Anna E. Dickinson, "who shall do it? No man is able, for no man sees
or feels as we do. To whom God gives the word, to him or her he says,
'Go preach it.'"[207]
This is just what Susan aimed to do in her new paper, _The
Revolution_. It's name, she believed, expressed exactly the stirring
up of thought necessary to establish justice for all--for women,
Negroes, workingmen and-women, and all who were oppressed. Her two
editors, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, reliable friends
as well as vivid forceful writers, were completely in sympathy with
her own liberal ideas and could be counted on to crusade fearlessly
for every righteous cause. What did it matter if George Francis Train
wanted space in the paper to publish his views and for a financial
column, edited by David M. Melliss of the New York _World_? Brought up
on the antislavery platform where free speech was the watchword and
where all, even long-winded cranks, were allowed to express their
opinions, Susan willingly opened the pages of _The Revolution_ to
Train and to Melliss in return for financial backing.
When on January 8, 1868, the first issue of her paper came off the
press, her heart swelled with pride and satisfaction as she turned
over its pages, read its good editorials, and under the frank of
Democratic Congressman James Brooks of New York, sent out ten thousand
copies to all parts of the country.
_The Revolution_ promised to discuss not only subjects which were of
particular concern to her and to Elizabeth Stanton, such as "educated
suffrage, irrespective of sex or color," equal pay for women for equal
work, and practical education for girls as well as boys, but also the
eight-hour day, labor problems, and a new financial policy for
America. This new financial policy, the dream of George Francis Train,
advocated the purchase of American goods only; the encouragement of
immigration to rebuild the South and to settle the country from ocean
to ocean; the establishment of the French financing systems, the
Crédit Foncier and Crédit Mobilier, to develop our mines and
railroads; the issuing of greenbacks; and penny ocean postage "to
strengthen the brotherhood of Labor."
All in all it was not a program with wide appeal. Dazzled by the
opportunities for making money in this new undeveloped country, people
were in no mood to analyze the social order, or to consider the needs
of women or labor or the living standards of the masses. Unfamiliar
with the New York Stock Exchange, they found little to interest them
in the paper's financial department, while speculators and promoters,
such as Jay Gould and Jim Fiske, wanted no advice from the lone eagle,
George Francis Train, and resented Melliss's columns of Wall Street
gossip which often portrayed them in an unfavorable light. Nor did a
public-affairs paper edited and published by women carry much weight.
None of this, however, mattered much to Susan, who did not aim for a
popular paper but "to make public sentiment." It was her hope that
just as the _Liberator_ under William Lloyd Garrison had been "the
pillar of light and of fire to the slave's emancipation," so _The
Revolution_ would become "the guiding star to the enfranchisement of
women."[208]
* * * * *
Upon Susan fell the task of building up subscriptions, soliciting
advertisements, and getting copy to the printer. As her office in the
New York _World_ building, 37 Park Row, was on the fourth floor and
the printer was several blocks away on the fifth floor of a building
without an elevator, her job proved to be a test of physical
endurance. To this was added an ever-increasing financial burden, for
Train had sailed for England when the first number was issued, had
been arrested because of his Irish sympathies, and had spent months in
a Dublin jail, from which he sent them his thoughts on every
conceivable subject but no money for the paper. He had left $600 with
Susan and had instructed Melliss to make payments as needed, but this
soon became impossible, and she had to face the alarming fact that, if
the paper were to continue, she must raise the necessary money
herself. Because the circulation was small, it was hard to get
advertisers, particularly as she was firm in her determination to
accept only advertisements of products she could recommend. Patent
medicines and any questionable products were ruled out. Subscriptions
came in encouragingly but in no sense met the deficit which piled up
unrelentingly. Her goal was 100,000 subscribers.
She had gone to Washington at once to solicit subscriptions personally
from the President and members of Congress. Ben Wade of Ohio headed
the list of Senators who subscribed, and loyal as always to woman
suffrage, encouraged her to go ahead and push her cause. "It has got
to come," he added, "but Congress is too busy now to take it up."
Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts greeted her gruffly, telling her
that she and Mrs. Stanton had done more to block reconstruction in the
last two years than all others in the land, but he subscribed because
he wanted to know what they were up to. Although Senator Pomeroy was
"sore about Kansas" and her alliance with the Democrats, he
nevertheless subscribed, but Senator Sumner was not to be seen. The
first member of the House to put his name on her list was her
dependable understanding friend, George Julian of Indiana, and many
others followed his lead. For two hours she waited to see President
Johnson, in an anteroom "among the huge half-bushel-measure spittoons
and terrible filth ... where the smell of tobacco and whiskey was
powerful." When she finally reached him, he immediately refused her
request, explaining that he had a thousand such solicitations every
day. Not easily put off, she countered at once by remarking that he
had never before had such a request in his life. "You recognize, Mr.
Johnson," she continued, "that Mrs. Stanton and myself for two years
have boldly told the Republican party that they must give ballots to
women as well as to Negroes, and by means of _The Revolution_ we are
bound to drive the party to this logical conclusion or break it into a
thousand pieces as was the old Whig party, unless we get our rights."
This "brought him to his pocketbook," she triumphantly reported, and
in a bold hand he signed his name, Andrew Johnson, as much as to say,
"Anything to get rid of this woman and break the radical party."[209]
She was proud of her paper, proud of its typography which was far more
readable than the average news sheets of the day with their miserably
small print. The larger type and less crowded pages were inviting, the
articles stimulating.
Parker Pillsbury, covering Congressional and political developments
and the impeachment trial of President Johnson with which he was not
in sympathy, was fearless in his denunciations of politicians, their
ruthless intrigue and disregard of the public. During the turbulent
days when the impeachment trial was front-page news everywhere, _The
Revolution_ proclaimed it as a political maneuver of the Republicans
to confuse the people and divert their attention from more important
issues, such as corruption in government, high prices, taxation, and
the fabulous wealth being amassed by the few. This of course roused
the intense disapproval of Wendell Phillips, Theodore Tilton, and
Horace Greeley, all of whom regarded Johnson as a traitor and shouted
for impeachment. It ran counter to the views of Susan's brother
Daniel, who telegraphed Senator Ross of Kansas demanding his vote for
impeachment. Although no supporter of President Johnson, Susan was now
completely awake to the political manipulations of the radical
Republicans and what seemed to her their readiness to sacrifice the
good of the nation for the success of their party. She repudiated them
all--all but the rugged Ben Wade, always true to woman suffrage, and
the tall handsome Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase, who, she believed,
stood for justice and equality.
Both of these men Susan regarded as far better qualified for the
Presidency than General Grant, who now was the obvious choice of the
Republicans for 1868. "Why go pell-mell for Grant," asked _The
Revolution_, "when all admit that he is unfit for the position? It is
not too late, if true men and women will do their duty, to make an
honest man like Ben Wade, President. Let us save the Nation. As to the
Republican party the sooner it is scattered to the four winds of
Heaven the better."[210] Later when Chase was out of the running among
Republicans and not averse to overtures from the Democrats, _The
Revolution_ urged him as the Democratic candidate with universal
suffrage as his slogan.
Susan demanded civil rights, suffrage, education, and farms for the
Negroes as did the Republicans, but she could not overlook the
political corruption which was flourishing under the military control
of the South, and she recognized that the Republicans' insistence on
Negro suffrage in the South did not stem solely from devotion to a
noble principle, but also from an overwhelming desire to insure
victory for their party in the coming election. These views were
reflected editorially in _The Revolution_, which, calling attention
to the fact that Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and
Pennsylvania had refused to enfranchise their Negroes, asked why Negro
suffrage should be forced on the South before it was accepted in the
North.
The Fourteenth Amendment was having hard sledding and _The Revolution_
repudiated it, calling instead for an amendment granting universal
suffrage, or in other words, suffrage for women and Negroes. _The
Revolution_ also discussed in editorials by Mrs. Stanton other
subjects of interest to women, such as marriage, divorce,
prostitution, and infanticide, all of which Susan agreed needed frank
thoughtful consideration, but which other papers handled with kid
gloves.
In still another unpopular field, that of labor and capital, _The
Revolution_ also pioneered fearlessly, asking for shorter hours and
lower wages for workers, as it pointed out labor's valuable
contribution to the development of the country. It also called
attention to the vicious contrasts in large cities, where many lived
in tumbledown tenements in abject poverty while the few, with more
wealth than they knew what to do with, spent lavishly and built
themselves palaces.
Sentiments such as these increased the indignation of Susan's critics,
but she gloried in the output of her two courageous editors just as
she had gloried in the evangelistic zeal of the antislavery crusaders.
Wisely, however, she added to her list of contributors some of the
popular women writers of the day, among them Alice and Phoebe Cary.
She ran a series of articles on women as farmers, machinists,
inventors, and dentists, secured news from foreign correspondents,
mostly from England, and published a Washington letter and woman's
rights news from the states. Believing that women should become
acquainted with the great women of the past, especially those who
fought for their freedom and advancement, she printed an article on
Frances Wright and serialized Mary Wollstonecraft's _A Vindication of
the Rights of Women_.
* * * * *
Eagerly Susan looked for favorable notices of her new paper in the
press. Much to her sorrow, Horace Greeley's New York _Tribune_
completely ignored its existence, as did her old standby, the
_Antislavery Standard_. The New York _Times_ ridiculed as usual
anything connected with woman's rights or woman suffrage. The New York
_Home Journal_ called it "plucky, keen, and wide awake, although some
of its ways are not at all to our taste." Theodore Tilton in the
Congregationalist paper, _The Independent_, commented in his usual
facetious style, which pinned him down neither to praise nor
unfriendliness, but Susan was grateful to read, "_The Revolution_ from
the start will arouse, thrill, edify, amuse, vex, and non-plus its
friends. But it will command attention: it will conquer a hearing."
Newspapers were generally friendly. "Miss Anthony's woman's rights
paper," declared the Troy (New York) _Times_, "is a realistic,
well-edited, instructive journal ... and its beautiful mechanical
execution renders its appearance very attractive." The Chicago
_Workingman's Advocate_ observed, "We have no doubt it will prove an
able ally of the labor reform movement." Nellie Hutchinson of the
Cincinnati _Commercial_, one of the few women journalists, described
sympathetically for her readers the neat comfortable _Revolution_
office and Susan with her "rare" but "genial smile," Susan, "the
determined--the invincible ... destined to be Vice-President or
Secretary of State...," adding, "The world is better for thee,
Susan."[211]
While new friends praised, old friends pleaded unsuccessfully with
Mrs. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury to free themselves from Susan's
harmful influence. William Lloyd Garrison wrote Susan of his regret
and astonishment that she and Mrs. Stanton had so taken leave of their
senses as to be infatuated with the Democratic party and to be
associated with that "crack-brained harlequin and semi-lunatic,"
George Francis Train. She published his letter in _The Revolution_
with an answer by Mrs. Stanton which not only pointed out how often
the Republicans had failed women but reminded Garrison how he had
welcomed into his antislavery ranks anyone and everyone who believed
in his ideas, "a motley crew it was." She recalled the label of
fanatic which had been attached to him, how he had been threatened and
pelted with rotten eggs for expressing his unpopular ideas and for
burning the Constitution which he declared sanctioned slavery. With
such a background, she told him, he should be able to recognize her
right and Susan's to judge all parties and all men on what they did
for woman suffrage.[212]
None of these arguments made any impression upon Garrison, or upon
Lucy Stone, whose bitter criticism and distrust of Susan's motives
wounded Susan deeply. Only a few of her old friends seemed able to
understand what she was trying to do, among them Martha C. Wright,
who, at first critical of her association with Train, now wrote of
_The Revolution_, "Its vigorous pages are what we need. Count on me
now and ever as your true and unswerving friend."[213]
[Illustration: Anna E. Dickinson]
Another bright spot was Susan's friendship with Anna E. Dickinson,
with whom she carried on a lively correspondence, scratching oft
hurried notes to her on the backs of old envelopes or any odd scraps
of paper that came to hand. Whenever Anna was in New York, she usually
burst into the _Revolution_ office, showered Susan with kisses, and
carried on such an animated conversation about her experiences that
the whole office force was spellbound, admiring at the same time her
stylish costume and jaunty velvet cap with its white feather, very
becoming on her short black curls.
Repeatedly Susan urged Anna to stay with her in her "plain quarters"
at 44 Bond Street or in her "nice hall bedroom" at 116 East
Twenty-third Street. That Anna could have risen out of the hardships
of her girlhood to such popularity as a lecturer and to such
financial success was to Susan like a fairy tale come true. Scarcely
past twenty, Anna not only had moved vast audiences to tears, but was
sought after by the Republicans as one of their most popular campaign
speakers and had addressed Congress with President Lincoln in
attendance. Susan had been sadly disappointed that Anna had not seen
her way clear to speak a strong word for women in the Kansas campaign,
but she hoped that this vivid talented young woman would prove to be
"the evangel" who would lead women "into the kingdom of political and
civil rights." It never occurred to her that she herself might even
now be that "evangel."[214]
* * * * *
By this time Susan had been called on the carpet by some of the
officers of the American Equal Rights Association because she had used
the Association's office as a base for business connected with the
Train lecture tour and the establishment of _The Revolution_. She was
also accused of spending the funds of the Association for her own
projects and to advertise Train. Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and
Stephen Foster were particularly suspicious of her. Her accounts were
checked and rechecked by them and found in good order. However, at the
annual meeting of the Association in May 1868, Henry Blackwell again
brought the matter up. Deeply hurt by his public accusation, she once
more carefully explained that because there had been no funds except
those which came out of her own pocket or had been raised by her, she
had felt free to spend them as she thought best. This obviously
satisfied the majority, many of whom expressed appreciation of her
year of hard work for the cause. She later wrote Thomas Wentworth
Higginson, "Even if not one old friend had seemed to have remembered
the past and it had been swallowed up, overshadowed by the Train
cloud, I should still have rejoiced that I have done the work--for no
_human_ prejudice or power can rob me of the joy, the compensation, I
have stored up therefrom. That it is wholly spiritual, I need but tell
you that this day, I have not two hundred dollars more than I had the
day I entered upon the public work of woman's rights and
antislavery."[215]
What troubled her most at these meetings was not the animosity
directed against her by Henry Blackwell and Lucy Stone, but the
assertion, made by Frederick Douglass and agreed to by all the men
present, that Negro suffrage was more urgent than woman suffrage. When
Lucy Stone came to the defense of woman suffrage in a speech whose
content and eloquence Susan thought surpassed that of "any other
mortal woman speaker," she was willing to forgive Lucy anything, and
wrote Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "I want you to _know_ that it is
impossible for me to lay a straw in the way of anyone who _personally
wrongs me_, if only that one will work nobly in the _cause_ in their
own way and time. They may try to hinder my success but I _never_
theirs."
Realizing that it would be futile for her to spend any more time
trying to persuade the American Equal Rights Association to help her
with her woman suffrage campaign, she now formed a small committee of
her own, headed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It included Elizabeth Smith
Miller, the liberal wealthy daughter of Gerrit Smith, Abby Hopper
Gibbons, the Quaker philanthropist and social worker; and Mary Cheney
Greeley, the wife of Horace Greeley, who, in spite of the fact that
her husband now opposed woman suffrage, continued to take her stand
for it. This committee, with _The Revolution_ as its mouthpiece, was
soon acting as a clearing house for woman suffrage organizations
throughout the country and called itself the Woman's Suffrage
Association of America.
To the national Republican convention in Chicago which nominated
General Grant for President, these women sent a carefully worded
memorial asking that the rights of women be recognized in the
reconstruction. It was ignored. Thereupon Susan turned to the
Democrats, attending with Mrs. Stanton a preconvention rally in New
York, addressed by Governor Horatio Seymour. Given seats of honor on
the platform, they attracted considerable attention and the New York
_Sun_ commented editorially that this honor conferred upon them by the
Democrats not only committed Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton to Governor
Seymour's views but also committed the Democrats to incorporate a
woman suffrage plank in their platform.
This was too much for some of the officers of the American Equal
Rights Association, whose executive committee now adopted a sarcastic
resolution proposing that Susan attend the national Democratic
convention and prove her confidence in the Democrats by securing a
plank in their platform.
Ignoring the unfriendly implications of this resolution and the
ridicule heaped upon her by the New York City papers, Susan made plans
to attend the Democratic convention, which for the first time since
the war was bringing northern and southern Democrats together for the
dedication of their new, imposing headquarters, Tammany Hall, and
which was also attracting many liberals who, disgusted by the
corruption of the Republicans, were looking for a "new departure" from
the Democrats. To the amazement of the delegates, Susan with Mrs.
Stanton and several other women walked into the convention when it was
well under way and sent a memorial up to Governor Seymour who was
presiding. He received it graciously, announcing that he held in his
hand a memorial of the women of the United States signed by Susan B.
Anthony, and then turned it over to the secretary to be read while the
audience shouted and cheered. The sonorous passages demanding the
enfranchisement of women rang out through and above the bedlam: "We
appeal to you because ... you have been the party heretofore to extend
the suffrage. It was the Democratic party that fought most valiantly
for the removal of the 'property qualification' from all white men and
thereby placed the poorest ditch digger on a political level with the
proudest millionaire.... And now you have an opportunity to confer a
similar boon on the women of the country and thus ... perpetuate your
political power for decades to come...."[216]
To hear these words read in a national political convention was to
Susan worth any ridicule she might be forced to endure. She was not
allowed to speak to the convention as she had requested, and shouts
and jeers continued as her memorial was hurriedly referred to the
Resolutions committee where it could be conveniently overlooked.
The Republican press reported the incident with sarcasm and animosity,
the _Tribune_ deeply wounding her: "Miss Susan B. Anthony has our
sincere pity. She has been an ardent suitor of democracy, and they
rejected her overtures yesterday with screams of laughter."[217]
The Democrats' nomination of Horatio Seymour and Frank Blair was as
reactionary and unpromising of a "new departure" as was the choice of
General Grant and Schuyler Colfax by the Republicans. Thereupon _The
Revolution_ called for a new party, a people's party which would be
sincerely devoted to the welfare of all the people. So strongly did
Susan feel about this that in one of her few signed editorials she
declared, "Both the great political parties pretending to save the
country are only endeavoring to save themselves.... In their hands
humanity has no hope.... The sooner their power is broken as parties
the better.... _The Revolution_ calls for construction, not
reconstruction.... Who will aid us in our grand enterprise of a
nation's salvation?"[218]
To "darling Anna" she wrote more specifically, "Both parties are owned
body and soul by the _Gold Gamblers_ of the Nation--and so far as the
honest working men and women of the country are concerned, it matters
very little which succeeds. Oh that the Gods would inspire men of
influence and money to move for a third party--universal suffrage and
anti-monopolist of land and gold."[219]
FOOTNOTES:
[207] July 6, 1866, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress.
[208] _The Revolution_, I, Jan. 8, 1868, pp. 1-12.
[209] _Ibid._
[210] _Ibid._, April 23, June 25, 1868, pp. 49, 392.
[211] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 296-297, 302-303; _The Revolution_, I,
Jan. 22, 1868, p. 34.
[212] _The Revolution_, I, Jan. 29, 1868, p. 243.
[213] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 301.
[214] March 18, May 4, 1868, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of
Congress. Susan had a room at the Stantons until they prepared to move
to their new home in Tenafly, New Jersey.
[215] Aug. 20, 1868, Higginson Papers, Boston Public Library.
[216] _The Revolution_, II, July 9, 1868, p. 1.
[217] _Ibid._, July 16, 1868, p. 17.
[218] _Ibid._, Aug. 6, 1868, p. 72.
[219] July 10, 1868, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress.
WORK, WAGES, AND THE BALLOT