On the whole, men and women of the present rejoice at every right

gained and every privilege conceded. Not one jot or tittle would

they abate the advantage won; yet when the plea is made that the

free, self-respecting, self-reliant, independent, thinking women

of this generation be given the suffrage, the answer almost

invariably comes back, "When women as a whole demand it, men will

consider it." This answer carries with it the apparent

supposition that all the changes have come because the majority

of women wanted them, and that further enlargement of liberty

must cease because the majority do not want it. Alas, it is a

sad comment upon the conservatism of the average human being that

not one change of consequence has been desired by women as a

whole, or even by a considerable part. It would be nearer the

truth to say women as a whole have opposed every advance.

The progress has come because women of a larger mold, loftier

ambitions and nobler self-respect than the average have been

willing to face the opposition of the world for the sake of

liberty. More than one such as these deserve the rank of martyr.

The sacrifice of suffering, of doubt, of obloquy, which has been

endured by the pioneers in the woman movement will never be fully

known or understood....

With the bold demand for perfect equality of rights in every walk

of life the public have compromised. Not willing to grant all,

they have conceded something; and by repeated compromises and

concessions to the main demand the progress of woman's rights has

been accomplished.

There are two kinds of restrictions upon human liberty--the

restraint of law and that of custom. No written law has ever been

more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.

At the beginning of our century both law and custom restricted

the liberty of women.

It was the edict of custom which prohibited women from receiving

an education, engaging in occupations, speaking in public,

organizing societies, or in other ways conducting themselves like

free, rational human beings. It was law which forbade married

women to control their own property or to collect their own

wages, and which forbade all women to vote. The changes have not

come because women wished for them or men welcomed them. A

liberal board of trustees, a faculty willing to grant a trial, an

employer willing to experiment, a broad-minded church willing to

hear a woman preach, a few liberal souls in a community willing

to hear a woman speak--these have been the influences which have

brought the changes.

There is no more elaborate argument or determined opposition to

woman suffrage than there has been to each step of progress....

Had a vote been taken, co-education itself would have been

overwhelmingly defeated. In 1840, before women had studied or

practiced medicine, had it been necessary to obtain permission to

do so by a vote of men or women, 8,000 graduated women physicians

would not now be engaged in the healing art in our country. In

1850, when vindictive epithets were hurled from press, pulpit and

public in united condemnation of the few women who were

attempting to be heard on the platform as speakers, had it been

necessary to secure the right of free public speech through

Legislatures or popular approval, the voices of women would still

be silent.... The rights of women have come in direct opposition

to the popular consensus of opinion. Yet when they have once

become established, they have been wanted by women and welcomed

by men.

There are a few fanatics who, if they could, would force the

women of this generation back into the spheres of their

grandmothers. There are some pessimists who imagine they see all

natural order coming to a speedy end because of the enlarged

liberties and opportunities of women. There are sentimentalists

who believe that the American home, that most sacred unit of

society, is seriously imperiled by the tendencies of women to

adopt new duties and interests. But this is not the thought of

the average American. There are few intelligent men who would be

willing to provide their daughters no more education than was

deemed proper for their grandmothers, or who would care to

restrict them to the old-time limited sphere of action. Thinking

men and women realize that the American home was never more

firmly established than at the present time, and that it has

grown nobler and happier as women have grown more self-reliant.

The average man and woman recognize that the changes which have

come have been in the interest of better womanhood and better

manhood, bringing greater happiness to women and greater

blessings to men. They recognize that each step gained has

rendered women fitter companions for men, wiser mothers and far

abler units of society.

The public acknowledges the wisdom, the common sense, the

practical judgment of the woman movement until it asks for the

suffrage. In other words, it approves every right gained because

it is here, and condemns the one right not yet gained because it

is not here.

Had it been either custom or statutory law which forbade women to

vote, the suffrage would have been won by the same processes

which have gained every other privilege. A few women would have

voted, a few men and women would have upheld them, and, little by

little, year after year, the number of women electors would have

increased until it became as general for women to vote as it is

for men. Had this been possible the women would be voting to-day

in every State in the Union; and undoubtedly their appearance at

the polls would now be as generally accepted as a matter of fact

as the college education. But, alas, when this step of

advancement was proposed, women found themselves face to face

with the stone wall of Constitutional Law, and they could not

vote until a majority of men should first give their consent.

Indeed the experiment was made to gain this sacred privilege by

easier means. The history of the voting of Susan B. Anthony and

others is familiar to all, but the Supreme Court decided that the

National Constitution must first be amended. It therefore becomes

a necessity to convert to this reform a majority of the men of

the whole United States.

When we recall the vast amount of illiteracy, ignorance,

selfishness and degradation which exists among certain classes of

our people the task imposed upon us is appalling. There are whole

precincts of voters in this country whose united intelligence

does not equal that of one representative American woman. Yet to

such classes as these we are asked to take our cause as the court

of final resort. We are compelled to petition men who have never

heard of the Declaration of Independence, and who have never

read the Constitution, for the sacred right of self-government;

we are forced to appeal for justice to men who do not know the

meaning of the word; we are driven to argue our claim with men

who never had two thoughts in logical sequence. We ask men to

consider the rights of a citizen in a republic and we get the

answer in reply, given in all seriousness, "Women have more

rights now than they ought to have;" and that, too, without the

faintest notion of the inanity of the remark or the emptiness of

the brain behind it.

When we present our cause to men of higher standing and more

liberal opinion, we find that the interest of party and the

personal ambition for place are obstacles which prevent them from

approving a question concerning whose popularity there is the

slightest doubt.

The way before us is difficult at best, not because our demand is

not based upon unquestioned justice, not because it is not

destined to win in the end, but because of the nature of the

processes through which it must be won. In fact the position of

this question might well be used to demonstrate that observation

of Aristotle that "a democracy has many striking points of

resemblance with tyranny...."

It is for these reasons, gentlemen, that we appeal to your

committee to aid in the submission of a Sixteenth Amendment. Such

an amendment would go before the Legislatures of our country

where the grade of intelligence is at least higher than we should

find in the popular vote.

Though you yourselves may doubt the expediency of woman suffrage,

though you may question the soundness of our claim, yet, in the

name of democracy, which permits the people to make and amend

their constitutions, and in the name of American womanhood,

prepared by a century of unmeasured advance for political duties,

we beg your aid in the speedy submission of this question. We ask

this boon in the direct interest of the thousands of women who do

want to vote, who suffer pangs of humiliation and degradation

because of their political servitude. We ask it equally in the

indirect interest of the thousands of women who do not want to

vote, as we believe their indifference or opposition is the same

natural conservatism which led other women to oppose the college

education, the control of property, the freedom of public speech

and the right of organization.

Years ago George William Curtis pleaded for fair play for women.

It is the same plea we are repeating. We only petition for fair

play, and this means the submission of our question to the most

intelligent constituency which has power to act upon it. If we

shall fail, we will abide by the decision. That is, we will wait

till courage has grown stronger, reason more logical, justice

purer, in the positive knowledge that our cause will eventually

triumph. As the daughters of Zelophehad appealed to Moses and his

great court for justice, so do the daughters of America appeal to

you.

Miss Anthony closed the hearing in a speech whose vigor, logic and

eloquence were accentuated in the minds of the hearers by the thought

that for more than thirty years she had made these pleas before

congressional committees, only to be received with stolid indifference

or open hostility. She began by saying: "In closing I would like to

give a little object lesson of the two methods of gaining the

suffrage. By one it is insisted that we shall carry our question to

what is termed a popular vote of each State--that is, that its

Legislature shall submit to the electors the proposition to strike the

little adjective "male" from the suffrage clause. We have already made

that experiment in fifteen different elections in ten different

States. Five States have voted on it twice." She then summarized

briefly the causes of the defeats in the various States, and

continued:

Now here is all we ask of you, gentlemen, to save us women from

any more tramps over the States, such as we have made now fifteen

times. In nine of those campaigns I myself, made a canvass from

county to county. In my own State of New York at the time of the

constitutional convention in 1894, I visited every county of the

sixty--I was not then 80 years of age, but 74....

There is an enemy of the homes of this nation and that enemy is

drunkenness. Every one connected with the gambling house, the

brothel and the saloon works and votes solidly against the

enfranchisement of women, and, I say, if you believe in chastity,

if you believe in honesty and integrity, then do what the enemy

wants you not to do, which is to take the necessary steps to put

the ballot in the hands of women....

I pray you to think of this question as you would if the one-half

of the people who are disfranchised were men, if we women had

absolute power to control every condition in this country and you

were obliged to obey the laws and submit to whatever arrangements

we made. I want you to report on this question exactly as if the

masculine half of the people were the ones who were deprived of

this right to a vote in governmental affairs. You would not be

long in bringing in a favorable report if you were the ones who

were disfranchised and denied a voice in your Government. If it

were not women--if it were the farmers of this country, the

manufacturers, or any class of men who were robbed of their

inalienable rights, then we would see that class rising in

rebellion, and the Government shaken to its very foundation; but

being women, being only the mothers, daughters, wives and sisters

of men who constitute the aristocracy, we have to submit.

The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw (Penn.) presided over the hearing before the

House Judiciary Committee.[128] The Constitutional Argument was made

by Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake (N. Y.), who said in the course of a

long and logical address:

We find that it is declared in Article IV, Section 4, that "the

United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a

republican form of Government." What is a republican form of

Government? In a monarchy, the theory is that all power flows

directly from the monarch; even in constitutional monarchies each

concession has been obtained "by consent of our gracious

sovereign." When the laws are based on the idea that the caprices

of the ruler regulate the privileges granted to the people, it is

at least logical, even if it is cruel, to refuse the right of

suffrage to any class of the community. You will agree that this

is not a monarchy, where power flows from the sovereign to the

people, but a republic, where the sovereign people give to the

Executive they have chosen the power to carry out their will. Can

you really claim that we live under a republican form of

government when one-half the adult inhabitants are denied all

voice in the affairs of the nation? It may be better described as

an oligarchy, where certain privileged men choose the rulers who

make laws for their own benefit, too often to the detriment of

the unrepresented portion of our people, who are denied

recognition as completely as was ever an oppressed class in the

most odious form of oligarchy which usurped a government.

Article XIV, Section 2, provides that "Representation shall be

apportioned among the several States according to their

respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each

State, excluding Indians, not taxed." What sort of justice is

there in excluding from the basis of representation Indians who

are not taxed and including in this basis women who are taxed?

The framers of this amendment were evidently impressed with the

tenet that taxation and representation should be associated, and

that as the Indian paid no taxes, and was not, therefore, forced

to carry the burdens of citizenship, he might, with justice, be

denied the privileges of citizenship. But by what specious

reasoning can any one maintain that it is honest to tax the great

body of women citizens, to count them in the basis of

representation, and yet deny to them the right of personal

representation at the ballot box? What excuse can be made for

this monstrous perversion of liberty? Each one of you, gentlemen,

sits here as the representative of thousands of women who, by

their money, have helped to build this Capitol in which you

assemble and to pay for the seats in which you sit; nay, more,

they pay a part of the salary of every man here, and yet what

real representation have they? How often do you think of the

women of your States and of their interests in the laws you pass?

How much do you reflect on the injustice which is daily and

hourly done them by denying to them all voice in this body,

wherein you claim to "represent the people" of your respective

States....

Some years ago, when the bill regulating affairs in Utah was

under discussion Senator Edmunds said, "Disfranchisement is a

cruel and degrading penalty, that ought not to be inflicted

except for crime." Yet this cruel and degrading penalty is

inflicted upon practically all the women of the United States. Of

what crime have we been guilty? Or is our mere sex a fault for

which we must be punished? Would not any body of men look upon

disfranchisement as "a cruel and degrading penalty?" Suppose the

news were to be flashed across our country to-morrow that the

farmers of the nation were to be disfranchised, what indignation

there would be! How they would leave their homes to assemble and

protest against this wrong! They would declare that

disfranchisement was a burden too heavy to be borne; that if they

were unrepresented laws would be passed inimical to their best

interests; that only personal representation at the ballot box

could give them proper protection; and they would hasten here,

even as we are doing, to entreat you to remove from them the

burden of "the cruel and degrading penalty of disfranchisement."

