Miss Anthony attended the Ohio convention at Alliance, October 5, and was the guest of Mrs. Emma Cantine. While here, at the request of President Marsh, she addressed the students of Mount Union College on "The Progress of Women during my Lifetime." She had said again and again that she would not leave her work and go to this convention, but when at last a telegram was received, "For heaven's sake come; all depends on you"—she put on her bonnet and went, just as she had done a hundred times before.
She spoke, October 20, at the celebration of the hundredth birthday of Rev. Samuel J. May, in the beautiful church erected to his memory in Syracuse. She had known Mr. May intimately from 1850 to the time of his death, and those who have read the first chapters of this book and seen what he was to her in those early days of abolitionism and woman's rights when the enemies far outnumbered the friends, can imagine how eloquently she voiced the love and gratitude in her heart.
The next evening Miss Anthony left Rochester for ten days at Nashville, Tenn. The Woman's Board had invited a number of national organizations to hold conventions during the Exposition, and the last week was set apart for the Woman's Council. This was not a suffrage meeting; it was simply a national council where each one of the speakers asked for the suffrage to enable her association to do its work. Headquarters were at the Maxwell House, and the officers and many other notable women came from various parts of the country for the week. The public sessions were held in the Woman's Building, which was crowded to its capacity. Although suffrage was a comparatively new subject in this city, the announcement of Miss Anthony's address filled the assembly-room and she was received with enthusiasm.
They met with a hearty greeting from the people of Nashville. Among the elegant receptions given in their honor was one by Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Berry at Vauxhall Place. The president of the Exposition, Mr. John W. Thomas, and his wife gave a handsome entertainment, of which the American's account said: "By the hostess stood her honored guest, Miss Susan B. Anthony, in simple attire. Warm was the reception accorded this gray-haired woman, and her grand face impressed all with the noble part she had played in this century." At the close of the council the visitors, as the guests of the lady directors, were driven in tally-ho and carriages to the beautiful country-seat of the president of the board, Mrs. Van Leer Kirkman, where they were royally received.
Miss Anthony spoke also before the Liberal Congress of Religions in session at this time, and was introduced by the president, Dr. Thomas, as "one who had stood for the cause of liberty when it cost something to stand, and had borne the storm of calumny and abuse for fifty years." While she was in Nashville President Erastus M. Cravath, of Fiske University, called with his carriage and took her to that institution, where she addressed the faculty and 600 students, speaking, by request, on "The Early Days of Abolitionism."
After a day or two at home Miss Anthony attended the New York Suffrage Convention at Geneva, November 3. Here she made a speech criticising the women of New York City for having gone so actively into partisan politics during the recent campaign, although none of the parties advocated giving them the right of suffrage, and pointed out the absurdity of hoping for "good government" from any party until it was reinforced by the votes of women. The speech created something of a sensation, and when she reached home a reporter was waiting for her, to whom she gave an interview which intensified the original excitement. Not only did she review the political situation in New York, but she declared also that no movement could succeed unless it were managed by a so-called "ring." Leaders must be surrounded by those who are in sympathy with their ideas and willing to carry out their methods, or nothing can be accomplished. In commenting, the paper quoted the remark so often made, "When Susan B. Anthony was born a woman, an adroit statesman was lost to the world."
On November 11 Miss Anthony started on a great swing of western conventions, or conferences, stopping on her way to the railroad station to attend the golden wedding reception of her friends of nearly fifty years, Dr. and Mrs. Edward M. Moore. These conferences—Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Miss Shaw, speakers—were for the purpose of arousing interest and raising money for the suffrage celebration to be held in Washington in the winter of 1898. They began at Minneapolis and continued for two days each in Madison, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Toledo. At the first city Miss Anthony addressed the students of the State University, introduced by President Cyrus Northrop. A reception was given in the public library building by the local Woman's Council.
At each of the cities visited the ladies were entertained by prominent residents, the audiences were large and appreciative, and the newspapers contained long and favorable reports. There was not a discord in the chorus of pleasant welcome; not a disrespectful word of either the speakers or the cause they advocated. The question was treated with the same consideration and dignity as others before the public for discussion, and it required no more courage to present it than to talk of any other reform of the day.
If one desire an illustration of the progress made by women during half a century, let him turn to the early chapters of this book and read the story of those first meetings where Miss Anthony, rising timidly in her seat and asking to make a remark, was literally howled down because no woman was allowed to speak in public; and then let him read these closing chapters of her ovations extending from ocean to ocean. From a canvass of New York State in a sleigh, speaking to little handfuls of people in country schoolhouses, ridiculed by the newspapers and outlawed by society—to an endless series of conventions and congresses in all the great cities of the country, with no hall large enough to hold the audiences and with almost the unanimous approval of press and people! Only a short period of less than fifty years, scarcely a second in the eons of history, and yet in that brief time a revolution in public sentiment, an overturning of the customs and prejudices of the ages, the release of womanhood from unknown centuries of bondage!