The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony Volume II Part 25

In all the a.s.semblages where Miss Anthony was present during those memorable months--the observed of all observers, holding a veritable court--her admirers were both men and women, and no belle at a ball was ever more unmistakably deferred to. It made her happy, as it should have done. But it made far happier those who have believed in her all these years, that she should have triumphed over ignorance and prejudice, and at threescore and ten have come into her kingdom at last. When it is asked what woman was most prominent, most honored, most in demand in all the public ceremonials and private functions held in Chicago during the Columbian Exposition, there can be but one answer--Susan B.

Anthony.

Through all the summer and autumn of 1893 a campaign had been going forward in Colorado, where the legislature had submitted the question of woman suffrage to the voters. The national a.s.sociation was represented by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who rendered splendid service. Mrs. Leonora Barry Lake spoke under the auspices of the Knights of Labor. The rest of the work was done by the women of Colorado, who proved a host in themselves. Miss Anthony held herself in readiness to go at any time but the friends felt that, unless vitally necessary, she should be spared the hards.h.i.+ps. Circ.u.mstances were favorable; there had been a vast change in public sentiment since the defeat of 1877; the question was submitted at a time when only county elections were held and there was no political excitement; Populists and Republicans not only endorsed it but worked for it; Democrats offered no party opposition and many of them gave it cordial support; more than half of the newspapers in the State advocated it. The campaign in Colorado differed from all those which had been conducted in other States in the fact that it was not left for women to carry on alone, but the most prominent men in all parties lent their a.s.sistance and made the victory possible.[88] The amendment was carried by nearly 6,000 majority, about three to one in favor. Miss Anthony received the telegram announcing the fact November 8, the day after election, and she was the happiest woman in America.

Immediately upon returning home from Chicago she went to the State suffrage convention which met in Historical Hall, Brooklyn, November 13.

While in New York she was the guest of Mrs. Russell Sage at the dinner of the Emma Willard Alumnae. Four days were given to the convention, one or two spent with Mrs. Catt, in her delightful home at Bensonhurst-by-the-Sea, and a few at the suburban residence of Mrs.

Foster Avery. While here she addressed the New Century Club in Philadelphia, and for several days following was in attendance at the Pennsylvania convention. On December 18, she lectured at Jamaica; the 19th at Riverhead; the 20th at Richmond; the 22d she attended the Foremothers' Day dinner in New York and made an address; the 23d she spoke before the Women's Conference of the Ethical Society in that city.

When not lecturing she was struggling with her ma.s.s of correspondence, attending to her duties in connection with the Industrial School, and making preliminary arrangements for two big State campaigns which required the writing of hundreds of letters, all done with her own hand.

Invitations came during these days to address the New York Social Purity League, the Women's Republican a.s.sociation, the Pratt Inst.i.tute and the National Convention of the Keeley Cure League; and requests for articles on "Why Should Young Men Favor Woman Suffrage?" for the Y. M. C. A.

paper of Chicago; "What Should the President's Message Say?" for the New York World; "If you had $1,000,000 what would you do with it?" for a symposium; and at least a score of similar applications. The friendly letters included one from Judge Albion W. Tourgee, acknowledging receipt of the History of Woman Suffrage, "from one whose devotion to principle and brave advocacy of right have ever commanded my profound esteem." He also expressed his interest and belief in the principle of woman suffrage. The same mail brought a letter from Professor Helen L.

Webster, asking for a copy of the History to place in the library of Wellesley College "so that it may be within reach of the students."

The Kansas legislature again had submitted a suffrage amendment and many letters were coming from the women of that State, begging Miss Anthony's help. She filled reams of paper during December, telling them how to put everybody to work, to organize every election precinct in the State, to raise money, and above all else to create a public sentiment which would demand a woman suffrage plank in the platform of each of the political parties. "I am going to make a big raid to get a fund for Kansas," she wrote, "but nothing will avail without the support of the parties." The work in Kansas was not, however, by any means the most formidable undertaking which confronted her. The women of New York were about to enter upon the greatest suffrage campaign ever attempted, and toward its success she was bending every thought, energy and effort, earnestly cooperating with the strongest and best-equipped workers in the State.

FOOTNOTES:

[81] James G. Blaine died while she was in Was.h.i.+ngton and the diary says: "He should have lived, and the Republicans should have honored him as their leader. He _was that_, though not chosen by them."

[82] The newspapers, almost without exception, in all these places, spoke in unqualified praise of Miss Anthony and her work, of her "royal welcome," her "packed audiences," her "masterly address," etc. Several of them, notably the Bay City Tribune, contained strong editorial endors.e.m.e.nt of woman suffrage. At Lansing she addressed the House of Representatives and the next day the bill conferring munic.i.p.al suffrage on women was voted on; 38 ayes, 39 nays. It was reconsidered, received a good majority in both Houses and was signed by the governor, but afterwards declared unconst.i.tutional by the supreme court of the State.

[83] The diary shows a gift for this purpose, during the month, of $150 from Rachel Foster Avery and $50 from Adeline Thomson.

[84] "More than once--indeed, I believe more than a score of times--I saw speakers of eloquence and renown interrupted in the midst of a discourse by audiences who simply would not listen, after Miss Anthony's entrance into the hall, until she had been formally introduced and an opportunity given them to express their reverence by prolonged applause."--From letter of Mrs. Sewall.

[85] Lady Henry had just returned from Chicago where she had attended the World's Fair Temperance Congress and here had heard Miss Anthony for the first time. At the close of her speech declaring that there could be no effective temperance work among women until they had the ballot, Lady Henry came forward and gave it her most hearty endors.e.m.e.nt.

[86] "As only the most gifted women will be invited to partic.i.p.ate in these entertainments, we hope the invitation will be esteemed as an honor conferred by the Board of Lady Managers, and your acceptance will be gratefully appreciated."--Note of Invitation.

[87] As a memento of these visits Mrs. Gross presented Miss Anthony with $100; and Mrs. c.o.o.nley gave her a rich brocaded silk dress and a travelling suit, both beautifully made by her own dressmaker, with bonnets to match.

[88] The "Remonstrants" flooded the State with their literature, but as this contained a conspicuous advertis.e.m.e.nt of a large liquor establishment, it defeated itself. The headquarters of the organized opposition were located in a Denver brewery.

CHAPTER XLII.

THE SECOND NEW YORK CAMPAIGN.

1894.

The year 1894 is distinguished in the annals of woman suffrage for two great campaigns: one in New York to secure from the Const.i.tutional Convention an amendment abolis.h.i.+ng the word "male" from the new const.i.tution which was to be submitted to the voters at the fall election; the other in Kansas to secure a majority vote on an amendment which had been submitted by the legislature of 1893, and was to be voted on in November. In order to make the story as clear as possible, each of these campaigns, both of which were in progress at the same time, will be considered separately. Before entering upon either, the leading features of the twenty-sixth of the series of Was.h.i.+ngton conventions, which have run like a thread through Miss Anthony's life for more than a quarter of a century, will be briefly noticed.

On January 13, she lectured before the University a.s.sociation at Ann Arbor in the great University Hall--the second woman ever invited to address that body, Anna d.i.c.kinson having been thus honored during the war. Sunday morning she spoke for the University Christian a.s.sociation, in Newbury Hall. Monday morning the State Suffrage a.s.sociation commenced a three days' convention, during which she gave numerous short addresses. Wednesday evening a large reception was given by her hostess, Olivia B. Hall, whose home Miss Anthony always regarded as one of her most enjoyable resting-places in her many trips through Michigan. Mrs.

Hall had contributed hundreds of dollars to the cause of woman suffrage, and made a number of timely presents to Miss Anthony for her personal use.

From Michigan they went to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the suffrage a.s.sociation of Toledo. It is worthy of note that Miss Anthony had helped organize this society in the house of Mrs. Hall, who lived there at that time. She was here, as always when in this city, the guest of her friend, Anna C. Mott, whose father and uncle, Richard and James Mott, were her staunch supporters from the early days of the abolition movement. The papers contained long and flattering notices, which had now become so customary that to quote one is to give the substance of all.

