THE SECOND KANSAS CAMPAIGN.
1894.
The Kansas legislature of 1893 had submitted an amendment conferring
full suffrage on women, to be voted on in November, 1894. Mrs. Laura M.
Johns, president of the State Suffrage Association, had written Miss
Anthony in April, 1893: "Republicans and Populists are pledged to the
support of the amendment. I consider both parties equally committed by
their platforms this year, and by their votes in the legislature. We
ought to have somebody present in each county convention of both, next
year, to secure a suffrage resolution which would insure such a plank in
each State platform. You see if one party leaves it out the other will
take it up and use it against the first."
During all the voluminous correspondence of 1893, in which Mrs. Johns
assured Miss Anthony again and again that her assistance in the campaign
was absolutely necessary to success, the latter did not once fail to
impress upon her that the endorsement of the political parties was the
one essential without which they could hope for nothing. She mapped out
and sent to Mrs. Johns a complete plan of work, covering many pages of
foolscap, arranging for a thorough organization of every precinct in the
State, for the specific purpose of bringing to bear a pressure upon the
political conventions the next summer which would compel them to put a
plank in their platforms endorsing the amendment. She made it perfectly
clear that, if the conventions did not do this, she would not go into
the State.
When the Kansas women came to the Washington convention in February,
1894, Miss Anthony for the first time had her suspicions aroused that
the politicians of that State were getting in some shrewd work to
prevent them from pressing the question of planks in the platforms. Mrs.
Johns had made the serious mistake of accepting also the presidency of
the State Republican Woman's Association, and had been actively
organizing clubs and conferring with Republican leaders. She insisted
that she was making woman suffrage the primary feature of her work, but
Miss Anthony held that her strong Republican affiliations could not
avoid weakening her influence with the Populists. She did, it is true,
send out circulars urging the local organizations to work for planks in
both State conventions; and she did advise the women to keep clear of
partisan action, but this advice could hardly be effective coming from
the State president of the Republican Woman's Association. Miss Anthony
wrote her: "My dear Laura, you must choose whom you will serve--the
Republican party or the cause of woman's enfranchisement;" and she
replied: "Please don't insult my loyalty with any such suggestion as
this; I have never served anything but the suffrage cause since I began
the suffrage work;" and continued to look after the welfare of her
Republican clubs and arrange Republican meetings.
There is no question that a tremendous pressure was brought to bear upon
the suffrage leaders by the Republican politicians. If space would
permit the publication of their many letters now on file they would make
interesting reading. That of Charles F. Scott, of the Iola Register,
urging Mrs. Johns to call off her women and telling her the exact
language in which to do it, is a masterpiece of political shrewdness. It
concludes: "Try to get E. W. Hoch nominated for governor and we won't
need any platform." As a specimen of pure humor might be quoted one from
Case Broderick, M. C., in which he says:
I have thought a good deal about this question and have concluded
we can recognize the movement by a resolution similar to this:
"While the question of the amendment of the constitution, now
pending, granting the right of suffrage to women, is wholly
non-partisan and should not be made a test of Republicanism, yet
we can not view with apprehension the effort to fully confer upon
the women of Kansas the elective franchise."
He then closes: "Some will contend that we ought to say one thing or the
other ... but such a resolution as this would not drive any from our
party." One must admit that it would not scare them to death. Mr.
Broderick, however, was an honest believer in woman suffrage and later
did attempt to secure some recognition for it in the platform. The
Republicans sent an agent of adroit address among the suffrage clubs to
explain to them how "an endorsement by the political parties would be
really a hindrance to their success," and it was charged that this was
done with the consent of some of the leading women.
Miss Anthony wrote to Mrs. Johns at this time: "You know as well as I do
that not one of those Republicans thinks party endorsement will damage
the suffrage amendment, as they are trying to make the women believe,
but every one of them does fear that it will hurt his chances for some
position and lose the party the votes of the Germans and the whiskey
dealers. The shame for them now is vastly greater than it was
twenty-seven years ago, for then they feared to lose the enfranchisement
of the negro. Their proposal to leave out the plank now, after they have
carried the question thus far, is too wicked to be tolerated by any sane
woman![101] I marvel that you do not see and feel the insult and
humiliation."
On March 6, 1894, Mrs. Johns wrote: "I find a stampede here on the plank
question. _Women_ of _both_ parties are going against it. Judge Johnston
of the supreme bench is opposed to it; so is Judge Horton. Do write them
for their views; you know they are good friends of ours. I am worried.
The Republicans will hold the first convention, and the general talk of
candidates, managers and leaders is against a plank. I was yesterday
about to go into print in regard to it, but am afraid if I make
strenuous efforts and am beaten that it will hurt us more than if I keep
quiet. Prominent men are writing and besieging me to relieve the party
of the embarrassment of this demand. I am not clear in my own mind what
to do."
As the weeks went on it became more and more apparent that the women
were yielding to the pressure. The officers of the National-American
Association, which had pledged nearly $2,300 to help Kansas, insisted
that the women should continue to demand the endorsement of the
political parties and let the onus of failure rest upon the men and not
upon themselves. It might not be worth while to quote from the official
letters sent, the campaign having passed into history, but for the fact
that they may serve as a guide to other States in the future.
Carrie Chapman Catt, the national organizer, wrote: "It is very plain
that the chief fight is now. We must compel endorsement, and I believe
we can do it. How any man in his sane senses could think non-endorsement
would give votes and sympathy, I can not conceive; or how the women can
have a hope of winning without it, after all the experience of our
campaigns." Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the Woman's Journal and an
experienced politician, wrote Miss Anthony:
At the request of Mrs. Johns I enclose a letter from Mr. Wagener,
of Topeka. He gives the worst possible advice, and Mrs. Johns'
letter seems to show that she is surrounded by bad advisers and in
doubt as to her course. If there is anything which twenty-seven
years' work has taught us, it is that a woman suffrage amendment
can not be carried without at least one political party squarely
behind it. In Colorado, for the first time, we have had a majority;
and Mrs. Catt, and Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Stansbury of Denver, all
say that the amendment could not have been carried if the
Republican, Populist and many of the Democratic district
conventions had not first endorsed it in their platforms. It thus
became a live issue and the masses of voters became interested and
enlightened.
On the other hand, our South Dakota experience is conclusive....
All three parties ignored it, and the press of the State joined in
a conspiracy of silence. The campaign speakers were instructed not
to name it. We had to rely for the discussions upon the efforts of
suffragists as outsiders. Consequently ... we were beaten two to
one. The same will surely be true in Kansas in 1894.... If we do
not capture the Republican and Populist State conventions we shall
be beaten in advance. All hinges on that!
I have just talked with Mrs. Lease, who fully agrees with me. The
Republican convention will be the first to meet. If Mrs. Johns will
go before the resolution committee and urge her plank, securing at
least its presentation as a minority report offered in open
session, it will stampede the convention and be carried. Then the
Populists will put one in so as not to be behind the Republicans,
and _then_ we shall probably win. Do write Mrs. Johns to stand by
her guns. No one but her can do this work, because she is
personally dear to the Republicans. The fate of the amendment will
be then and there decided.
[Illustration: Carrie Chapman Catt (Signed: "Yours Faithfully Carrie
Chapman Catt")]
Rev. Anna Shaw, vice-president-at-large, wrote Mrs. Johns in this
vigorous language:
I must confess that while I can readily understand the abject
cowardice and selfishness which prompt men and political tricksters
to urge the abandonment of the plank, I can not understand how you
or any other woman with a grain of sense can listen to such
proposals for a moment. That endorsement is our only hope. If that
fail us, our cause is lost in advance; for it will show the body of
the party what the leaders think and feel on the subject, and be a
tacit command to kill it. The hypocrisy of the whole business
should not receive from women even a show of belief. What wonder
men despise us as a shallow lot of simpletons, if we are deceived
by so thin a pretense as this? I for one protest against it so
strongly that if your committee agree to it and do not push party
endorsement, I must decline to fool away my time in Kansas. If you
give up that point I must refuse to go a single step or raise a
dollar. I am sick of the weakness of women, forever dictated to by
men. Experience has taught us what a campaign unendorsed means.
Think of submitting our measure to the advice of politicians! I
would as soon submit the subject of the equality of a goose to a
fox. No; we must have party endorsement or we are dead.
If I am not to go to Kansas, I want to know it immediately. It is
too late even now, for I refused twenty consecutive engagements for
May in one State, thinking it was all given up to Kansas. The man
or woman who urges surrender now is more a political partisan than
a lover of freedom. I care nothing for all the political parties in
the world except as they stand for justice. I can not tell you how
even the suggestion of this surrender affects me. For the love of
woman, do not be fooled by those men any longer.
Finally, as the case grew more hopeless, Miss Anthony, as president of
the National-American Association, on March 11, sent the following:
_To the Kansas Woman Suffrage Amendment Campaign Committee--Laura
M. Johns, Bina M. Otis, Sarah A. Thurston, Annie L. Diggs and
Others:_
MY DEAR FRIENDS: I have the letter of your chairman, Mrs. Johns,
together with one she forwards from a lawyer of Topeka, with the
added assertion that Judges Horton, Johnston et al., and leading
editors and politicians, are begging your committee to cease to
demand of the two great political parties, the Republican and
People's, that they put a suffrage plank in their platforms; but
instead, simply allow the amendment to go before the electors on
its merits--that is to say, repeat the experiment as it has been
made and has failed eight times over....
The one and only sure hope of carrying the amendment in Kansas is
to have on its side all the aid of the political machinery of its
two great parties. My one object in consenting to go into your
campaign for May and June, was to create so strong a public demand
as to make sure that every delegate elected to the State nominating
conventions of the Republican and People's parties shall be
instructed by his constituents, in county convention assembled, to
vote for a woman suffrage plank in the platform. The moment your
committee abandons this aim, I shall lose all interest in your
work. You say: "Prominent Republicans are besieging us to relieve
their party of the embarrassment of this demand." So did they
besiege us twenty-seven years ago. No; not for a moment should you
think of relieving the politicians from the duty of declaring for
this amendment. If you do, you are unworthy the trust reposed in
you. I surely never would have promised to go into your campaign,
or begged the friends to contribute, had I dreamed of the
possibility of your surrendering to the cowardice of political
trimmers.
If the convention which meets first do not endorse the amendment,
then the other will not; in which event, its discussion will not be
germane in either party's fall campaign. On the other hand, if the
first put a plank in its platform, the other will be sure to do so;
and then the question will be a legitimate one to be advocated in
the meetings of both parties and this will ensure the presentation
of our cause to all the voters of the State.
By this means the two parties will run your amendment campaign, and
you will not be compelled to make a separate suffrage campaign.
That you can not do in any event, because (1st) you can not get
either the speakers or the money necessary; and (2d) if you could
get both, you would have only women in your meetings, and defeat
would be just as certain as in the eight States which have had such
separate woman's campaigns. Therefore, if you decide to abandon the
demand for political endorsement and active help, as the first and
chief object of this spring's work, you may count me out of it; for
I will not be a party, even though a protesting one, to such a
surrender of our only hope of success.
I came home for a rest over Sunday, after speaking five successive
nights in five different counties, in our New York campaign, and
these letters with the weak--the wicked--thought of not demanding
of the political leaders to make their parties help carry the
amendment, raged through my brain all night long. How to put the
shame of surrender strongly enough was my constant study, sleeping
and waking alike. No, a thousand times no, I say; and if you do
yield to this demand at the behest of men claiming to be your
friends, you make yourselves a party with those men to ensure your
defeat. The speakers will advocate no measure, and the vast
majority of men will vote for none, which is not approvingly
mentioned in the platform. If you give up trying for political
endorsement, or fail after trying, all hope of carrying the
amendment will be gone. So, over and over I say, demand party help!
Lovingly but protestingly,
SUSAN B. ANTHONY.
Mrs. Johns, of course, indignantly rejected the imputation that she was
not working night and day to secure a plank from the Republican
convention. She was a most efficient manager, but the cause of her
weakness and that of the other women, was that they were trying to serve
two masters. The very fact that the Republican men were begging them not
to ask for a plank, shows the power which the women already possessed in
their municipal suffrage, and they should have had the courage to stand
firm in their demands for recognition in the platform, for the dignity
of their cause and their womanhood, whether there were hope of getting
it or not. There is no doubt that Mrs. Johns did make an earnest effort
to this end, but there is also no doubt that every Republican leader
understood that even if the party did not endorse the suffrage
amendment, she and her associates still would be no less Republicans and
would work no less vigorously for the party's success. Miss Anthony's
Kansas correspondence during 1894 comprises 300 letters and all confirm
the statements thus briefly outlined.
The Republican politicians made the women believe if they would not
insist on the party's placing itself on record and thus losing the
support of the elements opposed to woman suffrage, all of them would
vote for the amendment. Should the women of Kansas ever become
politically free, the publication of these letters would be fatal to
some aspiring male candidates, but so long as the men still have it in
their power to grant to women or to withhold the full franchise, it is
the part of wisdom to leave them on their files. There were many Kansas
women, however, who refused to be deceived and sustained Miss Anthony's
position. In April she wrote to one of the Republican leaders:
If the Republicans had two grains of political sense, they would
see that for them to espouse the amendment and gain the glory, as
they surely would, of lifting the women of the State into full
suffrage, would give them new life, prestige and power greater and
grander than they ever possessed; and they would not be halting
and belittling themselves with such idiotic stuff and nonsense as
their advice to let the amendment go to the electors of the State
"on its own merits." But however politicians may waver, our
suffrage women must not have a doubt, but must persist in the
demand for full recognition in both platforms. We must exact
justice and if they do not give it, the curse be on their heads,
not ours.
The same month she wrote Mrs. Johns:
I can not tell you how more and more it is borne in upon me that
our one chance lies in securing the Republican pledge to carry us
to victory, for that will mean a Populist pledge, and both planks
will mean a clean-cut battle between the different elements of the
grand old party combined as one on this question--and the Democracy
of the State. Even with so solid an alliance of the two branches,
we shall have a hard enough fight of it. Every woman who listens to
the siren tongues of political wire-pullers and office-seekers not
to demand a plank, will thereby help to sell Kansas back into the
hands of the whiskey power. Behind every anti-plank man's word,
written or spoken, is his willingness to let Kansas return to
saloon rule. Sugar coat it as they may, that is the unsavory pill
in the motive of every one of them.
Sincerely and hopefully yours, trusting in good and keeping our
powder dry.
Enough has been quoted to show the situation. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt
and Miss Shaw went to Kansas to open the spring canvass, May 4, to
influence the State conventions. Miss Anthony had been advertised for
forty-three speeches. The women of New York, where a great campaign was
in progress, were highly indignant that she should leave her own State,
but she had put her heart into this Kansas campaign as never into any
other, and she fully believed that, if properly managed, the result
could not fail to be victory for the amendment. The three ladies held
the first meeting in Kansas City, May 4. Miss Anthony made a speech
which fairly raised the hair of her audience, demanding in unqualified
terms the endorsement of the amendment by the Republican and People's
parties. She closed by offering the following resolution, which was
unanimously adopted:
WHEREAS, From the standpoint of justice, political expediency and
grateful appreciation of their wise and practical use of school
suffrage from the organization of the State, and of municipal
suffrage for the past eight years, we, of the Republican and
People's parties, descendants of that grand old party of splendid
majorities which extended these rights to the women of Kansas, in
mass meeting assembled do hereby
_Resolve_, That we urgently request our delegates in their
approaching State conventions to endorse the woman suffrage
amendment in their respective platforms.
That night she wrote in her journal: "Never did I speak under such a
fearful pressure of opposition. Mrs. Johns, presiding, never smiled, and
other women on the platform whispered angrily and said audibly, 'She is
losing us thousands of votes by this speech.'" Miss Anthony repeated it
in the county mass conventions at Leavenworth and Topeka, to the dismay
of the Republican women and the wrath of the men.[102] While at the
latter place she received an urgent summons to return immediately to New
York, as fresh dangers threatened; and so she hastened eastward, leaving
the others to fill her engagements. On her way, she stopped by
invitation at Kansas City, Mo., and with Miss Shaw held a Sunday
afternoon meeting at which $133 were raised for the Kansas campaign.
In three weeks Miss Anthony returned to Kansas, arriving June 5. She
found the Republican Woman's State Convention in session, Mrs. Johns
presiding. The committee reported a weak resolution declaring that they
would not make the adoption of a suffrage plank by the Republican State
Convention "a test of party fealty," etc. Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw
condemned this in the strongest English they could command. Mrs. Johns
also severely criticised the committee, but Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, who
had come for both conventions, said: "I care more for the dominant
principles of the Republican party than I do for woman suffrage." The
committee finally were compelled to report a stronger resolution asking
for recognition.
The Republican convention met June 6. C. V. Eskridge, of Emporia, the
oldest and bitterest opponent of woman suffrage in the State of Kansas,
was made chairman of the committee on resolutions. The proposal to hear
the women speak, during an interim in the proceedings, was met by a
storm of noes. Finally Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Johns were permitted to
present the claims of women, but neither Miss Anthony nor Miss Shaw was
given an opportunity to address the convention. They did, however, plead
the women's cause most eloquently before the resolution committee of
thirty-five members, but the platform was entirely silent on the
subject, not even containing the usual complimentary allusions,
recognition of their services, etc.[103] Not the slightest attempt was
made to deny the fact that agents of the party had been at work for
weeks among the various county conventions to see that delegates were
appointed who were opposed to a suffrage plank, and that the resolution
committee had been carefully "packed" to prevent any danger of one. In
conversations which Miss Anthony held with several of the leading
candidates who in times past had advocated woman suffrage, they did not
hesitate to admit that the party had formed an alliance with the whiskey
ring to defeat the Populists. "We must redeem the State," was their only
cry. "Redeem it from what?" she asked. "From financial heresies," was
the answer. "Yes," she retorted, "even if you sink it to the depths of
hell on moral issues."
[Illustration: Autograph: "Your Brother, D R Anthony"]
It is not probable that any earthly power could have secured Republican
endorsement at this time, although heretofore the party always had posed
as the champion of this cause. There never was a more pitiable
exhibition of abject subserviency to party domination. Men who had stood
boldly for woman suffrage in the legislature, men who had spoken for it
on the platform in every county in the State, sat dumb as slaves in this
convention, sacrificing without scruple a lifelong principle for the
sake of a paltry political reward. While many of the papers had spoken
earnestly in favor of the amendment, the Leavenworth Times, owned and
edited by D. R. Anthony, was the only one of size and influence which
demanded party endorsement.[104] The Republican managers had but one
idea--to overthrow Populist rule and get back the reins of
government--and they were ready to take on or pitch overboard whatever
would contribute to this end.
A suffrage mass meeting was held in Topeka the Saturday following the
convention and, in spite of a heavy thunderstorm, there was an audience
of over one thousand. Annie L. Diggs presided and Miss Anthony and Miss
Shaw spoke, the former on "Reasons why the dominant parties do not put a
plank in their platforms;" the latter on, "Woman first, Republican or
Populist afterwards."
The great question now was whether it were wise to ask for a suffrage
plank in the Populist platform, and here again was great diversity of
opinion. Some thought that endorsement by this party would make it
appear like a Populist measure, and the Republicans would vote against
it rather than allow them to have the credit of carrying it. Others held
that the Populists carried the State at the last election and were
likely to do so again, and with their party vote, the Prohibition and
such Republican votes as certainly could be counted on, the amendment
would go through without fail. Miss Anthony belonged to the latter class
and directed every energy towards securing an endorsement in their State
convention, June 12. Although woman suffrage had been one of the tenets
of this party from its beginning, there was by no means a unanimous
sentiment in favor of a plank of endorsement. This was especially true
in regard to the leaders. Governor Lewelling, who was a candidate for
re-election, was openly opposed, and P. P. Elder, chairman of the
resolution committee, made a determined fight against it.
While the resolution committee was out Miss Anthony addressed the
convention, saying in the course of her remarks: "I belong to but one
party under the shadow of the flag, and that is the party of idiots and
criminals. I don't like my company. Are you going to leave your mothers,
wives and sisters in that category? I ask you to say that every woman by
your side shall have the same rights as you have." When she concluded
one of the delegates said: "Miss Anthony, with all due respect, I wish
to ask, in the event of the Populists putting a woman suffrage plank in
their platform, will you work for the success of this party?" The
newspapers thus report her reply and what followed:
"For forty years I have labored for woman's enfranchisement, and I
have always said that for the party which endorsed it, whether
Republican, Democratic or Populist, I would wave my handkerchief. I
will go before the people at your meetings, and though I know very
little about the other principles of your party and never discuss
finance and tariff, I will try to persuade every man in those
meetings to vote for woman suffrage."
"Miss Anthony," said Mr. Carpenter, "we want more than the waving
of your handkerchief, and if the People's party put a woman
suffrage plank in its platform, will you go before the voters of
this State and tell them that because the People's party has
espoused the cause of woman suffrage it deserves the vote of every
one who is a supporter of that cause?"
Miss Anthony answered: "I most certainly will!"
Immediately upon hearing this, the convention went wild--yelled and
cheered and applauded to its very utmost--hundreds rose to their
feet--the cheering lasted five minutes without intermission.
In the confusion Miss Anthony thus finished her interrupted sentence:
"For I would surely choose to ask votes for the party which stood
for the principle of justice to women, though wrong on financial
theories, rather than for the party which was sound on the
questions of money and tariff, and silent on the pending amendment
to secure political equality to half the people."
None of the reporters caught this and, as a result, the simple
statement, "I certainly will," appeared in all the Kansas papers and
went the rounds of the press of the entire country.
The suffrage question had its opponents and advocates among leaders and
delegates. It occupied the resolution committee until late at night, and
finally went down to defeat, 8 to 13. When the resolutions were reported
they considered finance, labor, taxes, banks, bonds, arbitration,
pensions, irrigation, freight rates, transportation, initiative and
referendum--everything under the sun but the suffrage amendment. In
regard to that much agitated point they were painfully silent. On this
committee was one woman delegate, Mrs. Eliza Hudson, who could not be
coaxed or bullied. She gave notice at once that she would make a
minority report and carry it to the floor of the convention. The
following was signed by herself and seven other members of the
committee: "_Whereas_, The People's party came into existence and won
its glorious victories on the fundamental principles of equal rights to
all and special privileges to none; therefore be it resolved that we
favor the pending constitutional amendment."
Meanwhile Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt and Miss Shaw addressed the convention
and were enthusiastically received. When the minority report was
presented and every possible parliamentary tactic had failed to prevent
its consideration, it was vehemently discussed for four hours, in
five-minute speeches, Judge Frank Doster leading the affirmative. The
debate was closed by Mrs. Diggs, and the resolution was adopted, ayes
337, noes 269; carried by 68 majority in a delegate body of 606. During
the fray a tail in some way tacked itself on to the resolution, which
said, "_but we do not regard this as a test of party fealty_." So the
party adopted a plank declaring that it did not regard a belief in one
of its own fundamental principles as a test of fealty; but in the wild
excitement which ensued, a little thing like this was not noticed. The
State Journal thus describes the scene:
When it became evident the resolution had carried, and before the
vote could be announced, the convention jumped up and yelled. Canes
were waved, hats thrown high in the air, men stood on chairs and
shouted frantically. The whole convention was one deep,
all-prevailing impersonated voice. How they howled and stamped, as
though every one loved suffrage and suffragists with all their
hearts!
"I want Miss Shaw to come forward and give that Populist whoop that
she promised she would last night," said a delegate. Miss Shaw came
to the front of the platform and said: "I do not know any better
whoop than that good old tune, 'Praise God From Whom All Blessings
Flow.'" "Sing," said Chairman Dunsmore. The vast audience shook
every particle of air in the big hall with the full round notes of
the long meter doxology. "Let all the people cry amen," said Alonzo
Wardall, who was on the platform. Hundreds of voices which had not
pronounced the word for years joined in the great, resounding,
unanimous "amen" that filled the hall.
Susan B. Anthony, Annie L. Diggs and Anna Shaw leaned over the
front of the stage and shook every man's hand as he passed along,
and hundreds of brown, calloused hands were thrust up to give a
grasp of congratulation. Miss Anthony warmed to her work and had to
push up her sleeves, but she didn't mind that for suffrage, for
which she had just won a glorious victory. Many said, as they
grasped her hand: "You're going to be a Populist now, ain't you?"
During the confusion an old soldier came up and pinned a Populist badge
on her dress, and this was magnified by the newspapers into the
thrilling description: "Miss Anthony seized a Populist badge and,
pinning it on her breast, declared: 'Henceforth and forever I belong to
the People's party!'"
The State Prohibition convention was in progress at Emporia at the same
time, and the women had been notified that a suffrage plank would be
adopted without any effort on their part. On June 13 the following
telegram was sent by the secretary of the convention to Miss Anthony and
Miss Shaw: "Recognizing the right of suffrage as inherent in
citizenship, the Prohibition party stands unequivocally pledged to use
its utmost efforts to secure the adoption of the pending constitutional
amendment for the enfranchisement of women." This was their response
from the Populist convention hall: "The National-American Woman Suffrage
Association sends greeting, and is gratified that there is one political
party which does not need to be urged to declare for justice to women."
The Capitol said: "There was a wild demonstration as their names were
read."
It is hardly possible to give an adequate idea of the storm which
followed the announcement of Miss Anthony's declaration in regard to
the People's party. There was scarcely a newspaper in the country which
did not have its fling. Kate Field's Washington led off with a full
first page entitled, "The Unholy Alliance." Editors opposed to woman
suffrage made it a text for double leaders. Republican papers berated
her without mercy. Letters poured in upon her from personal friends,
judges, mayors, ministers, members of Congress, accepting the published
reports and condemning her in unmeasured terms. Others wrote begging her
to set herself right in the eyes of the public, as they knew she had
been misrepresented. It seemed impossible, however, for her to make
herself clearly understood. She writes in her journal: "One would think
I had committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost in thanking
the Populists for their good promise and saying I preferred them with
justice to women, no matter what their financial folly, to the
Republicans without justice to women, no matter what their financial
wisdom."
She returned home June 20 and all the Rochester reporters were on hand
for an interview. The following from the Democrat and Chronicle is
practically what appeared in all:
Miss Anthony was perfectly willing to talk, and this is a resume of
what the reporter learned: 1. Miss Anthony is not a Populist. 2.
Miss Anthony is not a Democrat. 3. Miss Anthony is not a
Republican. 4. Miss Anthony can not say what party she will join
when the right to vote is given her.
"I didn't go over to the Populists by doing what I did in Kansas,"
she said. "I have been like a drowning man for a long time, waiting
for some one to throw a plank to me. The Republicans refused, but
the Populists threw an excellent plank in my direction. I didn't
step on the whole platform, but just on the woman suffrage plank. I
went forward at the close of the convention and told the men how
glad I was to see one of the dominant parties take up woman
suffrage. I said that we had been besieging the big political
parties for twenty-five years. Here is a party in power which is
likely to remain in power, and if it will give its endorsement to
our movement, we want it.
"I do not claim to know anything of the merits of the issues which
brought the Populist party into existence. All I know is that it is
chiefly made up from the rank and file of the old Republican party
of that State, and that the men who compose it think they have
better methods for the correction of existing evils. They are
protesting against the present order of things, and certainly no
one will deny there is ground for it. I do not endorse their
platform, but I would be one of the last to condemn an honest
protest."
"But," said the reporter, "it always has been understood that you
are a strong Republican."
"Why has it been so understood? Simply because a majority of the
national legislators who have favored us have been Republicans.
Suppose the Republican party of New York, at its coming convention,
refuses to endorse woman suffrage; suppose the Democratic does
endorse it. My action with the Democrats would be just what it was
with the Populists of Kansas. I am for woman suffrage and will work
with any party which will help us. Remember I say 'with,' not
'for.'"
Miss Shaw finished her two months' engagement in Kansas and did not
return to that State. Mrs. Catt wrote Miss Anthony a few weeks after the
conventions:
It is remarkable the difference of opinion that is floating about.
We hear of Populists who are so mad about the plank they declare
they will go back to the Democratic party. Others, even those who
are suffragists, are so mad at the women for putting the plank
forward they say they will vote against the amendment. Democrats
say there can be no fusion and that will mean death to the Populist
party. Some Republicans say they will not vote for the amendment
because it is now a Populist question. Again some Republicans and
some Democrats say they will vote the Populist ticket because of
the plank. From all these varied ideas it is impossible to find out
whether we are better or worse off.... At any rate, the question
now has a political standing, and it will depend upon party
developments where we find ourselves. My own hope is that it may
bring the Republicans to time, but if the Populists say too much,
it may drive them to secret opposition, and then we are done for.
Miss Anthony took a much more cheerful view and replied to the various
letters:
At last one of the dominant parties in a State, and that one the
party in power, has adopted a woman suffrage amendment, and upon
that one plank I have planted my feet. The Republicans by ignoring
us give party sanction to every anti-suffrage man among them; while
the Populists' endorsement makes every anti-suffrage man among them
feel that he will be the better Populist if he vote "yes."...
Meantime, every Farmers' Alliance picnic, every school-house
meeting, will be on fire with the enthusiasm born of their party's
heroic action; for such it was, in defiance of their leaders'
command to imitate the Republicans and ignore the amendment. The
900 Republicans in the State convention obeyed their masters; while
68 more than one-half of the 606 Populists rebelled against theirs.
Surely there is more to hope from the party, a majority of whose
men dare vote opinions against their bosses, than for the one in
which not a single man dares even raise a protest. What would our
friends have had us do? Bless the Republicans for slapping us in
the face, and blast the Populists for giving us a helping hand?
Among the comforting letters which came during these troublous times was
one from Wm. Lloyd Garrison, with whose father she had fought the battle
of Abolitionism, in which he said: "I saw Mrs. Isabel Barrows yesterday
and heard from her of your weary journey together from Chicago, your
discouragement regarding Kansas, and the personal pain occasioned you by
untrue newspaper reports and the harsh criticism of friends. I write to
express my word of sympathy and cheer. Send me a brief statement of the
Populist matter and let me break a lance in your behalf. A reformer's
life is full of misrepresentations. How little they signify in the long
run and, if they did not wound the spirit, would not be worth the
mention. To be misjudged by one's own friends hurts more than all the
bitterness of the rest of the world."
In a public address made this summer, Miss Anthony referred to the
matter in the following beautiful words:
Had the Republicans of Kansas adopted a woman suffrage plank, and
Miss Shaw and Miss Anthony declared that, because of such
endorsement, they would prefer the success of that party, nobody
would have thought it meant that they had endorsed the whole
Republican platform, and made themselves responsible for the right
conduct of every officer and nominee of that party.
I was born and reared a Quaker, and am one still; I was trained by
my father, a cotton manufacturer, in the Henry Clay school of
protection to American products; but today all sectarian creeds and
all political policies sink into utter insignificance compared with
the essence of religion and the fundamental principle of
government--equal rights. Wherever, religiously, socially,
educationally, politically, justice to woman is preached and
practiced, I find a bond of sympathy, and I hope and trust that
henceforth I shall be brave enough to express my thanks to every
individual and every organization, popular or unpopular, that gives
aid and comfort to our great work for the emancipation of woman,
and through her the redemption of the world.
To a letter from Henry B. Blackwell, urging her to be non-partisan if
she could not be Republican, she replied, July 9:
The difference between yourself and me, and Mrs. Johns and me, is
precisely this--that you two are and have been Republicans _per
se_, while I have been a Republican only in so far as the party and
its members were more friendly to the principle of woman suffrage.
I agree with you that it will be in line with Mrs. Johns' ideas for
her to work for the Republican party, false though its platform and
its managers are to the pending amendment; but I could not do so.
The rank and file of the Populist men of Kansas may not possess
equal book or brain power with the Republicans, but they are more
honest and earnest to establish justice, and 337 of their delegates
had manhood enough to break out of the whiskey-Democratic bargain
which their leaders, like the Republican fixers, had made. No, I
shall not praise the Republicans of Kansas, or wish or work for
their success, when I know by their own confessions to me that the
rights of the women of their State have been traded by them in cold
blood for the votes of the lager beer foreigners and whiskey
Democrats....
I have not allied and shall not ally myself to any party or any
measure save the one of justice and equality for woman; but the
time has come when I strike, and proclaim my contempt for the
tricksters who put their political heel on the rights of women at
the very moment when their help is most needed. I never, in my
whole forty years' work, so utterly repudiated any set of
politicians as I do those Republicans of Kansas. When it is a mere
matter of theory, a thousand miles from a practical question, they
can resolve pretty words, but when the crucial moment comes they
sacrifice us without conscience or honor. The hubbub with the
Republicans shows they have been struck in the right place. I never
was surer of my position that no self-respecting woman should wish
or work for the success of a party which ignores her political
rights.
These few extracts from scores of similar letters, speeches and
interviews, show the position consistently and unflinchingly maintained
by Miss Anthony, and justified by many years of experience in such
campaigns. During the summer of 1894, while she was being thus harassed,
she kept steadily on, speaking and working in the New York campaign and
preparing to return to Kansas in the fall. She wrote to the Republican
and the Populist central committees, offering to speak on the suffrage
question upon their platforms. The former, through its chairman, Cyrus
Leland, declined her offer.
To John W. Breidenthal, of the People's party, she wrote: "Do you not
think it will be a great deal better, both for the suffrage amendment
and the Populist party, if in all the announcements it shall be
distinctly stated that Miss Anthony speaks only on the subject of
woman's enfranchisement?" To this he replied, August 6: "I leave the
matter entirely with you whether you confine yourself only to the
suffrage amendment, or whether you add to that the discussion of the
other questions now attracting public attention." Meanwhile she had
been receiving cheerful messages from the Populist women of Kansas,
among them a long and cordial letter from Annie L. Diggs, written August
16:
Nearly everything along the line of my experience and observation
would make you glad. I have large audiences, say the best and
strongest things I know for suffrage and always find the heartiest
response. I see more and more the wisdom of your insistence on
platform mention. Oh, I am so thankful that I, too, saw straight
before it was too late to get the Populist endorsement. I have been
speaking almost constantly, sometimes twice a day, and at every
meeting other speakers and _candidates_ say the best kind of words
for the amendment. Governor Lewelling speaks in warm endorsement,
reports to the contrary notwithstanding. I can not say that he does
so always, but he did at the three meetings which we held together.
The Populists who wanted to shake my head off at the convention,
give me, if possible, warmer greetings than the others. They are
truly glad they took that righteous step....
We Populists wish so much for you and Miss Shaw to come to Kansas.
People constantly ask me if you will talk for the Populists when
you come. I answer that you will talk suffrage at Populist meetings
and will also say that, inasmuch as in Kansas the Populists endorse
suffrage, therefore the party ought to win. Is not that your
intention? How I wish I could describe to you some of the success I
have had in talking to German audiences. But I have not another
minute only to thank you for your kind words about me, and to say
again, as I have said so many years, "I love and revere you."
[Illustration: Autograph: "Faithfully yours, Annie L. Diggs."]
Mrs. Johns wrote, August 27: "I think the Republicans are conscious
dimly of the increasing strength of the Populists. It looks as if they
will win, and it is generally believed the amendment will go through."
As late as October 12, Mrs. Catt, who had been speaking at suffrage
meetings for the past six weeks and whose judgment was generally sound,
said in a letter from Hutchinson:
After all the vicissitudes, hard feelings and distresses of the
campaign, it begins to look as if we were going to come in "on the
home stretch." The last two weeks have wrought wonderful changes.
The tide has set in our favor. I think the chief cause is the
published fact that we are going to count the votes to see how many
out of each party are cast for the amendment, and Republicans
understand they will be in a bad way if they don't make a good
showing. Since this came out, Morrill has spoken for the amendment.
Judge Peters, at the big McKinley meeting here, advocated it and
they tell me it created more enthusiasm than anything else during
the meeting. Cyrus Leland admits that it will carry. The
Republicans are coming over splendidly and, if the Populists stand
firm, we will surely come in with a fine majority. It seems as if
nothing can defeat us now.
Two weeks before the election, October 21, Mr. Breidenthal wrote her: "I
am confident the amendment will have 30,000 majority." Miss Anthony
reached the State October 20 and began her two weeks' tour the 22d,
speaking at Populist meetings in the largest cities up to election day,
November 6.[105] From the hour of her arrival she realized there was not
a shadow of hope for the amendment, and it was marvellous to her how the
others could have been so deceived.
At the previous election when the Populists came into power it had been
through a fusion with the Democrats. This year the Democrats had their
own ticket, and not only had ignored the pleading of the Democratic
women for a suffrage plank, but had adopted a resolution denouncing
it.[106] The great railroad strike and its attendant evils, during that
summer, were attributed by many to Populistic sentiment and created a
strong prejudice against the party. The argument was made that if the
amendment carried, the women would feel so grateful to the Populists
that it would result in securing to them the woman's vote, thus keeping
them in power. This induced many to vote against it who disliked
Populism, and it decided a number of even those Republicans who believed
in woman suffrage to reject the amendment this year rather than allow
the Populists to have the credit of carrying it. To destroy the last
hope, word came from Colorado that the People's party was about to be
defeated there. It was the first time for the women of that State to
vote and, while there was no evidence to prove that they were
responsible, the bare possibility was enough to stampede the Kansas
Populists and prevent their giving the ballot to the women of that
State.
The amendment was lost by 34,827 votes; 95,302 for; 130,139 against. The
total vote cast for governor was 299,231; total vote on suffrage
amendment, 225,441; not voting on amendment, 73,790. There was an
attempt to keep count of the ballots according to parties, but it was
not successful and there was no way of correctly estimating the
political complexion of the vote. The vote for Governor Morrill lacked
only 1,800 of that for the other three candidates combined, which shows
how easily the Republican party might have carried the amendment.
Subtracting the 5,000 Prohibition votes which it was conceded were cast
for the amendment, it lacked 28,000 of receiving as many votes as were
cast for the Populist candidate for governor. Since some Republicans
must have voted for it, the figures prove that a vast number of
Populists did not do so. In Miss Anthony's journal on the night of the
election she wrote: "Our friends remembered to forget to vote for the
suffrage amendment, while not an enemy forgot to remember to stamp his
ticket against it."
Though she had expected defeat, her regret was none the less keen. In
all the past years she had given more time and work to Kansas than to
any other State, even her own. Her hopes had been centered there. It
having been the first State to grant school suffrage and the first to
grant municipal suffrage to women, she had confidently expected that
when the amendment for full suffrage was again submitted it would be
carried. The events of the campaign confirmed her belief that the
granting of municipal suffrage is a hindrance rather than a help toward
securing full enfranchisement. By its exercise women naturally become
partisan, show the influence they can wield through the ballot, and
thereby create enmities and arouse antagonisms which bitterly oppose any
further extension of this power. She resolved henceforth to advise women
not to attempt to secure fragmentary suffrage, but to demand the whole
right and work for nothing less.
FOOTNOTES:
[101] It was the Republicans who framed the original constitution of the
State so as to give women liberal property rights, equal guardianship of
their children, and school suffrage. In 1867 they gave to women an equal
voice on the question of local option. In 1887 they granted to them
municipal suffrage. In various State conventions they adopted an
unequivocal endorsement of full suffrage for women.
[102] See Appendix for full speech.
[103] The women of the Topeka Equal Suffrage Club, at their next
meeting, adopted a resolution thanking the Republican convention _for
not declaring against the amendment_!
[104] It will be cowardice for the Republicans to fail to endorse woman
suffrage in their State platform. In past years, when no amendment was
pending, the Republican party of Kansas has encouraged the presentation
of such an amendment. Will it now attempt to sneak out of the
responsibility and go back on its past record? The women of our State
have shown themselves intelligent voters, in every way worthy of being
entrusted with full suffrage. None of the evils have come upon us which
were predicted by the opponents of the reform, and they never will come.
To place a plank in the platform will save many votes to the party. It
is the right, the brave thing to do. What is brave and right has, in the
past, been the thing that the Republican party has done. Let it not now
begin to do the cowardly thing.--Leavenworth Times, May 17, 1894.
[105] Miss Anthony did not receive a dollar for her services daring the
year in Kansas, and was enabled to make the three trips there solely
through the kindness of her brother Daniel R., who furnished
transportation. It was also by his assistance that she had made her long
railroad journeys from east to west during the past thirty years.
[106] Fifteenth.--We oppose woman suffrage as tending to destroy the
home and family, the true basis of political safety, and express the
hope that the helpmeet and guardian of the family sanctuary may not be
dragged from the modest purity of self-imposed seclusion to be thrown
unwillingly into the unfeminine places of political strife.