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.
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:
These days will never be forgotten by the trio of the State committee who daily met to work and plan—to make the campaign "bricks" without financial "straw." No one with a heart will recall the pecuniary distress of last winter without a shudder, and to those who had, what was in their estimation, a cause at stake precious as life itself, the outlook was often well nigh disheartening.... Could the full history of the past winter's work be given, the doubts expressed of woman's desire for the ballot would be set at rest forever. No more pathetic stories are told of the struggle for liberty in the days of the Revolution than could be told of the women of New York in this campaign....
In closing, we come to the name of one who, we all know, is the inspired leader of women up the heights of honor, purity and self-devotion—Susan B. Anthony. To her marvellous energy and resolution we owe both the conception and the success of this wonderful campaign. In her seventy-fifth year she started out as one of the principal speakers to be heard in the sixty counties of the State; never once did she fail to keep an appointment, never once did she cry a halt.... This noble woman, leaving a home of which she is as fond as any woman can be, travelled night or day, as the case required, not only speaking, but plying her busy pen—and all for what? Not for money, for she has stoutly refused to receive one penny of a salary, which, had it been paid, would have exceeded the sum of $3,000. She gave her services for love of liberty and justice, with the hope that New York would prove to be in truth the Empire State of the Union.
From the hour when she learned that a Constitutional Convention would be held, up to the opening of this convention, Miss Anthony had believed that it would incorporate a suffrage amendment which, in all probability, would be allowed by the voters to pass with the rest of the constitution. She found herself outwitted by the politicians, as she had been so many times before, but while this defeat was the bitterest disappointment of her life, it did not crush her dauntless spirit. It is related of her that as she came down the steps of the Capitol with the other ladies at midnight, after the vote had been taken, she began planning another campaign.
Among the many appreciative and sympathetic letters she received at this time was one from Isabella Charles Davis, secretary International King's Daughters, saying for herself and Mrs. Mary Lowe Dickinson: "I do not believe you know how tenderly we love you and in what high respect and honor we hold you. Mrs. Dickinson was present at one of those meetings at Sherry's, and she said the only thing lacking to make the occasion perfect was dear Miss Anthony's strong, brave face looking down upon the great multitude." Henry B. Blackwell wrote: "You are to be congratulated on having made a splendid fight in New York. To have secured 600,000 petitions is itself a victory."
In answer to a letter from Isabel Howland, the efficient State recording secretary, she expressed the welcome recognition which she always extended to young workers: "Well, I am truly glad for the discovery of our twin New York girls, Harriet May Mills and Isabel Howland, who promise to take up the laboring oar and pull us to the promised land. Give my warmest regards to your precious mother and aunt Emily; how I have learned to know and love the two!" She went as a guest of the Howlands for a few brief days in the Catskills, and they drove over to Eagle's Nest, in Twilight Park, where Miss Willard and Lady Henry Somerset were spending the summer.
Miss Anthony lectured at Keuka College, August 7, and on the 22d, gave the annual address on suffrage, at Cassadaga lake. The next day she found herself thus reported in the Buffalo Express:
If, instead of Spiritualists, this great body of people had been Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists or Catholics, their praises for the firm stand they have taken for the enfranchisement of half the people of this country, would have been everywhere sung in song and told in story. But the suffrage women of America always have been afraid to give voice to the "thank you" in their hearts, for Spiritualism has been fully as unpopular as woman suffrage; and they feared if they displayed too much gratitude for this endorsement the public would at once pronounce them Spiritualists and they would thus be doubly damned. But there are a few of our members who are brave enough to rejoice in the damnation of orthodox religions and orthodox politics!
Her consternation at these closing words was intensified by the letters which began coming in upon her before forty-eight hours. She wrote at once to the paper: "This is all right until you come to the last sentence. I had illustrated also the danger of expressing kind words to unpopular political parties, and then I concluded—not as printed—but with: 'There are still a few of us brave enough to rejoice in every good word and work said and done for woman, and to publicly express our thanks therefor, notwithstanding the "denunciation" (not damnation) of orthodox religionists and orthodox politicians.'" The Express published her correction, but it is doubtful if it ever was able to overtake the original statement.
Miss Anthony was very anxious to influence the next legislature, through the public sentiment which had been created, to submit a suffrage amendment. For this purpose she laid out a plan of work to continue the organization and petitions, and herself held meetings in a number of counties. It was decided by the committee to go before the Republican and Democratic State Conventions, which were to be held at Saratoga. An address was prepared and a resolution asking for an endorsement of a woman suffrage amendment. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Greenleaf and Mr. Lauterbach went before the resolution committee, September 18, which allowed five minutes for the three to present their case, and never gave it one minute's attention afterwards.
Frances Willard and Lady Somerset came down from their mountain retreat to attend this convention, and after their return Miss Willard wrote: "... As for you, our leader of leaders, I wish I could transfer to your brain all the loving thoughts and words of our trio toward you. As you stood before that roomful of people, so straight and tall and masterful, with that fine senatorial head and face, on which the strength and heroism of your character are so plainly marked, I thought, 'There is one of the century's foremost figures; there is the woman who has been faithful among the faithless and true among the false!'"
Five minutes allowed such women! Had they represented an enfranchised class, the whole committee would have been at their feet.
Miss Anthony, Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Greenleaf went to the Democratic convention and met with about the same experience. They were permitted to address the resolution committee and bowed out as quickly as possible. There was no especial rudeness or discourtesy, but they had no constituency behind them, no political power, and in the hurry and worry of a State convention the men did not care to waste time with them, even had they been the most eminent women on the face of the earth.
Miss Anthony had a number of urgent invitations to spend the hot months of July, August and September at various charming summer homes in the mountains and at the seaside, but she declined all and resolutely continued at work. The hardest for her to resist had been a triumphant call from the women of Colorado to come and help them celebrate the Fourth of July. It was to be the jubilee of their political emancipation, the first since their enfranchisement. The State president, Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, wrote: "The women of Colorado feel that their precious holiday will be less precious if the beloved suffrage leader and the suffrage flag are not present." At first she sent an acceptance, but later, affairs in New York became so pressing that she was obliged, most reluctantly, to recall it. After filling an engagement to lecture before the alumnæ of the Girls' Normal School in Philadelphia, October 13, she started on the 16th for the final struggle in Kansas.