 Chapter 18 of 80 Years and More, Reminiscences, 1815 to 1897. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Teresa Sheridan. 80 Years and More, Reminiscences, 1815 to 1897 by Elizabeth Katie Stanton. Chapter 18, Westward Ho. In the month of June, 1871, Miss Anthony and I went to California, holding suffrage meetings in many of the chief cities from New York to San Francisco, where we arrived about the middle of July in time to experience the dry, dusty season. We tarried, on the way, one week in Salt Lake City. It was at the time of the Godby succession when several hundred Mormons abjured that portion of the faith of their fathers, which authorized polygamy. A decision had just been rendered by the United States Supreme Court, declaring the first wife and her children the only legal heirs. Whether this decision hastened the secession, I do not know. However, it gave us the advantage of hearing all the arguments for and against the system. Those who were opposed to it said it made slaves of men. To support four wives and 20 children was a severe strain on any husband. The woman who believed in polygamy had much to say in its favor, especially in regard to the sacredness of motherhood during the period of pregnancy and lactation. A lesson of respect for that period being religiously taught all Mormons. We were very thankful for the privilege granted us of speaking to the women alone in the smaller tabernacle. Our meeting opened at two o'clock and lasted until seven, giving us five hours of uninterrupted conversation. Judge McKeon had informed me of the recent decisions and the legal aspects of the questions, which he urged me to present to them fully and frankly, as no one had had such an opportunity before to speak to Mormon women alone. So I made the most of my privilege. I gave a brief history of the marriage institution in all times and countries of the matriarchate when the mother was the head of the family and owned the property and children of the matriarchate when men reigned supreme and women was enslaved of pulandry, polygamy, monogamy and prostitution. We had a full and free discussion of every phase of the question and we all agreed that we were still far from having reached the ideal position for woman in marriage, however satisfied man might be with his various experiments. Though the Mormon women, like all others, stoutly defend their own religion, yet they are no more satisfied than any other sect. All women are dissatisfied with their position as inferiors. And their dissatisfaction increases in exact ratio with their intelligence and development. After this convocation, the doors of the tabernacle were closed to our administrations as we thought they would be, but we had crowded an immense amount of science, philosophy, history and general reflections into the five hours of such free talk as those women had never heard before. As the secedars had just built a new hall, we held meetings there every day discussing all the vital issues of the hour, the Mormon men and women taking an active part. We attended the 4th of July celebration and saw the immense tabernacle filled to its utmost capacity. The various states of the union were represented by young girls, gaily dressed, carrying beautiful flags and banners. When that immense multitude joined in our national songs and the deep-toned organ filled the vast dome, the music was very impressive and the spirit of patriotism manifested throughout was deep and sincere. As I stood among these simple people so earnest in making their experiment in religion and social life and remembered all the persecutions they had suffered and all they had accomplished in that desolate, far-off region where they had indeed made the wilderness blossom like the rose, I appreciated as never before the danger of intermeddling with the religious ideas of any people. Their faith finds abundant authority in the Bible in the example of God's chosen people. When learned ecclesiastics teach the people that they can safely take that book as the guide of their lives, they must expect them to follow the letter and the specific teachings that lie on the surface. The ordinary mind does not generalize nor see that the same principles of conduct will not do for all periods and latitudes. When women understand that governments and religions are human inventions, that Bibles, prayer books, catechisms, and encyclical letters are all emanations from the brain of man, they will no longer be oppressed by the injunctions that come to them with the divine authority of thus saith the Lord. That thoroughly democratic gathering in the tabernacle impressed me more than any other 4th of July celebration I ever attended. As most of the Mormon families keep no servants, mothers must take their children wherever they go to churches, theaters, concerts, and military reviews, everywhere and anywhere. Hence the low, pensive wail of the individual baby combining in large numbers becomes a deep monotone, like the waves of the sea, a sort of violona cello accompaniment to all their holiday performances. It was rather trying to me at first to have my glowing periods punctuated with a rhythmic wail from all sides of the hall, but as soon as I saw that it did not distract my hearers, I simply raised my voice, and, with little added vehemence, fairly rivaled the babies. Commenting on this trial to one of the theatrical performers, he replied, It is bad enough for you, but alas, imagine me in a tender death scene when the most profound stillness is indispensable. Having my last gasp, my farewell message to loved ones, accentuated with the joyful crowings or impatient complainings of 50 babies, I noticed in the tabernacle that the miseries of the infantile host were in a measure mitigated by constant droughts of cold water worn around in buckets by four old men. The question of the most profound interest to us at that time in the Mormon experiment was the exercise of the suffrage by women. Emeline B. Wells, wife of the mayor of the city, writing to a Washington convention in 1894, said of the many complications growing out of various bills before Congress to rob women of this right. Women have voted in Utah 14 years, but because of the little word male that still stands upon the statutes, no woman is eligible to any office of emoliment or trust. In three successive legislatures, bills have been passed, providing that the word male be erased, but each time the governor of the territory who has absolute veto power has refused to signature. Yet women attend primary meetings in the various precincts and are chosen as delegates. They are also members of county and territorial central committees and are thus gaining practical political experience and preparing themselves for positions of trust. In 1882, a convention was held to frame a constitution to be submitted to the people and presented to the Congress of the United States. Women were delegates to this convention and took part in all its deliberations and were appointed to act on committees with equal privileges. It is the first instance on record, I think, where women have been members and taken an active part in a constitutional convention. Much has been said and written, and justly, too, of suffrage for women in Wyoming. But in my humble opinion, had Utah stood on the same ground as Wyoming and women been eligible to office, as they are in that territory, they would, ere this, have been elected to the Legislative Assembly of Utah. It is currently reported that Mormon women vote as they are told by their husbands. I most emphatically deny the assertion, all Mormon women vote who are privileged to register. Every girl born here, as soon as she is 21 years old, registers and considers it as much a duty as to say her prayers. Our women vote with the same freedom that characterizes any class of people in the most conscientious acts of their lives. These various questions were happily solved in 1895 when Utah became a state. Its constitution gives women the right to vote on all questions and makes them eligible to any office. The journey over the Rocky Mountains was more interesting and wonderful than I had imagined. A heavy shower the morning we reached the Alcoly Plains made the trip through that region where travelers suffer so much, quite, and durable. Although we reached California in its hot, dry season, we found the atmosphere in San Francisco delightful, fanned with the gentle breezes of the Pacific, cooled with the waters of its magnificent harbor. The Golden Gate does indeed open to the eye of the traveler, one of the most beautiful harbors in the world. Friends had engaged for us a suite of apartments at the Grand Hotel, then just opened. Our rooms were constantly decked with fresh flowers, which our suffrage children, as they called themselves, brought us from day to day. So many brought tokens of their goodwill. In fact, all our visitors came with offerings of fruits and flowers that not only our apartments, but the public tables were crowded with rare and beautiful specimens of all varieties. We spoke every night to crowded houses on all phases of the woman question and had a succession of visitors during the day. In fact, for one week we had a perfect ovation. As Senator Stanford and his wife were at the same hotel, we had many pleasant interviews with them. While in San Francisco, we had many delightful sails in the harbor and drives to the seashore and for miles along the beach. We spent several hours at Little Ocean House, watching the gambles of the celebrated seals. These, like the big trees, were named after distinguished statesmen. One very black fellow was named Charles Sumner, in honor of his love of the black grace. Another, with a little squint in his eye, was called Ben Butler, a stout, rotund specimen that seemed to take life philosophically. Was named Senator Davis of Illinois, a very belligerent one who appeared determined to crowd his confraris into the sea, was called Secretary Stanton. Grant and Lincoln, on a higher ledge of the rocks, were complacently observing the gambles of the rest. California was on the eve of an important election, and John A. Bingham of Ohio and Senator Cole were stumping the state for the Republican Party. At several points, we had the use of their great tents for our audiences and of such of their able arguments as applied to women. As Mr. Bingham's great speech was on the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, every principle he laid down literally enfranchised the women of the nation. I met the Ohio statesmen one morning at breakfast, after hearing him the night before. I told him his logic must compel him to advocate women's suffrage. With a most cynical smile, he said, he was not the puppet of logic, but the slave of practical politics. We met most of our suffrage co-agitors in different parts of California. I spent