summer vacation in New York in 1869, working in _The Revolution_
office while Susan, busy with woman suffrage conventions in Newport,
Saratoga, Chicago, and Ohio, was building up good will and
subscriptions for her paper. Concerned for her welfare, Mary
repeatedly but unsuccessfully urged her to give up. Daniel added his
entreaties to Mary's, begging Susan not to go further into debt, but
to form a stock company if she were determined to continue her paper.
She considered his advice very seriously for he was a practical
businessman and yet appreciated what she was trying to do. For a time
the formation of a stock company seemed possible, for the project
appealed to three women of means, Paulina Wright Davis, Isabella
Beecher Hooker, and Laura Curtis Bullard, but it never materialized.
* * * * *
With the financial problem of _The Revolution_ still unsolved, Susan
decided to make her appearance at Lucy Stone's convention in
Cleveland, Ohio, on November 24, 1869. Not only did she want to see
with her own eyes and hear with her own ears all that went on, but she
was determined to walk the second mile with Lucy and her supporters,
or even to turn the other cheek, if need be, for the sake of her
beloved cause.
Seeing her in the audience, Judge Bradwell of Chicago moved that she
be invited to sit on the platform, but Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who
was presiding, replied that he thought this unnecessary as a special
invitation had already been extended to all desiring to identify
themselves with the movement. Judge Bradwell would not be put off, his
motion was carried, and as Susan walked up to the platform to join the
other notables, she was greeted with hearty applause. Sitting there
among her critics, she wondered what she could possibly say to
persuade them to forget their differences for the sake of the cause.
After listening to Lucy Stone plead for renewed work for woman
suffrage and for petitions for a Sixteenth Amendment, she
spontaneously rose to her feet and asked permission to speak. "I
hope," she began, "that the work of this association, if it be
organized, will be to go in strong array up to the Capitol at
Washington to demand a Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The
question of the admission of women to the ballot would not then be
left to the mass of voters in every State, but would be submitted by
Congress to the several legislatures of the States for ratification,
and ... be decided by the most intelligent portion of the people. If
the question is left to the vote of the rank and file, it will be put
off for years.[247]
"So help me, Heaven!" she continued with emotion. "I care not what may
come out of this Convention, so that this great cause shall go
forward to its consummation! And though this Convention by its action
shall nullify the National Association of which I am a member, and
though it shall tread its heel upon _The Revolution_, to carry on
which I have struggled as never mortal woman or mortal man struggled
for any cause ... still, if you will do the work in Washington so that
this Amendment will be proposed, and will go with me to the several
Legislatures and _compel_ them to adopt it, I will thank God for this
Convention as long as I have the breath of life."
Loud and continuous applause greeted these earnest words. However,
instead of pledging themselves to work for a Sixteenth Amendment, the
newly formed American Woman Suffrage Association, blind to the
exceptional opportunity at this time for Congressional action on woman
suffrage, decided to concentrate on work in the states where suffrage
bills were pending. Instead of electing an outstanding woman as
president, they chose Henry Ward Beecher, boasting that this was proof
of their genuine belief in equal rights. Lucy Stone headed the
executive committee.
Divisions soon began developing among the suffragists in the field.
Many whose one thought previously had been the cause now spent time
weighing the differences between the two organizations and between
personalities, and antagonisms increased.
Hardest of all for Susan to bear was the definite announcement of a
rival paper, the _Woman's Journal_, to be issued in Boston in January
1870 under the editorship of Lucy Stone, Mary A. Livermore, and Julia
Ward Howe, with Henry Blackwell as business manager. Mary Livermore,
who previously had planned to merge her paper, the _Agitator_, with
_The Revolution_ now merged it with the _Woman's Journal_. Financed by
wealthy stockholders, all influential Republicans, the _Journal_,
Susan knew, would be spared the financial struggles of _The
Revolution_, but would be obliged to conform to Republican policy in
its support of woman's rights. Had not the _Woman's Journal_ been such
an obvious affront to the heroic efforts of _The Revolution_ and a
threat to its very existence, she could have rejoiced with Lucy over
one more paper carrying the message of woman suffrage.
More determined than ever to continue _The Revolution_, Susan
redoubled her efforts, announcing an imposing list of contributors
for 1870, including the British feminist, Lydia Becker, and as a
special attraction, a serial by Alice Cary. Through the efforts of
Mrs. Hooker, Harriet Beecher Stowe was persuaded to consider serving
as contributing editor provided the paper's name was changed to _The
True Republic_ or to some other name satisfactory to her.[248]
Having struggled against the odds for so long, Susan had no intention
of being stifled now by Mrs. Stowe's more conservative views, nor
would she give her crusading sheet an innocuous name. However, the
decision was taken out of her hands by _The Revolution's_ coverage of
the sensational McFarland-Richardson murder case, which so shocked
both Mrs. Hooker and Mrs. Stowe that they gave up all thought of being
associated in a publishing venture with Susan or Mrs. Stanton.
The whole country was stirred in December 1869 by the fatal shooting
in the _Tribune_ office of the well-known journalist, Albert D.
Richardson, by Daniel McFarland, to whose divorced wife Richardson had
been attentive. When just before his death, Richardson was married to
the divorced Mrs. McFarland by Henry Ward Beecher with Horace Greeley
as a witness, the press was agog. So strong was the feeling against a
divorced woman that Henry Ward Beecher was severely condemned for
officiating at the marriage, and Mrs. Richardson was played up in the
press and in court as the villain, although her divorce had been
granted because of the brutality and instability of McFarland.
Indignant at the sophistry of the press and the general acceptance of
a double standard of morals, _The Revolution_ not only spoke out
fearlessly in defense of Mrs. Richardson but in an editorial by Mrs.
Stanton frankly analyzed the tragic human relations so obvious in the
case. With Susan's full approval, Mrs. Stanton wrote, "I rejoice over
every slave that escapes from a discordant marriage. With the
education and elevation of women we shall have a mighty sundering of
the unholy ties that hold men and women together who loathe and
despise each other...."[249] When the court acquitted McFarland,
giving him the custody of his twelve-year-old son, Susan called a
protest meeting which attracted an audience of two thousand.
Such words and such activities disturbed many who sympathized with
Mrs. Richardson but saw no reason for flaunting exultant approval of
divorce in a woman suffrage paper, and they turned to the _Woman's
Journal_ as more to their taste.
Susan, however, reading the first number of the _Woman's Journal_,
found its editorials lacking fire. She rebelled at Julia Ward Howe's
counsel, "to lay down all partisan warfare and organize a peaceful
Grand Army of the Republic of Women ... not ... as against men, but as
against all that is pernicious to men and women."[250] Susan's fight
had never been against men but against man-made laws that held women
in bondage. There had always been men willing to help her. Experience
had taught her that the struggle for woman's rights was no peaceful
academic debate, but real warfare which demanded political strategy,
self-sacrifice, and unremitting labor. She was prouder than ever of
her _Revolution_ and its liberal hard-hitting policy.
* * * * *
Convinced that the National Woman Suffrage Association must publicize
its existence and its value, Susan began the year 1870 with a
convention in Washington which even Senator Sumner praised as
exceeding in interest anything he had ever witnessed there. Its
striking demonstration of the vitality and intelligence of the
National Association was the best answer she could possibly have given
to the accusations and criticism aimed at her and her organization.
Jessie Benton Frémont, watching the delegates enter the dining room of
the Arlington Hotel, called Susan over to her table and said with a
twinkle in her eyes, "Now, tell me, Miss Anthony, have you hunted the
country over and picked out and brought to Washington a score of the
most beautiful women you could find?"[251]
They were a fine-looking and intelligent lot--Paulina Wright Davis,
Isabella Beecher Hooker, Josephine Griffin of the Freedman's Bureau,
Charlotte Wilbour, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Martha C. Wright, and Olympia
Brown; Phoebe Couzins and Virginia Minor from Missouri, Madam Annekè
from Wisconsin, and best of all to Susan, Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Their presence, their friendship and allegiance were a source of great
pride and joy. Elizabeth Stanton had come from St. Louis, interrupting
her successful lecture tour, when she much preferred to stay away from
all conventions. She had written Susan, "Of course, I stand by you to
the end. I would not see you crushed by rivals even if to prevent it
required my being cut into inch bits.... No power in heaven, hell or
earth can separate us, for our hearts are eternally wedded
together."[252]
Also at this convention to show his support of Susan and her program,
was her faithful friend of many years, the Rev. Samuel J. May of
Syracuse. Clara Barton, ill and unable to attend, sent a letter to be
read, an appeal to her soldier friends for woman suffrage.
Not only did the large and enthusiastic audiences show a growing
interest in votes for women, but two great victories for women in
1869, one in Great Britain and the other in the United States, brought
to the convention a feeling of confidence. Women taxpayers had been
granted the right to vote in municipal elections in England, Scotland,
and Wales, through the efforts of Jacob Bright. In the Territory of
Wyoming, during the first session of its legislature, women had been
granted the right to vote, to hold office, and serve on juries, and
married women had been given the right to their separate property and
their earnings. This progressive action by men of the West turned
Susan's thoughts hopefully to the western territories, and early in
1870 when the Territory of Utah enfranchised its women, she had
further cause for rejoicing.
To celebrate these victories for which her twenty years' work for
women had blazed the trail, some of her friends held a reception for
her in New York at the Women's Bureau on her fiftieth birthday. She
was amazed at the friendly attention her birthday received in the
press. "Susan's Half Century," read a headline in the _Herald_. The
_World_ called her the Moses of her sex. "A Brave Old Maid," commented
the _Sun_. But it was to the _Tribune_ that she turned with special
interest, always hoping for a word of approval from Horace Greeley and
finding at last this faint ray of praise: "Careful readers of the
_Tribune_ have probably succeeded in discovering that we have not
always been able to applaud the course of Miss Susan B. Anthony.
Indeed, we have often felt, and sometimes said that her methods were
as unwise as we thought her aims undesirable. But through these years
of disputation and struggling. Miss Anthony has thoroughly impressed
friends and enemies alike with the sincerity and earnestness of her
purpose...."[253]
To Anna E. Dickinson, far away lecturing, Susan confided, "Oh, Anna, I
am so glad of it all because it will teach the young girls that to be
true to principle--to live an idea, though an unpopular one--that to
live single--without any man's name--may be honorable."[254]
A few of Susan's younger colleagues still insisted that a merger of
the National and American Woman Suffrage Associations might be
possible. Again Theodore Tilton undertook the task of mediation and
Lucretia Mott, who had retired from active participation in the
woman's rights movement, tried to help work out a reconciliation.
Susan was skeptical but gave them her blessing. Representatives of the
American Association, however, again made it plain that they were
unwilling to work with Susan and Mrs. Stanton.[255]
By this time _The Revolution_ had become an overwhelming financial
burden. For some months Mrs. Stanton had been urging Susan to give it
up and turn to the lecture field, as she had done, to spread the
message of woman's rights. Susan hesitated, unwilling to give up _The
Revolution_ and not yet confident that she could hold the attention of
an audience for a whole evening. However, she found herself a great
success when pushed into several Lyceum lecture engagements in
Pennsylvania by Mrs. Stanton's sudden illness. "Miss Anthony evidently
lectures not for the purpose of receiving applause," commented the
Pittsburgh _Commercial_, "but for the purpose of making people
understand and be convinced. She takes her place on the stage in a
plain and unassuming manner and speaks extemporaneously and fluently,
too, reminding one of an old campaign speaker, who is accustomed to
talk simply for the purpose of converting his audience to his
political theories. She used plain English and plenty of it.... She
clearly evinced a quality that many politicians lack--sincerity."[256]
For each of these lectures on "Work, Wages, and the Ballot," she
received a fee of $75 and was able as well to get new subscribers for
_The Revolution_. She now saw the possibilities for herself and the
cause in a Lyceum tour, and when the Lyceum Bureau, pleased with her
reception in Pennsylvania wanted to book her for lectures in the West,
she accepted, calling Parker Pillsbury back to _The_ _Revolution_ to
take charge. All through Illinois she drew large audiences and her
fees increased to $95, $125, and $150. In two months she was able to
pay $1,300 of _The Revolution's_ debt.
When she returned to New York, she realized that she could not
continue to carry _The Revolution_ alone, in spite of increased
subscriptions. Its $10,000 debt weighed heavily upon her. Parker
Pillsbury's help could only be temporary; Mrs. Stanton's strenuous
lecture tour left her little time to give to the paper; and Susan's
own friends and family were unable to finance it further.
Fortunately the idea of editing a paper appealed strongly to the
wealthy Laura Curtis Bullard, who had the promise of editorial help
from Theodore Tilton. Susan now turned the paper over to them
completely, receiving nothing in return but shares of stock, while she
assumed the entire indebtedness.
Giving up the control of her beloved paper was one of the most
humiliating experiences and one of the deepest sorrows she ever faced.
_The Revolution_ had become to her the symbol of her crusade for
women. Overwhelmed by a sense of failure, she confided to her diary on
the date of the transfer, "It was like signing my own death warrant,"
and to a friend she wrote, "I feel a great, calm sadness like that of
a mother binding out a dear child that she could not support."[257]
She made a valiant announcement of the transfer in _The Revolution_ of
May 26, 1870, expressing her delight that the paper had at last found
financial backing and a new, enthusiastic editor. "In view of the
active demand for conventions, lectures, and discussions on Woman
Suffrage," she added, "I have concluded that so far as my own personal
efforts are concerned, I can be more useful on the platform than in a
newspaper. So, on the 1st of June next, I shall cease to be the _sole_
proprietor of _The Revolution_, and shall be free to attend public
meetings where ever so plain and matter of fact an old worker as I am
can secure a hearing."[258]
Financial backing, however, did not put _The Revolution_ on its feet,
although its forthright editorials and articles were replaced by spicy
and brilliant observations on pleasant topics which offended no one.
Before the year was up, Mrs. Bullard was making overtures to Susan to
take the paper back. Susan wanted desperately "to keep the Old Ship
Revolution's colors flying"[259] and to bring back Mrs. Stanton's
stinging editorials. She also feared that Mrs. Bullard on Theodore
Tilton's advice might turn the paper over to the Boston group to be
consolidated with the _Woman's Journal_. As no funds were available,
she had to turn her back on her beloved paper and hope for the best.
"I suppose there is a wise Providence in my being stripped of power to
go forward," she wrote at this time. "At any rate, I mean to try and
make good come out of it."[260]
For one more year, _The Revolution_ struggled on under the editorship
of Mrs. Bullard and Theodore Tilton and then was taken over by the
_Christian Enquirer_. The $10,000 debt, incurred under Susan's
management, she regarded as her responsibility, although her brother
Daniel and many of her friends urged bankruptcy proceedings. "My pride
for women, to say nothing of my conscience," she insisted, "says
no."[261]
FOOTNOTES:
[240] Lucy Stone to Frank Sanborn, Aug. 18, 1869, Alma Lutz
Collection.
[241] Lucy Stone to Esther Pugh, Aug. 30, 1869, Ida Husted Harper
Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
[242] Mary Livermore to W. L. Garrison, Oct. 4, 1869, Boston Public
Library. Wendell Phillips did not sign the call or attend the
convention for "reasons that are good to him," wrote Lucy Stone to
Garrison, Sept. 27, 1869, Boston Public Library.
[243] _The Revolution_, IV, Oct. 21, 1869, p. 265.
[244] _Ibid._, p. 266.
[245] The Empire Sewing Machine Co., Benedict's Watches, Madame
Demorest's dress patterns, Sapolio, insurance companies, savings
banks, the Union Pacific, offering first mortgage bonds.
[246] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 354-355. In 1873, Anson Lapham
cancelled notes, amounting to $4000, and praised Susan for her
continued courageous work for women.
[247] _The Revolution_, IV, Dec. 2, 1869, p. 343.
[248] Harriet Beecher Stowe to Susan B. Anthony, Dec., 1869, Alma Lutz
Collection.
[249] _The Revolution_, IV, Dec. 23, 1869, p. 385.
[250] _Woman's Journal_, Jan. 8, 1870.
[251] Ms., Diary, Jan. 18, 1870.
[252] Stanton and Blatch, _Stanton_, II, pp. 124-125.
[253] _The Revolution_, V, Feb. 24, 1870, pp. 117-118. Susan
attributed the _Tribune_ editorial to Whitelaw Reid. Susan B. Anthony
Scrapbook, Library of Congress.
[254] Feb. 21, 1870, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress.
Anna E. Dickinson sent Miss Anthony generous checks to help finance
_The Revolution_. Although she lectured at Cooper Union for the
National Woman Suffrage Association shortly after it was organized,
she never became a member of the organization or attended its
conventions. This was a great disappointment to Miss Anthony.
[255] Finally, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton against their best
judgment were persuaded by younger members of the National Woman
Suffrage Association to drop the name National and replace it with
Union and then to try to negotiate further with the American
Association. Theodore Tilton was elected president of the Union Woman
Suffrage Society. This proved to be an organization in name only, and
in a short time these same younger members clamored for the return to
office of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton and reestablished the National
Woman Suffrage Association.
[256] _The Revolution_, V, March 10, 1870, p. 153. Mrs. Stanton's
Lyceum lectures were undertaken to finance the education of her 7
children.
[257] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 362.
[258] _The Revolution_, V, May 26, 1870, p. 328.
[259] Sept. 19, 1870, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress.
[260] To E. A. Studwell, Sept. 15, 1870, Radcliffe Women's Archives,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
[261] To Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Oct. 15, 1871, Lucy E. Anthony
Collection
A NEW SLANT ON THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT
While Susan was lecturing in the West, hoping to earn enough to pay
off _The Revolution's_ debt, she was pondering a new approach to the
enfranchisement of women which had been proposed by Francis Minor, a
St. Louis attorney and the husband of her friend, Virginia Minor.
Francis Minor contended that while the Constitution gave the states
the right to regulate suffrage, it nowhere gave them the power to
prohibit it, and he believed that this conclusion was strengthened by
the Fourteenth Amendment which provided that "no State shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
citizens of the United States."
To claim the right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment made a great
appeal to both Susan and Elizabeth Stanton. Susan published Francis
Minor's arguments in _The Revolution_ and also his suggestion that
some woman test this interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment by
attempting to vote at the next election; while Mrs. Stanton used this
new approach as the basis of her speech before a Congressional
committee in 1870.
With such a fresh and thrilling project to develop, Susan looked
forward to the annual woman suffrage convention to be held in
Washington in January 1871. So heavy was her lecture schedule that she
reluctantly left preparations for the convention in the willing hands
of Isabella Beecher Hooker, who was confident she could improve on
Susan's meetings and guide the woman's rights movement into more
ladylike and aristocratic channels, winning over scores of men and
women who hitherto had remained aloof. At the last moment, however,
she appealed in desperation to Susan for help, and Susan, canceling
important lecture engagements, hurried to Washington. Here she found
the newspapers full of Victoria C. Woodhull and her Memorial to
Congress on woman suffrage, which had been presented by Senator Harris
of Louisiana and Congressman Julian of Indiana. Capitalizing on the
new approach to woman suffrage, Mrs. Woodhull based her arguments on
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, praying Congress to enact
legislation to enable women to exercise the right to vote vested in
them by these amendments. A hearing was scheduled before the House
judiciary committee the very morning the convention opened.
[Illustration: Victoria C. Woodhull]
Convinced that she and her colleagues must attend that hearing, Susan
consulted with her friends in Congress and overrode Mrs. Hooker's
hesitancy about associating their organization with so questionable a
woman as Victoria Woodhull. She engaged a constitutional lawyer,
Albert G. Riddle,[262] to represent the 30,000 women who had
petitioned Congress for the franchise. Then she and Mrs. Hooker
attended the hearing and asked for prompt action on woman suffrage.
This was the first Congressional hearing on federal enfranchisement.
Previous hearings had considered trying the experiment only in the
District of Columbia.
Susan had never before seen Victoria Woodhull. Early in 1870, however,
she had called at the brokerage office which Victoria and her sister,
Tennessee Claflin, had opened in New York on Broad Street. The press
had been full of amused comments regarding the lady bankers, and
Susan had wanted to see for herself what kind of women they were. Here
she met and talked with Tennessee Claflin, publishing their interview
in _The Revolution_, and also an advertisement of Woodhull, Claflin &
Co., Bankers and Brokers.[263]