MRS. STANTON'S BIRTHDAY--THE BIBLE RESOLUTION.
1895-1896.
On the way homeward they were met at every large station by friends with
something to add to the pleasure of their trip. Miss Shaw went through
to Chicago, but Miss Anthony journeyed towards Leavenworth. She dined
with friends at Topeka, and while waiting in the station, one of them
remarked, "We are to have our suffrage meeting tomorrow, what shall we
tell them from you?" In a spirit of fun she dashed off a resolution
saying that "since 130,000 Kansas men declared themselves against woman
suffrage at the late election and 74,000 showed their opposition by not
voting; therefore it is the duty of every self-respecting woman in the
State to fold her hands and refuse to help any religious, charitable or
moral reform or any political association, until the men shall strike
the adjective 'male' from the suffrage clause of the constitution."
She was in Topeka only five hours, but during that time attended a
dinner party, gave a two-column interview to a reporter from each of the
city papers, and furnished a resolution which set all the newspapers in
the country by the ears. "Talk about hysterics," she said, laughingly,
as she read the clippings, "it takes the editors to have 'em, if they
are opposed to woman suffrage and can get hold of something to help them
out." Any one who could have the patience to read the fearful morals
which were deduced, the frightful sermons which were preached, from what
was intended as a joking resolution, would quite agree with her. Even
had it been meant seriously, it would have been only such retaliation
as men would have visited upon women had the latter been possessed of
the power and voted three to one to take the ballot away from them.
She visited a week in Leavenworth and Fort Scott, arrived at Chicago
July 15, and was thus described by a Herald reporter:
Miss Anthony has grown slightly thinner since she was in Chicago
attending the World's Fair Congresses, thinner and more
spiritual-looking. As she sat last night with her transparent hands
grasping the arms of her chair, her thin, hatchet face and white
hair, with only her keen eyes flashing light and fire, she looked
like Pope Leo XIII. The whole physical being is as nearly submerged
as possible in a great mentality. She recalls facts, figures, names
and dates with unerring accuracy. It was no Argus-eyed autocrat who
told with pardonable pride last night of how her chair at every
great function in San Francisco was hung with floral wreaths, how
bouquets were piled at her feet until she could scarcely step for
them. It was a pleasing story, told by a sweet old woman, of honors
which she accepted for the sake of a beloved cause.
The next day she resumed her journey with Mr. and Mrs. Gross and Harriet
Hosmer, who were going to Bar Harbor. She reached her own home at
daybreak, and here, the diary shows, she sat down on the steps of the
front porch and read the paper for an hour or two rather than disturb
her sister's morning nap. The first word received from Miss Shaw was
that she had arrived at her summer home on Cape Cod with a raging fever,
the result of the great strain of constant speaking and travelling so
many weeks without rest, and she continued alarmingly ill the remainder
of the summer. She was much distressed because of an engagement she had
to lecture to the Chautauqua Assembly at Lakeside, O., and to relieve
her mind Miss Anthony telegraphed her that she would go in her place.
She herself felt not the slightest ill effect from her journey, and the
long interviews published in all the Rochester papers during the week
she was at home, displayed the keenest and strongest mental power. She
reached Lakeside on the 25th of July and the next day spoke to a large
audience. Towards the close of her address, she ended abruptly, dropped
into her chair and sank into a dead faint.
She was taken at once to Mrs. Southworth's summer home, at which she
was a guest, and telegrams were sent out by the press reporters
announcing that she could not live till morning. She learned afterwards
that long obituary notices were put in type in many of the newspaper
offices. One Chicago paper telegraphed its correspondent: "5,000 words
if still living; no limit, if dead." She was very much vexed at this
momentary weakness and, using her will-power, by the next day had
rallied sufficiently to return home. The national suffrage business
committee, by previous arrangement, met at her house, and she forced
herself to keep up for two days, but felt very dull and tired, and on
the morning of July 30 she did not rise. A physician was summoned and a
trained nurse, and for a month she lay helpless with nervous
prostration; her first serious illness in seventy-five years.
She is quoted as saying that if she "had pinched herself right hard she
would not have fainted." One of the papers remarked that "then she never
would have known how much the American people thought of her." Every
newspaper had something pleasant to say,[114] many friends wrote letters
of sympathy, and scores whom she had not known personally sent their
words of admiration. Only her body was weak, her mind was abnormally
alert; she appreciated all that was said and done for her, and remarked
often that this was the only real _rest_ of her lifetime. A number of
relatives came to visit her, and a little later Mrs. Coonley and Mrs.
Sewall. Mr. and Mrs. Gross also stopped on their way home, the latter
leaving $50 for "the very prettiest wrapper that could be had." From her
old anti-slavery co-worker, Samuel May, now eighty-five, came the words:
I suppose there is hardly another person in the United States, man
or woman, who has been engaged in actual hard public labor so long
as yourself; and is it not a part of your business and a part of
your duty--in view of the unattained results--to allow yourself
larger spaces of rest and to put upon yourself more moderate and
less exhausting tasks? We would not willingly see you retire from
the field altogether; therefore we want you to do less of the
common soldier's work and take charge of the reserves, keeping
watch from your tower of experience, and personally appearing only
when and where the enemy rallies in unusual numbers or with unusual
craftiness. This does not imply a lessening of your usefulness but
an increase, being a wiser application of your strength and
resources.
From Parker Pillsbury, the old comrade, aged eighty-six: "We have heard
of your late illness, a warning to constant prudence and care for your
health as you come down to 'life's latest stage.' Hold on, my
dear--_our_ dear--Susan, hold on to the last hour possible. You have
seen great and glorious changes, almost revolutions, but yet how much
remains to be encountered and accomplished.... We shall hope you may
live to see the one grand achievement--the equal civil and political
rights of all women before the law. Then you may well say: 'Lord, now
lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation.'"
Mrs. Stanton wrote: "I never realized how desolate the world would be to
me without you until I heard of your sudden illness. Let me urge you
with all the strength I have, and all the love I bear you, to stay at
home and rest and save your precious self." From Mrs. Cooper this urgent
message: "You are too far along in years to work as hard as you do. Take
it easy, my beloved friend, and let your young lieutenants bear the heat
and burden of the day, while you give directions from the hill-top of
survey. Age has the right to be peaceful, as childhood has the right to
be playful. You are the youngest of us all, nevertheless nature cries a
halt and you must obey her call in order to be with us as our leader for
a score of years to come."
There is a long hiatus in the diary, and then for many days the brief
entry, "On the mend." In September she began to walk out a little and
then to call on the nearest friends, and by the last of the month she
attended a few committee meetings. The rumor had been persistently
circulated that she was to resign the presidency of the
National-American Association and retire to private life. In fact, she
never had the slightest intention of giving up active work. She realized
that inactivity meant stagnation and hastened both physical and mental
decay, and she was determined to keep on and "drop in the harness" when
the time came to stop.[115] It was evident, however, that she must have
relief in her immense correspondence. This she recognized, and so
secured an efficient stenographer and typewriter in Mrs. Emma B. Sweet,
who assumed her duties October 1, 1895. The five large files packed with
copies of letters sent out during the remaining months of the year show
how pressing was the need of her services. Miss Anthony relates in her
diary with much satisfaction, that she "managed to have a letter at
every State suffrage convention held that fall."
She thought possibly she might have to work a little more moderately for
a while, and one of her first letters was written to the head of the
Slayton Lecture Bureau: "I should love dearly to say 'yes' to your
proposition for a series of lectures at $100 a night. Nothing short of
that would tempt me to go on the lyceum platform again, and even to
that, for the present, I must say 'nay.' I am resolved to be a home-body
the coming year, with the exception of attending the celebration of Mrs.
Stanton's eightieth birthday and our regular Washington convention."
Among the characteristic short letters is this to Dr. Sarah Hackett
Stevenson, of Chicago, who had asked for a word of encouragement in
regard to a hospital she was founding for mothers whose children were
born out of wedlock:
I hope your beneficent enterprise may succeed. I trust the day will
come when there will be no such unfortunate mothers, but until
then, it certainly is the duty of society to provide for them. The
first step towards bringing that day is to make women not only
self-supporting but able to win positions of honor and emolument.
Since no disfranchised class of men ever had equal chances in the
world, it is fair to conclude that the first requisite to bring
them to women is enfranchisement. It is not that all when
enfranchised will be capable, honest and chaste, but it is that
they will possess the power to control their own conditions and
those of society equally with men. Therefore my panacea for the
ills which your hospital would fain mitigate is the ballot in the
hands of women.
The editor of the Voice wrote for her opinion as to the cause of the
prevailing "hard times," and she answered:
The work of my life has been less to find out the causes of men's
failure to successfully manage affairs, than to try to show them
their one great failure in attempting to make a successful
government without the help of women. It used to be said in
anti-slavery days that a people who would tacitly consent to the
enslavement of 4,000,000 human beings, were incapable of being just
to each other, and I believe the same rule holds with regard to the
injustice practiced by men towards women. So long as all men
conspire to rob women of their citizen's right to perfect equality
in all the privileges and immunities of our so-called "free"
government, we can not expect these same men to be capable of
perfect justice to each other. On the contrary, the inevitable
result must be trusts, monopolies and all sorts of schemes to get
an undue share of the proceeds of labor. There is money enough in
this country today in the hands of the few, if justly distributed,
to make "good times" for all.
Reporters were constantly besieging her for her views on "bloomers,"
which had been re-introduced by the bicycle, and she usually replied in
effect:
My opinion about "bloomers" and dress generally for both men and
women is that people should dress to accommodate whatever business
or pastime they pursue. It would be quite out of good taste as well
as good sense, for a woman to go to her daily work with trailing
skirts, flowing sleeves, fringes and laces; and certainly, if women
ride the bicycle or climb mountains, they should don a costume
which will permit them the use of their legs. It is very funny that
it is ever and always the men who are troubled about the propriety
of the women's costume. My one word about the "bloomers" or any
other sort of dress, is that every woman, like every man, should be
permitted to wear exactly what she chooses.
When women have equal chances in the world they will cease to live
merely to please the conventional fancy of men. As long as there
was no alternative for women but to marry, it was about as much as
any woman's life was worth to be an old maid, and her one idea was
to dress and behave so as to escape this fate. She now has other
objects in life, and her new liberty has brought with it a freedom
in matters of dress which is cause for rejoicing.
These opinions might be multiplied almost to infinity and all would
emphasize two points: 1st, the broad views entertained by Miss Anthony
on all questions, based on her idea of individual freedom, the same for
both sexes; 2d, her fundamental belief that, until women cease to be a
subject class, and until they stand upon the plane of perfect equality
of rights and privileges, there can be no such thing as a fair solution
or adjustment of the issues of the day, either great or small; in other
words, that these can not be satisfactorily and permanently settled
through the judgment and decision of only one-half the people.
On October 18 she celebrated her complete recovery by accepting an
invitation to "come and take a cup of tea with Aunt Maria Porter," in
honor of her ninetieth birthday. She was obliged to cancel her
engagement to speak at the Atlanta Exposition, but during this month
made a trial of her strength by an hour's speech at the annual meeting
of the Monroe County Suffrage Club at Brockport, "attempting it," she
says, "with fear and trembling, but going through as if I never had had
a scare." Assured by this that she had herself well in hand once more,
she went to Ashtabula, Ohio, for a three days' convention of the State
association, attending every business meeting and public session. This
fact being duly heralded in the newspapers, they put the obituary
notices back into their pigeonholes.
She started for New York November 6 to be present at an event to which
she had looked forward with more pleasure than to anything of that
nature in all her life--the celebration of the eightieth birthday of
Mrs. Stanton. At the convention in February it had been unanimously
decided that the National-American Association should have charge of
this, but at the Woman's Council in Washington it was agreed that it
would have greater significance if held under the auspices of that
body, which cheerfully accepted the charge. Its new president, Mary Lowe
Dickinson, urged Miss Anthony to take the chairmanship of the committee
of arrangements, insisting that no one else could make so great a
success of it, but Miss Anthony assured her of what afterwards proved to
be true, that no one could manage the affair more perfectly than Mrs.
Dickinson herself.
Naturally many of the suffrage women resented having any one outside
their own association as the leader on this great occasion, and Lillie
Devereux Blake wrote: "Mrs. Stanton stands for suffrage above all else
and she should be honored by our societies. To have the celebration
under the charge of the secretary of the King's Daughters, an orthodox
organization, seems very much out of taste, greatly as I honor Mrs.
Dickinson. I do not think any one else will make the celebration such a
success as you would; you, the long-time companion and co-worker with
our dear leader, are the person who should be at the head and, with your
admirable manner as a presiding officer, you would give a tone to it
that no one else could." To this Miss Anthony replied:
All of you fail to see the higher honor to Mrs. Stanton in having
the celebration mothered by a great body composed of twenty
national societies, instead of by only our one. Surely, for all
classes of women--liberal, orthodox, Jewish, Mormon, suffrage and
anti-suffrage, native and foreign, black and white--to unite in
paying a tribute of respect to the greatest woman reformer,
philosopher and statesman of the century, will be the realization
of Mrs. Stanton's most optimistic dream. I am surprised and
delighted at the action of the council. It shows a breadth and
comprehensiveness on the part of the leaders of its twenty-in-one
organization of which I am very proud. Of course Mrs. Stanton
stands for suffrage first, last and all the time, and the
conservative women who join in this celebration do so knowing that
she stands thus for a free and enfranchised womanhood.
Don't you see that for Anthony to head the fray, preside and be
general master of ceremonies, would reduce it to a mere mutual
admiration affair? The celebration is not taken away from us. We,
the suffrage women, will have our modicum of time to set forth what
Mrs. Stanton has done for our specific cause, and the other women
will have theirs. O, no, my dear, it is not possible that the
greater can be less than one of the parts which compose it.
Her own "girls," Mrs. Sewall and Mrs. Avery, could not help being a
little jealous for their general, and insisted that her name should head
the invitations, but to them she wrote:
Do you not see that for Susan B. Anthony's name to stand at the
top, will frighten the conservatives? Everybody will conclude that
the big suffrage elephant has possessed the council, body and
soul--all thrust into the suffrage hopper and the wheel turned by
S. B. A. To make me chairman will wholly spoil the intention of the
council, which is and should be to bring the fruits of Mrs.
Stanton's first demand, fifty years ago, and lay them at her feet;
not only the suffrage children, but those of education, literature,
science, reform, religion, all as one. If Mrs. Dickinson single out
the hoofed and horned head of suffrage as the commander-in-chief,
not only the nineteen other societies but all the world outside
will say it is suffrage after all; which it will be, because the
others won't train under our leadership. No, no; Mrs. Dickinson
herself must be the chief cook of this broth and appoint her own
lieutenants, one of whom, with name far down in the middle of the
list, I shall be most happy to be, and do all I possibly can to
help, but always in the name of the president of the council.
She was true to her word, and in every way assisted Mrs. Dickinson in
the immense amount of preparation necessary for what was the largest and
most perfect affair of this nature ever given in America. At her request
Miss Anthony wrote over a hundred letters to collect funds, secure the
presence of the pioneer workers among women, etc., but still insisted on
keeping herself so much in the background as even to refuse to make one
of the principal speeches of the occasion. When she reached New York,
she went for the night to her cousin, Mrs. Lapham, and early the next
morning to Mrs. Stanton's to read over the birthday speech, of which she
writes: "My only criticism was that she did not rest her case after
describing the wonderful advance made in state, church, society and
home, instead of going on to single out the church and declare it to be
especially slow in accepting the doctrine of equality to women. I tried
to make her see that it had advanced as rapidly as the other departments
but I did not succeed, and it is right that she should express her own
ideas, not mine."
The next day she went to Newburgh to address the State convention,
returning to New York on the 9th. Friends had come from all parts of
the country to attend the celebration, and the three days following were
pleasantly spent in visiting with them at the different hotels. On the
evening of the 12th occurred the birthday fete. There is not room in
these pages to describe in full that magnificent gathering, the great
Metropolitan Opera House crowded from pit to dome, each of the boxes
brilliantly and appropriately decorated and occupied by the
representatives of some organization of women. On the stage was a throne
of flowers and above it an arch with the name "Stanton" wrought in red
carnations on a white ground. When Mrs. Stanton entered, the entire
audience of 3,000 rose to salute her with waving handkerchiefs. At the
right and left of the floral throne sat Miss Anthony and Mrs. Dickinson.
Instead of responding with a set speech, when called upon, Miss Anthony
paid an eloquent tribute to the "pioneers," and then read the most
important of the one hundred telegrams of congratulation which had been
received from noted societies and eminent men and women in the United
States and Europe.[116] The New York Sun said: "In ordinary hands this
task would have been dull enough, but Miss Anthony enlivened it with her
wit and cleverness and made a success of it." It may be truly said that
not one woman in that audience, not even Mrs. Stanton herself, was
prouder or happier than Miss Anthony over this splendid ovation.
The next day a large reception was given at the Savoy by Mrs. Henry
Villard, the only daughter of Wm. Lloyd Garrison; and after various
luncheons and dinners and good-by calls, Miss Anthony returned to
Rochester. She plunged into the mountain of correspondence and,
expecting to spend most of the next year at home, gave every spare
moment to the arranging and classifying of her mass of documents,
preparatory to some contemplated literary work. On November 21, the
Political Equality Club celebrated Mrs. Stanton's birthday in a
beautiful manner at the Anthony home, over 200 guests attending. Several
unkind newspaper attacks being made upon Miss Anthony by disgruntled
women, she wrote Mrs. Stanton, who was much distressed: "This fresh
onslaught reminds me of the old adage, 'When one is over-praised by the
many, the few will try to pull down and destroy.' Certainly I know that
in my head and heart there never has been any but the strongest desire
that all the other workers should have their full meed of opportunity
and reward."
A telegram came November 25 announcing the sudden death, in Boston, of
Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick. She had been actively in the suffrage work
for only a few years, but in that time Miss Anthony had learned her
splendid powers and had said of her: "I feel that into her hands can
safely fall the work of the future, both as to principle and policy."
She had been made chairman of the national press work, and had shown an
unsurpassed beauty and strength of style and thought. "She was a
philosopher, a student," Miss Anthony wrote, "possessed of the
conscience and the courage to stand by the truth as she saw it. Can it
be that she is gone in the very prime of her womanhood? Why can not we
keep with us the brave and beautiful souls; why can not the weak and
wicked go? The world seems darker to me now, a light has gone out."
On December 2 she gathered about her a group of the very oldest and
dearest friends in memory of what would have been her mother's one
hundred and second birthday. She records attending a lecture by
President Andrew D. White, at the close of which he presented his wife
to her, saying: "I want you to know her; she is of your kind." The day
before Christmas came another telegram, this one from May Wright Sewall,
containing simply the words: "Dear General, my Theodore is taken." It
meant the desolation of one of the happiest, most perfect homes ever
made by two mortals. It told the breaking of as strong and sweet a tie
as ever united husband and wife. What could she write? Only, "Be brave
in this inevitable hour; take unto yourself the 'joy of sorrow' that you
did all in mortal power for his restoration, that his happiness was the
desire of your life; find comfort in the blessed memories of his tender
and never-failing love and care for you in all these beautiful years."
But the poverty, the powerlessness of words in times like this!
And so the old year rolled into the past and the record was finished.
Among the letters which came to cheer its close, was one from Mary Lowe
Dickinson, which ended:
In every way, in all this work, how grandly you stood by and helped
me! Some day you will understand how grateful I am, and how
thoroughly I appreciate the support, moral and other, that you have
given me. I know this holiday season will bring you a great many
loving souvenirs from all over the world, and I haven't sent you
anything at all; but I have a gift for you, notwithstanding, a gift
of loyal reverence for the grand outspoken bravery of your life and
service, a gift of genuine gratitude for what you have been and
what you have done, and an affection that has been growing ever
since my first talk with you in Chicago. This is quite a
declaration for a reserved woman, but it is as sincere as it is
unusual, and I wish you all sorts of blessings for the New Year,
and most of all that it may show great progress in the work which
lies so close to your heart.
And this from her beloved friend, Mrs. Leland Stanford:
It is needless for me to express all I feel in regard to your
tender and long-continued friendship. I always prized it when I had
my dear husband by my side to help me bear the burdens and sorrows
of life, but now, standing as I do alone with the weighty cares and
sacred duties depending upon me, I cherish your sympathy, your
friendship and your tender words as an evidence of God's love. He
can instigate and guide hearts to reach out sustaining helpfulness
to His children, who need just such support as you have given me.
Long years past and gone, you and Mrs. Stanton were appreciated and
extolled by my husband more than you ever realized. He predicted
twenty years ago what has now come, and mainly through the
instrumentality of yourself and her--the advancement and elevation
of womanhood--and we are only on the eve of what is to follow in
the twentieth century.
[Illustration: Autograph: "Leland Stanford"]
Miss Anthony was very glad to go back to Washington with the annual
convention, which was held January 23 to 28, 1896. She went on a week
beforehand to satisfy herself that all was in readiness. Although the
details of the work were assumed by the younger members of the board,
she was always on the scene of action early enough to look over the
ground before the battle opened. This year the papers said: "A notable
feature of the suffrage movement is the large number of college alumnae
and professional women who are coming into the ranks." The committee
reported organizations in every State and Territory except Alaska.
Delegates were present from almost every one, among them Mrs. Hughes,
wife of the governor of Arizona, Mrs. Teller, wife of the senator from
Colorado, Mrs. Sanders, wife of the ex-senator from Montana, the wives
of Representatives Arnold, Allen, Shafroth and Pickler, Mrs. Ella
Knowles Haskell, assistant attorney-general of Montana. Most of them
addressed the committees of the Senate and House, who gave long and
respectful hearings.
The principal cause of rejoicing at this convention was the admission of
Utah as a State with the full enfranchisement of women. A clause to this
effect had been put into the State constitution, endorsed by all
political parties, voted on by the men of the Territory and carried.
This constitution had been accepted, the new State admitted by Congress,
and the bill was signed by President Cleveland January 4, 1896. A
noteworthy circumstance in this case was that, while the admission of
Wyoming with a woman suffrage clause in its constitution was fought for
many days in both Senate and House in 1890, that of Utah was accepted
with scarcely a protest against its enfranchisement of women. There was
also rejoicing over the fact that, during the autumn of 1895, the full
franchise had been conferred upon the women of South Australia.
The occurrence of the convention which forever made its memory a sad one
to Miss Anthony was the so-called "Bible resolution." It had this effect
not only because of the resolution itself but because those who were
responsible for it were especially near and dear to her. Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, assisted by a committee of women, had been for several years
preparing a work called the "Woman's Bible." It contained no discussion
of doctrinal questions but was simply a commentary upon those texts and
chapters directly referring to women, and a few others from which they
were conspicuously excluded. Naturally, however, this pamphlet caused a
great outcry, especially from those who had not read a word of it. That
women should dare analyze even the passages referring to themselves in a
book which heretofore, neither in the original writing nor in all the
revisions of the centuries, had felt the impress of a woman's brain or
the touch of a woman's hand, stirred the orthodox to their greater or
less depths. Mrs. Stanton was honorary president of the
National-American Suffrage Association, but had not attended its
meetings or actively participated in its work for a number of years.
Several members of the board, who were children when she and Miss
Anthony founded that organization, and unborn when Mrs. Stanton called
the first woman's rights convention, decided that her Woman's Bible was
injuring the association, although only the chapters on the Pentateuch
thus far had been published. They determined that this body should take
official action on the question, but they understood perfectly that it
would have to be brought before the convention without any previous
knowledge on the part of Miss Anthony. Therefore it was planned to have
a paragraph of condemnation and renunciation of the Woman's Bible
incorporated in the report of the corresponding secretary. When it was
read in open meeting she was struck dumb. Mrs. Colby sprung to her feet
and moved that the report be accepted, all but the paragraph relating to
the Woman's Bible. After an animated discussion the secretary's report
was laid on the table and later was adopted with the offending clause
stricken out. Miss Anthony supposed this was the end of the matter but,
to her amazement, the committee on resolutions reported the following:
"This association is non-sectarian, being composed of persons of all
shades of religious opinions, and has no official connection with the
so-called Woman's Bible, or any theological publication."
This resolution was wholly gratuitous. While true that the association
was composed of persons of all shades of religious opinion, it comprised
also among some of its oldest and ablest members those who entertained
no so-called religious beliefs. Mrs. Stanton invariably had announced
that this revision of the Scriptures was the individual work of herself
and her committee, and there was no ground for holding the whole
association responsible. The resolution, however, was debated for an
hour. Miss Anthony was moved as never before. Not only was she fired
with indignation at this insult to the woman whom she loved and revered
above all others, but she was outraged at this deliberate attempt to
deny personal liberty of thought and speech. Leaving the chair she said
in an impassioned appeal:
The one distinct feature of our association has been the right of
individual opinion for every member. We have been beset at each
step with the cry that somebody was injuring the cause by the
expression of sentiments which differed from those held by the
majority. The religious persecution of the ages has been carried on
under what was claimed to be the command of God. I distrust those
people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice
it always coincides with their own desires. All the way along the
history of our movement there has been this same contest on account
of religious theories. Forty years ago one of our noblest men said
to me, "You would better never hold another convention than allow
Ernestine L. Rose on your platform;" because that eloquent woman,
who ever stood for justice and freedom, did not believe in the
plenary inspiration of the Bible. Did we banish Mrs. Rose? No,
indeed!
Every new generation of converts threshes over the same old straw.
The point is whether you will sit in judgment on one who questions
the divine inspiration of certain passages in the Bible derogatory
to women. If Mrs. Stanton had written approvingly of these passages
you would not have brought in this resolution for fear the cause
might be injured among the _liberals_ in religion. In other words,
if she had written _your_ views, you would not have considered a
resolution necessary. To pass this one is to set back the hands on
the dial of reform.
What you should say to outsiders is that a Christian has neither
more nor less rights in our association than an atheist. When our
platform becomes too narrow for people of all creeds and of no
creeds, I myself can not stand upon it. Many things have been said
and done by our _orthodox_ friends which I have felt to be
extremely harmful to our cause; but I should no more consent to a
resolution denouncing them than I shall consent to this. Who is to
draw the line? Who can tell now whether these commentaries may not
prove a great help to woman's emancipation from old superstitions
which have barred its way? Lucretia Mott at first thought Mrs.
Stanton had injured the cause of all woman's other rights by
insisting upon the demand for suffrage, but she had sense enough
not to bring in a resolution against it. In 1860 when Mrs. Stanton
made a speech before the New York Legislature in favor of a bill
making drunkenness a ground for divorce, there was a general cry
among the friends that she had killed the woman's cause. I shall be
pained beyond expression if the delegates here are so narrow and
illiberal as to adopt this resolution. You would better not begin
resolving against individual action or you will find no limit. This
year it is Mrs. Stanton; next year it may be I or one of
yourselves, who will be the victim.
If we do not inspire in women a broad and catholic spirit, they
will fail, when enfranchised, to constitute that power for better
government which we have always claimed for them. Ten women
educated into the practice of liberal principles would be a
stronger force than 10,000 organized on a platform of intolerance
and bigotry. I pray you vote for religious liberty, without
censorship or inquisition. This resolution adopted will be a vote
of censure upon a woman who is without a peer in intellectual and
statesmanlike ability; one who has stood for half a century the
acknowledged leader of progressive thought and demand in regard to
all matters pertaining to the absolute freedom of women.
Rev. Anna Shaw, Carrie Chapman Catt, Henry B. and Alice Stone Blackwell,
Laura M. Johns, Annie L. Diggs, Rachel Foster Avery, Laura Clay, Mariana
W. Chapman, Elizabeth Upham Yates, and others spoke in favor of the
resolution; Lillie Devereux Blake, Clara B. Colby, Mary S. Anthony,
Emily Rowland, Charlotte Perkins Stetson and Caroline Hallowell Miller
were among those who opposed it. The vote resulted, 53 ayes, 41 nays;
and the resolution was adopted. The situation was felicitously expressed
in a single sentence by Mrs. Caroline McCullough Everhard, president of
the Ohio Suffrage Association: "If women were governed more by principle
and less by prejudice, how strong they would be!"
Miss Anthony's feelings could not be put into words. At first she
seriously contemplated resigning her office, but from all parts of the
country came letters from the pioneer workers--the women who had stood
by her for more than twoscore years--pointing out that this action of
the convention was a striking illustration of the necessity for her
remaining at the helm. Mrs. Stanton urged that they both resign, but
Miss Anthony replied:
During three weeks of agony of soul, with scarcely a night of
sleep, I have felt I must resign my presidency, but then the rights
of the minority are to be respected and protected by me quite as
much as the action of the majority is to be resented; and it is
even more my duty to stand firmly with the minority because
principle is with them. I feel very sure that after a year's
reflection upon the matter, the same women, and perhaps the one
man, who voted for this interference with personal rights, will be
ready to declare that their duty as individuals does not require
them to disclaim freedom of speech in their co-workers. Sister Mary
says the action of the convention convinces her that the time has
not yet come for me to resign; whereas she had felt most strongly
that I ought to do it for my own sake. No, my dear, instead of my
resigning and leaving those half-fledged chickens without any
mother, I think it my duty and the duty of yourself and all the
liberals to be at the next convention and try to reverse this
miserable, narrow action.
In letters to the different members of her "cabinet," who had voted in
favor of the resolution, she thus expressed herself:
In this action I see nothing but the beginning of a petty
espionage, a revival of the Spanish inquisition, subjecting to
spiritual torture every one who speaks or writes what the other
members consider not good for the association. Such disclaimers
bring quite as much of martyrdom for our civilization as did the
rack and fire in the barbarous ages of the past.
That a majority of the delegates could see no wrong personally to
Mrs. Stanton and no violation of the right of individual judgment,
makes me sick at heart; and still, I don't know what better one
could expect when our ranks are now so filled with young women not
yet out of bondage to the idea of the infallibility of that book.
To every person who really believes in religious freedom, it is no
worse to criticise those pages in the Bible which degrade woman
than it is to criticise the laws on our statute books which degrade
her. Everything spoken or written by Jew or Greek, Gentile or
Christian, or by any human being whomsoever, is not too sacred to
be criticised by any other human being.
She was far too magnanimous, however, and loved the cause too well to
relax her efforts for the welfare of the association. Before the year
closed she received from Mrs. Avery and Mrs. Upton most tender and
beautiful letters, acknowledging their mistake, expressing their sorrow
and begging to be reinstated in her confidence and affection.[117]
In order that Miss Anthony's position maybe clearly understood and that
she may not appear biased and one-sided, and in order also to consider
this question all at one time, her point of view will be a little
further illustrated. In an interview in the Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle she is thus reported:
"Did you have anything to do with the new Bible, Miss Anthony?" was
asked.
"No, I did not contribute to it, though I knew of its preparation.
My own relations to or ideas of the Bible always have been
peculiar, owing to my Quaker training. The Friends consider the
book as historical, made up of traditions, but not as a plenary
inspiration. Of course people say these women are impious and
presumptuous for daring to interpret the Scriptures as they
understand them, but I think women have just as good a right to
interpret and twist the Bible to their own advantage as men always
have twisted and turned it to theirs.... It was written by men, and
therefore its reference to women reflects the light in which they
were regarded in those days. In the same way the history of our
Revolutionary War was written, in which very little is said of the
noble deeds of women, though we know how they stood by and helped
the great work; and it is the same with history all through."
Although she stood so firm for individual rights she nevertheless
regretted that Mrs. Stanton should give the few remaining years of her
precious life to this commentary, and frequently wrote in the following
strain, when importuned to assist in it:
I can not help but feel that in this you are talking down to the
most ignorant masses, whereas your rule always has been to speak to
the highest, knowing there would be a few who would comprehend, and
would in turn give of their best to those on the next lower round
of the ladder. The cultivated men and women of today are above the
need of your book. Even the liberalized orthodox ministers are
coming to our aid and their conventions are passing resolutions in
favor of woman's equality, and I feel that these men and women who
are just born into the kingdom of liberty can better reach the
minds of their followers than can any of us out-and-out radicals.
But while I do not consider it my duty to tear to tatters the
lingering skeletons of the old superstitions and bigotries, yet I
rejoice to see them crumbling on every side.
Months after this Washington convention, when Miss Anthony was in the
midst of a great political campaign in California, she sent Mrs. Stanton
this self-explanatory letter:
You say "women must be emancipated from their superstitions before
enfranchisement will be of any benefit," and I say just the
reverse, that women must be enfranchised before they can be
emancipated from their superstitions. Women would be no more
superstitious today than men, if they had been men's political and
business equals and gone outside the four walls of home and the
other four of the church into the great world, and come in contact
with and discussed men and measures on the plane of this mundane
sphere, instead of living in the air with Jesus and the angels. So
you will have to keep pegging away, saying, "Get rid of religious
bigotry and then get political rights;" while I shall keep pegging
away, saying, "Get political rights first and religious bigotry
will melt like dew before the morning sun;" and each will continue
still to believe in and defend the other.
Now, especially in this California campaign, I shall no more thrust
into the discussions the question of the Bible than the manufacture
of wine. What I want is for the men to vote "yes" on the suffrage
amendment, and I don't ask whether they make wine on the ranches in
California or believe Christ made it at the wedding feast. I have
your grand addresses before Congress and enclose one in nearly
every letter I write. I have scattered all your "celebration"
speeches that I had, but I shall not circulate your "Bible"
literature a particle more than Frances Willard's prohibition
literature. So don't tell Mrs. Colby or anybody else to load me
down with Bible, social purity, temperance, or any other arguments
under the sun but just those for woman's right to have her opinion
counted at the ballot-box.
I have been pleading with Miss Willard for the last three months to
withdraw her threatened W. C. T. U. invasion of California this
year, and at last she has done it; now, for heaven's sake, don't
you propose a "Bible invasion." It is not because I hate religious
bigotry less than you do, or because I love prohibition less than
Frances Willard does, but because I consider suffrage more
important just now.
It seems that Miss Anthony's attitude ought to be perfectly understood
by the testimony here presented. It is one from which she never has
swerved and on which she is willing to stand in the pages of
history--entire freedom for herself from religious superstition--the
most absolute religious liberty for every other human being.
To return to the Washington convention: Among many pleasant social
features Miss Anthony was invited to an elegant luncheon given by Mrs.
John R. McLean in honor of the seventieth birthday of Mrs. Ulysses S.
Grant and, at the reception which followed, received the guests with
Mrs. Grant and Mrs. McLean.
[Illustration: Autograph: "I am yours with great respect and sincere
admiration, Julia D. Grant"]
At the close of the convention the principal speakers and many of the
delegates went to Philadelphia to a national conference, which was
largely attended. It was here that "Nelly Bly" had the famous interview
published in the New York World of February 2, 1896. She had tried to
secure this in Washington, but Miss Anthony could not spare time for it,
so she followed her to Philadelphia. It filled a page of the Sunday
edition and contained Miss Anthony's opinions on most of the leading
topics of the day, in the main correctly reported, although not a note
was taken. It began thus:
Susan B. Anthony! She was waiting for me. I stood for an instant in
the doorway and looked at her. She made a picture to remember and
to cherish. She sat in a low rocking-chair, an image of repose and
restfulness. Her well-shaped head, with its silken snowy hair
combed smoothly over her ears, rested against the back of the
chair. Her shawl had half fallen from her shoulders and her soft
black silk gown lay in gentle folds about her. Her slender hands
were folded idly in her lap, and her feet, crossed, just peeped
from beneath the edge of her skirt. If she had been posed for a
picture, it could not have been done more artistically.
"Do you know the world is a blank to me?" she said after we had
exchanged greetings. "I haven't read a newspaper in ten days and I
feel lost to everything. Tell me about Cuba! I almost would be
willing to postpone the enfranchisement of women to see Cuba
free...."
"Do you believe in immortality?"
"I don't know anything about heaven or hell," she answered, "or
whether I will meet my friends again or not, but as no particle of
matter is ever destroyed, I have a feeling that no particle of mind
is ever lost. I am sure that the same wise power which manages the
present may be trusted with the hereafter."
"Then you don't find life tiresome?"
"O, mercy, no! I don't want to die as long as I can work; the
minute I can not, I want to go. I dread the thought of being
enfeebled. The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to
help the world; I am like a snowball--the further I am rolled the
more I gain. But," she added, significantly, "I'll have to take it
as it comes. I'm just as much in eternity now as after the breath
goes out of my body."
"Do you pray?"
"I pray every single second of my life; not on my knees, but with
my work. My prayer is to lift woman to equality with man. Work and
worship are one with me. I can not imagine a God of the universe
made happy by my getting down on my knees and calling him
'great.'...
"What do I think of marriage? True marriage, the real marriage of
soul, when two people take each other on terms of perfect equality,
without the desire of one to control the other, is a beautiful
thing; it is the highest condition of life; but for a woman to
marry for support is demoralizing; and for a man to marry a woman
merely because she has a beautiful figure or face is
degradation...."
"Do you like flowers?" I asked, leading her into another channel.
"I like roses first and pinks second, and nothing else after," Miss
Anthony laughed. "I don't call anything a flower that hasn't a
sweet perfume."
"What is your favorite hymn or ballad?"
"The dickens!" she exclaimed merrily. "I don't know! I can't tell
one tune from another. I know there are such hymns as 'Sweet By and
By' and 'Old Hundred,' but I can not tell them apart. All music
sounds alike to me, but still if there is the slightest discord it
hurts me. Neither do I know anything about art," she continued,
"yet when I go into a room filled with pictures my friends say I
invariably pick out the best. I have good company, I always think,
in my musical ignorance. Wendell Phillips couldn't recognize tunes;
neither could Anna Dickinson."
"What's your favorite motto, or have you one?"
"For the last thirty years I have written in all albums, 'Perfect
equality of rights for women, civil and political;' or, 'I know
only woman and her disfranchised.' There is another, one of Charles
Sumner's, 'Equal rights for all.' I never write sentimental
things....
"Yes, I'll tell you what I think of bicycling," she said, leaning
forward and laying a hand on my arm. "I think it has done more to
emancipate woman than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every
time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives her a feeling of
self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and
away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood."
"What do you think the new woman will be?"
"She'll be free," said Miss Anthony. "Then she'll be whatever her
best judgment dictates. We can no more imagine what the true woman
will be than what the true man will be. We haven't him yet, and it
will be generations after we gain freedom before we have the
highest man and woman. They will constantly change for the better,
as the world does. What is the best possible today will be outgrown
tomorrow."
"What would you call woman's best attribute?"
"Good common sense; she has a great deal of uncommon sense now, but
I want her to be an all-around woman, not gifted overly in one
respect and lacking in others...."
"And now," I said, approaching a very delicate subject on tip-toe,
"tell me one thing more. Were you ever in love?"
"In love?" she laughed. "Bless you, Nelly, I've been in love a
thousand times!"
"Really!" I gasped, taken back by this startling confession.
"Yes, really," nodding her snowy head; "but I never loved anyone so
much that I thought it would last. In fact, I never felt I could
give up my life of freedom to become a man's housekeeper. When I
was young, if a girl married poverty, she became a drudge; if she
married wealth, she became a doll. Had I married at twenty-one, I
would have been either a drudge or a doll for fifty-five years.
Think of it!" and she laughed again....
Miss Anthony's seventy-sixth birthday was celebrated by the Rochester
Political Equality Club at the residence of Dr. and Mrs. S. A. Linn. The
spacious and beautifully decorated rooms were crowded with guests, and
interesting addresses were given by Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Gannett, Mr. J.
M. Thayer and Mary Seymour Howell, to which Miss Anthony made a happy
response. On February 17 she spoke at a church fair given by the colored
people of Bath, and then completed her preparations for a long journey
and a great campaign. It will be remembered that Miss Anthony had
decided to rest from "field work" during 1896, and to arrange her papers
for the writing of the history of her life, which her friends felt was
now the most important thing for her to do. To this end a roomy
half-story had been built on the substantial Rochester home, and therein
were placed all the big boxes and trunks of letters and documents which
had been accumulating during the last fifty years and stored in
woodshed, cellar and closets; a stenographer had been engaged and all
was in readiness for the great work. Then came an appeal from 3,000
miles away which rent asunder all her resolutions.
When she had been in California the previous year and had helped the
women plan their approaching campaign, nothing had been further from her
thoughts than returning to give her personal assistance. As the time for
action drew near, those who had the matter in charge began to realize
that the task before them was far greater than they had anticipated, and
that they were lacking in the experience which would be needed. There
were very few women who could be depended on to draw together and
address great audiences of thousands of people, to speak thirty
consecutive nights in each month, and to be equal to every emergency of
a political campaign; nor were there any considerable number who
understood the best methods of organization. It was then both natural
and sensible that the State society should appeal to the national
association for assistance. It is an essential part of the business of
the officers of that body to respond to such calls.
Miss Anthony had been home from California but a short time in 1895 when
Ellen C. Sargent, president of the State association, wrote an earnest
official request for the help of the national board. At the same time
Sarah B. Cooper, president of the campaign committee, sent the strongest
letter her eloquent pen could write, emphasizing Mrs. Sargent's
invitation. These were followed by similar pleas from the other members
of the board and from many prominent women of the State. Miss Anthony
felt at first as if it would not be possible for her to make the long
trip and endure the fatigue of a campaign, which she understood so well
from having experienced it seven times over. On the other hand she
realized what a tremendous impetus would be given to the cause of woman
suffrage if the great State of California should carry this amendment,
and she longed to render every assistance in her power. It was not,
however, until early in February that she yielded to the appeals and
decided to abandon all the plans she had cherished for the year. The
moment her decision reached California, Harriet Cooper, secretary of the
committee, telegraphed their delight and sent her a check of $120 for
travelling expenses.
The question now arose with Miss Anthony what she should do with her
secretary, whom she had engaged for a year but did not feel able to take
with her. This was settled in a few days through the action of Rev. and
Mrs. W. C. Gannett, who went among the friends and in a short time
raised the money to pay Mrs. Sweet's expenses to California and back,
all agreeing that Miss Anthony must have some one to relieve her of the
mechanical part of the burden she was about to assume. This seemed too
good to be true, as she had had no such help in all her forty-five years
of public work. The two started on the evening of February 27, a large
party of friends assembling at the station to say good-by to the veteran
of seventy-six years about to enter another battle. They stopped at Ann
Arbor for the Michigan convention, the guests of Mrs. Hall, and then a
few days in Chicago, where Miss Anthony and Mrs. Gross sat for a
statuette by Miss Bessie Potter.
She reached San Diego March 10 and, after attending the Woman's Club,
went to Los Angeles where she was beautifully received, sharing the
honors with Robert J. Burdette at the Friday Morning Club. Mrs. Alice
Moore McComas wrote to Mrs. Sargent and Mrs. Cooper the next day: "Dear
Miss Anthony came, saw and conquered, and we are hers! Letters and
telegrams were dispatched in every direction as soon as we found she was
coming and she has been able to reach women that I have almost despaired
of. Dozens who have heretofore held aloof, have promised me today to
stand by the amendment till all is over, and with these recruits we feel
that we can undertake the convention work in this county. The women are
aroused and we will see that they stay aroused. Miss Anthony's visit was
opportune and just what was needed."
She arrived at San Francisco a few days later, being joyfully greeted at
the Oakland station by Mrs. Cooper and Harriet. She went directly to the
Sargent residence, and from this delightful home, Miss Anthony, the
National president, and Mrs. Sargent, the State president, directed the
great campaign.
FOOTNOTES:
[114] The following from the Wichita Eagle is noteworthy because in the
Kansas campaign the year before, and in all previous years, it had been
abusive beyond description and had at all times put every possible
stumbling-block in the way of woman suffrage and berated all who
advocated it:
"What an experience Miss Anthony has had! None but a remarkable woman
could have accepted such a life-work at a time when prejudice and
education ran all in the opposite direction. Finely-balanced and
self-educated as to her special cause, she has not only won a name and
fame world-wide, but turned perceptibly the entire current of human
conviction. And she has been, through it all, the modest woman, truly
womanly. The men and women of this country--of the world--who believe
that the ballot for woman means better government and the elevation of
society to a higher plane, must ever recognize Susan B. Anthony as the
real pioneer prophetess of the cause, for so will history record her."
[115] Miss Anthony was many times besought to tell the secret of her
wonderful vitality and power for work, and on one occasion wrote the
following:
"As machinery in motion lasts longer than when lying idle, so a body and
soul in active exercise escape the corroding rust of physical and mental
laziness, which prematurely cuts off the life of so many women. I
believe I am able to endure the strain of daily travelling and lecturing
at over threescore years and ten, mainly because I have always worked
and loved work. As to my habits of life, it has been impossible for me
to have fixed rules for eating, resting, sleeping, etc. The only advice
I could give a young person on this point would be: 'Live as simply as
you can. Eat what you find agrees with your constitution--when you can
get it; sleep whenever you are sleepy, and think as little of these
details as possible.'"
[116] Among others was a beautiful testimonial from Theodore Tilton, who
had been for many years a resident of Paris, in which he said:
"At the present day, every woman who seeks the legal custody of her
children, or the legal control of her property; every woman who finds
the doors of a college or a university opening to her; every woman who
administers a post-office or a public library; every woman who enters
upon a career of medicine, law or theology; every woman who teaches a
school, or tills a farm, or keeps a shop; every one who drives a horse,
rides a bicycle, skates at a rink, swims at a summer resort, plays golf
or tennis in a public park, or even snaps a kodak; every such woman, I
say, owes her liberty largely to yourself and to your earliest and
bravest co-workers in the cause of woman's emancipation. So I send my
greetings not to you alone, but also to the small remainder now living
of your original bevy of noble assistants, among whom--first, last and
always--has been and still continues to be your fit mate, chief
counselor and executive right hand, Susan B. Anthony; a heroine of hard
work who, when her own eightieth birthday shall roll round, will
likewise deserve a national ovation, at which she should not
inappropriately receive the old Roman crown of oak."
This was accompanied by a personal letter to Miss Anthony, saying,
besides other pleasant things: "I heard lately that you were dying! I
did not believe the canard. Dying? No! You are to live forever. Give my
love to the heroine of the hour--and prepare yourself for an equal
picnic when your own time shall come. Ever yours as of old."
[117] In a letter to the Woman's Tribune Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf
said: "I was absent from the convention and could not vote against that
resolution. The 'Woman's Bible' a hindrance to organization? Of course
it is. What of it? The belief in the old theories about women, which had
their basis in doctrines taught from King James' version of the Bible,
was a much more monumental hindrance to the work of the pioneers, in not
only the woman suffrage movement but in all movements for the
advancement of women."