a few days with Mrs. Elizabeth B. Shank, one of the earliest pioneers in the suffrage movement. She was a cultivated, noble woman, and her little cottage was a gem of beauty and comfort, surrounded with beautiful gardens and a hedge of fish geraniums over ten feet high. Covered with scarlet flowers, it seemed altogether more like a fairy bower than a human habitation. The windmills all over California for pumping water made a very pretty feature in the landscape, as well as an important one, as people are obliged to irrigate their gardens during the dry season. In August, the hills are as brown as ours in December. Here, too, I first met Senator Sargent's family and visited them in Sacramento City, where we had a suffrage meeting in the evening and one for women alone next day. At a similar meeting in San Francisco, 600 women were present in Platt's Hall. We discussed marriage, maternity, and social life in general. Supposing none but women were present, as all were dressed in feminine costume, the audience were quite free in their questions, and I equally so in my answers. To our astonishment, the next morning, a verbatim report of all that was said appeared in one of the leading papers with most respectful comments. As I always wrote and read carefully what I had to say on such delicate subjects, the language was well chosen and the presentation of facts and philosophy quite unobjectionable, hence the information being as important for men as for women, I did not regret the publication. During the day, a committee of three gentlemen called to know if I would give a lecture to men alone. As I had no lecture prepared, I declined with the promise to do so the next time I visited California. The idea was novel, but I think women could do much good in that way. My readers may be sure that such enterprising travelers as Miss Anthony and myself visited all the wonders, saw the geysers, big trees, the Yosemite Valley, and the immense mountain ranges piled one above the other, until they seemed to make a giant pathway from earth to heaven. We drove down the mountain sides with Fox, the celebrated whip, sixteen people in an open carriage drawn by six horses, down, down, down, as fast as we could go. I expected to be dashed to pieces, but we were safely descended in one hour. Heights we had taken three to climb. Fox held a steady rain and seemed as calm as if we were trotting on a level, though any accident such as a hot axle, a stumbling horse, or a break in the harness would have sent us down the mountain side two thousand feet to inevitable destruction. He had many amusing antidotes to tell a Horace Greeley's trip to the geysers. The distinguished journalist was wholly unprepared for the race down the mountains and begged Fox to hold up. Sitting in front he made several efforts to seize the lines, but Fox assured him that was only the possible way they could descend in safety as the horses could guide the stage, but they could not hold it. At Stockton we met a party of friends just returning from Yosemite who gave us much valuable information for the journey. Among other things I was advised to write to Mr. Hutchins, the chief authority there, to have a good strong horse in readiness to take me down the steep and narrow path into the valley. We took the same driver and carriage which our friends had found trustworthy and started early in the morning. The dust and heat made the day's journey very worrisome, but the prospect of seeing the wonderful valley made all hardships of little consequence. Quite a large party were waiting to mount their donkeys and mules when we arrived. One of the attendants, a man about as thin as a stair rod, asked me if I was the lady who had ordered a strong horse. I, being the status of the party, he readily arrived at that conclusion, so my steed was promptly produced, but I knew enough of horses and riding to see at a glance that he was a failure, with his low withers and high haunches for descending steep mountains. In addition to his forward pitch, his back was immensely broad. Miss Anthony and I decided to ride a stride and had suits made for that purpose, but alas my steed was so broad that I could not reach the stirrups. At the moment we began to descend, I felt as if I was going over his head, so I fell behind, and when the party had all gone forward, I dismounted. Though my slender guide assured me there was no danger, he had been up and down a thousand times, but as I had never been at all, his repeated experiences did not inspire me with courage. I decided to walk. That, the guide said, was impossible. Well, I said, by way of compromise, I will walk as far as I can, and when I reach the impossible, I will try that ill-constructive beast. I cannot see what you men were thinking of when you selected such an animal for this journey. And so we went slowly down, arguing the point whether it were better to ride or walk, to trust one's own legs or, by chance, be precipitated thousands of feet down the mountainside. It was a hot August day, the sun in the zenith shining with full power. My blood was at boiling heat with exercise and vexation, alternately sliding and walking, catching hold of rocks and twigs, drinking at every rivulet, covered with dust, dripping with perspiration, skirts, gloves, and shoes in tatters. For four long hours I struggled down to the end when I laid myself out on the grass and fell asleep, perfectly exhausted, having sent the guide to tell Mr. Hutchins that I had reached the valley and, as I could neither ride nor walk, to send a wheelbarrow or four men with a blanket to transport me to the hotel. That very day the Mariposa Company had brought the first carriage into the valley, which in due time was sent to my relief. Miss Anthony, who, with a nice little Mexican pony and narrow saddle, had made her descent with grace and dignity, welcomed me on the steps of the hotel and laughed, immoderately, at my helpless plight. As hour after hour had passed, she said, there had been a general wonderment as to what had become of me. But did you ever see such magnificent scenery? Alas, I replied, I have been in no mood for scenery. I have been constantly watching my hands and feet lest I should come to grief. The next day I was too stiff and sore to move a finger. However, in due time I awoke to the glory and grandeur of that wonderful valley, of which no descriptions nor paintings can give the least idea. With Sunset Cox, the leading Democratic statesman, and his wife, we had had many pleasant excursions through the valley and chats during the evening on the piazza. There was a constant succession of people going and coming, even in that far-off region, and all had their adventures to relate, but none quite equalled my experiences. We spent a day in Calvary's Grove, rested beneath the big trees, and rode on horseback through the fallen trunk of one of them. Some vandals sought off one of the most magnificent specimens 20 feet above the ground, and on this, the owners of the hotel built a little octagonal chapel. The polished wood with bark for a border made a very pretty floor. Here they often had Sunday services, as it held about 100 people. Here, too, we discussed the suffrage question amid these majestic trees that had battled with the winds 2000 years, and had probably never before listened to such rebellion as we preached to the daughters of earth that day. Here, again, we found our distinguished statesman immortalized, each with his namesake among these stately trees. We asked our guide if there were any, not yet appropriated, might we name them after women. As he readily consented, we wrote on cards the names of a dozen leading women and tacked them on their respective trees. Whether Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Phoebe Cousins, and Anna Dickinson still retain their identity, an answer when called by the goddess, Sylvia, in that majestic grove, I know not. 25 years have rolled by since then, and a new generation of visitors and guides may have left no trace of our work behind them. But we whispered our hopes and aspirations to the trees, to be wafted to the powers above, and we left them indelibly pictured on the walls of that little chapel. And for more mortal eyes, we scattered leaflets wherever we went, and we made all our pleasure trips, so many propaganda for women's enfranchisement. Returning from California, I made the journey straight through from San Francisco to New York. Though a long trip to make without a break, yet I enjoyed every moment as I found most charming, companions in Bishop James and his daughter. The bishop, being very liberal in his ideas, we discussed the various theologies and all phases of the woman question. I shall never forget those pleasant conversations as we sat outside on the platform day after day and in the soft moonlight late at night. We took up the thread of our debate each morning where we had dropped it the night before. The bishop told me about the resolution to take the word obey from the marriage ceremony which he introduced two years before into the Methodist General Conference and carried with but little opposition. All praise to the Methodist Church. When our girls are educated into a proper self-respect and laudable pride of sex, they will scout all those old barbarisms of the past that point in any way to the subject condition of women in either the state, the church, or the home. Until the other sex follow her example, I hope our girls will insist on having their conjugal knots all tied by Methodist bishops. The Episcopal Marriage Service not only still clings to the word obey, but it has a most humiliating ceremony in giving the bride away. I was never more struck with its odious and ludicrous features than on one seeing a tall, queenly looking woman, Magnificently arrayed, married by one of the tiniest priests that ever donned a surplus in gown, given away by the smallest guardian that ever watched a woman's fortunes to the feeblest, bluest-looking little groom that ever placed a wedding ring on bridal finger. Seeing these lily-putions around her, I thought, when the little priest said, Who gives this woman to this man, that she would take the responsibility and say, I do. But no, there she stood, calm, serene, as if it were no affair of hers, while the little guardian, placing her hand in that of the little groom, said, I do. Thus was the stately woman bandied about by these three puny men, all of whom she might have gathered up in her arms and borne off to their respective places of abode. But women are gradually waking up to the degradation of these ceremonies. Not long since at a wedding in Highlife, a beautiful girl of 18 was struck dumb at the word obey. Three times the priest pronounced it with emphasis and holy unction, each time slower, louder than before. Though the magnificent parlors were crowded, a breathless silence reigned. Father, mother, and groom were in agony. The bride with downcast eyes stood speechless. At length the priest slowly closed his book and said, The ceremony is at an end. One imploring word from the groom and a faint obey was heard in the solemn stillness. The priest unclasped his book and the knot was tied. The congratulations, feast, and all went on as though there had been no break in the proceedings, but the lesson was remembered, and many a revel made by that short pause. I think all these reverend gentlemen who insist on the word obey in the marriage service should be removed for a clear violation of the 13th amendment to the federal constitution, which says there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude within the United States. As I gave these experiences to Bishop James, he laughed heartily and asked me to repeat them to each newcomer. Our little debating society was the center of attraction. One gentleman asked me if our woman suffrage conventions were as entertaining. I told him yes, that there were no meetings in Washington so interesting and so well attended as ours. As I had some woman suffrage literature in my beliefs, I distributed leaflets to all the earnest souls who plied me with questions. Like all other things, it requires great discretion in sewing leaflets lest you expose yourself to rebuff. I never offer one to a man with a small head and high heels on his boots with his chin in the air because I know in the nature of things that he will be jealous of superior women nor to a woman whose mouth has the prunes and prisms expression. For I know, she will say, I have all the rights I want. Going up to London one day a few years later, I noticed a saintly sister belonging to the Salvation Army, timidly offering some leaflets to several persons on board, all coolly declining to receive them. Having had much experience in the joys and sorrows of propagandism, I put out my hand and asked her to give them to me. I thanked her and read them before reaching London. It did me no harm in her much good in thinking that she might have planted a new idea in my mind. Whatever is given to us freely, I think, in common politeness we should accept graciously. While I was enjoying once more the comforts of home on the Blue Hills of Jersey, Miss Anthony was lighting the fires of liberty on the mountain tops of Oregon and Washington Territory. All through the months of October, November, and December, 1871, she was jolting about in stages over rough roads speaking in every hamlet where a schoolhouse was to be found and scattering our breezy leaflets to the four winds of heaven. From 1869 to 1873, Miss Anthony and I made several trips through Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, and Nebraska, holding meetings at most of the chief towns, I speaking in the afternoons to women alone on marriage and maternity. As Miss Anthony had other pressing engagements in Kansas and Nebraska, I went alone to Texas, speaking in Dallas, Sherman, and Houston, where I was delayed two weeks by floods and thus prevented from going to Austin, Galveston, and some points in Louisiana, where I was advertised to lecture. In fact, I lost all my appointments for a month. However, there was a fine hotel in Houston and many pleasant people, among whom I made some valuable acquaintances. Beside several public meetings, I had parlor talks and scattered leaflets so that my time was not lost. As the floods had upset my plans for the winter, I went straight from Houston to New York over the Iron Mountain Railroad. I anticipated a rather solitary trip, but fortunately I met General Baird, whom I knew, and some other Army officers who had been down on the Mexican border to settle some troubles in the free zone. We amused ourselves on the long journey with wits and women's suffrage discussions. We noticed a disceptic-looking clergyman evidently of a bilious temperament eyeing us very steadily and disapproving the first day. And in a quiet way, we warned each other that in due time he would give us a sermon on the sin of card playing. Sitting alone early next morning, he seated himself by my side and asked me if I would allow him to express his opinion on card playing. I said, oh yes! I fully believe in free speech. Well, said he, I never touch cards. I think they are an invention of the devil to lead unwary souls from all serious thought of the stern duties of life and the realities of eternity. I was sorry to see you with your white hair, probably near the end of your earthly career, playing cards and talking with those reckless Army officers who delight in killing their fellow beings. No, I do not believe in war or card playing. Such things do not prepare the soul for heaven. Well, said I, you were quite right with your views to abjure the society of Army officers and all games of cards. You, no doubt, enjoy your own thoughts and the book you are reading, more than you would the conversation of those gentlemen in a game of wist. We must regulate our conduct by our own highest ideal. While I deplore the necessity of war, yet I know in our Army many of the noblest types of manhood whose acquaintance I prize most highly. I enjoy all games, too, from chess down to dominoes. There is so much that is sad and stern in life that we need sometimes to lay down its burdens and indulge in innocent amusements. Thus you see, what is wise from my standpoint is unwise from yours. I am sorry that you repudiate all amusements as they contribute to the health of the body on soul. You are sorry that I do not think as you do and regulate my life accordingly. You are sure that you are right. I am equally sure that I am. Hence there is nothing to be done in either case but to let each other alone and wait for the slow process of evolution to give to each of us a higher standard. Just then one of the officers asked me if I was ready for a game of wist and I excused myself from further discussion. I met many of those Dolores Saints in my travels who spent so much thought on eternity and saving their souls that they lost all the joys of time, as well as those sweet virtues of courtesy and charity that might best fit them for good works on earth and happiness in heaven. In the spring I went to Nebraska and Miss Anthony and I again made a western tour, sometimes together and sometimes by different routes. A constitutional convention was in session in Lincoln and it was proposed to submit an amendment to strike the word male from the Constitution. Nebraska became a state in March 1867 and took equality before the law as her motto. The territorial legislature had discussed many times proposed liberal legislation for women and her state legislature had twice considered propositions for women's enfranchisement. I had a release with me containing Honorable Benjamin F. Butler's Minority Reports as a member of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives and a member of Women's Right to Vote under the 14th Amendment. As we were crossing the Platte River in transferring the baggage to the boat, my release fell into the river. My heart stood still at the thought of such a fate for all those able arguments. After the great general had been in hot water all his life, it was grievous to think of any of his lucubrations perishing in cold water at last. Fortunately they were rescued. On reaching Lincoln, I was escorted to the home of the governor where I spread the documents in the sunshine and they were soon ready to be distributed among the members of the Constitutional Convention. After I had addressed the convention, some of the members called on me to discuss the points of my speech. All the gentlemen were serious and respectful with one exception, a man with an unusually small head, diminutive form and crooked legs tried at my expense to be witty and facetious. During a brief pause in the conversation, he brought his chair directly before me and said, in a mocking tone, Don't you think that the best thing a woman can do is perform well her part in the role of wife and mother? My wife has presented me with eight beautiful children. Is not this a better life work than that of exercising the right of suffrage? I had had my eye on this man during the whole interview and saw that the other members were annoyed at his behavior. I decided when the opportune moment arrived to give him an answer not soon to be forgotten. So I promptly replied to his question as I slowly viewed him from head to foot. I have met few men in my life worth repeating eight times. The members burst into a roar of laughter and one of them, clapping him on the shoulder said, There, sonny, you have read and spelled, you better go. This scene was heralded in all the Nebraska papers and wherever the little man went he was asked why Mrs. Stanton thought he was not worth repeating eight times. During my stay in Lincoln there was a celebration of the opening of some railroad, an immense crowd from miles about assembled on this occasion. The collation was spread and speeches were made in the open air. The men congratulated each other on the wonderful progress the state had made since it became an organized territory in 1854. There was not the slightest reference at first to the women. One speaker said, This state was settled by three brothers, John, James and Joseph. And from them have sprung the great concourse of people that greet us here today. I turned and asked the governor if all these people had sprung, Minerva-like from the brains of John, James and Joseph. He urged me to put that question to the speaker. So in one of his eloquent pauses I propounded the query which was greeted with loud and prolonged cheers to the evident satisfaction of the women present. The next speaker took good care to give the due mead of praise to Anne, Jane and Mary, and to every mention of the mothers of Nebraska, the crowd heartily responded. In toasting the women of Nebraska at the collation, I said, Here's to the mothers who came hither by long, tedious journeys, closely packed with restless children, In immigrant wagons, cooking the meals by day and nursing the babies by night while the men slept. Leaving comfortable homes in the east, they endured all the hardships of pioneer life, suffered with the men, the attacks of the Dakota Indians, and the constant apprehension of savage raids, of prairie fires, and the devastating locusts. Man's trials, his fears, his losses, all fell on women with double force. Yet history is silent concerning the part women performed in the frontier life of the early settlers. Men made no mention of her heroism and divine patience. They take no thought of the mental or physical agonies women endure in the perils of maternity, off times without nurse or physician in the supreme hour of their need, going, as every mother does, to the very gates of death in giving life to an immortal being. Traveling all over these western states in the early days, seeing the privations women suffered, and listening to the tales of sorrow at the fireside, I wondered that men could ever forget the debt of gratitude they owe to their mothers, or fail to commemorate their part in the growth of a great people. Yet the men of Nebraska have twice defeated the women's suffrage amendment. In 1874, Michigan was the point of interest to all those who had taken part in the women's suffrage movement. The legislature, by a very large majority, submitted to a vote of the electors an amendment of the Constitution in favor of striking out the word male, and thus securing civil and political rights to the women of the state. It was a very active campaign. Crowded meetings were held in all the chief towns and cities. Professor Moses, Coyt, Tyler, and a large number of ministers preached every Sunday on the subject of women's position. The Methodist Conference passed a resolution in favor of the amendment by a unanimous vote. I was in the state during the intense heat of May and June, speaking every evening to large audiences, in the afternoon to women alone, and preaching every Sunday in some pulpit. The Methodists, Universalists, Unitarians, and Quakers all threw open their churches to the apostles of the new gospel of equality for women. We spoke in jails, prisons, asylums, depots, and the open air. Wherever there were ears to hear, we lifted up our voices, and on the wings of the wind, the glad tidings were carried to the remote corners of the state, and the votes of 40,000 men on election day in favor of the amendment were so many testimonials to the value of the educational work accomplished. I made many valuable acquaintances on that trip, with whom I've maintained lifelong friendships. One pleasant day, I passed in the home of Governor Bagley and his wife, with a group of pretty children. I found the governor deeply interested in prison reform. He had been instrumental in passing a law giving prisoners lights in their cells and pleasant reading matter until nine o'clock. His ideas of what prisons should be, as unfolded that day, have since been fully realized in the grand experiment, now being successfully tried at Elmira, New York. I visited the state prison at Jackson and addressed 700 men and boys, ranging from 70 down to 17 years of age. Seating on the days with the chaplain, I saw them file in to dinner, and while they were eating, I had the opportunity to study the sad, despairing faces before me. I shall never forget the hopeless expression of one young man who had just been sentenced for 20 years, nor how ashamed I felt that one of my own sex, trifling with two lovers, had fanned the jealousy of one against the other, until the tragedy ended in the death of one and almost lifelong imprisonment of the other. If girls should be truthful and transparent in any relations in life, surely it is in those of love involving the strongest passions of which human nature is capable. As the chaplain told me the sad story and I noticed the prisoner's refined face and well-shaped head, I felt that the young man was not under the right influences to learn the lesson he needed. Fear, coercion, punishment are the masculine remedies for moral weakness, but statistics show their failure for centuries. Why not change the system and try the education of the moral and intellectual faculties, cheerful surroundings, inspiring influences? Everything in our present system tends to lower the physical vitality, the self-respect, the moral tone, and to harden instead of reforming the criminal. My heart was so heavy I did not know what to say to such an assembly of the miserable. I asked the chaplain what I should say. Just what you please, he replied. Thinking they had probably heard enough of their sins, their souls, and the plan of salvation, I thought I would give them the news of the day. So I told them about the woman's suffrage amendment, what I was doing in the state, my amusing encounters with opponents, their arguments, my answers. I told them of the great changes that would be affected in prison life when the mothers of the nation had a voice in the buildings and discipline. I told them what Governor Bagley said, and of the good time coming when prisons would no longer be places of punishment but schools of reformation. To show them what women would do to realize this beautiful dream, I told them of Elizabeth Fry and Darothea L. Dix, of Mrs. Farnham's experiment at Sing Sing, and Louise Michels in New Caledonia. And in closing I said, Now I want all of you who are in favor of the amendment to hold up your right hands. They gave a unanimous vote and laughed heartily when I said, I do wish you could all go to the polls in November and that we could lock our opponents up here until after the election. I felt satisfied that they had had one happy hour and that I had said nothing to hurt the feelings of the most unfortunate. As they filed off to their respective workshops, my faith and hope for brighter days went with them. Then I went all through the prison. Everything looked clean and comfortable on the surface, but I met a few days after a man just set free who had been there five years for forgery. He told me the true inwardness of the system, of the wretched, dreary life they suffered, and the brutality of the keepers. He said the prison was infested with mice and vermin, and that during the five years he was there, he had never lain down one night to undisturbed slumber. The sufferings endured in summer for one of air, he said, were indescribable. In this prison the cells were in the center of the building, the corridors running all around by the windows, so the prisoners had no outlook and no direct contact with the air. Hence if a careless keeper forgot to open the windows after a storm, the poor prisoners panted for air in their cells, like fish out of water. My informant worked in a mattress department over the room where prisoners were punished. He said he could hear the lash and the screams of the victims from morning till night. Hard as the work is all day, said he, it is a blessed relief to get out of our cells, to march across the yard, and get one glimpse of the heavens above, and one breath of pure air, and to be in contact with other human souls in the workshops. For although we could never speak to each other, yet there was a hidden current of sympathy conveyed by look that made us one in our misery. So the press of the state was largely in our favor, yet there were some editors who, having no arguments, exercised a little wit they did possess in low ridicule. It was in this campaign that an editor in a Kalamazoo journal said that ancient daughter of Methuselah, Susan B. Anthony, passed through our city yesterday on her way to the Plainwell meeting with a bonnet on her head, as if it had recently descended from Noah's Ark. Miss Anthony often referred to this description of herself and said, had I represented twenty thousand voters in Michigan, that political editor would not have known nor cared whether I was the oldest or the youngest daughter of Methuselah, or whether my bonnet came from the Ark or from Worth's. CHAPTER 19 The year 1876 was one of intense excitement and laborious activity throughout the country. The anticipation of the centennial birthday of the Republic, to be celebrated in Philadelphia, stirred the patriotism of the people to the highest point of enthusiasm. As each state was to be represented in the great exhibition, local pride added another element to the public interest. Then, too, everyone who could possibly afford the journey was busy making preparations to spend the Fourth of July, the natal day of the Republic, mid the scenes where the Declaration of Independence was issued in 1776, the government inaugurated and the first national councils were held. Those interested in women's political rights decided to make the Fourth a Woman's Day and to celebrate the occasion in their various localities by delivering orations and reading their own Declaration of Rights, with dinners and picnics in the town halls or groves, as most convenient. Many from every state in the Union made their arrangements to spend the historic period in Philadelphia. Owing also to the large numbers of foreigners who came over to join in the festivities, that city was crammed to its utmost capacity. With the crowd and excessive heat, comfort was everywhere sacrificed to curiosity. The enthusiasm throughout the country had given a fresh impulse to the Lycian bureaus. Like the ferry boats in New York Harbor, running hither and thither, crossing each other's tracks, the whole list of lecturers were on the wing, flying to every town and city from San Francisco to New York. As soon as a new railroad ran through a village of 500 inhabitants that could boast a schoolhouse, a church or a hotel, and one enterprising man or woman, a course of lecturers was at once inaugurated as part of the winter's entertainments. On one occasion I was invited, by mistake, to a little town to lecture the same evening when the Christy Minstrels were to perform. It was arranged, as the town had only one hall, that I should speak from seven to eight o'clock and the Minstrels should have the remainder of the time. One may readily see that with the Minstrels in anticipation. A lecture on any serious question would occupy but a small place in the hearts of the people in a town where they seldom had entertainments of any kind. All the time I was speaking there was a running to and fro behind the scenes where the Minstrels were transforming themselves with paints and curly wigs into Africans and laughing at each other's jests. As it was a warm evening and the windows were open, the hilarity of the boys in the street added to the general din. Under such circumstances it was difficult to preserve my equilibrium. I felt like laughing at my own comical predicament and I decided to make my address a medley of anecdotes and stories like a string of beads held together by a fine thread of argument and illustration. The moment the hand of the clock pointed at eight o'clock, the band struck up thus announcing that the happy hour for the Minstrels had come. Those of my audience who wished to stay were offered seats at half price. Those who did not slipped out and the crowd rushed in soon packing the house to its utmost capacity. I stayed and enjoyed the performance of the Minstrels more than I had my own. As the Lyceum season lasted from October to June, I was late in reaching Philadelphia. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Gage had already been through the agony of finding appropriate headquarters for the National Suffrage Association. I found them pleasantly situated on the lower floor of number 1431 Chestnut Street with the work for the coming month clearly mapped out. As it was the year for nominating candidates for the presidency of the United States, the Republicans and Democrats were about to hold their great conventions. Hence letters were to be written to them recommending a woman's suffrage plank in their platforms and asking seats for women in the conventions with the privilege of being heard in their own behalf. On these letters our united wisdom was concentrated and twenty thousand copies of each were published. Then it was thought preeminently proper that a woman's declaration of rights should be issued. Days and nights were spent over that document. After many twists from our analytical tweezers, with a critical consideration of every word and sentence it was at last, by a consensus of the competent, pronounced very good. Thousands were ordered to be printed and were folded, put in envelopes, stamped, directed, and scattered. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Gage, and I worked sixteen hours day and night pressing everyone who came in into the service and late at night carrying immense bundles to be mailed. With meetings, receptions, and a succession of visitors, all of whom we plied with women's suffrage literature, we felt we had accomplished a great educational work. Among the most enjoyable experiences at our headquarters were the frequent visits of our beloved Lucretia Mott, who used to come from her country home bringing us eggs, cold chickens, and fine oolong tea, as she had presented us with a little black teapot that, like Mercury's mysterious pitcher of milk, filled itself for every coming guest, we often improvised luncheons with a few friends. At parting, Lucretia always made a contribution to our depleted treasury. Here we had many prolonged discussions as to the part we should take on the Fourth of July in the public celebration. We thought it would be fitting for us to read our Declaration of Rights immediately after that of the Fathers was read, as our impeachment of them and their male descendants for their injustice and oppression. Hours contained as many counts and quite as important as those against King George in 1776. Accordingly we applied to the authorities to allow us seats on the platform in a place in the program of the public celebration, which was to be held in the historic Independence Hall. As General Hawley was in charge of the arrangements for the day, I wrote him as follows. 1431 Chestnut Street, July 1st, 1876 General Hawley Honored Sir, as President of the National Women's Suffrage Association I am authorized to ask you for tickets to the platform at Independence Hall for the celebration on the Fourth of July. We should like to have seats for at least one representative woman from each state. We also ask your permission to read our Declaration of Rights immediately after the reading of the Declaration of Independence of the Fathers is finished. Although these are small favors to ask as representatives of one half of the nation, yet we shall be under great obligations to you, if granted. Respectfully yours, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. To this I received the following reply. USCC Headquarters, July 2nd Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Dear Madam, I send you with pleasure half a dozen cards of invitation. As the platform is already crowded, it is impossible to reserve the number of seats you desire. I regret to say it is also impossible for us to make any changes in the program at this late hour. We are crowded for time to carry out what is already proposed. Yours, very respectfully, Joseph R. Hawley, President USCC. With this rebuff, Mrs. Stanton, I decided we would not accept the offered seats, but would be ready to open our own convention called for that day at the First Unitarian Church where the Reverend William H. Furness had preached for fifty years. But some of our younger co-agituers decided that they would occupy the seats and present our Declaration of Rights. They said truly women will be taxed to pay the expenses of this celebration and we have as good a right to that platform and to the ears of the people as the men have, and we will be heard. That historic 4th of July dawned at last one of the most oppressive days of that heated season. Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Jocelyn Gage, Sarah Andrew Spencer, Lily Devereaux Blake, and Phoebe W. Cousins made their way through the crowd under the broiling sun of Independence Square carrying the Women's Declaration of Rights. This declaration had been handsomely engrossed by one of their number and signed by the oldest and most prominent advocates of women's enfranchisement. Their tickets of admission proved an open sesame through the military barriers and a few moments before the opening of the ceremonies these women found themselves within the precincts from which most of their sex were excluded. The Declaration of 1776 was read by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia about whose family clusters so much historic fame. The moment he finished reading was determined upon as the appropriate time for the presentation of the Women's Declaration. Not quite sure how their approach might be met, not quite certain if, at this final moment, they would be permitted to reach the presiding officer. Those ladies rose and made their way down the aisle. The bustle of preparation for the Brazilian hymn covered their advance. The foreign guests and the military and civil officers who filled the space directly in front of the speaker stand courteously made way while Miss Anthony, with fitting words, presented the Declaration to the presiding officer. Senator Ferry's face paled as bowing low with no word he received the Declaration, which thus became part of the day's proceedings. The ladies turned, scattering printed copies as they deliberately walked down the platform. On every side eager hands were outstretched. Men stood on seats and asked for them while General Hawley thus defied and beaten in his audacious denial to women of the right to present their Declaration. Shouted, Order! Order! Passing out, these ladies made their way to a platform directed for the musicians in front of Independence Hall. Here under the shadow of Washington's statue, back of them the old bell that proclaimed liberty to all the land and all the inhabitants thereof, they took their places into a listening, applauding crowd Miss Anthony read the woman's Declaration. During the reading of the Declaration Mrs. Gage stood beside Miss Anthony and held an umbrella over her head to shelter her friend from the intense heat of the noonday sun, and thus in the same hour on opposite sides of Old Independence Hall did the men and women express their opinions on the great principles proclaimed on the natal day of the Republic. The Declaration was handsomely framed and now hangs in the Vice President's room in the capital at Washington. These heroic ladies then hurried from Independence Hall to the church, already crowded with an expectant audience to whom they gave a full report of the morning's proceedings. The Hutchinsons of worldwide fame were present in their happiest vein, interspersing the speeches with appropriate songs and felicitous remarks. For five long hours on that hot mid-summer day a crowded audience, many standing, listened with profound interest and reluctantly dispersed at last, all agreeing that it was one of the most impressive and enthusiastic meetings they had ever attended. All through our civil war the slaves on the southern plantations had an abiding face that the terrible conflict would result in freedom for their race. Just so, through all the busy preparations of the centennial, the women of the nation felt sure that the great national celebration could not pass without the concession of some new liberties to them. Hence they pressed their claims at every point, at the Fourth of July celebration in the exposition buildings and in the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions, hoping to get a plank in the platforms of both the great political parties. The women's pavilion upon the centennial grounds was an afterthought, as theologians claim women herself to have been. The women of the country after having contributed nearly $100,000 to the centennial stock found that there had been no provision made for the separate exhibition of their work. The centennial board of which Mrs. Gillespie was president then decided to raise funds for the erection of a separate building to be known as the women's pavilion. The pavilion was a prominent acre of ground and was erected at an expense of $30,000, a small sum in comparison with the money which had been raised by women and expended on the other buildings, not to speak of the state and national appropriations, which the taxes levied on them had largely helped to swell. The pavilion was no true exhibit of women's art. Few women are, as yet, owners of the business which their industry largely makes remunerative. Cotton factories in which thousands of women work are owned by men. The shoe business, in some branches of which women are doing more than half the work, is under the ownership of men. Rich embroideries from India, rugs of downy softness from Turkey, the muslin of Decca, anciently known as the Woven Wind, the pottery and majolicaware of P. Pipson's Widow, the cartridges and envelopes of Uncle Sam, Waltham watches whose finest mechanical work is done by women, and 10,000 other industries found no place in the pavilion, said United States Commissioner Meeker of Colorado. Woman's work comprises three-fourths of the exposition. It is scattered through every building. Take it away, and there would be no exposition. But this pavilion rendered one good service to woman in showing her capabilities as an engineer, the boiler which furnished the force for running its work was under the charge of a young Canadian girl, Miss Allison, who from childhood had loved machinery, spending much time in the large saw and grist mills of her father, run by engines of two and three hundred horsepower, which she sometimes managed for amusement. When her name was proposed for running the pavilion machinery, it caused much opposition. It was said that the committee would some day find the pavilion blown to atoms, that the woman engineer would spend her time reading novels instead of watching the steam gauge, that the idea was impractical and should not be thought of. But Miss Allison soon proved her capabilities and the falseness of these prophecies by taking her place in the engine room and managing its workings with perfect ease. Six power looms on which women wove carpets, webbing, silks, et cetera, were run by this engine. At a later period the printing of The New Century for Woman, a paper published by the Centennial Commission in the Women's Building, was done by its means. Miss Allison declared the work to be more cleanly, more pleasant, and infinitely less fatiguing than cooking over a kitchen stove. Since I have been compelled to earn my own living, she said, I have never been engaged in work I like so well. Teaching school is much harder and one is not paid so well. She expressed her confidence in the ability to manage the engines of an ocean steamer and said that there were thousands of small engines in use in various parts of the country and no reason existed why women should not be employed to manage them, following the profession of an engineer as a regular business, an engine requiring far less attention than is given by a nursemaid or a mother to a child. But to have made the women's pavilion grandly historic, upon its walls should have hung the yearly protest of Harriet K. Hunt against taxation without representation. The legal papers served upon the Smith sisters when, for their refusal to pay taxes while unrepresented, their Alderney cows were seized and sold. The papers issued by the City of Worcester for the forced sale of the house and lands of Abbey Kelly Foster, the veteran abolitionist because she refused to pay taxes, giving the same reason our ancestors gave when they resisted taxation. A model of Bunker Hill Monument, its foundation laid by Lafayette in 1825, but which remained unfinished nearly twenty years until the famous German dancers, Fanny Ellsler, gave the proceeds of a public performance for that purpose. With these should have been exhibited framed copies of all the laws bearing unjustly upon women, those which rob her of her name, her earnings, her property, her children, her person. Also the legal papers in the case of Susan B. Anthony, who was tried and fined for claiming her right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment, and the decision of Mr. Justice Miller in the case of Myra Bradwell, denying national protection for women's civil rights, and the later decision of Chief Justice Waite of the United States Supreme Court against Virginia L. Miner, denying women national protection for their political rights, decisions in favor of states' rights and peril of the liberties, not only of all women, but of every white man in the nation. Women's most fitting contributions to the centennial exposition would have been these protests, laws, and decisions, which show her political slavery. But all this was left for rooms outside of the centennial grounds upon Chestnut Street where the National Women's Suffrage Association hoisted its flag, made its protests, and wrote the Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States. To many thoughtful people it seemed capsious and unreasonable for women to complain of injustice in this free land amid such universal rejoicings. When the majority of women are seemingly happy, it is natural to suppose that the discontent of the minority is the result of their unfortunate individual idiosyncrasies and not of adverse influences in established conditions. But the history of the world shows that the vast majority in every generation passively accept the conditions into which they are born, while those who demanded larger liberties are ever a small, ostracized minority whose claims are ridiculed and ignored. From our standpoint we would honor any Chinese woman who claimed the right to her feet and powers of locomotion, the Hindu widows who refused to ascend the funeral pyre of their husbands, the Turkish women who threw off their masks and veils and left the harem, the Mormon women who abjured their faith and demanded monogamic relations. Why not equally honor the intelligent minority of American women who protest against the artificial disabilities by which their freedom is limited and their development arrested, that only a few under any circumstances protest against the injustice of long established laws and customs not to sprew the fact of the oppressions while the satisfaction of the many, if real, only proves their apathy and deeper degradation, that a majority of the women of the United States accept, without protest, the disabilities which grow out of their disenfranchisement is simply an evidence of their ignorance and cowardice, while the minority who demand a higher political status clearly prove their superior intelligence and wisdom. At the close of the 47th Congress we made two new demands. First, for a special committee to consider all questions in regard to the civil and political rights of women, we naturally asked the question, as Congress has a special committee on the rights of Indians, why not on those of women? Are not women as a factor in civilization of more importance than Indians? Secondly, we asked for a room in the capital where our committee could meet undisturbed whenever they saw fit. Though these points were debated a long time our demands were exceeded to the last. We now have our special committee and our room with women's suffrage and guilt letters over the door. In our struggle to achieve this, while our champion the senior senator from Massachusetts stood up bravely in the discussion the opposition not only ridiculed the special demand, but all attempts to secure the civil and political rights of women. As an example of the arguments of the opposition, I give what the senator from Missouri said. It is a fair specimen of all that was produced on that side of the debate. Mr. Vest's poetical flights are most inspiring. The Senate now has 41 committees with a small army of messengers and clerks, one half of whom without exaggeration are literally without employment. I shall not pretend to specify the committees of this body which have not one single bill, resolution or proposition of any sort pending before them and have not had for months. But, Mr. President, out of all our committees without business and habitually without business in this body there is one that, beyond any question, could take jurisdiction of this matter and do it ample justice. I refer to that most respectable and antique institution the committee on revolutionary claims. For thirty years it has been without business. For thirty long years the placid service of that parliamentary sea has been without one single ripple. If the senator from Massachusetts desires a tribunal for a calm judicial equilibrium and examination, a tribunal far from the madding crowds ignoble strife, a tribunal eminently respectable, dignified and unique, why not send this question to the committee on revolutionary claims. It is eminently proper that this subject should go to that committee because if there is any revolutionary claim in this country, it is that of woman's suffrage. It revolutionizes society. It revolutionizes religion. It revolutionizes the constitutions and laws and it revolutionizes the opinions of those so old fashioned among us as to believe legitimate and proper sphere of woman is the family circle as wife and mother and not as politician and voter. Those of us who are proud to believe that women's noblest station is retreat, her fairest virtues fly from public sight domestic worth that shuns too strong a light. Before that committee on revolutionary claims, why not this most revolutionary of all claims receive immediate and ample attention. More than that as I said before if there is any tribunal that could give undivided time and dignified attention is it not this committee if there is one peaceful haven of rest, never disturbed by any profane bill or resolution of any sort. It is the committee of revolutionary claims. It is in parliamentary life described by that ecstatic verse in Watts's hymn. There shall I bathe my weary soul in seas of endless rest and not one wave of trouble roll across my peaceful breast. By all natural laws stagnation breeds disease and death and what could stir up this most venerable and respectable institution more than an application of the strong-minded with short hair and shorter skirts invading its dignified realm and elucidating all the excellences of female suffrage. Moreover, if these ladies could ever succeed in the providence of God in obtaining a report from that committee it would end this question forever for the public at large and myself included in view of that miracle of female blandishment and female influence would surrender at once and female suffrage would become constitutional and lawful. Sir, I insist upon it that, in deference to this committee, in deference to the fact that it needs this sort of regimen and medicine, this whole subject should be so referred. This gives a very fair idea of the character of the arguments produced by our opponents from the inauguration of the movement. But as there are no arguments in a republican government in favor of an aristocracy of sex, ridicule was really the only available weapon. After declaring that no just government can be formed without the consent of the governed, that taxation without representation is tyranny, it is difficult to see on what basis one half the people are disfranchised. End of Chapter 19 Recording by Rhonda Fetterman Chapter 20 of 80 years and more Reminisances 1815 to 1897 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org This recording by Karen Cummins 80 years and more Reminisances 1815 to 1897 by Elizabeth Katie Stanton Chapter 20 Writing the History of Woman Suffrage The four years following the centennial were busy happy ones of varied interests and employment public and private sons and daughters graduating from college bringing troops of young friends to visit us the usual matrimonial entanglements with all their promises of celestial bliss intertwined with earthly doubts and fears weddings voyages to Europe business ventures in this world of plans and projects our heads, hearts and hands were fully occupied seven boys and girls dancing round the fireside buoyant with all life's joys opening before them are enough to keep the most apathetic parents on the watchtowers by day and anxious even in dreamland by night. My spare time if it can be said that I ever had any was given during these days to social festivities the inevitable dinners teas, picnics and dances with country neighbors all came round in quick succession we lived at this time in Tenefly, New Jersey not far from the publisher of The Sun Isaac W. England who also had seven boys and girls as full of frolic as our own Mrs. England and I entered games with equal zest the youngest thought half the fun was to see our enthusiasm in Blind Man's Bluff Fox and Geese and beanbags it thrills me with delight even now to see these games Mr. England was the soul of hospitality he was never more happy than when his house was crowded with guests and his larder with all the seas of the season though he and Mr. Stanton were both connected with that dignified journal the New York Sun yet they often joined in the general hilarity I laugh as I write at the memory of all the frolics we had on the blue hills of Jersey in addition to the domestic cares which a large family involved Mrs. Gage, Miss Anthony and I were already busy collecting material for the history of woman suffrage this required no end of correspondence then my lecturing trips were still a part of the annual program Washington conventions too with calls, appeals resolutions, speeches and hearings before the committees of Congress and state legislatures all these came around in the years proceedings as regularly as pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, plum pudding for Christmas, and patriotism for Washington's birthday those who speak for glory or philanthropy are always in demand for college commencements and 4th of July orations hence much of Miss Anthony's eloquence as well as my own was utilized in this way on October 18th, 1880 I had an impromptu dinner party Elizabeth Boynton Harbert Maywright Thompson now Sewell Phoebe W. Cousins and Arathusa Forbes returning from a Boston convention all by chance met under my roof we had a very merry time talking over the incidents of the convention Boston Proprieties and the general situation as I gave them many early reminiscences they asked if I had kept a diary no I said not a pen scratch of the past have I accept what might be gathered from many family letters they urged me to begin a diary at once so I promised I would on my coming birthday my great grief that day was that we were putting in a new range and had made no preparations for dinner this completely upset the presiding genius of my culinary department as she could not give us the bounteous feast she knew was expected on such occasions I as usual when there was any lack in the vions tried to be as brilliant as possible in conversation discussing nirvana karma, reincarnation and thus turning attention from the evanescent things of earth to the joys of a life to come not an easy feat to perform with strong-minded women but imparting they seemed happy and refreshed and all promised to come again but we shall never meet there again as the old familiar oaks and the majestic chestnut trees have passed into other hands strange lovers now whispered their vows of faith and trust under the tree where a most charming wedding ceremony that of my daughter Margaret was solemnized one bright October day all nature seemed to do her utmost to heighten the beauty of the occasion the verger was brilliant with autumnal tints the hazy noonday sun lent a peculiar softness to every shadow even the birds and insects were hushed to silence as the wedding march rose soft and clear who stately ushers led the way then a group of vassar classmates gaily decked in silks of different colors followed by the bride and groom an immense Saint Bernard dog on his own account brought up the rear keeping time with measured tread he took his seat in full view watching alternately the officiating clergyman the bride and groom and guest as if to say what does all this mean no one behaved with more propriety and no one looked more radiant than he with a ray of sunlight on his beautiful coat of long hair his bright brass collar and his wonderful head Bruno did not live to see the old home broken up he was only there under the chestnut trees and fills a large place in many of our pleasant memories on November 12, 1880 I was 65 years old and pursuant to my promise I then began my diary it was a bright sunny day but the frost king was at work all my grand old trees that stood like sentinels to mark the boundary of my domain they were gripped of their foliage and their brilliant colors had faded into a uniform brown but the evergreens and the tall prem cedars held their own and when covered with snow their exquisite beauty brought tears to my eyes one need never be lonely mid beautiful trees my thoughts were with my absent children Harriet in France Theodore in Germany Margaret with her husband and brother Garrett Halfway across the continent and Bob still in college I spent the day writing letters and walking up and down the piazza and enjoyed from my windows a glorious sunset alone on birthdays or holidays one is very apt to indulge in sad retrospections the thought of how much more I might have done for the perfect development of my children than I had accomplished depressed me I thought of all the blenders in my own life and in their education little has been said of the responsibilities of parental life accordingly little or nothing has been done I had such visions of parental duties that day that I came to the conclusion that parents never could pay the debt they owe their children for bringing them into this world of suffering unless they can ensure them sound minds and sound bodies and enough of the good things of this life to enable them to live without a continual struggle for the necessaries of existence I have no sympathy with the old idea that children owe parents a debt of gratitude for the simple fact of existence generally conferred without thought and merely for their own pleasure how seldom we hear of any high or holy preparation for the office of parenthood here in the most momentous act of life all is left to chance men and women intelligent and prudent in all other directions seem to exercise no forethought here but hand down their individual and family idiosyncrasies in the most reckless manner on November 13th the New York Tribune announced the death of Lucretia Mott 88 years old having known her in the flush of life when all her faculties were at their zenith and in the repose of age when her powers began to wane her withdrawal from among us seemed as beautiful and natural as the changing foliage from summer to autumn of some grand old oak I have watched and loved the arrival of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Gage on November 20th banished all family matters from my mind what planning now for volumes chapters footnotes, margins, appendices paper and type of engravings, title preface and introduction I had never thought that the publication of a book required the consideration of such endless details we stood appalled before the mass of material growing higher and higher with every mail and the thought of all the reading involved made us feel as if our life work lay before us six weeks of steady labor all day and often until midnight may no visible decrease in the pile of documents however before the end of the month we had our arrangements all made with publishers and engravers and six chapters in print when we began to correct proof we felt as if something was accomplished thus we worked through the winter and far into the spring with no change except the Washington Convention and an occasional evening meeting in New York City we had frequent visits from friends whom we were glad to see Hither came Edward M. Davis Sarah Pugh Adeline Thompson Frederick Cabot of Boston Dr. William F. Channing and sweet little Clara Spence who recited for us some of the most beautiful selections in her repertoire in addition we had numberless letters from friends and foes some praising and some condemning our proposed undertaking and though much alone we were kept in touch with the outside world but so conflicting was the tone of the letters that if we had not taken a very fair gauge of ourselves and our advisors we should have abandoned our project and buried all the valuable material collected to sleep in pine boxes forever at this time I received a very amusing letter from the Reverend Robert Collier on literary righteousness quizzing me for using one of his anecdotes in my sketch of LaCretia Mott without giving him credit I left him to scorn that he should have thought it was my duty to have done so I told him plainly that he belonged to a class of white male citizens who had robbed me of all civil and political rights of property children and personal freedom and now it ill became him to call me to account for using one of his little anecdotes that 10 to 1 he had robbed from some woman I told him that I considered his whole class as fair game for literary pilfering that women had been taxed to build colleges to educate men and if we could pick up a literary crumb that had fallen from their feast we surely had a right to it moreover I told him that man's duty in the world was to work, to dig and to delve for jewels that were not ideal and lay them at woman's feet for her to use as she might see fit that he should feel highly complimented instead of complaining that he had written something I thought worth using he answered like the nobleman he is susceptible of taking in a new idea he admitted that in view of the shortcomings of his entire sex he had not one word to say in the way of accusation but lay prostrated my feet in set cloth and ashes wondering that he had not taken my view of the case in starting only twice in my life have I been accused of quoting without giving due credit the other case was that of Matilda Jocelyn Gage I had on two or three occasions used a motto of hers in autograph books just as I had sentiments from long fellow Lowell, Shakespeare, Moses or Paul in long glyceum trips innumerable autograph books met one at every turn in the cars, depots on the platform at the hotel and in the omnibus a sentiment please cry half a dozen voices one writes hastily different sentiments for each in this way I unfortunately used a pet sentiment of Matilda's so here and now I say to my autograph admirers from New York to San Francisco wherever you see there is a word sweeter than mother home or heaven that word is liberty remember it belongs to Matilda Jocelyn Gage I hope now that Robert and Matilda say in their posthumous works that I made the amande honorable as I always strive to do when friends feel they have not been fairly treated in May 1881 the first volume of our history appeared it was an octavo containing 871 pages with good paper good print handsome engravings and nicely bound but with the same feeling of love and tenderness as I did my first born I took the same pleasure in hearing it praised and felt the same mortification in hearing it criticized the most hearty welcome it received was from Reverend William Henry Channing he wrote us that it was as interesting and fascinating as a novel he gave it a most flattering notice John W. Forney too wrote a good review and sent a friendly letter Mayo W. Hazeltine one of the ableist critics in this country in the New York sun also gave it a very careful and complimentary review in fact we received far more praise and less blame than we anticipated we began the second volume in June reading over the material concerning women's work in the war I felt how little our labors are appreciated who can sum up all the ills the women of a nation suffer from war they have all of the misery and none of the glory nothing to mitigate their weary waiting and watching for the loved ones who will return no more in the spring of 1881 to vary the monotony of the work on the history we decided to hold a series of conventions through the New England states we began during the anniversary week in Boston and had several crowded enthusiastic meetings in Tramont Temple in addition to our suffrage meetings I spoke before the free religious moral education and heredity associations all our speakers stayed at the Parker House and we had a very pleasant time visiting together in our leisure hours we were received by Governor Long at the State House he made a short speech in favor of women's suffrage in reply to Mrs. Hooker we also called on the mayor at the city hall and went through Jordan and Marcia's great mercantile establishment where the clerks are chiefly young girls who are well housed and have pleasant rooms with a good library where they sit and read in the evening we went through the Sherburn reformatory prison for women managed entirely by women we found it clean and comfortable more like a pleasant home than a place of punishment Mrs. Robinson Ms. Anthony and I were invited to dine with the bird club woman, other than I had ever had that honor before I dined with them in 1870 escorted by Warrington of the Springfield Republican and Edwin Morton there I met Frank Sanborn for the first time Frank Bird held about the same place in political life in Massachusetts that Thurlow Weed did in the state of New York for 40 years in the evening we had a crowded reception at the home of Mrs. Finno Tudor who occupied a fine old residence facing the common where we met a large gathering of Boston reformers on Decoration Day May 30 we went to Providence where I was the guest of Dr. William F Channing we had a very successful convention there Senator Anthony and ex-Governor were in the audience and expressed great pleasure afterward in all they had heard I preached in Reverend Frederick Hinckley's church the previous Sunday afternoon from Providence I hurried home to meet my son Theodore and his bride who had just landed from France we decorated our house and grounds with Chinese lanterns and national flags for their reception as we had not time to send to New York for bunting our flags French and American were all made of bright red and blue cambrick the effect was fine when they arrived but unfortunately there came up a heavy thunderstorm in the night and so drenched our beautiful flags that they became colorless rags my little maid announced to me early in the morning that the French Americans had had a great battle during the night and that the piazza was covered with blood this was startling news to one just awakening from a sound sleep why Emma I said what do you mean why she replied the rain has washed all the color out of our flags and the piazza is covered with red and blue streams of water as the morning sun appeared in all its glory chasing the dark clouds away our decorations did indeed look pale and limp and were promptly removed I was happily surprised with my tall stately daughter Marguerite Berry a fine looking girl of 20 straight, strong and sound, modest and pleasing she can walk miles sketches from nature with great skill and rapidity and speaks three languages I had always said to my sons when you marry choose a woman with a spine and sound teeth remember the teeth show the condition of the bones in the rest of the body so when Theodore introduced his wife to me he said you see I have followed your advice her spine is as straight as it should be and every tooth in her head is as sound as ivory this reminds me of a young man who used to put my stoves up for the winter he told me one day that he thought of getting married well I said above all things get a wife with a spine and sound teeth stove pipe in hand he turned to me with a look of surprise and said did they ever come without spines in July 1881 sitting under the trees Miss Anthony and I read and discussed Wendell Phillips magnificent speech for the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College this society had often talked of inviting him but was afraid of his radical utterances at last hoping that Gears might have modified his opinions and somewhat softened his speech an invitation was given the elite of Boston the presidents and college professors from far and near were there a great audience of the wise the learned the distinguished and state and church assembled such a conservative audience it was supposed would surely hold this radical in check alas they were all doomed for once to hear the naked truth on every vital question of the day thinking this might be his only opportunity to rouse some liberal thought in conservative minds he struck the keynote of every reform defended labor strikes the nihilist of Russia prohibition woman suffrage and demanded reformation in our prisons courts of justice and halls of legislation on the woman question he said social science affirms that woman's place in society is the level of civilization from its twilight in Greece through the Italian worship of the virgin the dreams of chivalry the justice of the civil law and the equality of French society we trace her gradual recognition while our common law as Lord Broim confessed was with relation to women the opprobrium of the age Christianity for 40 years earnest men and women working noiselessly have washed away the opprobrium the statute books of 30 states have been remodeled and woman stands today almost face to face with her last claim the ballot it has been a weary and thankless though successful struggle but if there be any refuge from that ghastly curse the vice of great cities before which social science stands pulsed and dumb it is in this more equal recognition of women if in this critical battle for universal suffrage our father's noblest legacy to us and the greatest trust God leaves in our hands there be any weapon taken from the armory will make victory certain it will be as it has been an art literature and society summoning woman into the political arena the literary class until within half a dozen years has taken no note of this great uprising only to fling every obstacle in its way the first glimpse yet of Saxon blood in history is that line of Tacitus in his Germany which reads in all grave matters they consult their women years hence when robust Saxon sense has flung away Jewish superstition and eastern prejudice and put under its foot fastidious scholarship and squeamish fashion some second Tacitus of the Mississippi will answer to him of the seven hills in all grave questions we consult our women if the Alps piled in cold and silence be the emblem of despotism we joyfully take the ever restless ocean for hours only pure because never still to be as good as our fathers we must be better they silence their fears and subdued their prejudices inaugurating free speech and equality with no precedent on the file let us rise to their level crush appetite and prohibit temptation if it rots great cities entrenched labor and sufficient bulwarks against that wealth which without the tenfold strength of modern incorporations direct the Grecian and Roman states and with a sterner effort still summon women into civil life as reinforcement to our laboring ranks in the effort to make our civilization a success sit not like the figure on our silver coin looking ever backward new occasions teach new duties time makes ancient good uncouth they must upward still and onward who would keep a breast of truth low before us gleam her watchfires we ourselves must pilgrims be launch our mayflower and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea nor attempt the future's portal with the past and rusted key that harvard speech in the face of fashion bigotry and conservatism so liberal so eloquent so brave is a model for every young man who like the orator would devote his talents to the best interest of the race rather than to his personal ambition for mere worldly success toward the end of October miss anthony returned after a rest of two months and we commenced work again on the second volume of the history november 2 being election day the republican carriage decorated with flags and evergreens came to the door for voters as i owned the house and paid the taxes and as none of the white males was home i said that i might go down and do the voting where upon the gentlemen who represented the republican committee urged me most cordially to do so accompanied by my faithful friend miss anthony we stepped into the carriage and went to the pole held in the hotel where i usually went to pay taxes when we entered the room it was crowded with men i was introduced to the inspectors of our leading citizens who said miss stanton is here gentlemen for the purpose of voting as she is a taxpayer of sound mind and of legal age i see no reason why she should not exercise this right of citizenship the inspectors were thunderstruck i think they were afraid that i was about to capture the ballot box one placed his arms rounded with one hand close over the aperture where the ballots were slipped in and said with mingled surprise and pity oh no madam men only are allowed to vote i then explained to him that in accordance with the constitution of new jersey women had voted in new jersey down to 1801 when they were forbidden the further exercise of the right by an arbitrary act of the legislature and by a recent amendment to the national constitution congress had declared that 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 and are entitled to vote i told them that i wish to cast my vote as a citizen of the united states for the candidates for united states offices two of the inspectors sat down and pulled their hats over their eyes whether from shame or ignorance i do not know the other held on to the box and said i know nothing about the constitutions state or national i never read either but i do know that in new jersey women have not voted in my day and i cannot accept your ballot so i laid my ballot in his hand saying that i had the same right to vote that any man present had and on him must rest the responsibility of denying me my rights of citizenship all through the winter miss anthony and i worked diligently on the history my daughter harriet came from europe in february determined that i should return with her as she had not finished her studies to expedite my task on the history she seized the laboring ore prepared the last chapter and corrected the proof as opportunity offered as the children were scattered to the four points of the compass and my husband spent the winter in the city we decided to lease our house and all take a holiday we spent a month in new york city busy on the history to the last hour with occasional intervals of receiving and visiting friends as i dreaded the voyage the days flew by too fast for my pleasure end of chapter 20 this recording by caron commons i invite you to visit my website at caron