The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony Volume II Part 37

Sat.u.r.day evening at 6 o'clock the seven eastern women started homewards, laden with tokens of affection, accompanied across the bay by a large number of loving friends, and moving off amidst smiles and tears and a shower of fragrant blossoms.

FOOTNOTES:

[118] Joint campaign committee: Ellen C. Sargent, chairman; Sarah B.

Cooper, vice-chairman; Ida H. Harper, corresponding secretary; Harriet Cooper, recording secretary; Mary S. Sperry, treasurer; Mary Wood Swift and Sarah Knox Goodrich, auditors. State central committee: Mrs.

Sargent, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Swift, Mrs. Sperry, Mrs. Blinn, with Mary G.

Hay, chairman.

[119] About 1 o'clock in the morning, after this eventful night, the ladies were awakened by loud laughter and women's voices. They arose and went to the window and there in the brilliantly lighted street in front of the hotel were two carriages containing several gaily dressed women.

A number of the convention delegates came out and crowded around them, three or four climbed into the carriages, wine bottles were pa.s.sed and finally, with much talk and laughter, they drove off down the street, the men with their arms about the women's waists. The ladies returned to their slumbers thoroughly convinced that they had not used the correct methods for capturing the delegates of a Democratic convention.

[120] The use of these rooms was donated by the manager of the Emporium, the large department store in the building. All through the summer and autumn a number of most capable young women, who were employed as stenographers, teachers, etc., gave every waking moment outside business hours to the work at headquarters, carrying home with them great packages of leaflets and circulars to be folded and addressed, looking after their own precincts, and rendering services which could not have been paid for in money. Although all were breadwinners they labored from love of the cause and without a thought of thanks or remuneration.

[121] In Idaho all political State conventions, Republican, Populist and Democratic, endorsed the amendment, it received a majority of the popular vote, and the women now have full suffrage.

[122] To commemorate this journey Miss Selina Solomons, of San Francisco, wrote a tender poem, beginning:

"She walks on roses! she whose feet Have trod so long the stony way, They tread who lead mankind to greet The coming of a brighter day."

[123] Some of the women going the rounds with suffrage pet.i.tions in San Francisco found a house consisting of one room with three cots, where were registered twenty-seven voters.

[124] Los Angeles gave a majority of 3,600 in favor of the amendment.

[125] In her president's report, at the next annual convention, Mrs.

Sargent said: "Susan B. Anthony! We can never forget her labor of love and devotion to the cause of woman suffrage in California. She counted not her life dear to her so that she could help to awaken the interest of men and women in the great principle to which she has devoted her life. She was not cold, nor hungry, nor tired, nor sleepy, while there was a chance to push forward the work. Throughout the campaign Miss Anthony gave her own services and those of her secretary without money and without price. She reminds one of the great Niagara, which would be wonderful if its waters rolled and dashed for only a short period; but when they roll and dash on ceaselessly, nor ever stop to rest, there the wonder of it all comes in, and we can only gaze, admire and acknowledge the great law or power behind it."

CHAPTER XLVIII.

HER LETTERS--BIRTHDAY PARTY--BIOGRAPHY.

1896-1897.

On the way home from California Miss Anthony and Mrs. Catt stopped at Reno, Nev., lecturing there Sunday, while Miss Shaw hastened on to speak at Salt Lake City. Then all met at Kansas City to attend the Missouri convention, where they were the guests of Mrs. Sarah Chandler Coates.

The papers refer to Miss Anthony's speeches at this convention as being the very strongest she ever had made, and of her perfect physical condition at the close of an eight months' campaign.

She went from here directly home, and on November 19 a brilliant banquet was given in honor of Miss Shaw and herself at the Hotel Livingston by the Political Equality Club. Mary Lewis Gannett was toast-mistress and about 250 guests were seated at the tables. This was followed by the State convention at Rochester. After a few days' rest Miss Anthony went to the home of Mrs. Catt, near New York, where a business meeting was held of the national executive board. With Mrs. Avery she then took one of the great Sound steamers for Boston to attend a meeting of the National Woman's Council. A reception was given by Mrs. Charles W. Bond, of Commonwealth Avenue, and one at the Hotel Vendome. She ran up to Concord, N. H., for a few days' visit with her aged friends, Mr. and Mrs. Parker Pillsbury and Mrs. Armenia S. White. Then back again to the Garrisons', and out to Medford for a day with Mrs. Edward M. Davis, the daughter of Lucretia Mott.

She left Boston December 9, to fulfill a promise made to Elizabeth Buffum Chace, to spend her ninetieth birthday at her home in Valley Falls, R. I. Mrs. Chace had written a number of letters with her own trembling hand to arrange for this visit. It was only a family party, but the diary tells of the cake with ninety little candles, and other birthday features. Anna Shaw came in time for the supper, and the next day Mrs. Chace sent them in her carriage to Providence to attend the State convention. Here they were guests in the handsome old Eddy homestead, and Miss Anthony addressed a large audience in the evening.

She stopped a day in New York to tell Mrs. Stanton about the California campaign, and Sunday morning reached her own dear home. Her old and loved friend, Maria Porter, had died the preceding night, and she attended the funeral services next day. On December 23 she went to Niagara Falls with her stenographer to secure reminiscences from her cousin, Sarah Anthony Burtis, aged eighty-six, who was a teacher in the home school at Battenville over sixty years before.

The year just closed had been busy but pleasant. It had brought the usual number of tokens of appreciation, one of which was notice of election as honorary member of the Chicago Woman's Club. Among the scores of invitations on file were one from Judge George F. Danforth to meet the justices of the appellate court at his home; and one to the golden wedding of her old fellow-laborers, Giles B. and Catharine F.

Stebbins, at Detroit, the latter one of the secretaries of that famous first convention of 1848. Major James B. Pond, the well-known lecture manager, wrote Miss Mary Anthony: "Thank you for your kind letter and the excellent photograph of your great sister, whom I have admired and hoped and prayed for since I was a poor boy out in Kansas. I still believe she will be spared to witness a general triumph of her n.o.ble cause." The letter contained an offer of $100 for a parlor lecture by Miss Anthony at Jersey City.

A few of Miss Anthony's own letters, taken almost at random from copies on her file, will ill.u.s.trate the vast scope of her correspondence and her peculiarly trenchant mode of expression. To one who wanted a testimonial from her that she might show in vindication of certain accusations, she wrote:

I went through all the fire of charges of stealing, and of every other crime in the whole calendar, twenty-five years ago--charges made, too, by people of vastly more influence than any of the women who are talking and writing today about you. I never made a public denial of one of them, through all the years of the bitterest kind of persecution, and believe I was greatly the gainer by working right on and ignoring them. It will be the mistake of your life if you go into print in your own defence. Your denial will reach a new set of people and start them to talking, while the ones who read the original charges will never see the refutation of them.

To one of the newly-enfranchised women of Utah:

The one word I should have to say to the women throughout your State would be, not so much to try to get women elected to the offices as to get the best persons, whether men or women. Naturally there will be a far less number of women than of men capable of holding office, from the very fact of their long disfranchis.e.m.e.nt.

I do hope your women therefore will set a good example not only for Utah, but also for the States where they are not enfranchised; namely, that of proving it is not the spoils of office they are after. I think the women of Wyoming always have been wonderfully judicious in not being anxious to hold offices themselves, but mightily anxious as to what men hold them. It will be considered a strong objection to woman suffrage if the vast majority of your women should prove themselves mere partisans.

To a New York cousin: "Your little birthday present, the Book of Proverbs, came duly. Solomon's wise sayings, however, don't help me very much in my work of trying to persuade men to do justice to women. These men and their progenitors for generations back have read Solomon over and over again, and learned nothing therefrom of fair play for woman, and I fear generations to come will continue to read to as little purpose. At any rate, I propose to peg away in accordance with my own sense of wisdom rather than Solomon's. All those old fellows were very good for their time, but their wisdom needs to be newly interpreted in order to apply to people of today."

In answer to a letter from Illinois asking the secret of her success in life:

If I may be said to have made a success of my life, the one great element in it has been constancy of purpose--not allowing myself to be switched off the main road or tempted into bypaths of other movements. It always has been clear to me that woman suffrage is the one great principle underlying all reforms. With the ballot in her hand woman becomes a vital force--declaring her will for herself, instead of praying and beseeching men to declare it for her. It has been a long, hard fight, a dark, discouraging road, but all along the way here and there a little bright spot to cheer us on. And now we have four true republics, whose women are full-fledged citizens, and the prospects are hopeful for others soon to follow in the wake of those blessed four. One of the most cheering things in these days is the large number of young women who are entering the work, bringing to it a new, strong enthusiasm which will push on to victory. The women over all the country are waking up to the fact that truly to possess themselves, to have their opinions respected, they must have this right of suffrage.

A letter from the secretary of a national conference which was seeking to bring about a union of reformers, Prohibitionists, Free Silver advocates, etc., asked her a.s.sistance and called forth the following response:

It is all very well for you men, who have the power to make and unmake political parties, to form a third, fourth or fiftieth party, as the case may be; but as for myself and all who are of my cla.s.s, disfranchised and helpless, we have nothing to do with any of them--old or new--except to ask each and all to put a woman suffrage plank in their platform and educate their members to place a ballot in the hands of women. I never have identified myself with any political party, but have stood outside of all, asking each to pledge itself to the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women. Whenever any one of them has asked me to speak in its meetings on the suffrage question, I have accepted the invitation, but I never have advocated the specific measures of any.

So, you see, I can be of no help to you, but I do know that no one of the reform political parties ever will amount to much standing alone, and that it would be a good thing for all of them to come together in one body. I might say, however, that least of all could I join yours, which makes "G.o.d the author of civil government." If such civil government as we have was made by G.o.d, what reason is there to expect any improvement in the future?

From a letter to Isabella Beecher Hooker:

Fortune indeed does not smile any too favorably upon us who feel so longingly the need to use money. I am crippled all the time and prevented from doing what I might by lack of funds. The old faith would say, I suppose, that whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth financially, but seems to me I could better do His work and my own for the regeneration of the world, if I had the money to do it with.... What a fuss the men are making nowadays over "good government"--the idiots! Can't they see it is impossible to improve things until they get a new and better balance of power that will outweigh the one which now pulls down the political scales and makes decency kick the beam every time? It does try my soul that we can not make them see they are simply trying to lift themselves by their bootstraps. Well, they are born of disfranchised mothers, a subject cla.s.s, and one can not expect different results.

If I could spare the time and money I would love to accept your invitation to sit with you and your dear John in your summer retreat, and chat over the world of work for our good cause. Of the before and the after I know absolutely nothing, and have very little desire and less time to question or to study. I know this seems very material to you, and yet to me it is wholly spiritual, for it is giving time and study rather to making things better in the _between_, which is really all that we can influence; but perhaps when I can no longer enter into active, practical work, I may lapse into speculations.

To a debating society asking her opinion on the question of "educated and property suffrage:"

I always have taken the negative; that is, have believed in universal suffrage without either property or educational qualification. I hold that every citizen has a right to a voice in the government under which he lives. While an education is highly desirable, yet a man may be unable to read but may attend political meetings, talk with his neighbors and form intelligent opinions. He may be honest and beyond bribery, and a more desirable voter than many wily and unscrupulous men who have a graduate's diploma. It is, however, the duty of the State to educate its citizens; and the Australian ballot, which has been largely adopted, is in itself an educational qualification.

As to a property qualification: while in the majority of cases, perhaps, the possession of property is evidence of ability and thrift, there are many who do not own property and yet are possessed of good sense and are more capable of casting an honest and intelligent ballot than some of the wealthy men of the country; then, too, those who have least are the ones who suffer most from the legislation of the rich, and need the ballot for self-protection. I am decidedly opposed to a property qualification.

To one who was in deep grief she said in an affectionate letter: "Do a.s.sure me that you are beginning to think of your dear one as he was when well and moving about in his always helpful and cheering manner. To get far enough from the sickness, the suffering and the death of our friends, so as to be able to have only the thought of them in their full vigor of life, is the greatest joy which possibly can come to those who have lost their beloved."

While Miss Anthony was thus constantly giving out from the vast wealth of her heart and brain, she was receiving, also, from all parts of the country the strong and loving tributes of n.o.ble souls. A beautiful one which shines on the pages of 1896 was p.r.o.nounced by the eloquent Dr. H.

W. Thomas, of Chicago, in the course of a Sunday sermon ent.i.tled "Progressive Greatness," delivered to a large audience a.s.sembled in McVicker's Theater:

A Washington and a Lincoln have come in our great century, and between their birthdays was born a Susan B. Anthony, whose grand life has been given to a n.o.ble cause; once the target for the cruel and bitter shafts of ridicule; now deemed the n.o.blest among women.

The task of Washington and Lincoln could not be complete till the crown was placed on the brow of woman as well as man; and when the angels shall call Susan B. Anthony to the life immortal, her name, her memory on earth should and will take its place among the martyrs and saints of liberty, not for man alone, but for woman and child."

To watch the old year out and the New Year in, Miss Anthony went to Geneva, and here spent a few days very pleasantly with Elizabeth Smith Miller and her guest, Harriot Stanton Blatch. Among the New Year's remembrances were $50 from Mrs. Elda A. Orr, of Reno, Nev.; $150 from Mrs. Gross, of Chicago; and $300 from Mrs. Cornelia Collins Hussey, of Orange, N. J. The usual number of congratulatory letters were received from all cla.s.ses of people, high and low, old and young, white and colored.

To show their wide range two or three may be given. From Mrs. Ellen M.

Henrotin, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs: "I send to you on the New Year a fraternal greeting and my best wishes that this may prove for you and the interests you represent, a year of fulfillment. We are all serving the same cause and we are surely among the happy ones of earth that we are enabled to a.s.sist, by even a slight impetus, the 'power which makes for righteousness.' ... Therefore I send you today my heartfelt wishes for the continued success of your cause and the peace and prosperity of your life."

Her friend of fifty years, John W. Hutchinson, the last of that never-equalled family of singers, sent his New Year's greetings and added: "I bless you and your work. Wonderful possibilities will be the result of this great movement, which you have led, for equal rights and the franchise for women." The president of the National Council of Women, Mary Lowe d.i.c.kinson, an earnest, efficient worker for humanity, said in the course of a long letter dated January 9: