January 1869, called together the first woman suffrage convention ever
held in Washington. No only did it attract women from as far west as
Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, but Senator Pomeroy lent it importance
by his opening speech, and through the detailed and respectful
reporting of the New York _World_ and of Grace Greenwood of the
Philadelphia _Press_ it received nationwide notice.
Congress, however, gave little heed to women's demands. "The
experiment" of woman suffrage in the District of Columbia was not
tried and nothing came of the resolutions for universal suffrage
introduced by Pomeroy, Julian, and Wilson. In spite of all Susan's
efforts to have the word "sex" added to the Fifteenth Amendment, she
soon faced the bitter disappointment of seeing a version ignoring
women submitted to the states for ratification: "The right of citizens
of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude."
The blatant omission of the word "sex" forced Susan and Mrs. Stanton
to initiate an amendment of their own, a Sixteenth Amendment, and
again Congressman Julian came to their aid, although he too regarded
Negro suffrage as more "immediately important and absorbing"[233] than
suffrage for women. On March 15, 1869, at one of the first sessions of
the newly elected Congress, he introduced an amendment to the
Constitution, providing that the right of suffrage be based on
citizenship without any distinction or discrimination because of sex.
This was the first federal woman suffrage amendment ever proposed in
Congress.
Opportunity to campaign for this amendment was now offered Susan and
Elizabeth Stanton as they addressed a series of conventions in Ohio,
Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Press notices were good, a
Milwaukee paper describing Susan as "an earnest enthusiastic, fiery
woman--ready, apt, witty and what a politician would call sharp ...
radical in the strongest sense," making "radical everything she
touches."[234] She found woman suffrage sentiment growing by leaps and
bounds in the West and western men ready to support a federal woman
suffrage amendment.
* * * * *
With a lighter heart than she had had in many a day and with new
subscriptions to _The Revolution_, Susan returned to New York. She
moved the _Revolution_ office to the first floor of the Women's
Bureau, a large four-story brownstone house at 49 East Twenty-third
Street, near Fifth Avenue, which had been purchased by a wealthy New
Yorker, Mrs. Elizabeth Phelps, who looked forward to establishing a
center where women's organizations could meet and where any woman
interested in the advancement of her sex would find encouragement and
inspiration. Susan's hopes were high for the Women's Bureau, and in
this most respectable, fashionable, and even elegant setting, she
expected her _Revolution_, in spite of its inflammable name, to live
down its turbulent past and win new friends and subscribers.[235]
She made one last effort to resuscitate the American Equal Rights
Association, writing personal letters to old friends, urging that past
differences be forgotten and that all rededicate themselves to
establishing universal suffrage by means of the Sixteenth Amendment.
She was optimistic as she prepared for a convention in New York,
particularly as one obstacle to unity had been removed. George Francis
Train had voluntarily severed all connections with _The Revolution_ to
devote himself to freeing Ireland. She soon found, however, that the
misunderstandings between her and her old antislavery friends were far
deeper than George Francis Train, although he would for a long time be
blamed for them. The Fifteenth Amendment was still a bone of
contention and _The Revolution's_ continued editorials against it
widened the breach.
The fireworks were set off in the convention of the American Equal
Rights Association by Stephen S. Foster, who objected to the
nomination of Susan and Mrs. Stanton as officers of the Association
because they had in his opinion repudiated its principles. When asked
to explain further, he replied that not only had they published a
paper advocating educated suffrage while the Association stood for
universal suffrage but they had shown themselves unfit by
collaboration with George Francis Train who ridiculed Negroes and
opposed their enfranchisement.
Trying to pour oil on the troubled waters, Mary Livermore, the popular
new delegate from Chicago, asked whether it was quite fair to bring up
George Francis Train when he had retired from _The Revolution_.
To this Stephen Foster sternly replied, "If _The Revolution_ which has
so often endorsed George Francis Train will repudiate him because of
his course in respect to the Negro's rights, I have nothing further to
say. But they do not repudiate him. He goes out; but they do not cast
him out."[236]
"Of course we do not," Susan instantly protested.
Mr. Foster then objected to the way Susan had spent the funds of the
Association, accusing her of failing to keep adequate accounts.
This she emphatically denied, explaining that she had presented a full
accounting to the trust fund committee, that it had been audited, and
she had been voted $1,000 to repay her for the amount she had
personally advanced for the work.
Unwilling to accept her explanation and calling it unreliable, he
continued his complaints until interrupted by Henry Blackwell who
corroborated Susan's statement, adding that she had refused the $1,000
due her because of the dissatisfaction expressed over her management.
Declaring himself completely satisfied with the settlement and
confident of the purity of Susan's motives even if some of her
expenditures were unwise, Henry Blackwell continued, "I will agree
that many unwise things have been written in _The Revolution_ by a
gentleman who furnished part of the means by which the paper has been
carried on. But that gentleman has withdrawn, and you, who know the
real opinions of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton on the question of
Negro suffrage, do not believe that they mean to create antagonism
between the Negro and woman question...."
To Susan's great relief Henry Blackwell's explanation satisfied the
delegates, who gave her and Mrs. Stanton a vote of confidence. Not so
easily healed, however, were the wounds left by the accusations of
mismanagement and dishonesty.
The atmosphere was still tense, for differences of opinion on policy
remained. Most of the old reliable workers stood unequivocally for the
Fifteenth Amendment, which they regarded as the crowning achievement
of the antislavery movement, and they heartily disapproved of forcing
the issue of woman suffrage on Congress and the people at this time.
Although they had been deeply moved by the suffering of Negro women
under slavery and had used this as a telling argument for
emancipation, they now gave no thought to Negro women, who, even more
than Negro men, needed the vote to safeguard their rights. Believing
with the Republicans that one reform at a time was all they could
expect, they did not want to hear one word about woman suffrage or a
Sixteenth Amendment until male Negroes were safely enfranchised by the
Fifteenth Amendment.
Offering a resolution endorsing the Fifteenth Amendment, Frederick
Douglass quoted Julia Ward Howe as saying, "I am willing that the
Negro shall get the ballot before me," and he added, "I cannot see how
anyone can pretend that there is the same urgency in giving the ballot
to women as to the Negro."
Quick as a flash, Susan was on her feet, challenging his statements,
and as the dauntless champion of women debated the question with the
dark-skinned fiery Negro, the friendship and warm affection built up
between them over the years occasionally shone through the sharp words
they spoke to each other.
"The old antislavery school says that women must stand back," declared
Susan, "that they must wait until male Negroes are voters. But we say,
if you will not give the whole loaf of justice to an entire people,
give it to the most intelligent first."
Here she was greeted with applause and continued, "If intelligence,
justice, and morality are to be placed in the government, then let the
question of woman be brought up first and that of the Negro last....
Mr. Douglass talks about the wrongs of the Negro, how he is hunted
down ..., but with all the wrongs and outrages that he today suffers,
he would not exchange his sex and take the place of Elizabeth Cady
Stanton."
"I want to know," shouted Frederick Douglass, "if granting you the
right of suffrage will change the nature of our sexes?"
"It will change the pecuniary position of woman," Susan retorted
before the shouts of laughter had died down. "She will not be
compelled to take hold of only such employments as man chooses for
her."
Lucy Stone, who so often in her youth had pleaded with Susan and
Frederick Douglass for both the Negro and women, now entered the
argument. She had matured, but her voice had lost none of its
conviction or its power to sway an audience. Disagreeing with
Douglass's assertion that Negro suffrage was more urgent than woman
suffrage, she pointed out that white women of the North were robbed of
their children by the law just as Negro women had been by slavery.
This was balm to Susan's soul, but with Lucy's next words she lost all
hope that her old friend would cast her lot wholeheartedly with women
at this time. "Woman has an ocean of wrongs too deep for any plummet,"
Lucy continued, "and the Negro too has an ocean of wrongs that cannot
be fathomed. But I thank God for the Fifteenth Amendment, and hope
that it will be adopted in every state. I will be thankful in my soul
if anybody can get out of the terrible pit....
"I believe," she admitted, "that the national safety of the government
would be more promoted by the admission of women as an element of
restoration and harmony than the other. I believe that the influence
of woman will save the country before every other influence. I see the
signs of the times pointing to this consummation. I believe that in
some parts of the country women will vote for the President of these
United States in 1872."
Susan grew impatient as Lucy shifted from one side to the other,
straddling the issue. Her own clear-cut approach, earning for her the
reputation of always hitting the nail on the head, made Lucy's seem
like temporizing.
The men now took control, criticizing the amount of time given to the
discussion of woman's rights, and voted endorsement of the Fifteenth
Amendment. Nevertheless, a small group of determined women continued
their fight, Susan declaring with spirit that she protested against
the Fifteenth Amendment because it was not Equal Rights and would put
2,000,000 more men in the position of tyrants over 2,000,000 women who
until now had been the equals of the Negro men at their side.[237]
* * * * *
It was now clear to Susan and to the few women who worked closely with
her that they needed a strong organization of their own and that it
was folly to waste more time on the Equal Rights Association. Western
delegates, disappointed in the convention's lack of interest in woman
suffrage, expressed themselves freely. They had been sorely tried by
the many speeches on extraneous subjects which cluttered the meetings,
the heritage of a free-speech policy handed down by antislavery
societies.
"That Equal Rights Association is an awful humbug," exploded Mary
Livermore to Susan. "I would not have come on to the anniversary, nor
would any of us, if we had known what it was. We supposed we were
coming to a woman suffrage convention."[238]
At a reception for all the delegates held at the Women's Bureau at the
close of the convention, this dissatisfaction culminated in a
spontaneous demand for a new organization which would concentrate on
woman suffrage and the Sixteenth Amendment. Alert to the
possibilities, Susan directed this demand into concrete action by
turning the reception temporarily into a business meeting. The result
was the formation of the National Woman Suffrage Association by women
from nineteen states, with Mrs. Stanton as president and Susan as a
member of the executive committee. The younger women of the West,
trusting the judgment of Susan and Mrs. Stanton, looked to them for
leadership, as did a few of the old workers in the East--Ernestine
Rose, always in the vanguard, Paulina Wright Davis, Elizabeth Smith
Miller, Lucretia Mott, who although holding no office in the new
organization gave it her support, Martha C. Wright, and Matilda Joslyn
Gage who never wavered in her allegiance. Lucy Stone, who would have
found it hard even to step into the _Revolution_ office, did not
attend the reception at the Women's Bureau or take part in the
formation of the new woman suffrage organization.
[Illustration: Paulina Wright Davis]
Aided and abetted by her new National Woman Suffrage Association,
Susan continued her opposition in _The Revolution_ to the Fifteenth
Amendment until it was ratified in 1870.
So incensed was the Boston group by _The Revolution's_ opposition to
the Fifteenth Amendment, so displeased was Lucy Stone by the formation
of the National Woman Suffrage Association without consultation with
her, one of the oldest workers in the field, that they began to talk
of forming a national woman suffrage organization of their own. They
charged Susan with lust for power and autocratic control. Mrs. Stanton
they found equally objectionable because of her radical views on sex,
marriage, and divorce, expressed in _The Revolution_ in connection
with the Hester Vaughn case. They sincerely felt that the course of
woman suffrage would run more smoothly, arouse less antagonism, and
make more progress without these two militants who were forever
stirring things up and introducing extraneous subjects.
* * * * *
During these trying days of accusations, animosity, and rival
factions, Mrs. Stanton's unwavering support was a great comfort to
Susan as was the joy of having a paper to carry her message.
In addition to all the responsibilities connected with publishing her
weekly paper, advertising, subscriptions, editorial policy, and
raising the money to pay the bills, Susan was also holding successful
conventions in Saratoga and Newport where men and women of wealth and
influence gathered for the summer; she was traveling out to St. Louis,
Chicago, and other western cities to speak on woman suffrage, making
trips to Washington to confer with Congressmen, getting petitions for
the Sixteenth Amendment circulated, and through all this, building up
the National Woman Suffrage Association.
The _Revolution_ office became the rallying point for a
forward-looking group of women, many of whom contributed to the
hard-hitting liberal sheet. Elizabeth Tilton, the lovely dark-haired
young wife of the popular lecturer and editor of the _Independent_,
selected the poetry. Alice and Phoebe Cary gladly offered poems and a
novel; and when Susan was away, Phoebe Cary often helped Mrs. Stanton
get out the paper. Elizabeth Smith Miller gave money, encouragement,
and invaluable aid with her translations of interesting letters which
_The Revolution_ received from France and Germany. Laura Curtis
Bullard, the heir to the Dr. Winslow-Soothing-Syrup fortune, who
traveled widely in Europe, sent letters from abroad and took a lively
interest in the paper. Another new recruit was Lillie Devereux Blake,
who was gaining a reputation as a writer and who soon proved to be a
brilliant orator and an invaluable worker in the New York City
suffrage group. Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, unfailingly gave her support,
and her calm assurance strengthened Susan. The wealthy Paulina Wright
Davis of Providence, Rhode Island, who followed Parker Pillsbury as
editor, when he felt obliged to resign for financial reasons, gave the
paper generous financial backing.
[Illustration: Isabella Beecher Hooker]
It was Mrs. Davis who brought into the fold the half sister of Henry
Ward Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, a queenly woman, one of the
elect of Hartford, Connecticut. Hoping to break down Mrs. Hooker's
prejudice against Susan and Mrs. Stanton, which had been built up by
New England suffragists, Mrs. Davis invited the three women to spend a
few days with her. After this visit, Mrs. Hooker wrote to a friend in
Boston, "I have studied Miss Anthony day and night for nearly a
week.... She is a woman of incorruptible integrity and the thought of
guile has no place in her heart. In unselfishness and benevolence she
has scarcely an equal, and her energy and executive ability are
bounded only by her physical power, which is something immense.
Sometimes she fails in judgment, according to the standards of
others, but in right intentions never, nor in faithfulness to her
friends.... After attending a two days' convention in Newport,
engineered by her in her own fashion, I am obliged to accept the most
favorable interpretation of her which prevails generally, rather than
that of Boston. Mrs. Stanton too is a magnificent woman.... I hand in
my allegiance to both as leaders and representatives of the great
movement."[239]
From then on, Mrs. Hooker did her best to reconcile the Boston and New
York factions, hoping to avert the formation of a second national
woman suffrage organization.
FOOTNOTES:
[232] _The Revolution_, II, Dec. 24, 1868, p. 385.
[233] George W. Julian, _Political Recollections_, 1840-1872 (Chicago,
1884), pp. 324-325.
[234] _The Revolution_, III, March 11, 1869, p. 148.
[235] The very proper Sorosis would not meet at the Women's Bureau
while it housed the radical _Revolution_, and as women showed so
little interest in her project, Mrs. Phelps gave it up after a year's
trial.
[236] _The Revolution_, III, May 20, 1869, pp. 305-307.
[237] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, p. 392.
[238] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 327-328.
[239] _Ibid._, p. 332.
A HOUSE DIVIDED
"I think we need two national associations for woman suffrage so that
those who do not oppose the Fifteenth Amendment, nor take the tone of
_The Revolution_ may yet have an organization with which they can work
in harmony."[240] So wrote Lucy Stone to many of her friends during
the summer of 1869, and some of these letters fell into Susan's hands.
"The radical abolitionists and the Republicans could never have worked
together but in separate organizations both did good service," Lucy
further explained. "There are just as distinctly two parties to the
woman movement.... Each organization will attract those who naturally
belong to it--and there will be harmonious work."
When the ground had been prepared by these letters, Lucy asked old
friends and new to sign a call to a woman suffrage convention, to be
held in Cleveland, Ohio, in November 1869, "to unite those who cannot
use the methods which Mrs. Stanton and Susan use...."[241]
Those feeling as she did eagerly signed the call, while others who
knew little about the controversy in the East added their names
because they were glad to take part in a convention sponsored by such
prominent men and women as Julia Ward Howe, George William Curtis,
Henry Ward Beecher, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and William Lloyd
Garrison. Still others who did not understand the insurmountable
differences in temperament and policy between the two groups hoped
that a new truly national organization would unite the two factions.
Even Mary Livermore, who had been active in the formation of the
National Woman Suffrage Association, was by this time responding to
overtures from the Boston group, writing William Lloyd Garrison, "I
have been repelled by some of the idiosyncrasies of our New York
friends, as have others. Their opposition to the Fifteenth Amendment,
the buffoonery of George F. Train, the loose utterances of the
_Revolution_ on the marriage and dress questions--and what is equally
potent hindrance to the cause, the fearful squandering of money at
the New York headquarters--all this has tended to keep me on my own
feet, apart from those to whom I was at first attracted.... I am glad
at the prospect of an association that will be truly national and
which promises so much of success and character."[242]
Neither Susan nor Mrs. Stanton received a notice of the Cleveland
convention, but Susan, scanning a copy of the call sent her by a
solicitous friend, was deeply disturbed when she saw the signatures of
Lydia Mott, Amelia Bloomer, Myra Bradwell, Gerrit Smith, and other
good friends.
The New York _World_, at once suspecting a feud, asked, "Where are
those well-known American names, Susan B. Anthony, Parker Pillsbury,
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton? It is clear that there is a division in
the ranks of the strong-minded and that an effort is being made to
ostracize _The Revolution_ which has so long upheld the cause of
Suffrage, through evil report and good...."[243]
The Rochester _Democrat_, loyal to Susan, put this question, "Can it
be possible that a National Woman's Suffrage Convention is called
without Susan's knowledge or consent?... A National Woman's Suffrage
Association without speeches from Susan B. Anthony and Mrs. Stanton
will be a new order of things. The idea seems absurd."[244]
To Susan it also seemed both absurd and unrealistic, for she
remembered how almost single-handed she had held together and built up
the woman suffrage movement during the years when her colleagues had
been busy with family duties. She was appalled at the prospect of a
division in the ranks at this time when she believed victory possible
through the action of a strong united front.
Confident that many who signed the call were ignorant of or blind to
the animus behind it, she did her best to bring the facts before them.
She put the blame for the rift entirely upon Lucy Stone, believing
that without Lucy's continual stirring up, past differences in policy
would soon have been forgotten. The antagonism between the two burned
fiercely at this time. Susan was determined to fight to the last ditch
for control of the movement, convinced that her policies and Mrs.
Stanton's were forward-looking, unafraid, and always put women first.
Susan now also had to face the humiliating possibility that she might
be forced to give up _The Revolution_. Not only was the operating
deficit piling up alarmingly, but there were persistent rumors of a
competitor, another woman suffrage paper to be edited by Lucy Stone
and Julia Ward Howe.
Susan had assumed full financial responsibility for _The Revolution_
because Mrs. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, both with families to
consider, felt unable to share this burden. Mrs. Stanton had always
contributed her services and Parker Pillsbury had been sadly
underpaid, while Susan had drawn out for her salary only the most
meager sums for bare living expenses.
With a maximum of 3,000 subscribers, the paper could not hope to pay
its way even though she had secured a remarkably loyal group of
advertisers.[245] Reluctantly she raised the subscription price from
$2 to $3 a year. Her friends and family were generous with gifts and
loans, but these only met the pressing needs of the moment and in no
way solved the overall financial problem of the paper.
Appealing once again to her wealthy and generous Quaker cousin, Anson
Lapham, she wrote him in desperation, "My paper must not, shall not go
down. I am sure you believe in me, in my honesty of purpose, and also
in the grand work which _The Revolution_ seeks to do, and therefore
you will not allow me to ask you in vain to come to the rescue.
Yesterday's mail brought 43 subscribers from Illinois and 20 from
California. We only need time to win financial success. I know you
will save me from giving the world a chance to say, 'There is a
woman's rights failure; even the best of women can't manage business!'
If only I could die, and thereby fail honorably, I would say, 'Amen,'
but to live and fail--it would be too terrible to bear."[246] He came
to her aid as he always had in the past.