As soon as she was thoroughly rested and renovated in her own home, after this hard campaign, Miss Anthony left for the State convention at Syracuse, November 14.[77] The Standard, intending to compliment the ladies, said: "The loud-voiced, aggressive woman of other days was not here. In her place were low-voiced, quietly-dressed, womanly women, and those who expected to see the 'woman rioter' of the past failed to find one of the sort. The graceful, dignified and quiet woman of today bears no likeness to some who have gone before, who thought to break through and gain their desires."

A contemporary called the paper down as follows: "When it is remembered that Susan B. Anthony was one of the originators of the movement, that Lucy Stone and Mrs. Greenleaf and a host of others who have marched right along in the suffrage ranks from the beginning, were also the leaders in this 'low-voiced' assembly who came on tip-toe and acted in pantomime, the compliment, to say the least, has negative qualities." An interview on this statement contains the following paragraph:

"It simply shows," said Miss Anthony, smiling, "how differently the question is regarded now. Among the women who were pioneers in the movement were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and myself. I don't think it probable that we are any sweeter-faced or that our voices are any more melodious than they were thirty years ago. It is only that the whole matter was regarded with such horror and aversion then that any one connected with it was looked upon in a disagreeable light; it is very different now." Her pleasant face, with a suggestion of her Quaker descent in its soft bands of gray hair, took on a gently reminiscent expression, which her visitor could not help but contrast amusedly with the imaginary portrait of the redoubtable Amazon that in her early years was conjured up by the sound of Susan B. Anthony's name.

Thanksgiving Day she attended service at the Universalist church and comments in her diary: "Mr. Morrill, the associate pastor, spoke on 'The undiscovered Church without a Bishop;' Mr. Gannett, 'The undiscovered State without a King;' Mr. Lansberg, 'Many States in One;' all good, but all alike gave not the faintest hint of any undiscovered America, where the male head of the family should not be considered 'divinely appointed.' I had hard work to keep my peace."

The next day she went to Buffalo to address the alumnae of the ladies' academy, and was entertained by Miss Charlotte Mulligan, founder of the missionary school for boys. During this time she was investigating the new law permitting women to vote for county school commissioners in New York, and found to her disgust that by the use of the words "county clerk" instead merely of "clerk who prints and distributes the ballots," all the women of the large towns and cities were still disfranchised; just as the law of 1880 had used the words "school meeting," which also cut off the women of the cities. This was another illustration of the manner in which every step of the way to suffrage for women has been made as difficult as possible.

In December Miss Anthony became an office-holder! It happened in this way: Her neighbor, Dr. Jonas Jones, who had been one of the trustees of the State Industrial School located at Rochester, died on the 4th. She immediately wrote to Governor Roswell P. Flower requesting that a woman be put on the board in his place, in addition to the one already serving (Mrs. Emil Kuichling), and suggested Mrs. Lansberg, wife of the rabbi; at the same time she asked Mary Seymour Howell, who resided in Albany, to see the governor and use her influence. She did so and found he was quite willing to appoint a woman but would not consider any but Miss Anthony. She, however, was away from home so much she thought that in justice to the institution she ought not take the position; but when she learned that her refusal might result in a man's being given the place, she telegraphed her willingness to accept. She was appointed at once to fill out the unexpired term of Dr. Jones, and May 4, 1893, was re-appointed by Governor Levi P. Morton for a full term. Of course numerous letters and telegrams of congratulation were received and the newspapers contained many kind notices, similar in tone to this from the Democrat and Chronicle:

It is a good appointment; a fitting recognition of one of the ablest and best women in the commonwealth. There has been a vast amount of cheap wit expended upon Miss Anthony during the past years, and although it has been almost entirely good-natured it has served to give a wrong impression to the unthinking of one of the clearest-headed and most unselfish women ever identified with a public movement.... Speaking of her appointment she said: "You see I have been regarded as a hoofed and horned creature for so long that even a little thing touches my heart, and when it comes to being recognized as an American citizen after fighting forty years to prove my citizenship, it begins to look as if we women have not fought in vain." ... A braver-hearted woman than Susan B. Anthony never lived, but those who can read between the lines of her remark will not miss the little touch of pathos in her pride, and the hint of the disappointments which have hurt in the long struggle.

A new charter for the city of Rochester had been prepared and a mass meeting of citizens was announced for December 12, to hear an exposition of its points. The morning paper said: "By far the most largely attended meeting the Chamber of Commerce has ever held was that of last evening. The large attendance was due to the announcement that the new charter would be discussed by Miss Susan B. Anthony, and the interest of the meeting was largely due to the fact that, true to her colors, she kept her engagement...." Miss Anthony's commission had been received from the governor that day, which fact was announced by President Brickner as he introduced her, and she was greeted with cheers. In the course of her speech she said:

Since promising to address this body, I have tried in vain to find some word which would settle the question with every member present in favor of so amending the charter as to give our women equal voice in conducting the affairs of the city. It seems such a self-evident thing that the mother's opinion should be weighed and measured in the political scales as well as that of her son. It is so simple and just that the wife's judgment should be respected and counted as well as the husband's. And who can give the reason why the sister's opinion should be ignored and the brother's honored?... Over 5,000 women of this city pay taxes on real estate, and who shall say they are not as much interested in every question of financial expenditure as any 5,000 men; in the public parks, street railways, grade crossings, pavements, bridges, etc.? And not only the 5,000 tax-paying women, but all the women of the city are equally interested in the sanitary condition of our streets, alleys, schools, police stations, jails and asylums....

To repair the damages of society seems to be the mission assigned to women, and we ask that the necessary implements shall be placed in their hands. But, you say, women can be appointed to see to these matters without voting. Yes, but they are not; and if they were, without the ballot they would be powerless to effect the improvements they might find necessary. If the women of this city had the right to vote, those on the board of charities, for instance, would not be compelled year after year to beg each member of every new council for the appointment of some women as city physicians, as scores of them have done for the past six or eight years. Had we the right to vote, do you suppose we should have to plead in vain before the two parties to place women in nomination for the school board?

I want this amendment of the charter first, because it is right and just to women; second, that women may have a political fulcrum on which to plant their lever for everything they wish to secure through government; third, that the opinions of the women of this city may be respected, and there is no other way to secure respect but to have them counted with those of men in the ballot-box on every possible question which is carried to that tribunal; and fourth, to free the mothers from the cruel taunt of being responsible for the character of their grown-up sons while denied all power to control the conditions surrounding them after they pass beyond the dooryards of their homes.

She continued by showing the good effects of woman's municipal suffrage in England, Canada and also in Kansas, and full suffrage in Wyoming; and closed with an earnest appeal for an amendment to the new charter which should confer the municipal franchise upon women. A few days later the board of trustees took final action on the charter, of which the Democrat and Chronicle said: "The amendment proposed by Miss Susan B. Anthony extending the suffrage to women was defeated, although by a close vote. Had there been a full meeting of the board it is a question whether it would not have been adopted, as several of the members who were not present last evening had expressed themselves as favorable."[78]

Miss Anthony addressed the Monroe County Teachers' Institute at Brighton, December 16. The diary records many visits to the Industrial School, conferences with the other fourteen trustees and much correspondence with the boards of similar institutions elsewhere. In her mail this year were letters from most of the civilized countries on the globe, among them several from the leaders of the movement in New Zealand, saying that her name was more familiar than all others there, and asking for advice and encouragement in their work of securing the ballot for women.[79] The following was received from Mrs. Kate Beckwith Lee, Dowagiac, Mich.: "Mr. Bonet, our sculptor, obtained your photograph, and we now have your grand face looking down in stone from the front of our theater, which was erected as an educator to our people and a memorial to my father, P. D. Beckwith, who was liberal toward all mankind and a believer in woman's equality, and I sincerely hope you may some time see the building." The other women sculptured on this handsome edifice are George Eliot, George Sand, Rachel, Mary Anderson and Sarah Bernhardt. Among the great mass of correspondence, this is selected:

An incident which is of no particular consequence to this inquiry, constrains me to write in the hope that you may find time to place upon paper your recollection of the connection that my father (the late George H. Thacher, then mayor of the city of Albany) had with your anti-slavery meeting in this city just before the war. I was too young to have it make a vivid impression upon me, but it has sometimes been said that was the first opportunity your organization had to freely express its views within the State of New York. I will be very grateful if you will permit your memory to go back some thirty years and recall that incident.[80] Yours,

JOHN BOYD THACHER.

This illustrates the pride which the children of the future will have in showing that their parents or grandparents rendered some assistance to the cause of woman and of freedom. Yet Mr. Thacher, who, as a member of the New York Board of General Managers of the Columbian Exposition, had the selection of those who should compose the Woman's Board of the State, did not name one who had been identified with the great movement for equal rights during the past forty years, and had made it possible for women to participate in this celebration.

A case which had been commenced in the courts of New York in 1891 and had run along through several years, may as well be described here as elsewhere. Miss Anthony had but an indirect connection with it and it is mentioned more for its utter ridiculousness than for any other reason. A woman's art association in New York City, Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, president, Miss Alice Donlevy, secretary, had the promise of a legacy to build an academy, and they decided to place a statue or bust at each side of the entrance, representing Reform and Philanthropy. Miss Anthony was selected for the one and Mrs. Mary Hamilton Schuyler for the other. The latter, in 1852, founded the New York School of Design for Women, had been the friend and patron of art, and for many years before her death had been noted for her philanthropic work.

A serious difficulty at once arose in the opposition of Mrs. Schuyler's nephew and stepson, Philip Schuyler, who objected to the "disagreeable notoriety." He carried the matter into the courts, which of course attracted the comment of all the newspapers of the country, pro and con, and caused more "disagreeable notoriety" than a dozen statues would have done. He obtained a preliminary injunction against the art association and then took the case to the supreme court for a permanent injunction, on the ground that the "right of privacy" had been violated. The real secret of his objections, however, was exposed in his complaint before the supreme court. Among the twenty-eight grievances alleged were the following:

Twenty-second.—The said Mary M. Hamilton Schuyler took no part whatever in any of the various so-called woman's rights agitations, with which the aforesaid Susan B. Anthony was, and is, prominently identified; and that she took no interest in such agitations or movements, and had no sympathy whatever with them; and that, as the plaintiff believes, she would have resented any attempt such as is made by the defendants to couple her name with that of the said Susan B. Anthony.

Twenty-third.—The acts of the defendants in attempting to raise money by public subscription for a statue of the said Mary M. Hamilton Schuyler; in associating her name with the name of Susan B. Anthony, and in announcing that the projected statue of her is to be placed on public exhibition at the Columbian Exposition as a companion piece to a statue of the said Susan B. Anthony, constitute, and are an unlawful interference with the right of privacy, and a gross and unwarranted outrage upon the memory of the said Mary M. Hamilton Schuyler, under the specious pretense of doing honor to her memory; and that the surviving members of her family have been, and are, greatly distressed and injured thereby.

The supreme court continued the injunction, and the art association then carried the case up to the court of appeals. Here the decision of the lower court was reversed. The opinion was rendered by Justice Rufus W. Peckham, afterwards appointed by President Cleveland to the Supreme Bench of the United States. It is not often that a judge of the highest court in the State incorporates in a legal decision a compliment to a woman, and for this reason the tribute of Justice Peckham is the more highly appreciated. After holding that "persons attempting to erect a statue or bust of a woman no longer living, if their motive is to do honor to her, and if the work is to be done in an appropriate manner, can not be restrained by her surviving relatives," he continued:

Many may, and probably do, totally disagree with the advanced views of Miss Anthony in regard to the proper sphere of women, and yet it is impossible to deny to her the possession of many of the ennobling qualities which tend to the making of great lives. She has given the most unselfish devotion of a long life to what she has considered would tend most for the benefit and practical improvement of her sex, and she has thus lived almost literally in the face of the whole world, and during that period there has never been a single shadow of any dark or ugly fact connected with her or her way of life to dim the lustre of her achievements and of her efforts.

FOOTNOTES:

[73] In the center of the Anthony lot, not far from the main gateway, is a square monument of Medina granite, the four sides of its cap-stone inscribed Liberty, Justice, Fraternity, Equality.

[74] At the convention of Republican clubs a few days previous, Senator Ingalls, having been defeated for re-election to the Senate and feeling somewhat humbled, said in his speech: "I believe every man ought to be a politician; I might say every woman also. If a plank endorsing woman suffrage were inserted in the Republican platform, I would stand upon it." Ten years before, in this same city, he had declared it to be "that obscene dogma, whose advocates are long-haired men and short-haired women, the unsexed of both sexes, human capons and epicenes."

[75] Henry B. Blackwell delivered the address at Chautauqua. At its close he asked all who were opposed to woman suffrage to rise, and about twenty persons stood up. He then asked all who were in favor to stand, and the great audience, filling the huge amphitheater, rose in a body.

[76] When she spoke in the New York State Teachers' Convention in 1853, the first time a woman's voice had been heard in that body, Professor Farnham, then superintendent of the Syracuse public schools, was one of the three men who came up and congratulated her.

[77] While here Miss Anthony received a telegram: "Greeting, gratitude and good-by to the noblest Roman of them all and her brave host, from Isabel Somerset and Frances E. Willard." They had expected to stop in Rochester and visit her before leaving for England, but had gone to New York by another route.

[78] Jean Brooks Greenleaf, at this time in Washington with her husband, wrote Miss Anthony:

"I felt heart-sick when I learned the result of the charter business and I am not over it yet. I told Mr. Greenleaf I would dispose of every bit of taxable property I have in Rochester. I can not bear to think that, with so glorious an opportunity to be just, men prefer to be so unjust. They can help it if they will, those men who speak us so fair. If they would make one solid stand for our rights they could overrule the masses who are not half so unready to do women justice as they are represented. Good God! when I think of it I wonder how you have borne it all these years and not gone wild."

[79] Full suffrage was granted to the women of New Zealand in 1893.

[80] In February, 1861; see Chapter XIII.



CHAPTER XLI.

WORLD'S FAIR—CONGRESS OF REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN.

1893.

