When Miss Anthony was starting for South Dakota she was urged not to go, through fear of the effect of such a campaign on her health. Her reply was, "Better lose me than lose a State." A grand answer from a grander woman. And this night in South Dakota we had won a State and still had Miss Anthony with us, the central figure of the suffrage movement as she was the central figure in that never-to-be-forgotten night of great rejoicing.



As very few women were able to hire help, many were obliged to bring their babies to the meetings and, before the speaking was over, the heat and confusion generally set them all to crying. Miss Anthony was very patient and always expressed much sympathy for the overworked and tired mothers. One occasion, however, was too much for her, and Anna Shaw thus describes it:

One intensely hot Sunday afternoon, a meeting was held by the side of a sod church, which had been extended by canvas coverings from the wagons. The audience crowded up as close as they could be packed to where Miss Anthony stood on a barn door laid across some boxes. A woman with a baby sat very near the edge of this improvised platform. The child grew tired and uneasy and finally began to pinch Miss Anthony's ankles. She stepped back and he immediately commenced to scream, so she stepped forward again and he resumed his pinching. She endured it as long as she could, but at last stooped down and whispered to the mother, "I think your baby is too warm in here; take him out and give him a drink and he will feel better." The woman jerked it up and started out, exclaiming, "Well, this is the first time I have ever been insulted on account of my motherhood!" A number of men gathered around her, saying, "That is just what to expect from these old maid suffragists." Some one told Miss Anthony she had lost twenty votes by this. "Well," she replied, "if they could see the welts on my ankles where they were pinched to keep that child still, they would bring their twenty votes back."

She said to me the next day: "Now, Anna, no matter how many babies cry you must not say one word or it will be taken as an insult to motherhood." That afternoon I gave a little talk. The church was crowded and there were so many children it seemed as if every family had twins. There were at least six of them crying at the top of their lungs. The louder they cried, the louder I yelled; and the louder I yelled, the louder they cried, for they were scared. Finally a gentleman asked, "Don't you want those children taken out?" "O, no," said I, "there is nothing that inspires me so much as the music of children's voices," and although a number of men protested, I would not allow one of them taken from the room. I was bound I wouldn't lose any votes.

Among the racy anecdotes which Miss Shaw relates of that memorable campaign, is one which shows Miss Anthony's ready retort:

Many of the halls were merely rough boards and most of them had no seats. I never saw so many intemperate men as at ——, in front of the stores, on the street corners, and in the saloons, and yet they had a prohibition law! We could not get any hall to speak in—they were all in use for variety shows—and there was no church finished, but the Presbyterian was the furthest along and they let us have that, putting boards across nail kegs for seats. It was filled to overflowing and people crowded up close to the platform. One man came in so drunk he could not stand, so he sat down on the edge and leaned against the table. Miss Anthony gave her argument to prove what the ballot had done for laboring men in England and was working up to show what it would do for women in the United States, when suddenly the man roused and said: "Now look 'ere, old gal, we've heard 'nuf about Victoria; can't you tell's somethin' 'bout George Washington?" The people tried to hush him, but soon he broke out again with, "We've had 'nuf of England; can't you tell's somethin' 'bout our grand republic?" The men cried, "Put him out, put him out!" but Miss Anthony said: "No, gentlemen, he is a product of man's government, and I want you to see what sort you make."

In September Carrie Chapman Catt, one of the coolest, most logical and level-headed women who ever went into a campaign, at the request of the State executive committee gave her opinion of the situation as follows:

We have not a ghost of a show for success. Our cause can be compared with the work of prohibition, always remembering ours is the more unpopular. Last year the Methodist church led off in State conference and declared for prohibition. It was followed by every other church, except the German Lutheran and Catholic, even the Scandinavian Lutherans voting largely for it. Next the Republican, the strongest party, stood for it, because if they did not it meant a party break. The Farmers' Alliance were solid for it. The leaders were put to work, a large amount of money was collected and representative men went out in local campaigns. It was debated on the street, and men of influence converted those of weaker minds.

Now what have we? 1st.—The Lutherans, both German and Scandinavian, and the Catholics are bitterly opposed. The Methodists, our strongest friends everywhere else, are not so here. 2d.—We have one party openly and two others secretly against us. 3d.—While this county, for instance, gave $700 to prohibition, it gives $2.50 to suffrage and claims that for hall rent, the amount then not being sufficient. 4th.—When I suggested to the committee to start a vigorous county campaign and get men of influence to go out and speak, they did not know of one man willing to face the political animosities it would engender.

With the exception of the work of a few women, nothing is being done. We have opposed to us the most powerful elements in the politics of the State. Continuing as we are, we can't poll 20,000 votes. We are converting women to "want to vote" by the hundreds, but we are not having any appreciable effect upon the men. This is because men have been accustomed to take new ideas only when accompanied by party leadership with brass bands and huzzahs. We have a total lack of all. Ours is a cold, lonesome little movement, which will make our hearts ache about November 5. We must get Dakota men in the work. They are not talking woman suffrage on the street. There is an absolute indifference concerning it. We need some kind of a political mustard plaster to make things lively. We are appealing to justice for success, when it is selfishness that governs mankind....

The campaign was continued, however, with all the zeal and ability which both State and national workers could command. There were between fifteen and twenty thousand Scandinavians in the State and a woman was sent to address them in their own language—one woman! A German woman was sent among the men of that nationality. The last night before election, mass meetings were held in all the large towns, Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw being at Deadwood. In her excellent summing-up of the campaign, Elizabeth M. Wardall, State superintendent of press, gives: "Number of addresses by the national speakers, 789; by the State speakers, 707; under the auspices of the W. C. T. U., 104; total, 1,600; local and county clubs of women organized, 400. Literature sent to every voter in the State."

What was the result of all this expenditure of time, labor and money? There were 68,604 ballots cast; 22,972 for woman suffrage; 45,632 opposed; majority against, 22,660. Eight months of hard work by a large corps of the ablest women in the United States, 1,600 speeches, $8,000 in money, for less than 23,000 votes! There were 30,000 foreigners in South Dakota, Russians, Scandinavians, Poles and other nationalities. It is claimed they voted almost solidly against woman suffrage, but even if this were true they must have had the assistance of 15,000 American men. If only those men who believed in prohibition had voted for woman suffrage it would have carried, as had that measure, by 6,000 majority. The opponents of prohibition, of course, massed themselves against putting the ballot in the hands of women.

The main interest of this election was centered in the fight between Huron and Pierre for the location of the capital. There never in any State was a more shameless and corrupt buying and selling of votes, and the woman suffrage amendment was one of the chief articles of barter. The bribers, the liquor dealers and gamblers, were reinforced here, as had been the case in other State campaigns, by their faithful allies, "the Remonstrants of Boston," who circulated their anonymous sheet through every nook and corner of the State.

All of the speakers who took any prominent part in the campaign were paid except Miss Anthony.[64] She contributed her services for over six months and refused during that time an offer of $500 from the State of Washington for ten lectures and a contract from one of the largest lecture bureaus in the country at $60 per night.[65] At the close of the canvass she gave from the national fund $100 each to Mrs. Wardall and Philena E. Johnson, who had worked so faithfully without pay. Then, lacking $300 of enough to settle all the bills, she drew that amount from her own small bank account and put it in as a contribution to the campaign.

At the annual meeting of the State W. C. T. U., September 26, a strong resolution was adopted endorsing Miss Anthony's work in South Dakota and she was made an honorary member. After the election the State suffrage committee unanimously passed the following resolution: "The earnest and heartfelt gratitude of all the suffragists of South Dakota is hereby extended to Susan B. Anthony, who has devoted her entire time, energy and experience for six months to the cause of liberty and justice."

Anna Shaw said that in all her years of preaching and lecturing she had never been so exhausted as at the close of that canvass. Mrs. Catt was prostrated with typhoid fever immediately upon reaching home, and hovered between life and death for many months, in her delirium constantly making speeches and talking of the campaign. Mary Anthony said, "When my sister returned from South Dakota I realized for the first time that she was indeed threescore and ten."

FOOTNOTES:

[59] "I am homesick already," she wrote Mrs. Spofford, "and have been every minute since I left Washington. My choice would be to live there most of the year, but no! Duty first, ease and comfort afterwards, even if they never come."

[60] Mrs. Wallace was kept at home by serious illness in her family. In a letter to Miss Anthony, August 18, expressing her deep regret, she said: "Money would be no object with me if I could overcome the other difficulties in the way, but as I can not, I fear I shall have to let you think I am unreliable. I regret this, as there is no woman (except Miss Willard) whose good opinion I value so highly as yours."

[61] In order to keep her next engagement, Miss Anthony was obliged to leave Huron at 7:30 A. M., drive sixteen miles in the face of a heavy northwest wind and rain, travel all day and speak that evening. "I did the best I could," she wrote in her journal.

[62] Then E. W. Miller took the floor, and in a disgusting manner and vile language berated the women present and all woman suffragists.... Miller disgraced the name of Democracy, disgraced his constituents, disgraced South Dakota, disgraced the name of man by his brutal and low remarks in the presence of ladies and gentlemen.—Aberdeen Pioneer.

[63] At one place where this happened, the Russian sheriff had locked the court house doors, but the women compelled him to open them. He was entirely converted by the addresses of the afternoon, and in the evening when the storm was approaching, he rushed to Miss Anthony and exclaimed, "Come, quick, and let me take you to the cellar, where you will be perfectly safe." "O, no, thank you," she replied, "a little thing like a cyclone does not frighten me."

[64] Henry B. Blackwell made a speaking tour of six weeks through the State at his own expense.

[65] A letter from Mrs. Catt said: "I think you are the most unselfish woman in all the world. You are determined to see that all the rest of us are paid and comfortable, but think it entirely proper to work yourself for nothing. If some of your self-sacrificing spirit could be injected into the great body of suffragists, we would win a hundred years sooner."



CHAPTER XXXIX.

WYOMING—MISS ANTHONY GOES TO HOUSEKEEPING.

1890-1891.

Miss Anthony accepted the defeat in South Dakota as philosophically as she had those of the past forty years, bidding the women of the State be of good cheer and continue the work of education until at last the men should be ready to grant them freedom. With Mrs. Colby and Mrs. Julia B. Nelson she went directly to the Nebraska convention at Fremont, November 12.[66] The 18th found her in Atchison with Mrs. Catt and Mrs. Colby, at the Kansas convention, "where," the Tribune says, "she took part in all the deliberations and methods of work as critically and earnestly as if she herself would have to carry them out."

Two weeks were pleasantly spent visiting at Leavenworth and Fort Scott. Thanksgiving was passed at the latter place and the next day the suffrage friends, under the leadership of Dr. Sarah C. Hall, whom Miss Anthony called "the backbone of Bourbon county," gave her a very pretty reception at the home of Mrs. H. B. Brown. Saturday she spoke, morning, afternoon and evening, at the county suffrage convention. Her time for rest and recreation was very brief, and by December 4 she and Mrs. Catt were in the midst of the Iowa convention at Des Moines. As usual when flying from one side of the continent to the other, she stopped at Indianapolis for a few days' work with Mrs. Sewall, and they sat up into the wee, sma' hours, planning and arranging for the Washington convention, the National Council and the World's Fair Congress of Women.

She arrived in Rochester Saturday morning; that evening Anna Shaw came in from her tour of lectures all along the way from South Dakota, and it would not be surprising to know that a business meeting of two was held the next day after church services. Monday evening the Political Equality Club tendered them a reception at the Chamber of Commerce, which was largely attended. On December 16 and 17 they addressed the State Suffrage Convention in this city, and soon afterwards Miss Anthony started for Washington by way of New York and Philadelphia.

The year 1890 had been eventful for the cause of woman suffrage, in spite of the defeat in Dakota. The bill for the admission of Wyoming as a State had been presented in the House of Representatives December 18, 1889. Its constitution, which had been adopted by more than a two-thirds vote of the people, provided that "the right of its citizens to vote and hold office should not be denied or abridged on account of sex." The House Committee on Territories, through Charles S. Baker, of Rochester, reported in favor of admission. The minority report presented by William M. Springer, of Illinois, covered twenty-three pages; two devoted to various other reasons for non-admission and twenty-one to objections because of the woman suffrage clause, "which provides that not only males may vote but their wives also." Incorporated in this report were the overworked articles of Mrs. Leonard and Mrs. Whitney, supplemented by a ponderous manifesto of Goldwin Smith, and it ended with the same list of "distinguished citizens of Boston opposed to female suffrage," which had several times before been brought out from its pigeonhole and dusted off to terrify those citizens of the United States who did not reside in Boston.

As it was supposed Wyoming would be Republican its admission was bitterly fought by the Democrats, who used its suffrage clause as a club to frighten the Republicans, but even those of the latter who were opposed were willing to swallow woman suffrage for the sake of bringing in another State for their party. The changes were rung on the old objections with the usual interspersing of those equivocal innuendoes and insinuations which always make a self-respecting woman's blood boil. The debate continued many days and it looked for a time as if the woman suffrage clause would have to be abandoned if the State were to be admitted. When this was announced to the Wyoming Legislature, then in session, the answer came back over the wire: "We will remain out of the Union a hundred years rather than come in without woman suffrage."[67] After every possible effort had been made to strike out the objectionable clause, the final vote was taken March 26, 1890; for admission 139; against, 127.

The bill was presented in the Senate by Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut, from the Committee on Territories, and discussed for three days. After a repetition of the contest in the House, the vote was taken June 27; in favor of admission 29; opposed 18. Woman suffrage clubs in all parts of the country, in response to an official request by Miss Anthony and Lucy Stone, celebrated the Fourth of July with great rejoicing over the admission of Wyoming, the first State to enfranchise women.

Another event of importance during 1890, was the first majority report from the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives in favor of the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which should confer suffrage upon women. Hon. Ezra B. Taylor, of Warren, O., was chairman of the committee and had exerted all his influence to secure this report, which was presented May 29 by L. B. Caswell, of Wisconsin.[68] On August 12, the Senate committee on woman suffrage again presented a majority report for a Sixteenth Amendment.



It had long been Miss Anthony's earnest desire to have suffrage headquarters in Washington, pleasant parlors where local meetings could be held and friends gather in a social way. In the midst of her great work and responsibility she exchanged many letters during 1890 with ladies in that city regarding this project, but it was finally decided that it would not be judicious to incur the expense. Out of this agitation, however, was evolved a stock company, incorporated under the name of Wimodaughsis, organized for the education of women in art, science, literature and political and domestic economy by means of classes and lectures. As Miss Anthony never gave herself to any work except that which tended directly to secure suffrage for women, she took no part in the new enterprise except to bestow upon it her blessing and $100. Rev. Anna Shaw was elected its first president. The National-American Association took two large rooms in the new club house for headquarters.



Two deaths in 1890 affected Miss Anthony most deeply. Ellen H. Sheldon, of Washington, for a number of years had served as national recording secretary and had endeared herself to all. She was a clerk in the War Department and her entire time outside business hours was devoted to gratuitous work for the association. Her reports were accurate and discriminating and Miss Anthony felt in her death the loss of a valued friend and helper. Julia T. Foster, of Philadelphia, who passed away November 16, was as dear to her as one of her own nieces. A sweet and beautiful woman, wealthy and accomplished, she was so modest and retiring that her work for suffrage and the large sums of money she contributed were known only to her most intimate friends. In remembrance Rachel Foster Avery sent Miss Anthony all the handsome furnishings of her sister's room.

Miss Anthony arrived in Washington January 3, 1891, and received the usual welcome by Mr. and Mrs. Spofford. On the 24th she went to Boston in response to an invitation to attend the Massachusetts Suffrage Convention.[69] She reached the Parker House Sunday morning, but Wm. Lloyd Garrison came at once and took her to his hospitable home in Brookline, and a most fortunate thing it was. Since leaving South Dakota she had been fighting off what seemed to be a persistent form of la grippe and the next morning she collapsed utterly, pneumonia threatened and she was obliged to keep her room for a week. She received the most loving attention from her hostess, Ellen Wright Garrison, and had many calls and numerous pleasant letters, among them the following:

What a mercy it was that you fell into the shelter and care of the Garrisons when so serious an illness came upon you. Of course everybody was disappointed that you could not be at the meeting so that they might at least see you. Now that you are convalescing and we trust on the high road to recovery we want to arrange an informal reception at our office, so that those or some of those who were sorry not to see you at the meeting, may have a chance to do so. I was too tired today to go with my two, and maybe you would have been too tired to see us if we had gone. It is not quite the same when we are seventy-two as when we are twenty-seven; still I am glad of what is left, and wish we might both hold out till the victory we have sought is won, but all the same the victory is coming. In the aftertime the world will be the better for it.

Trusting you may soon be well again, I am your fellow-worker,

LUCY STONE.

Her old comrade, Parker Pillsbury, urged her to come for a while to his home in Concord, N. H., saying: "Should you come you may be sure of a most cordial greeting in this household, and by others; but by none more heartily and cordially than by your old friend and coadjutor in the temperance, anti-slavery and suffrage enterprises." Mrs. Pillsbury supplemented this with a pressing invitation; and another came from the loved and faithful friend, Armenia S. White. Miss Anthony appreciated the kindness but there was too much work awaiting her in Washington to allow of visiting, and thither she hastened even before she was fully able to travel.

The first triennial meeting of the National Woman's Council, Frances E. Willard, president, Susan B. Anthony, vice-president, began in Albaugh's Opera House, February 22, 1891, and continued four days. It was as notable a gathering as the great International Council of 1888. Forty organizations of women were represented; "one," said Miss Willard in her opening address, "for every year during which this noble woman at my right and her colleagues have been at work." The meeting was preceded by a reception tendered by Mrs. Spofford at the Riggs to 500 guests. The services for two Sundays were conducted entirely by women, Revs. Anna Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer, Ida C. Hultin, Caroline J. Bartlett, Amanda Deyo, Olympia Brown, Mila Tupper and, among the laity, Margaret Bottome, president of the King's Daughters, and Miss Willard. The most famous women of the United States took part in this council. Especial interest was centered in the beautiful Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer, president of the Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition, who occupied a seat on the stage. This board was represented also by its vice-president, Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin and by Mrs. Virginia C. Meredith. Each great national organization sent its most representative women to present its objects and its work.

As Mrs. Stanton was still in Europe, her paper, "The Matriarchate," was read by Miss Anthony. Miss Willard introduced the reader in her own graceful way, saying: "I will not call her Mrs. Stanton's faithful Achates, for that would fail to express it, but will say that the paper written by one of the double stars of the first magnitude will be read by the other star." Miss Anthony was so happy over this great assemblage, the direct result of all her long years' work for the evolution of woman into a larger life and a catholicity of spirit which would enable those of all creeds, all political beliefs and all lines of work to come together in fraternal council, that she herself scarcely could be persuaded to make even the briefest address. Her one anxiety was that all the noted speakers present should be seen and heard.[70] The council was received by Mrs. Harrison at the White House.

The Twenty-third Annual Convention of the National-American W. S. A. commenced the morning after the council closed, and the vast audiences which filled the opera house at every session hardly knew when one ended and the other began. The interest was sufficient to sell the boxes for the latter at $10, and single seats at 50 cents. Miss Anthony presided and read Mrs. Stanton's fine address, "The Degradation of Disfranchisement," saying as she commenced that "they might imagine how every moment she was wishing they could see, instead of her own, the sunny face and grand white head of the writer." At its close she introduced Lucy Stone, who came forward amid great applause, and said that "while this was the first time she had stood beside Miss Anthony at a suffrage convention in Washington, she had stood beside her on many a hard-fought battlefield before most of those present were born." She then gave a graphic picture of the work accomplished by the suffrage advocates from 1850 to 1890.

All sections of the United States were represented at this convention; delegates were present from Canada, and Miss Florence Balgarnie, of London, spoke for the women of England.[71] Mrs. Henrotin presented an official invitation from the Board of Lady Managers for the association to take part in the Woman's Congress to be held during the World's Fair. The newspapers of Washington, and those of other cities through their correspondents, gave columns of reports, indisputable evidence of the important and stable position now secured by the question of woman suffrage. The board of officers was re-elected, Mrs. Stanton receiving for president 144 of the 175 votes; Miss Anthony's election unanimous.

The Women's Suffrage Society of England had sent official congratulations on the admission of Wyoming with enfranchisement for women, and Miss Anthony was determined they should be read in the United States Senate. This letter from Senator Blair will show how it was accomplished: "The memorial of congratulation which you sent me is not one which I could press for presentation as a matter of right, but fortunately, by a pious fraud, I succeeded in reading it without interruption, so that it will appear word for word in the Record, and it is referred to the noble army of martyrs known as the committee on woman suffrage."

At a delightful breakfast given by Sorosis at Delmonico's on its twenty-third birthday, Miss Anthony was the guest of honor, seated at the right of the president, Mrs. Ella Dietz Clymer, and in her short address recalled the fact that she had known Mrs. Clymer and their incoming president, Dr. Jennie de la M. Lozier, when they were no taller than the table.

She gave a Sunday afternoon reception at the Riggs to Mrs. Annie Besant, of London, and in his letter regretting that absence from the city would prevent his attendance, ex-Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch said: "I am sorry I can not see you often. I have been for many years a 'looker on' and I appreciate the work which you have done for the benefit of the race. You have not labored in vain and you have the satisfaction of knowing that your good work will follow you." She accepted a cordial invitation to dine at his home and received assurance of his thorough belief in suffrage for women.



Easter Sunday she went to Philadelphia to witness the christening, or consecration, of the Foster-Avery baby, by Rev. Anna Shaw, who had married the father and mother. On Monday Mrs. Avery gave a reception for her in the parlors of the New Century Club, and on the following day she addressed the 1,600 girls of the Normal School.

She made this entry in her diary May 1: "Left Washington and the dear old Riggs House today. For twelve winters this has been my home, where I have had every comfort it was possible for Mr. and Mrs. Spofford to give. For as many winters it has been the National Association's headquarters, but now both will have to find a new place, for the hotel is to pass under another management." Miss Anthony reached home the next day, and by the 12th was on hand for the State convention at Warren, O., the guest as usual of Mr. and Mrs. Upton at the home of Hon. Ezra B. Taylor. From here she went to Painesville, where she was entertained at the handsome residence of General J. S. and Mrs. Frances M. Casement, whose hospitality she had enjoyed for many years whenever her journeyings took her to that city.

After a few days at home Miss Anthony started for Meriden, to attend the Connecticut convention on May 22, and when this was over went home with Mrs. Hooker. A letter to the Woman's Tribune said:

I wish I could tell you of my journeyings. I had a pleasant visit with Mrs. Hooker at her charming home in Hartford. En route from Boston I spent a few days with Hon. and Mrs. William Whiting in their beautiful home at Holyoke. One day was devoted to a luncheon party of a hundred or more in their picturesque log cabin three miles down the river, through the lovely Connecticut valley. This cabin, with fireplace worthy the grandest old back-log and fore-stick, polished floors, and lunch served by a Springfield caterer, is not like those of our dear old grandmothers. After the tables were cleared, Mrs. Whiting called on me for a talk. Another day we visited Mount Holyoke Seminary, going through the various buildings and, in the great old kitchen, looking upon neat plateaus of light, sweet-smelling bread, biscuits and cake, all made by the girls during the morning. Each must do a certain amount of work, and all is done in memory of the sainted Mary Lyon, whose monument stands under the grand old trees which surround the buildings.

Then on Sunday I went to Cheshire, to dine with my mother's dear cousin, ninety-five years of age, bright and cheerful in her on-look. Next I hied me to the house of my Grandfather Anthony, who lived in it from the day of his marriage in 1792, to his death at the age of ninety-six.... From here I went to Saratoga and took a drink from the old Congress Spring, and Wednesday reached home. The paper tells you what happened on Thursday evening, and now I am enjoying to the fullest all the good-will of my dear friends.

"What happened" was that Miss Anthony went to housekeeping! After the mother's death, Miss Mary rented the lower part of the house, which now belonged to her, reserved the upper rooms for herself and sister, and took her meals with her tenants. This plan was followed for a number of years. Now, however, Miss Anthony had passed one year beyond the threescore and ten which are supposed to mark the limit of activity if not of life, and her friends urged that she should give up her long journeys from one end of the continent to the other, her hard State campaigns, her constant lectures and conventions. She felt as vigorous as ever but had long wished for the comforts and conveniences of her own home, and she concluded that perhaps her friends were right and she should settle down in one place and direct the work, rather than try to do so much of it herself. She thought this might be safely done now, as so many new and efficient workers had been developed and the cause had acquired a standing which made its advocacy an easy task compared to what it had been in the past, when only a few women had the courage and strength to take the blows and bear the contumely. So Miss Mary took possession of the house; masons, carpenters, painters and paper-hangers were put to work, and by June all was in in beautiful readiness.

The friends in various parts of the country were deeply interested in the new move. Letters of approval came from all directions, among them this from Mrs. Stanton in England: "I rejoice that you are going to housekeeping. The mistake of my life was selling Tenafly. My advice to you, Susan, is to keep some spot you can call your own; where you can live and die in peace and be cremated in your own oven if you desire."

When Miss Anthony returned from her eastern trip on June 11, a pleasant surprise awaited her. The Political Equality Club had taken part in the housekeeping program. Handsome rugs had been laid on the floor, lace curtains hung at the windows, easy chairs placed in the rooms, a large desk in Miss Mary's study, a fine oak table in the dining-room, all the gift of the club. Mrs. Avery had sent a big, roomy desk and Mrs. Sewall an office chair for Miss Anthony's study; Miss Shaw and Lucy Anthony, a set of china; Mr. Avery, the needed cutlery; the brother Daniel R., a great box of sheeting, spreads, bolts of muslin, table linen and towels, enough to last a lifetime. From other friends came pictures, silver and bric-a-brac without limit. The events of the evening after Miss Anthony arrived at home are thus described by the Rochester Herald:

The truth of the matter is that for a long time the Woman's Political Club has been in love with Miss Anthony, a feeling which she has not been slow to reciprocate. The affair culminated last evening, the nuptial ceremony being a housewarming tendered by the club. The reception was a complete success, and the rooms were crowded for several hours, the number of visitors being estimated at no less than 300. The house was brilliantly lighted and everywhere was a profusion of cut flowers and potted ferns. At the entrance the visitors were greeted by Mrs. Greenleaf, president of the club, who presented them to Miss Anthony. In greeting each new-comer the hostess displayed her remarkable power of memory and brilliance as a conversationalist, having a reminiscent word for every one. In the parlor before the fireplace stood the old spinning-wheel which in 1817 had been a wedding gift to her mother. It was decked with marguerites and received no small degree of attention....

A short time after the housewarming, her cousin, Charles Dickinson, of Chicago, stopped over night and, after he had gone, Miss Anthony found this note: "It makes me blush for the wealthy people of the country, that they forget their duty to others. Here art thou, with thy moderate income, spending all of it for humanity's cause, thinking, speaking, doing a work that will last forever. Please take rest enough for good health to be with thee, and to make this easier I enclose a check for $300. Call it a loan without interest, already repaid by the good done to our fellow-beings."

In June she made a long-promised visit to her friend Henrietta M. Banker at her home in the Adirondacks, which she thus describes:

Rev. Anna Shaw and I have had a lovely week. Almost every day we drove out among the mountains; one day to the Ausable lakes, through beautiful woods, up ravines a thousand feet; another to Professor Davidson's summer school, high up on the mountainside. But the day of days was when we drove to the farm-home of old Captain John Brown at North Elba. We found a broad plateau, surrounded with mountain peaks on every side. We ate our dinner in the same dining-room in which the old hero and his family partook of their scanty fare in the days when he devoted his energies to teaching the colored men, who accepted Gerrit Smith's generous offer of a bit of real estate, which should entitle the possessor to a right to vote. Of all who settled on those lands, called the "John Brown opening," only one grayheaded negro still lives, though many of their old houses and barns yet stand, crumbling away on their deserted farms.

In front of the house is a small yard and occupying one-half of it is a grand old boulder with steps leading to the top, where one sees chiseled in large letters, "John Brown, December 2, 1859." At the foot is the grave of the martyr, marked by an old granite headstone which once stood at his grandfather's grave, and on it are inscribed the names of three generations of John Browns. The vandals visiting that sacred spot chipped off bits of the granite until it became necessary to make a cover and padlock it down, so that the farmer unlocks the cap and lifts it off for visitors now. Thus is commemorated that fatal day which marks the only hanging for treason against the United States Government. John Brown was crucified for doing what he believed God commanded him to do, "to break the yoke and let the oppressed go free," precisely as were the saints of old for following what they believed to be God's commands. The barbarism of our government was by so much the greater as our light and knowledge are greater than those of two thousand years ago....

July 25 is to be Suffrage Day at Chautauqua, and dear Mrs. Wallace and Anna Shaw are to preach the gospel of equal rights. I do hope Bishop Vincent will be present and there learn from those two, who are surely "God's women," the law of love to thy neighbor—woman, as to thyself—man. I am hoping the gate receipts on that day will be greater than those of any other during the summer. Wouldn't that tell the story of the interest in this question?

In June she accepted the urgent invitation of the Ignorance Club to honor them by being their guest at their annual frolic on Manitou beach and respond to a toast which should allow her to say anything she liked. Three most enjoyable weeks were spent at home and during this time Miss Anthony addressed the W. C. T. U. She expressed herself in no uncertain tones as to the futility of third parties, declaring that the Prohibition party already had taken some of the best temperance men out of Congress, and made a speech so forcible that it lifted the bonnets of some of the timid sisters. The evening paper reported:

... Rev. C. B. Gardner said Miss Anthony had given the company some excellent political advice, but he inclined to the belief that the temperance reform could be brought about without woman suffrage. "The women would bring the men around in time; they could accomplish much by their moral influence; in this they resembled ministers." Miss Anthony wished to know if it would not be a good thing then, to disfranchise the ministers and let them depend entirely on their moral influence. She explained that in what she had said about prayer she meant prayer by action. She would not have it understood that she did not believe in prayer; she thought, however, that an emotion never could be equal to an action.

She went to Chautauqua July 25, when, for the first time in its history, woman suffrage was presented. Zerelda G. Wallace delivered a grand address and Rev. Anna Shaw gave "The Fate of Republics." Miss Anthony followed in a short speech, and the Jamestown Sunday News said: "Woman's Day was fully justified by the reception given to that intrepid Arnold Winkelreid of women." Frances Willard wrote a few days later from the assembly grounds: "Dearest Susan, I could sing hallelujah over you and our Anna Shaw and 'Deborah' Wallace! It was the best and biggest day Chautauqua ever saw. Do urge your suffragists to go in for this on next year's program."

Miss Anthony attended the golden wedding of John and Isabella Beecher Hooker, in Hartford, August 5; "a most beautiful occasion," she writes in her diary, "but to the surprise of all there was no speaking." An affair without speeches was to her what a feast without wine would have been to the ancients. On the 15th suffrage had a great day at Lily Dale, the famous Spiritualist camp meeting grounds, Miss Shaw and herself making the principal addresses. Miss Anthony thus speaks of the meeting in a letter:

... To Brother Buckley's assertion, made a short time before, that women should not be allowed to vote because the majority of Spiritualists, Christian Scientists and all false religions were women, Miss Shaw replied that there was a larger ratio of men in the audience before her than she had seen in any Methodist or temperance camp meeting or Chautauqua assembly this summer. When Mr. Buckley charged that women were too numerous in the false religions to vote, she would remind him that there were three women to one man in the Methodist church also; and she was quite willing to match the vast majorities of women in the various religions, false and true, with the vast majorities of men at the horse races, variety theaters, police stations, jails and penitentiaries throughout the country. She brought the house down with, "Too much religion unfits women to vote! Too much vice and crime qualifies men to vote!"

People came from far and near. Fully 3,000 were assembled in that beautiful amphitheater decorated with the yellow and the red, white and blue.... There hanging by itself was our national suffrage flag, ten by fourteen feet, with its regulation red and white stripes, and in the center of its blue corner just one great golden star, Wyoming, blazing out all alone. Every cottage in the camp was festooned with yellow, and when at night the Chinese lanterns on the piazzas were lighted, Lily Dale was as gorgeous as any Fourth of July, all in honor of Woman's Day and her coming freedom and equality.

Our hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Skidmore, are the center of things at Lily Dale, and right royal are they in their hospitality as well as their love of liberty for all. This camp has been in existence twelve summers, there has been no police force, and no disturbance ever has occurred. Every one is left to his own sense of propriety of behavior and every one behaves properly.

Miss Anthony still intended, however, to remain at home and in the intervals when she was not coaxed away no bride ever enjoyed more fully her first experiment at housekeeping. All the forty years of travelling up and down the face of the earth had not eradicated from her nature the domestic tastes, and she loved every nook and corner of the old home made new, going from room to room, putting the finishing touches here and there, and fairly revelling in the sense of possession. Hospitality was her strongest instinct, and during all these years she had accepted so much from her friends in Rochester and elsewhere without being able to return it, that now she wanted to entertain everybody and all at once. The diary speaks often of ten and twelve at the table for dinner or tea, and Miss Mary, who constituted the committee of ways and means, was quite overwhelmed with the new regime. The story in the journal runs like this:

Our dear old friends, Sarah Willis and Mary Hallowell, shared our first Sunday dinner with us.... Our old Abolition friends, Giles B. and Catharine F. Stebbins and three or four others took tea with us tonight.... My old friend Adeline Thomson has come to stay several weeks with us. How nice to have my own home to entertain my friends.... Anna Shaw and niece Lucy came today and we had five others to dinner. A very pleasant thing to be able to ask people to stop and dine.... Brother D. R., sister Anna and niece Maud came today for a week. It is so good to receive them in our own home. D. R. enjoys the fire on the hearth.... Had Maria Porter, Mr. and Mrs. Greenleaf and eleven altogether to tea this evening. How I do enjoy it!... Who came this day? O, yes, Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley, of Chicago, her son and her mother, Mrs. Susan Look Avery, of Louisville, Ky. It makes me so happy to return some of the courtesies I have had in their beautiful home.... Just before noon Mrs. Greenleaf popped into the woodshed with a great sixteen-quart pail full of pound balls of the most delicious butter, and we made her stay to dinner. The girl was washing and I got the dinner alone: broiled steak, potatoes, sweet corn, tomatoes and peach pudding, with a cup of tea. All said it was good and I enjoyed it hugely. How I love to receive in my own home and at my own table!

She went to Warsaw September 17 to help the Wyoming county women hold their convention. The 23d had been set apart as Woman's Day at the Western New York Fair, held at the Rochester driving park. Mrs. Greenleaf presided; Miss Anthony and Rev. Anna Shaw were the speakers. The former spoke briefly, insisting with her usual generosity that the honors of the occasion should belong to Miss Shaw.[72] In the course of her few remarks she said: "We who represent the suffrage movement ask not that women be like men, but that they may be greater women by having their opinions respected at the ballot-box. Only men's opinions have prevailed in this government since it was founded. Enfranchisement says to every man outside of the State prisons, the insane and idiot asylums: 'Your judgment is sound; your opinions are worthy of being crystallized in the laws of the land.' Disfranchisement says to all women: 'Your judgment is not sound; your opinions are not worthy of being counted,' Man is the superior, woman the subject, under the present condition of political affairs, and until this great wrong is righted, ignorant men and small boys will continue to look with disdain on the opinion of women."

From the time that Mrs. Stanton had decided to return to America for the remainder of her days, Miss Anthony had hoped they might have a home together and finish their life-work of history and reminiscence. When she learned that her friend, with a widowed daughter and a bachelor son, contemplated taking a house in New York, she was greatly distressed, as she felt that this would be the end of all her plans. She wrote her immediately:

We have just returned from the Unitarian church where we listened to Mr. Gannett's rare dissertation on the religion of Lowell; but all the time there was an inner wail in my soul, that by your fastening yourself in New York City I couldn't help you carry out the dream of my life—which is that you should take all of your speeches and articles, carefully dissect them, and put your best utterances on each point into one essay or lecture; first deliver them in the Unitarian church on Sunday afternoon, and then publish in a nice volume, just as Phillips culled out his best. Your Reminiscences give only light and incidental bits of your life—all good but not the greatest of yourself. This is the first time since 1850 that I have anchored myself to any particular spot, and in doing it my constant thought was that you would come here, where are the documents necessary to our work, and stay for as long, at least, as we must be together to put your writings into systematic shape to go down to posterity. I have no writings to go down, so my ambition is not for myself, but it is for one by the side of whom I have wrought these forty years, and to get whose speeches before audiences and committees has been the delight of my life.

Well, I hope you will do and be as seemeth best unto yourself, still I can not help sending you this inner groan of my soul, lest you are not going to make it possible that the thing shall be done first which seems most important to me. Then, too, I have never ceased to hope that we would finish the History of Woman Suffrage, at least to the end of the life of the dear old National.

Mrs. Stanton's children would not consent to this plan, but she came to Rochester for a month's visit in September. It was desired by many friends that to the very satisfactory busts of Miss Anthony and Lucretia Mott, which had been made by Adelaide Johnson, should be added one of Mrs. Stanton, and all be placed in the Woman's Building at the World's Fair. To accomplish this Miss Anthony rented a large room in the adjoining house for a studio and invited the sculptor to her home for a number of weeks, until the sittings were finished.

During Mrs. Stanton's visit Miss Anthony entertained the Political Equality Club and a large company of guests, the evening being devoted to the subject of the admission of women to Rochester University. A number of the faculty, Congressmen Greenleaf and Baker, several ministers, the principal of the free academy—about 200 altogether were present and the discussion was very animated. Practically all of them believed in opening the doors and a letter of approval was read from David J. Hill, president of the university. The trustees were represented by Dr. E. M. Moore, who was in favor of admitting women but declared that it would be impossible unless an additional fund of $200,000 was provided beforehand. Miss Anthony insisted that the girls should first be admitted and then, when a necessity for more money was apparent, it would be much easier to raise it. In the course of his remarks Dr. Moore said it was more important to educate boys than girls because they were the breadwinners.

The Utica Sunday paper came out a few days later with a half-page cartoon representing the university campus; on the outside of the fence were Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton heading a long procession of girls, books in hand; standing guard over the fence, labeled "prejudice and old fogyism," was Dr. Moore pointing proudly to the "breadwinners," who consisted of two confused and struggling masses, one engaged in a "cane rush" and the other in a fight over a football. This little incident merely proved the oft-repeated assertion that these two women never were three days together without stirring up a controversy, in which the opposing forces invariably were worsted and public sentiment was moved up a notch in the direction of larger liberty for woman.

Together they visited the palatial home, at Auburn, of Eliza Wright Osborne, daughter of Martha C. Wright, where they were joined by Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of Gerrit Smith; and there were delightful hours of reminiscence and chat of mutual friends, past and present. The diary shows that Miss Anthony purchased a full set of books to join the Emerson and Browning classes this year, but there is no record of attendance save at one meeting. One entry says: "Dancing to the dentist's these days." Another tells of forgetting to go to a luncheon after the invitation had been accepted; and still another of inviting a number of friends to tea and forgetting all about it.

In November she went again to Auburn to the State convention, remaining four days. The Daily Advertiser said: "Miss Susan B. Anthony, the grand old woman of the equal rights cause, was then introduced and spoke at length upon the objects for which she had labored so faithfully all her life. Except for her gray hair and a few wrinkles, no one would suppose the speaker to be in her seventy-second year. The full, firm voice, the active manner and clear logic, all belonged to a young woman." At the close of the convention Mrs. Osborne gave a reception in her honor, attended by nearly one hundred ladies.

By invitation of the Unitarian minister, Rev. W. C. Gannett, Miss Anthony participated with himself and Rabbi Max Lansberg in Thanksgiving services at the Unitarian church. The topic was "The Unrest of the Times a Cause for Thankfulness," as indicated by "The Woman, the Social and the Religious Movements." Miss Anthony responded to the first in a concise address, considered under twelve heads and not occupying more than that number of minutes in delivery, beginning with Ralph Waldo Emerson's declaration, "A wholesome discontent is the first step toward progress," and giving a resume of women's advancement during the past forty years, due chiefly to dissatisfaction with their lot.

It had not been an easy matter for Miss Anthony to have even this fragment of a year at home. From many places she had received letters begging her to come to the assistance of societies and conventions, and she was just as anxious to go as they were to have her. The most urgent of these appeals came from Mrs. Johns, of Kansas, where a constitutional convention was threatened and the women wanted a suffrage amendment. When Miss Anthony did not go to the spring convention, Mrs. Johns wrote, April 18: "I can never tell you how I missed you, and the people—they seemed to think they must have you. Letter after letter came asking, 'Is there no way by which we can get Miss Anthony?'" When she declined to go to the fall convention, Mrs. Johns wrote, November 26: "I declare it seemed as if I did not know how to go on without you, and our women felt just as I did. We have had you with us so often that we depended on your presence more than we knew." In another long letter she said:

I hope the national association will not leave Kansas to work out her own salvation. Surely you, to whom we owe municipal suffrage, are not going to fail to come to us at this awful juncture! Dear Aunt Susan, you won't get any wounds here. I will take charge of the office and make the routes, which I am able to do well; I will speak; I will organize; I will do anything you think best, and there will be nobody inquiring what you do with funds, and there will be no disgraceful charges and counter-charges, unless I am greatly mistaken in Kansas women and in myself. We all love you here and we want the cause to succeed more than we want personal aggrandizement.

Mrs. Johns persuaded Mrs. Avery to join in her plea and finally Miss Anthony could hold out no longer, but December 11 wrote to the latter: "I have been fully resolved all along not to go to Kansas during this first campaign, because I felt that my threescore and ten and two years added ought to excuse me from the fearful exposure; still, since you and dear Laura are left so deserted and will be so heartbroken if I stick to my resolve, I will say yes, tuck on my coat and mittens and start. But alas! how soon must that be? I am thoroughly in the dark as to when and where I shall be wanted to begin, but I will do my level best."



The closing days of 1891 were devoted to the voluminous correspondence which preceded every national convention. The large number of letters on file from prominent senators and representatives show that Miss Anthony was keeping an eye on the committees and pulling the wires to have known friends placed on those which would report on woman suffrage. "I am in full sympathy with you upon the question of woman's enfranchisement," wrote Senator Dolph, of Oregon, "and also with your effort to secure a chairman of the committee who favors the movement and is able to present it with intelligence and ability." Speaker Reed closed his letter by saying, "When the eleventh hour comes, we all shall flock in, clamorous for pennies." Words of encouragement were received from many others, and Senator and ex-Governor Francis E. Warren, of Wyoming, wrote: "I am always in harness for woman suffrage wherever I may be. My spoken and written testimony for a score of years has been in its praise and of its perfect working and results in Wyoming."

FOOTNOTES:

[66] While here Miss Anthony received a letter from Rev. N. M. Mann, formerly pastor of the Unitarian church in Rochester but now residing in Omaha, which said: "Are you not coming to the metropolis of the State, when some of us here are just perishing for the sight of your face? I speak for myself and Mrs. Mann firstly, though judging from the number of parlors I go into where your picture is the first thing one sees, I fancy there are a good many others who would be hardly less glad than we to greet you. Come and spend a Sunday, and hear a good old sermon, and lecture in my church."

[67] As women had been voting in the Territory over twenty years and this answer was sent by a legislature composed entirely of men, it would seem to show that the evils predicted of woman suffrage were wholly disproved by actual experience.

[68] Mr. Taylor wrote Miss Anthony: "The delay, which seemed long to you, was absolutely necessary and I am sure you will understand that I have been faithful to the cause. My daughter Harriet, the most wonderful of all women to me, is largely influential in the result...."

[69] DEAR SUSAN ANTHONY: We are to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the First National Woman's Rights Convention in this State and want to make the meeting as useful to the cause as we can. You ought to be here. Will you come? The sheaves gathered in these forty years are to be presented, and of course there will be some reminiscences of pioneer times. We shall be glad to announce you as one of the speakers. I hope you are a little rested since the hard campaign in Dakota. Yours truly,

LUCY STONE.

[70] In her letter describing the council Mrs. Margaret Bottome wrote of Miss Anthony: "I have met, since I have been in Washington, a woman whom I have heard of since I can remember anything. We are not of the same faith—she has devoted her life to what during the past I have shrunk from—and I met her here for the first time; but I shall carry with me always the impression of her spirit upon my own, of the Christ-life, the Christ-spirit. I got it before she had said five words to me, and I could have sat down at her feet and drank in the spirit of Jesus Christ that is in her, though she does not see him just as I do."

[71] After the convention Miss Balgarnie wrote: "It has been one of the most genuine pleasures of my life to meet you, my dear Miss Anthony. I felt 'strength go out of you,' as it were, directly you took my hand."

[72] Miss Anthony was equally generous in regard to speakers of less renown. She wrote to Mrs. Blake during this year: "I felt so happy to give half of my hour at Syracuse to Mrs. C., so that splendid audience might see and hear her. And I am always glad to surrender my time to any unknown speakers whom we find promising; but first they ought to have tried their powers at their home meetings and in rural districts."



CHAPTER XL.

IGNORED BY THE PARTIES—APPOINTED TO OFFICE.

1892.

On her way to the convention of 1892, Miss Anthony stopped in New York in response to an urgent letter from Mrs. Stanton, now comfortably ensconced in a pleasant flat overlooking Central Park, saying that unless she came and took her bodily to Washington she should not be able to go. "All the influences about me urge to rest rather than action," she wrote—exactly what Miss Anthony had feared. She was now in her seventy-seventh year and naturally her children desired that she should give up public work; but Miss Anthony knew that inaction meant rust and decay and, as her fellow-worker was in the prime of mental vigor, she was determined that the world should continue to profit by it. Her address this year was entitled "The Solitude of Self," considered by many one of her finest papers.

Mrs. Stanton received a great ovation at the opening session, January 16, but this proved to be her last appearance at a national convention. For more than forty years she had presided with a grace and dignity which never had been surpassed, and now she begged that the scepter, or more properly speaking the gavel, might be transferred to Miss Anthony, whose experience had been quite as extended as her own. The delegates yielded to her wishes and Miss Anthony was elected national president. The office of chairman of the executive committee was abolished; Mrs. Stanton and Lucy Stone were made honorary presidents, and Rev. Anna H. Shaw vice-president-at-large.

Miss Anthony presided over the ten sessions of the convention and they required a firm hand, for the discussions were spirited, as the questions considered were important. Among them were the work to be done at the World's Fair; the opening of the fair on Sunday; the proposition to hold every alternate convention in some other city than Washington; the plan to carry suffrage work into the southern States; the advisability of making another campaign in Kansas; and other matters on which there was a wide difference of opinion.

John B. Allen, of Washington, had introduced in the Senate, and Halbert S. Greenleaf in the House, a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution extending the right to women to vote at all federal elections. The House Judiciary Committee, January 18, granted a hearing to such speakers as should be selected by the national convention then in session. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton, Lucy Stone and Mrs. Hooker were chosen. This was the first Democratic committee before whom an appeal had been made; they listened courteously, but brought in no report on the question.

The Senate committee granted a hearing January 20, and three-minute addresses were made by eighteen women representing as many States. Before they left the room, Senator Hoar moved that the committee make a favorable report and the motion was seconded by Senator Warren, Senator Blair also voting in favor. Senators Vance, of North Carolina, and George, of Mississippi, voted in the negative. Senators Quay and Carlisle were absent.

During the convention the district suffrage society gave a reception in the parlors of the Wimodaughsis club house. Later, Mrs. Noble, wife of the Secretary of the Interior, issued cards for a reception in honor of Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and Lucy Stone. It was attended by members of the Cabinet, Senate, House, diplomatic corps and many others prominent in official and social life.

As Miss Anthony had no longer her comfortable quarters at the Riggs House free of all expense, she did not linger in Washington, but went to Philadelphia for a week with the friends there and reached home February 6. "I send congratulations, I always wanted you to be president," wrote Mrs. Johns. "Now can't you come to our Kansas City Inter-State Convention? We do need you so and there wouldn't be standing room if you were there." And later: "Do any of my wails reach you? The Kansas City people plead for you to come if only to be looked at. Is there any hope?" Miss Anthony was perfectly willing to make a winter campaign in Kansas, but her friends insisted that there were plenty of younger women to do this work and she should wait till spring. So Anna Shaw, Mary Seymour Howell and Florence Balgarnie, of England, went to the assistance of the women there, and Rachel Foster Avery gave $1,000 to this canvass.

Every day at home was precious to Miss Anthony. Sometimes on Sunday afternoon she went to Mount Hope, on whose sloping hillsides rest the beloved dead of her own family and many of the friends of early days;[73] or she walked down to the long bridge which spans the picturesque Genesee river and commands a fine view of the beautiful Lower Falls. Occasionally a friend called with a carriage and they took the charming seven-mile drive to the shore of Lake Ontario. Sunday mornings she listened to Mr. Gannett's philosophical sermons; and through the week there were quiet little teas with old friends whom she had known since girlhood, but had seen far too seldom in all the busy years. Instead of forever giving lectures she was able to hear them from others; and she could indulge to the fullest, on the big new desk, her love of letter-writing, while the immense work of the national association was always pressing. She had a number of applications for articles from various magazines and newspapers, but her invariable reply was, "I have no literary ability; ask Mrs. Stanton;" and no argument could convince her that she could write well if she would give the time to it.

She addressed the New York Legislature in April in reference to having women sit as delegates in the approaching Constitutional Convention. In response to a request from the Rochester Union and Advertiser, she wrote an earnest letter advocating the opening of the World's Fair on Sunday, and giving many strong reasons in favor. On April 22, she joined Miss Shaw, who was lecturing at Bradford, Penn., and Sunday afternoon addressed an audience which packed the opera house. The next day she organized a suffrage club of seventy members among the influential women of that city. After leaving there Rev. Anna Shaw, herself an ordained Protestant Methodist minister, wrote her that she had been shut out of several churches because she had addressed an audience at the Lily Dale Spiritualist camp meeting. She said: "I told them that I would speak to 5,000 people on woman suffrage anywhere this or the other side of Hades if they could be got together."

The first week in May, at the urgent invitation of her good friends, Smith G. and Emily B. Ketcham, of Grand Rapids, Miss Anthony attended their silver wedding. From this pleasant affair she went to the Michigan Suffrage Convention at Battle Creek, where she visited an old schoolmate, Mrs. Sarah Hyatt Nichols. She reached Chicago in time for the biennial meeting of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs. Special trains were run from New York and Boston, Central Music Hall was crowded and numerous elegant receptions were given for the 300 delegates from all parts of the country. Many eminent women sat upon the platform, among them the president of the federation, Mrs. Charlotte Emerson Brown, Frances E. Willard, Susan B. Anthony, Julia Ward Howe, May Wright Sewall, Jenny June Croly and Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson, all of whom were heard at different times during the convention. Miss Anthony was the guest of Lydia Avery Coonley, whose mother wrote to Mary Anthony:

I have been intending for several days to tell you that however your sister may have been regarded forty years ago, she is today the most popular woman in these United States. The federation closed, as you probably know, on Friday night. During the meetings she was several times asked to come forward on the platform, which she did to the manifest gratification of the people, saying something each time which "brought down the house." On the last night a note was sent to the president asking that "Susan B.," Julia Ward Howe and Ednah D. Cheney would please step forward. They came, but only your sister spoke and what she said was vociferously cheered over and over again.

The business committee of the National Council—Miss Willard, Mrs. Sewall, Mrs. Foster Avery, Miss Anthony and others—met in Chicago the same week, the principal subject of consideration being the Woman's Congress to be held the next year during the World's Fair. While in the city Miss Anthony gave a number of sittings to Lorado Taft, the sculptor. Miss Willard had asked that he might make the bust to be placed in the gallery of famous women at the World's Fair, she herself to be responsible for all expenses. "Come and spend a week with me in my home," she wrote, "while he prepares a model of that statesmanlike head, the greatest of them all." Desirous of pleasing her, Miss Anthony agreed, but at once many of the strong-minded protested that the bust must be made by a woman.

A number of amusing letters were exchanged. From Miss Willard: "Mr. Taft is the most progressive believer in woman and admirer of you, dear Susan, that I know. He is in full sympathy with all of our ideas. I am sure that as a friend of mine, appreciated by me as highly as you are by any woman living, you will not place me in the position of declining to have this work done. Please do not take counsel of women who are so prejudiced that, as I once heard said, they would not allow a male grasshopper to chirp on their lawn; but out of your own great heart, refuse to set an example to such folly."

Mr. Taft himself wrote Miss Anthony: "I can put myself in your place sufficiently to appreciate in part the objections which you or your friends may feel toward having the work done by a man. My only regret is that I am not to be allowed to pay this tribute to one whom I was early taught to honor and revere.... Come to think of it, I believe I am provoked after all. Sex is but an accident, and it seems to me that it has no more to do with art than has the artist's complexion or the political party he votes with." Again from Miss Willard: "Do you not see, my friend and comrade, that having engaged a noble and large-minded young man, who believes as we do, to make that bust, engaged him in good faith and announced it to the public, it is a 'little rough on me,' as the boys say, for my dear sister to wish me to break my contract? We can not have too many busts of you, so let Miss Johnson go on and make hers, and let me have mine, and let those other women make theirs, and we will yet have one of them in the House of Representatives at Washington, the other in the Senate, the third in the White House!... My dear mother and Anna wish to be remembered to you, knowing that you are one of our best and most trusted friends, only I must say that you are a naughty woman in this matter of the 'statoot.'" Miss Anthony's common sense finally induced her to waive objections and she gave Mr. Taft as many sittings as he desired. When the work was finished Miss Willard wrote: "My beloved Susan, your statue is perfect. Lady Henry and I think that one man has seen your great, benignant soul and shown it in permanent material."

The 25th of May Miss Anthony attended a meeting of the Ohio association at Salem, where had been held in April, 1850, the second woman's rights convention in all history. There was present one of the pioneers who had called that convention, Emily, wife of Marius Robinson, editor of the Anti-Slavery Bugle. Miss Anthony read her paper for her, as she was over eighty years old, and added her own strong comments, of which the report of the secretary said: "Her burning words can never be forgotten, and many a soul must have responded to her call for workers to carry to glorious completion what was begun in such difficulty."

There was some talk at this time of holding a Southern Woman's Council and Miss Anthony wrote to the Arkansas Woman's Chronicle:

The New England States hold an annual suffrage convention and have done so for nearly thirty years, and I do not see any valid reason why the States of any section may not have a society or a convention. Larger numbers from the six New England States can meet and help each other in Boston, than could possibly go to Washington to get the soul-refreshing which comes through the gathering together of kindred spirits from the entire nation.

As I shall be glad to see the women of the South, of all possible aims and ends, meet in council, so I should rejoice to see them hold a southern States' suffrage convention. I say this because I want you to know that my heartiest sympathy goes with you in your effort to call together the women of your section of the Union; and I shall rejoice to see the women of the far-off northwestern States doing the same thing. Women should have their local societies and meetings, their county, State and section conventions, and then, for our great national gathering, each State should send its representatives to Washington, there to confer together and go before the committees of Congress to urge our claims. What a power women would be if all could but see eye to eye in their struggle for freedom!

She remained at home long enough to prepare the memorials to the national political conventions, and June 4 found her at Minneapolis ready for the Republican gathering. She was entertained by Mr. and Mrs. T. B. Walker, and found Mrs. J. Ellen Foster also a guest in that hospitable home. The memorial presented by the National-American W. S. A. contained the same unanswerable arguments for the enfranchisement of women which had been made for so many years, and asked for the following plank: "As a voice in the laws and the rulers under which we live is the inalienable right of every citizen of a republic, we pledge ourselves, when again in power, to place the ballot in the hand of every woman of legal age, as the only weapon with which she can protect her person and property and defend herself against all aggressive legislation."

Miss Anthony was notified that she could have a hearing before the platform committee on the evening of June 8. She was promptly on hand and was kept standing in the hall outside of the committee room until after 9 o'clock. Finally she was so tired she sent for one of the committee to ask how much longer she would have to wait. She learned that its chairman, J. B. Foraker, of Ohio, refused to preside or call the committee to order to hear any argument on woman suffrage. Senator Jones, of Nevada, then hunted him up and asked if he might preside in his place, and permission being given she was invited into the room. She spoke for thirty minutes as only a woman could speak who had suffered the persecution of an Abolitionist before the Republican party was born, who had been loyal to that party throughout all the dark days of the Civil War, who had not once repudiated its principles in all the years which had since elapsed. She pleaded that now she and the women she represented might have its support and recognition in their right to representation at the ballot-box. This committee was composed of twoscore of the most prominent men in the Republican party and, at the close of Miss Anthony's address, every one in the room arose and many crowded about her, giving her the most earnest assurance of their belief in the justice of her cause, but telling her frankly that they could not put a woman suffrage plank in their platform as the party was not able to carry the load! The plank eventually adopted read as follows:

We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections, and that such ballot shall be counted as cast; that such laws shall be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or poor, native or foreign, white or black, this sovereign right guaranteed by the Constitution. The free and honest popular ballot, the just and equal representation of all the people, as well as their just and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation of our republican institutions, and the party will never relax its efforts until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be guaranteed and protected in every State.

This was identical with the one adopted in 1888, at which time a number of women had telegraphed the chairman asking if the convention intended it to apply to women, and he had answered that he did not understand it to have any such intention. Therefore the women who went to the Republican convention of 1892 asking for bread, received instead "the water in which the eggs had been boiled."

There were present at this convention two regularly appointed women delegates from Wyoming, and the difference in the attention bestowed upon them and upon those who came to press the claims of the great class of the disfranchised, ought to have been an object lesson to all who assert that women will lose the respect of men when they enter politics. Not a newspaper in the country had a slur to cast on these women delegates. The Boston Globe made this pertinent comment: "An elective queen in this country is no more out of place than one seated by hereditary consent abroad. It is no rash prediction to assert that the child is now born who will see a woman in the presidential chair. Thomas Jefferson will not be fully vindicated until this government rests upon the consent of all the governed."

After just five days at home Miss Anthony left for Chicago to attend the Democratic National Convention, June 21, which was requested to adopt the following plank: "Whether we view the suffrage as a privilege or as a natural right, it belongs equally to every citizen of good character and legal age under government; hence women as well as men should enjoy the dignity and protection of the ballot in their own hands."

Miss Anthony and Isabella Beecher Hooker took rooms at the Palmer House and the latter made arrangements for the hearing before the resolution committee, which was assembled in one of the parlors, Henry Watterson, of Louisville, chairman. The ladies made their speeches, were courteously heard, politely bowed out, and the platform was as densely silent on the question of woman suffrage as it had been during its whole history. Mrs. Hooker remained alone in the convention until 2 o'clock in the morning, hoping to get a chance to address that body. She had not been fooled as many times as Miss Anthony, who returned to the hotel and went to bed.

The Union Signal, Frances E. Willard, editor, spoke thus of the occasion:

That heroic figure, Susan B. Anthony, sure to stand out in history as plainly as any of our presidents, has given added significance to the two great political conventions of the year. Neither party has recognized her plea, but both have innumerable adherents who openly declare themselves in favor of her principles. She states that this year she felt for the first time that she had a pivot on which to hang her quadrennial plea, and that pivot was Wyoming, the men of that equal-minded State in both conventions holding up her hands. Miss Anthony's pathetic eyes reveal that she has attained to loneliness—the guerdon of great spirits who struggle from any direction toward the mountain tops of human liberty. But on the heights such souls meet God, and one day all women shall call her blessed.

The National Prohibition Convention at Cincinnati, June 30, was not visited by Miss Anthony, as she felt that the women of this party needed no assistance in looking after the interests of suffrage. The third plank in the platform there adopted read: "No citizen should be denied the right to vote on account of sex."

From Chicago she went directly to Kansas to look after the fences in that State. Mrs. Johns and Anna Shaw joined her and they spoke before the Chautauqua Assembly at Ottawa, June 27, going thence to Topeka, as Miss Anthony expressed it, "to watch the State Republican Convention." They received a hearty greeting and she was invited to address the convention June 30. The Capital said: "There were loud calls for Susan B. Anthony and as she advanced to the platform she was greeted with the most cordial applause." In the evening a reception was given in the Senate chamber to the ladies in attendance at the convention. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Johns and Mrs. May Belleville Brown addressed the resolution committee. The platform was reported with a plank favoring the submission to the voters of a woman suffrage amendment, which was enthusiastically adopted—455 to 267—in the largest Republican convention ever held in Kansas.[74]

Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw then hastened to Omaha for the first national convention of the People's party July 4. They arrived about 9 P. M., July 2, to find they were booked for speeches at the Unitarian church that evening and the audience had been waiting since 7:30, so they rushed thither, hot, dusty and tired, and made their addresses. Sunday afternoon they went to a workingwomen's meeting in the exposition building and heard Master Workman Powderly for the first time. At his invitation Miss Anthony also spoke.

The People's party, from its inception, had recognized women as speakers and delegates and claimed to be the party of morality and reform, but after a day at the convention Miss Anthony writes in her diary: "They are quite as oblivious to the underlying principle of justice to women as either of the old parties and, as a convention, still more so." The resolution committee refused to grant the ladies even an opportunity to address them, which had been done willingly by the Republicans and Democrats. Their platform contained no reference to woman suffrage except that in the long preamble occurred the sentence: "We believe that the forces of reform this day organized will never cease to move forward until every wrong is righted, and equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all the men and women of this country." This sentiment, however, was universally accepted by the delegates as including the right of suffrage.

Miss Anthony spoke at the Beatrice Chautauqua Assembly, and then returned to Rochester. She had some time before received a letter from Chancellor John H. Vincent saying: "The subject of woman suffrage will be presented at Chautauqua on Saturday, July 30, 1892. A prominent speaker will be secured to present the question as forcibly as possible. In behalf of the Chautauqua management, I take pleasure in extending to you a hearty invitation to be present and take a place upon the platform on that occasion. Trusting that you will be able to accept this invitation, I am, faithfully yours."

She had had a long, hot and fatiguing trip and her cool, spacious home was so restful that she decided to defer her visit to Chautauqua until later in the season.[75] On August 8, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Foster Avery and Miss Anthony, who had been having a little visit together, started from Rochester for Chautauqua, where the Reverend Anna was to debate the question of woman suffrage with Rev. J. M. Buckley, editor New York Christian Advocate. She gave her address amidst a succession of cheers and applause, Miss Anthony sitting on the platform with her, an honor rarely accorded at the assembly. In the evening a delightful reception was given to the three ladies in the Hall of Philosophy. Dr. Buckley made his reply the next day to an audience so cold that even his supreme self-satisfaction was disturbed. If any one thing ever has been demonstrated at Chautauqua, by those speeches and all preceding and following them on the same question, it is that the sentiment of the vast majority of the people who annually visit this great assembly is in favor of woman suffrage.

After speaking at the Cassadaga Lake camp meeting, August 24, Miss Anthony went in September to the Mississippi Valley Conference at Des Moines. It was thought that possibly by holding a great convention in the West, large numbers in that section of the country and the States along the Mississippi could attend who would find it inconvenient to go to Washington. She was glad to give her co-operation and spoke and worked valiantly through all the sessions. From Des Moines she went to Peru, Neb., at the urgent invitation of President George L. Farnham, to address the State Normal School.[76]

Early in October she began her tour of the State of Kansas under the auspices of the Republican central committee. She was accompanied one week by Mrs. Johns, and then each went with some of the men who were canvassing the State. Mrs. Johns made Republican speeches; Miss Anthony described the record of the party on human freedom and urged them to complete that roll of honor by enfranchising women. The campaign managers were very much dissatisfied because she talked suffrage instead of tariff and finance, but as she was paying her own travelling expenses and contributing her services, she reserved the right to speak on the only subject in which she felt a vital interest. If the Republicans had won the election, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Johns expected that of course they would take up the question of woman suffrage and carry it to success; but the State was carried by the newly formed People's party.