The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony Volume II Part 11

[20] The Methodist bishops Bowman, Warren, Newman, Haven, Turner and Walters have favored woman suffrage.

[21] Signed by Maybury, Michigan; Poland, Vermont; Tucker, Virginia; Hammond, Georgia; Culbertson, Texas; Moulton, Illinois; Broadhead, Missouri; Dorsheimer, New York; Collins, Ma.s.sachusetts; Seney, Ohio; Bisbee, Florida.

[22] Miss Anthony's letters show how desirous she was that everybody who a.s.sisted at these conventions should have full measure of credit: "They are earnest and anxious to do for woman's cause and I want them treated fairly and leniently as to all mistakes." Again she writes: "Since Oregon was never before represented in our conventions, her speakers must have more room in the report than we old stagers."

[23] When Miss Anthony learned that this action had been taken with the sanction of Frances E. Willard, she pointed out to her in vigorous language how the Prohibition-Republicans had left that party this year because a temperance resolution had failed in the platform committee and had gone over to the Prohibition party, charging that the Republicans were cowardly. Yet the very first act of this Prohibition convention, to which Miss Willard was a delegate, was to abandon the idea of National Supremacy and accept that of State Rights in order to conciliate the southern members. She further said: "When the time comes in which it will be political expediency for the Prohibition party to throw woman suffrage overboard altogether, over it will go." Miss Willard lived to see this prophecy fulfilled at the National Prohibition Convention of 1896.

[24] Apropos of this discussion, an amusing anecdote is related of Miss Anthony. When confronted, in an argument, with the pa.s.sage of scripture, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands," etc., she replied: "Gentlemen, no one objects to the husband being the head of the wife as Christ was the head of the church--to crucify himself; what we object to is his crucifying his wife."

[25] This account of the sermon is taken from the reports of half a dozen reputable newspapers.

[26] This is the only instance where a woman has bequeathed a large amount of money to the cause of equal rights, although a number of small bequests have been made. Women have given millions of dollars to churches, charities, and colleges for men but comparatively nothing to secure freedom for those of their own s.e.x.

[27] In one of Miss Anthony's letters she relates with amus.e.m.e.nt that Mr. Stanton had just come in and, seeing his wife lying on the couch, remarked, "Ah, resting, I see." "No," she replied, "I am exercising by lying down."

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

MANY TRIPS--FIRST VOTE ON SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT.

1886-1887.

Miss Anthony started for Washington toward the last of January, 1886, with a lighter heart than she had possessed for many years. The dreadful burden of the labor on the History was lifted, all the bills were paid, she had given a helping hand to several of the old workers, which made her very happy, and she had one or two good dresses in her trunk. There was nothing which the paragrapher who hated what Miss Anthony represented, liked so well as to make disagreeable flings at her clothes, and yet it is an indisputable fact of history that she was one of the most perfectly dressed women on the platform, although her tastes were very plain and simple. A lady once wrote her asking if it would not be possible to make the suffrage conventions a little more aesthetic, they were so painfully practical. She sent the letter to Mrs. Stanton, who commented: "Well now, perhaps if we could paint injustice in delicate tints set in a framework of poetical argument, we might more easily entrap the Senator Edmunds and Oscar Wilde types of Adam's sons.

Suppose at our next convention all of us dress in pale green, have a faint and subdued gaslight with pink shades, write our speeches in verse and chant them to a guitar accompaniment. Ah me! alas! how can we reform the world aesthetically?"

The members of Congress always knew when Miss Anthony had arrived in Washington. Other women accepted their word that they were going to do something, and waited patiently at home. Miss Anthony followed them up and saw that they did it. If she could not find them at the Capitol, she went to their homes. If they promised to introduce a certain measure on a certain day, she was in the gallery looking them squarely in the face. If they failed to do it, they found her waiting for them at the close of the session. Senator Blair wrote this humorous note January 15: "I thought just as likely as not you would come fussing round before I got your amendment reported to the Senate. I wish you would go home.

c.o.c.krell has agreed to let me know soon whether he won't allow the report to be made right off without any bother, and I have been to him several times before. I don't see what you want to meddle for, anyway.

Go off and get married!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Autograph: "I hope you will live always in this world.

Heaven has got more than it's share of good people already. Sincerely & Respectfully, Henry W. Blair."]

Miss Anthony has been directly connected with every action taken by Congress or by any congressional committee on the question of woman suffrage. There are on file among her papers hundreds of letters from members during the past thirty years, showing her energy and persistence in compelling attention to this subject, in learning who were its friends, in attempting to convert the doubters and in spurring the believers to effort. This is something for the women of the future to remember.

The Eighteenth Annual Convention opened February 17. Prominent features were a fine address by Rev. Rush R. Shippen, of All Souls church, and the first appearance on the platform of Mary F. Eastman, Ada C. Sweet, the pension agent, the eloquent southern speakers, Mrs. Elizabeth A.

Meriwether and Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett, and the talented German, Madame Clara Neymann. Among many letters was one from George W. Childs to Miss Anthony, saying: "I am always glad to hear from you and I keep track of your continued good work. Do not be discouraged. I take pleasure in sending the enclosed check ($100) with my sincere regards and very best wishes."

The crowds were so great that policemen had to be stationed at the door to prevent late comers from trying to enter during the evening sessions.

The resolutions scored the bill before Congress proposing to disfranchise all Utah women, both Gentile and Mormon, to punish the crime of polygamy. The usual hearing was granted before the congressional committees. The fight for woman suffrage in the Forty-ninth Congress was conducted by Ezra B. Taylor, of Ohio, who prepared the favorable minority report of the House Judiciary Committee.

The adverse majority report was signed by John Randolph Tucker, of Virginia.

On March 25 "the general" slipped up to New York City, to a.s.sist her forces at the State convention, and then hastened back to Washington to direct the main line of attack. The diary says:

March 30.--Went to House of Representatives, saw Messrs. Tucker and Taylor of judiciary committee; both promised to report soon. Then went to Senate, saw Messrs. Blair, Stanford and Bowen; all agreed to work to bring up our bill by May 1. In the evening took a cab and went in a pouring rain to Senator Stanford's, where I spent an hour. How keen and true are his perceptions in regard to public questions!

March 31.--Pouring rain, dark and muggy. I went to the Senate; sat with Mrs. Dolph and Mrs. Stanford; heard Senator Dolph's fine speech on the admission of Washington Territory as a State and his splendid word for woman suffrage. Mrs. Dolph took me home in her carriage.

April 1.--Went to the Senate again to secure pledges for votes and speeches for the Sixteenth Amendment Bill. Got Senator Dolph's strongest paragraphs, and at 8 P. M. went to the top floor of the a.s.sociated Press rooms and gave them to Mr. Boynton, who sent them over the wires.

April 9.--The United States Senate today voted down Eustis' motion to refuse to admit Washington Territory unless the woman suffrage clause were eliminated from its const.i.tution, 25 to 12. Senator Ingalls was the only Republican who voted with the enemy.

A few days later Miss Anthony received the following from Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, of New Orleans: "... I feel defrauded that I never knew you until last year. Judge Merrick says you are the most sensible person he ever met (without any s.e.x qualifications, of course). Like you, I was indignant at Mr. Eustis in regard to his course toward Washington Territory. I was ashamed and blushed for my Louisiana senator that time.

Thanks for your sympathy in my illness. When my head lies low I pray that you may find another and even better friend in my State, who will come to the front in the cause of equal rights for women." An extract from a letter of Rev. Olympia Brown to Mrs. Stanton shows how much the old workers as well as the young depended upon Miss Anthony: "I wish to inquire what has become of Susan? You know she is my North Star. I take all my bearings from her, and when I lose sight of her I wander helplessly, uncertain of my course."

The diary of April 30 says: "Heard Phoebe Couzins had been taken to Hot Springs, terribly crippled with rheumatism. Wrote her at once and enclosed $100, telling her I wanted it used to provide delicacies and make her comfortable. I have thought it would be Phoebe whom I should take with me on my southern tour next year, but I fear her work is done."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Caroline E. Merrick (Signed: "I am thine ever faithfully and affectionately Caroline E. Merrick")]

By the middle of May, 1886, the last bit of History proof was read, and unlimited leave of absence was granted Miss Anthony by her publisher, while the indexer and binder completed the work which was begun in 1876.

On the 19th she started for Kansas, stopping for the usual visit in Chicago with her cousins. In Kansas she visited her brothers at Leavenworth and Fort Scott for nearly two months, making an occasional speech. On the morning of July 4, under the auspices of the W. C. T. U., she addressed a large audience at Salina on, "The powerlessness of woman so long as she is dependent on man for bread." In the hot afternoon, as she was about to enjoy a nap, word came that a hundred people had united in a request that she should speak again, as they had come from ten to twenty miles on purpose to hear her; so she returned to the grove, and Mrs. Griffith, State evangelist, kindly yielded her hour. On July 11 Miss Anthony went again to Chicago, and on the 14th spoke at Lake Bluff Camp Meeting, which was under the management of Frances E. Willard. She then visited the summer homes of her cousins and of Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, at Lake Geneva. On this trip she was accompanied by her dearly-loved niece, Susie B., who went with her to Rochester and spent the summer. The diary briefly records:

September 28.--Left Chicago at noon and lunched with Miss Willard at Rest Cottage, Evanston. Her mother bright and charming at eighty-two, and Anna Gordon sweet as ever. It was very good to see Miss Willard under her own roof. Reached Racine in time for the State convention, was met by a delegation of ladies and taken to the home of Martha Parker Dingee, niece of the great Theodore Parker, a lovely woman. Fine audiences.

October 2.--Reached St. Louis at 8 A. M. As I was looking for my trunk I heard some one cry out, "Is that you, Susan?" and there were Phoebe Couzins and her father. I had made my trip that way for the special purpose of seeing her, expecting to find her confined to the house; so I went home and breakfasted with them.

October 4.--Reached Leavenworth and found Mrs. Colby and Mrs. Saxon ready to begin the campaign for arousing public sentiment to demand a bill from the next legislature to secure Munic.i.p.al suffrage for women. Dr. Ruth M. Wood is the mainspring of the movement here.

This series of conventions was held in the congressional districts from October 5 to November 3, Mrs. Laura M. Johns, manager, a.s.sisted by Mrs.

Anna C. Wait, president of the State a.s.sociation, and by a number of capable and energetic Kansas women at each place visited. Under date of October 11, Miss Anthony wrote to eastern friends: "We are having the loveliest weather you ever dreamed of and the most magnificent audiences--no church or hall holding them. If our legislators, State or national, could only see these gatherings and look into the earnest faces of these people, coming so many miles in wagons to see and hear and get fresh courage, they would surely answer our demands by something else than silence." The press corroborated this description and the following special dispatch may be taken as a fair specimen:

The seventh district convention, the third of the series, has just closed in Lincoln, and was a beautiful ovation to Miss Anthony.

Crowded houses greeted her--every available foot of s.p.a.ce filled with chairs, window-sills utilized for seats, and conveyances drawn up outside of windows and filled with listeners. People came thirty, forty and fifty miles in buggies and wagons to shake hands with the pioneer suffragist. Grizzly-headed opposers succ.u.mbed to Miss Anthony's logic and came up to grasp her hand and say G.o.d bless her, and proved the depth of their fervor by generous financial aid to the cause she so ably represents. It is seldom that the beginner of a great reform lives to see such fruitage of her labors as does she. People often descant upon the indifference of women to the question of their own enfranchis.e.m.e.nt and to political matters generally; but there is serious doubt of greater interest ever having been shown by men in political meetings than women exhibit in these conventions....

On the evening of the second day the house was so densely packed that a messenger for a gla.s.s of water had to go out through a window. But in spite of all discomfort and the many standing, the audience maintained perfect order and gave the utmost attention throughout Miss Anthony's speech of two hours. Learning that she would remain in Lincoln over Sunday the people importuned her to speak that afternoon in the Presbyterian church, which she did to a large audience.

The diary relates: "A mother brought her four-weeks-old girl baby twenty-five miles in a carriage, so she might tell it, when grown, that Susan B. Anthony had taken it in her arms. 'And the trip has not hurt baby a particle,' she said brightly." And again it tells, with a good deal of gusto, that one Baptist minister was determined the suffrage speakers should not have his church and only yielded after several of the richest pew-holders declared they never would pay another dollar towards his salary if he did not. He then made his appearance at the meeting, opened it with his blessing and closed it with his benediction!

Miss Anthony was not always able to speak to her own satisfaction. At Salina she lectured for the Y. M. C. A. and writes: "I went to the opera house and found a fine audience. Tried to give 'Moral Influence vs. Political Power,' but the spirit wouldn't soar; its wings flapped on the earth perpetually for the whole hour. I took my $25 from the treasurer and went home with a heavy heart. It is beyond my knowledge why, after speaking every day for a whole week, freely and decently, my wits should desert me and my tongue be tied just at the time when I am most anxious to do my best."

Two days' meetings were held at Abilene, Florence, Hutchinson, Wichita, Anthony, Winfield, Independence, Lawrence and Fort Scott. The speakers were entertained by prominent families, suffrage societies were formed at each place, the vast majority of public sentiment seemed favorable, and the collections paid all the expenses of the conventions.

In November and December a number of other speakers made a canva.s.s of the State, and the following winter the legislature pa.s.sed a bill conferring Munic.i.p.al suffrage upon the women of Kansas. The bill was introduced in the Senate by R. W. Blue (Rep.) of Linn county; and in the House by T. T. Taylor (Rep.) of Reno county. It pa.s.sed the Senate, 25 ayes, all Republicans; 13 noes, 10 Republicans and 3 Democrats; in the House 90 ayes, 84 Republicans and 6 Democrats; 21 noes, 5 Republicans and 16 Democrats. The bill was signed by Governor John A. Martin, February 15, 1887; and under its provisions women in that State have voted ever since at Munic.i.p.al elections.[28]

Without a day's rest, Miss Anthony went direct from Kansas to Sandwich, Ill., to attend the State convention. After three days there and a Sunday in Chicago, Monday, November 8, found her at Racine, Wis., ready to begin a tour of conventions in every congressional district. That evening a reception was given her by Hon. and Mrs. M. B. Erskine, and the hospitality of their handsome home was offered for every day which she could spend in the city.

With Mrs. Colby and Rev. Olympia Brown, a.s.sisted by local speakers, meetings were held at Waukesha, Ripon, Oshkosh, Green Bay, Grand Rapids, Eau Claire, LaCrosse, Evansville, Milwaukee and Madison. At the last place the ladies spoke in the Senate chamber of the State House to an audience containing a number of dignitaries, among them President Bascom, of the State University, and his wife, who from this time were Miss Anthony's steadfast friends. Mrs. Colby gives a graphic description of Miss Anthony's sudden outburst here, when several members had exasperated her by their remarks, which closes: "I was writing at the secretary's desk and as I looked up I realized the full grandeur of the scene. It was woman standing at the bar of the nation, pleading for the recognition of her citizenship. Miss Anthony seemed positively t.i.tanic as she leaned far over from the speaker's desk. Her tone and manner were superb, and the vast and sympathetic audience caught the electric thrill...." In this city she was the guest of an old schoolmate, Elizabeth Ford Proudfit. The meetings closed December 3, and Miss Anthony wrote Mrs. Spofford:

I intend now to make straight for Washington without a stop. I shall come both ragged and dirty. Think of two solid months of conventions, speaking every night! Don't worry about me. I was never better or more full of hope and good work. Though the apparel will be tattered and torn, the mind, the essence of me, is sound to the core. Please tell the little milliner to have a bonnet picked out for me, and get a dressmaker who will patch me together so I shall be presentable. Now for the Washington convention: Before settling upon the Universalist church, you would better pocket the insults and refusals of the Congregational church powers that be and send your most lovely and winning girls to ask for that. If you can't get it or the Metropolitan or the Foundry or the New York Avenue or any large and popular church, why take the Universalist, and then tell the saints of the fashionable churches that we dwell there because they refused us admission to their holy sanctuaries.

Don't let us go into the heterodox houses, much as I love them, except because we are driven away from the orthodox.

In December the third volume of the History of Woman Suffrage at last was ready for the public, another book of nearly 1,000 pages. It completed the story up to 1884, and like its predecessors was cordially received by the press. The money swallowed up by this work hardly will be credited. Mrs. Stanton not being able or willing to revise the last volume until it was put into proof slips, and then making extensive changes, the cost for re-setting type was over $900. The fifty fine steel engravings and the prints made from them cost over $6,000. For proof reading $500 was paid, and for indexing, $250. Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Gage, seeing that there never would be any profits from the books and that Miss Anthony proposed to give most of them away, sold out their rights to her, the former for $2,000 and the latter for $1,000. She also, as has been stated, bought out the interest of Fowler & Wells.

When the first edition of the three mammoth volumes finally came into her sole possession, they represented an outlay on her part of $20,000.

While there were many criticisms from certain quarters as to various errors and so-called misstatements, and many threats to write a history which should be free from all imperfections, the fact remains that, although fifty years have pa.s.sed since the inception of the great movement to secure equal rights for women, there never has been another attempt to preserve the story. But for Miss Anthony's careful collecting and saving of newspaper accounts, ma.n.u.scripts of speeches, published reports and the correspondence of half a century, her persistent and determined effort for ten years to have them put into readable shape, and Mrs. Stanton's fine ability to do it, the student never would have been able to trace the evolution of woman from a chattel in the eye of the law to a citizen with legal and social rights very nearly equal to those of man. While there is necessarily some repet.i.tion, so long a time elapsing between the writing of the different volumes, and perhaps a little prolixity, there is not a dull page in the whole work and the reader will find it difficult to reach a place where she is willing to stop. It contains a resume of early conditions; the persecutions endured by the pioneers in the struggle for freedom; the progress in each separate State, and in foreign countries; the action taken by different legislatures and congresses; the grand arguments made for equal rights; the position of woman in church and State. Into whatever library the student may go seeking information upon this question, it is to these volumes he must look to find it in collected and connected form. If Miss Anthony had done no other work but to produce this History, she would deserve a prominent place on the list of immortal names.

It was necessary to put so high a price upon it, $15 a set in cloth and $19.50 in leather binding, as to make a large sale impossible. Miss Anthony did not undertake it as a money-making scheme, and when the receipt of Mrs. Eddy's bequest enabled her to discharge all indebtedness connected with it, she felt herself at liberty to use it as a most valuable means of educating the people into an understanding of the broad principle of equality of rights. At her own expense she placed the History in over 1,000 of the libraries of Europe and America, including the British Museum, the university libraries of Oxford, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Finland, Melbourne, Toronto, and many of the university and public libraries of the United States. The members of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees in several Congresses were presented with sets, and there are hundreds of letters on file from prominent persons in England and this country acknowledging the receipt of the books.