Miss Anthony lectured in Baltimore February 13, going from there to Was.h.i.+ngton. The convention opened in Metzerott's Music Hall, February 15, welcomed by Commissioner John W. Ross, of the District. Among the speakers were Senator Carey and Representative Coffeen, of Wyoming; Senator Teller and Representatives Bell and Pence, of Colorado; Senator Peffer and Representatives Davis, Broderick, Curtis and Simpson, of Kansas; ex-Senator Bruce, of Mississippi; Hon. Simon Wolf, of the District; Catherine H. Spence, of New Zealand; Miss Windeyer, of Australia; Hannah K. Korany, of Syria; Kate Field; and Mary Lowe d.i.c.kinson, secretary King's Daughters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Autograph: "Yours truly, Kate Field"]

Appropriate memorial services were held for the distinguished dead of the past year who had rendered especial service to the cause of woman suffrage: Lucy Stone, George W. Childs, Leland Stanford, Elizabeth Peabody, Elizabeth Oakes Smith. Eloquent tributes were offered by the various members of the convention, and Miss Anthony added one to Mary F.

Seymour, founder of the Business Woman's Journal. The death of Myra Bradwell, editor Legal News, occurred too late for her honored name to be included in these services. Bishop Phillips Brooks and ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes, both of whom had unequivocally expressed themselves in favor of suffrage for women, also had died in 1893.

At the opening session, on Miss Anthony's birthday, she was presented by the enfranchised women of Wyoming and Colorado with a beautiful silk flag which bore two s.h.i.+ning stars on its blue field. She accepted it with much emotion, saying: "I have heard of standard bearers in the army who carried the banners to the topmost ramparts of the enemy, and there I am going to try to carry this banner. You know without my telling how proud I am of this flag, and how my heart is touched by this manifestation." From the ladies of Georgia came a box of fresh flowers, and among other pleasant remembrances were seventy-four American Beauty roses from Mrs. S. E. Gross, of Chicago. A little later, when Virginia D. Young brought the greetings of South Carolina, Miss Anthony said:

I think the most beautiful part of our coming together in Was.h.i.+ngton for the last twenty-five years, has been that more friends.h.i.+ps, more knowledge of each other have come through the hand-shakes here, than would have been possible through any other instrumentality. I shall never cease to be grateful for all the splendid women who have come up to this great center for these twenty-six conventions, and have learned that the North was not such a cold place as they had believed; I have been equally glad when we came down here and met the women from the sunny South and found they were just like ourselves, if not a little better. In this great a.s.sociation, we know no North, no South, no East, no West. This has been our pride for twenty-six years. We have no political party. We never have inquired what anybody's religion was. All we ever have asked is simply, "Do you believe in perfect equality for women?" That is the one article in our creed.

There were many pleasant newspaper comments on Miss Anthony's re-election, among them the following from the Chicago Journal:

The national suffrage a.s.sociation honored itself yesterday by again electing to its presidency Susan B. Anthony. She has suffered long for a cause she believes to be right, and it is fitting that in these later years of her active life, when the cause has become popular, she should wear the honors her patient, persistent endeavor has won. Susan B. Anthony is one of the most remarkable products of this century. She is not a successful writer; she is not a great speaker, although a most effective one; but she has a better quality than genius. She is the soul of honesty; she possesses the gift of clear discrimination--of seeing the main point--and of never-wavering loyalty to the issue at hand....

For more than forty years she has led the women of America through the wilderness of doubt, and now from Pisgah's heights looks over into the Canaan land of triumphant victory. Past the allotted time of threescore years and ten, Miss Anthony may never cross the Jordan of her hopes, but she has led her hosts safely through the gravest dangers and trained up others well fitted to wear the mantle of leaders.h.i.+p. It is the hope of all who have learned to know and appreciate this heroic woman, that her wise counsel and earnest, faithful spirit may long continue to inspire and direct the affairs of this great a.s.sociation.

The office of national organizer was created and Carrie Chapman Catt elected to fill it. The a.s.sociation accepted an invitation to hold the next meeting in Atlanta, Ga. At the close of the convention a hearing was granted by the Senate and House committees. Miss Anthony introduced the various speakers, representing all sections of the country, and at the conclusion one of the new members came to her and said earnestly: "If you had but adopted this course earlier, your cause would have been won long ago." He was considerably surprised when she informed him that they had had just such hearings as this for the past twenty-six years.

The legislature of New York had ordered the necessary measures to be taken for a delegate convention to revise the const.i.tution. Governor Hill in 1887 and Governor Flower in 1892 had recommended that women should have a representation in this convention. The bill, as it finally pa.s.sed both branches of the legislature, provided that any male or female citizen above the age of twenty-one should be eligible to election as delegate. When the district conventions were called to choose these, both Democrats and Republicans refused to nominate any woman. As the delegates would draw $10 a day for five months, the political plums were entirely too valuable to give to a disfranchised cla.s.s. The Republicans of Miss Anthony's district would not consider even her nomination, although she was recognized as the peer of any man in the State in a knowledge of const.i.tutional law. The Democrats in that district, who were in a hopeless minority, made the one exception and, as a compliment, nominated Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf, who ran several hundred votes ahead of the ticket.

The women then proceeded to inaugurate a great campaign in order to create a public sentiment which would demand from this convention an amendment conferring suffrage on women. To begin this, which would require a vast amount of money, they had not a dollar. No delegate owed his election to a woman, nor could any woman further his ambition for future honors to which his record in this body might prove a stepping-stone. So far as any political power was concerned, women were of less force than the proverbial fly on the wagon wheel, and the majority of men who go into a convention of this kind do so from that particular sort of lofty patriotism which sees an official position in the near or distant future. On the other hand, the element which is forever and unalterably opposed to any move in the direction of suffrage for women, represented the dominant financial and political power in the greatest metropolis in America, whose ramifications extend to every city, village and cross-roads in the State. With its money and its votes this element can make and unmake politicians at will, and under present conditions, with the ballot in the hands of men only, it is virtually an impossibility for a candidate to be elected if this organization exert its influence against him. How to persuade the parties and the individual men to risk defeat until they succeed in the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women, which alone will destroy the absolute domination of this oligarchy, is a problem yet to be solved. That the women of New York dared attempt it, showed courage and determination of the highest order.

This necessarily had to be a campaign of education, of forming new public sentiment and putting into definite shape that which already existed. This could be done in four ways: by organization, by pet.i.tions, by literature and by speeches. The pet.i.tions were put into circulation in 1893.[89] As it would be necessary to use every dollar to the very best advantage, the Anthony home in Rochester was put at the service of the committee in order to save rent. Practically every room in the house was called into requisition. The parlors became public offices; the guest chamber was transformed into a mailing department; Miss Anthony's study was an office by day and a bedroom by night; and even the dining-room and kitchen were invaded. Here Mary S. Anthony, corresponding secretary, and Mrs. Martha R. Almy, vice-president-at-large, with a force of clerks, worked day and night from December, 1893, to July, 1894, sending out thousands of letters, pet.i.tion blanks, leaflets, suffrage papers, etc.[90] The letter boxes were wholly inadequate, and the post-office daily sent mail-sacks to the house, which were filled and set out on the front porch to be collected.

Hither came every day the State president, Mrs. Greenleaf, who toiled without ceasing from daylight till dark; and into this busy hive Miss Anthony rushed from the lecture field every Sat.u.r.day to get the report of the work and consult as to the best methods for the coming week. It is not possible to describe in detail the vast amount of labor performed at these headquarters, but it is thus summed up in the report of the corresponding secretary:

... Add to the correspondence incident to the circulation of our great pet.i.tion, the sending out of nearly 5,000 blank pet.i.tion-books and instructions to insure the work's being properly done, literature for free distribution, the planning and arranging for sixty ma.s.s meetings in as many counties, and we have a task before which Hercules himself might well stand aghast. To accomplish this work has taken not only the entire time of your corresponding secretary, but that of our president, Mrs.

Greenleaf, for a full year. Hundreds of women over all the State worked as never before, pet.i.tions in hand, travelling from house to house in all sorts of weather to secure the names of people who believe in the right of women to a voice in the government under which they live.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mary S. Anthony (Signed: "Your Sister Mary S. Anthony")]

It has so often been a.s.serted by those in power that when any considerable number of women wanted to vote, there would be perfect freedom for them to do so, that it was now decided thoroughly to test the truth of such a.s.sertion. Over 332,000 individual names, more than half being those of women, were thus actually obtained, neatly put up in book form and presented to the Const.i.tutional Convention with a feeling that such a showing could not, by any possible means, fail to make the men of that convention and of the State clearly understand that _women do want to vote_.[91]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Autograph: "Lillie Devereux Blake"]

The entire management of New York City was put in charge of Lillie Devereux Blake, and Brooklyn in that of Mariana W. Chapman. While the pet.i.tion work was going forward a great series of ma.s.s meetings was in progress, for which Miss Anthony, who knew every foot of New York State as well as her own dooryard, mapped out the routes. The management of these was placed in the hands of Harriet May Mills and Mary G. Hay, who proved remarkably efficient. Rev. Anna Shaw spoke at over forty of these meetings and Mary Seymour Howell at a large number. Several speakers from outside the State came in at different times and rendered excellent service. Carrie Chapman Catt made nearly forty speeches in New York, Brooklyn and vicinity. Miss Anthony herself, at the age of seventy-four, spoke in every one of the sixty counties of the State, beginning at Albion, January 22, and ending at Glens Falls, April 28.[92]

The campaign opened with a ma.s.s meeting at Rochester, of which the Democrat and Chronicle said in a leading editorial: "In pursuance of a call signed by over a hundred prominent citizens, a public meeting will be held January 8.... This should be largely attended, not only in honor of our distinguished townswoman, Miss Susan B. Anthony, but to declare in terms which can not be mistaken that the const.i.tution should be revised. The negro and the Indian have been enfranchised; women alone remain under political disabilities. They demand justice. Let it be granted freely, and without any exhibition of that selfishness which has so long kept them waiting."

Judge George F. Danforth presided over this meeting and among the prominent citizens on the platform were Dr. E. M. Moore, Rev. Asa Saxe, Eugene T. Curtis, Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Howell and Miss Anthony, all of whom made strong speeches in favor of the amendment. The list of vice-presidents comprised the leading men and women of the city.

Forcible resolutions were presented by Henry C. Maine, and letters of approval read from Judge Thomas Raines, Rev. H. H. Stebbins, of the Central Presbyterian church, and others. The papers said, "Miss Anthony went home as happy as a young girl after her first ball."

On January 9 Miss Anthony addressed the Political Equality Club of Syracuse, and a handsome reception was given to Elizabeth Smith Miller and herself by its president, Mrs. E. S. Jenney. The next day, she went to a big rally at Buffalo, under the auspices of the city suffrage club, Dr. Sarah Morris, president, where speeches were made by Judge Stern, Rabbi Aaron, Rev. Joseph K. Mason and others. On the 22d, the great sweep of county ma.s.s meetings began.[93] The sc.r.a.p-books containing the voluminous accounts show that usually the audiences were large and sympathetic; that the newspapers, almost without exception, gave full and friendly reports, and although most of them were non-committal in the editorial columns, a number came out strongly in favor of having a suffrage amendment incorporated in the const.i.tution. "Oh, if those who attend our meetings could do the voting," wrote Miss Anthony, "it would carry overwhelmingly, but alas, the riff-raff, the paupers, the drunkards, the very chain-gang that I see pa.s.sing the house on their way to and from the jail, will make their influence felt on the members of the Const.i.tutional Convention." In another letter she said: "I am in the midst of as severe a treadmill as I ever experienced, travelling from fifty to one hundred miles every day and speaking five or six nights a week. How little women know of the power of organization and how constantly we are confronted with the lack of it!"[94]

Most of the other speakers were paid for their services but Miss Anthony would not accept a dollar for hers, and refused to take even her travelling expenses out of the campaign fund. That year she received the bequest of her friend, Mrs. Eliza J. Clapp, of Rochester, who had died in 1892, leaving her $1,000 to use as she pleased. The court costs were $55 and she received $945. Although she was drawing from her small princ.i.p.al for her current expenses, she gave $600 of this to the State of New York and $400 to the national a.s.sociation, paying the court fees out of her own pocket.

A new and gratifying feature of this campaign was the interest taken by the women of wealth and social position in New York and Brooklyn.

Heretofore it had seemed impossible to arouse any enthusiasm on the question of woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt among this cla.s.s. Surrounded by every luxury and carefully protected from contact with the hard side of life, they felt no special concern in the conditions which made the struggle for existence so difficult among the ma.s.ses of women. All of a sudden they seemed to awake to the importance of the great issue which was agitating the State. This possibly may have been because it met the approval of many of the leading men of New York, for among those who signed the pet.i.tion were Chauncey M. Depew, Russell Sage, Frederick Coudert, Rev. Heber Newton, Rev. W. S. Rainsford, Bishop Potter, Rabbi Gottheil, John D. Rockefeller, Robert J. Ingersoll, William Dean Howells and others of the representative men of the city. The wives of these gentlemen opened their elegant parlors for suffrage meetings, and in a short time the following card was sent to a large number of people: