The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony Volume II Part 44

For twenty years we have labored to bring the statute-laws of the several States into harmony with the broad principles of the Const.i.tution, and have been so far successful that in many of them little remains to be done except to secure the right of suffrage. Hence, our prompt protest against the propositions before Congress to introduce the word "male" into the Federal Const.i.tution, which, if successful, would sanction all State action in withholding the ballot from woman. As the only way in which disfranchised citizens can appear before you, we availed ourselves of the sacred right of pet.i.tion; and, as our representatives, it was your duty to give those pet.i.tions a respectful reading and a serious consideration. How a Republican Senate failed in that duty, is already inscribed on the page of history. Some tell us it is not judicious to press the claims of women now; that this is not the time. Time? When you propose legislation so fatal to the best interests of woman and the nation, shall we be silent until after the deed is done? No! As we love justice, we must resist tyranny. As we honor the position of American senator, we must appeal from the politician to the man.

With man, woman shared the dangers of the Mayflower on a stormy sea, the dreary landing on Plymouth Rock, the rigors of New England winters and the privations of a seven years' war. With him she bravely threw off the British yoke, felt every pulsation of his heart for freedom, and inspired the glowing eloquence which maintained it through the century.

With you, we have just pa.s.sed through the agony and death, the resurrection and triumph of another revolution, doing all in our power to mitigate its horrors and gild its glories. And now, think you, we have no souls to fire, no brains to weigh your arguments; that, after education such as this, we can stand silent witnesses while you sell our birthright of liberty to save from a timely death an effete political organization? No, as we respect womanhood, we must protest against this desecration of the magna charta of American liberties; and with an importunity not to be repelled, our demand must ever be, "No compromise of human rights"--"No admission to the Const.i.tution of inequality of rights or disfranchis.e.m.e.nt on account of color or s.e.x."

In the oft-repeated experiments of cla.s.s and caste, who can number the nations that have risen but to fall? Do not imagine you come one line nearer the demand of justice by enfranchising but another shade of manhood; for, in denying representation to woman, you still cling to the same false principle on which all the governments of the past have been wrecked. The right way, the safe way, is so clear, the path of duty is so straight and simple, that we who are equally interested with yourselves in the result, conjure you to act not for the pa.s.sing hour, not with reference to transient benefits, but to do now the one grand deed which shall mark the zenith of the century--proclaim Equal Eights to All. We press our demand for the ballot at this time in no narrow, captions or selfish spirit; from no contempt of the black man's claims, nor antagonism to you who, in the progress of civilization, are now the privileged order; but from the purest patriotism, for the highest good of every citizen, for the safety of the republic, and as a glorious example to the nations of the earth.

CHAPTER XX--PAGE 342.

MISS ANTHONY'S FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY.

_February 15, 1870._

Careful readers of the Tribune have probably succeeded in discovering that we have not always been able to applaud the course of Miss Susan B.

Anthony. Indeed, we have often felt, and sometimes said, that her methods were as unwise as we thought her aims undesirable. But through these years of disputation and struggling, she has thoroughly impressed friends and enemies alike with the sincerity and earnestness of her purposes....

Fifty years ago the full moon of suffrage rose in the small, red and wrinkled countenance of the infant Susan B. Anthony. "Agitation is the word," says Miss Anthony, in these her later years. Agitation was probably the word then, as a happy family surrounded the cradle of the boisterous phenomenon. Miss Anthony has compressed into her half-century a deal of work, talk, hurry and resolution. Beginning with the women's temperance conventions in 1848, she has strewn the gliding years with organizations, societies, conventions innumerable, to the wonderment, if not always to the admiration, of an observant world. "Through all these years," remarks Mrs. Henry B. Stanton, "Miss Anthony was the connecting link between me and the outer world--the reform scout who went to see what was going on in the enemy's camp, and returned with maps and observations to plan the mode of attack." It has been intimated that Miss Anthony has not remained sweet Dian's votary, in maiden meditation fancy free, because n.o.body asked her to change her name and station.

Many victims, we are told, are carrying crushed hearts and blighted hopes through life, and all because of the unrelenting cruelty exercised by this usually good-humored woman towards the whole male s.e.x.--The Tribune.

Miss Anthony bears her fifty summers lightly. Whatever our sentiments may be as to the cause she advocates, we do full justice to her resistless energy and activity and unswerving fidelity to her principles. Charming and cordial in her manners, with kind words for all, she welcomed every guest last evening and made them at ease.--The Times.

It was regarded last night, and was a topic of conversation, that the public announcement that Miss Anthony was fifty years old was one more of the courageous things for which her life has been distinguished.

Battling with the wrong and striving for the right has not left so rigid a mark of the progress of time upon her features as to prevent her keeping up a little fiction about being fair and forty. Miss Anthony prefers the truth, and she says that the register in the family Bible supports the a.s.sertion that a half-century of rolling years have pa.s.sed before her.--The Herald.

Miss Anthony looked her very best last night, and let the truth be said, even should it be followed by persecuting proposals from the bachelors, she didn't look much more than five-and-twenty. The genial salutations and happy surroundings of the hour effaced for the time those lines which care and labor and fifty years will make, however pure the soul within. Miss Anthony was happy and she looked it.... She wears her years and honors well. May we live till the celebration of her centenary, and she read the report thereof next day in the columns of the Evening Mail.--The Mail.

In these latter days the aspirations and activities of woman are greatly quickened, and her day of pure and perfect freedom seems near at hand.

When the year of jubilee shall at last ring in, no name will be more highly honored than that of Miss Susan B. Anthony; and her honors have been well deserved. Early and late, in season and out, in places high and low, all over this broad land, by voice and pen, has she labored with unflagging zeal for the exalted liberty of woman.... Men who have honored mothers, pure sisters, devoted wives and loving daughters, owe to Miss Anthony a heavy debt of grat.i.tude for her life-work in behalf of women.--The Globe.

Miss Anthony's reception has been one of the events of the week.... Men who have expended about half of the time and half of the energy in the business of money-making which Miss Anthony has expended in benefiting the race, have become millionaires, and have been held up to the rising generation as examples of energy and industry worthy of imitation.

Bronzes have been erected and numerous biographies written to do them honor. Had Miss Anthony labored for herself as devotedly as she has for others, she would no doubt have received the usual reward in greenbacks; and but for the fact of her being a woman, might have had a bronze erected in her honor.--The Courier.

It is not always true that "the good die young," for Miss Susan B.

Anthony has lived to celebrate her fiftieth birthday.... Right glad are we that the anniversary was observed with due pomp and circ.u.mstance. No kindly tribute to great moral worth is too good for this good woman. As one of the chief heroines of our generation, she abundantly deserves all the honors which were paid her on that festal night. There are many public-spirited workers in our busy land; many n.o.ble souls who have devoted their life-long energies to the elevation of their fellow-beings; many moral pioneers, who, when they die, will leave the world better than they found it; and conspicuous among these is the staunch, unwearied and indomitable woman who, at the end of half a century of life, can remember but few idle or wasted days. If Miss Anthony's persevering efforts in behalf of her s.e.x are not worthy of generous praise, then there is no just fame due to a brave career. If her methods have sometimes lacked soundness of judgment, they have never lacked n.o.bility of purpose. There exists a peculiar, invaluable and time-honored cla.s.s of plain and substantial women who are said to be "as honest as the day is long;" and Susan B. Anthony is the queen of this royal race. Dauntless and tireless as the sterner s.e.x, sympathetic and tender as the gentler, we sometimes think that she is both man and woman in one. She is one of the sterling characters of our day. The whole people ought to rejoice that such a woman was born, has lived and still toils.--The Independent.

Out of scores of letters received s.p.a.ce allows the reproduction of but a few:

I shall always be present in sympathy with any number of people who will express their admiration of the sterling traits which adorn the life and character of the lady who now pa.s.ses the fiftieth anniversary of her most devoted and unselfish life. I am glad to tender the legal representative of a dollar for each of these years, with the confident a.s.surance of the early triumph of that cause to which her life has been singularly devoted. This greenback is no surer of being redeemed in gold than is my confidence in the golden era of legal enfranchis.e.m.e.nt for woman!... Long before Miss Anthony sees her "threescore and ten," the political equality of all American citizens will be fully established.

With sentiments of the highest esteem, I am, very cordially and truly,

S. C. POMEROY.

... G.o.d bless her, and may she live many happy, joyous years! That she and her n.o.ble co-workers are soon to see the complete triumph of the woman's cause I firmly believe. And when in after years the great benefactors of this century are sought for, Susan B. Anthony's name will be found occupying one of the highest niches in the temple of honest fame. Truly yours,

J. P. ROOT. [Lieutenant-Governor of Kansas.]

... Enclosed is a check for $50, one for each year of your life. Will agree to give you the same pro rata sum on your one hundredth, birthday.

With love, your brother,

D. R. ANTHONY.

There will be among those who sympathize with and rejoice in your labors, no lack of testimony tonight to their persistency and value; but from one who deplores both, you will perhaps be willing to hear a hearty, cordial, admiring expression of the regard he is nevertheless forced to cherish for the sincerity and the unmistakably disinterested devotion which has marked your long and hopeful work in the cause you hold so dear and serve so faithfully. I can not wish you the success you seek--let me give you this better wish, that the anniversary your friends celebrate tonight may never bring fewer tokens of regard than now, and never find you seeming less the faithful worker "of cheerful yesterdays and confident tomorrows." With renewed congratulations I am, very cordially yours,

WHITELAW REID.

I could not be where I longed to be last evening, where I could look upon the toilworn face of the true, tried and never found wanting--the one of all others who has borne the heat of the day, and that without wilting or complaining ever hopeful and ever pursuing "the even tenor of her way." Absence shall not keep from thee my mite, and how I wish it were ten, yes, twenty times as much, but here it is with my love, respect and genuine friendship. Be of brave heart and believe that I am thy fast friend,

ABBY HOPPER GIBBONS.

Yours is a "golden wedding" indeed--for the fiftieth anniversary of a life that has been wedded to a great cause is a far more glorious golden wedding than those which generally go by that name. Accept my heartiest wishes for your welfare and for the success of your novel celebration.

Heretofore the privilege of growing old and possessing common sense has belonged exclusively to the other s.e.x. Sincerely yours,

FRANCES ELLEN BURR.

Please accept the enclosed check of $50, as a slight token of regard from our absent trio. As I hardly need tell you, the lion's share of this birthday gift is sent by my father, but neither mother nor I will admit that in the unsubstantial, and yet I hope not valueless part of the offering, the personal regard and appreciation of your n.o.ble work for woman which accompany it, our contribution is any less than his. I remain yours very truly,

LAURA CURTIS BULLARD.