1886-1887.
Miss Anthony started for Washington toward the last of January, 1886, with a lighter heart than she had possessed for many years. The dreadful burden of the labor on the History was lifted, all the bills were paid, she had given a helping hand to several of the old workers, which made her very happy, and she had one or two good dresses in her trunk. There was nothing which the paragrapher who hated what Miss Anthony represented, liked so well as to make disagreeable flings at her clothes, and yet it is an indisputable fact of history that she was one of the most perfectly dressed women on the platform, although her tastes were very plain and simple. A lady once wrote her asking if it would not be possible to make the suffrage conventions a little more æsthetic, they were so painfully practical. She sent the letter to Mrs. Stanton, who commented: "Well now, perhaps if we could paint injustice in delicate tints set in a framework of poetical argument, we might more easily entrap the Senator Edmunds and Oscar Wilde types of Adam's sons. Suppose at our next convention all of us dress in pale green, have a faint and subdued gaslight with pink shades, write our speeches in verse and chant them to a guitar accompaniment. Ah me! alas! how can we reform the world æsthetically?"
The members of Congress always knew when Miss Anthony had arrived in Washington. Other women accepted their word that they were going to do something, and waited patiently at home. Miss Anthony followed them up and saw that they did it. If she could not find them at the Capitol, she went to their homes. If they promised to introduce a certain measure on a certain day, she was in the gallery looking them squarely in the face. If they failed to do it, they found her waiting for them at the close of the session. Senator Blair wrote this humorous note January 15: "I thought just as likely as not you would come fussing round before I got your amendment reported to the Senate. I wish you would go home. Cockrell has agreed to let me know soon whether he won't allow the report to be made right off without any bother, and I have been to him several times before. I don't see what you want to meddle for, anyway. Go off and get married!"
Miss Anthony has been directly connected with every action taken by Congress or by any congressional committee on the question of woman suffrage. There are on file among her papers hundreds of letters from members during the past thirty years, showing her energy and persistence in compelling attention to this subject, in learning who were its friends, in attempting to convert the doubters and in spurring the believers to effort. This is something for the women of the future to remember.
The Eighteenth Annual Convention opened February 17. Prominent features were a fine address by Rev. Rush R. Shippen, of All Souls church, and the first appearance on the platform of Mary F. Eastman, Ada C. Sweet, the pension agent, the eloquent southern speakers, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Meriwether and Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett, and the talented German, Madame Clara Neymann. Among many letters was one from George W. Childs to Miss Anthony, saying: "I am always glad to hear from you and I keep track of your continued good work. Do not be discouraged. I take pleasure in sending the enclosed check ($100) with my sincere regards and very best wishes."
The crowds were so great that policemen had to be stationed at the door to prevent late comers from trying to enter during the evening sessions. The resolutions scored the bill before Congress proposing to disfranchise all Utah women, both Gentile and Mormon, to punish the crime of polygamy. The usual hearing was granted before the congressional committees. The fight for woman suffrage in the Forty-ninth Congress was conducted by Ezra B. Taylor, of Ohio, who prepared the favorable minority report of the House Judiciary Committee. The adverse majority report was signed by John Randolph Tucker, of Virginia.
On March 25 "the general" slipped up to New York City, to assist her forces at the State convention, and then hastened back to Washington to direct the main line of attack. The diary says:
March 30.—Went to House of Representatives, saw Messrs. Tucker and Taylor of judiciary committee; both promised to report soon. Then went to Senate, saw Messrs. Blair, Stanford and Bowen; all agreed to work to bring up our bill by May 1. In the evening took a cab and went in a pouring rain to Senator Stanford's, where I spent an hour. How keen and true are his perceptions in regard to public questions!
March 31.—Pouring rain, dark and muggy. I went to the Senate; sat with Mrs. Dolph and Mrs. Stanford; heard Senator Dolph's fine speech on the admission of Washington Territory as a State and his splendid word for woman suffrage. Mrs. Dolph took me home in her carriage.
April 1.—Went to the Senate again to secure pledges for votes and speeches for the Sixteenth Amendment Bill. Got Senator Dolph's strongest paragraphs, and at 8 p. m. went to the top floor of the Associated Press rooms and gave them to Mr. Boynton, who sent them over the wires.
April 9.—The United States Senate today voted down Eustis' motion to refuse to admit Washington Territory unless the woman suffrage clause were eliminated from its constitution, 25 to 12. Senator Ingalls was the only Republican who voted with the enemy.
A few days later Miss Anthony received the following from Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, of New Orleans: "... I feel defrauded that I never knew you until last year. Judge Merrick says you are the most sensible person he ever met (without any sex qualifications, of course). Like you, I was indignant at Mr. Eustis in regard to his course toward Washington Territory. I was ashamed and blushed for my Louisiana senator that time. Thanks for your sympathy in my illness. When my head lies low I pray that you may find another and even better friend in my State, who will come to the front in the cause of equal rights for women." An extract from a letter of Rev. Olympia Brown to Mrs. Stanton shows how much the old workers as well as the young depended upon Miss Anthony: "I wish to inquire what has become of Susan? You know she is my North Star. I take all my bearings from her, and when I lose sight of her I wander helplessly, uncertain of my course."