her mind to carry if through with good cheer. Tirelessly she presided
at three sessions daily. With the pride of a mother, she listened to
the many reports and with particular satisfaction to that of the
treasurer which showed all debts paid and pledges amounting to $10,000
to start the new year. Susan herself had made this possible, raising
enough to pay past debts and securing pledges so that the new
administration could start its work free from financial worries.
"I have fully determined to retire from the active presidency of the
Association," she announced when the reports and speeches were over.
"I am not retiring now because I feel unable, mentally or physically,
to do the necessary work, but because I wish to see the organization
in the hands of those who are to have its management in the future. I
want to see you all at work, while I am alive, so I can scold if you
do not do it well. Give the matter of selecting your officers serious
thought. Consider who will do the best work for the political
enfranchisement of women, and let no personal feelings enter into the
question."[429]
Watching developments with the keen eye of a politician, she was
confident that Mrs. Catt would be elected to succeed her, although
Mrs. Blake's candidacy was still being assiduously pressed and
circulars recommending her, signed by Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Russell Sage
and Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, were being widely distributed. Just before
the balloting, however, Mrs. Blake withdrew her name in the interest
of harmony. This left the field to Mrs. Catt, who received 254 votes
of the 278 cast.
A burst of applause greeted the announcement of Mrs. Catt's election.
Then abruptly it stopped, as the realization swept over the delegates
that Aunt Susan was no longer their president. Walking to the front of
the platform, Susan took Mrs. Catt by the hand, and while the
delegates applauded, the two women stood before them, the one showing
in her kind face the experience and wisdom of years, the other young,
intelligent, and beautiful, her life still before her. There were
tears in Susan's eyes and her voice was unsteady as she said, "I am
sure you have made a wise choice.... 'New conditions bring new
duties.' These new duties, these changed conditions, demand stronger
hands, younger heads, and fresher hearts. In Mrs. Catt, you have my
ideal leader. I present to you my successor."[430]
* * * * *
Susan's joyous confidence in the new administration was rudely jolted
as controversy over the future of the organization committee flared up
during the last days of the convention. Under strong pressure from
Mary Garrett Hay, Mrs. Catt had counseled with Henry Blackwell, and at
one of the last sessions he had slipped in a motion authorizing the
continuance of the organization committee.[431]
Stunned by this development and looking upon it as a threat to the
harmony of the new administration, Susan, supported by Harriet Upton
and Rachel, prepared to take action, and the next morning, at the
first post-convention executive committee meeting at which Mrs. Catt
presided, Susan proposed that the national officers, headed by Mrs.
Catt, take over the duties of the organization committee. This
precipitated a heated debate, during which Henry Blackwell and his
daughter, Alice, called such procedure unconstitutional, and Mary Hay
resigned. As the discussion became too acrimonious, Mrs. Catt put an
end to it by calling up unfinished business, and thus managed to
steer the remainder of the session into less troubled waters. The next
day, however, Susan brought the matter up again, and on her motion the
organization committee was voted out of existence with praise for its
admirable record of service.
Here were all the makings of a factional feud which, if fanned into
flame, could well have split the National American Association. Not
only had the old organization interfered with the new, indirectly
reprimanding Mrs. Catt, but Susan, by her own personal influence and
determination, had reversed the action of the convention. As a result,
Mrs. Catt was indignant, hurt, and sorely tempted to resign, but after
sending a highly critical letter to every member of the business
committee, she took up her work with vigor.
Disappointed and heartsick over the turn of events, Susan searched for
a way to re-establish harmony and her own faith in her successor.
Realizing that a mother's cool counsel and guiding hand were needed to
heal the misunderstandings, and convinced that unity and trust could
be restored only by frank discussion of the problem by those involved,
she asked for a meeting of the business committee at her home. "What
can we do to get back into trust in each other?" she wrote Laura Clay.
"That is the thing we must do--somehow--and it cannot be done by
letter. We must hold a meeting--and we must have you--and every single
one of our members at it."[432]
Impatient at what to her seemed unnecessary delay, she kept prodding
Mrs. Catt to call this meeting. Fortunately both Susan and Mrs. Catt
were genuinely fond of each other and placed the welfare of the cause
above personal differences. Both were tolerant and steady and
understood the pressures put on the leader of a great organization.
Anxious and troubled as she waited for this meeting, Susan appreciated
Anna Shaw's visits as never before, marking them as red-letter days on
her calender.
Late in August 1900, all the officers finally gathered at 17 Madison
Street, and Susan listened to their discussions with deep concern. She
was confident she could rely completely on Harriet Upton, Rachel, and
Anna and could count on Laura Clay's "level head and good common
sense."[433] She never felt sure of Alice Stone Blackwell and knew
there was great sympathy and often a working alliance between her, her
father, and Mrs. Catt. Of the latest member of the official family,
Catharine Waugh McCulloch, she had little first-hand knowledge. Mrs.
Catt, whom she longed to fathom and trust, was still an enigma. During
those hot humid August days, misunderstandings were healed, unity was
restored, and Susan was reassured that not a single one of her "girls"
desired "other than was good for the work."[434]
* * * * *
Susan had always been a champion of coeducation, speaking for it as
early as the 1850s at state teachers' meetings and proposing it for
Columbia University in her _Revolution_. In 1891, she and Mrs. Stanton
had agitated for the admission of women to the University of
Rochester. Seven years later the trustees consented to admit women
provided $100,000 could be raised in a year, and Susan served on the
fund-raising committee with her friend, Helen Barrett Montgomery.
Because the alumni of the University of Rochester opposed coeducation
and the city's wealthiest men were indifferent, progress was slow, but
the trustees were persuaded to extend the time and to reduce by one
half the amount to be raised.
With so much else on her mind in 1900, including the sudden death of
her brother Merritt, she had given the fund little thought until the
committee appealed to her in desperation when only one day remained in
which to raise the last $8,000. Immediately she went into action.
Remembering that Mary had talked of willing the University $2,000 if
it became coeducational, she persuaded her to pledge that amount now.
Then setting out in a carriage on a very hot September morning, she
slowly collected pledges for all but $2,000. As the trustees were in
session and likely to adjourn any minute, she appealed to Samuel
Wilder, one of Rochester's prominent elder citizens who had already
contributed, to guarantee that amount until she could raise it. To
this he gladly agreed. Reaching the trustees' meeting with Mrs.
Montgomery just in time, with pledges assuring the payment of the full
$50,000, she was amazed at their reception. Instead of rejoicing with
them, the trustees began to quibble over Samuel Wilder's guarantee of
the last $2,000 because of the state of his health. When she offered
her life insurance as security, they still put her off, telling her
to come back in a few days. Even then they continued to quibble, but
finally admitted that the women had won. Disillusioned, she wrote in
her diary, "Not a trustee has given anything although there are
several millionaires among them."[435] Only her life insurance policy
and her dogged persistence had saved the day.
This effort to open Rochester University to women, on top of a very
full and worrisome year, was so taxing and so disillusioning that she
became seriously ill. When she recovered sufficiently for a drive, she
asked to be taken to the university campus and afterward wrote in her
diary, "As I drove over the campus, I felt 'these are not forbidden
grounds to the girls of the city any longer.' It is good to feel that
the old doors sway on their hinges--to women! Will the vows be kept to
them--will the girls have equal chances with the boys? They promised
well--the fulfilment will be seen--whether there shall not be some
hitch from the proposed to a separate school."[436]
* * * * *
Still keeping her watchful eye on the National American Association,
Susan traveled to Minneapolis in the spring of 1901 for the first
annual convention under the new administration. There was talk of an
"entire new deal," the retirement of all who had served under Miss
Anthony, and the election of a "new cabinet of officers," and Susan
was so concerned that there might also be a change in the presidency
that she felt she must be on hand to guide and steady the
proceedings.[437]
Mrs. Catt was re-elected and Susan returned to Rochester well
satisfied and ready to devote herself to completing the fourth volume
of the _History of Woman Suffrage_ on which she and Mrs. Harper had
been working intermittently for the past year. It was published late
in 1902. While working on the History, Susan, although more than
satisfied with Mrs. Harper's work, often thought nostalgically of her
happy stimulating years of collaboration with Mrs. Stanton. She seldom
saw Mrs. Stanton now, but they kept in touch with each other by
letter.
In the spring of 1902, she visited Mrs. Stanton twice in New York, and
planned to return in November to celebrate Mrs. Stanton's
eighty-seventh birthday. In anticipation, she wrote Mrs. Stanton, "It
is fifty-one years since we first met and we have been busy through
every one of them, stirring up the world to recognize the rights of
women.... We little dreamed when we began this contest ... that half a
century later we would be compelled to leave the finish of the battle
to another generation of women. But our hearts are filled with joy to
know that they enter upon this task equipped with a college education,
with business experience, with the freely admitted right to speak in
public--all of which were denied to women fifty years ago.... These
strong, courageous, capable, young women will take our place and
complete our work. There is an army of them where we were but a
handful...."[438]
Two weeks before Mrs. Stanton's birthday, Susan was stunned by a
telegram announcing that her old comrade had passed away in her chair.
Bewildered and desolate, she sat alone in her study for several hours,
trying bravely to endure her grief. Then came the reporters for copy
which only this heartbroken woman could give. "I cannot express myself
at all as I feel," she haltingly told them. "I am too crushed to
speak. If I had died first, she would have found beautiful phrases to
describe our friendship, but I cannot put it into words."[439]
From New York, where she had gone for the funeral, she wrote in
anguish to Mrs. Harper, "Oh, the voice is stilled which I have loved
to hear for fifty years. Always I have felt that I must have Mrs.
Stanton's opinion of things before I knew where I stood myself. I am
all at sea--but the Laws of Nature are still going on--with no shadow
or turning--what a wonder it is--it goes right on and on--no matter
who lives or who dies."[440]
* * * * *
National woman suffrage conventions were still red-letter events to
Susan and she attended them no matter how great the physical effort,
traveling to New Orleans in 1903. Of particular concern was the 1904
convention because of Mrs. Catt's decision at the very last moment not
to stand for re-election on account of her health. Looking over the
field, Susan saw no one capable of taking her place but Anna Howard
Shaw. Not to be able to turn to Mrs. Stanton's capable daughter,
Harriot Stanton Blatch, at this time was disappointing, but Harriot's
long absence in England had made her more or less of a stranger to the
membership of the National American Association, and for some reason
she did not seem to fit in, lacking her mother's warmth and
appeal.[441]
[Illustration: Quotation in the handwriting of Susan B. Anthony]
"I don't see anybody in the whole rank of our suffrage movement to
take her [Mrs. Catt's] place but you," Susan now wrote Anna Howard
Shaw. "If you will take it with a salary of say, $2,000, I will go
ahead and try to see what I can do. We must not let the society down
into _feeble_ hands.... Don't say _no_, for the _life_ of _you_, for
if Mrs. Catt _persists_ in going out, we shall simply _have_ to
_accept it_ and we must _tide over_ with the _best material_ that we
have, and _you are the best_, and would you have taken office _four
years ago_, you would have been elected over-whelmingly."[442]
Anna could not refuse Aunt Susan, and when she was elected with Mrs.
Catt as vice-president, Susan breathed freely again.
It warmed Susan's heart to enter the convention on her eighty-fourth
birthday to a thundering welcome, to banter with Mrs. Upton who called
her to the platform, and to stop the applause with a smile and "There
now, girls, that's enough."[443] Nothing could have been more
appropriate for her birthday than the Colorado jubilee over which she
presided and which gave irrefutable evidence of the success of woman
suffrage in that state. There was rejoicing too over Australia, where
women had been voting since 1902 and over the new hope in Europe, in
Denmark, where women had chosen her birthday to stage a demonstration
in favor of the pending franchise bill.
For the last time, she spoke to a Senate committee on the woman
suffrage amendment. Standing before these indifferent men, a tired
warrior at the end of a long hard campaign, she reminded them that she
alone remained of those who thirty-five years before, in 1869, had
appealed to Congress for justice. "And I," she added, "shall not be
able to come much longer.
"We have waited," she told them. "We stood aside for the Negro; we
waited for the millions of immigrants; now we must wait till the
Hawaiians, the Filipinos, and the Puerto Ricans are enfranchised; then
no doubt the Cubans will have their turn. For all these ignorant,
alien peoples, educated women have been compelled to stand aside and
wait!" Then with mounting impatience, she asked them, "How long will
this injustice, this outrage continue?"[444]
Their answer to her was silence. They sent no report to the Senate on
the woman suffrage amendment. Yet she was able to say to a reporter of
the New York _Sun_, "I have never lost my faith, not for a moment in
fifty years."[445]
FOOTNOTES:
[422] Rachel Foster Avery, Ed., _National Council of Women_, 1891
(Philadelphia, 1891), p. 229.
[423] Dec. 1, 1898, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library.
Mrs. Elnora Babcock of New York was in charge of the press bureau.
[424] Miss Anthony was enrolled as a member of the Knights of Labor
and invited this organization to send delegates to the International
Council of Women in 1888.
[425] To Ellen Wright Garrison, 1900, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith
College.
[426] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1137. A few years later, militant
suffragists, led by Emmeline Pankhurst, were active in London. Mrs.
Pankhurst heard Miss Anthony speak in Manchester in 1904.
[427] Ida Husted Harper Ms., Catharine Waugh McCulloch Papers,
Radcliffe Women's Archives.
[428] Nov. 20, 1899, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library.
[429] _History of Woman Suffrage_, IV, p. 385. Miss Anthony was "moved
up," as she expressed it, to Honorary President.
[430] Peck, Catt, p. 107, Washington _Post_ quotation.
[431] To Laura Clay, April 15, 1900, University of Kentucky Library,
Lexington, Kentucky.
[432] _Ibid._, March 15, 1900.
[433] _Ibid._
[434] _Ibid._, Sept. 7, 1900.
[435] Ms., Diary, Nov. 10, 1900.
[436] _Ibid._, Sept. 26, 1900. A separate woman's college was
established at the University of Rochester and not until 1952 were the
men's and women's colleges merged.
[437] May 20, 1901, Note, Susan B. Anthony Memorial Collection,
Rochester, New York.
[438] _History of Woman Suffrage_, V, pp. 741-742.
[439] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1263.
[440] Oct. 28, 1902, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library.
[441] Oct. 27, 1904, Elizabeth Smith Miller Collection, New York
Public Library. A few years later, Mrs. Blatch made a vital
contribution to the cause through the Women's Political Union which
she organized and which brought more militant methods and new life
into the woman suffrage campaign in New York State.
[442] Jan. 27, 1904, Lucy E. Anthony Collection. Mrs. Blake who had
been a candidate in 1900 had by this time formed her own organization,
the National Legislative League.
[443] _History of Woman Suffrage_, V, p. 99.
[444] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1308.
[445] _Ibid._
SUSAN B. ANTHONY OF THE WORLD
Susan was on the ocean in May 1904 with her sister Mary and a group of
good friends, headed for a meeting of the International Council of
Women in Berlin. What drew her to Berlin was the plan initiated by
Carrie Chapman Catt to form an International Woman Suffrage Alliance
prior to the meetings of the International Council. This had been
Susan's dream and Mrs. Stanton's in 1883, when they first conferred
with women of other countries regarding an international woman
suffrage organization and found only the women of England ready to
unite on such a radical program. Now that women had worked together
successfully in the International Council for sixteen years on other
less controversial matters relating to women, she and Mrs. Catt were
confident that a few of them at least were willing to unite to demand
the vote.
Chosen as a matter of course to preside over this gathering of
suffragists in Berlin, Susan received an enthusiastic welcome. For her
it was a momentous occasion, and eager to spread news of the meeting
far and wide, she could not understand the objections of many of the
delegates to the presence of reporters who they feared might send out
sensational copy.