And now, I desire to call your attention to a series of

declarations in the Constitution which prove beyond all

possibility of contravention that the Government has solemnly

pledged itself to secure to the women of the nation the right of

suffrage.

Article XIV, Section 1, declares that "All persons born or

naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction

thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State

wherein they reside." The women of this country are, then,

citizens thereof and entitled to all the rights of citizens.

Article XV speaks of "the right of a citizen to vote," as if that

were one of the most precious privileges of citizenship, so

precious that its protection is embodied in a separate amendment.

If we now turn to Article IV, Section 2, we find it declares that

"the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the

privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."

What do these assertions mean? Is there one of you who can

explain away these noble guarantees of the right of individual

representation at the ballot box as mere one-sided phrases,

having no significance for one-half the people? No. These grand

pledges are abiding guarantees of human freedom, honest promises

of protection to all the people of the republic.

You, gentlemen, have sworn to carry out all the provisions of the

Constitution. Does not this oath lay upon you the duty of seeing

that this great pledge is kept and that the Fifty-sixth Congress

sets its mark in history by fulfilling these guarantees and

securing the ballot to the millions of women citizens, possessing

every qualification for the intelligent use of this mighty weapon

of liberty?

The Dome of this Capitol is surmounted by a magnificent statue

representing the genius of American freedom. How is this mighty

power embodied? As a majestic woman, full-armed and panoplied to

protect the liberty of the republic. Is not this symbol a mockery

while the women of the country are held in political slavery? We

ask you to insist that the pledges of the republic shall be

redeemed, that its promises shall be fulfilled, and that American

womanhood shall be enfranchised.

Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (N. Y.), as had been her custom during all

the years since she had ceased to appear in person before these

committees, sent a strong appeal for justice, beginning as follows:

In adjusting the rights of citizens in our newly-acquired

possessions, the whole question of suffrage is again fairly open

for discussion in the House of Representatives; and as some of

the States are depriving the colored men of the exercise of this

right and all of the States, except four, deny it to all women, I

ask Congress to submit an amendment to the National Constitution

declaring that citizens not allowed a voice in the Government

shall not be taxed or counted in the basis of representation.

To every fair mind, such an amendment would appear pre-eminently

just, since to count disfranchised classes in the basis of

representation compels citizens to aid in swelling the number of

Congressmen who may legislate against their most sacred

interests. If the Southern States that deny suffrage to negro men

should find that it limited their power in Congress by counting

in the basis of representation only those citizens who vote, they

would see that the interests of the races lay in the same

direction. A constitutional amendment to this effect would also

rouse the Northern States to their danger, for the same rule

applied there in excluding all women from the basis of

representation would reduce the number of their members of

Congress one-half. And if the South should continue her suicidal

policy toward women as well as colored men, her States would be

at a still greater disadvantage....

By every principle of our republic, logically considered, woman's

emancipation is a foregone conclusion. The great "declarations,"

by the fathers, regarding individual rights and the true

foundations of government, should not be glittering generalities

for demagogues to quote and ridicule, but eternal laws of

justice, as fixed in the world of morals as are the laws of

attraction and gravitation in the material universe.

In regard to the injustice of taxing unrepresented classes, Lord

Coke says: "The supreme power can not take from any man his

property without his consent in person or by representation. The

very act of taxing those who are not represented appears to me to

deprive them of one of their most sacred rights as free men, and

if continued, seems to be in effect an entire disfranchisement of

every civil right; for what one civil right is worth a rush when

a man's property is subject to be taken from him without his

consent?

Woman's right to life, liberty and happiness, to education,

property and representation, can not be denied, for if we go

back to first principles, where did the few get the right,

through all time, to rule the many? They never had it, any more

than pirates had the right to scour the high seas, and take

whatever they could lay hands upon.

Miss Elizabeth Sheldon Tillinghast (Conn.) considered The Economic

Basis of Woman Suffrage:

....However we may explain it, and whether we like it or not,

woman has become an economic factor in our country and one that

is constantly assuming larger proportions. The question is now

what treatment will make her an element of economic strength

instead of weakness as at present. The presence of women in

business now demoralizes the rate of wages even more than the

increase in the supply of labor. Why? Principally because she can

be bullied with greater impunity than voters--because she has no

adequate means of self-defense. This seems a hard accusation, but

I believe it to be true.

Trade is a fight--an antagonism of interests which are

compromised in contracts in which the economically stronger

always wins the advantage. There are many things that contribute

to economic strength besides ability, and among them the most

potent is coming more and more to be the power which arises from

organization expressing itself in political action. Without

political expression woman's economic value is at the bottom of

the scale. She is the last to be considered, and the

consideration is usually about exhausted before she is reached.

She must do better work than men for equal pay or equal work for

less pay. In spite of this she may be supplanted at any time by a

political adherent, or her place may be used as a bribe to an

opposing faction. Women are weak in the business world because

they are new in it; because they are only just beginning to learn

their economic value; because their inherent tendencies are

passive instead of aggressive, which makes them as a class less

efficient fighters than men.

For these reasons women are and must be for years, if not for

generations, economically weaker than men. Does it appeal to any

one's sense of fairness to give the stronger party in a struggle

additional advantages and deny them to the weaker one? Would that

be considered honorable--would it be considered tolerable--even

among prize-fighters? What would be thought of a contest between

a heavy-weight and a feather-weight in which the heavy-weight was

allowed to hit below the belt and the feather-weight was confined

to the Marquis of Queensberry's rules? And yet these are

practically the conditions under which women do business in

forty-one of our States.

While the State does not owe any able-bodied, sound-minded man or

woman a living, it does owe them all a fair--yes, even a generous

opportunity to earn their own living, and one that shall not be

prolonged dying. I do not claim that woman suffrage would be a

panacea for all our economic woes. But I do claim that it would

remove one handicap which women workers have to bear in addition

to all those they share in common with men. I do claim that the

men of the future will be healthier, wiser and more efficient

wealth-producers if their mothers are stimulated by a practical

interest in public affairs. I do claim that that nation will be

the strongest in which the economic conditions are the most

nearly just to all, and in which co-operation and altruism are

the most completely incorporated in the lives of the people.

Mrs. Hala Hammond Butt (Miss.) discussed The Changed Intellectual

Qualifications of the Women of this Century, with the intense

eloquence of Southern women, and closed as follows:

There are mighty forces striving within our souls--a latent

strength is astir that is lifting us out of our passive sleep.

Defenseless, still are we subject to restrictions, bonds as

illogical in theory as unjust in practice. Helpless, we may

formulate as we will; but demonstrate we may not. The query

persists in thrusting itself upon my mind, why should I be

amenable to a law that does not accord me recognition? Why,

indeed, should I owe loyalty and allegiance to a Government that

stamps my brow with the badge of servility and inferiority?

Our human interests are identical--yours and mine; our paths not

far apart; we have the same loves, the same hates, the same

hopes, the same desires; a common origin, a common need, a common

destiny. Our moral responsibilities are equal, our civil

liabilities not less than yours, our social and industrial

exactions equally as stringent as yours, and yet--O, crowning

shame of the nineteenth century!--we are denied the garb of

citizenship. Gentlemen, is this justice?

Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, auditor of the National Suffrage

Association and a member of the Chicago bar, demonstrated The

Protective Power of the Ballot:

The spirit of struggle against oppression and dependence is in

the air, and all have breathed it in--women as well as men. They,

too, feel the desire for freedom, opportunity, progress; the wish

for liberty, a share in the government, emancipation. The

practical method by which these aspirations can be realized is

through the ballot. It is the insignia of power. The Outlander

wants it; so does the Filipino, the Slav, the Cuban; so do women.

Women need the ballot not only for the honor of being esteemed

peers among freemen, but they want it for the practical value it

will be in protecting them in the exercise of a citizen's

prerogatives....

But, it is asked, "Have not women had some sort of protection

without the ballot?" Yes, but it has been only such protection

as the caprice or affection of the voting class has given,

gratuities revocable at will. The man of wealth or power defends

his wife, daughter or sweetheart because she is his, just as he

would defend his property. His own opinions, not her views,

decide him concerning the things from which she should be

protected. Should she ever need protection against "her

protector," there is no one to give it....

Entrance into remunerative employments in many instances has been

denied women. In many of the States the professions of law,

medicine, dentistry and all the elective offices are closed by

statute. Appointive positions, also, which women might legally

hold are practically withheld from them because of their lack of

the ballot. The appointing power--president, governor, mayor,

judge or commissioner--all owe their own positions to voters who

expect some minor appointment in acknowledgment of service.

Even large private corporations not supposed to be influenced by

politics have occasionally desired and received governmental help

and protection. In return, the employes of these enterprises have

been advised to vote for the party which has protected their

employers' business. At a caucus, a street parade and on election

day, the 500 or 10,000 or 100,000 persons employed in a certain

industry make a considerable political showing if they are all

voters. On such occasions women employes are of no value. Women

refused employment in various enterprises not alone are injured

in their feelings, but they are not protected in their right to

earn food, shelter and clothes.

There are many different kinds of employment which do not debar

women, but even in these they need protection in securing a fair

return for their labor. In an investigation conducted by the U.

S. Department of Labor concerning the wages received by men and

women it appeared that in 75 per cent. of the 782 instances

investigated, men received 50 per cent. higher wages than did

women laboring with the same degree of efficiency on the same

kind of work.

Women also need protection of their property. A man who knows the

inside truth says, "Widows and minors are always assessed higher

than men." If the assessor desires re-election, one of the

easiest methods of securing it is to lower the assessments of the

politicians who control most voters....

Women also want protection for the one sphere which even the most

conservative loudly proclaim should be theirs--the home. That the

water supply is good and abundant, that the sewage is carried

away properly and speedily, that contagious cases are isolated,

that food is pure in quality and reasonable in price, that

inspection of food is honest and scientific, that weights and

measures are true, that gas and electricity are inexpensive, that

buildings are strongly constructed--these are all matters under

the control of certain officials elected by voters....

Women, too, want protection for the children, proper regulations

in regard to the schools, the trains at crossings, seducers,

tramps and child abductors. They want strict laws against obscene

literature and the unhealthy cigarette; and what is equally

important, honest enforcement of such laws and ordinances....

One class can not, will not, legislate better for all classes

than they can do for themselves. So men alone can not legislate

better for women and men than can the two for both. Women need

the ballot to protect themselves and all that they hold dear.

The hearing was closed by Miss Shaw, who said in ending her remarks:

Dire results have been predicted at every step of radical

progress. When women first enjoyed higher education the cry went

out that the home would be destroyed. It was said that if all the

women were educated, all would become bluestockings, and if all

women became bluestockings all would write books, and if all

women wrote books what would become of the homes, who would rear

the children? But the schools were opened and women entered them,

and it has been discovered that the intelligent woman makes a

wiser mother, a better homemaker and a much more desirable

companion, friend and wife than a woman who is illiterate, whose

intellectual horizon is narrowed.

In many of the States where the statutes were based on the old

English common law, the husband absorbed the wife's property as

he absorbed her personal rights. Then came the demand for

property rights for wives, but the cry went up they will desert

their homes. Then it was found there were thousands of women who

could have no home if they were not permitted to pursue

avocations in the outside world. And then it was said that the

moral life of women would be degraded by public contact. Yet the

statistics show that in those occupations in which women are able

to earn a livelihood in an honorable and respectable manner they

have raised the standard of morality rather than lowered it.

The results have not been those which were predicted. The homes

have not been broken up; for human hearts are and always will be

the same, and so long as God has established in this world a

greater force than all other forces combined--which we call the

divine gravity of love--just so long human hearts will continue

to be drawn together, homes will be founded, families will be

reared; and never so good a home, never so good a family, as

those founded in justice and educated upon right principles.

Consequently the industrial emancipation of women has been of

benefit to the home, to women and to men.

The claim is made that we are building a barrier between men and

women; that we are antagonistic because men are men and we are

women. This is not true. We believe there never was a time when

men and women were such good friends as now, when they esteemed

each other as they do now. We have coeducation in our schools;

boys and girls work side by side and study and recite together.

When coeducation was first tried men thought they would easily

carry off the honors; but soon they learned their mistake. That

experience gave to men a better opinion of woman's intellectual

ability.

There is nothing in liberty which can harm either man or woman.

There is nothing in justice which can work against the highest

good of humanity; and when on the ground of expediency this

measure is opposed, in the words of Wendell Phillips, "Whatever

is just, God will see that it is expedient." There is no greater

inexpediency than injustice....

We do not ask the ballot because we do not believe in men or

because we think men unjust or unfair. We do not ask to speak for

ourselves because we believe men unwilling to speak for us; but

because men by their very nature never can speak for women. It

would be as impossible for all men to understand the needs of

women and care for their interests as it would be for all women

to understand the needs and care for the interests of men. So

long as laws affect both men and women, both should make the

laws.

Gentlemen, we leave our case with you. I wish those who oppose

this measure could know the great need of the power of the ballot

in the hands of those who struggle in the world's affairs. I

thank you in the name of our association for your kindness in

listening to us. There will never be laid before you a claim more

just--one more in accord with the fundamental principles of our

national life.

No one can read the arguments for the enfranchisement of women as

presented before these two committees without a profound conviction of

the justice of their cause and the imperative duty of those before

whom they pleaded it to report in favor of submitting the desired

amendment. This report would simply have placed the matter before the

respective Houses of Congress. But neither committee took any action

whatever and as far as practical results were concerned these eloquent

pleas fell upon deaf ears and hardened hearts.

A unique feature was added to the hearings this year because, for the

first time, the advocates of woman suffrage were opposed before the

committees by a class of women calling themselves "remonstrants." The

_Woman's Journal_ said:

About a dozen women from New York and Massachusetts, with one

from Delaware, came to Washington and made public speeches before

Congressional Committees to prove that a woman's place is at

home. They said they were led to take this action by their alarm

at the activity of the National-American W. S. A.

The party of "antis" who came to the Senate hearing in the Marble

Room would not have been able to get in but for Miss Anthony. As

this room accommodates only about sixty persons, admission was by

tickets, and these had been issued to delegates only. The

"antis," having no tickets, were turned away; but Miss Anthony,

learning who they were, persuaded the doorkeeper to admit them,

introduced them herself to the chairman of the committee, and

placed them in good seats near the front, where they certainly

heard more about the facts of equal suffrage than they ever did

before.[129]

Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge and Miss Bissell addressed the Senate

Committee on Woman Suffrage, and Mr. Thomas Russell, Mrs. A. J.

George, Miss Emily Bissell and Mrs. Rossiter Johnson addressed

the House Judiciary Committee. In each case they secured the last

word, to which they were not entitled either by equity or custom,

by asking to speak at the conclusion of the suffrage hearing. It

was trying to have to listen to egregious misstatements of fact,

and to hear the _Woman's Journal_ audaciously cited as authority

for them, without a chance to reply.

The time for these hearings belonged exclusively to the suffrage

delegates, the chairmen of the two congressional committees stating

that they would appoint some other day for the "remonstrants." The

delegates, however, declaring that they had no objections, the "antis"

were permitted to read their papers at the close of the suffrage

hearing, thus having the benefit of the large audiences, but

furnishing a vast amount of amusement to the suffragists.[130]

The _Woman's Journal_ said in its perfectly fair description:

The chairman of the House Committee asked Mrs. A. J. George of

Massachusetts, who conducted the hearing for the "antis," a

number of questions that she could not answer, and Thomas Russell

of that State had to prompt her repeatedly. The chairman would

ask a question; Mrs. George would look nonplussed; Mr. Russell

would lean over and whisper, "Say yes," and she would answer

aloud "Yes." The chairman would ask another question; Mr. Russell

would whisper, "Say no," and Mrs. George would answer "No." This

happened so often that both the audience and the committee were

visibly amused, and several persons said it was Mr. Russell who

was really conducting the hearing. He is a Boston lawyer who has

conducted the legislative hearings for the "antis" in

Massachusetts for some years.

Mrs. Dodge, in her speech, begged the committee not to allow the

"purely sentimental reasons of the petitioners" to have any weight,

and said: "The mere fact that this amendment is asked as a compliment

to the leading advocate of woman suffrage on the attainment of her

eightieth birthday, is evidence of the emotional frame of mind which

influences the advocates of the measure, and which is scarcely

favorable to the calm consideration that should be given to

fundamental political principles." Miss Anthony's birthday had not

been mentioned by any speaker before either committee, and the

suffragists under her leadership had been making their pleas and

arguments for a Sixteenth Amendment for over thirty years.

As the suffrage speakers were not permitted to answer the

misstatements and prevarications of the "remonstrants" at the time of

the hearings and these were widely circulated through the press, the

convention passed the following resolutions on motion of Miss Alice

Stone Blackwell:

WHEREAS, At this morning's Congressional hearing letters were

read by the anti-suffragists from two men and one woman in

Colorado, asserting equal suffrage in that State to be a failure;

therefore,

_Resolved_, That we call attention to a published statement

declaring that the results are wholesome and that none of the

predicted evils have followed. This statement is signed by the

Governor and three ex-Governors of Colorado, the Chief Justice,

all the Judges of the State Supreme Court, the Denver District

Court and the Court of Appeals; all the Colorado Senators and

Representatives in Congress; President Slocum of Colorado

College, the president of the State University, the State

Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Attorney-General, the

mayor of Denver, prominent clergymen of different denominations,

and the presidents of thirteen of the principal women's

associations of Denver. The social science department of the

Denver Woman's Club has just voted unanimously to the same

effect, and the Colorado Legislature lately passed a similar

resolution by a vote of 45 to 3 in the House and 30 to 1 in the

Senate. On the other hand, during the six years that equal

suffrage has prevailed in Colorado the opponents have not yet

found six respectable men who assert over their own names and

addresses that it has had any bad results.

WHEREAS, At the Congressional hearing it was asserted that equal

suffrage had led to no improvements in the laws of Colorado;

therefore,

_Resolved_, That we call attention to the fact that Colorado owes

to equal suffrage the laws raising the age of protection for

girls to eighteen years; establishing a State Home for Dependent

Children and a State Industrial School for Girls; making fathers

and mothers joint guardians of their children; removing the

emblems from the Australian ballot; prohibiting child labor; also

city ordinances in Denver providing drinking fountains in the

streets; forbidding expectoration in public places, and requiring

the use of smoke-consuming chimneys on all public and business

buildings.

This anecdote was related the next day: "Miss Anthony's love of the

beautiful leads her always to clothe herself in good style and fine

materials, and she has an eye for the fitness of things as well as for

the funny side. 'Girls,' she said yesterday, after returning from the

Capitol, 'those statesmen eyed us very closely, but I will wager that

it was impossible after we got mixed together to tell an anti from a

suffragist by her clothes. There might have been a difference, though,

in the expression of the faces and the shape of the heads,' she added

drily."

On Tuesday afternoon about two hundred members of the convention were

received by President McKinley in the East Room of the White House.

Miss Anthony stood at his right hand and, after the President had

greeted the last guest, he invited her to accompany him upstairs to

meet Mrs. McKinley, who was not well enough to receive all of the

ladies. Giving her his arm he led her up the old historic staircase,

"as tenderly as if he had been my own son," she said afterward. When

she was leaving, after a pleasant call, Mrs. McKinley expressed a wish

to send some message to the convention and she and the President

together filled Miss Anthony's arms with white lilies, which graced

the platform during the remainder of the meetings.

FOOTNOTES:

[120] The statistics used in this paper were taken from the report of

the U. S. Commissioner of Education for 1899.

[121] See chapter on Louisiana.

[122] The address of Miss Laughlin created a sensation. A member of

the United States Labor Commission was in the audience, and was so

much impressed with the power of this young woman that shortly

afterwards she was made a member of this commission to investigate the

condition of the working women of the United States. Her valuable

report was published in pamphlet form.

[123] See chapter on Kansas.

[124] Immediately after the convention, the New York _Times_ published

an alleged interview with Mrs. Paul, in which she was made to say that

she was not a believer in suffrage for women. She at once denied this

emphatically over her own signature, saying that the interview was a

fabrication and that she was an advocate of the enfranchisement of

women especially because of the need of their ballot in city

government.

[125] This was held the first week in December, 1901, and netted about

$8,000 for the association.

[126] It will be noticed in this pamphlet that all but one of the

favorable reports from congressional committees were made during the

years when Miss Anthony had a winter home at the Riggs House, through

the courtesy of its proprietors, Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Spofford, and was

able to secure them through personal attention and influence. There

were always some members of these committees who were favorable to

woman suffrage, but with the great pressure on every side from other

matters, this one was apt to be neglected unless somebody made a

business of seeing that it did not go by default. This Miss Anthony

did for many years, and during this time secured the excellent reports

of 1879, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886 and 1890. The great speech of Senator

T. W. Palmer, made February 6, 1885, was in response to her insistence

that he should keep his promise to speak in favor of the question. In

1888-90 Mrs. Upton, who was residing in Washington with her father,

Ezra B. Taylor, M. C., did not permit the Judiciary Committee to

forget the report for that year, which was the first and only

favorable House Report.

[127] For account of the work of the association before Congress see

Chap. I.

[128] George W. Ray, N. Y., chairman; John J. Jenkins, Wis.; Richard

Wayne Parker, N. J.; Jesse Overstreet, Ind.; De Alva S. Alexander, N.

Y.; Vespasian Warner, Ill.; Winfield S. Kerr, O.; Charles E.

Littlefield, Me.; Romeo H. Freer, W. Va.; Julius Kahn, Calif.; William

L. Terry, Ark.; David A. De Armond, Mo.; Samuel W. T. Lanham, Tex.;

William Elliott, S. C.; Oscar W. Underwood, Ala.; David H. Smith, Ky.;

William H. Fleming, Ga.

[129] That this was a mistaken courtesy was proved by subsequent

events, as afterwards Mrs. Dodge came out with a card in the New York

_Sun_ denying that they were admitted through the intervention of Miss

Anthony.

[130] In the official Senate report of the hearing the arguments of

the suffragists filled forty pages; those of the "antis" five pages.

They consisted of brief papers by Mrs. Dodge and Miss Bissell. The

former took the ground that the Congress should leave this matter to

be decided by the States; that women are not physically qualified to

use the ballot; and that its use by them would render "domestic

tranquillity" a byword among the people. Miss Bissell began by saying,

"It is not the tyranny but the chivalry of men that we have to fear,"

and opposed the suffrage principally because the majority of women do

not want it, saying, "I have never yet been so situated that I could

see where a vote could help me. If I felt that it would, I might

become a suffragist perhaps."

CHAPTER XXI.

THE NATIONAL-AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1900 CONTINUED.

It had been known for some time before the suffrage convention of Feb.

8-14, 1900, that Miss Anthony intended to resign the presidency of the

national association at that time, when she would be eighty years old,

but her devoted adherents could not resist urging that she would

reconsider her decision. When they assembled, however, they found it

impossible to persuade her to continue longer in the office. The

Washington _Post_ of February 8 said:

Miss Susan B. Anthony has resigned. The woman who for the greater

part of her life has been the star that guided the National Woman

Suffrage Association through all of its vicissitudes until it

stands to-day a living monument to her wonderful mental and

physical ability has turned over the leadership to younger minds

and hands, not because this great woman feels that she is no

longer capable of exercising it, but because she has a still

larger work to accomplish before her life's labors are at an end.

In a speech which was characteristic of one who has done so much

toward the uplifting of her sex, Miss Anthony tendered her

resignation during the preliminary meeting of the executive

committee, held last night at the headquarters in the parlors of

the Riggs House.

Although Miss Anthony had positively stated that she would resign

in 1900, there were many of those present who were visibly

shocked when she announced that she was about to relinquish her

position as president of the association. In the instant hush

which followed this statement a sorrow settled over the

countenances of the fifty women seated about the room, who love

and venerate Miss Anthony so much, and probably some of them

would have broken down had it not been that they knew well her

antipathy to public emotion. In a happy vein, which soon drove

the clouds of disappointment from the faces of those present, she

explained why she no longer desired to continue as an officer of

the association after having done so since its beginning.

"I have fully determined," she began, "to retire from the active

presidency of the association. I was elected assistant secretary

of a woman suffrage society in 1852, and from that day to this

have always held an office. I am not retiring now because I feel

unable, mentally or physically, to do the necessary work, but

because I wish to see the organization in the hands of those who

are to have its management in the future." Then jestingly she

continued: "I want to see you all at work, while I am alive, so I

can scold if you do not do it well. Give the matter of selecting

your officers serious thought. Consider who will do the best work

for the political enfranchisement of women, and let no personal

feelings enter into the question."

While Miss Anthony seemed at the height of her physical and mental

vigor, those who loved her best felt it to be right that she should be

relieved of the burdens of the office which were growing heavier each

year as the demands upon the association became more numerous, and

should be free to devote her time to certain lines of work which could

be done only by herself. They tried to imitate her own cheerfulness

and philosophy in this matter, but found it more difficult than it

ever before had been to follow where she led.

The last of the resolutions, presented to the convention a few days

later by the chairman of the committee, Henry B. Blackwell, read as

follows: "In view of the announced determination of Miss Susan B.

Anthony to withdraw from the presidency of this association, we tender

her our heartfelt expression of appreciation and regard. We

congratulate her upon her eightieth birthday, and trust that she will

add to her past illustrious services her aid and support to the

younger workers for woman's enfranchisement. We shall continue to look

to her for advice and counsel in the years to come. May the new

century witness the fruition of our labors."

This was unanimously adopted by a rising vote. Observing that many of

the delegates were on the point of yielding to their feelings, Miss

Anthony arose and in clear, even tones, with a touch of quaint humor,

said:

I wish you could realize with what joy and relief I retire from

the presidency. I want to say this to you while I am still

alive--and I am good yet for another decade--don't be afraid. As

long as my name stands at the head, I am Yankee enough to feel

that I must watch every potato which goes into the dinner-pot and

supervise every detail of the work. For the four years since I

fixed my date to retire, I have constantly been saying to myself,

"Let go, let go, let go!" I am now going to let go of the

machinery but not of the spiritual part. I expect to do more work

for woman suffrage in the next decade than ever before. I have

not been for nearly fifty years in this movement without gaining

a certain "notoriety," at least, and this enables me to get a

hearing before the annual conventions of many great national

bodies, and to urge on them the passage of resolutions asking

Congress to submit to the State Legislatures a Sixteenth

Amendment to the Federal Constitution forbidding disfranchisement

on account of sex. This is a part of the work to which I mean to

devote myself henceforward. Then you all know about the big fund

which I am going to raise so that you young workers may have an

assured income and not have to spend the most of your time

begging money, as I have had to do.

The convention proceeded to the election of officers. Mrs. Lillie

Devereux Blake (N. Y.), who was a candidate for president, asked

permission to make a personal explanation and said: "I have received

from many parts of the United States expressions of regard and esteem

that have deeply touched me. But in the interests of harmony I desire

to withdraw my name from any consideration you may have wished to give

me." Of the 278 votes cast for president Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt (N.

Y.) received 254; eleven of the remaining twenty-four were cast for

Miss Anthony and ten for Mrs. Blake. The other members of the old

board were re-elected almost unanimously.[131]

The Washington _Post_ said: "There was a touching scene when the vote

for Mrs. Chapman Catt was announced. First there was an outburst of

applause, and then as though all at once every one realized that she

was witnessing the passing of Susan B. Anthony, their beloved

president, the deepest silence prevailed for several seconds. Lifelong

members of the association, who had toiled and struggled by the side

of Miss Anthony, could not restrain their emotions and wept in spite

of their efforts at control." The Washington _Star_ thus described the

occasion:

Mrs. Blake not being in the hall, Miss Anthony was made a

committee of one to present Mrs. Catt to the convention. The

women went wild as, erect and alert, she walked to the front of

the platform, holding the hand of her young co-worker, of whom

she is extremely fond and of whom she expects great things. Miss

Anthony's eyes were tear-dimmed, and her tones were uneven, as

she presented to the convention its choice of a leader in words

freighted with love and tender solicitude, rich with

reminiscences of the past, and full of hope for the future of the

new president and her work.

"Suffrage is no longer a theory, but an actual condition," she

said, "and new occasions bring new duties. These new duties,

these changed conditions, demand stronger hands, younger heads

and fresher hearts. In Mrs. Catt you have my ideal leader. I

present to you my successor."

By this time half the women were using their handkerchiefs on

their eyes and the other half were waving them in the air.

The object of all this praise stood with downcast eyes and evidently

was deeply moved. At length she said in response:

Good friends, I should hardly be human if I did not feel

gratitude and appreciation for the confidence you have shown me;

but I feel the honor of the position much less than its

responsibility. I never was an aspirant for it. I consented only

six weeks ago to stand. I was not willing to be the next

president after Miss Anthony. I have known that there was a

general loyalty to her which could not be given to any younger

worker. Since Miss Anthony announced her intention to retire,

there have been editorials in many leading papers expressing

approval of her--but not of the cause. She has been much larger

than our association. The papers have spoken of the new president

as Miss Anthony's successor. Miss Anthony never will have a

successor.

A president chosen from the younger generation is on a level with

the association, and it might suffer in consequence of Miss

Anthony's retirement if we did not still have her to counsel and

advise us. I pledge you whatever ability God has given me, but I

can not do this work alone. The cause has got beyond where one

woman can do the whole. I shall not be its leader as Miss Anthony

has been; I shall be only an officer of this association. I will

do all I can, but I can not do it without the co-operation of

each of you. The responsibility much overbalances the honor, and

I hope you will all help me bear the burden.

[Illustration: MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT.

Successor of Miss Susan B. Anthony as President of National-American

Woman Suffrage Association.]

It was voted on motion of Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery to make Miss

Anthony honorary president, which was done with applause and she

observed informally: "You have moved me up higher. I always did stand

by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and my name always was after hers, and I am

glad to be there again."

The press notices said of the new officer:

Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the newly-elected president of the

National Suffrage Association, is a young and handsome woman with

a charming personality, and is one of the most eloquent and

logical speakers upon the public platform. For the past five

years she has been lecturer and organizer for the association,

where she has shown rare executive ability and earnestness of

purpose.

She has traveled from east to west and from north to south many

times, lectured in nearly every city in the Union and has been

associated with every important victory that equal suffrage has

won of late years. She was in Colorado during the amendment

campaign, and the women attribute their success to her more than

to any other person from outside the State. She was in Idaho,

where all four political parties put suffrage planks into their

platforms and the amendment carried. She went before the

Louisiana constitutional convention, by the earnest invitation of

New Orleans women, and it gave tax-paying women the right to vote

upon all questions submitted to the tax-payers.

It had been known for several years that Mrs. Chapman Catt was Miss

Anthony's choice as her successor; she was considered the

best-equipped woman in the association for the position, and the vote

of the delegates showed how nearly unanimous was her election. The

Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, who for a number of years had been

vice-president-at-large, could have had Miss Anthony's sanction and

the unanimous vote of the convention if she would have consented to

accept the office.

Mrs. Chapman Catt opened the next day's meeting by saying:

A surprise was promised as part of this afternoon's program and a

pleasant duty now falls to me. It is to present Miss Anthony with

the spirit of a gift, for the gift itself is not here. Suffrage

people from all over the world go to see Miss Anthony at her home

in Rochester, N. Y., and consequently the carpets of the parlor

and sitting-room are getting a little worn. When she goes home

she will find two beautiful Smyrna rugs fitting the floors of

those two rooms--the gift of her suffrage friends. I am also

commissioned to present her with an album. Some of our naughty

officers have been making fun of it and saying that albums are

all out of date; but this one contains the photographs of all the

presidents of the State Suffrage Associations, and the chairmen

of standing committees. No collection of "antis" could be found

that would present in their faces as much intelligence and

strength of character.

Miss Anthony expressed her thanks, and said: "These girls have

disproved the old saying that a secret can not be kept by a woman, for

I have not heard a word of a rug or a picture."

From the Utah Silk Commission composed of women came a handsome black

brocaded dress pattern, the work of women, from the tending of the

cocoons to the weaving of the silk. A beautiful solid silver vase was

presented from "the free women of Idaho." There was also from this

State an album of two hundred pages of pen drawings, water colors and

pressed flowers, with a sentiment on each page, the contributions of

as many individuals. California sent more than one hundred dollars.

From every State came gifts of money, silver-plate, fine china, sofa

cushions, books, pictures, exquisite jewelry, lace, chatelaine bags

and every token which loving hearts could devise. To each Miss Anthony

responded with a terse sentence or two, half tender, half humorous;

the audience entered fully into the spirit of it all, and the

convention was like a big family enjoying the birthday of one of its

members.

Of the last session on February 14, the Washington _Post_ said:

A vast audience consisting of both men and women witnessed at the

Church of Our Father, last evening, the passing of Susan B.

Anthony as president of the National Suffrage Association. It was

the final evening session of the Thirty-second annual convention,

which, Miss Anthony announced at its close, had been the most

successful from every point of view of any ever held.

Long before the opening hour arrived the church was completely

filled, and people stood eight and ten deep in the aisles, sat

around the edge of the speakers' platform and filled the

approaches to the church. Miss Anthony and many of the other

speakers, who arrived at eight o'clock, had great difficulty in

reaching the platform.

John C. Bell, member of Congress from Colorado, made the opening

address in which he said: "The greatest obstruction to human progress

is human prejudice. As long as men are controlled more by their

prejudices than by their reason, they will be slaves to habit. If

women had voted from the foundation of the Government it would now be

as difficult to deprive them of this privilege as it would be to

repeal the Bill of Rights, but as the men have done the voting from

the beginning, the force of habit is successfully battling with both

reason and justice." He refuted the charge that woman suffrage made

dissension in families, saying: "You must bear in mind that the

extending of the elective franchise to women not only elevates and

broadens them but the men as well."

The address of Mrs. Blatch on Woman and War was among the most notable

of the convention. She declared that one of the good effects of war

was that "it made women work." The _Post_ said: "Mrs. Harriot Stanton

Blatch, a daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whose present home is in

England, laid the blame of all the British reverses in the Transvaal

at the door of what she termed 'the evils of an idle aristocracy.' In

a most dramatic manner she denounced the course of the British Empire.

After summing up the war situation she said: 'The English armies now

on the battle-fields in the Transvaal have at their heads as officers

sons of this idle aristocracy, who through their incompetency are not

fit to be leaders. They are beneath contempt, but to the English

soldier all honor is due. He is all right.'"

The speech of the pioneer Quaker suffragist, Mrs. Caroline Hallowell

Miller (Md.), delighted the audience, and her comparison of Abraham

Lincoln and Susan B. Anthony, "both having devoted their lives to

freedom," was enthusiastically received. Then occurred one of the

pleasant diversions so characteristic of these suffrage conventions.

During the interval while the collection was being taken, Mrs. Helen

Mosher James, niece of Miss Anthony, stepping to the front of the

platform, said: "This is the Rev. Anna Shaw's birthday. Her friends

wish to present her with an easy chair to await her when she comes

back wearied from going up and down the land, satchel in hand, on her

many lecture tours. Here are fifty-three gold dollars, one for each

year of her life, and we wish her to buy such a chair as suits her

best."

In response the little minister said in part: "I am not like Miss

Anthony, so used to having gifts poured in upon me that I know just

what to say. I shall buy the chair when I have been told what is the

correct thing to buy by another niece of Miss Anthony's, who for

twelve years has made a home for me. If you want to see a pretty

little spot, come to our home, and every one of you shall sit in _our_

chair."[132]

Then Miss Anthony, clasping the hand of Mrs. Chapman Catt, led her

forward and introduced her to the audience as "president of the

National-American Woman Suffrage Association." The _Woman's Journal_

thus described the occasion:

She was received with immense applause, the great audience rising

and waving handkerchiefs. She spoke on The Three I's, showing how

every effort of women for improvement was called, first,

indelicate, then immodest, and finally impracticable, but how all

the old objections had been proved to be, in legal phrase,

"incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial."

The woman's rights agitation began in the early days of the

republic, and a moral warfare along that line has been waged for

more than a hundred years. Each step has been fiercely contested.

The advocates of every claim have been lovers of justice and the

opponents have been adherents of conservatism. The warfare has

been waged in three distinct battles, the weapon of the opponents

always being ridicule, that of the defenders, appeals to reason.

In the early days, when colleges and public schools were closed

to women and the education of girls was confined to the three

R's, an agitation was begun to permit them to take more advanced

studies. Society received it with the cry "indelicate." At that

time delicacy was the choicest charm of woman and indelicacy was

a crushing criticism. But the battle was won.

The second great battle occurred between 1850 and 1860. Upon

every hand incorrigible woman, with a big W, arose to irritate

and torment the conservatives of the world. She appeared in the

pulpit, on the platform, in conventions, in new occupations and

in innumerable untried fields. Everywhere the finger of scorn was

pointed at her, and the world with merciless derision pronounced

her immodest. But that battle was won.

We are now in the heat of the greatest of all battles. Woman asks

for the suffrage. The world answers, "impractical." We are told

that this movement is quite different from all others because

there is an organized opposition of women themselves against it,

but the "remonstrant" is not new. This century has witnessed ten

generations of remonstrants. In 1800 the remonstrant was

horrified at the study of geography. In 1810 she accepted

geography but protested against physiology. In 1820 she accepted

physiology but protested against geometry. In 1830 she accepted

geometry but protested against the college education. In 1840 she

accepted the college but remonstrated against the property laws

for married women. In 1850 she accepted the property laws but

remonstrated against public speaking. In 1860 she protested

against the freedom of organization. In 1870 she remonstrated

against the professions for women. In 1880 she protested against

school suffrage. In 1890 she protested against women in office.

In 1900 she accepts everything that every former generation of

remonstrants has protested against and, availing herself of the

privilege of free public speech secured by this women's rights

movement, pleads publicly that she may be saved from the burden

of voting.

The remonstrant of 1800 said "indelicate," of 1850 "immodest," of

1900 "impractical." That the forces of conservatism will

surrender as unconditionally to the forces of justice in the

great battle of the impractical as they did in the battle of the

indelicate and of the immodest is as inevitable as that the sun

will rise tomorrow.

At the close of her fine address, of which this is the barest

synopsis, Miss Anthony came forward and asked triumphantly, "Do you

think the three hundred delegates made a mistake in choosing that

woman for president?"--a question which brought out renewed applause.

She then introduced to the audience the other officers, all of whom

except Mrs. McCulloch had served in their present capacity from eight

to ten years, Mrs. Avery having been corresponding secretary twenty

years. They were enthusiastically greeted. Afterwards she presented

Miss Clara Barton, the president of the Red Cross Association, an

earnest advocate of suffrage, and as the cheers for her rang out, Miss

Anthony observed, "Politically her opinion is worth no more than an

idiot's."

Miss Anthony came forward at the close of the program and, the

audience realizing that she was about to say good-bye, there was the

most profound stillness, with every eye and ear strained to the utmost

tension. A woman who loved the theatrical and posed for effect would

have taken advantage of this opportunity to create a dramatic scene

and make her exit in the midst of tears and lamentations, but nothing

could be further from Miss Anthony's nature. Her voice rang out as

strong and true as if making an old-time speech on the rights of

women, with only one little break in it, and she covered this up by

saying quickly, "Not one of our national officers ever has had a

dollar of salary. I retire on full pay!"

The Washington _Post_ said of this occasion:

The convention closed its labors with the farewell address of

Miss Anthony. The retiring president paid a magnificent tribute

to the faithful women whose aid and loyal companionship she had

enjoyed for so many years. Emphatically she declared that she

was not going to give up her efforts in behalf of that for which

she had struggled so long, and concluded: "I am grateful to this

association; I am grateful to you all, and to the world, for the

great kindness which has been mine. To-morrow I will have

finished fourscore years. I have lived to rise from the most

despised and hated woman in all the world of fifty years ago,

until now it seems as if I am loved by you all. If this is true,

then I am indeed satisfied."

Miss Anthony lost control of her voice for a moment. She soon

regained her composure, however, and, calling the officers of the

association to her side, she told of what each individual had

done for the organization. It was a pretty picture. The audience

caught the spirit of determination from Miss Anthony and a

thunderous applause and waving of handkerchiefs followed.

The great crowd sang the doxology and even then seemed unwilling to

disperse, hundreds of people staying for a hand-shake and a few

personal words with the officers and delegates.

The day following the close of the convention was the eightieth

anniversary of Miss Anthony's birth, and many suffrage advocates from

different parts of the country had come to the national capital to

assist in celebrating it. The following program was handsomely

prepared for distribution and was carried out, except that Mrs. Birney

and Dr. Smith were unavoidably absent.

CELEBRATION OF THE EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY

OF

SUSAN B. ANTHONY,

AT THE

LAFAYETTE OPERA HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D. C., FEB'Y 15, 1900.

_Song_ John W. Hutchinson

Greetings from

National Congress of Mothers,

Mrs. Theodore Weld Birney, President

National Council of Women,

Fannie Humphreys Gaffney, President

International Council of Women,

May Wright Sewall, President

Greetings from the Professions:

Ministry Rev. Ida C. Hultin

Law Diana Hirschler

Medicine Dr. Julia Holmes Smith

_Violin Solo--Hungarian Rhapsodie (Hansen)_, Joseph H. Douglass

Greetings from

Business Women Lillian M. Hollister

Colored Women Coralie Franklin Cook

District Equal Suffrage Association Ellen Powell Thompson

Greetings from the Enfranchised States:

Wyoming Helen M. Warren

Colorado Virginia Morrison Shafroth

Utah Emily S. Richards

Idaho Mell C. Woods

"_Love's Rosary_" (poem) Lydia Avery Coonley-Ward

Greeting from Elizabeth Cady Stanton Harriot Stanton Blatch

Greeting from the National American Suffrage Association

Rev. Anna Howard Shaw

Response Susan B. Anthony

TO SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

The gibe and ridicule and social frown,

That through long years her faithful life assailed,

Are dead and vanished; as a queen now hailed,

Upon her reverend brow rests Honor's crown,

A faith that faced all adverse fortune down,

A courage that in trial never failed,

A scorn of self that grievous weight entailed,

Have blossomed into laurels of renown.

As, after days of bitter storm and blast,

The chilling wind becomes a breeze of balm,

Billows subside, and sea-tossed vessels cast

Their anchors in the restful harbor calm,

So this brave life has gained its haven blest,

Bathed in the sunset glories of the west.

WM. LLOYD GARRISON.

Birthday Celebration Committee:

CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Chairman, New York.

REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Pennsylvania.

HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Ohio.

EMILY M. GROSS, Illinois.

FRANCES P. BURROWS, Michigan.

HELEN M. WARREN, Wyoming.

LUCY E. ANTHONY, Pennsylvania.

HARRIOT STANTON BLATCH, England.

MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, Indiana.

MARY B. CLAY, Kentucky.

RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, Pennsylvania.

Every large newspaper in the country had a description of what might

be properly considered an event of national interest. The Washington

_Post_ said: "The program, though a long one, was replete throughout

with stirring tributes to Miss Anthony's great career. Eloquent women

who ascribed the opportunities which they had been allowed to enjoy to

the tremendous effort to which their beloved leader had devoted her

whole life, stood before the audience and voiced their sentiments.

Tears and applause mingled swiftly as the voices of the speakers rang

through the theater, recounting the hardships, the struggles, and at

last the crowning achievements of the woman whose eightieth birthday

was being celebrated."

The _Woman's Tribune_ thus began its report:

There never has been before and, in the nature of things, there

can never be again, a personal celebration having the significant

relation to the woman suffrage movement which marked that of Miss

Anthony's eightieth birthday. When Mrs. Stanton's eightieth

birthday was celebrated five years ago she had already retired

from the active leadership of the organization; the program was

in charge of the National Council of Women and was largely in the

nature of a jubilee for the whole woman movement, although

rallying around Mrs. Stanton as a center. Lucretia Mott's

eightieth birthday came before the movement had gained the

impetus necessary for such a celebration. Lucy Stone passed on in

1893 before reaching this ripe age, and now there is no one left

in the lead who represents the earliest stage of the work but

Miss Anthony.

It was the fairest and sunniest day of all the good convention

weather, and Lafayette Opera House was full to the remotest part

of its fourth gallery with invited guests when Mrs. Chapman Catt

opened the program at 3 o'clock. On the stage were the Birthday

Committee, a large number of persons who had been thirty years or

more in the work, relatives of Miss Anthony and the national

officers. Miss Anthony's entrance while the Ladies' Mandolin Club

were playing was greeted with long-continued applause.

John W. Hutchinson was first introduced. After stating that he

had known Miss Anthony for fifty-five years, had attended in Ohio

in 1850 the second suffrage convention ever held, and had always

sympathized with the cause, he sang with a clear, far-reaching

voice a song composed by himself.

The presiding officer stated that the gains of the last

half-century in all lines relating to women were largely due to

the guest of the occasion and her fellow-workers, and said: "When

Miss Anthony began her labors there were practically no

organizations of women; now they are numbered by thousands. The

crown of the whole is the union of all organizations, the

National Council of Women. Its president will now address us."

Mrs. Gaffney said in her tribute:

....The Christian world reckoned by centuries is just coming of

age. Therefore women are beginning to put away childish things

and to realize the greatness of womanhood. They have had to let

ideals wait. They submitted to conditions because they were

afraid that if they did not man would take to the woods and

become again a wild barbarian. They were flattered by the fact

that men liked them as they were, and they failed to realize that

their power to civilize was God-given.

They needed a leader to rally them, to give them the courage of

their convictions; and such a leader Miss Anthony has been. She

spoke to the world in tones which rang out so clear and true that

they will echo down the centuries. Some who had been protected

and petted were slow to rally; others who had broader views

accepted sooner the doctrine of rights--not privileges--of rights

for all women. Miss Anthony taught us the sisterhood of woman,

and that the privileges of one class could not offset the wrongs

of another....

Mrs. Sewall, president of the International Council of Women, composed

of the Councils of thirteen nations, and the largest organization of

women in the world, said in part:

It is proper that the International Council should remember today

"to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," and to pay

tribute to the organization which it may not regard as other than

its direct progenitor. There are certain incidents, simple in

themselves, in which probably the actors are always at the time

quite unconscious of their perennial significance, and yet which

become landmarks in the evolution of the human spirit. Such are

Thermopylae and Marathon and Bunker Hill. Such was that first

convention at Seneca Falls.... The light from that meeting,

springing from a vital source, has vitalized every point it has

touched. Other torches lit by that have become beacon lights, and

every one has stood for the illumination of women....

In the name and in the blended tongues of the women of the

different nationalities who belong to the International Council,

I salute and congratulate you.... I beg the proud honor of

placing your name, Miss Anthony, among the list of Patrons of the

Council as a birthday gift, where it shall one day be pronounced

in every language....

The Rev. Ida C. Hultin brought the gratitude of the ministers, saying:

....Women have failed to see that the work of every woman has

touched that of every other. The woman who works with the hand

helps her who works with the brain. To-day we know there could be

no choice of work until there was freedom of choice to work. O,

beloved leader, we of the ministry, as they of all ministries of

service, bring our greetings and benediction. I hear the voices

which shall tell of the new gospel and among them are the glad

tones of women and the intonations of this one who spake in

tears, who dared to speak before other tongues were loosed. Years

will never silence that voice. Woman in her highest moods will

catch the cadence of its melody and in the future there shall be

that which will work back and forth to the enlightenment of the

world because you have lived and ever shall live....

Miss Hirschler thus closed the tribute of her profession: "In the

generations to come when courts of law shall have become courts of

justice, women lawyers will think of Susan B. Anthony as one who paved

the way and made this possible."

Mrs. Hollister said in part: "Miss Anthony has opened the portals of

activities; has dignified labor; has made it possible for women to

manage their own affairs--four millions to-day earning independent

incomes. Women have given their lives for philanthropies and reforms,

but the one we honor to-day gave hers for woman. Olive Schreiner tells

of an artist who painted a wonderful picture and none could learn what

pigments he used. When he died a wound was found over his heart; he

had painted his masterpiece with his own blood. Such women as Miss

Anthony are painting their masterpieces with their life's blood."

Mrs. Cook, with a dignity and simplicity which won the audience, said:

....It is fitting on this occasion, when the hearts of women the

world over are turned to this day and hour, that the colored

women of the United States should join in the expressions of love

and praise offered to Miss Anthony upon her eightieth birthday.

....She is to us not only the high priestess of woman's cause,

but the courageous defender of rights wherever assailed.

We hold in high esteem her strong and noble womanhood, for in her

untiring zeal, her uncompromising stand for justice to women, her

unfailing friendship for all good work, she herself is a stronger

and better argument in favor of woman's rights than the most

gifted orator could put into words. When she first championed

woman's cause, humiliation followed her footsteps and injustice

barred the door of her progress among even the most favored

classes of society; while among less enlightened and enslaved

classes the wrongs which woman suffered were too terrible to

mention. Carlyle has said, "Beware when the great God lets loose

a thinker upon this earth." When Susan B. Anthony was born, a

thinker was "let loose." Her voice and her pen have lighted a

torch whose sacred fire, like that of some old Roman temples,

dies not, but whose penetrating ray shall brighten the path of

women down the long line of ages yet to come. Our children and

our children's children will be taught to honor her memory, for

they shall be told that she has been always in the vanguard of

the immortal few who have stood for the great principles of human

rights. Grander than any achievement that has crowned the work of

woman in this woman's century has been that which has led her

away from the narrow valley of custom and prejudice up to the

lofty height where she can accept the Divine teaching that "God

hath made of one blood all nations of men."

Not until the suffrage movement had awakened woman to her

responsibility and power, did she come to appreciate the true

significance of Christ's pity for Magdalene as well as of His

love for Mary; not till then was the work of Pundita Ramabai in

far away India as sacred as that of Frances Willard at home in

America; not till she had suffered under the burden of her own

wrongs and abuses did she realize the all-important truth that no

woman and no class of women can be degraded and all womankind not

suffer thereby.

And so, Miss Anthony, in behalf of the hundreds of colored women

who wait and hope with you for the day when the ballot shall be

in the hands of every intelligent woman; and also in behalf of

the thousands who sit in darkness and whose condition we shall

expect those ballots to better, whether they be in the hands of

white women or black, I offer you my warmest gratitude and

congratulations.

Mrs. Thompson presented $200 from the District of Columbia, with the

following affectionate tribute:

....In behalf of the Suffragists of the District of Columbia,

both men and women, I am happy to say I am deputized to present

to you a gift which expresses their regard and love for you as

well as their appreciation of the almost superhuman efforts you

have made for the past fifty years to secure justice and civil

and political equality for women.

The gift is in the form of what is often called "the sinews of

war"--money. Not coarse, dead cash, such as passes from hand to

hand in everyday transactions, but money every penny of which is

alive with sincere thanks and earnest, loving wishes for

happiness and continued success in all your endeavors....

We do not hail you, love you, as one who has made woman's life

easier, strewn it with more rose leaves of idleness, shielded it

from more stress and storm, but as one who has taken the grander,

truer view, that by equally sharing stress and storm, by equal

effort and work, by equality in rights, privileges, powers and

opportunities with her other self--man--woman will evolve and

will reach her loftiest, loveliest development. Not as an apostle

of ease, parasitism and shrinking fear do we regard you, but as

the apostle, the incarnation, of work, of high courage and

deathless endeavor.

We wish our gift were myriad-fold greater, but it would never

express more appreciation of what you stand for and what you

are--a _Liberator of Woman_.

Mrs. Helen M. Warren, wife of the Senator from Wyoming, speaking in a

fine, resonant voice which would do credit to any legislative hall,

read the poem written by Miss Phoebe Cary for the celebration of Miss

Anthony's fiftieth birthday, presented her with a brooch, a little

American flag, made of gold and jewels, and said: "I feel honored on

this, your eightieth birthday, to represent the State of Wyoming which

has espoused your cause for more than thirty years. I have in my hand

a flag, which bears on its field forty-one _common_ stars and four

diamonds, representing the four progressive or suffrage

States--Wyoming, the banner State; Colorado, Utah and Idaho. The back

of the flag bears this inscription: 'Miss Anthony. From the ladies of

Wyoming, who love and revere you. Many happy returns of the day.

1820-1900.' We hope you may live to see all the common stars turn into

diamonds. With kindly greetings from Wyoming I present you this

expression of her esteem."

Mrs. Shafroth, wife of the Representative from Colorado, presented a

gift designed and made by the women of her State, saying: "It is with

great pleasure that I bring you the greeting from the sun-kissed land

of the West, where the flag which we all love, and of which we all

sing, really waves over the land of the free and the home of the

brave. Our men are brave and generous and our women are free. You and

your noble co-workers stormed the heights of ridicule and prejudice to

win this freedom for woman. In behalf of our Non-Partisan Equal

Suffrage Association, I beg you to accept this 'loving cup' of

Colorado silver."

Mrs. Emily S. Richards brought the affectionate greetings of the women

of Utah, and Mrs. Chapman Catt referred to the loving testimonials

which had been sent by the Idaho women.[133] Then after an exquisite

violin solo by Mr. Douglass, she said: "The liberties of the citizens

of the future will be still more an outgrowth of this movement than

those of the present," and to the delighted surprise of the audience

the following scene occurred, as described by the _Post_:

The most beautiful and touching part of the program was when

eighty little children, boys and girls, passed in single file

across the stage, each bearing a rose. Slowly they marched,

keeping time to music, and, as they reached the spot where Miss

Anthony sat, each child deposited a blossom in her lap, a rose

for every year. It was a surprise so complete, so wonderfully

beautiful, that for a few moments she could do nothing more than

grasp the hand of each child. Then she began kissing the little

people, and the applause which greeted this act was deafening.

The roses were distributed among the pioneers at the close of the

exercises by her request.

Mrs. Coonley-Ward of Chicago gave an eloquent poem, entitled Love's

Rosary, which closed as follows:

Behold our Queen! Surely with heart elate

At homage given to her love and power,

World-famed associate of the wise and great,

She is herself the woman of the hour.

How kindly have the years all dealt with her!

She proves that Bible promises are true;

She waited on the Lord without demur,

And He failed not her courage to renew.

Oft on the wings of eagles she uprose;

On mercy's errands have her glad feet run;

And yet no sign of weariness she shows;

She does not faint, but works from sun to sun.

Deep in her eyes burn fires of purpose strong;

Her hand upholds the sceptre of God's truth;

Her lips send forth brave words against the wrong;

Glows in her heart the joy of deathless youth.

Kindly and gentle, learned too, and wise;

Lover of home and all the ties of kin;

Gay comrade of the laughing lips and eyes;

Give us new words to sing your praises in.

Yet let us rather now forget to praise,

Remembering only this true friend to greet,

As drawing near by straight and devious ways,

We lay our hearts--love's guerdon--at her feet.

Blow, O ye winds across the oceans, blow!

Go to the hills and prairies of the West!

Haste to the tropics, search the fields of snow,

Let the world's gift to her become your quest.

Shine, sun, through prism of the waterfall,

And build us here a rainbow arch to span

The years, and hold the citadel

Of her abiding work for God and man.

What is the gift, O winds, that ye have brought?

O, sun, what legend shines your arch above?

Ah, they are one, and all things else are naught,

Take them, beloved--they are love, love, love!

Mrs. Blatch spoke eloquently for her mother, saying in part:

I bring to you, Susan B. Anthony, the greetings of your friend

and co-worker, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, greetings full of gracious

memories. When the cause for which you have worked shall be

victorious, then as is the way of the world, will it be forgotten

that it ever meant effort or struggle for pioneers; but the

friendship of you two women will remain a precious memory in the

world's history, unforgotten and unforgettable. Your lives have

proved not only that women can work strenuously together without

jealousy, but that they can be friends in times of sunshine and

peace, of stress and storm. No mere fair-weather friends have you

been to each other.

Does not Emerson say that friendship is the slowest fruit in the

garden of God? The fruit of friendship between you two has grown

through half a hundred years, each year making it more beautiful,

more mellow, more sweet. But you have not been weak echoes of

each other; nay, often for the good of each you were thorns in

the side. Yet disagreement only quickened loyalty. Supplementing

each other, companionship drew out the best in each. You have

both been urged to untiring efforts through the sympathy, the

help of each other. You have attained the highest achievement in

demonstrating a lofty, an ideal friendship. This friendship of

you two women is the benediction for our century.

The last and tenderest tribute was offered by the Rev. Anna Howard

Shaw who said, in rich, musical accents and with a manner which seemed

almost to be inspired, what can only be most inadequately reported:

A little over a hundred years ago there came men who told us what

freedom is and what freemen may become. Later women with the same

love of it in their hearts said, "There is no sex in freedom.

Whatever it makes possible for men it will make possible for

women." A few of these daring souls went forth to blaze the path.

Gradually the sunlight of freedom shone in their faces and they

encouraged others to follow. They went slowly for the way was

hard. They must make the path and it was a weary task. Sometimes

darkness settled over them and they must grope their way. Mott,

Stanton, Stone, Anthony--not one retraced her footsteps. The two

who are left still stand on the summit, great, glorious figures.

We ask, "Is the way difficult?" They answer, "Yes, but the sun

shines on us and in the valley they know nothing of its glory.

Their cry we hear and are calling back to those who are still in

the valley."

Leader, comrade, friend, no name can express what you are to us.

You might have led us as commander, and we might have followed

and obeyed, but there still might have been wanting the divine

force of unchanging love. We look up to the sunlight where you

stand and say, "We are coming." When we shall be fourscore we

shall still be calling to you, "We are coming," for you will

still be beckoning us on as you climb still loftier heights.

Souls like yours can never rest in all the eternities of God.

Then a hush fell on the people and all waited for Miss Anthony. During

the afternoon she had been sitting in a large armchair that was almost

covered by her cloak of royal purple velvet which she had thrown over

it, the white satin lining forming a lovely background for her

finely-shaped head with its halo of silver hair. No one ever had seen

her so moved as on this occasion when her memory must have carried her

back to the days of bare halls, hostile audiences, ridicule, abuse,

loneliness and ostracism by all but a very few staunch friends. "Would

she be able to speak?" many in the audience asked themselves, but the

nearest friends waited calmly and without anxiety. They never had

known her to fail. The result was thus described:

For a moment after gaining her feet, Miss Anthony stood battling

with her emotions, but her indomitable courage conquered, and she

smiled at the audience as it rose to greet her. She wore a gown

of black duchesse satin with vest and revers of fine white lace

in which were a few modest pinks, while she carried a large

bouquet of violets. The moment she began talking the shadow

passed from her face and she stood erect, with head uplifted,

full of her old-time vigor.

"How can you expect me to say a word?" she said. "And yet I must.

I have reason to feel grateful, for I have received letters and

telegrams from all over the world.[134] But the one that has

touched me the most is a simple note which came from an old home

of slavery, from a woman off of whose hands and feet the shackles

fell nearly forty years ago. That letter, my friends, contained

eighty cents--one penny for every year. It was all that this aged

person had....

I am grateful for the many expressions which I have listened to

this afternoon. I have heard the grandson of the great Frederick

Douglass speak to me through his violin. I mention this because I

remember so well Frederick Douglass when he rose at the

convention where the first resolution ever presented for woman

suffrage had his eloquence to help it....

Among the addresses from my younger co-workers, none has touched

me so deeply as that from the one of darker hue.... Nothing

speaks so strongly of freedom as the fact that the descendants of

those who went through that great agony--which, thank Heaven, has

passed away--have now full opportunities and can help to

celebrate my fifty years' work for liberty. I am glad of the

gains the half-century has brought to the women of Anglo-Saxon

birth. And I am glad above all else that the time is coming when

all women alike shall have the fullest rights of citizenship.

I thank you all. If I have had one regret this afternoon, it is

that some whom I have longed to have with me can not be here,

especially Mrs. Stanton. I want to impress the fact that my work

could have accomplished nothing if I had not been surrounded with

earnest and capable co-workers. Then, good friends, I have had a

home in which my father and mother, brothers and sisters, one and

all, stood at my back and helped me to success. I always have had

this co-operation and I have yet one sister left, who makes a

home for me and aids my work in every possible way....

I have shed no tears on arriving at a birthday ten years beyond

the age set for humanity. I have shed none over resigning the

presidency of the association. I am glad to give it up. I do it

cheerfully. And even so, when my time comes, I shall pass on

further, and accept my new place and vocation just as cheerfully

as I have touched this landmark.

I have passed as the leader of the association of which I have

been a member for so long, but I am not through working, for I

shall work to the end of my time, and when I am called home, if

there exist an immortal spirit, mine will still be with you,

watching and inspiring you.

Miss Anthony's words and manner thrilled every heart and left the

audience in a state of exaltation.

In the evening, the Corcoran Art Gallery, one of the world's beautiful

buildings, was thrown open for the birthday reception. A colored

orchestra, under the leadership of Mr. Douglass, rendered a musical

program. President Kauffman, of the Board of Trustees, presented the

visitors to the guest of honor, and the birthday committee assisted in

receiving. Although Miss Anthony had attended a business meeting in

the morning, and been the central figure in the celebration of the

afternoon lasting until 6 o'clock, she was so alert, happy and

vivacious during the entire evening as to challenge the admiration of

all. There was no picture in all that famous collection more

attractive than this white-haired woman, robed in garnet velvet,

relieved by antique fichu, collar and cuffs of old point lace. The

city press said:

For two hours, without a moment's intermission, Miss Anthony

clasped hands with those who were presented to her and listened

to congratulatory expressions. A number of local organizations of

women, and also the entire membership of the Washington College

of Law, for women, attended the reception in a body.

On the second floor hung her fine portrait which was presented to

the Corcoran Gallery of Art last night by Mrs. John B. Henderson,

wife of the former Senator from Missouri. The portrait is in oil

and represents Miss Anthony in full profile, attired in black

with lace at the throat, and about her shoulders the red shawl

which has come to be regarded as the emblem of her office as

president of the National Association.

During the two hours it seemed as if every one who greeted Miss

Anthony had met her at some time or at some place long ago.

Everybody wanted to stop and converse with her, and in the brief

minute they stood before her they plied her with countless

questions. In speaking of the event after she had returned to the

Riggs House, she said: "Wasn't it wonderful? It seemed as if

every other person in that vast throng had met me before, or that

I had during my long life been a visitor at the home of some of

their relatives. It was grand. It was beautiful. It is good to be

loved by so many people. It is worth all the toil and the

heartaches."

From a little band apparently leading a forlorn hope, almost

universally ridiculed and condemned, Miss Anthony had increased her

forces to a mighty host marching forward to an assured victory. From a

condition of social ostracism she had brought them to a position where

they commanded respect and admiration for their courageous advocacy of

a just cause. The small, curious, unsympathetic audiences of early

days had been transformed into this great gathering, which represented

the highest official life of the nation's capital and the intellectual

aristocracy of all the States in the Union. It was a wonderful change

to have been effected in the lifetime of one woman, and all posterity

will rejoice that the leader of this greatest of progressive movements

received the full measure of recognition from the people of her own

time and generation.

FOOTNOTES:

[131] From the founding of the National Association in 1869 the

presidency was usually held by Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, while Miss

Susan B Anthony was either vice president, corresponding secretary or

chairman of the executive committee, although she sometimes filled the

presidential chair. Mrs. Stanton continued as president until 1892,

when she resigned at the age of seventy six. Miss Anthony was elected

that year and held the office until 1900, when she resigned at the age

of eighty.

Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery served as corresponding secretary for twenty

one years, from 1880 to 1901. Her resignation was reluctantly accepted

and a gift of $1,000 was presented to her, the contribution of friends

in all parts of the country.

The other officers since 1884 have been as follows: Vice presidents at

large, Miss Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, the Rev. Olympia Brown,

Phoebe W. Couzins, Abigail Scott Duniway and, from 1892, the Rev. Anna

Howard Shaw, treasurers, Jane H. Spofford from 1880 to 1892, and since

then Harriet Taylor Upton, recording secretaries, Ellen H. Sheldon,

Julia T. Foster, Pearl Adams, Julia A. Wilbur, Caroline A. Sherman,

Sara Winthrop Smith, Hannah B. Sperry and, since 1890, Alice Stone

Blackwell, auditors, Ruth C. Denison, Julia A. Wilbur, Eliza T. Ward,

Ellen M. O'Connor, the Rev. Frederick A. Hinckley, Harriet Taylor

Upton, the Hon. Wm. Dudley Foulke, May Wright Sewall, Ellen Battelle

Dietrick, Josephine K. Henry, H. Augusta Howard, Annie L. Diggs, Sarah

B. Cooper, Laura Clay, Catharine Waugh McCulloch. Mrs. Sewall was

chairman of the executive committee from 1882 until she resigned in

1890 and Lucy Stone was elected; in 1892 she begged to be relieved as

she was seventy four years old. The committee was then abolished, its

duties being transferred to the business committee.

[132] Miss Shaw referred to Miss Lucy E. Anthony, who for twelve years

had been her secretary and companion.

[133] The most of the numerous gifts were presented during the

convention, as related earlier in the chapter.

[134] Miss Anthony received on this occasion 1,100 letters and

telegrams, every one of which she acknowledged later with a personal

message.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.[135]

_1884._--The American Woman Suffrage Association which was organized

in Cleveland, Ohio, in November, 1869, held its sixteenth annual

meeting, November 19, 20, at Hershey Hall, Chicago. Lucy Stone in the

_Woman's Journal_ said:

Beginning with a good-sized audience, it went on increasing in

numbers until the gallery, the stairs and the side aisles were

literally packed with people.

Reports of the work done by auxiliary and other societies came in

from Maine to Oregon and all the way between, showing in some

cases very little and in others a great deal of good work. But

each one was helpful in its measure to the final success, just as

streams of all sizes flow to make great rivers and the seas.

There were present some of the oldest workers--Dr. Mary F. Thomas

of Indiana and Mrs. Hannah M. Tracy Cutler of Illinois--who,

having put their hands to the plow in the beginning of the

movement, have never looked back. To supplement and continue the

work there were noble and earnest younger women, who came down

from Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan and up from Ohio,

Missouri, Kansas, Indiana and Illinois, women who can speak well

for the cause and whose reports show that they know how to work

well for it, too. It was a joy and a comfort to meet them....

Not the least pleasant feature was the cordial friendliness that

seemed all-pervasive. Troops of women we had never seen came to

shake hands.... A bevy of bright girls stood below the platform

on the last evening and, looking up, they said: "We are

school-girls now, but we are bound to help." The collections more

than paid the expenses, and two hundred memberships were taken.

All the local arrangements had been admirably made by a committee of

influential Chicago women.[136] The city papers gave friendly reports,

those of the _Inter-Ocean_ being especially full.

The convention was not expected to open till Wednesday evening, but

so large a number of delegates and friends met in the hall in the

afternoon that an informal meeting was held in advance. Mrs. Cutler

called the assembly to order, and the Rev. Florence Kollock offered

prayer. A telegram was read from Chief-Justice Roger S. Greene, of

Washington Territory, saying: "Be assured that woman suffrage has

worked well, done good, and been generally exercised by women at our

State election."

Brief addresses were made by Mrs. Lucy Stone, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore

and Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert. Dr. Mary F. Thomas, in the name of

the Indiana W. S. A., the oldest State association in the country,

organized in 1851, presented the association with a bouquet of never

fading chrysanthemums.

On Wednesday evening Mrs. Helen Ekin Starrett gave the address of

welcome. In referring to the influence of the woman suffrage movement

upon the legal status of women, she said that Kansas entered the Union

as a State with women's personal and property rights legally

recognized as never before. This was largely because a delegate to the

Kansas constitutional convention which met in Leavenworth, (Mr. Sam

Wood), wrote to Lucy Stone at her home in Orange, N. J., asking her to

draft a legal form, which she did, with her baby on her knee, and its

suggestions were afterwards incorporated in the organic law of that

State.[137] As one result of School Suffrage in the hands of women,

Kansas had the best schools in the United States while the people

still lived in cabins.

Mrs. Mary B. Clay, of Kentucky, president of the association, made a

special plea for work in the South, saying in part:

Alabama has given married women equal property rights with their

husbands. This monied equality I regard as one of the most

essential steps to our freedom, for as long as women are

dependent upon men for bread their whole moral nature is

necessarily warped. There never was a truer thought than that of

Alexander Hamilton, when he said, "He who controls my means of

daily subsistence controls my whole moral being." I therefore

recommend to the Southern women particularly the petitioning for

property rights, because pecuniary independence is one of the

most potent weapons for freedom, and because that claim has less

prejudice to overcome....

Mississippi also has made equal property laws for women; and

Arkansas allows married women to hold their own property, and all

women to vote on the licensing of saloons within three miles of a

church or school-house. A lady writing from there says: "The

welcome accorded the law by the women of the State refutes all

adverse theories, and establishes the fact that woman's nature

possesses an inherent strength and courage which no surroundings

can extinguish, and which only need the light of hope and the

voice of duty to call them into action." I would recommend that

whenever it is possible, we hold our conventions and send our

speakers through the South....

Henry B. Blackwell said: "This is not an anti-man society. Suffrage is

demanded as much for the sake of men as for the sake of women. What is

good for one is good for both;" and Mrs. Livermore said, "Women should

have a share in the government because the whole is better than the

half."

In the annual report of Mrs. Lucy Stone, chairman of the executive

committee, she said in part: "During the past year, the chief effort

of the society has been directed to aid the work in Oregon, where a

constitutional amendment had been submitted to the voters. One

thousand dollars were raised for this purpose by our auxiliary

societies, and forwarded to the Oregon Woman Suffrage Association.[138]

The society has also printed and circulated at cost more than 100,000

tracts and leaflets."

Officers for the next year were elected, as follows: President,

the Hon. Wm. Dudley Foulke, State Senator of Indiana;

vice-presidents-at-large, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, the Hon. George

William Curtis, N. Y.; the Hon. George F. Hoar, Mass.; Mrs. Mary B.

Willard, Mrs. H. M. T. Cutler, Ill.; Mrs. D. G. King, Neb.; Mrs. R. A.

S. Janney, O.; Mrs. J. P. Fuller, Mrs. Rebecca N. Hazard, Mo.; Mrs.

Martha A. Dorsett, Minn.; Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, Ia.; Mrs. Mary B.

Clay, Ky.; foreign corresponding secretary, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe;

corresponding secretary, Henry B. Blackwell; recording secretary, Mrs.

Margaret W. Campbell; treasurer, Mrs. Abbie T. Codman; chairman

executive committee, Mrs. Lucy Stone.[139]

Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee, reported resolutions which

were adopted with a few changes as follows:

_Resolved_, In the words of Abraham Lincoln, That "we go for all

sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing

its burdens, by no means excluding women;" that a government of

the people, by the people, for the people, must be a government

of men and women, by men and women, for men and women; and that

any other form of government is unreasonable, unjust and

inconsistent with American principles.

_Resolved_, That we rejoice in the triumph of woman suffrage in

Washington Territory; in the continued success of woman suffrage

in Wyoming; in the exercise of School Suffrage by the women of

twelve States; in the establishment of Municipal Woman Suffrage

by Nova Scotia and Ontario, and in the steady growth of woman

suffrage during the past year as shown by more than 21,000

petitioners for it in Massachusetts, by increased activity in

Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin,

Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, Minnesota and Oregon, by the recent

formation of an active State association in Vermont, and by the

presence with us to-day of sixty-six delegates from organized

societies in fifteen States.

_Resolved_, That the American Association is non-partisan; that

success will be promoted by refusing to connect woman suffrage

with any political party, or to take sides as suffragists in any

party conflict; but that we will question candidates of all

parties for State Legislatures, and use every honorable effort to

secure the election of suffragists as legislators irrespective of

party lines, provided they be men of integrity.

_Resolved_, That this association expresses its appreciation of

the services rendered by the co-workers who since our last

meeting have been gathered with the honored dead: Mrs. Frances D.

Gage, who from the beginning of our movement until the last week

of her life never ceased to do what she could for its success;

Wendell Phillips, who as early as 1850 attended a woman's rights

convention at Worcester, Mass., and made an argument which

covered the whole ground of statement and defense, and with

serene faith advised: "Take your part with the perfect and

abstract right and trust God to see that it shall prove the

expedient." Besides these we record the names of Kate Newell

Doggett, Laura Giddings Julian, Bishop Matthew Simpson, Mrs. L.

B. Barrett, Emily J. Leonard and Jane Gray Swisshelm.

Speaking to the memorial resolution Mrs. Cutler said: "Some years ago

I paid a visit to an old and valued friend who had long been an

invalid, though never so absorbed in her own suffering as to forget

the great needs of her human brothers and sisters. Said she, 'If you

outlive me, I hope you will say for me that I tried honestly and

earnestly to do my duty.' The promise then given I now attempt to

fulfil in behalf of Mrs. Frances Dana Gage, our beloved 'Aunt Fanny,'

who entered upon her rest Nov. 10, 1884." Mrs. Cutler gave a full and

appreciative review of Mrs. Gage's life. Dr. Mary F. Thomas spoke

feelingly of her, of Mrs. Julian and Mr. Phillips; and Mrs. Livermore

paid a warm tribute to Mr. Phillips and Mrs. Doggett.

The plan of work adopted was in part as follows:

1. That the officers of this association memorialize Congress in

behalf of a sixteenth constitutional amendment prohibiting all

political distinctions on account of sex.

2. That while we do not undervalue any form of agitation, State

or national, we hold that practical woman suffrage can at present

be best promoted by urging legislative as well as constitutional

changes, and by appealing to State as well as national authority;

therefore we urge the establishment of active State societies,

with their working centers in the State capitals and their

corresponding committees in every representative district.

3. That in every State, at each session of its Legislature,

petitions should be presented by its own citizens asking for

woman suffrage by statute in all elections and for all officers

not expressly limited by the word "male" in the State

constitution.

4. That School Suffrage having been secured for women by statute

in twelve States, our next demand should be for Municipal

Suffrage by statute; also for Presidential Suffrage by statute,

under Article 2, Section 1, par. 2, of the United States

Constitution.

5. And, whereas, in three Territories, viz., Wyoming, Utah and

Washington, our cause is already won by statutes, therefore a

special effort should be made to secure similar statutory action

in the remaining Territories, viz.: Dakota, Montana, Idaho,

Arizona and New Mexico.

Addresses were made by the Rev. S. S. Hunting, Mrs. Margaret W.

Campbell of Iowa and Dr. Thomas. Mr. Foulke, Mrs. Mary E. Haggart of

Indiana, Mrs. Livermore and Lucy Stone addressed the evening meeting,

and the singing of the Doxology closed a memorable convention.

_1885._--The Seventeenth annual meeting was held in Minneapolis,

October 13-15, in the Church of the Redeemer (Universalist), the

finest in the city, which was given without charge. Here, as the daily

papers said, "the most brilliant audiences that ever assembled in

Minneapolis" gathered evening after evening until the last when crowds

of people went away unable to find even standing room. The pulpit

steps were occupied, extra seats were brought in, the aisles were

crowded, and as far as one could see over the throng that filled the

doorway, was another assembly eager to hear what it could. The

earnest, interested, assenting faces of the vast audience and their

hearty applause attested their sympathy with the ideas and principles

expressed.

Every evening several of the speakers addressed large audiences in St.

Paul, thus carrying on two series of meetings contemporaneously. The

Hon. Wm. Dudley Foulke occupied the chair. Mayor George A. Pillsbury,

of Minneapolis, gave the address of welcome, which he closed by

saying: "Our citizens may not all agree with you, yet we recognize the

fact that some of the greatest and best minds in the country are

engaged in this work. I have never identified myself with your

organization but wish you Godspeed, and hope to see the time when the

women shall stand with the men at the polls."

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe in responding said: "We are glad to be welcomed

for ourselves; we are still more gratified by the welcome extended to

our cause. We do not live altogether in our magnificent cities and

houses; we all live in houses not made with hands. We have with us

some who have devoted their lives to this noble work. They have been

building up, stone by stone, a mighty structure, and it is to lay a

few more stones that we have gathered here."

It had been persistently asserted that Mrs. Howe and Louisa M. Alcott

had renounced their belief in equal suffrage. Mrs. Howe was present to

speak for herself. Miss Alcott wrote from Concord, Mass.:

I should think it was hardly necessary for me to say that it is

impossible for me ever to "go back" on woman suffrage. I

earnestly desire to go forward on that line as far and as fast as

the prejudices, selfishness and blindness of the world will let

us, and it is a great cross to me that ill-health and home duties

prevent my devoting heart, pen and time to this most vital

question of the age. After a fifty years' acquaintance with the

noble men and women of the anti-slavery cause and the sight of

the glorious end to their faithful work, I should be a traitor to

all I most love, honor and desire to imitate if I did not covet a

place among those who are giving their lives to the emancipation

of the white slaves of America.

If I can do no more, let my name stand among those who are

willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and

so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.

Most heartily yours for woman suffrage and all other reforms.

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps wrote: "With all my head and with all my heart

I believe in womanhood suffrage; can I say more for your convention?"

and from the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, of Boston, "Every word spoken

for or against our cause helps it forward. I feel that there is a

current of conviction sweeping us on toward the day when there shall

be neither male nor female, in Church or State, but equal rights for

all, and the tools to those who can use them."

Chief-Justice Greene, of Washington Territory, sent a careful

statistical computation in regard to the women's votes, and said: "My

sober judgment, from the best light I have succeeded in getting, is

that at our last general election the women cast as full or a fuller

vote than the men in proportion to their numbers." Mrs. Livermore

wrote:

Whatever may be the apparent direction of the ripples on the

surface, facts which accumulate daily show us that the cause of

woman's enfranchisement progresses with a deep and steady

undercurrent. The long, weary, faithful work of the past,

covering almost half a century, has resulted in a radical change

of public opinion. It has opened to woman the doors of colleges,

universities and professional schools; it has increased her

opportunities for self-support till the United States census

enumerates nearly 300 employments in which women are working and

earning livelihoods; it has repealed many of the unjust laws

which discriminate against woman; it has given her partial

suffrage in twelve States and full suffrage in three Territories.

Courage, then, for the end draws near! A few more years of

persistent, faithful work and the women of the United States will

be recognized as the legal equals of men; for the goal towards

which we toil is the enfranchisement of women, since the ballot

is the only symbol of legal equality that is known in a republic.

Chancellor Wm. G. Eliot, of Washington University, St. Louis, wrote:

Considered as a _right_, suffrage belongs equally to man and

woman. They are equally citizens and taxpayers. They share

equally in the advantages of good government and suffer equally

from bad legislation. They equally need the right of

self-protection which the ballot alone can give. In average good,

practical sense, wherever fair opportunity is permitted women are

equal to men. In moral perception and practice women are at least

equal--generally the superiors, if such comparison must be made.

There is, therefore, no justification in saying that the right of

suffrage, on whatever founded, belongs to man rather than to

woman.

Considered as a _privilege_, little needs to be said on either

side.... Every citizen is under moral obligation to take part in

the social interests and welfare of the community, whether

national or municipal. Woman equally with man is under that moral

law. In a republic she can not rightly be deprived of the

opportunity to do her full share as a citizen in all that

concerns good government.

This seems to be the whole story. I have read with astonishment

the arguments (so called) of Francis Parkman, the Rev. Brooke

Herford and Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells. They scarcely touch the real

merits of the case.

Dr. Mary F. Thomas, of Indiana, wrote:

As I see pictured before me all of you gathered from different

parts of this great sisterhood of States to discuss the grand

principle of human freedom, I can but compare this assembly with

one convened in Philadelphia over a hundred years ago with this

difference--they declared for the civil and political freedom of

all men; you ask to-day that all human beings of sound mind shall

enjoy the civil and political rights which they are entitled to

by virtue of their humanity. As the judicious management of the

family circle requires the combined wisdom and judgment of father

and mother, so this great political family, whose interests are

identical, can only be consistently managed by the complete

representation and concurrence of each individual governed by its

laws.

It is not necessary for me to show argument for this statement,

as your meeting to-day, composed of men and women thoroughly

imbued with the spirit of the great truth contained in the

Declaration of Independence, will supply words glowing with

fervor that can not be written, that comes with a full conviction

of the magnitude of this great question, involving even the

perpetuity of our government.... But without other reasons than

that it is right, let the united voice of your meeting demand

full recognition of the political rights of the women of the

nation, so that it may stand before the world exemplifying the

meaning of a true republic. After near half a century of earnest,

continued pleading we see light breaking in different parts of

the political horizon. If it takes half a century more, nay, even

longer than that, to establish this truth let us never falter.

For we know our cause is just and, as God is just, the eternal

principles of right must succeed.

Among the speakers were Mr. Foulke, Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Alice Pickler

of Dakota, Mrs. Cutler, Miss Bessie Isaacs of Washington Territory,

the Rev. Ada C. Bowles of Massachusetts, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway,

editor of the _New Northwest_, Oregon, and from Minneapolis Mrs. Sarah

Burger Stearns, C. H. Du Bois, editor of the _Spectator_, Dr. Martha

G. Ripley, the Rev. Dr. J. H. Tuttle, pastor of the Church of the

Redeemer, the Rev. Kristofer Jansen, of the Swedish Unitarian Church,

the Rev. Mr. Williams of the City Mission, the Rev. Mr. Tabor of the

Friends' Church, the Rev. Mr. Harrington, a visiting Universalist

minister, and Mrs. Charlotte O. Van Cleve, of the Bethany Home, who

spoke of herself and her associates as "the ambulance corps, to pick

up and care for the fallen and wounded of their sex."

Judge Norton H. Hemiup of Minneapolis, read a humorous play in several

acts, dramatically representing the venerable widows of ex-presidents

and wives of living ones going to the polls in their respective

precincts and offering their votes in vain, while those of the late

slaves and of men half-drunk and wholly ignorant were received without

a question.

Major J. A. Pickler, the chivalrous legislator of Dakota, who

championed the suffrage bill which passed both Houses and was defeated

by the veto of Gov. Gilbert F. Pierce, was invited to tell the history

of the bill and did so in a vigorous speech. He said its passage was

materially aided by the efforts of Eastern remonstrants to defeat it,

and added: "There are peculiar reasons why our women should have their

rights, as they own fully one-fourth of the land and are veritable

heroines." During the convention the men and women present from Dakota

organized an association to carry on the battle for equal rights in

that Territory.

Mrs. Howe said in her address:

While a great deal needs to be said to both men and women on the

subject of woman suffrage, I am one who thinks that most needs

to be said to women. This is quite natural both because of their

timidity in putting themselves forward and because of their

frequent ignorance of the principles upon which reform is based.

No one could be more opposed to woman suffrage than I was twenty

years ago. Everything I had read and heard seemed to point in

exactly the opposite direction. But at the first meeting I

attended I heard Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Elizabeth Cady

Stanton and other pioneers of the cause, found nothing but

reasonableness in their speech and their arguments and so was

speedily converted.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic was then sung by Prof. James G. Clark,

the well-known singer of anti-slavery days, the audience rising and

joining in the chorus.

Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell of Iowa, who was introduced by Lucy Stone

with a history of her many years of devoted work for the cause, said

in part: "Good men who mean well often say that women are as fit to

vote as the ignorant foreigners just landed at Castle Garden or the

freedmen who can not read or write. Don't say that any more; you don't

know how it hurts. Say instead, 'You are as fit to vote as we are.'

The names of those who emancipated the slave will be written in

letters of gold, but the names of those who have helped to emancipate

the women of this nation will be written in letters of living light."

The closing address was made by Mrs. Stone. "Her feeling and womanly

appeals," said the Minneapolis papers, "were such as to move any

masculine heart not thoroughly indurated." She said in part: