It is hardly possible to give an adequate idea of the storm which followed the announcement of Miss Anthony's declaration in regard to the People's party. There was scarcely a newspaper in the country which did not have its fling. Kate Field's Washington led off with a full first page entitled, "The Unholy Alliance." Editors opposed to woman suffrage made it a text for double leaders. Republican papers berated her without mercy. Letters poured in upon her from personal friends, judges, mayors, ministers, members of Congress, accepting the published reports and condemning her in unmeasured terms. Others wrote begging her to set herself right in the eyes of the public, as they knew she had been misrepresented. It seemed impossible, however, for her to make herself clearly understood. She writes in her journal: "One would think I had committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost in thanking the Populists for their good promise and saying I preferred them with justice to women, no matter what their financial folly, to the Republicans without justice to women, no matter what their financial wisdom."
She returned home June 20 and all the Rochester reporters were on hand for an interview. The following from the Democrat and Chronicle is practically what appeared in all:
Miss Anthony was perfectly willing to talk, and this is a resume of what the reporter learned: 1. Miss Anthony is not a Populist. 2. Miss Anthony is not a Democrat. 3. Miss Anthony is not a Republican. 4. Miss Anthony can not say what party she will join when the right to vote is given her.
"I didn't go over to the Populists by doing what I did in Kansas," she said. "I have been like a drowning man for a long time, waiting for some one to throw a plank to me. The Republicans refused, but the Populists threw an excellent plank in my direction. I didn't step on the whole platform, but just on the woman suffrage plank. I went forward at the close of the convention and told the men how glad I was to see one of the dominant parties take up woman suffrage. I said that we had been besieging the big political parties for twenty-five years. Here is a party in power which is likely to remain in power, and if it will give its endorsement to our movement, we want it.
"I do not claim to know anything of the merits of the issues which brought the Populist party into existence. All I know is that it is chiefly made up from the rank and file of the old Republican party of that State, and that the men who compose it think they have better methods for the correction of existing evils. They are protesting against the present order of things, and certainly no one will deny there is ground for it. I do not endorse their platform, but I would be one of the last to condemn an honest protest."
"But," said the reporter, "it always has been understood that you are a strong Republican."
"Why has it been so understood? Simply because a majority of the national legislators who have favored us have been Republicans. Suppose the Republican party of New York, at its coming convention, refuses to endorse woman suffrage; suppose the Democratic does endorse it. My action with the Democrats would be just what it was with the Populists of Kansas. I am for woman suffrage and will work with any party which will help us. Remember I say 'with,' not 'for.'"
Miss Shaw finished her two months' engagement in Kansas and did not return to that State. Mrs. Catt wrote Miss Anthony a few weeks after the conventions:
It is remarkable the difference of opinion that is floating about. We hear of Populists who are so mad about the plank they declare they will go back to the Democratic party. Others, even those who are suffragists, are so mad at the women for putting the plank forward they say they will vote against the amendment. Democrats say there can be no fusion and that will mean death to the Populist party. Some Republicans say they will not vote for the amendment because it is now a Populist question. Again some Republicans and some Democrats say they will vote the Populist ticket because of the plank. From all these varied ideas it is impossible to find out whether we are better or worse off.... At any rate, the question now has a political standing, and it will depend upon party developments where we find ourselves. My own hope is that it may bring the Republicans to time, but if the Populists say too much, it may drive them to secret opposition, and then we are done for.
Miss Anthony took a much more cheerful view and replied to the various letters:
At last one of the dominant parties in a State, and that one the party in power, has adopted a woman suffrage amendment, and upon that one plank I have planted my feet. The Republicans by ignoring us give party sanction to every anti-suffrage man among them; while the Populists' endorsement makes every anti-suffrage man among them feel that he will be the better Populist if he vote "yes."...
Meantime, every Farmers' Alliance picnic, every school-house meeting, will be on fire with the enthusiasm born of their party's heroic action; for such it was, in defiance of their leaders' command to imitate the Republicans and ignore the amendment. The 900 Republicans in the State convention obeyed their masters; while 68 more than one-half of the 606 Populists rebelled against theirs. Surely there is more to hope from the party, a majority of whose men dare vote opinions against their bosses, than for the one in which not a single man dares even raise a protest. What would our friends have had us do? Bless the Republicans for slapping us in the face, and blast the Populists for giving us a helping hand?
Among the comforting letters which came during these troublous times was one from Wm. Lloyd Garrison, with whose father she had fought the battle of Abolitionism, in which he said: "I saw Mrs. Isabel Barrows yesterday and heard from her of your weary journey together from Chicago, your discouragement regarding Kansas, and the personal pain occasioned you by untrue newspaper reports and the harsh criticism of friends. I write to express my word of sympathy and cheer. Send me a brief statement of the Populist matter and let me break a lance in your behalf. A reformer's life is full of misrepresentations. How little they signify in the long run and, if they did not wound the spirit, would not be worth the mention. To be misjudged by one's own friends hurts more than all the bitterness of the rest of the world."
In a public address made this summer, Miss Anthony referred to the matter in the following beautiful words:
Had the Republicans of Kansas adopted a woman suffrage plank, and Miss Shaw and Miss Anthony declared that, because of such endorsement, they would prefer the success of that party, nobody would have thought it meant that they had endorsed the whole Republican platform, and made themselves responsible for the right conduct of every officer and nominee of that party.
I was born and reared a Quaker, and am one still; I was trained by my father, a cotton manufacturer, in the Henry Clay school of protection to American products; but today all sectarian creeds and all political policies sink into utter insignificance compared with the essence of religion and the fundamental principle of government—equal rights. Wherever, religiously, socially, educationally, politically, justice to woman is preached and practiced, I find a bond of sympathy, and I hope and trust that henceforth I shall be brave enough to express my thanks to every individual and every organization, popular or unpopular, that gives aid and comfort to our great work for the emancipation of woman, and through her the redemption of the world.