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The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) by Ida Husted Harper

I >> Ida Husted Harper >> The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2)




In regard to the bitter persecution waged upon the two women, Ellen
Wright Garrison said in a letter to Miss Anthony: "This sitting in
judgment upon those whose views differ from our own, pouring vials of
wrath on their heads and calling in the outside and prejudiced public
to help condemn, is unwise and un-Christian." Her mother, Martha
Wright, who at first was inclined to blame, wrote in the spring of
1868: "As regards the paper, its vigorous pages are what we need. I
regret the idiosyncrasies of Mr. Train, as they give occasion to the
sons and daughters of the Philistines to rejoice, and the children of
the uncircumcised only wanted a good excuse to triumph. Shall you be at
the May meeting? I will not be there under any circumstances without
you and Susan and our good friend Parker; so whatever may become of Mr.
Train or of the paper, count me now and ever as your true and
unswerving friend."

The following graphic description, by the correspondent, Nellie
Hutchinson, was published in the Cincinnati Commercial:

There's a peculiarly resplendent sign at the head of the third
flight of stairs, and obeying its directions I march into the north
corridor and enter The Revolution office. Nothing so very terrible
after all. The first face that salutes my vision is a youthful
one--fresh, smiling, bright-eyed, auburn-crowned. It belongs to one
of the employes of the establishment, and its owner conducts me to
a comfortable sofa, then trips lightly through a little door
opposite to inform Miss Anthony of my presence.

I glance about me. What editorial bliss is this! Actually a neat
carpet on the floor, a substantial round table covered by a pretty
cloth, engravings and photographs hung thickly over the clear white
walls. Here is Lucretia Mott's saintly face, beautiful with eternal
youth; there Mary Wollstonecraft looking into futurity with earnest
eyes. In an arched recess are shelves containing books and piles of
pamphlets, speeches and essays of Stuart Mill, Wendell Phillips,
Higginson, Curtis. Two screens extend across the front of the room,
inclosing a little space around the two large windows which give
light, air and glimpses of City Hall park. Glancing around the
corner we see editor Pillsbury seated at his desk by the further
window. Opposite is another desk covered with brown wrappers and
mailing books. Close against the screen stands yet another, at
which sits the bookkeeper, an energetic young woman who ably
manages all the business affairs of The Revolution. There's an
atmosphere of womanly purity and delicacy about the place;
everything is refreshingly neat and clean, and suggestive of
reform.

Ah! here comes Susan--the determined--the invincible, the Susan who
is possibly destined to be Vice-President or Secretary of State
some of these days! What a delicious thought! I tremble as she
steps rapidly toward me and I perceive in her hand a most
statesmanlike roll of MSS. The eyes scan me coolly and
interrogatively but the pleasant voice gives me a yet pleasanter
greeting. There's something very attractive, even fascinating in
that voice--a faint echo of the alto vibration--the tone of power.
Her smile is very sweet and genial, and lights up the pale, worn
face rarely. She talks awhile in her kindly, incisive way. "We're
not foolishly or blindly aggressive," says she, tersely; "we don't
lead a fight against the true and noble institutions of the world.
We only seek to substitute for various barbarian ideas, those of a
higher civilization--to develop a race of earnest, thoughtful,
conscientious women." And I thought as I remembered various
newspaper attacks, that here was not much to object to. The world
is the better for thee, Susan.

She rises; "Come, let me introduce you to Mrs. Stanton." And we
walk into the inner sanctum, a tiny bit of a room, nicely carpeted,
one-windowed and furnished with two desks, two chairs, a little
table--and the senior editor, Mrs. Stanton. The short, substantial
figure, with its handsome black dress and silver crown of curls, is
sufficiently interesting. The fresh, girlish complexion, the
laughing blue eyes and jolly voice are yet more so. Beside her
stands her sixteen-year-old daughter, who is as plump, as jolly, as
laughing-eyed as her mother. We study Cady Stanton's handsome face
as she talks on rapidly and facetiously. Nothing little or mean in
that face; no line of distrust or irony; neither are there wrinkles
of care--life has been pleasant to this woman.

[Illustration:

SUSAN B. ANTHONY.
AT THE AGE OF 48.]

We hear a bustle in the outer room--rapid voices and laughing
questions--then the door is suddenly thrown open and in steps a
young Aurora, habited in a fur-trimmed cloak, with a jaunty black
velvet cap and snowy feather set upon her dark clustering curls.
What sprite is this, whose eyes flash and sparkle with a thousand
happy thoughts, whose dimples and rosy lips and white teeth make so
charming a picture? "My dear Anna," says Susan, starting up, and
there's a shower of kisses. Then follows an introduction to Anna
Dickinson. As we clasp hands for a moment, I look into the great
gray eyes that have flashed with indignation and grown moist with
pity before thousands of audiences. They are radiant with mirth
now, beaming as a child's, and with graceful abandon she throws
herself into a chair and begins a ripple of gay talk. The two
pretty assistants come in and look at her with loving eyes; we all
cluster around while she wittily recounts her recent lecturing
experience. As the little lady keeps up her merry talk, I think
over these three representative women. The white-haired, comely
matron sitting there hand-in-hand with her daughter, intellectual,
large-hearted, high-souled--a mother of men; the grave, energetic
old maid--an executive power; the glorious girl, who, without a
thought of self, demands in eloquent tones justice and liberty for
all, and prophesies like an oracle of old.

May we not hope that America's coming woman will combine these
salient qualities, and with all the powers of mind, soul and heart
vivified and developed in a liberal atmosphere, prove herself the
noblest creature in the world? And so I leave them there--the
pleasant group--faithful in their work, happy in their hopes.

On May 14, 1868, the American Equal Rights Association held its second
anniversary in Cooper Institute. Mrs. Stanton, who had a wholesome
dread of anything disagreeable, was determined not to go, but Miss
Anthony declared that to stay away would be showing the "white feather"
and that, as their enemies had been many weeks working up a sentiment
against them, their presence would prove they had nothing to fear. When
the convention assembled, Lucretia Mott, the president, being absent on
account of the recent death of her husband, Colonel Higginson said to
Miss Anthony: "Now we want everything pleasant and peaceable here, do
we not?" "Certainly," she replied. "Well then, we must have Lucy Stone
open this meeting." "Why so," asked Miss Anthony, "when Mrs. Stanton is
first vice-president? It would be not only an insult to her but a
direct violation of parliamentary usage. I shall never consent to it."
Finding that, nevertheless, there was a scheme to carry out this plan,
she put Mrs. Stanton on the alert and, as the officers filed on the
platform, gave her a gentle push to the front, whereupon she opened the
convention with the utmost suavity.

It was here that these pioneers of the movement for woman suffrage had
the humiliation of hearing Frederick Douglass announce that it was
women's duty to take a back seat and wait till the negro was
enfranchised before they put in their claim. Rev. Olympia Brown and
Lucy Stone both declared the Republican party false to its principles
unless it protected women as well as colored men in their right to
vote, and in his report on the Kansas campaign, Mr. Blackwell, after
speaking of the splendid work of Lucy Stone, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton
and Miss Brown, said: "Their eloquence and determination gave great
promise of success; but, in an inopportune moment, Horace Greeley and
others saw fit in the Constitutional Convention to report adversely to
woman suffrage in New York, which influenced the sentiment in the
younger western State and its enterprise was crushed. Even the
Republicans in Kansas set their faces against the extension of suffrage
to women."

Throughout the entire convention there was much resentment on the part
of the women at the manner in which they had been abandoned in favor of
the negro. During the same week, at the anti-slavery meeting in
Steinway Hall, Anna Dickinson, in the midst of an impassioned speech,
declared: "The position of the black woman today is no better than
before her emancipation from slavery. She has simply changed masters
from a white owner to a black husband in many cases." She demanded
freedom and franchise for woman as for man, irrespective of color; and,
while giving Mr. Phillips credit for his years of service in the cause
of woman, took occasion to enter her protest against the tenor of a
portion of his morning address--in effect, that woman's rights must be
set aside until the rights of the black man were fully secured.

As there was so much cavilling and faultfinding on the part of many of
the Equal Rights Association at every forward and radical step taken by
Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, they formed an independent committee of
themselves, Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of Gerrit Smith, Mrs.
Horace Greeley and Abby Hopper Gibbons, daughter of Isaac T. Hopper,
the noted Abolitionist, and wife of a prominent banker. These ladies
sent a memorial to the Republican National Convention, which met in
Chicago and nominated General Grant, but it never saw the light after
reaching there. Snubbed on every hand by the Republicans, they
determined to appeal to the Democrats. On June 27 Miss Anthony and Mrs.
Stanton attended a mass convention addressed by Governor Seymour,
calling out the following editorial from the New York Sun:

The fact that Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Susan B. Anthony
were the only ladies admitted upon the platform at Cooper
Institute, may be regarded as not only committing them to Governor
Seymour's views, but as committing the approaching Democratic
convention, in whose behalf he spoke, to the doctrine of woman
suffrage. Therefore, whether Miss Anthony is received as a delegate
to the July convention, it is clear that female suffrage must be
incorporated among the planks of the national Democratic platform;
and if Governor Seymour, who is a remarkably fine-looking man, is
nominated, he will receive the undivided support of the women of
the North, which will more than compensate for the loss of the
negro vote of the South.

At the meeting of the Equal Rights Committee, held in New York, a
half-sarcastic resolution was offered by Theodore Tilton and adopted by
the committee declaring that as "Miss Susan B. Anthony, through various
published writings in The Revolution, had given the world to understand
that the hope of the woman's rights cause rests more largely with the
Democratic party than with any other portion of the people; therefore
she be requested to attend the approaching National Democratic
Convention in New York for the purpose of fulfilling this cheerful hope
by securing in the Democratic platform a recognition of woman's right
to the elective franchise."

Miss Anthony ignored the sarcasm, and with Mrs. Stanton at once
prepared a memorial.[46] The convention met and dedicated Tammany Hall
on July 4, 1868. This was the first time since the war that the
southern Democrats had joined with the northern in national convention
and, conservative as they naturally were and separated as they had been
from all the woman's rights agitation which had kept the North stirred
up for the past decade, one can imagine their amazement when Miss
Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and a few other ladies walked into the great hall
and occupied reserved seats at the left of the platform. Their memorial
was sent to the president, Horatio Seymour, and by him handed to the
secretary, who read it amid jeers and laughter. It was then referred to
the resolution committee where it slept the sleep of death. The special
correspondent of the Chicago Republican thus describes the scene when
the memorial was presented:

Susan B. Anthony appeared to the convention like Minerva, goddess
of wisdom. Her advent was with thunders, not of applause, but of
the scorn of a degenerate masculinity. The great Horatio said, with
infinite condescension, that he held in his hand a memorial of the
women of the United States. The name of Miss Anthony was greeted
with a yell such as a Milton might imagine to rise from a conclave
of the damned. "She asked to plead the cause of her sex; to demand
the enfranchisement of the women of America--the only class of
citizens not represented in the government, the only class without
a vote, and their only disability, the insurmountable one of sex."
As these last significant words, with more than significant accent
and modulation, came from the lips of the knightly, the courtly
Horatio, a bestial roar of laughter, swelling now into an almost
Niagara chorus, now subsiding into comparative silence, and again
without further provocation rising into infernal sublimity, shook
the roof of Tammany. Sex--the sex of women--was the subject of this
infernal scorn; and the great Democratic gathering, with yells and
shrieks and demoniac, deafening howls, consigned the memorial of
Susan B. Anthony to the committee on resolutions.

The World, the Herald, the Democratic press generally, spoke of this
incident in satirical and half-contemptuous tones, and the few papers
which treated it seriously declared in effect that, if they had to take
the "nigger," they might as well add woman to the unpalatable dose. A
petition from the Workingmen's Association to this same convention,
demanding a "greenback plank" in the platform, was received with great
respect and the plank put in as requested--offering the very strongest
object lesson of the superiority of an enfranchised over a
disfranchised class. It was not that the convention had more respect
for the workingman, per se, but they feared his vote and so adopted the
greenback plank in order to placate him, and then nominated for
President the most ultra of gold bond-paying advocates.

The Revolution took up with great earnestness the cause of
workingwomen, investigated their condition and published many articles
in regard to it. A meeting was called at the office of The Revolution
and a Workingwoman's Association formed, with officers chosen from the
various occupations represented, which ranged from typesetters to
ragpickers. In September the National Labor Union Congress was held in
Germania Hall, New York, and Miss Anthony was selected to represent
this association. Mr. J. C. C. Whaley, a master workman from the great
iron mills of Philadelphia, presided and she was cordially received. A
committee on female labor was formed with her as chairman, and reported
a strong set of resolutions, urging the organization of women's trades
unions, demanding an eight-hour law and equal pay in all positions, and
pledging support to secure the ballot for women.

After an extended discussion the words "to secure the ballot" were
stricken out, and a resolution adopted that "by accepting Miss Anthony
as a delegate, the Labor Congress did not commit itself to her position
on female suffrage." Here was this great body of men, honestly anxious
to do something to ameliorate the condition of workingwomen, and yet
denying to them the ballot, the strongest weapon which the workingman
possessed for his own protection; unable to see that by placing it in
the hands of women, they would not only give to them immense power but
would double the strength of all labor organizations.

Miss Anthony gave a large amount of time to the cause of workingwomen,
taught them how to organize among themselves, stirred up the newspapers
to speak in their behalf, and interested in them many prominent women
and also "Sorosis," that famous club, which had just been formed. In
addressing women typesetters she said: "The four things indispensable
to a compositor are quickness of movement, good spelling, correct
punctuation and brains enough to take in the idea of the article to be
set up. Therefore, let no young woman think of learning the trade
unless she possesses these requisites. Without them there will be only
hard work and small pay. Make up your minds to take the 'lean' with the
'fat,' and be early and late at the case precisely as men are. I do not
demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value.
Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you
are in their service as workers, not as women."

The diary says in October, "Blue days these." Mr. Train was still in
the Dublin jail. Mr. Melliss was doing his part manfully, subscribers
were constantly coming in, but no paper can be sustained by its
subscription-list. Miss Anthony wrote hundreds of letters in its
interests, and walked many a weary mile and had many an unpleasant
experience soliciting advertisements, but the Republicans were hostile
and the Democrats had no use for The Revolution. Invariably the more
liberal-minded men would say: "We advertise in the Tribune and
Independent, and your paper will reach few homes where one or the other
is not taken;" which was true. All the business and financial
management devolved upon Miss Anthony, and she was untrained in this
department. She labored all the day and late into the night over these
details, longing to be in the field and pushing the cause by means of
the platform, as she had been accustomed to do, and yet feeling that
through the paper she could reach a larger audience. Her diary shows
that, notwithstanding past differences, she still visited at Phillips',
Garrison's, Greeley's and very often at Tilton's. In August she tells
of attending the funeral of the baby in the family of the last, the
departure from the usual customs, the house filled with sunshine, the
mother dressed in white, and the inspired words of Mr. Beecher.

She is invited to Flushing, Oswego and various places to address
teachers' institutes and occasionally to give a lyceum lecture and,
regardless of all fatigue, goes wherever a few dollars may be gathered.
Mrs. Stanton finishes her new home at Tenafly, N. J., and Miss Anthony
enjoys slipping over there for a quiet Sunday. Mrs. Stanton did most of
her editorial work at home and Mr. Pillsbury stayed in the office.

The last battle for 1868 was made in what was known as the Hester
Vaughan case. When Anna Dickinson lectured in New York before the
Workingwoman's Association she told the story of Hester Vaughan: A
respectable English girl, twenty years old, married and came to
Philadelphia only to find that the husband had another wife. She then
secured employment at housework and was seduced by a man who deserted
her as soon as he knew she was to become a mother. She wandered about
the streets and finally, in the dead of winter, after being alone and
in labor three days, her child was born in a garret and she lay on the
floor twenty-four hours without fire or food. When discovered the child
was dead and the mother had nearly perished. Circumstances indicated
that she might have killed the child. Four days after its birth, she
was taken to prison, where she was kept for five months, then tried,
found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. She had now been in jail ten
months.

The Revolution and the Workingwoman's Association, headed by Miss
Anthony, took up the case, not so much because of the individual as to
call attention to the wrongs constantly perpetrated against woman. They
created such a public sentiment that a great meeting was held in Cooper
Institute, where Horace Greeley presided and a number of well-known men
and women took part, including Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Rose, Dr. Lozier and
Eleanor Kirk.[47] Speaking briefly but to the point Miss Anthony
submitted resolutions demanding that women should be tried by a jury of
their peers, have a voice in making the laws and electing the officers
who execute them; and declaring for the abolition of capital
punishment. These were adopted with enthusiasm and the meeting, by
unanimous vote, asked the governor of Pennsylvania for an unconditional
pardon for the girl, while over $300 were subscribed for her benefit.
Through Miss Anthony arrangements were made for Mrs. Stanton and
Elizabeth Smith Miller to carry to Governor Geary a memorial from the
Workingwoman's Association in behalf of Hester Vaughan. During their
interview the governor declared emphatically that justice never would
be done in such cases until women were in the jury-box. These efforts,
supplemented by others afterwards made in Philadelphia, resulted in his
granting the pardon, and the girl was assisted back to her home in
England.

Although The Revolution suffered the anxieties inseparable from the
launching of a new paper, it found much reason for encouragement. A
number of prominent men and newspapers, during the year, had come out
boldly in favor of woman suffrage and there seemed to be a considerable
public sentiment drifting in that direction; but there were signs even
more hopeful than these. Immediately upon the assembling of Congress,
in December, 1868, Senator S. C. Pomeroy, of Kansas, presented a
resolution as an amendment to the Federal Constitution providing that
"the basis of suffrage in the United States shall be that of
citizenship; and all native or naturalized citizens shall enjoy the
same rights and privileges of the elective franchise; but each State
shall determine by law the age," etc.

[Autograph:

Very Cordially
& Truly
S.C. Pomeroy]

A few days later George W. Julian, of Indiana, offered a similar
amendment in the House of Representatives, as follows: "The right of
suffrage in the United States shall be based upon citizenship, and
shall be regulated by Congress; and all citizens of the United States,
whether native or naturalized, shall enjoy this right equally, without
any distinction or discrimination whatever founded on sex."

[Autograph: Geo W. Julian]

The last of December Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, and Mr.
Julian introduced bills to enfranchise women in the District of
Columbia, the latter including also the women in the Territories. A
review of the situation in The Revolution of December 31, said:

In our political opinions, we have been grossly misunderstood and
misrepresented. There never was a time, even in the re-election of
Lincoln, when to differ from the leading party was considered more
inane and treasonable. Because we made a higher demand than either
Republicans or Abolitionists, they in self-defense revenged
themselves by calling us Democrats; just as the church at the time
of its apathy on the slavery question revenged the goadings of
Abolitionists by calling them "infidels." If claiming the right of
suffrage for every citizen, male and female, black and white, a
platform far above that occupied by Republicans or Abolitionists
today, is to be a Democrat, then we glory in the name, but we have
not so understood the policy of modern Democracy. Though The
Revolution and its founders may have been open to criticism in many
respects, all admit that we have galvanized the people into life
and slumbering friends to action on this question.

[Footnote 46: On the Sunday before, the two ladies were invited to
breakfast at the home of Mr. Melliss, with the president of the
National Labor Union and a number of prominent men from Wall street, to
talk over their prospects in the convention.]

[Footnote 47: Dr. Clemence Lozier and Mrs. Eleanor Kirk went to
Moyamensing prison to see the unfortunate girl. In passing the
different cells they noticed many women prisoners and one of the ladies
asked the inspector if he could give any idea of the cause of the
downfall of these women. "Yes," he replied, "faith in men."]




CHAPTER XIX.

AMENDMENT XV--FOUNDING OF NATIONAL SOCIETY.

1869.


Notwithstanding the protests and petitions of the women, the Fourteenth
Amendment had been formally declared ratified July 28, 1868, the word
"male" being thereby three times branded on the Constitution. In the
resolutions of Senator Pomeroy and Mr. Julian, however, they found new
hope and fresh courage. They had learned that the Federal Constitution
could be so amended as to enfranchise a million men who but yesterday
were plantation slaves. Here, then, was the power which must be invoked
for the enfranchisement of women. From the office of The Revolution
went out thousands of petitions to the women of the country to be
circulated in the interests of an amendment to regulate the suffrage
without making distinctions of sex. It was decided that a convention
should be held in Washington in order to meet the legislators on their
own ground. A suffrage association had been formed in that city with
Josephine S. Griffing, founder of the Freedmen's Bureau, president;
Hamilton Willcox, secretary. This was the first ever held in the
capital, and it brought many new and valuable workers into the field.
Clara Barton here made her first appearance at a woman suffrage
meeting, and was a true and consistent advocate of the principle from
that day forward.

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