresses in these various meetings paid tribute to her work, and the
mention of her name never failed to elicit a burst of applause. At the
many public and private receptions given to the congress the post of
honor was assigned to her, and no guest ever was satisfied to leave
without having touched her hand.
[Illustration: May Knight Sewall (with signature)]
It is not too much to say that no woman in this country, or in any
other, ever was so honored because of her own individual services to
humanity. It was the universal recognition of her labors of nearly half
a century, that had laid the foundation upon which had been reared all
the great organizations represented by the women in this congress. Hers
had been the pioneer work, the blazing of the pathway through the
forests of custom and prejudice which for untold centuries had forbidden
them to step beyond the narrow limits of domestic occupations. All of a
sudden, it seemed, the women of the world had awakened to the knowledge
that she had borne ridicule, abuse, misrepresentation, disgrace, that
they might enter into the kingdom of woman's right to her highest
development. Long-delayed though it had been, the women of her own and
other countries came to lay their homage at her feet, to bow before her
in loving gratitude, to rise up and call her blessed.
Letters of congratulation were received from far and wide; one from
Frances E. Willard in Switzerland said:
MY BELOVED SUSAN: You are a happy woman and we are all crowing to
think the people love, honor and call for you so loud and long. It
suits one's sense of poetic justice; it confirms one's faith in
human nature and the Heavenly Power not ourselves "that makes for
righteousness." Lady Henry, Anna Gordon and I have "hoorayed" over
your laurels and said, "Bless her; she is not only _our_ Susan but
everybody's." Lady Henry says you have the true sign of greatness
that you are absolutely without pretension. You do not take up all
the time and luxuriate in the sound of your own voice, but are glad
to give the other ones a bit of breath too. She says no woman of
fame has ever so thoroughly made this impression of modesty and
unselfishness upon her mind. And I say Selah.[85]
[Illustration: Autograph: "Isabel Somerset"]
In her London letter the noted correspondent, Florence Fenwick Miller,
of England, wrote:
Amidst all the attractive personalities and ideas presented, the
most sought of all--the one whose presence drew crowds everywhere,
who was made to speak in whatever hall she entered, and who was
surrounded in every corridor and every reception, just as the
queen-bee is surrounded in the hive by her courtiers, was the
veteran leader of the woman suffragists of America, Susan B.
Anthony. At seventy-three she is as upright of form, as clear and
powerful of mind, as strong of voice, as courageous and
uncompromising as ever. Let our revered and beloved Miss Anthony
have the last word.
The program for the Woman's Congress assigned but one session to the
National-American Suffrage Association, and it was the honest intention
to give no more time to the discussion of political equality than to
each of the other departments. It made a place for itself, however, in
practically every one of the meetings. Whether the subject were
education, philanthropy, reform or some other, the speakers were sure to
point out the disabilities of woman without the ballot. So strong was
the desire to hear this question discussed that it became necessary to
hold afternoon meetings in the large halls, aside from those on the
regular morning and evening program, in order to give the eager crowds
an opportunity to hear its distinguished advocates from all parts of the
world. It is doubtful if the whole fifty years of agitation made as many
converts to equal suffrage as did the great object lesson of the Woman's
Congress.
Many pleasant letters passed between Miss Anthony and Mr. Bonney, Mrs.
Palmer and Mrs. Henrotin. The last named asked her to take part in the
Temperance, the Labor and the Social and Moral Reform Congresses and
requested her advice and assistance. She was placed by Mr. Bonney on the
advisory council of the Political, Social and Economic Congresses. Mrs.
Palmer wrote: "I should like you to send us special suggestions for
speakers and topics." Miss Anthony was much pleased at the selection of
Mrs. Palmer for president of the Board of Lady Managers, heartily
seconded all her efforts and lent no support to the dissensions made by
several women who thought there should have been more recognition of
those who had been pioneer workers. That this was appreciated is shown
by a letter written as early as April, 1891:
I feel that I must express my thanks to you that you did not
condemn us unheard, for I naturally supposed that as ---- ----
belonged to your organization you would take her view of any matter
which interested her. I thank you very much for your
fair-mindedness, and beg that you will read the statement which I
shall send you and which will probably give you a better idea of
this unpleasant matter than anything else you have seen.
I remember with great pleasure our meeting in Washington, and hope
it was only the first of many such pleasant occasions for me.
Thanking you again, I am most cordially yours,
[Illustration: Autograph: "Most Cordially Yours, Bertha M H Palmer"]
Miss Anthony spoke several times at the noon-hour meetings held in the
Woman's Building.[86] Mrs. James P. Eagle, chairman, who edited the
report of the noon-hour addresses, wrote her: "I would not take much
pleasure in publishing our book if I could not have something from your
addresses to go in it. You must not deny me. One of your talks was
'Woman's Influence vs. Political Power,' another 'The Benefits of
Organization.' If it is your best and easiest way, make the speeches and
employ a stenographer to take them and send me the bill. I can not
afford to miss them. You have been so very kind and encouraging to me
all along that I shall feel it a Brutus blow if you fail me now." As she
never wrote a speech in these days and could not make the same one
twice, she was unable to comply with this request.
Miss Anthony was invited to speak at the Press Congress May 27, the day
when the religious press as a leader of reforms was under consideration.
The managers became very uneasy and began trying to find out how she
meant to handle the question. Her only reply was, "I shall speak the
truth." The speech, delivered before an audience containing many
ministers, caused a tremendous sensation. She took up the reforms,
temperance, anti-slavery, woman's rights, labor, and showed conclusively
that in every one the church and the religious press, instead of being
leaders, were laggards. At the close the chairman remarked
apologetically that of course the speaker did not expect people in
general to agree with everything she had said. The Chicago Tribune thus
finished its report: "As Miss Anthony had an engagement she was obliged
to leave at this point, and most of the audience went with her."
The Congress on Government convened August 7 and, at Mr. Bonney's
request, Miss Anthony was present at the opening ceremony and responded
to an address of welcome in behalf of the civil service commission. Five
sessions of this Government Congress were devoted to a discussion of
equal suffrage, the speakers being women. The chairman, Hon. Wm. Dudley
Foulke, said it was not the intention to give this subject such
prominence, but women had shown so much more interest than men, half of
them accepting the invitation to take part and only one man in twenty
responding, that he was compelled thus to arrange the program.
Soon after the adjournment of the Woman's Congress Miss Anthony left the
Palmer House, which had been its headquarters, and, accepting the
invitation of Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley, enjoyed the congenial atmosphere
of her beautiful home for a month. At the conclusion of her visit with
Mrs. Coonley she went for six weeks with Mr. and Mrs. Sewall, who had
taken a large house for the season. This was a social center and the
weekly receptions were a prominent feature, bringing together
distinguished people from all countries, who were in Chicago, as
officials or visitors, during this wonderful summer. While at Mrs.
Coonley's Miss Anthony formed two acquaintances who from that date have
been among her most valued friends--Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E. Gross. After
leaving the Sewalls she spent a delightful month with them at their
residence on the Lake Shore drive, where she was surrounded with every
luxury which wealth and affection could bestow. This added another to
the homes in that city always open to her, and Mrs. Gross often wrote:
"Your visits are a sweet benediction to our family."[87]
Among the most elegant of the many social affairs to which she was
invited was the luncheon in the great banquet hall of the Hotel
Richelieu, given by the officers of the National Council to those of the
International, the foreign delegates and a few other guests, 150 in all.
May Wright Sewall presided with great dignity and charm over the "after
dinner speech-making" of this assemblage of the representative women
from the most highly civilized nations of the world, and Miss Anthony
sat at her right hand.
Once she went to Harvey and spoke at a camp meeting of 3,000 persons;
and later to the Bloomington Chautauqua to give an address; then all the
way to Kansas to speak at the State Fair in Topeka and fill a month's
lecture engagements. Two weeks she spent in her own home visiting with
relatives; then rushed down to Long Island to hurry Mrs. Stanton with
her paper; and back again to Chicago to read it for her at the
Educational Congress. Many days and evenings were passed among the
wealth of attractions on the exposition grounds; and so the summer waxed
and waned, one of the longest holidays she ever had known, and yet with
not an idle hour through all the four months of delightful associations
and cherished acquaintances. She writes in the diary October 30: "This
was my last sight of the White City in its full glory by night."
Among the many graceful words of farewell spoken by the press of
Chicago, may be quoted the following from the Inter-Ocean, which
suggests the strong and graceful pen of Mary H. Krout:
It is pleasant in these reminiscent days when we talk over the
glories and delights of the World's Fair, to recall the honors
heaped upon Susan B. Anthony. Her personal friends vied with each
other in arranging elaborate entertainments of which she was the
central figure. There were dinners and luncheons, banquets and
receptions, and at each and all the refined and delicate face
shone above the board with a beauty and tranquillity far exceeding
the mere beauty of youth and faultlessness of feature. It was the
beauty of experience, sweetened and purified by success and
appreciation....
It must seem a strange contrast to the woman who has worked so
perseveringly in the face of untold difficulties--this change that
a few years have wrought. It has not been so very long since she
was the universal butt of ridicule, lampooned and caricatured, with
all that malice, in its coarsest and most brutal form, could
suggest. Her age was the favorite theme of the callow witling, her
cause a never-failing subject for reproach and abuse. It is all
over and done with, thanks to the new race of men which women
themselves are training and educating. There are no words for her
nowadays but those of praise and affection. She has lived to see
truth survive and justice vindicated. Men no longer regard her as
the arch-enemy to domestic peace, disseminating doctrines that mean
the destruction of home and the disorganization of society. They
perceive in her, rather, the advocate of that liberty which knows
no limitations either of sex or of condition--a freedom which,
achieved, means the incalculable advancement of the race.
In all the assemblages where Miss Anthony was present during those
memorable months--the observed of all observers, holding a
veritable court--her admirers were both men and women, and no belle
at a ball was ever more unmistakably deferred to. It made her
happy, as it should have done. But it made far happier those who
have believed in her all these years, that she should have
triumphed over ignorance and prejudice, and at threescore and ten
have come into her kingdom at last. When it is asked what woman was
most prominent, most honored, most in demand in all the public
ceremonials and private functions held in Chicago during the
Columbian Exposition, there can be but one answer--Susan B.
Anthony.
Through all the summer and autumn of 1893 a campaign had been going
forward in Colorado, where the legislature had submitted the question of
woman suffrage to the voters. The national association was represented
by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who rendered splendid service. Mrs. Leonora
Barry Lake spoke under the auspices of the Knights of Labor. The rest of
the work was done by the women of Colorado, who proved a host in
themselves. Miss Anthony held herself in readiness to go at any time but
the friends felt that, unless vitally necessary, she should be spared
the hardships. Circumstances were favorable; there had been a vast
change in public sentiment since the defeat of 1877; the question was
submitted at a time when only county elections were held and there was
no political excitement; Populists and Republicans not only endorsed it
but worked for it; Democrats offered no party opposition and many of
them gave it cordial support; more than half of the newspapers in the
State advocated it. The campaign in Colorado differed from all those
which had been conducted in other States in the fact that it was not
left for women to carry on alone, but the most prominent men in all
parties lent their assistance and made the victory possible.[88] The
amendment was carried by nearly 6,000 majority, about three to one in
favor. Miss Anthony received the telegram announcing the fact November
8, the day after election, and she was the happiest woman in America.
Immediately upon returning home from Chicago she went to the State
suffrage convention which met in Historical Hall, Brooklyn, November 13.
While in New York she was the guest of Mrs. Russell Sage at the dinner
of the Emma Willard Alumnae. Four days were given to the convention,
one or two spent with Mrs. Catt, in her delightful home at
Bensonhurst-by-the-Sea, and a few at the suburban residence of Mrs.
Foster Avery. While here she addressed the New Century Club in
Philadelphia, and for several days following was in attendance at the
Pennsylvania convention. On December 18, she lectured at Jamaica; the
19th at Riverhead; the 20th at Richmond; the 22d she attended the
Foremothers' Day dinner in New York and made an address; the 23d she
spoke before the Women's Conference of the Ethical Society in that city.
When not lecturing she was struggling with her mass of correspondence,
attending to her duties in connection with the Industrial School, and
making preliminary arrangements for two big State campaigns which
required the writing of hundreds of letters, all done with her own hand.
Invitations came during these days to address the New York Social Purity
League, the Women's Republican Association, the Pratt Institute and the
National Convention of the Keeley Cure League; and requests for articles
on "Why Should Young Men Favor Woman Suffrage?" for the Y. M. C. A.
paper of Chicago; "What Should the President's Message Say?" for the New
York World; "If you had $1,000,000 what would you do with it?" for a
symposium; and at least a score of similar applications. The friendly
letters included one from Judge Albion W. Tourgee, acknowledging receipt
of the History of Woman Suffrage, "from one whose devotion to principle
and brave advocacy of right have ever commanded my profound esteem." He
also expressed his interest and belief in the principle of woman
suffrage. The same mail brought a letter from Professor Helen L.
Webster, asking for a copy of the History to place in the library of
Wellesley College "so that it may be within reach of the students."
The Kansas legislature again had submitted a suffrage amendment and many
letters were coming from the women of that State, begging Miss Anthony's
help. She filled reams of paper during December, telling them how to put
everybody to work, to organize every election precinct in the State, to
raise money, and above all else to create a public sentiment which would
demand a woman suffrage plank in the platform of each of the political
parties. "I am going to make a big raid to get a fund for Kansas," she
wrote, "but nothing will avail without the support of the parties." The
work in Kansas was not, however, by any means the most formidable
undertaking which confronted her. The women of New York were about to
enter upon the greatest suffrage campaign ever attempted, and toward its
success she was bending every thought, energy and effort, earnestly
cooeperating with the strongest and best-equipped workers in the State.
FOOTNOTES:
[81] James G. Blaine died while she was in Washington and the diary
says: "He should have lived, and the Republicans should have honored him
as their leader. He _was that_, though not chosen by them."
[82] The newspapers, almost without exception, in all these places,
spoke in unqualified praise of Miss Anthony and her work, of her "royal
welcome," her "packed audiences," her "masterly address," etc. Several
of them, notably the Bay City Tribune, contained strong editorial
endorsement of woman suffrage. At Lansing she addressed the House of
Representatives and the next day the bill conferring municipal suffrage
on women was voted on; 38 ayes, 39 nays. It was reconsidered, received a
good majority in both Houses and was signed by the governor, but
afterwards declared unconstitutional by the supreme court of the State.
[83] The diary shows a gift for this purpose, during the month, of $150
from Rachel Foster Avery and $50 from Adeline Thomson.
[84] "More than once--indeed, I believe more than a score of times--I
saw speakers of eloquence and renown interrupted in the midst of a
discourse by audiences who simply would not listen, after Miss Anthony's
entrance into the hall, until she had been formally introduced and an
opportunity given them to express their reverence by prolonged
applause."--From letter of Mrs. Sewall.
[85] Lady Henry had just returned from Chicago where she had attended
the World's Fair Temperance Congress and here had heard Miss Anthony for
the first time. At the close of her speech declaring that there could be
no effective temperance work among women until they had the ballot, Lady
Henry came forward and gave it her most hearty endorsement.
[86] "As only the most gifted women will be invited to participate in
these entertainments, we hope the invitation will be esteemed as an
honor conferred by the Board of Lady Managers, and your acceptance will
be gratefully appreciated."--Note of Invitation.
[87] As a memento of these visits Mrs. Gross presented Miss Anthony with
$100; and Mrs. Coonley gave her a rich brocaded silk dress and a
travelling suit, both beautifully made by her own dressmaker, with
bonnets to match.
[88] The "Remonstrants" flooded the State with their literature, but as
this contained a conspicuous advertisement of a large liquor
establishment, it defeated itself. The headquarters of the organized
opposition were located in a Denver brewery.