It is not surprising that Miss Anthony writes in her journal at the beginning of the New Year, 1893: "The clouds do not lift from my spirit. I am simply overwhelmed with the feeling that I can not make my way through the work before me." Never a year in all her crowded life opened with such a mountain of things to be attended to—suffrage conventions, council meetings, the great Woman's Congress at the World's Fair, State campaigns, Industrial School matters, lecture engagements—the list seemed to stretch out into infinity, and it is no wonder that it appalled even her dauntless spirit.

The first necessity was to get the Washington annual convention out of the way. It had been set for an early date this winter, and she left home January 5. Headquarters were at Willard's Hotel and the convention opened in Metzerott's Music Hall, January 15, continuing the usual five days. At the opening session Miss Anthony read beautiful tributes by Mrs. Stanton to George William Curtis, John Greenleaf Whittier, Ernestine L. Rose and Abby Hutchinson Patton, who had died during the year, all earnest and consistent friends of woman's equality. Resolutions were adopted recognizing the splendid services of Francis Minor, Benjamin F. Butler, Abby Hopper Gibbons, Rev. Anna Oliver and a number of other active and efficient workers who also had passed away.

Miss Anthony, in her president's address, gave a strong, cheery account of the past year's work and an encouraging view of the future, and at both day and evening sessions there were the usual number of able and entertaining speeches. Reports were made by delegates from thirty-six States. At the business meeting the question again came up of holding the annual convention in Washington at the beginning of each new Congress and in some other part of the country in alternate years. This plan was vigorously opposed by Miss Anthony, who said in her protest:

The sole object, it seems to me, of this national organization is to bring the combined influence of all the States upon Congress to secure national legislation. The very moment you change the purpose of this great body from National to State work you have defeated its object. It is the business of the States to do the district work; to create public sentiment; to make a national organization possible, and then to bring their united power to the capital and focus it on Congress. Our younger women naturally can not appreciate the vast amount of work done here in Washington by the National Association in the last twenty-five years. The delegates do not come here as individuals but as representatives of their entire States. We have had these national conventions here for a quarter of a century, and every Congress has given hearings to the ablest women we could bring from every section. In the olden times the States were not fully organized—they had not money enough to pay their delegates' expenses. We begged and worked and saved the money, and the National Association paid the expenses of delegates from Oregon and California in order that they might come and bring the influence of their States to bear upon Congress.

Last winter we had twenty-three States represented by delegates. Think of those twenty-three women going before the Senate committee, each making her speech, and convincing those senators of the interest in all these States. We have educated at least a part of three or four hundred men and their wives and daughters every two years to return as missionaries to their respective localities. I shall feel it a grave mistake if you vote in favor of a movable convention. It will lessen our influence and our power; but come what may, I shall abide by the decision of the majority.

Miss Anthony was warmly supported by a number of delegates but the final vote resulted: in favor, 37; opposed, 28.

Among the notable letters received by the convention was the following from Lucy Stone: "Wherever woman suffragists are gathered together in the name of equal rights, there am I always in spirit with them. Although absent, my personal glad greeting goes to every one; to those who have borne the heat and burden of the day, and to the strong, brave, younger workers who have come to lighten the load and complete the victory. We may surely rejoice now when there are so many gains won and conceded, and when favorable indications are on every hand. The way before us is shorter than that behind; but the work still calls for patient perseverance and ceaseless endeavor. The end is not yet in sight, but it can not be far away." Those who listened little thought that this would be the last message ever received from that earnest worker of fifty long years. Letters of greeting were sent to her and to Mrs. Stanton. Miss Anthony was unanimously re-elected president.

She lingered for a few days' visit with Mrs. Greenleaf, who gave a reception for her, at which Grace Greenwood was one of the receiving party. She had a luncheon at Mrs. Waite's, wife of the Chief-Justice, and after several other pleasant social functions, left Washington February 1.[81] There was now a magnet in New York City and henceforth she always arranged her hurried eastern trips so that she might spend a few hours or days with Mrs. Stanton, when as in the old time, they wrote calls, resolutions and memorials and made plans to storm the strongholds.

On February 8, Miss Anthony spoke at Warsaw, the guest of Mrs. Maud Humphrey; and for the next week the journal says: "Trying all these days to get to the bottom of my piles of accumulated letters." On her seventy-third birthday the Political Equality Club gave a reception at the pleasant home of Rev. and Mrs. W. C. Gannett, and presented her with a handsome silver teapot, spirit lamp and tray. Mrs. George Hollister gave her a set of point lace which had belonged to her mother, the daughter of Thurlow Weed; and there were numerous other gifts. She wrote to Mrs. Avery on the 23d: "It is just ten years ago this morning, dear Rachel, since we two went gypsying into the old world. Well, it was a happy acquaintance we made then and it has been a blessed decade which has intervened. Ten years of constant work and thought, but ten years nearer the golden day of jubilee!"

She arranged a meeting at the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, March 1, for May Wright Sewall, president National Council of Women, to speak on the approaching Woman's Congress at the World's Fair. On March 6 she began a brief lecture tour, speaking in Hillsdale, Detroit, Saginaw, Bay City, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Battle Creek, Charlotte and in Toledo. Nine evening addresses, several receptions, and over a thousand miles of travel in twelve days, was not a bad record for a woman past seventy-three.[82]

Among the pleasant letters received through the winter were several from the South. Miss Anthony was especially appreciative of the friendship of southern women, as her part in the "abolition" movement in early times had created a prejudice against her, and in later days the sentiment for suffrage had not been sufficient to call her into that part of the country, where she might form personal acquaintances and friendships. She had, during these months, earnest letters from the women of Italy asking for encouragement and co-operation in their struggles. Many letters came also from teachers, stenographers and other wage-earning women, full of grateful acknowledgment of their indebtedness to her. There were invitations enough for lectures to fill every month in the year, ranging from the Christian Association at Cornell to the Free-thinkers' Club in New York, and covering all the grades of belief or non-belief between the two. She was asked to contribute to a symposium on "The Ideal Man," to write an account of "The Underground Railroad," and to give so many written opinions on current topics of discussion that to have complied would have kept her at her desk from early morning until the midnight hour.

In a letter to a friend she said: "The other day a millionaire who wrote me, 'wondered why I didn't have my letters typewritten.' Why, bless him, I never, in all my fifty years of hard work with the pen, had a writing desk with pigeonholes and drawers until my seventieth birthday brought me the present of one, and never had I even a dream of money enough for a stenographer and typewriter. How little those who have realize the limitations of those who have not."

She wrote to Robert Purvis at this time: "What a magnificent opening speech Gladstone made, and how splendid his final remarks: 'It would be misery for me if I had foregone or omitted in these closing years of my life any measure it was possible for me to take towards upholding and promoting the cause—not of one party or one nation, but of all parties and all nations.' So can you and I say with Gladstone, we should be miserable but for the consciousness that we have done all in our power to help forward every measure for the freedom and equality of the races and the sexes."

In April she lectured at a number of places in New York to add to the limited fund which kept the pot boiling at home.[83] She also went to Buffalo to talk over Industrial School matters with Mrs. Harriet A. Townsend, president of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, which had proved so great a success in that city. On the 28th she spoke before the Woman's Columbian Exposition Committee of Cincinnati, "to a very fashionable and representative audience," the Enquirer said. For this lecture she received $125. During the spring she wrote the Woman's Tribune:

How splendidly Kansas women voted, and now come suffrage amendments in Colorado, New York and Kansas! Well, we must buckle on our armor for a triple fight, and we must shout more loudly than ever to our friends all over the country for money to help these States. Although Kansas is the most certain to carry the question, nevertheless we must organize every school district of every county of each State in which the battle of the ballot for woman is to be fought. Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry from this to the day of the election.

Today's mail brought $100 to our national treasury from Mrs. P. A. Moffett, of Fredonia. How my heart leaped for joy as I read her letter and again and again looked at her check, and how I ejaculated over and over, "O that a thousand of our good women who wish success to our cause would be moved thus to send in their checks!" Only a very few can go outside to work, but many can contribute money to help pay the expenses of those who do leave all their home-friends, comforts and luxuries. If the many who stay at home and wish, could only believe for a moment that we who go out not knowing where our heads will rest when night comes, really love our homes as they love theirs, they would vie with each other to throw in their mite to make the path smooth for the wayfarers. But we, every one of us who can speak acceptably, must do all in our power to persuade the men of these States to vote for the amendment. Do let us all take to ourselves new hope and courage for the herculean task before us. Who will send the next $100? O, that we had $10,000 to start with!

Miss Anthony and Mrs. Avery met at Mrs. Sewall's for a conference on Woman's Congress matters and then went to Chicago to attend, by invitation, the formal opening of the Columbian Exposition May 1, 1893. Miss Anthony wrote: "Mrs. Palmer's speech was very fine, covering full equality for woman." Her address the year before at the dedication ceremonies contained one of the noblest tributes ever paid to women, closing with these beautiful sentences: "Even more important than the discovery of Columbus, which we are gathered together to celebrate, is the fact that the general government has just discovered woman. It has sent out a flashlight from its heights, so inaccessible to us, which we shall answer by a return signal when the exposition is opened. What will be its next message to us?" Upon this occasion she was even more eloquent. Her keen expose of the absurd platitudes in regard to woman's sphere, and her fine defence of women in the industrial world, deserve a place among the classics.

Since Miss Anthony's part in this great world's exposition must necessarily be condensed into small space, it seems most satisfactory to place it all together. It has been related in the chapter of 1876 how women were denied practically all governmental recognition in the Centennial. They were determined that this should not be the case in 1893. As early as 1889 she began making plans to this effect and conferring with other prominent women. Several officials, who were in positions to influence action on this question, had declared that "those suffrage women should have nothing to do with the World's Fair;" and as some women whose social prestige might be needed were likely to be frightened off if suffrage were in any way connected with the matter, Miss Anthony felt the necessity of moving very discreetly. As "those suffrage women" had been behind every progressive movement that ever had been made in the United States for their own sex, it was hardly possible that they would not be the moving force in this. Miss Anthony was not seeking for laurels, however, either for herself or for her cause, but only to carry her point—that women should participate in this great national celebration and that they should do this with the sanction and assistance of the national government. In her plans she had the valuable backing of Mrs. Spofford, who made it possible for her to remain in Washington every winter, gave the use of the Riggs House parlors for meetings and aided in many other ways.

Miss Anthony went quietly about among the ladies in official life whom she could trust, and as a result various World's Fair meetings were held at the hotel, participated in by Washington's influential women, and a committee appointed to wait upon Congress and ask that women be placed on the commission. She did not appear at these gatherings, and only her few confidantes knew that she was behind them. Meanwhile it was announced early in January, 1890, that the World's Fair Bill had been brought before the House, and Miss Anthony at once prepared a petition asking for the appointment of women on the National Board of Management. This was placed in the hands of ladies of influence and in a few days one hundred and eleven names were obtained of the wives and daughters of the judges of the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, senators, representatives, army officials; as distinguished a list as could be secured in the national capital.

This petition was presented to the Senate January 12. It requested that women should be placed on the board with men, but instead, the bill was passed in March creating a commission of men and authorizing them to appoint a number of women to constitute a "Board of Lady Managers." These 115 appointments were intended to be practically of a complimentary nature, it was not expected that the women would take any prominent part, and no particular rule was observed in their selection. While perhaps in some States they were not the ablest who might have been found, they were, as a board, fairly representative. To bring this great body into harmonious action and guide it along important lines of work, required a leader possessed of a combination of qualities rarely existing in one person—not only the highest degree of executive ability but self-control, tact and the power of managing men and women. They were found, however, in the woman elected to preside over this board, Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer, of Chicago. At the close of the exposition it was universally conceded that she had proved herself pre-eminently the one woman in all the country for this place. Her record, during the several years that she held this very responsible position, is one of the most remarkable ever made by any woman.

At the time Miss Anthony prepared her petition to Congress for representation, no action had been taken by any organized body of women in the country, and if she had not been on the field of battle in Washington and acted at the very moment she did, the bill would have passed Congress without any provision for women. They would have had no recognition from the government, no appropriations for their work, no official power, and their splendid achievements at the Columbian Exposition, which did more to advance the cause of women than all that had been accomplished during the century, would have been lost to the world. Having secured this great object, she asked no office for herself or for any other woman. On several public occasions, in the early months of the fair, she refused to speak or to sit on the platform, lest she might embarrass the President of the Board of Lady Managers by committing her to woman suffrage. Mrs. Palmer, however, showed her the most distinguished courtesy, in both public and private affairs, inviting her to the platform and including her in the social functions at her own residence. Miss Anthony soon felt that she was in full sympathy with herself in every measure which tended to secure for women absolute equality of rights, a point which Mrs. Palmer emphasized in the most unmistakable language in her eloquent address delivered in the Woman's Building, at the close of the exposition.

In these circumscribed limits it will be impossible to give any adequate account of that greatest of all accomplishments of women at the World's Fair—the Woman's Congress—whose proceedings fill two large volumes in the official report. In order that intellectual as well as material progress should be presented, it had been decided to hold a series of congresses which should bring together a representation of the great minds of the world. C. C. Bonney was made president of the Congress Auxiliary; Mrs. Palmer, president, and Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin, vice-president of the Woman's Branch. Although women were to participate in all, Mr. Bonney desired to have one composed of them alone. To assist Mrs. Henrotin, who had been made acting president, as well as to further insure the success of this congress, Mr. Bonney appointed May Wright Sewall chairman, and Rachel Foster Avery secretary, of the committee of organization, and they were assisted by an efficient local committee.

As president and secretary of the National Council of Women, and Mrs. Sewall vice-president of the International Council, no two could have been secured with so wide a knowledge of the organizations of women throughout the world and the best methods of securing their co-operation. The magnitude of their labors can be appreciated only by an examination of the official report. The fact of their merging into this congress the International Council of Women, which was to have been held in London that year, was one of the most potent elements of its success. Miss Anthony wrote Mrs. Sewall: "The suffrage work has missed you, oh, so much, still I would not have had you do differently. I glory in Rachel's and your work this year beyond words."

The World's Congress of Representative Women, which opened May 15, 1893, was the largest and most brilliant of any of the series which extended through the six months of the fair, and was considered by many the most remarkable ever convened. Twenty-seven countries and 126 organizations were represented by 528 delegates. During the week eighty-one meetings were held in the different rooms of the Art Palace. There were from seven to eighteen in simultaneous progress each day and, according to official estimate, the total attendance exceeded 150,000 persons. The fifteen policemen stationed in the building stated that often hundreds of people were turned away before the hour of opening arrived, not only the audience-rooms but the halls and ante-rooms being so crowded that no more could enter the building, which held 10,000.

All who were in attendance at this congress, all who read the accounts in the Chicago daily papers, will testify that it is not the bias of a partial historian which prompts the statement that Susan B. Anthony was the central figure of this historic gathering. Every time she appeared on the stage the audience broke into applause; when she rose to speak, they stood upon the seats and waved hats and handkerchiefs. People watched the daily program and when she was advertised for an address, there was a rush from other halls and an impenetrable jam in the corridors. Again and again she was obliged to call upon a stout policeman to make a way for her through the throngs which pressed about her, anxious to get even a sight of her face. No matter what department of the congress she visited, whether of education, religion, philanthropy or industries, the audience demanded a speech and would not be satisfied until it was made.[84] Large numbers of the women who gave addresses in these various meetings paid tribute to her work, and the mention of her name never failed to elicit a burst of applause. At the many public and private receptions given to the congress the post of honor was assigned to her, and no guest ever was satisfied to leave without having touched her hand.



It is not too much to say that no woman in this country, or in any other, ever was so honored because of her own individual services to humanity. It was the universal recognition of her labors of nearly half a century, that had laid the foundation upon which had been reared all the great organizations represented by the women in this congress. Hers had been the pioneer work, the blazing of the pathway through the forests of custom and prejudice which for untold centuries had forbidden them to step beyond the narrow limits of domestic occupations. All of a sudden, it seemed, the women of the world had awakened to the knowledge that she had borne ridicule, abuse, misrepresentation, disgrace, that they might enter into the kingdom of woman's right to her highest development. Long-delayed though it had been, the women of her own and other countries came to lay their homage at her feet, to bow before her in loving gratitude, to rise up and call her blessed.

Letters of congratulation were received from far and wide; one from Frances E. Willard in Switzerland said:

MY BELOVED SUSAN: You are a happy woman and we are all crowing to think the people love, honor and call for you so loud and long. It suits one's sense of poetic justice; it confirms one's faith in human nature and the Heavenly Power not ourselves "that makes for righteousness." Lady Henry, Anna Gordon and I have "hoorayed" over your laurels and said, "Bless her; she is not only our Susan but everybody's." Lady Henry says you have the true sign of greatness that you are absolutely without pretension. You do not take up all the time and luxuriate in the sound of your own voice, but are glad to give the other ones a bit of breath too. She says no woman of fame has ever so thoroughly made this impression of modesty and unselfishness upon her mind. And I say Selah.[85]



In her London letter the noted correspondent, Florence Fenwick Miller, of England, wrote:

Amidst all the attractive personalities and ideas presented, the most sought of all—the one whose presence drew crowds everywhere, who was made to speak in whatever hall she entered, and who was surrounded in every corridor and every reception, just as the queen-bee is surrounded in the hive by her courtiers, was the veteran leader of the woman suffragists of America, Susan B. Anthony. At seventy-three she is as upright of form, as clear and powerful of mind, as strong of voice, as courageous and uncompromising as ever. Let our revered and beloved Miss Anthony have the last word.

The program for the Woman's Congress assigned but one session to the National-American Suffrage Association, and it was the honest intention to give no more time to the discussion of political equality than to each of the other departments. It made a place for itself, however, in practically every one of the meetings. Whether the subject were education, philanthropy, reform or some other, the speakers were sure to point out the disabilities of woman without the ballot. So strong was the desire to hear this question discussed that it became necessary to hold afternoon meetings in the large halls, aside from those on the regular morning and evening program, in order to give the eager crowds an opportunity to hear its distinguished advocates from all parts of the world. It is doubtful if the whole fifty years of agitation made as many converts to equal suffrage as did the great object lesson of the Woman's Congress.

Many pleasant letters passed between Miss Anthony and Mr. Bonney, Mrs. Palmer and Mrs. Henrotin. The last named asked her to take part in the Temperance, the Labor and the Social and Moral Reform Congresses and requested her advice and assistance. She was placed by Mr. Bonney on the advisory council of the Political, Social and Economic Congresses. Mrs. Palmer wrote: "I should like you to send us special suggestions for speakers and topics." Miss Anthony was much pleased at the selection of Mrs. Palmer for president of the Board of Lady Managers, heartily seconded all her efforts and lent no support to the dissensions made by several women who thought there should have been more recognition of those who had been pioneer workers. That this was appreciated is shown by a letter written as early as April, 1891:

I feel that I must express my thanks to you that you did not condemn us unheard, for I naturally supposed that as —— —— belonged to your organization you would take her view of any matter which interested her. I thank you very much for your fair-mindedness, and beg that you will read the statement which I shall send you and which will probably give you a better idea of this unpleasant matter than anything else you have seen.

I remember with great pleasure our meeting in Washington, and hope it was only the first of many such pleasant occasions for me. Thanking you again, I am most cordially yours,



Miss Anthony spoke several times at the noon-hour meetings held in the Woman's Building.[86] Mrs. James P. Eagle, chairman, who edited the report of the noon-hour addresses, wrote her: "I would not take much pleasure in publishing our book if I could not have something from your addresses to go in it. You must not deny me. One of your talks was 'Woman's Influence vs. Political Power,' another 'The Benefits of Organization.' If it is your best and easiest way, make the speeches and employ a stenographer to take them and send me the bill. I can not afford to miss them. You have been so very kind and encouraging to me all along that I shall feel it a Brutus blow if you fail me now." As she never wrote a speech in these days and could not make the same one twice, she was unable to comply with this request.

Miss Anthony was invited to speak at the Press Congress May 27, the day when the religious press as a leader of reforms was under consideration. The managers became very uneasy and began trying to find out how she meant to handle the question. Her only reply was, "I shall speak the truth." The speech, delivered before an audience containing many ministers, caused a tremendous sensation. She took up the reforms, temperance, anti-slavery, woman's rights, labor, and showed conclusively that in every one the church and the religious press, instead of being leaders, were laggards. At the close the chairman remarked apologetically that of course the speaker did not expect people in general to agree with everything she had said. The Chicago Tribune thus finished its report: "As Miss Anthony had an engagement she was obliged to leave at this point, and most of the audience went with her."

The Congress on Government convened August 7 and, at Mr. Bonney's request, Miss Anthony was present at the opening ceremony and responded to an address of welcome in behalf of the civil service commission. Five sessions of this Government Congress were devoted to a discussion of equal suffrage, the speakers being women. The chairman, Hon. Wm. Dudley Foulke, said it was not the intention to give this subject such prominence, but women had shown so much more interest than men, half of them accepting the invitation to take part and only one man in twenty responding, that he was compelled thus to arrange the program.

Soon after the adjournment of the Woman's Congress Miss Anthony left the Palmer House, which had been its headquarters, and, accepting the invitation of Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley, enjoyed the congenial atmosphere of her beautiful home for a month. At the conclusion of her visit with Mrs. Coonley she went for six weeks with Mr. and Mrs. Sewall, who had taken a large house for the season. This was a social center and the weekly receptions were a prominent feature, bringing together distinguished people from all countries, who were in Chicago, as officials or visitors, during this wonderful summer. While at Mrs. Coonley's Miss Anthony formed two acquaintances who from that date have been among her most valued friends—Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E. Gross. After leaving the Sewalls she spent a delightful month with them at their residence on the Lake Shore drive, where she was surrounded with every luxury which wealth and affection could bestow. This added another to the homes in that city always open to her, and Mrs. Gross often wrote: "Your visits are a sweet benediction to our family."[87]

Among the most elegant of the many social affairs to which she was invited was the luncheon in the great banquet hall of the Hotel Richelieu, given by the officers of the National Council to those of the International, the foreign delegates and a few other guests, 150 in all. May Wright Sewall presided with great dignity and charm over the "after dinner speech-making" of this assemblage of the representative women from the most highly civilized nations of the world, and Miss Anthony sat at her right hand.

Once she went to Harvey and spoke at a camp meeting of 3,000 persons; and later to the Bloomington Chautauqua to give an address; then all the way to Kansas to speak at the State Fair in Topeka and fill a month's lecture engagements. Two weeks she spent in her own home visiting with relatives; then rushed down to Long Island to hurry Mrs. Stanton with her paper; and back again to Chicago to read it for her at the Educational Congress. Many days and evenings were passed among the wealth of attractions on the exposition grounds; and so the summer waxed and waned, one of the longest holidays she ever had known, and yet with not an idle hour through all the four months of delightful associations and cherished acquaintances. She writes in the diary October 30: "This was my last sight of the White City in its full glory by night."

Among the many graceful words of farewell spoken by the press of Chicago, may be quoted the following from the Inter-Ocean, which suggests the strong and graceful pen of Mary H. Krout:

It is pleasant in these reminiscent days when we talk over the glories and delights of the World's Fair, to recall the honors heaped upon Susan B. Anthony. Her personal friends vied with each other in arranging elaborate entertainments of which she was the central figure. There were dinners and luncheons, banquets and receptions, and at each and all the refined and delicate face shone above the board with a beauty and tranquillity far exceeding the mere beauty of youth and faultlessness of feature. It was the beauty of experience, sweetened and purified by success and appreciation....

It must seem a strange contrast to the woman who has worked so perseveringly in the face of untold difficulties—this change that a few years have wrought. It has not been so very long since she was the universal butt of ridicule, lampooned and caricatured, with all that malice, in its coarsest and most brutal form, could suggest. Her age was the favorite theme of the callow witling, her cause a never-failing subject for reproach and abuse. It is all over and done with, thanks to the new race of men which women themselves are training and educating. There are no words for her nowadays but those of praise and affection. She has lived to see truth survive and justice vindicated. Men no longer regard her as the arch-enemy to domestic peace, disseminating doctrines that mean the destruction of home and the disorganization of society. They perceive in her, rather, the advocate of that liberty which knows no limitations either of sex or of condition—a freedom which, achieved, means the incalculable advancement of the race.

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

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

Immediately upon returning home from Chicago she went to the State suffrage convention which met in Historical Hall, Brooklyn, November 13. While in New York she was the guest of Mrs. Russell Sage at the dinner of the Emma Willard Alumnae. Four days were given to the convention, one or two spent with Mrs. Catt, in her delightful home at Bensonhurst-by-the-Sea, and a few at the suburban residence of Mrs. Foster Avery. While here she addressed the New Century Club in Philadelphia, and for several days following was in attendance at the Pennsylvania convention. On December 18, she lectured at Jamaica; the 19th at Riverhead; the 20th at Richmond; the 22d she attended the Foremothers' Day dinner in New York and made an address; the 23d she spoke before the Women's Conference of the Ethical Society in that city.

When not lecturing she was struggling with her mass of correspondence, attending to her duties in connection with the Industrial School, and making preliminary arrangements for two big State campaigns which required the writing of hundreds of letters, all done with her own hand. Invitations came during these days to address the New York Social Purity League, the Women's Republican Association, the Pratt Institute and the National Convention of the Keeley Cure League; and requests for articles on "Why Should Young Men Favor Woman Suffrage?" for the Y. M. C. A. paper of Chicago; "What Should the President's Message Say?" for the New York World; "If you had $1,000,000 what would you do with it?" for a symposium; and at least a score of similar applications. The friendly letters included one from Judge Albion W. Tourgee, acknowledging receipt of the History of Woman Suffrage, "from one whose devotion to principle and brave advocacy of right have ever commanded my profound esteem." He also expressed his interest and belief in the principle of woman suffrage. The same mail brought a letter from Professor Helen L. Webster, asking for a copy of the History to place in the library of Wellesley College "so that it may be within reach of the students."

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

FOOTNOTES:

[81] James G. Blaine died while she was in Washington and the diary says: "He should have lived, and the Republicans should have honored him as their leader. He was that, though not chosen by them."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



CHAPTER XLII.

THE SECOND NEW YORK CAMPAIGN.

1894.

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

On January 13, she lectured before the University Association at Ann Arbor in the great University Hall—the second woman ever invited to address that body, Anna Dickinson having been thus honored during the war. Sunday morning she spoke for the University Christian Association, in Newbury Hall. Monday morning the State Suffrage Association commenced a three days' convention, during which she gave numerous short addresses. Wednesday evening a large reception was given by her hostess, Olivia B. Hall, whose home Miss Anthony always regarded as one of her most enjoyable resting-places in her many trips through Michigan. Mrs. Hall had contributed hundreds of dollars to the cause of woman suffrage, and made a number of timely presents to Miss Anthony for her personal use.

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

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



Appropriate memorial services were held for the distinguished dead of the past year who had rendered especial service to the cause of woman suffrage: Lucy Stone, George W. Childs, Leland Stanford, Elizabeth Peabody, Elizabeth Oakes Smith. Eloquent tributes were offered by the various members of the convention, and Miss Anthony added one to Mary F. Seymour, founder of the Business Woman's Journal. The death of Myra Bradwell, editor Legal News, occurred too late for her honored name to be included in these services. Bishop Phillips Brooks and ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes, both of whom had unequivocally expressed themselves in favor of suffrage for women, also had died in 1893.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This necessarily had to be a campaign of education, of forming new public sentiment and putting into definite shape that which already existed. This could be done in four ways: by organization, by petitions, by literature and by speeches. The petitions were put into circulation in 1893.[89] As it would be necessary to use every dollar to the very best advantage, the Anthony home in Rochester was put at the service of the committee in order to save rent. Practically every room in the house was called into requisition. The parlors became public offices; the guest chamber was transformed into a mailing department; Miss Anthony's study was an office by day and a bedroom by night; and even the dining-room and kitchen were invaded. Here Mary S. Anthony, corresponding secretary, and Mrs. Martha R. Almy, vice-president-at-large, with a force of clerks, worked day and night from December, 1893, to July, 1894, sending out thousands of letters, petition blanks, leaflets, suffrage papers, etc.[90] The letter boxes were wholly inadequate, and the post-office daily sent mail-sacks to the house, which were filled and set out on the front porch to be collected. Hither came every day the State president, Mrs. Greenleaf, who toiled without ceasing from daylight till dark; and into this busy hive Miss Anthony rushed from the lecture field every Saturday to get the report of the work and consult as to the best methods for the coming week. It is not possible to describe in detail the vast amount of labor performed at these headquarters, but it is thus summed up in the report of the corresponding secretary:

... Add to the correspondence incident to the circulation of our great petition, the sending out of nearly 5,000 blank petition-books and instructions to insure the work's being properly done, literature for free distribution, the planning and arranging for sixty mass meetings in as many counties, and we have a task before which Hercules himself might well stand aghast. To accomplish this work has taken not only the entire time of your corresponding secretary, but that of our president, Mrs. Greenleaf, for a full year. Hundreds of women over all the State worked as never before, petitions in hand, travelling from house to house in all sorts of weather to secure the names of people who believe in the right of women to a voice in the government under which they live.



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



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

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

Judge George F. Danforth presided over this meeting and among the prominent citizens on the platform were Dr. E. M. Moore, Rev. Asa Saxe, Eugene T. Curtis, Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Howell and Miss Anthony, all of whom made strong speeches in favor of the amendment. The list of vice-presidents comprised the leading men and women of the city. Forcible resolutions were presented by Henry C. Maine, and letters of approval read from Judge Thomas Raines, Rev. H. H. Stebbins, of the Central Presbyterian church, and others. The papers said, "Miss Anthony went home as happy as a young girl after her first ball."

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

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

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

A committee of ladies invite you and all the adult members of your household, to call at Sherry's on any Saturday in March and April, between 9 and 6 o'clock, to sign a petition to strike out, in our State Constitution, the word "male" as a qualification for voters. Circulars explaining the reason for this request may be obtained at the same time and place.—Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, Mrs. Joseph H. Choate, Mrs. Mary Putnam Jacobi, Mrs. J. Warren Goddard, Mrs. Robert Abbe, Mrs. Henry M. Sanders, Miss Adele M. Fielde.

Sherry, the famous restaurateur, placed one of his handsomest rooms at the disposal of the ladies and, for many weeks, one or more of them might always be found there ready to receive signatures to the petitions. The New York World expressed the situation in a strong article, saying in part:

Within the month there has been a sudden and altogether unexpected outbreak of the woman suffrage movement in New York.... Some one gave a signal and from all parts of the State rose the cry for the enfranchisement of women. It is not hard to discover the original cause which set on foot the insurrection—for in a certain sense it is an insurrection. It was an appeal which appeared in the latter part of February and was signed by many eminent men and women. Here were nearly twoscore of names, as widely known and honorable as any in this State—names of people of the highest social standing, not because of extravagant display or fashionable raiment, but because of distinction in intellect, in philanthropy and in the history of the State. The reason of the coming of the petition just at this time was, of course, plain. The meeting of the Constitutional Convention would be the one chance of the woman suffragists in twenty years....

It will be noticed that these women are in Mr. McAllister's Four Hundred, but not of it. They do not go in for frivolity. They go in for charity, for working among the masses, for elevating standards of living and morals in the slums of the city. They have awakened to the fact of the other half, and of how that other half lives, and they have expressed their indignation over the small salaries paid women for doing men's work; over the dishonest men in political places, put there because they could vote and control the votes of a number of saloon loungers; over the wretched lot of the woman school teacher, ill-paid and neglected because useless on election day.

And to go back a little further, the most of these society women are the products of that higher education which the pioneer suffragists made possible. They are women of wide reading, of independent thought, of much self-reliance. They began to wonder why they could not vote, when the sloping-shouldered, sloping-skulled youths who proposed to marry them, or had married them, had that right and did not exercise it and showed no information and no concern as to the rottenness of the local government.... The upper class of women are enlisted. Woman suffrage is the one interesting subject of discussion in the whole fashionable quarter.

This campaign brought also another surprise. In all the forty years of suffrage work, one of the stumbling-blocks had been the utter apathy of women themselves, who took no interest either for or against, but now they seemed to be aroused all along the line. In Albany a small body of women calling themselves "Remonstrants" suddenly sprung into existence. For a number of years there had been a handful of women in Massachusetts under that title, but this was the first appearance of the species in New York. They seemed to be fathered by Bishop William Croswell Doane, and mothered by Mrs. John V. L. Pruyn. Seven men and a number of women were present at the first meeting in that lady's parlor, and they formed an organization to counteract the vicious efforts of those women who were asking for political freedom. Evidently under the direction of her spiritual adviser, Mrs. Pruyn submitted a set of resolutions, which were adopted, begging the Constitutional Convention "not to strike out the word 'male';" setting forth "that suffrage was not a natural right; that there was no reason why this privilege should be extended to women; that no taxation without representation did not mean that every citizen should vote; that universal suffrage was a mistake; that the possession of the suffrage would take women into conflicts for which they were wholly unfitted; and that it would rudely disturb the strong and growing spirit of chivalry." Another branch was formed in Brooklyn with Mrs. Lyman Abbott at its head and the Outlook at its back, edited by Rev. Lyman Abbott. A society appeared in New York at about the same time and opened headquarters at the Waldorf. There was also an "Anti" club at Utica.[95]

The Democrat and Chronicle published a long interview with Miss Anthony in regard to these "Remonstrants," from which the following is an extract:

"This opposition movement is not the work of women," she said, "although it has that appearance. There was held in Albany yesterday afternoon a meeting at which resolutions condemning our work were adopted. Listen to the names of the women who were present. Do you see that they are all Mrs. John and Mrs. George and Mrs. William this and that? There is not a woman's first name in the whole list, and I do not see a Miss, either. This goes to show that the women are simply put forward by their husbands.

"Another point: These men who are stirring up the opposition would not only deny the right of women to vote but would qualify the word 'male' as it now stands in the constitution. They say in so many words in their resolutions that the right of suffrage is already extended to too many men; and they pay a doubtful compliment to the intelligence of their mothers, wives and sisters by adding that the class of undesirable voters would be swelled by giving the ballot to women. These are men of wealth who would confine the exercise of the right of suffrage to their own class—in fact would make this government an aristocracy."

These new organizations seemed to be abundantly supplied with money, but though they were able to pay for the work of circulating petitions, which with the suffrage advocates had to be a labor of love, they secured only 15,000 signatures. The petitions asking for a suffrage amendment received 332,148 individual signatures, including the 36,000 collected by the W. C. T. U. In addition to these the New York Federation of Labor sent in a memorial representing 140,000; the Labor Reform Conference, 70,000; several Trades Unions, 1,396; Granges, 50,000; total, 593,544. Added to these were petitions from a number of societies, making in round numbers about 600,000. It had been impossible, for several reasons, to make a thorough canvass, and this was especially true of New York and Brooklyn, containing half the population of the State; and yet there were over one-half as many signers as there were voters in the entire State.

The Constitutional Convention assembled in Albany, May 8, and elected Joseph H. Choate, of New York City, president. Although only a few months previous he had expressed himself favorable to woman suffrage, all his influence in the convention was used against it. Mr. Choate, according to universal opinion, accepted this office with the expectation that it would lead to his nomination as governor of the State, and he had no intention of offending the power behind the gubernatorial chair. The amendment was doomed from the moment of his election. His first move was to appoint a committee to have charge of all suffrage amendments, and on this committee of seventeen he placed twelve men, carefully selected, because they were known to be strongly opposed to woman suffrage. He appointed as chairman a man who could be depended on to hesitate at no means which would secure its defeat.[96] In all his efforts to kill the amendment beyond hope of resurrection, Mr. Choate was actively supported by his first lieutenant, Hon. Elihu Root, also of New York City.

Having ruined all the chances of the amendment, President Choate then announced that every courtesy and consideration would be extended to the ladies having it in charge. Miss Anthony was invited to address the suffrage committee May 24, and the hearing was held in the Assembly room of the Capitol. Not only the committee but most of the delegates were in their seats and a large audience was present. This was said to be one of her best efforts and she seemed to have almost the complete sympathy of her audience. She spoke for three-quarters of an hour, and then urged that those opposed should state their reasons and give her an opportunity to answer them. Although there were twelve men on the committee who even then intended to bring in an adverse report, and ninety-eight delegates who afterwards voted against it, not one could be persuaded to rise and present his objections. It was said by many that if the vote could have been taken at that moment, no power could have prevented a majority in favor.



The women of New York City were accorded a hearing May 31, and it was on this occasion, with the petitions of the 600,000 stacked on a table in front of her, that Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi made that masterly speech which ranks as a classic. Miss Margaret Livingstone Chanler, in a beautiful address, also spoke in behalf of the "Sherry contingent." The regular New York City League was ably represented by Lillie Devereux Blake and Harriet A. Keyser. The platform was filled with the distinguished women of the State, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Greenleaf and Dr. Jacobi occupying the central position.

On June 7 a hearing was granted to the women from the senatorial districts, each presenting in a five-minute speech the claims of the thousands of petitioners from her district. Among these speakers were some of the best-known women in the State, socially and intellectually; and a number of others, of equal standing, who never had taken part in public work and who now left their homes only to plead for the power which would enable women better to conserve the interests of home.[97] The State president, Mrs. Greenleaf, presided over all of these hearings, her commanding presence, great dignity and fine mental power giving especial prestige to these bodies of women, who in character and intellect could not be surpassed. The final hearing of those in favor of the amendment was held June 28, when U. S. Senator Joseph M. Carey, who had come by urgent invitation, made a most convincing speech, describing the practical workings of woman suffrage in Wyoming and urging the men of New York to enfranchise the women of the State. He was followed by Mrs. Mary T. Burt, representing the W. C. T. U., and by Mary Seymour Howell.

for the generations to come. Sincerely Yours, Joseph M. Carey"]

One hearing was given to the "Remonstrants," or "Antis," as the press had dubbed them. Because of their extreme modesty, and for other more obvious reasons, they did not make their own appeals but were represented by the male of their species. Their petition was presented by Elihu Root. Hon. Francis M. Scott, whose wife was one of the leading "Antis" in New York, made the principal address. He described pathetically the timid and shrinking class of women for whom he pleaded, insisted that the legislature never had refused women anything they asked, declared the suffrage advocates represented only an "insignificant minority,"[98] and closed with the eloquent peroration: "I vote, not because I am intelligent, not because I am moral, but solely and simply because I am a man." Rev. Clarence A. Walworth, Hon. Matthew Hale and J. Newton Fiero were the other speakers. The first individual did not believe in universal manhood suffrage and could not favor anything which would double the vote. Mr. Hale devoted most of his argument to the so-called "bad women," declaring there were over 100,000 of them in the State who would sell their votes as they did their bodies—enough to overcome the votes of the virtuous women. Mr. Fiero said woman was unfitted for the ballot because she was influenced by pity, passion and prejudice rather than by judgment. A letter was read from Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, objecting to the amendment because the majority of women do not care to vote.

These insults to their sex seemed very acceptable to the fashionably dressed "Antis" who occupied the front rows of seats. How far their influence affected the adverse vote of the convention it is of course impossible to determine. While the liquor dealers were sending to wavering members their kegs of beer and jugs of whiskey, the "Antis" supplemented their efforts with champagne suppers, flowers, music and low-necked dresses. And the suffrage advocates hoped to offset these political methods by trudging through mud and snow with their petitions and using their scanty funds to send out literature! A mistaken policy, perhaps, but the only one possible to the class of women who are asking for enfranchisement.

The committee, as had been foreordained, brought in an adverse report. The evenings of August 8, 9, 14 and 15, were devoted to a discussion of this report. The Assembly chamber was crowded at each session. The women had known for weeks that they were defeated but had not abated their efforts in the slightest degree. Their work was now finished and they assembled in large numbers to hear the final debate. The amendment had, from first to last, an able and earnest champion in Edward Lauterbach, of New York, who opened the discussion in a speech of an hour and a quarter, said to have been the ablest made in the convention. Nineteen members spoke in favor and fourteen in opposition. The debate throughout was serious and respectful and as dignified as was possible with the frivolous objections made by the opponents. The delegates showed an evident appreciation of the importance of the question at issue, which was about to be sacrificed as usual to political exigency.

The opponents were led by Elihu Root, of New York, who begged pathetically that "we be not robbed of the women of our homes;" and declared that "he would hesitate to put into the hands of women the right to defend his wife and the women he loved and respected." William P. Goodelle, of Syracuse, chairman of the committee, closed the discussion with a long speech in which he asserted that "the question was not whether large numbers of male and female citizens asked for woman suffrage, or protested against it, or are taxed or not, but was it for the benefit of the State?" This being the case, why did Mr. Goodelle not favor its being submitted to the voters of the State in order that they might decide?

It required an hour and a half to take the vote, as most of the members found it necessary to explain why they voted as they did. While it was being taken President Choate left his chair and talked earnestly with many of the delegates—probably about the weather—stopping occasionally to receive the approving smiles of the "Antis." When his name was called for the last vote he recorded himself against the amendment, and the great battle was over![99] In favor of submission 58, opposed 98.

No question before the convention had attracted so much attention throughout the State. The New York Recorder led the newspapers which championed the submission of the amendment, and Harper's Weekly and the Evening Post were prominent among the opposition, a mighty descent from the days when they were under the editorial management of George William Curtis and William Cullen Bryant. The day after the vote was taken the suffrage committee closed its Albany headquarters in the Capitol and the ladies returned to their homes. They had raised $10,000 and expended it in the most economical manner; they had given a year of the hardest and most conscientious work; and they did not regret a dollar of the money or a day of the time.[100] In her president's report Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf said: