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24 - Susan B. Anthony Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian by Alma Lutz · Susan B. Anthony Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four of Susan b Anthony by Almah Lutz.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter twenty four,
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Speaker 1: Aunt Susan and her Girls. The future of the National
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Speaker 1: American Woman Suffrage Association was much on Susan's mind. This organization,
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Speaker 1: which she had conceived and nursed through its struggling infancy,
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Speaker 1: had grown in numbers and prestige, and she understood, as
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Speaker 1: no one else could, the importance of leaving it in
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Speaker 1: the right hands so that it could function successfully without her.
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Speaker 1: The young women now in the work, many of them
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Speaker 1: just out of college, were intelligent, efficient and confident. And yet,
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Speaker 1: as she compared them with the vivid, consecrated women active
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Speaker 1: in the early days of the movement, she observed in
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Speaker 1: her diary Clarina Nichols, Paulina Davis, Lucy Stone, Francis d Gage,
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Speaker 1: Lucretia Mott, and E. C. Stanton, each without peer among
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Speaker 1: any of our college graduates young women of to day.
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Speaker 1: Even so, she appreciated the young women of to day,
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Speaker 1: whom she affectionately called her girls or her adopted nieces,
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Speaker 1: but she still held the reins tightly, although they often
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Speaker 1: champed at the bit recognizing, however, that she must choose
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Speaker 1: between personal power and progress for her cause, she characteristically
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Speaker 1: chose progress. Quick to appreciate ability and zeal when she
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Speaker 1: saw it, she seldom failed to make use of it.
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Speaker 1: When Carrie Chapman Cat presented a detailed plan for a
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Speaker 1: thorough overhauling of the mechanics of the organization, she gave
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Speaker 1: her approval, remarking dryly, there never yet was a young
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Speaker 1: woman who did not feel that if she had had
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Speaker 1: the management of the work from the beginning, the cause
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Speaker 1: would have been carried long ago. I felt just that
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Speaker 1: way when I was young. On four of her adopted
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Speaker 1: nieces Rachel Foster, Avery Anna Howard Shaw, Harriet Taylor Upton,
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Speaker 1: and Carrie Chapman Cat. Susan felt that the greater part
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Speaker 1: of her work would fall and be worthily done. Yet
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Speaker 1: she feared that in her enthusiasm for efficient organization, they
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Speaker 1: might lose the higher concepts of freedom and justice which
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Speaker 1: had been the driving force behind her work. Not having
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Speaker 1: learned the lessons of leadership when the cause was unpopular,
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Speaker 1: they lacked the discipline of adversity which bred in the
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Speaker 1: consecrated reformer, The wisdom, tolerance, and vision so necessary for
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Speaker 1: the success of her task. What they did understand far
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Speaker 1: better than the highly individualistic pioneers was the value of
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Speaker 1: team work, which grew in importance as the National American
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Speaker 1: Association expanded far beyond the ability of one person to
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Speaker 1: cope with it. Probably first in her affections was Rachel
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Speaker 1: Foster Avery, who had been like a daughter to her
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Speaker 1: since their trip to Europe together in eighteen eighty three.
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Speaker 1: The confidence she felt in their friendship was always a comfort.
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Speaker 1: Rachel's intelligent approach to problems made her an asset at
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Speaker 1: every meeting, and Susan relied much on her judgment. In
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Speaker 1: Anna Howard Shaw, ten years older than Rachel, Susan had
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Speaker 1: had found the hardy campaigner and orator for whom she
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Speaker 1: had longed. Anna expressed a warmth and understanding that most
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Speaker 1: of the younger women lacked, and best of all, she
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Speaker 1: loved the cause as Susan herself loved it. Because of
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Speaker 1: her close friendship with Susan's niece Lucy, she was regarded
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Speaker 1: as one of the family, and whenever possible between lectures,
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Speaker 1: she stopped over in Rochester for a good talk with
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Speaker 1: Aunt Susan. Harriet Taylor Upton of Warren, Ohio, had enlisted
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Speaker 1: in the ranks in the eighteen eighties when her father
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Speaker 1: was a member of Congress. Because of her influence in
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Speaker 1: Washington and Ohio, Harriet was invaluable, and Susan speedily brought
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Speaker 1: her into the official circle of the National American Association
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Speaker 1: as treasurer, even thinking of her as a possible president.
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Speaker 1: Harriet's jovial, irrepressible personality readily won friends, and Susan found
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Speaker 1: her a refreshing and comfortable companion, able to see a
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Speaker 1: bit of humor in almost every situation. When differences of
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Speaker 1: opinion at meetings threatened to get out of hand, Harriet
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Speaker 1: could always be relied on to break the tension with
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Speaker 1: a few witty remarks. Carrie Chapman Cat gave every indication
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Speaker 1: of developing into an outstanding executive. Not another one of
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Speaker 1: Susan's girls could so quickly or so intelligently size up
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Speaker 1: a situation as Carrie, nor could they so effectively put
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Speaker 1: into action well thought out plans. Not as popular a
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Speaker 1: speaker as the more emotional Anna Howard Shaw, she held
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Speaker 1: her audiences by her appeal to their intelligence. Tall, handsome
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Speaker 1: and well dressed, she never failed to leave a favorable impression.
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Speaker 1: Only her name irked Susan, and as Susan wrote Clara Colby,
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Speaker 1: if Cat it must be, then I insist she should
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Speaker 1: keep her own father's name, Lane, and not her first
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Speaker 1: husband's name, Chapman. But the three seas intrigued Carrie, and
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Speaker 1: she continued to be known as Carrie Chapman Cat. Now
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Speaker 1: living in the East because her husband's expanding business had
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Speaker 1: brought him to New York, she was easily accessible, and
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Speaker 1: from her beautiful new home at Bensonhurst, a suburb of Brooklyn,
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Speaker 1: she carried on the rapidly growing work of the Organization
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Speaker 1: Committee until a New York City office became imperative in Carrie,
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Speaker 1: Susan recognized qualities demanded of a leader at this stage
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Speaker 1: of the campaign, when suffragists must learn to be as
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Speaker 1: keen as politicians and as well organized. Spring is not
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Speaker 1: heralded in Washington by the arrival of the Robin, commented
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Speaker 1: a Washington newspaper, but by the appearance of Miss Anthony's
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Speaker 1: red shawl, Susan was still the dominating figure. At the
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Speaker 1: annual Woman's Suffrage conventions. Everyone looked eagerly for the tall
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Speaker 1: lith gray haired woman with a red shawl on her
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Speaker 1: arm or around her shoulders. Once, when Susan appeared on
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Speaker 1: the platform with a new white crape shawl, the reporters
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Speaker 1: immediately registered their displeasure by putting down their pencils. This
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Speaker 1: did not escape her, and, always on good terms with
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Speaker 1: the newsmen and informal with her audiences, she called out, boys,
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Speaker 1: what is the matter? Where is the red shawl? One
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Speaker 1: of them asked, no red shawl, all no report. Enjoying
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Speaker 1: this little by play, she sent her niece Lucy back
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Speaker 1: to the hotel for the red shawl, and when Lucy
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Speaker 1: brought it up to the platform and put it about
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Speaker 1: her shoulders, the audience burst into applause. For the red shawl,
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Speaker 1: like Susan herself, had become the well loved symbol of
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Speaker 1: women's suffrage. Susan was convinced that the annual National Convention
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Speaker 1: should always be held in Washington, where Congress could see
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Speaker 1: and feel the growing strength and influence of the movement.
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Speaker 1: Her girls, on the other hand, wanted to take their
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Speaker 1: conventions to different parts of the country to widen their influence.
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Speaker 1: Not as certain as Susan that work for a federal
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Speaker 1: amendment must come first. Many of them contended that a
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Speaker 1: few more states one for woman's suffrage would best help
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Speaker 1: the cause. At this time, the Southern women now active
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Speaker 1: were firm believers in states rights and supported state work.
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Speaker 1: Susan's experience had taught her the impracticability of direct appeal
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Speaker 1: to the voters in the states, now that foreign born
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Speaker 1: men in increasing numbers, were arrayed against votes for women.
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Speaker 1: In spite of her arguments and her pleas, the National
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Speaker 1: American Association voted in eighteen ninety four to hold conventions
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Speaker 1: in different parts of the country in alternate years. Disappointed,
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Speaker 1: betrying her best graciously to follow the will of the majority,
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Speaker 1: she traveled to Atlanta and to des Moines for the
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Speaker 1: conventions of eighteen ninety five and eighteen ninety seven. Nor
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Speaker 1: did the younger women welcome the messages which Missus Stanton,
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Speaker 1: at Susan's insistence, sent to every convention. Susan herself often
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Speaker 1: wished her good friend would stick more closely to women's
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Speaker 1: suffrage instead of introducing extraneous subjects such as educated suffrage,
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Speaker 1: the matriarchate or woman and the Church. But nevertheless, she
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Speaker 1: proudly read her papers to successive conventions. Insisting that the
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Speaker 1: conventions were too academic, missus Stanton urged Susan to inject
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Speaker 1: more vitality into them by broadening their platform. Susan, however,
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Speaker 1: had come to the conclusion that concentration on woman's suffrage
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Speaker 1: was imperative and order to unite all women under one
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Speaker 1: banner and build up numbers which congressmen were bound to respect.
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Speaker 1: With this, her girls agreed one hundred percent. While all
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Speaker 1: of them were convinced suffragists, they were divided on other issues,
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Speaker 1: and few of them were whole hearted feminists, as were
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Speaker 1: Susan and missus Stanton. With the publication of The Woman's
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Speaker 1: Bible in eighteen ninety five, missus Stanton almost upset the
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Speaker 1: apple cart, stirring up heated controversy in the National American
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Speaker 1: Women's Suffrage Association. The Woman's Bible was a keen and
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Speaker 1: sometimes biting commentary on passages in the Bible relating to women.
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Speaker 1: It questioned the traditional interpretation, which for centuries has fastened
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Speaker 1: the stigma of inferiority upon women, and pointed out that
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Speaker 1: the female as well as the male, was created in
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Speaker 1: the image of God. To those who regarded every word
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Speaker 1: of the Bible as inspired by God. The Woman's Bible
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Speaker 1: was heresy, and both the clergy and the press stirred
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Speaker 1: up a storm of protest against it. Suffragists were condemned
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Speaker 1: for compiling a new Bible, and were obliged to explain
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Speaker 1: again and again that the Woman's Bible expressed Missus Stanton's
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Speaker 1: personal views and not those of the movement. Susan regarded
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Speaker 1: the Woman's Bible as a futile, questionable digression from the
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Speaker 1: straight path of women's suffrage. To Clara Colby, who praised
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Speaker 1: it in her Woman's Tribune, she wrote, of all her
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Speaker 1: great speeches, I am always proud, But of her Bible commentaries,
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Speaker 1: I am not proud either of their spirit or letter.
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Speaker 1: I could cry a heap every time I read or
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Speaker 1: think if it would undo them, or do anybody, or myself,
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Speaker 1: or the cause or Missus Stanton any good. They are
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Speaker 1: so entirely unlike her former self, so flippant and superficial.
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Speaker 1: But she thinks I have gone over to the enemy,
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Speaker 1: so counts my judgment worth nothing more than that of
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Speaker 1: any narrow souled body. But I shall love and honor
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Speaker 1: her to the end, whether her Bible please me or not,
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Speaker 1: so I hope she will do for me. She was, however,
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Speaker 1: wholly unprepared for the rebellion staged by her girls at
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Speaker 1: the Washington Convention of eighteen ninety six, when led by
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Speaker 1: Rachel Foster Avery, they repudiated the Woman's Bible and proposed
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Speaker 1: a resolution declaring that their organization had no connection with it.
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Speaker 1: This was clear proof to Susan that her girls lacked
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Speaker 1: tolerance and wisdom. Listening to the debate, she was Heartsick,
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Speaker 1: Anna Howard Shaw and Missus cat as well as Alice
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Speaker 1: Stone Blackwell spoke for the resolution. Only a few raise
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Speaker 1: their voices against it, among them her sister Mary, Clara Colby,
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Speaker 1: Missus Blake, and a young woman new to the ranks,
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Speaker 1: Charlotte Perkins Stetson. Susan was presiding and leaving the chair
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Speaker 1: to express her opinions, she firmly declared to pass such
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Speaker 1: a resolution is to set back the hands on the
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Speaker 1: dial of reform. We have all sorts of people in
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Speaker 1: the Association, and a Christian has no more right on
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Speaker 1: our platform than an atheist. When this platform is too
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Speaker 1: narrow for all to stand on, I shall not be
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Speaker 1: on it. Who is to set up a line. Neither
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Speaker 1: you nor I can tell Missus Stanton will come out
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Speaker 1: triumphant and that this will be the great thing done
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Speaker 1: in woman's cause. Lucretia Mott at first thought Missus Stanton
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Speaker 1: had injured the cause of women's rights by insisting on
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Speaker 1: the demands and for woman's suffrage. But she had sense
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Speaker 1: enough not to pass a resolution about it. Are you
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Speaker 1: going to cater to the whims and prejudices of people?
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Speaker 1: She asked them, we draw out from other people our
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Speaker 1: own thought. If when you go out to organize, you
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Speaker 1: go with a broad spirit, you will create and call
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Speaker 1: out breath and toleration. You had better organize one woman
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Speaker 1: on a broad platform than ten thousand on a narrow
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Speaker 1: platform of intolerance and bigotry. Her voice tense with emotion,
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Speaker 1: she concluded, this resolution adopted will be a vote of
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Speaker 1: censure upon a woman who is, without a peer, an
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Speaker 1: intellectual and statesmanlike ability, one who has stood for half
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Speaker 1: a century, the acknowledged leader of progressive thought and demand
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Speaker 1: in regard to all matters retaining to the absolute freedom
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Speaker 1: of women. When the resolution was adopted fifty three to forty,
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Speaker 1: she was so disappointed in her girls, and so hurt
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Speaker 1: by their defiance that she was tempted to resign. Hurrying
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Speaker 1: to New York after the convention to talk with Missus Stanton,
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Speaker 1: she found her highly indignant and insistent that they both
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Speaker 1: resigned from the ungrateful organization which had repudiated the woman
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Speaker 1: to whom it owed its existence. The longer Susan considered
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Speaker 1: taking this step, the less she felt able to make
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Speaker 1: the break. She severely reprimanded Missus cat Rachel, Harriet Upton,
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Speaker 1: and Anna, telling them they were setting up an inquisition. Finally,
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Speaker 1: she wrote, Missus Stanton, no, my dear, instead of my
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Speaker 1: resigning and leaving those half fledged chickens without any mother,
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Speaker 1: I think it my duty and the duty of yourself
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Speaker 1: and all the liberals to be at the next convention
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Speaker 1: and try to reverse this miserable, narrow action. To a
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Speaker 1: reporter who wanted her views on the Woman's Bible, she
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Speaker 1: made it plain that she had no part in writing
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Speaker 1: the book, but added, I think women have just as
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Speaker 1: good a right to interpret and twist the Bible to
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Speaker 1: their own advantage as men have always twisted it and
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Speaker 1: turned it to theirs. It was written by men, and
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Speaker 1: therefore its reference to women reflects the light in which
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Speaker 1: they were regarded in those days. In the same way,
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Speaker 1: the history of our revolutionary War was written in which
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Speaker 1: very little is said of the noble deeds of women,
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Speaker 1: though we know how they stood by and helped the
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Speaker 1: great work. It is so with history all through. For
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Speaker 1: some years, Susan's girls had been urging her to write
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Speaker 1: the Reminiscences, spurred on by the fact that missus Stanton,
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Speaker 1: Mary Livermore and Julia Ward Howe were writing theirs. There
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Speaker 1: were also other good reasons for putting her to work
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Speaker 1: at this task. Writing would keep her safely at home
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Speaker 1: and away from the strenuous work in the field, which
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Speaker 1: they feared was sapping her strength. It would keep her
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Speaker 1: well occupied so that they could develop the work and
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Speaker 1: the conventions in their own way. Susan put off this
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Speaker 1: task from month to month and from year to year,
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Speaker 1: torn between her desire to leave a true record of
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Speaker 1: her work and her longing to be always in the
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Speaker 1: thick of the suffrage fight. Finally, she began looking about
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Speaker 1: for a collaborator, Convinced that she herself could never write
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Speaker 1: an interesting line. Ida Hustead Harper with her newspaper experience
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Speaker 1: and her interest in the cause seemed the logical choice,
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Speaker 1: and in the spring of eighteen ninety seven she came
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Speaker 1: to seventeen Madison Street to work on the biography. The
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Speaker 1: attic had been remodeled for work rooms, and here Susan
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Speaker 1: now spent her days with Missus Harper, trying to reconstruct
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Speaker 1: the past. She had definite ideas about how the book
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Speaker 1: should be written, holding up as a model the biography
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Speaker 1: of William Lloyd Garrison, recently written by his children. Missus
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Speaker 1: Harper always had high standards, and, influenced by the formalities
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Speaker 1: of the day, edited Susan's vivid, brusque letters, hurriedly written
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Speaker 1: and punctuated with dashes, so that they conformed with her own, easy,
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Speaker 1: but more formal style. To this Susan readily consented, for
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Speaker 1: she always depreciated her own writing ability. On one point, however,
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Speaker 1: she was adamant that her story be told without dwelling
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Speaker 1: upon the disagreements among the old workers. The household was
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Speaker 1: geared to the bog, as they call the biography. Mary,
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Speaker 1: supervising as usual, watched over their meals and the housework
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Speaker 1: with the aid of a young rosy cheeked Canadian girl
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Speaker 1: Anna Dan, who had recently come to work for them,
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Speaker 1: and whom they at once took to their hearts, making
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Speaker 1: her one of the family. Soon another young girl, Genevieve
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Speaker 1: Hawley from Fort Scott, Kansas, was employed to help with
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Speaker 1: the endless copying, sorting of letters, and pacing of scrap books,
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Speaker 1: and with the current correspondence which piled up and diverted
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Speaker 1: Susan from the book through eighteen ninety seven. In eighteen
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Speaker 1: ninety eight, they worked at top speed. The Life and
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Speaker 1: Work of Susan B. Anthony, A Story of the evolution
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Speaker 1: of the status of women, in two volumes by Ida
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Speaker 1: Hustead Harper, was published by the Bowen Merrill Company of
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Speaker 1: Indianapolis just before Christmas eighteen ninety eight. Happy as a
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Speaker 1: young girl out of school, Susan inscribed copies for her
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Speaker 1: many friends and eagerly watched for reviews, pleased with the
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Speaker 1: favorable comments in newspapers and magazines throughout this country and Europe.
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Speaker 1: By this time, the Cuban Rebellion was crowding all other
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Speaker 1: news out of the papers, and Susan followed it closely.
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Speaker 1: For this struggle for freedom instantly won her sympathy She
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Speaker 1: hoped that Spain, under pressure from the United States, might
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Speaker 1: be persuaded to give Cuba her independence, but the blowing
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Speaker 1: up of the Battleship Maine and the war cries of
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Speaker 1: the press and of a faction in Congress led to
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Speaker 1: the armed intervention in April eighteen ninety eight. Always opposed
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Speaker 1: to war as a means of settling disputes, she wrote
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Speaker 1: Rachel to think of the mothers of this nation sitting
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Speaker 1: back in silence, without even the power of a legal protest,
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Speaker 1: while their sons are taken without a by your leave,
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Speaker 1: well all through it is barbarous, and I hope you
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Speaker 1: and all our young women will rouse to work as
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Speaker 1: never before. And yet the women of the Republic, clothed
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Speaker 1: with the power of control, of conditions in peace or
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Speaker 1: when it shall come again, which Heaven forbid in war.
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Speaker 1: Not only did she express these sentiments in letters to
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Speaker 1: her friends, but in a public meeting where only patriotic
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Speaker 1: fervor and flag waving were welcome, she dared criticize the
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Speaker 1: unsanitary army camps and the greed and graft which deprived
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Speaker 1: soldiers of wholesome food. There isn't a mother in the
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Speaker 1: land she declared, who wouldn't know that a shipload of
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Speaker 1: typhoid stricken soldiers would need cots to lie on and
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Speaker 1: fuel to cook with, and that a swamp was not
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Speaker 1: a desirable place in which to pitch a camp. What
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Speaker 1: the government needs at such a time is not alone
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Speaker 1: bacteriologists and army officers, but also women who know how
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Speaker 1: to take care of sick boys and have the common
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Speaker 1: sense to surround them with sanitary conditions. At this her audience,
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Speaker 1: at first hostile, burst into applause, more and more disturbed
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Speaker 1: by the inefficient care of the wounded and the feeding
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Speaker 1: of enlisted men, She wrote Rachel, every day's reports and
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Speaker 1: comments about the war only show the need of women
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Speaker 1: at the front, not as employees permitted to be there
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Speaker 1: because they begged to be, but thereby right as managers
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Speaker 1: and dictators in all departments in which women have been trained,
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Speaker 1: those of feeding and caring for in health and nursing
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Speaker 1: the sick. The war over the problem of governing the Philippines,
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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico and Hawaii was of great interest to her,
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Speaker 1: and she at once asked for the enfranchisement of the
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Speaker 1: women of these newly won island possessions. She regarded it
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Speaker 1: as an outrage for the most democratic nation in the
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Speaker 1: world to foist upon them an exclusively masculine government, a
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Speaker 1: male oligarchy, as she called it. I really believe I
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Speaker 1: shall exc explode, she wrote Clara Colby. If some of
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Speaker 1: you young women don't wake up and raise your voice
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Speaker 1: in protest, I wonder if when I am under the
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Speaker 1: sod or cremated and floating in the air, I shall
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Speaker 1: have to stir you and others up. How can you
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Speaker 1: not be all on fire? The unwillingness of her girls
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Speaker 1: to relate women's suffrage to contemporary public affairs such as
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Speaker 1: this repeatedly disappointed her, Yet she was well aware that
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Speaker 1: the younger generation would never see the work through her
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Speaker 1: eyes or exactly follow her pattern. Disappointed that her National
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Speaker 1: American Woman's Suffrage Association did not attract members, as did
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Speaker 1: the w C T YOU or the General Federation of
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Speaker 1: Women's Clubs, she confessed to Clara Colby, it is the
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Speaker 1: disheartening part of my life that so very few women
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Speaker 1: will work for the emancipation of their own half of
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Speaker 1: the race. Watching women flock into these other organizations and
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Speaker 1: contributing to all sorts of charities. She was obliged to
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Speaker 1: admit that very few are capable of seeing that the
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Speaker 1: cause of nine tenths of all the misfortunes which come
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Speaker 1: to women and to men also lies in the subjection
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Speaker 1: of women, and therefore the important thing is to lay
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Speaker 1: the axe at the root. She also discovered that it
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Speaker 1: was one thing to build up a large organization and
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Speaker 1: another to keep women so busy with pressing work for
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Speaker 1: the cause that they did not find time to expend
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Speaker 1: their energies on the mechanics of organization. Not only did
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Speaker 1: she chafe at the red tape most of them spun,
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Speaker 1: but she often felt that they were too prone to
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Speaker 1: linger in academic byeways, listening to speeches, and holding pleasant conventions.
27:11
Speaker 1: Since the California campaign of eighteen ninety six, only one state, Washington,
27:17
Speaker 1: had been roused to vote on a woman's suffrage amendment,
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Speaker 1: which was defeated, and only one more state, Delaware, had
27:25
Speaker 1: granted women the right to vote for members of school boards.
27:30
Speaker 1: Again and again, she warned her girls that some kind
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Speaker 1: of action on women's suffrage by Congress every year was important.
27:39
Speaker 1: A hearing a committee report, a debate, or even an
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Speaker 1: unfavorable vote would she was convinced do more to stir
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Speaker 1: up the whole nation than all the speakers and organizers
27:54
Speaker 1: that could be sent through the country. Such thoughts as
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Speaker 1: these relative to the work which was always on her mind,
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Speaker 1: she dashed off to one after another of her young colleagues.
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Speaker 1: Your letters sound like a trumpet blast, wrote Anna Howard Shaw,
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Speaker 1: grateful for her counsel. They read like Saint Paul's Epistles
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Speaker 1: to the Romans, so strong, so clear, so full of courage.
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Speaker 1: At seventy eight, Susan realized that the time was approaching
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Speaker 1: when she must make up her mind to turn over
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Speaker 1: to a younger woman the presidency of the National American Association,
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Speaker 1: and in the summer of eighteen ninety eight she announced
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Speaker 1: to her executive committee that she would retire on her
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Speaker 1: eightieth birthday in nineteen hundred. End of Chapter twenty four