pride in her, always escorted her to the capital, and, having worked
her utmost to make the meeting a success, invariably gave Mrs. Stanton
credit for all that was accomplished. She often said that Mrs. Stanton
was the brains of the new association, while she herself was merely its
hands and feet; but in truth the two women worked marvelously together,
for Mrs. Stanton was a master of words and could write and speak to
perfection of the things Susan B. Anthony saw and felt but could not
herself express. Usually Miss Anthony went to Mrs. Stanton's house and
took charge of it while she stimulated the venerable president to the
writing of her annual address. Then, at the subsequent convention, she
would listen to the report with as much delight and pleasure as if each
word of it had been new to her. Even after Mrs. Stanton's resignation
from the presidency--at the end, I think, of three years--and Miss
Anthony's election as her successor, "Aunt Susan" still went to her
old friend whenever an important resolution was to be written, and Mrs.
Stanton loyally drafted it for her.
Mrs. Stanton was the most brilliant conversationalist I have ever known;
and the best talk I have heard anywhere was that to which I used to
listen in the home of Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborne, in Auburn, New York,
when Mrs. Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Emily Howland, Elizabeth Smith
Miller, Ida Husted Harper, Miss Mills, and I were gathered there for
our occasional week-end visits. Mrs. Osborne inherited her suffrage
sympathies, for she was the daughter of Martha Wright, who, with Mrs.
Stanton and Lucretia Mott, called the first suffrage convention in
Seneca Falls, New York. I must add in passing that her son, Thomas Mott
Osborne, who is doing such admirable work in prison reform at Sing Sing,
has shown himself worthy of the gifted and high-minded mother who gave
him to the world.
Most of the conversation in Mrs. Osborne's home was contributed by Mrs.
Stanton and Miss Anthony, while the rest of us sat, as it were, at their
feet. Many human and feminine touches brightened the lofty discussions
that were constantly going on, and the varied characteristics of our
leaders cropped up in amusing fashion. Mrs. Stanton, for example, was
rarely accurate in giving figures or dates, while Miss Anthony was
always very exact in such matters. She frequently corrected Mrs.
Stanton's statements, and Mrs. Stanton usually took the interruption
in the best possible spirit, promptly admitting that "Aunt Susan" knew
best. On one occasion I recall, however, she held fast to her opinion
that she was right as to the month in which a certain incident had
occurred.
"No, Susan," she insisted, "you're wrong for once. I remember perfectly
when that happened, for it was at the time I was beginning to wean
Harriet."
Aunt Susan, though somewhat staggered by the force of this testimony,
still maintained that Mrs. Stanton must be mistaken, whereupon the
latter repeated, in exasperation, "I tell you it happened when I was
weaning Harriet." And she added, scornfully, "What event have you got to
reckon from?"
Miss Anthony meekly subsided.
Mrs. Stanton had wonderful blue eyes, which held to the end of her life
an expression of eternal youth. During our conventions she usually took
a little nap in the afternoon, and when she awoke her blue eyes always
had an expression of pleased and innocent surprise, as if she were
gazing on the world for the first time--the round, unwinking, interested
look a baby's eyes have when something attractive is held up before
them.
Let me give in a paragraph, before I swing off into the bypaths that
always allure me, the consecutive suffrage events of the past quarter
of a century. Having done this, I can dwell on each as casually as I
choose, for it is possible to describe only a few incidents here and
there; and I shall not be departing from the story of my life, for my
life had become merged in the suffrage cause.
Of the preliminary suffrage campaigns in Kansas, made in company with
"Aunt Susan," I have already written, and it remains only to say that
during the second Kansas campaign yellow was adopted as the suffrage
color. In 1890, '92, and '93 we again worked in Kansas and in South
Dakota, with such indefatigable and brilliant speakers as Mrs. Catt (to
whose efforts also were largely due the winning of Colorado in '93),
Mrs. Laura Johns of Kansas, Mrs. Julia Nelson, Henry B. Blackwell, Dr.
Helen V. Putnam of Dakota, Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe, Rev. Olympia Browne of
Wisconsin, and Dr. Mary Seymour Howell of New York. In '94, '95, and '96
special efforts were devoted to Idaho, Utah, California, and Washington,
and from then on our campaigns were waged steadily in the Western
states.
The Colorado victory gave us two full suffrage states, for in 1869
the Territory of Wyoming had enfranchised women under very interesting
conditions, not now generally remembered. The achievement was due to
the influence of one woman, Esther Morris, a pioneer who was as good a
neighbor as she was a suffragist. In those early days, in homes far from
physicians and surgeons, the women cared for one another in sickness,
and Esther Morris, as it happened, once took full and skilful charge
of a neighbor during the difficult birth of the latter's child. She had
done the same thing for many other women, but this woman's husband was
especially grateful. He was also a member of the Legislature, and he
told Mrs. Morris that if there was any measure she wished put through
for the women of the territory he would be glad to introduce it. She
immediately took him at his word by asking him to introduce a bill
enfranchising women, and he promptly did so.
The Legislature was Democratic, and it pounced upon the measure as a
huge joke. With the amiable purpose of embarrassing the Governor of the
territory, who was a Republican and had been appointed by the President,
the members passed the bill and put it up to him to veto. To their
combined horror and amazement, the young Governor did nothing of the
kind. He had come, as it happened, from Salem, Ohio, one of the first
towns in the United States in which a suffrage convention was held.
There, as a boy, he had heard Susan B. Anthony make a speech, and he had
carried into the years the impression it made upon him. He signed that
bill; and, as the Legislature could not get a two-thirds vote to kill it,
the disgusted members had to make the best of the matter. The following
year a Democrat introduced a bill to repeal the measure, but already
public sentiment had changed and he was laughed down. After that no
further effort was ever made to take the ballot away from the women of
Wyoming.
When the territory applied for statehood, it was feared that the
woman-suffrage clause in the constitution might injure its chance of
admission, and the women sent this telegram to Joseph M. Carey:
"Drop us if you must. We can trust the men of Wyoming to enfranchise us
after our territory becomes a state."
Mr. Carey discussed this telegram with the other men who were urging
upon Congress the admission of their territory, and the following reply
went back:
"We may stay out of the Union a hundred years, but we will come in with
our women."
There is great inspiration in those two messages--and a great lesson, as
well.
In 1894 we conducted a campaign in New York, when an effort was made to
secure a clause to enfranchise women in the new state constitution; and
for the first time in the history of the woman-suffrage movement many of
the influential women in the state and city of New York took an active
part in the work. Miss Anthony was, as always, our leader and greatest
inspiration. Mrs. John Brooks Greenleaf was state president, and Miss
Mary Anthony was the most active worker in the Rochester headquarters.
Mrs. Lily Devereaux Blake had charge of the campaign in New York City,
and Mrs. Marianna Chapman looked after the Brooklyn section, while a
most stimulating sign of the times was the organization of a committee
of New York women of wealth and social influence, who established their
headquarters at Sherry's. Among these were Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell,
Mrs. Joseph H. Choate, Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, Mrs. J. Warren Goddard,
and Mrs. Robert Abbe. Miss Anthony, then in her seventy-fifth year,
spoke in every county of the state sixty in all. I spoke in forty, and
Mrs. Catt, as always, made a superb record. Miss Harriet May Mills, a
graduate of Cornell, and Miss Mary G. Hay, did admirable organization
work in the different counties. Our disappointment over the result was
greatly soothed by the fact that only two years later both Idaho and
Utah swung into line as full suffrage states, though California, in
which we had labored with equal zeal, waited fifteen years longer.
Among these campaigns, and overlapping them, were our annual
conventions--each of which I attended from 1888 on--and the national
and international councils, to a number of which, also, I have given
preliminary mention. When Susan B. Anthony died in 1906, four American
states had granted suffrage to woman. At the time I write--1914--the
result of the American women's work for suffrage may be briefly
tabulated thus:
SUFFRAGE STATUS
FULL SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN
Number of
State Year Won Electoral Votes
Wyoming 1869 3
Colorado 1893 6
Idaho 1896 4
Utah 1896 4
Washington 1910 7
California 1911 13
Arizona 1912 3
Kansas 1912 10
Oregon 1912 5
Alaska 1913 --
Nevada 1914 3
Montana 1914 4
PRESIDENTIAL AND MUNICIPAL SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN
Number of
State Year Won Electoral Votes
Illinois 1913 29
STATES WHERE AMENDMENT HAS PASSED ONE LEGISLATURE AND
MUST PASS ANOTHER
Number Goes to
State House Senate Voters Electoral Votes
Iowa 81-26 31-15 1916 13
Massachusetts 169-39 34-2 1915 18
New Jersey 49-4 15-3 1915 14
New York 125-5 40-2 1915 45
North Dakota 77-29 31-19 1916 5
Pennsylvania 131-70 26-22 1915 38
To tabulate the wonderful work done by the
conventions and councils is not possible, but a con
secutive list of the meetings would run like this:
First National Convention, Washington, D.C., 1887.
First International Council of Women, Washington, D.C., 1888.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1889.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1890.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1891.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1892.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1893.
International Council, Chicago, 1893.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1894.
National Suffrage Convention, Atlanta, Ga., 1895.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1896.
National Suffrage Convention, Des Moines, Iowa, 1897.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1898.
National Suffrage Convention, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1899.
International Council, London, England, 1899.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1900.
National Suffrage Convention, Minneapolis, Minn., 1901.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1902.
National Suffrage Convention, New Orleans, La., 1903.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1904.
International Council of Women, Berlin, Germany, 1904.
Formation of Intern'l Suffrage Alliance, Berlin, Germany, 1904.
National Suffrage Convention, Portland, Oregon, 1905.
National Suffrage Convention, Baltimore, Md., 1906.
International Suffrage Alliance, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1906.
National Suffrage Convention, Chicago, III., 1907.
International Suffrage Alliance, Amsterdam, Holland, 1908.
National Suffrage Convention, Buffalo, N. Y., 1908.
New York Headquarters established, 1909.
National Suffrage Convention, Seattle, Wash., 1909.
International Suffrage Alliance, London, England, 1909.
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C., 1910.
International Council, Genoa, Italy, 1911.
National Suffrage Convention, Louisville, Ky., 1911.
International Suffrage Alliance, Stockholm, Sweden, 1911.
National Suffrage Convention, Philadelphia, Pa., 1912.
International Council, The Hague, Holland, 1913
National Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C.; 1913.
International Suffrage Alliance, Budapest, Hungary, 1913.
National Suffrage Convention, Nashville, Tenn., 1914.
International Council, Rome, Italy, 1914.
The winning of the suffrage states, the work in the states not yet won,
the conventions, gatherings, and international councils in which women
of every nation have come together, have all combined to make this
quarter of a century the most brilliant period for women in the history
of the world. I have set forth the record baldly and without comment,
because the bare facts are far more eloquent than words. It must not be
forgotten, too, that these great achievements of the progressive women
of to-day have been accomplished against the opposition of a large
number of their own sex--who, while they are out in the world's arena
fighting against progress for their sisters, still shatter the ear-drum
with their incongruous war-cry, "Woman's place is in the home!"
here: We were attending the Republican state nominating convention at
Mitchell--Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, other leaders, and myself--having
been told that it would be at once the largest and the most interesting
gathering ever held in the state as it proved to be. All the leading
politicians of the state were there, and in the wake of the white men
had come tribes of Indians with their camp outfits, their wives and
their children--the groups forming a picturesque circle of tents and
tepees around the town. It was a great occasion for them, an Indian
powwow, for by the law all Indians who had lands in severalty were to be
permitted to vote the following year. They were present, therefore, to
study the ways of the white man, and an edifying exhibition of these was
promptly offered them.
The crowd was so great that it was only through the courtesy of Major
Pickler, a member of Congress and a devoted believer in suffrage, that
Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, and the rest of us were able to secure passes
to the convention, and when we reached the hall we were escorted to the
last row of seats on the crowded platform. As the space between us and
the speakers was filled by rows upon rows of men, as well as by the band
and their instruments, we could see very little that took place. Some of
our friends pointed out this condition to the local committee and asked
that we be given seats on the floor, but received the reply that
there was "absolutely no room on the floor except for delegates and
distinguished visitors." Our persistent friends then suggested that at
least a front seat should be given to Miss Anthony, who certainly
came under the head of a "distinguished visitor"; but this was not
done--probably because a large number of the best seats were filled by
Russian laborers wearing badges inscribed "Against Woman Suffrage and
Susan B. Anthony." We remained, perforce, in our rear seats, finding
such interest as we could in the back view of hundreds of heads.
Just before the convention was called to order it was announced that a
delegation of influential Indians was waiting outside, and a motion
to invite the red men into the hall was made and carried with great
enthusiasm. A committee of leading citizens was appointed to act as
escort, and these gentlemen filed out, returning a few moments later
with a party of Indian warriors in full war regalia, even to their
gay blankets, their feathered head-dresses, and their paint. When they
appeared the band struck up a stirring march of welcome, and the entire
audience cheered while the Indians, flanked by the admiring committee,
stalked solemnly down the aisle and were given seats of honor directly
in front of the platform.
All we could see of them were the brilliant feathers of their
war-bonnets, but we got the full effect of their reception in the music
and the cheers. I dared not look at Miss Anthony during this remarkable
scene, and she, craning her venerable neck to get a glimpse of the
incident from her obscure corner, made no comment to me; but I knew what
she was thinking. The following year these Indians would have votes.
Courtesy, therefore, must be shown them. But the women did not matter,
the politicians reasoned, for even if they were enfranchised they would
never support the element represented at that convention. It was not
surprising that, notwithstanding our hard work, we did not win the
state, though all the conditions had seemed most favorable; for the
state was new, the men and women were working side by side in the
fields, and there was discontent in the ranks of the political parties.
After the election, when we analyzed the vote county by county, we
discovered that in every county whose residents were principally
Americans the amendment was carried, whereas in all counties populated
largely by foreigners it was lost. In certain counties--those inhabited
by Russian Jews--the vote was almost solidly against us, and this
notwithstanding the fact that the wives of these Russian voters were
doing a man's work on their farms in addition to the usual women's work
in their homes. The fact that our Cause could be defeated by ignorant
laborers newly come to our country was a humiliating one to accept; and
we realized more forcibly than ever before the difficulty of the task we
had assumed--a task far beyond any ever undertaken by a body of men in
the history of democratic government throughout the world. We not only
had to bring American men back to a belief in the fundamental
principles of republican government, but we had also to educate ignorant
immigrants, as well as our own Indians, whose degree of civilization
was indicated by their war-paint and the flaunting feathers of their
head-dresses.
The Kansas campaign, which Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Johns, and
I conducted in 1894, held a special interest, due to the Populist
movement. There were so many problems before the people--prohibition,
free silver, and the Populist propaganda--that we found ourselves
involved in the bitterest campaign ever fought out in the state. Our
desire, of course, was to get the indorsement of the different political
parties and religious bodies, We succeeded in obtaining that of three
out of four of the Methodist Episcopal conferences--the Congregational,
the Epworth League, and the Christian Endeavor League--as well as that
of the State Teachers' Association, the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, and various other religious and philanthropic societies. To
obtain the indorsement of the political parties was much more difficult,
and we were facing conditions in which partial success was worse than
complete failure. It had long been an unwritten law before it became a
written law in our National Association that we must not take partisan
action or line up with any one political party. It was highly important,
therefore, that either all parties should support us or that none
should.
The Populist convention was held in Topeka before either the Democratic
or Republican convention, and after two days of vigorous fighting, led
by Mrs. Anna Diggs and other prominent Populist women, a suffrage plank
was added to the platform. The Populist party invited me, as a minister,
to open the convention with prayer. This was an innovation, and served
as a wedge for the admission of women representatives of the Suffrage
Association to address the convention. We all did so, Miss Anthony
speaking first, Mrs. Catt second, and I last; after which, for the first
time in history, the Doxology was sung at a political convention.
At the Democratic convention we made the same appeal, and were refused.
Instead of indorsing us, the Democrats put an anti-suffrage plank in
their platform--but this, as the party had little standing in Kansas,
probably did us more good than harm. Trouble came thick and fast,
however, when the Republicans, the dominant party in the state, held
their convention; and a mighty struggle began over the admission of a
suffrage plank. There was a Woman's Republican Club in Kansas, which
held its convention in Topeka at the same time the Republicans were
holding theirs. There was also a Mrs. Judith Ellen Foster, who, by
stirring up opposition in this Republican Club against the insertion
of a suffrage plank, caused a serious split in the convention. Miss
Anthony, Mrs. Catt, and I, of course, urged the Republican women to
stand by their sex, and to give their support to the Republicans only on
condition that the latter added suffrage to their platform. At no time,
and in no field of work, have I ever seen a more bitter conflict in
progress than that which raged for two days during this Republican
women's convention. Liquor-dealers, joint-keepers, "boot-leggers,"
and all the lawless element of Kansas swung into line at a special
convention held under the auspices of the Liquor League of Kansas City,
and cast their united weight against suffrage by threatening to deny
their votes to any candidate or political party favoring our Cause.
The Republican women's convention finally adjourned with nothing
accomplished except the passing of a resolution mildly requesting the
Republican party to indorse woman suffrage. The result was, of course,
that it was not indorsed by the Republican convention, and that it was
defeated at the following election.
It was at the time of these campaigns that I was elected Vice-President
of the National Association and Lecturer at Large, and the latter
office brought in its train a glittering variety of experiences. On one
occasion an episode occurred which "Aunt Susan" never afterward wearied
of describing. There was a wreck somewhere on the road on which I was
to travel to meet a lecture engagement, and the trains going my way were
not running. Looking up the track, however, I saw a train coming from
the opposite direction. I at once grasped my hand-luggage and started
for it.
"Wait! Wait!" cried Miss Anthony. "That train's going the wrong way!"
"At least it's going SOMEWHERE!" I replied, tersely, as the train
stopped, and I climbed the steps.
Looking back when the train had started again, I saw "Aunt Susan"
standing in the same spot on the platform and staring after it with
incredulous eyes; but I was right, for I discovered that by going
up into another state I could get a train which would take me to
my destination in time for the lecture that night. It was a fine
illustration of my pet theory that if one intends to get somewhere it is
better to start, even in the wrong direction, than to stand still.
Again and again in our work we had occasion to marvel over men's lack of
understanding of the views of women, even of those nearest and dearest
to them; and we had an especially striking illustration of this at one
of our hearings in Washington. A certain distinguished gentleman (we
will call him Mr. H----) was chairman of the Judiciary, and after we had
said what we wished to say, he remarked:
"Your arguments are logical. Your cause is just. The trouble is that
women don't want suffrage. My wife doesn't want it. I don't know a
single woman who does want it."
As it happened for this unfortunate gentleman, his wife was present at
the hearing and sitting beside Miss Anthony. She listened to his words
with surprise, and then whispered to "Aunt Susan":
"How CAN he say that? _I_ want suffrage, and I've told him so a hundred
times in the last twenty years."
"Tell him again NOW," urged Miss Anthony. "Here's your chance to impress
it on his memory."
"Here!" gasped the wife. "Oh, I wouldn't dare."
"Then may I tell him?"
"Why--yes! He can think what he pleases, but he has no right to publicly
misrepresent me."
The assent, hesitatingly begun, finished on a sudden note of firmness.
Miss Anthony stood up.
"It may interest Mr. H----," she said, "to know that his wife DOES wish
to vote, and that for twenty years she has wished to vote, and has often
told him so, though he has evidently forgotten it. She is here beside
me, and has just made this explanation."
Mr. H---- stammered and hesitated, and finally decided to laugh. But
there was no mirth in the sound he made, and I am afraid his wife had
a bad quarter of an hour when they met a little later in the privacy of
their home.