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SUSAN B. ANTHONY

REBEL, CRUSADER, HUMANITARIAN

BY ALMA LUTZ

ZENGER PUBLISHING CO. INC. BOX 9883, WASHINGTON DC 20015

[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony]

Alma Lutz was born and brought up in North Dakota, graduated from theEmma Willard School and Vassar College, and attended the BostonUniversity School of Business Administration. She has written numerousarticles and pamphlets and for many years has been a contributor to_The Christian Science Monitor_. Active in organizations working forthe political, civil, and economic rights of women, she has also beeninterested in preserving the records of women's role in history andserves on the Advisory Board of the Radcliffe Women's Archives. MissLutz is the author of _Emma Willard, Daughter of Democracy_ (1929), _Created Equal, A Biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton_ (1940), _Challenging Years, The Memoirs of Harriot Stanton Blatch_, withHarriot Stanton Blatch (1940), and the editor of _With Love Jane, Letters from American Women on the War Fronts_ (1945). 

© 1959 by Alma LutzMember of the Authors League of America

Published by arrangement withBeacon PressAll rights reserved. 

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Lutz, Alma. Susan B. Anthony: rebel, crusader, humanitarian. 

Reprint of the ed. Published by Beacon Press, Boston. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Anthony, Susan Brownell, 1820-1906. [JK1899. A6L8 1975] 324'. 3'0924 [B] 75-37764ISBN 0-89201-017-7

Printed in the United States of America

_To the young women of today_

PREFACE

To strive for liberty and for a democratic way of life has always beena noble tradition of our country. Susan B. Anthony followed thistradition. Convinced that the principle of equal rights for all, asstated in the Declaration of Independence, must be expressed in thelaws of a true republic, she devoted her life to the establishment ofthis ideal. 

Because she recognized in Negro slavery and in the legal bondage ofwomen flagrant violations of this principle, she became an active, courageous, effective antislavery crusader and a champion of civil andpolitical rights for women. She saw women's struggle for freedom fromlegal restrictions as an important phase in the development ofAmerican democracy. To her this struggle was never a battle of thesexes, but a battle such as any freedom-loving people would wage forcivil and political rights. 

While her goals for women were only partially realized in herlifetime, she prepared the soil for the acceptance not only of herlong-hoped-for federal woman suffrage amendment but for a worldwiderecognition of human rights, now expressed in the United NationsCharter and the Declaration of Human Rights. She looked forward to thetime when throughout the world there would be no discriminationbecause of race, color, religion, or sex. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

"The letters of a person . .. , " said Thomas Jefferson, "form the onlyfull and genuine journal of his life. " Susan B. Anthony's letters, hundreds of them, preserved in libraries and private collections, andher diaries have been the basis of this biography, and I acknowledgemy indebtedness to the following libraries and their helpfullibrarians: the American Antiquarian Society; the Bancroft Library ofthe University of California; the Boston Public Library; the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery; the Indiana State Library; theKansas Historical Society; the Library of Congress; the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library, whichhas been transferred to the Henry E. Huntington Library; the New YorkPublic Library; the New York State Library; the Ohio State Library;the Radcliffe Women's Archives; the Seneca Falls Historical Society;the Smith College Library; the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Inc. , Rochester, New York; the University of Rochester Library; theUniversity of Kentucky Library; and the Vassar College Library. 

I am particularly indebted to Lucy E. Anthony, who asked me to write abiography of her aunt, lent me her aunt's diaries, and was mostgenerous with her records and personal recollections. To her and toher sister, Mrs. Ann Anthony Bacon, I am very grateful for photographsand for permission to quote from Susan B. Anthony's diaries and fromher letters and manuscripts. 

Ida Husted Harper's _Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony_, written incollaboration with Susan B. Anthony, and the _History of WomanSuffrage_, compiled by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Ida Husted Harper, have been invaluable. Asmany of the letters and documents used in the preparation of thesebooks were destroyed, they have preserved an important record of thework of Susan B. Anthony and of the woman's rights movement. 

I am especially grateful to Martha Taylor Howard for her unfailinginterest and for the use of the valuable Susan B. Anthony MemorialCollection which she initiated and developed in Rochester, New York;and to Una R. Winter for her interest and for the use of her Susan B. Anthony Collection, most of which is now in the Henry E. HuntingtonLibrary. 

I thank Edna M. Stantial for permission to examine and quote from theBlackwell Papers; Anna Dann Mason for permission to read herreminiscences and the many letters written to her by Susan B. Anthony;Ellen Garrison for permission to quote from letters of Lucretia Mottand Martha C. Wright; Eleanor W. Thompson for copies of Susan B. Anthony's letters to Amelia Bloomer; Henry R. Selden II whosegrandfather was Susan B. Anthony's lawyer during her trial for voting;Judge John Van Voorhis whose grandfather was associated with JudgeSelden in Miss Anthony's defense; William B. Brown for informationabout the early history of Adams, Massachusetts, the Susan B. Anthonybirthplace, and the Friends Meeting House in Adams; Dr. James HarveyYoung for information about Anna E. Dickinson; Margaret Lutz Fogg forhelp in connection with the trial of Susan B. Anthony; Dr. BlakeMcKelvey, City Historian of Rochester; Clara Sayre Selden and WheelerChapin Case of the Rochester Historical Society; the grand-nieces ofSusan B. Anthony, Marion and Florence Mosher; Matilda Joslyn Gage II;Florence L. C. Kitchelt; and Rose Arnold Powell. 

I thank _The Christian Science Monitor_ for permission to use portionsof an article published on October 24, 1958. 

I am especially grateful to A. Marguerite Smith for her constructivecriticism of the manuscript and her unfailing encouragement. 

 ALMA LUTZ

_Highmeadow__Berlin, New York_

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 QUAKER HERITAGE 1

 WIDENING HORIZONS 15

 FREEDOM TO SPEAK 28

 A PURSE OF HER OWN 39

 NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS 56

 THE TRUE WOMAN 67

 THE ZEALOT 79

 A WAR FOR FREEDOM 92

 THE NEGRO'S HOUR 108

 TIMES THAT TRIED WOMEN'S SOULS 125

 HE ONE WORD OF THE HOUR 138

 WORK, WAGES, AND THE BALLOT 149

 THE INADEQUATE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT 159

 A HOUSE DIVIDED 169

 A NEW SLANT ON THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT 180

 TESTING THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT 198

 "IS IT A CRIME FOR A CITIZEN . .. TO VOTE?" 209

 SOCIAL PURITY 217

 A FEDERAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT 226

 RECORDING WOMEN'S HISTORY 235

 IMPETUS FROM THE WEST 241

 VICTORIES IN THE WEST 252

 LIQUOR INTERESTS ALERT FOREIGN-BORN VOTERS AGAINST WOMAN SUFFRAGE 266

 AUNT SUSAN AND HER GIRLS 274

 PASSING ON THE TORCH 285

 SUSAN B. ANTHONY OF THE WORLD 299

 NOTES 311

 BIBLIOGRAPHY 327

 INDEX 335

TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS

 Susan B. Anthony at the age of thirty-five _Frontispiece_ (From a daguerrotype, courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N. Y. )

 Daniel Anthony, father of Susan B. Anthony 2 (From _The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony_ by Ida Husted Harper)

 Lucy Read Anthony, mother of Susan B. Anthony 3 (From _The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony_ by Ida Husted Harper)

 Susan B. Anthony Homestead, Adams, Massachusetts 5 (The Smith Studio, Adams, Massachusetts)

 Frederick Douglass 22

 Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her "Bloomer costume" 27 (From _The Lily_)

 Lucy Stone 29 (From _Lucy Stone_ by Alice Stone Blackwell. Courtesy Little, Brown and Company)

 Susan B. Anthony at the age of thirty-four 31 (Courtesy Susan B. Anthony Memorial, Inc. , Rochester, New York)

 James and Lucretia Mott 33 (From _James and Lucretia Mott_ by Anna D. Hallowell. Courtesy Houghton Mifflin Company)

 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her son, Henry 40

 Ernestine Rose 42 (From _History of Woman Suffrage_ by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage)

 Parker Pillsbury 49 (From _William Lloyd Garrison_ by His Children)

 Merritt Anthony 57 (Courtesy Mrs. Ann Anthony Bacon)

 Susan B. Anthony, 1856 68 (Courtesy Mrs. Ann Anthony Bacon)

 Lucy Stone and her daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell 72 (Courtesy Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California)

 William Lloyd Garrison 86 (From _William Lloyd Garrison and His Times_ by Oliver Johnson)

 Susan B. Anthony 97

 Daniel Anthony, brother of Susan B. Anthony 110 (Courtesy Mrs. Ann Anthony Bacon)

 Wendell Phillips 114 (From _William Lloyd Garrison_ by His Children)

 George Francis Train 132 (Courtesy New York Public Library)

 Anna E. Dickinson 144 (From _History of Woman Suffrage_ by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage)

 Paulina Wright Davis 165

 Isabella Beecher Hooker 167

 Victoria C. Woodhull 181

 Susan B. Anthony, 1871 187 (Courtesy Mrs. Ann Anthony Bacon)

 Judge Henry R. Selden 203 (Courtesy Henry R. Selden II)

 "The Woman Who Dared" 206 (New York _Daily Graphic_, June 5, 1873)

 Aaron A. Sargent 229 (Courtesy Library of Congress)

 Clara Bewick Colby 232 (From _History of Woman Suffrage_ by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage)

 Matilda Joslyn Gage 236 (From _History of Woman Suffrage_ by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage)

 Anna Howard Shaw 248 (From a photograph by Mary Carnel)

 Harriot Stanton Blatch 250 (Courtesy Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California)

 The Anthony home, Rochester, New York 255 (Courtesy Susan B. Anthony Memorial, Inc. , Rochester, New York)

 Susan B. Anthony at her desk 257 (Courtesy Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts)

 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton 259

 Elizabeth Smith Miller, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 262 and Susan B. Anthony

 Ida Husted Harper 271 (Courtesy Library of Congress)

 Rachel Foster Avery 275 (Courtesy Library of Congress)

 Harriet Taylor Upton 276 (Courtesy Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California)

 Carrie Chapman Catt 289 (Courtesy Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts)

 Quotation in the handwriting of Susan B. Anthony 297

 Susan B. Anthony at the age of eighty-five 301 (From a photograph by J. E. Hale)

 Susan B. Anthony, 1905 309 (From a photograph by Ellis)

QUAKER HERITAGE

"If Sally Ann knows more about weaving than Elijah, " reasonedeleven-year-old Susan with her father, "then why don't you make heroverseer?"

"It would never do, " replied Daniel Anthony as a matter of course. "Itwould never do to have a woman overseer in the mill. "

This answer did not satisfy Susan and she often thought about it. Toenter the mill, to stand quietly and look about, was the best kind ofentertainment, for she was fascinated by the whir of the looms, by thenimble fingers of the weavers, and by the general air of efficiency. Admiringly she watched Sally Ann Hyatt, the tall capable weaver fromVermont. When the yarn on the beam was tangled or there was somethingwrong with the machinery, Elijah, the overseer, always called out toSally Ann, "I'll tend your loom, if you'll look after this. " Sally Annnever failed to locate the trouble or to untangle the yarn. Yet shewas never made overseer, and this continued to puzzle Susan. [1]

The manufacture of cotton was a new industry, developing with greatpromise in the United States, when Susan B. Anthony was born onFebruary 15, 1820, in the wide valley at the foot of Mt. Greylock, near Adams, Massachusetts. Enterprising young men like her father, Daniel Anthony, saw a potential cotton mill by the side of everyrushing brook, and young women, eager to earn the first money theycould call their own, were leaving the farms, for a few months atleast, to work in the mills. Cotton cloth was the new sensation andthe demand for it was steadily growing. Brides were proud to display afew cotton sheets instead of commonplace homespun linen. 

When Susan was two years old, her father built a cotton factory oftwenty-six looms beside the brook which ran through Grandfather Read'smeadow, hauling the cotton forty miles by wagon from Troy, New York. The millworkers, most of them young girls from Vermont, boarded, aswas the custom, in the home of the millowner; Susan's mother, LucyRead Anthony, although she had three small daughters to care for, Guelma, Susan, and Hannah, boarded eleven of the millworkers withonly the help of a thirteen-year-old girl who worked for her afterschool hours. Lucy Anthony cooked their meals on the hearth of the bigkitchen fireplace, and in the large brick oven beside it baked crispbrown loaves of bread. In addition, washing, ironing, mending, andspinning filled her days. But she was capable and strong and was doingonly what all women in this new country were expected to do. Shetaught her young daughters to help her, and Susan, even before she wassix, was very useful; by the time she was ten she could cook a goodmeal and pack a dinner pail. 

[Illustration: Daniel Anthony, father of Susan B. Anthony]

 * * * * *

Hard work and skill were respected as Susan grew up in the rapidlyexpanding young republic which less than fifty years before had beenfounded and fought for. Settlers, steadily pushing westward, had builtnew states out of the wilderness, adding ten to the original thirteen. Everywhere the leaven of democracy was working and men were puttinginto practice many of the principles so boldly stated in theDeclaration of Independence, claiming for themselves equal rights andopportunities. The new states entered the Union with none of thetraditional property and religious limitations on the franchise, butwith manhood suffrage and all voters eligible for office. The olderstates soon fell into line, Massachusetts in 1820 removing propertyqualifications for voters. Before long, throughout the United States, all free white men were enfranchised, leaving only women, Negroes, andIndians without the full rights of citizenship. 

[Illustration: Lucy Read Anthony, mother of Susan B. Anthony]

Although women freeholders had voted in some of the colonies and inNew Jersey as late as 1807, [2] just as in England in the fifteenthfranchise had gradually found its way into the statutes, and women'srights as citizens were ignored, in spite of the contribution they hadmade to the defense and development of the new nation. However, European travelers, among them De Tocqueville, recognized that thesurvival of the New World experiment in government and the prosperityand strength of the people were due in large measure to thesuperiority of American women. A few women had urged their claims:Abigail Adams asked her husband, a member of the Continental Congress, "to remember the ladies" in the "new code of laws"; and Hannah LeeCorbin of Virginia pleaded with her brother, Richard Henry Lee, tomake good the principle of "no taxation without representation" byenfranchising widows with property. [3]

Yet the legal bondage of women continued to be overlooked. It seemed aless obvious threat to free institutions and democratic governmentthan the Negro in slavery. In fact, Negro slavery presented a problemwhich demanded attention again and again, flaring up alarmingly in1820, the year Susan B. Anthony was born, when Missouri was admittedto the Union as a slave state. [4]

 * * * * *

These were some of the forces at work in the minds of Americans duringSusan's childhood. Her father, a liberal Quaker, was concerned overthe extension of slavery, and she often heard him say that he tried toavoid purchasing cotton raised by slave labor. This early impressionof the evil of slavery was never erased. 

The Quakers' respect for women's equality with men before God alsoleft its mark on young Susan. As soon as she was old enough she wentregularly to Meeting with her father, for all of the Anthonys wereQuakers. They had migrated to western Massachusetts from Rhode Island, and there on the frontier had built prosperous farms, comfortablehomes, and a meeting house where they could worship God in their ownway. Susan, sitting with the women and children on the hand-hewnbenches near the big fireplace in the meeting house[5] which herancestors had built, found peace and consecration in the simpleunordered service, in the long reverent silence broken by both the menand the women in the congregation as they were led to say a prayer orgive out a helpful message. Forty families now worshiped here, thewomen sitting on one side and the men on the other; but women tooktheir places with men in positions of honor, Susan's own grandmother, Hannah Latham Anthony, an elder, sitting in the "high seat, " and heraunt, Hannah Anthony Hoxie, preaching as the spirit moved her. Withthis valuation of women accepted as a matter of course in her churchand family circle, Susan took it for granted that it existedeverywhere. 

Although her father was a devout Friend, she discovered that he hadthe reputation of thinking for himself, following the "inner light"even when its leading differed from the considered judgment of hisfellow Quakers. For this he became a hero to her, especially after sheheard the romantic story of his marriage to Lucy Read who was not aQuaker. The Anthonys and the Reads had been neighbors for years, andLucy was one of the pupils at the "home school" which GrandfatherHumphrey Anthony had built for his children on the farm, under theweeping willow at the front gate. Daniel and Lucy were schoolmatesuntil Daniel at nineteen was sent to Richard Mott's Friends' boardingschool at Nine Partners on the Hudson. When he returned as a teacher, he found his old playmate still one of the pupils, but now a beautifultall young woman with deep blue eyes and glossy brown hair. Full offun, a good dancer, and always dressed in the prettiest clothes, shewas the most popular girl in the neighborhood. Promptly Daniel Anthonyfell in love with her, but an almost insurmountable obstacle stood inthe way: Quakers were not permitted to "marry out of Meeting. " This, however, did not deter Daniel. 

[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony Homestead, Adams, Massachusetts]

It was harder for Lucy to make up her mind. She enjoyed parties, dances, and music. She had a full rich voice, and as she sat at herspinning wheel, singing and spinning, she often wished that she could"go into a ten acre lot with the bars down"[6] and let her voice out. If she married Daniel, she would have to give all this up, but shedecided in favor of Daniel. A few nights before the wedding, she wentto her last party and danced until four in the morning while Daniellooked on and patiently waited until she was ready to leave. 

For his transgression of marrying out of Meeting, Daniel had to facethe elders as soon as he returned from his wedding trip. They weighedthe matter carefully, found him otherwise sincere and earnest, anddecided not to turn him out. Lucy gave up her dancing and her singing. She gave up her pretty bright-colored dresses for plain somberclothes, but she did not adopt the Quaker dress or use the "plainspeech. " She went to meeting with Daniel but never became a Quaker, feeling always that she could not live up to their strict standard ofrighteousness. [7]

This was Susan's heritage--Quaker discipline and austerity lightenedby her father's independent spirit and by the kindly understanding ofher mother who had not forgotten her own fun-loving girlhood; anenvironment where men and women were partners in church and at home, where hard physical work was respected, where help for the needy andunfortunate was spontaneous, and where education was regarded as soimportant that Grandfather Anthony built a school for his children andthe neighbors' in his front yard. Her childhood was close enough tothe Revolution to make Grandfather Read's part in it very real and asource of great pride. Eagerly and often she listened to the story ofhow he enlisted in the Continental army as soon as the news of theBattle of Lexington reached Cheshire and served with outstandingbravery under Arnold at Quebec, Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga, andColonel Stafford at Bennington while his young wife waited anxiouslyfor him throughout the long years of the war. 

 * * * * *

The wide valley in the Berkshire Hills where Susan grew up made alasting impression on her. There was beauty all about her--the fruittrees blooming in the spring, the meadows white with daisies, thebrook splashing over the rocks and sparkling in the summer sun, theflaming colors of autumn, the strength and companionship of the hillswhen the countryside was white with snow. She seldom failed to watchthe sun set behind Greylock. 

Her father's cotton mill flourished. Regarded as one of the mostpromising, successful young men of the district, he soon attracted theattention of Judge John McLean, a cotton manufacturer of Battenville, New York, who, eager to enlarge his mills, saw in Daniel Anthony anable manager. Daniel, always ready to take the next step ahead, accepted McLean's offer, and on a sunny July day in 1826, Susan drovewith her family through the hills forty-four miles to the new world ofBattenville. 

Here in the home of Judge McLean, she saw Negroes for the first time, Negroes working to earn their freedom. Startled by their black faces, she was a little afraid, but when her father explained that in theSouth they could be sold like cattle and torn from their families, herfear turned to pity. 

At the district school, taught by a woman in summer and by a man inthe winter, she learned to sew, spell, read, and write, and she wantedto study long division but the schoolmaster, unable to teach it, sawno reason why a woman should care for such knowledge. Her father, thenrealizing the need of better education for his five children, Guelma, Susan, Hannah, Daniel, and Mary, established a school for them in thenew brick building where he had opened a store. Later on when theirnew brick house was finished, he set aside a large room for theschool, and here for the first time in that district the pupils hadseparate seats, stools without backs, instead of the usual benchesaround the schoolroom walls. He engaged as teachers young women whohad studied a year or two in a female seminary; and because femaleseminaries were rare in those days, women teachers with up-to-datetraining were hard to find. Only a few visionaries believed in theeducation of women. Nearby Emma Willard's recently established TroyFemale Seminary was being watched with interest and suspicion. MaryLyon, who had not yet founded her own seminary at Mt. Holyoke, wasteaching at Zilpha Grant's school in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and oneof her pupils, Mary Perkins, came to Battenville to teach the Anthonychildren. Mary Perkins brought new methods and new studies to thelittle school. She introduced a primer with small black illustrationswhich fascinated Susan. She taught the children to recite poetry, drilled them regularly in calisthenics, and longed to add music aswell, but Daniel Anthony forbade this, for Quakers believed that musicmight seduce the thoughts of the young. So Susan, although she oftenhad a song in her heart, had to repress it and never knew the joy ofsinging the songs of childhood. 

Her father, looking upon the millworkers as part of his family, started an evening school for them, often teaching it himself orcalling in the family teacher. He organized a temperance society amongthe workers, and all signed a pledge never to drink distilled liquor. When he opened a store in the new brick building, he refused to sellliquor, although Judge McLean warned him it would ruin his trade. Daniel Anthony went even further. He resolved not to serve liquor whenthe millworkers' houses were built and the neighbors came to the"raising. " Again Judge McLean protested, feeling certain that the menand boys would demand their gin and their rum, but Susan and hersisters helped their mother serve lemonade, tea, coffee, doughnuts, and gingerbread in abundance. The men joked a bit about the lack ofstrong drink which they expected with every meal, but they did notturn away from the good substitutes which were offered and they wereon hand for the next "raising. " Hearing all of this discussed at home, Susan, again proud of her father, ardently advocated the cause oftemperance. 

 * * * * *

The mill was still of great interest to her and she watched everyoperation closely in her spare time, longing to try her hand at thework. One day when a "spooler" was ill, Susan and her sister Hannaheagerly volunteered to take her place. Their father was ready to letthem try, pleased by their interest and curious to see what they coulddo, but their mother protested that the mill was no place forchildren. Finally Susan's earnest pleading won her mother's reluctantconsent, and the two girls drew lots for the job. It went totwelve-year-old Susan on the condition that she divide her earningswith Hannah. Every day for two weeks she went early to the mill in herplain homespun dress, her straight hair neatly parted and smoothedover her ears. Proudly she tended the spools. She was skillful andquick, and received the regular wage of $1. 50 a week, which shedivided with Hannah, buying with her share six pale blue coffee cupsfor her mother who had allowed her this satisfying adventure. 

A few weeks before her thirteenth birthday, Susan became a member ofthe Society of Friends which met in nearby Easton, New York, andlearned to search her heart and ask herself, "Art thou faithful?"Parties, dancing, and entertainments were generally ruled out of herlife as sinful, and rarely were a temptation, but occasionally hermother, remembering her own good times, let her and her sisters go toparties at the homes of their Presbyterian neighbors, and for this herfather was criticized at Friends' Meeting. Condemning bright colors, frills, and jewelry as vain and worldly, Susan accepted plain somberclothing as a mark of righteousness, and when she deviated to theextent of wearing the Scotch-plaid coat which her mother had boughther, she wondered if the big rent torn in it by a dog might not bedeserved punishment for her pride in wearing it. 

That same year, the family moved into their new brick house of fifteenrooms, with hard-finish plaster walls and light green woodwork, thefinest house in that part of the country. Here Susan's brother Merrittwas born the next April, and her two-year-old sister, Eliza, died. 

Susan, Guelma, and Hannah continued their studies longer than mostgirls in the neighborhood, for Quakers not only encouraged butdemanded education for both boys and girls. As soon as Susan and hersister Guelma were old enough, they taught the "home" school in thesummer when the younger children attended, and then went furtherafield to teach in nearby villages. At fifteen Susan was teaching adistrict school for $1. 50 a week and board, and although it was hardfor her to be away from home, she accepted it as a Friend's duty toprovide good education for children. Now Presbyterian neighborscriticized her father, protesting that well-to-do young ladies shouldnot venture into paid work. 

Daniel Anthony was now a wealthy man, his factory the largest and mostprosperous in that part of the country, and he could afford more andbetter education for his daughters. He sent Guelma, the eldest, toDeborah Moulson's Friends' Seminary near Philadelphia, where for $125a year "the inculcation of the principles of Humility, Morality, andVirtue" received particular attention; and when Guelma was asked tostay on a second year as a teacher, he suggested that Susan join herthere as a pupil. 

 * * * * *

It was a long journey from Battenville to Philadelphia in 1837, andwhen Susan left her home on a snowy afternoon with her father, shefelt as if the parting would be forever. Her first glimpse of theworld beyond Battenville interested her immensely until her fatherleft her at the seminary, and then she confessed to her diary, "Ohwhat pangs were felt. It seemed impossible for me to part with him. Icould not speak to bid him farewell. "[8] She tried to comfort herselfby writing letters, and wrote so many and so much that Guelma oftenexclaimed, "Susan, thee writes too much; thee should learn to beconcise. " As it was a rule of the seminary that each letter must firstbe written out carefully on a slate, inspected by Deborah Moulson, then copied with care, inspected again, and finally sent out afterfour or five days of preparation, all spontaneity was stifled and herletters were stilted and overvirtuous. This censorship left its mark, and years later she confessed, "Whenever I take my pen in hand, Ialways seem to be mounted on stilts. "[9]

To her diary she could confide her real feelings--her discouragementover her lack of improvement and her inability to understand her many"sins, " such as not dotting an _i_, too much laughter, or smiling ather friends instead of reproving them for frivolous conduct. Shewrote, "Thought so much of my resolutions to do better in the futurethat even my dreams were filled with these desires. .. . Although I havebeen guilty of much levity and nonsensical conversation, and have alsoadmitted thoughts to occupy my mind which should have been far distantfrom it, I do not consider myself as having committed any wilfuloffense but perhaps the reason I cannot see my own defects is becausemy heart is hardened. "[10]

The girls studied a variety of subjects, arithmetic, algebra, literature, chemistry, philosophy, physiology, astronomy, andbookkeeping. Men came to the school to conduct some of the classes, and Deborah Moulson was also assisted by several student teachers, oneof whom, Lydia Mott, became Susan's lifelong friend. Susan workedhard, for she was a conscientious child, but none of her effortsseemed to satisfy Deborah Moulson, who was a hard taskmaster. Herreproofs cut deep, and once when Susan protested that she was alwayscensured while Guelma was praised, Deborah Moulson sternly replied, "Thy sister Guelma does the best she is capable of, but thou dost not. Thou hast greater abilities and I demand of thee the best of thycapacity. "[11]

Mail from home was a bright spot, bringing into those busy austeredays news of her friends, and when she read that one of them hadmarried an old widower with six children, she reflected sagely, "Ishould think any female would rather live and die an old maid. "[12]

Then came word that her father's business had been so affected by thefinancial depression that the family would have to give up their homein Battenville. Sorrowfully she wrote in her diary, "O can I everforget that loved residence in Battenville, and no more to call ithome seems impossible. "[13] It helped little to realize that countlessother families throughout the country were facing the future pennilessbecause banks had failed, mills were shut down, and work on canals andrailroads had ceased. In April 1838, Daniel Anthony came to theseminary to take his daughters home. 

Susan felt keenly her father's sorrow over the failure of his businessand the loss of the home he had built for his family, and she resolvedat once to help out by teaching in Union Village, New York. In May1838, she wrote in her diary, "On last evening . .. I again left myhome to mingle with strangers which seems to be my sad lot. Separationwas rendered more trying on account of the embarrassing condition ofour business affairs, an inventory was expected to be taken today ofour furniture by assignees. .. . Spent this day in school, found itsmall and quite disorderly. O, may my patience hold out to perseverewithout intermission. "[14]

Her patience did hold out, and also her courage, as the news came fromhome telling her how everything had to be sold to satisfy thecreditors, the furniture, her mother's silver spoons, their clothingand books, the flour, tea, coffee, and sugar in the pantries. Sherejoiced to hear that Uncle Joshua Read from Palatine Bridge, NewYork, had come to the rescue, had bought their most treasured andneeded possessions and turned them over to her mother. 

On a cold blustery March day in 1839, when she was nineteen, Susanmoved with her family two miles down the Battenkill to the littlesettlement of Hardscrabble, later called Center Falls, where herfather owned a satinet factory and grist mill, built in moreprosperous times. These were now heavily mortgaged but he hoped tosave them. They moved into a large house which had been a tavern inthe days when lumber had been cut around Hardscrabble. It wasdisappointing after their fine brick house in Battenville, but theymade it comfortable, and their love for and loyalty to each other madethem a happy family anywhere. As it had been a halfway house on theroad to Troy and travelers continued to stop there asking for a mealor a night's lodging, they took them in, and young Daniel served themfood and nonintoxicating drinks at the old tavern bar. 

Susan, when her school term was over, put her energies into housework, recording in her diary, "Did a large washing today. .. . Spent today atthe spinning wheel. .. . Baked 21 loaves of bread. .. . Wove three yardsof carpet yesterday. "[15]

The attic of the tavern had been finished off for a ballroom withbottles laid under the floor to give a nice tone to the music of thefiddles, and now the young people of the village wanted to hold theirdancing school there. Susan's father, true to his Quaker training, felt obliged to refuse, but when they came the second time to tell himthat the only other place available was a disreputable tavern whereliquor was sold, he relented a little, and talked the matter over withhis wife and daughters. Lucy Anthony, recalling her love of dancing, urged him to let the young people come. Finally he consented on thecondition that Guelma, Hannah, and Susan would not dance. They agreed. Every two weeks all through the winter, the fiddles played in theattic room and the boys and girls of the neighborhood danced theVirginia reel and their rounds and squares, while the three Quakergirls sat around the wall, watching and longing to join in the fun. 

Such frivolous entertainment in the home of a Quaker could not becondoned, and Daniel Anthony was not only severely censured by theFriends but read out of Meeting, "because he kept a place of amusementin his house. " But he did not regret his so-called sin any more thanhe regretted marrying out of Meeting. He continued to attend Friends'Meeting, but grew more and more liberal as the years went by. At thistime, like all Quakers, he refused to vote, not wishing in any way tosupport a government that believed in war, and this influenced Susanwho for some years regarded voting as unimportant. He refused to paytaxes for the same reason, and she often saw him put his pocketbook onthe table and then remark drily to the tax collector, "I shall notvoluntarily pay these taxes. If thee wants to rifle my pocketbook, thee can do so. "[16]

 * * * * *

To help her father with his burden of debt was now Susan's purpose inlife, and in the spring she again left the family circle to teach atEunice Kenyon's Friends' Seminary in New Rochelle, New York. Therewere twenty-eight day pupils and a few boarders at the seminary, andfor long periods while Eunice Kenyon was ill, Susan took full charge. 

She wrote her family all the little details of her life, but theirletters never came often enough to satisfy her. Occasionally shereceived a paper or a letter from Aaron McLean, Judge McLean'sgrandson, who had been her good friend and Guelma's ever since theyhad moved to Battenville. His letters almost always started anargument which both of them continued with zest. After hearing theQuaker preacher, Rachel Barker, she wrote him, "I guess if you wouldhear her you would believe in a woman's preaching. What an absurdnotion that women have not intellectual and moral faculties sufficientfor anything but domestic concerns. "[17]

When New Rochelle welcomed President Van Buren with a parade, bandsplaying, and crowds in the streets, this prim self-righteous youngwoman took no part in this hero worship, but gave vent to herdisapproval in a letter to Aaron. 

Disturbed over the treatment Negroes received at Friends' Meeting inNew Rochelle, she impulsively wrote him, "The people about here areanti-abolitionist and anti everything else that's good. The Friendsraised quite a fuss about a colored man sitting in the meeting house, and some left on account of it. .. . What a lack of Christianity isthis!"[18]

Her school term of fifteen weeks, for which she was paid $30, was overearly in September, just in time for her to be at home for Guelma'swedding to Aaron McLean, and afterward she stayed on to teach thevillage school in Center Falls. This made it possible for her to joinin the social life of the neighborhood. Often the young people droveto nearby villages, twenty buggies in procession. On a drive toSaratoga, her escort asked her to give up teaching to marry him. Sherefused, as she did again a few years later when a Quaker elder triedto entice her with his fine house, his many acres, and his sixty cows. Although she had reached the age of twenty, when most girls felt theyshould be married, she was still particular, and when a friend marrieda man far inferior mentally, she wrote in her diary, "'Tis strange, 'tis passing strange that a girl possessed of common sense should bewilling to marry a lunatic--but so it is. "[19]

During the next few years, both she and Hannah taught school almostcontinuously, for $2 to $2. 50 a week. Time and time again Susanreplaced a man who had been discharged for inefficiency. Although shemade a success of the school, she discovered that she was paid only afourth the salary he had received, and this rankled. 

Almost everywhere except among Quakers, she encountered a falseestimate of women which she instinctively opposed. After spendingseveral months with relatives in Vermont, where she had the unexpectedopportunity of studying algebra, she stopped over for a visit withGuelma and Aaron in Battenville, where Aaron was a successfulmerchant. Eagerly she told them of her latest accomplishment. Aaronwas not impressed. Later at dinner when she offered him the deliciouscream biscuits which she had baked, he remarked with his mosttantalizing air of male superiority, "I'd rather see a woman makebiscuits like these than solve the knottiest problem in algebra. "

"There is no reason, " she retorted, "why she should not be able to doboth. "[20]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Report of the International Council of Women_, 1888 (Washington, 1888), p. 163. 

[2] Charles B. Waite, "Who Were the Voters in the Early History ofThis Country?" _Chicago Law Times_, Oct. , 1888. 

[3] Janet Whitney, _Abigail Adams_ (Boston, 1947), p. 129. In 1776, Abigail Adams wrote her husband, John Adams, at the ContinentalCongress in Philadelphia, "In the new code of laws which I suppose itwill be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember theladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors!Do not put such unlimited powers into the hands of husbands. Rememberall men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care andattention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment arebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which wehave no voice or representation. " Ethel Armes, _Stratford Hall_(Richmond, Va. , 1936), pp. 206-209. 

[4] Under the Missouri Compromise, Maine was admitted as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, and slavery was excluded from all of theLouisiana Purchase, north of latitude 36°31'. 

[5] The meeting house, built in 1783, is still standing. It is ownedby the town of Adams, and cared for by the Adams Society of FriendsDescendants. Susan traced her ancestry to William Anthony of Colognewho migrated to England and during the reign of Edward VI, was madeChief Graver of the Royal Mint and Master of the Scales, holding thisoffice also during the reign of Queen Mary and part of QueenElizabeth's reign. In 1634, one of his descendants, John Anthony, settled in Rhode Island, and just before the Revolution, his greatgrandson, David, Susan's great grandfather, bought land near Adams, Massachusetts, then regarded as the far West. 

[6] Ida Husted Harper, _The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony_(Indianapolis, 1898), I, p. 10. 

[7] Daniel and Susannah Richardson Read gave Lucy and Daniel Anthonyland for their home, midway between the Anthony and Read farms. HereSusan was born in a substantial two-story, frame house, built by herfather. 

[8] Ms. , Diary, 1837. 

[9] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 25. 

[10] Ms. , Diary, Jan. 21, Feb. 10, 1838

[11] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 31. 

[12] Ms. , Diary, Feb. 26, 1838. 

[13] _Ibid. _, Feb. 6, 1838. 

[14] _Ibid. _, May 7, 1838. 

[15] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 36. 

[16] _Ibid. _, p. 37. 

[17] _Ibid. _, p. 40. 

[18] _Ibid. _, p. 39. 

[19] _Ibid. _

[20] _Ibid. _, pp. 43-44. 

WIDENING HORIZONS

Unable to recoup his business losses in Center Falls and losing eventhe satinet factory, Susan's father had looked about in Virginia andMichigan as well as western New York for an opportunity to make afresh start. A farm on the outskirts of Rochester looked promising, and with the money which Lucy Anthony had inherited from GrandfatherRead and which had been held for her by Uncle Joshua Read, the firstpayment had been made on the farm by Uncle Joshua, who held it in hisname and leased it to Daniel. [21] Had it been turned over to Susan'smother, it would have become Daniel Anthony's property under the lawand could have been claimed by his creditors. 

Only Susan, Merritt, and Mary climbed into the stage with theirparents, early in November 1845, on the first lap of their journey totheir new home, near Rochester, New York. Guelma and Hannah[22] wereboth married and settled in homes of their own, and young Daniel, clerking in Lenox, had decided to stay behind. 

After a visit with Uncle Joshua at Palatine Bridge, they boarded aline boat on the Erie Canal, taking with them their gray horse andwagon; and surrounded by their household goods, they moved slowlywestward. Standing beside her father in the warm November sunshine, Susan watched the strong horses on the towpath, plodding patientlyahead, and heard the wash of the water against the prow and the noisygreeting of boat horns. As they passed the snug friendly villagesalong the canal and the wide fertile fields, now brown and bleak afterthe harvest, she wondered what the new farm would be like and what thefuture would bring; and at night when the lights twinkled in thesettlements along the shore, she thought longingly of her old home andthe sisters she had left behind. 

After a journey of several days, they reached Rochester late in theafternoon. Her father took the horse and wagon off the boat, and inthe chill gray dusk drove them three miles over muddy roads to thefarm. It was dark when they arrived, and the house was cold, empty, and dismal, but after the fires were lighted and her mother had cookeda big kettle of cornmeal mush, their spirits revived. Within the nextfew days they transformed it into a cheerful comfortable home. 

The house on a little hill overlooked their thirty-two acres. Back ofit was the barn, a carriage house, and a little blacksmith shop. [23]Looking out over the flat snowy fields toward the curving GeneseeRiver and the church steeples in Rochester, Susan often thoughtwistfully of the blue hills around Center Falls and Battenville and ofthe good times she had had there. 

The winter was lonely for her in spite of the friendliness of theirQuaker neighbors, the De Garmos, and the Quaker families in Rochesterwho called at once to welcome them. Her father found these neighborsvery congenial and they readily interested him in the antislaverymovement, now active in western New York. Within the next few months, several antislavery meetings were held in the Anthony home and openeda new world to Susan. For the first time she heard of the UndergroundRailroad which secretly guided fugitive slaves to Canada and of theLiberty party which was making a political issue of slavery. Shelistened to serious, troubled discussion of the annexation of Texas, bringing more power to the proslavery block, which even theacquisition of free Oregon could not offset. She read antislaverytracts and copies of William Lloyd Garrison's _Liberator_, borrowedfrom Quaker friends; and on long winter evenings, as she sat by thefire sewing, she talked over with her father the issues they raised. 

When spring came and the trees and bushes leafed out, she took moreinterest in the farm, discovering its good points one by one--theflowering quince along the driveway, the pinks bordering the walk tothe front door, the rosebushes in the yard, and cherry trees, currantand gooseberry bushes in abundance. Her father planted peach and appleorchards and worked the "sixpenny farm, "[24] as he called it, to thebest of his ability, but the thirty-two acres seemed very smallcompared with the large Anthony and Read farms in the Berkshires, andhe soon began to look about for more satisfying work. This he found afew years later with the New York Life Insurance Company, thendeveloping its business in western New York. Very successful in thisnew field, he continued in it the rest of his life, but he always keptthe farm for the family home. 

 * * * * *

The first member of the family to leave the Rochester farm was Susan. The cherry trees were in bloom when she received an offer fromCanajoharie Academy to teach the female department. As Canajoharie wasacross the river from Uncle Joshua Read's home in Palatine Bridge andhe was a trustee of the academy, she read between the lines his kindlyinterest in her. He was an influential citizen of that community, abank director and part owner of the Albany-Utica turnpike and thestage line to Schenectady. Accepting the offer at once, she made thelong journey by canal boat to Canajoharie, and early in May 1846 wascomfortably settled in the home of Uncle Joshua's daughter, MargaretRead Caldwell. 

She soon loved Margaret as a sister and was devoted to her children. None of her new friends were Quakers and she enjoyed their social lifethoroughly, leaving behind her forever the somber clothing which shehad heretofore regarded as a mark of righteousness. She began herschool with twenty-five pupils and a yearly salary of approximately$110. This was more than she had ever earned before, and for the firsttime in her life she spent her money freely on herself. 

Her first quarterly examination, held before the principal, thetrustees, and parents, established her reputation as a teacher, and inaddition everyone said, "The schoolmarm looks beautiful. "[25] She haddressed up for the occasion, wearing a new plaid muslin, purple, white, blue, and brown, with white collar and cuffs, and had hung agold watch and chain about her neck. She wound the four braids of hersmooth brown hair around her big shell comb and put on her newprunella gaiters with patent-leather heels and tips. She looked sopretty, so neat, and so capable that many of the parents feared someyoung man would fall desperately in love with her and rob the academyof a teacher. She did have more than her share of admirers. She soonsaw her first circus and went to her first ball, a real novelty forthe young woman who had sat demurely along the wall in the attic roomof her Center Falls home while her more worldly friends danced. 

In spite of all her good times, she missed her family, but because ofthe long trip to Rochester, she did not return to the farm for twoyears. She spent her vacations with Guelma and Hannah, who lived onlya few hours away, or in Albany with her former teacher at DeborahMoulson's seminary, Lydia Mott, a cousin by marriage of Lucretia Mott. In anticipation of a vacation at home, she wrote her parents, "Sometimes I can hardly wait for the day to come. They have talked ofbuilding a new academy this summer, but I do not believe they will. Myroom is not fit to stay in and I have promised myself that I would notpass another winter in it. If I must forever teach, I will seek atleast a comfortable house to do penance in. I have a pleasant schoolof twenty scholars, but I have to manufacture the interest dutycompels me to exhibit. .. . Energy and something to stimulate iswanting! But I expect the busy summer vacation spent with my dearestand truest friends will give me new life and fresh courage topersevere in the arduous path of duty. Do not think me unhappy with myfate, no not so. I am only a little tired and a good deal lazy. Thatis all. Do write very soon. Tell about the strawberries and peaches, cherries and plums. .. . Tell me how the yard looks, what flowers are inbloom and all about the farming business. "[26]

 * * * * *

During her visits in Albany with Lydia Mott, who was now an activeabolitionist, Susan heard a great deal about antislavery work. At thistime, however, Canajoharie took little interest in this reformmovement, but temperance was gaining a foothold. Throughout thecountry, Sons of Temperance were organizing and women wanted to help, but the men refused to admit them to their organizations, protestingthat public reform was outside women's sphere. Unwilling to be put offwhen the need was so great, women formed their own secret temperancesocieties, and then, growing bolder, announced themselves as Daughtersof Temperance. 

Canajoharie had its Daughters of Temperance, and Susan, long anadvocate of temperance, gladly joined the crusade, and made her firstspeech when the Daughters of Temperance held a supper meeting tointerest the people of the village. Few women at this time could havebeen persuaded to address an audience of both men and women, believingthis to be bold, unladylike, and contrary to the will of God; but theyoung Quaker, whose grandmother and aunts had always spoken inMeeting when the spirit moved them, was ready to say her word fortemperance, taking it for granted that it was not only woman's rightbut her responsibility to speak and work for social reform. 

About two hundred people assembled for the supper, and entering thehall, Susan found it festooned with cedar and red flannel and to heramazement saw letters in evergreen on one of the walls, spelling outSusan B. Anthony. 

"I hardly knew how to conduct myself amidst so much kindlyregard, "[27] she confided to her family. 

She had carefully written out her speech and had sewn the pagestogether in a blue cover. Now in a clear serious voice, she read itsformal flowery sentences telling of the weekly meetings of "this nowdespised little band" which had awakened women to the great need ofreform. 

"It is generally conceded, " she declared, "that our sex fashions thesocial and moral state of society. We do not assume that femalespossess unbounded power in abolishing the evil customs of the day; butwe do believe that were they en masse to discontinue the use of wineand brandy as beverages at both their public and private parties, notone of the opposite sex, who has any claim to the title of gentleman, would so insult them as to come into their presence after havingquaffed of that foul destroyer of all true delicacy and refinement. .. . Ladies! There is no neutral position for us to assume. .. . "[28]

The next day the village buzzed with talk of the meeting; only a fewcriticized Susan for speaking in public, and almost all agreed thatshe was the smartest woman in Canajoharie. 

While she was busy with her temperance work, there were stirringsamong women in other parts of New York State in the spring and earlysummer of 1848. Through the efforts of a few women who circulatedpetitions and the influence of wealthy men who saw irresponsiblesons-in-law taking over the property they wanted their daughters toown, a Married Women's Property Law passed the legislature; this madeit possible for a married woman to hold real estate in her own name. Heretofore all property owned by a woman at marriage and all receivedby gift or inheritance had at once become her husband's and he had hadthe right to sell it or will it away without her consent and tocollect the rents or the income. The new law was welcomed in theAnthony household, for now Lucy Anthony's inheritance, which hadbought the Rochester farm, could at last be put in her own name andneed no longer be held for her by her brother. 

In the newspapers in July, Susan read scornful, humorous, andindignant reports of a woman's rights convention in Seneca Falls, NewYork, at which women had issued a Declaration of Sentiments, announcing themselves men's equals. They had protested against legal, economic, social, and educational discriminations and asked for thefranchise. A woman's rights convention in the 1840s was a startlingevent. Women, if they were "ladies" did not attend public gatheringswhere politics or social reforms were discussed, because such subjectswere regarded as definitely out of their sphere. Much less did theyventure to call meetings of their own and issue bold resolutions. 

Susan was not shocked by this break with tradition, but she did notinstinctively come to the defense of these rebellious women, norchampion their cause. She was amused rather than impressed. YetLucretia Mott's presence at the convention aroused her curiosity. Among her father's Quaker friends in Rochester, she had heard onlypraise of Mrs. Mott, and she herself, when a pupil at DeborahMoulson's seminary, had been inspired by Mrs. Mott's remarks atFriends' Meeting in Philadelphia. 

So far Susan had encountered few barriers because she was a woman. Shehad had little personal contact with the hardships other womensuffered because of their inferior legal status. To be sure, it hadbeen puzzling to her as child that Sally Hyatt, the most skillfulweaver in her father's mill, had never been made overseer, but thefact that her mother had not the legal right to hold property in herown name did not at the time make an impression upon her. Brought upas a Quaker, she had no obstacles put in the way of her education. Shehad an exceptional father who was proud of his daughters' intelligenceand ability and respected their opinions and decisions. Her only realcomplaint was the low salary she had been obliged to accept as ateacher because she was a woman. She sensed a feeling of malesuperiority, which she resented, in her brother-in-law, Aaron McLean, who did not approve of women preachers and who thought it moreimportant for a woman to bake biscuits than to study algebra. She metthe same arrogance of sex in her Cousin Margaret's husband, but shehad not analyzed the cause, or seen the need of concerted action bywomen. 

Returning home for her vacation in August, she found to her surprisethat a second woman's rights convention had been held in Rochester inthe Unitarian church, that her mother, her father, and her sisterMary, and many of their Quaker friends had not only attended, but hadsigned the Declaration of Sentiments and the resolutions, and that hercousin, Sarah Burtis Anthony, had acted as secretary. Her fathershowed so much interest, as he told her about the meetings, that shelaughingly remarked, "I think you are getting a good deal ahead of thetimes. "[29] She countered Mary's ardent defense of the convention withgood-natured ridicule. The whole family, however, continued to be soenthusiastic over the meetings and this new movement for woman'srights, they talked so much about Elizabeth Cady Stanton "with herblack curls and ruddy cheeks"[30] and about Lucretia Mott "with herQuaker cap and her crossed handkerchief of the finest muslin, " both"speaking so grandly and looking magnificent, " that Susan's interestwas finally aroused and she decided she would like to meet these womenand talk with them. There was no opportunity for this, however, beforeshe returned to Canajoharie for another year of teaching. 

It proved to be a year of great sadness because of the illness of hercousin Margaret whom she loved dearly. In addition to her teaching, she nursed Margaret and looked after the house and children. She sawmuch to discredit the belief that men were the stronger and women theweaker sex, and impatient with Margaret's husband, she wrote hermother that there were some drawbacks to marriage that made a womanquite content to remain single. In explanation she added, "Joseph hada headache the other day and Margaret remarked that she had had onefor weeks. 'Oh, ' said the husband, 'mine is the real headache, genuinepain, yours is sort of a natural consequence. '"[31]

Within a few weeks Margaret died. This was heart-breaking for Susan, and without her cousin, Canajoharie offered little attraction. Teaching had become irksome. The new principal was uncongenial, asevere young man from the South whose father was a slaveholder. Susanlonged for a change, and as she read of the young men leaving for theWest, lured by gold in California, she envied them their adventure andtheir opportunity to explore and conquer a whole new world. 

[Illustration: Frederick Douglass]

 * * * * *

The peaches were ripe when Susan returned to the farm. The orchardwhich her father had planted, now bore abundantly. Restless and eagerfor hard physical work, she discarded the stylish hoops which impededaction, put on an old calico dress, and spent days in the warmSeptember sunshine picking peaches. Then while she preserved, canned, and pickled them, there was little time to long for pioneering in theWest. 

She enjoyed the active life on the farm for she was essentially adoer, most happy when her hands and her mind were busy. As she helpedwith the housework, wove rag carpet, or made shirts by hand for herfather and brothers, she dreamed of the future, of the work she mightdo to make her life count for something. Teaching, she decided, wasdefinitely behind her. She would not allow her sister Mary's interestin that career to persuade her otherwise, even if teaching were theonly promising and well-thought-of occupation for women. Reading thepoems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, she was deeply stirred and lookedforward romantically to some great and useful life work. 

The _Liberator_, with its fearless denunciation of Negro slavery, nowcame regularly to the Anthony home, and as she pored over its pages, its message fired her soul. Eagerly she called with her father at thehome of Frederick Douglass, who had recently settled in Rochester andwas publishing his paper, the _North Star_. Not only did she want toshow friendliness to this free Negro of whose intelligence andeloquence she had heard so much, but she wanted to hear first-handfrom him and his wife of the needs of his people. 

Almost every Sunday the antislavery Quakers met at the Anthony farm. The Posts, the Hallowells, the De Garmos, and the Willises were sureto be there. Sometimes they sent a wagon into the city for FrederickDouglass and his family. Now and then famous abolitionists joined thecircle when their work brought them to western New York--William LloydGarrison, looking with fatherly kindness at his friends through hissmall steel-rimmed spectacles; Wendell Phillips, handsome, learned, and impressive; black-bearded, fiery Parker Pillsbury; and thefriendly Unitarian pastor from Syracuse, the Reverend Samuel J. May. Susan, helping her mother with dinner for fifteen or twenty, was tornbetween establishing her reputation as a good cook and listening tothe interesting conversation. She heard them discuss woman's rights, which had divided the antislavery ranks. They talked of theirantislavery campaigns and the infamous compromises made by Congress topacify the powerful slaveholding interests. Like William LloydGarrison, all of them refused to vote, not wishing to take any part ina government which countenanced slavery. They called the Constitutiona proslavery document, advocated "No Union with Slaveholders, " anddemanded immediate and unconditional emancipation. All about them andwith their help the Underground Railroad was operating, circumventingthe Fugitive Slave Law and guiding Negro refugees to Canada andfreedom. Amy and Isaac Post's barn, Susan knew, was a station on theUnderground, and the De Garmos and Frederick Douglass almost alwayshad a Negro hidden away. She heard of riots and mobs in Boston andOhio; but in Rochester not a fugitive was retaken and there were nostreet battles, although the New York _Herald_ advised the city tothrow its "nigger printing press"[32] into Lake Ontario and banishDouglass to Canada. 

As the Society of Friends in Rochester was unfriendly to theantislavery movement, Susan with her father and other liberal HicksiteQuakers left it for the Unitarian church. Here for the first time theylistened to "hireling ministry" and to a formal church service withmusic. This was a complete break with what they had always known asworship, but the friendly Christian spirit expressed by both ministerand congregation made them soon feel at home. This new religiousfellowship put Susan in touch with the most advanced thought of theday, broke down some of the rigid precepts drilled into her at DeborahMoulson's seminary, and encouraged liberalism and tolerance. Althoughthere had been austerity in the outward forms of her Quaker training, it had developed in her a very personal religion, a strong sense ofduty, and a high standard of ethics, which always remained with her. It had fostered a love of mankind that reached out spontaneously tohelp the needy, the unfortunate, and the oppressed, and this nowbecame the driving force of her life. It led her naturally to seekways and means to free the Negro from slavery and to turn to thetemperance movement to wipe out the evil of drunkenness. 

These were the days when the reformed drunkard, John B. Gough, waslecturing throughout the country with the zeal of an evangelist, getting thousands to sign the total-abstinence pledge. Inspired by hisexample, the Daughters of Temperance were active in Rochester. Theyelected Susan their president, and not only did she plan suppers andfestivals to raise money for their work but she organized newsocieties in neighboring towns. Her more ambitious plans for them weresomewhat delayed by home responsibilities which developed when herfather became an agent of the New York Life Insurance Company. Thistook him away from home a great deal, and as both her brothers werebusy with work of their own and Mary was teaching, it fell to Susan totake charge of the farm. She superintended the planting, theharvesting, and the marketing, and enjoyed it, but she did not let itcrowd out her interest in the causes which now seemed so vital. 

Horace Greeley's New York _Tribune_ came regularly to the farm, forthe Anthonys, like many others throughout the country, had come todepend upon it for what they felt was a truthful report of the news. In this day of few magazines, it met a real need, and Susan, poringover its pages, not only kept in touch with current events, but foundinspiration in its earnest editorials which so often upheld the idealswhich she felt were important. She found thought-provoking news in thefull and favorable report of the national woman's rights conventionheld in Worcester, Massachusetts, in October 1850. Better informed nowthrough her antislavery friends about this new movement for woman'srights, she was ready to consider it seriously and she read all thestirring speeches, noting the caliber of the men and women takingpart. Garrison, Phillips, Pillsbury, and Lucretia Mott were there, aswell as Lucy Stone, that appealing young woman of whose eloquence onthe antislavery platform Susan had heard so much, and Abby KelleyFoster, whose appointment to office in the American AntislaverySociety had precipitated a split in the ranks on the "woman question. "

 * * * * *

A year later, when Abby Kelley Foster and her husband Stephen spoke atantislavery meetings in Rochester, Susan had her first opportunity tomeet this fearless woman. Listening to Abby's speeches and watchingthe play of emotion on her eager Irish face under the Quaker bonnet, Susan wondered if she would ever have the courage to follow herexample. Like herself, Abby had started as a schoolteacher, but afterhearing Theodore Weld speak, had devoted herself to the antislaverycause, traveling alone through the country to say her word againstslavery and facing not only the antagonism which abolition alwaysprovoked, but the unreasoning prejudice against public speaking bywomen, which was fanned into flame by the clergy. For listening toAbby Kelley, men and women had been excommunicated. Mobs had jeered ather and often pelted her with rotten eggs. She had married afellow-abolitionist, Stephen Foster, even more unrelenting than she. 

Sensing Susan's interest in the antislavery cause and hoping to makean active worker of her, Abby and Stephen suggested that she join themon a week's tour, during which she marveled at Abby's ability to holdthe attention and meet the arguments of her unfriendly audiences andwondered if she could ever be moved to such eloquence. 

Not yet ready to join the ranks as a lecturer, she continued herapprenticeship by attending antislavery meetings whenever possible andtraveled to Syracuse for the convention which the mob had driven outof New York. Eager for more, she stopped over in Seneca Falls to hearWilliam Lloyd Garrison and the English abolitionist, George Thompson, and was the guest of a temperance colleague, Amelia Bloomer, anenterprising young woman who was editing a temperance paper for women, _The Lily_. 

To her surprise Susan found Amelia in the bloomer costume about whichshe had read in _The Lily_. Introduced in Seneca Falls by ElizabethSmith Miller, the costume, because of its comfort, had so intriguedAmelia that she had advocated it in her paper and it had been dubbedwith her name. Looking at Amelia's long full trousers, showing beneathher short skirt but modestly covering every inch of her leg, Susan wasa bit startled. Yet she could understand the usefulness of the costumeeven if she had no desire to wear it herself. In fact she was morethan ever pleased with her new gray delaine dress with its long fullskirt. 

Seneca Falls, however, had an attraction for Susan far greater thaneither William Lloyd Garrison or Amelia Bloomer, for it was the homeof Elizabeth Cady Stanton whom she had longed to meet ever since 1848when her parents had reported so enthusiastically about her and theRochester woman's rights convention. Walking home from the antislaverymeeting with Mrs. Bloomer, Susan met Mrs. Stanton. She liked her atonce and later called at her home. They discussed abolition, temperance, and woman's rights, and with every word Susan's interestgrew. Mrs. Stanton's interest in woman's rights and her forthright, clear thinking made an instant appeal. Never before had Susan had sucha satisfactory conversation with another woman, and she thought herbeautiful. Mrs. Stanton's deep blue eyes with their mischievoustwinkle, her rosy cheeks and short dark hair gave her a very youthfulappearance, and it was hard for Susan to realize she was the mother ofthree lively boys. 

Susan listened enthralled while Mrs. Stanton told how deeply she hadbeen moved as a child by the pitiful stories of the women who came toher father's law office, begging for relief from the unjust propertylaws which turned over their inheritance and their earnings to theirhusbands. For the first time, Susan heard the story of the exclusionof women delegates from the World's antislavery convention in London, in 1840, which Mrs. Stanton had attended with her husband and whereshe became the devoted friend of Lucretia Mott. She now betterunderstood why these two women had called the first woman's rightsconvention in 1848 at which Mrs. Stanton had made the first publicdemand for woman suffrage. 

[Illustration: Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her "Bloomer costume"]

They talked about the bloomer costume which Mrs. Stanton now wore andabout dress reform which at the moment seemed to Mrs. Stanton animportant phase of the woman's rights movement, and she pointed out toSusan the advantages of the bloomer in the life of a busy housekeeperwho ran up and down stairs carrying babies, lamps, and buckets ofwater. She praised the freedom it gave from uncomfortable stays andtight lacing, confident it would be a big factor in improving thehealth of women. 

Thoroughly interested, Susan left Seneca Falls with much to thinkabout, but not yet converted to the bloomer costume, or even to womansuffrage. Of one thing, however, she was certain. She wanted thiswoman of vision and courage for her friend. 

FOOTNOTES:

[21] Anthony Collection, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Rochester, NewYork. 

[22] Hannah Anthony married Eugene Mosher, a merchant of Easton, NewYork, on September 4, 1845. 

[23] Ms. , Susan B. Anthony Memorial Collection, Rochester, New York. 

[24] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 48. 

[25] _Ibid. _, p. 50. 

[26] May 28, 1848, Lucy E. Anthony Collection. 

[27] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 53. 

[28] Ms. , Susan B. Anthony Papers, Library of Congress. 

[29] _Report of the International Council of Women_, 1888, p. 327. 

[30] To Nora Blatch, n. D. , Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, VassarCollege Library, Poughkeepsie, New York. 

[31] Harper, _Anthony_, I. P. 52. 

[32] Amy H. Croughton, _Antislavery Days in Rochester_ (Rochester, N. Y. , 1936). Anyone implicated in the escape of a slave was liable to$1000 fine, to the payment of $1000 to the owner of the fugitive, andto a possible jail sentence of six months. 

FREEDOM TO SPEAK

Susan was soon rejoicing at the prospect of meeting Lucy Stone andHorace Greeley, the editor of the New York _Tribune_. Mrs. Stanton hadinvited her to Seneca Falls to discuss with them and other influentialmen and women the founding of a people's college. Unhesitatingly shejoined forces with Mrs. Stanton and Lucy Stone to insist that thepeople's college be opened to women on the same terms as men. Lucy hadproved the practicability of this as a student at Oberlin, the firstcollege to admit women, and was one of the first women to receive acollege degree. However, to suggest coeducation in those days wasenough to jeopardize the founding of a college, and Horace Greeleystood out against them, his babylike face, fringed with throatwhiskers, getting redder by the moment as he begged them not toagitate the question. 

The people's college did not materialize, but out of this meeting grewa friendship between Susan, Elizabeth Stanton, and Lucy Stone, whichdeveloped the woman's rights movement in the United States. Susandiscovered at once that Lucy, like Mrs. Stanton, was an ardentadvocate of woman's rights. Brought up in a large family on a farm inwestern Massachusetts where a woman's lot was an unending round ofhard work with no rights over her children or property, Lucy had seenmuch to make her rebellious. Resolving to free herself from thisbondage, she had worked hard for an education, finally reachingOberlin College. Here she held out for equal rights in education, andnow as she went through the country, pleading for the abolition ofslavery, she was not only putting into practice woman's right toexpress herself on public affairs, but was scattering woman's rightsdoctrine wherever she went. Listening to this rosy-cheeked, enthusiastic young woman with her little snub nose and soulful grayeyes, Susan began to realize how little opposition in comparison sheherself had met because she was a woman. Not only had her fatherencouraged her to become a teacher, but he had actually aroused herinterest in such causes as abolition, temperance, and woman's rights, while both Lucy and Mrs. Stanton had met disapproval and resistanceall the way. 

[Illustration: Lucy Stone]

She found Lucy, as well as Mrs. Stanton, in the bloomer dress, praising its convenience. As Lucy traveled about lecturing, in allkinds of weather, climbing on trains, into carriages, and walking onmuddy streets, she found it much more practical and comfortable thanthe fashionable long full skirts. Nevertheless, there was discomfortin being stared at on the streets and in the chagrin of her friends. This reform was much on their minds and they discussed it pro and con, for Mrs. Stanton was facing real persecution in Seneca Falls, withboys screaming "breeches" at her when she appeared in the street andwith her husband's political opponents ridiculing her costume in theircampaign speeches. Both women, however, felt it their duty to bearthis cross to free women from the bondage of cumbersome clothing, hoping always that the bloomer, because of its utility, would winconverts and finally become the fashion. Susan admired their courage, but still could not be persuaded to put on the bloomer. 

Fired with their zeal, she began planning what she herself might doto rouse women. The idea of a separate woman's rights movement did notas yet enter her mind. Her thoughts turned rather to the two nationalreform movements already well under way, temperance and antislavery. While a career as an antislavery worker appealed strongly to her, shefelt unqualified when she measured herself with the courageous Grimkésisters from South Carolina, or with Abby Kelley Foster, Lucy Stone, and the eloquent men in the movement. She had made a place for herselflocally in temperance societies, and she decided that her work wasthere--to make women an active, important part of this reform. 

That winter, as a delegate of the Rochester Daughters of Temperance, she went with high hopes to the state convention of the Sons ofTemperance in Albany, where she visited Lydia Mott and her sisterAbigail, who lived in a small house on Maiden Lane. Both Lydia andAbigail, because of their independence, interested Susan greatly. Theysupported themselves by "taking in" boarders from among the leadingpoliticians in Albany. They also kept a men's furnishings store onBroadway and made hand-ruffled shirt bosoms and fine linen accessoriesfor Thurlow Weed, Horatio Seymour, and other influential citizens. Their political contacts were many and important, and yet they werealso among the very few in that conservative city who stood fortemperance, abolition of slavery, and woman's rights. Their home was arallying point for reformers and a refuge for fugitive slaves. It wasto be a second home to Susan in the years to come. 

When Susan and the other women delegates entered the convention of theSons of Temperance, they looked forward proudly, if a bit timidly, totaking part in the meetings, but when Susan spoke to a motion, thechairman, astonished that a woman would be so immodest as to speak ina public meeting, scathingly announced, "The sisters were not invitedhere to speak, but to listen and to learn. "[33]

This was the first time that Susan had been publicly rebuked becauseshe was a woman, and she did not take it lightly. Leaving the hallwith several other indignant women delegates, amid the criticalwhisperings of those who remained "to listen and to learn, " shehurried over to Lydia's shop to ask her advice on the next step to betaken. Lydia, delighted that they had had the spirit to leave themeeting, suggested they engage the lecture room of the Hudson StreetPresbyterian Church and hold a meeting of their own that very night. She went with them to the office of her friend Thurlow Weed, theeditor of the _Evening Journal_, who published the whole story in hispaper. 

[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony at the age of thirty-four]

Well in advance of the meeting, Susan was at the church, feeling veryresponsible, and when she saw Samuel J. May enter, she was greatlyrelieved. He had read the notice in the _Evening Journal_ andpersuaded a friend to come with him. To see his genial face in theaudience gave her confidence, for he would speak easily and well ifothers should fail her. Only a few people drifted into the meeting, for the night was snowy and cold. The room was poorly lighted, thestove smoked, and in the middle of the speeches, the stovepipe felldown. Yet in spite of all this, a spirit of independence andaccomplishment was born in that gathering and plans were made to calla woman's state temperance convention in Rochester with Susan incharge. 

All this Susan reported to her new friend, Elizabeth Stanton, whopromised to help all she could, urging that the new organization leadthe way and not follow the advice of cautious, conservative women. Susan agreed, and as a first step in carrying out this policy, sheasked Mrs. Stanton to make the keynote speech of the convention. Soonthe Woman's State Temperance Society was a going concern with Mrs. Stanton as president and Susan as secretary. There was no doubt aboutits leading the way far ahead of the rank and file of the temperancemovement when Mrs. Stanton, with Susan's full approval, recommendeddivorce on the grounds of drunkenness, declaring, "Let us petition ourState government so to modify the laws affecting marriage and thecustody of children that the drunkard shall have no claims on wife andchild. "[34]

Such independence on the part of women could not be tolerated, andboth the press and the clergy ruthlessly denounced the Woman's StateTemperance Society. Susan, however, did not take this too seriously, familiar as she was with the persecution antislavery workers enduredwhen they frankly expressed their convictions. 

 * * * * *

Now recognized as the leader of women's temperance groups in New York, Susan traveled throughout the state, organizing temperance societies, getting subscriptions for Amelia Bloomer's temperance paper, _TheLily_, and attending temperance conventions in spite of the fact thatshe met determined opposition to the participation of women. Impressedby the success of political action in Maine, where in 1851 the firstprohibition law in the country had been passed, she now signed herletters, "Yours for Temperance Politics. "[35] She appealed to women topetition for a Maine law for New York and brought a group of womenbefore the legislature for the first time for a hearing on thisprohibition bill. Realizing then that women's indirect influence couldbe of little help in political action, she saw clearly that womenneeded the vote. 

However, it was the woman's rights convention in Syracuse, New York, in September 1852, which turned her thoughts definitely in thedirection of votes for women. It was the first woman's rightsgathering she had ever attended and she was enthusiastic over thepeople she met. She talked eagerly with the courageous Jewishlecturer, Ernestine Rose; with Dr. Harriot K. Hunt of Boston, one ofthe first women physicians, who was waging a battle against taxationwithout representation; with Clarina Nichols of Vermont, editor ofthe _Windham County Democrat_, and with Matilda Joslyn Gage, theyoungest member of the convention. All of these became valuable, loyalfriends in the years ahead. Susan renewed her acquaintance with LucyStone, and met Antoinette Brown who had also studied at OberlinCollege and was now the first woman ordained as a minister. With realpleasure she greeted Mrs. Stanton's cousin, Gerrit Smith, nowCongressman from New York, and his daughter, Elizabeth Smith Miller, the originator of the much-discussed bloomer. Best of all was herlong-hoped-for meeting with James and Lucretia Mott and Lucretia'ssister, Martha C. Wright. Only Paulina Wright Davis of Providence andElizabeth Oakes Smith of Boston were disappointing, for they appearedat the meetings in short-sleeved, low-necked dresses withloose-fitting jackets of pink and blue wool, shocking her deeplyintrenched Quaker instincts. Although she realized that they woreultrafashionable clothes to show the world that not all woman's rightsadvocates were frumps wearing the hideous bloomer, she could notforgive them for what to her seemed bad taste. How could such women, she asked herself, hope to represent the earnest, hard-working womenwho must be the backbone of the equal rights movement? Alwaysforthright, when a principle was at stake, she expressed her feelingsfrankly when James Mott, serving with her on the nominating committee, proposed Elizabeth Oakes Smith for president. His reply, that theymust not expect all women to dress as plainly as the Friends, in noway quieted her opposition. To her delight, Lucretia Mott was elected, and her dignity and poise as president of this large convention of2, 000 won the respect even of the critical press. Susan was electedsecretary and so clearly could her voice be heard as she read theminutes and the resolutions that the Syracuse _Standard_ commented, "Miss Anthony has a capital voice and deserves to be clerk of theAssembly. "[36]

[Illustration: James and Lucretia Mott]

Not all of the newspapers were so friendly. Some labeled the gathering"a Tomfoolery convention" of "Aunt Nancy men and brawling women";others called it "the farce at Syracuse, "[37] but for Susan it markeda milestone. Never before had she heard so many earnest, intelligentwomen plead so convincingly for property rights, civil rights, and theballot. Never before had she seen so clearly that in a republic womenas well as men should enjoy these rights. The ballot assumed a newimportance for her. Her conversion to woman suffrage was complete. 

 * * * * *

This new interest in the vote was steadily nurtured by ElizabethStanton, whom Susan now saw more frequently. Whenever she could, Susanstopped over in Seneca Falls for a visit. Here she found inspiration, new ideas, and good advice, and always left the comfortable Stantonhome ready to battle for the rights of women. While Susan traveledabout, organizing temperance societies and attending conventions, Mrs. Stanton, tied down at home by a family of young children, wroteletters and resolutions for her and helped her with her speeches. Susan was very reluctant about writing speeches or making them. Themoment she sat down to write, her thoughts refused to come and herphrases grew stilted. She needed encouragement, and Mrs. Stanton gaveit unstintingly, for she had grown very fond of this young woman whosemental companionship she found so stimulating. 

During one of these visits, Susan finally put on the bloomer and cuther long thick brown hair as part of the stern task of winningfreedom for women. It was not an easy decision and she came to it onlybecause she was unwilling to do less for the cause than Mrs. Stantonor Lucy Stone. Comfortable as the new dress was, it always attractedunfavorable attention and added fuel to the fire of an unfriendlypress. This fire soon scorched her at the World's Temperanceconvention in New York, where women delegates faced the determinedanimosity of the clergy, who held the balance of power and quoted theBible to prove that women were defying the will of God when they tookpart in public meetings. Obliged to withdraw, the women held meetingsof their own in the Broadway Tabernacle, over which Susan presidedwith a poise and confidence undreamed of a few months before. Asuccess in every way, they were nevertheless described by the press asa battle of the sexes, a free-for-all struggle in which shrill-voicedwomen in the bloomer costume were supported by a few "male Betties. "The New York _Sun_ spoke of Susan's "ungainly form rigged out in thebloomer costume and provoking the thoughtless to laughter and ridiculeby her very motions on the platform. "[38] Untruth was piled uponuntruth until dignified ladylike Susan with her earnest pleasingappearance was caricatured into everything a woman should not be. Lesscourageous temperance women now began to wonder whether they ought toassociate with such a strong-minded woman as Susan B. Anthony. 

There were rumblings of discontent when the Woman's State TemperanceSociety met in Rochester for its next annual convention in June 1853, and Susan and Mrs. Stanton were roundly criticized because they didnot confine themselves to the subject of temperance and talked toomuch about woman's rights. Not only was Mrs. Stanton defeated for thepresidency but the by-laws were amended to make men eligible asofficers. Men had been barred when the first by-laws were drafted bySusan and Mrs. Stanton because they wished to make the society aproving ground for women and were convinced that men holding officewould take over the management, and women, less experienced, wouldyield to their wishes. 

This now proved to be the case, as the men began to do all thetalking, calling for a new name for the society and insisting that alldiscussion of woman's rights be ruled out. In the face of this clearindication of a determined new policy which few of the women wished toresist, Susan refused re-election as secretary and both she and Mrs. Stanton resigned. 

This was Susan's first experience with intrigue and her first rebuffby women whom she had sincerely tried to serve. Defeated, hurt, anduncertain, she poured out her disappointment in troubled letters toElizabeth Stanton, who, with the steadying touch of an older sister, roused her with the challenge, "We have other and bigger fish tofry. "[39]

 * * * * *

A few months later, Susan was off on a new crusade as she attended thestate teachers' convention in Rochester. Of the five hundred teacherspresent, two-thirds were women, but there was not the slightestrecognition of their presence. They filled the back seats ofCorinthian Hall, forming an inert background for the vocal minority, the men. After sitting through two days' sessions and growing more andmore impatient as not one woman raised her voice, Susan listened, aslong as she could endure it, to a lengthy debate on the question, "Whythe profession of teacher is not as much respected as that of lawyer, doctor, or minister. "[40] Then she rose to her feet and in alow-pitched, clear voice addressed the chairman. 

At the sound of a woman's voice, an astonished rustle of excitementswept through the audience, and when the chairman, Charles Davies, Professor of Mathematics at West Point, had recovered from hissurprise, he patronizingly asked, "What will the lady have?"

"I wish, sir, to speak to the subject under discussion, " she bravelyreplied. 

Turning to the men in the front row, Professor Davies then asked, "What is the pleasure of the convention?"

"I move that she be heard, " shouted an unexpected champion. Anotherseconded the motion. After a lengthy debate during which Susan stoodpatiently waiting, the men finally voted their approval by a smallmajority, and Professor Davies, a bit taken aback, announced, "Thelady may speak. "

"It seems to me, gentlemen, " Susan began, "that none of you quitecomprehend the cause of the disrespect of which you complain. Do younot see that so long as society says woman is incompetent to be alawyer, minister, or doctor, but has ample ability to be a teacher, every man of you who chooses this profession tacitly acknowledges thathe has no more brains than a woman? And this, too, is the reason thatteaching is a less lucrative profession; as here men must compete withthe cheap labor of woman. Would you exalt your profession, exalt thosewho labor with you. Would you make it more lucrative, increase thesalaries of the women engaged in the noble work of educating ourfuture Presidents, Senators, and Congressmen. "

For a moment after this bombshell, there was complete silence. Thenthree men rushed down the aisle to congratulate her, telling her shehad pluck, that she had hit the nail on the head, but the women nearby glanced scornfully at her, murmuring, "Who can that creature be?"

Susan, however, had started a few women thinking and questioning, andthe next morning, Professor Davies, resplendent in his buff vest andblue coat with brass buttons, opened the convention with anexplanation. "I have been asked, " he said, "why no provisions havebeen made for female lecturers before this association and why ladiesare not appointed on committees. I will answer. " Then, in flowerymetaphor, he assured them that he would not think of dragging womenfrom their pedestals into the dust. 

"Beautiful, beautiful, " murmured the women in the back rows, but Mrs. Northrup of Rochester offered resolutions recognizing the right ofwomen teachers to share in all the privileges and deliberations of theorganization and calling attention to the inadequate salaries womenteachers received. These resolutions were kept before the meeting by adetermined group and finally adopted. Susan also offered the name ofEmma Willard as a candidate for vice-president, thinking thesuccessful retired principal of the Troy Female Seminary, nowinterested in improving the public schools, might also be willing tolend a hand in improving the status of women in this educationalorganization. Mrs. Willard, however, declined the nomination, refusingto be drawn into Susan's rebellion. [41] Susan, nevertheless, left theconvention satisfied that she had driven an entering wedge intoProfessor Davies' male stronghold, and she continued battering atthis stronghold whenever she had an opportunity. She meant to putwomen in office and to win approval for coeducation and equal pay. 

 * * * * *

Teachers' conventions, however, were only a minor part of her newcrusade, plans for which were still simmering in her mind anddeveloping from day to day. Going back to many of the towns where shehad held temperance meetings, she found that most of the societies shehad organized had disbanded because women lacked the money to engagespeakers or to subscribe to temperance papers. If they were married, they had no money of their own and no right to any interest outsidetheir homes, unless their husbands consented. 

Discouraged, she wrote in her diary, "As I passed from town to town Iwas made to feel the great evil of woman's entire dependency upon manfor the necessary means to aid on any and every reform movement. Though I had long admitted the wrong, I never until this time so fullytook in the grand idea of pecuniary and personal independence. Itmatters not how overflowing with benevolence toward suffering humanitymay be the heart of woman, it avails nothing so long as she possessesnot the power to act in accordance with these promptings. Woman musthave a purse of her own, and how can this be, so long as the _Wife_ isdenied the right to her individual and joint earnings. Reflectionslike these, caused me to see and really feel that there was no truefreedom for Woman without the possession of all her property rights, and that these rights could be obtained through legislation only, andso, the sooner the demand was made of the Legislature, the soonerwould we be likely to obtain them. "[42]

FOOTNOTES:

[33] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 65. 

[34] _The Lily_, May, 1852. 

[35] Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda JoslynGage, _History of Woman Suffrage_ (New York, 1881), I, p. 489. 

[36] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 77. 

[37] _Ibid. _, p. 78. 

[38] _Ibid. _, p. 90. 

[39] Theodore Stanton and Harriot Stanton Blatch, Eds. , _ElizabethCady Stanton, As Revealed in Her Letters, Diary, and Reminiscences_(New York, 1922), II, p. 52. 

[40] Aug. , 1853, Harper, Anthony, I, pp. 98-99; _History of WomanSuffrage_, I, pp. 513-515. 

[41] Susan B. Anthony Scrapbook, Library of Congress. 

[42] Ms. , Diary, 1853. 

A PURSE OF HER OWN

The next important step in winning further property rights for women, it seemed to Susan, was to hold a woman's rights convention in theconservative capital city of Albany. This was definitely a challengeand she at once turned to Elizabeth Stanton for counsel. Somehow shemust persuade Mrs. Stanton to find time in spite of her many householdcares to prepare a speech for the convention and for presentation tothe legislature. As eager as Susan to free women from unjust propertylaws, Mrs. Stanton asked only that Susan get a good lawyer, and onesympathetic to the cause, to look up New York State's very worst lawsaffecting women. [43] She could think and philosophize while she wasbaking and sewing, she assured Susan, but she had no time forresearch. Susan produced the facts for Mrs. Stanton, and while sheworked on the speech, Susan went from door to door during the coldblustery days of December and January 1854 to get signatures on herpetitions for married women's property rights and woman suffrage. Someof the women signed, but more of them slammed the door in her face, declaring indignantly that they had all the rights they wanted. Yet atthis time a father had the legal authority to apprentice or will awaya child without the mother's consent and an employer was obliged bylaw to pay a wife's wages to her husband. 

In spite of the fact that the bloomer costume made it easier for herto get about in the snowy streets, she now found it a real burdenbecause it always attracted unfavorable attention. Boys jeered at herand she was continually conscious of the amused, critical glances ofthe men and women she met. She longed to take it off and wear aninconspicuous trailing skirt, but if she had been right to put it on, it would be weakness to take it off. By this time Elizabeth Stantonhad given it up except in her own home, convinced that it harmed thecause and that the physical freedom it gave was not worth the price. "I hope you have let down a dress and a petticoat, " she now wroteSusan. "The cup of ridicule is greater than you can bear. It is notwise, Susan, to use up so much energy and feeling in that way. Youcan put them to better use. I speak from experience. "[44]

[Illustration: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her son, Henry]

Lucy Stone too was wavering and was thinking of having her next dressmade long. The three women corresponded about it, and Lucy as well asMrs. Stanton urged Susan to give up the bloomer. With these entreatiesringing in her ears, Susan set out for Albany in February 1854 to makefinal arrangements for the convention. On the streets in Albany, inthe printing offices, and at the capitol, men stared boldly at her, some calling out hilariously, "Here comes my bloomer. " She endured itbravely until her work was done, but at night alone in her room atLydia Mott's she poured out her anguish in letters to Lucy. "Here I amknown only, " she wrote, "as one of the women who ape men--coarse, brutal men! Oh, I can not, can not bear it any longer. "[45]

Even so she did not let down the hem of her skirt, but wore herbloomer costume heroically during the entire convention, determinedthat she would not be stampeded into a long skirt by the jeers ofAlbany men or the ridicule of the women. However, she made up her mindthat immediately after the convention she would take off the bloomerforever. She had worn it a little over a year. Never again could shebe lured into the path of dress reform. 

The Albany _Register_ scoffed at the "feminine propagandists ofwoman's rights" exhibiting themselves in "short petticoats andlong-legged boots. "[46] Nevertheless, the convention aroused suchgenuine interest that evening meetings were continued for two weeks, featuring as speakers Ernestine Rose, Antoinette Brown, Samuel J. May, and William Henry Channing, the young Unitarian minister fromRochester; and when the men appeared on the platform, the audiencecalled for the women. 

Susan could not have asked for anything better than ElizabethStanton's moving plea for property rights for married women and theattention it received from the large audience in the Senate Chamber. Her heart swelled with pride as she listened to her friend, and soimportant did she think the speech that she had 50, 000 copies printedfor distribution. 

To back up Mrs. Stanton's words with concrete evidence of a demand fora change in the law, Susan presented petitions with 10, 000 signatures, 6, 000 asking that married women be granted the right to their wagesand 4, 000 venturing to be recorded for woman suffrage. 

Enthusiastic over her Albany success, she impetuously wrote LucyStone, "Is this not a wonderful time, an era long to beremembered?"[47]

Although the legislature failed to act on the petitions, she knew thather cause had made progress, for never before had women been listenedto with such respect and never had newspapers been so friendly. Shecherished these words of praise from Lucy, "God bless you, Susan dear, for the brave heart that will work on even in the midst ofdiscouragement and lack of helpers. Everywhere I am telling peoplewhat your state is doing, and it is worth a great deal to the cause. The example of positive action is what we need. "[48]

 * * * * *

Susan continued her "example of positive action, " this time againstthe Kansas-Nebraska bill, pending in Congress, which threatened repealof the Missouri Compromise by admitting Kansas and Nebraska asterritories with the right to choose for themselves whether theywould be slave or free. "I feel that woman should in the very capitolof the nation lift her voice against that abominable measure, " shewrote Lucy Stone, with whom she was corresponding more and morefrequently. "It is not enough that H. B. Stowe should write. "[49]Harriet Beecher Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ had been published in 1852and during that year 300, 000 copies were sold. 

[Illustration: Ernestine Rose]

With Ernestine Rose, Susan now headed for Washington. These two womenhad been drawn together by common interests ever since they had met inSyracuse in 1852. Susan was not frightened, as many were, byErnestine's reputed atheism. She appreciated Ernestine's intelligence, her devotion to woman's rights, and her easy eloquence. Conscious ofher own limitations as an orator, she recognized her need of Ernestinefor the many meetings she planned for the future. 

As they traveled to Washington together, she learned more about thisbeautiful, impressive, black-haired Jewess from Poland, who was tenyears her senior. The daughter of a rabbi, Ernestine had found thelimitations of orthodox religion unbearable for a woman and had lefther home to see and learn more of the world in Prussia, Holland, France, Scotland, and England. She had married an Englishmansympathetic to her liberal views, and together they had come to NewYork where she began her career as a lecturer in 1836 when speaking inpublic branded women immoral. She spoke easily and well on education, woman's rights, and the evils of slavery. Her slight foreign accentadded charm to her rich musical voice, and before long she was indemand as far west as Ohio and Michigan. With a colleague asexperienced as Ernestine, Susan dared arrange for meetings even in thecapital of the nation. 

Washington was tense over the slavery issue when they arrived, andErnestine's friends warned her not to mention the subject in herlectures. Unheeding she commented on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, but thepress took no notice and her audiences showed no signs ofdissatisfaction. In fact, two comparatively unknown women, billed tolecture on the "Educational and Social Rights of Women" and the"Political and Legal Rights of Women, " attracted little attention in acity accustomed to a blaze of Congressional oratory. Hoping to drawlarger audiences and to lend dignity to their meetings, Susan askedfor the use of the Capitol on Sunday, but was refused becauseErnestine was not a member of a religious society. Making an attemptfor Smithsonian Hall, Ernestine was told it could not risk itsreputation by presenting a woman speaker. [50]

A failure financially, their Washington venture was rich inexperience. Susan took time out for sightseeing, visiting the"President's house" and Mt. Vernon, which to her surprise she found ina state of "delapidation and decay. " "The mark of slavery o'ershadowsthe whole, " she wrote in her diary. "Oh the thought that it was herethat he whose name is the pride of this Nation, was the _SlaveMaster_. "[51]

Again and again in the Capitol, she listened to heated debates on theKansas-Nebraska bill, astonished at the eloquence and fervor withwhich the "institution of slavery" could be defended. Seeing slaveryfirst-hand, she abhorred it more than ever and observed with dismayits degenerating influence on master as well as slave. She began tofeel that even she herself might be undermined by it almostunwittingly and confessed to her diary, "This noon, I ate my dinnerwithout once asking myself are these human beings who minister to mywants, Slaves to be bought and sold and hired out at the will of amaster?. .. Even I am getting _accustomed_ to _Slavery_ . .. So much sothat I have ceased continually to be made to feel its blighting, cursing influence. "[52]

 * * * * *

A few months later, Susan and Ernestine were in Philadelphia at anational woman's rights convention, and when Ernestine was proposedfor president, Susan had her first opportunity to champion her newfriend. A foreigner and a free-thinker, Ernestine encountered a greatdeal of prejudice even among liberal reformers, and Susan wassurprised at the strength of feeling against her. Impressed duringtheir trip to Washington by Ernestine's essentially fine qualities andher value to the cause, Susan fought for her behind the scenes, insisting that freedom of religion or the freedom to have no religionbe observed in woman's rights conventions, and she had thesatisfaction of seeing Ernestine elected to the office she so richlydeserved. 

Freedom of religion or freedom to have no religion had become forSusan a principle to hold on to, as she listened at these earlywoman's rights meetings to the lengthy fruitless discussions regardingthe lack of Scriptural sanction for women's new freedom. Usually aclergyman appeared on the scene, volubly quoting the Bible to provethat any widening of woman's sphere was contrary to the will of God. But always ready to refute him were Antoinette Brown, now an ordainedminister, William Lloyd Garrison, and occasionally Susan herself. Tothe young Quaker broadened by her Unitarian contacts and unhampered bycreed or theological dogma, such debates were worse than useless; theydeepened theological differences, stirred up needless antagonisms, solved no problems, and wasted valuable time. 

During this convention, she was one of the twenty-four guests inLucretia Mott's comfortable home at 238 Arch Street. Every meal, withits stimulating discussions, was a convention in itself. Susan's greathero, William Lloyd Garrison, sat at Lucretia's right at the longtable in the dining room, Susan on her left, and at the end of eachmeal, when the little cedar tub filled with hot soapy water wasbrought in and set before Lucretia so that she could wash the silver, glass, and fine china at the table, Susan dried them on a snowy-whitetowel while the interesting conversation continued. There was talk ofwoman's rights, of temperance, and of spiritualism, which wasattracting many new converts. There were thrilling stories of theopening of the West and the building of transcontinental railways; butmost often and most earnestly the discussion turned to the progress ofthe antislavery movement, to the infamous Kansas-Nebraska bill, to theNew England Emigrant Aid Company, [53] which was sending free-statesettlers to Kansas, to the weakness of the government in playing againand again into the hands of the proslavery faction. Most of them sawthe country headed toward a vast slave empire which would embraceCuba, Mexico, and finally Brazil; and William Lloyd Garrison ferventlyreiterated his doctrine, "No Union with Slaveholders. "

Before leaving home Susan had heard first-hand reports of the bitterbloody antislavery contest in Kansas from her brother Daniel, who hadjust returned from a trip to that frontier territory with settlerssent out by the New England Emigrant Aid Company. Now talking withWilliam Lloyd Garrison, she found herself torn between these two greatcauses for human freedom, abolition and woman's rights, and it washard for her to decide which cause needed her more. 

 * * * * *

She had not, however, forgotten her unfinished business in New YorkState. The refusal of the legislature to amend the property laws haddoubled her determination to continue circulating petitions untilmarried women's civil rights were finally recognized. It took courageto go alone to towns where she was unknown to arrange for meetings onthe unpopular subject of woman's rights. Not knowing how she would bereceived, she found it almost as difficult to return to such towns asCanajoharie where she had been highly respected as a teacher six yearsbefore. In Canajoharie, however, she was greeted affectionately by heruncle Joshua Read. He and his friends let her use the Methodist churchfor her lecture, and when the trustees of the academy urged her toreturn there to teach, Uncle Joshua interrupted with a vehement "No!"protesting that others could teach but it was Susan's work "to goaround and set people thinking about the laws. "[54]

Returning to the scene of her girlhood in Battenville and Easton, visiting her sisters Guelma and Hannah, and meeting many of her oldfriends, Susan realized as never before how completely she hadoutgrown her old environment. In her enthusiasm for her new work, sheexposed "many of her heresies, " and when her friends labeled WilliamLloyd Garrison an agnostic and rabble rouser, she protested that hewas the most Christlike man she had ever known. "Thus it is belief, not Christian benevolence, " she confided to her diary in 1854, "thatis made the modern test of Christianity. "[55]

After eight strenuous months away from home, she was welcomed warmlyby a family who believed in her work. She found abolition uppermost ineveryone's mind. Her brother Merritt, fired by Daniel's tales of theWest and the antislavery struggle in Kansas, was impatient to join thesettlers there and could talk of nothing else. While he poured out thelatest news about Kansas, he and a cousin Mary Luther helped Susanfold handbills for future woman's rights meetings. Susan listenedeagerly and approvingly as he told of the 750 free-state settlers whoduring the past summer had gone out to Kansas, traveling up theMissouri on steamboats and over lonely trails in wagons marked"Kansas. " Most of them were not abolitionists but men who wantedKansas a free-labor state which they could develop with their own hardwork. She heard of the ruthless treatment these "Yankee" settlersfaced from the proslavery Missourians who wanted Kansas in the slaverybloc. There was bloodshed and there would be more. John Brown's sonshad written from Kansas, "Send us guns. We need them more thanbread. "[56] Merritt was ready and eager to join John Brown. 

The Anthony farm was virtually a hotbed of insurrection with Merrittplanning resistance in Kansas and Susan reform in New York. Susanmapped out an ambitious itinerary, hoping to canvass with herpetitions every county in the state. With her father as security, sheborrowed money to print her handbills and notices, and then wroteWendell Phillips asking if any money for a woman's rights campaign hadbeen raised by the last national convention. He replied with his ownpersonal check for fifty dollars. His generosity and confidencetouched her deeply, for already he had become a hero to her secondonly to William Lloyd Garrison. This tall handsome intellectual, agraduate of Harvard and an unsurpassed orator, had forfeited friends, social position, and a promising career as a lawyer to plead for theslave. He was also one of the very few men who sympathized with andaided the woman's rights cause. 

Horace Greeley too proved at this time to be a good friend, writing, "I have your letter and your programme, friend Susan. I will publishthe latter in all our editions, but return your dollars. "[57]

Her earnestness and ability made a great appeal to these men. Theymarveled at her industry. Thirty-four years old now, not handsome butwholesome, simply and neatly dressed, her brown hair smoothly partedand brought down over her ears, she had nothing of the scatterbrainedimpulsive reformer about her, and no coquetry. She was practical andintelligent, and men liked to discuss their work with her. WilliamHenry Channing, admiring her executive ability and her plucky reactionto defeat, dubbed her the Napoleon of the woman's rights movement. Parker Pillsbury, the fiery abolitionist from New Hampshire, broad-shouldered, dark-bearded, with blazing eyes and almost fanaticalzeal, had become her devoted friend. He liked nothing better than totease her about her idleness and pretend to be in search of more workfor her to do. 

 * * * * *

So impatient was Susan to begin her New York State campaign that sheleft home on Christmas Day to hold her first meeting on December 26, 1854, at Mayville in Chatauqua County. The weather was cold and damp, but the four pounds of candles which she had bought to light the courthouse flickered cheerily while the small curious audience, gatheredfrom several nearby towns, listened to the first woman most of themhad ever heard speak in public. She would be, they reckoned, worthhearing at least once. 

Traveling from town to town, she held meetings every other night. Usually the postmasters or sheriffs posted her notices in the townsquare and gave them to the newspapers and to the ministers toannounce in their churches. Even in a hostile community she almostalways found a gallant fair-minded man to come to her aid, such as thehotel proprietor who offered his dining room for her meetings whenthe court house, schoolhouse, and churches were closed to her, or thegroup of men who, when the ministers refused to announce her meetings, struck off handbills which they distributed at the church doors at theclose of the services. The newspapers too were generally friendly. 

As men were the voters with power to change the laws, she aimed toattract them to her evening meetings, and usually they came, seekingdiversion, and listened respectfully. Some of them scoffed, otherscondemned her for undermining the home, but many found her reasoninglogical and by their questions put life into the meetings. A few evenencouraged their wives to enlist in the cause. 

The women, on the other hand, were timid or indifferent, although shepointed out to them the way to win the legal right to their earningsand their children. It was difficult to find among them a rebelliousspirit brave enough to head a woman's rights society. 

"Susan B. Anthony is in town, " wrote young Caroline Cowles, aCanandaigua school girl, in her diary at this time. "She made aspecial request that all seminary girls should come to hear her aswell as all the women and girls in town. She had a large audience andshe talked very plainly about our rights and how we ought to stand upfor them and said the world would never go right until the women hadjust as much right to vote and rule as the men. .. . When I toldGrandmother about it, she said she guessed Susan B. Anthony hadforgotten that St. Paul said women should keep silence. I told her, no, she didn't, for she spoke particularly about St. Paul and said ifhe had lived in these times . .. He would have been as anxious to havewomen at the head of the government as she was. I could not makeGrandmother agree with her at all. "[58]

Many of the towns Susan visited were not on a railroad. Often after along cold sleigh ride she slept in a hotel room without a fire; in themorning she might have to break the ice in the pitcher to take thecold sponge bath which nothing could induce her to omit since she hadbegun to follow the water cure, a new therapeutic method then invogue. 

For a time Ernestine Rose came to her aid and it was a relief to turnover the meetings to such an accomplished speaker. But for the mostpart Susan braved it alone. Steadily adding names to her petitionsand leaving behind the leaflets which Elizabeth Stanton had written, she aroused a glimmer of interest in a new valuation of women. 

[Illustration: Parker Pillsbury]

On the stagecoach leaving Lake George on a particularly cold day, shefound to her surprise a wealthy Quaker, whom she had met at the Albanyconvention, so solicitous of her comfort that he placed heated planksunder her feet, making the long ride much more bearable. He turned upagain, this time with his own sleigh, at the close of one of hermeetings in northern New York, and wrapped in fur robes, she drovewith him behind spirited gray horses to his sisters' home to stay overSunday, and then to all her meetings in the neighborhood. It waspleasant to be looked after and to travel in comfort and she enjoyedhis company, but when he urged her to give up the hard life of areformer to become his wife, there was no hesitation on her part. Shehad dedicated her life to freeing women and Negroes and there could beno turning aside. If she ever married, it must be to a man who wouldencourage her work for humanity, a great man like Wendell Phillips, ora reformer like Parker Pillsbury. 

Returning home in May 1855, she took stock of her accomplishments. Shehad canvassed fifty-four counties and sold 20, 000 tracts. Her expenseshad been $2, 291 and she had paid her way by selling tracts and by asmall admission charge for her meetings. She even had seventy dollarsover and above all expenses. She promptly repaid the fifty dollarswhich Wendell Phillips had advanced, but he returned it for her nextcampaign. 

However, her heart quailed at the prospect of another such winter, asshe recalled the long, bitter-cold days of travel and the indifferenceof the women she was trying to help. Even the unfailing praise of herfamily and of Elizabeth Stanton, even the kindness and interest of thenew friends she made paled into insignificance before the thought ofanother lone crusade. She was exhausted and suffering with rheumaticpains, and yet she would not rest, but prepared for an ambitiousconvention at Saratoga Springs, then the fashionable summer resort ofthe East. 

She had braved this center of fashion and frivolity the year beforewith her message of woman's rights, and to her great surprise, crowdsseeking entertainment had come to her meetings, their admission feesand their purchase of tracts making the venture a financial success. Here was fertile ground. Susan was counting on Lucy Stone andAntoinette Brown to help her, for Elizabeth Stanton, then expectingher sixth baby, was out of the picture. Now, to her dismay, Lucy andAntoinette married the Blackwell brothers, Henry and Samuel. 

Fearing that they too like Elizabeth Stanton would be tied down withbabies and household cares, Susan saw a bleak lonely road ahead forthe woman's rights movement. She did so want her best speakers andmost valuable workers to remain single until the spade work forwoman's rights was done. Almost in a panic at the prospect of beingleft to carry on the Saratoga convention alone, Susan wrote Lucyirritable letters instead of praising her for drawing up a marriagecontract and keeping her own name. Later, however, she realized whatit had meant for Lucy to keep her own name, and then she wrote her, "Iam more and more rejoiced that you have declared by actual doing thata woman has a name and may retain it all through her life. "[59]

So persistently did she now pursue Lucy and Antoinette that they bothkept their promise to speak at the Saratoga convention, Lucy travelingall the way from Cincinnati where she was visiting in the Blackwellhome. Lucy was loudly cheered by a large audience, eager to see thisyoung woman whose marriage had attracted so much notice in the press. In fact Lucy Stone, who had kept her own name and who with her husbandhad signed a marriage protest against the legal disabilities of amarried woman, was as much of a novelty in this fashionable circle asone of Barnum's high-priced curiosities. 

Pleased at Lucy's reception, Susan surveyed the audiencehopefully--handsome men in nankeen trousers, red waistcoats, whiteneckcloths, and gray swallowtail coats, sitting beside beautiful youngwomen wearing gowns of bombazine and watered silk with wide hoopskirts and elaborately trimmed bonnets which set off their curls. Toher delight, they also applauded Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the firstwoman minister they had ever seen, and Ernestine Rose with herappealing foreign accent. They clapped loudly when she herself askedthem to buy tracts and contribute to the work. 

Complimentary as this was, she did not flatter herself that they hadendorsed woman's rights. That they had come to her meetings in largenumbers while vacationing in Saratoga Springs, this was important. Insome a spark of understanding glowed, and this spark would lightothers. They came from the South, from the West, and from the largecities of the East. There were railroad magnates among them, richmerchants, manufacturers, and politicians. Charles F. Hovey, thewealthy Boston dry-goods merchant, listened attentively to every word, and in the years that followed became a generous contributor to thecause. 

 * * * * *

Realizing how very tired she was and that she must feel morephysically fit before continuing her work, Susan decided to take thewater cure at her cousin Seth Rogers' Hydropathic Institute inWorcester, Massachusetts. This well-known sanitorium prescribed waterinternally and externally as a remedy for all kinds of ailments, andin an age when meals were overhearty, baths infrequent, and clothingtight and confining, the drinking of water, tub baths, showers, andwet packs had enthusiastic advocates. The soothing baths relaxedSusan and the leisure to read refreshed and strengthened her. Sheread, one after another, Carlyle's _Sartor Resartus_, George Sand's_Consuelo_, Madame de Stael's _Corinne_, then Frances Wright's _A FewDays in Athens_ and Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_, makingnotes in her diary (1855) of passages she particularly liked. Shediscussed current events with her cousin Seth on long drives in thecountry, finding him a delightful companion, well-read, understanding, and interested in people and causes. He took her to her firstpolitical meeting, where she was the only woman present and had a seaton the platform. It was one of the first rallies of the new Republicanparty which had developed among rebellious northern Whigs, Free-Soilers, and anti-Nebraska Democrats who opposed the extension ofslavery. After listening to the speakers, among them Charles Sumner, she drew these conclusions: "Had the accident of birth given me placeamong the aristocracy of sex, I doubt not I should be an active, zealous advocate of Republicanism; unless perchance, I had receivedthat higher, holier light which would have lifted me to the sublimeheight where now stand Garrison, Phillips, and all that small bandwhose motto is 'No Union with Slaveholders. '"[60]

After listening to the satisfying sermons of Thomas WentworthHigginson at his Free Church in Worcester, she wrote in her diary, "Itis plain to me now that it is not sitting under preaching I dislike, but the fact that most of it is not of a stamp that my soul canrespond to. "[61]

In September she interrupted "the cure" to attend a woman's rightsmeeting in Boston, and with Lucy Stone, Antoinette and Ellen Blackwellvisited in the home of the wealthy merchant, Francis Jackson, makingmany new friends, among them his daughter, Eliza J. Eddy, whoseunhappy marriage was to prove a blessing to the woman's rightscause. [62]

At tea at the Garrisons', she met many of the "distinguished" men andwomen she had "worshiped" from afar. She heard Theodore Parker preacha sermon which filled her soul, and with Mr. Garrison called on him inhis famous library. "It really seemed audacious in me to be usheredinto such a presence and on such a commonplace errand as to ask him tocome to Rochester to speak in a course of lectures I am planning, " shewrote her family, "but he received me with such kindness andsimplicity that the awe I felt on entering was soon dissipated. I thencalled on Wendell Phillips in his sanctum for the same purpose. I haveinvited Ralph Waldo Emerson by letter and all three have promised tocome. In the evening with Mr. Jackson's son James, Ellen Blackwell andI went to see _Hamlet_. In spite of my Quaker training, I find I enjoyall these worldly amusements intensely. "[63]

 * * * * *

In January 1856, Susan set out again on a woman's rights tour of NewYork State to gather more signatures for her petitions. This time shepersuaded Frances D. Gage of Ohio, a temperance worker and popularauthor of children's stories, to join her. An easy extemporaneousspeaker, Mrs. Gage was an attraction to offer audiences, who droveeight or more miles to hear her; and in the cheerless hotels at nightand on the long cold sleigh rides from town to town, she was acongenial companion. 

The winter was even colder and snowier than that of the year before. "No trains running, " Susan wrote her family, "and we had a 36-mileride in a sleigh. .. . Just emerged from a long line of snow drifts andstopped at this little country tavern, supped, and am now roastingover the hot stove. "[64]

Confronted almost daily with glaring examples of the injustices womensuffered under the property laws, she was more than ever convincedthat her work was worth-while. "We stopped at a little tavern wherethe landlady was not yet twenty and had a baby, fifteen months old, "she reported. "Her supper dishes were not washed and her baby wascrying. .. . She rocked the little thing to sleep, washed the dishes andgot our supper; beautiful white bread, butter, cheese, pickles, appleand mince pie, and excellent peach preserves. She gave us her warmroom to sleep in. .. . She prepared a six o'clock breakfast for us, fried pork, mashed potatoes, mince pie, and for me at my specialrequest, a plate of sweet baked apples and a pitcher of rich milk. .. . When we came to pay our bill, the dolt of a husband took the money andput it in his pocket. He had not lifted a finger to lighten thatwoman's burdens. .. . Yet the law gives him the right to every dollarshe earns, and when she needs two cents to buy a darning needle shehas to ask him and explain what she wants it for. "[65]

When after a few weeks Mrs. Gage was called home by illness in herfamily, Susan appealed hopefully to Lucretia Mott's sister, Martha C. Wright, in Auburn, New York, "You can speak so much better, so muchmore wisely, so much more everything than I can. " Then she added, "Ishould like a particular effort made to call out the Teachers, theSewing Women, the Working Women generally--Can't you write somethingfor your papers that will make them feel that it is for them that wework more than [for] the wives and daughters of the rich?"[66] Mrs. Wright, however, could help only in Auburn, and Susan was obliged tocontinue her scheduled meetings alone. She interrupted them only topresent her petitions to the legislature. 

The response of the legislature to her two years of hard work was asarcastic, wholly irrelevant report issued by the judiciary committeesome weeks later to a Senate roaring with laughter. In the Albany_Register_ Susan read with mounting indignation portions of thisinfuriating report: "The ladies always have the best places and thechoicest tidbit at the table. They have the best seats in cars, carriages, and sleighs; the warmest place in winter, the coolest insummer. They have their choice on which side of the bed they will lie, front or back. A lady's dress costs three times as much as that of agentleman; and at the present time, with the prevailing fashion, onelady occupies three times as much space in the world as a gentleman. It has thus appeared to the married gentlemen of your committee, beinga majority . .. That if there is any inequality or oppression in thecase, the gentlemen are the sufferers. They, however, have presentedno petitions for redress, having doubtless made up their minds toyield to an inevitable destiny. "[67]

Why, Susan wondered sadly, were woman's rights only a joke to mostmen--something to be laughed at even in the face of glaring proofs ofthe law's injustice. 

There was encouragement, however, in the letters which now came fromLucy Stone in Ohio: "Hurrah Susan! Last week this State Legislaturepassed a law giving wives equal property rights, and to mothers equalbaby rights with fathers. So much is gained. The petitions which I seton foot in Wisconsin for suffrage have been presented, made a rousingdiscussion, and then were tabled with three men to defend them!. .. InNebraska too, the bill for suffrage passed the House. .. . The worldmoves!"[68]

The world was moving in Great Britain as well, for as Susan read inher newspaper, women there were petitioning Parliament for marriedwomen's property rights, and among the petitioners were herwell-beloved Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Harriet Martineau, Mrs. Gaskell, and Charlotte Cushman. Better still, Harriet Taylor, inspiredby the example of woman's rights conventions in America, had writtenfor the _Westminster Review_ an article advocating the enfranchisementof women. 

All this reassured Susan, even if New York legislators laughed at herefforts. 

FOOTNOTES:

[43] Judge William Hay of Saratoga Springs, New York. 

[44] Feb. 19, 1854, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library ofCongress. 

[45] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 116. Among those who wore the bloomercostume were Angelina and Sarah Grimké, many women in sanitoriums andsome of the Lowell, Mass. Mill workers. In Ohio, the bloomer was sopopular that 60 women in Akron wore it at a ball, and in Battle Creek, Michigan, 31 attended a Fourth of July celebration in the bloomer. Amelia Bloomer, moving to the West wore it for eight years. Garrison, Phillips, and William Henry Channing disapproved of the bloomercostume, but Gerrit Smith continued to champion it and his daughterwore it at fashionable receptions in Washington during his term inCongress. 

[46] _History of Woman Suffrage_, I, p. 608. 

[47] 1854 (copy), Blackwell Papers, Edna M. Stantial Collection. 

[48] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 111-112. 

[49] March 3, 1854 (copy), Blackwell Papers, Edna M. StantialCollection. 

[50] Ms. , Diary, March 24, 28, 1854. 

[51] _Ibid. _, March 29, 1854. 

[52] _Ibid. _, March 30, 1854. 

[53] The New England Emigrant Aid Company, headed by Eli Thayer ofWorcester, was formed to send free-soil settlers to Kansas, offeringreduced fare and farm equipment. Their first settlers reached Kansasin August, 1854, founding the town of Lawrence in honor of one oftheir chief patrons, the wealthy Amos Lawrence of Massachusetts. 

[54] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 121. 

[55] Diary, April 28, 1854. 

[56] Leonard C. Ehrlich, _God's Angry Man_ (New York, 1941), p. 57. 

[57] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 122. 

[58] Caroline Cowles Richards, _Village Life in America_ (New York, 1913), p. 49. 

[59] 1858, Blackwell Papers, Edna M. Stantial Collection. 

[60] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 133. 

[61] _Ibid. _

[62] Eliza J. Eddy's husband, James Eddy, took their two youngdaughters away from their mother and to Europe, causing her greatanguish. This led her father, Francis Jackson, to give liberally tothe woman's rights cause. Mrs. Eddy, herself, left a bequest of$56, 000 to be divided between Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone. 

[63] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 131-133. 

[64] _Ibid. _, p. 138. 

[65] _Ibid. _, p. 139. 

[66] Jan. 18, 1856, Garrison Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, SmithCollege. 

[67] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 140-141. 

[68] May 25, 1856, Blackwell Papers, Edna M. Stantial Collection. 

NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS

Susan's thoughts during the summer of 1856 often strayed from woman'srights meetings toward Kansas, where her brother Merritt had settledon a claim near Osawatomie. Well aware of his eagerness to help JohnBrown, she knew that he must be in the thick of the bloody antislaverystruggle. In fact the whole Anthony family had been anxiously waitingfor news from Merritt ever since the wires had flashed word in May1856 of the burning of Lawrence by proslavery "border ruffians" fromMissouri and of John Brown's raid in retaliation at PottawatomieCreek. 

Merritt had built a log cabin at Osawatomie. While Susan was at homein September, the newspapers reported an attack by proslavery men onOsawatomie in which thirty out of fifty settlers were killed. WasMerritt among them? Finally letters came through from him. Susan readand reread them, assuring herself of his safety. Although ill at thetime, he had been in the thick of the fight, but was unharmed. Weakfrom the exertion he had crawled back to his cabin on his hands andknees and had lain there ill and alone for several weeks. 

Parts of Merritt's letters were published in the Rochester _Democrat_, and the city took sides in the conflict, some papers claiming that hisletters were fiction. Susan wrote Merritt, "How much rather would Ihave you at my side tonight than to think of your daring and enduringgreater hardships even than our Revolutionary heroes. Words cannottell how often we think of you or how sadly we feel that the terriblecrime of this nation against humanity is being avenged on the heads ofour sons and brothers. .. . Father brings the _Democrat_ giving a listof killed, wounded, and missing and the name of our Merritt is nottherein, but oh! the slain are sons, brothers, and husbands of othersas dearly loved and sadly mourned. "[69]

With difficulty, she prepared for the annual woman's rightsconvention, for the country was in a state of unrest not only overKansas and the whole antislavery question, but also over thepresidential campaign with three candidates in the field. Even herfaithful friends Horace Greeley and Gerrit Smith now failed her, Horace Greeley writing that he could no longer publish her noticesfree in the news columns of his _Tribune_, because they cast upon himthe stigma of ultraradicalism, and Gerrit Smith withholding hishitherto generous financial support because woman's rights conventionswould not press for dress reform--comfortable clothing for womensuitable for an active life, which he believed to be the foundationstone of women's emancipation. 

[Illustration: Merritt Anthony]

She watched the lively bitter presidential campaign with interest andconcern. The new Republican party was in the contest, offering itsfirst presidential candidate, the colorful hero and explorer of thefar West, John C. Frémont. She had leanings toward this virile youngparty which stood firmly against the extension of slavery in theterritories, and discussed its platform with Elizabeth and Henry B. Stanton, both enthusiastically for "Frémont and Freedom. " Yet she wasdistrustful of political parties, for they eventually yielded toexpediency, no matter how high their purpose at the start. Her idealwas the Garrisonian doctrine, "No Union with Slaveholders" and"Immediate Unconditional Emancipation, " which courageously faced the"whole question" of slavery. There was no compromise amongGarrisonians. 

With the burning issue of slavery now uppermost in her mind, she beganseriously to reconsider the offer she had received from the AmericanAntislavery Society, shortly after her visit to Boston in 1855, to actas their agent in central and western New York. Unable to accept atthat time because she was committed to her woman's rights program, shehad nevertheless felt highly honored that she had been chosen. Stillhesitating a little, she wrote Lucy Stone, wanting reassurance that nowoman's rights work demanded immediate attention. "They talk ofsending two companies of Lecturers into this state, " she wrote Lucy, "wish me to lay out the route of each one and accompany one. They seemto think me possessed of a vast amount of executive ability. I shrinkfrom going into Conventions where speaking is expected of me. .. . Iknow they want me to help about finance and that part I like and amgood for nothing else. "[70]

She also had the farm home on her mind. With her father in theinsurance business, her brothers now both in Kansas, her sister Maryteaching in the Rochester schools and "looking matrimonially-wise, "and her mother at home all alone, Susan often wondered if it might notbe as much her duty to stay there to take care of her mother andfather as it would be to make a home comfortable for a husband. Sometimes the quietness of such a life beckoned enticingly. But afterthe disappointing November elections which put into the presidency theconservative James Buchanan, from whom only a vacillating policy onthe slavery issue could be expected, she wrote Samuel May, Jr. , thesecretary of the American Antislavery Society, "I shall be very gladif I am able to render even the most humble service to this cause. Heaven knows there is need of earnest, effective radical workers. Theheart sickens over the delusions of the recent campaign and turnsachingly to the unconsidered _whole question_. "[71]

His reply came promptly, "We put all New York into your control andwant your name to all letters and your hand in all arrangements. "

For $10 a week and expenses, Susan now arranged antislavery meetings, displayed posters bearing the provocative words, "No Union withSlaveholders, " planned tours for a corps of speakers, among themStephen and Abby Kelley Foster, Parker Pillsbury, and two freeNegroes, Charles Remond and his sister, Sarah. 

In debt from her last woman's rights campaign, she could not afford anew dress for these tours, but she dyed a dark green the merino whichshe had worn so proudly in Canajoharie ten years before, bought clothto match for a basque, and made a "handsome suit. " "With my Siberiansquirrel cape, I shall be very comfortable, " she noted in herdiary. [72]

She had met indifference and ridicule in her campaigns for woman'srights. Now she faced outright hostility, for northern businessmen hadno use for abolition-mad fanatics, as they called anyone who spokeagainst slavery. Abolitionists, they believed, ruined business bystirring up trouble between the North and the South. 

Usually antislavery meetings turned into debates between speakers andaudience, often lasting until midnight, and were charged withanimosity which might flame into violence. All of the speakers livedunder a strain, and under emotional pressure. Consequently they werenot always easy to handle. Some of them were temperamental, a bitjealous of each other, and not always satisfied with the tours Susanmapped out for them. She expected of her colleagues what she herselfcould endure, but they often complained and sometimes refused tofulfill their engagements. 

When no one else was at hand, she took her turn at speaking, but shewas seldom satisfied with her efforts. "I spoke for an hour, " sheconfided to her diary, "but my heart fails me. Can it be that mystammering tongue ever will be loosed?"

Lucy Stone, who spoke with such ease, gave her advice andencouragement. "You ought to cultivate your power of expression, " shewrote. "The subject is clear to you and you ought to be able to makeit so to others. It is only a few years ago that Mr. Higginson told mehe could not speak, he was so much accustomed to writing, and now heis second only to Phillips. 'Go thou and do likewise. '"[73]

In March 1857, the Supreme Court startled the country with the DredScott decision, which not only substantiated the claim ofGarrisonians that the Constitution sanctioned slavery and protectedthe slaveholder, but practically swept away the Republican platform ofno extention of slavery in the territories. The decision declared thatthe Constitution did not apply to Negroes, since they were citizens ofno state when it was adopted and therefore had not the right ofcitizens to sue for freedom or to claim freedom in the territories;that the Missouri Compromise had always been void, since Congress didnot have the right to enact a law which arbitrarily deprived citizensof their property. 

Reading the decision word for word with dismay and ponderingindignantly over the cold letter of the law, Susan found herself soaroused and so full of the subject that she occasionally made aspontaneous speech, and thus gradually began to free herself fromreliance on written speeches. She spoke from these notes: "Considerthe fact of 4, 000, 000 slaves in a Christian and republicangovernment. .. . Antislavery prayers, resolutions, and speeches availnothing without action. .. . Our mission is to deepen sympathy andconvert into right action: to show that the men and women of the Northare slaveholders, those of the South slave-owners. The guilt rests onthe North equally with the South. Therefore our work is to rouse thesleeping consciousness of the North. .. . [74]

"We ask you to feel as if you, yourselves, were the slaves. Thepolitician talks of slavery as he does of United States banks, tariff, or any other commercial question. We demand the abolition of slaverybecause the slave is a human being and because man should not holdproperty in his fellowman. .. . We say disobey every unjust law; thepolitician says obey them and meanwhile labor constitutionally forrepeal. .. . We preach revolution, the politicians, reform. "

Instinctively she reaffirmed her allegiance to the doctrine, "No Unionwith Slaveholders, " and she gloried in the courage of Garrison, Phillips, and Higginson, who had called a disunion convention, demanding that the free states secede. It was good to be one of thisdevoted band, for she sincerely believed that in the ages to come "theprophecies of these noble men and women will be read with the samewonder and veneration as those of Isaiah and Jeremiah inspiretoday. "[75]

She gave herself to the work with religious fervor. Even so, she couldnot make her antislavery meetings self-supporting, and at the end ofthe first season, after paying her speakers, she faced a deficit of$1, 000. This troubled her greatly but the Antislavery Society, recognizing her value, wrote her, "We cheerfully pay your expenses andwant to keep you at the head of the work. " They took note of her"business enterprise, practical sagacity, and platform ability, " andlooked upon the expenditure of $1, 000 for the education anddevelopment of such an exceptional worker as a good investment. 

This new experience was a good investment for Susan as well. She mademany new friends. She won the further respect, confidence, and goodwill of men like William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and FrancisJackson. Her friendship with Parker Pillsbury deepened. "I can trulysay, " she wrote Abby Kelley Foster, "my spirit has grown in grace andthat the experience of the past winter is worth more to me than all myTemperance and Woman's Rights labors--though the latter were theschool necessary to bring me into the Antislavery work. "[76]

Only the crusading spirit of the "antislavery apostles"[77] and whatto them seemed the desperate state of the nation made the hardcampaigning bearable. The animosity they faced, the cold, the poortransportation, the long hours, and wretched food taxed the physicalendurance of all of them. "O the crimes that are committed in thekitchens of this land!"[78] wrote Susan in her diary, as she ate heavybread and the cake ruined with soda and drank what passed for coffee. A good cook herself, she had little patience with those who throughignorance or carelessness neglected that art. Equally bad were thefood fads they had to endure when they were entertained in homes ofotherwise hospitable friends of the cause. Raw-food diets found manydevotees in those days, and often after long cold rides in thestagecoach, these tired hungry antislavery workers were obliged to sitdown to a supper of apples, nuts, and a baked mixture of coarse branand water. Nor did breakfast or dinner offer anything more. Facingthese diets seemed harder for the men than for Susan. Repeatedly insuch situations, they hurried away, leaving her to complete two-orthree-day engagements among the food cranks. How she welcomed a goodbeefsteak and a pot of hot coffee at home after these long days offasting!

A night at home now was sheer bliss, and she wrote Lucy Stone, "HereI am once more in my own Farm Home, where my weary head rests upon myown home pillows. .. . I had been gone _Four Months_, scarcely sleepingthe second night under the same roof. "[79]

It was good to be with her mother again, to talk with her father whenhe came home from work and with Mary who had not married after all butcontinued teaching in the Rochester schools. Guelma and her husband, Aaron McLean, who had moved to Rochester, often came out to the farmwith their children. 

Turning for relaxation to work in the garden in the warm sun, Susanthought over the year's experience and planned for the future. "I canbut acknowledge to myself that Antislavery has made me richer andbraver in spirit, " she wrote Samuel May, Jr. , "and that it is theschool of schools for the true and full development of the noblerelements of life. I find my raspberry field looking finely--also mystrawberry bed. The prospect for peaches, cherries, plums, apples, andpears is very promising--Indeed all nature is clothed in her mosthopeful dress. It really seems to me that the trees and the grass andthe large fields of waving grain did never look so beautifully as now. It is more probable, however, that my soul has grown to appreciateNature more fully. .. . "[80]

Susan needed that growth of soul to face the events of the next fewyears and do the work which lay ahead. The whole country was tenseover the slavery issue, which could no longer be pushed into thebackground. On public platforms and at every fireside, men and womenwere discussing the subject. Antislavery workers sensed the gravity ofthe situation and felt the onrush of the impending conflict betweenwhat they regarded as the forces of good and evil--freedom andslavery. When the Republican leader, William H. Seward, spoke inRochester, of "an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduringforces, "[81] he was expressing only what Garrisonian abolitionists, like Susan, always had recognized. In the West, a tall awkward countrylawyer, Abraham Lincoln, debating with the suave Stephen A. Douglas, declared with prophetic wisdom, "'A house divided against itselfcannot stand. ' I believe this government cannot endure permanentlyhalf slave and half free. .. . It will become all one thing or all theother. '"[82]

So Susan believed, and she was doing her best to make it all free. Not only was she holding antislavery meetings, making speeches, anddistributing leaflets whenever and wherever possible, but she was alsolobbying in Albany for a personal liberty bill to protect the slaveswho were escaping from the South. "Treason in the Capitol, " theDemocratic press labeled efforts for a personal liberty bill, and asSusan reported to William Lloyd Garrison, [83] even Republicans shiedaway from it, many of them regarding Seward's "irrepressible conflict"speech a sorry mistake. Such timidity and shilly-shallying wererepugnant to her. She could better understand the fervor of John Brownalthough he fought with bullets. 

Yet John Brown's fervor soon ended in tragedy, sowing seeds of fear, distrust, and bitter partisanship in all parts of the country. When, in October 1859, the startling news reached Susan of the raid onHarper's Ferry and the capture of John Brown, she sadly tried to piecetogether the story of his failure. She admired and respected JohnBrown, believing he had saved Kansas for freedom. That he had furtherambitious plans was common knowledge among antislavery workers, for hehad talked them over with Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass, and thethree young militants, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Frank Sanborn, andSamuel Gridley Howe. Somehow these plans had failed, but she was surethat his motives were good. He was imprisoned, accused of treason andmurder, and in his carpetbag were papers which, it was said, implicated prominent antislavery workers. Now his friends were fleeingthe country, Sanborn, Douglass, and Howe. Gerrit Smith broke down socompletely that for a time his mind was affected. Thomas WentworthHigginson, defiant and unafraid, stuck by John Brown to the end, befriending his family, hoping to rescue him as he had rescuedfugitive slaves. 

Scanning the _Liberator_ for its comment on John Brown, Susan found itcolored, as she had expected, by Garrison's instinctive opposition toall war and bloodshed. He called the raid "a misguided, wild, apparently insane though disinterested and well-intentioned effort byinsurrection to emancipate the slaves of Virginia, " but even he added, "Let no one who glories in the Revolutionary struggle of 1776 deny theright of the slaves to imitate the example of our fathers. "[84]

Behind closed doors and in public meetings, abolitionists pledgedtheir allegiance to John Brown's noble purpose. He had wanted nobloodshed, they said, had no thought of stirring up slaves to brutalrevenge. The raid was to be merely a signal for slaves to arise, tocast off slavery forever, to follow him to a mountain refuge, whichother slave insurrections would reinforce until all slaves were free. To him the plan seemed logical and he was convinced it wasGod-inspired. To some of his friends it seemed possible--just a stepbeyond the Underground Railroad and hiding fugitive slaves. To Susanhe was a hero and a martyr. 

Southerners, increasingly fearful of slave insurrections, called JohnBrown a cold-blooded murderer and accused Republicans--"blackRepublicans, " they classed them--of taking orders from abolitionistsand planning evil against them. To law-abiding northerners, John Brownwas a menace, stirring up lawlessness. Seward and Lincoln, speakingfor the Republicans, declared that violence, bloodshed, and treasoncould not be excused even if slavery was wrong and Brown thought hewas right. All saw before them the horrible threat of civil war. 

During John Brown's trial, his friends did their utmost to save him. The noble old giant with flowing white beard, who had always been moreor less of a legend, now to them assumed heroic proportions. Hiscalmness, his steadfastness in what he believed to be right capturedthe imagination. 

The jury declared him guilty--guilty of treason, of conspiring withslaves to rebel, guilty of murder in the first degree. The paperscarried the story, and it spread by word of mouth--the story of thoselast tense moments in the courtroom when John Brown declared, "It isunjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I interferred . .. Inbehalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-calledgreat, or in behalf of any of their friends . .. It would have been allright. .. . I say I am yet too young to understand that God is anyrespecter of persons. I believe that to have interferred as I havedone, in behalf of His despised poor, I did no wrong but right. Now ifit is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for thefurtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood further withthe blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slavecountry whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjustenactments, I say, let it be done. .. . "[85]

He was sentenced to die. 

Susan, sick at heart, talked all this over with her abolitionistfriends and began planning a meeting of protest and mourning inRochester if John Brown were hanged. She engaged the city's mostpopular hall for this meeting, never thinking of the animosity shemight arouse, and as she went from door to door selling tickets, sheasked for contributions for John Brown's destitute family. She triedto get speakers from among respected Republicans to widen the popularappeal of the meeting, but her diary records, "Not one man ofprominence in religion or politics will identify himself with the JohnBrown meeting. "[86] Only a Free Church minister, the Rev. Abram Pryn, and the ever-faithful Parker Pillsbury were willing to speak. 

There was still hope that John Brown might be saved and excitement ranhigh. Some like Higginson, unwilling to let him die, wanted to rescuehim, but Brown forbade it. Others wanted to kidnap Governor Wise ofVirginia and hold him on the high seas, a hostage for John Brown. Wendell Phillips was one of these. Parker Pillsbury, sending Susan thelatest news from "the seat of war" and signing his letter, "Faithfullyand fervently yours, " wrote, "My voice is against any attempt atrescue. It would inevitably, I fear, lead to bloodshed which could notcompensate nor be compensated. If the people dare murder their victim, as they are determined to do, and in the name of the law . .. The moraleffect of the execution will be without a parallel since the scenes onCalvary eighteen hundred years ago, and the halter that day sanctifiedshall be the cord to draw millions to salvation. "[87]

On Friday, December 2, 1859, John Brown was hanged. Through the North, church bells tolled and prayers were said for him. Everywhere peoplegathered together to mourn and honor or to condemn. In New York City, at a big meeting which overflowed to the streets, it was resolved"that we regard the recent outrage at Harper's Ferry as a crime, notonly against the State of Virginia, but against the Union itself. .. . "In Boston, however, Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke to a tremendous audienceof "the new saint, than whom none purer or more brave was ever led bylove of man into conflict and death . .. Who will make the gallowsglorious, " and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recorded in his diary, "Thiswill be a great day in our history; the date of a new revolution. " Faraway in France, Victor Hugo declared, "The eyes of Europe are fixed onAmerica. The hanging of John Brown will open a latent fissure thatwill finally split the union asunder. .. . You preserve your shame, butyou kill your glory. "[88]

In Rochester, three hundred people assembled. All were friends of thecause and there was no unfriendly disturbance to mar the proceedings. Susan presided and Parker Pillsbury, in her opinion, made "thegrandest speech of his life, " for it was the only occasion he everfound fully wicked enough to warrant "his terrific invective. "[89]

Thus these two militant abolitionists, Susan B. Anthony and ParkerPillsbury, joined hundreds of others throughout the nation in honoringJohn Brown, sensing the portent of his martyrdom and prophesying thathis soul would go marching on. 

FOOTNOTES:

[69] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 144-145. As John Brown visitedFrederick Douglass in Rochester, it is possible that Susan B. Anthonyhad met him. 

[70] Oct. 19, 1856, Blackwell Papers, Edna M. Stantial Collection. 

[71] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 148. 

[72] _Ibid. _, p. 151; also quotation following. 

[73] Alice Stone Blackwell, _Lucy Stone_ (Boston, 1930), pp. 197-198. 

[74] Ms. , Susan B. Anthony Papers, Library of Congress. 

[75] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 152. 

[76] April 20, 1857, Abby Kelley Foster Papers, American AntiquarianSociety, Worcester, Massachusetts. 

[77] Parker Pillsbury, _The Acts of the Antislavery Apostles_(Concord, N. H. , 1883). 

[78] Harper, _Anthony_, I. P. 160. 

[79] March 22, 1858, Blackwell Papers, Edna M. Stantial Collection. 

[80] N. D. , Alma Lutz Collection. 

[81] Charles A. And Mary B. Beard, _The Rise of American Civilization_(New York, 1930), II, p. 9. 

[82] A. M. Schlesinger and H. C. Hockett, _Land of the Free_ (NewYork, 1944), p. 297. 

[83] March 19, 1859, Antislavery Papers, Boston Public Library. 

[84] Francis Jackson, William Lloyd II, and Wendell Phillips Garrison, _William Lloyd Garrison_, 1805-1879 (New York, 1889), III, p. 486. 

[85] _Ibid. _, p. 490. 

[86] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 181. 

[87] _Ibid. _, p. 180. 

[88] Henrietta Buckmaster, _Let My People Go_ (New York, 1941), p. 269; Ehrlich, _God's Angry Man_, pp. 344-345, 350. 

[89] Susan B. Anthony Scrapbook, Library of Congress. In 1890, aftervisiting the John Brown Memorial at North Elbe, New York, Susan B. Anthony wrote: "John Brown was crucified for doing what he believedGod commanded him to do, 'to break the yoke and let the oppressed gofree, ' precisely as were the saints of old for following what theybelieved to be God's commands. The barbarism of our government was byso much the greater as our light and knowledge are greater than thoseof two thousand years ago. " Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 708. 

THE TRUE WOMAN

Susan's preoccupation with antislavery work did not lessen herinterest in women's advancement. Her own expanding courage and abilityshowed her the possibilities for all women in widened horizons andactivities. These possibilities were the chief topic of conversationwhen she and Elizabeth Stanton were together. With Mrs. Stanton'syoung daughters, Margaret and Harriot, in mind, they were continuallyplanning ways and means of developing the new woman, or the "truewoman" as they liked to call her; and one of these ways was physicalexercise in the fresh air, which was almost unheard of for womenexcept on the frontier. 

Taking off her hoops and working in the garden in the freedom of herlong calico dress, Susan was refreshed and exhilarated. "Uncovered thestrawberry and raspberry beds . .. " her diary records. "Worked withSimon building frames for the grapevines in the peach orchards. .. . Setout 18 English black currants, 22 English gooseberries and Muscatinegrape vines. .. . Finished setting out the apple trees & 600 blackberrybushes. .. . "[90]

She knew how little this strengthening work and healing influencetouched the lives of most women. Hemmed in by the walls of theirhomes, weighed down by bulky confining clothing, fed on the traditionof weakness, women could never gain the breadth of view, courage, andstamina needed to demand and appreciate emancipation. She thought agreat deal about this and how it could be remedied, and wrote herfriend, Thomas Wentworth Higginson "The salvation of the race depends, in a great measure, upon rescuing women from their hot-houseexistence. Whether in kitchen, nursery or parlor, all alike are shutaway from God's sunshine. Why did not your Caroline Plummer of Salem, why do not all of our wealthy women leave money for industrial andagricultural schools for girls, instead of ever and always providingfor boys alone?"[91]

An exceptional opportunity was now offered Susan--to speak on thecontroversial subject of coeducation before the State Teachers'Association, which only a few years before had been shocked by thesound of a woman's voice. Deeply concerned over her ability to writethe speech, she at once appealed to Elizabeth Stanton, "Do you pleasemark out a plan and give me as soon as you can. .. . "[92]

[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony, 1856]

Busy with preparations for woman's rights meetings in popular New Yorksummer resorts, Saratoga Springs, Lake George, Clifton Springs, andAvon, she grew panicky at the prospect of her impending speech anddashed off another urgent letter to Mrs. Stanton, underlining itvigorously for emphasis: "Not a _word written_ . .. And mercy onlyknows when I can get a moment, and what is _worse_, as the _Lord knowsfull well_, is, that if _I get all the time the world has--I can't getup a decent document_. .. . It is of but small moment who writes theAddress, but of _vast moment_ that it be _well done_. .. . No woman butyou can write from _my standpoint_ for all would base their strongest_argument_ on the _un_likeness of the _sexes_. .. . 

"Those of you who have the _talent_ to do honor to poor, oh how poorwomanhood have all given yourselves over to _baby_-making and leftpoor brainless _me_ to battle alone. It is a shame. Such a lady as _Imight_ be _spared_ to _rock cradles_, but it is a crime for _you_ and_Lucy_ and _Nette_. "[93]

On a separate page she outlined for Mrs. Stanton the points she wantedto make. Her title was affirmative, "Why the Sexes Should be EducatedTogether. " "Because, " she reasoned, "by such education they get trueideas of each other. .. . Because the endowment of both public andprivate funds is ever for those of the male sex, while all theSeminaries and Boarding Schools for Females are left tomaintain themselves as best they may by means of their tuitionfees--consequently cannot afford a faculty of first-classprofessors. .. . Not a school in the country gives to the girl equalprivileges with the boy. .. . No school _requires_ and but very fewallow the _girls_ to declaim and discuss side by side with the boys. Thus they are robbed of half of education. The grand thing that isneeded is to give the sexes _like motives_ for acquirement. Veryrarely a person studies closely, without hope of making that knowledgeuseful, as a means of support. .. . "[94]

Mrs. Stanton wrote her at once, "Come here and I will do what I can tohelp you with your address, if you will hold the baby and make thepuddings. "[95] Gratefully Susan hurried to Seneca Falls and togetherthey "loaded her gun, " not only for the teachers' convention but forall the summer meetings. 

Addressing the large teachers' meeting in Troy, Susan declared thatmental sex-differences did not exist. She called attention to theever-increasing variety of occupations which women were carrying onwith efficiency. There were women typesetters, editors, publishers, authors, clerks, engravers, watchmakers, bookkeepers, sculptors, painters, farmers, and machinists. Two hundred and fifty women wereserving as postmasters. Girls, she insisted, must be educated to earna living and more vocations must be opened to them as an incentive tostudy. "A woman, " she added, "needs no particular kind of education tobe a wife and mother anymore than a man does to be a husband andfather. A man cannot make a living out of these relations. He mustfill them with something more and so must women. "[96]

Her advanced ideas did not cause as much consternation as she hadexpected and she was asked to repeat her speech at the Massachusettsteachers' convention; but the thoughts of many in that audience wereechoed by the president when he said to her after the meeting, "Madam, that was a splendid production and well delivered. I could not haveasked for a single thing different either in matter or manner; but Iwould rather have followed my wife or daughter to Greenwood cemeterythan to have had her stand here before this promiscuous audience anddeliver that address. "[97]

It was one thing to talk about coeducation but quite another to offera resolution putting the New York State Teachers' Association onrecord as asking all schools, colleges, and universities to open theirdoors to women. This Susan did at their next convention, and whilethere were enough women present to carry the resolution, most of themvoted against it, listening instead to the emotional arguments of agroup of conservative men who prophesied that coeducation wouldcoarsen women and undermine marriage. Nor did she forget the Negro atthese conventions, but brought much criticism upon herself by offeringresolutions protesting the exclusion of Negroes from public schools, academies, colleges, and universities. 

Such controversial activities were of course eagerly reported in thepress, and Henry Stanton, reading his newspaper, pointed them out tohis wife, remarking drily, "Well, my dear, another notice of Susan. You stir up Susan and she stirs up the world. "[98]

 * * * * *

The best method of arousing women and spreading new ideas, Susandecided, was holding woman's rights conventions, for the discussionsat these conventions covered a wide field and were not limited merelyto women's legal disabilities. The feminists of that day extolledfreedom of speech, and their platform, like that of antislaveryconventions, was open to anyone who wished to express an opinion. Always the limited educational opportunities offered to women werepointed out, and Oberlin College and Antioch, both coeducational, wereheld up as patterns for the future. Resolutions were passed, demandingthat Harvard and Yale admit women. Women's low wages and the very fewoccupations open to them were considered, and whether it was fittingfor women to be doctors and ministers. At one convention Lucy Stonemade the suggestion that a prize be offered for a novel on women, like _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, to arouse the whole nation to the unjustsituation of women whose slavery, she felt, was comparable to that ofthe Negro. At another, William Lloyd Garrison maintained that womenhad the right to sit in the Congress and in state legislatures andthat there should be an equal number of men and women in all nationalcouncils. Inevitably Scriptural edicts regarding woman's sphere werethrashed out with Antoinette Brown, in her clerical capacity, settingat rest the minds of questioning women and quashing the protests ofclergymen who thought they were speaking for God. Usually ErnestineRose was on hand, ready to speak when needed, injecting into thediscussions her liberal clear-cut feminist views. Nor was theinternational aspect of the woman's rights movement forgotten. Theinterest in Great Britain in the franchise for women of such men asLord Brougham and John Stuart Mill was reported as were the effortsthere among women to gain admission to the medical profession. Distributed widely as a tract was the "admirable" article in the_Westminster Review_, "The Enfranchisement of Women, " by HarrietTaylor, now Mrs. John Stuart Mill. 

In New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, wherestate conventions were held annually, women carried back to theirhomes and their friends new and stimulating ideas. Nationalconventions, which actually represented merely the northeastern statesand Ohio and occasionally attracted men and women from Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas, were scheduled by Susan to meet every year inNew York, simultaneously with antislavery conventions. Thus she wasassured of a brilliant array of speakers, for the Garrisonianabolitionists were sincere advocates of woman's rights. 

Both Elizabeth Stanton and Lucy Stone were a great help to Susan inpreparing for these national gatherings for which she raised themoney. Elizabeth wrote the calls and resolutions, while Lucy could notonly be counted upon for an eloquent speech, but through her widecontacts brought new speakers and new converts to the meetings. However, national woman's rights conventions would probably havelapsed completely during the troubled years prior to the Civil War, had it not been for Susan's persistence. She was obliged to omit the1857 convention because all of her best speakers were either havingbabies or were kept at home by family duties. Lucy's baby, Alice StoneBlackwell, was born in September 1857, then Antoinette Brown's firstchild, and Mrs. Stanton's seventh. 

[Illustration: Lucy Stone and her daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell]

Impatient to get on with the work, Susan chafed at the delay and whenLucy wrote her, "I shall not assume the responsibility for anotherconvention until I have had my ten daughters, "[99] Susan was besideherself with apprehension. When Lucy told her that it was harder totake care of a baby day and night than to campaign for woman's rights, she felt that Lucy regarded as unimportant her "common work" of hiringhalls, engaging speakers, and raising money. This rankled, foralthough Susan realized it was work without glory, she did expect Lucyto understand its significance. 

Mrs. Stanton sensed the makings of a rift between Susan and theseyoung mothers, Lucy and Antoinette, and knowing from her ownexperience how torn a woman could be between rearing a family and workfor the cause, she pleaded with Susan to be patient with them. "Letthem rest a while in peace and quietness, and think great thoughts forthe future, " she wrote Susan. "It is not well to be in the excitementof public life all the time. Do not keep stirring them up or mourningover their repose. You need rest too. Let the world alone a while. Wecannot bring about a moral revolution in a day or a year. "[100]

But Susan could not let the world alone. There was too much to bedone. In addition to her woman's rights and antislavery work, she gavea helping hand to any good cause in Rochester, such as a protestmeeting against capital punishment, a series of Sunday eveninglectures, or establishing a Free Church like that headed by TheodoreParker in Boston where no one doctrine would be preached and all wouldbe welcome. There were days when weariness and discouragement hungheavily upon her. Then impatient that she alone seemed to be carryingthe burden of the whole woman's rights movement, she complained toLydia Mott, "There is not one woman left who may be relied on. Allhave first to please their husbands after which there is little timeor energy left to spend in any other direction. .. . How soon the laststanding monuments (yourself and myself, Lydia) will lay down theindividual 'shovel and de hoe' and with proper zeal and spirit graspthose of some masculine hand, the mercies and the spirits only know. Ideclare to you that I distrust the powers of any woman, even of myselfto withstand the mighty matrimonial maelstrom!"[101]

To Elizabeth Stanton she confessed, "I have very weak moments and longto lay my weary head somewhere and nestle my full soul to that ofanother in full sympathy. I sometimes fear that _I too_ shall faint bythe wayside and drop out of the ranks of the faithful few. "[102]

 * * * * *

Susan thought a great deal about marriage at this time, about how itinterfered with the development of women's talents and their careers, how it usually dwarfed their individuality. Nor were these thoughtswholly impersonal, for she had attentive suitors during these years. Her diary mentions moonlight rides and adds, "Mr. --walked home withme; marvelously attentive. What a pity such powers of intellect shouldlack the moral spine. "[103] Her standards of matrimony were high, andshe carefully recorded in her diary Lucretia Mott's wise words, "Inthe true marriage relation, the independence of the husband and wifeis equal, their dependence mutual, and their obligationsreciprocal. "[104]

Marriage and the differences of the sexes were often discussed at themany meetings she attended, and when remarks were made which to herseemed to limit in any way the free and full development of woman, shealways registered her protest. She had no patience with anyunrealistic glossing over of sex attraction and spurned the theorythat woman expressed love and man wisdom, that these two qualitiesreached out for each other and blended in marriage. Because she spokefrankly for those days and did not soften the impact of her words withsentimental flowery phrases, her remarks were sometimes called"coarse" and "animal, " but she justified them in a letter to Mrs. Stanton, who thought as she did, "To me it [sex] is not coarse orgross. If it is a fact, there it is. "[105]

She was reading at this time Elizabeth Barrett Browning's _AuroraLeigh_, called by Ruskin the greatest poem in the English language, but criticized by others as an indecent romance revolting to thepurity of many women. Susan had bought a copy of the first Americanedition and she carried it with her wherever she went. After a hardactive day, she found inspiration and refreshment in its pages. Nomatter how dreary the hotel room or how unfriendly the town, she nolonger felt lonely or discouraged, for Aurora Leigh was a companionever at hand, giving her confidence in herself, strengthening herambition, and helping her build a satisfying, constructive philosophyof life. On the flyleaf of her worn copy, which in later years shepresented to the Library of Congress, she wrote, "This book wascarried in my satchel for years and read and reread. The noble wordsof Elizabeth Barrett, as Wendell Phillips always called her, sunk deepinto my heart. I have always cherished it above all other books. I nowpresent it to the Congressional Library with the hope that women maymore and more be like Aurora Leigh. "

The beauty of its poetry enchanted her, and Elizabeth BarrettBrowning's feminism found an echo in her own. She pencil-marked thepassages she wanted to reread. When her "common work" of hiring hallsand engaging speakers seemed unimportant and even futile, she foundcomfort in these lines:

 "Be sure no earnest work Of any honest creature, howbeit weak Imperfect, ill-adapted, fails so much, It is not gathered as a grain of sand To enlarge the sum of human action used For carrying out God's end. .. . . .. Let us be content in work, To do the thing we can, and not presume To fret because it's little. "[106]

Glorying in work, she read with satisfaction:

 "The honest earnest man must stand and work: The woman also, otherwise she drops At once below the dignity of man, Accepting serfdom. Free men freely work; Who ever fears God, fears to sit at ease. "

Could she have written poetry, these words, spoken by Aurora, mightwell have been her own:

 "You misconceive the question like a man, Who sees a woman as the complement Of his sex merely. You forget too much That every creature, female as the male, Stands single in responsible act and thought, As also in birth and death. Whoever says To a loyal woman, 'Love and work with me, ' Will get fair answers, if the work and love Being good of themselves, are good for her--the best She was born for. "

Inspired by _Aurora Leigh_, Susan planned a new lecture, "The TrueWoman, " and as she wrote it out word for word, her thoughts andtheories about women, which had been developing through the years, crystallized. In her opinion, the "true woman" could no more thanAurora Leigh follow the traditional course and sacrifice all for thelove of one man, adjusting her life to his whims. She must, instead, develop her own personality and talents, advancing in learning, in thearts, in science, and in business, cherishing at the same time hernoble womanly qualities. Susan hoped that some day the fulldevelopment of woman's individuality would be compatible withmarriage, and she held up as an ideal the words which ElizabethBarrett Browning put into the mouth of Aurora Leigh:

 "The world waits For help. Beloved, let us work so well, Our work shall still be better for our love And still our love be sweeter for our work And both, commended, for the sake of each, By all true workers and true lovers born. "

She expressed this hope in her own practical words to Lydia Mott:"Institutions, among them marriage, are justly chargeable with manysocial and individual ills, but after all, the whole man or woman willrise above them. I am sure my 'true woman' will never be crushed ordwarfed by them. Woman must take to her soul a purpose and then makecircumstances conform to this purpose, instead of forever singing therefrain, 'if and if and if. '"[107]

 * * * * *

Late in 1858, Susan received a letter from Wendell Phillips which putnew life into all her efforts for women. He wrote her that ananonymous donor had given him $5, 000 for the woman's rights cause andthat he, Lucy Stone, and Susan had been named trustees to spend itwisely and effectively. 

The man who felt that the woman's rights cause was important enough torate a gift of that size proved to be wealthy Francis Jackson ofBoston, in whose home Susan had visited a few years before with Lucyand Antoinette. Jubilant over the prospects, she at once began to makeplans. She wanted to use all of the fund for lectures, conventions, tracts, and newspaper articles; Lucy thought part of the money shouldbe spent to prove unconstitutional the law which taxed women withoutrepresentation and Antoinette was eager for a share to establish achurch in which she could preach woman's rights with the Gospel. 

Both Wendell Phillips and Lucy Stone agreed that Susan should have$1, 500 for the intensive campaign she had planned for New York, andfor once in her life she started off without a financial worry, withmoney in hand to pay her speakers. She held meetings in all of theprincipal towns of the state, making them at least partially pay forthemselves. Her lecturers each received $12 a week and she kept alike amount for herself, for planning the tour, organizing themeetings, and delivering her new lecture, "The True Woman. "

"I am having fine audiences of thinking men and women, " she wrote MaryHallowell. "Oh, if we could but make our meetings ring like those ofthe antislavery people, wouldn't the world hear us? But to do that wemust have souls baptized into the work and consecrated to it. "[108]

Some souls were deeply stirred by the woman's rights gospel. One ofthese was the wealthy Boston merchant, Charles F. Hovey, who in hiswill left $50, 000 in trust to Wendell Phillips, William LloydGarrison, Parker Pillsbury, Abby Kelley Foster, and others, to bespent for the "promotion of the antislavery cause and other reforms, "among them woman's rights, and not less than $8, 000 a year to be spentto promote these reforms. With all this financial help available, Susan expected great things to happen. 

 * * * * *

During the winter of 1860 while the legislature was in session, Susanspent six weeks in Albany with Lydia Mott, and day after day sheclimbed the long hill to the capitol to interview legislators onamendments to the married women's property laws. When these amendmentswere passed by the Senate, Assemblyman Anson Bingham urged her tobring their mutual friend, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to Albany to speakbefore his committee to assure passage by the Assembly. 

Once again Susan hurried to Seneca Falls, and unpacking her littleportmanteau stuffed with papers and statistics, discussed the subjectwith Mrs. Stanton in front of the open fire late into the night. Thenthe next morning while Mrs. Stanton shut herself up in the quietestroom in the house to write her speech, Susan gave the children theirbreakfast, sent the older ones off to school, watched over the babies, prepared the desserts, and made herself generally useful. By this timethe children regarded her affectionately as "Aunt Thusan, " and theyknew they must obey her, for she was a stern disciplinarian whom eventhe mischievous Stanton boys dared not defy. 

These visits of Susan's were happy, satisfying times for both theseyoung women. A few days' respite from travel in a well-run home witha friend she admired did wonders for Susan, giving her perspective onthe work she had already done and courage to tackle new problems, while for Mrs. Stanton this short period of stimulating companionshipand freedom from household cares was a godsend. "Miss Anthony" hadlong ago become Susan to Elizabeth, but Susan all through her lifecalled her very best friend "Mrs. Stanton, " playfully to be sure, butwith a remnant of that formality which it was hard for her to castoff. 

The speech was soon finished. Mrs. Stanton's imagination, fired by hersympathetic understanding of women's problems, had turned Susan's coldhard facts into moving prose, while Susan, the best of critics, detected every weak argument or faltering phrase. They both felt theyhad achieved a masterpiece. 

Mrs. Stanton delivered this address before a joint session of the NewYork legislature in March 1860. Susan beamed with pride as she watchedthe large audience crowd even the galleries and heard the long loudapplause for the speech which she was convinced could not have beensurpassed by any man in the United States. 

The next day the Assembly passed the Married Women's Property Bill, and when shortly it was signed by the governor, Susan and Mrs. Stantonscored their first big victory, winning a legal revolution for thewomen of New York State. This new law was a challenge to womeneverywhere. Under it a married woman had the right to hold property, real and personal, without the interference of her husband, the rightto carry on any trade or perform any service on her own account and tocollect and use her own earnings; a married woman might now buy, sell, and make contracts, and if her husband had abandoned her or wasinsane, a convict, or a habitual drunkard, his consent wasunnecessary; a married woman might sue and be sued, she was the jointguardian with her husband of her children, and on the decease of herhusband the wife had the same rights that her husband would have ather death. 

Susan did not then realize the full significance of what she hadaccomplished--that she had unleashed a new movement for freedom whichwould be the means of strengthening the democratic government of hercountry. 

FOOTNOTES:

[90] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 173-174, 198. 

[91] _Ibid. _, p. 160. 

[92] May 26, 1856, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Vassar CollegeLibrary. 

[93] _Ibid. _, June 5, 1856. Antoinette Brown Blackwell was oftencalled Nette. 

[94] Ms. , Susan B. Anthony Papers, Library of Congress. 

[95] 1856, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library of Congress. 

[96] Ms. , Susan B. Anthony Papers, Library of Congress. A notation onthis ms. Reads, "Written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton--Delivered by SusanB. Anthony. "

[97] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 143. 

[98] Stanton and Blatch, _Stanton_, II, p. 71. 

[99] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 162. 

[100] June 10, 1856, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library ofCongress. 

[101] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 171. 

[102] Sept. 27, 1857, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library ofCongress. 

[103] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 175. 

[104] Ms. , Diary, 1855. 

[105] Sept. 27, 1857, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library ofCongress. 

[106] Elizabeth Barrett Browning, _Aurora Leigh_ (New York, 1857), p. 316; quotations following, pp. 53-54, pp. 364-365. 

[107] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 170. 

[108] _Ibid. _, p. 177. Mary Hallowell, a liberal Rochester Quaker, always interested in Susan B. Anthony and her work. 

THE ZEALOT

With a spirit of confidence inspired by her victory in New York State, Susan looked forward to the tenth national woman's rights conventionin New York City in May 1860. At this convention she reported progresseverywhere. Four thousand dollars from the Jackson and Hovey funds hadbeen spent in the successful New York campaign, and similar work wasscheduled for Ohio. In Kansas, women had won from the constitutionalconvention equal rights and privileges in state-controlled schools andin the management of the public schools, including the right to votefor members of school boards; mothers had been granted equal rightswith fathers in the control and custody of their children, and marriedwomen had been given property rights. In Indiana, Maine, Missouri, andOhio, married women could now control their own earnings. 

"Each year we hail with pleasure, " she continued, "new accessions toour faith. Brave men and true from the higher walks of literature andart, from the bar, the bench, the pulpit, and legislative halls arenow ready to help woman wherever she claims to stand. " She wasthinking of the aid given her by Andrew J. Colvin and Anson Bingham ofthe New York legislature, of the young journalist, George WilliamCurtis, just recently speaking for women, of Samuel Longfellow at hisfirst woman's rights convention, and of the popular Henry Ward Beecherwho, just a few months before, had delivered his great woman's rightsspeech, thereby identifying himself irrevocably with the cause. Sheannounced with great satisfaction the news, which the papers hadcarried a few days before, that Matthew Vassar of Poughkeepsie had setaside $400, 000 to found a college for women equal in all respects toHarvard and Yale. [109]

Progress and good feeling were in the air, and the speakers were notheckled as in past years by the rowdies who had made it a practice tofollow abolitionists into woman's rights meetings to bait them. Intothis atmosphere of good will and rejoicing, Susan and ElizabethStanton now injected a more serious note, bringing before theconvention the controversial question of marriage and divorce whichheretofore had been handled with kid gloves at all woman's rightsmeetings, but which they sincerely believed demanded solution. 

 * * * * *

Divorce had been much in the news because several leading families inAmerica and in England were involved in lawsuits complicated bystringent divorce laws. Invariably the wife bore the burden of censureand hardship, for no matter how unprincipled her husband might be, hewas entitled to her children and her earnings under the property lawsof most states. 

In New York efforts were now being made to gain support for a liberaldivorce bill, patterned after the Indiana law, and a variety ofproposals were before the legislature, making drunkenness, insanity, desertion, and cruel and abusive treatment grounds for divorce. HoraceGreeley in his _Tribune_ had been vigorously opposing a more liberallaw for New York, while Robert Dale Owen of Indiana wrote in itsdefense. Everywhere people were reading the Greeley-Owen debates inthe _Tribune_. Through his widely circulated paper, Horace Greeley hadin a sense become an oracle for the people who felt he was safe andgood; while Robert Dale Owen, because of his youthful association withthe New Harmony community and Frances Wright, was branded withradicalism which even his valuable service in the Indiana legislatureand his two terms in Congress could not blot out. 

Susan and Mrs. Stanton had no patience with Horace Greeley's smugold-fashioned opinions on marriage and divorce. In fact theseGreeley-Owen debates in the _Tribune_ were the direct cause of theirdecision to bring this subject before the convention, where they hopedfor support from their liberal friends. They counted especially onLucy Stone, who seemed to give her approval when she wrote, "I am gladyou will speak on the divorce question, provided you yourself areclear on the subject. It is a great grave topic that one shudders tograpple, but its hour is coming. .. . God touch your lips if you speakon it. "[110]

Neither Susan nor Mrs. Stanton shuddered to grapple with any subjectwhich they believed needed attention. In fact, the discussion ofmarriage and divorce in woman's rights conventions had been on theirminds for some time. Three years before Susan had written Lucy, "Ihave thought with you until of late that the Social Question must bekept separate from Woman's Rights, but we have always claimed that ourmovement was _Human Rights_, not Woman's specially. .. . It seems to mewe have played on the surface of things quite long enough. Getting theright to hold property, to vote, to wear what dress we please, etc. , are all to the good, but _Social Freedom_, after all, lies at thebottom of all, and unless woman gets that she must continue the slaveof man in all other things. "[111]

 * * * * *

Consternation spread through the genial ranks of the convention asMrs. Stanton now offered resolutions calling for more liberal divorcelaws. Quick to sense the temper of an audience, Susan felt itsresistance to being jolted out of the pleasant contemplation of pastsuccesses to the unpleasant recognition that there were stilldifficult ugly problems ahead. She was conscious at once of a stir ofastonishment and disapproval when Mrs. Stanton in her clear compellingvoice read, "Resolved, That an unfortunate or ill-assorted marriage isever a calamity, but not ever, perhaps never a crime--and when societyor government, by its laws or customs, compels its continuance, alwaysto the grief of one of the parties, and the actual loss and damage ofboth, it usurps an authority never delegated to man, nor exercised byGod, Himself. .. . "[112]

Listening to Mrs. Stanton's speech in defense of her ten boldresolutions on marriage and divorce, Susan felt that her bravecolleague was speaking for women everywhere, for wives of the presentand the future. As the hearty applause rang out, she concluded thateven the disapproving admired her courage; but before the applauseceased, she saw Antoinette Blackwell on her feet, waiting to be heard. She knew that Antoinette, like Horace Greeley, preferred to think ofall marriages as made in heaven, and true to form Antoinette contendedthat the marriage relation "must be lifelong" and "as permanent andindissoluble as the relation of parent and child. "[113] At onceErnestine Rose came to the rescue in support of Mrs. Stanton. 

Then Wendell Phillips showed his displeasure by moving that Mrs. Stanton's resolutions be laid on the table and expunged from therecord because they had no more to do with this convention thanslavery in Kansas or temperance. "This convention, " he asserted, "as Iunderstand it, assembles to discuss the laws that rest unequally uponmen and women, not those that rest equally on men and women. "[114]

Aghast at this statement, Susan was totally unprepared to have hisviews supported by that other champion of liberty, William LloydGarrison, who, however, did not favor expunging the resolutions fromthe record. 

It was incomprehensible to Susan that neither Garrison nor Phillipsrecognized woman's subservient status in marriage under prevailinglaws and traditions, and she now stated her own views with firmness:"As to the point that this question does not belong to thisplatform--from that I totally dissent. Marriage has ever been aone-sided matter, resting most unequally upon the sexes. By it, mangains all--woman loses all; tyrant law and lust reign supreme withhim--meek submission and ready obedience alone befit her. "[115]

Warming to the subject, she continued, "By law, public sentiment, andreligion from the time of Moses down to the present day, woman hasnever been thought of other than as a piece of property, to bedisposed of at the will and pleasure of man. And this very hour, byour statute books, by our so-called enlightened Christiancivilization, she has no voice in saying what shall be the basis ofthe relation. She must accept marriage as man proffers it or not atall. .. . "

When finally the vote was taken, Mrs. Stanton's resolutions were laidon the table, but not expunged from the record, and the conventionadjourned with much to talk about and think about for some time tocome. 

The newspapers, of course, could not overlook such a piece of news asthis heated argument on divorce in a woman's rights convention, andfanned the flames pro and con, most of them holding up Miss Anthonyand Mrs. Stanton as dangerous examples of freedom for women. The Rev. A. D. Mayo, Unitarian clergyman of Albany, heretofore Susan's loyalchampion, now made a point of reproving her. "You are not married, " hedeclared with withering scorn. "You have no business to be discussingmarriage. " To this she retorted, "Well, Mr. Mayo, you are not aslave. Suppose you quit lecturing on slavery. "[116]

Both Susan and Mrs. Stanton, amazed at the opposition and thedisapproval they had aroused, were grateful for Samuel Longfellow'scomforting words of commendation[117] and for the letters of approvalwhich came from women from all parts of the state. Most satisfying ofall was this reassurance from Lucretia Mott, whose judgment they sohighly valued: "I was rejoiced to have such a defense of theresolutions as yours. I have the fullest confidence in the unitedjudgment of Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony and I am glad they areso vigorous in the work. "[118]

Hardest to bear was the disapproval of Wendell Phillips whom they bothadmired so much. Difficult to understand and most disappointing wasLucy Stone's failure to attend the convention or come to theirdefense. Thinking over this first unfortunate difference of opinionamong the faithful crusaders for freedom to whom she had always feltso close in spirit, Susan was sadly disillusioned, but she had noregrets that the matter had been brought up, and she defied hercritics by speaking before a committee of the New York legislature insupport of a liberal divorce bill. Nor was she surprised when a groupof Boston women, headed by Caroline H. Dall, called a convention whichthey hoped would counteract this radical outbreak in the woman'srights movement by keeping to the safe subjects of education, vocation, and civil position. 

Having learned by this time through the hard school of experience thatthe bona-fide reformer could not play safe and go forward, Susanthoughtfully commented, "Cautious, careful people, always castingabout to preserve their reputation and social standing, never canbring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willingto be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly andprivately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised andpersecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences. "[119]

 * * * * *

The repercussions of the divorce debates were soon drowned out by thenoise and excitement of the presidential campaign of 1860. With fourcandidates in the field, Breckenridge, Bell, Douglas, and Lincoln, each offering his party's solution for the nation's critical problems, there was much to think about and discuss, and Susan found woman'srights pushed into the background. At the same time antagonism towardabolitionists was steadily mounting for they were being blamed for thetensions between the North and the South. 

Dedicated to the immediate and unconditional emancipation of slavery, Susan saw no hope in the promises of any political party. Even theRepublicans' opposition to the extension of slavery in theterritories, which had won over many abolitionists, including Henryand Elizabeth Stanton, seemed to her a mild and ineffectual answer tothe burning questions of the hour. For her to further the election ofAbraham Lincoln was unthinkable, since he favored the enforcement ofthe Fugitive Slave Law and had stated he was not in favor of Negrocitizenship. 

At heart she was a nonvoting Garrisonian abolitionist and would notsupport a political party which in any way sanctioned slavery. Had shebeen eligible as a voter she undoubtedly would have refused to casther ballot until a righteous antislavery government had beenestablished. As she expressed it in a letter to Mrs. Stanton, shecould not, if she were a man, vote for "the least of two evils, one ofwhich the Nation must surely have in the presidential chair. "[120]

She saw no possibility at this time of wiping out slavery by means ofpolitical abolition, because in spite of the fact that slavery had foryears been one of the most pressing issues before the American people, no great political party had yet endorsed abolition, nor had a singleprominent practical statesman[121] advocated immediate unconditionalemancipation. As the Liberty party experiment had proved, anabolitionist running for office on an antislavery platform was doomedto defeat. Therefore the gesture made in this critical campaign by asmall group of abolitionists in nominating Gerrit Smith for presidentappeared utterly futile to Susan. Abolitionists, she believed, followed the only course consistent with their principles when theyeschewed politics, abstained from voting, and devoted their energieswith the fervor of evangelists to a militant educational campaign. 

So, whenever she could, she continued to hold antislavery meetings. "Crowded house at Port Byron, " her diary records. "I tried to say afew words at opening, but soon curled up like a sensitive plant. It isa terrible martyrdom for me to speak. "[122] Yet so great was the needto enlighten people on the evils of slavery that she endured thismartyrdom, stepping into the breach when no other speaker wasavailable. Taking as her subject, "What Is American Slavery?" shedeclared, "It is the legalized, systematic robbery of the bodies andsouls of nearly four millions of men, women, and children. It is thelegalized traffic in God's image. "[123]

She asked for personal liberty laws to protect the human rights offugitive slaves, adding that the Dred Scott decision had been possibleonly because it reflected the spirit and purpose of the Americanpeople in the North as well as the South. She heaped blame on theNorth for restricting the Negro's educational and economicopportunities, for barring him from libraries, lectures, and theaters, and from hotels and seats on trains and buses. 

"Let the North, " she urged, "prove to the South by her acts that shefully recognizes the humanity of the black man, that she respects hisrights in all her educational, industrial, social, and politicalassociations. .. . "

This was asking far more than the North was ready to give, but toSusan it was justice which she must demand. No wonder free Negroes inthe North honored and loved her and expressed their gratitude wheneverthey could. "A fine-looking colored man on the train presented me witha bouquet, " she wrote in her diary. "Can't tell whether he knew me oronly felt my sympathy. "[124]

 * * * * *

The threats of secession from the southern states, which followedLincoln's election, brought little anxiety to Susan or herfellow-abolitionists, for they had long preached, "No Union withSlaveholders, " believing that dissolution of the Union would preventfurther expansion of slavery in the new western territories, and notonly lessen the damaging influence of slavery on northerninstitutions, but relieve the North of complicity in maintainingslavery. Garrison in his _Liberator_ had already asked, "Will theSouth be so obliging as to secede from the Union?" When, in December1860, South Carolina seceded, Horace Greeley, who only a few monthsbefore had called the disunion abolitionists "a little coterie ofcommon scolds, " now wrote in the _Tribune_, "If the cotton statesshall decide that they can do better out of the Union than in it, weinsist in letting them go in peace. The right to secede may be arevolutionary one, but it exists nevertheless. "[125]

[Illustration: William Lloyd Garrison]

What abolitionists feared far more than secession was that to save theUnion some compromise would be made which would fasten slavery on thenation. Susan agreed with Garrison when he declared in the_Liberator_, "All Union-saving efforts are simply idiotic. At last'the covenant with death' is annulled, 'the agreement with Hell'broken--at least by the action of South Carolina and ere long by allthe slave-holding states, for their doom is one. "[126]

Compromise, however, was in the air. The people were appalled andconfused by the breaking up of the Union and the possibility of civilwar, and the government fumbled. Powerful Republicans, among themThurlow Weed, speaking for eastern financial interests, favored theCrittenden Compromise which would re-establish the Mason-Dixon line, protect slavery in the states where it was now legal, sanction thedomestic slave trade, guarantee payment by the United States forescaped slaves, and forbid Congress to abolish slavery in theDistrict of Columbia without the consent of Virginia and Maryland. Even Seward suggested a constitutional amendment guaranteeingnoninterference with slavery in the slave states for all time. In suchan atmosphere as this, Susan gloried in Wendell Phillips's impetuousdeclarations against compromise. 

While the whole country marked time, waiting for the inauguration ofPresident Lincoln, abolitionists sent out their speakers, Susanheading a group in western New York which included Samuel J. May, Stephen S. Foster, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. "All are united, " shewrote William Lloyd Garrison, "that good faith and honor demand us togo forward and leave the responsibility of free speech or itssuppression with the people of the places we visit. " Then showing thatshe well understood the temper of the times, she added, "I trust . .. No personal harm may come to you or Phillips or any of the little bandof the true and faithful who shall defend the right. .. . "[127]

Feeling was running high in Buffalo when Susan arrived with herantislavery contingent in January 1861, expecting disturbances butunprepared for the animosity of audiences which hissed, yelled, andstamped so that not a speaker could be heard. The police made noeffort to keep order and finally the mob surged over the platform andthe lights went out. Nevertheless, Susan who was presiding held herground until lights were brought in and she could dimly see themilling crowd. 

In small towns they were listened to with only occasional catcalls andboos of disapproval, but in every city from Buffalo to Albany the mobsbroke up their meetings. Even in Rochester, which had never beforeshown open hostility to abolitionists, Susan's banner, "No Union withSlaveholders" was torn down and a restless audience hissed her as sheopened her meeting and drowned out the speakers with their shoutingand stamping until at last the police took over and escorted thespeakers home through the jeering crowds. 

All but Susan now began to question the wisdom of holding moremeetings, but her determination to continue, and to assert the rightof free speech, shamed her colleagues into acquiescence. Cayennepepper, thrown on the stove, broke up their meeting at Port Byron. InRome, rowdies bore down upon Susan, who was taking the admission feeof ten cents, brushed her aside, "big cloak, furs, and all, "[128] andrushed to the platform where they sang, hooted, and played cards untilthe speakers gave up in despair. Syracuse, well known for itstolerance and pride in free speech, now greeted them with a howlingdrunken mob armed with knives and pistols and rotten eggs. Susan onthe platform courageously faced their gibes until she and hercompanions were forced out into the street. They then took refuge inthe home of fellow-abolitionists while the mob dragged effigies ofSusan and Samuel J. May through the streets and burned them in thesquare. 

Not even this kept Susan from her last advertised meeting in Albanywhere Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Gerrit Smith, and FrederickDouglass joined her. Here the Democratic mayor, George H. Thatcher, was determined to uphold free speech in spite of almost overwhelmingopposition, and calling at the Delavan House for the abolitionists, safely escorted them to their hall. Then, with a revolver across hisknees, he sat on the platform with them while his policemen, scatteredthrough the hall, put down every disturbance; but at the end of theday, he warned Susan that he could no longer hold the mob in check andbegged her as a personal favor to him to call off the rest of themeetings. She consented, and under his protection the intrepid littlegroup of abolitionists walked back to their hotel with the mobtrailing behind them. 

Looking back upon the tense days and nights of this "winter ofmobs, "[129] Susan was proud of her group of abolitionists who sobravely had carried out their mission. In comparison, the Republicanshad shown up badly, not a Republican mayor having the courage orinterest to give them protection. In fact, she found little in theattitude of the Republicans to offer even a glimmer of hope that theywere capable of governing in this crisis. Lincoln's inaugural addressprejudiced her at once, for he said, "I have no purpose directly orindirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the stateswhere it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so and I haveno inclination to do so. "[130] To her the future looked dark whenstatesmen would save the Union at such a price. 

"No Compromise" was Susan's watchword these days, as a feminist aswell as an abolitionist, even though this again set her at odds withGarrison and Phillips, the two men she respected above all others. They were now writing her stern letters urging her to reveal thehiding place of a fugitive wife and her daughter. Just before she hadstarted on her antislavery crusade and while she was in Albany withLydia Mott, a heavily veiled woman with a tragic story had come tothem for help. She was the wife of Dr. Charles Abner Phelps, a highlyrespected member of the Massachusetts Senate, and the mother of threechildren. She had discovered, she told them, that her husband wasunfaithful to her, and when she confronted him with the proof, he hadinsisted that she suffered from delusions and had her committed to aninsane asylum. For a year and a half she had not been allowed tocommunicate with her children, but finally her brother, a prominentAlbany attorney, obtained her release through a writ of habeas corpus, took her to his home, and persuaded Dr. Phelps to allow the childrento visit her for a few weeks. Now she was desperate as she again facedthe prospect of being separated from her children by Massachusetts lawwhich gave even an unfaithful husband control of his wife's person andtheir children. 

Well aware of how often her friends of the Underground Railroad haddefied the Fugitive Slave Law and hidden and transported fugitiveslaves, Susan decided she would do the same for this culturedintelligent woman, a slave to her husband under the law. Without athought of the consequences, she took the train on Christmas Day forNew York with Mrs. Phelps and her thirteen-year-old daughter, both indisguise, hoping that in the crowded city they could hide from Dr. Phelps and the law. Arriving late at night, they walked through thesnow and slush to a hotel, only to be refused a room because they werenot accompanied by a gentleman. They tried another hotel, with thesame result, and then Susan, remembering a boarding house run by adivorced woman she knew, hopefully rang her doorbell. She too refusedthem, claiming all her boarders would leave if she harbored a runawaywife. By this time it was midnight. Cold and exhausted, they braved aBroadway hotel, where they were told there was no vacant room; butSusan, convinced this was only an excuse, said as much to the clerk, adding, "You can give us a place to sleep or we will sit in thisoffice all night. " When he threatened to call the police, sheretorted, "Very well, we will sit here till they come to take us tothe station. "[131] Finally he relented and gave them a room withoutheat. Early the next morning, Susan began making the rounds of herfriends in search of shelter for Mrs. Phelps and her daughter, andfinally at the end of a discouraging day, Abby Hopper Gibbons, theQuaker who had so often hidden fugitive slaves, took this fugitivewife into her home. 

Returning to Albany, Susan found herself under suspicion andthreatened with arrest by Dr. Phelps and Mrs. Phelps's brothers, because she had broken the law by depriving a father of his child. Letters and telegrams, demanding that she reveal Mrs. Phelps's hidingplace, followed her to Rochester and on her antislavery tour throughwestern New York. Refusing to be intimidated, she ignored them all. 

When Garrison wrote her long letters in his small neat hand, beggingher not to involve the woman's rights and antislavery movements in any"hasty and ill-judged, no matter how well-meant" action, it was hardfor her to reconcile this advice with his impetuous, undiplomatic, anddangerous actions on behalf of Negro slaves. "I feel the strongestassurance, " she told him, "that what I have done is wholly right. HadI turned my back upon her I should have scorned myself. .. . That Ishould stop to ask if my act would injure the reputation of anymovement never crossed my mind, nor will I allow such a fear to stiflemy sympathies or tempt me to expose her to the cruel inhuman treatmentof her own household. Trust me that as I ignore all law to help theslave, so will I ignore it all to protect an enslaved woman. "[132]

When later they met at an antislavery convention, Garrison, renewinghis efforts on behalf of Dr. Phelps, put this question to Susan, "Don't you know that the law of Massachusetts gives the father theentire guardianship and control of the children?"

"Yes, I know it, " she answered. "Does not the law of the United Statesgive the slaveholder the ownership of the slave? And don't you breakit every time you help a slave to Canada? Well, the law which givesthe father the sole ownership of the children is just as wicked andI'll break it just as quickly. You would die before you would delivera slave to his master, and I will die before I will give up that childto its father. "

Susan escaped arrest as she thought she would, for Dr. Phelps couldnot afford the unfavorable publicity involved. He managed to kidnaphis child on her way to Sunday School, but his wife eventually won adivorce through the help of her friends. 

The most trying part of this experience for Susan was the attitude ofGarrison and Phillips, who, had now for the second time failed torecognize that the freedom they claimed for the Negro was alsoessential for women. They believed in woman's rights, to be sure, butwhen these rights touched the institution of marriage, their visionwas clouded. Just a year before, they had fought Mrs. Stanton'sdivorce resolutions because they were unable to see that the existinglaws of marriage did not apply equally to men and women. Now theysustained the father's absolute right over his child. What was it, Susan wondered, that kept them from understanding? Was it loyalty tosex, was it an unconscious clinging to dominance and superiority, orwas it sheer inability to recognize women as human beings likethemselves? "Very many abolitionists, " she wrote in her diary, "haveyet to learn the ABC of woman's rights. "[133]

FOOTNOTES:

[109] _History of Woman Suffrage_, I. P. 689. Henry Ward Beecher'sspeech, _The Public Function of Women_, delivered at Cooper Union, Feb. 2, 1860, was widely distributed as a tract. 

[110] April 16, 1860, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library ofCongress. 

[111] June 16, 1857, Blackwell Papers, Edna M. Stantial Collection. 

[112] _History of Woman Suffrage_, I, p. 717. 

[113] _Ibid. _, p. 725. 

[114] _Ibid. _, p. 732. 

[115] _Ibid. _, p. 735. 

[116] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 196. 

[117] Elizabeth Cady Stanton, _Eighty Years and More_ (New York, 1898), p. 219. Samuel Longfellow whispered to Mrs. Stanton in themidst of the debate, "Nevertheless you are right and the conventionwill sustain you. "

[118] Harper, _Anthony_, I. P. 195. 

[119] _Ibid. _, p. 197. 

[120] Aug. 25, 1860, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Vassar CollegeLibrary. 

[121] Charles Sumner was the First prominent statesman to speak foremancipation, Oct. , 1861, at the Massachusetts Republican Convention. 

[122] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 198. 

[123] Ms. , Susan B. Anthony Papers, Library of Congress. 

[124] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 198. 

[125] Garrisons, _Garrison_, III, p. 504; Beards, _The Rise ofAmerican Civilization_, II, p. 63. 

[126] Garrisons, _Garrison_, III, p. 508. 

[127] Jan. 18, 1861, Antislavery Papers, Boston Public Library. 

[128] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 210. 

[129] Susan B. Anthony Scrapbook, 1861, Library of Congress. 

[130] Carl Sandburg, _Abraham Lincoln, The War Years_ (New York, 1939), I, p. 125. 

[131] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 202. Mrs. Phelps later found a morepermanent home with the author, Elizabeth Ellet. 

[132] _Ibid. _, pp. 203-204. 

[133] _Ibid. _, p. 198. 

A WAR FOR FREEDOM

Six more southern states, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, following the lead of South Carolina, secededearly in 1861 and formed the Confederate States of America. Thisbreaking up of the Union disturbed Susan primarily because it took theminds of most of her colleagues off everything but saving the Union. Convinced that even in a time of national crisis, work for women mustgo on, she tried to prepare for the annual woman's rights conventionin New York, but none of her hitherto dependable friends would helpher. Nevertheless, she persisted, even after the fall of Fort Sumterand the President's call for troops. Only when the abolitionistscalled off their annual New York meetings did she reluctantly realizethat woman's rights too must yield to the exigencies of the hour. 

Influenced by her Quaker background, she could not see war as thesolution of this or any other crisis. In fact, the majority ofabolitionists were amazed and bewildered when war came because it wasnot being waged to free the slaves. Looking to their leaders forguidance, they heard Wendell Phillips declare for war before anaudience of over four thousand in Boston. Garrison, known to all as anonresistant, made it clear that his sympathies were with thegovernment. He saw in "this grand uprising of the manhood of theNorth"[134] a growing appreciation of liberty and free institutionsand a willingness to defend them. Calling upon abolitionists to standby their principles, he at the same time warned them not to criticizeLincoln or the Republicans unnecessarily, not to divide the North, butto watch events and bide their time, and he opposed thoseabolitionists who wanted to withhold support of the government untilit stood openly and unequivocally for the Negro's freedom. From thefront page of the _Liberator_, he now removed his slogan, "No Unionwith Slaveholders. " Kindly placid Samuel J. May, usually against allviolence, now compared the sacrifices of the war to the crucifixion, and to Susan this was blasphemy. Even Parker Pillsbury wrote her, "Iam rejoicing over Old Abe, but my voice is still for war. "[135]

She was troubled, confused, and disillusioned by the attitude of thesemen and by that of most of her antislavery friends. Only very few, among them Lydia Mott, were uncompromising non-resistants. To one ofthem she wrote, "I have tried hard to persuade myself that I aloneremained mad, while all the rest had become sane, because I haveinsisted that it is our duty to bear not only our usual testimony butone even louder and more earnest than ever before. .. . TheAbolitionists, for once, seem to have come to an agreement with allthe world that they are out of tune and place, hence should hold theirpeace and spare their rebukes and anathemas. Our position to me seemsmost humiliating, simply that of the politicians, one of expediency, not principle. I have not yet seen one good reason for the abandonmentof all our meetings, and am more and more ashamed and sad that eventhe little Apostolic number have yielded to the world's motto--'theend justifies the means. '"[136]

Now the farm home was a refuge. Her father, leaving her in charge, traveled West for his long-dreamed-of visit with his sons in Kansas, with Daniel R. , now postmaster at Leavenworth, and with Merritt andhis young wife, Mary Luther, in their log cabin at Osawatomie. As arelease from her pent-up energy, Susan turned to hard physical work. "Superintended the plowing of the orchard, " she recorded in her diary. "The last load of hay is in the barn; and all in capital order. .. . Washed every window in the house today. Put a quilted petticoat in theframe. .. . Quilted all day, but sewing seems no longer to be mycalling. .. . Fitted out a fugitive slave for Canada with the help ofHarriet Tubman. "[137]

Although she filled her days, life on the farm in these stirring timesseemed futile to her. She missed the stimulating exchange of ideaswith fellow-abolitionists and confessed to her diary, "The all-alonefeeling will creep over me. It is such a fast after the feast of greatpresences to which I have been so long accustomed. "

The war was much on her mind. Eagerly she read Greeley's _Tribune_ andthe Rochester _Democrat_. The news was discouraging--the tragedy ofBull Run, the call for more troops, defeat after defeat for the Unionarmies. General Frémont in Missouri freeing the slaves of rebels onlyto have Lincoln cancel the order to avert antagonizing the borderstates. 

"How not to do it seems the whole study of Washington, " she wrote inher diary. "I wish the government would move quickly, proclaim freedomto every slave and call on every able-bodied Negro to enlist in theUnion Army. .. . To forever blot out slavery is the only possiblecompensation for this merciless war. "[138]

To satisfy her longing for a better understanding of people andevents, she turned to books, first to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's_Casa Guidi Windows_, which she called "a grand poem, so fitting toour terrible struggle, " then to her _Sonnets from the Portuguese_, andGeorge Eliot's popular _Adam Bede_, recently published. More seriousreading also absorbed her, for she wanted to keep abreast of the mostadvanced thought of the day. "Am reading Buckle's _History ofCivilization_ and Darwin's _Descent of Man_, " she wrote in her diary. "Have finished _Origin of the Species_. Pillsbury has just given meEmerson's poems. "[139]

Eager to thrash out all her new ideas with Elizabeth Stanton, she wentto Seneca Falls for a few days of good talk, hoping to get Mrs. Stanton's help in organizing a woman's rights convention in 1862; butnot even Mrs. Stanton could see the importance of such work at thistime, believing that if women put all their efforts into winning thewar, they would, without question, be rewarded with full citizenship. Susan was skeptical about this and disappointed that even the bestwomen were so willing to be swept aside by the onrush of events. 

Although opposed to war, Susan was far from advocating peace at anyprice, and was greatly concerned over the confusion in Washingtonwhich was vividly described in the discouraging letters Mrs. Stantonreceived from her husband, now Washington correspondent for the NewYork _Tribune_. Both she and Mrs. Stanton chafed at inaction. They hadloyalty, intelligence, an understanding of national affairs, andexecutive ability to offer their country, but such qualities were notsought after among women. 

 * * * * *

In the spring of 1862, Susan helped Mrs. Stanton move her family to anew home in Brooklyn, and spent a few weeks with her there, gettingthe feel of the city in wartime. She then had the satisfaction ofdiscovering that at least one woman was of use to her country, youngeloquent Anna E. Dickinson. [140] Susan listened with pride and joywhile Anna spoke to an enthusiastic audience at Cooper Union on theissues of the war. She took Anna to her heart at once. Anna's youth, her fervor, and her remarkable ability drew out all of Susan'smotherly instincts of affection and protectiveness. They becamedevoted friends, and for the next few years carried on a voluminouscorrespondence. 

Harriet Hosmer and Rosa Bonheur also helped restore Susan's confidencein women during these difficult days when, forced to mark time, sheherself seemed at loose ends. Visiting the Academy of Design, shestudied "in silent reverential awe, " the marble face of HarrietHosmer's Beatrice Cenci, and declared, "Making that cold marblebreathe and pulsate, Harriet Hosmer has done more to ennoble andelevate woman than she could possibly have done by mere words. .. . " OfRosa Bonheur, the first woman to venture into the field of animalpainting, she said, "Her work not only surpasses anything ever done bya woman, but is a bold and successful step beyond all otherartists. "[141]

This confidence was soon dispelled, however, when a letter came fromLydia Mott containing the crushing news that the New York legislaturehad amended the newly won Married Woman's Property Law of 1860, whilewomen's attention was focused on the war, and had taken away frommothers the right to equal guardianship of their children and fromwidows the control of the property left at the death of theirhusbands. 

"We deserve to suffer for our confidence in 'man's sense of justice, '"she confessed to Lydia. " . .. All of our reformers seem suddenly tohave grown politic. All alike say, 'Have no conventions at thiscrisis!' Garrison, Phillips, Mrs. Mott, Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Stanton, etc. Say, 'Wait until the war excitement abates. .. . ' I am sick atheart, but cannot carry the world against the wish and will of ourbest friends. .. . "[142]

Unable to arouse even a glimmer of interest in woman's rights at thistime, Susan started off on a lecture tour of her own, determined tomake people understand that this war, so abhorrent to her, must befought for the Negroes' freedom. "I cannot feel easy in my conscienceto be dumb in an hour like this, " she explained to Lydia, adding, "Itis so easy to feel your power for public work slipping away if youallow yourself to remain too long snuggled in the Abrahamic bosom ofhome. It requires great will power to resurrect one's soul. [143]

"I am speaking now extempore, " she continued, "and more to mysatisfaction than ever before. I am amazed at myself, but I could notdo it if any of our other speakers were listening to me. I am entirelyoff old antislavery grounds and on the new ones thrown up by the war. "

Feeling particularly close to Lydia at this time, she gratefullyadded, "What a stay, counsel, and comfort you have been to me, dearLydia, ever since that eventful little temperance meeting in thatcold, smoky chapel in 1852. How you have compelled me to feel myselfcompetent to go forward when trembling with doubt and distrust. I cannever express the magnitude of my indebtedness to you. "

In the small towns of western New York, people were willing to listento Susan, for they were troubled by the defeats northern armies hadsuffered and by the appalling lack of unity and patriotism in theNorth. They were beginning to see that the problem of slavery had tobe faced and were discussing among themselves whether Negroes werecontraband, whether army officers should return fugitive slaves totheir masters, whether slaves of the rebels should be freed, whetherNegroes should be enlisted in the army. 

Susan had an answer for them. "It is impossible longer to hold theAfrican race in bondage, " she declared, "or to reconstruct thisRepublic on the old slaveholding basis. We can neither go back norstand still. With the nation as with the individual, every newexperience forces us into a new and higher life and the old self islost forever. Hundreds of men who never thought of emancipation a yearago, talk it freely and are ready to vote for it and fight for itnow. [144]

"Can the thousands of Northern soldiers, " she asked, "who in theirmarch through Rebel States have found faithful friends and generousallies in the slaves ever consent to hurl them back into the hell ofslavery, either by word, or vote, or sword? Slaves have sought shelterin the Northern Army and have tasted the forbidden fruit of the Treeof Liberty. Will they return quietly to the plantation and patientlyendure the old life of bondage with all its degradation, itscruelties, and wrong? No, No, there can be no reconstruction on theold basis. .. . " Far less degrading and ruinous, she earnestly added, would be the recognition of the independence of the southernConfederacy. 

[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony]

To the question of what to do with the emancipated slaves, her quickanswer was, "Treat the Negroes just as you do the Irish, the Scotch, and the Germans. Educate them to all the blessings of our freeinstitutions, to our schools and churches, to every department ofindustry, trade, and art. 

"What arrogance in _us_, " she continued, "to put the question, Whatshall _we_ do with a race of men and women who have fed, clothed, andsupported both themselves and their oppressors for centuries. .. . "

Often she spoke against Lincoln's policy of gradual, compensatedemancipation, which to an eager advocate of "immediate, unconditionalemancipation" seemed like weakness and appeasement. She had to admit, however, that there had been some progress in the right direction, forCongress had recently forbidden the return of fugitive slaves to theirmasters, had decreed immediate emancipation in the District ofColumbia, and prohibited slavery in the territories. 

President Lincoln's promise of freedom on January 1, 1863, to slavesin all states in armed rebellion against the government, seemed whollyinadequate to her and to her fellow-abolitionists, because it leftslavery untouched in the border states, but it did encourage them tohope that eventually Lincoln might see the light. Horace Greeley wroteSusan, "I still keep at work with the President in various ways andbelieve you will yet hear him proclaim universal freedom. Keep thisletter and judge me by the event. "[145]

It troubled her that public opinion in the North was still far fromsympathetic to emancipation. Northern Democrats, charging Lincoln withincompetence and autocratic control, called for "The Constitution asit is, the Union as it was. " They had the support of many northernbusinessmen who faced the loss of millions of credit given tosoutherners and the support of northern workmen who feared thecompetition of free Negroes. They had elected Horatio Seymour governorof New York, and had gained ground in many parts of the country. Amilitant group in Ohio, headed by Congressman Vallandigham, continuedto oppose the war, asking for peace at once with no terms unfavorableto the South. 

All these developments Susan discussed with her father, for shefrequently came home between lectures. He was a tower of strength toher. When she was disillusioned or when criticism and opposition werehard to bear, his sympathy and wise counsel never failed her. Therewas a strong bond of understanding and affection between them. 

His sudden illness and death, late in November 1862, were a shock fromwhich she had to struggle desperately to recover. Her life wassuddenly empty. The farm home was desolate. She could not think ofleaving her mother and her sister Mary there all alone. Nor could shecount on help from Daniel or Merritt, both of whom were serving in thearmy in the West, Daniel, as a lieutenant colonel, and Merritt as acaptain in the 7th Kansas Cavalry. For many weeks she had no heart foranything but grief. "It seemed as if everything in the world muststop. "[146]

Not even President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, issued January1, 1863, roused her. It took a letter from Henry Stanton fromWashington to make her see that there was war work for her to do. Hewrote her, "The country is rapidly going to destruction. The Army isalmost in a state of mutiny for want of its pay and lack of a leader. Nothing can carry through but the southern Negroes, and nobody canmarshal them into the struggle except the abolitionists. .. . Such menas Lovejoy, Hale, and the like have pretty much given up the strugglein despair. You have no idea how dark the cloud is which hangs overus. .. . We must not lay the flattering unction to our souls that theproclamation will be of any use if we are beaten and have adissolution of the Union. Here then is work for you, Susan, put onyour armor and go forth. "[147]

 * * * * *

A month later, Susan went to New York for a visit with ElizabethStanton, confident that if they counseled together, they could find away to serve their country in its hour of need. 

She was well aware that all through the country women were respondingmagnificently in this crisis, giving not only their husbands and sonsto the war, but carrying on for them in the home, on the farm, and inbusiness. Many were sewing and knitting for soldiers, scraping lintfor hospitals, and organizing Ladies' Aid Societies, which, operatingthrough the United States Sanitary Commission, the forerunner of theRed Cross, sent clothing and nourishing food to the inadequatelyequipped and poorly fed soldiers in the field. In the large citieswomen were holding highly successful "Sanitary Fairs" to raise fundsfor the Sanitary Commission. In fact, through the women, civilianrelief was organized as never before in history. Individual women too, Susan knew, were making outstanding contributions to the war. LucyStone's sister-in-law, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, [148] a friend andadmirer of Florence Nightingale, was training much-needed nurses, while Dr. Mary Walker, putting on coat and trousers, ministeredtirelessly to the wounded on the battlefield. Dorothea Dix, theone-time schoolteacher who had awakened the people to their barbaroustreatment of the insane, had offered her services to theSurgeon-General and was eventually appointed Superintendent of ArmyNurses, with authority to recruit nurses and oversee hospitalhousekeeping. Clara Barton, a government employee, and other womenvolunteers were finding their way to the front to nurse the woundedwho so desperately needed their help; and Mother Bickerdyke, livingwith the armies in the field, nursed her boys and cooked for them, lifting their morale by her motherly, strengthening presence. Throughthe influence of Anna Ella Carroll, Maryland had been saved for theUnion and she, it was said, was ably advising President Lincoln. 

Susan herself had felt no call to nurse the wounded, although she hadoften skillfully nursed her own family; nor had she felt that herqualifications as an expert housekeeper and good executive demandedher services at the front to supervise army housekeeping. Instead shelooked for some important task to which other women would not turn inthese days when relief work absorbed all their attention. It was notenough, she felt, for women to be angels of mercy, valuable andwell-organized as this phase of their work had become. A spirit ofawareness was lacking among them, also a patriotic fervor, and thisled her to believe that northern women needed someone to stimulatetheir thinking, to force them to come to grips with the basic issuesof the war and in so doing claim their own freedom. Women, shereasoned, must be aroused to think not only in terms of socks, shirts, and food for soldiers or of bandages and nursing, but in terms of thetraditions of freedom upon which this republic was founded. Women musthave a part in molding public opinion and must help direct policy asAnna Ella Carroll was proving women could do. Here was the bestpossible training for prospective women voters. To all this Mrs. Stanton heartily agreed. 

As they sat at the dining-room table with Mrs. Stanton's twodaughters, Maggie and Hattie, all busily cutting linen into smallsquares and raveling them into lint for the wounded, they discussedthe state of the nation. They were troubled by the low morale of theNorth and by the insidious propaganda of the Copperheads, an antiwar, pro-Southern group, which spread discontent and disrespect for thegovernment. Profiteering was flagrant, and through speculation and warcontracts, large fortunes were being built up among the few, while themajority of the people not only found their lives badly disrupted bythe war but suffered from high prices and low wages. So far nodecisive victory had encouraged confidence in ultimate triumph overthe South. In newspapers and magazines, women of the North were beingunfavorably compared with southern women and criticized because oftheir lack of interest in the war. Writing in the _Atlantic Monthly_, March, 1863, Gail Hamilton, a rising young journalist, accusednorthern women of failing to come up to the level of the day. "If youcould have finished the war with your needles, " she chided them, "itwould have been finished long ago, but stitching does not crushrebellion, does not annihilate treason. .. . "

Thinking along these same lines, Susan and Mrs. Stanton now decided togo a step further. They would act to bring women abreast of the issuesof the day, Susan with her flare for organizing women, Mrs. Stantonwith her pen and her eloquence. They would show women that they had anideal to fight for. They would show them the uselessness of thisbloody conflict unless it won freedom for all of the slaves. Freedomfor all, as a basic demand of the republic, would be their watchword. Men were forming Union Leagues and Loyal Leagues to combat theinfluence of secret antiwar societies, such as the Knights of theGolden Circle. "Why not organize a Women's National Loyal League?"Susan and Mrs. Stanton asked each other. 

They talked their ideas over first with the New York abolitionists, then with Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, and his dashing youngfriend, Theodore Tilton, and with Robert Dale Owen, now in the city asthe recently appointed head of the Freedman's Inquiry Commission. These men were in touch with Charles Sumner and other antislaverymembers of Congress. All agreed that the Emancipation Proclamationmust be implemented by an act of Congress, by an amendment to theConstitution, and that public opinion must be aroused to demand aThirteenth Amendment. If women would help, so much the better. 

Susan at once thought of petitions. If petitions had won the Woman'sProperty Law in New York, they could win the Thirteenth Amendment. Thelargest petition ever presented to Congress was her goal. 

 * * * * *

Carefully Susan and Mrs. Stanton worked over an _Appeal to the Womenof the Republic_, sending it out in March 1863 with a notice of ameeting to be held in New York. It left no doubt in the minds of thosewho received it that women had a responsibility to their countrybeyond services of mercy to the wounded and disabled. 

From all parts of the country, women responded to their call. Theveteran antislavery and woman's rights worker, Angelina Grimké Weld, came out of her retirement for the meeting. Ernestine Rose, the everfaithful, was on hand. Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown Blackwell werethere, and the popular Hutchinson family, famous for their stirringabolition songs. They helped Susan and Mrs. Stanton steer the courseof the meeting into the right channels, to show the women assembledthat the war was being fought not merely to preserve the Union, butalso to preserve the American way of life, based on the principle ofequal rights and freedom for all, to save it from the encroachments ofslavery and a slaveholding aristocracy. Susan proposed a resolutiondeclaring that there can never be a true peace until the civil andpolitical rights of all citizens are established, including those ofNegroes and women. The introduction of the woman's rights issue into awar meeting with an antislavery program was vigorously opposed bywomen from Wisconsin, but the faithful feminists came to the rescueand the controversial resolution was adopted. 

Although she always instinctively related all national issues towoman's rights and vice versa, Susan did not allow this subject toovershadow the main purpose of the meeting. Instead she analyzed theissue of the war and reproached Lincoln for suppressing the fact thatslavery was the real cause of the war and for waiting two long yearsbefore calling the four million slaves to the side of the North. "Every hour's delay, every life sacrificed up to the proclamation thatcalled the slave to freedom and to arms, " she declared, "was nothingless than downright murder by the government. .. . I therefore hail theday when the government shall recognize that it is a war forfreedom. "[149]

A Women's National Loyal League was organized, electing Susansecretary and Mrs. Stanton president. They sent a long letter toPresident Lincoln thanking him for the Emancipation Proclamation, especially for the freedom it gave Negro women, and assuring him oftheir loyalty and support in this war for freedom. Their own immediatetask, they decided, was to circulate petitions asking for an act ofCongress to emancipate "all persons of African descent held ininvoluntary servitude. " As Susan so tersely expressed it, they would"canvass the nation for freedom. "

 * * * * *

All the oratory over, Susan now undertook the hard work of making theWomen's National Loyal League a success, assuming the initialfinancial burden of printing petitions and renting an office, Room 20, at Cooper Institute, where she was busy all day and where New Yorkmembers met to help her. To each of the petitions sent out, sheattached her battle cry, "There must be a law abolishing slavery. .. . Women, you cannot vote or fight for your country. Your only way to bea power in the government is through the exercise of this one, sacred, constitutional 'right of petition, ' and we ask you to use it now tothe utmost. .. . " She also asked those signing the petitions tocontribute a penny to help with expenses and in this way she slowlyraised $3, 000. [150]

At first the response was slow, although both Republican andantislavery papers were generous in their praise of this undertaking, but when the signed petitions began to come in, she felt repaid forall her efforts, and when the Hovey Fund trustees appropriated twelvedollars a week for her salary, the financial burden lifted a little. Yet it was ever present. For herself she needed little. She wrote hermother and Mary, "I go to a little restaurant nearby for lunch everynoon. I always take strawberries with two tea rusks. Today I said, 'all this lacks is a glass of milk from my mother's cellar, ' and thegirl replied, 'We have very nice Westchester milk. ' So tomorrow Ishall add that to my bill of fare. My lunch costs, berries five cents, rusks five, and tomorrow the milk will be three. "[151]

The cost of postage mounted as the petitions continued to go out toall parts of the country. In dire need of funds, Susan decided toappeal to Henry Ward Beecher; and wearily climbing Columbia Heights tohis home, she suddenly felt a strong hand on her shoulder and afamiliar voice asking, "Well, old girl, what do you want now?" He tookup a collection for her in Plymouth Church, raising $200. Gerrit Smithsent her $100, when she had hoped for $1, 000, and Jessie BentonFrémont, $50. Before long, her "war of ideas" won the support ofWendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, Horace Greeley, George WilliamCurtis, and other popular lecturers who spoke for her at Cooper Unionto large audiences whose admission fees swelled her funds; andeventually Senator Sumner, realizing how important the petitions couldbe in arousing public opinion for the Thirteenth Amendment, saved herthe postage by sending them out under his frank. [152]

She made her home with the Stantons, who had moved from Brooklyn to 75West 45th Street, New York, and the comfortable evenings of goodconversation and her busy days at the office helped mightily to healher grief for her father. In the bustling life of the city she feltshe was living more intensely, more usefully, as these critical daysof war demanded. Henry Stanton, now an editorial writer for Greeley's_Tribune_, brought home to them the inside story of the news and ofpolitics. All of them were highly critical of Lincoln, impatient withhis slowness and skeptical of his plans for slaveholders and slaves inthe border states. They questioned Garrison's wisdom in trustingLincoln. Susan could not feel that Lincoln was honest when heprotested that he did not have the power to do all that theabolitionists asked. "The pity is, " she wrote Anna E. Dickinson, "thatthe vast mass of people really believe the man _honest_--that hebelieves he has not the power--I wish I could. .. . "[153]

New York seethed with unrest as time for the enforcement of the draftdrew near. Indignant that rich men could avoid the draft by buying asubstitute, workingmen were easily incited to riot, and the city wassoon overrun by mobs bent on destruction. The lives of all Negroes andabolitionists were in danger. The Stanton home was in the thick of therioting, and when Susan and Henry Stanton came home during a lull, they all decided to take refuge for the night at the home of Mrs. Stanton's brother-in-law, Dr. Bayard. Here they also found HoraceGreeley hiding from the mob, for hoodlums were marching through thestreets shouting, "We'll hang old Horace Greeley to a sour appletree. "

The next morning Susan started for the office as usual, thinking theworst was over, but as not a single horsecar or stage was running, shetook the ferry to Flushing to visit her cousins. Here too there wasrioting, but she stayed on until order was restored by the army. Shereturned to the city to find casualties mounting to over a thousandand a million dollars' worth of property destroyed. Negroes had beenshot and hung on lamp posts, Horace Greeley's _Tribune_ office hadbeen wrecked and the homes of abolitionist friends burned. "These areterrible times, " she wrote her family, and then went back to work, staying devotedly at it through all the hot summer months. [154]

By the end of the year, she had enrolled the signatures of 100, 000 menand women on her petitions, and assured by Senator Sumner that thesepetitions were invaluable in creating sentiment for the ThirteenthAmendment, she raised the number of signatures in the next few monthsto 400, 000. 

In April 1864, the Thirteenth Amendment passed the Senate and theprospects for it in the House were good. This phase of her workfinished, Susan disbanded the Women's National Loyal League andreturned to her family in Rochester. 

 * * * * *

In despair over the possible re-election of Abraham Lincoln, Susan hadjoined Henry and Elizabeth Stanton in stirring up sentiment for JohnC. Frémont. Abolitionists were sharply divided in this presidentialcampaign. Garrison and Phillips disagreed on the course of action, Garrison coming out definitely for Lincoln in the _Liberator_, whilePhillips declared himself emphatically against four more years ofLincoln. Susan, the Stantons, and Parker Pillsbury were among thosesiding with Phillips because they feared premature reconstructionunder Lincoln. They cited Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation as an exampleof his leniency toward the rebels. They saw danger in leaving freeNegroes under the control of southerners embittered by war, and calledfor Negro suffrage as the only protection against oppressive laws. They opposed the readmission of Louisiana without the enfranchisementof Negroes. Lincoln, they knew, favored the extension of suffrage onlyto literate Negroes and to those who had served in the militaryforces. In fact, Lincoln held back while they wanted to go ahead underfull steam and they looked to Frémont to lead them. 

Following the presidential campaign anxiously from Rochester, Susanwrote Mrs. Stanton, "I am starving for a full talk with somebodyposted, not merely pitted for Lincoln. .. . " The persistent cry of the_Liberator_ and the _Antislavery Standard_ to re-elect Lincoln and notto swap horses in midstream did not ring true to her. "We read no moreof the good old doctrine 'of two evils choose neither, '" she wroteAnna E. Dickinson. She confessed to Anna, "It is only safe to seek andact the truth and to profess confidence in Lincoln would be a lie inme. "[155]

As the war dragged on through the summer without decisive victoriesfor the North, Lincoln's prospects looked bleak, and to her dismay, Susan saw the chances improving for McClellan, the candidate of thenorthern Democrats who wanted to end the war, leave slavery alone, andconciliate the South. The whole picture changed, however, with thecapture of Atlanta by General Sherman in September. The people'sconfidence in Lincoln revived and Frémont withdrew from the contest. One by one the anti-Lincoln abolitionists were converted; and Susan, anxiously waiting for word from Mrs. Stanton, was relieved to learnthat she was not one of them, nor was Wendell Phillips whose judgmentand vision both of them valued above that of any other man. Withapproval she read these lines which Phillips had just written Mrs. Stanton, "I would cut off both hands before doing anything to aidMac's [McClellan's] election. I would cut oft my right hand beforedoing anything to aid Abraham Lincoln's election. I wholly distrusthis fitness to settle this thing and indeed his purpose. "[156]

There is nothing to indicate any change of opinion on Susan's partregarding Lincoln's unfitness for a second term. That he was thelesser of two evils, she of course acknowledged. For her thesepre-election days were discouraging and frustrating. She had verydefinite ideas on reconstruction which she felt in justice to theNegro must be carried out, and Lincoln did not meet her requirements. 

After Lincoln's re-election, she again looked to Wendell Phillips foran adequate policy at this juncture, and she was not disappointed. "Phillips has just returned from Washington, " Mrs. Stanton wrote her. "He says the radical men feel they are powerless and checkmated. .. . They turn to such men as Phillips to say what politicians dare notsay. .. . We say now, as ever, 'Give us immediately unconditionalemancipation, and let there be no reconstruction except on thebroadest basis of justice and equality!. .. ' Phillips and a few othersmust hold up the pillars of the temple. .. . I cannot tell you how happyI am to find Douglass on the same platform with us. Keep him on theright track. Tell him in this revolution, he, Phillips, and you and Imust hold the highest ground and truly represent the best type of thewhite man, the black man, and the woman. "[157]

Susan, holding "the highest ground, " found it difficult to mark timeuntil she could find her place in the reconstruction. "The work of thehour, " she wrote Anna E. Dickinson, "is not alone to put down theRebels in arms, but to educate Thirty Millions of People into the ideaof a True Republic. Hence every influence and power that both men andwomen can bring to bear will be needed in the reconstruction of theNation on the broad basis of justice and equality. "[158]

FOOTNOTES:

[134] Garrisons, _Garrison_, IV, pp. 30-31. 

[135] Lydia Mott to W. L. Garrison, May 8, 1861, Boston PublicLibrary; Stanton and Blatch, _Stanton_, II, p. 89. 

[136] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 215. 

[137] _Ibid. _, p. 216. Harriet Tubman, a fugitive slave, was oftencalled the Moses of her people because she led so many of them intothe promised land of freedom. 

[138] _Ibid. _

[139] _Ibid. _, p. 198. 

[140] Anna E. Dickinson was born in Philadelphia in 1842. The death ofher father, two years later, left the family in straightenedcircumstances, and Anna, after attending a Friends school, began veryearly to support herself by copying in lawyers' offices and by workingat the U. S. Mint. Speaking extemporaneously at Friends and antislaverymeetings, she discovered she had a gift for oratory and was soon indemand as a speaker. 

[141] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 219. 

[142] April, 1862. _History of Woman Suffrage_, I, p. 748. 

[143] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 218, 222. 

[144] _Emancipation, the Duty of Government_, Ms. , Lucy E. AnthonyCollection. Reading that General Grant had returned 13 slaves to theirmasters, an indignant Susan B. Anthony wrote Mrs. Stanton, "Suchgratuitous outrage should be met with instant death--without judge orjury--if any offense may. " Feb. 27, 1862, Elizabeth Cady StantonPapers, Library of Congress. 

[145] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 221. 

[146] Jan. 24, 1904, Anna Dann Mason Collection. 

[147] Harper, _Anthony_, p. 226. 

[148] The first woman in the United States to obtain a medical degree, 1849. 

[149] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, pp. 57-58. 

[150] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 230. Members of the Women's NationalLoyal League wore a silver pin showing a slave breaking his lastchains and bearing the inscription, "In emancipation is nationalunity. " Susan B. Anthony to Mrs. Drake, Sept. 18, 1863, Alma LutzCollection. 

[151] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 234. 

[152] _Ibid. _, To Samuel May, Jr. , Sept. 21, 1863, Alma LutzCollection. 

[153] April 14, 1864, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress. 

[154] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 230. 

[155] June 12, 1864, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, July 1, 1864, AnnaE. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress. About this time, a friend ofSusan B. Anthony's youth, now a widower living in Ohio in comfortablecircumstances, unsuccessfully urged her to marry him. 

[156] Sept. 23, 1864, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library ofCongress. 

[157] Stanton and Blatch, _Stanton_, II, pp. 103-104. 

[158] March 14, 1864, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress. 

THE NEGRO'S HOUR

Susan's thoughts now turned to Kansas, as they had many times sinceher brothers had settled there. Daniel and Annie, his young wife fromthe East, urged her to visit them. [159] Daniel was well established inKansas, the publisher of his own newspaper and the mayor ofLeavenworth. He had served a little over a year in the Union army inthe First Kansas Cavalry. She longed to see him and the West that heloved. 

Now for the first time she felt free to make the long journey, for hermother and Mary had sold the farm on the outskirts of Rochester andhad moved into the city, buying a large red brick house shaded bymaples and a beautiful horse chestnut. It had been a wrench for Susanto give up the farm with its memories of her father, but there werecompensations in the new home on Madison Street, for Guelma, herhusband, Aaron McLean, and their family lived with them there. Hannahand her family had also settled in Rochester, and when they bought thehouse next door, Susan had the satisfaction of living again in themidst of her family. [160]

She was particularly devoted to Guelma's twenty-three-year-olddaughter, Ann Eliza, whose "merry laugh" and "bright, joyous presence"brought new life into the household. Ann Eliza was a stimulatingintelligent companion, and Susan looked forward to seeing many of herown dreams fulfilled in her niece. Then suddenly in the fall of 1864, Ann Eliza was taken ill, and her death within a few days left a greatvoid. [161]

In the midst of this sorrow, Daniel sent Susan a ticket and a checkfor a trip to Kansas. Hesitating no longer, she waited only until her"tip-top Rochester dressmaker" made up "the new, five-dollar silk"which she had bought in New York. [162]

Before leaving for Kansas, in January, 1865, she pasted on the firstpage of her diary a clipping of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Something Left Undone, " which seemed so perfectly to interpret herown feelings:

 Labor with what zeal we will Something still remains undone Something uncompleted still Waits the rising of the sun. .. . 

 Till at length it is or seems Greater than our strength can bear As the burden of our dreams Pressing on us everywhere. .. . [163]

With "the burden of her dreams" pressing on her, Susan traveledwestward. The future of the Negro was much on her mind, for theThirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery had just been sent to thestates for ratification. That it would be ratified she had no doubt, but she recognized the responsibility facing the North to provide forthe education and rehabilitation of thousands of homeless bewilderedNegroes trying to make their way in a still unfriendly world, and shelooked forward to taking part in this work. 

Beyond Chicago, where she stopped over to visit her uncle AlbertDickinson and his family, her journey was rugged, and when she reachedLeavenworth she reveled in the comfort of Daniel's "neat, little, snow-white cottage with green blinds. " She liked Daniel's wife, Annie, at once, admired her gaiety and the way she fearlessly drove herbeautiful black horse across the prairie. "They have a real 'AuntChloe' in the kitchen, " she wrote Mrs. Stanton, "and a little Darkieboy for errands and table waiter. I never saw a girl to match. Themore I see of the race, the more wonderful they are to me. "[164]

There was always good companionship in Daniel's home, for friends fromboth the East and the West found it a convenient stopping place, andthere was much discussion of politics, the Negro question, and thefuture of the West. Business was booming in Leavenworth, then the mostthriving town between St. Louis and San Francisco. Eight years before, when Daniel had first settled there, it boasted a population of 4, 000. Now it had grown to 22, 000, was lighted with gas, and was building itsbusiness blocks of brick. As Susan drove through the busy streets withAnnie, she saw emigrants coming in by steamer and train to settle inKansas and watched for the covered wagons that almost every daystopped in Leavenworth for supplies before moving on to the far West. Driving over the wide prairie, sometimes a warm brown, then againwhite with snow under a wider expanse of deep blue sky than she hadever seen before, she relaxed as she had not in many a year and beganto feel the call of the West. She even thought she might like tosettle in Kansas until she was caught up by the sharp realization ofhow she would miss the stimulating companionship of her friends in theEast. 

[Illustration: Daniel Anthony, brother of Susan B. Anthony]

When Daniel was busy with his campaign for his second term as mayor, she helped him edit the _Bulletin_. He warned her not to fill hispaper up with woman's rights, and in spite of his sympathy for theNegro, forbade her to advocate Negro suffrage in his paper. 

"I wish I could talk through it the things I'd like to say to theyoung martyr state . .. " she wrote Mrs. Stanton. "The Legislature gavebut six votes for Negro suffrage the other day. .. . The idea of Kansasrefusing her loyal Negroes. "

Again and again she was shocked at the prejudice against Negroes inKansas, as when Daniel employed a Negro typesetter and the printers, refusing to admit him to their union, went out on strike until he wasdischarged. 

"In this city, " she reported to Mrs. Stanton, "there are four thousandex-Missouri slaves who have sought refuge here within the three pastyears. " Making it her business to learn what was being done to helpthem and educate them, she visited their schools, their Sundayschools, and the Colored Home, and gave much of her time to them. Toencourage them to demand their rights, she organized an Equal RightsLeague among them. This was one thing she could do, even if she couldnot plead for Negro suffrage in Daniel's newspaper. [165]

Then one breath-taking piece of news followed another--Lee'ssurrender, April 9, 1865, and in less than a week, Lincoln'sassassination, his death, and Andrew Johnson's succession to thePresidency. 

Susan looked upon Lincoln's assassination and death as an act of God. She wrote to Mrs. Stanton, "Was there ever a more terrific command toa Nation to 'stand still and know that I am God' since the worldbegan? The Old Book's terrible exhibitions of God's wrath sink intonothingness. And this fell blow just at the very hour he was declaringhis willingness to consign those five million faithful, brave, andloving loyal people of the South to the tender mercies of the ex-slavelords of the lash. "[166]

She longed "to go out and do battle for the Lord once more, " but whenshe could have expressed her opinions at the big mass meeting held inmemory of Lincoln, she remained silent. "My soul was full, " sheconfessed to Mrs. Stanton, "but the flesh not equal to stemming theawful current, to do what the people have called make an exhibition ofmyself. So quenched the spirit and came home ashamed of myself. "

Then she added, "Dear-a-me--how overfull I am, and how I should liketo be nestled into some corner away from every chick and child withyou once more. "

 * * * * *

Disturbing news came from the East of dissension in the antislaveryranks, of Garrison's desire to dissolve the American AntislaverySociety after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, and ofPhillips' insistence that it continue until freedom for the Negro wasfirmly established. While Garrison maintained that northern states, denying the ballot to the Negro, could not consistently make Negrosuffrage a requirement for readmitting rebel states to the Union, Phillips demanded Negro suffrage as a condition of readmission. Immediately abolitionists took sides. Parker Pillsbury, Lydia andLucretia Mott, Frederick Douglass, Anna E. Dickinson, the Stantons, and others lined up with Phillips, whose vehement and scathingcriticism of reconstruction policies seemed to them the need of thehour. Susan also took sides, praising "dear ever glorious Phillips"and writing in her diary, "The disbanding of the American AntislaverySociety is fully as untimely as General Grant's and Sherman's grantingparole and pardon to the whole Rebel armies. "[167]

To her friends in the East, she wrote, "How can anyone hold thatCongress has no right to demand Negro suffrage in the returning Rebelstates because it is not already established in all the loyal ones?What would have been said of Abolitionists ten or twenty years ago, had they preached to the people that Congress had no right to voteagainst admitting a new state with slavery, because it was not alreadyabolished in all the old States? It is perfectly astounding, thisseeming eagerness of so many of our old friends to cover up andapologize for the glaring hate toward the equal recognition of themanhood of the black race. "[168]

She rejoiced when word came that the American Antislavery Societywould continue under the presidency of Phillips, with Parker Pillsburyas editor of the _Antislavery Standard_; but she was saddened by thewithdrawal of Garrison, whom she had idolized for so many years andwhose editorials in the _Liberator_ had always been herinspiration. [169]

As she read the weekly New York _Tribune_, which came regularly toDaniel, she grew more and more concerned over President Johnson'sreconstruction policy and more and more convinced of the need of acrusade for political and civil rights for the Negro. Asked to deliverthe Fourth of July oration at Ottumwa, Kansas, she decided to put intoit all her views on the controversial subject of reconstruction. 

Traveling by stage the 125 miles to Ottumwa, she found good companyen route and "great talk on politics, Negro equality, and temperance, "and thought the "grand old prairies . .. Perfectly splendid and thetimber-skirted creeks . .. Delightful. "[170]

Before a large gathering of Kansas pioneers, many of whom had drivenforty or fifty miles to hear her, she stood tall, straight, andearnest, as she reminded them of the noble heritage of Kansas, of thebloody years before the war when in the free-state fight, Kansas menand women "taught the nation anew" the principles of the Declarationof Independence. Lashing out with the vehemence of Phillips againstPresident Johnson's reconstruction policy, she warned, "There has beenno hour fraught with so much danger as the present. .. . To be foilednow in gathering up the fruits of our blood-bought victories and tore-enthrone slavery under the new guise of Negro disfranchisement . .. Would be a disaster, a cruelty and crime, which would surely bequeathto coming generations a legacy of wars and rumors of wars. .. . "[171]

She then cited the results of the elections in Virginia, SouthCarolina, and Tennessee to prove her point that unless Negroes weregiven the vote, rebels would be put in office and a new code of lawsapprenticing Negroes passed, establishing a new form of slavery. 

She urged her audience to be awake to the politicians who were usingthe peoples' reverence and near idolatry of Lincoln to push throughanti-Negro legislation under the guise of carrying out his policies. Then putting behind her the prejudice and impatience with Lincolnwhich she had felt during his lifetime, she added, "If theadministration of Abraham Lincoln taught the American people onelesson above another, it was that they must think and speak andproclaim, and that he as their President was bound to execute theirwill, not his own. And if Lincoln were alive today, he would say as hedid four years ago, 'I wait the voice of the people. '"

In her special pleading for the Negro, she did not forget women. Calling attention to the fact that our nation had never been a truerepublic because the ballot was exclusively in the hands of the "freewhite male, " she asked for a government "of the people, " men andwomen, white and black, with Negro suffrage and woman suffrage asbasic requirements. 

[Illustration: Wendell Phillips]

So enthusiastic were the Republicans over her speech that they urgedher to prepare it for publication, suggesting, however, that shedelete the passage on woman suffrage. This was her first intimationthat Republicans might balk at enfranchising women. So great had beenwomen's contribution to the winning of the war and so indebted werethe Republicans to women for creating sentiment for the ThirteenthAmendment, that she had come to expect, along with Mrs. Stanton, thatthe ballot would without question be given them as a reward. 

 * * * * *

It was soon obvious to Susan that politicians in the East as well asin Kansas were shying away from woman suffrage. Mrs. Stanton reportedthat even Wendell Phillips was backsliding, not wishing to campaignfor Negro suffrage and woman suffrage at the same time. "While I couldcontinue as heretofore, arguing for woman's rights, just as I do fortemperance every day, " he had written, "still I would not mix themovements. .. . I think such mixture would lose for the Negro far morethan we should gain for the woman. I am now engaged in abolishingslavery in a land where the abolition of slavery means conferring orrecognizing citizenship, and where citizenship supposes the ballot forall men. "[172]

Such reasoning filled Susan with despair, for she firmly believed thatwomen who had been asking for full citizenship for seventeen yearsdeserved precedence over the Negro. Mrs. Stanton agreed. To them, Negro suffrage without woman suffrage was unthinkable, an unbearablehumiliation. Half of the Negroes were women, and manhood suffragewould fasten upon them a new form of slavery. How could WendellPhillips, they asked each other, fail to recognize not only thetimeliness of woman suffrage, but the fact that women were betterqualified for the ballot than the majority of Negroes, who, because oftheir years in slavery, were illiterate and the easy prey ofunscrupulous politicians? By all means enfranchise Negroes, theyargued with him, but enfranchise women as well, and if there must be alimitation on suffrage, let it be on the basis of literacy, not on thebasis of sex. 

Among Republican members of Congress and abolitionists, there wasserious discussion of a Fourteenth Amendment to extend to the Negrocivil rights and the ballot. Susan, reading about this in Kansas, andMrs. Stanton, discussing it in New York with her husband, WendellPhillips, and Robert Dale Owen, saw in such a revision of theConstitution a just and logical opportunity to extend woman's rightsat the same time. Previously committed to state action on womansuffrage but only because it had then seemed the necessary first step, both women welcomed the more direct road offered by an amendment tothe Constitution. Only they of all the old woman's rights workers wereawake to this opportunity. 

Throughout the United States, people were thinking about theConstitution as Americans had not done since the Bill of Rights wasratified in 1791. Not only were amendments to the federal Constitutionin the air, not only were rebel states being readmitted to the Unionwith new constitutions, but state constitutions in the North werebeing revised, and western territories sought statehood. In Susan'sopinion the time was ripe to proclaim equal rights for all. Thisclearly was woman's hour. 

 * * * * *

"Come back and help, " pleaded Elizabeth Stanton, who grew more andmore alarmed as she saw all interest in woman suffrage crowded out ofthe minds of reformers by their zeal for the Negro. "I have arguedconstantly with Phillips and the whole fraternity, but I fear one andall will favor enfranchising the Negro without us. Woman's cause is indeep water. .. . There is pressing need of our woman's rightsconvention. .. . "[173]

Susan's spirits revived at the prospect of holding a woman's rightsconvention, and plans for the future began to take shape as she readthe closing lines of Mrs. Stanton's letter: "I hope in a short time tobe comfortably located in a new house where we will have a room readyfor you. .. . I long to put my arms about you once more and hear youscold me for all my sins and shortcomings. .. . Oh, Susan, you are verydear to me. I should miss you more than any other living being on thisearth. You are entwined with much of my happy and eventful past, andall my future plans are based on you as coadjutor. Yes, our work isone, we are one in aim and sympathy and should be together. Comehome. "

Parker Pillsbury also added his plea, "Why have you deserted the fieldof action at a time like this, at an hour unparalleled in almosttwenty centuries?. .. It is not for me to decide your field of labor. Kansas needed John Brown and may need you . .. But New York is torevise her constitution next year and, if you are absent, who is tomake the plea for woman?"

Reading her newspaper a few days later, she found that the politicianshad made their first move, introducing in the House of Representativesa resolution writing the word "male" into the qualifications of votersin the second section of the proposed Fourteenth Amendment. Shestarted at once for the East. 

 * * * * *

On the long journey back, in the heat of August, traveling by stageand railroad with many stops to make the necessary connections, Susannot only visited her many relatives who had moved to the West, butalso called on antislavery and woman suffrage workers, and heldmeetings to plead for free schools for Negroes and for the ballot forNegroes and women. She found people relieved to have the war over andbusy with their own affairs, but with prejudices smoldering. Publicspeaking was still an ordeal for her and she confessed to her diary, "Made a labored talk. .. . Had a struggle to get through with speech, "and again, "Had a hard time. Thoughts nor words would come--Staggeredthrough. "[174] However, she was a determined woman. The message mustbe carried to the people and she would do it whether she suffered inthe process or not. 

Late in September, she reached her own comfortable home in Rochester, but she had too much on her mind to stay there long, and within a fewweeks was in New York with Elizabeth Stanton, deep in a seriousdiscussion of how to create an overwhelming demand for woman suffrageat this crucial time. Again they decided to petition Congress, thistime for the vote for both women and Negroes. Five years had nowpassed since the last national woman's rights convention, and theworkers were scattered; some had lost interest and others thought onlyof the need of the Negro. Lucretia Mott, Lydia Mott, and ParkerPillsbury responded at once. Susan sought out Lucy Stone in spite ofthe differences that had grown up between them, and after talking withLucy, confessed to herself that she had been unjustly impatient withher. [175]

Hoping for aid from the Jackson or Hovey Fund, she went to New Englandto revive interest there and in Concord talked with the Emersons, Bronson Alcott, and Frank Sanborn. When she asked Emerson whether hethought it wise to demand woman suffrage at this time, he replied, "Ask my wife. I can philosophize, but I always look to her to decidefor me in practical matters. " Unhesitatingly Mrs. Emerson agreed withSusan that Congress must be petitioned immediately to enfranchisewomen either before Negroes were granted the vote or at the sametime. [176]

Even Wendell Phillips, who did not want to mix Negro and womansuffrage, gave Susan $500 from the Hovey Fund to finance thepetitions, but many of the friends upon whom she had counted needed averbal lashing to rouse them out of their apathy. Very soon she had toface the unpleasant fact that by pressing for woman suffrage now, shewas estranging many abolitionists. Nevertheless she and Mrs. Stantonwent ahead undaunted, determined that a petition for woman suffragewould go to Congress even if it carried only their own two signatures. 

However, petitions with many signatures were reaching Congress inJanuary 1866--the very first demand ever made for Congressional actionon woman suffrage. Senator Sumner, for whom women had rolled up400, 000 signatures for the Thirteenth Amendment, now presented underprotest "as most inopportune" a petition headed by Lydia Maria Child, who for years had been his valiant aid in antislavery work; andThaddeus Stevens, heretofore friendly to woman suffrage and everzealous for the Negro, ignored a petition from New York headed byElizabeth Cady Stanton. [177]

By this time it was clear to Susan that since the two powerfulRepublicans, Senator Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, both basicallyfriendly to woman suffrage, were determined to devote themselveswholly to Negro suffrage and to the extension of their party'sinfluence, she could expect no help from lesser party members. Heronly alternative was to appeal to the Democrats or to an occasionalrecalcitrant Republican, and she allowed nothing to stand in her way, not even the frenzied pleas of her abolitionist friends. She foundJames Brooks of New York, Democratic leader of the House, willing topresent her petitions, and she made use of him, although he wasregarded by abolitionists as a Copperhead and although he was nowadvocating conciliatory reconstruction for the South of which sheherself disapproved. Other Democrats came to the rescue in the Senateas well as in the House--a few because they saw justice in the demandsof the women, others because they believed white women should havepolitical precedence over Negroes, and still others because they sawin their support of woman suffrage an opportunity to harass theRepublicans. During 1866, petitions for woman suffrage with 10, 000signatures were presented by Democrats and irregular Republicans. 

In the meantime, conferences in New York with Henry Ward Beecher andTheodore Tilton were encouraging, and for a time Susan thought she hadfound an enthusiastic ally in Tilton, the talented popular youngeditor of the _Independent_. Theodore Tilton, with his long hair andthe soulful face of a poet, with his eloquence as a lecturer and hisflare for journalism, was at the height of his popularity. He hadwinning ways and was full of ideas. After the ratification of theThirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, in December 1865, he hadproposed that the American Antislavery Society and the woman's rightsgroup merge to form an American Equal Rights Association which wouldfight for equal rights for all, for Negro and woman suffrage. WendellPhillips he suggested for president, and the _Antislavery Standard_as the paper of the new organization. 

This sounded reasonable and hopeful to Susan, and she hurried toBoston with a group from New York, including Lucy Stone, to consultWendell Phillips and his New England colleagues. Wendell Phillips, however, was cool to the proposition, pointing out the necessity ofamending the constitution of the American Antislavery Society beforeany such action could be taken. Never dreaming that he would actuallyoppose their plan, Susan expected this would be taken care of; butwhen she convened her woman's rights convention in New York in May1866, simultaneously with that of the American Antislavery Society, she found to her dismay that no formal notice of the proposed unionhad been given to the members of the antislavery group and thereforethere was no way for them to vote their organization into an EqualRights Association. Not to be sidetracked, she then asked the woman'srights convention to broaden its platform to include rights for theNegro. To her this seemed a natural development as she had alwaysthought of woman's rights as part of the larger struggle for humanrights. 

"For twenty years, " she declared, "we have pressed the claims of womento the right of representation in the government. .. . Up to this hourwe have looked only to State action for the recognition of our rights;but now by the results of the war, the whole question of suffragereverts back to the United States Constitution. The duty of Congressat this moment is to declare what shall be the basis of representationin a republican form of government. 

"There is, there can be, but one true basis, " she continued. "Taxationand representation must be inseparable; hence our demand must now gobeyond woman. .. . We therefore wish to broaden our woman's rightsplatform and make it in name what it has ever been in spirit, a humanrights platform. "[178]

The women, so often accused in later years of fighting only for theirown rights, had the courage at this time to attempt a practicalexperiment in generosity. Susan and Mrs. Stanton with all their heartswanted this experiment to succeed, and yet as they resolved theirwoman's rights organization into the American Equal RightsAssociation, they were apprehensive. 

They did not have to wait long for disillusionment. Meeting WendellPhillips and Theodore Tilton in the office of the _AntislaveryStandard_ to plan a campaign for the Equal Rights Association, theydiscussed with them what should be done in New York, preparatory tothe revision of the state constitution. Emphatically Wendell Phillipsdeclared that the time was ripe for striking the word "white" out ofthe constitution, but not the word "male. " That could come, he added, when the constitution was next revised, some twenty or thirty yearslater. To their astonishment, Theodore Tilton heartily agreed. Then headded, "The question of striking out the word 'male, ' we as an equalrights association shall of course present as an intellectual theory, but not as a practical thing to be accomplished at this convention. "Completely unprepared for such an attitude on Tilton's part, Susanretorted with indignation, "I would sooner cut off my right hand thanask for the ballot for the black man and not for woman. " Then tellingthe two men just what she thought of them for their betrayal of women, she swept out of the office to keep another appointment. [179]

Equally exasperated with these men, Mrs. Stanton stayed on, hoping toheal the breach, but when Susan returned to the Stanton home thatevening, she found her highly indignant, declaring she was throughboosting the Negro over her own head. Then and there they vowed thatthey would devote themselves with all their might and main to womansuffrage and to that alone. 

 * * * * *

By this time, Congress had passed a civil rights bill over PresidentJohnson's veto, conferring the rights of citizenship upon freedmen, and a Fourteenth Amendment to make these rights permanent was nowbefore Congress. The latest developments regarding the various draftsof the Fourteenth Amendment were passed along to Susan and Mrs. Stanton by Robert Dale Owen. Senator Sumner, he reported, had yieldedto party pressure and now supported the Fourteenth Amendment, althoughin the past he had always maintained such an amendment whollyunnecessary since there was already enough justice, liberty, andequality in the Constitution to protect the humblest citizen. SenatorSumner opposed and defeated a clause in the amendment referring to"race" and "color, " words which had never previously been mentionedin the Constitution, but he raised no serious objection to theintroduction of the word "male" as a qualification for suffrage, whichwas also unprecedented. That he tried time and time again to avoid theword "male" when he was redrafting the amendment or that ThaddeusStevens tried to substitute "legal voters" for "male citizens" was nocomfort to Susan and Mrs. Stanton, as they saw the FourteenthAmendment writing discrimination against women into the federalConstitution for the first time. [180]

As they carefully read over the first section of the FourteenthAmendment, which conferred citizenship on every person born ornaturalized in the United States, women's rights seemed assured:

 "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. "

Then in the controversial second section which provided the penalty ofreduction of representation in Congress for states depriving Negroesof the ballot, they saw themselves written out of the Constitution bythe words, "male inhabitants" and "male citizens, " used to definelegal voters. It was baffling to be kept from their goal by a singleword in a provision which at best was the unsatisfactory compromisearrived at by radical and conservative Republicans and which sincereabolitionists felt was unfair to the Negro. That it was unfair towomen, there was no doubt. 

With determination, Susan and Mrs. Stanton fought this injustice. Werethey not "persons born . .. In the United States, " they asked. Werethey forever to be regarded as children or as lower than persons, along with criminals, idiots, and the insane? Were women not countedin the basis of representation and should they not have a voice in theelection of those representatives whose office their numbers helped toestablish?

As Susan studied the Constitution, she saw that the question ofsuffrage had up to this time been left to the states and that therewere no provisions defining suffrage or citizenship or limiting theright of suffrage. Only now was the precedent being broken by theFourteenth Amendment which conferred citizenship on Negroes andlimited suffrage to males. How could this be constitutional, shereasoned, when the first lines of the Constitution read, "We, thepeople of the United States, in order to . .. Establish justice . .. Andsecure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, doordain and establish this Constitution for the United States ofAmerica. " Of course "the people" must include women, if the Englishlanguage meant what it said. 

The Fourteenth Amendment with the limiting word "male" was passed byCongress and referred to the states for ratification in June 1866. Asnever before, Susan felt the curse of the tradition of theunimportance of women. Once more politicians and reformers had ignoredwomen's inherent rights as human beings. In spite of women'sintelligence and their wartime service to their country, no statesmanof power or vision felt it at all necessary to include women under theFourteenth Amendment's broad term of "persons. " Yet according tostatements made in later years by John A. Bingham and Roscoe Conkling, both sponsors of the amendment and concerned with its drafting, thepossibility was considered of protecting corporations and the propertyof individuals from the interference of state and municipallegislation, through the federal control extended by this amendment. At any rate, they wrought well for the corporations which havereceived abundant protection under the Fourteenth Amendment, alongwith all male citizens, while women were left outside the pale. [181]

Tactfully the Republicans explained to women that even Negro suffragecould not be definitely spelled out in the Fourteenth Amendment, if itwere to be accepted by the people; and added that Negro suffrage wasall the strain that the Republican party could bear at this time; butneither Susan nor Mrs. Stanton were fooled by this sophistry. Theyknew that Republican politicians saw in the Negro vote in the Souththe means of keeping their party in power for a long time to come, andcould entirely overlook justice to Negro women since they were assuredof enough votes without them. The women of the North need not beconsidered, since they had nothing to offer politically. They wouldvote, it was thought, just as their husbands voted. 

Completely deserted by all their former friends in the Republicanparty, Susan and Mrs. Stanton now made use of an irregular Republican, Senator Cowan of Pennsylvania, whom the abolitionists had labeled "thewatchdog of slavery. " When Benjamin Wade's bill "to enfranchise eachand every male person" in the District of Columbia "without anydistinction on account of color or race, " was discussed on the Senatefloor in December 1866, Senator Cowan offered an amendment strikingout the word "male" and thus leaving the door open for women. Hestated the case for woman suffrage well and with eloquence, andalthough he was accused of being insincere and wishing merely to cloudthe issue, he forced the Republicans to show their hands. In thethree-day debate which followed, Senator Wilson of Massachusettsdeclared emphatically that he was opposed to connecting the twoissues, woman and Negro suffrage, but would at any time support aseparate bill for woman's enfranchisement. Senator Pomeroy of Kansasobjected to jeopardizing the chances of Negro suffrage by linking itwith woman suffrage, but Senator Wade of Ohio boldly expressed hisapproval of woman suffrage, even casting a vote for Senator Cowan'samendment, as did B. Gratz Brown of Missouri. In the final vote, ninevotes were counted for woman suffrage and thirty-seven against. [182]

Susan recorded even this defeat as progress, for woman suffrage hadfor the first time been debated in Congress and prominent Senators hadtreated it with respect. The Republican press, however, was showingdefinite signs of disapproval, even Horace Greeley's New York_Tribune_. Almost unbelieving, she read Greeley's editorial, "A Cryfrom the Females, " in which he said, "Talk of a true woman needing theballot as an accessory of power when she rules the world with theglance of an eye. " With the Democratic press as always solidly againstwoman suffrage and the _Antislavery Standard_ avoiding the subject asif it did not exist, no words favorable to votes for women now reachedthe public. [183]

It was hard for Susan to forgive the _Antislavery Standard_ for whatshe regarded as a breach of trust. Financed by the Hovey Fund, it owedallegiance, she believed, to women as well as the Negro. In protestParker Pillsbury resigned his post as editor, but among the leadingmen in the antislavery ranks, only he, Samuel J. May, James Mott, andRobert Purvis, the cultured, wealthy Philadelphia Negro, were willingto support Susan and Mrs. Stanton in their campaign for woman suffrageat this time. The rest aligned themselves unquestioningly with theRepublicans, although in the past they had always been distrustful ofpolitical parties. 

Discouraging as this was for Susan, their influence upon theantislavery women was far more alarming. These women one by onetemporarily deserted the woman's rights cause, persuaded that this wasthe Negro's hour and that they must be generous, renounce their ownclaims, and work only for the Negroes' civil and political rights. Less than a dozen remained steadfast, among them Lucretia Mott, MarthaC. Wright, Ernestine Rose, and for a time Lucy Stone, who wrote JohnGreenleaf Whittier in January 1867, "You know Mr. Phillips takes theground that this is 'the Negro's hour, ' and that the women, if notcriminal, are at least, not wise to urge their own claim. Now, so suream I that he is mistaken and that the only name given, by which thecountry can be saved, is that of WOMAN, that I want to ask you . .. Touse your influence to induce him to reconsider the position he hastaken. He is the only man in the nation to whom has been given thecharm which compels all men, willing or unwilling, to listen when hespeaks . .. Mr. Phillips used to say, 'take your part with the perfectand abstract right, and trust God to see that it shall proveexpedient. ' Now he needs someone to help him see that pointagain. "[184]

FOOTNOTES:

[159] Daniel R. Anthony married Anna Osborne of Edgartown, Martha'sVineyard, in 1864. 

[160] Before buying the house on Madison Street, then numbered 7, Mrs. Anthony and Mary lived for a time at 69 North Street, Rochester. Hannah and Eugene Mosher bought the adjoining house on Madison Streetin 1866. Aaron McLean took over his father-in-law's profitableinsurance business. 

[161] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 241. 

[162] Feb. 14, 1865, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library ofCongress. 

[163] Ms. , Diary, April 27, 1862. 

[164] Feb. 14, 1862, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library ofCongress. 

[165] _Ibid. _

[166] _Ibid. _, April 19, 1862. 

[167] Ms. , Diary, April 26, 27, 1865. 

[168] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 245. 

[169] The _Liberator_ ceased publication, Dec. 29, 1865. 

[170] Ms. , Diary, June 30, July 3, 1865. 

[171] Harper, _Anthony_, II, pp. 960-967. 

[172] Stanton and Blatch, _Stanton_, II, p. 105. 

[173] _Ibid. _; Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 244. 

[174] Ms. , Diary, Aug. 7, Sept. 5, 20, 1865. 

[175] _Ibid. _, Nov. 26-27, 1865. 

[176] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 251. 

[177] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, pp. 96-97. 

[178] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 260. 

[179] _Ibid. _, pp. 261, 323. 

[180] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, pp. 322-324. One of ThaddeusStevens' drafts read: "If any State shall disfranchise any of itscitizens on account of color, all that class shall be counted out ofthe basis of representation. " Then the question arose whether or notdisfranchising Negro women would carry this penalty and the result wasa rewording which struck out "color" and added "male. "

[181] Beards, _The Rise of American Civilization_, II, pp. 111-112;Joseph B. James, _The Framing of the Fourteenth Amendment_ (Urbana, Ill. , 1956), pp. 59, 166, 196-200. 

[182] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, p. 103. Senator Henry B. Anthony of Rhode Island, Susan B. Anthony's cousin, spoke and votedfor woman suffrage. 

[183] _Ibid. _, p. 101. The New York _Post_, which had been friendly towoman suffrage under the editorship of William Cullen Bryant, now cameout against it. 

[184] John Albree, Editor, _Whittier Correspondence from Oakknoll_(Salem, Mass. , 1911), p. 158. Frances D. Gage of Ohio, Caroline H. Dall of Massachusetts, and Clarina Nichols of Kansas also supportedwoman suffrage at this time. 

TIMES THAT TRIED WOMEN'S SOULS

Bitterly disillusioned, Susan as usual found comfort in action. Shecarried to the New York legislature early in 1867 her objections tothe Fourteenth Amendment in a petition from the American Equal RightsAssociation, signed by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Elizabeth CadyStanton, and herself. People generally were critical of the amendment, many fearing it would too readily reinstate rebels as voters, and shehoped to block ratification by capitalizing on this dissatisfaction. She saw no disloyalty to Negroes in this, for she regarded theamendment as "utterly inadequate. "[185]

This protest made, she turned her attention to New York'sconstitutional convention, which provided an unusual opportunity forwriting woman suffrage into the new constitution. First she sought aninterview with Horace Greeley, hoping to regain his support which wasmore important than ever since he had been chosen a delegate to thisconvention. When she and Mrs. Stanton asked him for space in the_Tribune_ to advocate woman suffrage as well as Negro suffrage, heemphatically replied, "No! You must not get up any agitation for thatmeasure. .. . Help us get the word 'white' out of the constitution. Thisis the Negro's hour. .. . Your turn will come next. "[186]

Convinced that this was also woman's hour, Susan disregarded hisopinions and his threats and circulated woman suffrage petitions inall parts of the state. She won the support of the handsome, highlyrespected George William Curtis, now editor of _Harper's Magazine_ andalso a convention delegate, and of the popular Henry Ward Beecher andGerrit Smith. The sponsorship of the cause by these men helpedmightily. New York women sent in petitions with hundreds ofsignatures, but the Republican party was at work, cracking its whip, and Horace Greeley was appointed chairman of the committee on theright of suffrage. 

Both Susan and Mrs. Stanton spoke at the constitutional convention'shearing on woman suffrage, Susan with her usual forthrightnessanswering the many questions asked by the delegates, spreadingconsternation among them by declaring that women would eventuallyserve as jurors and be drafted in time of war. Assuming women unableto bear arms for their country, the delegates smugly linked the ballotand the bullet together, and Horace Greeley gleefully asked the twowomen, "If you vote, are you ready to fight?" Instantly, Susanreplied, "Yes, Mr. Greeley, just as you fought in the late war--at thepoint of a goose quill. " Then turning to the other delegates, shereminded them that several hundred women, disguised as men, had foughtin the Civil War, and instead of being honored for their services andpaid, they had been discharged in disgrace. [187]

Confident that Horace Greeley would sooner or later fall back on hisoft-repeated, trite remark, "The best women I know do not want tovote, " Susan had asked Mrs. Greeley to roll up a big petition inWestchester County, and believing heartily in woman suffrage she hadcomplied. This gave Susan and Mrs. Stanton a trump card to play, should Horace Greeley present an adverse report as they were informedhe would do. [188]

In Albany to hear the report, these two conspirators gloated overtheir plan as they surveyed the packed galleries and noted the manyreporters who would jump at a bit of spicy news to send their papers. Just before Horace Greeley was to give his report, George WilliamCurtis announced with dignity and assurance, "Mr. President, I hold inmy hand a petition from Mrs. Horace Greeley and 300 other women, citizens of Westchester, asking that the word 'male' be stricken fromthe Constitution. "[189]

Ripples of amusement ran through the audience, and reporters hastilytook notes, as Horace Greeley, the top of his head red as a beet, looked up with anger at the galleries, and then in a thin squeakyvoice and with as much authority as he could muster declared, "Yourcommittee does not recommend an extension of the elective franchise towomen. .. . " As a result, New York's new constitution enfranchised onlymale citizens. [190]

Horace Greeley justified his opposition to woman suffrage in a letterto Moncure D. Conway: "The keynote of my political creed is the axiomthat 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of thegoverned. .. . ' I sought information from different quarters . .. Andpractically all agreed in the conclusion that _the women of our statedo not choose to vote_. Individuals do, at least three fourths of thesex do not. I accepted their choice as decisive; just as I reported infavor of enfranchising the Blacks because they do wish to vote. Thefew may not; but the many do; and I think they should control thesituation. .. . It seems but fair to add that female suffrage seems tome to involve the balance of the family relation as it has hithertoexisted. .. . "[191]

Horace Greeley never forgave Susan and Mrs. Stanton for humiliatinghim in the constitutional convention or for the headlines in theevening papers which coupled his adverse report with his wife'spetition. When they met again in New York a few weeks later at one ofAlice Cary's popular evening receptions, he ignored their friendlygreeting and brusquely remarked, "You two ladies are the mostmaneuvering politicians in the State of New York. "[192]

 * * * * *

While Susan's work in New York State was at its height, appeals forhelp had reached her from Republicans in Kansas, where in November1867 two amendments would be voted upon, enfranchising women andNegroes. Unable to go to Kansas herself at that time or to spareElizabeth Stanton, she rejoiced when Lucy Stone consented to speakthroughout Kansas and when she and Lucy, as trustees of the JacksonFund, outvoting Wendell Phillips, were able to appropriate $1, 500 forthis campaign. 

Lucy was soon sending enthusiastic reports to Susan from Kansas, whereshe and her husband, Henry Blackwell, were winning many friends forthe cause. "I fully expect we shall carry the State, " Lucy confidentlywrote Susan. "The women here are grand, and it will be a shame pastall expression if they don't get the right to vote. .. . But the Negroesare all against us. .. . These men _ought not to be allowed to votebefore we do_, because they will be just so much dead weight tolift. "[193]

One cloud now appeared on the horizon. Republicans in Kansas began towithdraw their support from the woman suffrage amendment they hadsponsored. It troubled Lucy and Susan that the New York _Tribune_ andthe _Independent_, both widely read in Kansas, published not one wordfavorable to woman suffrage, for these two papers with their influenceand prestige could readily, they believed, win the ballot for womennot only in Kansas but throughout the nation. Soon the temper of theRepublican press changed from indifference to outright animosity, striking at Lucy and Henry Blackwell by calling them "free lovers, "because Lucy was traveling with her husband as Lucy Stone and not asMrs. Henry B. Blackwell. Still Lucy was hopeful, believing theDemocrats were ready to take them up, but she reminded Susan, "It willbe necessary to have a good force here in the fall, and you will haveto come. "

Never for a moment did the importance of this election in Kansasescape Susan, and her estimate of it was also that of John StuartMill, who wrote from England to the sponsor of the Kansas womansuffrage amendment, Samuel N. Wood, "If your citizens next Novembergive effect to the enlightened views of your Legislature, history willremember one of the youngest states in the civilized world has beenthe first to adopt a measure of liberation destined to extend all overthe earth and to be looked back to . .. As one of the most fertile inbeneficial consequences of all improvements yet effected in humanaffairs. "[194]

Susan fully expected Kansas to pioneer for woman suffrage just as ithad taken its stand against slavery when the rest of the country heldback. Her first problem, however, was to raise the money to getherself and Elizabeth Stanton there. The grant from the Jackson Fundhad been spent by the Blackwells and Olympia Brown of Michigan, whomost providentially volunteered to continue their work when theyreturned to the East. Olympia Brown, recently graduated from AntiochCollege and ordained as a minister in the Universalist church, was anew recruit to the cause. Young and indefatigable, she reached everypart of Kansas during the summer, driving over the prairies with theSinging Hutchinsons. [195]

Olympia Brown's valiant help made waiting in New York easier for Susanas she tried in every way to raise money. Further grants from theJackson Fund were cut off by an unfavorable court decision; and thetrustees of the Hovey Fund, established to further the rights of bothNegroes and women, refused to finance a woman suffrage campaign inKansas. 

"We are left without a dollar, " she wrote State Senator Samuel N. Wood. "Every speaker who goes to Kansas must _now pay her own_expenses out of her own private purse, unless money should come fromsome unexpected source. I shall run the risk--as I told you--and drawupon almost my last hundred to go. I tell you this that you may notcontract _debts_ under the impression that _our_ Association can payfor them--_for it cannot_. "[196]

She did find a way to finance the printing of leaflets so urgentlyneeded for distribution in Kansas. Soliciting advertisements up anddown Broadway during the heat of July and August, she collected enoughto pay the printer for 60, 000 tracts, with the result that along withthe dignified, eloquent speeches of Henry Ward Beecher, TheodoreParker, George William Curtis, and John Stuart Mill wentadvertisements of Howe sewing machines, Mme. Demorest's millinery andpatterns, Browning's washing machines, and Decker pianofortes toattract the people of Kansas. 

 * * * * *

With both New York and Kansas on her mind, Susan had had little timeto be with her family, although she had often longed to slip out toRochester for a visit with her mother and Guelma who had been ill forseveral months. Finally she spent a few days with them on her way toKansas. 

On the long train journey from Rochester to Kansas with such acongenial companion as Elizabeth Stanton, she enjoyed every newexperience, particularly the new Palace cars advertised as the finest, most luxurious in the world, costing $40, 000 each. The comfortabledaytime seats transformed into beds at night and the meals served bysolicitous Negro waiters were of the greatest interest to these twogood housekeepers and the last bit of comfort they were to enjoy formany a day. 

As soon as they reached Kansas, they set out immediately on a two-weekspeaking tour of the principal towns, and as usual Susan starred Mrs. Stanton while she herself acted as general manager, advertising themeetings, finding a suitable hall, sweeping it out if necessary, distributing and selling tracts, and perhaps making a short speechherself. The meetings were highly successful, but traveling by stageand wagon was rugged; most of the food served them was green with sodaor floating in grease and the hotels were infested with bedbugs. Susanwrote her family of sleepless nights and of picking the "tormentors"out of their bonnets and the ruffles of their dresses. [197]

Occasionally there was an oasis of cleanliness and good food, as whenthey stopped at the railroad hotel in Salina and found it run byMother Bickerdyke, who, marching through Georgia with General Sherman, had nursed and fed his soldiers. At such times Kansas would take on arosy glow and Susan could report, "We are getting along splendidly. Just the frame of a Methodist Church with sidings and roof, and roughcottonwood boards for seats, was our meeting place last night . .. ; anda perfect jam it was, with men crowded outside at all the windows. .. . Our tracts do more than half the battle; reading matter is so veryscarce that everybody clutches at a book of any kind. .. . All thatgreat trunk full were sold and given away at our first 14 meetings, and we in return received $110 which a little more than paid ourrailroad fare--eight cents per mile--and hotel bills. Our collectionsthus far fully equal those at the East. I have been delightfullydisappointed for everybody said I couldn't raise money in Kansasmeetings. "[198]

The reputation of both women preceded them to Kansas. Susan had to winher way against prejudice built up by newspaper gibes of past yearswhich had caricatured her as a meddlesome reformer and a sour oldmaid, but gradually her friendliness, hominess, and sincerity brokedown these preconceptions. Kansas soon respected this tall slenderenergetic woman who, as she overrode obstacles, showed a spirit akinto that of the frontiersman. 

Mrs. Stanton, on the other hand, was welcomed at once with enthusiasm. The fact that she was the mother of seven children as well as abrilliant orator opened the way for her. She was good to look at, aqueenly woman at fifty-two, with a fresh rosy complexion and carefullycurled soft white hair. Her motherliness and refreshing sense of humorbuilt up a bond of understanding with her audiences. People were eagerto see her, hear her, talk with her, and entertain her. 

This preference was obvious to Susan, but it aroused no jealousy. Shesent Mrs. Stanton out through the state by mule team to all the smalltowns and settlements far from the railroad, along with their popularand faithful Republican ally, Charles Robinson, first Free StateGovernor of Kansas, counting on these two to build up good will. Inthe meantime, making her headquarters in Lawrence, she reorganized thecampaign to meet the increasing opposition of the Republican machine, against which the continued support of a few prominent KansasRepublicans availed little. As the state was predominantly Republican, the prospects were gloomy, for the Democrats had not yet taken them upas Lucy Stone had predicted, but still opposed both the Negro andwoman suffrage amendments. A new liquor law, which it was thoughtwomen would support, further complicated the situation, aligning theliquor interests and the German and Irish settlers solidly againstvotes for women. 

 * * * * *

While Susan was searching desperately for some way of appealing to theDemocrats, help came from an unexpected source. The St. Louis SuffrageAssociation urged George Francis Train to come to the aid of women inKansas, and always ready to champion a new and unpopular cause, hetelegraphed his willingness to win the Democratic vote and pay his ownexpenses. Knowing little about him except that he was wealthy, eccentric, and interested in developing the Union Pacific Railroad, Susan turned tactfully to her Kansas friends for advice, although sheherself welcomed his help. They wired him, "The people want you, thewomen want you";[199] and he came into the state in a burst of glory, speaking first in Leavenworth and Lawrence to large curious audiences. A tall handsome man with curly brown hair and keen gray eyes, flashilydressed in a blue coat with brass buttons, white vest, black trousers, patent-leather boots, and lavender kid gloves, he was a sight worthdriving miles to see, and he gave his audiences the best entertainmentthey had had in many a day, shouting jingles at them in the midst ofhis speeches and mercilessly ridiculing the Republicans. Here was noneof the boredom of most political speeches, none of the long sonoroussentences with classical allusions which the big-name orators of theday poured out. His bold statements, his clipped rapid-fire sentencesheld the people's attention whether they agreed with him or not. Whenhe spoke in Leavenworth, the hall was packed with Irishmen who werebuilding the railroad to the West. They hissed when he mentioned womansuffrage, but before long he had won them over and they cheered whenhe shook his finger at them and shouted, "Every man in Kansas whothrows a vote for the Negro and not for women has insulted his mother, his daughter, his sister, and his wife. "[200]

[Illustration: George Francis Train]

At once the Republican press began a campaign of vilification, callingTrain a Copperhead and ridiculing his eccentricities and conceits; andeastern Republicans, fearing they had harmed the Negro amendment inKansas by their opposition to woman suffrage, tried to makelast-minute amends by sending an appeal to Kansas voters to supportboth amendments. Even Horace Greeley lamely supported them in a_Tribune_ editorial which Susan read with disgust: "It is plain thatthe experiment of Female Suffrage is to be tried; and, while we regardit with distrust, we are quite willing to see it pioneered by Kansas. She is a young State, and has a memorable history, wherein her womenhave borne an honorable part. .. . If, then, a majority of them reallydesire to vote, we, if we lived in Kansas, should vote to give themthe opportunity. Upon a full and fair trial, we believe they wouldconclude that the right of suffrage for women was, on the whole, rather a plague than a profit, and vote to resign it into the hands oftheir husbands and fathers. .. . "[201]

These halfhearted appeals were too late, for the political machine inKansas had already done its work; and Susan, turning her back on suchfair-weather friends, cultivated the Democrats even more sedulously. When the Democrat who had promised to accompany George Francis Trainon a speaking tour failed him, she took his place. When Train demurredat the strenuous task ahead, she announced she would undertake italone. Always the gallant gentleman, he accompanied her, and continuedwith her through the long hard weeks of travel in mail and lumberwagons over rough roads, through mud and rain, to the remotestsettlements, far from the railroads. Because it was a necessity, traveling alone with a gentleman whom she hardly knew troubled her notat all, unconventional though it was. 

She took charge of the meetings, opening them herself with a shortsincere plea for both the woman and Negro suffrage amendments, andthen she introduced George Francis Train, who, no matter how late theyarrived or how tiring the day, had changed his wrinkled gray travelingsuit for his resplendent platform costume. The expectant crowd neverfailed to respond with a gasp of surprise, and immediately the funbegan as Train with his wit and his mimicry entertained them, callingfor their support of woman suffrage and advocating as well some of hisown pet ideas, such as freeing Ireland from British oppression, payingour national debt in greenbacks, establishing an eight-hour day inindustry, and even nominating himself for President. 

Amused by his dramatics and often amazed at his conceit, Susan foundneither as objectionable as the outright falsehood circulated byopponents of woman suffrage. As the days went by with their continuedhardships and increasing fatigue, she marveled at his unfailingcourteousness, his pluck, and good cheer, while he in turn admired hercourage, her endurance, and her zeal for her cause, and between them abond of respect and loyalty was built up which could not be destroyedby the pressures of later years. 

During the long hours on the road, he entertained her with the storyof his life and his travels, an adventure story of a poor boy who hadmade good. Building clipper ships, introducing American goods inAustralia, traveling in India, China, and Russia, promoting streetrailways in England, and now building the Union Pacific, he had awealth of information to impart. 

Their views on the Negro differed sharply. Rating the whole race asinferior and incapable of improvement, he naturally opposedenfranchising Negroes before women. She, on the other hand, had alwaysregarded Negroes as her equals, and in campaigning with Train, she hadto make her choice between Negroes and women. She chose women, just asher abolitionist friends in the East had chosen the Negro; and theirindifference and opposition to woman suffrage at this crucial time wasas unforgivable to her as was his valuation of the Negro to them. Theycalled him a Copperhead, remembering his southern wife and his hatredof abolitionists, his vocal resistance to the draft, and his demandsfor immediate unconditional peace. They ignored entirely his defenseof the Union in England during the Civil War when he publicly debatedwith Englishmen who supported the Confederacy. They abused him intheir newspapers and he, not to be outdone, ridiculed them in hisspeeches, shouting, "Where is Wendell Phillips, today? Lost casteeverywhere. Inconsistent in all things, cowardly in this. Where isHorace Greeley in this Kansas war for liberty? Pitching the womansuffrage idea out of the Convention and bailing out Jeff Davis. Whereis William Lloyd Garrison? Being patted on the shoulders by hisemployers, our enemies abroad, for his faithful work in trying todestroy our nation. Where is Henry Ward Beecher? Writing a story forBonner's Ledger. .. . "[202]

They never forgave him this estimate of them, nor did they forgiveSusan for associating herself with him. 

On one of the last days of the Kansas campaign, while she was drivingover the prairie with him, he suddenly asked her why the womansuffrage people did not have a paper of their own. "Not lack ofbrains, but lack of money, " she tersely replied. [203]

They talked for a while about the good such a paper would do, aboutthe people who should edit and write for it, what name it should have. Then he said simply, "I will give you the money. "

Because a woman suffrage paper had been her cherished dream for somany years, she did not dare regard this as more than a gallantgesture soon to be forgotten; but to her amazement that very eveningshe heard Train announce to his audience, "When Miss Anthony gets backto New York, she is going to start a woman suffrage paper. Its name isto be _The Revolution_: its motto, 'Men their rights, and nothingmore; women, their rights and nothing less. ' This paper is to be aweekly, price $2. Per year; its editors, Elizabeth Cady Stanton andParker Pillsbury; its proprietor, Susan B. Anthony. Let everybodysubscribe for it!"

 * * * * *

Election day brought both Susan and Mrs. Stanton back to Leavenworth, to Daniel's home, to learn the verdict of the people of Kansas. As thereturns came in, their hope of seeing Kansas become the first womansuffrage state quickly faded. Neither their amendment nor the Negroes'polled enough votes for adoption. Their woman suffrage amendment, however, received only 1, 773 votes less than the Republican-sponsoredNegro amendment, and to have accomplished this in a hard-fought bittercampaign against powerful opponents gave them confidence in themselvesand in their judgment of men and events. No longer need they dependupon Wendell Phillips or other abolitionist leaders for guidance. Fromnow on they would chart their own course. This led, they believed, toWashington, where they must gain support among members of Congress fora federal woman suffrage amendment. Few, if any, Republicans wouldhelp them, but already one Democrat had come forward. George FrancisTrain had offered to pay their expenses if they would join him on alecture tour on their way East. To Susan, who had to raise every pennyspent in her work, this seemed like an answer to prayer, as did hisproposal to finance a woman suffrage paper for them. 

By this time their abolitionist friends in the East were writing themindignant letters blaming the defeat of the Negro amendment on GeorgeFrancis Train and warning them not to link woman suffrage with anunbalanced charlatan. Even their devoted friends in Kansas, includingGovernor Robinson, advised them against further association withTrain. 

They did not make their decision lightly, nor was it easy to goagainst the judgment of respected friends, but of this they wereconfident--that with or without Train, they would estrange most oftheir old friends if they campaigned for woman suffrage now. Withouthim, their work, limited by lack of funds, would be ineffectual. Withhis financial backing, they not only had the opportunity of spreadingtheir message in all the principal cities on their way back to NewYork, but had the promise of a paper, now so desperately needed whenother news channels were closed to them. That Train was eccentric theyagreed, and they also admitted that possibly some of his financialtheories were unsound. They believed he was ahead of his time when headvocated the eight-hour day and the abolition of standing armies; butat least he looked forward, not backward. Susan had found him to be aman of high principles. She had heard him "make speeches on woman'ssuffrage that could be equalled only by John B. Gough, "[204] thewell-known temperance crusader. Train's radical ideas did not disturbher. Her association with antislavery extremists prior to the CivilWar had made her impervious to the criticism and accusations ofconservatives. She was aware that on this proposed lecture tour Trainprobably wanted to make use of her executive ability and of Mrs. Stanton's popularity as a speaker; but on the other hand, hisgenerosity to them was beyond anything they had ever experienced. 

For Susan there was only one choice--to work for woman suffrage withthe financial backing of Train. Mrs. Stanton agreed, and as sheexpressed it, "I have always found that when we see eye to eye, we aresure to be right, and when we pull together we are strong. .. . I takemy beloved Susan's judgment against the world. "[205]

 * * * * *

Traveling homeward with George Francis Train, Susan and Mrs. Stantonspoke in Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Boston, Hartford, and other important cities wherethey drew large crowds, which had never before listened to adiscussion of woman suffrage. Most of their old friends among thesuffragists and abolitionists shunned them, for they had been warnedagainst this folly by their colleagues in the East. The livelymeetings rated plenty of publicity, complimentary in the Democraticpapers but sarcastic and hostile in the Republican press. Usually"Woman Suffrage" got the headlines, but sometimes it was "WomanSuffrage and Greenbacks" or "Train for President. " Handbills, theprinting of which Susan supervised, scattered Train's rhymes andepigrams far and wide and carried a notice that the proceeds of allmeetings would be turned over to the woman's rights cause. Susan alsoarranged for the printing of Train's widely distributed pamphlet, _TheGreat Epigram Campaign of Kansas_, with this jingle, souncomplimentary to the eastern abolitionists, on its cover:

 The Garrisons, Phillipses, Greeleys, and Beechers, False prophets, false guides, false teachers and preachers, Left Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Brown, and Stone, To fight the Kansas battle alone; While your Rosses, Pomeroys, and your Clarkes Stood on the fence, or basely fled, While woman was saved by a Copperhead. 

Even more unforgivable than this to the abolitionist suffragists werethe back-page advertisements of a new woman-suffrage paper, _TheRevolution_, and of woman's rights tracts which could be purchasedfrom Susan B. Anthony, Secretary of the American Equal RightsAssociation. That Susan would presume to line up this organization inany way with George Francis Train aroused the indignation of LucyStone, who felt the cause was being trailed in the dust. While Susanand Mrs. Stanton traveled homeward, enjoying the comfort of the besthotels and the applause of enthusiastic audiences, a coalition againstthem was being formed in the East. 

"All the old friends with scarce an exception are sure we are wrong, "Susan wrote in her diary, January 1, 1868. "Only time can tell, but Ibelieve we are right and hence bound to succeed. "[206]

FOOTNOTES:

[185] Ms. , Petition, Jan. 9, 1867, Alma Lutz Collection

[186] Ms. , note, 1893, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library ofCongress. 

[187] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 278; _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, p. 284. 

[188] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 279. 

[189] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, p. 287. Petitions with 20, 000signatures were presented. 

[190] _Ibid. _, p. 285. 

[191] Aug. 25, 1867, Alma Lutz Collection. 

[192] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, p. 287. 

[193] _Ibid. _, pp. 234-235, 239. 

[194] _Ibid. _, p. 252. 

[195] A famous family of singers who enlivened woman's rights, antislavery, and temperance meetings with their songs. 

[196] July 9, 1867, Anthony Papers, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas. 

[197] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 284. 

[198] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, p. 242. 

[199] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 287. George Francis Train on his owninitiative spoke for woman suffrage before the New York ConstitutionalConvention. 

[200] George Francis Train, _The Great Epigram Campaign of Kansas_(Leavenworth, Kansas, 1867), p. 68. 

[201] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, pp. 248-249. 

[202] Train, _The Great Epigram Campaign of Kansas_, p. 40. 

[203] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 290. 

[204] Inscription by Susan B. Anthony on copy of Train's _The GreatEpigram Campaign of Kansas_, Library of Congress. 

[205] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 293. 

[206] _Ibid. _, p. 295. 

THE ONE WORD OF THE HOUR

"If we women fail to speak the _one word_ of the hour, " Susan wroteAnna E. Dickinson, "who shall do it? No man is able, for no man seesor 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, _TheRevolution_. It's name, she believed, expressed exactly the stirringup of thought necessary to establish justice for all--for women, Negroes, workingmen and-women, and all who were oppressed. Her twoeditors, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, reliable friendsas well as vivid forceful writers, were completely in sympathy withher own liberal ideas and could be counted on to crusade fearlesslyfor every righteous cause. What did it matter if George Francis Trainwanted space in the paper to publish his views and for a financialcolumn, edited by David M. Melliss of the New York _World_? Brought upon the antislavery platform where free speech was the watchword andwhere all, even long-winded cranks, were allowed to express theiropinions, Susan willingly opened the pages of _The Revolution_ toTrain and to Melliss in return for financial backing. 

When on January 8, 1868, the first issue of her paper came off thepress, her heart swelled with pride and satisfaction as she turnedover its pages, read its good editorials, and under the frank ofDemocratic Congressman James Brooks of New York, sent out ten thousandcopies to all parts of the country. 

_The Revolution_ promised to discuss not only subjects which were ofparticular concern to her and to Elizabeth Stanton, such as "educatedsuffrage, irrespective of sex or color, " equal pay for women for equalwork, and practical education for girls as well as boys, but also theeight-hour day, labor problems, and a new financial policy forAmerica. This new financial policy, the dream of George Francis Train, advocated the purchase of American goods only; the encouragement ofimmigration to rebuild the South and to settle the country from oceanto ocean; the establishment of the French financing systems, theCrédit Foncier and Crédit Mobilier, to develop our mines andrailroads; the issuing of greenbacks; and penny ocean postage "tostrengthen the brotherhood of Labor. "

All in all it was not a program with wide appeal. Dazzled by theopportunities for making money in this new undeveloped country, peoplewere in no mood to analyze the social order, or to consider the needsof women or labor or the living standards of the masses. Unfamiliarwith the New York Stock Exchange, they found little to interest themin 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 Streetgossip which often portrayed them in an unfavorable light. Nor did apublic-affairs paper edited and published by women carry much weight. None of this, however, mattered much to Susan, who did not aim for apopular paper but "to make public sentiment. " It was her hope thatjust as the _Liberator_ under William Lloyd Garrison had been "thepillar of light and of fire to the slave's emancipation, " so _TheRevolution_ would become "the guiding star to the enfranchisement ofwomen. "[208]

 * * * * *

Upon Susan fell the task of building up subscriptions, solicitingadvertisements, and getting copy to the printer. As her office in theNew York _World_ building, 37 Park Row, was on the fourth floor andthe printer was several blocks away on the fifth floor of a buildingwithout an elevator, her job proved to be a test of physicalendurance. To this was added an ever-increasing financial burden, forTrain had sailed for England when the first number was issued, hadbeen arrested because of his Irish sympathies, and had spent months ina Dublin jail, from which he sent them his thoughts on everyconceivable subject but no money for the paper. He had left $600 withSusan and had instructed Melliss to make payments as needed, but thissoon became impossible, and she had to face the alarming fact that, ifthe paper were to continue, she must raise the necessary moneyherself. Because the circulation was small, it was hard to getadvertisers, particularly as she was firm in her determination toaccept only advertisements of products she could recommend. Patentmedicines and any questionable products were ruled out. Subscriptionscame in encouragingly but in no sense met the deficit which piled upunrelentingly. Her goal was 100, 000 subscribers. 

She had gone to Washington at once to solicit subscriptions personallyfrom the President and members of Congress. Ben Wade of Ohio headedthe list of Senators who subscribed, and loyal as always to womansuffrage, encouraged her to go ahead and push her cause. "It has gotto come, " he added, "but Congress is too busy now to take it up. "Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts greeted her gruffly, telling herthat she and Mrs. Stanton had done more to block reconstruction in thelast two years than all others in the land, but he subscribed becausehe wanted to know what they were up to. Although Senator Pomeroy was"sore about Kansas" and her alliance with the Democrats, henevertheless subscribed, but Senator Sumner was not to be seen. Thefirst member of the House to put his name on her list was herdependable understanding friend, George Julian of Indiana, and manyothers followed his lead. For two hours she waited to see PresidentJohnson, in an anteroom "among the huge half-bushel-measure spittoonsand terrible filth . .. Where the smell of tobacco and whiskey waspowerful. " When she finally reached him, he immediately refused herrequest, explaining that he had a thousand such solicitations everyday. Not easily put off, she countered at once by remarking that hehad never before had such a request in his life. "You recognize, Mr. Johnson, " she continued, "that Mrs. Stanton and myself for two yearshave boldly told the Republican party that they must give ballots towomen as well as to Negroes, and by means of _The Revolution_ we arebound to drive the party to this logical conclusion or break it into athousand pieces as was the old Whig party, unless we get our rights. "This "brought him to his pocketbook, " she triumphantly reported, andin 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 morereadable than the average news sheets of the day with their miserablysmall print. The larger type and less crowded pages were inviting, thearticles stimulating. 

Parker Pillsbury, covering Congressional and political developmentsand the impeachment trial of President Johnson with which he was notin sympathy, was fearless in his denunciations of politicians, theirruthless intrigue and disregard of the public. During the turbulentdays when the impeachment trial was front-page news everywhere, _TheRevolution_ proclaimed it as a political maneuver of the Republicansto confuse the people and divert their attention from more importantissues, such as corruption in government, high prices, taxation, andthe fabulous wealth being amassed by the few. This of course rousedthe intense disapproval of Wendell Phillips, Theodore Tilton, andHorace Greeley, all of whom regarded Johnson as a traitor and shoutedfor impeachment. It ran counter to the views of Susan's brotherDaniel, who telegraphed Senator Ross of Kansas demanding his vote forimpeachment. Although no supporter of President Johnson, Susan was nowcompletely awake to the political manipulations of the radicalRepublicans and what seemed to her their readiness to sacrifice thegood of the nation for the success of their party. She repudiated themall--all but the rugged Ben Wade, always true to woman suffrage, andthe 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 thePresidency than General Grant, who now was the obvious choice of theRepublicans for 1868. "Why go pell-mell for Grant, " asked _TheRevolution_, "when all admit that he is unfit for the position? It isnot too late, if true men and women will do their duty, to make anhonest man like Ben Wade, President. Let us save the Nation. As to theRepublican party the sooner it is scattered to the four winds ofHeaven the better. "[210] Later when Chase was out of the running amongRepublicans and not averse to overtures from the Democrats, _TheRevolution_ urged him as the Democratic candidate with universalsuffrage as his slogan. 

Susan demanded civil rights, suffrage, education, and farms for theNegroes as did the Republicans, but she could not overlook thepolitical corruption which was flourishing under the military controlof the South, and she recognized that the Republicans' insistence onNegro suffrage in the South did not stem solely from devotion to anoble principle, but also from an overwhelming desire to insurevictory for their party in the coming election. These views werereflected editorially in _The Revolution_, which, calling attentionto the fact that Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, andPennsylvania had refused to enfranchise their Negroes, asked why Negrosuffrage should be forced on the South before it was accepted in theNorth. 

The Fourteenth Amendment was having hard sledding and _The Revolution_repudiated it, calling instead for an amendment granting universalsuffrage, or in other words, suffrage for women and Negroes. _TheRevolution_ also discussed in editorials by Mrs. Stanton othersubjects of interest to women, such as marriage, divorce, prostitution, and infanticide, all of which Susan agreed needed frankthoughtful consideration, but which other papers handled with kidgloves. 

In still another unpopular field, that of labor and capital, _TheRevolution_ also pioneered fearlessly, asking for shorter hours andlower wages for workers, as it pointed out labor's valuablecontribution to the development of the country. It also calledattention to the vicious contrasts in large cities, where many livedin tumbledown tenements in abject poverty while the few, with morewealth than they knew what to do with, spent lavishly and builtthemselves palaces. 

Sentiments such as these increased the indignation of Susan's critics, but she gloried in the output of her two courageous editors just asshe had gloried in the evangelistic zeal of the antislavery crusaders. Wisely, however, she added to her list of contributors some of thepopular 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'srights news from the states. Believing that women should becomeacquainted with the great women of the past, especially those whofought for their freedom and advancement, she printed an article onFrances Wright and serialized Mary Wollstonecraft's _A Vindication ofthe Rights of Women_. 

 * * * * *

Eagerly Susan looked for favorable notices of her new paper in thepress. 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 usualanything connected with woman's rights or woman suffrage. The New York_Home Journal_ called it "plucky, keen, and wide awake, although someof its ways are not at all to our taste. " Theodore Tilton in theCongregationalist paper, _The Independent_, commented in his usualfacetious style, which pinned him down neither to praise norunfriendliness, but Susan was grateful to read, "_The Revolution_ fromthe start will arouse, thrill, edify, amuse, vex, and non-plus itsfriends. But it will command attention: it will conquer a hearing. "Newspapers were generally friendly. "Miss Anthony's woman's rightspaper, " declared the Troy (New York) _Times_, "is a realistic, well-edited, instructive journal . .. And its beautiful mechanicalexecution renders its appearance very attractive. " The Chicago_Workingman's Advocate_ observed, "We have no doubt it will prove anable ally of the labor reform movement. " Nellie Hutchinson of theCincinnati _Commercial_, one of the few women journalists, describedsympathetically for her readers the neat comfortable _Revolution_office and Susan with her "rare" but "genial smile, " Susan, "thedetermined--the invincible . .. Destined to be Vice-President orSecretary of State. .. , " adding, "The world is better for thee, Susan. "[211]

While new friends praised, old friends pleaded unsuccessfully withMrs. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury to free themselves from Susan'sharmful influence. William Lloyd Garrison wrote Susan of his regretand astonishment that she and Mrs. Stanton had so taken leave of theirsenses as to be infatuated with the Democratic party and to beassociated 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 oftenthe Republicans had failed women but reminded Garrison how he hadwelcomed into his antislavery ranks anyone and everyone who believedin his ideas, "a motley crew it was. " She recalled the label offanatic which had been attached to him, how he had been threatened andpelted with rotten eggs for expressing his unpopular ideas and forburning the Constitution which he declared sanctioned slavery. Withsuch a background, she told him, he should be able to recognize herright and Susan's to judge all parties and all men on what they didfor woman suffrage. [212]

None of these arguments made any impression upon Garrison, or uponLucy Stone, whose bitter criticism and distrust of Susan's motiveswounded Susan deeply. Only a few of her old friends seemed able tounderstand 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 menow 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 ofthurried notes to her on the backs of old envelopes or any odd scrapsof paper that came to hand. Whenever Anna was in New York, she usuallyburst into the _Revolution_ office, showered Susan with kisses, andcarried on such an animated conversation about her experiences thatthe whole office force was spellbound, admiring at the same time herstylish costume and jaunty velvet cap with its white feather, verybecoming 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 EastTwenty-third Street. That Anna could have risen out of the hardshipsof her girlhood to such popularity as a lecturer and to suchfinancial success was to Susan like a fairy tale come true. Scarcelypast twenty, Anna not only had moved vast audiences to tears, but wassought after by the Republicans as one of their most popular campaignspeakers and had addressed Congress with President Lincoln inattendance. Susan had been sadly disappointed that Anna had not seenher 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 andcivil rights. " It never occurred to her that she herself might evennow be that "evangel. "[214]

 * * * * *

By this time Susan had been called on the carpet by some of theofficers of the American Equal Rights Association because she had usedthe Association's office as a base for business connected with theTrain lecture tour and the establishment of _The Revolution_. She wasalso accused of spending the funds of the Association for her ownprojects and to advertise Train. Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, andStephen Foster were particularly suspicious of her. Her accounts werechecked and rechecked by them and found in good order. However, at theannual meeting of the Association in May 1868, Henry Blackwell againbrought the matter up. Deeply hurt by his public accusation, she oncemore carefully explained that because there had been no funds exceptthose which came out of her own pocket or had been raised by her, shehad felt free to spend them as she thought best. This obviouslysatisfied the majority, many of whom expressed appreciation of heryear of hard work for the cause. She later wrote Thomas WentworthHigginson, "Even if not one old friend had seemed to have rememberedthe past and it had been swallowed up, overshadowed by the Traincloud, 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, Ihave stored up therefrom. That it is wholly spiritual, I need but tellyou that this day, I have not two hundred dollars more than I had theday I entered upon the public work of woman's rights andantislavery. "[215]

What troubled her most at these meetings was not the animositydirected against her by Henry Blackwell and Lucy Stone, but theassertion, made by Frederick Douglass and agreed to by all the menpresent, that Negro suffrage was more urgent than woman suffrage. WhenLucy Stone came to the defense of woman suffrage in a speech whosecontent and eloquence Susan thought surpassed that of "any othermortal woman speaker, " she was willing to forgive Lucy anything, andwrote Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "I want you to _know_ that it isimpossible for me to lay a straw in the way of anyone who _personallywrongs me_, if only that one will work nobly in the _cause_ in theirown 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 timetrying to persuade the American Equal Rights Association to help herwith her woman suffrage campaign, she now formed a small committee ofher own, headed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It included Elizabeth SmithMiller, the liberal wealthy daughter of Gerrit Smith, Abby HopperGibbons, the Quaker philanthropist and social worker; and Mary CheneyGreeley, the wife of Horace Greeley, who, in spite of the fact thather husband now opposed woman suffrage, continued to take her standfor it. This committee, with _The Revolution_ as its mouthpiece, wassoon acting as a clearing house for woman suffrage organizationsthroughout the country and called itself the Woman's SuffrageAssociation of America. 

To the national Republican convention in Chicago which nominatedGeneral Grant for President, these women sent a carefully wordedmemorial asking that the rights of women be recognized in thereconstruction. It was ignored. Thereupon Susan turned to theDemocrats, attending with Mrs. Stanton a preconvention rally in NewYork, addressed by Governor Horatio Seymour. Given seats of honor onthe platform, they attracted considerable attention and the New York_Sun_ commented editorially that this honor conferred upon them by theDemocrats not only committed Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton to GovernorSeymour's views but also committed the Democrats to incorporate awoman suffrage plank in their platform. 

This was too much for some of the officers of the American EqualRights Association, whose executive committee now adopted a sarcasticresolution proposing that Susan attend the national Democraticconvention and prove her confidence in the Democrats by securing aplank in their platform. 

Ignoring the unfriendly implications of this resolution and theridicule heaped upon her by the New York City papers, Susan made plansto attend the Democratic convention, which for the first time sincethe war was bringing northern and southern Democrats together for thededication of their new, imposing headquarters, Tammany Hall, andwhich was also attracting many liberals who, disgusted by thecorruption of the Republicans, were looking for a "new departure" fromthe Democrats. To the amazement of the delegates, Susan with Mrs. Stanton and several other women walked into the convention when it waswell under way and sent a memorial up to Governor Seymour who waspresiding. He received it graciously, announcing that he held in hishand 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 theaudience shouted and cheered. The sonorous passages demanding theenfranchisement of women rang out through and above the bedlam: "Weappeal to you because . .. You have been the party heretofore to extendthe suffrage. It was the Democratic party that fought most valiantlyfor the removal of the 'property qualification' from all white men andthereby placed the poorest ditch digger on a political level with theproudest millionaire. .. . And now you have an opportunity to confer asimilar boon on the women of the country and thus . .. Perpetuate yourpolitical power for decades to come. .. . "[216]

To hear these words read in a national political convention was toSusan worth any ridicule she might be forced to endure. She was notallowed to speak to the convention as she had requested, and shoutsand jeers continued as her memorial was hurriedly referred to theResolutions 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 oursincere pity. She has been an ardent suitor of democracy, and theyrejected her overtures yesterday with screams of laughter. "[217]

The Democrats' nomination of Horatio Seymour and Frank Blair was asreactionary and unpromising of a "new departure" as was the choice ofGeneral Grant and Schuyler Colfax by the Republicans. Thereupon _TheRevolution_ called for a new party, a people's party which would besincerely devoted to the welfare of all the people. So strongly didSusan feel about this that in one of her few signed editorials shedeclared, "Both the great political parties pretending to save thecountry are only endeavoring to save themselves. .. . In their handshumanity has no hope. .. . The sooner their power is broken as partiesthe better. .. . _The Revolution_ calls for construction, notreconstruction. .. . Who will aid us in our grand enterprise of anation's salvation?"[218]

To "darling Anna" she wrote more specifically, "Both parties are ownedbody and soul by the _Gold Gamblers_ of the Nation--and so far as thehonest working men and women of the country are concerned, it mattersvery little which succeeds. Oh that the Gods would inspire men ofinfluence and money to move for a third party--universal suffrage andanti-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 ofCongress. Susan had a room at the Stantons until they prepared to moveto 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

In her zeal to promote the welfare of all the people, Susan now turnedher attention to the workingwomen of New York, whose low wages, longhours, and unhealthy working and living conditions had troubled herfor a long time. Women were being forced out of the home into thefactory by a changing and expanding economy, and at last were beingpaid for their work. However, the women she met on the streets of NewYork, hurrying to work at dawn and returning late at night, weary, pale, and shabbily dressed, had none of the confidence of theeconomically independent. They had merely exchanged one form ofslavery for another. She saw the ballot as their most powerful ally, and as she told the factory girls of Cohoes, New York, they couldcompel their employers to grant them a ten-hour day, equal opportunityfor advancement, and equal pay, the moment they held the ballot intheir hands. [220]

As yet labor unions were few and short-lived. The women tailors of NewYork had formed a union as early as 1825, but it had not survived, andlater attempts to form women's unions had rarely been successful. Afew men's unions had weathered the years, but they had not enrolledwomen, fearing their competition. Women were welcomed only by theNational Labor Union, established in Baltimore in 1866 for the purposeof federating all unions. 

When the National Labor Union Congress met in New York in September1868, Susan saw an opportunity for women to take part, and inpreparation she called a group of workingwomen together in _TheRevolution_ office to form a Workingwomen's Association which shehoped would eventually represent all of the trades. At this meeting, the majority were from the printing trade, typesetters operating thenewly invented typesetting machines, press feeders, bookbinders, andclerks, in whom she had become interested through her venture inpublishing. She wanted them to call their organization theWorkingwomen's Suffrage Association, but they refused, because theyfeared the public's disapproval of woman suffrage and were convincedthey should not seek political rights until they had improved theirworking conditions. She could not make them see that they wereputting the cart before the horse. They did, however, formWorkingwomen's Association No. 1, electing her their delegate to theNational Labor Congress. 

Next she called a meeting of the women in the sewing trades, and withthe help of men from the National Labor Union, persuaded a hundred ofthem to form Workingwomen's Association No. 2. Most of these womenwere seamstresses making men's shirts, women's coats, vests, lacecollars, hoop skirts, corsets, fur garments, and straw hats, but alsorepresented were women from the umbrella, parasol, and paper collarindustry, metal burnishers, and saleswomen. Most of them were younggirls who worked from ten to fourteen hours a day, from six in themorning until eight at night, and earned from $4 to $8 a week. 

"You must not work for these starving prices any longer . .. , " Susantold them. "Have a spirit of independence among you, 'a wholesomediscontent, ' as Ralph Waldo Emerson has said, and you will get betterwages for yourselves. Get together and discuss, and meet again andagain. .. . I will come and talk to you. .. . "[221] They elected Mrs. MaryKellogg Putnam to represent them at the National Labor Congress. 

With Mrs. Putnam and Kate Mullaney, the able president of the CollarLaundry Union of Troy, New York, with Mary A. MacDonald of the Women'sProtective Labor Union of Mt. Vernon, New York, and Mrs. Stanton, representing the Woman's Suffrage Association of America, Susanknocked at the door of the National Labor Congress. All were welcomedbut Mrs. Stanton, who represented a woman suffrage organization andwhose acceptance the rank and file feared might indicate to the publicthat the Labor Congress endorsed votes for women. 

The women had a friend in William H. Sylvis of the Iron Molders'Union, who was the driving force behind the National Labor Congress, and he made it clear at once that he welcomed Mrs. Stanton andeveryone else who believed in his cause. So strong, however, was theopposition to woman suffrage among union men that eighteen threatenedto resign if Mrs. Stanton were admitted as a delegate. The debatecontinued, giving Susan an opportunity to explain why the ballot wasimportant to workingwomen. "It is the power of the ballot, " shedeclared, "that makes men successful in their strikes. "[222] Sherecommended that both men and women be enrolled in unions, pointingout that had this been done, women typesetters would not have replacedmen at lower wages in the recent strike of printers on the New York_World_. Finally a resolution was adopted, making it clear that Mrs. Stanton's acceptance in no way committed the National Labor Congressto her "peculiar ideas" or to "Female Suffrage. "

A committee on female labor was then appointed with Susan as one ofits members. At once she tried to show the committee how the votewould help women in their struggle for higher wages. She had at hand aperfect example in the unsuccessful strike of Kate Mullaney's strong, well-organized union of 500 collar laundry workers in Troy, New York. Aware that Kate blamed their defeat on the ruthless newspapercampaign, inspired and paid for by employers, Susan asked her, "If youhad been 500 carpenters or 500 masons, do you not think you would havesucceeded?"[223]

"Certainly, " Kate Mullaney replied, adding that the strikingbricklayers had won everything they demanded. Susan then reminded herthat because the bricklayers were voters, newspapers respected themand would hesitate to arouse their displeasure, realizing that in thenext election they would need the votes of all union men for theircandidates. "If you collar women had been voters, " she told them, "youtoo would have held the balance of political power in that little cityof Troy. "

Susan convinced the committee on female labor, and in their strongreport to the convention they urged women "to secure the ballot" aswell as "to learn the trades, engage in business, join labor unions orform protective unions of their own, . .. And use every other honorablemeans to persuade or force employers to do justice to women by payingthem equal wages for equal work. " These women also called upon theNational Labor Congress to aid the organization of women's unions, todemand the eight-hour day for women as well as men, and to askCongress and state legislatures to pass laws providing equal pay forwomen in government employ. The phrase, "to secure the ballot, " wasquickly challenged by some of the men and had to be deleted before thereport was accepted; but this setback was as nothing to Susan incomparison with the friends she had made for woman suffrage amongprominent labor leaders and with the fact that a woman, Kate Mullaneyof Troy, had been chosen assistant secretary of the National LaborUnion and its national organizer of women. [224]

The National Labor Union Congress won high praise in _The Revolution_as laying the foundation of the new political party of America whichwould be triumphant in 1872. "The producers, the working-men, thewomen, the Negroes, " _The Revolution_ declared, "are destined to forma triple power that shall speedily wrest the sceptre of governmentfrom the non-producers, the land monopolists, the bondholders, and thepoliticians. "[225]

 * * * * *

One of the most encouraging signs at this time was the friendliness ofthe New York _World_, whose reporters covered the meetings of theWorkingwomen's Association with sympathy, arousing much localinterest. Reprinting these reports and supplementing them, _TheRevolution_ carried their import farther afield, bringing to theattention of many the wisdom and justice of equal pay for equal work, and the need to organize workingwomen and to provide training andtrade schools for them. _The Revolution_ continually spurred women onto improve themselves, to learn new skills, and actually to do equalwork if they expected equal pay. 

When reports reached Susan that women in the printing trade wereafraid of manual labor, of getting their hands and fingers dirty, andof lifting heavy galleys, she quickly let them know that she had nopatience with this. "Those who stay at home, " she told them, "have towash kettles and lift wash tubs and black stoves until their hands areblackened and hardened. In this spirit, you must go to work on yourcases of type. Are these cases heavier than a wash tub filled withwater and clothes, or the old cheese tubs?. .. The trouble is eitherthat girls are not educated to have physical strength or else they donot like to use it. If a union of women is to succeed, it must becomposed of strength, nerve, courage, and persistence, with no fear ofdirtying their white fingers, but with a determination that when theygo into an office they would go through all that was required of themand demand just as high wages as the men. .. . 

"Make up your mind, " she continued, "to take the 'lean' with the'fat, ' and be early and late at the case precisely as the men are. Ido not demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work invalue. Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understandthat you are in their service as workers, not as women. "[226]

Workingwomen's associations now existed in Boston, St. Louis, Chicago, San Francisco and other cities, encouraged and aroused by the effortsat organization in New York. These associations occasionally exchangedideas, and news of all of them was published in _The Revolution_. Thegroups in Boston and in the outlying textile mills were particularlyactive, and Susan brought to her next suffrage convention inWashington in 1870 Jennie Collins of Lowell who was ably leading astrike against a cut in wages. The newspapers, too, began to noticeworkingwomen, publishing articles about their working and livingconditions. 

Trying to amalgamate the various groups in New York, Susan now formeda Workingwomen's Central Association, of which she was electedpresident. To its meetings she brought interesting speakers andpractical reports on wages, hours, and working conditions. She herselfpicked up a great deal of useful information in her daily round as shetalked with this one and that one. On her walks to and from work, inall kinds of weather, she met poorly clad women carrying sacks andbaskets in which they collected rags, scraps of paper, bones, oldshoes, and anything worth rescuing from "garbage boxes. " Withfriendliness and good cheer, she greeted these ragpickers, sometimesstopping to talk with them about their work, and through her interestbrought several into the Workingwomen's Association. Looking forwardto surveys on all women's occupations, she started out by appointing acommittee to investigate the ragpickers, many of whom lived intumbledown slab shanties on the rocky land which is now a part ofCentral Park. 

This investigation revealed that more than half of the 1200 ragpickerswere women and that it was the one occupation in which women had equalopportunity with men and received equal compensation for their day'swork. Average earnings ranged from forty cents a day to ten dollars aweek. The report, highly sentimental in the light of today'sscientific approach, was a promising beginning, a survey made by womenthemselves in their own interest--the forerunner of the reports of theLabor Department's Women's Bureau. 

Cooperatives appealed to Susan as they did to many labor leaders asthe best means of freeing labor. When the Sewing Machine OperatorsUnion tried to establish a shop where their members could share theprofits of their labor, she did her best to help them, hoping to seethem gain economic independence in a light airy clean shop wherewealthy women, eager to help their sisters, would patronize them. However, the wealthy women to whom she appealed to finance thisproject did not respond, looking upon a cooperative as a first steptoward socialism and a threat to their own profits. She was able, however, to arouse a glimmer of interest among the members of thenewly formed literary club, Sorosis, in the problems of working women. 

She had the satisfaction of seeing women typesetters form their ownunion in 1869, and this was, according to the Albany _DailyKnickerbocker_, "the first move of the kind ever made in the countryby any class of labor, to place woman on a par with man as regardsstanding, intelligence, and manual ability. "[227] _The Revolution_encouraged this union by printing notices of its meetings and urgingall women compositors to join. In signed articles, Susan pointed outhow wages had improved since the union was organized. "A little moreUnion, girls, " she said, "and soon all employers will come up to 45cents, the price paid men. .. . So join the Union, girls, and togethersay _Equal Pay for Equal Work_. "[228]

Eager to bring more women into the printing trade where wages werehigher, she tried in every possible way to establish trade schools forthem. She looked forward to a printing business run entirely by women, giving employment to hundreds. So obsessed was she by the idea of atrade school for women compositors that when printers in New York wenton a strike, she saw an opportunity for women to take their places andappealed by letter and in person to a group of employers "tocontribute liberally for the purpose of enabling us to establish atraining school for girls in the art of typesetting. " Explaining thathundreds of young women, now stitching at starvation wages, were readyand eager to learn the trade, she added, "Give us the means and wewill soon give you competent women compositors. "[229] Having learnedby experience that men always kept women out of their field of laborunless forced by circumstances to admit them, she also urged youngwomen to take the places of striking typesetters at whatever wagethey could get. 

It never occurred to her in her eagerness to bring women into a newoccupation that she might be breaking the strike. She saw only women'sopportunity to prove to employers that they were able to do the workand to show the Typographical Union that they should admit women asmembers. Labor men, however, soon let her know how much theydisapproved of her strategy. She tried to explain her motives to them, that she was trying to fit these women to earn equal wages with men. She reminded these men of how hard it was for women to get into theprinting trade and how they had refused to admit women to their union;and she called their attention to her whole-hearted support of thelately formed Women's Typographical Union. 

Some of the men were never convinced and never forgot this misstep, bringing it up at the National Labor Union Congress in Philadelphia in1869, which Susan attended as a delegate of the New YorkWorkingwomen's Association. Here she found herself facing anunfriendly group without the support of William H. Sylvis, who hadrecently died. For three days they debated her eligibility as adelegate, first expressing fear that her admission would commit theLabor Congress to woman suffrage. When she won 55 votes against 52 inopposition, Typographical Union No. 6 of New York brought accusationsagainst her which aroused suspicion in the minds of many unionmembers. They pointed out that she belonged to no union, and theycalled her an enemy of labor because she had encouraged women to takemen's jobs during the printers' strike. They could not or would notunderstand that in urging women to take men's jobs, she had beenfighting for women just as they fought for their union, and theycompletely overlooked how continuously and effectively she hadsupported the Women's Typographical Union. Her _Revolution_, theyclaimed, was printed at less than union rates in a "rat office" andher explanation was not satisfactory. That it was printed on contractoutside her office was no answer to satisfy union men who could notrealize on what a scant margin her paper operated or how gladly shewould have set up a union shop had the funds been available. 

Not only were these accusations repeated again and again, they werealso carried far and wide by the press, with the result that Susan wasnot only kept out of the Labor Congress but was even sharplycriticized by some members of her Workingwomen's Association. 

"As to the charges which were made by Typographical Union No. 6, " shereported to this Association, "no one believes them; and I don't thinkthey are worth answering. I admit that this Workingwomen's Associationis not a _trade_ organization; and while I join heart and hand withthe working people in their trades unions, and in everything else bywhich they can protect themselves against the oppression ofcapitalists and employers, I say that this organization of ours ismore upon the broad platform of philosophizing on the generalquestions of labor, and to discuss what can be done to ameliorate thecondition of working people generally. "[230]

She was not without friends in the ranks of labor, however, the NewEngland delegates giving her their support. The New York _World_, veryfair in its coverage of the heated debates, declared, "Of her devotionto the cause of workingwomen, there can be no question. "[231]

 * * * * *

The activities of the Workingwomen's Association had by this timebegun to irk employers, and some of them threatened instant dismissalof any employee who reported her wages or hours to these meddlingwomen. Fear of losing their jobs now hung over many while others wereforbidden by their fathers, husbands, and brothers to have anything todo with strong-minded Susan B. Anthony. 

To counteract this disintegrating influence and to bring all classesof women together in their fight for equal rights, Susan persuaded thepopular lecturer, Anna E. Dickinson, to speak for the Workingwomen'sAssociation at Cooper Union. This, however, only added fuel to theflames, for Anna, in an emotional speech, "A Struggle for Life, " toldthe tragic story of Hester Vaughn, a workingwoman who had been accusedof murdering her illegitimate child. Found in a critical conditionwith her dead baby beside her, Hester Vaughn had been charged withinfanticide, tried without proper defense, and convicted by aprejudiced court, although there was no proof that she haddeliberately killed her child. At Susan's instigation, theWorkingwomen's Association sent a woman physician, Dr. ClemenceLozier, and the well-known author, Eleanor Kirk, to Philadelphia toinvestigate the case. Both were convinced of Hester Vaughn'sinnocence. 

With the aid of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's courageous editorials in _TheRevolution_, Susan made such an issue of the conviction of HesterVaughn that many newspapers accused her of obstructing justice andadvocating free love, and this provided a moral weapon for her criticsto use in their fight against the growing independence of women. Eventually her efforts and those of her colleagues won a pardon forHester Vaughn. At the same time the publicity given this case servedto educate women on a subject heretofore taboo, showing them thatpoverty and a double standard of morals made victims of young womenlike Hester Vaughn. Susan also made use of this case to point out theneed for women jurors to insure an unprejudiced trial. She evensuggested that Columbia University Law School open its doors to womenso that a few of them might be able to understand their rights underthe law and bring aid to their less fortunate sisters. 

 * * * * *

Under Susan's guidance, the Workingwomen's Association continued tohold meetings as long as she remained in New York. In its limited way, it carried on much-needed educational work, building up self-respectand confidence among workingwomen, stirring up "a wholesomediscontent, " and preparing the way for women's unions. The publicresponded. At Cooper Union, telegraphy courses were opened to women;the New York Business School, at Susan's instigation, offered youngwomen scholarships in bookkeeping; and there were repeated requestsfor the enrollment of women in the College of New York. 

Living in the heart of this rapidly growing, sprawling city, Susan sawmuch to distress her and pondered over the disturbing socialconditions, looking for a way to relieve poverty and wipe out crimeand corruption. She saw luxury, extravagance, and success for the few, while half of the population lived in the slums in dilapidated housesand in damp cellars, often four or five to a room. Immigrants, continually pouring in from Europe, overtaxed the already inadequatehousing, and unfamiliar with our language and customs, were the easyprey of corrupt politicians. Many were homeless, sleeping in thestreets and parks until the rain or cold drove them into policestations for warmth and shelter. Susan longed to bring order andcleanliness, good homes and good government to this overcrowded city, and again and again she came to the conclusion that votes for women, which meant a voice in the government, would be the most potent factorfor reform. 

Yet she did not close her mind to other avenues of reform. Seeingreflected in the life of the city the excesses, the injustice, and theunsoundness of laissez-faire capitalism, she spoke out fearlessly in_The Revolution_ against its abuses, such as the fortunes made out ofthe low wages and long hours of labor, or the Wall Street speculationto corner the gold market, or the efforts to take over the publiclands of the West through grants to the transcontinental railroads. Her active mind also sought a solution of the complicated currencyproblem. In fact there was no public question which she hesitated toapproach, to think out or attempt to solve. She did not keep herstruggle for woman suffrage aloof from the pressing problems of theday. Instead she kept it abreast of the times, keenly alive to social, political, and economic issues, and involved in current publicaffairs. 

FOOTNOTES:

[220] Feb. 18, 1868, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress. 

[221] _The Revolution_, II, Sept. 24, 1868, p. 198. L. A. Hines ofCincinnati, publisher of Hine's Quarterly, assisted Miss Anthony inorganizing women in the sewing trades. 

[222] _Ibid. _, p. 204. 

[223] Harper, _Anthony_, II, pp. 999-1000. 

[224] _The Revolution_, II, Oct. 1, 1868, p. 204. 

[225] _Ibid. _, p. 200. 

[226] _Ibid. _, Oct. 8, 1868, p. 214. A Woman's Exchange was alsoinitiated by the Workingwomen's Association. 

[227] _Ibid. _, June 24, 1869, p. 394. 

[228] _Ibid. _, March 18, 1869, p. 173. 

[229] _Ibid. _, Feb. 4, 1869, p. 73. 

[230] _Ibid. _, Sept. 9, 1869, p. 154. 

[231] _Ibid. _, Aug. 26, 1869, p. 120. 

THE INADEQUATE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT

The Fourteenth Amendment had been ratified in July 1868, butRepublicans found it inadequate because it did not specificallyenfranchise Negroes. More than ever convinced that they needed theNegro vote in order to continue in power, they prepared to supplementit by a Fifteenth Amendment, which Susan hoped would be drafted toenfranchise women as well as Negroes. Immediately through her Woman'sSuffrage Association of America, she petitioned Congress to make nodistinction between men and women in any amendment extending orregulating suffrage. 

She and Elizabeth Stanton also persuaded their good friends, SenatorPomeroy of Kansas and Congressman Julian of Indiana, to introduce inDecember 1868 resolutions providing that suffrage be based oncitizenship, be regulated by Congress, and that all citizens, nativeor naturalized, enjoy this right without distinction of race, color, or sex. Before the end of the month, Senator Wilson of Massachusettsand Congressman Julian had introduced other resolutions to enfranchisewomen in the District of Columbia and in the territories. Even the NewYork _Herald_ could see no reason why "the experiment" of womansuffrage should not be tried in the District of Columbia. [232]

To focus attention on woman suffrage at this crucial time, Susan, inJanuary 1869, called together the first woman suffrage convention everheld in Washington. No only did it attract women from as far west asIllinois, Missouri, and Kansas, but Senator Pomeroy lent it importanceby his opening speech, and through the detailed and respectfulreporting of the New York _World_ and of Grace Greenwood of thePhiladelphia _Press_ it received nationwide notice. 

Congress, however, gave little heed to women's demands. "Theexperiment" of woman suffrage in the District of Columbia was nottried and nothing came of the resolutions for universal suffrageintroduced by Pomeroy, Julian, and Wilson. In spite of all Susan'sefforts to have the word "sex" added to the Fifteenth Amendment, shesoon faced the bitter disappointment of seeing a version ignoringwomen submitted to the states for ratification: "The right of citizensof the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by theUnited States or by any State on account of race, color, or previouscondition of servitude. "

The blatant omission of the word "sex" forced Susan and Mrs. Stantonto initiate an amendment of their own, a Sixteenth Amendment, andagain Congressman Julian came to their aid, although he too regardedNegro suffrage as more "immediately important and absorbing"[233] thansuffrage for women. On March 15, 1869, at one of the first sessions ofthe newly elected Congress, he introduced an amendment to theConstitution, providing that the right of suffrage be based oncitizenship without any distinction or discrimination because of sex. This was the first federal woman suffrage amendment ever proposed inCongress. 

Opportunity to campaign for this amendment was now offered Susan andElizabeth Stanton as they addressed a series of conventions in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Press notices were good, aMilwaukee paper describing Susan as "an earnest enthusiastic, fierywoman--ready, apt, witty and what a politician would call sharp . .. Radical in the strongest sense, " making "radical everything shetouches. "[234] She found woman suffrage sentiment growing by leaps andbounds in the West and western men ready to support a federal womansuffrage amendment. 

 * * * * *

With a lighter heart than she had had in many a day and with newsubscriptions to _The Revolution_, Susan returned to New York. Shemoved the _Revolution_ office to the first floor of the Women'sBureau, a large four-story brownstone house at 49 East Twenty-thirdStreet, near Fifth Avenue, which had been purchased by a wealthy NewYorker, Mrs. Elizabeth Phelps, who looked forward to establishing acenter where women's organizations could meet and where any womaninterested in the advancement of her sex would find encouragement andinspiration. Susan's hopes were high for the Women's Bureau, and inthis most respectable, fashionable, and even elegant setting, sheexpected her _Revolution_, in spite of its inflammable name, to livedown its turbulent past and win new friends and subscribers. [235]

She made one last effort to resuscitate the American Equal RightsAssociation, writing personal letters to old friends, urging that pastdifferences be forgotten and that all rededicate themselves toestablishing 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 FrancisTrain had voluntarily severed all connections with _The Revolution_ todevote himself to freeing Ireland. She soon found, however, that themisunderstandings between her and her old antislavery friends were fardeeper than George Francis Train, although he would for a long time beblamed for them. The Fifteenth Amendment was still a bone ofcontention and _The Revolution's_ continued editorials against itwidened the breach. 

The fireworks were set off in the convention of the American EqualRights Association by Stephen S. Foster, who objected to thenomination of Susan and Mrs. Stanton as officers of the Associationbecause they had in his opinion repudiated its principles. When askedto explain further, he replied that not only had they published apaper advocating educated suffrage while the Association stood foruniversal suffrage but they had shown themselves unfit bycollaboration with George Francis Train who ridiculed Negroes andopposed their enfranchisement. 

Trying to pour oil on the troubled waters, Mary Livermore, the popularnew delegate from Chicago, asked whether it was quite fair to bring upGeorge Francis Train when he had retired from _The Revolution_. 

To this Stephen Foster sternly replied, "If _The Revolution_ which hasso often endorsed George Francis Train will repudiate him because ofhis course in respect to the Negro's rights, I have nothing further tosay. But they do not repudiate him. He goes out; but they do not casthim out. "[236]

"Of course we do not, " Susan instantly protested. 

Mr. Foster then objected to the way Susan had spent the funds of theAssociation, accusing her of failing to keep adequate accounts. 

This she emphatically denied, explaining that she had presented a fullaccounting to the trust fund committee, that it had been audited, andshe had been voted $1, 000 to repay her for the amount she hadpersonally advanced for the work. 

Unwilling to accept her explanation and calling it unreliable, hecontinued his complaints until interrupted by Henry Blackwell whocorroborated Susan's statement, adding that she had refused the $1, 000due her because of the dissatisfaction expressed over her management. Declaring himself completely satisfied with the settlement andconfident of the purity of Susan's motives even if some of herexpenditures were unwise, Henry Blackwell continued, "I will agreethat many unwise things have been written in _The Revolution_ by agentleman who furnished part of the means by which the paper has beencarried on. But that gentleman has withdrawn, and you, who know thereal opinions of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton on the question ofNegro suffrage, do not believe that they mean to create antagonismbetween the Negro and woman question. .. . "

To Susan's great relief Henry Blackwell's explanation satisfied thedelegates, who gave her and Mrs. Stanton a vote of confidence. Not soeasily healed, however, were the wounds left by the accusations ofmismanagement and dishonesty. 

The atmosphere was still tense, for differences of opinion on policyremained. Most of the old reliable workers stood unequivocally for theFifteenth Amendment, which they regarded as the crowning achievementof the antislavery movement, and they heartily disapproved of forcingthe issue of woman suffrage on Congress and the people at this time. Although they had been deeply moved by the suffering of Negro womenunder slavery and had used this as a telling argument foremancipation, they now gave no thought to Negro women, who, even morethan Negro men, needed the vote to safeguard their rights. Believingwith the Republicans that one reform at a time was all they couldexpect, they did not want to hear one word about woman suffrage or aSixteenth Amendment until male Negroes were safely enfranchised by theFifteenth Amendment. 

Offering a resolution endorsing the Fifteenth Amendment, FrederickDouglass quoted Julia Ward Howe as saying, "I am willing that theNegro shall get the ballot before me, " and he added, "I cannot see howanyone can pretend that there is the same urgency in giving the ballotto 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 thedark-skinned fiery Negro, the friendship and warm affection built upbetween them over the years occasionally shone through the sharp wordsthey spoke to each other. 

"The old antislavery school says that women must stand back, " declaredSusan, "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 thequestion of woman be brought up first and that of the Negro last. .. . Mr. Douglass talks about the wrongs of the Negro, how he is hunteddown . .. , but with all the wrongs and outrages that he today suffers, he would not exchange his sex and take the place of Elizabeth CadyStanton. "

"I want to know, " shouted Frederick Douglass, "if granting you theright of suffrage will change the nature of our sexes?"

"It will change the pecuniary position of woman, " Susan retortedbefore the shouts of laughter had died down. "She will not becompelled to take hold of only such employments as man chooses forher. "

Lucy Stone, who so often in her youth had pleaded with Susan andFrederick Douglass for both the Negro and women, now entered theargument. She had matured, but her voice had lost none of itsconviction or its power to sway an audience. Disagreeing withDouglass's assertion that Negro suffrage was more urgent than womansuffrage, she pointed out that white women of the North were robbed oftheir 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 allhope that her old friend would cast her lot wholeheartedly with womenat 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 cannotbe fathomed. But I thank God for the Fifteenth Amendment, and hopethat it will be adopted in every state. I will be thankful in my soulif anybody can get out of the terrible pit. .. . 

"I believe, " she admitted, "that the national safety of the governmentwould be more promoted by the admission of women as an element ofrestoration and harmony than the other. I believe that the influenceof woman will save the country before every other influence. I see thesigns of the times pointing to this consummation. I believe that insome parts of the country women will vote for the President of theseUnited 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 thereputation of always hitting the nail on the head, made Lucy's seemlike temporizing. 

The men now took control, criticizing the amount of time given to thediscussion of woman's rights, and voted endorsement of the FifteenthAmendment. Nevertheless, a small group of determined women continuedtheir fight, Susan declaring with spirit that she protested againstthe Fifteenth Amendment because it was not Equal Rights and would put2, 000, 000 more men in the position of tyrants over 2, 000, 000 women whountil 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 withher that they needed a strong organization of their own and that itwas folly to waste more time on the Equal Rights Association. Westerndelegates, disappointed in the convention's lack of interest in womansuffrage, expressed themselves freely. They had been sorely tried bythe many speeches on extraneous subjects which cluttered the meetings, the heritage of a free-speech policy handed down by antislaverysocieties. 

"That Equal Rights Association is an awful humbug, " exploded MaryLivermore to Susan. "I would not have come on to the anniversary, norwould any of us, if we had known what it was. We supposed we werecoming to a woman suffrage convention. "[238]

At a reception for all the delegates held at the Women's Bureau at theclose of the convention, this dissatisfaction culminated in aspontaneous demand for a new organization which would concentrate onwoman suffrage and the Sixteenth Amendment. Alert to thepossibilities, Susan directed this demand into concrete action byturning the reception temporarily into a business meeting. The resultwas the formation of the National Woman Suffrage Association by womenfrom nineteen states, with Mrs. Stanton as president and Susan as amember of the executive committee. The younger women of the West, trusting the judgment of Susan and Mrs. Stanton, looked to them forleadership, as did a few of the old workers in the East--ErnestineRose, always in the vanguard, Paulina Wright Davis, Elizabeth SmithMiller, Lucretia Mott, who although holding no office in the neworganization gave it her support, Martha C. Wright, and Matilda JoslynGage who never wavered in her allegiance. Lucy Stone, who would havefound it hard even to step into the _Revolution_ office, did notattend the reception at the Women's Bureau or take part in theformation 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 FifteenthAmendment until it was ratified in 1870. 

So incensed was the Boston group by _The Revolution's_ opposition tothe Fifteenth Amendment, so displeased was Lucy Stone by the formationof the National Woman Suffrage Association without consultation withher, one of the oldest workers in the field, that they began to talkof forming a national woman suffrage organization of their own. Theycharged Susan with lust for power and autocratic control. Mrs. Stantonthey found equally objectionable because of her radical views on sex, marriage, and divorce, expressed in _The Revolution_ in connectionwith the Hester Vaughn case. They sincerely felt that the course ofwoman suffrage would run more smoothly, arouse less antagonism, andmake more progress without these two militants who were foreverstirring things up and introducing extraneous subjects. 

 * * * * *

During these trying days of accusations, animosity, and rivalfactions, Mrs. Stanton's unwavering support was a great comfort toSusan as was the joy of having a paper to carry her message. 

In addition to all the responsibilities connected with publishing herweekly paper, advertising, subscriptions, editorial policy, andraising the money to pay the bills, Susan was also holding successfulconventions in Saratoga and Newport where men and women of wealth andinfluence gathered for the summer; she was traveling out to St. Louis, Chicago, and other western cities to speak on woman suffrage, makingtrips to Washington to confer with Congressmen, getting petitions forthe Sixteenth Amendment circulated, and through all this, building upthe National Woman Suffrage Association. 

The _Revolution_ office became the rallying point for aforward-looking group of women, many of whom contributed to thehard-hitting liberal sheet. Elizabeth Tilton, the lovely dark-hairedyoung wife of the popular lecturer and editor of the _Independent_, selected the poetry. Alice and Phoebe Cary gladly offered poems and anovel; and when Susan was away, Phoebe Cary often helped Mrs. Stantonget 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 CurtisBullard, the heir to the Dr. Winslow-Soothing-Syrup fortune, whotraveled widely in Europe, sent letters from abroad and took a livelyinterest in the paper. Another new recruit was Lillie Devereux Blake, who was gaining a reputation as a writer and who soon proved to be abrilliant orator and an invaluable worker in the New York Citysuffrage group. Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, unfailingly gave her support, and her calm assurance strengthened Susan. The wealthy Paulina WrightDavis of Providence, Rhode Island, who followed Parker Pillsbury aseditor, when he felt obliged to resign for financial reasons, gave thepaper generous financial backing. 

[Illustration: Isabella Beecher Hooker]

It was Mrs. Davis who brought into the fold the half sister of HenryWard Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, a queenly woman, one of theelect of Hartford, Connecticut. Hoping to break down Mrs. Hooker'sprejudice against Susan and Mrs. Stanton, which had been built up byNew England suffragists, Mrs. Davis invited the three women to spend afew days with her. After this visit, Mrs. Hooker wrote to a friend inBoston, "I have studied Miss Anthony day and night for nearly aweek. .. . She is a woman of incorruptible integrity and the thought ofguile has no place in her heart. In unselfishness and benevolence shehas scarcely an equal, and her energy and executive ability arebounded only by her physical power, which is something immense. Sometimes she fails in judgment, according to the standards ofothers, but in right intentions never, nor in faithfulness to herfriends. .. . After attending a two days' convention in Newport, engineered by her in her own fashion, I am obliged to accept the mostfavorable interpretation of her which prevails generally, rather thanthat of Boston. Mrs. Stanton too is a magnificent woman. .. . I hand inmy allegiance to both as leaders and representatives of the greatmovement. "[239]

From then on, Mrs. Hooker did her best to reconcile the Boston and NewYork factions, hoping to avert the formation of a second nationalwoman 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 Bureauwhile it housed the radical _Revolution_, and as women showed solittle interest in her project, Mrs. Phelps gave it up after a year'strial. 

[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 thatthose who do not oppose the Fifteenth Amendment, nor take the tone of_The Revolution_ may yet have an organization with which they can workin harmony. "[240] So wrote Lucy Stone to many of her friends duringthe summer of 1869, and some of these letters fell into Susan's hands. 

"The radical abolitionists and the Republicans could never have workedtogether but in separate organizations both did good service, " Lucyfurther explained. "There are just as distinctly two parties to thewoman movement. .. . Each organization will attract those who naturallybelong to it--and there will be harmonious work. "

When the ground had been prepared by these letters, Lucy asked oldfriends and new to sign a call to a woman suffrage convention, to beheld in Cleveland, Ohio, in November 1869, "to unite those who cannotuse the methods which Mrs. Stanton and Susan use. .. . "[241]

Those feeling as she did eagerly signed the call, while others whoknew little about the controversy in the East added their namesbecause they were glad to take part in a convention sponsored by suchprominent men and women as Julia Ward Howe, George William Curtis, Henry Ward Beecher, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and William LloydGarrison. Still others who did not understand the insurmountabledifferences in temperament and policy between the two groups hopedthat a new truly national organization would unite the two factions. Even Mary Livermore, who had been active in the formation of theNational Woman Suffrage Association, was by this time responding toovertures from the Boston group, writing William Lloyd Garrison, "Ihave been repelled by some of the idiosyncrasies of our New Yorkfriends, 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 equallypotent hindrance to the cause, the fearful squandering of money atthe New York headquarters--all this has tended to keep me on my ownfeet, apart from those to whom I was at first attracted. .. . I am gladat the prospect of an association that will be truly national andwhich promises so much of success and character. "[242]

Neither Susan nor Mrs. Stanton received a notice of the Clevelandconvention, but Susan, scanning a copy of the call sent her by asolicitous friend, was deeply disturbed when she saw the signatures ofLydia Mott, Amelia Bloomer, Myra Bradwell, Gerrit Smith, and othergood friends. 

The New York _World_, at once suspecting a feud, asked, "Where arethose well-known American names, Susan B. Anthony, Parker Pillsbury, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton? It is clear that there is a division inthe ranks of the strong-minded and that an effort is being made toostracize _The Revolution_ which has so long upheld the cause ofSuffrage, through evil report and good. .. . "[243]

The Rochester _Democrat_, loyal to Susan, put this question, "Can itbe possible that a National Woman's Suffrage Convention is calledwithout Susan's knowledge or consent?. .. A National Woman's SuffrageAssociation without speeches from Susan B. Anthony and Mrs. Stantonwill be a new order of things. The idea seems absurd. "[244]

To Susan it also seemed both absurd and unrealistic, for sheremembered how almost single-handed she had held together and built upthe woman suffrage movement during the years when her colleagues hadbeen busy with family duties. She was appalled at the prospect of adivision in the ranks at this time when she believed victory possiblethrough the action of a strong united front. 

Confident that many who signed the call were ignorant of or blind tothe animus behind it, she did her best to bring the facts before them. She put the blame for the rift entirely upon Lucy Stone, believingthat without Lucy's continual stirring up, past differences in policywould soon have been forgotten. The antagonism between the two burnedfiercely at this time. Susan was determined to fight to the last ditchfor 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 mightbe forced to give up _The Revolution_. Not only was the operatingdeficit piling up alarmingly, but there were persistent rumors of acompetitor, another woman suffrage paper to be edited by Lucy Stoneand Julia Ward Howe. 

Susan had assumed full financial responsibility for _The Revolution_because Mrs. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, both with families toconsider, felt unable to share this burden. Mrs. Stanton had alwayscontributed her services and Parker Pillsbury had been sadlyunderpaid, while Susan had drawn out for her salary only the mostmeager sums for bare living expenses. 

With a maximum of 3, 000 subscribers, the paper could not hope to payits way even though she had secured a remarkably loyal group ofadvertisers. [245] Reluctantly she raised the subscription price from$2 to $3 a year. Her friends and family were generous with gifts andloans, but these only met the pressing needs of the moment and in noway solved the overall financial problem of the paper. 

Appealing once again to her wealthy and generous Quaker cousin, AnsonLapham, she wrote him in desperation, "My paper must not, shall not godown. I am sure you believe in me, in my honesty of purpose, and alsoin the grand work which _The Revolution_ seeks to do, and thereforeyou will not allow me to ask you in vain to come to the rescue. Yesterday's mail brought 43 subscribers from Illinois and 20 fromCalifornia. We only need time to win financial success. I know youwill save me from giving the world a chance to say, 'There is awoman'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 cameto her aid as he always had in the past. 

Susan's sister Mary not only lent her all her savings, but spent hersummer 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 andsubscriptions for her paper. Concerned for her welfare, Maryrepeatedly but unsuccessfully urged her to give up. Daniel added hisentreaties to Mary's, begging Susan not to go further into debt, butto form a stock company if she were determined to continue her paper. She considered his advice very seriously for he was a practicalbusinessman and yet appreciated what she was trying to do. For a timethe formation of a stock company seemed possible, for the projectappealed to three women of means, Paulina Wright Davis, IsabellaBeecher Hooker, and Laura Curtis Bullard, but it never materialized. 

 * * * * *

With the financial problem of _The Revolution_ still unsolved, Susandecided to make her appearance at Lucy Stone's convention inCleveland, Ohio, on November 24, 1869. Not only did she want to seewith her own eyes and hear with her own ears all that went on, but shewas 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 herbeloved cause. 

Seeing her in the audience, Judge Bradwell of Chicago moved that shebe invited to sit on the platform, but Thomas Wentworth Higginson, whowas presiding, replied that he thought this unnecessary as a specialinvitation had already been extended to all desiring to identifythemselves with the movement. Judge Bradwell would not be put off, hismotion was carried, and as Susan walked up to the platform to join theother notables, she was greeted with hearty applause. Sitting thereamong her critics, she wondered what she could possibly say topersuade them to forget their differences for the sake of the cause. After listening to Lucy Stone plead for renewed work for womansuffrage and for petitions for a Sixteenth Amendment, shespontaneously rose to her feet and asked permission to speak. "Ihope, " she began, "that the work of this association, if it beorganized, will be to go in strong array up to the Capitol atWashington to demand a Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Thequestion of the admission of women to the ballot would not then beleft to the mass of voters in every State, but would be submitted byCongress to the several legislatures of the States for ratification, and . .. Be decided by the most intelligent portion of the people. Ifthe question is left to the vote of the rank and file, it will be putoff for years. [247]

"So help me, Heaven!" she continued with emotion. "I care not what maycome out of this Convention, so that this great cause shall goforward to its consummation! And though this Convention by its actionshall nullify the National Association of which I am a member, andthough it shall tread its heel upon _The Revolution_, to carry onwhich I have struggled as never mortal woman or mortal man struggledfor any cause . .. Still, if you will do the work in Washington so thatthis Amendment will be proposed, and will go with me to the severalLegislatures and _compel_ them to adopt it, I will thank God for thisConvention 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, thenewly formed American Woman Suffrage Association, blind to theexceptional opportunity at this time for Congressional action on womansuffrage, decided to concentrate on work in the states where suffragebills were pending. Instead of electing an outstanding woman aspresident, they chose Henry Ward Beecher, boasting that this was proofof their genuine belief in equal rights. Lucy Stone headed theexecutive committee. 

Divisions soon began developing among the suffragists in the field. Many whose one thought previously had been the cause now spent timeweighing the differences between the two organizations and betweenpersonalities, and antagonisms increased. 

Hardest of all for Susan to bear was the definite announcement of arival paper, the _Woman's Journal_, to be issued in Boston in January1870 under the editorship of Lucy Stone, Mary A. Livermore, and JuliaWard 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 bywealthy stockholders, all influential Republicans, the _Journal_, Susan knew, would be spared the financial struggles of _TheRevolution_, but would be obliged to conform to Republican policy inits support of woman's rights. Had not the _Woman's Journal_ been suchan obvious affront to the heroic efforts of _The Revolution_ and athreat to its very existence, she could have rejoiced with Lucy overone more paper carrying the message of woman suffrage. 

More determined than ever to continue _The Revolution_, Susanredoubled her efforts, announcing an imposing list of contributorsfor 1870, including the British feminist, Lydia Becker, and as aspecial attraction, a serial by Alice Cary. Through the efforts ofMrs. Hooker, Harriet Beecher Stowe was persuaded to consider servingas contributing editor provided the paper's name was changed to _TheTrue Republic_ or to some other name satisfactory to her. [248]

Having struggled against the odds for so long, Susan had no intentionof being stifled now by Mrs. Stowe's more conservative views, norwould she give her crusading sheet an innocuous name. However, thedecision was taken out of her hands by _The Revolution's_ coverage ofthe sensational McFarland-Richardson murder case, which so shockedboth Mrs. Hooker and Mrs. Stowe that they gave up all thought of beingassociated in a publishing venture with Susan or Mrs. Stanton. 

The whole country was stirred in December 1869 by the fatal shootingin the _Tribune_ office of the well-known journalist, Albert D. Richardson, by Daniel McFarland, to whose divorced wife Richardson hadbeen attentive. When just before his death, Richardson was married tothe divorced Mrs. McFarland by Henry Ward Beecher with Horace Greeleyas a witness, the press was agog. So strong was the feeling against adivorced woman that Henry Ward Beecher was severely condemned forofficiating at the marriage, and Mrs. Richardson was played up in thepress and in court as the villain, although her divorce had beengranted because of the brutality and instability of McFarland. 

Indignant at the sophistry of the press and the general acceptance ofa double standard of morals, _The Revolution_ not only spoke outfearlessly in defense of Mrs. Richardson but in an editorial by Mrs. Stanton frankly analyzed the tragic human relations so obvious in thecase. With Susan's full approval, Mrs. Stanton wrote, "I rejoice overevery slave that escapes from a discordant marriage. With theeducation and elevation of women we shall have a mighty sundering ofthe unholy ties that hold men and women together who loathe anddespise each other. .. . "[249] When the court acquitted McFarland, giving him the custody of his twelve-year-old son, Susan called aprotest meeting which attracted an audience of two thousand. 

Such words and such activities disturbed many who sympathized withMrs. Richardson but saw no reason for flaunting exultant approval ofdivorce in a woman suffrage paper, and they turned to the _Woman'sJournal_ 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'scounsel, "to lay down all partisan warfare and organize a peacefulGrand Army of the Republic of Women . .. Not . .. As against men, but asagainst all that is pernicious to men and women. "[250] Susan's fighthad never been against men but against man-made laws that held womenin bondage. There had always been men willing to help her. Experiencehad taught her that the struggle for woman's rights was no peacefulacademic debate, but real warfare which demanded political strategy, self-sacrifice, and unremitting labor. She was prouder than ever ofher _Revolution_ and its liberal hard-hitting policy. 

 * * * * *

Convinced that the National Woman Suffrage Association must publicizeits existence and its value, Susan began the year 1870 with aconvention in Washington which even Senator Sumner praised asexceeding in interest anything he had ever witnessed there. Itsstriking demonstration of the vitality and intelligence of theNational Association was the best answer she could possibly have givento the accusations and criticism aimed at her and her organization. 

Jessie Benton Frémont, watching the delegates enter the dining room ofthe Arlington Hotel, called Susan over to her table and said with atwinkle in her eyes, "Now, tell me, Miss Anthony, have you hunted thecountry over and picked out and brought to Washington a score of themost 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 OlympiaBrown; Phoebe Couzins and Virginia Minor from Missouri, Madam Annekčfrom Wisconsin, and best of all to Susan, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Their presence, their friendship and allegiance were a source of greatpride and joy. Elizabeth Stanton had come from St. Louis, interruptingher successful lecture tour, when she much preferred to stay away fromall conventions. She had written Susan, "Of course, I stand by you tothe end. I would not see you crushed by rivals even if to prevent itrequired my being cut into inch bits. .. . No power in heaven, hell orearth can separate us, for our hearts are eternally weddedtogether. "[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 ofSyracuse. Clara Barton, ill and unable to attend, sent a letter to beread, an appeal to her soldier friends for woman suffrage. 

Not only did the large and enthusiastic audiences show a growinginterest in votes for women, but two great victories for women in1869, one in Great Britain and the other in the United States, broughtto the convention a feeling of confidence. Women taxpayers had beengranted the right to vote in municipal elections in England, Scotland, and Wales, through the efforts of Jacob Bright. In the Territory ofWyoming, during the first session of its legislature, women had beengranted the right to vote, to hold office, and serve on juries, andmarried women had been given the right to their separate property andtheir earnings. This progressive action by men of the West turnedSusan's thoughts hopefully to the western territories, and early in1870 when the Territory of Utah enfranchised its women, she hadfurther cause for rejoicing. 

To celebrate these victories for which her twenty years' work forwomen had blazed the trail, some of her friends held a reception forher in New York at the Women's Bureau on her fiftieth birthday. Shewas amazed at the friendly attention her birthday received in thepress. "Susan's Half Century, " read a headline in the _Herald_. The_World_ called her the Moses of her sex. "A Brave Old Maid, " commentedthe _Sun_. But it was to the _Tribune_ that she turned with specialinterest, always hoping for a word of approval from Horace Greeley andfinding at last this faint ray of praise: "Careful readers of the_Tribune_ have probably succeeded in discovering that we have notalways been able to applaud the course of Miss Susan B. Anthony. Indeed, we have often felt, and sometimes said that her methods wereas unwise as we thought her aims undesirable. But through these yearsof disputation and struggling. Miss Anthony has thoroughly impressedfriends and enemies alike with the sincerity and earnestness of herpurpose. .. . "[253]

To Anna E. Dickinson, far away lecturing, Susan confided, "Oh, Anna, Iam so glad of it all because it will teach the young girls that to betrue to principle--to live an idea, though an unpopular one--that tolive single--without any man's name--may be honorable. "[254]

A few of Susan's younger colleagues still insisted that a merger ofthe National and American Woman Suffrage Associations might bepossible. Again Theodore Tilton undertook the task of mediation andLucretia Mott, who had retired from active participation in thewoman's rights movement, tried to help work out a reconciliation. Susan was skeptical but gave them her blessing. Representatives of theAmerican Association, however, again made it plain that they wereunwilling to work with Susan and Mrs. Stanton. [255]

By this time _The Revolution_ had become an overwhelming financialburden. For some months Mrs. Stanton had been urging Susan to give itup and turn to the lecture field, as she had done, to spread themessage of woman's rights. Susan hesitated, unwilling to give up _TheRevolution_ and not yet confident that she could hold the attention ofan audience for a whole evening. However, she found herself a greatsuccess when pushed into several Lyceum lecture engagements inPennsylvania by Mrs. Stanton's sudden illness. "Miss Anthony evidentlylectures not for the purpose of receiving applause, " commented thePittsburgh _Commercial_, "but for the purpose of making peopleunderstand and be convinced. She takes her place on the stage in aplain and unassuming manner and speaks extemporaneously and fluently, too, reminding one of an old campaign speaker, who is accustomed totalk simply for the purpose of converting his audience to hispolitical theories. She used plain English and plenty of it. .. . Sheclearly evinced a quality that many politicians lack--sincerity. "[256]

For each of these lectures on "Work, Wages, and the Ballot, " shereceived a fee of $75 and was able as well to get new subscribers for_The Revolution_. She now saw the possibilities for herself and thecause in a Lyceum tour, and when the Lyceum Bureau, pleased with herreception in Pennsylvania wanted to book her for lectures in the West, she accepted, calling Parker Pillsbury back to _The_ _Revolution_ totake charge. All through Illinois she drew large audiences and herfees increased to $95, $125, and $150. In two months she was able topay $1, 300 of _The Revolution's_ debt. 

When she returned to New York, she realized that she could notcontinue to carry _The Revolution_ alone, in spite of increasedsubscriptions. Its $10, 000 debt weighed heavily upon her. ParkerPillsbury's help could only be temporary; Mrs. Stanton's strenuouslecture tour left her little time to give to the paper; and Susan'sown friends and family were unable to finance it further. 

Fortunately the idea of editing a paper appealed strongly to thewealthy Laura Curtis Bullard, who had the promise of editorial helpfrom Theodore Tilton. Susan now turned the paper over to themcompletely, receiving nothing in return but shares of stock, while sheassumed the entire indebtedness. 

Giving up the control of her beloved paper was one of the mosthumiliating experiences and one of the deepest sorrows she ever faced. _The Revolution_ had become to her the symbol of her crusade forwomen. Overwhelmed by a sense of failure, she confided to her diary onthe 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 ofa mother binding out a dear child that she could not support. "[257]

She made a valiant announcement of the transfer in _The Revolution_ ofMay 26, 1870, expressing her delight that the paper had at last foundfinancial backing and a new, enthusiastic editor. "In view of theactive demand for conventions, lectures, and discussions on WomanSuffrage, " she added, "I have concluded that so far as my own personalefforts are concerned, I can be more useful on the platform than in anewspaper. So, on the 1st of June next, I shall cease to be the _sole_proprietor of _The Revolution_, and shall be free to attend publicmeetings where ever so plain and matter of fact an old worker as I amcan secure a hearing. "[258]

Financial backing, however, did not put _The Revolution_ on its feet, although its forthright editorials and articles were replaced by spicyand brilliant observations on pleasant topics which offended no one. Before the year was up, Mrs. Bullard was making overtures to Susan totake the paper back. Susan wanted desperately "to keep the Old ShipRevolution's colors flying"[259] and to bring back Mrs. Stanton'sstinging editorials. She also feared that Mrs. Bullard on TheodoreTilton's advice might turn the paper over to the Boston group to beconsolidated 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 togo forward, " she wrote at this time. "At any rate, I mean to try andmake good come out of it. "[260]

For one more year, _The Revolution_ struggled on under the editorshipof Mrs. Bullard and Theodore Tilton and then was taken over by the_Christian Enquirer_. The $10, 000 debt, incurred under Susan'smanagement, she regarded as her responsibility, although her brotherDaniel and many of her friends urged bankruptcy proceedings. "My pridefor women, to say nothing of my conscience, " she insisted, "saysno. "[261]

FOOTNOTES:

[240] Lucy Stone to Frank Sanborn, Aug. 18, 1869, Alma LutzCollection. 

[241] Lucy Stone to Esther Pugh, Aug. 30, 1869, Ida Husted HarperCollection, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California. 

[242] Mary Livermore to W. L. Garrison, Oct. 4, 1869, Boston PublicLibrary. Wendell Phillips did not sign the call or attend theconvention for "reasons that are good to him, " wrote Lucy Stone toGarrison, 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, MadameDemorest's dress patterns, Sapolio, insurance companies, savingsbanks, the Union Pacific, offering first mortgage bonds. 

[246] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 354-355. In 1873, Anson Laphamcancelled notes, amounting to $4000, and praised Susan for hercontinued courageous work for women. 

[247] _The Revolution_, IV, Dec. 2, 1869, p. 343. 

[248] Harriet Beecher Stowe to Susan B. Anthony, Dec. , 1869, Alma LutzCollection. 

[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. Susanattributed the _Tribune_ editorial to Whitelaw Reid. Susan B. AnthonyScrapbook, 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 theNational Woman Suffrage Association shortly after it was organized, she never became a member of the organization or attended itsconventions. This was a great disappointment to Miss Anthony. 

[255] Finally, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton against their bestjudgment were persuaded by younger members of the National WomanSuffrage Association to drop the name National and replace it withUnion and then to try to negotiate further with the AmericanAssociation. Theodore Tilton was elected president of the Union WomanSuffrage Society. This proved to be an organization in name only, andin a short time these same younger members clamored for the return tooffice of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton and reestablished the NationalWoman Suffrage Association. 

[256] _The Revolution_, V, March 10, 1870, p. 153. Mrs. Stanton'sLyceum lectures were undertaken to finance the education of her 7children. 

[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. AnthonyCollection

A NEW SLANT ON THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

While Susan was lecturing in the West, hoping to earn enough to payoff _The Revolution's_ debt, she was pondering a new approach to theenfranchisement of women which had been proposed by Francis Minor, aSt. Louis attorney and the husband of her friend, Virginia Minor. 

Francis Minor contended that while the Constitution gave the statesthe right to regulate suffrage, it nowhere gave them the power toprohibit it, and he believed that this conclusion was strengthened bythe Fourteenth Amendment which provided that "no State shall make orenforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities ofcitizens of the United States. "

To claim the right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment made a greatappeal to both Susan and Elizabeth Stanton. Susan published FrancisMinor's arguments in _The Revolution_ and also his suggestion thatsome woman test this interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment byattempting to vote at the next election; while Mrs. Stanton used thisnew approach as the basis of her speech before a Congressionalcommittee in 1870. 

With such a fresh and thrilling project to develop, Susan lookedforward to the annual woman suffrage convention to be held inWashington in January 1871. So heavy was her lecture schedule that shereluctantly left preparations for the convention in the willing handsof Isabella Beecher Hooker, who was confident she could improve onSusan's meetings and guide the woman's rights movement into moreladylike and aristocratic channels, winning over scores of men andwomen who hitherto had remained aloof. At the last moment, however, she appealed in desperation to Susan for help, and Susan, cancelingimportant lecture engagements, hurried to Washington. Here she foundthe newspapers full of Victoria C. Woodhull and her Memorial toCongress on woman suffrage, which had been presented by Senator Harrisof Louisiana and Congressman Julian of Indiana. Capitalizing on thenew approach to woman suffrage, Mrs. Woodhull based her arguments onthe Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, praying Congress to enactlegislation to enable women to exercise the right to vote vested inthem by these amendments. A hearing was scheduled before the Housejudiciary committee the very morning the convention opened. 

[Illustration: Victoria C. Woodhull]

Convinced that she and her colleagues must attend that hearing, Susanconsulted with her friends in Congress and overrode Mrs. Hooker'shesitancy about associating their organization with so questionable awoman as Victoria Woodhull. She engaged a constitutional lawyer, Albert G. Riddle, [262] to represent the 30, 000 women who hadpetitioned Congress for the franchise. Then she and Mrs. Hookerattended 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 theDistrict 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 presshad been full of amused comments regarding the lady bankers, andSusan had wanted to see for herself what kind of women they were. Hereshe met and talked with Tennessee Claflin, publishing their interviewin _The Revolution_, and also an advertisement of Woodhull, Claflin &Co. , Bankers and Brokers. [263]

About six weeks later, these prosperous "lady brokers" had establishedtheir own paper, _Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly_, an "Organ of SocialRegeneration and Constructive Reform, " but Susan had barely noticedits existence, so burdened had she been by the impending loss of herown paper and by pressing lecture engagements. She was thereforeunaware that this new weekly explored a field wider than finance, advocating as well woman suffrage and women's advancement, spiritualism, radical views on marriage, love, and sex, and thenomination of Victoria C. Woodhull for President of the United States. 

Now in a committee room of the House of Representatives, Susanlistened carefully as the dynamic beautiful Victoria Woodhull read herMemorial and her arguments to support it, in a clear well-modulatedvoice. Simply dressed in a dark blue gown, with a jaunty Alpine hatperched on her curls, she gave the impression of innocent earnestyouth, and she captivated not only the members of the judiciarycommittee, but the more critical suffragists as well. For the momentat least she seemed an appropriate colleague of the forthrightcrusader, Susan B. Anthony, and her fashionable friends, IsabellaBeecher Hooker and Paulina Wright Davis. They invited Victoria and hersister, Tennessee Claflin, to their convention, and asked her torepeat her speech for them. 

At this convention Susan, encouraged by the favorable reception amongpoliticians of the Woodhull Memorial, mapped out a new and militantcampaign, based on her growing conviction that under the FourteenthAmendment women's rights as citizens were guaranteed. She urged womento claim their rights as citizens and persons under the FourteenthAmendment, to register and prepare to vote at the next election, andto bring suit in the courts if they were refused. 

 * * * * *

So enthusiastic had been the reception of this new approach to womansuffrage, so favorable had been the news from those close to leadingRepublicans, that Susan was unprepared for the adverse report of thejudiciary committee on the Woodhull Memorial. She now studied thefavorable minority report issued by Benjamin Butler of Massachusettsand William Loughridge of Iowa. Their arguments seemed to herunanswerable; and hurriedly and impulsively in the midst of herwestern lecture tour, she dashed off a few lines to Victoria Woodhull, to whom she willingly gave credit for bringing out this report. "Glorious old Ben!" she wrote. "He surely is going to pronounce theword that will settle the woman question, just as he did the word'contraband' that so summarily settled the Negro question. .. . Everybody here chimes in with the new conclusion that we are alreadyfree. "[264]

Far from New York where Victoria's activities were being aired by thepress, Susan thought of her at this time only in connection with theMemorial and its impact on the judiciary committee. To be sure, sheheard stories crediting Benjamin Butler with the authorship of theWoodhull Memorial, and rumors reached her of Victoria's unorthodoxviews on love and marriage and of her girlhood as a fortune teller, traveling about like a gypsy and living by her wits. Even so, Susanwas ready to give Victoria the benefit of the doubt until she herselffound her harmful to the cause, for long ago she had learned todiscount attacks on the reputations of progressive women. In fact, Victoria Woodhull provided Susan and her associates with a spectacularopportunity to prove the sincerity of their contention that thereshould not be a double standard of morals--one for men and another forwomen. 

Returning to New York in May 1871, to a convention of the NationalWoman Suffrage Association, Susan found that Mrs. Hooker, Mrs. Stanton, and Mrs. Davis had invited Victoria Woodhull to address thatconvention and to sit on the platform between Lucretia Mott and Mrs. Stanton. 

Through them and others more critical, Susan was brought up to date onthe sensational story of Victoria Woodhull, who had been drawingrecord crowds to her lectures and whose unconventional lifecontinuously provided reporters with interesting copy. Victoria's homeat 15 East Thirty-eighth Street, resplendent and ornate with gildedfurniture and bric-a-brac, housed not only her husband, Colonel Blood, and herself but her divorced husband and their children as well, andalso all of her quarrelsome relatives. Here many radicals, socialreformers, and spiritualists gathered, among them Stephen PearlAndrews, who soon made use of Victoria and her _Weekly_ to publicizehis dream of a new world order, the Pantarchy, as he called it. Victoria, herself, was an ardent spiritualist, controlled byDemosthenes of the spirit world to whom she believed she owed her mostbrilliant utterances and by whom she was guided to announce herself asa presidential candidate in 1872. Needless to say, with such abackground, Victoria Woodhull became a very controversial figure amongthe suffragists. 

In New York only a few days, it was hard for Susan to separate factfrom fiction, truth from rumor and animosity. Even Demosthenes did notseem too ridiculous to her, for many of her most respected friendswere spiritualists. Nor did Victoria's presidential aspirationstrouble her greatly. Presidential candidates had been nothing to bragof, and willingly would she support the right woman for President. IfVictoria lived up to the high standard of the Woodhull Memorial, theneven she might be that woman. After all, it was an era of radicaltheories and Utopian dreams, of extravagances of every sort. Almostanything could happen. 

Whatever doubts the suffragists may have had when they saw VictoriaWoodhull on the platform at the New York meeting of the NationalAssociation, she swept them all along with her when, as one inspired, she made her "Great Secession" speech. "If the very next Congressrefuses women all the legitimate results of citizenship, " shedeclared, "we shall proceed to call another convention expressly toframe a new constitution and to erect a new government. .. . We meantreason; we mean secession, and on a thousand times grander scale thanwas that of the South. We are plotting revolution; we will overthrowthis bogus Republic and plant a government of righteousness in itsstead. .. . "[265]

Susan, who felt deeply her right to full citizenship, who herself hadtalked revolution, and who had so often listened to the extravagantantislavery declarations of William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Parker Pillsbury, was not offended by these statements. She was, however, troubled by the attitude of the press, particularly of the_Tribune_ which labeled this gathering the "Woodhull Convention" andaccused the suffragists of adopting Mrs. Woodhull's free-lovetheories. 

Having experienced so recently the animosity stirred up by heralliance with George Francis Train, Susan resolved to be cautiousregarding Victoria Woodhull and was beginning to wonder if Victoriawas not using the suffragists to further her own ambitions. Yet manytrusted friends, who had talked with Mrs. Woodhull far more than shehad the opportunity to do, were convinced that she was a genius and aprophet who had risen above the sordid environment of her youth to doa great work for women and who had the courage to handle subjectswhich others feared to touch. 

Free love, for example, Susan well knew was an epithet hurledindiscriminately at anyone indiscreet enough to argue for lessstringent divorce laws or for an intelligent frank appraisal ofmarriage and sex. Was it for this reason, Susan asked herself, thatMrs. Woodhull was called a "free-lover, " or did she actually advocatepromiscuity?

With these questions puzzling her, she left for Rochester and theWest. Almost immediately the papers were full of Victoria Woodhull andher family quarrels which brought her into court. This was adisillusioning experience for the National Woman Suffrage Associationwhich had so recently featured Victoria Woodhull as a speaker, andSusan began seriously to question the wisdom of further associationwith this strange controversial character. Nevertheless, Victoriastill had her ardent defenders among the suffragists, particularlyIsabella Beecher Hooker and Paulina Wright Davis. Even the thoughtfuljudicious Martha C. Wright wrote Mrs. Hooker at this time, "It is notalways 'the wise and prudent' to whom the truth is revealed; tho' farbe it from me to imply aught derogatory to Mrs. Woodhull. No one canbe with her, see her gentle and modest bearing and her spiritual face, without feeling sure that she is a true woman, whatever unhappysurroundings may have compromised her. I have never met a strangertoward whom I felt more tenderly drawn, in sympathy and love. "[266]

Elizabeth Cady Stanton spoke her mind in Theodore Tilton's new paper, _The Golden Age_: "Victoria C. Woodhull stands before us today agrand, brave woman, radical alike in political, religious and socialprinciples. Her face and form indicate the complete triumph in hernature of the spiritual over the sensuous. The processes of hereducation are little to us; the grand result everything. "[267]

Victoria was in dire need of defenders, for the press was venomous, goading her on to revenge. Susan, now traveling westward, lecturing inone state after another, thinking of ways to interest the people inwoman suffrage, was too busy and too far away to follow VictoriaWoodhull's court battles. 

 * * * * *

Mrs. Stanton met Susan in Chicago late in May 1871, to join her on alecture tour of the far West. Together they headed for Wyoming andUtah, eager to set foot in the states which had been the first toextend suffrage to women. The long leisurely days on the train gavethese two old friends, Susan now fifty-one and Mrs. Stanton, fifty-six, ample time to talk and philosophize, to appraise their pastefforts for women, and plan their speeches for the days ahead. Whiletheir main theme would always be votes for women, they decided thatfrom now on they must also arouse women to rebel against their legalbondage under the "man marriage, " as they called it, and to facefrankly the facts about sex, prostitution, and the double standard ofmorals. In Utah, in the midst of polygamy fostered by the MormonChurch, they would encounter still another sex problem. 

After an enthusiastic welcome in Denver, they moved on to Laramie, Wyoming, where one hundred women greeted them as the train pulled in. From this first woman suffrage state, Susan exultingly wrote, "We havebeen moving over the soil, that is really the land of the free and thehome of the brave. .. . Women here can say, 'What a magnificent countryis ours, where every class and caste, color and sex, may findfreedom. .. . '"[268]

They reached Salt Lake City just after the Godbe secession by which agroup of liberal Mormons abandoned polygamy. As guests of the Godbesfor a week, they had every opportunity to become acquainted with theMormons, to observe women under polygamy, and to speak in long all-daysessions to women alone. 

Susan tried to show her audiences in Utah that her point of attackunder both monogamy and polygamy was the subjection of women, and thatto remedy this the self-support of women was essential. In Utah shefound little opportunity for women to earn a living for themselves andtheir children, as there was no manufacturing and there were no freeschools in need of teachers. "Women here, as everywhere, " shedeclared, "must be able to live honestly and honorably without the aidof men, before it can be possible to save the masses of them fromentering into polygamy or prostitution, legal or illegal. "[269]

[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony, 1871]

Some of Susan's' critics at home felt she was again besmirching thesuffrage cause by setting foot in polygamous Utah, but this was of nomoment to her, for she saw the crying need of the right kind ofmissionary work among Mormon women, "no Phariseeism, no shudders ofPuritanic horror, . .. But a simple, loving fraternal clasp of handswith these struggling women" to encourage them and point the way. 

Hearing that Susan and Mrs. Stanton were in the West en route toCalifornia, Leland Stanford, Governor of California and president ofthe recently completed Central Pacific Railway, sent them passes fortheir journey. They reached San Francisco with high hopes that theycould win the support of western men for their demand for womansuffrage under the Fourteenth Amendment. Their welcome was warm andthe press friendly. An audience of over 1, 200 listened with realinterest to Mrs. Stanton. Then the two crusaders made a misstep. Eagerto learn the woman's side of the case in the recent widely publicizedmurder of the wealthy attorney, Alexander P. Crittenden, by LauraFair, they visited Laura Fair in prison. Immediately the newspapersreported this move in a most critical vein, with the result that anuneasy audience crowded into the hall where Susan was to speak on "ThePower of the Ballot. " As she proceeded to prove that women needed theballot to protect themselves and their work and could not count on thesupport and protection of men, she cited case after case of men'sbetrayal of women. Then bringing home her point, she declared withvigor, "If all men had protected all women as they would have theirown wives and daughters protected, you would have no Laura Fair inyour jail tonight. "[270]

Boos and hisses from every part of the hall greeted this statement;but Susan, trained on the antislavery platform to hold her groundwhatever the tumult, waited patiently until this protest subsided, standing before the defiant audience, poised and unafraid. Then, in aclear steady voice, she repeated her challenging words. This time, above the hisses, she heard a few cheers, and for the third time sherepeated, "If all men had protected all women as they would have theirown wives and daughters protected, you would have no Laura Fair inyour jail tonight. "

Now the audience, admiring her courage, roared its applause. "Ideclare to you, " she concluded, "that woman must not depend upon theprotection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and here Itake my stand. "

Reading the newspapers the next morning, she found herself accused notonly of defending Laura Fair, but of condoning the murder ofCrittenden. This story was republished throughout the state andeagerly picked up by New York newspapers. 

As it was now impossible for her or for Mrs. Stanton to draw afriendly audience anywhere in California, they took refuge in theYosemite Valley for the next few weeks. Susan was inconsolable. Theseslanders on top of the loss of _The Revolution_ and the split in thesuffrage ranks seemed more than she could bear. "Never in all my hardexperience have I been under such fire, " she confided to her diary. "The clouds are so heavy over me. .. . I never before was so cutdown. "[271]

Not until she had spent several days riding horseback in the YosemiteValley on "men's saddles" in "linen bloomers, " over long perilousexhausting trails, did the clouds begin to lift. Gradually the beautyand grandeur of the mountains and the giant redwoods brought her peaceand refreshment, putting to flight "all the old six-days story and the6, 000 jeers. "

Bearing the brunt of the censure in California, Susan expected Mrs. Stanton to come to her defense in letters to the newspapers. When shedid not do so, Susan was deeply hurt, for in the past she had so manytimes smoothed the way for her friend. Even now, on their return toSan Francisco, where she herself did not yet dare lecture, she did herbest to build up audiences for Mrs. Stanton and to get correcttranscripts of her lectures to the papers. Disillusioned andheartsick, she was for the first time sadly disappointed in herdearest friend. 

Moving on to Oregon to lecture at the request of the pioneersuffragist, Abigail Scott Duniway, she wrote Mrs. Stanton, who hadleft for the East, "As I rolled on the ocean last week feeling thatthe very next strain might swamp the ship, and thinking over all mysins of omission and commission, there was nothing undone whichhaunted me like the failure to speak the word at San Francisco againand more fully. I would rather today have the satisfaction of havingsaid the true and needful thing on Laura Fair and the social evil, with the hisses and hoots of San Francisco and the entire nationaround me, than all that you or I could possibly experience from theirunited eulogies with that one word unsaid. "[272]

 * * * * *

So far Susan's western trip had netted her only $350. This wasdisappointing in so far as she had counted upon it to reducesubstantially her _Revolution_ debt. She now hoped to build herearnings up to $1, 000 in Oregon and Washington. Everywhere in thesetwo states people took her to their hearts and the press with a fewexceptions was complimentary. The beauty of the rugged mountainouscountry compensated her somewhat for the long tiring stage rides overrough roads and for the cold uncomfortable lonely nights in poorhotels. Only occasionally did she enjoy the luxury of a good cup ofcoffee or a clean bed in a warm friendly home. 

At first in Oregon she was apprehensive about facing an audiencebecause of her San Francisco experience, and she wrote Mrs. Stanton, "But to the rack I must go, though another San Francisco torture be instore for me. "[273] She spoke on "The Power of the Ballot, " on women'sright to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment, on the need of women tobe self-supporting, and clearly and logically she marshaled her factsand her arguments. Occasionally she obliged with a temperance speech, or gathered women together to talk to them about the social evil, relieved when they responded to this delicate subject with earnestnessand gratitude. Practice soon made her an easy, extemporaneous speaker. Yet she was only now and then satisfied with her efforts, recording inher diary, "Was happy in a real Patrick Henry speech. "[274]

The proceeds from her lectures were disappointing, as money was scarcein the West that winter, and she had just decided to return to theEast to spend Christmas with her mother and sisters when she was urgedto accept lecture engagements in California. Putting her own personallongings behind her, she took the stage to California, sitting outsidewith the driver so that she could better enjoy the scenery and learnmore about the people who had settled this new lonely overpoweringcountry. "Horrible indeed are the roads, " she wrote her mother, "milesand miles of corduroy and then twenty miles . .. Of black mud. .. . Howmy thought does turn homeward, mother. "[275]

This time she was warmly received in San Francisco. The prejudice, sovocal six months before, had disappeared. "Made my FourteenthAmendment argument splendidly, " she wrote in her diary. "All delightedwith it and me--and it is such a comfort to have the friends feel thatI help the good work on. "[276]

She was gaining confidence in herself and wrote her family, "I missMrs. Stanton. Still I can not but enjoy the feeling that the peoplecall on me, and the fact that I have an opportunity to sharpen my witsa little by answering questions and doing the chatting, instead ofmerely sitting a lay figure and listening to the brilliantscintillations as they emanate from her never-exhausted magazine. There is no alternative--whoever goes into a parlor or before anaudience with that woman does it at a cost of a fearful overshadowing, a price which I have paid for the last ten years, and that cheerfully, because I felt our cause was most profited by her being seen andheard, and my best work was making the way clear for her. "[277]

Starting homeward through Wyoming and Nevada where she also hadlecture engagements, she wrote in her diary on January 1, 1872, "6months of constant travel, full 8000 miles, 108 lectures. The year'swork full 13, 000 miles travel--170 meetings. " On the train she met thenew California Senator, Aaron A. Sargent, his wife Ellen, and theirchildren. A warm friendship developed on this long journey duringwhich the train was stalled in deep snow drifts. "This is indeed afearful ordeal, fastened here . .. Midway of the continent at the topof the Rocky mountains, " she recorded. "The railroad has supplied thepassengers with soda crackers and dried fish. .. . Mrs. Sargent and Ihave made tea and carried it throughout the train to the nursingmothers. "[278] The Sargents had brought their own food for the journeyand shared it with Susan. This and the good conversation lightened theordeal for her, especially as both Senator and Mrs. Sargent believedheartily in woman's rights, and Senator Sargent in his campaign forthe Senate had boldly announced his endorsement of woman suffrage. 

This friendly attitude among western men toward votes for women wasthe most encouraging development in Susan's long uphill fight. Thesemen, looking upon women as partners who had shared with them thedangers and hardships of the frontier, recognized at once the justiceof woman suffrage and its benefit to the country. 

 * * * * *

Susan traveled directly from Nevada to Washington instead of breakingher journey by a visit with her brothers in Kansas, as she had hopedto do. She even omitted Rochester so that she might be in time for thenational woman suffrage convention in Washington in January 1872, forwhich Mrs. Hooker, Mrs. Davis, and Mrs. Stanton were preparing. Shefound Victoria Woodhull with them, her presence provoking criticismand dissension. 

Impulsively she came to Victoria's defense at the convention: "I havebeen asked by many, 'Why did you drag Victoria Woodhull to the front?'Now, bless your souls, she was not dragged to the front. She came toWashington with a powerful argument. She presented her Memorial toCongress and it was a power. .. . She had an interview with thejudiciary committee. We could never secure that privilege. She wasyoung, handsome, and rich. Now if it takes youth, beauty, and money tocapture Congress, Victoria is the woman we are after. "[279]

"I was asked by an editor of a New York paper if I knew Mrs. Woodhull's antecedents, " she continued. "I said I didn't and that Idid not care any more for them than I do about those of the members ofCongress. .. . I have been asked along the Pacific coast, 'What aboutWoodhull? You make her your leader?' Now we don't make leaders; theymake themselves. "

Victoria, however, did not prove to be the leading light of thisconvention, although she made one of her stirring fiery speechescalling upon her audience to form an Equal Rights party and nominateher for President of the United States. By this time, Susan hadconcluded that Victoria Woodhull for President did not ring true andshe would have nothing to do with her self-inspired candidacy. Quicklyshe steered the convention away from Victoria Woodhull for Presidenttoward the consideration of the more practical matter of woman's rightto vote under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. 

This time it was Susan, not Victoria, who was granted a hearing beforethe Senate judiciary committee. "At the close of the war, " Susanreminded the Senators, "Congress lifted the question of suffrage formen above State power, and by the amendments prohibited thedeprivation of suffrage to any citizen by any State. When theFourteenth Amendment was first proposed . .. We rushed to you withpetitions praying you not to insert the word 'male' in the secondclause. Our best friends . .. Said to us: 'The insertion of that wordputs no new barrier against women; therefore do not embarrass us butwait until we get the Negro question settled. ' So the FourteenthAmendment with the word 'male' was adopted. [280]

"When the Fifteenth was presented without the word 'sex, '" shecontinued, "we again petitioned and protested, and again our friendsdeclared that the absence of the word was no hindrance to us, andagain begged us to wait until they had finished the work of the war, saying, 'After we have enfranchised the Negro, we will take up yourcase. '

"Have they done as they promised?" she asked. "When we come askingprotection under the new guarantees of the Constitution, the same mensay to us . .. To wait the action of Congress and State legislatures inthe adoption of a Sixteenth Amendment which shall make null and voidthe word 'male' in the Fourteenth and supply the want of the word'sex' in the Fifteenth. Such tantalizing treatment imposed uponyourselves or any class of men would have caused rebellion and in theend a bloody revolution. .. . "

Unconvinced of the urgency or even the desirability of votes forwomen, the Senate judiciary committee promptly issued an adversereport, but Susan was assured that her cause had a few persistentsupporters in Congress when Benjamin Butler presented petitions to theHouse for a declaratory act for the Fourteenth Amendment andCongressman Parker of Missouri introduced a bill granting women theright to vote and hold office in the territories. 

 * * * * *

Susan now turned to the more sympathetic West to take her plea forwoman suffrage directly to the people. Speaking almost daily inKansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois, she had little time to think ofthe work in the East; the glamor of Victoria Woodhull faded, and sherealized that her own hard monotonous spade work would in the long rundo more for the cause than the meteoric rise of a vivid personalitywho gave only part of herself to the task. 

When letters came from Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Hooker showing plainlythat they were falling in with Victoria's plans to form a newpolitical party, Susan at once dashed off these lines of warning: "Wehave no element out of which to make a political party, because thereis not a man who would vote a woman suffrage ticket if thereby heendangered his Republican, Democratic, Workingmen's, or Temperanceparty, and all our time and words in that direction are simply thrownaway. My name must not be used to call any such meeting. "[281]

Then she added, "Mrs. Woodhull has the advantage of us because she hasthe newspaper, and she persistently means to run our craft into herport and none other. If she were influenced by women spirits . .. Imight consent to be a mere sail-hoister for her; but as it is she iswholly owned and dominated by _men_ spirits and I spurn the whole lotof them. .. . "

A few weeks later, as she looked over the latest copy of _Woodhull &Claflin's Weekly_, she was horrified to find her name signed to a callto a political convention sponsored by the National Woman SuffrageAssociation. Immediately she telegraphed Mrs. Stanton to remove hername and wrote stern indignant letters begging her and Mrs. Hooker notto involve the National Association in Victoria Woodhull'spresidential campaign. Although she herself had often called for a newpolitical party while she was publishing _The Revolution_, she waspractical enough to recognize that a party formed under VictoriaWoodhull's banner was doomed to failure. 

Returning to New York, she found both Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Hookerstill completely absorbed in Victoria's plans. Bringing herself up todate once more on the latest developments in the colorful life ofVictoria Woodhull, she found that she had been lecturing on "TheImpending Revolution" to large enthusiastic audiences and that she hadagain been called into court by her family. Goaded to defiance by anincreasingly virulent press, Victoria had also begun to blackmailsuffragists who she thought were her enemies, among them Mrs. Bullard, Mrs. Blake, and Mrs. Phelps. This made Susan take steps at once tofree the National Association of her influence. 

When Victoria Woodhull, followed by a crowd of supporters, sailed intothe first business session of the National Woman Suffrage Associationin New York, announcing that the People's convention would hold ajoint meeting with the suffragists, Susan made it plain that theywould do nothing of the kind, as Steinway Hall had been engaged for awoman suffrage convention. With relief, she watched Victoria and herflock leave for a meeting place of their own. Disgruntled at what shecalled Susan's intolerance, Mrs. Stanton then asked to be relieved ofthe presidency. Elected to take her place, Susan was now free to copewith Victoria, should this again become necessary. 

Not to be outmaneuvered by Susan, Victoria made a surprise appearancenear the end of the evening session and moved that the conventionadjourn to meet the next morning in Apollo Hall with the people'sconvention. Quickly one of her colleagues seconded the motion. Susanrefused to put this motion, standing quietly before the excitedaudience, stern and somber in her steel-gray silk dress. Beside her onthe platform, Victoria, intense and vivid, put the motion herself, andit was overwhelmingly carried by her friends scattered among thesuffragists. Declaring this out of order because neither Victoria normany of those voting were members of the National Association, Susanin her most commanding voice adjourned the convention to meet in thesame place the next morning. Victoria, however, continued her demandsuntil Susan ordered the janitor to turn out the lights. Then theaudience dispersed in the darkness. 

With these drastic measures, Susan rescued the National Woman SuffrageAssociation from Victoria Woodhull, who had her own triumph later atApollo Hall, where, surrounded by wildly cheering admirers, she wasnominated for President of the United States by the newly formed EqualRights party. 

Reading about Victoria's nomination in the morning papers, Susanbreathed a prayer of gratitude for a narrow escape, recording in herdiary, "There never was such a foolish muddle--all come of Mrs. S. [Stanton] consulting and conceding to Woodhull & calling a People'sCon[vention]. .. . All came near being lost. .. . I never was so hurt withthe folly of Stanton. .. . Our movement as such is so demoralized byletting go the helm of ship to Woodhull--though we rescued it--it wasas by a hair breadth escape. " She was surprised to find nocondemnation of her actions in _Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly_ but onlythe implication that the suffragists were too slow for Victoria'sgreat work. [282]

The attitude of some of the leading suffragists toward VictoriaWoodhull remained a problem. Fortunately Mrs. Stanton came back intoline, but both Mrs. Hooker and Mrs. Davis seemed bound to drift underVictoria's influence, and the promising young lawyer, Belva Lockwood, campaigned for the Equal Rights party and its candidate VictoriaWoodhull. 

 * * * * *

While Victoria Woodhull's fortunes were speedily dropping from thesublime heights of a presidential nomination to the humiliation offinancial ruin, the loss of her home, and the suspended publicationof her _Weekly_, Susan was knocking at the doors of the Republican andDemocratic national conventions. She had previously appealed to theliberal Republicans, among whose delegates were her old friends GeorgeW. Julian, B. Gratz Brown, and Theodore Tilton, but they had ignoredwoman suffrage and had nominated for President, Horace Greeley, now apersistent opponent of votes for women. The Democrats did no better. Faced with Grant as the strong Republican nominee, they too nominatedHorace Greeley with B. Gratz Brown as his running mate, hoping by thiscoalition to achieve victory. The Republicans, still unwilling to gothe whole way for woman suffrage by giving it the recognition of aplank in their platform, did, however, offer women a splinter at whichSusan grasped eagerly because it was the first time an important, powerful political party had ever mentioned women in their platform. 

"The Republican party, " read the splinter, "is mindful of itsobligations to the loyal women of America for their noble devotion tothe cause of freedom; their admission to wider fields of usefulness isreceived with satisfaction; and the honest demands of any class ofcitizens for equal rights should be treated with respectfulconsideration. "[283]

Thankful to have escaped involvement with Victoria Woodhull and herEqual Rights party just at this time when the Republicans were readyto smile upon women, Susan basked in an aura of respectability thrownaround her by her new political allies. She was even hopeful that thetwo woman-suffrage factions could now forget their differences andwork together for "the living, vital issue of today--freedom towomen. "

She at once began speaking for the Republican party, looking forwardto carrying the discussion of woman suffrage into every schooldistrict and every ward meeting. In the beginning the Republicans weregenerous with funds, giving her $1, 000 for women's meetings in NewYork, Philadelphia, Rochester, and other large cities. For speakersshe sought both Lucy Stone and Anna E. Dickinson, but Lucy made itplain in letters to Mrs. Stanton that she would take no part inRepublican rallies conducted by Susan, and Anna responded with atorrent of false accusations. [284] Only Mary Livermore of the AmericanAssociation consented to speak at Susan's Republican rallies; but withMrs. Stanton, Mrs. Gage, and Olympia Brown to call upon, Susan didnot lack for effective orators. 

In an _Appeal to the Women of America_, financed by the Republicansand widely circulated, she urged the election of Grant and Wilson andthe defeat of Horace Greeley, whom she described as women's mostbitter opponent. "Both by tongue and pen, " she declared, "he hasheaped abuse, ridicule, and misrepresentation upon our leading women, while the whole power of the _Tribune_ had been used to crush ourgreat reform. .. . "[285]

Beyond this she was unwilling to go in criticizing her one-timefriend. In fact her sense of fairness recoiled at the ridicule anddefamation heaped upon Horace Greeley in the campaign. "I shall notjoin with the Republicans, " she wrote Mrs. Stanton, "in houndingGreeley and the Liberals with all the old war anathemas of theDemocracy. .. . My sense of justice and truth is outraged by theHarper's cartoons of Greeley and the general falsifying tone of theRepublican press. It is not fair for us to join in the cry thateverybody who is opposed to the present administration is either aDemocrat or an apostate. "[286]

Susan sensed a change in the Republicans' attitude toward women, asthey grew increasingly confident of victory. Not only did they refusefurther financial aid, but criticized Susan roundly because in herspeeches she emphasized woman suffrage rather than the virtues of theRepublican party. She ignored their complaints, and wrote Mrs. Stanton, "If you are willing to go forth . .. Saying that you endorsethe party on any other point . .. Than that of its recognition ofwoman's claim to vote, _I_ am not. .. . "[287]

FOOTNOTES:

[262] A former Congressman from Ohio, a personal friend of SenatorBenjamin Wade who was a loyal friend of woman suffrage. 

[263] _The Revolution_, V, March 19, 1870, pp. 154-155, 159. 

[264] Clipping from _Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly_, Susan B. AnthonyScrapbook, Library of Congress. 

[265] Emanie, Sachs, _The Terrible Siren_ (New York, 1928), p. 87. After hearing Victoria Woodhull speak at a woman suffrage meeting inPhiladelphia, Lucretia Mott wrote her daughters, March 21, 1871, "Iwish you could have heard Mrs. Woodhull . .. So earnest yet modest anddignified, and so full of faith that she is divinely inspired for herwork. The 30 or 40 persons present were much impressed with her workand beautiful utterances. " Garrison Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College. 

[266] May 20, 1871, Ida Husted Harper Collection, Henry E. HuntingtonLibrary. 

[267] _The Golden Age_, Dec. , 1871. 

[268] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 388. 

[269] _Ibid. _, pp. 389-390. 

[270] _Ibid. _, pp. 391-394. Laura Fair, who reportedly had been themistress of Alexander P. Crittenden for six years, was acquitted ofhis murder on the grounds that his death was not due to her pistolshot but to a disease from which he was suffering. Julia CooleyAltrocchi, _The Spectacular San Franciscans_ (New York, 1949). 

[271] Ms. , Diary, July 13-23, 1871. 

[272] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 396. 

[273] _Ibid. _

[274] Ms. , Diary, Oct. 13, 1871. 

[275] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 403. 

[276] Ms. , Diary, Dec. 15, 1871. 

[277] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 396. 

[278] Ms. , Diary, Jan. 2, 1872. 

[279] _Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly_, Jan. 23, 1873. 

[280] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 410-411. 

[281] _Ibid. _, p. 413. 

[282] Ms. , Diary, May 8, 10, 12, 1872. 

[283] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 416-417. 

[284] Ms. , Diary, Sept. 21, 1872. Lucy Stone wrote in the _Woman'sJournal_, July 27, 1872, "We are glad that the wing of the movement towhich these ladies belong have decided to cast in their lot with theRepublican party. If they had done so sooner, it would have beenbetter for all concerned. .. . "

[285] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, p. 519. The Republicansfinanced a paper, _Woman's Campaign_, edited by Helen Barnard, whichpublished some of Susan's speeches and which Susan for a time hoped toconvert into a woman suffrage paper. 

[286] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 422. 

[287] _Ibid. _

TESTING THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

Susan preached militancy to women throughout the presidential campaignof 1872, urging them to claim their rights under the Fourteenth andFifteenth Amendments by registering and voting in every state in theUnion. 

Even before Francis Minor had called her attention to thepossibilities offered by these amendments, she had followed with greatinterest a similar effort by Englishwomen who, in 1867 and 1868, hadattempted to prove that the "ancient legal rights of females" werestill valid and entitled women property holders to vote forrepresentatives in Parliament, and who claimed that the word "man" inParliamentary statutes should be interpreted to include women. In thecase of the 5, 346 householders of Manchester, the court held that"every woman is personally incapable" in a legal sense. [288] Thislegal contest had been fully reported in _The Revolution_, anddisappointing as the verdict was, Susan looked upon this attempt toestablish justice as an indication of a great awakening and uprisingamong women. 

There had also been heartening signs in her own country, which shehoped were the preparation for more successful militancy to come. Shehad exulted in _The Revolution_ in 1868 over the attempt of women tovote in Vineland, New Jersey. Encouraged by the enfranchisement ofwomen in Wyoming in 1869, Mary Olney Brown and Charlotte Olney Frenchhad cast their votes in Washington Territory. A young widow, MarillaRicker, had registered and voted in New Hampshire in 1870, claimingthis right as a property holder, but her vote was refused. In 1871, Nannette B. Gardner and Catherine Stebbins in Detroit, Catherine V. White in Illinois, Ellen R. Van Valkenburg in Santa Cruz, California, and Carrie S. Burnham in Philadelphia registered and attempted tovote. Only Mrs. Gardner's vote was accepted. That same year, SarahAndrews Spencer, Sarah E. Webster, and seventy other women marched tothe polls to register and vote in the District of Columbia. Theirballots refused, they brought suit against the Board of ElectionInspectors, carrying the case unsuccessfully to the Supreme Court ofthe United States. [289] Another test case based on the FourteenthAmendment had also been carried to the Supreme Court by Myra Bradwell, one of the first women lawyers, who had been denied admission to theIllinois bar because she was a woman. 

With the spotlight turned on the Fourteenth Amendment by these women, lawyers here and there throughout the country were discussing thelegal points involved, many admitting that women had a good case. Eventhe press was friendly. 

Susan had looked forward to claiming her rights under the Fourteenthand Fifteenth Amendments and was ready to act. She had spent thethirty days required of voters in Rochester with her family and as sheglanced through the morning paper of November 1, 1872, she read thesechallenging words, "Now Register!. .. If you were not permitted to voteyou would fight for the right, undergo all privations for it, facedeath for it. .. . "[290]

This was all the reminder she needed. She would fight for this right. She put on her bonnet and coat, telling her three sisters what sheintended to do, asked them to join her, and with them walked brisklyto the barber shop where the voters of her ward were registering. Boldly entering this stronghold of men, she asked to be registered. The inspector in charge, Beverly W. Jones, tried to convince her thatthis was impossible under the laws of New York. She told him sheclaimed her right to vote not under the New York constitution butunder the Fourteenth Amendment, and she read him its pertinent lines. Other election inspectors now joined in the argument, but shepersisted until two of them, Beverly W. Jones and Edwin F. Marsh, bothRepublicans, finally consented to register the four women. 

This mission accomplished, Susan rounded up twelve more women willingto register. The evening papers spread the sensational news, and bythe end of the registration period, fifty Rochester women had joinedthe ranks of the militants. 

On election day, November 5, 1872, Susan gleefully wrote ElizabethStanton, "Well, I have gone and done it!!--positively voted theRepublican ticket--Strait--this A. M. At 7 o'clock--& swore my vote inat that. .. . All my three sisters voted--Rhoda deGarmo too--Amy Postwas rejected & she will immediately bring action against theregistrars. .. . Not a jeer not a word--not a look--disrespectful hasmet a single woman. .. . I hope the mornings telegrams will tell of manywomen all over the country trying to vote. .. . I hope you votedtoo. "[291]

 * * * * *

Election day did not bring the general uprising of women for whichSusan had hoped. In Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Connecticut, as inRochester, a few women tried to vote. In New York City, LillieDevereux Blake and in Fayetteville, New York, Matilda Joslyn Gage hadcourageously gone to the polls only to be turned away. ElizabethStanton did not vote on November 5, 1872, and her lack of enthusiasmabout a test case in the courts was very disappointing to Susan. 

However, the fact that Susan B. Anthony had voted won immediateresponse from the press in all parts of the country. Newspapers ingeneral were friendly, the New York _Times_ boldly declaring, "The actof Susan B. Anthony should have a place in history, " and the Chicago_Tribune_ venturing to suggest that she ought to hold public office. The cartoonists, however, reveling in a new and tempting subject, caricatured her unmercifully, the New York Graphic setting the tone. Some Democratic papers condemned her, following the line of theRochester _Union and Advertiser_ which flaunted the headline, "FemaleLawlessness, " and declared that Miss Anthony's lawlessness had provedwomen unfit for the ballot. 

Before she voted, Susan had taken the precaution of consulting JudgeHenry R. Selden, a former judge of the Court of Appeals. Afterlistening with interest to her story and examining the arguments ofBenjamin Butler, Francis Minor, and Albert G. Riddle in support of theclaim that women had a right to vote under the Fourteenth andFifteenth Amendments, he was convinced that women had a good case andconsented to advise her and defend her if necessary. Judge Selden, nowretired from the bench because of ill health, was practicing law inRochester where he was highly respected. A Republican, he had servedas lieutenant governor, member of the Assembly, and state senator. Susan had known him as one of the city's active abolitionists, afriend of Frederick Douglass who had warned him to flee the countryafter the raid on Harper's Ferry and the capture of John Brown. Sucha man she felt she could trust. 

All was quiet for about two weeks after the election and it looked asif the episode might be forgotten in the jubilation over Grant'selection. Then, on November 18, the United States deputy marshal rangthe doorbell at 7 Madison Street and asked for Miss Susan B. Anthony. When she greeted him, he announced with embarrassment that he had cometo arrest her. 

"Is this your usual manner of serving a warrant?" she asked insurprise. [292]

He then handed her papers, charging that she had voted in violation ofSection 19 of an Act of Congress, which stipulated that anyone votingknowingly without having the lawful right to vote was guilty of acrime, and on conviction would be punished by a fine not exceeding$500, or by imprisonment not exceeding three years. 

This was a serious development. It had never occurred to Susan thatthis law, passed in 1870 to halt the voting of southern rebels, couldactually be applicable to her. In fact, she had expected to bring suitagainst election inspectors for refusing to accept the ballots ofwomen. Now charged with crime and arrested, she suddenly began tosense the import of what was happening to her. 

When the marshal suggested that she report alone to the United StatesCommissioner, she emphatically refused to go of her own free will andthey left the house together, she extending her wrists for thehandcuffs and he ignoring her gesture. As they got on the streetcarand the conductor asked for her fare, she further embarrassed themarshal by loudly announcing, "I'm traveling at the expense of thegovernment. This gentleman is escorting me to jail. Ask him for myfare. " When they arrived at the commissioner's office, he was notthere, but a hearing was set for November 29. 

On that day, in the office where a few years before fugitive slaveshad been returned to their masters, Susan was questioned andcross-examined, and she felt akin to those slaves. Proudly sheadmitted that she had voted, that she had conferred with Judge Selden, that with or without his advice she would have attempted to vote totest women's right to the franchise. [293]

"Did you have any doubt yourself of your right to vote?" asked thecommissioner. 

"Not a particle, " she replied. 

On December 23, 1872, in Rochester's common council chamber, before alarge curious audience, Susan, the other women voters, and theelection inspectors were arraigned. People expecting to see boldnotoriety-seeking women were surprised by their seriousness anddignity. "The majority of these law-breakers, " reported the press, "were elderly, matronly-looking women with thoughtful faces, just thesort one would like to see in charge of one's sick-room, considerate, patient, kindly. "[294]

The United States Commissioner fixed their bail at $500 each. Allfurnished bail but Susan, who through her counsel, Henry R. Selden, applied for a writ of habeas corpus, demanding immediate release andchallenging the lawfulness of her arrest. When a writ of habeas corpuswas denied and her bail increased to $1, 000 by United States DistrictJudge Nathan K. Hall, sitting in Albany, Susan was more than everdetermined to resist the interference of the courts in herconstitutional right as a citizen to vote. She refused to give bail, emphatically stating that she preferred prison. 

Seeing no heroism but only disgrace in a jail term for his client andunwilling to let her bring this ignominy upon herself. Henry Seldenchivalrously assured her that this was a time when she must be guidedby her lawyer's advice, and he paid her bail. Ignorant of thetechnicalities of the law, she did not realize the far-reachingimplications of this well-intentioned act until they left thecourtroom and in the hallway met tall vigorous John Van Voorhis ofRochester who was working on the case with Judge Selden. With theimpatience of a younger man, eager to fight to the finish, heexclaimed, "You have lost your chance to get your case before theSupreme Court by writ of habeas corpus!"[295]

Aghast, Susan rushed back to the courtroom, hoping to cancel the bond, but it was too late. Bitterly disappointed, she remonstrated withHenry Selden, but he quietly replied, "I could not see a lady Irespected in jail. " She never forgave him for this, in spite of hercontinued appreciation of his keen legal mind, his unfailing kindness, and his willingness to battle for women. 

Within a few days she appeared before the Federal Grand Jury inAlbany and was indicted on the charge that she "did knowingly, wrongfully and unlawfully vote for a Representative in the Congress ofthe United States. .. . "[296] Her trial was set for the term of theUnited States District Court, beginning May 13, 1873, in Rochester, New York. 

[Illustration: Judge Henry R. Selden]

During these difficult days in Albany, Susan found comfort andcourage, as in the past, in the friendliness of Lydia Mott's home. Here she planned the steps by which to win public approval andfinancial aid for her test case. She addressed the commission whichwas revising New York's constitution on woman's right to vote underthe Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, pointing out that the lawlimiting suffrage to males was nullified by this new interpretation. Eager to spread the truth about her own legal contest, she distributedprinted copies of Judge Selden's argument. Then traveling to New Yorkand Washington, she personally presented copies to newspaper editorsand Congressmen. To one of these men she wrote, "It is not formyself--but for all womanhood--yes and all manhood too--that I mostrejoice in the appeal to the legal mind of the Nation. It is nolonger whether women wish to vote, or men are willing, but it iswoman's Constitutional right. "[297]

 * * * * *

In spite of the fact that Susan was technically in the custody of theUnited States Marshal, who objected to her leaving Rochester, shemanaged to carry out a full schedule of lectures in Ohio, Indiana, andIllinois, and also the usual annual Washington and New York womansuffrage conventions at which she told the story of her voting, herarrest, and her pending trial, and where she received enthusiasticsupport. 

Because she wanted the people to understand the legal points on whichshe based her right to vote, Susan spoke on "The Equal Right of AllCitizens to the Ballot" in every district in Monroe County. Sothorough and convincing was she that the district attorney asked for achange of venue, fearing that any Monroe County jury, sitting inRochester, would be prejudiced in her favor. When her case wastransferred to the United States Circuit Court in Canandaigua, to beheard a month later, she immediately descended upon Ontario Countywith her speech, "Is It a Crime for a Citizen of the United States toVote?" and Matilda Joslyn Gage joined her, speaking on "The UnitedStates on Trial, Not Susan B. Anthony. "

On the lecture platform Susan wore a gray silk dress with a soft, white lace collar. Her hair, now graying, was smoothed back andtwisted neatly into a tight knot. Everything about her indicatedrefinement and sincerity, and most of her audiences felt this. 

"Our democratic-republican government is based on the idea of thenatural right of every individual member thereof to a voice and votein making and executing the laws, " she declared as she looked into thefaces of the men and women who had gathered to hear her, farmers, storekeepers, lawyers, and housewives, rich and poor, a cross sectionof America. 

Repeating to them salient passages from the Declaration ofIndependence and the Preamble to the Constitution, she added, "It waswe, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet we, the malecitizens: but we the whole people, who formed this Union. And weformed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them;not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to thewhole people--women as well as men. "[298]

She asked, "Is the right to vote one of the privileges or immunitiesof citizens? I think the disfranchised ex-rebels, and the ex-stateprisoners will agree with me that it is not only one of them, but theone without which all the others are nothing. "[299]

Quoting for them the Fifteenth Amendment, she told them it had settledforever the question of the citizen's right to vote. The FifteenthAmendment, she reasoned, applies to women, first because women arecitizens and secondly because of their "previous condition ofservitude. " Defining a slave as a person robbed of the proceeds of hislabor and subject to the will of another, she showed how state lawsrelating to married women had placed them in the position of slaves. 

As she analyzed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendmentsand cited authorities for her conclusions, she left little doubt inthe minds of those who heard her that women were persons and citizenswhose privileges and immunities could not be abridged. 

On this note she concluded: "We ask the juries to fail to returnverdicts of 'guilty' against honest, law-abiding, tax-paying UnitedStates citizens for offering their votes at our elections . .. We askthe judges to render true and unprejudiced opinions of the law, andwherever there is room for doubt to give its benefit on the side ofliberty and equal rights to women, remembering that 'the true rule ofinterpretation under our national constitution, especially since itsamendments, is that anything for human rights is constitutional, everything against human rights unconstitutional. ' And it is on thisline that we propose to fight our battle for the ballot--allpeaceably, but nevertheless persistently through to complete triumph, when all United States citizens shall be recognized as equals beforethe law. "

 * * * * *

Speaking twenty-one nights in succession was arduous. "So few see orfeel any special importance in the impending trial, " she jotted downin her diary. In towns, such as Geneva, where she had old friends, like Elizabeth Smith Miller, she was assured of a friendly welcome anda good audience. [300]

[Illustration: "The Woman Who Dared"]

As the collections, taken up after her lectures, were too small to payher expenses, her financial problems weighed heavily. The notes shehad signed for _The Revolution_ were in the main still unpaid, andone of her creditors was growing impatient. She had recently paid hercounsel, Judge Selden, $200 and John Van Voorhis, $75, leaving only$3. 45 in her defense fund, but as usual a few of her loyal friendscame to her aid, and both Judge Selden and John Van Voorhis, deeplyinterested in her courageous fight, gave most of their time withoutcharge. [301]

If this campaign was a problem financially, it was a success in thematter of nation-wide publicity. The New York _Herald_ exulted inhostile gibes at women suffrage and published fictitious interviews, ridiculing Susan as a homely aggressive old maid, but the New York_Evening Post_ prophesied that the court decision would likely be inher favor. The Rochester _Express_ championed her warmly: "AllRochester will assert--at least all of it worth heeding--that MissAnthony holds here the position of a refined and estimable woman, thoroughly respected and beloved by the large circle of staunchfriends who swear by her common sense and loyalty, if not by herpeculiar views. " In fact the consensus of opinion in Rochester wasmuch like that of the woman who remarked, "No, I am not converted towhat these women advocate. I am too cowardly for that; but I amconverted to Susan B. Anthony. "[302]

This, however, was far from the attitude of Lucy Stone's _Woman'sJournal_, which had ignored Susan's voting in November 1872 because itwas out of sympathy with this militant move and with herinterpretation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Later, asher case progressed in the courts, the _Journal_ did give it briefnotice as a news item, but in 1873 when it listed as a mark of honorthe women who had worked wisely for the cause, Susan B. Anthony's namewas not among them, and this did not pass unnoticed by Susan; nor didthe fact that she was snubbed by the Congress of Women, meeting in NewYork and sponsored by Mary A. Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, and MariaMitchell. This drawing away of women hurt her far more than newspapergibes. In fact she was sadly disappointed in women's response to theherculean effort she was making for them. 

Even more disconcerting was the adverse decision of the Supreme Courton the Myra Bradwell case, which at once shattered the confidence ofmost of her legal advisors. The court held that Illinois had violatedno provision of the federal Constitution in refusing to allow MyraBradwell to practice law because she was a woman and declared that theright to practice law in state courts is not a privilege or animmunity of a citizen of the United States, nor is the power of astate to prescribe qualifications for admission to the bar affected bythe Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, filing adissenting opinion, lived up to Susan's faith in him, but BenjaminButler wrote her, "I do not believe anybody in Congress doubts thatthe Constitution authorizes the right of women to vote, precisely asit authorizes trial by jury and many other like rights guaranteed tocitizens. But the difficulty is, the courts long since decided thatthe constitutional provisions do not act upon the citizens, except asguarantees, ex proprio vigore, and in order to give force to themthere must be legislation. .. . Therefore, the point is for the friendsof woman suffrage to get congressional legislation. "[303]

Susan, however, never wavered in her conviction that she as a citizenhad a constitutional right to vote and that it was her duty to testthis right in the courts. 

FOOTNOTES:

[288] Ray Strachey, _Struggle_ (New York, 1930), pp. 113-116. 

[289] The U. S. Supreme Court upheld the decision of a lower court thatwithout specific legislation by Congress, the 14th Amendment could notoverrule the law of the District of Columbia which limited suffrage tomale citizens over 21. _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, pp. 587-601. 

[290] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 423. 

[291] Nov. 5, 1872, Ida Husted Harper Collection, Henry E. HuntingtonLibrary. Miss Anthony had assured the election inspectors that shewould pay the cost of any suit which might be brought against them foraccepting women's votes. 

[292] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 426. The Anthony home was then numbered7 Madison Street. 

[293] _An Account of the Proceedings of the Trial of Susan B. Anthonyon the Charge of Illegal Voting_ (Rochester, New York, 1874), p. 16. 

[294] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 428. 

[295] _Ibid. _, p. 433. 

[296] _Trial_, pp. 2-3. 

[297] N. D. , Susan B. Anthony Papers, New York Public Library. 

[298] _Trial_, pp. 151, 153. Judge Story, _Commentaries on theConstitution of the United States_, Sec. 456: "The importance ofexamining the preamble for the purpose of expounding the language of astatute has long been felt and universally conceded in all juridicaldiscussion. " _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, p. 477. 

[299] Harper, _Anthony_, II, pp. 978, 986-987. 

[300] Ms. , Diary, May 10, June 7, 1873. 

[301] Suffrage clubs in New York, Buffalo, Chicago, and Milwaukee sent$50 and $100 contributions. Susan's cousin, Anson Lapham, cancellednotes for $4000 which she had signed while struggling to finance _TheRevolution_. The women of Rochester rallied behind her, forming aTaxpayers' Association to protest taxation without representation. 

[302] Harper, _Anthony_, II, pp. 994-995. 

[303] _Ibid. _, I, p. 429. 

"IS IT A CRIME FOR A CITIZEN . .. TO VOTE?"

Charged with the crime of voting illegally, Susan was brought to trialon June 17, 1873, in the peaceful village of Canandaigua, New York. Simply dressed and wearing her new bonnet faced with blue silk anddraped with a dotted veil, [304] she stoically climbed the court-housesteps, feeling as if on her shoulders she carried the politicaldestiny of American women. With her were her counsel, Henry R. Seldenand John Van Voorhis, her sister, Hannah Mosher, most of the women whohad voted with her in Rochester, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, whoseinterest in this case was akin to her own. 

In the courtroom on the second floor, seated behind the bar, Susanwatched the curious crowd gather and fill every available seat. Shewondered, as she calmly surveyed the all-male jury, whether they couldpossibly understand the humiliation of a woman who had been arrestedfor exercising the rights of a citizen. The judge, Ward Hunt, did notpromise well, for he had only recently been appointed to the benchthrough the influence of his friend and townsman, Roscoe Conkling, theundisputed leader of the Republican party in New York and a bitteropponent of woman suffrage. She tried to fathom this small, white-haired, colorless judge upon whose fairness so much depended. Prim and stolid, he sat before her, faultlessly dressed in a suit ofblack broadcloth, his neck wound with an immaculate white neckcloth. He ruled against her at once, refusing to let her testify on her ownbehalf. 

She was completely satisfied, however, as she listened to HenrySelden's presentation of her case. Tall and commanding, he stoodbefore the court with nobility and kindness in his face and eyes, bringing to mind a handsome cultured Lincoln. So logical, so just washis reasoning, so impressive were his citations of the law that itseemed to her they must convince the jury and even the expressionlessjudge on the bench. 

Pointing out that the only alleged ground of the illegality of MissAnthony's vote was that she was a woman, Henry Selden declared, "Ifthe same act had been done by her brother under the samecircumstances, the act would have been not only innocent and laudable, but honorable; but having been done by a woman it is said to be acrime. .. . I believe this is the first instance in which a woman hasbeen arraigned in a criminal court, merely on account of hersex. "[305] He claimed that Miss Anthony had voted in good faith, believing that the United States Constitution gave her the right tovote, and he clearly outlined her interpretation of the Fourteenth andFifteenth Amendments, declaring that she stood arraigned as a criminalsimply because she took the only step possible to bring this greatconstitutional question before the courts. 

After he had finished, Susan followed closely for two long hours thearguments of the district attorney, Richard Crowley, who contendedthat whatever her intentions may have been, good or bad, she had byher voting violated a law of the United States and was thereforeguilty of crime. 

At the close of the district attorney's argument, Judge Hunt withoutleaving the bench drew out a written document, and to her surprise, read from it as he addressed the jury. "The right of voting or theprivilege of voting, " he declared, "is a right or privilege arisingunder the constitution of the State, not of the United States. [306]

"The Legislature of the State of New York, " he continued, "has seenfit to say, that the franchise of voting shall be limited to the malesex. .. . If the Fifteenth Amendment had contained the word 'sex, ' theargument of the defendant would have been potent. .. . The FourteenthAmendment gives no right to a woman to vote, and the voting of MissAnthony was in violation of the law. .. . 

"There was no ignorance of any fact, " he added, "but all the factsbeing known, she undertook to settle a principle in her own person. .. . To constitute a crime, it is true, that there must be a criminalintent, but it is equally true that knowledge of the facts of the caseis always held to supply this intent. .. . "

Then hesitating a moment, he concluded, "Upon this evidence I supposethere is no question for the jury and that the jury should be directedto find a verdict of guilty. "

Immediately Henry Selden was on his feet, addressing the judge, requesting that the jury determine whether or not the defendant wasguilty of crime. 

Judge Hunt, however, refused and firmly announced, "The question, gentlemen of the jury, in the form it finally takes, is wholly aquestion or questions of law, and I have decided as a question of law, in the first place, that under the Fourteenth Amendment which MissAnthony claims protects her, she was not protected in a right to vote. 

"And I have decided also, " he continued, "that her belief and theadvice which she took does not protect her in the act which shecommitted. If I am right in this, the result must be a verdict on yourpart of guilty, and therefore I direct that you find a verdict ofguilty. "

Again Henry Selden was on his feet. "That is a direction, " hedeclared, "that no court has power to make in a criminal case. "

The courtroom was tense. Susan, watching the jury and wondering ifthey would meekly submit to his will, heard the judge tersely order, "Take the verdict, Mr. Clerk. "

"Gentlemen of the jury, " intoned the clerk, "hearken to your verdictas the Court has recorded it. You say you find the defendant guilty ofthe offense whereof she stands indicted, and so say you all. "

Claiming exception to the direction of the Court that the jury find averdict of guilty in this a criminal case. Henry Selden asked that thejury be polled. 

To this, Judge Hunt abruptly replied, "No. Gentlemen of the jury, youare discharged. "

 * * * * *

That night Susan recorded her estimate of Judge Hunt's verdict in herdiary in one terse sentence, "The greatest outrage History everwitnessed. "[307]

The New York _Sun_, the Rochester _Democrat and Chronicle_, and theCanandaigua _Times_ were indignant over Judge Hunt's failure to pollthe jury. "Judge Hunt, " commented the _Sun_, "allowed the jury to beimpanelled and sworn, and to hear the evidence; but when the case hadreached the point of rendering the verdict, he directed a verdict ofguilty. He thus denied a trial by jury to an accused party in hiscourt; and either through malice, which we do not believe, or throughignorance, which in such a flagrant degree is equally culpable in ajudge, he violated one of the most important provisions of theConstitution of the United States. .. . The privilege of polling thejury has been held to be an absolute right in this State and it is asubstantial right . .. "[308]

Claiming that the defendant had been denied her right of trial byjury. Henry Selden the next day moved for a new trial. Judge Huntdenied the motion, and, ordering the defendant to stand up, asked her, "Has the prisoner anything to say why sentence shall not bepronounced. "[309]

"Yes, your honor, " Susan replied, "I have many things to say; for inyour ordered verdict of guilty, you have trampled underfoot everyvital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored. .. . "

Impatiently Judge Hunt protested that he could not listen to arehearsal of arguments which her counsel had already presented. 

"May it please your honor, " she persisted, "I am not arguing thequestion but simply stating the reasons why sentence cannot in justicebe pronounced against me. Your denial of my citizen's right to vote isthe denial of my right of consent as one of the governed, the denialof my right of representation as one of the taxed, the denial of myright to a trial by a jury of my peers . .. "

"The Court cannot allow the prisoner to go on, " interrupted JudgeHunt; but Susan, ignoring his command to sit down, protested that herprosecutors and the members of the jury were all her politicalsovereigns. 

Again Judge Hunt tried to stop her, but she was not to be put off. Shewas pleading for all women and her voice rang out to every corner ofthe courtroom. 

"The Court must insist, " declared Judge Hunt, "the prisoner has beentried according to established forms of law. "

"Yes, your honor, " admitted Susan, "but by forms of law all made bymen, interpreted by men, administered by men, in favor of men, andagainst women. .. . "

"The Court orders the prisoner to sit down, " shouted Judge Hunt. "Itwill not allow another word. "

Unheeding, Susan continued, "When I was brought before your honor fortrial, I hoped for a broad and liberal interpretation of theConstitution and its recent amendments, that should declare all UnitedStates citizens under its protecting aegis--that should declareequality of rights the national guarantee to all persons born ornaturalized in the United States. But failing to get thisjustice--failing, even, to get a trial by a jury _not_ of my peers--Iask not leniency at your hands--but rather the full rigors of thelaw. "

Once more Judge Hunt tried to stop her, and acquiescing at last, shesat down, only to be ordered by him to stand up as he pronounced hersentence, a fine of $100 and the costs of prosecution. 

"May it please your honor, " she protested, "I shall never pay a dollarof your unjust penalty. All the stock in trade I possess is a $10, 000debt, incurred by publishing my paper--_The Revolution_ . .. The soleobject of which was to educate all women to do precisely as I havedone, rebel against your man-made, unjust, unconstitutional forms oflaw, that tax, fine, imprison, and hang women, while they deny themthe right of representation in the government. .. . I shall earnestlyand persistently continue to urge all women to the practicalrecognition of the old revolutionary maxim that 'Resistance to tyrannyis obedience to God. '"

Pouring cold water on this blaze of oratory. Judge Hunt terselyremarked that the Court would not require her imprisonment pending thepayment of her fine. 

This shrewd move, obviously planned in advance, made it impossible tocarry the case to the United States Supreme Court by writ of habeascorpus. 

 * * * * *

That same afternoon, Susan was on hand for the trial of the threeelection inspectors. This time Judge Hunt submitted the case to thejury but with explicit instructions that the defendants were guilty. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the inspectors, denied anew trial, were each fined $25 and costs. Two of them, Edwin F. Marshand William B. Hall, refused to pay their fines and were sent to jail. Susan appealed on their behalf to Senator Sargent in Washington, whoeventually secured a pardon for them from President Grant. He alsopresented a petition to the Senate, in January 1874, to remit Susan'sfine, as did William Loughridge of Iowa to the House, but thejudiciary committees reported adversely. 

Because neither of these cases had been decided on the basis ofnational citizenship and the right of a citizen to vote, Susan washeartsick. To have them relegated to the category of election fraudwas as if her high purpose had been trailed in the dust. Wishing tospread reliable information about her trial and the legal questionsinvolved, she had 3, 000 copies of the court proceedings printed fordistribution. [310]

It was hard for her to concede that justice for women could not besecured in the courts, but there seemed to be no way in the face ofthe cold letter of the law to take her case to the Supreme Court ofthe United States. This would have been possible on writ of habeascorpus had Judge Hunt sentenced her to prison for failure to pay herfine, but this he carefully avoided. 

Even that intrepid fighter, John Van Voorhis, could find no loophole, and another of her loyal friends in the legal profession, Albert G. Riddle, wrote her, "There is not, I think, the slightest hope from thecourts and just as little from the politicians. They will never takeup this cause, never! Individuals will, parties never--till the thingis done. .. . The trouble is that man can govern alone, and that, thoughwoman has the right, man wants to do it, and if she wait for him toask her, she will never vote. .. . Either man must be made to see andfeel . .. The need of woman's help in the great field of humangovernment, and so demand it; or woman must arise and come forward asshe never has, and take her place. "[311]

The case of Virginia Minor of St. Louis still held out a glimmer ofhope. She had brought suit against an election inspector for hisrefusal to register her as a voter in the presidential election of1872, and the case of Minor vs. Happersett reached the United StatesSupreme Court in 1874. An adverse decision, on March 29, 1875, delivered by Chief Justice Waite, a friend of woman suffrage, was abitter blow to Susan and to all those who had pinned their faith on amore liberal interpretation of the Fourteenth and FifteenthAmendments. 

Carefully studying the decision, Susan tried to fathom its reasoning, so foreign to her own ideas of justice. "Sex, " she read, "has neverbeen made of one of the elements of citizenship in the UnitedStates. .. . The XIV Amendment did not affect the citizenship of womenany more than it did of men. .. . The direct question is, therefore, presented whether all citizens are necessarily voters. "[312]

She read on: "The Constitution does not define the privileges andimmunities of citizens. .. . In this case we need not determine whatthey are, but only whether suffrage is necessarily one of them. Itcertainly is nowhere made so in express terms. .. . 

"When the Constitution of the United States was adopted, all theseveral States, with the exception of Rhode Island, had Constitutionsof their own. .. . We find in no State were all citizens permitted tovote. .. . Women were excluded from suffrage in nearly all the States bythe express provision of their constitutions and laws . .. No new Statehas ever been admitted to the Union which has conferred the right ofsuffrage upon women, and this has never been considered validobjection to her admission. On the contrary . .. The right of suffragewas withdrawn from women as early as 1807 in the State of New Jersey, without any attempt to obtain the interference of the United States toprevent it. Since then the governments of the insurgent States havebeen reorganized under a requirement that, before theirRepresentatives could be admitted to seats in Congress, they must haveadopted new Constitutions, republican in form. In no one of theseConstitutions was suffrage conferred upon women, and yet the Stateshave all been restored to their original position as States in theUnion . .. Certainly if the courts can consider any question settled, this is one. .. . 

"Our province, " concluded Chief Justice Waite, "is to decide what thelaw is, not to declare what it should be. .. . Being unanimously of theopinion that the Constitution of the United States does not confer theright of suffrage upon any one, and that the Constitutions and laws ofthe several States which commit that important trust to men alone arenot necessarily void, we affirm the judgment of the Court below. "

"A states-rights document, " Susan called this decision and she scoredit as inconsistent with the policies of a Republican administrationwhich, through the Civil War amendments, had established federalcontrol over the rights and privileges of citizens. If theConstitution does not confer the right of suffrage, she asked herself, why does it define the qualifications of those voting for members ofthe House of Representatives? How about the enfranchisement of Negroesby federal amendment or the enfranchisement of foreigners? Why didthe federal government interfere in her case, instead of leaving it inthe hands of the state of New York?

Like most abolitionists, Susan had always regarded the principles ofthe Declaration of Independence as underlying the Constitution and asthe essence of constitutional law. In her opinion, the interpretationof the Constitution in the Virginia Minor case was not only out ofharmony with the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, but alsocontrary to the wise counsel of the great English jurist, Sir EdwardCoke, who said, "Whenever the question of liberty runs doubtful, thedecision must be given in favor of liberty. "[313]

In the face of such a ruling by the highest court in the land, she washelpless. Women were shut out of the Constitution and denied itsprotection. From here on there was only one course to follow, to pressagain for a Sixteenth Amendment to enfranchise women. 

FOOTNOTES:

[304] Ms. , Diary, April 26, 1873. 

[305] _Trial_, p. 17. 

[306] _Ibid. _, pp. 62-68. 

[307] Ms. , Diary, June 18, 1873. 

[308] Susan B. Anthony Scrapbook, 1873, Library of Congress. 

[309] _Trial_, pp. 81-85. 

[310] This booklet also included the speeches of Susan B. Anthony andMatilda Joslyn Gage, delivered prior to the trial, and a shortappraisal of the trial, _Judge Hunt and the Right of Trial by Jury_, by John Hooker, the husband of Isabella Beecher Hooker. The Rochester_Democrat and Chronicle_ called the booklet "the most importantcontribution yet made to the discussion of woman suffrage from a legalstandpoint. " The _Woman's Suffrage Journal_, IV, Aug. 1, 1873, p. 121, published in England by Lydia Becker, said: "The American law whichmakes it a criminal offense for a person to vote who is not legallyqualified appears harsh to our ideas. "

[311] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 455-456. 

[312] _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, pp. 737-739, 741-742. 

[313] _Trial_, p. 191. 

SOCIAL PURITY

Militancy among the suffragists continued to flare up here and therein resistance to taxation without representation. Abby Kelley Foster'shome in Worcester was sold for taxes for a mere fraction of its worth, while in Glastonbury, Connecticut, Abby and Julia Smith's cows andpersonal property were seized for taxes. Both Dr. Harriot K. Hunt inBoston and Mary Anthony in Rochester continued their tax protests. Much as Susan admired this spirited rebellion, she recognized thatthese militant gestures were but flames in the wind unless they hadbehind them a well-organized, sustained campaign for a SixteenthAmendment, and this she could not undertake until _The Revolution_debt was paid. Nor was there anyone to pinch-hit for her sinceErnestine Rose had returned to England and Mrs. Stanton gave all hertime to Lyceum lectures. 

At the moment the prospect looked bleak for woman suffrage. InCongress, there was not the slightest hope of the introduction of oraction on a Sixteenth Amendment. In the states, interest was keptalive by woman suffrage bills before the legislatures, and year byyear, with more people recognizing the inherent justice of the demand, the margin of defeat grew smaller. Whenever these state contests werecritical, Susan managed to be on hand, giving up profitable lectureengagements to speak without fees; in Michigan in 1874 and in Iowa in1875, she made new friends for the cause but was unable to stem thetide of prejudice against granting women the vote. After the defeat inMichigan, she wrote in her diary, "Every whisky maker, vendor, drinker, gambler, every ignorant besotted man is against us, and thenthe other extreme, every narrow, selfish religious bigot. "[314]

A new militant movement swept the country in 1874, starting in smallOhio towns among women who were so aroused over the evil influence ofliquor on husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers, that they gathered infront of saloons to sing and pray, hoping to persuade drunkards toreform and saloon keepers to close their doors. Out of this uprising, the Women's Christian Temperance Union developed, and within the nextfew years was organized into a powerful reform movement by a youngschoolteacher from Illinois, Frances E. Willard. 

A lifelong advocate of temperance, Susan had long before reached theconclusion that this reform could not be achieved by a strictlytemperance or religious movement, but only through the votes of women. Nevertheless, she lent a helping hand to the Rochester women whoorganized a branch of the W. C. T. U. , but she told them just how shefelt: "The best thing this organization will do for you will be toshow you how utterly powerless you are to put down the liquor traffic. You can never talk down or sing down or pray down an institution whichis voted into existence. You will never be able to lessen this eviluntil you have votes. "[315]

As she traveled through the West for the Lyceum Bureau, she did whatshe could to stimulate interest in a federal woman suffrage amendment, speaking out of a full heart and with sure knowledge on "Bread and theBallot" and "The Power of the Ballot, " earning on the average $100 aweek, which she applied to the _Revolution_ debt. 

Lyceum lecturers were now at the height of theirpopularity, --particularly in the West, where in the little townsscattered across the prairies there were few libraries and theaters, and the distribution of books, magazines, and newspapers in no way metthe people's thirst for information or entertainment. Men, women, andchildren rode miles on horseback or drove over rough roads in wagonsto see and hear a prominent lecturer. Susan was always a drawing card, for a woman on the lecture platform still was a novelty and almosteveryone was curious about Susan B. Anthony. Many, to their surprise, discovered she was not the caricature they had been led to believe. She looked very ladylike and proper as she stood before them in herdark silk platform dress, a little too stern and serious perhaps, butfrequently her face lighted up with a friendly smile. She spoke tothem as equals and they could follow her reasoning. Her simpleconversational manner was refreshing after the sonorous pretentiousoratory of other lecturers. 

Continuous travel in all kinds of weather was difficult. Branch lineswere slow and connections poor. Often trains were delayed byblizzards, and then to keep her engagements she was obliged to travelby sleigh over the snowy prairies. There were long waits in dingydirty railroad stations late at night. Even there she was always busy, reading her newspapers in the dim light or dashing off letters home onany scrap of paper she had at hand, thinking gratefully of her sisterMary who in addition to her work as superintendent of the neighborhoodpublic school, supervised the household at 7 Madison Street. Hotelrooms were cold and drab, the food was uninviting, and onlyoccasionally did she find to her delight "a Christian cup ofcoffee. "[316] She often felt that the Lyceum Bureau drove herunnecessarily hard, routed her inefficiently, and profited toogenerously from her labors. Now and then she dispensed with theirservices, sent out her own circulars soliciting engagements, andarranged her own tours, proving to her satisfaction that a woman couldbe as businesslike as a man and sometimes more so. [317]

Weighed down by worry over the illness of her sisters, Guelma andHannah, she felt a lack of fire and enthusiasm in her work. Anxiouslyshe waited for letters from home, and when none reached her she was indespair. At such times, hotel rooms seemed doubly lonely and shereproached herself for being away from home and for putting too heavya burden on her sister Mary. Yet there was nothing else to be doneuntil the _Revolution_ debt was paid, for some of her creditors werebecoming impatient. 

 * * * * *

As often as possible Susan returned to Rochester to be with herfamily, and was able to nurse Guelma through the last weeks of herillness. Heartbroken when she died, in November 1873, she resolved totake better care of Hannah, sending her out to Colorado and Kansas forher health. She then tried to spend the summer months at home so thatMary could visit Hannah in Colorado and Daniel and Merritt in Kansas. 

These months at home with her mother whom she dearly loved were agreat comfort to them both. They enjoyed reading aloud, finding GeorgeEliot's _Middlemarch_ and Hawthorne's _Scarlet Letter_ of particularinterest as Susan was searching for the answers to many questionswhich had been brought into sharp focus by the Beecher-Tilton case, now filling the newspapers. Like everyone else, she read the latestdevelopments in this tragic involvement of three of her good friends. She was especially concerned about Elizabeth and Theodore Tilton, inwhose home she had so often visited and toward whom she felt a warmmotherly affection. Her sympathy went out to Elizabeth Tilton, whosehelp and loyalty during the difficult days of _The Revolution_ shenever forgot. Although she had often differed with Theodore, whosequick changes of policy and temperament she could not understand, hehad won her gratitude many times by befriending the cause. The samewas true of Henry Ward Beecher, who had found time in his busy life tosay a good word for woman's rights. 

Susan was close to the facts, for in desperation a few years before, Elizabeth Tilton had confided in her. Unfortunately both Elizabeth andTheodore had made confidants of others less wise than Susan. Mrs. Stanton had passed the story along to Victoria Woodhull, who late in1872 had revived her _Weekly_ for a crusade on what she called "thesocial question" and had published her expose, "The Beecher-TiltonScandal Case. " As a result the lives of all involved were being ruinedby merciless publicity. 

The Beecher-Tilton story as it unfolded revealed three admirablepeople caught in a tangled web of human relationships. Henry WardBeecher, for years a close friend and benefactor of his youngparishioners, Theodore and Elizabeth Tilton, had been accused byTheodore of immoral relations with Elizabeth. Accusations and denialscontinued while intrigue and negotiations deepened the confusion. Thewhole matter burst into flame in 1874 in the trial of Henry WardBeecher before a committee of Plymouth Church, which exonerated him. Reading Beecher's statement in her newspaper, Susan impulsively wroteIsabella Beecher Hooker, "Wouldn't you think if God ever did strikeanyone dead for telling a lie, he would have struck then?"[318]

When early in 1875 the Beecher-Tilton case reached the courts in asuit brought by Theodore Tilton against Henry Ward Beecher for thealienation of his wife's affections, it became headline newsthroughout the country. The press, greedy for sensation, publishedanything and everything even remotely connected with the case. Reporters hounded Susan, who by this time was again lecturing in theWest, and she seldom entered a train, bus, or hotel without findingthem at her heels, as if by their very persistence they meant to forceher to express her opinion regarding the guilt or innocence of HenryWard Beecher. They never caught her off guard and she steadfastlyrefused to reveal to them, or to the lawyers of either side, whoastutely approached her, the story which Elizabeth Tilton had told herin confidence. Yet in spite of her continued silence, she was twicequoted by the press, once through the impulsiveness of Mrs. Stanton, who expressed herself frankly at every opportunity, and again when theNew York _Graphic_ without Susan's consent published her letter toMrs. Hooker. 

The sympathy of the public was generally with Henry Ward Beecher, whose popularity and prestige were tremendous. A dynamic preacher, whose sermons drew thousands to his church and whose written wordcarried religion and comfort to every part of the country, he couldnot suddenly be ruined by the circulation of a scandal or even by asensational trial. Behind him were all those who were convinced thatthe future of the Church and Morality demanded his vindication. On hisside, also, as Susan well knew, was the powerful, behind-the-scenesinfluence of the financial interests who profited from Plymouth Churchreal estate, from the earnings of Beecher's paper, _Christian Union_, and from his book the _Life of Christ_, now in preparation and forwhich he had already been paid $20, 000. 

Susan and Mrs. Stanton paid the penalty of being on the unpopularside. When Elizabeth Tilton was not allowed to testify in her owndefense, they accused Beecher and Tilton of ruthlessly sacrificing herto save their own reputations. In fact, Susan and Mrs. Stanton knewfar too much about the case for the comfort of either Beecher orTilton, and to discredit them, a whispering campaign, and then a presscampaign was initiated against them. They and their National WomanSuffrage Association were again accused of upholding free love. Theirprevious association with Victoria Woodhull was held against them, aswere the frank discussions of marriage and divorce published in _TheRevolution_ six years before. 

Actually Susan's views on marriage were idealistic. "I hate the wholedoctrine of 'variety' or 'promiscuity, '" she wrote John Hooker, thehusband of her friend Isabella. "I am not even a believer in secondmarriages after one of the parties is dead, so sacred and binding do Iconsider the marriage relation. "[319]

Although in public Susan uttered not one word relating to the guilt orinnocence of Henry Ward Beecher, she did confide her real feelings toher diary. She believed that to save himself Beecher was withholdingthe explanation which the situation demanded. "It is almost animpossibility, " she wrote in her diary, "for a man and a woman to havea close sympathetic friendship without the tendrils of one soulbecoming fastened around the other, with the result of infinite painand anguish. " Then again she wrote, "There is nothing moredemoralizing than lying. The act itself is scarcely so base as the liewhich denies it. "[320]

Susan's silence probably brought her more notoriety than anything shecould have said on this much discussed subject, and it heightened herreputation for honesty and integrity. "Miss Anthony, " commented theNew York _Sun_, "is a lady whose word will everywhere be believed bythose who know anything of her character. " The Rochester _Democrat andChronicle_ had this to say: "Whether she will make any definiterevelations remains to be seen, but whatever she does say will bereceived by the public with that credit which attaches to the evidenceof a truthful witness. Her own character, known and honored by thecountry, will give importance to any utterances she may make. "[321]

She was not called as a witness by either side during the 112 days oftrial which ended in July 1875 with the jury unable to agree on averdict. 

 * * * * *

Realizing that many taboos were being broken down by the luridnation-wide publicity on the Beecher-Tilton case and that as a resultpeople were more willing to consider subjects which hitherto had notbeen discussed in polite society, Susan began to plan a lecture on"Social Purity. "

She was familiar with the public protest Englishwomen under theleadership of Josephine Butler were making against the stateregulation of vice. Following with interest and admiration theircourageous fight for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, whichplaced women suspected of prostitution under police power, Susan foundencouragement in the support these reformers had received from suchmen as John Stuart Mill and Jacob Bright. Such legislation, sheresolved, must not gain a foothold in her country, because it not onlydisregarded women's right to personal liberty but showed a dangerouscallousness toward men's share of responsibility for prostitution. 

She was awake to the problems prostitution presented in cities likeNew York and Washington, its prevalence, the police protection itreceived, the political corruption it fostered and the reluctance ofthe public to face the situation, the majority of men regarding it asa necessity, and most women closing their eyes to its existence. 

During the winter of 1875, while the Beecher-Tilton case was beingtried in Brooklyn, she delivered her speech on "Social Purity" at theChicago Grand Opera House, in the Sunday dime-lecture course, facingwith trepidation the immense crowd which gathered to hear her. Eventhe daring Mrs. Stanton had warned her that she would never be askedto speak in Chicago again, and with this the manager of the SlaytonLecture Bureau agreed. But they were wrong. The people were hungry forthe truth and for a constructive policy. In the past they had heardthe "social evil" described and denounced in vivid thunderous words byeloquent men and by the dramatic Anna E. Dickinson. Now an earnestwoman with graying hair, one of their own kind, talked to them withoutmincing matters, calmly and logically, and offered them a remedy. 

Calling their attention to the daily newspaper reports of divorce andbreach-of-promise suits, of wife murders and "paramour" shootings, ofabortions and infanticide, she told them that the prevalence of theseevils showed clearly that men were incapable of coping with themsuccessfully and needed the help of women. She cited statistics, revealing 20, 000 prostitutes in the city of New York, where afoundling hospital during the first six months of its existencerescued 1, 300 waifs laid in baskets on its doorstep. She courageouslymentioned the prevalence of venereal disease and spoke out againstEngland's Contagious Diseases Acts which were repeatedly suggested forNew York and Washington and which she described as licensedprostitution, men's futile and disastrous attempt to deal with socialcorruption. 

Declaring that the poverty and economic dependence of women as well asthe passions of men were the causes of prostitution, she quoted morestatistics which showed a great increase in the poverty of women. Workformerly done in the household, she explained, was being graduallytaken over by factories, with the result that women in order to earn aliving had been forced to follow it out of the home and weresupporting themselves wholly or in part at a wage inadequate to meettheir needs. No wonder many were tempted by food, clothes, andcomfortable shelter into an immoral life. 

Her solution was "to lift this vast army of poverty-stricken women whonow crowd our cities, above the temptation, the necessity, to sellthemselves in marriage or out, for bread and shelter. " "Women, " shetold them, "must be educated out of their unthinking acceptance offinancial dependence on man into mental and economic independence. Girls like boys must be educated to some lucrative employment. Womenlike men must have an equal chance to earn a living. "[322]

"Whoever controls work and wages, " she continued, "controls morals. Therefore we must have women employers, superintendents, committees, legislators; wherever girls go to seek the means of subsistence, theremust be some woman. Nay, more; we must have women preachers, lawyers, doctors--that wherever women go to seek counsel--spiritual, legal, physical--there, too, they will be sure to find the best and noblestof their own sex to minister to them. "

Then she added, "Marriage, to women as to men, must be a luxury, not anecessity; an incident of life, not all of it. .. . Marriage never willcease to be a wholly unequal partnership until the law recognizes theequal ownership in the joint earnings and possessions. "

She asked for the vote so that women would have the power to help makethe laws relating to marriage, divorce, adultery, breach of promise, rape, bigamy, infanticide, and so on. These laws, she reminded them, have not only been framed by men, but are administered by men. Judges, jurors, lawyers, all are men, and no woman's voice is heard in ourcourts except as accused or witness, and in many cases the marriedwoman is denied the right to testify as to her guilt or innocence. 

Never before had the audience heard the case for social puritypresented in this way and they listened intently. When the applausewas subsiding, Susan saw Parker Pillsbury and Bronson Alcott, fellow-lecturers on the Lyceum circuit, coming toward her, smilingapproval. They were generous in their praise, Bronson Alcottdeclaring, "You have stated here this afternoon, in a fearless manner, truths that I have hardly dared to think, much less to utter. "[323]

She repeated this lecture in St. Louis, in Wisconsin, and in Kansas, and while most city newspapers, acknowledging the need of facing theissues, praised her courage, small-town papers were frankly disturbedby a spinster's public discussion of the "social evil, " one paperobserving, "The best lecture a woman can give the community . .. On thesad 'evil' . .. Is the sincerity of her profound ignorance on thesubject. "[324]

 * * * * *

Having bravely done her bit for social purity, Susan with reliefturned again to her favorite lecture, "Bread and the Ballot. " Hermessage fell on fertile ground. These western men and women sawjustice in her reasoning. Having broken with tradition by leaving theEast for the frontier, they could more easily drop old ways for new. Western men also recognized the influence for good that women hadbrought to lonely bleak western towns--better homes, cleanliness, comfort, then schools, churches, law and order--and many of them werewilling to give women the vote. All they needed was prodding totranslate that willingness into law. 

As she continued her lecturing, she kept her watchful eye on herfamily and the annual New York and Washington conventions, attendingto many of the routine details herself. Finally, on May 1, 1876, sherecorded in her diary, "The day of Jubilee for me has come. I havepaid the last dollar of the _Revolution_ debt. "[325]

Even the press took notice, the Chicago _Daily News_ commenting, "Byworking six years and devoting to the purpose all the money she couldearn, she has paid the debt and interest. And now, when the creditorsof that paper and others who really know her, hear the name of SusanB. Anthony, they feel inclined to raise their hats in reverence. "[326]

FOOTNOTES:

[314] Ms. , Diary, Nov. 4, 1874. 

[315] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 457. Frances Willard took her stand forwoman suffrage in the W. C. T. U. In 1876. 

[316] Ms. , Diary, Sept. , 1877. 

[317] To James Redpath, Dec. 23, 1870, Alma Lutz Collection. 

[318] New York _Graphic_, Sept. 12, 1874. Mrs. Hooker believed herhalf-brother guilty and repeatedly urged him to confess, assuring himshe would join him in announcing "a new social freedom. " Kenneth R. Andrews, Nook Farm (Cambridge, Mass. , 1950), pp. 36-39. Rumors thatMrs. Hooker was insane were deliberately circulated. 

[319] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 463. 

[320] _Ibid. _ Only a few entries relating to the Beecher-Tilton caseremain in the Susan B. Anthony diaries, now in the Library ofCongress, and the diary for 1875 is not there. 

[321] _Ibid. _, p. 462. 

[322] _Ibid. _, II, pp. 1007-1009. 

[323] _Ibid. _, I, p. 468. 

[324] _Ibid. _, p. 470. Miss Anthony interrupted her lecturing for nineweeks to nurse her brother Daniel after he had been shot by a rivaleditor in Leavenworth. 

[325] _Ibid. _, p. 472. 

[326] _Ibid. _, p. 473. 

A FEDERAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT

Like everyone else in the United States in 1876, Susan now turned herattention to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, which wasproclaiming to the world the progress this new country had made. Susanpointed out, however, that one hundred years after the signing of theDeclaration of Independence, women were still deprived of basiccitizenship rights. 

As an afterthought, a Woman's Pavilion had been erected on theexposition grounds and exhibited here she found only women'scontribution to the arts but nothing which would in any way show thepart women had played in building up the country or developingindustry. She longed to explain so that all could hear how the skilledwork of women had contributed to the prosperous textile and shoeindustries, to the manufacture of cartridges and Waltham watches, andcountless other products. Could she have had her way, she would havemade the Woman's Pavilion an eloquent appeal for equal rights, butunable to do this, she established a center of rebellion for theNational Woman Suffrage Association at 1431 Chestnut Street, inparlors on the first floor. Here she spent many happy hours directingthe work, often sleeping on the sofa so that she could work late andsave money for the cause. 

Philadelphia had always been a friendly city because of Lucretia Mott. Now Lucretia came almost daily to the women's headquarters, bringing acomforting sense of support, approval, and friendship. When Mrs. Stanton, free at last from her lecture engagements, joined them inJune, Susan's happiness was complete and she confided to her diary, "Glad enough to see her and feel her strength come in. "[327]

Susan and Mrs. Stanton now sent the Republican and Democratic nationalconventions well-written memorials pointing out the appropriateness ofenfranchising women in this centennial year. But no woman suffrageplank was adopted by either party. Susan put Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Gage to work on a Women's Declaration of 1876, and so "magnificent" adocument did they produce that she not only had many copies printedfor distribution but had one beautifully engrossed on parchment forpresentation to President Grant at the Fourth of July celebration inIndependence Square. 

Unable to secure permission to present this declaration, she madeplans of her own. For herself, she managed to get a press card asreporter for her brother's paper, the Leavenworth _Times_. Mrs. Stanton and Lucretia Mott refused to attend the celebration, soindignant were they over the snubs women had received from theCentennial Commission, and they held a women's meeting at the FirstUnitarian Church. When at the last minute four tickets were sent Susanby the Centennial Commission, she gave them to the most militant ofher colleagues, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Lillie Devereux Blake, SarahAndrews Spencer, and Phoebe Couzins. With Susan in the lead, theypushed through the jostling crowd to Independence Square on thatbright hot Fourth of July and were seated among the elect on theplatform. 

By this time they had learned that Thomas W. Ferry of Michigan, ActingVice President, would substitute for President Grant at the ceremony. Because he was a good friend of woman suffrage, Phoebe Couzins madeone more effort for orderly procedure, sending him a note asking forpermission to present the Women's Declaration. This failed, and ratherthan take part in creating a disturbance, she withdrew, leaving herfour friends on the platform. 

"We . .. Sat there waiting . .. " reported Mrs. Blake. "The heat wasfrightful. .. . Amid such a throng it was difficult to hear anything . .. We decided that our presentation should take place immediately afterMr. Richard Lee of Virginia, grandson of the Signer, had read theDeclaration of Independence. He read it from the original document, and it was an impressive moment when that time-honored parchment wasexposed to the view of the wildly cheering crowd. .. . Mr. Lee's voicewas inaudible, but at last I caught the words, 'our sacred honors, 'and cried, 'Now is the time. '

"We all four rose, Miss Anthony first, next Mrs. Gage, bearing ourengrossed Declaration, and Mrs. Spencer and myself following withhundreds of printed copies in our hands. There was a stir in thecrowd just at the time, and General Hawley who had been keeping a waryeye on us, had relaxed his vigilance for a moment, as he signed to theband to resume playing. He did not see us advancing until we reachedthe Vice President's dais. There Miss Anthony, taking the parchmentfrom Mrs. Gage, stepped forward and presented it to Mr. Ferry, saying, 'I present to you a Declaration of Rights from the women citizens ofthe United States. '"[328]

Nonplussed, Mr. Ferry bowed low and received the Declaration without aword. Then the four intrepid women filed out, distributing printedcopies of their declaration while General Hawley boomed out, "Order!Order!"

Leaving the square and mounting a platform erected for musicians infront of Independence Hall, they waited until a curious crowd hadgathered around them. Then while Mrs. Gage held an umbrella over Susanto shield her from the hot sun, she read the Women's Declaration in aloud clear voice that carried far. 

"We do rejoice in the success, thus far, of our experiment ofself-government, " she began. "Our faith is firm and unwavering in thebroad principles of human rights proclaimed in 1776, not only asabstract truths, but as the cornerstones of a republic. Yet we cannotforget, even in this glad hour, that while all men of every race, andclime, and condition, have been invested with the full rights ofcitizenship under our hospitable flag, all women still suffer thedegradation of disfranchisement. "[329]

Then she enumerated women's grievances and the crowd applauded as shedrove home point after point. 

"Woman, " she continued, "has shown equal devotion with man to thecause of freedom and has stood firmly by his side in its defense. Together they have made this country what it is. .. . We ask our rulers, at this hour, no special favors, no special privileges. .. . We askjustice, we ask equality, we ask that all civil and political rightsthat belong to the citizens of the United States be guaranteed to usand our daughters forever. "

Stepping down from the platform into the applauding crowd whicheagerly reached for printed copies of the declaration, she and herfour companions hurried to the First Unitarian Church where an eageraudience awaited their report and hailed their courage. 

[Illustration: Aaron A. Sargent]

The New York _Tribune_, commenting on Susan's militancy, prophesiedthat it foreshadowed "the new forms of violence and disregard of orderwhich may accompany the participation of women in active partisanpolitics. "[330]

 * * * * *

Nor was Congress impressed by Susan's centennial publicity demanding afederal woman suffrage amendment. She had gathered petitions fromtwenty-six states with 10, 000 signatures which were presented to theSenate in 1877. The majority of the Senators found these petitionsuproariously funny, and Susan in the visitors' gallery at the time oftheir presentation was infuriated by the mirth and disrespect of thesemen. "A few read the petitions as they would any other, with dignityand without comment, " reported the popular journalist, Mary Clemmer, in her weekly Washington column, "but the majority seemed intenselyconscious of holding something unutterably funny in their hands. .. . The entire Senate presented the appearance of a laughing schoolpracticing sidesplitting and ear-extended grins. " After a few humorousand sarcastic remarks the petitions were referred to the Committee onPublic Lands. Only one Senator, Aaron A. Sargent of California, was"man enough and gentleman enough to lift the petitions from thisinsulting proposition. .. . He . .. Demanded for the petition of morethan 10, 000 women at least the courtesy which would be given anyother. "[331]

Although his words did not deter the Senators, Susan was proud of thistall vigorous white-haired Californian and grateful for hisspontaneous support in this humiliating situation. He had been atrusted friend and counselor ever since she had shared with him andhis family the long snowy journey from Nevada in 1872. She lookedforward to the time when woman suffrage would have more such advocatesin the Congress and when she would find there new faces and a moreliberal spirit. 

Disappointment only drove Susan into more intensive activity. Betweenlectures she now nursed her sister Hannah who was critically ill inDaniel's home in Leavenworth. After Hannah's death in May 1877, Susanworked off her grief in Colorado, where the question of votes forwomen was being referred to the people of the state. 

The suffragists in Colorado were headed by Dr. Alida Avery, who hadleft her post as resident physician at the new woman's college, Vassar, to practice medicine in Denver. Making Dr. Avery's home herheadquarters, Susan carried her plea for the ballot to settlements farfrom the railroads, traveling by stagecoach over rough lonely roadsthrough magnificent scenery. Holding meetings wherever she could, shespoke in schoolhouses, in hotel dining rooms, and even in saloons, when no other place was available, and always she was treated withrespect and listened to with interest. Occasionally only a merehandful gathered to hear her, but in Lake City she spoke to anaudience of a thousand or more from a dry-goods box on the court-housesteps. She was equal to anything, but the mining towns depressed her, for they were swarming with foreigners who had been welcomed asnaturalized, enfranchised citizens and who almost to a man opposedextending the vote to women. This precedence of foreign-born men overAmerican women was not only galling to her but menaced, she believed, the growth of American democracy. 

Woman suffrage was defeated in Colorado in 1877, two to one. With theChinese coming into the state in great numbers to work in the mines, the specter that stalked through this campaign was the fear of puttingthe ballot into the hands of Chinese women. 

From Colorado, Susan moved on to Nebraska with a new lecture, "TheHomes of Single Women. " Although she much preferred to speak on "Womanand the Sixteenth Amendment" or "Bread and the Ballot, " she realizedthat, in order to be assured of return engagements, she mustoccasionally vary her subjects, but she was unwilling to wander farafield while women's needs still were so great. By means of this newlecture she hoped to dispel the widespread, deeply ingrained fallacythat single women were unwanted helpless creatures wholly dependentupon some male relative for a home and support. Aware that thismistaken estimate was slowly yielding in the face of a changingeconomic order, she believed she could help lessen its hold bypresenting concrete examples of independent self-supporting singlewomen who had proved that marriage was not the only road to securityand a home. She told of Alice and Phoebe Cary, whose home in New YorkCity was a rendezvous for writers, artists, musicians, and reformers;of Dr. Clemence Lozier, the friend of women medical students; of MaryL. Booth, well established through her income as editor of _Harper'sBazaar_; and of her beloved Lydia Mott, whose home had been a refugefor fugitive slaves and reformers. [332]

In Nebraska, she made a valuable new friend for the cause, ClaraBewick Colby, whose zeal and earnest, intelligent face at onceattracted her. Within a few years, Mrs. Colby established in Beatrice, Nebraska, a magazine for women, the _Woman's Tribune_, which toSusan's joy spoke out for a federal woman suffrage amendment. 

Because Susan's contract with the Slayton Lecture Bureau allowed nobreak in her engagements, she was obliged to leave the Washingtonconvention of the National Woman Suffrage Association in the hands ofothers in 1878. It was much on her mind as she traveled throughDakota, Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas, and she sent a check for $100to help with the expenses of the convention. Particularly on her mindwas a federal woman suffrage amendment, for since 1869 when aSixteenth Amendment enfranchising women had been introduced inCongress and ignored, no further efforts along that line had beenmade. Now good news came from Mrs. Stanton, who had attended theconvention. She had persuaded Senator Sargent to introduce in theSenate, on January 10, 1878, a new draft of a Sixteenth Amendment, following the wording of the Fifteenth. It read, "The right ofcitizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridgedby the United States or by any State on account of sex. "[333]

[Illustration: Clara Bewick Colby]

 * * * * *

During the next few years the Sixteenth Amendment made little headway, although the complexion of Congress changed, the Democrats breakingthe Republicans' hold and winning a substantial majority. Encouragingas was the more liberal spirit of the new Congress and the defeat ofseveral implacable enemies, Susan found California's failure to returnSenator Sargent an irreparable loss. In addition she now had to face anewly formed group of anti-suffragists under the leadership of Mrs. Dahlgren, Mrs. Sherman, and Almira Lincoln Phelps, who sang therefrain which Congressmen loved to hear, that women did not want thevote because it would wreck marriage and the home. 

Hoping to counteract this adverse influence by increased pressure forthe Sixteenth Amendment, Susan once more appealed for help to theAmerican Woman Suffrage Association through her old friends, WilliamLloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips. Garrison replied that her effortsfor a federal amendment were premature and "would bring the movementinto needless contempt. " This she found strange advice from the manwho had fearlessly defied public opinion to crusade against slavery. Wendell Phillips did better, writing, "I think you are on the righttrack--the best method to agitate the question, and I am with you, though between you and me, I still think the individual States mustlead off, and that this reform must advance piecemeal, State by State. But I mean always to help everywhere and everyone. "[334]

The American Association continued to follow the state-by-statemethod, and this holding back aroused Susan to the boiling point, forexperience had taught her that in state elections woman suffrage facedthe prejudiced opposition of an ever-increasing number of naturalizedimmigrants, who had little understanding of democratic government orsympathy with the rights of women. A federal amendment, on the otherhand, depending for its adoption upon Congress and ratifyinglegislatures, was in the hands of a far more liberal, intelligent, andpreponderantly American group. "We have puttered with State rights forthirty years, " she sputtered, "without a foothold except in theterritories. "[335]

Year by year she continued her Washington conventions, convinced thatthese gatherings in the national capital could not fail to impressCongressmen with the seriousness of their purpose. As women from manystates lobbied for the Sixteenth Amendment, reporting a growingsentiment everywhere for woman suffrage, as they received in the pressrespectful friendly publicity, Congressmen began to take notice. Atthe large receptions held at the Riggs House, through the generosityof the proprietors, Jane Spofford and her husband, Congressmen becamebetter acquainted with the suffragists, finding that they were notcranks, as they had supposed, but intelligent women and sociallycharming. 

Mrs. Stanton's poise as presiding officer and the warmth of herpersonality made her the natural choice for president of the NationalWoman Suffrage Association through the years. Her popularity, now wellestablished throughout the country after her ten years of lecturingon the Lyceum circuit, lent prestige to the cause. To Susan, herpresence brought strength and the assurance that "the brave and trueword" would be spoken. [336] A new office had been created for Susan, that of vice-president at large, and in that capacity she guided, steadied, and prodded her flock. 

The subjects which the conventions discussed covered a wide fieldgoing far beyond their persistent demands for a federal woman suffrageamendment. Not only did they at this time urge an educationalqualification for voters to combat the argument that woman suffragewould increase the ignorant vote, but they also protested the countingof women in the basis of representation so long as they weredisfranchised. They criticized the church for barring women from theministry and from a share in church government. They took up the caseof Anna Ella Carroll, [337] who had been denied recognition and apension for her services to her country during the Civil War, and theyurged pensions for all women who had nursed soldiers during the war. They welcomed to their conventions Mormon women from Utah who came toWashington to protest efforts to disfranchise them as a means ofdiscouraging polygamy. 

Susan injected international interest into these conventions byreading Alexander Dumas's arguments for woman suffrage, letters fromVictor Hugo and English suffragists, and a report by Mrs. Stanton'sson, Theodore, now a journalist, of the International Congress inParis in 1878, which discussed the rights of women. Occasionallyforeign-born women, now making new homes for themselves in thiscountry, joined the ranks of the suffragists, and a few of them, likeMadam Anneké and Clara Heyman from Germany contributed a great dealthrough their eloquence and wider perspective. These contacts with thethoughts and aspirations of men and women of other countries led Susanto dream of an international conference of women in the not toodistant future. [338]

FOOTNOTES:

[327] Ms. , Diary, June 18, 1876. 

[328] Katherine D. Blake and Margaret Wallace, _Champion of Women, TheLife of Lillie Devereux Blake_ (New York, 1943), pp. 124-126. 

[329] _History of Woman Suffrage_, III, pp. 31, 34. The Woman'sJournal surprised Susan with a friendly editorial, "Good Use of theFourth of July, " written by Lucy Stone, July 15, 1876. 

[330] _History of Woman Suffrage_, III, p. 43. The Philadelphia_Press_ praised the Declaration of Rights and the women in thesuffrage movement. The report of the New York _Post_ was patronizinglyfavorable, pointing out the indifference of the public to the subject. 

[331] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 485-486. 

[332] Ms. , Susan B. Anthony Papers, Library of Congress. 

[333] This amendment was re-introduced in the same form in everysucceeding Congress until it was finally passed in 1919 as theNineteenth Amendment. It was ratified by the states in 1920, 14 yearsafter Susan B. Anthony's death. When occasionally during her lifetimeit was called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment by those who wished tohonor her devotion to the cause, she protested, meticulously givingElizabeth Cady Stanton credit for making the first public demand forwoman suffrage in 1848. She also made it clear that although sheworked for the amendment long and hard, she did not draft it. Afterher death, during the climax of the woman suffrage campaign, thesefacts were overlooked by the younger workers who made a point offeaturing the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, both because they wished toimmortalize her and because they realized the publicity value of hername. 

[334] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 484. 

[335] _History of Woman Suffrage_, III, p. 66. 

[336] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 544. 

[337] _History of Woman Suffrage_, III, p. 153; II, pp. 3-12, 863-868;Sarah Ellen Blackwell, _A Military Genius, Life of Anna Ella Carrollof Maryland_ (Washington, D. C. , 1891), I, pp. 153-154. 

[338] "Woman Suffrage as a Means of Moral Improvement and thePrevention of Crime" by Alexander Dumas, _History of Woman Suffrage_, III, p. 190. Theodore Stanton, foreign correspondent for the New York_Tribune_, now lived in Paris. 

RECORDING WOMEN'S HISTORY

Recording women's history for future generations was a project thathad been in the minds of both Susan and Mrs. Stanton for a long time. Both looked upon women's struggle for a share in government as apotent force in strengthening democracy and one to be emphasized inhistory. Men had always been the historians and had as a matter ofcourse extolled men's exploits, passing over women's record asnegligible. Susan intended to remedy this and she was convinced thatif women close to the facts did not record them now, they would beforgotten or misinterpreted by future historians. Already many of theold workers had died, Martha C. Wright, Lydia Mott, whom Susan hadnursed in her last illness, Lucretia Mott, and William Lloyd Garrison. There was no time to be lost. [339]

In the spring of 1880, Susan's mother died, and it was no longernecessary for her to fit into her schedule frequent visits inRochester. Her sister Mary, busy with her teaching, was sharing herhome with her two widowed brothers-in-law and two nieces whoseeducation she was supervising. [340] Mrs. Stanton had just given up thestrenuous life of a Lyceum lecturer and welcomed work that would keepher at home. Susan, who had managed to save $4, 500 out of her lecturefees, felt she could afford to devote at least a year to the history. 

She now shipped several boxes of letters, clippings, and documents tothe Stanton home in Tenafly, New Jersey. [341] As they planned theirbook, it soon became obvious that the one volume which they had hopedto finish in a few months would extend to two or three volumes andtake many years to write. They called in Matilda Joslyn Gage to helpthem, and the three of them signed a contract to share the work andthe profits. 

The history presented a publishing problem as well as a writingordeal, and Susan, interviewing New York publishers, found the subjecthad little appeal. Finally, however, she signed a contract with Fowler& Wells under which the authors agreed to pay the cost of composition, stereotyping, and engravings; and as usual she raised the necessaryfunds. [342]

[Illustration: Matilda Joslyn Gage]

Returning to Tenafly as to a second home, Susan usually found Mrs. Stanton beaming a welcome from the piazza and Margaret and Harriotrunning to the gate to meet her. The Stanton children were fond ofSusan. It was a comfortable happy household, and Susan, thoroughlyenjoying Mrs. Stanton's companionship, attacked the history withvigor. Sitting opposite each other at a big table in the sunny towerroom, they spent long hours at work. Susan, thin and wiry, her grayinghair neatly smoothed back over her ears, sat up very straight as sherapidly sorted old clippings and letters and outlined chapters, whileMrs. Stanton, stout and placid, her white curls beautifully arranged, wrote steadily and happily, transforming masses of notes into readableeasy prose. [343]

Having sent appeals for information to colleagues in all parts of thecountry, Susan, as the contributions began to come in, struggled todecipher the often almost illegible, handwritten manuscripts, many ofthem careless and inexact about dates and facts. To their request fordata about her, Lucy Stone curtly replied, "I have never kept a diaryor any record of my work, and so am unable to furnish you the requireddates. .. . You say 'I' must be referred to in the history you arewriting. .. . I cannot furnish a biographical sketch and trust you willnot try to make one. Yours with ceaseless regret that any 'wing' ofsuffragists should attempt to write the history of the other. "[344]

The greater part of the writing fell upon Mrs. Stanton, but MatildaJoslyn Gage contributed the chapters, "Preceding Causes, " "Women inNewspapers, " and "Women, Church, and State. " Susan carefully selectedthe material and checked the facts. She helped with the copying of thehandwritten manuscript and with the proofreading. Believing thatpictures of the early workers were almost as important for the_History_ as the subject matter itself, she tried to provide them, butthey presented a financial problem with which it was hard to cope, foreach engraving cost $100. [345]

When the first volume of the _History of Woman Suffrage_ came off thepress in May 1881, she proudly and lovingly scanned its 878 pageswhich told the story of women's progress in the United States up tothe Civil War. 

She was well aware that the _History_ was not a literary achievement, but the facts were there, as accurate as humanly possible; all theeloquent, stirring speeches were there, a proof of the caliber andhigh intelligence of the pioneers; and out of the otherwise dullrecord of meetings, conventions, and petitions, a spirit ofindependence and zeal for freedom shone forth, highlightedoccasionally by dramatic episodes. As Mrs. Stanton so aptly expressedit, "We have furnished the bricks and mortar for some future architectto rear a beautiful edifice. "[346]

The distribution of the book was very much on Susan's mind, for sherealized that it would not be in great demand because of its cost, bulk, and subject matter. Nor could she at this time present it tolibraries, as she wished, for she had already spent her savings on theillustrations. "It ought to be in every school library, " she wroteAmelia Bloomer, "where every boy and girl of the nation could see andread and learn what women have done to secure equality of rights andchances for girls and women. .. . "[347]

So much material had been collected while Volume I was in preparationthat both Susan and Mrs. Stanton felt they should immediatelyundertake Volume II. After a summer of lecturing to help finance itspublication, Susan returned to Tenafly to the monotonous work ofcompilation. "I am just sick to death of it, " she wrote her youngfriend Rachel Foster. "I had rather wash or whitewash or do anypossible hard work than sit here and go there digging into the dustyrecords of the past--that is, rather _make_ history than writeit. "[348]

Yet she never entirely gave up making history, for she was alwaysplanning for the future and Rachel Foster was now her able lieutenant, relieving her of details, doing the spade work for the annualWashington conventions, and arranging for an occasional lectureengagement. Susan would not leave Tenafly for a lecture fee of lessthan $50. 

She took this intelligent young girl to her heart as she had Anna E. Dickinson in the past. Rachel, however, had none of Anna's dramatictemperament or love of the limelight, but in her orderly businesslikeway was eager to serve Susan, whom she had admired ever since as achild she had heard her speak for woman suffrage in her mother'sdrawing room. 

While Susan was pondering the ways and means of financing anothervolume of the _History_, the light broke through in a letter fromWendell Phillips, announcing the astonishing news that she and LucyStone had inherited approximately $25, 000 each for "the woman's cause"under the will of Eliza Eddy, the daughter of their former benefactor, Francis Jackson. Although the legacy was not paid until 1885 becauseof litigation, its promise lightened considerably Susan's financialburden and she knew that Volumes II and III were assured. Hergratitude to Eliza Eddy was unbounded, and better still, she readbetween the lines the good will of Wendell Phillips who had been ElizaEddy's legal advisor. That he, whom she admired above all men, shouldafter their many differences still regard her as worthy of this trust, meant as much to her as the legacy itself. 

In May 1882 she had the satisfaction of seeing the second volume ofthe _History of Woman Suffrage_ in print, carrying women's recordthrough 1875. Volume III was not completed until 1885. 

Women's response to their own history was a disappointment. Only a fewrealized its value for the future, among them Mary L. Booth, editor of_Harper's Bazaar_. The majority were indifferent and some evencritical. When Mrs. Stanton offered the three volumes to the VassarCollege library, they were refused. [349] Nevertheless, every timeSusan looked at the three large volumes on her shelves, she was happy, for now she was assured that women's struggle for citizenship andfreedom would live in print through the years. To libraries in theUnited States and Europe, she presented well over a thousand copies, grateful that the Eliza Eddy legacy now made this possible. 

 * * * * *

In 1883, Susan surprised everyone by taking a vacation in Europe. Soonafter Volume II of the _History_ had been completed, Mrs. Stanton hadleft for Europe with her daughter Harriot. [350] Her letters to Susanreported not only Harriot's marriage to an Englishman, William HenryBlatch, but also encouraging talks with the forward-looking women ofEngland and France whom she hoped to interest in an internationalorganization. Repeatedly she urged Susan to join her, to meet thesewomen, and to rest for a while from her strenuous labors. Thepossibility of forming an international organization of women was agreater attraction to Susan than Europe itself, and when Rachel Fostersuggested that she make the journey with her, she readily consented. 

"She goes abroad a republican Queen, " observed the Kansas City_Journal_, "uncrowned to be sure, but none the less of the bloodroyal, and we have faith that the noblest men and women of Europe willat once recognize and welcome her as their equal. "[351]

In London, Susan met Mrs. Stanton, "her face beaming and her whitecurls as lovely as ever. " Then after talking with English suffragistsand her two old friends, William Henry Channing and Ernestine Rose, now living in England, Susan traveled with Rachel through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and France, where a whole new world openedbefore her. She thoroughly enjoyed its beauty; yet there was much thatdistressed her and she found herself far more interested in thepeople, their customs and living conditions than in the treasures ofart. "It is good for our young civilization, " she wrote Daniel, "tosee and study that of the old world and observe the hopelessness oflifting the masses into freedom and freedom's industry, honesty andintegrity. How any American, any lover of our free institutions, basedon equality of rights for all, can settle down and live here is morethan I can comprehend. It will only be by overturning the powers thateducation and equal chances ever can come to the rank and file. Thehope of the world is indeed our republic. .. . " To a friend shereported, "Amidst it all my head and heart turn to our battle forwomen at home. Here in the old world, with . .. Its utter blotting outof women as an equal, there is no hope, no possibility of changing hercondition; so I look to our own land of equality for men, and partialequality for women, as the only one for hope or work. "[352]

Back in London again, she allowed herself a few luxuries, such as anexpensive India shawl and more social life than she had had in many ayear, and she longed to have Mary enjoy it all with her. She visitedsuffragists in Scotland and Ireland as well as in England andoccasionally spoke at their meetings. [353] Here as in Americasuffragists differed over the best way to win the vote, and even themost radical among them were more conservative and cautious thanAmerican women, but she admired them all and tried to understand thevery different problems they faced. Gradually she interested a few ofthem in an international conference of women, and before she sailedback to America with Mrs. Stanton in November 1883, she had theirpromise of cooperation. 

The newspapers welcomed her home. "Susan B. Anthony is back fromEurope, " announced the Cleveland _Leader_, "and is here for a winter'sfight on behalf of woman suffrage. She seems remarkably well, and hasgained fifteen pounds since she left last spring. She is sixty-three, but looks just the same as twenty years ago. There is perhaps an extrawrinkle in her face, a little more silver in her hair, but her blueeyes are just as bright, her mouth as serious and her step as activeas when she was forty. She would attract attention in any crowd. "[354]

Susan came back to an indifferent Congress. "All would fall flat anddead if someone were not here to keep them in mind of their duty tous, " she wrote a friend at this time, and to her diary she confided, "It is perfectly disheartening that no member feels any especialinterest or earnest determination in pushing this question of womansuffrage, to all men only a side issue. "[355]

FOOTNOTES:

[339] The only such history available was the _History of the NationalWoman's Rights Movement for Twenty Years_ (New York, 1871), written byPaulina Wright Davis to commemorate the first national woman's rightsconvention in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1850. This brief record, ending with Victoria Woodhull's Memorial to Congress, was inadequateand placed too much emphasis on Victoria Woodhull who had flashedthrough the movement like a meteor, leaving behind her a trail ofdiscord and little that was constructive. 

[340] Aaron McLean, Eugene Mosher, his daughter Louise, Merritt'sdaughter, Lucy E. Anthony from Fort Scott, Kansas, and later Lucy'ssister "Anna O. "

[341] Mrs. Stanton moved to the new home she had built in Tenafly, NewJersey, in 1868. 

[342] Fowler & Wells furnished the paper, press work, and advertisingand paid the authors 12-1/2% commission on sales. They did not lookaskance at such a controversial subject, having published the Fowlerfamily's phrenological books. In addition the women of the family weresuffragists. 

[343] In 1855, at the instigation of her father. Miss Anthony began topreserve her press clippings. She now found them a valuable record, and she hired a young girl to paste them in six large account books. Thirty-two of her scrapbooks are now in the Library of Congress. 

[344] Aug. 30, 1876, Ida Husted Harper Collection, Henry E. HuntingtonLibrary. The history of the American Woman Suffrage Association wascompiled for Volume II from the _Woman's Journal_ and Mary Livermore's_The Agitator_ by Harriot Stanton. 

[345] Nov. 30, 1880, Amelia Bloomer Papers, Seneca Falls HistoricalSociety, Seneca Falls, N. Y. 

[346] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 531. The _History_ received friendlyand complimentary reviews, the New York _Tribune_ and _Sun_ giving ittwo columns. 

[347] June 28, 1881, Amelia Bloomer Papers, Seneca Falls HistoricalSociety, Seneca Falls, N. Y. The cost of a cloth copy of the _History_was $3. 

[348] Dec. 19, 1880, Susan B. Anthony Papers, Library of Congress. Rachel Foster's mother was a life-long friend of Elizabeth CadyStanton and sympathetic to her work for women. The widow of a wealthyPittsburgh newspaperman, she was now active in Pennsylvania suffrageorganizations. Her daughters, Rachel and Julia, early becameinterested in the cause. 

[349] E. C. Stanton to Laura Collier, Jan. 21, 1886, Elizabeth CadyStanton Papers, Vassar College Library. Mary Livermore criticized the_History_ as poorly edited. 

[350] After her marriage in 1882, to William Henry Blatch ofBasingstoke, Harriot made her home in England for the next 20 years. 

[351] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 549. 

[352] _Ibid. _, pp. 553, 558, 562. Miss Anthony spent a week with herold friends, Ellen and Aaron Sargent in Berlin where Aaron was servingas American Minister to Germany. In Paris she visited Theodore Stantonand his French wife. 

[353] Lydia Becker, Mrs. Jacob Bright, Helen Taylor, Priscilla BrightMcLaren, Margaret Bright Lucas, Alice Scatcherd, and Elizabeth PeaseNichol. A bill to enfranchise widows and spinsters was pending inParliament. Only a few women were courageous enough to demand votesfor married women as well. 

[354] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 582. 

[355] _Ibid. _, pp. 591, 583. 

IMPETUS FROM THE WEST

"My heart almost stands still. I hope against hope, but still I hope, "Susan wrote in her diary in 1885, as she waited for news from OregonTerritory regarding the vote of the people on a woman suffrageamendment. [356] Woman suffrage was defeated in Oregon; and inWashington Territory, where in 1883 it had carried, a contest wasbeing waged in the courts to invalidate it. In Nebraska it had alsobeen defeated in 1882. Since the victories in Wyoming and Utah in 1869and 1870, not another state or territory had written woman suffrageinto law. 

In spite of these setbacks, Susan still saw great promise in the Westand resumed her lecturing there. She knew the rapidly growing youngwestern states and territories as few easterners did, and sheunderstood their people. Here women were making themselvesindispensable as teachers, and state universities, now open to them, graduated over two thousand women a year. The Farmers' Alliance, theGrange, and the Prohibition party, all distinctly western in origin, admitted women to membership and were friendly to woman suffrage. School suffrage had been won in twelve western states as against fivein the East, and Kansas women were now voting in municipal elections. In a sense, woman suffrage was becoming respectable in the West, and awoman was no longer ostracized by her friends for working with SusanB. Anthony. 

Still critical of her own speaking, Susan was often discouraged overher lectures, but her vitality, her naturalness, and her flashes ofwit seldom failed to win over her audiences. Her nephew, Daniel Jr. , astudent at the University of Michigan, hearing her speak, wrote hisparents, "At the beginning of her lecture, Aunt Susan does not do sowell; but when she is in the midst of her argument and all herenergies brought into play, I think she is a very powerfulspeaker. "[357]

On these trips through the West, she kept in close touch with herbrothers Daniel and Merritt in Kansas, frequently visiting in theirhomes and taking her numerous nieces to Rochester. She valuedDaniel's judgment highly, and he, well-to-do and influential, was agreat help to her in many ways, investing her savings and furnishingher with railroad passes which greatly reduced her ever-increasingtraveling expenses. 

Everywhere she met active zealous members of the Women's ChristianTemperance Union. Since the Civil War, temperance had become avigorous movement in the Middle West, doing its utmost to counteractthe influence of the many large new breweries and saloons. Through theProhibition party, organized on a national basis in 1872, temperancewas now a political issue in Kansas, Iowa, and the Territory ofDakota, and through the W. C. T. U. Women waged an effectivetotal-abstinence campaign. Brought into the suffrage movement byFrances Willard under the slogan, "For God and Home and Country, "these women quickly sensed the value of their votes to the temperancecause. Nor was Susan slow to recognize their importance to her and herwork, for they represented an entirely new group, churchwomen, whoheretofore had been suspicious of and hostile toward woman's rights. Through them, she anticipated a powerful impetus for her cause. 

With admiration she had watched Frances Willard's career. [358] Thisvivid consecrated young woman was a born leader, quick to understandwoman's need of the vote and eager to lead women forward. It was adisappointment, however, when she joined the American rather than theNational Woman Suffrage Association. The reasons for this, Susanreadily understood, were Frances Willard's warm friendship with MaryLivermore and her own preference for the American's state-by-statemethod, similar to that she had so successfully followed in herW. C. T. U. Yet Frances Willard, whenever she could, cooperated withSusan whom she admired and loved; and through the years these twogreat leaders valued and respected each other, even though theyfrequently differed over policy and method. 

Susan, for example, was often troubled because women suffrage andtemperance were more and more linked together in the public mind, thusconfusing the issues and arousing the hostility of those who mighthave been friendly toward woman suffrage had they not feared thatwomen's votes would bring in prohibition. She did her best to make itclear to her audiences that she did not ask for the ballot in orderthat women might vote against saloons and for prohibition. Shedemanded only that women have the same right as men to express theiropinions at the polls. Such an attitude was hard for many temperancewomen to understand and to forgive. 

Over women's support of specific political parties, Susan and FrancesWillard were never able to agree. Susan had never been willing to allyherself with a minority party. Therefore, to Frances Willard'sdisappointment, she withheld her support from the Prohibition party in1880, although their platform acknowledged woman's need of the ballotand directed them to use it to settle the liquor question, and in 1884when they recommended state suffrage for women. Finding women eager tosupport the Prohibitionists in gratitude for these inadequate planks, Susan even issued a statement urging them to support the Republicans, who held out the most hope to them even if woman suffrage had not beenmentioned in their platform. Her experience in Washington had provedto her the friendliness and loyalty of individual Republicans, and shewas unwilling to jeopardize their support. 

Her judgment was confirmed during the next few years when friendlyRepublicans spoke for woman suffrage in the Senate, and when in 1887the woman suffrage amendment was debated and voted on in the Senate. In the Senate gallery eagerly listening, Susan took notice that thesixteen votes cast for the amendment were those of Republicans. [359]

Still hoping to win Susan's endorsement of the Prohibition party in1888, Frances Willard asked her to outline what kind of plank wouldsatisfy her. 

"Do you mean so satisfy me, " Susan replied, "that I would work, andrecommend to all women to work . .. For the success of the third partyticket?. .. Not until a third party gets into power . .. Which promisesa larger per cent of representatives, on the floor of Congress, and inthe several State legislatures, who will speak and vote for women'senfranchisement, than does the Republican, shall I work for it. Yousee, as yet there is not a single Prohibitionist in Congress whilethere are at least twenty Republicans on the floor of the UnitedStates Senate, besides fully one-half of the members of the House ofRepresentatives who are in favor of woman suffrage. .. . I do notpropose to work for the defeat of the party which thus far hasfurnished nearly every vote in that direction. "[360]

Nor was she lured away when, in 1888, the Prohibition party endorsedwoman suffrage and granted Frances Willard the honor of addressing itsconvention and serving on the resolutions committee. 

 * * * * *

The temperance issue also cropped up in the annual Washingtonconventions of the National Woman Suffrage Association, preparationsfor which Susan now left to Rachel Foster, May Wright Sewall, acapable young recruit from Indiana, and Jane Spofford. However, shestill supervised these conventions, prodding and interfering, in whatshe called her most Andrew Jackson-like manner. She always returned toWashington with excitement and pleasure, and with the hope of someoutstanding victory, and the suite at the Riggs House, given her bygenerous Jane Spofford, was a delight after months of hard travel inthe West. "I shall come both ragged and dirty, " she wrote Mrs. Spofford in 1887. "Though the apparel will be tattered and torn, themind, the essence of me, is sound to the core. Please tell the littlemilliner to have a bonnet picked out for me, and get a dressmaker whowill patch me together so that I shall be presentable. "[361]

Open to all women irrespective of race or creed, the National WomanSuffrage Association attracted fearless independent devoted members. They welcomed Mormon women into the fold, and when the bill todisfranchise Mormon women as a punishment for polygamy was beforeCongress in 1887, they did their utmost to help Mormon women retainthe vote, but were defeated. 

They welcomed as well many temperance advocates. A few delegates, however, among them Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Gage, and Mrs. Colby, scornedwhat they called the "singing and praying" temperance group andprotested that temperance and religion were getting too strong a holdon the organization. Abigail Duniway from Oregon contended thatsuffragists should not join forces with temperance groups and blamedthe defeat of woman suffrage in Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, in1887, on men's fear that women would vote for prohibition. 

Often Susan was obliged to act as arbiter between the temperance andnontemperance groups. She did not underestimate the momentum which thewell-organized W. C. T. U. Had already given the suffrage cause, particularly in states where the National Association had only a fewand scattered workers. She needed and wanted the help of thesetemperance women and of Frances Willard's forceful and winningpersonality. She also saw the importance of breaking down with FrancesWillard's aid the slow-yielding opposition of the church. 

Occasionally enthusiastic workers undertook projects which to herseemed unwise. She told them frankly how she felt and left it at that, but most of them had to learn by experience. When Belva Lockwood, oneof her most able colleagues in Washington, accepted the nomination forPresident of the United States, offered her by the women of Californiain 1884 and by the women of Iowa in 1888 through their Equal Rightsparty, she did not lend her support or that of the NationalAssociation, but followed her consistent policy of no alignment with aminority party. Nevertheless, she heartily believed in women's rightand ability to hold the highest office in the land. 

 * * * * *

Ever since her trip to Europe in 1883, Susan had been planning for aninternational gathering of women. Interest in this project was keptalive among European women by Mrs. Stanton during her frequent visitswith her daughter Harriot in England and her son Theodore in France. It was Susan, however, who put the machinery in motion through theNational Woman Suffrage Association and issued a call for aninternational conference in Washington, in March 1888, to commemoratethe fortieth anniversary of the first woman's rights convention. Tenthousand invitations were sent out to organizations of women in allparts of the world, to professional, business, and reform groups aswell as to those advocating political and civil rights for women, andan ambitious program was prepared. Most of the work for the conferenceand the raising of $13, 000 to finance it fell upon the shoulders ofSusan, Rachel Foster, and May Wright Sewall, but they also had theenthusiastic cooperation of Frances Willard, who, with her nation-widecontacts, was of inestimable value in arousing interest among the manyand varied women's organizations and the labor groups. Another happydevelopment was Clara Colby's decision to publish her _Woman'sTribune_ in Washington during the conference. Mrs. Colby's _Tribune_, established in Beatrice, Nebraska, in 1883, had since then met in ameasure Susan's need for a paper for the National Association and shewelcomed its transfer to Washington. [362]

Women from all parts of the world assembled in Albaugh's Opera Housein Washington for the epoch-making international conference whichopened on Sunday, March 25, 1888, with religious services conductedentirely by women, as if to prove to the world that women in thepulpit were appropriate and adequate. Fifty-three nationalorganizations sent representatives, and delegates came from England, France, Norway, Denmark, Finland, India, and Canada. 

Presiding over all sixteen sessions, Susan rejoiced over a recordattendance. Her thoughts went back to the winter of 1854 when she andErnestine Rose had held their first woman's rights meetings inWashington, finding only a handful ready to listen. The interveningthirty-four years had worked wonders. Now women were willing to travelnot only across the continent but from Europe and Asia to discuss anddemand equal educational advantages, equal opportunities for trainingin the professions and in business, equal pay for equal work, equalsuffrage, and the same standard of morals for all. Aware of theirresponsibility to their countries, they asked for the tools, educationand the franchise, to help solve the world's problems. They werelistened to with interest and respect, and were received at the WhiteHouse by President and Mrs. Cleveland. 

Through it all, a dynamic, gray-haired woman in a black silk dresswith a red shawl about her shoulders was without question the heroineof the occasion. "This lady, " observed the Baltimore _Sun_, "dailygrows upon all present; the woman suffragists love her for her goodworks, the audience for her brightness and wit, and the multitude ofpress representatives for her frank, plain, open, business-like way ofdoing everything connected with the council. .. . Her word is theparliamentary law of the meeting. Whatever she says is done withoutmurmur or dissent. "[363]

A permanent International Council of Women to meet once every fiveyears was organized with Millicent Garrett Fawcett of England aspresident, and a National Council to meet every three years was formedas an affiliate with Frances Willard as president and Susan asvice-president at large. Emphasizing education and social and moralreform, the International Council did not rank suffrage first asSusan had hoped. Nevertheless, she was happy that an internationalmovement of enterprising women was well on its way. They would learnby experience. 

Of all the favorable results of the International Council of Women, two were of special importance to Susan, meeting Anna Howard Shaw andovertures from Lucy Stone for a union of the National and AmericanWoman Suffrage Associations. 

Prejudiced against Anna Howard Shaw, who had aligned herself with MaryLivermore and Lucy Stone, and who she assumed, was a narrow Methodistminister, Susan was unprepared to find that the pleasing young womanin the pulpit on the first day of the conference, holding her audiencespellbound with her oratory, was Anna Howard Shaw. Here was a warmpersonality, a crusader eager to right human wrongs, and above all amatchless public speaker. Anna too had heard much criticism of Susanand had formed a distorted opinion of her which was quickly dispelledas she watched her preside. They liked each other the moment they met. 

Anna Howard Shaw had grown up on the Michigan frontier, herindomitable spirit and her eagerness for learning conquering thehardships and the limitations of her surroundings. Encouraged by MaryLivermore, who by chance lectured in her little town, she worked herway through Albion College and Boston University Theological School, from which she graduated in 1878. She then served as the pastor of twoCape Cod churches, but was refused ordination by the MethodistEpiscopal church because of her sex. Eventually she was ordained bythe Methodist Protestant church. During her pastorate, she studiedmedicine at Boston University, and because of her ability as a speakerwas in demand as a lecturer for temperance and woman suffrage groups. Through the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, she met aninspiring group of reformers, and their influence and that of FrancesWillard, in whose work she was intensely interested, led her to leavethe ministry for active work in the temperance and woman suffragemovements. After several years as a lecturer and organizer for theMassachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, she was placed at the headof the franchise department of the W. C. T. U. This was her work when shemet Susan B. Anthony. 

[Illustration: Anna Howard Shaw]

The more Susan talked with Anna, the better she liked her, and thefeeling was mutual. This wholesome woman of forty-one, with abundantvitality, unmarried and without pressing family ties to divert her, seemed particularly well fitted to assist Susan in the arduouscampaigns which lay ahead. A natural orator, she could in a measuretake the place of Mrs. Stanton, who could no longer undertake westerntours. Before the International Council adjourned, Susan had Anna'spromise that she would lecture for the National Association. 

One of Susan's nieces, Lucy E. Anthony, also felt drawn to Anna aftermeeting her at the International Council. A warm friendship quicklydeveloped and continued throughout their lives. Within a few yearsthey were living together, Lucy serving as Anna's secretary andplanning her lecture tours and campaign trips. Educated in Rochesterthrough the help of her aunts, Susan and Mary, living in their homeand loving them both, Lucy readily made their interests her own anddevoted her life to the suffrage movement. Neither a public speakernor a campaigner, she put her executive ability to work, and hertasks, though less spectacular, were important and freed both Susanand Anna from many details. 

Just as the International Council of Women had broken down Anna HowardShaw's prejudice regarding Susan B. Anthony and her National WomanSuffrage Association, just so it clarified the opinions of other youngwomen, now aligning themselves with the cause. Admiring the leaders ofboth factions, these young women saw no reason why the two groupsshould not work together in one large strong organization, and thisseemed increasingly important as they welcomed women from othercountries to this first international conference. Unfamiliar with thepersonal antagonisms and the sincere differences in policy which hadcaused the separation after the Civil War, they did not understand thedifficulties still in the way of union. So strongly, however, did theypress for a united front that the leaders of both groups feltthemselves swept along toward that goal. Susan herself had long lookedforward to the time when all suffragists would again work together, but since the unsuccessful overtures of her group in 1870, she hadmade no further efforts in that direction. She was completely taken bysurprise when in the fall of 1887 the American Association proposedthat she and Lucy Stone confer regarding union. 

 * * * * *

The negotiations revived old arguments in the minds of zealouspartisans, and in the _Woman's Journal_, the _Woman's Tribune_, andelsewhere, attempts were made to fasten the blame for thetwenty-year-old rift upon this one and that one; but so strong ran thetide for union among the younger women that this excursion into thepast aroused little interest. 

The election of the president of the merged organizations was the mostdifficult hurdle. Lucy Stone suggested that neither she, Mrs. Stanton, nor Susan allow their names to be proposed, since they had been blamedfor the division, but this was easier said than done. The clamor forSusan and Mrs. Stanton was so strong and continuous among the youngermembers that it soon became apparent that unless one or the other werechosen, there would be no hope of union. The odds were in Susan'sfavor. Her popularity in the National Association was tremendous. Although Mrs. Stanton was revered as the mother of woman suffrage andadmired for her brilliant mind and her poise as presiding officer, shenow spent so much time in Europe with her daughter Harriot that manywho might otherwise have voted for her felt that the office should goto Susan, who was always on the job. 

[Illustration: Harriot Stanton Blatch]

Most of the American Association regarded Susan as safer and lessradical than Mrs. Stanton, less likely to stray from the straight pathof woman suffrage, and Henry Blackwell recommended her election. 

Susan did not want the presidency. She wanted it for Mrs. Stanton, whohad headed the National Association so ably for so many years. Shepleaded earnestly with the delegates of the National Association: "Iwill say to every woman who is a National and who has any love for theold Association, or for Susan B. Anthony, that I hope you will notvote for her for president. .. . Don't you vote for any human being butMrs. Stanton. .. . When the division was made 22 years ago it wasbecause our platform was too broad, because Mrs. Stanton was tooradical. .. . And now . .. If Mrs. Stanton shall be deposed . .. Youvirtually degrade her. .. . I want our platform to be kept broad enoughfor the infidel, the atheist, the Mohammedan, or the Christian. .. . These are the broad principles I want you to stand upon. "[364]

When the two organizations met in February 1890 to effect formal unionas the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Elizabeth CadyStanton was elected president by a majority of 41 votes, while Susanwas the almost unanimous choice for vice-president at large. With LucyStone chosen chairman of the executive committee, Jane Spoffordtreasurer, and Rachel Foster and Alice Stone Blackwellsecretaries, [365] the new organization was well equipped with ableleaders for the work ahead. It was dedicated to work for both stateand federal woman suffrage amendments and its official organ would bethe _Woman's Journal_. 

Susan now faced the future with gratitude that a strong unifiedorganization could be handed down to the younger women who wouldgradually take over the work she had started, and her confidence inthese young women grew day by day. Working closely with Rachel Fosterand May Wright Sewall, she knew their caliber. Anna Howard Shaw andAlice Stone Blackwell showed great promise, and Harriot Stanton Blatchwas living up to her expectations. In England where Harriot had madeher home since her marriage in 1882, she was active in the cause, andon her visits to her mother in New York, she kept in touch with thesuffrage movement in the United States. She took part in the unionmeeting, and in her diary, Susan recorded these words of commendation, "Harriot said but a few words, yet showed herself worthy of her motherand her mother's lifelong friend and co-worker. It was a proud momentfor me. "[366]

To such she could entrust her beloved cause. 

FOOTNOTES:

[356] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 592. 

[357] _Ibid. _, p. 658. 

[358] Miss Anthony first met Frances Willard in 1875 when she lecturedin Rochester. Invited to sit on the platform, by her side, shethoughtfully refused, adding "You have a heavy enough load to carrywithout me. " Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 472. When Frances Willard tookher stand for woman suffrage in the W. C. T. U. In 1876, Miss Anthonywrote her, "Now you are to go forward. I wish I could see you and makeyou feel my gladness. " Mary Earhart, _Frances Willard_ (Chicago, 1944), p. 153. 

[359] During the debate, Frances Willard rendered valuable aid with apetition for woman suffrage, signed by 200, 000 women. Thiscounteracted in a measure the protests against woman suffrage byPresident Eliot of Harvard and 200 New England clergymen. 

[360] Harper, _Anthony_, II, pp. 622-623. 

[361] _Ibid. _, p. 612. 

[362] So successful was Mrs. Colby's Washington venture that shecontinued to publish her _Woman's Tribune_ there for the next 16 years

[363] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 637. 

[364] _Woman's Tribune_, Feb. 22, 1890. 

[365] The credit for achieving union after two years of patientnegotiation goes to Rachel Foster Avery, secretary of the NationalAssociation, and to Lucy Stone's daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, secretary of the American Association. 

[366] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 675. 

VICTORIES IN THE WEST

New western states were coming into the Union, North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming, and in Susan's opinion it washighly important that they be admitted as woman suffrage states, forshe had not forgotten that disturbing line of the Supreme Courtdecision in the Virginia Minor case which read, "No new State has everbeen admitted to the Union which has conferred the right of suffrageon women, and this has never been considered a valid objection to heradmission. "[367] Susan wanted to start a new trend. 

Opposition to Wyoming's woman suffrage provision was strong inCongress in spite of the fact that it had the unanimous approval ofWyoming's constitutional convention. To Susan in the gallery of theHouse of Representatives, listening anxiously to the debate on theadmission of Wyoming, defeat was unthinkable after women had voted inthe Territory of Wyoming for twenty years; but Democrats, wishing toblock the admission of a preponderantly Republican state, used womansuffrage as an excuse. With a sinking heart, she heard an amendmentoffered, limiting suffrage in Wyoming to males. At the crucial moment, however, the tide was turned by a telegram from the Wyominglegislature, the words of which rejoiced Susan, "We will remain out ofthe Union a hundred years rather than come in without womansuffrage. "[368] After this, the House voted to admit Wyoming, 139 to127, but the Senate delayed, renewing the attack on the woman suffrageprovision. Not until July 1890, while she was speaking to a largeaudience in the opera house at Madison, South Dakota, did the goodnews of the admission of Wyoming reach her. Jubilant as she commentedon this great victory, she spoke as one inspired, for she saw this asthe turning point in her forty long years of uphill work. 

Neither North Dakota nor South Dakota had wanted to risk theirchances of statehood by incorporating woman suffrage in theirconstitutions. [369] Yet public opinion in both states was friendly, South Dakota directing its first legislature to submit the question tothe voters. It was this that brought Susan to South Dakota in 1890. Sentiment for woman suffrage in South Dakota had previously beencreated almost entirely by the W. C. T. U. , and this had linked womansuffrage and prohibition together. Now, the liquor interests madeprohibition an issue in this woman suffrage campaign, as they ralliedtheir forces for the repeal of prohibition which had been adopted whenSouth Dakota was admitted to statehood. Through the propaganda of theliquor interests the 30, 000 foreign-born voters became formidableopponents, and newly naturalized Russians, Scandinavians, and Poles, given the vote before American women, wore badges carrying the slogan, "Against Woman Suffrage and Susan B. Anthony. "[370] Both Republicansand Democrats cultivated these foreign-born voters, turning a coldshoulder to the woman suffrage amendment and refusing to endorse it intheir state conventions. Even the Farmers' Alliance and the Knights ofLabor, previously friendly to woman suffrage, now joined with theProhibitionists to form a third political party which also failed toendorse the woman suffrage amendment. On top of all this, anti-suffragists from Massachusetts, calling themselves Remonstrants, flooded South Dakota with their leaflets. 

It now seemed to Susan as if every clever politician had lined upagainst women. During these trying days, Anna Howard Shaw joined her, and together they covered the state, hoping by the truth and sincerityof their statements to quash the propaganda against woman suffrage. Often they traveled in freight cars, as transportation was limited, ordrove long distances in wagons over the sun-baked prairie. The heatwas intense and the hot winds, blowing incessantly, seared everythingthey touched. After two years of drouth, the farmers were desperatelypoor, and Susan, concerned over their plight, wondered why Congresscould not have appropriated the money for artesian wells to help thesehonest earnest people, instead of voting $40, 000 for an investigatingcommission. [371]

Occasionally Susan and Anna spent the night in isolated sod houseswhere ingenious pioneer women cooked their scant meals over burningchips of buffalo bones gathered on the prairie. Glorying in thevaliant spirit of these women, who in loneliness and hardship playedan important but unheralded role in the conquest of this new country, Susan was generous with her praise. To them her words of commendationwere like a benediction, and few of them ever forgot a visit fromSusan B. Anthony. 

By this time life on the frontier was an old story to her, for she hadcampaigned under similar conditions in Kansas and in the far West. Nonetheless, the hardships were trying. Yet this plucky woman ofseventy wrote friends in the East, "Tell everybody that I am perfectlywell in body and in mind, never better, and never doing more work. .. . O, the lack of modern comforts and conveniences! But I can put up withit better than any of the young folks. .. . I shall push ahead and do mylevel best to carry this State, come weal or woe to me personally. .. . I never felt so buoyed up with the love and sympathy and confidence ofthe good people everywhere. .. . "[372]

Young vigorous Anna Howard Shaw proved to be a campaigner afterSusan's own heart, tireless, uncomplaining, and good-tempered, anexceptional speaker, witty and quick to say the right word at theright time. It was a joy to find in Anna the same devotion to thecause that she herself felt, the same crusading fervor andreliability. During the long drives over the prairie, she talked toAnna of the work that must be done, of what it would mean to the womenof the future, and she fired Anna's soul "with the flame that burnedin her own. "[373]

Another young western woman, Carrie Chapman Catt, also attractedSusan's attention at this time. She had volunteered for the SouthDakota campaign, after attending her first national woman suffrageconvention; and Susan, meeting her in Huron, South Dakota, to map outa speaking tour for her, found a tall handsome confident young womanready to attack the work and see it through, in spite of the hardshipswhich confronted her. 

Carrie Lane, a graduate of Iowa State College, had briefly studied lawand taught school before her marriage to Lee Chapman. Now, four yearsafter his death, she had married George W. Catt of Seattle, apromising young engineer and a former fellow-student at Iowa StateCollege. What particularly impressed Susan was that Carrie, in spiteof her marriage in June, had kept her pledge to come to South Dakota. She was pleased with the way Carrie not only heroically filled everydifficult engagement, but sized up the campaign for herself andplanned for the future. In Carrie's report of her work there was aruthless practicality which was rare and which instantly won Susan'sapproval. Here was a young woman to watch and to keep in the work. 

[Illustration: The Anthony home, Rochester, New York]

The visible result of six months of campaigning was defeat, with thevote 22, 972 for woman suffrage and 45, 632 opposed, and as Susanremembered the maneuvers of the politicians, the trading of votes forthe location of the state capital, and the scheming of the liquorinterests, she felt she was championing a lonely cause. 

 * * * * *

From now on Susan hoped to turn over to the younger women much of thelecturing and organizing in the West, and she needed an anchorage, ahome of her own from which she could direct the work. Her mother hadwilled 17 Madison Street to Mary, who had rented the first floor andwas living on the second where there was a room for Susan. Now thatSusan planned to spend more time at home and Mary had retired fromteaching, they decided to take over the whole house, modernize andredecorate it, and enjoy it the rest of their lives. Mary as usualtook charge, but Susan had definite ideas about what should be done. Mary, who had learned to be cautious and frugal, was more willingthan Susan to make old furnishings do, but their friends came to therescue, showering them with gifts. 

Freshly painted and papered, with new rugs on the floor, lace curtainsat the windows, easy chairs and new furniture here and there, thehouse was all Susan had wished for, and everywhere were familiartouches, such as her mother's spinning wheel by the fireplace in theback parlor. 

She spent most of her time in her study on the second floor. Here shehung her pictures of the reformers she admired and loved; and rightover her desk, looking down at her, was the comforting picture of herdearest friend, Mrs. Stanton. Hour after hour, she sat at this desk, writing letters, hurriedly dashing off one after another, writing justas the thoughts came, as if she were talking, bothering little withpunctuation, using dashes instead, and vigorously underlining wordsand phrases for emphasis. Instructions to workers in all parts of thecountry, letters of friendship and sympathy, answers to the manyquestions which came in every mail, these were signed and sealed oneafter another, and slipped into the mail box when she took a briskwalk before going to bed. 

She started each day with the morning newspaper, stepping out on thefront veranda to pick it up, taking a deep breath of fresh air, andenjoying the green grass and the tall graceful chestnut trees in frontof the house. Then sitting down in the back parlor beside the bigtable covered with magazines and mail, she carefully read her paperbefore beginning the work at her desk, for she must keep up-to-date onthe news. 

Rochester was important to her. It was her city, and she was on handwith her colleagues whenever there was an opportunity for women toexpress interest in its government, progress, or welfare. Not only didshe encourage women to make use of their newly won right to vote inschool elections, she also urged municipal suffrage for women. Appealing to the governor to appoint a woman to fill a vacancy on theboard of trustees of Rochester's State Industrial School, she herselfreceived the appointment which the _Democrat and Chronicle_ called "afitting recognition of one of the ablest and best women in thecommonwealth. "[374]

One of her first acts as trustee was a practical one for the girls. "Spent entire day at State Industrial School, " she wrote in her diary, "getting the laundry girls--who had always washed for the entireinstitution by hand and ironed that old way--transferred to the boys'laundry room to use its machinery--am sure it will work well--girls 12of them delighted. "[375] She also taught the boys to patch and darn, and later asked for coeducation. 

[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony at her desk]

 * * * * *

Susan looked forward to welcoming Mrs. Stanton at 17 Madison Streetwhen she returned to this country in 1891, particularly because shehad sold her home in Tenafly after her husband's death, in 1887, andnow had no home to go to. Susan hoped that as they again workedtogether she could persuade Mrs. Stanton to concentrate on moreserious writing than the chatty reminiscences she had just publishedand which Susan felt were "not the greatest" of herself. [376] When sheheard that Mrs. Stanton seriously contemplated living in New York withtwo of her children, she begged her to reconsider, writing, "This isthe first time since 1850 that I have anchored myself to anyparticular spot, and in doing it my constant thought was that youwould come here . .. And stay for as long, at least, as we must betogether to put your writings into systematic shape to go down toposterity. I have no writings to go down, so my ambition is not formyself, but is for the one by the side of whom I have wrought theseforty years, and to get whose speeches before audiences . .. Has beenthe delight of my life. "[377]

Mrs. Stanton decided to make her home in New York, but first shevisited Susan who found her as stimulating as ever and brimful ofideas. They plotted and planned as of old and managed to stir uppublic opinion on the question of admitting women to the University ofRochester. With women enrolled at the University of Michigan since1870, and at Cornell since 1872, and with Columbia University yieldingat last to women's entreaties by establishing Barnard College in 1889, they felt it their duty to awaken Rochester, and although theiragitation produced no immediate results, it did start other womenthinking and made news for the press. The cartoons on the subjectdelighted them both. [378]

Susan soon realized that the writing she had planned for Mrs. Stantonwould never be done, for Mrs. Stanton had already made up her mind towrite for magazines and newspapers on new and controversial subjects, feeling this was the best contribution she could make to the cause. Susan also found it increasingly difficult to hold her old friend tothe straight path of woman suffrage, Mrs. Stanton insisting that toomuch concentration on this one subject was narrowing and left womenunprepared for the intelligent use of the ballot. Women, Mrs. Stantonargued, needed to be stirred up to think, and this they would not doas long as their minds were dominated by the church, which, shebelieved, had for generations hampered their development byemphasizing their inferiority and subordination. She was determined toanalyze and rebel, and Susan could in no way divert her. Completelyabsorbed in trying to prove that the Bible, accurately translated andinterpreted, did not teach the inferiority or the subordination ofwomen, she was writing a book which she called _The Woman's Bible_, chapters of which were already appearing in the _Woman's Tribune_. 

Susan was not unsympathetic to Mrs. Stanton's ideas, but she opposedthis excursion into religious controversy because she was sure itwould stir up futile wrangles among the suffragists and keep Mrs. Stanton from giving her best to the cause. Her lack of interest thenand her frank disapproval as _The Woman's Bible_ progressed were agreat disappointment to Mrs. Stanton, and these two old friends beganto grow somewhat apart as they took different roads to reach theirgoal, the one intent on freeing women's minds, the other determined toestablish their citizenship. Yet their friendship endured. 

[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton]

In 1892 Susan reluctantly consented to Mrs. Stanton's retirement aspresident of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs. Stanton's request that she be followed by Susan won unanimousapproval, and Anna Howard Shaw was moved up to second place, vice-president at large. For forty years, Susan had watched Mrs. Stanton preside with a poise, warmth, and skill which few could equal. She knew she would miss her dynamic reassuring presence at theconventions. Yet she was obliged to admit to herself that it was morethan fitting that she should at last head the ever-growingorganization which she had built up. This was the last conventionwhich Mrs. Stanton attended, and it was the last for Lucy Stone whodied the next year. Susan appreciated the eager young women who nowtook their places, but she did not yet feel completely at home withthem. "Only think, " she wrote an old-time colleague, "I shall not havea white-haired woman on the platform with me, and I shall be alonethere of all the pioneer workers. Always with the 'old guard' I hadperfect confidence that the wise and right thing would be said. What aplatform ours then was of self-reliant strong women! I felt sure ofyou all. .. . I can not feel quite certain that our younger sisters willbe equal to the emergency, yet they are each and all valiant, earnest, and talented, and will soon be left to manage the ship without evenme. "[379]

In 1892, the year of the presidential election, Susan hopefullyattended the national political conventions. Again the Republicansmade their proverbial excuses, explaining that they not only faced aformidable opponent in Grover Cleveland but also the threat of a newPeople's party. The familiar ring of their alibis, which they hadrepeated since Reconstruction days, made Susan wonder when and if everthe Republicans would feel able to bear the strain of woman suffrage. Their platform remembered the poor, the foreign-born, and maleNegroes, but it still ignored women. Yet hope for the future stirredin her heart as she saw at the convention two women serving asdelegates from Wyoming. Here was the entering wedge. 

The Democrats as usual were silent on woman suffrage, but undismayedby them or by the Prohibitionists, who this year failed to endorsevotes for women, Susan moved on to Omaha with Anna Howard Shaw for thefirst national convention of the new People's party. Here she metrepresentatives of the Farmers' Alliance and the Knights of Labor, both friendly to woman suffrage, and men from other groups, criticalof the two major political parties for their failure to solve thepressing economic problems confronting the nation. Susan wassympathetic with many of the aims of the People's party, having seenwith her own eyes the plight of debt-burdened, hard-working farmersand having crusaded in her own paper, _The Revolution_, for the rightsof labor and for the control of industrial monopoly. However, shestill viewed minor, reform parties with a highly critical eye. ThePeople's party gave her no woman suffrage plank and she found them"quite as oblivious to the underlying principle of justice to women aseither of the old parties. .. . "[380]

With the election of Grover Cleveland, whose opposition to womansuffrage was well known, and with the Democrats in the saddle foranother four years, Congressional action on the woman suffrageamendment was blocked. Nevertheless, the cause moved ahead in thestates; Colorado was to vote on the question in 1893 and Kansas in1894, and New York was revising its constitution. In addition, theWorld's Fair in Chicago in 1893 offered endless opportunities to bringthe subject before the people. 

 * * * * *

As soon as plans for the World's Fair were under way, Susan began towork indirectly through prominent women in Washington and Chicago forthe appointment of women to the board of management. "Lady Managers"were appointed, 115 strong, who proved to be very much alive under theleadership of Mrs. Bertha Honoré Palmer. Susan found Mrs. Palmeralmost as determined as she to secure equality of rights for women atthe World's Fair, and nothing that she herself might have plannedcould have been more effective than the series of world congresses inwhich both men and women took part, or than the World's Congress ofRepresentative Women. 

[Illustration: Elizabeth Smith Miller, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, andSusan B. Anthony]

Two of Susan's "girls, " as she liked to call them, Rachel FosterAvery[381] and May Wright Sewall, were appointed by Mrs. Palmer totake charge of the World's Congress of Representative Women, and theyarranged a meeting of the International Council of Women as a part ofthis Congress. 

Convening soon after the opening of the World's Fair, the Congress ofRepresentative Women drew record crowds at its eighty-one sessions. Twenty-seven countries and 126 organizations were represented. HereSusan, to her joy, heard Negroes, American Indians, and Mormons tellof their progress and their problems, and saw them treated with asmuch respect as American millionaires, English nobility, or the mostvirtuous, conservative housewife. Watching these women assemble, talking with them, and listening to their well-delivered speeches, shefelt richly rewarded for the lonely work she had undertaken fortyyears before, when scarcely a woman could be coaxed to a meeting or bepersuaded to express her opinions in public. Although only one sessionof the congress was devoted to the civil and political rights ofwomen, it was gratifying to her that women's need of the ballot wasspontaneously brought up in meeting after meeting, showing thatwomen, whatever their cause or whatever their organization, wererecognizing that only by means of the vote could their reforms beachieved. 

Speaking on the subject to which she had dedicated her life, Susangave credit to the pioneering suffragists for the change which hadtaken place in public opinion regarding the position of women. Sheurged women's organizations to give suffrage their wholeheartedsupport and pointed out the great power of some of the newerorganizations, such as the W. C. T. U. With its membership of half amillion and the young General Federation of Women's Clubs of 40, 000members. Confessing that her own National American Woman SuffrageAssociation in comparison was poor in numbers and limited in funds, she added, "I would philosophize on the reason why. It is becausewomen have been taught always to work for something else than theirown personal freedom; and the hardest thing in the world is toorganize women for the one purpose of securing their political libertyand political equality. "[382] Even so, the vital woman's rightsorganizations, she concluded, drew the whole world to them in spiritif not in person. 

Her very presence among them without her words, in fact her verypresence on the fair grounds, advertised her cause, for in the mind ofthe public she personified woman suffrage. This tall dignified womanwith smooth gray hair, abundant in energy and spontaneousfriendliness, was the center of attraction at the World's Congress ofRepresentative Women. In her new black dress of Chinese silk, brightened with blue, and her small black bonnet, trimmed with laceand blue forget-me-nots, she was the perfect picture of everyone'sgrandmother, and the people took her to their hearts. [383] She was theone woman all wanted to see. Curious crowds jammed the hall andcorridors when she was scheduled to speak, and often a policeman hadto clear the way for her. At whatever meeting she appeared, theaudience at once burst into applause and started calling for her, interrupting the speakers, and were not satisfied until she hadmounted the platform so that all could see her and she had said a fewwords. Then they cheered her. After years of ridicule andunpopularity, she hardly knew what to make of all this, but sheaccepted it with happiness as a tribute to her beloved cause. Manywho had been critical and wary of her newfangled notions began toreverse their opinions after they saw her and heard her words of goodcommon sense. Even those who still opposed woman suffrage left theWorld's Fair with a new respect for Susan B. Anthony. 

She stayed on in Chicago for much of the summer and fall, for she wasin demand as a speaker at several of the world congresses and had fivespeeches to read for Mrs. Stanton, who felt unable to brave the heatand the crowds. She felt at home in this bustling, rapidly growingcity which for so many years had been the halfway station on herlecture and campaign trips through the West. Here she had always founda warm welcome, first from her cousins, the Dickinsons, then from theever-widening circle of friends she won for her cause. Now she wasliterally swamped with hospitality. [384] She rejoiced that such greatnumbers of everyday people were able to enjoy the beauty of the fairgrounds and the many interesting exhibits, and when a group ofclergymen urged Sunday closing, she took issue with them, declaringthat Sunday was the only day on which many were free to attend. Askedby a disapproving clergyman if she would like to have a son of hersattend Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show on Sunday, she promptly andbluntly replied, "Of course I would, and I think he would learn farmore there than from the sermons in some churches!"[385]

Hearing of this, Buffalo Bill offered her a box at his popular WildWest Show, and she appeared the next day with twelve of her "girls. "Dashing into the arena on his spirited horse while the band played andthe spotlight flashed on him, Buffalo Bill rode directly up to Susan'sbox, reined his horse, and swept off his big western hat to saluteher. Quick to respond, she rose and bowed, and beaming with pleasure, waved her handkerchief at him while the immense audience applauded andcheered. 

She returned home early in November 1893, with happy memories of theWorld's Fair and to good news from Colorado. "Telegram . .. FromDenver--said woman suffrage carried by 5000 majority, " she recorded inher diary. [386] This laconic comment in no way expressed the joy inher heart. 

Her diaries, written hurriedly in small fine script, year after year, in black-covered notebooks about three inches by six, were a briefterse record of her work and her travels. Only occasionally a line ofphilosophizing shone out from the mass of routine detail, or anilluminating comment on a friend or a difficult situation, but shenever failed to record a family anniversary, a birthday, or a death. 

The Colorado victory, referred to so casually in her diary, wasactually of great importance to her and her cause, for it carriedforward the trend initiated by the admission of Wyoming as a womansuffrage state in 1890. Colorado also proved to her that her "girls"could take over her work. So busy had she been winning good will forthe cause at the World's Fair that she had left Colorado in thecapable hands of the women of the state and of young efficient CarrieChapman Catt, to whom she now turned over the supervision of all statecampaigns. 

Encouragement also came from another part of the world, from NewZealand, where the vote was extended to women. This confirmed hergrowing conviction that equal citizenship was best understood on thefrontier and that in her own country victory would come from the West. 

FOOTNOTES:

[367] Minor vs. Happersett, _History of Woman Suffrage_, II, pp. 741-742. North and South Dakota, Washington and Montana were admittedin 1889, Wyoming and Idaho in 1890. 

[368] _Ibid. _, IV, pp. 999-1000. 

[369] North Dakota's constitution provided that the legislature mightin the future enfranchise women. 

[370] _History of Woman Suffrage_, IV, p. 556. 

[371] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 690. 

[372] _Ibid. _, p. 688. 

[373] Anna Howard Shaw, _The Story of a Pioneer_ (New York, 1915), p. 202. 

[374] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 731. 

[375] Ms. , Diary, Feb. 28, April 18, 1893. 

[376] Published first in the _Woman's Tribune_, then as a book in 1898under the title, _Eighty Years and More_. 

[377] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 712. 

[378] During this visit the young sculptor, Adelaide Johnson, modeledbusts of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton which later were chiseled inmarble and were exhibited with the bust of Lucretia Mott at theWorld's Fair in Chicago in 1893. They are now in the Capitol inWashington. 

[379] To Clarina Nichols. Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 544. Miss Anthonywrote in her diary, Oct. 18, 1893, "Lucy Stone died this evening ather home--Dorchester, Mass. Aged 75--I can but wonder if the spiritnow sees things as it did 25 years ago!" The wound inflicted by Lucy'smisunderstanding of her motives had never healed. 

[380] _Ibid. _, p. 727. 

[381] Rachel Foster was married in 1888 to Cyrus Miller Avery. 

[382] May Wright Sewall, Editor, _The World's Congress ofRepresentative Women_ (Chicago, 1894), p. 464. 

[383] Statement by Lucy E. Anthony, Una R. Winter Collection. 

[384] Miss Anthony's diary, 1893, mentions visiting "dear Mrs. Coonley" (Lydia Avery Coonley) in her beautiful, friendly home. MayWright Sewall, and devoted Emily Gross. Her sister Mary, Daniel, Merritt, and their families joined her at the Fair for a few weeks. 

[385] Shaw, _The Story of a Pioneer_, pp. 205-207. 

[386] Ms. , Diary, Nov. 8, 1893. 

LIQUOR INTERESTS ALERT FOREIGN-BORN VOTERS AGAINST WOMAN SUFFRAGE

"I am in the midst of as severe a treadmill as I ever experienced, traveling from fifty to one hundred miles every day and speaking fiveor six nights a week, "[387] Susan wrote a friend in 1894, during thecampaign to wrest woman suffrage from the New York constitutionalconvention. She was now seventy-four years old. Political machines andfinancial interests were deeply intrenched in New York, and althoughtwo governors had recommended that women be represented in theconstitutional convention and a bill had been passed making womeneligible as delegates, neither Republicans nor Democrats had theslightest intention of allowing women to slip into men's stronghold. It was obvious to Susan that without representation at the conventionand without power to enforce their demands, women's only hope was anintensive educational campaign which she now directed with vigor. Whenever she could, she conferred with Mrs. Stanton, whose judgmentshe valued, and there was zest in working together as they had duringthe previous constitutional convention in 1867. 

The women of New York were aroused as never before. Young ablespeakers went through the state, piling up signatures on theirpetitions, but they had few influential friends among the delegates. Anti-suffragists were active, encouraged by Bishop Doane of theProtestant Episcopal church and Mrs. Lyman Abbott, whose name carriedthe prestige and influence of her husband's popular magazine, _TheOutlook_. 

With the election of Joseph Choate of New York as president of theconvention, Susan knew that woman suffrage was doomed, for Choate hadpolitical aspirations and was not likely to let his sympathies for anunpopular cause jeopardize his chances of becoming governor. While hegave women every opportunity to be heard, at the same time he arrangedfor the defeat of woman suffrage by appointing men to consider thesubject who were definitely opposed, and they submitted an adversereport. Here was a situation similar to that in 1867, when herone-time friend, Horace Greeley, had deserted women for politicalexpediency. 

"I am used to defeat every time and know how to pick up and push onfor another attack, " she wrote as she now turned her attention toKansas. [388]

 * * * * *

The Republicans in Kansas had sponsored school and municipal suffragefor women and had passed a woman suffrage amendment to be referred tothe people in 1894. Yet they proved to be as great a disappointment toSusan as they were in 1867, when as a last resort she had been obligedto campaign with the Democrats and George Francis Train. 

The population of Kansas had changed with the years, as immigrantsfrom Europe had come into the state, and Susan was again confrontedwith the powerful opposition of foreign-born voters for whose supportthe political parties bargained. The liquor interests were alsoactive, and the Republicans, who had brought prohibition to Kansas, now left the question discreetly alone, even making a deal with GermanDemocrats for their votes by promising to ignore in their platformboth prohibition and woman suffrage. Prohibition and woman suffragewere synonymous in the minds of voters, because women had generallyvoted for enforcement in municipal elections, and no matter how hardSusan tried, she found it impossible to have woman suffrage consideredon its own merits. 

Watching the straws in the wind, she saw Republican supremacyseriously threatened by the new Populist party. Convinced that shecould no longer count on help from Kansas Republicans, she turned tothe Populist party, ignoring the pleas of Republican women who warnedher she would hurt the cause by association with such a radical group. The Populists were generally regarded as the party of social unrest, of a regulated economy, and unsound money, and they were looked uponwith suspicion. To many they represented a threat to the Americanfree-enterprise system, and they were blamed for the labor troubleswhich had flared up in the bloody Homestead strike in the steel millsof Pennsylvania and in the Pullman strike, defying the powerfulrailroads. Susan was never afraid to side with the underdog, and shecould well understand why western farmers, in the hope of relief, wereeagerly flocking into the Populist party when their corn sold for tencents a bushel and the products they bought were high-priced and theirmortgage interest was never lower than 10 per cent. 

To the Populist convention, she declared, "I have labored for women'senfranchisement for forty years and I have always said that for theparty that endorsed it, whether Republican, Democratic, or Populist, Iwould wave my handkerchief. "[389]

"We want more than the waving of your handkerchief, Miss Anthony, "interrupted a delegate, who then asked her, "If the People's party puta woman suffrage plank in its platform, will you go before the votersof this state and tell them that because the People's party hasespoused the cause of woman suffrage, it deserves the vote of everyone who is a supporter of that cause?"

"I most certainly will, " she replied, adding as the audience cheeredher wildly, "for I would surely choose to ask votes for the partywhich stood for the principle of justice to women, though wrong onfinancial theories, rather than for the party which was sound onquestions of money and tariff, and silent on the pending amendment tosecure political equality to half of the people. "

"I most certainly will" was the phrase which was remembered and wasflashed through the country, and as a result, the Republican press andSusan's Republican friends harshly criticized her for taking her standwith the radicals. 

Like all political parties, the Populists found it hard to comprehendjustice for women, but after a four-hour debate, the conventionendorsed the woman suffrage amendment, absolving, however, members whorefused to support it. The rank and file rejoiced as if each and everyone of them were heart and soul for the cause. They cheered, theywaved their canes, they threw their hats high in the air, and thenswarmed around Susan and Anna Shaw to shake their hands and welcomethem into the Populist party. 

With woman suffrage at last a political issue in Kansas, Susan leftthe field to her "girls. " Her homecoming brought reporters to 17Madison Street for the details about her alignment with the Populistparty. "I didn't go over to the Populists, " she told them. "I havebeen like a drowning man for a long time, waiting for someone to throwa plank in my direction. I didn't step on the whole platform, but juston the woman suffrage plank. .. . Here is a party in power which islikely to remain in power, and if it will give its endorsement to ourmovement, we want it. "[390]

This explanation, however, did not satisfy her critics, and as theRepublican press circulated false stories about her enthusiasm for thePopulist party, letters of protest poured in, among them one fromHenry Blackwell. To him, she replied, "I shall not praise theRepublicans of Kansas, or wish or work for their success, when I knowby their own confessions to me that the rights of the women of theirstate have been traded by them in cold blood for the votes of thelager beer foreigners and whisky Democrats. .. . I never, in my wholeforty years work, so utterly repudiated any set of politicians as I dothose Republicans of Kansas. .. . I never was surer of my position thatno self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of aparty that ignores her political rights. "[391]

The contest in Kansas was close and bitter. Kansas women carried on anable campaign with the help of Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie ChapmanCatt. When Susan returned to the state in October, she not only foundthat the Democrats had entered the fight with an anti-suffrage plankbut the Populists had noticeably lost ground since the Pullman strikeriots, the court injunction against the strikers, and the arrest ofEugene V. Debs. Again this prairie state, from which she had hoped somuch, refused to extend suffrage to women. Impulsively she recommendeda little "Patrick Henryism" to the women of Kansas, suggesting thatthey fold their hands and refuse to help men run the churches, thecharities, and the reform movements. [392]

 * * * * *

California was the next state to demand Susan's attention. ARepublican legislature had submitted a woman suffrage amendment to bevoted on by the people in 1896, and the women of California asked forher help. She toured the state in the spring of 1895 with Anna HowardShaw, and everywhere she won friends. The continuous travel andspeaking, however, taxed her far more than she realized, and soonafter her return to the East, she collapsed. As this news flashed overthe wires, letters poured in from her friends, begging her to spareherself. Two of these letters were especially precious. One in boldvigorous script was from her good comrade, Parker Pillsbury, noweighty-six, who had been an unfailing help during the most difficultyears of her career and whom she probably trusted more completely thanany other man. The other from her dearest friend, Elizabeth Stanton, read, "I never realized how desolate the world would be to me withoutyou until I heard of your sudden illness. Let me urge you with all thestrength I have, and all the love I bear you, to stay at home and restand save your precious self. "[393]

She now realized that rest was imperative for a time, but it troubledher that people thought of her as old and ill, and she wrote ClaraColby never to mention anyone's illness in her _Woman's Tribune_, adding, "It is so dreadful to get public thought centered on one asill--as I have had it the last two months. "[394]

She had no intention of retiring from the field. She knew her ownstrength and that her life must be one of action. "I am able to endurethe strain of daily traveling and lecturing at over three-score andten, " she observed, "mainly because I have always worked and lovedwork. .. . As machinery in motion lasts longer than when lying idle, soa body and soul in active exercise escapes the corroding rust ofphysical and mental laziness, which prematurely cuts off the life ofso many women. "[395]

Yet she did slow up a little, refusing an offer from the SlaytonLecture Bureau for a series of lectures at $100 a night, and sheengaged a capable secretary, Emma B. Sweet, to help her with hertremendous correspondence. "Dear Rachel" had given her a typewriter, and now instead of dashing off letters at her desk late at night, shelearned to dictate them to Mrs. Sweet at regular hours. As requestscame in from newspapers and magazines for her comments on a widevariety of subjects, she answered those that made possible a word onthe advancement of women. 

Bicycling had come into vogue and women as well as men were taking itup, some women even riding their bicycles in short skirts or bloomers. What did she think of this? "If women ride the bicycle or climbmountains, " she replied, "they should don a costume which will permitthem the use of their legs. " Of bicycling she said, "I think it hasdone more to emancipate woman than any one thing in the world. Irejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives her afeeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes herseat; and away she goes, the picture of untrammeled womanhood. "[396]

[Illustration: Ida Husted Harper]

 * * * * *

Susan returned to California in February 1896. Through the generosityand interest of two young Rochester friends, her Unitarian minister, William C. Gannett, and his wife, Mary Gannett, she was able to takeher secretary with her. Making her home in San Francisco with herdevoted friend, Ellen Sargent, she at once began to plan speakingtours for herself and her "girls, " many of whom, including her nieceLucy, had come West to help her. She appealed successfully to FrancesWillard to transfer the national W. C. T. U. Convention to another state, for she was determined to keep the issue of prohibition out of theCalifornia campaign. 

With the press more than friendly and several San Francisco dailiesrunning woman suffrage departments, she realized the importance ofkeeping newspapers fed with readable factual material and enlisted theaid of a young journalist, Ida Husted Harper, whom she had met in 1878while lecturing in Terre Haute, Indiana, and who was in Californiathat winter. When the San Francisco _Examiner_, William RandolphHearst's powerful Democratic paper, offered Susan a column on theeditorial page if she would write it and sign it, she dictated herthoughts to Mrs. Harper, who smoothed them out for the column, helpingher as Mrs. Stanton had in the past, for writing was still a greathardship. Grateful to Mrs. Harper, she sang her praises: "The moment Igive the idea--the point--she formulates it into a goodsentence--while I should have to haggle over it half an hour. "[397]

California women had won suffrage planks from Republicans, Populists, and Prohibitionists, and the prospects looked bright. Rich women cameto their aid, Mrs. Leland Stanford, with her railroad fortune, furnishing passes for all the speakers and organizers, and Mrs. PhoebeHearst contributing $1, 000 to their campaign. What warmed Susan'sheart, however, was the spirit of the rank and file, the seamstressesand washerwomen, paying their two-dollar pledges in twenty-five-centinstallments, the poorly clad women bringing in fifty cents or adollar which they had saved by going without tea, and the women whohad worked all day at their jobs, stopping at headquarters for apackage of circulars to fold and address at night. The working womenof California made it plain that they wanted to vote. 

Susan insisted upon carrying out what she called her "wild goosechase" over the state. [398] People crowded to hear her at farmers'picnics in the mountains, in schoolhouses in small towns, and inpoolrooms where chalked up on the blackboard she often found "WelcomeSusan B. Anthony. " She was at home everywhere and ready for anything. The men liked her short matter-of-fact speeches and her flashes ofwit. Her hopes were high that the friendly people she met would notfail to vote justice to women. 

She grew apprehensive, however, when the newspapers, pressured bytheir advertisers, one by one began to ignore woman suffrage. TheLiquor Dealers' League had been sending letters to hotel owners, grocers, and druggists, as well as to saloons, warning that votes forwomen would mean prohibition and would threaten their livelihood. Wordwas spread that if women voted not one glass of beer would be sold inSan Francisco. As in Kansas, liquor interests had persuadednaturalized Irish, Germans, and Swedes to oppose woman suffrage, sonow in California, they appealed to the Chinese. 

On election day Susan was in San Francisco with Anna Howard Shaw andEllen Sargent, watching and anxiously waiting for the returns. Tellingthe story of those last tense hours when women's fate hung in thebalance, Anna Howard Shaw reported, "I shall always remember thepicture of Miss Anthony and the wife of Senator Sargent wanderingaround the polls arm in arm at eleven o'clock at night, their tiredfaces taking on lines of deeper depression with every minute, for thecount was against us. .. . When the final counts came in, we found thatwe had won the state from the north down to Oakland and from the southup to San Francisco; but there was not sufficient majority to overcomethe adverse votes of San Francisco and Oakland. In San Francisco thesaloon element and the most aristocratic section . .. Made an equalshowing against us. .. . Every Chinese vote was against us. "[399]

In spite of defeat in California, Susan had the joy of marking up twomore states for woman suffrage in 1896. Utah was granted statehoodwith a woman suffrage provision in its constitution and Idaho'sfavorable vote, though contested in the courts, was upheld by theState Supreme Court. Now women in Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Utahwere voters. 

FOOTNOTES:

[387] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 763. 

[388] To Elizabeth Smith Miller, July 25, 1894, Elizabeth Smith MillerPapers, New York Public Library. 

[389] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 788. 

[390] _Ibid. _, p. 791. 

[391] _Ibid. _, p. 794. 

[392] To Clara Colby, July 22, 1895, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library. 

[393] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 842. 

[394] N. D. , Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library. 

[395] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 843. 

[396] _Ibid. _, pp. 844, 859. 

[397] Ms. , Diary, July 10, 1896. 

[398] Sept. 8, 1896, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library. 

[399] Shaw, _The Story of a Pioneer_, pp. 274-275. 

AUNT SUSAN AND HER GIRLS

The future of the National American Woman Suffrage Association wasmuch on Susan's mind. This organization which she had conceived andnursed through its struggling infancy had grown in numbers andprestige, and she understood, as no one else could, the importance ofleaving it in the right hands so that it could function successfullywithout her. 

The young women now in the work, many of them just out of college, were intelligent, efficient, and confident, and yet as she comparedthem with the vivid consecrated women active in the early days of themovement, she observed in her diary, "[Clarina] Nichols--PaulinaDavis--Lucy Stone--Frances D. Gage--Lucretia Mott & E. C. Stanton--each without peer among any of our college graduates--youngwomen of today. "[400]

Even so, she appreciated the "young women of today" whom sheaffectionately called her girls or her adopted nieces, but she stillheld the reins tightly, although they often champed at the bit. Recognizing, however, that she must choose between personal power andprogress for her cause, she characteristically chose progress. Quickto appreciate ability and zeal when she saw it, she seldom failed tomake use of it. When Carrie Chapman Catt presented a detailed plan fora thorough overhauling of the mechanics of the organization, she gaveher approval, remarking drily, "There never yet was a young woman whodid not feel that if she had had the management of the work from thebeginning, the cause would have been carried long ago. I felt justthat way when I was young. "[401]

On four of her adopted nieces, Rachel Foster Avery, Anna Howard Shaw, Harriet Taylor Upton, and Carrie Chapman Catt, Susan felt that thegreater part of her work would fall and be "worthily done. "[402] Yetshe feared that in their enthusiasm for efficient organization theymight lose the higher concepts of freedom and justice which had beenthe driving force behind her work. Not having learned the lessons ofleadership when the cause was unpopular, they lacked the discipline ofadversity, which bred in the consecrated reformer the wisdom, tolerance, and vision so necessary for the success of her task. Whatthey did understand far better than the highly individualisticpioneers was the value of teamwork, which grew in importance as theNational American Association expanded far beyond the ability of oneperson to cope with it. 

[Illustration: Rachel Foster Avery]

Probably first in her affections was Rachel Foster Avery, who had beenlike a daughter to her since their trip to Europe together in 1883. The confidence she felt in their friendship was always a comfort. Rachel's intelligent approach to problems made her an asset at everymeeting, and Susan relied much on her judgment. 

In Anna Howard Shaw, ten years older than Rachel, Susan had found thehardy campaigner and orator for whom she had longed. Anna expressed awarmth and understanding that most of the younger women lacked, andbest of all she loved the cause as Susan herself loved it. Because ofher close friendship with Susan's niece Lucy, she was regarded as oneof the family, and whenever possible between lectures she stopped overin Rochester for a good talk with "Aunt Susan. "

Harriet Taylor Upton of Warren, Ohio, had enlisted in the ranks inthe 1880s when her father was a member of Congress. Because of herinfluence in Washington and Ohio, Harriet was invaluable, and Susanspeedily brought her into the official circle of the National AmericanAssociation as treasurer, even thinking of her as a possiblepresident. [403] Harriet's jovial irrepressible personality readily wonfriends, and Susan found her a refreshing and comfortable companion, able to see a bit of humor in almost every situation. When differencesof opinion at meetings threatened to get out of hand, Harriet couldalways be relied on to break the tension with a few witty remarks. 

[Illustration: Harriet Taylor Upton]

Carrie Chapman Catt gave every indication of developing into anoutstanding executive. Not another one of Susan's "girls" could soquickly or so intelligently size up a situation as Carrie, nor couldthey so effectively put into action well-thought-out plans. Not aspopular a speaker as the more emotional Anna Howard Shaw, she held heraudiences by her appeal to their intelligence. Tall, handsome, andwell dressed, she never failed to leave a favorable impression. Onlyher name irked Susan, and as Susan wrote Clara Colby, "If Catt it mustbe then I insist, she should keep her own father's name--Lane--andnot her first husband's name--Chapman, "[404] but the three Csintrigued Carrie and she continued to be known as Carrie Chapman Catt. Now living in the East because her husband's expanding business hadbrought him to New York, she was easily accessible, and from herbeautiful new home at Bensonhurst, a suburb of Brooklyn, she carriedon the rapidly growing work of the organization committee until a NewYork City office became imperative. In Carrie, Susan recognizedqualities demanded of a leader at this stage of the campaign whensuffragists must learn to be as keen as politicians and as wellorganized. 

 * * * * *

"Spring is not heralded in Washington by the arrival of the robin, "commented a Washington newspaper, "but by the appearance of MissAnthony's red shawl. " Susan was still the dominating figure at theannual woman suffrage conventions. Everyone looked eagerly for thetall lithe gray-haired woman with a red shawl on her arm or around hershoulders. Once when Susan appeared on the platform with a new whitecrepe shawl, the reporters immediately registered their displeasure byputting down their pencils. This did not escape her, and always ongood terms with the newsmen and informal with her audiences, shecalled out, "Boys, what is the matter?"[405]

"Where is the red shawl?" one of them asked. "No red shawl, noreport. "

Enjoying this little by-play, she sent her niece Lucy back to thehotel for the red shawl, and when Lucy brought it up to the platformand put it about her shoulders, the audience burst into applause, forthe red shawl, like Susan herself, had become the well-loved symbol ofwoman suffrage. 

Susan was convinced that the annual national convention should alwaysbe held in Washington, where Congress could see and feel the growingstrength and influence of the movement. Her "girls, " on the otherhand, wanted to take their conventions to different parts of thecountry to widen their influence. Not as certain as Susan that workfor a federal amendment must come first, many of them contended that afew more states won for woman suffrage would best help the cause atthis time. The southern women, now active, were firm believers instates' rights and supported state work. [406] Susan's experience hadtaught her the impracticability of direct appeal to the voters in thestates, now that foreign-born men in increasing numbers were arrayedagainst votes for women. In spite of her arguments and her pleas, theNational American Association voted in 1894 to hold conventions indifferent parts of the country in alternate years. Disappointed, buttrying her best graciously to follow the will of the majority, shetraveled to Atlanta and to Des Moines for the conventions of 1895 and1897. 

Nor did the younger women welcome the messages which Mrs. Stanton, atSusan's insistence, sent to every convention. Susan herself oftenwished her good friend would stick more closely to woman suffrageinstead of introducing extraneous subjects, such as "EducatedSuffrage, " "The Matriarchate, " or "Women and the Church, " butnevertheless she proudly read her papers to successive conventions. Insisting that the conventions were too academic, Mrs. Stanton urgedSusan to inject more vitality into them by broadening their platform. Susan, however, had come to the conclusion that concentration on womansuffrage was imperative in order to unite all women under one bannerand build up numbers which Congressmen were bound to respect. Withthis her "girls" agreed 100 per cent. While all of them were convincedsuffragists, they were divided on other issues, and few of them werewholehearted feminists, as were Susan and Mrs. Stanton. 

 * * * * *

With the publication of _The Woman's Bible_ in 1895, Mrs. Stantonalmost upset the applecart, stirring up heated controversy in theNational American Woman Suffrage Association. _The Woman's Bible_ wasa keen and sometimes biting commentary on passages in the Biblerelating to women. It questioned the traditional interpretation whichfor centuries has fastened the stigma of inferiority upon women, andpointed out that the female as well as the male was created in theimage of God. To those who regarded every word of the Bible asinspired by God, _The Woman's Bible_ was heresy, and both the clergyand the press stirred up a storm of protest against it. Suffragistswere condemned for compiling a new Bible and were obliged to explainagain and again that _The Woman's Bible_ expressed Mrs. Stanton'spersonal views and not those of the movement. 

Susan regarded _The Woman's Bible_ as a futile, questionabledigression from the straight path of woman suffrage. To Clara Colby, who praised it in her _Woman's Tribune_, she wrote, "Of all her greatspeeches, I am always proud--but of her Bible commentaries, I am notproud--either of their spirit or letter. .. . I could cry a heap--everytime I read or think--if it would undo them--or do anybody or myselfor the cause or Mrs. Stanton any good--they are so entirely unlike herformer self--so flippant and superficial. But she thinks I have goneover to the enemy--so counts my judgment worth nothing more than thatof any other narrow-souled body. .. . But I shall love and honor her tothe end--whether her _Bible_ please me or not. So I hope she will dofor me. "[407]

She was, however, wholly unprepared for the rebellion staged by her"girls" at the Washington convention of 1896, when, led by RachelFoster Avery, they repudiated _The Woman's Bible_ and proposed aresolution declaring that their organization had no connection withit. This was clear proof to Susan that her "girls" lacked toleranceand wisdom. Listening to the debate, she was heartsick. Anna HowardShaw and Mrs. Catt as well as Alice Stone Blackwell spoke for theresolution. Only a few raised their voices against it, among them hersister Mary, Clara Colby, Mrs. Blake, and a young woman new to theranks, Charlotte Perkins Stetson. 

Susan was presiding, and leaving the chair to express her opinions, she firmly declared, "To pass such a resolution is to set back thehands on the dial of reform. .. . We have all sorts of people in theAssociation and . .. A Christian has no more right on our platform thanan atheist. When this platform is too narrow for all to stand on, Ishall not be on it. .. . Who is to set up a line? Neither you nor I cantell but Mrs. Stanton will come out triumphant and that this will bethe great thing done in woman's cause. Lucretia Mott at first thoughtMrs. Stanton had injured the cause of woman's rights by insisting onthe demand for woman suffrage, but she had sense enough not to pass aresolution about it. .. . [408]

"Are you going to cater to the whims and prejudices of people?" sheasked them. "We draw out from other people our own thought. If, whenyou go out to organize, you go with a broad spirit, you will createand call out breadth and toleration. You had better organize one womanon a broad platform than 10, 000 on a narrow platform of intoleranceand bigotry. "

Her voice tense with emotion, she concluded, "This resolution adoptedwill be a vote of censure upon a woman who is without a peer inintellectual and statesmanlike ability; one who has stood for half acentury the acknowledged leader of progressive thought and demand inregard to all matters pertaining to the absolute freedom ofwomen. "[409]

When the resolution was adopted 53 to 40, she was so disappointed inher "girls" and so hurt by their defiance that she was tempted toresign. Hurrying to New York after the convention to talk with Mrs. Stanton, she found her highly indignant and insistent that they bothresign from the ungrateful organization which had repudiated the womento whom it owed its existence. The longer Susan considered taking thisstep, the less she felt able to make the break. She severelyreprimanded Mrs. Catt, Rachel, Harriet Upton, and Anna, telling themthey were setting up an inquisition. 

Finally she wrote Mrs. Stanton, "No, my dear, instead of my resigningand leaving those half-fledged chickens without any mother, I think itmy duty and the duty of yourself and all the liberals to be at thenext convention and try to reverse this miserable narrow action. "[410]

To a reporter who wanted her views on _The Woman's Bible_, she made itplain that she had no part in writing the book, but added, "I thinkwomen have just as good a right to interpret and twist the Bible totheir own advantage as men have always twisted it and turned it totheirs. It was written by men, and therefore its reference to womenreflects the light in which they were regarded in those days. In thesame way the history of our Revolutionary War was written, in whichvery little is said of the noble deeds of women, though we know howthey stood by and helped the great work; it is so with history allthrough. "[411]

 * * * * *

For some years, Susan's girls had been urging her to write herreminiscences, spurred on by the fact that Mrs. Stanton, MaryLivermore, and Julia Ward Howe were writing theirs. There were alsoother good reasons for putting her to work at this task. Writing wouldkeep her safely at home and away from the strenuous work in the fieldwhich they feared was sapping her strength. It would keep her welloccupied so that they could develop the work and the conventions intheir own way. 

Susan put off this task from month to month and from year to year, torn between her desire to leave a true record of her work and herlonging to be always in the thick of the suffrage fight. Finally shebegan looking about for a collaborator, convinced that she herselfcould never write an interesting line. Ida Husted Harper, with hernewspaper experience and her interest in the cause, seemed the logicalchoice, and in the spring of 1897, she came to 17 Madison Street towork on the biography. [412]

The attic had been remodeled for workrooms and here Susan now spenther days with Mrs. Harper, trying to reconstruct the past. She haddefinite ideas about how the book should be written, holding up as amodel the biography of William Lloyd Garrison recently written by hischildren. Mrs. Harper also had high standards, and influenced bythe formalities of the day, edited Susan's vivid brusqueletters--hurriedly written and punctuated with dashes--so that theyconformed with her own easy but more formal style. To this Susanreadily consented, for she always depreciated her own writing ability. On one point, however, she was adamant, that her story be told withoutdwelling upon the disagreements among the old workers. 

The household was geared to the "bog, " as they called the biography. Mary, supervising as usual, watched over their meals and the houseworkwith the aid of a young rosy-cheeked Canadian girl, Anna Dann, who hadrecently come to work for them and whom they at once took to theirhearts, making her one of the family. Soon another young girl, Genevieve Hawley from Fort Scott, Kansas, was employed to help withthe endless copying, sorting of letters, and pasting of scrapbooks, and with the current correspondence which piled up and diverted Susanfrom the book. [413] Through 1897 and 1898, they worked at top speed. 

_The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, A Story of the Evolution ofthe Status of Women_, in two volumes, by Ida Husted Harper, waspublished by the Bowen Merrill Company of Indianapolis just beforeChristmas 1898. Happy as a young girl out of school, Susan inscribedcopies for her many friends and eagerly watched for reviews, pleasedwith the favorable comments in newspapers and magazines throughoutthis country and Europe. [414]

 * * * * *

By this time the Cuban rebellion was crowding all other news out ofthe papers, and Susan followed it closely, for this struggle forfreedom instantly won her sympathy. She hoped that Spain underpressure from the United States might be persuaded to give Cuba herindependence, but the blowing up of the battleship _Maine_ and the warcries of the press and of a faction in Congress led to armedintervention in April 1898. Always opposed to war as a means ofsettling disputes, she wrote Rachel, "To think of the mothers of thisnation sitting back in silence without even the power of a legalprotest--while their sons are taken without a by-your-leave! Well allthrough--it is barbarous . .. And I hope you and all our young womenwill rouse to work as never before--and get the women of the Republicclothed with the power of control of conditions in peace--or when itshall come again--which Heaven forbid--in war. "[415]

Not only did she express these sentiments in letters to her friends, but in a public meeting, where only patriotic fervor and flag-wavingwere welcome, she dared criticize the unsanitary army camps and thegreed and graft which deprived soldiers of wholesome food. "Thereisn't a mother in the land, " she declared, "who wouldn't know that ashipload of typhoid stricken soldiers would need cots to lie on andfuel to cook with, and that a swamp was not a desirable place in whichto pitch a camp. .. . What the government needs at such a time is notalone bacteriologists and army officers but also women who know how totake care of sick boys and have the common sense to surround them withsanitary conditions. "[416] At this her audience, at first hostile, burst into applause. 

More and more disturbed by the inefficient care of the wounded and thefeeding of enlisted men, she wrote Rachel, "Every day's reports andcomments about the war only show the need of women at the front--notas employees permitted to be there because they begged to be--butthere by right--as managers and dictators in all departments in whichwomen have been trained--those of feeding and caring for in health andnursing the sick. "[417]

The war over, the problem of governing the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii was of great interest to her, and she at once asked for theenfranchisement of the women of these newly won island possessions. She regarded it as an outrage for the most democratic nation in theworld to foist upon them an exclusively masculine government, a "maleoligarchy, " as she called it. "I really believe I shall explode, " shewrote Clara Colby, "if some of you young women don't wake up and raiseyour voice in protest. .. . I wonder if when I am under the sod--orcremated and floating in the air--I shall have to stir you and othersup. How can you not be all on fire?"[418]

The unwillingness of her "girls" to relate woman suffrage tocontemporary public affairs such as this, repeatedly disappointed her. Yet she was well aware that the younger generation would never see thework through her eyes, or exactly follow her pattern. 

 * * * * *

Disappointed that her National American Woman Suffrage Association didnot attract members as did the W. C. T. U. Or the General Federation ofWomen's Clubs, she confessed to Clara Colby, "It is the dishearteningpart of my life that so very few women will work for the emancipationof their own half of the race. "[419] Watching women flock into theseother organizations and contributing to all sorts of charities, shewas obliged to admit that "very few are capable of seeing that thecause of nine-tenths of all the misfortunes which come to women, andto men also, lies in the subjection of women, and therefore theimportant thing is to lay the ax at the root. "[420]

She also discovered that it was one thing to build up a largeorganization and another to keep women so busy with pressing work forthe cause that they did not find time to expend their energies on themechanics of organization. Not only did she chafe at the red tape mostof them spun, but she often felt that they were too prone to linger inacademic by-ways, listening to speeches and holding pleasantconventions. Since the California campaign of 1896, only one state, Washington, had been roused to vote on a woman suffrage amendment, which was defeated and only one more state Delaware had granted womenthe right to vote for members of school boards. 

Again and again she warned her "girls" that some kind of action onwoman suffrage by Congress every year was important. A hearing, acommittee report, a debate, or even an unfavorable vote would, she wasconvinced, do more to stir up the whole nation than all the speakersand organizers that could be sent through the country. 

Such thoughts as these, relative to the work which was always on hermind, she dashed off to one after another of her young colleagues. "Your letters sound like a trumpet blast, " wrote Anna Howard Shaw, grateful for her counsel. "They read like St. Paul's Epistles to theRomans, so strong, so clear, so full of courage. "[421]

At seventy-eight, Susan realized that the time was approaching whenshe must make up her mind to turn over to a younger woman thepresidency of the National American Association, and during the summerof 1898 she announced to her executive committee that she would retireon her eightieth birthday in 1900. 

FOOTNOTES:

[400] Ms. , Diary, Nov. 7, 1895

[401] Mary Gray Peck, _Carrie Chapman Catt_ (New York, 1944), p. 84. 

[402] Ms. , Diary, Nov. 27, 1895. 

[403] To Mrs. Upton, Sept. 5, 1890, University of Rochester Library, Rochester, New York. 

[404] Feb. 10, 1894, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library. 

[405] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1113. 

[406] Miss Anthony's first attempt to win Southern women to suffragewas at the time of the New Orleans Exposition in 1885. Because of herreputation as an abolitionist, she had much resistance to overcome inthe South. 

[407] Dec. 18, 1895, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library. 

[408] _Woman's Tribune_, Feb. 1, 1896. 

[409] _History of Woman Suffrage_, IV, p. 264. 

[410] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 855. The action of the NationalAmerican Woman Suffrage Association on the Woman's Bible was neverreversed. 

[411] _Ibid. _, p. 856. 

[412] Susan thought seriously of Clara Colby as a collaborator butconcluded she was too involved with the _Woman's Tribune_. Susanagreed to share royalties with Mrs. Harper on the biography and anyother work on which they might collaborate. On her 75th birthdaySusan's girls had presented her with an annuity of $800 a year. Thismade it possible for her to give up lecturing and concentrate on herbook. 

[413] Genevieve Hawley left an interesting record of these years inletters to her aunt, many of which are preserved in the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Collection in Rochester, New York. 

[414] Both the New York _Herald_ and Chicago _Inter-Ocean_ gave thebook full-page reviews. A third volume was published in 1908. 

[415] Aug. 10, 1898, Susan B. Anthony Papers, Library of Congress. 

[416] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1121. 

[417] Aug. 10, 1898, Susan B. Anthony Papers, Library of Congress. 

[418] Dec. 17, 1898, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library. Clara Colby, making her headquarters in Washington, kept Susaninformed on developments and they carried on an animated, voluminouscorrespondence during these years. 

[419] March 12, 1894, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library. 

[420] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 920. 

[421] Harper, _Anthony_, II, p. 924. 

PASSING ON THE TORCH

The last year of Susan's presidency was particularly precious to her. In a sense it represented her farewell to the work she had carried onmost of her life, and at the same time it was also the hopefulbeginning of the period leading to victory. Yet she had no illusion ofspeedy or easy success for her "girls" and she did her best to preparethem for the obstacles they would inevitably meet. She warned them notto expect their cause to triumph merely because it was just. "Governments, " she told them, "never do any great good things frommere principle, from mere love of justice. .. . You expect too much ofhuman nature when you expect that. "[422]

The movement had reached an impasse. The temper of Congress, as shownby the admission of Hawaii as a territory without woman suffrage, wasboth indifferent and hostile. That this attitude did not express thewill of the American people, she was firmly convinced. It was due, shebelieved, to the political influence of powerful groups opposed towoman suffrage--the liquor interests controlling the votes ofincreasing numbers of immigrants, machine politicians fearful oflosing their power, and financial interests whose conservatismresisted any measure which might upset the status quo. How toundermine this opposition was now her main problem, and she saw noother way but persistent agitation through a more active, moreeffective, ever-growing woman suffrage organization, reaching a widercross section of the people. She herself had established a pressbureau which was feeding interesting factual articles on womansuffrage to newspapers throughout the country, for as she wrote Mrs. Colby, the suffrage cause "needs to picture its demands in the dailypapers where the unconverted can see them rather than in specialpapers where only those already converted can see them. "[423]

Of greatest importance to her was winning the support of organizedlabor. Samuel Gompers, the president of the American Federation ofLabor, had already shown his friendliness toward equal pay and votesfor women and was putting women organizers in the field to speed theunionization of women. Even so she was surprised at the enthusiasmwith which she was received at the American Federation of Laborconvention in 1899, when the four hundred delegates by a rising voteadopted a strong resolution urging favorable action on a federal womansuffrage amendment. 

So far as possible she had always established friendly relations withlabor organizations, first in 1869 with William H. Sylvis's NationalLabor Union and then with the Knights of Labor and their leader, Terrence V. Powderly. [424] When Eugene V. Debs, president of theAmerican Railway Union, was arrested during the Pullman strike in 1894for defying a court injunction, she did not rate him, as so many did, a dangerous radical, but as an earnest reformer, crusading for anunpopular cause. They had met years before in Terre Haute, where athis request she had lectured on woman suffrage, and immediately theyhad won each other's sympathy and respect. She did not see indicationsof anarchy in the Pullman and Homestead strikes or in the Haymarketriot, but regarded them as an unfortunate phase of an industrialrevolution which in time would improve the relations of labor andcapital. 

That women would be effected by this industrial revolution was obviousto her, and she wanted them to understand it and play their part init. For this reason she saw the importance of keeping the NationalAmerican Woman Suffrage Association informed on all developmentsaffecting wage-earning women and to her delight she found three youngsuffragists wide awake on this subject. One of them, Florence Kelley, had joined forces with that remarkable young woman, Jane Addams, inher valuable social experiment, Hull House, in the slums of Chicago, and was now devoting herself to improving the working conditions ofwomen and children. She represented a new trend in thought andwork--social service--which made a great appeal to college women andset in motion labor legislation designed to protect women andchildren. Another young woman of promise, Gail Laughlin, pioneering asa lawyer, approached the subject from the feminist viewpoint, seekingprotection for women not through labor legislation based on sex, butthrough trade unions, the vote, equal pay, and a wider recognition ofwomen's right to contract for their labor on the same terms as men. Her survey of women's working conditions, presented at a convention ofthe National American Association was so valuable and attracted somuch attention that she was appointed to the United States LaborCommission. Harriot Stanton Blatch also understood the significance ofthe industrial revolution and woman's part in it, and she too opposedlabor legislation based on sex. Coming from England occasionally tovisit her mother in New York, she brought her liberal viewpoint intowoman suffrage conventions with a flare of oratory matching that ofher gifted parents. "The more I see of her, " Susan remarked to afriend, "the more I feel the greatness of her character. "[425]

 * * * * *

Although it was Susan's intention to hew to the line of woman suffrageand not to comment publicly on controversial issues, she could notkeep silent when confronted with injustice. Religious intolerance, bigotry, and racial discrimination always forced her to take a stand, regardless of the criticism she might bring on herself. 

The treatment of the Negro in both the North and the South was alwaysof great concern to her, and during the 1890s, when a veritableepidemic of lynchings and race riots broke out, she expressed herselffreely in Rochester newspapers. She noted the dangerous trend asindicated by new anti-Negro societies and the limitation of membershipto white Americans in the Spanish-American War veterans' organization. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, she put into practice herown sincere belief in race equality. During every Washingtonconvention, she arranged to have one of her good speakers occupy thepulpit of a Negro church, and in the South she made it a point tospeak herself in Negro churches and schools and before theirorganizations, even though this might prejudice southerners. In herown home, she gladly welcomed the Negro lecturers and educators whocame to Rochester. This seeking out of the Negro in friendliness was areligious duty to her and a pleasure. She demanded of everyoneemployed in her household, respectful treatment of Negro guests. Sherejoiced when she saw Negroes in the audience at woman suffrageconventions in Washington, and it gave her great satisfaction to hearMary Church Terrell, a beautiful intelligent Negro who had beeneducated at Oberlin and in Europe, making speeches which equaled andeven surpassed those of the most eloquent white suffragists. 

 * * * * *

Susan did not fail to keep in touch with the international feministmovement, and in the summer of 1899, when she was seventy-nine yearsold, she headed the United States delegation to the InternationalCouncil of Women, meeting in London. Visiting Harriot Stanton Blatchat her home in Basingstoke, she first conferred with the leadingBritish feminists, bringing herself up to date on the progress oftheir cause. In England as in the United States, the burden of thesuffrage campaign had shifted from the shoulders of the pioneers totheir daughters, and they were carrying on with vigor, pressing forthe passage of a franchise bill in the House of Commons. 

Moving on to London, she was acclaimed as she had been at the World'sFair in Chicago. "The papers here have been going wild over MissAnthony, declaring her to be the most unaggressive woman suffragistever seen, " reported a journalist to his newspaper in the UnitedStates. 

From China, India, New Zealand, and Australia, from South Africa, Palestine, Persia, and the Argentine, as well as from Europe and theUnited States, women had come to London to discuss their progress andtheir problems, and Susan, pointing out to them the goal toward whichthey must head, declared with confidence, "The day will come when manwill recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside but in thecouncils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be theperfect comradeship . .. Between the sexes that shall result in thehighest development of the race. "[426]

She had hoped that Queen Victoria would receive the delegates atWindsor Castle, thus indicating her approval of the InternationalCouncil. She longed to talk with this woman who had ruled so long andso well. That a queen sat on the throne of England, this in itself wasimportant to her and she wanted to express her gratitude, although shewas well aware that the Queen had never used her influence for theimprovement of laws relating to women. She had hoped to convince herof the need of votes for women, but Queen Victoria never gave her theopportunity. All that influential Englishwomen were able to arrangewas the admission of the delegates to the courtyard of Windsor Castleto watch the Queen start on her drive and to tea in the banquet roomwithout the Queen. 

[Illustration: Carrie Chapman Catt]

 * * * * *

Returning home late in August 1899, Susan began at once to makedefinite plans to turn over the presidency of the National AmericanWoman Suffrage Association to a younger woman. Although she well knewthat the choice of her successor was actually in the hands of themembership, it was her intention to do what she could within thebounds of democratic procedure to insure the best possible leadership. To fill the office, she turned instinctively to Anna Howard Shaw whomshe loved more dearly as the years went by and whose selfless devotionto the cause she trusted implicitly. Yet Anna, in spite of her manyqualifications, lacked a few which were exceptional in Carrie ChapmanCatt--creative executive ability, diplomacy, a talent for working withpeople, directing them, and winning their devotion. With growingadmiration, Susan had been watching Mrs. Catt's indefatigable work inthe states where she had been building up active branches. Her flarefor raising money was outstanding, and Susan realized, as few othersdid, the crying need of funds for the campaigns ahead. In additionMrs. Catt had no personal financial worries, for her husband, successful in business, was sympathetic to her work. Anna, on theother hand, would have to support herself by lecturing and carry aswell the burden of the presidency of a rapidly growing organization. 

Anna made the decision for Susan. She urged the candidacy of Mrs. Catt, although her highest ambition had always been to succeed herbeloved Aunt Susan. As she later confessed to Susan, this was apersonal sacrifice which cost her many a heartache, but she "honestlyfelt that Mrs. Catt was better fitted . .. As well as freer to go intoan unpaid field. "[427] Susan therefore approached Mrs. Catt throughRachel and Harriet Upton, and was relieved when she consented to standfor election. 

Rumors of Susan's retirement aroused ambitions in Lillie DevereuxBlake, who from the point of seniority and devoted work in New Yorkwas regarded as being next in line for the presidency by Mrs. Stantonand Mrs. Colby. Unable to visualize Mrs. Blake as the leader of thislarge organization with its diverse strong personalities, Susannevertheless conceded her right to compete for the office. Althoughshe appreciated Mrs. Blake's valuable work for the cause, there neverhad been understanding or sympathy between them. Temperamentally theblunt stern New Englander with untiring drive had little in commonwith the southern beauty turned reformer. 

A change in the presidency needed wise and patient handling aspersonal ambitions, prejudices, and misunderstandings reared theirheads. When there were murmurings of secession among a small group ifMrs. Catt were elected, Susan wrote Mrs. Colby that such talk was"very immature, very despotic, very undemocratic, " and she hoped shewas not one of the malcontents. [428]

Another problem was the future of the organization committee whichunder Mrs. Catt's chairmanship had carried on a large part of thework. Its influence was considerable and could readily develop so asto conflict with that of the officers, thus threatening the unity ofthe whole organization. To dissolve the committee seemed to Susan andher closest advisors the wisest procedure. Mary Garrett Hay, who hadworked closely with Mrs. Catt on the organization committee, opposedthis plan, but after earnest discussion the officers, including Mrs. Catt, agreed to dissolve the organization committee. 

 * * * * *

As Susan appeared on the platform at the opening session of theWashington convention in February 1900, there was thunderous applausefrom an audience tense with emotion at the thought of losing theleader who had guided them for so many years. The tall gray-hairedwoman in black satin, with soft rich lace at her throat and theproverbial red shawl about her shoulders, had become the symbol oftheir cause. Now, as she looked down upon them with a friendly smileand motherly tenderness, tears came to their eyes, and they wanted toremember always just how she looked at that moment. Then she broke thetension with a call to duty, a summons to press for the federalamendment, and one more plea that they always hold their annualconventions in the national capital. 

Difficult and sad as this official leave-taking was, she had made upher mind to carry if through with good cheer. Tirelessly she presidedat three sessions daily. With the pride of a mother, she listened tothe many reports and with particular satisfaction to that of thetreasurer which showed all debts paid and pledges amounting to $10, 000to start the new year. Susan herself had made this possible, raisingenough to pay past debts and securing pledges so that the newadministration could start its work free from financial worries. 

"I have fully determined to retire from the active presidency of theAssociation, " 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 organizationin the hands of those who are to have its management in the future. Iwant to see you all at work, while I am alive, so I can scold if youdo not do it well. Give the matter of selecting your officers seriousthought. Consider who will do the best work for the politicalenfranchisement of women, and let no personal feelings enter into thequestion. "[429]

Watching developments with the keen eye of a politician, she wasconfident that Mrs. Catt would be elected to succeed her, althoughMrs. Blake's candidacy was still being assiduously pressed andcirculars recommending her, signed by Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Russell Sageand Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, were being widely distributed. Just beforethe balloting, however, Mrs. Blake withdrew her name in the interestof harmony. This left the field to Mrs. Catt, who received 254 votesof 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 delegatesthat Aunt Susan was no longer their president. Walking to the front ofthe platform, Susan took Mrs. Catt by the hand, and while thedelegates applauded, the two women stood before them, the one showingin her kind face the experience and wisdom of years, the other young, intelligent, and beautiful, her life still before her. There weretears in Susan's eyes and her voice was unsteady as she said, "I amsure you have made a wise choice. .. . 'New conditions bring newduties. ' These new duties, these changed conditions, demand strongerhands, younger heads, and fresher hearts. In Mrs. Catt, you have myideal leader. I present to you my successor. "[430]

 * * * * *

Susan's joyous confidence in the new administration was rudely joltedas controversy over the future of the organization committee flared upduring the last days of the convention. Under strong pressure fromMary Garrett Hay, Mrs. Catt had counseled with Henry Blackwell, and atone of the last sessions he had slipped in a motion authorizing thecontinuance of the organization committee. [431]

Stunned by this development and looking upon it as a threat to theharmony of the new administration, Susan, supported by Harriet Uptonand Rachel, prepared to take action, and the next morning, at thefirst post-convention executive committee meeting at which Mrs. Cattpresided, Susan proposed that the national officers, headed by Mrs. Catt, take over the duties of the organization committee. Thisprecipitated a heated debate, during which Henry Blackwell and hisdaughter, Alice, called such procedure unconstitutional, and Mary Hayresigned. As the discussion became too acrimonious, Mrs. Catt put anend to it by calling up unfinished business, and thus managed tosteer the remainder of the session into less troubled waters. The nextday, however, Susan brought the matter up again, and on her motion theorganization committee was voted out of existence with praise for itsadmirable record of service. 

Here were all the makings of a factional feud which, if fanned intoflame, could well have split the National American Association. Notonly had the old organization interfered with the new, indirectlyreprimanding Mrs. Catt, but Susan, by her own personal influence anddetermination, had reversed the action of the convention. As a result, Mrs. Catt was indignant, hurt, and sorely tempted to resign, but aftersending a highly critical letter to every member of the businesscommittee, she took up her work with vigor. 

Disappointed and heartsick over the turn of events, Susan searched fora way to re-establish harmony and her own faith in her successor. Realizing that a mother's cool counsel and guiding hand were needed toheal the misunderstandings, and convinced that unity and trust couldbe restored only by frank discussion of the problem by those involved, she asked for a meeting of the business committee at her home. "Whatcan 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 byletter. We must hold a meeting--and we must have you--and every singleone of our members at it. "[432]

Impatient at what to her seemed unnecessary delay, she kept proddingMrs. Catt to call this meeting. Fortunately both Susan and Mrs. Cattwere genuinely fond of each other and placed the welfare of the causeabove personal differences. Both were tolerant and steady andunderstood the pressures put on the leader of a great organization. Anxious and troubled as she waited for this meeting, Susan appreciatedAnna Shaw's visits as never before, marking them as red-letter days onher calender. 

Late in August 1900, all the officers finally gathered at 17 MadisonStreet, and Susan listened to their discussions with deep concern. Shewas confident she could rely completely on Harriet Upton, Rachel, andAnna and could count on Laura Clay's "level head and good commonsense. "[433] She never felt sure of Alice Stone Blackwell and knewthere was great sympathy and often a working alliance between her, herfather, 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. Duringthose hot humid August days, misunderstandings were healed, unity wasrestored, 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 asearly as the 1850s at state teachers' meetings and proposing it forColumbia University in her _Revolution_. In 1891, she and Mrs. Stantonhad agitated for the admission of women to the University ofRochester. Seven years later the trustees consented to admit womenprovided $100, 000 could be raised in a year, and Susan served on thefund-raising committee with her friend, Helen Barrett Montgomery. Because the alumni of the University of Rochester opposed coeducationand the city's wealthiest men were indifferent, progress was slow, butthe trustees were persuaded to extend the time and to reduce by onehalf the amount to be raised. 

With so much else on her mind in 1900, including the sudden death ofher brother Merritt, she had given the fund little thought until thecommittee appealed to her in desperation when only one day remained inwhich to raise the last $8, 000. Immediately she went into action. Remembering that Mary had talked of willing the University $2, 000 ifit became coeducational, she persuaded her to pledge that amount now. Then setting out in a carriage on a very hot September morning, sheslowly collected pledges for all but $2, 000. As the trustees were insession and likely to adjourn any minute, she appealed to SamuelWilder, one of Rochester's prominent elder citizens who had alreadycontributed, to guarantee that amount until she could raise it. Tothis 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 withthem, the trustees began to quibble over Samuel Wilder's guarantee ofthe last $2, 000 because of the state of his health. When she offeredher life insurance as security, they still put her off, telling herto come back in a few days. Even then they continued to quibble, butfinally admitted that the women had won. Disillusioned, she wrote inher diary, "Not a trustee has given anything although there areseveral millionaires among them. "[435] Only her life insurance policyand her dogged persistence had saved the day. 

This effort to open Rochester University to women, on top of a veryfull and worrisome year, was so taxing and so disillusioning that shebecame seriously ill. When she recovered sufficiently for a drive, sheasked to be taken to the university campus and afterward wrote in herdiary, "As I drove over the campus, I felt 'these are not forbiddengrounds to the girls of the city any longer. ' It is good to feel thatthe old doors sway on their hinges--to women! Will the vows be kept tothem--will the girls have equal chances with the boys? They promisedwell--the fulfilment will be seen--whether there shall not be somehitch 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 firstannual convention under the new administration. There was talk of an"entire new deal, " the retirement of all who had served under MissAnthony, and the election of a "new cabinet of officers, " and Susanwas so concerned that there might also be a change in the presidencythat she felt she must be on hand to guide and steady theproceedings. [437]

Mrs. Catt was re-elected and Susan returned to Rochester wellsatisfied and ready to devote herself to completing the fourth volumeof the _History of Woman Suffrage_ on which she and Mrs. Harper hadbeen working intermittently for the past year. It was published latein 1902. While working on the History, Susan, although more thansatisfied with Mrs. Harper's work, often thought nostalgically of herhappy stimulating years of collaboration with Mrs. Stanton. She seldomsaw Mrs. Stanton now, but they kept in touch with each other byletter. 

In the spring of 1902, she visited Mrs. Stanton twice in New York, andplanned to return in November to celebrate Mrs. Stanton'seighty-seventh birthday. In anticipation, she wrote Mrs. Stanton, "Itis fifty-one years since we first met and we have been busy throughevery one of them, stirring up the world to recognize the rights ofwomen. .. . We little dreamed when we began this contest . .. That half acentury later we would be compelled to leave the finish of the battleto another generation of women. But our hearts are filled with joy toknow that they enter upon this task equipped with a college education, with business experience, with the freely admitted right to speak inpublic--all of which were denied to women fifty years ago. .. . Thesestrong, courageous, capable, young women will take our place andcomplete our work. There is an army of them where we were but ahandful. .. . "[438]

Two weeks before Mrs. Stanton's birthday, Susan was stunned by atelegram 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 copywhich only this heartbroken woman could give. "I cannot express myselfat all as I feel, " she haltingly told them. "I am too crushed tospeak. If I had died first, she would have found beautiful phrases todescribe our friendship, but I cannot put it into words. "[439]

From New York, where she had gone for the funeral, she wrote inanguish to Mrs. Harper, "Oh, the voice is stilled which I have lovedto 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 amall at sea--but the Laws of Nature are still going on--with no shadowor turning--what a wonder it is--it goes right on and on--no matterwho lives or who dies. "[440]

 * * * * *

National woman suffrage conventions were still red-letter events toSusan and she attended them no matter how great the physical effort, traveling to New Orleans in 1903. Of particular concern was the 1904convention because of Mrs. Catt's decision at the very last moment notto stand for re-election on account of her health. Looking over thefield, Susan saw no one capable of taking her place but Anna HowardShaw. Not to be able to turn to Mrs. Stanton's capable daughter, Harriot Stanton Blatch, at this time was disappointing, but Harriot'slong absence in England had made her more or less of a stranger to themembership of the National American Association, and for some reasonshe did not seem to fit in, lacking her mother's warmth andappeal. [441]

[Illustration: Quotation in the handwriting of Susan B. Anthony]

"I don't see anybody in the whole rank of our suffrage movement totake her [Mrs. Catt's] place but you, " Susan now wrote Anna HowardShaw. "If you will take it with a salary of say, $2, 000, I will goahead and try to see what I can do. We must not let the society downinto _feeble_ hands. .. . Don't say _no_, for the _life_ of _you_, forif Mrs. Catt _persists_ in going out, we shall simply _have_ to_accept it_ and we must _tide over_ with the _best material_ that wehave, and _you are the best_, and would you have taken office _fouryears 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-fourthbirthday to a thundering welcome, to banter with Mrs. Upton who calledher to the platform, and to stop the applause with a smile and "Therenow, girls, that's enough. "[443] Nothing could have been moreappropriate for her birthday than the Colorado jubilee over which shepresided and which gave irrefutable evidence of the success of womansuffrage in that state. There was rejoicing too over Australia, wherewomen had been voting since 1902 and over the new hope in Europe, inDenmark, where women had chosen her birthday to stage a demonstrationin favor of the pending franchise bill. 

For the last time, she spoke to a Senate committee on the womansuffrage amendment. Standing before these indifferent men, a tiredwarrior at the end of a long hard campaign, she reminded them that shealone remained of those who thirty-five years before, in 1869, hadappealed to Congress for justice. "And I, " she added, "shall not beable to come much longer. 

"We have waited, " she told them. "We stood aside for the Negro; wewaited for the millions of immigrants; now we must wait till theHawaiians, the Filipinos, and the Puerto Ricans are enfranchised; thenno doubt the Cubans will have their turn. For all these ignorant, alien peoples, educated women have been compelled to stand aside andwait!" Then with mounting impatience, she asked them, "How long willthis injustice, this outrage continue?"[444]

Their answer to her was silence. They sent no report to the Senate onthe woman suffrage amendment. Yet she was able to say to a reporter ofthe New York _Sun_, "I have never lost my faith, not for a moment infifty 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 Laborand invited this organization to send delegates to the InternationalCouncil of Women in 1888. 

[425] To Ellen Wright Garrison, 1900, Sophia Smith Collection, SmithCollege. 

[426] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1137. A few years later, militantsuffragists, 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 "movedup, " 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 wasestablished at the University of Rochester and not until 1952 were themen'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 YorkPublic Library. A few years later, Mrs. Blatch made a vitalcontribution to the cause through the Women's Political Union whichshe organized and which brought more militant methods and new lifeinto the woman suffrage campaign in New York State. 

[442] Jan. 27, 1904, Lucy E. Anthony Collection. Mrs. Blake who hadbeen 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 ofgood friends, headed for a meeting of the International Council ofWomen in Berlin. What drew her to Berlin was the plan initiated byCarrie Chapman Catt to form an International Woman Suffrage Allianceprior to the meetings of the International Council. This had beenSusan's dream and Mrs. Stanton's in 1883, when they first conferredwith women of other countries regarding an international womansuffrage organization and found only the women of England ready tounite on such a radical program. Now that women had worked togethersuccessfully in the International Council for sixteen years on otherless controversial matters relating to women, she and Mrs. Catt wereconfident that a few of them at least were willing to unite to demandthe vote. 

Chosen as a matter of course to preside over this gathering ofsuffragists in Berlin, Susan received an enthusiastic welcome. For herit was a momentous occasion, and eager to spread news of the meetingfar and wide, she could not understand the objections of many of thedelegates to the presence of reporters who they feared might send outsensational copy. 

"My friends, what are we here for?" she asked her more timidcolleagues. "We have come from many countries, travelled thousands ofmiles to form an organization for a great international work, and dowe want to keep it a secret from the public? No; welcome all reporterswho want to come, the more, the better. Let all we say and do here betold far and wide. Let the people everywhere know that in Berlin womenfrom all parts of the world have banded themselves together to demandpolitical freedom. I rejoice in the presence of these reporters, andinstead of excluding them from our meetings let us help them to allthe information we can and ask them to give it the widestpublicity. "[446]

This won the battle for the reporters, who gave her rousing applause, and the news flashed over the wires was sympathetic, dignified, andabundant. It told the world of the formation of the InternationalWoman Suffrage Alliance by women from the United States, GreatBritain, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Norway, andDenmark, "to secure the enfranchisement of women of all nations. " Itpraised the honorary president, Susan B. Anthony, and the Americanwomen 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 massmeeting, and Susan, eager to rejoice with them, was surprised to findmembers of the International Council disgruntled and accusing theInternational Woman Suffrage Alliance of stealing their thunder andcasting the dark shadow of woman suffrage over their conference. Toplacate them and restore harmony, she stayed away from this publicmeeting, but she could not control the demand for her presence. 

"Where is Susan B. Anthony?" were the first words spoken as the massmeeting opened. Then immediately the audience rose and burst intocheers which continued without a break for ten minutes. Anna HowardShaw there on the platform and deeply moved by this tribute to AuntSusan, later described how she felt: "Every second of that time Iseemed to see Miss Anthony alone in her hotel room, longing with allher 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, themere mention of her name had caused, her lips quivered and her braveold 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-warminglines, "The Americans call her 'Aunt Susan. ' She is our 'Aunt Susan'too. "

This was but a foretaste of her reception throughout her stay inBerlin. To the International Council, she was "Susan B. Anthony of theWorld, " the woman of the hour, whom all wanted to meet. Every time sheentered the conference hall, the audience rose and remained standinguntil she was seated. Every mention of her name brought forth cheers. The many young women, acting as ushers, were devoted to her and eagerto serve her. They greeted her by kissing her hand. Embarrassed atfirst by such homage, she soon responded by kissing them on thecheek. 

[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony at the age of eighty-five]

The Empress Victoria Augusta, receiving the delegates in the RoyalPalace, singled out Susan, and instead of following the custom ofkissing the Empress's hand, Susan bowed as she would to anydistinguished American, explaining that she was a Quaker and did notunderstand the etiquette of the court. The Empress praised Susan'sgreat work, and unwilling to let such an opportunity slip by, Susanoffered the suggestion that Emperor William who had done so much tobuild up his country might now wish to raise the status of Germanwomen. To this the Empress replied with a smile, "The gentlemen arevery slow to comprehend this great movement. "[448]

When the talented Negro, Mary Church Terrell, addressing theInternational Council in both German and French, received an ovation, Susan's cup of joy was filled to the brim, for she glimpsed the brightpromise of a world without barriers of sex or race. 

 * * * * *

The newspapers welcomed her home, and in her own comfortable sittingroom she read Rochester's greeting in the _Democrat and Chronicle_, "There are woman suffragists and anti-suffragists, but all Rochesterpeople, irrespective of opinion . .. Are Anthony men and women. Weadmire and esteem one so single-minded, earnest and unselfish, who, with eighty-four years to her credit, is still too busy and useful tothink of growing old. "[449]

Her happiness over this welcome was clouded, however, by the seriousillness of her brother Daniel, and she and Mary hurried to Kansas tosee him. Two months later he passed away. Now only she and Mary wereleft of all the large Anthony family. Without Daniel, the world seemedempty. His strength of character, independence, and sympathy with herwork had comforted and encouraged her all through her life. A fearlesseditor, a successful businessman, a politician with principles, he hadplayed an important role in Kansas, and proud of him, she cherishedthe many tributes published throughout the country. 

Courageously she now picked up the threads of her life. Her preciousNational American Woman Suffrage Association was out of her hands, butshe still had the _History of Woman Suffrage_ to distribute, and itgave her a great sense of accomplishment to hand on to futuregenerations this record of women's struggle for freedom. [450]

Missing the stimulous of work with her "girls, " she took more and morepleasure in the company of William and Mary Gannett of the FirstUnitarian Church, whose liberal views appealed to her strongly. Sheliked to have young people about her and followed the lives of all hernieces and nephews with the greatest interest, spurring on theirambitions and helping finance their education. The frequent visits of"Niece Lucy" were a great joy during these years, as was the nearnessof "Niece Anna O, "[451] who married and settled in Rochester. Theyoung Canadian girl, Anna Dann, had become almost indispensable to herand to Mary, as companion, secretary, and nurse, and her marriage lefta void in the household. Anna Dann was married at 17 Madison Street byAnna Howard Shaw with Susan beaming upon her like a proud grandmother. 

 * * * * *

Longing to see one more state won for suffrage, Susan carefullyfollowed the news from the field, looking hopefully to California andurging her "girls" to keep hammering away there in spite of defeats. Her eyes were also on the Territory of Oklahoma, where a constitutionwas being drafted preparatory to statehood. "The present bill for thenew state, " she wrote Anna Howard Shaw, in December 1904, "is aninsult to women of Oklahoma, such as has never been perpetratedbefore. We have always known that women were in reality ranked withidiots and criminals, but it has never been said in words that thestate should . .. Restrict or abridge the suffrage . .. On account ofilliteracy, minority, _sex_, conviction of felony, mental condition, etc. .. . We must fight this bill to the utmost. .. . "[452]

The brightest spot in the West was Oregon, where suffrage had beendefeated in 1900 by only 2, 000 votes. In June 1905, when the NationalAmerican Association held its first far western convention in Portlandduring the Lewis and Clark Exposition, Susan could not keep away, although she had never expected to go over the mountains again. As shetraveled to Portland with Mary and a hundred or more delegates inspecial cars, she recalled her many long tiring trips through the Westto carry the message of woman suffrage to the frontier. Incomparison, this was a triumphal journey, showing her, as nothing elsecould, what her work had accomplished. Greeted at railroad stationsalong the way by enthusiastic crowds, showered with flowers and gifts, she stood on the back platform of the train with her "girls, " shakinghands, waving her handkerchief, and making an occasional speech. 

Presiding over the opening session of the Portland convention, standing in a veritable garden of flowers which had been presented toher, she remarked with a droll smile, "This is rather different fromthe receptions I used to get fifty years ago. .. . I am thankful forthis change of spirit which has come over the American people. "[453]

On Woman's Day, she was chosen to speak at the unveiling of the statueof Sacajawea, the Indian woman who had led Lewis and Clark through thedangerous mountain passes to the Pacific, winning their gratitude andtheir praise. In the story of Sacajawea who had been overlooked by thegovernment when every man in the Lewis and Clark expedition had beenrewarded with a large tract of land, Susan saw the perfect example ofman's thoughtless oversight of the valuable services of women. Lookingup at the bronze statue of the Indian woman, her papoose on her backand her arm outstretched to the Pacific, Susan said simply, "This isthe first statue erected to a woman because of deeds of daring. .. . This recognition of the assistance rendered by a woman in thediscovery of this great section of the country is but the beginning ofwhat is due. " Then, with the sunlight playing on her hair and lightingup her face, she appealed to the men of Oregon for the vote. "Nextyear, " she reminded them, "the men of this proud state, made possibleby a woman, will decide whether women shall at last have the rights init which have been denied them so many years. Let men remember thepart women have played in its settlement and progress and vote to givethem these rights which belong to every citizen. "[454]

 * * * * *

Reporters were at Susan's door, when she returned to Rochester, forcomments on ex-President Cleveland's tirade against clubwomen andwoman suffrage in the popular _Ladies' Home Journal_. "Purefol-de-rol, " she told them, adding testily, "I would think that GroverCleveland was about the last person to talk about the sanctity of thehome and woman's sphere. " This was good copy for Republican newspapersand they made the most of it, as women throughout the country addedtheir protests to Susan's. A popular jingle of the day ran, "Susan B. Anthony, she took quite a fall out of Grover C. "[455]

Susan, however, had something far more important on her mind thanfencing with Grover Cleveland--an interview with President TheodoreRoosevelt. Here was a man eager to right wrongs, to break monopolies, to see justice done to the Negro, a man who talked of a "square deal"for all, and yet woman suffrage aroused no response in him. 

In November 1905, she undertook a trip to Washington for the expresspurpose of talking with him. The year before, at a White Housereception, he had singled her out to stand at his side in thereceiving line. She looked for the same friendliness now. Memorandumin hand, she plied him with questions which he carefully evaded, butshe would not give up. 

"Mr. Roosevelt, " she earnestly pleaded, "this is my principle request. It is almost the last request I shall ever make of anybody. Before youleave the Presidential chair recommend to Congress to submit to theLegislatures a Constitutional Amendment which will enfranchise women, and thus take your place in history with Lincoln, the greatemancipator. I beg of you not to close your term of office withoutdoing this. "[456]

To this he made no response, and trying once more to wring from himsome slight indication of sympathy for her cause, she added, "Mr. President, your influence is so great that just one word from you infavor of woman suffrage would give our cause a tremendous impetus. "

"The public knows my attitude, " he tersely replied. "I recommended itwhen Governor of New York. "

"True, " she acknowledged, "but that was a long time ago. Our enemiessay that was the opinion of your younger years and that since you havebeen President you have never uttered one word that could be construedas an endorsement. "

"They have no cause to think I have changed my mind, " he suavelyreplied as he bade her good-bye. In the months that followed he gaveher no sign that her interview had made the slightest impression. 

One of the most satisfying honors bestowed on Susan during these lastyears was the invitation to be present at Bryn Mawr College in 1902for the unveiling of a bronze portrait medallion of herself. BrynMawr, under its brilliant young president, M. Carey Thomas, herself apioneer in establishing the highest standards for women's education, showed no such timidity as Vassar where neither Susan nor ElizabethCady Stanton had been welcome as speakers. At Bryn Mawr, Susan talkedfreely and frankly with the students, and best of all, became betteracquainted with M. Carey Thomas and her enterprising friend, MaryGarrett of Baltimore, who was using her great wealth for theadvancement of women. She longed to channel their abilities to womansuffrage and a few years later arranged for a national convention intheir home city, Baltimore, appealing to them to make it anoutstanding success. [457]

Arriving in Baltimore in January 1906 for this convention, Susan wasthe honored guest in Mary Garrett's luxurious home. Frail and ill, shewas unable to attend all the sessions, as in the past, but she waspresent at the highlight of this very successful convention, theCollege Evening arranged by M. Carey Thomas. With women's collegesstill resisting the discussion of woman suffrage and the Associationof Collegiate Alumnae refusing to support it, the College Eveningmarked the first public endorsement of this controversial subject bycollege women. Up to this time the only encouraging sign had been theformation in 1900 of the College Equal Suffrage League by two youngRadcliffe alumnae, Maud Wood Park and Inez Haynes Irwin. Now here, inconservative Baltimore, college presidents and college faculty gavewoman suffrage their blessing, and Susan listened happily asdistinguished women, one after another, allied themselves to thecause: Dr. Mary E. Woolley, who as president of Mt. Holyoke wasdeveloping Mary Lyons' pioneer seminary into a high ranking college;Lucy Salmon, Mary A. Jordan, and Mary W. Calkins of the faculties ofVassar, Smith, and Wellesley; Eva Perry Moore, a trustee of Vassar andpresident of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, with whom shedared differ on this subject; Maud Wood Park, representing the youngergeneration in the College Equal Suffrage League; and last of all, thepresident of Bryn Mawr, M. Carey Thomas. After expressing hergratitude to the pioneers of this great movement, Miss Thomas turnedto Susan and said, "To you, Miss Anthony, belongs by right, as to noother woman in the world's history, the love and gratitude of allwomen in every country of the civilized globe. We your daughters inspirit, rise up today and call you blessed. .. . Of such as you were thelines of the poet Yeats written:

 'They shall be remembered forever, They shall be alive forever, They shall be speaking forever, The people shall hear them forever. '"[458]

During the thundering applause, Susan came forward to respond, herface alight, and the audience rose. "If any proof were needed of theprogress of the cause for which I have worked, it is here tonight, "she said simply. "The presence on the stage of these college women, and in the audience of all those college girls who will someday be thenation's greatest strength, tell their story to the world. They givethe highest joy and encouragement to me. .. . "[459]

During her visit at the home of Mary Garrett, Susan spoke freely withher and with M. Carey Thomas of the needs of the National AmericanAssociation, particularly of the Standing Fund of $100, 000 of whichshe had dreamed and which she had started to raise. Now, like ananswer to prayer, Mary Garrett and President Thomas, fresh from theirsuccessful money-raising campaigns for Johns Hopkins and Bryn Mawr, offered to undertake a similar project for woman suffrage, proposingto raise $60, 000--$12, 000 a year for the next five years. 

"As we sat at her feet day after day between sessions of theconvention, listening to what she wanted us to do to help women andasking her questions, " recalled M. Carey Thomas in later years, "Irealized that she was the greatest person I had ever met. She seemedto me everything that a human being could be--a leader to die for orto live for and follow wherever she led. "[460]

Immediately after the convention, Susan went to Washington with thewomen who were scheduled to speak at the Congressional hearing onwoman suffrage. In her room at the Shoreham Hotel, a room with a viewof the Washington Monument which the manager always saved for her, shestood at the window looking out over the city as if saying farewell. Then turning to Anna Shaw, she said with emotion, "I think it is themost beautiful monument in the whole world. "[461]

That evening she sat quietly through the many tributes offered to heron her eighty-sixth birthday, longing to tell all her friends thegratitude and hope that welled up in her heart. Finally she rose, andstanding by Anna Howard Shaw who was presiding, she impulsively puther hand on her shoulder and praised her for her loyal support. Thenturning to the other officers, she thanked them for all they had done. "There are others also, " she added, "just as true and devoted to thecause--I wish I could name everyone--but with such women consecratingtheir lives--" She hesitated a moment, and then in her clear richvoice, added with emphasis, "Failure is impossible. "[462]

 * * * * *

In Rochester, in the home she so dearly loved, she spent her lastweeks, thinking of the cause and the women who would carry it on. Longing to talk with Anna Shaw, she sent for her, but Anna, feelingshe was needed, came even before a letter could reach her. With Annaat her bedside, Susan was content. 

"I want you to give me a promise, " she pleaded, reaching for Anna'shand. "Promise me you will keep the presidency of the association aslong as you are well enough to do the work. "[463]

Deeply moved, Anna replied, "But how can I promise that? I can keep itonly as long as others wish me to keep it. "

"Promise to make them wish you to keep it, " Susan urged. "Just as Iwish you to keep it. .. . "

After a moment, she continued, "I do not know anything about whatcomes to us after this life ends, but . .. If I have any consciousknowledge of this world and of what you are doing, I shall not be faraway from you; and in times of need I will help you all I can. Whoknows? Perhaps I may be able to do more for the Cause after I am gonethan while I am here. "

A few days later, on March 13, 1906, she passed away, her hand inAnna's. 

 * * * * *

Asked, a few years before, if she believed that all women in theUnited States would ever be given the vote, she had replied withassurance, "It will come, but I shall not see it. .. . It is inevitable. We can no more deny forever the right of self-government to one-halfour people than we could keep the Negro forever in bondage. It willnot be wrought by the same disrupting forces that freed the slave, butcome it will, and I believe within a generation. "[464]

[Illustration: Susan B. Anthony, 1905]

She had so longed to see women voting throughout the United States, tosee them elected to legislatures and Congress, but for her there hadonly been the promise of fulfillment in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, andIdaho, and far away in New Zealand and Australia. 

"Failure is impossible" was the rallying cry she left with her "girls"to spur them on in the long discouraging struggle ahead, fourteen moreyears of campaigning until on August 26, 1920, women were enfranchisedthroughout the United States by the Nineteenth Amendment. 

Even then their work was not finished, for she had looked fartherahead to the time when men and women everywhere, regardless of race, religion, or sex, would enjoy equal rights. Her challenging words, "Failure is impossible, " still echo and re-echo through the years, asthe crusade for human rights goes forward and men and women togetherstrive to build and preserve a free world. 

FOOTNOTES:

[446] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1325. 

[447] Shaw, _The Story of a Pioneer_, p. 210. 

[448] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1319. 

[449] _Ibid. _, p. 1336. 

[450] Miss Anthony also carefully prepared her scrapbooks, her books, and bound volumes of _The Revolution_, woman's rights and antislaverymagazines for presentation to the Library of Congress, inscribing eachwith a note of explanation. 

[451] Ann Anthony Bacon. 

[452] _New York Suffrage Newsletter_, Jan. , 1905. 

[453] _History of Woman Suffrage_, V, p. 122. 

[454] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1365. The statue of Sacajawea, presented to the Exposition by the clubwomen of America, was the workof Alice Cooper of Denver. Woman suffrage was again defeated in Oregonin 1906. 

[455] Harper, _Anthony_, III, pp. 1357, 1359. 

[456] _Ibid. _, pp. 1376-1377. 

[457] The medallion, the work of Leila Usher of Boston, wascommissioned by Mary Garrett. 

[458] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1395. 

[459] _Ibid. _, pp. 1395-1396. 

[460] Sept. , 1935, Statement, Una R. Winter Collection. 

[461] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1409. 

[462] _Ibid. _

[463] Shaw, _The Story of a Pioneer_, pp. 230-232. 

[464] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1259. 

NOTES

[Transcriber's Note: All footnotes for the book were located here, onpages 311-326. They have been relocated to immediately follow thechapter where they are referenced. ]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS

American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts: Abby Kelley Foster Papers. 

Lucy E. Anthony and Ann Anthony Bacon Papers: Susan B. Anthony Diaries, Letters, and Speeches. 

Boston Public Library, Manuscript Division: Antislavery, Garrison, and Higginson Papers. 

Matilda Joslyn Gage Collection. 

Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California, Manuscript Division: Ida Husted Harper Collection. Anthony Collection. 

Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas: Anthony Papers. 

Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. , Manuscript Division: Susan B. Anthony Papers, including Diaries. Anna E. Dickinson Papers. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers. 

Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. , Rare Book Room: Susan B. Anthony Scrapbooks. 

Alma Lutz Collection. 

Anna Dann Mason Collection. 

Museum of Arts and Sciences, Rochester, New York: Anthony Collection. 

New York Public Library, Manuscript Division: Susan B. Anthony Papers. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers. Elizabeth Smith Miller Papers. 

Ohio State Library, Columbus, Ohio: Ohioana Library Collection. 

Seneca Falls Historical Society, Seneca Falls, New York: Amelia Bloomer Papers. 

Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts: Sophia Smith Collection. 

Edna M. Stantial Collection: Blackwell Papers. 

Susan B. Anthony Memorial Collection, 17 Madison Street, Rochester, New York. 

Radcliffe Women's Archives, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

University of California, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California: Susan B. Anthony Papers. Keith Papers. 

University of Kentucky Library, Lexington, Kentucky: Laura Clay Papers. 

University of Rochester Library, Rochester, New York: Susan B. Anthony Papers. 

Vassar College Library, Poughkeepsie, New York: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers. Margaret Stanton Lawrence Papers. 

Una R. Winter Collection. 

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----. _The Subjection of Women. _ London, 1869. 

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NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS

Adams (Mass. ) _Freeman__The Agitator__Antislavery Standard_Chicago Daily _Tribune_Chicago _Inter-Ocean__The Golden Age__Harper's Weekly__The Independent__Ladies' Home Journal__The Liberator__The Lily_New York _Daily Graphic_New York _Herald_New York _Post_New York _Suffrage News Letter_New York _Sun_New York _Times_New York _Tribune_New York _World_Philadelphia _Press__The Revolution__Rochester History_San Francisco _Examiner__The Una__Woman's Campaign__Woman's Journal__Woman's Tribune__Woman's Suffrage Journal_ (London, England)_Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly_

INDEX

Adams, Abigail, 3, 311

Addams, Jane, 286

Alcott, Bronson, 117, 224, 225

American Antislavery Society, 58, 60, 112, 118-19

American Equal Rights Association, 118-20, 125, 137, 145-46, 161, 164

American Federation of Labor, 285-86

American Woman Suffrage Association, 172-73, 177, 233, 247, 249-50, 318, 322, 323

Anneké, Madam, 175, 234

Anthony, Ann O. _See_ Bacon, Ann Anthony. 

Anthony, Anna Osborne, 108-09, 315

Anthony, Daniel (father), 1, 4-13, 15-16, 18, 20-24, 56, 58, 93, 98, 104, 311, 316, 322

Anthony, Daniel Jr. (nephew), 241

Anthony, Daniel Read (brother), 7, 12, 15, 22, 45-46, 56, 58, 93, 108-12, 135, 141, 171, 179, 219, 227, 230, 239, 241-42, 302, 315, 321, 324

Anthony, Eliza, 9

Anthony, Guelma. _See_ McLean, Guelma Anthony. 

Anthony, Hannah. _See_ Mosher, Hannah Anthony. 

Anthony, Hannah Latham, 4, 18

Anthony, Humphrey, 5, 6

Anthony, Jacob Merritt, 9, 15, 22, 46, 56, 58, 93, 98, 191, 219, 241, 294, 302, 324

Anthony, Lucy E. , 235, 248, 271, 275, 277, 303, 322

Anthony, Lucy Read, 1-2, 5-6, 8-9, 11-12, 16, 18, 20-21, 62, 98, 103, 108, 129, 190, 219, 235, 311, 316

Anthony, Mary Luther, 46, 93, 108

Anthony, Mary S. , 7, 15, 21, 24, 58, 62, 64, 98, 103, 108, 171, 190, 199, 217, 219, 235, 240, 248, 255, 279, 281, 294, 299, 303, 316, 324

Anthony, Sarah Burtis, 21

Anthony, Susan B. , birth of, 1; ancestry of, 4, 6, 311; her school days, 7-8, 10-11; as teacher, 9, 11, 13-14, 17-22; her first temperance speech, 19; her interest in books, 52, 94; her interest in outdoor work, 67, 93; her opinions on marriage, 73-74, 80, 221, 224, on women's support of political parties, 243, on woman as president, 245; her first appeal for Congressional action on woman suffrage, 117; 50th birthday celebration of, 176; arrest and trial of, 201-03, 209-13; diaries of, 264-65; retirement of, 283; 84th birthday celebration of, 297; last illness and death of, 308; prophecy of, 310

Aurora Leigh, 74-76

Avery, Dr. Alida, 230

Avery, Rachel Foster, 238-39, 244-45, 251, 262, 270, 274-75, 279-80, 282, 290, 292-93, 300, 322-23

Bacon, Ann Anthony, 303, 322, 326

Barton, Clara, 99, 176

Becker, Lydia, 174, 320, 322

Beecher, Henry Ward, 79, 101, 103, 118, 125, 129, 134, 137, 169, 173-74, 220-22

Beecher-Tilton case, 219, 220, 222-23, 321

Bickerdyke, Mother, 100, 130

Bingham, Anson, 77, 79

Bingham, John A. , 122

Blackwell, Alice Stone, 72, 251, 279, 292, 294, 323

Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, 33, 41, 44, 50, 52, 69, 71-72, 76, 81, 102, 314

Blackwell, Dr. Elizabeth, 99

Blackwell, Ellen, 52, 53

Blackwell, Henry, 50, 125, 128, 145, 162, 250, 269, 292, 294

Blackwell, Samuel, 50

Blake, Lillie Devereux, 166, 194, 200, 227, 279, 290, 292, 326

Blatch, Harriot Stanton, 67, 100, 236, 239, 245, 250-51, 287-88, 296, 322, 325

Blatch, William Henry, 239, 322

Bloomer, Amelia, 26, 170, 237, 312

Bloomer Costume, 26, 27, 29, 33, 34, 35, 39, 40, 41, 312

Booth, Mary L. , 231, 238

Bradwell, Myra, 170, 199, 207-08

Bright, Jacob, 176, 222

Brown, Antoinette. _See_ Blackwell, Antoinette Brown. 

Brown, B. Gratz, 123, 196

Brown, John, 46, 56, 63-66, 115, 201, 313

Brown, Olympia, 128, 137, 175, 197

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 23, 55, 74-76, 94

Bryn Mawr College, 306-07

Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), 264

Bullard, Laura Curtis, 166, 172, 178-79, 194

Burnham, Carrie S. , 198

Butler, Benjamin F. , 183, 193, 200, 208

Caldwell, Margaret Read, 17, 21

California campaign, 269, 271-73, 283, 303

Carroll, Ella Anna, 100, 234

Cary, Alice, 127, 142, 166, 174, 231

Cary, Phoebe, 142, 166, 231

Catt, Carrie Chapman, 254-55, 265, 269, 274, 276-77, 279-80, 289-94, 295-97, 299, 300

Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 226-28

Channing, William Henry, 41, 47, 239, 312

Chase, Salmon P. , 141, 208

Child, Lydia Maria, 118

Claflin, Tennessee, 181-82

Clay, Laura, 293

Clemmer, Mary, 229

Cleveland, Grover, 246, 260-61, 304-05

Coeducation, 37-38, 67-68, 70, 258, 294

Colby, Clara Bewick, 231, 244-45, 270, 276, 279, 283, 285, 290, 323-25

College Equal Suffrage League, 306

College Evening, the, Baltimore, Maryland, 307

Conkling, Roscoe, 122, 209

Conway, Moncure D. , 126

Corbin, Hannah Lee, 4

Couzins, Phoebe, 175, 227

Cowles, Caroline. _See_ Richards, Caroline Cowles. 

Crittenden, Alexander P. , 188, 319

Curtis, George William, 79, 103, 125-26, 129, 169

Dall, Caroline H. , 316

Dann, Anna. _See_ Mason, Anna Dann. 

Daughters of Temperance, 18, 24-25, 30

Davis, Paulina Wright, 33, 165, 167, 172, 182-85, 191, 195, 274

Debs, Eugene V. , 269, 286

De Garmo, Rhoda, 16, 23, 199

Democrats, 88, 98, 106, 118, 123, 130-31, 133, 135-36, 138, 140-41, 143, 146-48, 193, 196-97, 200, 226, 232, 253, 261, 266-69, 272

Demorest, Mme. Louise, 129, 318

Dickinson, Albert, 109, 263

Dickinson, Anna E. , 94-95, 104, 106-07, 112, 138, 144-45, 148, 156, 177, 196, 223, 238, 315, 318

Divorce, 32, 80-83, 174, 224

Dix, Dorothea, 99

Douglas, Stephen A. , 62, 83

Douglass, Frederick, 23-24, 63, 88, 103, 106, 112, 145, 162-63, 200, 312

Duniway, Abigail Scott, 189, 244

Eddy, Eliza J. , 52, 238-39, 313

Emancipation Proclamation, 98-99, 101-02

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 53, 65, 94, 117, 150

Fair, Laura, 188-89, 319

Fawcett, Millicent Garrett, 246

Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment, 160-62, 164, 166, 172-73, 193, 216-18, 226, 229, 231-34, 286, 291, 298, 305, 310, 321

Fifteenth Amendment, 160, 162-65, 169, 181, 192-93, 198-200, 203, 205, 210, 214, 232

First National Woman's Rights convention, 1850, 25

First Woman's Rights convention, 1848, 20

Foster, Abby Kelley, 25, 30, 59, 61, 77, 217

Foster, Rachel. _See_ Avery, Rachel Foster. 

Foster, Stephen S. , 25, 59, 87, 145, 161

Fourteenth Amendment, 115-16, 120-22, 125, 142, 159, 180-82, 188, 190, 192-93, 198-200, 203, 205, 207-08, 210-11, 214, 316, 320

Frémont, Jessie Benton, 103, 175

Frémont, John C. , 57, 93

Gage, Frances D. , 53-54, 274, 316

Gage, Matilda Joslyn, 33, 165, 175, 196, 200, 204, 209, 227-28, 235, 237, 244, 320

Gannett, Mary Lewis, 271, 303

Gannett, William C. , 271, 303

Garrett, Mary, 306-07, 326

Garrison, William Lloyd, 16, 23, 25-26, 44-47, 52, 60-63, 71, 77, 82, 84-87, 89, 90-92, 95, 104-05, 111-12, 134, 137, 139, 143, 169, 184, 233, 235, 281, 312

General Federation of Women's Clubs, 263, 283

Gibbons, Abby Hopper, 90, 146

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins Stetson, 279

Godbe, William S. , 186

Gompers, Samuel, 285

Gough, John B. , 24, 136

Grant, Ulysses S. , 112, 146-47, 201, 213, 227, 315

Greeley, Horace, 25, 28, 47, 57, 80-81, 85, 98, 101, 103-04, 123, 126-27, 132, 134, 137, 141-42, 174, 176, 196-97, 267

Greeley, Mary Cheney, 126, 146

Greenwood, Grace, 159

Grimké Sisters, 30, 102, 312

Hallowell, Mary, 23, 77, 314

Hamilton, Gail, 101

Harper, Ida Husted, 271-72, 281, 295-96, 324

Hawley, Genevieve, 281, 325

Hay, Mary Garrett, 290-92

Hearst, Phoebe, 272

Hearst, William Randolph, 272

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 52, 59, 60, 63, 67, 145-46, 169, 172

History of Woman Suffrage, 236-39, 295, 302

Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 167-68, 172, 174-75, 180-83, 185, 191, 194-95, 320-21

Hooker, John, 221, 320

Hovey, Charles F. , 51, 77, 79

Hovey Fund, 77, 79, 102, 117, 123, 128

Howe, Julia Ward, 162, 169, 171, 173, 175, 207, 280

Howe, Samuel G. , 63

Hoxie, Hannah Anthony, 4, 19

Hunt, Dr. Harriot K. , 32, 217

Hunt, Judge Ward, 209-14

Hutchinson Family Singers, 102, 128, 317

International Council of Women, 234, 245-49, 288-89, 299-300, 302, 325

International Woman Suffrage Alliance, 299-300

Irwin, Inez Haynes, 306

Jackson, Francis, 52, 53, 61, 75, 76, 79, 238, 313

Jackson Fund, 75, 79, 117, 127

Jacobi, Dr. Mary Putnam, 292

Johnson, Adelaide, 323

Johnson, Andrew, 111, 113, 120, 140-41

Julian, George W. , 140, 159-60, 180, 196

Kansas campaigns, 127-38, 261, 267-69

Kelley, Abby. _See_ Foster, Abby Kelley. 

Kelley, Florence, 286

Knights of Labor, 253, 261, 286, 325

Lane, Carrie. _See_ Catt, Carrie Chapman. 

Lapham, Anson, 171, 318, 320

Laughlin, Gail, 286

Lawrence, Margaret Stanton, 67, 100, 236, 257

Lewis and Clark Exposition, 303-04

_Liberator, The_, 16, 23, 63, 85-86, 92, 105, 112, 139

_Lily, The_, 26, 32

Lincoln, Abraham, 62, 64, 84-85, 87-88, 92-93, 97-98, 100, 102, 104-06, 111, 113, 145, 209, 305

Livermore, Mary, 161, 164, 169, 173, 196, 207, 242, 247, 280, 322

Lockwood, Belva, 195, 245, 314

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 66, 109

Longfellow, Samuel, 79, 83, 314

Lozier, Dr. Clemence, 157, 167, 231

Luther, Mary. _See_ Anthony, Mary Luther. 

Lyceum Lecture Tours, 177

Lyon, Mary, 7, 306

Married Women's Property Law, 19-20, 38-39, 54, 78, 95, 101

Mason, Anna Dann, 281, 303

May, Samuel J. , 23, 31, 41, 87-88, 92, 124, 176

May, Samuel Jr. , 58, 62

Mayo, Rev. A. D. , 82-83

McCulloch, Catharine Waugh, 294

McFarland, Daniel, 174

McFarland, Mrs. _See_ Richardson, Abby Sage. 

McLean, Aaron, 13-14, 20, 62, 108, 235, 316, 322

McLean, Ann Eliza, 108

McLean, Guelma Anthony, 1, 7, 9-15, 18, 46, 62, 108, 129, 190, 199, 219

McLean, Judge John, 7-8, 13

Melliss, David M. , 138-39

Mill, Harriet Taylor, 71

Mill, John Stuart, 71, 128-29, 222

Miller, Elizabeth Smith, 26, 33, 146, 165-66, 205, 312

Minor, Francis, 180, 198, 200

Minor, Virginia, 175, 180, 200, 214, 216, 252

Mitchell, Maria, 207

Monroe County Lectures, 204-07

Montgomery, Helen Barrett, 294

Mormons, 186-87, 234, 244, 262

Mosher, Eugene, 235, 311, 316, 322

Mosher, Hannah Anthony, 1, 7-9, 12, 15, 18, 46, 108, 190, 199, 209, 219, 230, 311, 316

Mosher, Louise, 235, 322

Mott, James, 33-34, 124

Mott, Lucretia, 18, 20-21, 25, 27, 33-34, 44-45, 54, 73-74, 83, 88, 95, 112, 117, 124, 165, 170, 177, 183, 226-27, 274, 279, 319, 323

Mott, Lydia, 10, 18, 30, 40, 73, 76-77, 89, 93, 95-96, 112, 117, 170, 203, 231, 235

Moulson, Deborah, 9-11, 18, 20, 24

National American Woman Suffrage Association, 251, 260, 263, 274-78, 283-87, 289-93, 295-97, 302-03, 307-08

National Council of Women, 246

National Labor Union Congress, 149-52, 155-56

National Woman Suffrage Association, 165, 173, 175, 177, 183, 185, 191-95, 221, 226, 233, 242, 245-51, 318, 323

Negro slavery, 4, 7, 23, 43-46, 58, 60, 62, 71, 82, 84-86, 88-90, 96-98, 102-03, 109, 111-13, 162, 311

Negro suffrage, 102, 105, 110-14, 116-18, 120-25, 127, 131-33, 135, 140-42, 145, 148, 159-63, 165-66, 192, 215

New York constitutional conventions, 125-27, 266-67, 317

New York State Industrial School, Rochester, New York, 256

New York State Teachers' convention, 36-37, 67-70

Nichols, Clarina, 32, 274, 316

Nightingale, Florence, 99

Nineteenth Amendment, 310, 321

Oberlin College, 28, 33, 70

Occupations, Women's, 36, 37, 69, 70-71, 247

Oklahoma campaign, 303

Oregon campaigns, 189-90, 303-04, 326

Owen, Robert Dale, 80, 101, 115, 120

Palmer, Bertha Honoré, 261-62

Pankhurst, Emmeline, 325

Park, Maud Wood, 306

Parker, Theodore, 52, 73, 129

Phelps, Dr. Charles Abner, 89-91

Phelps, Mrs. Charles Abner, 89-91, 315

Phelps, Elizabeth, 160, 194, 318

Phillips, Wendell, 23, 25, 46-47, 49, 52, 59-61, 65, 76-77, 81-82, 87, 90-92, 95, 103, 105-06, 112-17, 120, 124, 127, 134-35, 137, 141, 184, 233, 238, 312, 318

Pillsbury, Parker, 23, 25, 47, 49, 59, 61, 65-66, 77, 92, 94, 105, 112, 115, 117, 123, 135, 138, 140, 143, 167, 171, 177-78, 184, 224, 269

Pomeroy, Senator S. C. , 123, 137, 140, 159-60

Post, Amy, 23, 199

Purvis, Robert, 124

Quakers, 4-5, 8-9, 12-14, 16-18, 20-21, 23-25, 33, 44, 49, 53, 92, 171, 311, 314-15

Read, Daniel, 1, 6, 15, 311

Read, Joshua, 11, 15, 17, 20, 45-46

Read, Susannah Richardson, 6, 311

Republicans, 52, 60, 64, 84, 86, 88, 92, 103, 114-15, 118, 122-24, 130-32, 135-36, 141, 143, 146-48, 159, 169, 173, 183, 193, 196-97, 200, 215, 226, 232, 243, 253, 260, 266-69, 272, 305, 318

_Revolution, The_, 134, 137-46, 148-49, 152-55, 157-58, 160-62, 165-67, 169, 171-74, 177-80, 188-89, 198, 205, 213, 217, 219, 220-21, 225, 261, 280, 294, 318, 320, 326

Richards, Caroline Cowles, 48

Richardson, Abbie Sage, 174-75

Richardson, Albert D. , 174

Ricker, Marilla, 198

Riddle, Albert G. , 181, 200, 214

Robinson, Charles, 130, 135

Rochester, University of, 225, 258, 294-95

Rogers, Dr. Seth, 51-52

Roosevelt, Theodore, 305

Rose, Ernestine, 32, 41-44, 48, 51, 71, 81, 102, 124, 165, 217, 239, 246

Sacajawea, 304, 326

Sage, Mrs. Russell, 292

Sanborn, Frank, 63, 117

Sargent, Aaron A. , 191, 213, 230, 232, 322

Sargent, Ellen Clark, 191, 271, 273, 322

Selden, Judge Henry R. , 200, 202-03, 207, 209-12

Sewall, May Wright, 244-45, 251, 262, 324

Seward, William H. , 62-64, 87

Seymour, Horatio, 30, 98, 146-47

Shaw, Anne Howard, 247-49, 251, 253-54, 260-61, 268-69, 273-76, 279-80, 284, 289-90, 293, 296-97, 300, 303, 308

Sixteenth Amendment, 160-62, 164, 166, 172-73, 193, 216-17, 231-33

Smith, Abby and Julia, 217

Smith, Elizabeth Oakes, 33-34

Smith, Gerrit, 33, 57, 63, 84, 88, 103, 125, 146, 170, 312

South Dakota campaign, 253-55

Spanish-American War, 282-83

Spencer, Sarah Andrews, 198, 227

Spofford, Jane, 233, 244, 251

Stanford, Leland, 187

Stanford, Mrs. Leland, 272

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 21, 26-29, 31-36, 39-41, 49-50, 57, 67-74, 77-84, 87, 94-95, 99-102, 104, 109-112, 114-30, 135-38, 140, 142-43, 146, 150, 159-62, 165-67, 169-71, 174-77, 179-80, 183, 185-91, 193-97, 199-200, 217, 220-21, 223, 226-27, 233-40, 244-45, 248-51, 256-58, 260, 264, 266, 270, 279-80, 287, 290, 292, 294-96, 299, 306, 314, 317-18, 321-23

Stanton, Harriot. _See_ Blatch, Harriot Stanton. 

Stanton, Henry B. , 27, 57, 70, 84, 94, 98-99, 104, 112, 257

Stanton, Margaret. _See_ Lawrence, Margaret Stanton. 

Stanton, Theodore, 234, 245, 322

Stetson, Charlotte Perkins. _See_ Gilman, Charlotte Perkins Stetson. 

Stevens, Thaddeus, 118, 121, 316

Stone, Lucy, 25, 28-30, 33, 40-41, 50-52, 54, 58, 62, 69-72, 76, 80-81, 83, 99, 102, 117, 119, 124-25, 127-28, 131, 137, 144-45, 163-65, 169-73, 196, 207, 236-38, 247, 249, 251, 274, 313, 319, 321, 323

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 42, 174

Sumner, Charles, 52, 101, 117-18, 120, 175, 314

Sweet, Emma B. , 270

Sylvis, William H. , 150, 155, 286

Taylor, Harriet. _See_ Mill, Harriet Taylor. 

Terrell, Mary Church, 287-88, 302

Thirteenth Amendment, 101, 104-05, 109, 111, 114, 118, 205, 215

Thomas, M. Carey, 306-07

Tilton, Elizabeth, 166, 219-21

Tilton, Theodore, 101, 118, 120, 141, 143, 166, 185, 196, 219-21

Train, George Francis, 131-33, 135-39, 143, 161, 169, 178, 185, 267, 317

Tubman, Harriet, 93, 315

Unitarians, 21, 23-24, 41, 44, 227, 228, 271, 303

Upton, Harriet Taylor, 274-76, 280, 290, 292, 297

Van Voorhis, John, 202-03, 207, 209, 214

Vassar College, 79, 230, 239, 306

Vaughn, Hester, 156-57, 165

Victoria, Queen, 288

Victoria Augusta, Empress, 302

Wade, Senator Benjamin, 123, 140-41, 319

Wages, Women's, 37, 70, 138, 149, 150-56, 247, 285-86

Waite, Chief Justice, 214-15

Walker, Dr. Mary, 99

Weed, Thurlow, 30-31, 86

Weld, Theodore, 25

Whittier, John G. , 124

Willard, Emma, 7, 37

Willard, Frances E. , 218, 242-43, 245-47, 271, 321, 323

Wilson, Senator Henry, 123, 140, 159-60, 197

Wollstonecraft, Mary, 142

Woman Suffrage, in Australia, 297, 310; in Colorado, 230-31, 261, 264, 273, 297, 310; in Great Britain, 55, 71, 176, 198, 288, 322-23; in Idaho, 273, 310; in New Zealand, 265, 310; in Utah, 176, 186, 241, 273, 310; in Wyoming, 176, 186, 198, 241, 252, 261, 273, 310

Woman Suffrage Conventions, 159, 169-73, 175-76, 180-81, 183-85, 191-95, 204, 225, 233-34, 251, 277-78, 287, 295-96, 303-04, 306-07

_Woman's Bible_, The, 258-60, 278-80

_Woman's Journal_, 173, 175, 179, 207, 249, 319, 321

Woman's Rights Conventions, Seneca Falls, 20; Rochester, 21; Syracuse, 31-32; Albany, 39-41; Philadelphia, 44; Saratoga, 50-51; New York, 70-71, 79-82

Woman's State Temperance Society, 32, 35-36

Woman's Suffrage Association of America, 146, 159

_Woman's Tribune_, 231, 245, 249, 258, 270, 279, 323-24

Women's Christian Temperance Union, 217-18, 242, 244, 247, 253, 263, 271, 283

Women's National Loyal League, 101-03, 105, 315

Woodhull, Victoria C. , 180-86, 191-95, 220-21, 319, 322

Woolley, Dr. Mary E. , 306

Workingwomen's Association, 149-53, 155-57, 317

World's Fair, Chicago, 261-62, 288, 323-24

World's Temperance Convention, 35

Wright, Frances, 52, 80, 142

Wright, Martha C. , 33, 54, 88, 95, 124, 144, 165, 175, 185, 235

[Transcriber's Notes:

Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully aspossible, including obsolete and variant spellings and otherinconsistencies. The transcriber made the following changes to thetext to correct obvious errors:

 1. P. 14, Footnote #5 in Chapter "Quaker Heritage" "ancestory" changed to "ancestry" 2. P. 14, Footnote #12 in Chapter "Quaker Heritage" "Dairy" changed to "Diary" 3. P. 19, "responsibiity" changed to "responsibility" 4. P. 31, "Presbysterian" changed to "Presbyterian" 5. P. 53, "litle" changed to "little" 6. P. 56, "Osawatamie" changed to "Osawatomie" 7. P. 66, "marytrdom" changed to "martyrdom" 8. P. 70, "newpaper" changed to "newspaper" 9. P. 71, "Westminister" changed to "Westminster"10. P. 84, "betwen" changed to "between"11. P. 91, "fredom" changed to "freedom"12. P. 99, "marshall" changed to "marshal"13. P. 141, "Greley" changed to "Greeley"14. P. 143, "Garrion" changed to "Garrison"15. P. 154, "indepedence" changed to "independence"16. P. 155, rat office" changed to "rat office"17. P. 157, "Eourope" changed to "Europe"18. P. 162, "betwen" changed to "between"19. P. 164, at their side. (Removed ending quote)20. P. 169, Mrs. Stanton and Susan use. .. . " (Added ending quote)21. P. 175, "Griffing" changed to "Griffin"22. P. 184, "Victorial" changed to "Victoria"23. P. 186, "senusous" changed to "sensuous"24. P. 195, "Wodhull" changed to "Woodhull"25. P. 203, "womanhoood" changed to "womanhood"26. P. 209, "againt" changed to "against"27. P. 231, "ben" changed to "been"28. P. 234, "discused" changed to "discussed"29. P. 235, "Josyln" changed to "Joslyn"30. P. 236, "Cage" changed to "Gage"31. P. 253, "politican" changed to "politician"32. P. 265, "suffage" changed to "suffrage"33. P. 265, Footnote #367 in Chapter "Victories in the West" "Happerset" changed to "Happersett"34. P. 274, "ue" changed to "use"35. P. 298, "contine" changed to "continue"36. P. 298, Footnote #426 in Chapter "Passing the Torch" "yater" changed to "later"37. P. 306, "Byrn" changed to "Bryn"38. P. 308, "farwell" changed to "farewell"39. P. 329, "Thoguhts" changed to "Thoughts"40. P. 335, "phophecy" changed to "prophecy"

All footnotes for the book were located on pages 311-326 and have beenrelocated to immediately follow the chapter where they are referenced. 

End of Transcriber's Notes]