THE LEGACY—NEBRASKA CAMPAIGN—OFF FOR EUROPE.
1881-1882-1883.
It had been decided this year of 1881 to take the anniversary meeting into the very heart of New England, and for the first time the National Association went to Boston, opening in Tremont Temple, May 26. The address of welcome was made by Harriet H. Robinson, wife of "Warrington," the well-known newspaper correspondent, and there were several new speakers in the convention, including A. Bronson Alcott, Mary F. Eastman, Anna Garlin Spencer, Frank Sanborn, ex-Governor Lee, of Wyoming, the noted politician, Francis W. Bird, Harriette Robinson Shattuck and Rev. Ada C. Bowles. The ladies had no cause to complain of the hospitality of this conservative New England center. The Boston Traveller expressed the general sentiment in saying:
The National Suffrage Association has reason to congratulate itself on one of the most notable and successful conventions ever held. Boston's attitude to her distinguished guests has been uniformly hospitable, the audiences have been large and enthusiastic, the press co-operative in every sense. The eminent women who are its leaders are ladies whose acquaintance is an unmixed pleasure, and not least in importance have been the friendships formed and renewed at this meeting. The business management of the convention has been superb; the sympathy between audience and speakers reciprocal.
The guests received an invitation from Governor John D. Long to visit the State House and were received by him in person. In his remarks he said he believed women should vote, not because they are women but because they are a part of the people and government should be of the people regardless of sex; he thought the extension of suffrage to women could not fail to give stability to the government. Mrs. Hooker thanked him for coming to their support and in her letter describing the occurrence she says: "Miss Anthony standing close to the governor said in low; pathetic tones, 'Yes, we are tired, we are weary with our work. For thirty years some of us have carried this burden, and now if we might put it in the hands of honorable men, such as you, how happy we would be.'" The ladies also accepted an invitation from Mayor Prince to visit the city hall and were cordially received by him. They were invited to inspect the great dry goods store of Jordan, Marsh & Co. and see the arrangements for the comfort and pleasure of the employes many of whom were women. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Robinson were entertained at the Parker House by the famous Bird Club.
Miss Anthony received several beautiful floral offerings during the convention, and also a handsome pin in the shape of a Greek cross. The golden bar from which it was suspended bore the letters S. B. A., on the points were the initials N. W. S. A., and on the reverse was engraved, "Presented by the Citizens' Suffrage Association of Philadelphia as a token of gratitude for her life-long devotion to the interests of woman." The little presentation speech was made in a most tender and graceful manner by May Wright Sewall. The Boston Globe in describing the scene pays this compliment:
Miss Anthony was as deeply touched as she was surprised. Recovering herself, she responded eloquently and in her usual interesting and magnetic manner. Of all the eminent women who are here, no one is such a favorite with a Boston audience as Susan B. Anthony. Her courage and strength and the patient devotion of a life consecrated to the advancement and the elevation of womanhood, her invincible honor, her logic and her power to touch and sway all hearts, are felt and reverently recognized. The young women of the day may well feel that it is she who has made life possible to them; who has trodden the thorny paths and, by her unwearied devotion, has opened to them the professions and higher applied industries; nor is this detracting from those who now share with her the labor and the glory. Each and all recognize the individual devotion, the purity and singleness of purpose that so eminently distinguish Miss Anthony.
The convention closed with a reception at the elegant home of Mrs. Fenno Tudor, on Beacon Hill.
After leaving Boston, this distinguished body of women, made the sweep of New England, holding conventions in Providence, R. I.; Portland, Me.; Dover, Concord and Keene, N. H.; Hartford and New Haven, Conn. The national board of officers received an infusion of new blood this year through the election of May Wright Sewall, chairman executive committee, and Rachel Foster, corresponding secretary. Miss Anthony writes, "It is such a relief to roll off part of the burden on stronger, younger shoulders." This entire round of conventions was arranged by Miss Foster, a remarkable work for an inexperienced girl.
At Concord Miss Anthony was entertained in the family of her old friend and co-laborer, Parker Pillsbury, and after her departure Mrs. Pillsbury wrote: "I am so very happy to know you personally, and I thank you for the compliment you bestow in asking me to enroll my name among the most grand and noble women of our land. I shall enjoy being counted worthy to place it in company with dear Miss Anthony. Mr. Cogswell says many men (some members of the Legislature among them) in talking with him have expressed unexpected satisfaction in the speeches of the convention just holden—especially in yours, and he says, 'She is a host in herself, I like her practical common sense.'"
There was comfort in a letter received at this time from Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association and one of the Inter-Ocean staff:
Before entering upon our usual business talk, I want to wish you all beautiful and peaceful things this summer morning, and tell you of a rare and genuine tribute to yourself which brought tears of gladness to my own eyes when I heard it. In talking to some of the old workers, I referred to your life-long sacrifice and wondered how we could develop a similar spirit in our younger women, when Mrs. Zerelda Wallace said with great impressiveness: "My dear sisters, I want to say this, and to say it with a profound realization of all that it means, that to me, the person who, next to Jesus Christ himself, has shown to the world a life of perfect unselfishness, is Susan B. Anthony." I tell you this, my dear friend, because I believe such a tribute from such a woman will lighten some of the burdens.
Many similar letters were now received every year, and were as sweet and fragrant flowers in a pathway which had contained more thorns than roses.
In the hot summer of 1881 Miss Anthony went again to Albany to spend the last weeks with another friend, Phebe Hoag Jones, who passed away July 27. She was the intimate associate of Lydia Mott and the last of that little band of Abolitionists so conspicuous in the Democratic stronghold of Albany for many years preceding the war. At her death Miss Anthony felt that she had no longer an abiding place in the State capital, and expressed this feeling in a letter to Mrs. Spofford, who replied: "You speak of no longer having a home in Albany. Why, the best homes in that city should be gladly opened to you, and some day those people will wake up and wonder why they did not take you in their arms and hearts and help you in your work."[5]
All the letters during this summer are filled with sorrow over the assassination, long suffering and death of President Garfield. After all was ended Miss Anthony wrote to a friend:
In the reported death-bed utterances of our President, the only one which has grated on my ears was that in answer to the query whether he had made a will: "No, and he did not wish one, as he could trust the courts to do justice to his wife and children." How little even the best of men see and feel the dire humiliation and suffering to the wife, the widow, who is left to the justice of the courts! My heart aches because of man's insensibility to the cruelty of thus leaving woman. How can we teach them the lesson that the wife suffers all the torment under the law's assuming her rights to her property and her children, which the husband would, should it assume similar ownership and control over him, his property and children after his wife's death.
What a twelve weeks these have been, and what a funeral pall has rested upon us the past week. Every nook and corner, every mountaintop and valley is shrouded in sorrow for this crime against the nation. Today the ministers are preaching their sermons on the life and character of Garfield. Our Unitarian, Mr. Mann, made his special point on the fact that all the people of every sect had united in endorsement of Garfield's religion, which was most emphatically one of life and action, natural, without cant or observance of the outward rites and ceremonies. There is no report of even a minister's being asked to pray with him. When the bells told of the people's day of special prayer for his life, he exclaimed, "God bless the people," but covered his face, as much as to say, "Nothing but science can determine this case."
In the late summer and fall Mrs. Stanton had a tedious and alarming attack of malarial fever, and Miss Anthony was greatly distressed because some of her family insisted that it was produced by the long, hard strain of the work on the History. She writes: "It is so easy to charge every ill to her labors for suffrage, while she knows and I know that it is her work for woman which has kept her young and fresh and happy all these years. Mrs. Stanton has written me that during her illness 'she suffered more from her fear that she never should finish the History than from the thought of parting with all her friends.'"
The National Prohibition Alliance, which met in New York, October 18, invited her to take an official part in its proceedings. She declined to do so but attended the meeting and, after a visit to Mrs. Stanton, went to Washington to the national convention of the W. C. T. U. She had three reasons for this: 1st, she understood there was to be an attempt to supersede Miss Willard, to whom she had become very much attached; 2d, an effort was to be made to commit the association to woman suffrage; and 3d, she had made up her mind to see President Arthur on business connected with her own organization. She sat in the convention through all the three days' sessions and, on motion of Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, was invited to address it and was introduced by Miss Willard in words of strong approval. A prominent woman who was opposed to Miss Willard's re-election went among the delegates, assuring them in the most solemn manner that Miss Willard had insulted every one of them by introducing Miss Anthony on the platform, as she did not recognize God. "Well," replied one of them, an Indianapolis woman, "I don't know about that, but I do know that God has recognized her and her work for the last thirty years."
She had the pleasure of seeing Miss Willard triumphantly re-elected, an equal suffrage resolution adopted and a department of franchise established. "So the Christian craft of that great organization has set sail on the wide sea of woman's enfranchisement," she comments. At the close of the convention this amusing card was sent to the press: "All presidents of State delegations represented in the National W. C. T. U. desire to explain, in refutation of a statement in the Post of October 31, that, so far from 'capturing the convention,' Miss Susan B. Anthony made no effort to influence their delegations in public or in private, and is not, nor ever has been, a member of the W. C. T. U., either local, State or national, hence has had no part in its deliberations."
The President, who was an old schoolmate of her brother Daniel R., granted her a pleasant interview, arranged by Senator Jones, of Nevada, in which she urged him to recommend in his message to Congress a standing committee on the rights of women and also a Sixteenth Amendment which should enfranchise them. The reporters learned of this interview and, as a result, newspapers throughout the country used a portion of their valuable space in describing "how President Arthur squeezed Susan B. Anthony's hand!"
On the way home she stopped in Philadelphia and, with Rachel Foster and Adeline Thomson, called on George W. Childs, who gave to her $50 for "the cause," and to each of them one of his rare china cups and saucers. On November 7 work on the History was again resumed. The 29th was Wendell Phillips' seventieth birthday and Miss Anthony wrote him a letter of congratulation, telling him that she always had found comfort in the thought that, when there were differences between them, she had had his respect if not his approval. He replied with the following affectionate note: "Hearty thanks for your congratulations. The band grows smaller month by month. We ought to stand closer together. You and I have differed as all earnest souls must. I trust each always believed the other to be true in spirit. I know I always did, touching yourself. You are good to assure me you have had the same faith in me, and I hope when you reach threescore and ten, some kind friend will cheer you with equally generous and welcome words."
The last entry in the diary for 1881 says: "The year closes down on a wilderness of work, a swamp of letters and papers almost hopeless." She attacked it, however, with that sublime courage which was ever her strongest characteristic, and at the end of the first week of the new year the heaviest part of the burden was lifted from her shoulders by the receipt of this letter from Mr. Phillips:
Dear Susan: Our friend Mrs. Eliza Eddy, Francis Jackson's daughter, died a week ago Thursday. At her request, I made her will some weeks before. Her man of business, devoted to her for twenty-five years, Mr. C. R. Ransom (ex-president of one of our banks) is the executor. He and I were present and consulted, and we know all her intentions and wishes from long talks with her in years gone by. After making various bequests, she ordered the remainder divided equally between you and Lucy Stone. There is no question whatever that your portion will be $25,000 or $28,000. I advised her, in order to avoid all lawyers, to give this sum to you outright, with no responsibility to any one or any court, only "requesting you to use it for the advancement of the woman's cause."
After all the years of toil without financial recompense, of struggling to accomplish her work with wholly insufficient means, of depending from month to month on the few dollars which could be gathered in, Miss Anthony's joy and gratitude scarcely could find expression in words. She answered at once:
Your most surprising letter reached me last evening. How worthy the daughter of Francis Jackson! How it carries me back to his generous gift of $5,000; to that noble, fatherly man and that quiet, lovely daughter in his home. Never going to Boston during the past fifteen years, I had lost sight of her, though I had not forgotten her by any means. How little thought have I had all these years that she cherished this marvellous trust in me, and now I recognize in her munificent legacy your own faith in me, for such was her confidence in you that I feel sure she would not have thus willed, if you had not fully endorsed her wish. So to you, my dear friend, as to her, my unspeakable gratitude goes out. May I prove worthy the care and disposal of whatever shall come into my hands. Will you, as my friend and Mrs. Eddy's, ever feel free to suggest and advise me as to a wise use thereof? I am very glad it was your privilege to be with her through these years of her loneliness. I am pleased that you and Mr. Ransom propose to appropriate something to her faithful brother James, and most cheerfully do I put my name to the paper you enclose, with the fullest confidence that you would ask of me nothing but right and justice to all parties.
A few days afterwards she received another letter from Mr. Phillips:
You remember Mrs. Bacon (Mrs. Eddy's daughter) died about a week after she did. Her husband (who Mrs. Eddy knew would disturb her will if he could) is trying ostensibly to break it, really to force you and Lucy Stone to buy him off. The grounds on which he objects to the will are "that she was of unsound mind; that I and her executor exercised over her an undue influence in urging her to leave her money as she did; and that she did not know how much she was willing away." The truth is, we never said one word to her. It was her own plan entirely to leave it to woman's rights. Mr. Bacon knows there is not a ghost of a chance of his succeeding. The executor and I have retained Benjamin F. Butler and mean to fight to have Mrs. Eddy's will executed as she wished. The Misses Eddy sustain the will and wish it carried out to the letter, and say if it is broken they shall give their portion to the woman's rights cause, to you and Lucy. I'll tell you when any news is to be had. We are doing our best to protect your interests.
This was the beginning of litigation which continued for three years, and was a source of annoyance to Miss Anthony in other respects besides being deprived of the money. The fact of the bequest naturally being heralded far and wide by the newspapers, appeals and demands for a share of it poured in from all quarters, and she had much difficulty in persuading people that she had not the money already in her hands to be divided.
In company with Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony arrived in Washington January 16, 1882, to attend the Fourteenth Annual Convention. The effort to secure a special committee on woman suffrage which had failed in the Forty-sixth Congress was successful in the Forty-seventh, through the championship of Senators Hoar and John A. Logan, Representatives John D. White, of Kentucky, Thomas B. Reed and others. There was bitter opposition by Senator Vest, of Missouri, who declared it to be "a step toward the recognition of woman suffrage, which has nothing in it but mischief to the institutions and to the society of the whole country." In his zeal he dropped into poetry, saying,
"A woman's noblest station is retreat,
Her fairest virtues fly from public sight,"
and so, of course, she had no need of a special committee. It was vigorously opposed also by Senator Beck, of Kentucky, who said "the colored women's votes could be bought for fifty cents apiece;" and by Senator Morgan, of Alabama, who made a stump speech on "dissevered homes, disbanded families, pot-house politicians seated at the fireside with another man's wife, women fighting their way to the polls through crowds of negroes and ruffians," etc.[6] It was carried in the Senate by a vote of 35 to 23; in the House, a month later, by a vote of 115 to 84. Miss Anthony says of this in her diary: "If the best of worldly good had come to me personally, I could not feel more joyous and blest."
In addition to the usual distinguished array of speakers were Rev. Frederick Hinckley, Representative G. S. Orth, of Indiana, Senator Saunders, of Nebraska, Clara B. Colby, Harriette R. Shattuck and Helen M. Gougar, all new on the National platform. The Senate committee on woman suffrage just appointed, granted a hearing January 20, and at its close expressed a desire to hear other speakers among the ladies on the following day. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton presented each of the members of the committee with the first volume of the History of Woman Suffrage.
The convention closed with the usual handsome reception at the Riggs House and immediately afterwards most of the speakers went to Philadelphia, where Rachel Foster had arranged for another convention.[7] This was held at St. George's Hall, January 23, 24, 25, welcomed by Rev. Charles G. Ames, and was highly successful. A pleasant feature of this occasion was a luncheon given by that revered Quaker and temperance worker, Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith, of Germantown, to twelve of the prominent speakers.
The two historians hastened back to their work, which was interrupted only by Miss Anthony's going to the New York State Suffrage Convention held in Chickering Hall, February 1. Calls for her presence and help came from many parts of the country. "O, how I long to be in the midst of the fray," she writes, "and here I am bound hand and foot. I shall feel like an uncaged lion when this book is off my hands." On February 15, her birthday was celebrated by suffrage clubs in many places,[8] but she refused to be drawn out of her retreat, where she was remembered with telegrams, newspaper notices and gifts. In quoting a complimentary reference from the Rochester Herald, the Elmira Free Press commented:
The Herald says too little. Miss Anthony has labored for the most part without money, and from pure love of the principle to which she has devoted her life. She is as good a knight as has enlisted in any crusade, and has sacrificed as much and been as faithful and true. She has been thrice true, indeed, because of the ridicule showered on her as a woman trying to do a man's work. No man ever had the courage of his convictions as much as she. It takes a bold spirit to stand up against the dangers of gunpowder in the old-time, legitimate way; but it is a braver one that withstands ridicule and that mean cunning which makes wit of every act looking toward the advancement of women. The Free Press has perhaps had as many of the frowns of this "good gray poet" of the woman's cause as anybody. It has seen enough of them to know, however, that behind that somewhat frigid exterior is a sensitiveness which would well become a girl of sixteen rather than a lady of sixty-two and which shows that the woman is always the woman; and it wants to present its compliments to the bravest and grandest old lady within the circle of its acquaintance.
The Washington Republic furnished another example of the pleasant things said:
Miss Anthony, whom we know well and of whom we can speak from personal experience, is so broad in her charity, so cosmopolitan in her sympathies, that she will stand, without fearing speck or soil, beside any publican or sinner whose eyes have been opened to see the good in woman's rights, and who is willing to help on the work in his own way. For herself she never deviates from the principles she espoused when, stepping upon the rostrum to plead for disfranchised women, she determined that her life work should be endeavoring to procure for her sex all the rights and privileges of which exclusively male legislation had for ages defrauded them. With eyes steadily fixed upon the goal she has in view, neither the jeers nor ridicule of the crowds without, nor the jealous asides of those claiming to be workers in the same cause, have had power to distract her attention or make her turn from her labor to answer or rebuke.
The last of April the second volume of the History was completed and its editors found to their dismay that they still had enough material on hand for a third huge volume. Mrs. Stanton sailed for Europe with her daughter Harriot, and after Miss Anthony had read the last bit of proof and seen all safe at the publishers, she obeyed an urgent call from the women at Washington and hastened thither to look after the congressional committees on woman suffrage.
She was fortunate in her friends at court at this time, having two cousins, Elbridge G. Lapham and Henry B. Anthony, in the United States Senate, and her lawyer, John Van Voorhis, of Rochester, in the House of Representatives, all in favor of woman suffrage, and the two cousins on the "select committee" of the Senate. On June 5, 1882, this committee made a report in favor of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, signed by the Republican senators, E. G. Lapham, T. W. Ferry, H. W. Blair and H. B. Anthony. The minority report took the ground that suffrage was a matter which should be regulated solely by the States, not by Congress, and was signed by J. Z. George and Howell E. Jackson (Dems.), and James G. Fair (Rep.).
The following year, March 1, 1883, the House committee, John D. White, chairman, presented a favorable report. This was the first time woman suffrage had received a majority report from a Senate or House committee.[9]
When Miss Anthony returned home she found this bright note from Harriot Stanton, dated Paris: "... Dear Susan, you often seem to me like a superb warhorse. You are completely swallowed up in an idea, and it's a glorious thing to be. Carlyle says, 'The end of man is an Action, not a Thought,' and what a realization of that truth has your life been. You have never stopped for idle culture or happy recreations. You are possessed by a moral force, and you act. You are a Deed, not a Thinking.... I should love to be your biographer. You are to other women of your time just what Greek architecture is to Gothic. I long to carve your literary image, and know I could."
If Miss Anthony had any hope of rest it was soon dispelled. The legislature of Nebraska had submitted a woman suffrage amendment, and the women of that State called upon the National Association for assistance. After a vast amount of preliminary correspondence she left Rochester September 2, and travelled westward, leaving a trail of newspaper interviews in her wake, as she was intercepted by reporters at every city. En route she wrote to her friend Mrs. Nichols: "Only think, I shall not have a white-haired woman on the platform with me, and shall be alone there of all the pioneer workers. Always with the 'old guard' I had perfect confidence that the wise and right thing would be said. What a platform ours then was of self-reliant, strong women! I felt sure of you all, and since you earliest ones have not been with us, Mrs. Stanton's presence has ever made me feel that we should get the true and brave word spoken. Now that she is not to be there, I can not quite feel certain that our younger sisters will be equal to the emergency, yet they are each and all valiant, earnest and talented, and will soon be left to manage the ship without even me."
The opening convention was held in Boyd's Opera House, Omaha, September 26, 27, 28. The Bee was ironical and contemptuous in its treatment, heading its report "Mad Anthony's Raid." The Herald, under control of a young son of U. S. Senator Hitchcock, was vulgar and abusive, referring to the question as a "dead issue." The Republican, edited by D. C. Brooks, replied:
Pretty Lively "Dead Issue."—During the three days' sessions of the woman suffrage convention, we estimate that 7,000 people were in attendance. The Republican, in its three daily issues, and its coming weekly issue, will have laid the proceedings in full before about 75,000 readers, and the Bee and Herald will have given them nearly as many more. For a "dead issue" we submit this is a pretty respectable showing. Considered as a series of political meetings, the suffrage convention had more hearers than all the Democratic meetings and conventions held in Omaha during the last five years. The audiences were truly representative, embracing the business, professional and working interests of our city, and composed very largely of voters and citizens influential in politics.
The next convention was held in Lincoln with the same crowded houses. The newspapers were fair in their reports. The National Association raised $5,000 by contributions, mostly from outside the State. Miss Anthony gave her time and services and over $1,000 in money besides all she collected. Mrs. Foster and daughters contributed $500. Eleven speakers were kept in the field,[10] and all the complicated series of meetings was arranged and managed by Rachel Foster, assisted by Mrs. Colby. Miss Anthony herself spoke in forty counties, free transportation being given her by all the railroads in the State. On October 13, she held the famous debate at Omaha with Edward Rosewater, editor of the Bee, in the presence of an immense audience. Everywhere her meetings were perfect ovations, people coming in from a radius of twenty-five miles; and outside of Lincoln and Omaha, there was no audience-room large enough to hold the crowds.
A splendid force of Nebraska women conducted the campaign in behalf of the State. Every effort possible was made in the brief space of six weeks, but the masses of voters were not prepared for the question, most of the leading newspapers opposed it, and the women had no help from either of the political parties. In spite of these fatal drawbacks, the suffrage amendment received about one-third of the total vote.[11]
Miss Anthony returned home by way of St. Louis, where Mrs. Minor gave a large reception in her honor. When she reached Rochester she was invited by the Lincoln Club, one of the leading political organizations of the city, to give her address, "Woman Wants Bread, not the Ballot." The Democrat and Chronicle said in its report: "The large audience-room of the city hall was completely filled, and many extra seats were brought in. A number of prominent ladies and gentlemen occupied seats upon the platform. W. E. Werner, president of the club, in introducing the speaker, said it was fitting the hall should be full to overflowing with an audience anxious to hear the greatest advocate of one of the greatest questions of the day."
Miss Anthony had made a short trip to Washington immediately upon her return from Nebraska, to confer with the select committees on woman suffrage and also to make final arrangements for the approaching National Convention. It met in Lincoln Hall, January 23, 24 and 25, 1883, and she presided over its deliberations.
In response to many urgent letters written by Mrs. Stanton from England, and encouraged by friends at home who felt that she needed a long rest after more than thirty years of uninterrupted public work, Miss Anthony decided to make a trip abroad. As Rachel Foster contemplated a few years' study in Europe, the pleasant arrangement was made that she should undertake the financial management of the journey, act as interpreter and give Miss Anthony the care and attention her loving heart would suggest.[12] Miss Anthony's sixty-third birthday being near at hand, the friends in Philadelphia, led by the Citizens' Suffrage Association, Edward M. Davis, president, tendered her a reception, which circumstances rendered it necessary to hold on the 19th instead of the 15th of February. The Philadelphia Times gave this account:
The parlor of the Unitarian church was filled to overflowing on the occasion of the farewell reception to Miss Susan B. Anthony. After prayer by Rev. Charles G. Ames, Robert Purvis, who presided, said in a brief and earnest address: "I have the honor, on behalf of the National Suffrage Association, to present to you these resolutions testifying to their high regard, confidence, and affection." After the applause which the resolutions evoked, Mr. Purvis continued: "I present these with feelings which I can not express in words, for my thoughts take me back in vivid recollection to those stormy periods of persecution and outrage when you, Miss Anthony, with the foremost in the ranks of the Abolitionists, battled for the freedom and rights of the enslaved race. You have lived, with many compeers, to see the glorious result of your labors in redeeming from the infamy and degradation of chattelism 4,000,000 slaves. That done, your attention was turned to the greater question—in view of numbers—of woman's emancipation from civil and political debasement."
Upon rising to reply Miss Anthony received an ovation. She said: "I feel that I must speak, because if I should hear all these words of praise and remain silent, I should seem to assent to tributes which I do not wholly deserve. My kind friends have spoken almost as if I had done the work, or the greater part of it, alone, whereas I have been only one of many men and women who have labored side by side in this cause. Philadelphia has had the honor of giving to the world a woman who led the way in this noble effort. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were active in the good work ere my attention had been called to it. It was through their influence that I was led to consider and accept the then new doctrine. Alone I should have been as a mere straw in the wind.... I have known nothing the last thirty years save the struggle for human rights on this continent. If it had been a class of men who were disfranchised and denied their legal rights, I believe I should have devoted my life precisely as I have done in behalf of my own sex. I hope while abroad that I shall do something to recommend our work here, so as to make them respect American women and their demand for political equality...."
Letters, telegrams, flowers and gifts were received in great numbers.[13]
May Wright Sewall had this graphic description in the Indianapolis Times, owned and edited by Col. Wm. R. Holloway, an earnest advocate of woman suffrage:
The few days spent in Philadelphia by Miss Anthony prior to sailing were a series of fêtes. She spoke to over one thousand girls of the Normal School on the public duties of women; was officially invited to visit the Woman's Medical College; was given a reception by the New Century Club; was tendered a complimentary dinner by Mrs. Emma J. Bartol, in her own elegant home, where ten courses were served and toasts were drunk to the guest of honor.... Letters of introduction, quite unsolicited, poured in from friends and countrymen personally unknown to her, who thus showed their desire to facilitate her meeting with the stars of various desirable circles abroad. At the public reception, Robert Purvis presented the following testimonial, beautifully engrossed on vellum, and encased in garnet velvet with gold borders:
"Resolved, That the National Woman Suffrage Association of the United States does hereby testify its appreciation of the life-long devotion of Susan B. Anthony to the cause of woman; that it acknowledges her as the chief inspirer of women in their struggle for personal liberty, for civil equity, and for political equality; that as one of the foremost of American women it commends her to the women of foreign lands.
"Resolved, That the members of the association rejoice in the approaching holiday of their beloved leader; that they will follow her wanderings with affection and sympathy; that during her absence they will steadfastly uphold the principles to which her life has been devoted; that on her return they will welcome her to a resumption of her labors and hold themselves ready to work under her able and devoted leadership."
Among the numerous letters and telegrams were messages from Wendell Phillips, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Mary Clemmer, Helen Potter, Emma C. Bascom and Dr. Alida C. Avery.... Probably no testimony was more enjoyed than the following:
"Rochester, N. Y., the Home of Susan B. Anthony: In this open letter old friends and neighbors unite with all who honor the birthday of its true citizen, and express the sincere wish that Miss Anthony in her sojourn in strange lands may find what she has in full measure here at home—a genuine appreciation of her true womanliness, her sturdy adherence to honest conviction and her heroic stand, against all opposition, for the higher education and enfranchisement of women. Wishing her Godspeed and a safe return, we, the undersigned, do not need to assure her that neither the triumphs nor the defeats of her future public life will change our estimation of her, for to us she will ever remain what her life among us has proved her to be—a good, true woman, self-consecrated to the cause of woman in every land."
The signatures include the names of eighty of the leading men and women of Rochester; among them editors of the papers of both parties, pastors of the prominent churches, university professors, bankers, politicians, etc. Honor, if tardy, surely comes at last to the prophet in her own country. A song written for the occasion and inscribed to Miss Anthony, by Annie E. McDowell, one of the first editors of a woman's paper, was splendidly sung by Mr. Ford, the composer, who had set it to music.
Among the telegrams was this from her brother, D. R. Anthony: "Sixty-three years have crowned you with the honor and respect of the people of America, and with the love of your brothers and sisters." From the friends in Washington, D. C., came a plush case, on whose satin lining rested an exquisite point lace fichu and sleeve ruffles. A New York gentleman sent $100 to be used toward the purchase of an India shawl, writing: "I don't believe in woman suffrage, but I do believe in Susan B. Anthony." The Cheney Brothers sent a handsome black silk dress pattern; Helen Potter, a steamer rug; the Fosters, a travelling bag; Adeline and Annie Thomson, a silver cup; Robert Purvis, a gold-handled umbrella, and there were various other tokens of remembrance. Many of the leading papers contained an editorial farewell, with a hearty compliment and Godspeed. The Chicago Tribune, edited by Joseph Medill, offered this tribute:
The best known and most popular woman in the United States, engaged in public work, is Susan B. Anthony, the co-worker of Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Lydia Maria Child, Wendell Phillips, Lucretia Mott and others in the anti-slavery movement, and the fellow-laborer of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the woman's rights movement. She ranks first among the warriors in this latter contest, because she has lived her life in its service and there has been no side issue to it. Neither father nor mother, husband nor children, have diverted her mind from her hobby, or led her to cease for a day from the prosecution of the task she set out to accomplish.... Miss Anthony is an American woman whom the better class of English people particularly, and of foreigners generally, will delight to honor, and one that her country-women are pleased to have represent them. She is, in point of character and ability, one of the few of her sex who have made themselves a name and a place in the history of her time....
She has had occasion to speak sharply, to lecture women severely, when in her heart she would have preferred to praise; but women love her dearly all the same, and trust her implicitly. In integrity, stainless honor and generosity of sentiment and of deed she has no peer. She has stood the storm of raillery and abuse she aroused, as the leader of the "shrieking sisterhood," with perfect equanimity, and while others were cowed by the ridicule which was hardest of all to bear, Miss Anthony busied herself using this opportunity to show to women the real opinion of them entertained by the stronger sex.
Only those who are aware of the great and beneficent changes made in the laws relating to the rights of property, for instance, can at all estimate the good accomplished by these brave women. Almost all the leaders in the movement are gone. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, both elderly women, now remain in the work, and Miss Anthony alone still labors with the old-time zeal and freedom. She is at her best mentally and physically, and is likely to live many years to follow up the work she is now doing. The best lesson that women can learn from her life is that success in any one thing is secured only by the sacrifice of many others, and that for a woman to reach the highest place in her chosen pursuit is for her to work with an eye single to it, counting it a privilege to forego pleasures and affections which tend to distract and divide attention. Miss Anthony knew this secret of success, as she has proven.
When the history of the reform work done in this country in this century is written, no individual laborer will have higher praise than that which belongs to Miss Anthony. Honest, sincere, tolerant and kind, she has won the homage of her adversaries; for while there is but a small minority of men and women who believe in woman suffrage, there are none who fail to pay tribute to the sterling qualities of this representative woman.
The Kansas City Journal said good-by in these graceful words: "Susan B. Anthony will celebrate her sixty-third birthday tomorrow, and in a few days will sail for England.... She goes abroad a republican queen—uncrowned to be sure, but none the less of the blood royal, and we have faith that the noblest men and women of Europe will at once recognize and welcome her as their equal. Fair winds waft her over the sea and home again!"
The two ladies sailed from Philadelphia on the morning of February 23, and a special dispatch to the New York Times thus announced their departure:
Miss Susan B. Anthony, accompanied by Miss Rachel Foster, embarked on the British Prince, of the American Steamship Line, at 9 o'clock this morning, for Liverpool. Notwithstanding the cold and cheerless weather, quite a number of persons stood patiently on the wharf, facing the raw and snow-laden air which blew from the river, waiting to see the steamer get under way and to catch a glimpse of the celebrated champion of woman's rights. A little before 10 o'clock Miss Anthony came out of her stateroom with several friends and, bidding them a final farewell, watched with sober countenance as they passed down the gang-plank. Among those present were Miss Mary Anthony, of Rochester, Miss Julia Foster, Miss Thomson, a sister of the first president of the Pennsylvania R. R.; Rev. Dr. Soule, formerly of Scotland; Mrs. M. Louise Thomas and Edward M. Davis....
Miss Anthony was attired in a black silk dress and wore a black velvet bonnet. A beaver-lined satin circular was drawn tightly about her form. She retired immediately to her stateroom, where a pleasant surprise awaited her in the shape of a handsome silk flag, the gift of a friend, which was suspended in a corner of the room. Her eyes rested upon the tasty and comfortable apartment, bearing numerous evidences of the kindly feeling and good wishes of her friends, with visible enjoyment and emotion.