"My friends, what are we here for?" she asked her more timid
colleagues. "We have come from many countries, travelled thousands of
miles to form an organization for a great international work, and do
we want to keep it a secret from the public? No; welcome all reporters
who want to come, the more, the better. Let all we say and do here be
told far and wide. Let the people everywhere know that in Berlin women
from all parts of the world have banded themselves together to demand
political freedom. I rejoice in the presence of these reporters, and
instead of excluding them from our meetings let us help them to all
the information we can and ask them to give it the widest
publicity."[446]
This won the battle for the reporters, who gave her rousing applause,
and the news flashed over the wires was sympathetic, dignified, and
abundant. It told the world of the formation of the International
Woman Suffrage Alliance by women from the United States, Great
Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Norway, and
Denmark, "to secure the enfranchisement of women of all nations." It
praised the honorary president, Susan B. Anthony, and the American
women who took over the leadership of this international venture,
Carrie Chapman Catt, the president, and Rachel Foster Avery,
corresponding secretary.
To celebrate the occasion, German suffragists called a public mass
meeting, and Susan, eager to rejoice with them, was surprised to find
members of the International Council disgruntled and accusing the
International Woman Suffrage Alliance of stealing their thunder and
casting the dark shadow of woman suffrage over their conference. To
placate them and restore harmony, she stayed away from this public
meeting, but she could not control the demand for her presence.
"Where is Susan B. Anthony?" were the first words spoken as the mass
meeting opened. Then immediately the audience rose and burst into
cheers which continued without a break for ten minutes. Anna Howard
Shaw there on the platform and deeply moved by this tribute to Aunt
Susan, later described how she felt: "Every second of that time I
seemed to see Miss Anthony alone in her hotel room, longing with all
her big heart to be with us, as we longed to have her.... Afterwards,
when we burst in upon her and told her of the great demonstration, the
mere mention of her name had caused, her lips quivered and her brave
old eyes filled with tears."[447]
The next morning her "girls" brought her the Berlin newspapers,
translating for her the report of the meeting and these heart-warming
lines, "The Americans call her 'Aunt Susan.' She is our 'Aunt Susan'
too."
This was but a foretaste of her reception throughout her stay in
Berlin. To the International Council, she was "Susan B. Anthony of the
World," the woman of the hour, whom all wanted to meet. Every time she
entered the conference hall, the audience rose and remained standing
until she was seated. Every mention of her name brought forth cheers.
The many young women, acting as ushers, were devoted to her and eager
to serve her. They greeted her by kissing her hand. Embarrassed at
first by such homage, she soon responded by kissing them on the
cheek.
[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony at the age of eighty-five]
The Empress Victoria Augusta, receiving the delegates in the Royal
Palace, singled out Susan, and instead of following the custom of
kissing the Empress's hand, Susan bowed as she would to any
distinguished American, explaining that she was a Quaker and did not
understand the etiquette of the court. The Empress praised Susan's
great work, and unwilling to let such an opportunity slip by, Susan
offered the suggestion that Emperor William who had done so much to
build up his country might now wish to raise the status of German
women. To this the Empress replied with a smile, "The gentlemen are
very slow to comprehend this great movement."[448]
When the talented Negro, Mary Church Terrell, addressing the
International Council in both German and French, received an ovation,
Susan's cup of joy was filled to the brim, for she glimpsed the bright
promise of a world without barriers of sex or race.
* * * * *
The newspapers welcomed her home, and in her own comfortable sitting
room she read Rochester's greeting in the _Democrat and Chronicle_,
"There are woman suffragists and anti-suffragists, but all Rochester
people, irrespective of opinion ... are Anthony men and women. We
admire and esteem one so single-minded, earnest and unselfish, who,
with eighty-four years to her credit, is still too busy and useful to
think of growing old."[449]
Her happiness over this welcome was clouded, however, by the serious
illness of her brother Daniel, and she and Mary hurried to Kansas to
see him. Two months later he passed away. Now only she and Mary were
left of all the large Anthony family. Without Daniel, the world seemed
empty. His strength of character, independence, and sympathy with her
work had comforted and encouraged her all through her life. A fearless
editor, a successful businessman, a politician with principles, he had
played an important role in Kansas, and proud of him, she cherished
the many tributes published throughout the country.
Courageously she now picked up the threads of her life. Her precious
National American Woman Suffrage Association was out of her hands, but
she still had the _History of Woman Suffrage_ to distribute, and it
gave her a great sense of accomplishment to hand on to future
generations this record of women's struggle for freedom.[450]