Here Miss Anthony was for the first time entirely away from Quaker

surroundings and influences, and her letters soon show the effects of

environment. The "first month, second day," expressions are dropped and

the "plain language" is wholly abandoned. She has more money now than

ever before and is at liberty to use it for her own pleasure. A love of

handsome clothes begins to develop. "I have a new pearl straw gypsy

hat," she writes, "trimmed in white ribbon with fringe on one edge and

a pink satin stripe on the other, with a few white roses and green

leaves for inside trimming." The beaux hover around; a certain

"Dominie," a widower with several children, is very attentive; another

widower, a lawyer, visits the school so often as to set all the gossips

in a flutter; a third is described as "very handsome, sleek as a ribbon

and the most splendid black hair I ever looked at." She takes many

drives with still another, "through a delightful country variegated

with hill and valley, past fields of newly-mown grass, splendid forests

and gently winding rivulets, with here and there a large patch of

yellow pond lilies." In writing to a relative she urges her to break

herself of "the miserable habit of borrowing trouble, which saps all

the sweets of life." At another time she writes: "I have made up my

mind that we can expect only a certain amount of comfort wherever we

may be, and that it is the disposition of a person, more than the

surroundings, that creates happiness."

Her first quarterly examination, to be held in the presence of

principal, trustees and parents, is a cause of great anxiety. She

writes that her nerves were on fire and the blood was ready to burst

from her face, and she slept none the night previous. She wore a new

muslin gown, plaid in purple, white, blue and brown, two puffs around

the skirt and on the sleeves at shoulders and wrists, white linen

undersleeves and collarette; new blue prunella gaiters with

patent-leather heels and tips; her cousin's watch with a gold chain and

pencil. Her abundant hair was braided in four long braids, which cousin

Margaret sewed together and wound around a big shell comb. Everybody

said, "The schoolmarm looks beautiful," and "many fears were expressed

lest _some one_ should be so smitten that the school would be deprived

of a teacher." The pupils acquitted themselves with flying colors, and

the teacher then went to spend her vacation with her married sisters at

Easton and Battenville. They had "long talks and good laughs and cries

together," but she writes her parents that if they will make one visit

to this old home they will go back to Rochester thoroughly satisfied

with the new one.

[Illustration:

SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

AT THE AGE OF 28, FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE.]

For the winter she buys a broche shawl for $22.50, a gray fox muff for

$8, a $5.50 white ribbed-silk hat, "which makes the villagers stare,"

and a plum-colored merino dress at $2 a yard, "which everybody admits

to be the sweetest thing entirely;" and she wonders if her sisters "do

not feel rather sad because they are married and can not have nice

clothes." Miss Anthony may be said to have been at this time at the

height of her fashionable career.

In the spring her pupils give an "exhibition" which far surpasses

anything ever before seen in Canajoharie. She writes: "Can you begin to

imagine my excitement? The nights seemed lengthened into days; the

hopes, the fears that filled my mind are indescribable. Who ever

thought that Susan Anthony could get up such an affair? I am sure I

never did, but here I was; it was sink or swim, I made a bold effort

and won the victory."[10]

In June she attends her first circus, "Sands, Lent & Co., Proprietors."

About this time she writes of being invited to a military ball and

says: "My fancy for attending dances is fully satiated. I certainly

shall not attend another unless I can have a total abstinence man to

accompany me, and not one whose highest delight is to make a fool of

himself." She says in this letter: "The town election has just been

held and the good people elected a distiller for supervisor and a

rumseller for justice of the peace."

In 1848 she shows the first signs of growing tired of teaching and

wonders if she is to follow it for a lifetime. She says: "I don't know

whether I am weary of well-doing, but oh, if I could only unstring my

bow for a few short months, I think I could take up my work with

renewed vigor." She is very homesick, after the two years' absence, and

so makes a visit to Rochester in August. For this she gets "a drab silk

bonnet shirred inside with pink, and her blue lawn and her brown silk

made over, half low-necked." She has "a beautiful green delaine and a

black braise [barége] which are very becoming." She wants a fancy hat,

a $15 pin and $30 mantilla, every one of which she resolves to deny

herself, but afterwards writes: "There is not a mantilla in town like

mine."

In March, 1849, her beloved cousin Margaret, with whom she has been

living for the past two years, gives birth to a child and she remains

with her through the ordeal. In a letter to her mother immediately

afterwards, she expresses the opinion that there are some drawbacks to

marriage which make a woman quite content to remain single. She quotes

a little bit of domestic life: "Joseph had a headache the other day and

Margaret remarked that she had had one for weeks. 'Oh,' said the

husband, 'mine is the real headache, genuine pain, yours is a sort of

natural consequence.'" For seven weeks she is at Margaret's bedside

every moment when out of school, and also superintends the house and

looks after the children. There are a nurse and a girl in the kitchen,

but the invalid will eat no food which Cousin Susan does not prepare;

there is no touch so light and gentle as hers; her very presence gives

rest and strength. At the end of this time Margaret dies, leaving four

little children. Susan's grief is as intense as if she had lost a

sister, and she decides to remain no longer in Canajoharie. She writes:

"I seem to shrink from my daily tasks; energy and stimulus are wanting;

I have no courage. A great weariness has come over me." In all the

letters of the past ten years there has not been one note of discontent

or discouragement, but now she is growing tired of the treadmill. At

this time the California fever was at its height, hundreds of young men

were starting westward, and she writes: "Oh, if I were but a man so

that I could go!"

Soon after coming to Canajoharie Miss Anthony joined the society of the

Daughters of Temperance and was made secretary. Her heart and soul were

enlisted in this cause. She realized the immense task to be

accomplished, and, even then, saw dimly the power that women might

wield if they were properly organized and given full authority and

sanction to work. As yet no women had spoken in public on this

question, and they had just begun to organize societies among

themselves, called Daughters' Unions, which were a sort of annex to the

men's organizations, but they were strongly opposed by most women as

being unladylike and entirely out of woman's sphere.

On March 1, 1849, the Daughters of Temperance gave a supper, to which

were invited the people of the village, and the address of the evening

was made by Miss Anthony. She thus describes the occasion in a letter:

I was escorted into the hall by the Committee where were assembled

about 200 people. The room was beautifully festooned with cedar and

red flannel. On the south side was printed in large capitals of

evergreen the name of "Susan B. Anthony!" I hardly knew how to

conduct myself amidst so much kindly regard. They had an elegant

supper. On the top of one pyramid loaf cake was a beautiful

bouquet, which was handed to the gentleman who escorted me (Charlie

Webster) and by him presented to me.

The paper is interesting as the first platform utterance of a woman

destined to become one of the noted speakers of the century. While it

gives no especial promise of the oratorical ability which later

developed, it illustrates the courage of the woman who dared read an

address in public, when to do so provoked the severest criticism. The

following extracts are taken verbatim from the original MS.:

Welcome, Gentlemen and Ladies, to this, our Hall of Temperance. We

feel that the cause we have espoused is a common cause, in which

you, with us, are deeply interested. We would that some means were

devised, by which our Brothers and Sons shall no longer be allured

from the _right_ by the corrupting influence of the fashionable

sippings of wine and brandy, those sure destroyers of Mental and

Moral Worth, and by which our Sisters and Daughters shall no longer

be exposed to the vile arts of the gentlemanly-appearing, gallant,

but really half-inebriated seducer. Our motive is to ask of you

counsel in the formation, and co-operation in the carrying-out of

plans which may produce a radical change in our Moral

Atmosphere....

But to the question, what good our Union has done? Though our Order

has been strongly opposed by ladies professing a desire to see the

Moral condition of our race elevated, and though we still behold

some of our thoughtless female friends whirling in the giddy dance,

with intoxicated partners at their side and, more than this, see

them accompany their reeling companions to some secluded nook and

there quaff with them from that Virtue-destroying cup, yet may we

not hope that an influence, though now unseen, unfelt, has gone

forth, which shall tell upon the future, which shall convince us

that our weekly resort to these meetings has not been in vain, and

which shall cause the friends of humanity to admire and

respect--nay, venerate--this now-despised little band of Daughters

of Temperance?...

We count it no waste of time to go forth through our streets, thus

proclaiming our desire for the advancement of our great cause. You,

with us, no doubt, feel that Intemperance is the blighting mildew

of all our social connections; you would be most happy to speed on

the time when no Wife shall watch with trembling heart and tearful

eye the slow, but sure descent of her idolized Companion down to

the loathsome haunts of drunkenness; you would hasten the day when

no Mother shall have to mourn over a darling son as she sees him

launch his bark on the circling waves of the mighty whirlpool.

How is this great change to be wrought, who are to urge on this

vast work of reform? Shall it not be women, who are most aggrieved

by the foul destroyer's inroads? Most certainly. Then arises the

question, how are we to accomplish the end desired? I answer, not

by confining our influence to our own home circle, not by centering

all our benevolent feelings upon our own kindred, not by caring

naught for the culture of any minds, save those of our own

darlings. No, no; the gratification of the _selfish_ impulses

_alone_, can never produce a desirable change in the Moral aspect

of Society....

It is generally conceded that it is our sex that fashions the

Social and Moral State of Society. We do not presume that females

possess unbounded power in abolishing the evil customs of the day;

but we do believe that were they en masse to discountenance the use

of wine and brandy as beverages at both their public and private

parties, not one of the opposite Sex, who has any claim to the

title of gentleman, would so insult them as to come into their

presence after having quaffed of that foul destroyer of all true

delicacy and refinement.

I am not aware that we have any inebriate females among us, but

have we not those, who are fallen from _Virtue_, and who claim our

efforts for their reform, equally with the inebriate? And while we

feel it our duty to extend the hand of sympathy and love to those

who are wanderers from the path of Temperance, should we not also

be zealous in reclaiming those poor, deluded ones, who have been

robbed of their most precious Gem, Virtue, and whom we blush to

think belong to our Sex?

Now, Ladies, all we would do is to do all in our power, both

individually and collectively, to harmonize and happify our Social

system. We ask of you candidly and seriously to investigate the

Matter, and decide for yourselves whether the object of our Union

be not on the side of right, and if it be, then one and all, for

the sake of erring humanity, come forward and _speed_ on the right.

If you come to the conclusion that the end we wish to attain is

right, but are not satisfied with the plan adopted, then I ask of

you to devise means by which this great good may be more speedily

accomplished, and you shall find us ready with both heart and hand

to co-operate with you. In my humble opinion, all that is needed to

produce a complete Temperance and Social reform in this age of

Moral Suasion, is for our Sex to cast their United influences into

the balance.

Ladies! there is no Neutral position for us to assume. If we

sustain not this noble enterprise, both by precept and example,

then is our influence on the side of Intemperance. If we say we

love the Cause, and then sit down at our ease, surely does our

action speak the lie. And now permit me once more to beg of you to

lend your aid to this great Cause, the Cause of God and all

Mankind.

The next day on the streets, so the letters say, everybody was

exclaiming, "Miss Anthony is the smartest woman who ever has been in

Canajoharie." Soon afterwards the school closed and, after spending the

summer visiting eastern relatives and friends, Miss Anthony returned to

Rochester in the autumn of 1849. The thing she remembers most vividly

is how she reveled in fruit. All the young orchards her father had

planted were now bearing, including a thousand peach trees, and for the

first time in her life she had all the peaches she wanted, and "lived

on them for a month."

The years of 1850 and 1851 Daniel Anthony conducted his insurance

business in Syracuse and Susan remained at home, taking entire charge

of the farm, superintending the planting of the crops, the harvesting

and the selling. She also did most of the housework, as her mother was

in delicate health, her sister was teaching school and both brothers

were away. In the winter of 1852, she went into a school in Rochester

as supply for three months. She found, however, that her taste for

teaching was entirely gone, her work was without inspiration, her

interest and sympathy had become enlisted in other things. She longed

to take an active part in the two great reforms of temperance and

anti-slavery, which now were absorbing public attention; she could not

endure the narrow and confining life of the school-room, and so, in the

spring, she abandoned teaching forever, after an experience of fifteen

years.

[Footnote 9: Nearly fifty years afterwards, when Mr. Hagar was at the

head of the Girls' High School, in Salem, Mass., Miss Anthony visited

him and was most cordially invited to address his pupils "on any

subject she pleased, even woman suffrage."]

[Footnote 10: The play for this occasion was written by James Arkell,

father of W.J. Arkell, proprietor of the Judge. He was a pupil in the

boys' department of the old academy.]

CHAPTER V.

ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE.

1850--1852.

Ill the conditions were such as to make it most natural for Miss

Anthony, when she reached the age of maturity, to adopt a public career

and go actively into reform work, and especially to enter upon that

contest to secure equal rights for those of her own sex, which she was

to wage unceasingly for half a century. Her father's mother and sister

were "high seat" Quakers, the latter a famous preacher. Her mother's

cousin, Betsey Dunnell White, of Stafford's Hill, was noted as the only

woman in that locality who could "talk politics," and the men used to

come from far and near to get her opinion on the political situation.

She was brought up in a society which recognizes the equality of the

sexes and encourages women in public speaking. In her own home the

father believed in giving sons and daughters the same advantages, and

in preparing the latter as well as the former for self-support. The

daughters were taught business principles, and invested with

responsibility at an early age. Two of them married, and the third was

of a quiet and retiring disposition; but in Susan he saw ability of a

high order and that same courage, persistence and aggressiveness which

entered into his own character, enabling him to make his way in the

business world and rally from his losses and defeats. He encouraged her

desire to go into the reforms which were demanding attention, gave her

financial backing when necessary, moral support upon all occasions, and

was ever her most interested friend and faithful ally. She received

also the sympathy and assistance of her mother, who, no matter how

heavy the domestic burdens, or how precarious her own health, was never

willing that she should take any time from her public work to give to

the duties of home, although she frequently insisted upon doing so.

During Miss Anthony's stay at Canajoharie she went often to Albany and

there made the intimate acquaintance of Abigail Mott and her sister

Lydia, whose names are now a blessed memory with the leaders of the

abolition movement that still remain. Their modest home was a rallying

center for the reformers of the day, and here Miss Anthony met many of

the noted men and women with whom she was to become so closely

associated in the future. She reached home in 1849 to find a hot-bed of

discussion and fermentation. The first rift had been made in the old

common law, which for centuries had held women in its iron grasp, by

the passage, in April, 1848, of the Property Bill allowing a married

woman to hold real estate in her own name in New York. Previous to this

time all the property which a woman owned at marriage and all she might

receive by gift or inheritance passed into the possession of the

husband; the rents and profits belonged to him, and he could sell it

during his lifetime or dispose of it by will at his death except her

life interest in one-third of the real estate. The more thoughtful

among women were beginning to ask why other unjust laws should not also

be repealed, and the whole question of the rights of woman was thus

opened.

In 1848, Spiritualism may be said to have had its birth, and the

remarkable manifestations of the Fox sisters brought numbers of people

to Rochester, where they had-removed as soon as they began to be widely

known. This form of religious belief soon acquired a large following,

causing much controversy and great excitement.

The Society of Friends had divided on the slavery issue and Miss

Anthony found her family attending the Unitarian church, which soon

afterwards called William Henry Channing to its pulpit. Both he and

Samuel J. May, the father of Unitarianism in Syracuse, became her

steadfast friends and never-failing support in all the great work which

was developed in later years.

[Illustration:

AUNT HANNAH, THE QUAKER PREACHER.

FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE.]

In July, 1848, the first Woman's Rights Convention had been held in

Seneca Falls and adjourned to meet in Rochester August 2. Miss

Anthony's father, mother and sister Mary had attended and signed the

declaration demanding equal rights for women, and she found them

enthusiastic upon this subject and also over Mrs. Stanton, Lucretia

Mott and other prominent women who had taken part. Her cousin, Sarah

Anthony Burtis, had acted as secretary of the convention.

In 1849 Mrs. Mott published her admirable Discourse on Woman in answer

to a lyceum lecture by Richard H. Dana ridiculing the idea of civil and

political rights for women. In 1847 Frederick Douglass had brought his

family to Rochester and established his paper, the North Star. As soon

as Miss Anthony reached home she was taken by her father to call on

Douglass, and this was the beginning of another friendship which was to

last a lifetime.

The year 1849 saw the whole country in a state of great unrest and

excitement. Eighty thousand men had gone to California in search of

gold. Telegraphs and railroads were being rapidly constructed, thus

bringing widely separated localities into close communication. The

unsettled condition of Europe and the famine in Ireland had turned

toward America that tremendous tide of immigration which this year had

risen to 300,000. The admission of Texas into the Union had

precipitated the full force of the slavery question. Old parties were

disintegrating and sectional lines becoming closely drawn. New

territories were knocking at the door of the Union and the whole nation

was in a ferment as to whether they should be slave or free. Threats of

secession were heard in both the North and the South. A spirit of

compromise finally prevailed and deferred the crisis for a decade, but

the agitation and unrest continued to increase. The Abolitionists were

still a handful of radicals, repudiated alike by the Free Soil Whigs

and Free Soil Democrats. Slavery, as an institution, had not yet become

a political issue, but only its extension into the territories.

Such, in brief, was the situation at the beginning of 1850. It was a

period of grave apprehension on the part of older men and women, of

intense aggressiveness with the younger, who were eager for action. It

is not surprising then that an educated, self-reliant, public-spirited

woman who had just reached thirty should chafe against the narrow

limits of a school-room and rebel at giving her time and strength to

the teaching of children, when all her mind and heart were drawn toward

the great issues then filling the press and the platform and even

finding their way into the pulpit. Miss Anthony's whole soul soon

became absorbed in the thought, "What service can I render humanity;

what can I do to help right the wrongs of society?" At this time the

one and only field of public work into which women had dared venture,

except in a few isolated cases, was that of temperance. Miss Anthony

had brought her credentials from the Daughters' Union at Canajoharie

and presented them at once to the society in Rochester; they were

gladly accepted and she soon became a leader. In these days John B.

Gough was delivering his magnificent lectures throughout the country,

and Philip S. White, of South Carolina, was winning fame as a

temperance orator.

The year 1850 was for her one of transition. A new world opened out

before her. The Anthony homestead was a favorite meeting place for

liberal-spirited men and women. On Sunday especially, when the father

could be at home, the house was filled and fifteen or twenty people

used to gather around the hospitable board. Susan always superintended

these Sunday dinners, and was divided between her anxiety to sustain

her reputation as a superior cook and her desire not to lose a word of

the conversation in the parlor. Garrison, Pillsbury, Phillips, Channing

and other great reformers visited at this home, and many a Sunday the

big wagon would be sent to the city for Frederick Douglass and his

family to come out and spend the day. Here were gathered many times the

Posts, Hallowells, DeGarmos, Willises, Burtises, Kedzies, Fishes,

Curtises, Stebbins, Asa Anthonys, all Quakers who had left the society

on account of their anti-slavery principles and were leaders in the

abolition and woman's rights movements. Every one of these Sunday

meetings was equal to a convention. The leading events of the day were

discussed in no uncertain tones. All were Garrisonians and believed in

"immediate and unconditional emancipation." In 1850 the Fugitive Slave

Law was passed and all the resources of the federal government were

employed for its enforcement. Its provisions exasperated the

Abolitionists to the highest degree. The house of Isaac and Amy Post

was the rendezvous for runaway slaves, and each of these families that

gathered on Sunday at the Anthony farm could have told where might be

found at least one station on the "underground railroad."

Miss Anthony read with deep interest the reports of the woman's rights

convention held at Worcester, Mass., October, 1850, which were

published in the New York Tribune.[11] She sympathized fully with the

demand for equal rights for women, but was not yet quite convinced that

these included the suffrage. This, no doubt, was largely because Quaker

men did not vote, thinking it wrong to support a government which

believed in war. Even so progressive and public-spirited a man as

Daniel Anthony, much as he was interested in all national affairs,

never voted until 1860, when he became convinced it was only by force

of arms that the question of slavery could be settled.

In 1851, the License Law having been arbitrarily repealed a few years

before, there was practically no regulation of the liquor business, nor

was there any such public sentiment against intemperance as exists at

the present day. Drunkenness was not looked upon as an especial

disgrace and there had been little agitation of the question. The wife

of a drunkard was completely at his mercy. He had the entire custody of

the children, full control of anything she might earn, and the law did

not recognize drunkenness as a cause for divorce. Although woman was

the greatest sufferer, she had not yet learned that she had even the

poor right of protest. Oppressed by the weight of the injustice and

tyranny of ages, she knew nothing except to suffer in silence; and so

degraded was she by generations of slavish submission, that she

possessed not even the moral courage to stand by those of her own sex

who dared rebel and demand a new dispensation.

The old Washingtonian Society of the first half of the nineteenth

century, composed entirely of men, because reformed drunkards only

could belong to it, was succeeded by the Sons of Temperance, and these

had permitted the organization of subordinate lodges called Daughters

of Temperance, which, as subsequent events will show, were entitled to

no official recognition. It was in one of these, the only organized

bodies of women known at this time,[12] that Miss Anthony first

displayed that executive ability which was destined to make her famous.

During 1851 she was very active in temperance work and organized a

number of societies in surrounding towns. She instituted in Rochester a

series of suppers and festivals to raise the funds which she at once

saw were necessary before any efficient work could be done. An old

invitation to one of these, dated February 21, 1851, and signed by

Susan B. Anthony, chairman, reads: "The entertainment is intended to be

of such a character as will meet the approbation of the wise and good;

Supper, Songs, Toasts, Sentiments and short speeches will be the order

of-the evening; $1 will admit a gentleman and a lady" A newpaper

account says:

The five long tables were loaded with a rich variety of provisions,

tastefully decorated and arranged. Mayor Samuel Richardson presided

at the supper table. After the repast was over, Miss Susan B.

Anthony, Directress of the Festival and President of the

Association, introduced these highly creditable sentiments, which

were greatly applauded by the assemblage:

"The Women of Rochester--Powerful to fashion the customs of

society, may they not fail to exercise that power for the speedy

and total banishment of all that intoxicates from our domestic and

social circles, and thus speed on the day when no young man, be he

ever so _genteelly_ dressed or of ever so _noble_, origin, who

pollutes his lips with the touch of the drunkard's cup, shall

presume to seek the favor of any of our precious daughters.

"Our Cause--May each succeeding day add to its glory and every hour

give fresh impetus to its progress...."

Many other toasts were proposed which space forbids quoting, but the

following by one of the gentlemen deserves a place:

The Daughters--Our characters they elevate,

Our manners they refine;

Without them we'd degenerate

To the level of the swine.

It is curious how willing men have been, through all the centuries, to

admit that only the influence of women saves them from being brutes and

how anxious to confine that influence to the narrowest possible limits.

[Autograph:

Very truly and affectionately

Abby K. Foster]

In the winter of 1851 Miss Anthony attended an anti-slavery meeting in

Rochester, conducted by Stephen and Abby Kelly Foster. This was her

first acquaintance with Mrs. Foster, who had been the most persecuted

of all the women taking part in the anti-slavery struggle. She had been

ridiculed, denounced and mobbed for years; and, for listening to her on

Sunday, men and women had been expelled from church. Her strong and

heroic spirit struck an answering spark in Miss Anthony's breast. She

accompanied the Fosters for a week on their tour of meetings in

adjoining counties, and was urged by them to go actively into this

reform.

The following May she went to the Anti-Slavery Anniversary in Syracuse.

This convention had been driven out of New York by Rynders' mob in 1850

and did not dare go back. On the way home she stopped at Seneca Falls,

the guest of Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, to hear again Wm. Lloyd Garrison and

George Thompson, the distinguished Abolitionist from England, who had

stirred her nature to its depths. Here was fulfilled her long-cherished

desire of seeing Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Their meeting is best

described in that lady's own words: "Walking home with the speakers,

who were my guests, we met Mrs. Bloomer with Miss Anthony on the corner

of the street waiting to greet us. There she stood with her good,

earnest face and genial smile, dressed in gray delaine, hat and all the

same color relieved with pale-blue ribbons, the perfection of neatness

and sobriety. I liked her thoroughly from the beginning." Both Mrs.

Stanton and Mrs. Bloomer on this occasion wore what is known as the

Bloomer costume. In the summer Miss Anthony went to Seneca Falls to a

meeting of those interested in founding the People's College. Horace

Greeley, Lucy Stone and herself were entertained by Mrs. Stanton. The

three women were determined it should be opened to girls as well as

boys. Mr. Greeley begged them not to agitate the question, assuring

them that he would have the constitution and by-laws so framed as to

admit women on the same terms as men, and he did as he promised, making

a spirited fight. Before the college was fairly started, however, it

was merged into Cornell University.

This was Miss Anthony's first meeting with Lucy Stone and may be called

the commencement of her life-long friendship with Mrs. Stanton. These

women who sat at the dinner-table that day were destined to be recorded

in history for all time as the three central figures in the great

movement for equal rights. There certainly was nothing formidable in

the appearance of the trio: Miss Anthony a quiet, dignified Quaker

girl; Mrs. Stanton a plump, jolly, youthful matron, scarcely five feet

high; and Lucy Stone a petite, soft-voiced young woman who seemed

better fitted for caresses than for the hard buffetings of the world.

Miss Anthony's public life may be said to have fairly begun in 1852.

The Sons of Temperance had announced a mass meeting of all the

divisions in the state, to be held at Albany, and had invited the

Daughters to send delegates. The Rochester union appointed Susan B.

Anthony. Her credentials, with those of the other women delegates, were

accepted and seats given them in the convention, but when Miss Anthony

rose to speak to a motion she was informed by the presiding officer

that "the sisters were not invited there to speak but to listen and

learn." She and three or four other ladies at once left the hall. The

rest of the women had not the courage to follow, but called them "bold,

meddlesome disturbers," and remained to bask in the approving smiles of

the Sons. They sought advice of Lydia Mott, who said the proper thing

was to hold a meeting of their own; so they secured the lecture-room of

the Hudson street Presbyterian church, and then went to the office of

the Evening Journal, edited by Thurlow Weed, to talk the situation over

with him. He told them they had done exactly right, and in his paper

that evening he announced their meeting and related their treatment by

the men.

The night was cold and snowy. The little room was dark, the stove

smoked and the pipe fell down during the exercises, but the women were

sustained by their indignation and sense of justice and would not allow

themselves to be discouraged. Rev. Samuel J. May, who was in the city

attending the "Jerry Rescue" trials, seeing the notice of their

meeting, came to offer his assistance, accompanied by David Wright,

husband of Martha C. Wright and brother-in-law of Lucretia Mott. These

two, with a reporter, were the only men present at this little

assemblage of women who had decided that they could do something better

for the cause of temperance than being seen and not heard.

Mr. May opened the meeting with prayer, and then showed them how to

organize. Mary C. Vaughn, of Oswego, was made president; Miss Anthony,

secretary; Lydia Mott, chairman of the business committee. Mrs. Vaughn

gave an address. A letter had been received from Mrs. Stanton so

radical that most of the ladies objected to having it read, but Miss

Anthony took the responsibility. She read, also, letters from Clarina

Howard Nichols and Amelia Bloomer, which had been intended for the

Sons' meeting. Mrs. Lydia F. Fowler, who happened to be lecturing in

Albany, spoke briefly, and Mr. May paid high tribute to the valuable

work of women in temperance and anti-slavery, declaring their influence

as indispensable to the state and the church as to the home. Miss

Anthony then said their treatment showed that the time had come for

women to have an organization of their own; and the final outcome was

the appointment of a committee, with herself as chairman, to call a

Woman's State Temperance Convention.

She at once wrote to all parts of the State urging the unions to send

delegates, and received many encouraging replies. Horace Greeley wrote

as follows:

I heartily approve the call of the Woman's Temperance Convention,

and hope it may result in good. To this end I would venture to

suggest:

1st. Hold an informal and private meeting before you attempt to

meet in public. There select your officers, your business

committees, etc., so that there shall be no jarring when you

assemble in public.

2d. Have your addresses and resolves carefully prepared beforehand.

Make them very short and pointed. Have them in type so that they

may appear promptly and simultaneously in the daily papers. If you

will send us a copy of them the night before we will endeavor to

print them with our proceedings of the meeting received by

telegraph.

3d. Be sure that your strongest thinkers speak and that the weaker

forbear, and that extraneous matters, so far as possible, are let

alone.

It will be seen that by adopting these shrewd political methods there

would not be much left for the convention proper to do except listen to

the speeches, but it would be hard to compress into smaller space more

sensible advice. Mrs. Nichols wrote her: "It is most invigorating to

watch the development of a woman in the work for humanity: first,

anxious for the cause and depressed with a sense of her own inability;

next, partial success of timid efforts creating a hope; next, a faith;

and then the fruition of complete self-devotion. Such will be your

history." From Mrs. Stanton came cheering words: "I will gladly do all

in my power to help you. Come and stay with me and I will write the

best lecture I can for you. I have no doubt a little practice will make

you an admirable speaker. Dress loosely, take a great deal of exercise,

be particular about your diet and sleep enough. The body has great

influence upon the mind. In your meetings, if attacked, be cool and

good-natured, for if you are simple and truth-loving no sophistry can

confound you. As for my own address, if I am to be president it ought

perhaps to be sent out with the stamp of the convention, but as

anything from my pen is necessarily radical no one may wish to share

with me the odium of what I may choose to say. If so, I am ready to

stand alone. I never write to please any one. If I do please I am

happy, but to proclaim my highest convictions of truth is always my

sole object."

After weeks of hard work, writing countless letters, taking numerous

trips to various towns, and making almost without assistance all the

necessary arrangements, the convention assembled in Corinthian Hall,

Rochester, April 20, 1852. The morning audience was composed entirely

of women, 500 being in attendance. Miss Anthony opened the meeting,

read the call, which had been widely circulated, and in a clear,

forcible manner set forth the object of the convention. The call urged

the women to "meet together for devising such associated action as

shall be necessary for the protection of their interests and of society

at large, too long invaded and destroyed by legalized intemperance." It

was signed by Daniel Anthony, William R. Hallowell and a number of

well-known men and women, many of whom were present and took part in

the discussions. Letters were read from distinguished persons and

strong resolutions adopted, among them one thanking the New York

Tribune for the kindness with which it had uniformly sustained women in

their efforts for temperance. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was elected

president; Mrs. Gerrit Smith, Mrs. E.C. Delavan, Antoinette L. Brown

and nine others, vice-presidents; Susan B. Anthony and Amelia Bloomer,

secretaries. In accepting the presidency, Mrs. Stanton made a powerful

speech, certain parts of which acted as a bombshell not only at this

meeting, but in press, pulpit and society. The two points which aroused

most antagonism were:

1st. Let no woman remain in the relation of wife with a confirmed

drunkard. Let no drunkard be the father of her children.... Let us

petition our State government so to modify the laws affecting

marriage and the custody of children, that the drunkard shall have

no claims on wife or child.

2d. Inasmuch as charity begins at home, let us withdraw our mite

from all associations for sending the Gospel to the heathen across

the ocean, for the education of young men for the ministry, for the

building up of a theological aristocracy and gorgeous temples to

the unknown God, and devote ourselves to the poor and suffering

around us. Let us feed and clothe the hungry and naked, gather

children into schools and provide reading-rooms and decent homes

for young men and women thrown alone upon the world. Good schools

and homes, where the young could ever be surrounded by an

atmosphere of purity and virtue, would do much more to prevent

immorality and crime in our cities than all the churches in the

land could ever possibly do toward the regeneration of the

multitude sunk in poverty, ignorance and vice.

The effect of such declarations on the conservatism of half a century

ago hardly can be pictured. At this time the principal outlet for

women's activities was through foreign missionary work, and even in

this they were allowed no official responsibility. None of the many

charitable organizations which are now almost wholly in the hands of

women were in existence. In scarcely one State was drunkenness

recognized as cause for divorce, and yet when Mrs. Stanton made these

demands, the women throughout the country joined with the men in

denouncing them. Only a few of the broader and more progressive, who

were ahead of their age, sustained her. Among these were Miss Anthony,

Ernestine L. Rose, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Frances D. Gage and

Martha C. Wright.

After six enthusiastic sessions and the forming of a strong

organization, the convention adjourned. Thus the first Woman's State

Temperance Society ever formed was due almost entirely to Susan B.

Anthony, because of her courage in demanding independent action and her

successful efforts in calling the convention which inaugurated it. The

executive committee met in May and appointed her State agent, "with

full power and authority to organize auxiliary societies, collect

moneys, issue certificates of membership and do all things which she

may judge necessary and expedient to promote the purposes for which our

society has been organized."

The Men's State Temperance Society had issued an official call for a

convention to be held at Syracuse in June, containing these words:

"Temperance societies of every name are invited to send delegates."

Acting upon this invitation, the executive committee of the Woman's

State Temperance Society appointed Gerrit Smith, Susan B. Anthony and

Amelia Bloomer as delegates. Mr. Smith was not able to attend and,

after their experience at Albany, there were serious doubts in the

minds of the women whether they would be received. They were much

encouraged, however, by the receipt of a letter from Rev. Samuel J.

May, written June 14, saying: "The local committee are now in session.

I have just read your letter to them, and every member has expressed

himself in favor of receiving the delegates of the Woman's State

Temperance Society, just as the delegates of any other society, and

allowing them to take their own course, speak or not speak, as they

choose."

Miss Anthony and Mrs. Bloomer went to Syracuse, and on the morning of

the convention received a call from Mr. May. He came to inform them

that their arrival had caused great excitement among the clergy, who

comprised a large portion of the delegates and threatened to withdraw

if the women were admitted. Their action had alarmed the other

delegates, who feared a disturbance in the convention, and they had

requested Mr. May, as probably having the most influence, to call upon

the ladies and urge them not to ask for recognition. When they told him

they should go to the meeting and present their credentials, he

expressed great satisfaction and said that was just the decision he had

hoped they would make. They quietly entered the hall and took seats

with other ladies at one side of the platform. Immediately Rev.

Mandeville, of Albany, turned his chair around with back to the

audience and, facing them, attempted to stare them out of countenance.

William H. Burleigh, secretary, read the annual report, which closed,

"We hail the formation of the Woman's State Temperance Society as a

valuable auxiliary." This precipitated the discussion. Rev. Mandeville

sprung to his feet and moved to strike out the last sentence. His

speech was filled with such venom and vulgarity as the foulest-mouthed

politician would hesitate to utter. He denounced the Woman's State

Temperance Society and all women publicly engaged in temperance work,

declared the women delegates to be "a hybrid species, half man and half

woman, belonging to neither sex," and announced finally that if this

sentence were not struck out he would dissolve his connection with the

society.

A heated debate followed. Mr. Havens, of New York, offered an amendment

recognizing "the right of women to work in their proper sphere--the

domestic circle." Rev. May, of the Unitarian church, Rev. Luther Lee,

of the Wesleyan Methodist, Hon. A.N. Cole, a leading Whig politician,

and several others, defended the rights of the women in the most

eloquent manner, but were howled down. Miss Anthony made only one

attempt to speak and that was to remind them that over 100,000 of the

signers to a petition for a Maine Law, the previous winter, were women,

but her voice was drowned by Rev. Fowler, of Utica, shouting, "Order!

Order!" Herman Camp, of Trumansburg, the president, ruled that she was

not a delegate and had no right to speak. Amid great confusion the

question was put to vote and the decision of the chair sustained. As no

delegates had yet been accredited, everybody in the house was allowed

to vote, but the secretary, J.T. Hazen, announced that he did not count

the votes of the women!

Rev. Luther Lee at once offered his church to the ladies for an evening

meeting. They had a crowded house, fine speeches and good music, while

the convention was practically deserted, not over fifty being present.

After a masterly speech by Mr. May and stirring remarks from Mr. Lee,

Mrs. Bloomer and others, Miss Anthony made the address of the evening,

which she had prepared for the men's convention, a strong plea for the

right of women to work and speak for temperance. Soon afterwards she

wrote her father: "I feel there is a great work to be done which none

but women can do. How I wish I could be daily associated with those

whose ideas are in advance of my own, it would enable me to develop so

much faster;" and then, notwithstanding all her rebuffs, she signed

herself, "Yours cheerily."

The anti-slavery convention this year was held in Rochester, and Miss

Anthony had as a guest her dear friend, Lydia Mott, and again met

Garrison, Phillips, May, the Fosters, Pillsbury, Henry C. Wright and

others of that glorious band who together had received the baptism of

fire. Although intensely interested in the anti-slavery question she

did not dare think she had the ability to take up that work, but she

did resolve to give all her time and energy to the temperance cause.

The summer of 1852 was spent in traveling throughout the State with

Mrs. Vaughn, Mrs. Attilia Albro and Miss Emily Clark. They canvassed

thirty counties, organizing societies and securing 28,000 signatures to

a petition for the Maine Law. Miss Anthony sent out a strong appeal,

saying:

Women, and mothers in particular, should feel it their right and

duty to extend their influence beyond the circumference of the home

circle, and to say what circumstances shall surround children when

they go forth from under the watchful guardianship of the mother's

love; for certain it is that, if the customs and laws of society

remain corrupt as they now are, the best and wisest of the mother's

teachings will soon be counteracted....

Woman has so long been accustomed to non-intervention with

law-making, so long considered it man's business to regulate the

liquor traffic, that it is with much cautiousness she receives the

new doctrine which we preach; the doctrine that it is her right and

duty to speak out against the traffic and all men and institutions

that in any way sanction, sustain or countenance it; and, since she

can not vote, to duly instruct her husband, son, father or brother

how she would have him vote, and, if he longer continue to

mis-represent her, take the right to march to the ballot-box and

deposit a vote indicative of her highest ideas of practical

temperance.

It will be seen by this that already she had taken her stand on the

right of woman to the franchise.

While at Elmira she happened into a teachers' convention and heard

Charles Anthony, of the Albany academy, a distant relative, make an

address on "The Divine Ordinance of Corporal Punishment." It was a

severe and cruel justification of the unlimited use of the rod, but,

although more than three-fourths of the teachers present were women,

not a word was uttered in protest. Throughout the proceedings not a

woman's voice was heard, none was appointed on committees or voted on

any question, and they were as completely ignored as so many outsiders.

Miss Anthony made up her mind that here also was a work to be done, and

that henceforth she would attend the State teachers' conventions every

year and demand for women all the privileges now monopolized by men.

On September 8, 1852, she went to her first Woman's Rights Convention,

which was held at Syracuse. She had read with avidity the accounts of

the Ohio, Massachusetts, Indiana and Pennsylvania conventions, but this

was her first opportunity of attending one. At the preliminary meeting,

held the night before, she was made a member of the nominating

committee with Paulina Wright Davis, of Providence, R.I., chairman.

Mrs. Davis had come with the determination of putting in as president

her dear friend Elizabeth Oakes Smith, a fashionable literary woman of

Boston. Both attended the meeting and the convention in short-sleeved,

low-necked white dresses, one with a pink, the other with a blue

embroidered wool delaine sack with wide, flowing sleeves, which left

both neck and arms exposed. At the committee meeting next morning,

Quaker James Mott nominated Mrs. Smith for president, but Quaker Susan

B. Anthony spoke out boldly and said that nobody who dressed as she did

could represent the earnest, solid, hard-working women of the country

for whom they were making the demand for equal rights. Mr. Mott said

they must not expect all women to dress as plainly as the Friends; but

she held her ground, and as all the committee agreed with her, though

no one else had had the courage to speak, Mrs. Smith's name was voted

down. This is but one instance of hundreds where Miss Anthony alone

dared say what others only dared think, and thus through all the years

made herself the target for criticism, blame and abuse. Others escaped

through their cowardice; she suffered through her bravery.

Lucretia Mott was made president, and the Syracuse Standard said: "It

was a singular spectacle to see this Quaker matron presiding over a

convention with an ease, grace and dignity that might be envied by the

most experienced legislator in the country."[13] Susan B. Anthony and

Martha C. Wright were the secretaries. Delegates were present from

Canada and eight different States. Letters were received from Angelina

Grimké Weld, William Henry Channing and others; Horace Greeley sent

much good advice; Garrison wrote: "You have as noble an object in view,

aye and as Christian a one too, as ever was advocated beneath the sun.

Heaven bless all your proceedings." Rev. A.D. Mayo said in a long

letter:

I have never questioned what I believed to be the central principle

of the reform in which you are engaged. I believe that every mature

soul is responsible directly to God, not only for its faith and

opinions, but for its details of life. The assertion that woman is

responsible to man for her belief or conduct, in any other sense

than man is responsible to woman, I reject, not as a believer in

any theory of "woman's rights," but as a believer in that religion

which knows neither male nor female in its imperative demand upon

the individual conscience.

George W. Johnson, of Buffalo, chairman of the State committee of the

Liberty party, sent $10 and these vigorous sentiments: "Woman has,

equally with man, the inalienable right to education, suffrage, office,

property, professions, titles and honors--to life, liberty and the

pursuit of happiness. False to our sex, as well as her own, and false

to herself and her God, is the woman who approves, or who submits

without resistance or protest, to the social and political wrongs

imposed upon her in common with her sex throughout the world." Mrs.

Stanton's letter, read with hearty approval by Miss Anthony, raised the

usual breeze in the convention. She suggested three points:

Should not all women, living in States where they have the right to

hold property, refuse to pay taxes so long as they are

unrepresented in the government?... Man has pre-empted the most

profitable branches of industry, and we demand a place at his side;

to this end we need the same advantages of education, and we

therefore claim that the best colleges of the country be opened to

us.... In her present ignorance, woman's religion, instead of

making her noble and free, by the wrong application of great

principles of right and justice, has made her bondage but more

certain and lasting, her degradation more helpless and complete.

In the course of her argument Lucy Stone said:

The claims we make at these conventions are self-evident truths.

The second resolution affirms the right of human beings to their

persons and earnings. Is not that self-evident? Yet the common law,

which regulates the relation of husband and wife, and is modified

only in a few instances by the statutes, gives the "custody" of the

wife's person to the husband, so that he has a right to her even

against herself. It gives him her earnings, no matter with what

weariness they have been acquired, or how greatly she may need them

for herself or her children. It gives him a right to her personal

property, which he may will entirely away from her, also the use of

her real estate, and in some of the States married women, insane

persons and idiots are ranked together as not fit to make a will;

so that she is left with only one right, which she enjoys in common

with the pauper, the right of maintenance. Indeed, when she has

taken the sacred marriage vows, her legal existence ceases. And

what is our position politically? The foreigner, the negro, the

drunkard, all are entrusted with the ballot, all placed by men

politically higher than their own mothers, wives, sisters and

daughters! The woman who, seeing this, dares not maintain her

rights is the one to hang her head and blush. We ask only for

justice and equal rights--the right to vote, the right to our own

earnings, equality before the law; these are the Gibraltar of our

cause.

Rev. Antoinette Brown, the first woman ever ordained to preach,

declared:

Man can not represent woman. They differ in their nature and

relations. The law is wholly masculine; it is created and executed

by man. The framers of all legal compacts are restricted to the

masculine standpoint of observation, to the thoughts, feelings and

biases of man. The law then can give us no representation as women,

and therefore no impartial justice, even if the law-makers were

honestly intent upon this, for we can be represented only by our

peers.... When woman is tried for crime, her jury, her judges, her

advocates, all are men; and yet there may have been temptations and

various palliating circumstances connected with her peculiar nature

as woman, such as man can not appreciate. Common justice demands

that a part of the law-makers and law-executors should be of her

own sex. In questions of marriage and divorce, affecting interests

dearer than life, both parties in the compact are entitled to an

equal voice.

Mrs. Nichols said in discussing the laws:

If a wife is compelled to get a divorce on account of the

infidelity of the husband, she forfeits all right to the property

which they have earned together, while the husband, who is the

offender, still retains the sole possession and control of the

estate. She, the innocent party, goes out childless and portionless

by decree of law, and he, the criminal, retains the home and

children by favor of the game law. A drunkard takes his wife's

clothing to pay his rum bills, and the court declares that the

action is legal because the wife belongs to the husband.

Hon. Gerrit Smith here made his first appearance upon the woman

suffrage platform, although he had written many letters expressing

sympathy and encouragement, and made a grand argument for woman's

equality. He closed by saying: "All rights are held by a precarious

tenure if this one right to the ballot be denied. When women are the

constituents of men who make and administer the laws they will pay due

consideration to woman's interests, and not before. The right of

suffrage is the great right that guarantees all others." Here also was

the first public appearance of Matilda Joslyn Gage, the youngest woman

taking part in the convention, who read an excellent paper urging that

daughters should be educated with sons, taught self-reliance and

permitted some independent means of self-support. A fine address also

was made by Paulina Wright Davis, who had managed and presided over the

two conventions held in 1850 and 1851 at Worcester, Mass.[14]

The queen of the platform at this time was Ernestine L. Rose, a Jewess

who had fled from Poland to escape religious persecution. She was

beautiful and cultured, of liberal views and great oratorical powers.

Her lectures on "The Science of Government" had attracted wide

attention. Naturally, she took a prominent part in the early woman's

rights meetings. On this occasion she presented and eloquently

advocated the following resolution:

We ask for our rights not as a gift of charity, but as an act of

justice; for it is in accordance with the principles of

republicanism that, as woman has to pay taxes to maintain

government, she has a right to participate in the formation and

administration of it; that as she is amenable to the laws of her

country, she is entitled to a voice in their enactment and to all

the protective advantages they can bestow; that as she is as liable

as man to all the vicissitudes of life, she ought to enjoy the same

social rights and privileges. Any difference, therefore, in

political, civil and social rights, on account of sex, is in direct

violation of the principles of justice and humanity, and as such

ought to be held up to the contempt and derision of every lover of

human freedom.

During the debate Rev. Junius Hatch, a Congregational minister from

Massachusetts, made a speech so coarse and vulgar that the president

called him to order. As he paid no attention to her, the men in the

audience choked him off with cries of "Sit down! Shut up!" His idea of

woman's modesty was that she should cast her eyes down when meeting

men, drop her veil when walking up the aisle of a church and keep her

place at home. Miss Anthony arose and stated that Mr. Hatch himself was

one of the young ministers who had been educated through the efforts of

women, and she had always noticed those were the ones most anxious for

women to keep silence in the churches. This finished Mr. Hatch.

A young teacher by the name of Brigham also attempted to define the

spheres of Mrs. Mott, Mrs. Stanton[15] and the other great advocates of

woman's freedom and declared: "Women ought to be keepers at home and

mind domestic concerns; he had no doubt the true object of this meeting

was not so much to acquire any real or supposed rights as to make the

speakers and actors conspicuous; he wished to urge upon them to claim

nothing masculine for women, for even in animals the spheres were

different. He had no objections to woman's voice being heard, but let

her seek out the breathing-holes of perdition to do her work." Mr.

Brigham was badly worsted in the argument which followed, and at the

next session he sent in a protest, declaring he had not had "justice."

He evidently did not see the satire of this complaint, since he himself

had been loudest in his refusal to do justice to woman.

A heated discussion was called out by a resolution offered by Rev.

Antoinette L. Brown declaring that "the Bible recognizes the rights,

privileges and duties of woman as a public teacher, as in every way

equal with those of man; that it enjoins upon her no subjection that is

not enjoined upon him; and that it truly and practically recognizes

neither male nor female in Christ Jesus." Mrs. Rose closed the

discussion by saying:

I can not object to any one's interpreting the Bible as he or she

thinks best; but I do object that such interpretation go forth as

the doctrine of this convention, because it is a mere

interpretation and not even the authority of the Book; it is the

view of Miss Brown only, which is as good as that of any other

minister, but that is all. For my part I reject both

interpretations. Here we claim human rights and freedom, based upon

the laws of humanity, and we require no written authority from

Moses or Paul, because those laws and our claim are prior even to

these two great men.

Miss Brown's resolution was not adopted. Susan B. Anthony spoke briefly

but earnestly in behalf of the People's College and also of the Woman's

State Temperance Society, for which she asked their endorsement. She

then read the resolutions sent by Mrs. Stanton, all but one of which

were adopted. The Syracuse Journal commented: "Miss Anthony has a

capital voice and deserves to be made clerk of the Assembly." The

Syracuse Standard said of this convention: "It was attended by not less

than 2,000 persons. The discussions were characterized by a degree of

ability that would do credit to any deliberative body." The Journal

said: "No person can deny that there was a greater amount of talent in

the woman's rights convention than has characterized any public

gathering in this city during the last ten years, if ever before. The

appearance of all the ladies was modest and unassuming, though prompt,

energetic and confident. Business was brought forward, calmly

deliberated upon and discussed with unanimity and in a spirit becoming

true women, which would add an unknown dignity to the transactions of

public associations of the 'lords.'" The Syracuse Star, however, took a

different view:

The women of the Tomfoolery Convention, now being held in this

city, talk as fluently of the Bible and God's teachings in their

speeches as if they could draw an argument from inspiration in

maintenance of their woman's rights stuff.... The poor creatures

who take part in the silly rant of "brawling women" and Aunt Nancy

men are most of them "ismizers" of the rankest stamp, Abolitionists

of the most frantic and contemptible kind and Christian (?)

sympathizers with such heretics as Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Parker

Pillsbury, O.C. Burleigh and S.S. Foster. These men are all woman's

righters and preachers of such damnable doctrines and accursed

heresies as would make demons of the pit shudder to hear. We have

selected a few appropriate passages from God's Bible for the

consideration of the infuriated gang at the convention.

The New York Herald, under the elder Bennett, which from the beginning

of the demand had been the inveterate foe of equal rights for women,

contained the following editorial, September 12, 1852:

The farce at Syracuse has been played out. We publish today the

last act, in which it will be seen that the authority of the Bible,

as a perfect rule of faith and practice for human beings, was voted

down, and what are called the laws of nature set up instead of the

Christian code. We have also a practical exhibition of the

consequences that flow from woman leaving her true sphere, where

she wields all her influence, and coming into public to discuss

morals and politics with men. The scene in which Rev. Mr. Hatch

violated the decorum of his cloth and was coarsely offensive to

such ladies present as had not lost that modest "feminine element"

on which he dwelt so forcibly, is the natural result of the conduct

of the women themselves who, in the first place, invited discussion

about sexes, and, in the second place, so broadly defined the

difference between the male and the female as to be suggestive of

anything but purity to the audience. The women of the convention

have no right to complain, but for the sake of his clerical

character, if no other motive influenced him, he ought not have

followed so bad an example. His speech was sound and his argument

conclusive, but his form of words was not in the best taste. The

female orators were the aggressors, but to use his own language he

ought not to have measured swords with a woman, especially when he

regarded her ideas and expressions as bordering upon the obscene.

But all this is the natural result of woman placing herself in a

false position. As Rev. Mr. Hatch observed, if she ran with horses

she must expect to be betted upon. The whole tendency of these

conventions is by no means to increase the influence of woman, to

elevate her condition or to command the respect of the other

sex....

How did woman first become subject to man, as she now is all over

the world? By her nature, her sex, just as the negro is and always

will be to the end of time, inferior to the white race and,

therefore, doomed to subjection; but she is happier than she would

be in any other condition, just because it is the law of her

nature....

What do the leaders of the woman's rights convention want? They

want to vote and to hustle with the rowdies at the polls. They want

to be members of Congress, and in the heat of debate subject

themselves to coarse jests and indecent language like that of Rev.

Mr. Hatch. They want to fill all other posts which men are

ambitious to occupy, to be lawyers, doctors, captains of vessels

and generals in the field. How funny it would sound in the

newspapers that Lucy Stone, pleading a cause, took suddenly ill in

the pains of parturition and perhaps gave birth to a fine bouncing

boy in court! Or that Rev. Antoinette Brown was arrested in the

pulpit in the middle of her sermon from the same cause, and

presented a "pledge" to her husband and the congregation; or that

Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, while attending a gentleman patient for a fit

of the gout or fistula in ano found it necessary to send for a

doctor, there and then, and to be delivered of a man or woman

child--perhaps twins.[16] A similar event might happen on the floor

of Congress, in a storm at sea or in the raging tempest of battle,

and then what is to become of the woman legislator?

For months after this convention the discussions and controversies were

kept up through press and pulpit. The clergymen in Syracuse and

surrounding towns rang the changes on the cry of "infidel" as the

surest way of neutralizing its influence. Rev. Byron Sunderland, a

Congregational minister of Syracuse and afterwards chaplain of the

United States Senate, preached a sermon on the "Bloomer Convention."

Rev. Ashley, of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Syracuse, also preached a

sermon against equality for woman, which was put into pamphlet form and

scattered throughout the State. It called forth many protests, some

from the women of his own church. The clergymen selected the Star, the

most disreputable paper in the city, for the publication of their

articles. Rev. Sunderland was ably answered by Matilda Joslyn Gage over

the signature of "M." and replied in the Star: "If the author should

turn out to be a man, I should have no objection to point out his

inaccuracies through your columns, but if the writer is a lady, why,

really, I don't know what I shall do. If I thought she would consent to

a personal interview, I should like to see her." Some man, signing

himself "A Reader," having criticised him in a perfectly respectful

manner for making the above distinction, the reverend gentleman replied

to him through the Star: "His impertinence is quite characteristic. He

probably knows as much about the Bible as a wild ass' colt, and is

requested at this time to keep a proper distance. When a body is trying

to find out and pay attention to a lady, it is not good manners for 'A

Reader' to be thrust in between us." In all the speeches and articles

in favor of woman's rights there was not one which was not modest,

temperate and dignified. Almost without exception those in opposition

were vulgar, intemperate and abusive.

No more brilliant galaxy of men and women ever assembled than at this

Syracuse convention, and the great question of the rights of woman was

discussed from every conceivable standpoint. Hundreds equally able have

been held during the last half century, and these extensive quotations

have been made simply to show that fifty years ago the whole broad

platform of human rights was as clearly defined by the leading

thinkers, and in as logical, comprehensive and dignified a manner, as

it is today. There was as much opposition among the masses of both men

and women against _all_ that they advocated as exists today against

their demand for the ballot, perhaps more; yet the close of the century

finds practically all granted except the ballot; the full right to

speak in public; nearly the same educational and industrial

opportunities; in many States almost equal legal rights, and not one

State now wholly under the English common law, which everywhere

prevailed at that time. The prejudice against all these innovations is

rapidly disappearing but it still lingers in regard to the yielding of

the suffrage, except in the four States where this also has been given.

In not one instance have these concessions been made in response to the

"voice of the people," but only because of the continued agitation and

unceasing efforts of a few of the more advanced and progressive

thinkers of each generation.

[Footnote 11: The Tribune, at this time, was the only paper in New

York, and, with few exceptions, the only large newspaper in the

country, which treated the question of woman's rights in any but a

contemptuous, abusive manner.]

[Footnote 12: They may have been preceded by the Moral Reform Societies

for the Rescue of Fallen Women, which originated in New York City, and

by a few Female Anti-Slavery Societies.]

[Footnote 13: At the first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848, Mrs. Mott

and Mrs. Stanton were so opposed to having a woman for chairman that

they came near leaving the hall. Four years later Mrs. Mott is herself

the presiding officer.]

[Footnote 14: Several of the speakers had weak, piping voices which did

not reach beyond a few of the front seats and, after one of these had

finished, Miss Anthony said: "Mrs. President, I move that hereafter the

papers shall be given to some one to read who can be heard. It is an

imposition on an audience to have to sit quietly through a long speech

of which they can not hear a word. We do not stand up here to be seen,

but to be heard." Then there was a protest. Mrs. Davis said she wished

it understood that "ladies did not come there to screech; they came to

behave like ladies and to speak like ladies." Miss Anthony held her

ground, declaring that the question of being ladylike had nothing to do

with it; the business of any one who read a paper was to be heard. Mr.

May, always the peacemaker, said Miss Anthony was right; there was not

a woman that had spoken in the convention who if she had been in her

own home would not have adjusted her voice to the occasion. "If your

boy were across the street you would not go to the door, put your head

down and say in a little, weak voice, 'Jim, come home;' but you would

fix your eye on him and shout, 'Jim, come home!' If the ladies, instead

of looking down and talking to those on the front seats, would address

their remarks to the farthermost persons in the house, all between

would hear."]

[Footnote 15: Mrs. Mott was the mother of six and Mrs. Stanton of seven

children. Both were devoted mothers and noteworthy housekeepers.]

[Footnote 16: No one of these ladies was married.]

CHAPTER VI.

TEMPERANCE AND TEACHERS' CONVENTIONS.

1852--1853.

Miss Anthony came away from the Syracuse convention thoroughly

convinced that the right which woman needed above every other, the one

indeed which would secure to her all others, was the right of suffrage.

She saw that it was by the ballot men emphasized their opinions and

enforced their demands; she realized that without it women exercised

small influence upon law-makers and had no power to reward friends or

punish enemies. A sense of the terrible helplessness of being utterly

without representation came upon her with crushing force. The first

great cause of the injustice which pressed upon women from every point

was clearly revealed to her and she understood, as never before, that

any class which is compelled to be legislated for by another class

always must be at a disadvantage. She went home with these thoughts

burning in her soul, and again took up her work for temperance, but

much of her enthusiasm was gone. She felt that she was dealing with

effects only and was shut out from all influence over causes. She still

was loyal to her State society but the desire was growing strong for a

larger field.

In January, 1853, she arranged for a meeting to be held in Albany to

secure a hearing before the Legislature and present petitions for a

Maine Law. Lucy Stone, whom she urged to make an address, wrote: "I

can't in conscience speak in favor of the Maine Law. It does not seem

to me to be based upon sound philosophy. Such a law will not amount to

much so long as there is not a temperance public sentiment behind it.

God bless your earnest and faithful spirit, Susan. I am glad the

temperance cause has so devoted and judicious a friend." She then

invited Rev. Antoinette Brown, who gave several reasons why she did not

think best to deliver the address and concluded: "But there is a better

way; you yourself must come to the rescue. You will read the appeal,

you can fit the address to it and you will do it grandly. Don't

hesitate but, in the name of everything noble, go forward and you shall

have our warmest sympathy."

It was very hard to coax Miss Anthony into a speech in those days and

she finally persuaded the Reverend Antoinette to make the address.

There was a mass-meeting of all the temperance organizations in the

State at Albany, January 21, and as the women made no attempt to take

part in the men's meetings there was no disturbance. History is silent

as to what the men did at that time, but the women held crowded

sessions in the Baptist church, and in the Assembly chamber at night,

Miss Anthony presiding, and a number of fine addresses were made. The

rules were suspended one morning and the ladies invited to the

speaker's desk. Mrs. Vaughn read Mrs. Stanton's eloquent appeal praying

the Legislature to do one of two things: either give women a vote on

this great evil of intemperance, or else truly represent them by

enacting a Prohibitory Law. It was accompanied by the petition of

28,000 names which had been collected by a few women at immense labor

and expense during the past year.

This was the first time in the history of New York that a body of women

had appeared before the Legislature, and in their innocence they had

full confidence that their request would be granted in a very short

time.[17] While they were still in Albany their petition was discussed

and a young member made a long speech against it, declared that women

were "out of their sphere" circulating petitions and coming before the

Legislature, and closed by saying, "Who are these asking for a Maine

Law? Nobody but women and children!" Miss Anthony then and there made a

solemn resolve that it should be her life work to make a woman's name

on a petition worth as much as a man's.

S.P. Townsend, who had made a fortune in the manufacture of

sarsaparilla, happening to be at the Capitol, called upon the ladies

and invited them to come to New York and hold a meeting, offering to

advertise and entertain them. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Bloomer and Miss Brown

accepted his invitation and were entertained at his elegant home, and

also by Professor and Mrs. L.N. Fowler. He engaged Metropolitan Hall

(where Jenny Lind sang) for February 7, and the ladies spoke to an

audience of 3,000 at twenty-five cents admission. Mrs. Fowler presided,

and on the platform were Horace Greeley, who made a strong address,

Mrs. Greeley, Abby Hopper Gibbons and others. The Tribune and Post were

very complimentary, saying it was the first time a woman had spoken

within those walls and the meeting would compare favorably with any

ever held in the building. After it was over Mr. Townsend divided the

net proceeds among the three women. He also arranged for them to speak

in Broadway Tabernacle and in Brooklyn Academy of Music, each of which

was crowded to its capacity.

During March and April they made a successful tour of the principal

cities in the State, Miss Anthony assuming the management and financial

responsibility. They went to Sing Sing, Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Troy,

Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo and other places, greeted

everywhere with large and attentive audiences attracted by the unusual

spectacle of women speaking in public. They lectured chiefly on

temperance, but asked incidentally for equal civil and political

rights. While they received from most of the papers respectful

treatment, they were sometimes viciously assailed. The Utica Evening

Telegraph gave the following false and malicious report:

Miss SUSAN B. ANTHONY AND REV. A.L. BROWN ON THE STUMP.--Mechanics'

Hall was tolerably well filled last evening by persons wishing to

hear the above-named ladies "spout" about temperance. Seven-eighths

of the audience was composed of women, and there was noticeable an

absence of all rank, fashion and wealth. The _ladies_ proper of

Utica don't seem desirous of giving countenance to the silly

vagaries disseminated by these strong-minded women. We conceived a

very unfavorable opinion of this _Miss_ Anthony when she performed

in this city on a former occasion, but we confess that, after

listening attentively to her discourse last evening, we were

inexpressibly disgusted with the impudence and impiety evinced in

her lecture. Personally repulsive, she seems to be laboring under

feelings of strong hatred towards male men, the effect, we presume,

of jealousy and neglect. She spent some hour or so to show the

evils endured by the mothers, wives and daughters of drunkards. She

gravely announced that the evil is a great one, and that no remedy

might hopefully be asked from licentious statesmen nor from

ministers of the gospel, who are always well fed and clothed and

don't care for oppressed women. Prominent among the remedies which

she suggested for the evils which she alleges to exist, are

complete enfranchisement of women, allowing them the run of the

legislative halls, ballot-box, etc. With a degree of impiety which

was both startling and disgusting, this shrewish _maiden_ counseled

the numerous wives and mothers present to separate from their

husbands whenever they became intemperate, _and particularly not to

allow the said husbands to add another child to the family_

(probably no _married_ advocate of woman's rights would have made

this remark). Think of such advice given in public by one who

claims to be a _maiden_ lady!

Miss Anthony may be a very respectable lady, but such conversation

is certainly not calculated to enhance public regard for her....

She announced quite confidently that wives don't de facto love

their husbands if they are dissipated. Everyday observation proves

the utter falsity of this statement, and if there is one

characteristic of the sex which more than another elevates and

ennobles it, it is the _persistency_ and intensity of woman's love

for man. But what does Miss Anthony know of the thousand delights

of married life; of the sweet stream of affection, of the golden

ray of love which beams ever through life's ills? Bah! Of a like

disgusting character was her advice to mothers about not using

stimulants, even when prescribed by physicians, for the benefit of

the young. What in the name of crying babies does Miss Anthony know

about such matters?

In our humble judgment, it is by no means complimentary to wives

and mothers to be found present at such discourses, encouraging

such untruthful and pernicious advice. If Miss Anthony's ideas were

practically applied in the relations of life, women would sink from

the social elevation they now hold and become the mere _appendages_

of men. Miss Anthony concluded with a flourish of trumpets, that

the woman's rights question could not be put down, that women's

souls were beginning to expand, etc., after which she gathered her

short skirts about her tight pants, sat down and wiped her

spectacles.

A letter written to Miss Anthony by her father during this tour shows

that even thus early he recognized the utter inability of women to

effect great reforms without a vote: "I see notices of your meetings in

multitudes of papers, all, with a few exceptions, in a rejoicing mood

that woman at last has taken hold in earnest to aid in the reformation

of the mighty evils of the day. Yet with all this 'rejoicing' probably

not one of these papers would advocate placing the ballot in the hands

of woman as the easiest, quickest and most efficient way of enabling

her to secure not only this but other reforms. They are willing she

should talk and pray and 'flock by herself in conventions and tramp up

and down the State, footsore and weary, gathering petitions to be

spurned by legislatures, but not willing to invest her with the only

power that would do speedy and efficient work."

At this time interest in the study of phrenology was at its height and

while Miss Anthony was in New York she had an examination made of her

head by Nelson Sizer (with Fowler & Wells) who, blindfolded, gave the

following character sketch:

You have a finely organized constitution and a good degree of

compactness and power. There is such a balance between the brain

and the body that you are enabled to sustain mental effort with

less exhaustion than most persons. You have an intensity of emotion

and thought which makes your mind terse, sharp, spicy and clear.

You always work with a will, a purpose and a straightforwardness of

mental action. You seldom accomplish ends by indirect means or

circuitous routes, but unfurl your banner, take your position and

give fair warning of the course you intend to pursue. You are not

naturally fond of combat, but when once fairly enlisted in a cause

that has the sanction of your conscience and intellect, your

firmness and ambition are such, combined with thoroughness and

efficiency of disposition, that all you are in energy and talent is

enlisted and concentrated in the one end in view.

You are watchful but not timid, careful to have everything right

and safe before you embark; but when times of difficulty and danger

arrive, you meet them with coolness and intrepidity. You have more

of the spirit of acquisition than of economy; you would rather make

new things than patch the old. Your continuity is not large enough.

You find it at times difficult to bring the whole strength of your

mind to bear upon a subject and hold it there patiently in writing

or speaking. You are apt to seize upon fugitive thoughts and

wander, unless it be a subject on which you have so drilled your

intellect as to become master of it.

You have a full development of the social group. I judge that in

the main you have your father's character and talents and your

mother's temperament. You have the spirit of her nature, but the

framework in the main is like the father. You have large

benevolence, not only in the direction of sympathy but of

gratitude. You have frankness of character, even to sharpness, and

you are obliged to bridle your tongue lest you speak more than is

meet. You have mechanical ingenuity, the planning talent, and the

minds of others are apt to be used as instruments to accomplish

your objects. For instance, if you were a lawyer, you would arrange

the testimony and the mode of argument in such a way that the best

final result would be achieved. You judge correctly of the fitness

and propriety, as well as of the power, of the means you have to be

employed. You would plan a thing better than you could use the

tools to make it. Your reasoning organs are gaining upon your

perceptions. At fifteen your mind was devoted to facts and

phenomena; of late years you have been thinking of principles and

ideas. You are a keen critic, especially if you can put wit as a

cracker on your whip; you can make people feel little and mean if

they are so, and when you are vexed can say very sharp things.

You are a good judge of character. You have a full development of

language devoted rather to accuracy and definiteness of meaning

than volubility; and yet I doubt not you talk fast when

excited--that belongs to your temperament. Your intellect is active

and your mind more naturally runs in the channel of intellect than

of feeling. It seeks an intellectual development rather than to be

developed through the affections merely. You have fair veneration

and spirituality but are nothing remarkable in these respects. Your

chief religious elements are conscience and benevolence; these are

your working religious organs, and a religion that does not gratify

them is to you "as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal."

Those who know Miss Anthony intimately will readily testify to the

accuracy of this analysis. It seems remarkable in view of the fact that

the examiner was in utter ignorance of the subject, and that, even if

he had known her name, she had not, at the age of thirty-three,

developed the characteristics which are now so familiar to the general

public.

[Illustration:

SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

AT THE AGE OF 32, FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE.]

On this trip Miss Anthony was invited to spend an evening with Mr. and

Mrs. Greeley and met for the first time Charles A. Dana, Alice and

Phoebe Gary, Elizabeth F. Ellet, with a number of other literary men

and women of New York. Mr. Greeley himself opened the door for them and

sent them hunting through the house for a place to lay their wraps.

After awhile Mrs. Greeley came down stairs with a baby in her arms. She

had put her apron over its face and would not let the visitors look at

it "because their magnetism might affect it unfavorably." During the

evening she rang a bell and a man-servant came in. After a few words

with her he retired and presently brought in a big dish of cake, one of

cheese and a pile of plates, set them on the table and went out. There

was a long pause and Mr. Greeley said, "Well, mother, shall I serve the

cake?" "Yes, if you want to." So he went over to the table, took a

piece of cake and one of cheese in his fingers, putting them on a plate

and carrying to each, until all were served. The guests nibbled at them

as best they could and after a long time the man brought in a pitcher

of lemonade and some glasses and left the room. Mr. Greeley again

asked, "Well, mother, shall I serve the lemonade?" "Yes, if you want

to," she replied, so he filled the glasses, carried to each separately,

and then gathered them up one at a time, instead of all together on a

waiter. Both Mr. and Mrs. Greeley were thoroughly cordial and

hospitable, both intellectually great, but utterly without social

graces. Yet the conversation at their receptions was so brilliant that

the most elegantly served refreshments would have been an unwelcome

interruption.

At another time, when Miss Anthony was visiting them, she asked Mrs.

Greeley if she would marry the same man again if she were single.

"Yes," said she, "if I wanted a worthy father for my children, but for

personal comfort I should prefer one who did not put his feet where I

fell over them every time I went into the room, who knew how to eat,

when to go to bed and how to wear his clothes."

A World's Temperance Convention had been called to meet in New York

September 6 and 7, 1853, and a preliminary meeting was held May 12 in

Dr. Spring's old Brick Church on Franklin Square, where the Times

building now stands. The call invited "all friends of temperance" to be

present. After attending the Anti-Slavery Anniversary in New York, Miss

Anthony and Emily Clark went as representatives of the New York Woman's

Temperance Society, and Abby Kelly Foster and Lucy Stone were sent from

Massachusetts. The meeting was organized with Hon. A.C. Barstow, mayor

of Providence, chairman; Rev. R.C. Crampton, of New York, and Rev.

George Duffield, of Pennsylvania, secretaries. It was opened with

prayer, asking God's blessing on the proceedings about to take place. A

motion was made that all the gentlemen present be admitted as

delegates. Dr. Trail, of New York City, moved that the word "ladies" be

inserted, as there were delegates present from the Woman's State

Temperance Society. The motion was carried, their credentials received,

and every man and woman present became members of the convention. A

business committee of one from each State was appointed and a motion

was made that Susan B. Anthony, secretary of the Woman's Temperance

Society, be added to the committee. This opened the battle with the

opposition and one angry and abusive speech followed another. Abby

Kelly Foster, the eloquent anti-slavery orator, tried to speak, but

shouts of "order" drowned her voice and, after holding her position for

ten minutes, she finally was howled down.

Almost the entire convention was composed of ministers of the Gospel.

Hon. Bradford R. Wood, of Albany, moved that, as there was a party

present determined to introduce the question of woman's rights and run

it into the ground, the convention adjourn sine die. He finally was

persuaded to withdraw this and substitute a motion that a committee be

appointed to decide who were members of the convention, although this

had been settled at the opening of the meeting by the accepting of

credentials. This committee consisted of Mr. Wood, Rev. John Chambers,

a Presbyterian clergyman of Philadelphia, and Rev. Condit, of New

Jersey. They were out fifteen minutes and reported that, as in their

opinion the call for this meeting was not intended to include female

delegates, and custom had not sanctioned the public action of women in

similar situations, their credentials should be rejected. And this

after they already had been accepted!

Rev. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, pastor of the Unitarian church in

Worcester, Mass., at once resigned from the business committee and

withdrew from the meeting, as did also the women delegates and such

gentlemen, including several ministers, as thought the ladies had been

unjustly treated. They met at Dr. Trail's office and decided to call a

Whole World's Temperance Convention which should not exclude one-half

the world, and that the half which was doing the most effective work

for temperance.

After they left the Brick Church meeting there were many speeches made

condemning the action of women in taking public part in any reforms,

led by Rev. Fowler, of Utica, Rev. Hewitt, of Bridgeport, Conn., and

Rev. Chambers. The last said he rejoiced that the women were gone, as

they were "now rid of the scum of the convention." Mayor Barstow, who

had threatened to resign rather than put the motion that Miss Anthony

should be on the business committee, made a speech which the press

declared too indecent to be reported. It must be remembered that this

entire discussion was founded on the mere proposal to place Miss

Anthony on a committee of a temperance meeting. Horace Greeley handled

these men without gloves in an article in the Tribune beginning:

Rev. John! We have allowed you to be heard at full length; now you

and your set will be silent and hear us. Very palpably your palaver

about Mr. Higginson's motion is a dodge, a quirk, a most

contemptible quibble, reluctant as we are to speak thus

irreverently of the solemn utterances of a Doctor of Divinity.

Right well do you know, reverend sir, that the particular form or

time or fashion in which the question came up is utterly

immaterial, and you interpose it only to throw dust in the eyes of

the public. Suppose a woman had been nominated at the right time

and in the right way, according to your understanding of

punctilios, wouldn't the same resistance have been made and the

same row got up? You know right well that there would. Then what is

all your pettifogging about technicalities worth? The only question

that anybody cares a button about is this, "Shall woman be allowed

to participate in your World's Temperance Convention on a footing

of perfect equality with man?" If yea, the whole dispute turns on

nothing, and isn't worth six lines in the Tribune. But if it was

and is the purpose of those for whom you pettifog to keep woman off

the platform of that convention and deny her any part in its

proceedings except as a spectator, what does all your talk about

Higginson's untimeliness and the committee's amount to? Why not

treat the subject with some show of honesty?

The women and their friends held a grand rally in the Broadway

Tabernacle the second day afterwards. Every foot of sitting and

standing room was crowded, although there was an admission fee of a

shilling. Miss Anthony presided and there was the strongest enthusiasm,

but perfect order was maintained. The following comment was made by the

New York Commercial-Advertiser:

THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES.--On Saturday evening the Broadway

Tabernacle reverberated with the shrill, defiant notes of Miss Lucy

Stone and her "sisters," who have thrown down the gauntlet to the

male friends of temperance and declared not literally "war to the

knife" but conflict with tongues.... Henceforth the women's rights

ladies--including among them the misses, Lucy herself, Emily Clark,

Susan B. Anthony, Antoinette Brown, some Harriets and Angelinas,

Melissas and Hannahs, with a Fanny too (and more's the pity for it

is a sweet name) and sundry matrons whose names are _household_

words in _newspapers_--are to be in open hostility to the regularly

constituted temperance agencies, under cover of association with

whom they have contrived to augment their notoriety. The delegates

at the Brick Church, who took the responsibility of knocking off

these parasites, deserve the thanks of the temperance friends the

Union through.... Such associations would mar any cause. Left to

themselves such women must fall into contempt; they have used the

temperance cause for a support long enough, and we are glad that

the seeming alliance has been thus formally disowned by the

temperance delegates.

The New York Sun, Moses Beach, editor, said:

The quiet duties of daughter, wife or mother are not congenial to

those hermaphrodite spirits who thirst to win the title of champion

of one sex and victor over the other. What is the love and

submission of one manly heart to the woman whose ambition it is to

sway the minds of multitudes as did a Demosthenes or a Cicero? What

are the tender affections and childish prattle of the family

circle, to women whose ears itch for the loud laugh and boisterous

cheer of the public assembly?...

Could a Christian man, cherishing a high regard for woman and for

the proprieties of life feel that he was promoting woman's

interests and the cause of temperance by being introduced to a

temperance meeting by Miss Susan B. Anthony, her ungainly form

rigged out in bloomer costume and provoking the thoughtless to

laughter and ridicule by her very motions upon the platform? Would

he feel that he was honoring the women of his country by accepting

as their representatives women whom they must and do despise? Will

any pretend to say that women, whose tongues have dishonored their

God and their Savior, while uttering praise of infidels and infidel

theories, are worthy to receive the suffrages of their Christian

sisters?...

We were much pleased with the remark made a few days since by one

of the most distinguished as well as refined and polished men of

the day on this very subject: "What are the rights which women

seek, and have not?" said he; and answering his own question, he

replied, "The right to do wrong! that alone is denied to them--that

is the only right appropriated exclusively by men, and surely no

true woman would seek to divide or participate in such a right."

The Organ, the New York temperance paper, had this to say:

The harmony and pleasantness of the meeting were disturbed by an

evidently preconcerted irruption of certain women, who have

succeeded beyond doubt in acquiring notoriety, however much they

may have failed in winning respect. The notorious Abby Kelly, the

Miss Stone whose crusade against the Christian doctrine on the

subject of marriage has shocked the better portion of society, and

several other women in pantaloons were present insisting upon their

right to share in the deliberations of the convention.

We wish our friends abroad to understand that the breeze got up

here is nothing but an attempt to ride the woman's rights theory

into respectability on the back of Temperance. And what absurd,

infidel and licentious follies are not packed up under the general

head of woman's rights, it would puzzle any one to say. While,

however, we approve the act excluding the women at the Brick

Church, we feel bound to say that we regretted what seemed to us an

unnecessary acerbity on the part of some of the gentlemen opposing

them. What a load of extraneous, foolish and crooked people and

things the temperance cause has been burdened with during the years

of its progress! To our mind this conspiracy of women to crush the

cause by making it the bearer of their woman's rights absurdities,

is the saddest of all the phenomena of the reform.

The New York Courier, James Watson Webb, editor, gave its readers the

following Sunday article:

Anniversary week has the effect of bringing to New York many

strange specimens of humanity, masculine and feminine. Antiquated

and very homely females made themselves ridiculous by parading the

streets in company with hen-pecked husbands, attenuated

vegetarians, intemperate Abolitionists and sucking clergymen, who

are afraid to say "no" to a strong-minded woman for fear of

infringing upon her rights. Shameless as these females--we suppose

they _were_ females--looked, we should really have thought they

would have blushed as they walked the streets to hear the

half-suppressed laughter of their own sex and the remarks of men

and boys. The Bloomers figured extensively in the anti-slavery

amalgamation convention, and were rather looked up to, but their

intemperate ideas would not be tolerated in the temperance meeting

at the Brick Chapel....

A scene of the utmost confusion prevailed and there was a perfect

warfare of tongues; but, singular to _say_, the women were

compelled to hold their tongues and depart, followed by a number of

male Betties and subdued husbands, wearing the apparel of manhood,

but in reality emasculated by strong-minded women....

So the Bloomers put their credentials in their breeches pockets and

assembled at Dr. Trail's Cold Water Institute, where the men and

Bloomers all took a bath and a drink together.

These sentiments were echoed by the newspapers, great and small, of the

entire country. Not a word in regard to "women's rights" had been

uttered at the Brick Church meeting except the right to have their

credentials from regularly-organized temperance societies accepted, and

the same privileges as other delegates granted. The continual reference

to the "warfare of tongues" is rather amusing in face of the fact that

no woman was allowed to speak and the talking was entirely monopolized

by men. Is it a matter of surprise that only a very limited number of

women had the courage to ally themselves with a movement which called

down upon them and their families such an avalanche of ridicule and

condemnation?

Miss Anthony, on reaching home, immediately began active preparations

for the first annual meeting of the Woman's State Temperance Society,

which was to be held in Rochester. As usual she wrote hundreds of

letters, raised the money, printed and circulated the call, looked

after the advertising, engaged the speakers and took the whole

responsibility. The convention assembled in Corinthian Hall, June 1,

1853, with a large attendance. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the president,

after stating that the society had over 2,000 members, and was in a

most flourishing condition, said:

It has been objected that we do not confine ourselves to the

subject of temperance, but talk too much about woman's rights,

divorce and the church.... We have been obliged to preach woman's

rights because many, instead of listening to what we had to say on

temperance, have questioned the right of woman to speak on any

subject. In courts of justice and legislative assemblies, if the

right of any person to be there is questioned, all business waits

until that point is settled. Now, it is not settled in the minds of

the masses that woman has any right to stand on an even pedestal

with man, look him in the face as an equal and rebuke the sins of

her day and generation. Let it be clearly understood then that we

are a Woman's Rights Society; that we believe it is woman's duty to

speak whenever she feels the impression to do so; that it is her

right to be present in all the councils of Church and State.

Continuing, she took firm ground in favor of the right of a woman to be

divorced from an habitual drunkard, a position which brought upon her a

storm of censure from press, pulpit and society. She was strongly

supported, however, by the most prominent women of the day and received

many letters of approval, among them one from Lucy Stone, saying: "On

the divorce question, I am on your side, for the reason that

drunkenness so depraves a man's system that he is not fit to be a

father." Gerrit Smith wrote to the convention:

I know not why it is not as much the duty of your sex as of mine to

establish newspapers, write books and hold public meetings for the

promotion of the cause of temperance. The current idea that modesty

should hold women back from such services is nonsense and

wickedness. Female modesty! female delicacy! I would that I might

never again hear such phrases. There is but one standard of modesty

and delicacy for both men and women; and so long as different

standards are tolerated, both sexes will be perverse and

corrupt.... The Quakers are the best people I have ever known, the

most serious and chaste and yet the most brave and resisting; but

there are no other people who are so little concerned lest women

get out of their sphere. None make so little difference between man

and woman. Others appear to think that the happiness and safety of

the world consist in magnifying the difference. But when reason and

religion shall rule, there will be no difference between man and

woman, in respect to the intellect, the heart or the manners.

[Autograph:

Very respectfully

your friend

Gerrit Smith]

A stirring letter was sent by Neal Dow, expressing his great pleasure

that women were taking active and decided measures for the suppression

of intemperance, and closing: "It is absurd, therefore, to argue that

the community has no power to control this great evil; that any citizen

has the right to inflict it upon society, or that society should

hesitate to exercise its right and power of self-protection against

it."

Many other letters were read from friends, among them Abby Kelly

Foster, who said to Miss Anthony: "So far as separate organizations for

women's action in the temperance cause are concerned, I consider you

the center and soul, without whom nothing could have been done

heretofore and I doubt whether anything would be done now." Strong

addresses were made by Rev. Channing, Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone,

Mrs. Nichols, Antoinette Brown, Mrs. Bloomer and others.

When this association was formed a clause was placed in the

constitution allowing men to become members and to speak in all

meetings but making them ineligible to office. There were two reasons

for this: it was desired to throw the full responsibility on woman,

compelling her to learn to preside and to think, speak and act for

herself, which she never would do if men were present to perform these

duties for her; and it was feared that, on account of long habit, men

would soon take matters into their own hands and gain control of the

society, possibly to the extent of forbidding women to speak at the

meetings. Many of the ladies, however, objected to this clause, among

them Antoinette Brown, who refused to join the society on account of

it. So, yielding to the pressure, Mrs. Stanton, on this first

anniversary, said "as this seemed to many a violation of men's rights,

and as the women had now learned to stand alone, it might perhaps be

safe to admit men to all the privileges of the society, hoping,

however, that they would modestly permit woman to continue the work she

had so successfully begun."

[Autograph:

Very respectfully yours

Neal Dow]

Miss Anthony, chairman of the committee on revising the constitution,

brought in a report in favor of admitting the men, which was vigorously

discussed. Before the close of this meeting the serious mistake of such

action was apparent. The men present monopolized the floor, tried to

have the name changed to the People's League, insisted that the society

should have nothing to do with any phase of woman's rights, and showed

their hand so plainly that Miss Anthony at once took the alarm and in

an indignant speech declared the men were trying to drive the women

from their own society.

There was a strong undercurrent of opposition to Mrs. Stanton on

account of her radical views in regard to equal rights, divorce for

drunkenness and the subjection of woman to Bible authority, but those

opposing her being wholly inexperienced did not know how to prevent her

re-election. As the majority of the men, for obvious reasons, agreed

with them in wishing to get rid of Mrs. Stanton, they proceeded to

teach them political tactics, got out a printed opposition ticket and

defeated her for president by three votes. She was chosen

vice-president but emphatically declined. Miss Anthony was almost

unanimously re-elected secretary but refused to serve, stating that

"the vote showed they would not accept the principle of woman's rights

and, as she believed thoroughly in standing for the equality of woman,

she could not act as officer of such a society; besides, Mrs. Vaughn,

the newly elected president, had openly declared that 'principle must

sometimes be sacrificed to expediency.' She herself would never admit

this; her doctrine was, 'Do right, and leave the consequences with

God.'" Frederick Douglass and a number of others urged her in the most

earnest manner to remain, paying high tribute to her services and

pointing out how much they were needed, but in vain.

Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton at once severed all connection with the

organization they had founded; it passed into the hands of a body of

conservative women, who believed they could accomplish by prayer what

these two knew never could be done except through legislation with a

constituency of women behind it. The society had a precarious existence

of one or two years and finally went to pieces. There was not another

strong, concerted movement of women in the cause of temperance for

twenty years.[18] Miss Anthony, although a total abstainer all her

life, was never again connected with a temperance organization. She has

steadfastly held to the opinion that the vital work for women is to

secure for themselves the ballot which, above all other agencies, will

make them an effective power for dealing not only with this but with

all moral questions.

Relieved from her onerous duties in connection with the State society,

she at once set about working up the Whole World's Temperance

Convention in New York, for which she felt a personal responsibility.

Many of those who had seceded from the Brick Church meeting, including

Mr. Higginson himself, were beginning to doubt the propriety of holding

a separate convention. Miss Anthony was strongly in favor of it and

wrote Lucy Stone:

We have not the slightest reason for supposing that we shall be

received at the World's Convention to be held September 5. The same

men that controlled the Brick Church meeting are to be the leading

spirits there. Not one of them, so far as I can learn, has

expressed a regret that the women-delegates were excluded last May;

how then can we entertain a hope that they will act differently in

September? We may pretend to go in good faith but there will be no

faith in us. If it is not too late I beg of you to see that the

call is issued and for the very day that the Old Fogies hold their

convention.

Lucy Stone agreed with her and, through their efforts, the committee

were persuaded to send out the call. It was decided, however, to hold

the meeting September 1 and 2, just before the other, and then, while

the great crowds from all parts of the country were in the city, to

have a regular Woman's Rights Convention on the same date as that of

Rev. John Chambers et al. Miss Anthony received many cordial replies to

her numerous letters, and some not so cordial. Samuel F. Gary wrote in

his characteristic style: "You ask whether I will speak at a Whole

World's Temperance Convention to be held in New York during the World's

Fair. You will have observed that my humble name is signed to a call

for such a convention at that time and place, together with Chancellor

Walworth's and others of like distinction. Providence favoring, it is

my purpose to participate in the deliberations of that meeting and I

see no sufficient reason for another convention having the same object

in view." Possibly if Mr. Gary and "others of like distinction" had

been refused permission to speak a word or even to serve on a

committee, they might have been able to see "sufficient reason for

another convention." Horace Greeley sent the following:

I may not be able to write you a long letter, as you request, but I

will give you a little confidential advice. All I know on

temperance (pretty nearly) I put into a tract which was long ago

printed at the Organ office.... Now, as to tracts: Make it your

first rule to Be Thorough. Most of our temperance tracts are too

short and flimsy and not calculated to convince reasoning beings.

Let each tract take up some one aspect of the question and exhaust

it, none of your fly-away five or six pages but from twelve to

thirty-two, the whole case presented in all its aspects and proved

up. Nothing less than this will do much good.

Now as to church matters: The short and safe way is simply to set

them aside. If those who have outgrown the church do not introduce

the subject by treading on the old lady's corns, they can

effectually resist all interposition of shibboleths by the

followers of Pusey in all sects. Do not make the reform movement a

pretext for assaulting the church. In short, the whole question

with regard to the woman's movement is best solved by those engaged

in it going quietly and effectively on with their work. That will

soonest stop the mouths of gainsayers. "It does move, though," is

the true answer to all cavils.

I can't be at your convention, and Mrs. Greeley is overwhelmed with

moving and babies.

[Autograph:

Yours,

Horace Greeley]

While Miss Anthony was thus engaged, the State Teachers' Convention was

held in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, August 3, 1853, and true to her

resolve made the year previous she put aside everything else in order

to attend. According to the rules any one paying a dollar was entitled

to all the rights and privileges of the convention; so she paid her

dollar and took her seat. There were over 500 teachers in attendance,

two-thirds at least being women. For two entire days Miss Anthony sat

there, and during that time not a woman spoke; in all the deliberations

there was not the slightest recognition of their presence, and they did

not vote on any question, though all had paid the fee and were members

of the association. In a letter describing the occasion Miss Anthony

said: "My heart was filled with grief and indignation thus to seethe

minority, simply because they were men, presuming that in them was

vested all wisdom and knowledge; that they needed no aid, no counsel

from the majority. And what was most humiliating of all was to look

into the faces of those women and see that by far the larger proportion

were perfectly satisfied with the position assigned them."

Toward the close of the second day's session the subject under

discussion was, "Why the profession of teacher is not as much respected

as that of lawyer, doctor or minister?" After listening for several

hours, Miss Anthony felt that the decisive moment had come and, rising

in her seat, she said, "Mr. President." A bombshell would not have

created greater commotion. For the first time in all history a woman's

voice was heard in a teachers' convention. Every neck was craned and a

profound hush fell upon the assembly. Charles Davies, LL. D., author of

Davies' text books and professor of mathematics at West Point, was

president. In full-dress costume with buff vest, blue coat and brass

buttons, he was the Great Mogul. At length recovering from the shock of

being thus addressed by a woman, he leaned forward and asked with

satirical politeness, "What will the lady have?" "I wish to speak to

the question under discussion," said Miss Anthony calmly, although her

heart was beating a tattoo. Turning to the few rows of men in front of

him, for the women occupied the back seats, he inquired, "What is the

pleasure of the convention?" "I move she shall be heard," said one man;

this was seconded by another, and thus was precipitated a debate which

lasted half an hour, although she had precisely the same right to speak

as any man who was taking part in the discussion.

She stood during all this time, fearing to lose the floor if she sat

down. At last a vote was taken, men only voting, and it was carried in

the affirmative by a small majority. Miss Anthony then said: "It seems

to me you fail to comprehend the cause of the disrespect of which you

complain. Do you not see that so long as society says woman has not

brains enough to be a doctor, lawyer or minister, but has plenty to be

a teacher, every man of you who condescends to teach, tacitly admits

before all Israel and the sun that he has no more brains than a

woman?"--and sat down. She had intended to draw the conclusion that the

only way to place teaching upon a level with other professions was

either to admit woman to them or exclude her from teaching, but her

trembling limbs would sustain her no longer.

The convention soon adjourned for the day and, as Miss Anthony went out

of the hall, many of the women drew away from her and said audibly:

"Did you ever see such a disgraceful performance?" "I never was so

ashamed of my sex." But a few of them gathered about her and said: "You

have taught us our lesson and hereafter we propose to make ourselves

heard."

The next day, at the opening of the morning session, President Davies,

who had evidently spent the night in preparing the greatest effort of

his life, arose in all his majesty and was delivered of the following:

I have been asked why no provisions have been made for female

lecturers before this association and why ladies are not appointed

on committees. I will answer: "Behold this beautiful hall! Mark

well the pilaster, its pedestal, its shaft, its rich entablature,

the crowning glory of this superb architecture, the different

parts, each in its appropriate place, contributing to the strength,

beauty and symmetry of the whole! Could I aid in bringing down this

splendid entablature from its proud elevation and trailing it in

the dust and dirt that surround the pedestal? No, never!"

To quote further from Miss Anthony's letter: "Many of the ladies

readjusted their ribbons and laces and looked at each other as much as

to say, 'Beautiful, perfectly beautiful!' But a few there were whose

faces spoke scorn and utter contempt, and whose flashing eyes said:

'Such flattery as this adds insult to injury upon those of us who,

equally qualified with men, are toiling side by side with them for

one-half the salary. And this solely because of our sex!'"

The women had no desire to pull down the building, entablature and all,

about the head of the magnificent Davies, but some of them were aroused

to the injustice with which they had so long been treated. To the

astonishment of the professor and his following, these resolutions were

presented by Mrs. Northrop, a teacher in the Rochester schools:

_Resolved_, That this association recognizes the right of female

teachers to share in all the privileges and deliberations of this

body.

_Resolved_, That female teachers do not receive an adequate and

sufficient compensation, and that, as salaries should be regulated

only according to the amount of labor performed, this association

will endeavor by judicious and efficient action to remove this

existing evil.

An attempt was made to smother them, and when Mrs. Northrop asked why

they had not been read, the president blandly replied that he regretted

they could not be reached but other order of business preceded them.

Mrs. Northrop, having found her voice, proceeded to speak strongly on

the discrimination made against women in the matter of salaries, and

was ably supported by her sister, Mrs. J.R. Vosburg. J. D. Fanning, of

New York, recording secretary, asked that the resolutions be read,

which was done. Miss Anthony then made a forcible speech in their favor

and they were passed unanimously, to the utter amazement and

discomfiture of President Davies.

She went home well satisfied with her work, and completed preparations

for the Whole World's Temperance Convention, which was held in New

York, September 1 and 2. Her zeal is amusingly illustrated by her

proposal to invite Victor Hugo and Harriet Martineau to speak. It was a

splendid assemblage, addressed by the leading men and women of the day,

the large hall packed at every session, the audience sitting hour after

hour, orderly but full of earnestness and enthusiasm. The New York

Tribune said of it: "This has been the most spirited and able meeting

on behalf of temperance that ever was held."

The men's convention has a different record. New York, in the month of

September, 1853, was in a whirlwind of excitement. The first World's

Fair of the United States was in progress and people had gathered from

all parts of this and other countries. In order to reach these crowds,

many conventions had been called to meet in this city, among them the

two Temperance, the Anti-Slavery and the Woman's Rights. The Whole

World's Temperance and the Anti-Slavery closed just in time for the

opening of the World's Temperance and the Woman's Rights meetings. Rev.

Antoinette Brown was appointed a delegate from two different societies

to the World's Temperance Convention and, although they had every

reason to believe that no woman would be received, it was decided to

make the attempt in order to show their willingness to co-operate with

the men's associations in temperance work.

Wendell Phillips accompanied her to Metropolitan Hall, where she handed

her credentials to the secretary and, after they were passed upon, the

president, Neal Dow, informed her that she was a member of the

convention. Later, when she arose to speak to a motion, he invited her

to the platform and then pandemonium broke loose. There were cries of

"order," "order," hisses, shouts of "she shall not speak," and above

all the voice of Rev. John Chambers, who, pointing his finger at her,

cried over and over, "Shame on the woman!" Miss Brown stood an hour and

a half on the platform, in the midst of this bedlam, not because she

was anxious to speak, but to establish the principle that an accredited

delegate to a world's convention should not be denied the right of

speech on account of sex; but she was finally compelled to leave the

hall.

Win. Lloyd Garrison said: "I have seen many tumultuous meetings in my

day, but on no occasion have I ever seen anything more disgraceful to

our common humanity." Samuel F. Gary led in the opposition to Miss

Brown, offering a resolution that "women be not allowed to speak," and

afterwards declaring in his paper that he did it "because she tried to

force the question of woman's rights upon the convention." To this Rev.

William Henry Channing replied in a public address: "If any man says

that, _he lies_. She stood there simply asking her privilege as a

delegate." The New York Tribune said: "This convention has completed

three of its four business sessions and the results may be summed up as

follows: First day--Crowding a woman off the platform; second

day--Gagging her; third day--Voting that she shall stay gagged. Having

thus disposed of the main question, we presume the incidentals will be

finished this morning."