The Life and Work of Susan B Anthony Volume II by Ida Husted Harper

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Title: The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 of 2)
Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From
Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years

Author: Ida Husted Harper

Release Date: January 30, 2010 [EBook #31125]

Language: English

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THE LIFE AND WORK

O F

SUSAN B. ANTHONY

INCLUDING PUBLIC ADDRESSES, HER OWN LETTERS

AND MANY FROM HER CONTEMPORARIES

DURING FIFTY YEARS

BY

IDA HUSTED HARPER

A Story of the Evolution of the Status of Woman

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOLUME II

ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS, PICTURES OF HOMES, ETC.

indianapolis and kansas city

THE BOWEN-MERRILL COMPANY

1898

Copyright 1898

by

THE BOWEN-MERRILL COMPANY

TO WOMAN, FOR WHOSE FREEDOM

SUSAN B. ANTHONY

HAS GIVEN FIFTY YEARS OF NOBLE ENDEAVOR

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

SUSAN B. ANTHONY. In the California Campaign. 1896.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

In the California Campaign. 1896.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

VOL. II.

[Pg iii]

CHAPTER XXX.

Political Candidates—Writing the History. (1880-1881.)

Miss Anthony's rallying cry; letter on death of sister; Convention at Indianapolis; Mass Meeting in Farwell
Hall, Chicago; suffrage advocates neither unmarried nor childless; Republican National Convention refuses
even "recognition" plank of former years; Greenback-Labor Convention passes Woman Suffrage resolution
in spite of Dennis Kearney; Democratic Convention at Cincinnati receives ladies with great courtesy but
ignores their claims; tribute of Commercial; Prohibition Convention adopts Suffrage plank; interviews with
Garfield and Hancock; correspondence of General Garfield and Miss Anthony on Woman Suffrage;
martyrdom to writing the History; Thirteenth Washington Convention and memorial service to Lucretia
Mott; ridiculous press items on Skye terrier; letter on sparing parents for children's sake; first volume of
History issued.

CHAPTER XXXI.

The Legacy—Nebraska Campaign—Off for Europe. (1881-1882-1883.)

National Association in Boston; badge presented Miss Anthony by Philadelphia Citizens' Suffrage
Association; comments of Traveller and Globe; sweep of New England; tribute of Zerelda G. Wallace; no
welcome for Miss Anthony in Albany; letter on death of Garfield; attends National W. C. T. U. Convention
in Washington; Phillips' seventieth birthday; Mrs. Eddy's handsome legacy; Fourteenth Washington
Convention; amusing suffrage debate in Senate; meeting in Philadelphia; tributes from Elmira Free Press
and Washington Republic; favorable Senate and House Committee reports; campaign in Nebraska;
addresses Lincoln Club, Rochester; decides to go abroad; Philadelphia Times account of Birthday reception;
Mrs. Sewall's description in Indianapolis Times of farewell honors; fine tributes from Chicago Tribune and
Kansas City Journal; N. Y. Times describes departure for Europe.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Miss Anthony's European Letters. (1883.)

On shipboard; in Liverpool and London; in Milan and Rome; in Naples; in Zurich, Berlin, Cologne,
Heidelberg; in Paris; back to London; Mrs. Jacob Bright, Moncure D. Conway, Wm. Henry Channing, Mrs.
Rose, Stopford Brooke; speech at Prince's Hall; Helen Taylor, Jane Cobden and others; speech at St. James
Hall; Mrs. Mellen's Fourth of July reception; Canon Wilberforce, Sarah Bernhardt; Edinburgh; Elizabeth
Pease Nichol, Priscilla Bright McLaren, Professor Blackie, Dr. Jex-Blake; home of Harriet Martineau;
Dublin; Isabella M. S. Tod and others; trip through Ireland; characteristic descriptions; John Bright, Hannah
Ford, home of the Brontës; Henrietta Müller, Margaret Bright Lucas, Frances Power Cobbe, Millicent
Garrett Fawcett, Mrs. Peter Taylor; home again.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Congressional Hearings—Visit to New Orleans. (1884-1885.)

Welcome Home from Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, N. Y. Evening Telegram, Cleveland Leader;
unkind comment Cincinnati Times-Star; dislike of interviewing Congressmen shown by letter to Wm. D.
Kelley; Warren Keifer in favor of Woman Suffrage; opposition of Reagan, of Texas; members for and
against Special Committee; Douglass marriage; letters to young workers; death of Wendell Phillips; Bishop
Simpson on Woman Suffrage; fine speech before Congressional Committee; Thomas B. Reed's report;
letter from Senator Palmer; Miss Anthony on Suffrage Bill in Parliament; attitude of Presidential candidates;
opposes resolution denouncing dogmas and creeds; attack of Rev. W. W. Patton; Senator Palmer's speech;
trip to New Orleans; tribute of Picayune; Eddy legacy received; working on History; Miss Anthony's dislike
of literary labor; Mrs. Stanton's seventieth birthday; letter from Harriet Stanton Blatch.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Many Trips—First Vote on Sixteenth Amendment. (1886-1887.)

Miss Anthony's persistence with members of Congress; Eighteenth Washington Convention; committee
reports; canvass of the State of Kansas; Municipal Suffrage Bill passed by Legislature; speaking throughout
Wisconsin; advice as to Church for holding convention; History of Woman Suffrage and valuable work
accomplished by it; opinions of Mary L. Booth, Sarah B. Cooper and others; Nineteenth Annual
Convention; Senator Blair's bill for Woman Suffrage; Senators Brown and Vest in opposition; Senators
Dolph and Blair in favor; remonstrance from Boston; the Vote; women incensed at Ingalls; letter to Frances
Willard on Prohibition Party; letter to Olympia Brown against bringing suit under school suffrage law;
scores Senator Ingalls in Kansas; canvass of Indiana.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Union of Associations—International Council. (1888.)

American Association proposes Union; negotiations to that end; plea for Mrs. Stanton's election as

515-532

533-550

[Pg iv]

551-579

581-6032

605-626

[Pg v]

627-645

president; Union completed; International Council of Women; magnitude of preparations; Miss Anthony's
idea of a sermon; letter of Douglass on First Woman's Rights Convention; letter of Maria Mitchell; efforts
to secure Mrs. Stanton's presence; comment of Baltimore Sun and N. Y. World; Frances Willard's speech
and letter to Union Signal; National and International Councils formed; at Central Music Hall, Chicago; letter
urging women to go to National Political conventions; open letter to General Harrison; Republican "free
ballot" plank does not include Women; dislike of "red tape;" speech at Columbus W. C. T. U. celebration
not well received.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Conventions from Washington to South Dakota. (1889.)

Twenty-first Washington Convention; address before Unity Club, Cincinnati; death of niece Susie B.; letters
on Death; newspaper comment on Dress; at Seidl Club on Coney Island and "Broadbrim's" account; a
round of lectures and conventions; letter of Harriet Hosmer; canvass of South Dakota; Miss Anthony
outlines plan of campaign; nephew D. R. describes speech at Ann Arbor; "Andrew Jackson-like
responsibility"; work for South Dakota; description in Washington Star.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

At the End of Seventy Years. (1890.)

Consternation at idea of selling tickets for Birthday banquet; description of banquet by Washington Star and
N. Y. Sun; speeches of Rev. F. W. Hinckley, Hon. J. A. Pickler, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony;
congratulatory letters from distinguished people; eloquent tributes from Boston Traveller and Rochester
Democrat and Chronicle; first Convention of United Associations; money for South Dakota; in Washington
society; letter on pre-natal influence.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

The South Dakota Campaign. (1890.)

Appeals from South Dakota; Miss Anthony lays down the law regarding National funds; pledges of
Farmers' Alliance leaders; contributions to campaign; goes to South Dakota; Farmers' Alliance and Knights
of Labor form new party and repudiate pledges for Woman Suffrage; insults at Democratic Convention;
Republican Convention has room for Indian men but none for white women; Miss Anthony's cheerful
letters; hardships of campaign; Mrs. Howell's description of meetings at Madison; Rev. Anna Shaw's
account of crying babies and drunken man; Mrs. Chapman Catt's summing-up of situation; statistics of
Defeat; Miss Anthony endorsed by State W. C. T. U. and Suffrage Associations.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Wyoming—Miss Anthony Goes to Housekeeping. (1890-1891.)

Debate in Congress on admission of Wyoming; first majority report from House Committee in favor of
Sixteenth Amendment; Wimodaughsis; in Boston; letter of sympathy from Lucy Stone; first triennial
meeting of National Woman's Council; Miss Anthony's joy; Twenty-third Washington Convention;
breakfast at Sorosis; letter from ex-Secretary Hugh McCulloch; leaving Riggs House; letter describing visits
in New England; goes to housekeeping; kindness of press and people; letter from Adirondacks and John
Brown's home; stirs up Rochester W. C. T. U.; at Chautauqua; describes meeting at Lily Dale; happiness in
keeping house; speaks at N. Y. State Fair; invites Mrs. Stanton to share her home; calls meeting to admit
girls to Rochester University; speaks at Thanksgiving services in Unitarian church; appeals from Kansas.

CHAPTER XL.

Ignored by the Parties—Appointed to Office. (1892.)

Mrs. Stanton's last appearance at National Convention; Miss Anthony made president; home life; attends
biennial meeting Federation of Woman's Clubs; bust made by Lorado Taft; letter approving Southern
Woman's Council; ignored by Republican National Convention at Minneapolis; "every citizen" does not
include Women; bowed out of Democratic National Convention at Chicago; Frances Willard's beautiful
tribute; at People's National Convention in Omaha; Woman Suffrage at Chautauqua; campaign of Kansas on
Republican platform; illustrates difference in treatment of same women now and forty years ago; appointed
on Board of Managers State Industrial School; press comment; addresses mass meeting on including
Women in provisions of New Charter for Rochester; face sculptured on theater in Dowagiac, Mich.; John
Boyd Thacher asks his father's record; Philip Schuyler objects to his stepmother's statue in company with
Miss Anthony's; Justice Rufus W. Peckham's tribute.

CHAPTER XLI.

World's Fair—Congress of Representative Women. (1893.)

Miss Anthony opposes holding National Conventions outside Washington; extended range of letters and
invitations; urges those who can not work to contribute money; opening of World's Fair; Bertha Honoré

647-661

663-678

[Pg vi]

679-696

697-716

717-735

[Pg vii]

737-754

Palmer's words for women; Miss Anthony behind movement to have women on Board of Managers;
President and Board of Lady Managers; Woman's Congress; Miss Anthony center of attraction;
compliments from Frances Willard and Lady Somerset; letter of Florence Fenwick Miller; Suffrage leads at
Congress; letters from Mrs. Palmer, Mrs. James P. Eagle; speech on Religious Press; pleasant visits in
Chicago; tribute from Inter-Ocean; Woman Suffrage granted in Colorado; preparing for New York and
Kansas amendment campaigns.

CHAPTER XLII.

The Second New York Campaign. (1894.)

Speeches in Ann Arbor, Toledo, Baltimore and Washington; no creeds, no politics in National-American
Association; congratulations of Chicago Journal; great New York campaign inaugurated to secure
Amendment from Constitutional Convention; headquarters in Anthony home; Corresponding Secretary
Mary S. Anthony reports amount of work done; opening rally in Rochester; women of wealth and fashion
in New York and Brooklyn take part; N. Y. World describes the movement; "Remonstrants" organize; Miss
Anthony's opinion of them; 600,000 signatures secured; Joseph H. Choate, President of Constitutional
Convention, uses his influence against Woman Suffrage Amendment; Miss Anthony and many other
women address delegates; representatives of the "Antis" speak in opposition; Edward Lauterbach and other
members support Amendment; Elihu Root, Wm. P. Goodelle and others oppose; Amendment Defeated;
tribute by State president, Mrs. Greenleaf; appreciative letters; incorrect report of speech at Spiritualist
camp meeting; Miss Anthony, Frances Willard, Lady Somerset and others at Republican State Convention
in Saratoga; starting for Kansas.

CHAPTER XLIII.

The Second Kansas Campaign. (1894.)

Miss Anthony insists that political State conventions must put Woman Suffrage planks in their platforms;
politicians try to persuade Kansas women not to ask for them; dilemma of State president, Mrs. Johns;
letters of Mrs. Chapman Catt, Henry B. Blackwell, Rev. Anna Shaw, showing uselessness of campaign
without Political endorsement; Miss Anthony's rousing letters to Woman's State Committee, Republican
leaders and Mrs. Johns; great speech at Kansas City; action taken by Republican Woman's Convention;
Suffrage plank refused by Republican State Convention; fight for it in Populist Convention; wild scene
when secured; "not a test of party fealty;" Prohibitionists adopt plank; Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw
censured by Republicans; Miss Anthony states their reasons and takes a cheerful view; friendly words
from Wm. Lloyd Garrison; her brave declaration; scores Kansas Republicans in letter to Mr. Blackwell;
cordial support of Annie L. Diggs; Mrs. Johns and Mr. Breidenthal hopeful; Amendment Defeated;
possession of Limited Suffrage a hindrance to securing Full Suffrage.

CHAPTER XLIV.

The Southern Trip—The Atlanta Convention. (1895.)

Not cast down by Kansas defeat, Miss Anthony speaks at Nebraska Convention; goes to New York State
Convention at Ithaca; visits Cornell University and speaks to girls of Sage College; addresses National W.
C. T. U. on Sunday at Cleveland, showing weakness of all attempts at Reform unsupported by the Ballot;
pleasant month in New York City; letter on Y. M. C. A. for "woman's edition;" invitation from Rev. Jenkin
Lloyd Jones and Rev. H. W. Thomas to take part in Liberal Religious Congress; addresses at Lexington,
Louisville, Memphis and New Orleans; complimentary reports of Picayune, Shreveport Times, Birmingham
News, Huntsville Tribune; National-American Convention in Atlanta; courtesy of press, pulpit and people;
Seventy-fifth Birthday celebration and presentation of Annuity of $800; second triennial of Woman's
Council; speaks at Douglass' funeral; stirs up the audience in Rochester at Ida B. Wells' lecture on
Lynching; resigns position on State Industrial School Board.

CHAPTER XLV.

The Second Visit to California. (1895.)

Invitation from California Woman's Congress; Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw have royal welcome at St.
Louis, Denver, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Reno; cordial reception at Oakland; beautiful scene at Woman's
Congress; eulogies of press; visit Stanford University; entertained by many clubs and societies; go to
Yosemite Valley; joyfully received at San Jose, Los Angeles, Riverside, Pasadena, Pomona, San Diego,
Santa Monica; address Ministers' Meeting in San Francisco; Mrs. Cooper's victory over Fourth of July
Committee; speak at the celebration; miss audience at Oakland; affectionate farewell.

CHAPTER XLVI.

Mrs. Stanton's Birthday—The Bible Resolution. (1895-1896.)

Miss Anthony stirs up papers with resolution on Kansas men; description by Chicago Herald; seized with
nervous prostration at Lakeside, O.; sympathy of people and press; secret of vitality; letter on maternity
hospitals; on "hard times;" on woman's dress; Mrs. Stanton's birthday celebration; Miss Anthony
magnanimously refuses to take the lead; tribute from Tilton; appreciative letters from Mary Lowe
Dickinson, Mrs. Leland Stanford; Twenty-eighth Annual Convention; Utah admitted with Woman Suffrage;

755-776

[Pg viii]

777-798

799-817

[Pg ix]

819-838

839-862

women of South Australia enfranchised; resolution against Woman's Bible; speech on Religious Liberty;
grief over action of convention; view of the Bible; Suffrage will emancipate from Superstition; Nelly Bly's
racy interview; loud call from California; can not refuse but goes to the Golden State.

CHAPTER XLVII.

The California Campaign. (1896.)

Effort to secure Woman Suffrage Bill from California Legislature; State committees formed; county
conventions; Mrs. Sargent's hospitality; work of women throughout the State; attitude of press; the Call
declares for Woman Suffrage; Republican Convention; Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw before platform
committee; tributes to Mrs. Duniway and Mrs. McCann; Populist Convention; Prohibition Convention;
Democratic Convention; women's ratification; headquarters opened; principal speakers; great work of Miss
Anthony; social courtesies extended; goes to Portland and Seattle; can not go to Idaho; Suffrage plank in
National Republican convention repudiated; tour of Southern California; letters to Miss Willard and Mrs.
Peet on holding National W. C. T. U. Convention in California; action of Chairman Republican State
Committee; attempts of Women to speak at Political conventions; the Call coerced; the orators "flunk;"
Liquor Dealers fight Woman Suffrage; efforts to register new voters; amount of money raised; Women
outwitted by State officials; Defeat; summing-up of vote; a touching sight; pleasant campaign; State
Suffrage Convention; Mrs. Sargent's tribute; homeward bound.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

Her Letters—Birthday Party—Biography. (1896-1897.)

Reception in Rochester; never denies charges; urges women not to "scramble" for office; Book of
Proverbs; constancy of purpose; women have nothing to do with Reform parties; objects to calling God the
author of Civil Government; men trying to lift themselves by their bootstraps; no time for Speculation;
opposes Educated and Property Suffrage; eloquent tribute of Dr. H. W. Thomas; pleasant letters from Mrs.
Henrotin, John Hutchinson, Mrs. Dickinson; National-American Convention in Des Moines; letter urging
that all National conventions be held at Washington; reception at Indianapolis; addresses Indiana Legislature;
kindness to reporters; birthday of Frederick Douglass; Miss Anthony's great Birthday reception in
Rochester; compliments of Post-Express and Herald; the day at Anthony home; Mrs. Chapman Catt's
tribute; speech at Cuban League; remarks at funeral of Mrs. Humphrey; beginning the Biography; immense
amount of material; description of attic workroom.

CHAPTER XLIX.

Characteristic Views on Many Questions. (1897.)

Monday evenings at home; Miss Anthony dislikes rôle of Literary or Society woman; declares she never
again will speak before Legislative Committee at Albany; Miss Mary Anthony's birthday; Herald's interview;
description by Democrat and Chronicle; remarks of Rev. W. C. Gannett and others; assists at golden
wedding; visits Eliza Wright Osborne with Mrs. Stanton; her greatest compliment; opinion on Women
rising in Rebellion; on Mrs. Besant and Theosophy; letter to Supreme Court of Idaho; on commemorating
deeds of Revolutionary Mothers; Sentiment no guarantee for Justice; Subjection of Woman the cause of
public Immorality; opposed to asking Partial Suffrage for women; opinion on Poetry; God not responsible
for human ills; Sunday observance; objects to asking for Educated and Property Suffrage; voters not
influenced by Religious arguments; refuses to join Miss Willard in attack on "yellow journalism" and prize
fighting; wide scope of invitations, etc.; amusing letter of inquiry; never received salary from National
Association; visit to Thousand Islands; centennial of Rev. Samuel J. May; at Nashville Exposition; criticises
Women for going into Partisan Politics and defends "rings;" Woman Suffrage movement of the Present
contrasted with that of the Past.

CHAPTER L.

Home Life—The Reunion—The Woman. (1897.)

Daily habits of life; dress; harmonious relations of the two sisters; description of Anthony home; outline of
Miss Anthony's vast private correspondence; her patience and conscientiousness; objects to which close of
life is being given; invited to Berkshire; Suffrage Committee meeting in the "Old Hive" at Adams; guest of
Berkshire Historical Society; addresses of Mrs. Chapman Catt, Mrs. Foster Avery, Mrs. Sewall, Mrs.
Colby, Rev. Anna Shaw and others; Anthony Reunion; picturesque old homestead; visit to birthplace and
loved spots of childhood; contrast in position of Woman now and fifty years ago; Miss Anthony's part in
securing reforms; face carved in Capitol at Albany; tributes of Mrs. Sewall, Miss Willard and Mrs. Stanton;
Miss Anthony's characteristics; compared to Napoleon, Gladstone, Lincoln, Garrison; finis.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. II.

863-893

[Pg x]

895-911

913-930

[Pg xi]

931-953

Susan B. Anthony in California Campaign, 1896
Frontispiece

Harriet Purvis
faces page 526

Mentia Taylor
554

Priscilla Bright McLaren
564

Elizabeth Pease Nichol
568

Margaret Bright Lucas
578

Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton writing the History of Woman Suffrage
600

Caroline E. Merrick
608

Zerelda G. Wallace
632

Rev. Anna Howard Shaw
688

Harriet Taylor Upton
700

May Wright Sewall
746

Mary S. Anthony
760

Carrie Chapman Catt
780

Rachel Foster Avery
814

Sarah B. Cooper
828

Ellen Clark Sargent
864

Sarah L. Knox Goodrich
888

Anthony Residence in Rochester
904

Attic Work-Rooms
910

Mary S. and Susan B. Anthony
916

Anthony Family at Reunion
938

At the Old Homestead
942

Quaker Meeting-House, Adams, Mass
946

CHAPTER XXX.

POLITICAL CANDIDATES—WRITING THE HISTORY.

1880-1881.

During her May lecture trip Miss Anthony was formulating a scheme for a series of conventions, opening and closing
with a great mass meeting, which should influence the national political conventions to recognize in their platforms the
rights of woman. As usual most of the women opposed this plan and as usual Miss Anthony carried the day. The
following letters to Mrs. Spencer, national secretary, will serve as specimens of hundreds which she wrote with her own
hand, before every similar occasion:

I want the rousingest rallying cry ever put on paper—first, to call women by the thousand to Chicago; and
second, to get every one who can not go there to send a postal card to the mass convention, saying she wants
the Republicans to put a Sixteenth Amendment pledge in their platform. Don't you see that if we could have a
mass meeting of 2,000 or 3,000 earnest women, June 2, and then receive 10,000 postals from women all over
the country, what a tremendous influence we could bring to bear on the Republican convention, June 3? We can
get Farwell Hall for $40 a day, and I think would do well to engage it for the 2d and 3d, then we could make it
our headquarters—sleep in it even, if we couldn't get any other places.

Besides this, I want to make the best possible use of all our speakers between June 3 and 21, when we shall
have a mass meeting in Cincinnati, the day before the Democratic convention. My proposition is that I, as vice-
president-at-large, call conventions of two days each at a number of cities. We could divide our speakers and
thus fill in the entire two weeks between Chicago and Cincinnati with capital good work. How does the plan
strike you? Can we summon the women from the vasty deeps—or distances? Can we get 5,000 or 10,000 to
send on their postals? Do the petitions still come in? How many thousands of appeals and documents have you
had printed and how many have you sent out?

After the ball was set rolling she wrote:

A letter from Mrs. Stanton tells of her being on the verge of pneumonia, and rushing home to rest and recruit.
She is better and, since she has been to the dinner-table, I infer she is well enough to begin to work up the
thunder and lightning for Indianapolis and Chicago. Now won't you at once scratch down the points with which
you want to fire her soul and brain, and get her at work on the resolutions, platform and address? She won't go
out to lecture any more this spring, and if you will only put her en rapport with your thought she will do
splendid work in the herculean task awaiting us.

[Pg 515]

[Pg 516]

It is simply impossible for me to go to her at present, and we must all give her our ideas in the rough, from time
to time, and let her weld them together as best she can; and then, as she says, when we meet in Indianapolis we
all will put in our happiest ideas, metaphysical, political, logical and all other "cals," and make these the strongest
and grandest documents ever issued from any organization of women. It does seem to me that if we can
succeed in grinding out just the right appeal, demand, or whatever it may be called, the Republican convention
must heed us. At any rate, we will do our level best at a strong pull, a long pull and a pull all together to compel
them to surrender.

I enclose my list of May lecture engagements. I shall be able to help in money from them soon, and better than I
could in any other way. I watch both Congress and our State legislatures, but the "scamps" are vastly better at
promising than fulfilling. The politicians, of course, expect all this flutter and buncombe about doing something
for women in New York—in California—in Iowa—is going to spike our guns and make us help the Republican
party to carry all before it; but we must not be thus fooled by them.

After a lecture at Waynesburg, Penn., when she had gone to her train at 4 a. m. to find it an hour late, she wrote on the
ticket-office shelf, by the light of a smoky lamp, this letter to her sister:

Just three years ago this day was our dear Hannah's last on earth, and I can see her now sitting by the window
and can hear her say, "Talk, Susan." I knew she wanted me to talk of the future meetings in the great beyond,
all of them, as she often said, so certain and so beautiful to her; but they were not to me, and I could not dash
her faith with my doubts, nor could I pretend a faith I had not; so I was silent in the dread presence of death.
Three years—and yet what a living presence has she been in my thoughts all the days! There has been scarcely
one waking hour that I have not felt the loss of her. We can not help trying to peer through the veil to find the
certainty of things over there, but nothing comes to our eyes unless we accept the Spiritualistic testimony,
which we can not wholly do.

Well, only you and I are left of mother's four girls, and when and how we also shall pass on is among the
unknown problems of the future. Of course I feel and know that your loss is far beyond mine; for never was
there a child who so faithfully devoted herself to a mother, and made all other interests subserve that mother's
happiness as did you, and I feel, too, that but for you I never could have done my public work.

The great series of conventions began with the May Anniversary, which was held at Indianapolis, the 25th and 26th, in
the Park Theater, Miss Anthony presiding. All arrangements had been made and all expenses assumed by the local
suffrage society under the leadership of Mrs. Sewall. The Sentinel, edited at that time by Colonel J. B. Maynard,
welcomed the convention in a strong editorial declaring for woman suffrage in unmistakable terms. The very successful
meetings closed with a handsome reception tendered by Mrs. John C. New.

The mass meeting opened in Farwell Hall, Chicago, June 1, the day before the Republican convention, with delegates
from twenty-six States, and continued in session three days. The welcoming address was made by Elizabeth Boynton
Harbert, the speakers comprised the most prominent women of the nation, the audience numbered 3,000 and the
enthusiasm was unprecedented in all the records of this movement.[1] The History of Woman Suffrage says:

The mass convention had been called for June 2, but the crowds in the city gave promise of such extended
interest that Farwell Hall was engaged for June 1, and before the second day's proceedings closed, funds were
voluntarily raised by the audience to continue the meeting the third day. So vast was the number of letters and
postals from women who desired to vote, that the whole time of each session could have been spent in reading
them—one day's mail alone bringing them from twenty-three States and three Territories. Some contained
hundreds of names, others represented town, county and State societies. Many were addressed to the different
nominating conventions, Republican, Greenback, Democratic, while the reasons given for desiring to vote
ranged from the simple demand, through all the scale of those connected with good government and morality.
So highly important a contribution to history did the Chicago Historical Society deem these expressions that it
made a formal request to be put in possession of all letters and postals, with a promise that they should be
carefully guarded in a fire-proof safe.

A large parlor in the Palmer House was tendered to the ladies by the proprietor for business meetings and for a
reception room. They were visited by a number of Republican delegates, many of whom were thoroughly in favor of a
suffrage plank in the platform and of giving the ladies seats in the convention. A letter was sent to the chairman of the
Republican national committee, Don Cameron, signed by one hundred and eighteen United States senators and
representatives, asking that seventy-six seats on the floor of the convention be given to as many accredited delegates
from the National Suffrage Association. Although the veteran soldiers and sailors were liberally provided for, Mr.
Cameron granted only ten seats to the women, and those not to the association in its official capacity but as "guest"
tickets for seats on the platform. Miss Anthony was allowed ten minutes before a sub-committee to present the
argument for a suffrage plank. It was favorably regarded by scattered members of various delegations, but the platform
was silent on the subject.

The Republican convention of 1880 did not even adopt the "recognition" planks of 1872 and 1876, and all the
demonstrations of this great mass meeting of women had not the slightest influence, because made by a disfranchised
class. Before closing they adopted a resolution that they would support no party which did not endorse the political
equality of woman; but all the "support" which they could give or withhold was not likely to be considered of much
value by political leaders.

Miss Anthony and four others attended the Greenback-Labor Convention, a few days later, in the same city. They
were well received. Mrs. Gage read the suffrage memorial in open session and Miss Anthony was permitted to address

[Pg 517]

[Pg 518]

the convention. This privilege was violently opposed by Dennis Kearney, who said that "his wife instructed him before
he left California not to mix up with woman suffragists, and if he did she would meet him at the door with a flat-iron
when he came home." Failing to frighten the convention with Mrs. Kearney's flat-iron, he declined to hear Miss
Anthony's speech and left the hall in disgust. The committee refused to incorporate a suffrage plank in its platform, but
the next day in convention, after the nominations were concluded, a delegate introduced an equal suffrage resolution
which passed by a large majority.

The delegates and speakers of the National Association then held meetings at Milwaukee, Wis., Bloomington, Ill.,
Grand Rapids, Mich., Lafayette and Terre Haute, Ind., and reached Cincinnati in time for the Democratic National
Convention, June 22. They were received here with unexpected courtesy. Mayor Prince, of Boston, and Mr. Eaton, of
Kansas, presented their request for seats, and sixteen were granted them on the floor of the house, just behind the
delegates. A committee room was placed at their disposal and their notices and placards were printed by the
convention. A hearing was given before the platform committee, with no limit as to time, and after several had spoken
the others were invited to do so. The chairman, Henry Watterson, declared himself in favor of the plank desired. The
delegations from Maine, New York and Kansas also were favorable. Miss Anthony was escorted to the platform upon
the arm of Carter Harrison, amid wild applause, given a seat beside the presiding officer, Wade Hampton, and the clerk
was ordered to read the address which she presented.[2] After all this parade, however, the platform contained not the
slightest reference to the claims of women or, in fact, to their existence. The results of the appeal to the Republican and
Democratic conventions were precisely the same, except that the latter administered the dose with chivalry.

The National Prohibition Convention at Bloomington, Ill., officially invited the suffrage advocates to meet with them and
participate in their proceedings. Phœbe Couzins was sent as a delegate, and the convention adopted the following
plank: "We also demand that women having privileges as citizens in other respects, shall be clothed with the ballot for
their own protection, and as a rightful means for the proper settlement of the liquor question." This body, it will be
noticed, not only demanded the ballot for woman but told her what she would be expected to do with it.

While not at all surprised, Miss Anthony was greatly disgusted with the action of the Republican and Democratic
conventions, but, determined to leave nothing undone, she soon afterwards called upon General Garfield at Mentor. He
was cordial and expressed himself in favor of equality for woman in matters of education, work, wages and civil rights,
but was not ready to declare himself in favor of the suffrage and, as was always the case, urged that the issue be not
pressed during that campaign. Mrs. Blake and others visited General Hancock, the Democratic candidate, and the
New York Sun reports the interview in part:

Mrs. Blake said the delegation had come to ask the general what hope the woman suffrage party might entertain
in case any measure came before him, as President, which bore upon granting women the ballot. The general
replied that the movement was a growing one, and that everything which tended toward the amelioration of
woman's condition had his sympathy. In the course of conversation he said that women should be paid equally
with men for the same work equally well performed.

Mrs. Slocum said that the delegation desired a decided expression from him as to whether he would or would
not veto any measure favorable to woman suffrage that might come before him as President. The general replied
that if such a measure were voted upon by Congress as a constitutional amendment, it would not come before
the President. If, however, Congress accorded women the right to vote in the District of Columbia, he certainly
would offer no obstruction.

Mrs. Blake asked if he considered women as "people."

"Undoubtedly," replied the general. "He would be a bold man who would undertake to say they were not."

"Then, general," said Mrs. Blake, "we ask nothing more than what you say in your letter of acceptance: 'It is
only by a full vote, a free ballot and a fair count that the people can rule in fact, as required by the theory of our
government.'"

"I am perfectly willing," said General Hancock, "that you should say I take my stand on that paragraph in my
letter of acceptance."

In order to exhaust every resource, Miss Anthony, on August 17, addressed this letter to each of the presidential
candidates:

As vice-president-at-large of the National Woman Suffrage Association, I am instructed to ask you if, in the
event of your election, you, as President of the United States, would recommend to Congress the submission to
the several legislatures of a Sixteenth Amendment to the National Constitution, prohibiting the disfranchisement
of United States citizens on account of sex. What we wish to ascertain is whether you, as President, would use
your official influence to secure to the women of the several States a national guarantee of their right to a
voice in the government on the same terms with men. Neither platform makes any pledge to secure political
equality to women—hence we are waiting and hoping that one candidate or the other, or both, will declare
favorably, and thereby make it possible for women, with self-respect, to work for the success of one or the
other or both nominees. Hoping for a prompt and explicit statement, I am, sir, very respectfully yours.

General Hancock did not so much as acknowledge the receipt of this, but General Garfield answered promptly, writing
with his own hand:

[Pg 519]

[Pg 520]

[Pg 521]

Your letter of the 17th inst. was duly received. I take the liberty of asking your personal advice before I answer
your official letter. I assume that all the traditions and impulses of your life lead you to believe that the
Republican party has been and is more nearly in the line of liberty than its antagonist, the Democratic party; and
I know you desire to advance the cause of woman. Now, in view of the fact that the Republican convention has
not discussed your question, do you not think it would be a violation of the trust they have reposed in me, to
speak "as their nominee"—and add to the present contest an issue which they have not authorized?

Again, if I answer your question on the ground of my own private opinion, I shall be compelled to say that,
while I am open to the freest discussion and fairest consideration of your question, I have not yet reached the
conclusion that it would be best for woman and for the country that she should have the suffrage. I may reach
it; but whatever time may do to me, that fruit is not yet ripe on my tree. I ask you, therefore, for the sake of
your own question, do you think it wise to pick my apples now? Please answer me in the frankness of personal
friendship.

With kind regards, I am, very truly yours.

Under date of September 9 Miss Anthony sent a spirited reply:

Yours of the 25th ult. has waited all these days that I might carefully consider it.

First.—The Republican party did run well for a season in the "line of liberty," but since 1870, its congressional
enactments, majority reports, Supreme Court decisions, and now its presidential platform, show a retrograde
movement—not only for women but for colored men—limiting the power of the national government in the
protection of United States citizens against the injustice of the States, until what we gained by the sword is lost
by political surrenders. We need nothing but a Democratic administration to demonstrate to all Israel and the sun
the fact, the sad fact, that all is lost by the Republican party. I mean, of course, the one vital point of national
supremacy in the protection of United States citizens in the enjoyment of their right to vote, and the punishment
of States or individuals thereof, for depriving citizens of the exercise of that right. The first and fatal mistake
was in ceding to Rhode Island the right to "abridge" the suffrage to foreign born men; and to all the States to
"deny" it to women, in direct violation of the principle of national supremacy. From that time, inch by inch,
point by point has been surrendered, until it is only in name that the Republican party is the party of national
supremacy. Grant did not protect the negro's ballot in the presidential election of 1876—Hayes can not in 1880
—nor will Garfield be able to do so in 1884—for the "scepter has departed from Judah."

Second.—For the candidate of a party to add to the discussions of the contest an issue unauthorized or unnoted
in its platform, when that issue is one vital to its very life, it seems to me would be the grandest act imaginable.
For doing that very thing, with regard to the protection of the negroes of the South, you are today receiving
more praise from the best men of the party than for any and all of your utterances inside the line of the platform.
I know, if you had in your letter of acceptance, or in your New York speech, declared yourself in favor of
"perfect equality of rights for women, civil and political," you would have touched an electric spark which
would have fired the hearts of the women of the entire nation, and made the triumph of the Republican party
more grand and glorious than any it ever has seen.

Third.—As to picking fruit before it is ripe! Allow me to remind you that very much fruit is never picked; some
is nipped in the bud; some is worm-eaten and falls to the ground; some rots on the trees before it ripens; some,
too slow in ripening, is bitten by the early frosts of autumn; while some rare, ripe apples hang until frozen and
worthless on the leafless boughs! Really, Mr. Garfield, if after passing through the war of the rebellion and
sixteen years in Congress; if after seeing and hearing and repeating that no class ever got justice and equality of
chances from any government except it had the power—the ballot—to clutch them for itself; if after all your
opportunities for growth and development, you can not yet see the truth of the great principle of individual self-
government; if you have reached only the idea of class-government, and that, too, of the most hateful and cruel
form—bounded by sex—there must be some radical defect in the ethics of the party of which you are the
chosen leader.

No matter which party administers the government, women will continue to get only subordinate positions and
half pay, not because of the party's or the President's lack of chivalric regard, but because, in the nature of
things, it is impossible for any government to protect a disfranchised class in equality of chances. Women, to
get justice, must have political freedom. But pardon this long trespass upon your time and patience, and please
bear in mind that it is not for the many good things the Republican party and its nominee have done in extending
the area of liberty that I criticise them, but because they have failed to place the women of the nation on the
plane of political equality with men. I do not ask you to go beyond your convictions, but I do most earnestly beg
you to look at this question from the standpoint of the woman—alone, without father, brother, husband, son—
battling for bread. It is to help the millions of these unfortunate ones that I plead for the ballot in the hands of all
women.

[Pg 522]

[Pg 523]

With great respect for your frank and candid talk with one of the disfranchised, I am, very sincerely yours.

On the strength of Hancock's perfectly non-committal interview and Garfield's frank letter, several of the prominent
Democratic women rushed into a campaign for that party, whereupon Miss Anthony called them down in vigorous
language. After expressing her indignation at the many false newspaper reports of her correspondence and interview
with General Garfield, she said:

He has always stood ready to aid us in getting our demand before Congress, and was one of the three who
reported in favor of a special woman suffrage committee in the House the last session. He has actually done a
thousand things a thousand times more friendly to woman suffrage than Hancock now talks of doing. Then,
again, Hancock has given us no public statement that, if elected, he will recommend a Sixteenth Amendment in
his inaugural; and in his letter of acceptance he said nothing more that can be twisted into suffrage for women
than Garfield did in his, and there is no more in the Democratic platform that can be thus construed than there is
in the Republican.

I never intended that the National Association should accept any sort of "under the ink or between the lines" as
favorable pledges; and before I shall consent to put my name to any document favoring either candidate, I must
see in black and white, in the candidate's own pen tracks, something to warrant such favoring. Mere gallantry
will not do.

During the campaign which followed, neither she nor the other leading women of the country did any public work, and
both parties lost the splendid services which would have been gladly rendered had they recognized the simple principle
of justice. When the success of Garfield was practically assured, Miss Anthony wrote to a friend on the evening of
election day: "I am fairly holding my breath tonight, waiting for the morning reports, as I feel it will be an overwhelming
triumph for the Republican party. If their majority should be immense, perhaps it will give them courage and strength to
speak for woman—and so let us hope and hope on."

As Mrs. Stanton's health forbade her going on the lecture platform in the autumn of 1880, and as Miss Anthony had
now enough money ahead to dare claim a little leisure from public work, they decided to settle down to the serious
business of writing the History of Woman Suffrage. For this purpose Miss Anthony went to Tenafly in October and
ensconced herself in Mrs. Stanton's cosy home among the "blue hills of Jersey." The work already was advanced far
enough to show that it could not possibly be restricted to the one volume into which it had enlarged from the 500-page
pamphlet at first intended, and the task loomed up in an appalling manner. Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, the generous
patron of so many progressive movements, gave Miss Anthony $1,000 for immediate expenses and so they went on
with the work, delving among old papers and letters, compiling, cutting, pasting, writing and re-writing, sending over
and over to the women of different States for local history, going into New York again and again to see the publishers,
and performing all the drudgery demanded by such an undertaking, which can be appreciated only by the few who have
experienced it.

Miss Anthony hated this kind of work and it was torture for her to give up her active life and sit poring over the musty
records of the past. Her diary contains the usual impatient expressions of this feeling, and in her letters to friends she
says: "O, how tired and sick I am of boning down to facts and figures perpetually, and how I long to be set free from
what to me has been a perfect prison for the last six months!" She stuck to it with Spartan heroism, however, knowing
that otherwise it never would be done, but she was not unwilling occasionally to sally forth and fill a lecture engagement
or attend a convention. At the Rhode Island annual meeting she made the principal address, and the next day went, with
Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, to Danbury, Mass., to call on John G. Whittier. Almost his first words were, "And so our dear
Lucretia Mott is gone!" She had died the evening before, November 11, aged nearly eighty-eight.

Miss Anthony had expected her death, but was inexpressibly grieved to lose from out her life that sweet presence which
had been an inspiration for thirty years, whose staunch support had never failed, even when friends were fewest and
fortune at its lowest ebb. In times of greatest perplexity she could slip down to the Philadelphia home for sympathy and
encouragement, and there was always a corner in the pocketbook from which a contribution came when it was most
needed. If ever any human character was without a flaw it was that of Lucretia Mott. Her motto was "Truth for
authority, not authority for truth." She faded away like a spirit and her dying words, whispered many times during the
last day or two, were, "O, let me go, let this little standard bearer go!" For freedom, for peace, for temperance, for
equality, she was indeed the standard bearer through all her long and beautiful life.

On election day, prompted no doubt by the unconquered and unconquerable Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton made an
effort to vote. This act created much excitement and called forth columns of comment in the newspapers, to the great
amusement of the two conspirators in their quiet retreat.

Toward the end of 1880, Miss Anthony wrote to the treasurer, Mrs. Spofford, asking if she did not think it would be
best to omit the National Convention of 1881, giving as reasons that there had been such a surfeit of conventions during
the past year and that she was very busy with the History. Mrs. Spofford was much surprised, for Miss Anthony never
had been known to yield in the matter of holding this annual meeting, even when all others were opposed, but she
advised against postponement and by the next mail received this reply:

I feel exactly as you do about having the convention. I have never for a moment felt ready not to hold it. I wrote
you under Mrs. Stanton's orders not to tell you how I felt, as that would be sure to influence you. Now I have
read her your letter and told her my determination was to go ahead. She won't promise to attend, she never

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[Pg 525]

[Pg 526]

does, but I never fail to take her with me when I am on the spot, as I shall be when the time comes next
January. So you may save us each a bedroom away up, no matter how lofty—you know I love the fresh air of
the high heavens. Don't give yourself one moment's uneasiness in regard to the convention. I am going to set
about it and am bound to make it one of the best, if not the best ever held in Wa...