That which is popularly, if somewhat vaguely, characterized as the
“Cause of women” in this country, is closely identified with the
name of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Many years of her life were spent in
promoting the cause of her sex politically and legally, and that her
work has not been fruitless is proven by the fact that as long ago
as 1840 she advocated the passage of the Married Woman’s Property
bill, which became a law in 1848. That measure alone is sufficient
to obtain for Mrs. Stanton the gratitude of her sex. She was born in
Johnstown, New York, November 12, 1815, being the daughter of Daniel
C. Cady, judge of the New York State Supreme Court. She obtained her
education at the Johnstown academy and the Emma Willard seminary,
Troy, New York, graduating from the latter institution in 1832. Eight
years later she married Henry Brewster Stanton, a state senator,
anti-slavery orator and lawyer. From the first Mrs. Stanton identified
herself with “Woman’s Rights,” and she it was who called the first
woman’s rights convention, the meeting taking place at Seneca Falls,
New York, in July, 1848. Continually working on the lines indicated,
she has for the last quarter of a century annually addressed congress
in favor of embodying woman suffrage in the constitution of the United
States. In 1861 she was president of the Woman’s Loyal League, and
through the medium of her personality made it a power in the land. From
1865 to 1893 she held the office of president of the Woman Suffrage
Association. In 1868 she was a candidate for congress. Her eightieth
birthday, which took place in 1895, was celebrated under the auspices
of the National Council of Women, three hundred delegates attending the
convention.