The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony Volume I Part 35

December 31.--Left Medicine Bow at noon, went through deep snow cuts ten miles in length. One heavy pa.s.senger and two long freight trains in front of us. Reached Laramie at 10 P.M. Thus closes 1871, a year full of hard work, six months east, six months west of the Rocky mountains; 171 lectures, 13,000 miles of travel; gross receipts $4,318, paid on debts, $2,271. Nothing ahead but to plod on.

A few blank pages in an old account-book tell the rest of the story:

January 1, 1872.--Laramie City. On Pullman car "America," Union Pacific R.R. Lay here all night and breakfasted at railway hotel.

J.H. Hayford, editor Laramie Sentinel, told us of the bill to repeal the woman suffrage law in Wyoming. The law had been pa.s.sed by a Democratic legislature as a jest, but five Democrats voted for repeal and four Republicans against it, in one house, and in the other, three Republicans voted against and every Democrat for the repeal. Governor Campbell, a Republican, vetoed this repeal bill and woman suffrage still stands, as a Territorial legislature can not pa.s.s a bill over the governor's veto.... Here we are at noon, stuck in a snowdrift five miles west of Sherman, on a steep grade, with one hundred men shovelling in front of us. Dined, Mr. Sargent officiating, on roast turkey, jelly, bread and b.u.t.ter, spice cake and excellent tea. At dark, wind and snow blowing terrifically, but a bright sky.

January 2.--Still stationary. The railroad company has supplied the pa.s.sengers with dried fish and crackers. Mrs. Sargent and I have made tea and carried it throughout the train to the nursing mothers. It is the best we can do. Five days out from Ogden! This is indeed a fearful ordeal, fastened here in a s...o...b..nk, midway of the continent at the top of the Rocky mountains. They are melting snow for the boilers and for drinking water. A train loaded with coal is behind us, so there is no danger of our suffering from cold. Mr. Sargent, Mr. Mitch.e.l.l and Major Elliott walked to Sherman and an old man drove them back at dusk with two ponies. The train had moved up to Dale creek bridge and drawn into a long snow-shed.

Here, we remained all night and, with the rarified air and the smoke from the engine, were almost suffocated, while the wind blew so furiously we could not venture to open the doors.

January 3.--Bright suns.h.i.+ne and perfectly calm. Ernest and Norman Melliss, sons of David M. Melliss, of New York City, came into our car from the other train, which is twelve days from Ogden. How they do revive The Revolution experiences, Train and the Wall street gossip! Stood still in the snow-shed till noon and reached Sherman about 6 P.M. Mr. Sargent had brought some potatoes which we roasted on top of the stove and they proved a delicious addition to our meal. In the car "Sacramento" we had a mock trial, Judge Mitch.e.l.l presiding and the jury composed of women. He wrote out a verdict, which the women insisted on bringing in, not because they agreed with it but because they wanted to please him and the other men, but I rebelled and hung the jury!

January 4.--Morning found us still at Sherman and we did not move till 1 P.M. There is another train ahead of us, and here we are, four pa.s.senger trains pus.h.i.+ng on for Cheyenne. The people from the different ones visit among each other. Half-way to Granite Canyon the snowplow got off the track and one wheel broke, so a dead standstill for hours. Reached Granite Canyon at dark, a whole day getting there from Sherman, and remained over night.

January 5.--Bright and beautiful. Reached Cheyenne at 11:30 A.M.

Little George Sargent coaxed his papa to let him walk over the bridge to the town and fell through and broke his arm. Mrs.

Sargent, after holding him till the bone was set, fainted.

Afterwards I called on Mrs. Amalia Post. It was at her house the Cheyenne women met and went in a body to Governor Campbell's residence in 1869, and announced their intention of staying till he signed the woman suffrage bill, which he did without further delay.

Met the governor and several other notables. At 1:30 P.M. our train was off at first-cla.s.s speed, and oh, what joy in every face!

January 6.--Arrived at Omaha at 3 P.M. Found letter from brother D.R., enclosing pa.s.s to Leavenworth and saying he had pa.s.ses for me from there to Chicago and eastward. If I go to L. I shall miss the Was.h.i.+ngton convention, where I am so badly needed. If it had not been for this vexatious delay I could have had a day or two there and several more at Rochester. Now I must push straight on. It is my hard fate always to sacrifice affection and pleasure to duty and work.

January 7.--All the baggage had to be rechecked at Omaha and when I insisted upon attending to my own, because I had found that the only safe way, Mr. Sargent looked so offended that I at once handed over my checks.

January 8.--Arrived at Chicago at 3 A.M. Went at once to my aunt Ann Eliza d.i.c.kinson's and visited with her till 7 o'clock, had breakfast and went to Fort Wayne depot where, as I feared, I found one of my checks called for the wrong piece of baggage; so I took one trunk, left the baggage-master to hunt up the other, and started straight for Was.h.i.+ngton on a train without a sleeper.

January 9.--Pa.s.sed Pittsburg at 2 A.M. Breakfasted at Altoona on top of the Alleghanies; scenery most beautiful, but not on so grand a scale as among the Rockies.

This is the last entry. It is hardly necessary to add that Miss Anthony reached Was.h.i.+ngton in time for the opening of the convention on the morning of January 10. To the question whether she were not very tired, she replied: "Why, what would make me tired? I haven't been doing anything, for two weeks!"

[Footnote 58: Miss Anthony's lecture was a decided success, judged either by the number and intelligence of those present or the able manner in which she discussed the salient points pertaining to woman suffrage. She displayed an ability, conciseness and force that must have carried conviction to every impartial listener.... Her visit here has done more to advance the cause of woman suffrage than can now be fully appreciated. She has sown the germ of a movement which can not fail to inoculate our people with a belief in the justice of her cause and the injustice of longer depriving the more intelligent, purer and consequently better portion of our inhabitants of that greatest of boons, the ballot.--Sioux City Daily Times.

Miss Anthony's lecture was full of good, sound common sense, and an opponent of woman suffrage said it was the best speech he ever heard on the subject. Wyoming was highly complimented as being the first Territory to recognize the equality of woman, and p.r.o.nounced as much ahead of her eastern sisters in civilization as she is higher in alt.i.tude. The lecture abounded with gems of wit, humor and pathos, and the audience would willingly have listened another hour.--Cheyenne Tribune.

The press sneers at Miss Anthony, men tell her she is out of her proper sphere, people call her a scold, good women call her masculine, a monstrosity in petticoats; but if one-half of her s.e.x possessed one-half of her acquirements, her intellectual culture, her self-reliance and independence of character, the world would be the better for it.--Denver News.

A large and attentive audience filled the Denver theater last night to hear Miss Susan B. Anthony, champion of the "new departure in politics," called the woman suffrage movement. The fact that there was not sitting room for all who came is evidence of deep interest in the subject, or great curiosity to hear the lady speak.... It is impossible to give an outline of her speech. It was a string of strong arguments put in a straightforward, clear and vigorous way, eliciting favor and inviting the attention of the audience throughout. The lecture was suggestive, and of the kind that sets people to thinking.--Denver Tribune.]

[Footnote 59: Notwithstanding this tribute, the Herald printed a long string of verses with this introduction: "We trust our readers will not miss the perusal of this piece of rhythmical irony. It is certainly one of the happiest hits we have seen for many a day. No one can mistake the allusion to the 'Old Gal.' who has been so recently among us 'tooting her horn.'"

"Along the city's thoroughfare, A grim Old Gal with manly air Strode amidst the noisy crowd, Tooting her horn both shrill and loud; Till e'en above the city's roar, Above its din and discord, o'er All, was heard, 'Ye tyrants, fear!

The dawn of freedom's drawing near-- Woman's Rights and Suffrage.'

"A meek old man, in accents wild, Cried,'Sal! turn back and nurse our child!'

She bent on him a withering look, Her bony fist at him she shook.

And screeched, 'Ye brute! ye think I'm flat To mend your clo'es and nurse your brat?

Nurse it yourself; I'll change the plan, When I am made a congressman-- Woman's Rights and Suffrage,'" etc.

[Footnote 60: Coming from The Dalles, the boat tied up for the night at Umatilla Landing. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Duniway walking on sh.o.r.e saw a man sitting in front of a little corner grocery and stopped to ask some questions. They found that when a boy he had run away from home in Miss Anthony's own neighborhood, had never written back and his family had long believed him dead. After some conversation he consented that she might write to his mother and then in his softened mood insisted that they should have a gla.s.s of wine. Miss Anthony was a total abstainer but not wis.h.i.+ng to offend him, took one sip from a gla.s.s of Angelica and then the ladies hurried back to the boat. Some one who had seen the occurrence spread the story and the result was an a.s.sociated Press item sent broadcast, stating that, since coming to the coast, Miss Anthony was visiting saloons and a.s.sociating with low characters.]

[Footnote 61: Two examples will suffice:

"EDITOR COLONIST: I have read with a feeling of thankfulness the letter of 'A Male Biped,' in this day's Colonist. The writer deserves the thanks of every good woman in the land for the bold and able manner in which he has administered a shaking to a shrewish old mischief-maker who, having failed to secure a husband herself, is tramping the continent to make her more fortunate sisters miserable by creating dissensions in their households. O, why do not some of our divines or lawyers upset this woman's sophistries, and convince even her that woman's true sphere is in 'submitting herself to her husband,' and religiously fulfilling the marriage vows the wise organizers of society have prescribed?

A WIFE AND A MOTHER."

"MR. EDITOR: America, the home of many humbugs, which produced Brigham Young, Barnum, Home, the medium, and many others, has, it appears, another human curiosity in Miss Anthony. This specimen from over the way comes amongst us, and because our ladies fail to recognize or encourage her in her vagaries, she gets very rabid and snarls and snaps at the 'women of Victoria who had so sunk their womanhood that they were happy even in their degradation.' The degradation referred to is that of whipping, which this female firebrand appears to believe is the rule hers. Surely the complete immunity from castigation of such a noxious creature as Miss Anthony is sufficient answer to this libel.

Men in British Columbia no more countenance bad husbands than do the women a quack apostle in petticoats. They look upon such persons as s.e.xual mistakes, like the two-headed lady or the four-legged baby, and as safe guides on social questions as George Francis Train is in politics.

AN INSULTED HUSBAND."

And yet during the few days she was in Victoria no leas than half a dozen women came to her to protest against the law which allowed the husband to whip his wife.]

[Footnote 62: During Mr. Sargent's candidacy for the Senate, a California newspaper objected that he was in favor of woman suffrage, and called for a denial of the truth of the d.a.m.ning charge. He took no notice of it until a week or two later, when a suffrage convention met in San Francisco; he then went before that body and delivered a radical speech in favor of woman's rights, taking the most advanced grounds.

When he was through he remarked to a friend, "They have my views now, and can make the most of them. I would not conceal them to be senator."--History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, p. 483.]

CHAPTER XXIV.

REPUBLICAN SPLINTER----MISS ANTHONY VOTES.

1872.

The leading women in the movement for suffrage, supported by some of the ablest const.i.tutional lawyers in the country, continued to claim the right to vote under the following:

FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, JULY 28, 1868.

SECTION 1. 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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT, MARCH 30, 1870.

SECTION 1. 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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Many of the Republican leaders admitted that these amendments might be construed to include women, but were silenced by the cry of "party expediency." The fear of defeating the attempt to enfranchise the colored male citizen made them refuse to add the word "s.e.x" to the Fifteenth Amendment, which would have placed this question beyond debate and put an end to the agitation that has continued for thirty years. The women insisted that the exigency which compelled the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment by the various State legislatures was strong enough to carry it, even with the word "s.e.x"

included. Having failed to gain this point, the National a.s.sociation determined to maintain the position that women were already enfranchised, and embodied it in the call for the Was.h.i.+ngton convention of 1872: "All those interested in woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt are invited to consider the 'new departure'--women already citizens, and their rights as such secured by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Federal Const.i.tution."

The same position was re-a.s.serted in the resolutions adopted at that meeting, which declared that "while the Const.i.tution of the United States leaves the qualifications of electors to the various States, it nowhere gives them the right to deprive any citizen of the elective franchise which is possessed by any other citizen; the right to regulate not including the right to prohibit the franchise;" that "those provisions of the several State const.i.tutions which exclude women from the franchise on account of s.e.x, are violative alike of the letter and spirit of the Federal Const.i.tution;" and that "as the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Const.i.tution have established the right of women to the elective franchise, we demand of the present Congress a declaratory act which shall secure us at once in the exercise of this right."

Miss Anthony and other leaders officially asked the privilege of addressing the Senate and House upon this momentous question. This was refused, as contrary to precedent, but a hearing was granted before the Senate Judiciary Committee,[63] Friday morning, January 12. Not only the committee room but the corridors were crowded. Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Hooker spoke grandly,[64] and as usual Miss Anthony was chosen to clinch the argument, which she did as follows:

You already have had logic and Const.i.tution; I shall refer, therefore, to existing facts. Prior to the war the plan of extending suffrage was by State action, and it was our boast that the National Const.i.tution did not contain a word which could be construed into a barrier against woman's right to vote. But at the close of the war Congress lifted the question of suffrage for men above State power, and by the amendments prohibited the deprivation of suffrage to any citizen by any State. When the Fourteenth Amendment was first proposed in Congress, we rushed to you with pet.i.tions praying you not to insert the word "male" in the second clause. Our best friends on the floor of Congress said to us: "The insertion of that word puts up no new barrier against woman; therefore do not embarra.s.s us but wait until we get the negro question settled." So the Fourteenth Amendment with the word "male"

was adopted.

Then, when the Fifteenth was presented without the word "s.e.x," we again pet.i.tioned and protested, and again our friends declared that the absence of that word was no hindrance to us, and again begged us to wait until they had finished the work of the war. "After we have enfranchised the negro we will take up your case." Have they done as they promised? When we come asking protection under the new guarantees of the Const.i.tution, the same men say to us that our only plan is to wait the action of Congress and State legislatures in the adoption of a Sixteenth Amendment which shall make null and void the word "male" in the Fourteenth, and supply the want of the word "s.e.x" in the Fifteenth. Such tantalizing treatment imposed upon yourselves or any cla.s.s of men would have caused rebellion and in the end a b.l.o.o.d.y revolution. It is only the close relations existing between the s.e.xes which have prevented any such result from this injustice to women.