Susan B. Anthony
1820 - 1906
ANTHONY, Susan Brownell, reformer, born in South Adams, Massachusetts, 15 Feb., 1820. Daniel Anthony, her father, a cotton manufacturer, was a liberal Quaker, who educated his daughters with the idea of self-support, and employed skillful teachers in his own house. After completing her education at a Friends' boarding-school in Philadelphia, she taught in New York state from 1835 to 1850. Her father removed in 1826 to Washington County, New York, and in 1846 settled at Rochester.
Students and Teachers of US History this is a video of Stanley and Christopher Klos presenting America's Four United Republics Curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. The December 2015 video was an impromptu capture by a member of the audience of Penn students, professors and guests that numbered about 200.
Miss Anthony first spoke in public in 1847, and from that time took part in the temperance movement, organizing societies and lecturing. In 1851 she called a temperance convention in Albany, after being refused admission to a previous convention on account of her sex. In 1852 the Woman's New York State Temperance Society was organized. Through her exertions, and those of Mrs. E. C. Stanton, women came to be admitted to educational and other conventions with the right to speak, vote, and serve on committees. About 1857 she became prominent among the agitators for the abolition of slavery. In 1858 she made a report, in a teachers' convention at Troy, in favor of the co-education of the sexes. Her energies have been chiefly directed to securing equal civil rights for women. In 1854-'55 she held conventions in each county of New York in the cause of female suffrage, and since then she has addressed annual appeals and petitions to the legislature. She was active in securing the passage of the act of the New York legislature of 1860, giving to married women the possession of their earnings, the guardianship of their children, etc.
During the war she devoted herself to the women's loyal league, which petitioned congress in favor of the 13th amendment. In 1860 she started a petition in favor of leaving out the word " male" in the 14th amend-merit, and worked with the national woman suffrage association to induce congress to secure to her sex the right of voting. In 1867 she went to Kansas with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone, and there obtained 9,000 votes in favor of woman suffrage.
Petition From Susan B. Anthony to the United States Congress
The US National Archives and Records Administration
The US National Archives and Records Administration
In 1868, with the cooperation of Mrs. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, and with the assistance of George F. Train, she began, in New York city, the publication of a weekly paper called "The Revolutionist," devoted to the emancipation of women. In 1872 Miss Anthony cast ballots at the state and congressional election in Rochester, in order to test the application of the 14th and 15th amendments of the U. S. constitution. She was indicted for illegal voting, and was fined by Justice Hunt, but, in accordance with her defiant declaration, never paid the penalty.
On November 18, 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested by a U.S. Deputy Marshal for voting on November 5 in the 1872 Presidential Election two weeks earlier. Anthony wrote to Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she had "positively voted the Republican ticket—straight...". Her defense at the trial was based on the recently adopted Fourteenth Amendment: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. " Below is Anthony's indictment and sentencing dialogue.
Dad, why are you a Republican?
Susan B. Anthony
Sentencing Dialogue
Between 1870 and 1880 she lectured in all the northern and several of the southern states more than one hundred times a year. In 1881 she wrote, with the assistance of her co-editors, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage, "The History of Woman Suffrage," in two volumes. This was latter expanded to four volumes by Anthony et al and published in New York, 1884–1887.
On November 18, 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested by a U.S. Deputy Marshal for voting on November 5 in the 1872 Presidential Election two weeks earlier. Anthony wrote to Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she had "positively voted the Republican ticket—straight...". Her defense at the trial was based on the recently adopted Fourteenth Amendment: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. " Below is Anthony's indictment and sentencing dialogue.
INDICTMENT AGAINST SUSAN B. ANTHONY
January 1873
January 1873
DISTRICT
COURT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN AND FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW
YORK
At a stated session of the
District Court of the United States of America, held in and for the Northern
District of New York, at the City Hall, in the city of Albany, in the said
Northern District of New York, on the third Tuesday of January, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, before the Honorable
Nathan K. Hall, Judge of the said Court, assigned to keep the peace of the said
United States of America, in and for the said District, and also to hear and
determine divers Felonies, Misdemeanors and other offenses against the said
United States of America, in the said District committed.
The
good and lawful men of the said District, then and there sworn and charged to
inquire for the said United States of America, and for the body of said
District, do, upon their oaths, present, that Susan B. Anthony now or late of
Rochester, in the county of Monroe, with force .and arms, etc., to-wit: at and
in the first election district of the eighth ward of the city of Roehester, in
the county of Monroe, in said Northern District of New York, and within the
jurisdiction of this Court, heretofore, to-wit: on the fifth day of November,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, at an
election duly held at and in the first election district of the said eighth
ward of the city of Rochester, in said county, and in said Northern District of
New York, which said election was for Representatives in the Congress of the
United States, to-wit: a Representative in the Congress cf the United States
for the State of New York at large, and a Representative in the Congress of the
United States for the twenty-ninth Congressional District of the State of New
York, said Hi st election district of said eighth ward of said city of
Rochester, being then and there a part of said twenty ninth Congressional
District of the State of New York, did knowingly, wrongfully and unlawfully
vote for a Representative in the Congress of the United States for the State of
New York at large, and for a Representative in the Congress of the United
States for said twenty-ninth Congressional District, without having a lawful
right to vote in said election district (the said Susan B. Anthony being then
and there a person of the female sex,) as she, the said Susan B. Anthony then
and there well knew, contrary to the form of the statute of the United States
of America in such case made and provided, and against the peace of the United
States of America and their dignity.
Second
Count—And the jurors aforesaid upon their oaths aforesaid do further present
that said Susan B. Anthony, now or late of Rochester, in the county of Monroe,
with force and arms, etc., to-wit: at and in - the first election district of
the eighth ward of the city . of Rochester, in the county of Monroe, in said
Northern District of New York, and within the jurisdiction of this Court,
heretofore, to-wit: on the fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, at an election duly held at and in the
first election district of the said eighth ward, of said city of Rochester, in
said county, and in said Northern District of New York, which said election was
for Representatives in the Congress of the United States, to-wit i a
Representative in the Congress of the United States for the State of New York
at large, and a Representative in the Congress of the United States for the
twenty-ninth Congressional District of the State of New York, said first
election district of said eighth ward, of said city of Rochester, being then
and there a part of said twenty-ninth Congressional District of the State of
New York, did knowingly, wrongfully and unlawfully vote for a candidate for
Representative in the Congress of the United States for the State of New York
at large, and for a candidate for Representative in the Congress of the United
States for said twenty-ninth Congressional District, without having a lawful
right to vote in said first election district (the said Susan B. Anthony being
then and there a person of the female sex,) as she, the said Susan B. Anthony
then and there well knew, contrary to the form of the statute of the United
States of America in such case made and provided, and against the peace of the
United States of America and their dignity.
RICHARD CROWLEY, Attorney of
the United States, For the Northern District of New York.
Jan. 24, 1873.
Pleads not guilty.
Dad, why are you a Republican?
Susan B. Anthony
Sentencing Dialogue
Judge
Hunt: (Ordering the defendant to stand up), "Has
the prisoner anything to say why sentence shall not be pronounced?"
Miss
Anthony: Yes, your honor, I have many
things to say; for in your ordered verdict of guilty, you have trampled under
foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil
rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored. Robbed
of the fundamental privilege of citizenship, I am degraded from the status of a
citizen to that of a subject; and not only myself individually, but all of my
sex, are, by your honor's verdict, doomed to political subjection under this,
so-called, form of government.
Judge
Hunt: The Court cannot listen to a
rehearsal of arguments the prisoner's counsel has already consumed three hours
in presenting.
Miss
Anthony: May it please your honor, I am
not arguing the question, but; simply stating the reasons why sentence cannot,
in justice, be pronounced against me. Your denial of my citizen's right to
vote, is the denial of my right of consent as one of the governed, the denial
of my right of representation as one of the taxed, the denial of my right to a
trial by a jury of my peers as an offender against law, therefore, the denial
of my sacred rights to life, liberty, property and—
Judge
Hunt: The Court cannot allow the prisoner
to go on.
Miss
Anthony: But your honor will not deny me
this one and only poor privilege of protest against this high-handed outrage
upon my citizen's rights. May it please the Court to remember that since the
day of my arrest last November, this is the first time that either myself or
any person of my disfranchised class has been allowed a word of defense before
judge or jury—
Judge
Hunt: The prisoner must sit down — the
Court cannot allow it.
Miss
Anthony: All of my prosecutors, from the
8th ward corner grocery politician, who entered the complaint, to the United
States Marshal, Commissioner, District Attorney, District Judge, your honor on
the bench, not one is my peer, but each and all are my political sovereigns;
and had your honor submitted my case to the jury, as was clearly your duty,
even then I should have had just cause of protest, for not one of those men was
my peer; but, native or foreign born, white or black, rich or poor, educated or
ignorant, awake or asleep, sober or drunk, each and every man of them was my
political superior; hence, in no sense, my peer. Even, under such
circumstances, a commoner of England, tried before a jury of Lords, Would have
far less cause to complain than should I, a woman, tried before a jury of men.
Even my counsel, the Hon. Henry R. Selden, who has argued my cause so ably, so
earnestly, so unanswerably before your honor, is my political sovereign.
Precisely as no disfranchised person is entitled to sit upon a jury, and no
woman is entitled to the franchise, so, none but a regularly admitted lawyer is
allowed to practice in the courts, and no woman can gain admission to the bar hence,
jury, judge, counsel, must all be of the superior class.
Judge
Hunt: The Court must insist—the prisoner
has been tried according to the established forms of law.
Miss
Anthony: Yes, your honor, but by forms of
law all made by men, interpreted by men, administered by men, in favor of men,
and against women; and hence, your honor's ordered verdict of guilty, against a
United States citizen for the exercise of " that citizen? a right to
vote" simply because that citizen was a woman and not a man. But,
yesterday, the same man made forms of law, declared it a crime punishable with
$1,000 line and six months' imprisonment, for you, or me, or any of us, to give
a cup of cold water, a crust of bread, or a night's shelter to a panting
fngitive as he was tracking his way to Canada. And every man or woman in whose
veins conrsed a drop of human sympathy violated that wicked law, reckless of
consequences, and was justified in so doing. As then, the slaves who got their
freedom must take it over, or under, or through the unjust forms of law,
precisely so, now, must women, to get their right to a voice in this government,
take it; and I have taken mine, and mean to take it at every possible
opportunity.
Judge
Hunt: The Court orders the prisoner to
sit down. It will not allow another word.
Miss
Anthony—When I was brought before your
honor for trial, I hoped for a broad and liberal interpretation of the
Constitution and its recent amendments, that should declare all United States
citizens under its prottcting a?gis—that should declare equality of rights the
national guarantee to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. But
failing to get this justice—failing, even, to get a trial by a jury not of my
peers—I ask not leniency at your hands—but rather the full rigors of the law.
Judge
Hunt: The Court must insist—
(Here
the prisoner sat down.)
Judge
Hunt: The prisoner will stand up.
(Here
Miss Anthony arose again.)
The
sentence of the Court is that you pay a fine of one hundred dollars and the
costs of the prosecution.
Miss
Anthony: May it please your honor, I
shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. All the stock in trade I
possess is a $10,000 debt, incurred by publishing my paper—The Revolution—four
years ago. the sole object of which was to educate all women to do precisely as
I have done, rebel against your manmade, unjust, unconstitutional forms of law,
that tax, tine, imprison and hang women, while they deny them the right of
representation in the government; and I shall work on with might and main to
pay every dollar of that honest debt, but not a penny shall go to this unjust claim.
And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the
practical recognition of the old revolutionary maxim, that "Resistance to,
tyranny is obedience to God."
Judge
Hunt: Madam, the Court will not order you
committed until the fine is paid.
Between 1870 and 1880 she lectured in all the northern and several of the southern states more than one hundred times a year. In 1881 she wrote, with the assistance of her co-editors, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage, "The History of Woman Suffrage," in two volumes. This was latter expanded to four volumes by Anthony et al and published in New York, 1884–1887.
 |
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony |
Susan B. Anthony, in 1890, orchestrated the merger of the NWSA with American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) thus creating the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The NSWA's merger of the Lucy's Stone's moderate AWSA marginalized the more radical elements within the women's movement, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Susan B. Anthony in an attempt to unite all the leaders campaigned hard for Stanton to be voted in as the first NAWSA president.
For More Information go to
America's Four United Republics
America's Four United Republics
After retiring in 1900, Anthony remained in Rochester but remained very active in correspondence for women's rights. In another i letter dated April 11, 1900 Susan B. Anthony, aged 80, writes a young feminist preparing for a speech on National American Woman Suffrage Association letterhead:
I have put you up a most valuable lot of ammunition--1st the Congressional Hearing speeches of 1894--containing a most careful & exhaustive compilation of testimony of Woman Suffrage in Wyoming-- Second--the House Hearing of 1898--that contains a valuable statement on School Suffrage and on Universal[?] suffrage--& one on & from each of the free states--Wyoming, Colorado, Utah & Idaho...Then--3d--the Senate hearing of 1900--with unanswerable statements--from most reliable women--then the House report of 1900--has valuable papers on Economic reasons for Woman Suffrage. Enquire at your various city Libraries for History of Woman Suffrage & Life & Work of S.B.A....Hope you will have a splendid debate--& that you will send me a report thereof....
A series of family letters that recently sold in at Christies Auction house revealed a feminist leader who expressed some strong opinions about marriage and notions of manliness. Here, in a April 2, 1900 letter, Anthony has several words of advice on proper male behavior :
There are but few things necessary for you to reach the height of your avocation, and those are the strictest integrity, patience and perseverance, and continuance in what I hope are now your fully established habits of eschewing the so-called pet vices of men." 23 May 1900: She mentions attending the Republican national convention in 1900 and hopes Burt is "living up to your highest ideal of true manliness.
In a June 26, 1900 she writes her nieces:
I do hope everything will work together for the happiness of Anna O. & Leon A. Everything will hinge on their capacity to conform one to the other, or at least to be happy in seeing the other not conform, but acting out his or her own individual idea.
But the subsequent marriage and the name change of her nieces upsets her and she writes on July 11, 1900:
So the nieces of Susan B. Anthony blot their own and their family names out of existence at one fell swoop of the pen. Well, if her nieces have no love for their identity, no reverence for a name they have been known by for 26 years, how can we expect the daughters & nieces of other people to care or do other than bury themselves under the name of the man they love!
Several of the letters also mention Anthony lecturing at Chautauqua and other places, while others mention fellow feminists Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna H. Shaw. She takes a jibe at lawyers and thinks about mortality on January 11, 1905, when she summons her nephew to a family meeting on estate-planning:
Your Mother wants to fix her property so that the lawyers wont get the major part of it when she dies. She doesn't calculate to die, but then nobody does, so everybody should be prepared for it.
 |
14 Months later, on March 13, 1905, Susan B. Anthony died of heart disease and pneumonia in her house at 17 Madison Street on March 13, 1906. She was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery. The New York Times Obituary reads:
ROCHESTER, March 13, -- Miss Susan B. Anthony died at 12:40 o'clock this morning. The end came peacefully. Miss Anthony had been unconscious practically all of the time for more than twenty-four hours, and her death had been almost momentarily expected since last night. Only her wonderful constitution kept her alive.
Dr. M. S. Ricker, her attending physician, said Miss Anthony died of heart disease and pneumonia of both lungs. She had had serious valvular heart trouble for the last six or seven years. Her lungs were practically clear and the pneumonia had yielded to treatment, but the weakness of her heart prevented her recovery.
Miss Anthony was taken ill while on her way home from the National Suffrage Convention in Baltimore. She stopped in New York, where a banquet was to be given Feb. 20 in honor of her eighty-sixth birthday, but she had an attack of neuralgia on Feb. 18 and hastened home. Pneumonia developed after her arrival here, and on March 5 both her lungs became affected. She rallied, but had a relapse three days ago, and the end after that never was in doubt.
Miss Anthony herself had believed that she would recover. Early in her illness she told her friends that she expected to live to be as old as her father, who was over 90 when he died. But on Wednesday she said to her sister:
"Write to Anna Shaw immediately, and tell her I desire that every cent I leave when I pass out of this life shall be given to the fund which Miss Thomas and Miss Garrett are raising for the cause. I have given my life and all I am to it, and now I want my last act to be to give it all I have, to the last cent. Tell Anna Shaw to see that this is done."
Miss Shaw said:
"On Sunday, about two hours before she became unconscious, I talked with Miss Anthony, and she said: 'To think I have had more than sixty years of hard struggle for a little liberty, and then to die without it seems so cruel."
Susan Brownell Anthony was a pioneer leader of the cause of woman suffrage, and her energy was tireless in working for what she considered to be the best interests of womankind. At home and abroad she had innumerable friends, not only among those who sympathized with her views, but among those who held opinions radically opposed to her. In recent years her age made it impossible for her to continue active participation in all the movements for the enfranchisement of women with which she had been connected, but she was at the time of her death the Honorary President of the National Woman Suffrage Association, the society which she and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized in 1869.
Miss Anthony possessed a figure of medium size, a firm but rather pleasing face, clear hazel eyes, and dark hair which she always wore combed smoothly over the ears and bound in a coil at the back. She paid much attention to dress and advised those associated in the movement for women suffrage to be punctilious in all matters pertaining to the toilet. For a little over a year in the early fifties she wore a bloomer costume, consisting of a short skirt and a pair of Turkish trousers gathered at the ankles. So great an outcry arose against the innovation both from the pulpit and the press that she was subjected to many indignities, and forced to abandon it.
 |
| Pioneering women in the abolitionist and women’s rights movements of the 19th century. Lucretia Mott, Grace Greenwood, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anna Dickinson, Mary Livermore, Susan B. Anthony, and Lydia Maria Child. |
Miss Anthony was born at South Adams, Mass., on Feb. 15, 1820. Daniel Anthony, her father, a liberal Quaker, was a cotton manufacturer. Susan Anthony was first instructed by teachers at home. She was sent afterward to finish her education at a Friends' boarding school in Philadelphia. She continued to attend this school until, at the age of fifteen, she was occasionally called on to help in the teaching. At seventeen she received a dollar a week with board by teaching in a private family, and the next summer a district school engaged her for $1.50 a week and "boarded her round." She continued to teach until 1852, when she found her taste for this profession entirely gone, a school in Rochester being her last charge.
Miss Anthony had become impressed with the idea that women were suffering great wrongs, and when she abandoned school teaching, having saved only about $300, she determined to enter the lecture field. People of to-day can scarcely understand the strong prejudices Miss Anthony had to live down. In 1851 she called a temperance convention in Albany, admittance to a previous convention having been refused to her because it was not the custom to admit women. The Women's New York State Temperance Society was organized the following year. Through Miss Anthony's exertions and those of Elizabeth Cady Stanton women soon came to be admitted to educational and other conventions, with the right to speak, vote, and act upon committees.
Miss Anthony's active participation in the movement for woman suffrage started in the fifties. As early as 1854 she arranged conventions throughout the State and annually bombarded the Legislature with messages and appeals. She was active in obtaining the passage of the act of the New York Legislature in 1860 giving to married women the possession of their earnings and the guardianship of their children. During the war she was devoted to the Women's Loyal League, which petitioned Congress in favor of the thirteenth amendment. She was also directly interested in the fourteenth amendment, sending a petition in favor of leaving out the word "male."
In company with Mrs. Stanton and Lucy Stone, Miss Anthony went to Kansas in 1867, and there obtained 9,000 votes in favor of woman suffrage. The following year, with the co-operation of Mrs. Stanton, Parker Pillsbury, and George Francis Train, she began the publication in this city of a weekly paper called The Revolutionist, devoted to the emancipation of women.
In order to test the application of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments she cast ballots in the State and Congressional election in Rochester in 1872. She was indicted and ordered to pay a fine, but the order was never enforced.
Miss Anthony succeeded Mrs. Stanton as President of the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1892, Mrs. Stanton having resigned because of old age. This office she held until February, 1899, her farewell address being delivered at a meeting of the association in Washington. For a number of years she averaged 100 lectures a year. She engaged in eight different State campaigns for a Constitutional amendment enfranchising women, and hearings before committees of practically every Congress since 1869 were granted to her.
She was the joint author with Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, and Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage of "The History of Woman Suffrage." She also was a frequent contributor to magazines. Edited 1888 Appleton's American Biography
Susan B. Anthony was once asked if all women in the United States would ever be given the right to vote. She said, "it will come, but I shall not see it...It is inevitable. We can no more deny forever the right of self-government to one-half our people than we could keep the Negro forever in bondage. It will not be wrought by the same disrupting forces that freed the slave, but come it will, and I believe within a generation." Anthony maintained that "failure is impossible" and often used this phrase to encourage them on in the long struggle ahead that ultimately resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, penned by Anthony and Stanton, on August 26, 1920.
Susan B. Anthony retired in 1900 and remained in Rochester until her death on March 13, 1906. Anthony was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery and was honored by a New York State Senate resolution remembering her "unceasing labor, undaunted courage and unselfish devotion to many philanthropic purposes and to the cause of equal political rights for women."
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
By: Ida Husted Harper
 |
| Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1880's carte-de-visite portrait |
IN the death of Susan B. Anthony, on March 13, the world lost its greatest woman reformer. There never will be another of equal rank, because conditions never will demand one. When she began her work for women they were legally in a position not far removed from slavery; industrially, they had no acknowledged place; educationally, they were only beginning to be considered; socially, they occupied a most contracted sphere; politically, they scarcely were thought of.
It is not possible to put into words the inferior status of women in the middle of the last century, when Miss Anthony, a young woman of thirty, stood forth as a leader of the most forlorn and hopeless cause that ever called for recognition and assistance. She started out to move the world without a spot on which to rest her lever. Those she wished to regenerate were for the most part an inert mass, who, when roused to action, only protested against being disturbed. There was no homogeneity, no esprit de corps, among women; each lived her narrow, isolated life, reaching out feebly to help those within immediate reach, but utterly unconscious of responsibility to the community in general or the world at large. They suffered from many wrongs, but they had been taught for countless generations that to protest was rebellion against the Divine Will. Church, State. and Society combined, to rivet their chains, and when one came who would set them free the oppressors crucified her and the oppressed gave sanction to the act. To face this situation, to stand almost single-handed against the tyranny, bigotry, prejudice, ignorance, and deep-seated customs of the ages, to have no precedent for a guide, no past victories for an inspiration, no present sympathy or gratitude,—this was what it meant to wage the battle for the rights of women half a century ago. Now practically all of these hard conditions have been met and conquered, so there never will be, there never can be. another Susan B. Anthony. She will forever stand alone and unapproached, her fame continually increasing as evolution lifts humanity into higher appreciation of justice and liberty.
It is not possible to put into words the inferior status of women in the middle of the last century, when Miss Anthony, a young woman of thirty, stood forth as a leader of the most forlorn and hopeless cause that ever called for recognition and assistance. She started out to move the world without a spot on which to rest her lever. Those she wished to regenerate were for the most part an inert mass, who, when roused to action, only protested against being disturbed. There was no homogeneity, no esprit de corps, among women; each lived her narrow, isolated life, reaching out feebly to help those within immediate reach, but utterly unconscious of responsibility to the community in general or the world at large. They suffered from many wrongs, but they had been taught for countless generations that to protest was rebellion against the Divine Will. Church, State. and Society combined, to rivet their chains, and when one came who would set them free the oppressors crucified her and the oppressed gave sanction to the act. To face this situation, to stand almost single-handed against the tyranny, bigotry, prejudice, ignorance, and deep-seated customs of the ages, to have no precedent for a guide, no past victories for an inspiration, no present sympathy or gratitude,—this was what it meant to wage the battle for the rights of women half a century ago. Now practically all of these hard conditions have been met and conquered, so there never will be, there never can be. another Susan B. Anthony. She will forever stand alone and unapproached, her fame continually increasing as evolution lifts humanity into higher appreciation of justice and liberty.
The paternal ancestors of Miss Anthony, who belonged to the Society of Friends, came from England in 1634 and settled in Rhode Island. Her father was born in Adams, Mass.. and this also was the place of her own birth. February 15, 1820, the second in a family of eight children. Her mother's ancestors had lived in Massachusetts for generations; her maternal grandfather. Daniel Head, served with honor through the entire War of the Revolution, and was afterward a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, so that Miss Anthony's mar tial and law-making qualifications were directly inherited. Her two brothers fought for the Union in the Civil War. One of these, Col. D. R. Anthony, made a brilliant record, and afterward settling in Leavenworth, Kan., was conspicuous in the business and political life of the State until his death, in 1904, at the age of eighty. The father, Daniel Anthony, who was a prosperous cotton manufacturer in Adams, removed his mills to Battenville, X. Y., in 1826.
After the commercial panic of 1837-38, the family went, in 1845, to Rochester, N. Y., which ment. The education of women in those days was much neglected, but he employed the best of teachers in his own home, and when she was seventeen placed her in a Friends' boardingschool near Philadelphia. He believed not only in the equal rights of women in every respect, but also in their economic independence, so he encouraged her, first, in her teaching, which she followed until she was thirty, and afterward in her platform work. She was principal of the girls' department in the academy at Canajoharie, N. Y., from 1846 until the summer of 1849, when the narrow life of the schoolroom became intolerable and she left it forever.
After the commercial panic of 1837-38, the family went, in 1845, to Rochester, N. Y., which ment. The education of women in those days was much neglected, but he employed the best of teachers in his own home, and when she was seventeen placed her in a Friends' boardingschool near Philadelphia. He believed not only in the equal rights of women in every respect, but also in their economic independence, so he encouraged her, first, in her teaching, which she followed until she was thirty, and afterward in her platform work. She was principal of the girls' department in the academy at Canajoharie, N. Y., from 1846 until the summer of 1849, when the narrow life of the schoolroom became intolerable and she left it forever.
A WORKER IN THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE
Women at this time were timidly doing their first semi-public work in the cause of temperance through small organizations called Daughters' Unions, whose duties consisted mainly in giving suppers to raise money for assisting the men in this movement, which was wholly in their hands. When at one of these suppers in the town hall at Canajoharie Miss Anthony mounted the platform and made an address, it was an innovation which women resented even more than men. This was her first speech, March 1, 1849. When she returned to Rochester she organized the women there, and, scorning the idea of being merely an annex to the men's societies, she arranged to have women delegates sent to the temperance conventions, and went herself in that capacity. The almost incredible story of their treatment at these meetings may be read in her biography, and it resulted in the determination of Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton, and other progressive women to form a State Woman's Temperance Association, which should be entirely independent. This was done in 1852, and it was the first State organization of women for any purpose. Two very successful conventions were held in Rochester, but there was so much opposition to Mrs. Stanton's radical opinions, in which Miss Anthony sustained her, that finally both turned to other fields of work.
HER PART IN THE ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION
Miss Anthony attended her first Woman's Rights convention in Syracuse, N. Y., in 1852, and from that time she never wavered in her belief that the right of suffrage was infinitely more important than any other, that if it could be secured all others could be easily obtained, but that without this women were fighting their battles unarmed and helpless. During fiftythree years of her life she devoted her splendid mentality and personality to the one object of the enfranchisement of women. Once only did she turn aside, and that was to assist in the urgent work for the abolition of slavery. The Anthony home was a meeting-place for that group of reformers known as the Garrisonians, and here came often Garrison, Phillips. Pillsbury, Douglass. Channing, May, the Fosters, and many other leading Abolitionists, with whom Mr. Anthony was in close sympathy. Naturally, this woman, the keynote of whose life was individual liberty, became a valuable factor in this great movement. She arranged and managed public meetings, spoke herself from one end of the State to the other, and more than once, in the dark days preceding the Civil War, fearlessly faced an angry mob when even the men fled.
In 1863, when it became evident that the Emancipation Proclamation would have to be reenforced by Congressional action, leaders in the Republican party appealed to Miss Anthony to assist in the vast undertaking of gathering petitions to this body. Going at once to New York, she joined forces with Mrs. Stanton, and they called a meeting of women for May 14, in the Church of the Puritans. An immense audience was present, and the Women's National Loyal League was formed that day, with Mrs. Stanton president and Miss Anthony secretary. Headquarters were opened in Cooper Institute, and, assisted by many prominent women, the work of securing petitions was continued without cessation for a year and a quarter. Miss Anthony superintended all this work and raised every dollar of the fund of over five thousand dollars that was required. More than four hundred thousand names were obtained, and Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson wrote repeatedly that these formed the bulwark of the authority by which the Thirteenth Amendment was submitted.
RELATIONS WITH MRS. STANTON
The strong and beautiful friendship between Miss Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton was referred to at length in an article which appeared after Mrs. Stanton's death (review Ok Reviews. December. 1902). It began in 1851, and continued without interruption for over half a century. Each possessed certain qualities lacking in the other, and the two formed an invincible combination, which history shows was the most powerful agency in revolutionizing the status of woman. In 1868 a weekly paper, appropriately called The. Revolution, was established in New York, with Mrs. Stanton as editor and Miss Anthony as business manager. Nothing ever had appeared so bold, radical, and outspoken on all matters relating to women, and it attracted the attention of the entire country. It was. however, so far ahead of the time that it did not receive the necessary financial support, and after two years and a half it had to be given up. No one of the many disappointments in Miss Anthony's life was so keen as this, and the saddest chapter in her biography is the one describing this period.
THE LONG CAMPAIGN FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE
In 1869, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton, and others formed, in New York City, the National Woman Suffrage Association, the first national organization of women. In this Miss Anthony always held official position, and was president after Mrs. Stanton's retirement, in 1892, until she resigned in 1900, at the time of her eightieth birthday, and became honorary president. She missed only two of the thirty-seven annual conventions, and then was lecturing in the Far West. Committees of every Congress from 1869 to 1906 were addressed by her for the purpose of obtaining action which would lead to the enfranchisement of women.
 |
1873 Petition from National Woman Suffrage Association To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in Congress Assembled from the National Archives |
National Woman Suffrage Association
President, Susan B. Anthony,Rochester, N.Y.
Ch'n Ex. Com, Matilda Joslyn Gage,Fayetteville, N.Y.
Cor. Sec'y, Jane Graham Jones,910 Prairie Ave., Chicago, Ill.
For. Cor. Sec'y, Laura Curtis Bullard,85 East Thirty-ninth St., New York.
Rec. Sec'y, Mary F. Davis,Orange, New Jersey.
Treasurer, Ellen C. Sargent,Washington, D.C.
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in Congress Assembled,
We the undersigned, citizens of the United States, but deprived of some of the privileges and immunities of citizens among which, is the right to vote, beg leave to submit the following resolution:
Resolved; that we the officers and members of the National Woman Suffrage Association, in convention assembled, respectfully ask Congress to enact appropriate legislation during its present session to protect women citizens in the several states of this Union, in their right to vote.
Susan B. Anthony, Pres Matilda Joslyn Gage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Constitution of the National Woman Suffrage Association
Article 1. -- This organization shall be called the National Woman Suffrage Association.
Article 2. -- The object of this Association shall be to secure STATE and NATIONAL protection for women citizens in the exercise of their right to vote.
Article 3. -- All citizens of the United States subscribing to this Constitution and contributing not less than one dollar annually, shall be considered members of the Association, with the right to participate in its deliberations.
Article 4. -- The officers of this Association shall be a President, a Vice-President from each of the States and Territories, Corresponding and Recording Secretaries, a Treasurer, an Executive Committee of not less than five, and an Advisory Committee consisting of one person from each State and Territory.
Article 5. -- All Women Suffrage Societies throughout the country shall be welcomed as auxiliaries; and their accredited officers or duly appointed representatives shall be recognized as members of the National Association.
Officers of the National Woman Suffrage Association
President Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N. Y.
Vice-Presidents
Lucretia Mott, Philadelphia, Penn.
|
Ruth C. Denison, Washington, D.C.
|
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Tenafly, N. J.
|
Anna W. Bodeker, Richmond, Va.
|
Isabella Beecher Hooker, Hartford, Ct.
|
Ada Gregg, Wheeling, West Va.
|
Martha C. Wright, Auburn, N. Y.
|
Mary Brown, Ashville, N. Carolina.
|
Jane Voorhees Leslie, New Castle, Del.
|
Frances Anne Pillsbury, Charleston, S.C.
|
Lavinia S. Dundore, Baltimore, Md.
|
Emma Barber, Lexington, Ky.
|
Paulina W. Davis, Providence, R. I.
|
Flora McMartin Wright, Pulatki, Fla.
|
Sarah A. Vibbard, East Boston, Mass.
|
Mary Spaulding, Atlanta, Georgia.
|
Mrs. E. W. Willard, Montpelier, Vt.
|
Mrs. P. Holmes Drake, Mt. Hope, Ala.
|
Abbie P. Ela, Rochester, N. H.
|
Emily P. Collins, New Orleans, La.
|
Lucy A. Snowe, Rockland, Me.
|
Mrs. W.V. Tunstall, Palestine, Texas.
|
Elizabeth Coit, Columbus, Ohio.
|
Elizabeth B. Schenck, San Francisco, Cal.
|
Catherine F. Stebbins, Detroit, Mich.
|
Hannah. H. Clapp, Carson City, Nevada.
|
Mary F. Thomas, Richmond, Ind.
|
Julia Brown Bemis, Omaha, Nebraska.
|
Harriet S. Brooks, Chicago, Ill.
|
Clarinda I. H. Nichols, Wyandotte, Kan.
|
Mathilde Anneke, Milwaukee, Wis.
|
Mary McCook, Denver, Colorado.
|
Fannie Eldridge Russell, Silver Lake, Minn.
|
Sarah Stenhouse, Salt Lake, Utah.
|
Annie C. Savery, Des Moines, Iowa.
|
Mary P. Sawtelle, Salem, Oregon.
|
Frances Miner, St. Louis, Mo.
|
Mary O. Brown, Seattle, Wash. Ter.
|
Eliz. Avery Meriwether, Memphis, Tenn.
|
Mary B. Post, Cheyenne, Wyoming Ter.
|
Advisory Committee
Ernestine L. Rose, New York.
|
Mrs. J. C. Underwood, Alexandria, Va.
|
Helen P. Jenkens, Pittsburg, Penn.
|
Mrs. E. J. Kirby, Pendleton, S. C.
|
Deborah W. Butler, Vineland, N. J.
|
Phoebe W. Couzens, St. Louis, Mo.
|
Ellen M. Harris, Baltimore, Md.
|
Ann L. Quinby, Newport, Ky.
|
M. Victor, Sturgis, Mich.
|
Mrs. N. H. Cramer, Nashville, Tenn.
|
Belva A. Lockwood, Washington, D.C.
|
Hannah M. Rogers, Magnolia, Florida.
|
Ann T. Greely, Ellsworth, Me.
|
Mrs. A. Millspaugh, Washington, La.
|
Mary B. Moses, Great Falls, N. H.
|
Mrs. S. N. Wood, Montague, Texas.
|
Emma Farrand Elkin, Fairfield, Vt.
|
Lizzie C. Aughey, Dakotah City, Neb.
|
Sarah Southwick, Grantville, Mass.
|
Helen E. Starrett, Lawrence, Kan.
|
Lucy R. Elmes, Derby, Ct.
|
Mrs. M. H. Arnold, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
|
Mrs. W. F. Channing, Providence, R. I.
|
Mary Godbe, Salt Lake, Utah.
|
Susan A. Richardson, Earlville, Ill.
|
Emily Pitts Stevens, San Franciso, Cal.
|
Eliza D. Stewart, Springfield, O.
|
Charlotte Baker, Virginia City, Nev.
|
Mrs. Dr. Wilhite, Crawfordsville, Ind.
|
Mrs. J. Hayford, Laramie-City, Wyoming.
|
Mrs. J. W. Allen, Ripon, Wis.
|
Mrs. W. A. Whiting, Central City, Col.
|
Mrs. E. Berger Stearns, Rochester, Minn.
|
Amelia Giddings, Olympia, Wash. Ter.
|
Belle Mansfield, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.
|
Secretaries
Corresponding - Jane Graham Jones, Chicago, Ill.
Foreign Corresponding - Laura Curtis Bullard, New York.
Recording - Mary F. Davis, Orange, N. J.
Foreign Corresponding - Laura Curtis Bullard, New York.
Recording - Mary F. Davis, Orange, N. J.
Treasurer
Ellen C. Sargent, Washington, D. C.
Executive Committee.
Matilda Joslyn Gage, Chairman, Fayetteville, N. Y.
Mathilde F. Wendt, New York.
Laura De Force Gordon, Stockton, Cal.
A. Jane Dunning, Portland, Oregon.
Sarah Pugh, Germantown, Pa.
Nannetta B. Gardner, Detroit, Mich.
Lillie Deveraux Blake, New York.
Charlotte B. Wilbour, New York.
Olympia Brown, Bridgeport, Ct.
Elizabeth E. Loomis, Chicago, Ill.
Mathilde F. Wendt, New York.
Laura De Force Gordon, Stockton, Cal.
A. Jane Dunning, Portland, Oregon.
Sarah Pugh, Germantown, Pa.
Nannetta B. Gardner, Detroit, Mich.
Lillie Deveraux Blake, New York.
Charlotte B. Wilbour, New York.
Olympia Brown, Bridgeport, Ct.
Elizabeth E. Loomis, Chicago, Ill.
We propose to make a vigorous campaign of Woman Suffrage Mass Meetings, with our ablest speakers, during September and October, and earnestly solicit our members and friends to forward contributions in aid thereof to the Chair. Ex. Committee, MRS. M. Joslyn Gage, Fayetteville, Onondaga Do., N.Y.
In 1872, acting under legal advice, Miss Anthony voted at Rochester under what was believed to be the sanction of the Fourteenth Amendment. For this she was arrested and tried ; the judge, Associate Justice Ward Hunt. of the United States Supreme Court, refused to allow the jury to be polled, and imposed a fine of $100. It was one of the greatest judicial outrages ever perpetrated, and when Miss Anthony appealed to Congress to redress this wrong of denying her constitutional right to a trial by jury the response was that Congress had no jurisdiction!
MISS ANTHONY AS A SPEAKER AND WRITER
There is scarcely a State or Territory in which Miss Anthony did not lecture, and in many of them scores of times. An audience was all the inspiration she needed, and she spoke without manuscript or notes. She conducted campaigns for woman suffrage from Maine to California, raising always the money for her own expenses and putting back into the work all that she earned. It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that she sent out millions of documents to further her cause.
Miss Anthony made her first public address, as has been stated, on March 1, 1849, at a temperance meeting in Canajoharie, N. Y. She gpoke from the platform for the last time at the celebration of her eighty-sixth birthday in Washington, February 15. 1906. During this period of almost exactly fifty-seven years she made thousands of speeches, every one in the interest of some great reform,—temperance, abolition of slavery, woman suffrage, social purity. She had
a rich, contralto voice, and without effort could make herself heard by an audience of several thousand. She spoke without notes, in a strongly argumentative style, and carried conviction by her clear reasoning and intense earnestness. The limitations of writing were irksome to Miss Anthony, but she realized so fully the power and permanence of written words that she considered no time and labor too much to put upon anything that was to go into print. Her speeches which have been thus preserved, her magazine articles, and her letters and other documents contained in her books are unsurpassed in thought and diction.
Miss Anthony left her concrete monument in the four large volumes—" History of Woman Suffrage "—a record of the whole evolution of women in educational, legal, civil, and political rights. The future student of this important question can get his information in these books alone. Had they never been written, all the valuable data upon the subject would have been lost forever. While other women helped in the preparation, it is due entirely to Miss Anthony's care and foresight in collecting and preserving the materials, and her determination and persistence in having them put into available shape, that this history is now in existence.
AN OPTIMISTIC OLD AGE
The most persecuted of all women in her early days, Miss Anthony was the most honored of all in the closing years of her life. In her own country she long has stood without a peer. At the great International Council of Women in London, in 1899. and again at the one held in Berlin, in 1904, she was welcomed by representatives of all nations as leader of the women of the world. None ever has received such recognition because of service rendered to humanity. In history she will lie known as the Liberator of Woman, and endless generations will read the story of her life with gratitude and reverence. It will be always a matter of the keenest regret that she did not live to see the entire realization of her three-score years of heroic effort, but she died in the perfect faith that in the not distant future women will surely be protected by the law in their political rights as they are to-day in all others. She found her deepest pleasure in the thought of the millions now in the fullest enjoyment of the new world which has been opened to them. All the vast army who are carrying forward her work to completion, all who shall hereafter take it up, will receive as a blessed inheritance something of her indomitable will, splendid courage, limitless patience, perseverance, optimism, faith.
RESOLUTIONS OF RESPECT TO THE MEMORY OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY
By The General Board Of The Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association.
By The General Board Of The Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association.
Whereas, The members of this association do feel a personal loss in the
death of humanity's uncrowned queen, Miss Susan B. Anthony, and,
Whereas, The beauty and glory of her life have become a part of the
heritage of the ages; and through that life every woman's intelligence and
freedom have been augmented in an incalculable degree; and therefore, every man
born of woman has had his own horizon enlarged, his possibilities increased,
and his character ennobled; and.
Whereas, her Christ-like, unselfish devotion to life's highest ideals,
and her accurate appreciation of justice, which never steeled her heart to the
pleadings of mercy, have set a goodly pattern for us to follow; and,
Whereas, her passing is as fruitful and beautiful as was her living;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the members of this association do consecrate one
hallowed niche in each individual memory wherein to place the life work of Susan
B. Anthony, the supreme leader of womankind in modern historical times; and
that we will endeavor or let her pure life-passion so enrich our own souls that
wherever her spirit may be hidden in the bosom of eternity, she shall be filled
with some measure of divine joy that we do remember and that wa do progress
because of her life and its labors.
Our hearts are lifted, therefore, in one united hymn of praise
and joy, and wc offer our pleading petition to that God who doth judge. the
quick and dead, that in the heavenly home, to which some day we all shall go,
we may be permitted to mingle and labor in the eternal verities over there,
side by side with Susan B. Anthony.
Susa Young Gates and Ann M. Cannon,
SUSAN B. ANTHONY REFORMER AND PHILANTHROPIST
Emmeline B. Wells.
"Story and song shall hallow thy dear
name."
In the death of Miss Susan B. Anthony there is
almost universal sorrow, and yet she had lived beyond the allotted time, and
wrought for humanity all the way. That she was beloved of tens of thousands,
and reverenced for her many virtues and excellent attainments is apparent in
the ceremonials observed since her departure, and the manifestations of
appreciation given in many ways.
Flags at half-mast is a most exceptional mark of respect for a
woman. Yet it is certainly fitting for one who had rendered such signal service
to her countrymen, and whose life, under many diverse circumstances, has given
positive and abundant evidence of patriotism and loyalty. In thus publicly
honoring Miss Susan B. Anthony the community at large will better comprehend
the breadth and magnitude of her influence upon society, and emphasize the
gratitude her colossal work has inspired in the hearts of the people of our
great commonwealth.
In many cities, towns and villages, memorial
services have been held, and eulogies delivered by those who could testify
knowingly of her grand work for the world's betterment.
Already organizations are being effected as a perpetual tribute,
or standing monument to her memory that future generations may know of her
valor and fidelity, and her indomitable will-power to stem the tide of ridicule
and opposition. It may be truly said of this great and magnificent woman that
she has "borne the burden and heat of the
day" and has come off conqueror, even though all has not
been accomplished that she fondly anticipated. The beacon lights she has
kindled are burning afar on the hills, and in lowly valleys, and the grand work
is now marching onward with rapid strides.
"She met with patience all the long delay, For martyr-like
was her insistent faith; Keeping her steadfast purpose day by day." "What shall I write? How shall I
write," write of one whose memory is still fresh in the hearts of the
multitudes, and concerning whom so much has been said and written in the most
glowing terms? Yet in all humanity and out of my intense love for this valiant
heroine of many battles, although she v/as a woman who loved serenity and
peace, I will write what may be given this day.
Sir Edwin Arnold wrote in his opening
"Proeme" to "The Light of the World."
It shall be given unto thee! "Do this thing" Answered
the Voice, "Wash thy lips
clean and sing!"
Among the women whose histories have been handed down through
the ages, and those celebrated of more modern times, one need have no
hesitation in placing Susan B. Anthony. Her wonderful power to sway the
multitude reminds me of no other in history than Savonarola. This gift did not
consist in choice of words, or phrases. Miss Anthony never dealt in platitudes,
or borrowed from her associates. She was strictly
original, simplicity personified in this respect as well as in her style of
dress and living. She had inherited a little of the sweet, mild Quaker ways of
the old-fashioned regime, perhaps, but taken all in all, she was her own
individual self, not easily disconcerted even with failures or disappointments.
She could be gracious and even kind when "her girls'' as she called them,
were righteously indignant towards those who had ignored her when honor was her
due. I recall one particular occasion when several of the ladies present felt
Miss Anthony (their General) had been very indifferently treated by men
who should have been proud to show her honor. A number of us were sitting at
dinner in the Ebbitt hotel. Washington, and were discussing the slight to Miss Susan
B. Anthony. She looked down from the head of the table
and said in her most serene manner,"I'm glad that my young women
know when I've been insulted if I don't know it myself!" Silence fell upon
all: there was no more to say.
The world is richer because of the beautiful life, character,
and example of Susan B. Anthony . The nation does well to heap honors and build
lasting monuments to her who has made such a brilliant record for heroism and
loyalty to a cause, which, when she espoused it, was decidedly unpopular, and,
one might add, without precedent, or prestige. Miss Anthony gave to equal-suffrage not only her best efforts
and most ardent endeavors, but she gave herself, with all her noble qualities
of head and heart. Firm as the "Rock of Ages," she planted her feet
upon the cornerstone of the structure commenced by the Pilgrim fathers when
they fought for freedom of conscience,
and in this age of the larger development of humanity, this
brave, heroic woman included all the sons and daughters of the land. Neither
race, nor color were excluded; there was no privileged class, in her category.
All were to be free; there must be no slaves in these United States.
Her anti-slaverv work began when she was a very young woman, and
there can be no doubt in the minds of those who believe in destiny, that Miss Anthony
was born for the work of a reformer and philanthropist. She may have inherited
much of a lofty nature and patriotic tendencies, for she comes of the best New
England stock; yet heredity is not all. There are men and women born into the
world at certain periods of time for a distinctive purpose, with a mission to
fulfill for their fellow men. Their pathway is not smoothed for them, they have
obstacles to overcome, not only difficult, but new and distasteful, perhaps, to
their nearest and dearest kindred and friends. They are the pioneers through
new fields of advancement, the pathfinders to growth and culture, possessing
the attributes of faithful endurance, firmness, steadfastness and integrity.
Her long life abounds with varied experiences and struggles for
the right, but is fraught with triumphs that mark her career and standing in
later life, clear-cut in the midst of errors and misrepresentations.
Almost unaided and alone, at times, she heralded truths with
which her understanding was quickened, even though they were unacceptable. She,
years ago, ploughed the rough way and sowed the seed that has taken deep root,
and has since sprung up here and there, to eventually bear good fruit. She had
arrived at a stage of human achievement in transmitting the highest and best of
her own nature to those with whom she mingled, and she expressed unconsciously
perhaps the reality of her ideals. She was the embodiment of the spirit with
which she was endowed, enriched and expanded; the result of a fixed purpose to
help mankind. Miss
Anthony had culled from the "Book of Life."
She knew how to take advantage of the teaching from within, and she possessed
the faculty and, above all, the personal energy to utilize the forces at hand.
She was spoken of as a practical woman. She was much more than practical. She
possessed those higher attributes of soul that made her intensely lovable and
that called into action the best and rarest impulses in others who came within
her environment. Her presence in an assembly seemed to impart courage and
confidence, and strengthen the faith of the audience in the cause she
advocated.
It would be difficult for our young people
today to realize the conditions of society and the primitive educational
advantages, at the time of Miss Anthony's girlhood. The changes wrought since
then are marvelous and much credit is due this brave woman, who had the courage
to face the situation and stand boldly forth in defense of education for girls,
and equal privileges for both sexes.
Miss Anthony begun
her public life as a teacher in a Quaker family for one dollar a week and
board. Afterwards when she was receiving eight dollars a month, while men
received from $24 to $40, she was taught her first lesson in woman's rights.
During the fifteen years she devoted to teaching she made many strong pleas for
the recognition of equal rights for women, in
all honors and responsibilities, and for higher wages. About the
same time the anti-slavery agitation began and the Anthonys and other families
adjacent took an active part in the movement. Miss Anthony joined in the activity both for
antislavery and temperance. She was made secretary of the Daughters of
Temperance. At a supper given by this society she made her first platform
address on the question. When she was teaching in the academy she was
signalized by the villagers as "the smartest woman in Canajaharie. This
was in 1846. In 1852 she was sent by the Daughters of Temperance to a state mass
meeting of the Sons of Temperance at Albany. During a discussion among the men
she rose to speak, but was not allowed to do it. I have heard her tell the
story more than once in her own humorous style. The women present were
horrified and indignant and called her, "the bold thing." The
President of the meeting with all the dignity he could command informed her,
that women were not expected to speak in meetings but only to be spectators. He
meant to settle the question forever but the rebuke acted like a firebrand to
one of Susan's temperament, and she marched out of the hall, half a dozen
others following, to the residence of Lydia Mott, a cousin of Lucretia Mott,
where they held an indignation meeting. They decided to call a woman's
temperance meeting, the next evening in one of the churches, and Thomas Weed, a
lifelong friend of Miss Anthony's, published notice of it in his paper.
It was during these years of active work that
Miss Anthony determined to work
for greater freedom for women, and decided that in order to succeed they must
have the privilege of the franchise. She allied herself with the suffrage movement, leaving other reforms largely to her co-workers. About
the same time she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton and formed the friendship that
continued until Mrs. Stanton's death.
At a state teachers' convention held in
Rochester in 1853, Miss Anthony
claimed the privilege of speaking. There were many women teachers present, but
none of them had a word to offer. The question under discussion was "Why
is the profession of teaching not as much respected as that of lawyers, doctors
and ministers?" A lively debate
followed. Miss Anthony's request to be heard was at last granted. She said,
"Mr. President and
Gentlemen: I have listened with attention to your discussion and I do not think
you comprehend the cause of this disrespect for teachers. So long as society
says woman has not the brains to be a lawyer, a preacher, or a doctor, but has
sufficient brains to be a teacher, do you not see that every man of you, who
condescends to teach school actually acknowledges that he has no more brains
than a woman?"
There was no vacation from work for Miss Anthony from 1852 until
she finally broke down during this last winter. There was no great reform
advanced for the uplifting of humanity in which she was not actively
interested. To the very last she strongly advocated co-education. She prepared
and read a paper in Troy, New York, in 1856, that called forth from the ablest
members of the convention their views on the question. Mr. Hazeltine said, "While I admit the power and talent of
your report, I would rather see a daughter of mine buried beneath the sod, than
to stand before a promiscuous audience and utter such sentiments." Supt.
Randall standing by replied, "And I should be proud if I had a daughter
able to do it."
In the winter of 1857-8, Miss Anthony did her hardest and most
effective work to aid the cause of anti-slavery. At this period she was assisted
bv William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Parker Pillsbury and other famous
abolitionists.
In the winter of 1861, she planned a series of
meetings to begin at Buffalo, N. Y. Whenever Miss Anthony and her little band appeared,
however, they were hissed, mobbed, and their voices drowned with cries and
groans. Ruffians smoked, swore and turned off the gas, took possession of the
platform and offered every kind of indignity, but Miss Susan B. Anthony did not abandon her
plans. One of the most trying experiences occurred in Rochester, her home city.
Every meeting was attempted accoring to schedule. Undaunted this one woman
stood alone calling upon the mayor and the police to disperse the mob, which
they could not, or would not do. At Syracuse she faced a raging, drunken mob,
which threw rotten eggs; pistols and knives were brandished, and she was
finally forced from the hall.
To relate how she trudged from door to door,
to secured signatures to petitions for the ballot and equal property rights for
women, and encountered some of the most scathing insults of her whole career
would be too long a story.
Early in 1863 Miss Susan B. Anthony and her colleague, Mrs.
Stanton, issued a call for a meeting of the loyal women of the nation; and on
May 4th, an immense audience met in the Church of the
Puritans in New York City. A Woman's National Loyal League was formed for the
emancipation of the negroes, and declared itself, in favor of equal rights for
women.
For nearly two years and a half, Miss Anthony was interested in
the publication of the "Revolution," a newspaper in New York City. It
was edited by Mrs. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury and caused great commotion,
although the contributors were among the brightest intellects of the day.
Financially it was not a success so Miss Anthony went back to
the lecture field, and finally succeeded in paying off the debt of $10,000 with
her own earnings. The enterprise was a tender memory for her, and she preserved
a complete file of the paper as long as she lived.
In 1871, Miss Anthony in company with Mrs. Stanton
crossed the continent to California, and visited Utah en route. These ladies lectured in Salt Lake
City in the Old Tabernacle. It was there I first saw and heard them. There are
many very interesting personal things concerning these world-famous women, I
should like to tell but this article is already very long. Miss Anthony has
been connected with all the greatest movements that concern women. At all times
she has been a conspicuous figure, and in later years has received great honors
in America, and in foreign lands, and above all else has won the true love of
the people wherever she was known.
 |
National Collegiate Honor’s Council Partners in the Park Honors Students Sara Sauer and Cintly Guzman at the National Constitution Center holding up a typed 19th Amendment: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation;” which is signed Fred H Gillet, June 1919, as Speaker of the House of Representatives paper. – For more information visit our National Park and NCHC Partners in the Park Class of 2017 website |
On Sunday, March II, 1906, she said to Miss
Shaw, "To think I have had more than sixty-six years of hard struggle for
a little liberty and then to die without it seems cruel." Dr. Shaw
replied, "Your legacy will be
freedom for all womankind after you are gone. Your splendid struggle has
changed life for all women everywhere." Miss Anthony responded, "If
it has I have lived to some purpose." She died March 13th, 1906.
The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America
Continental Congress of the United Colonies Presidents
Sept. 5, 1774 to July 1, 1776
September 5, 1774
|
October 22, 1774
| |
October 22, 1774
|
October 26, 1774
| |
May 20, 1775
|
May 24, 1775
| |
May 25, 1775
|
July 1, 1776
|
Commander-in-Chief United Colonies & States of America
George Washington: June 15, 1775 - December 23, 1783
Continental Congress of the United States Presidents
July 2, 1776 to February 28, 1781
July 2, 1776
|
October 29, 1777
| |
November 1, 1777
|
December 9, 1778
| |
December 10, 1778
|
September 28, 1779
| |
September 29, 1779
|
February 28, 1781
|
Presidents of the United States in Congress Assembled
March 1, 1781 to March 3, 1789
March 1, 1781 to March 3, 1789
March 1, 1781
|
July 6, 1781
| |
July 10, 1781
|
Declined Office
| |
July 10, 1781
|
November 4, 1781
| |
November 5, 1781
|
November 3, 1782
| |
November 4, 1782
|
November 2, 1783
| |
November 3, 1783
|
June 3, 1784
| |
November 30, 1784
|
November 22, 1785
| |
November 23, 1785
|
June 5, 1786
| |
June 6, 1786
|
February 1, 1787
| |
February 2, 1787
|
January 21, 1788
| |
January 22, 1788
|
January 21, 1789
|
Presidents of the United States of America
D-Democratic Party, F-Federalist Party, I-Independent, R-Republican Party, R* Republican Party of Jefferson & W-Whig Party
(1789-1797)
|
(1933-1945)
| |
(1865-1869)
| ||
(1797-1801)
|
(1945-1953)
| |
(1869-1877)
| ||
(1801-1809)
|
(1953-1961)
| |
(1877-1881)
| ||
(1809-1817)
|
(1961-1963)
| |
(1881 - 1881)
| ||
(1817-1825)
|
(1963-1969)
| |
(1881-1885)
| ||
(1825-1829)
|
(1969-1974)
| |
(1885-1889)
| ||
(1829-1837)
|
(1973-1974)
| |
(1889-1893)
| ||
(1837-1841)
|
(1977-1981)
| |
(1893-1897)
| ||
(1841-1841)
|
(1981-1989)
| |
(1897-1901)
| ||
(1841-1845)
|
(1989-1993)
| |
(1901-1909)
| ||
(1845-1849)
|
(1993-2001)
| |
(1909-1913)
| ||
(1849-1850)
|
(2001-2009)
| |
(1913-1921)
| ||
(1850-1853)
|
(2009-2017)
| |
(1921-1923)
| ||
(1853-1857)
|
(20017-Present)
| |
(1923-1929)
|
*Confederate States of America
| |
(1857-1861)
| ||
(1929-1933)
| ||
(1861-1865)
|
United Colonies Continental Congress
|
President
|
18th Century Term
|
Age
|
Elizabeth "Betty" Harrison Randolph (1745-1783)
|
09/05/74 – 10/22/74
|
29
| |
Mary Williams Middleton (1741- 1761) Deceased
|
Henry Middleton
|
10/22–26/74
|
n/a
|
Elizabeth "Betty" Harrison Randolph (1745–1783)
|
05/20/ 75 - 05/24/75
|
30
| |
Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott (1747-1830)
|
05/25/75 – 07/01/76
|
28
| |
United States Continental Congress
|
President
|
Term
|
Age
|
Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott (1747-1830)
|
07/02/76 – 10/29/77
|
29
| |
Eleanor Ball Laurens (1731- 1770) Deceased
|
Henry Laurens
|
11/01/77 – 12/09/78
|
n/a
|
Sarah Livingston Jay (1756-1802)
|
12/ 10/78 – 09/28/78
|
21
| |
Martha Huntington (1738/39–1794)
|
09/29/79 – 02/28/81
|
41
| |
United States in Congress Assembled
|
President
|
Term
|
Age
|
Martha Huntington (1738/39–1794)
|
03/01/81 – 07/06/81
|
42
| |
Sarah Armitage McKean (1756-1820)
|
07/10/81 – 11/04/81
|
25
| |
Jane Contee Hanson (1726-1812)
|
11/05/81 - 11/03/82
|
55
| |
Hannah Stockton Boudinot (1736-1808)
|
11/03/82 - 11/02/83
|
46
| |
Sarah Morris Mifflin (1747-1790)
|
11/03/83 - 11/02/84
|
36
| |
Anne Gaskins Pinkard Lee (1738-1796)
|
11/20/84 - 11/19/85
|
46
| |
Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott (1747-1830)
|
11/23/85 – 06/06/86
|
38
| |
Rebecca Call Gorham (1744-1812)
|
06/06/86 - 02/01/87
|
42
| |
Phoebe Bayard St. Clair (1743-1818)
|
02/02/87 - 01/21/88
|
43
| |
Christina Stuart Griffin (1751-1807)
|
01/22/88 - 01/29/89
|
36
|
Constitution of 1787
First Ladies |
President
|
Term
|
Age
|
April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797
|
57
| ||
March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801
|
52
| ||
Martha Wayles Jefferson Deceased
|
September 6, 1782 (Aged 33)
|
n/a
| |
March 4, 1809 – March 4, 1817
|
40
| ||
March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1825
|
48
| ||
March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829
|
50
| ||
December 22, 1828 (aged 61)
|
n/a
| ||
February 5, 1819 (aged 35)
|
n/a
| ||
March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841
|
65
| ||
April 4, 1841 – September 10, 1842
|
50
| ||
June 26, 1844 – March 4, 1845
|
23
| ||
March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1849
|
41
| ||
March 4, 1849 – July 9, 1850
|
60
| ||
July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853
|
52
| ||
March 4, 1853 – March 4, 1857
|
46
| ||
n/a
|
n/a
| ||
March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865
|
42
| ||
February 22, 1862 – May 10, 1865
| |||
April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869
|
54
| ||
March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1877
|
43
| ||
March 4, 1877 – March 4, 1881
|
45
| ||
March 4, 1881 – September 19, 1881
|
48
| ||
January 12, 1880 (Aged 43)
|
n/a
| ||
June 2, 1886 – March 4, 1889
|
21
| ||
March 4, 1889 – October 25, 1892
|
56
| ||
June 2, 1886 – March 4, 1889
|
28
| ||
March 4, 1897 – September 14, 1901
|
49
| ||
September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909
|
40
| ||
March 4, 1909 – March 4, 1913
|
47
| ||
March 4, 1913 – August 6, 1914
|
52
| ||
December 18, 1915 – March 4, 1921
|
43
| ||
March 4, 1921 – August 2, 1923
|
60
| ||
August 2, 1923 – March 4, 1929
|
44
| ||
March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933
|
54
| ||
March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945
|
48
| ||
April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953
|
60
| ||
January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961
|
56
| ||
January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963
|
31
| ||
November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969
|
50
| ||
January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974
|
56
| ||
August 9, 1974 – January 20, 1977
|
56
| ||
January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981
|
49
| ||
January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989
|
59
| ||
January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993
|
63
| ||
January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001
|
45
| ||
January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009
|
54
| ||
January 20, 2009 to date
|
45
|
Capitals of the United Colonies and States of America
Philadelphia
|
Sept. 5, 1774 to Oct. 24, 1774
| |
Philadelphia
|
May 10, 1775 to Dec. 12, 1776
| |
Baltimore
|
Dec. 20, 1776 to Feb. 27, 1777
| |
Philadelphia
|
March 4, 1777 to Sept. 18, 1777
| |
Lancaster
|
September 27, 1777
| |
York
|
Sept. 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778
| |
Philadelphia
|
July 2, 1778 to June 21, 1783
| |
Princeton
|
June 30, 1783 to Nov. 4, 1783
| |
Annapolis
|
Nov. 26, 1783 to Aug. 19, 1784
| |
Trenton
|
Nov. 1, 1784 to Dec. 24, 1784
| |
New York City
|
Jan. 11, 1785 to Nov. 13, 1788
| |
New York City
|
October 6, 1788 to March 3,1789
| |
New York City
|
March 3,1789 to August 12, 1790
| |
Philadelphia
|
Dec. 6,1790 to May 14, 1800
| |
Washington DC
|
November 17,1800 to Present
|
Book a primary source exhibit and a professional speaker for your next event by contacting Historic.us today. Our Clients include many Fortune 500 companies, associations, non-profits, colleges, universities, national conventions, PR and advertising agencies. As a leading national exhibitor of primary sources, many of our clients have benefited from our historic displays that are designed to entertain and educate your target audience. Contact us to learn how you can join our "roster" of satisfied clientele today!
Hosted by The New Orleans Jazz Museum and The Louisiana Historical Center
Hosted by The New Orleans Jazz Museum and The Louisiana Historical Center
Historic.us
A Non-profit Corporation
A Non-profit Corporation
Primary Source Exhibits
727-771-1776 | Exhibit Inquiries
202-239-1774 | Office
202-239-0037 | FAX
Dr. Naomi and Stanley Yavneh Klos, Principals
Naomi@Historic.us
Stan@Historic.us
Primary Source exhibits are available for display in your community. The costs range from $1,000 to $35,000 depending on length of time on loan and the rarity of artifacts chosen.
 |
| U.S. Dollar Presidential Coin Mr. Klos vs Secretary Paulson - Click Here |
The United Colonies of North America Continental Congress Presidents (1774-1776)
The United States of America Continental Congress Presidents (1776-1781)
The United States of America in Congress Assembled Presidents (1781-1789)
The United States of America Presidents and Commanders-in-Chiefs (1789-Present)
The United States of America Continental Congress Presidents (1776-1781)
The United States of America in Congress Assembled Presidents (1781-1789)
The United States of America Presidents and Commanders-in-Chiefs (1789-Present)
