The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V

by Unknown

The general subscriptions at the convention, including those for the South Dakota campaign, were $4,363. Mrs. Belmont continued her pledge of $600 a month. The association had various funds to draw from, which were supplied by contributions. It was voted to appropriate $150 a month for six and a half months' work in Oklahoma if the amendment was to go to the voters in November.

Memorial services were held on the morning of April 15 for two distinguished members of the association, Henry B. Blackwell, who had died Sept. 7, 1909, and William Lloyd Garrison, five days later. On the program was an extract from a speech made by Mr. Blackwell at a national Woman's Rights Convention in Cleveland, O., in 1853: "The interests of the sexes are inseparably connected and in the elevation of the one lies the salvation of the other. Therefore, I claim a part in this last and grandest movement of the ages, for whatever concerns woman concerns the race." Affectionate and beautiful tributes to Mr. Blackwell's nearly fifty years' devotion to the cause of woman suffrage were paid by those who had known him long and intimately, which are partially quoted here.

Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard: I have ever regarded Mr. Blackwell as a many-sided reformer, one whose most distinguished claim to remembrance consists in the fact that no other man has devoted so much of his life to the task of securing the enfranchisement of women. Only those who have read the Woman's Journal regularly and depended on it for an accurate record of the slow but steady march of progress of this great movement can fully realize the enormous amount of editorial work contributed to it by him during the past forty years. The combination of superior intellectual powers with tenderest sympathies formed a rare equipment for success in his chosen field of usefulness. In truth his advocacy of the woman's cause was marked by such zeal and enthusiasm that one not knowing the initials "H. B. B." stood for a man might quite naturally have believed that only a woman could own them. Fortunately he was possessed of the sunniest possible temperament and blessed with an unusual sense of humor which enabled him to see things in their true proportions and make light of obstacles in his path. The many and varied tributes that have been paid to his memory all dwell upon his intense love of justice which led him to wage war against oppression wherever he found it.... It was my good fortune to be present at the celebration of Mr. Blackwell's eightieth birthday in Faneuil Hall in Boston. With great clarity of vision he defined the duty of the hour and said: "But we can not afford to be a mutual admiration society, there is still work to do." ... With what patience, fortitude and true courage he and Lucy Stone, his wife, played their part in the face of ridicule and opprobrium is now a matter of history. Women who today live a freer life because of their labors and those of their coadjutors must offer to their memory the highest meed of praise.

Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch: Lives consecrated to great reforms, particularly to the advancement of a reform to emancipate women, teach us that the age of chivalry is not past. These great men whom we honor to-day were not, like the knights of old, inspired by the love of some one woman whom they desired to possess, but they strove for justice for those they loved best and for us too, who were their friends, and for millions of women they never knew. Their far-reaching chivalry was one of the most important elements in the characters of Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Garrison. Both of them were unusually fortunate in the women who were their nearest and dearest. Mr. Blackwell's sister Elizabeth was the first woman physician in the United States; his sister-in-law, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first ordained minister; his wife, Lucy Stone, one of the sweetest and truest of the pioneer suffrage lecturers.

Mr. Garrison was not old enough to be related to so many pioneers, except through his illustrious father, but his wife's devotion to the suffrage work, his sister's unfaltering activity and his association from boyhood with Boston's brilliant coterie of renowned women, might well have influenced him to have a higher regard and deeper respect for all their sex.... Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Garrison, in their beautiful family lives, are particularly illustrious examples that woman suffrage will not break up the home. Many long years did these pairs of married friends work together for our cause....

To-day we sorrow for the loss of these men but not without hope, for there are other men coming forward to take up the work they have dropped. We women who are here to-day do not represent merely ourselves and the tens of thousands of other suffrage women but we are backed by the sympathy, the active encouragement and the money of our husbands, our brothers, our fathers, and many of us have chivalrous sons. More even than sympathy they now give, as some are giving themselves for service. One of Mr. Blackwell's last letters to me related to securing a large membership among men, and our Men's Suffrage Leagues, now springing up in all large cities, might well name themselves for him.... Go forward, men, with the spirit of Blackwell and Garrison!

Mrs. McCulloch paid a beautiful tribute to the human side of Mr. Blackwell's character, his love of nature and his companionship with children.

Miss Jane Campbell: I need not enter into the details of the life, public or private, of Mr. Blackwell. They are written in letters of gold in the annals of the suffrage movement from the moment when in the beautiful, unselfish ardor of youth, with his wife, the silver-tongued Lucy Stone, he entered upon a career of patient, unflagging devotion to the cause of woman's rights.... It evinced a high and noble spirit, a great courage, for any man to espouse an almost universally ridiculed cause, as did Mr. Blackwell; possibly greater courage than even a woman, conservative and timid if not by nature yet made so by education, showed when she emerged from her awed subjection and ventured to demand her equal share of privileges as well as of disabilities. The woman had the burning sense of injustice to arouse her, the indignation caused by her calm relegation to the position of an inferior to inspire her with courage to fight for freedom, but a man, a man like Mr. Blackwell, had no such bitter sense of personal wrong to impel him. He entered the contest not for himself, for he had no wrongs to redress, but his great soul saw that woman had and he devoted life, means, energy, talents to redress them. It is a rarely high, unselfish record of a noble life that he has left for the admiration and example of other men.... He was one of the most eloquent, forceful and logical speakers we have ever had on our platform, with his fine, resounding voice giving clear expression to his logical thinking, and he was a ready and forceful writer....

Miss Anne Fitzhugh Miller: It was always a joy to meet Mr. Blackwell for there was never any picking up of broken threads of our spinning or knitting or weaving of good comradeship, which at once continued as if no absence had intervened. I felt at home with him always, he was a man after my own heart, direct, decided, accurate, devoted to high ideals, and yet he possessed an elasticity of nature which made him the most comfortable of comrades. His sense of humor and his love of fun made the best of good times for those who were fortunate enough to share his merry moods.... It was always a delight to hear him speak. The sound of his voice rested and refreshed and the soundness of his thought inspired confidence and admiration. His half-century of continuous and absolute devotion to the cause of woman suffrage gives Mr. Blackwell a unique position in history. All women owe him a debt of gratitude which they can best pay by renewed devotion to the cause to which he dedicated his life. In the truest and broadest sense he was and should be remembered as a "Brother of Women."