 Chapter 27 of 80 Years and More, Reminiscences 1815 through 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 Wendy Almeida 80 Years and More, Reminiscences 1815 through 1897 By Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chapter 27 60th Anniversary of the Class of 1832 The Woman's Bible I returned from Geneva to New York City In time to celebrate my 76th birthday with my children, I had travelled about constantly for the last 20 years in France, England, and my own country, and had so many friends and correspondents and pressing invitations to speak in clubs and conventions that now I decided to turn over a new leaf and rest in an easy chair. But so complete a change in one's life could not be easily accomplished. In spite of my resolution to abide in seclusion, my daughter and I were induced to join the Butter Club, which was to meet once a month alternately at the residences of Mrs. Moncure De Conway and Mrs. Abbey Sage Richardson. Though composed of ladies and gentlemen, it proved dull and unprofitable. As the subject for discussion was not announced until each meeting, no one was prepared with any well-digested train of thought. It was also decided to avoid all questions about which there might be grave differences of opinion. This negative position reminded me of a book on etiquette which I read in my young days in which gentlemen were warned, in the presence of ladies, discuss neither politics, religion, nor social duties, but confine yourself to art, poetry, and abstract questions which women cannot understand, the less they know of a subject, the more respectfully they will listen. This club was named in honor of Mrs. Bata, formerly Miss Anne Lynch, whose drawing room for many years was the social center of the Literati of New York. On January 16th, 1892, we held the annual Suffrage Convention in Washington and, as usual, had a hearing before the Congressional Committee. My speech on the solitude of self was well received and was published in the Congressional Record. The woman's tribune struck off many hundreds of copies, and it was extensively circulated. Notwithstanding my determination to rest, I spoke to many clubs, wrote articles for papers and magazines, and two important leaflets, one on street cleaning, another on opening the Chicago Exposition on Sunday. As Sunday was the only day the masses could visit that magnificent scene with its great lake, extensive park, artificial canals, and beautiful buildings, I strongly advocated its being open on that day. One hundred thousand religious bigots petitioned Congress to make no appropriation for this magnificent exposition unless the managers pledged themselves to close the gates on Sunday and hide this vision of beauty from the common people. Fortunately, this time a sense of justice outweighed religious bigotry. I sent my leaflets to every member of Congress and of the state legislatures and to the managers of the Exposition and made it a topic of conversation at every opportunity. The park and parts of the Exposition were kept open on Sunday, but some of the machinery was stopped as a concession to narrow Christian sects. In June 1892, at the earnest solicitation of Mrs. Russell Sage, I attended the dedication of the Gurley Memorial Building, presented to the Emma Willard Seminary at Troy, New York, and made the following address. Mrs. President, members of the alumni, it is just sixty years since the class of 32, to which I belonged, celebrated a commencement in this same room. This was the great event of the season to many families throughout this state. Parents came from all quarters, the elite of Troy and Albany, assembled here, principals from other schools, distinguished legislators, and clergymen all came to hear girls scan Latin verse, solve problems in Euclid, and read their own compositions in a promiscuous assemblage. A long line of teachers anxiously waited the calling of their classes, and overall our queenly Madam Willard presided with royal grace and dignity. Two hundred girls in gala attire, white dresses, bright sashes, coral ornaments, with their curly hair, rosy cheeks, and sparkling eyes, flitted to and fro, some rejoicing that they had passed through their ordeal, some still on the tiptoe of expectation, some laughing, some in tears, altogether a most beautiful and interesting picture. Conservatives then, as now, thought the result of the higher education of girls would be to destroy their delicacy and refinement. But as the graduates of the Troy Seminary were never distinguished in afterlife for the lack of these feminine virtues, the most timid even gradually accepted the situation and trusted their daughters with Mrs. Willard. But that noble woman endured for a long period the same ridicule and persecution that women now do who take an onward step in the march of progress. I see around me none of the familiar faces that greeted my coming or said farewell in parting. I do not know that one of my classmates still lives. Friendship with those I knew and loved best lasted but a few years, then our ways in life parted. I should not know where to find one now, and if I did, probably our ideas would differ on every subject, as I have wandered in latitudes beyond the prescribed sphere of women. I suppose it is much the same with many of you. The familiar faces are all gone, gone to the land of shadows and I hope of sunshine too, where we in turn will soon follow. And yet, though we who are left are strangers to one another, we have the same memories of the past, of the same type of mischievous girls and stayed teachers, though with different names. The same long bare halls and stairs, the recitation rooms with the same old blackboards, and lumps of chalk taken for generation after generation, I suppose, from the same pit. The dining room with its pillars inconveniently near some of the tables, with its thick white crockery and black handled knives, and vines that never suited us, because for sooth we had boxes of delicacies from home, or we had been out to the bakers or confectioners and bought pies and coconut cakes, candy and chewing gum, all forbidden, but that added to the relish. There too with the music rooms, with their old second-hand pianos, some with rattling keys and tinny sound, on which we were supposed to play our scales and exercises for an hour, though we often slyly indulged in the Russian march, Napoleon crossing the Rhine, or our national airs, when, as slyly Mr. Powell, our music teacher, a bumpious Englishman, would softly open the door and say in a stern voice, Please, practice the lesson I just gave you. Our chief delight was to break the rules, but we did not like to be caught at it. As we were forbidden to talk with our neighbours in study hours, I frequently climbed on top of my bureau to talk through a pipe-hole with a daughter of Judge Howell of Canandaigua. We often met afterward, laughed and talked over the old days, and kept our friendship bright until the day of her death. Once, while rooming with Harriet Hudson, a sister of Mrs. John Willard, I was moved to a very erratic performance. Mr. Theresa Lee had run the bell for retiring, and had taken her rounds, as usual, to see that the lights were out, and all was still. When I peeped out of my door, and seeing the bell at the head of the stairs nearby, I gave it one kick, and away it went rolling and ringing to the bottom. The halls were instantly filled with teachers and scholars, all in white robes, asking what was the matter. Harriet and I ran around, questioning the rest. And what a frolic we had! Helter, skelter, up and downstairs, in each other's rooms, pulling the beds to pieces, changing girls' clothes from one room to another, et cetera, et cetera. The hall lamps, dimly burning, gave us just light enough for all manner of depredations without our being recognized, hence the unbounded latitude we all felt for mischief. In our whole seminary course, and I was there nearly three years, we never had such a frolic as that night. It took all the teachers to restore order and quiet us down again for the night. No suspicion of any irregularities were ever attached to Harriet and myself. Our standing for scholarship was good, hence we were supposed to reflect all the moralities. Those strangers, we have a bond of union in all these memories of our bright companions, our good teachers who took us through the pitfalls of logic, rhetoric, philosophy, and the sciences, and of the noble woman who founded the institution and whose unselfish devotion and the cause of education we are here to celebrate. The name of Emma Willard is dear to all of us. To know her was to love and venerate her. She was not only good and gifted, but she was a beautiful woman. She had a finely developed figure, well shaped head, classic features, most genial manners, and a profound self-respect, a rare quality in woman that gave her a dignity truly royal in every position. Travelling in the old world, she was noticed everywhere as a distinguished personage, and all these gifts she dedicated to the earnest purpose of her life, the higher education of women. In opening this seminary, she could not find young women capable of teaching the higher branches. Hence, her first necessity was to train herself. Amos B. Eaton, who was the principal of the Rensselaer Polytechnic School for Boys here in Troy, told me Mrs. Willard studied with him every branch he was capable of teaching, and trained a core of teachers and regular scholars at the same time. She took lessons of the professor every evening when he had leisure, and studied half the night the branches she was to teach the next day, thus keeping ahead of her classes. Her intense earnestness and mental grasp, the readiness with which she turned from one subject to another, and her attentive memory of every rule and fact he gave her was a constant surprise to the professor. All her vacations she devoted to training teachers. She was the first to suggest the normal school system. Remembering her deep interest in the education of women, we can honor her in no more worthy manner than to carry on her special life work. As we look around at all the educated women assembled here today, and try to estimate what each has done in her own sphere of action the schools founded, the teachers sent forth, the inspiration given to girls in general through the long chain of influences started by our alma mater, we can form some light estimate of the momentous and far-reaching consequences of Emma Willard's life. We have not her difficulties to overcome, her trials to endure, but the imperative duty is laid on each of us to finish the work she so successfully began. Schools and colleges of a high order are now everywhere open to women. Public sentiment welcomes them to whatever career they may desire. And our work is to help worthy girls struggling for a higher education by founding scholarships in desirable institutions in every state in the union. The most fitting tribute we can pay to Emma Willard is to aid in the production of a generation of thoroughly educated women. There are two kinds of scholarships equally desirable, a permanent one where the interest of a fund from year to year will support a succession of students and a temporary one to help some worthy individual as she may require. Someone has suggested that this association should help young girls in their primary education. But as our public schools possess all the advantages for a thorough education in the rudiments of learning and are free to all, our scholarships should be bestowed on those whose ability and earnestness in the primary department have been proved, and whose capacity for a higher education is fully shown. This is the best work women of wealth can do, and I hope in the future they will endow scholarships for their own sex instead of giving millions of dollars to institutions for boys as they have done in the past. After all the bequests women have made to Harvard, see how niggardly that institution in its annex treats their daughters. I once asked a wealthy lady to give a few thousands of dollars to start a medical college and hospital for women in New York. She said before making bequests she always consulted her minister and her Bible. He told her there was nothing said in the Bible about colleges for women. I said, tell him he is mistaken. If he will turn to Second Chronicles 3422, he will find that when Josiah the king sent the wise men to consult Holda the prophetess about the book of laws discovered in the temple, they found Holda in the college in Jerusalem thoroughly well informed on questions of state, while Shalom, her husband, was keeper of the robes. I suppose his business was to sew on the royal buttons. But in spite of this scriptural authority the rich lady gave thirty thousand dollars to Princeton and never one cent for the education of her own sex. Of all the voices to which these walls have echoed for over half a century how few remain to tell the story of the early days and when we part how few of us will ever meet again. But I know we shall carry with us some new inspiration for the work that still remains for us to do. Though many of us are old in years we may still be young in heart. Women trained to concentrate all their thoughts on family life are apt to think when their children are grown up, their loved ones gone, they are trained to keep the domestic machinery in motion that their work and life is done that no one needs now their thought and care. Quite forgetting that the heyday of women's life is on the shady side of fifty when the vital forces here to forexpended in other ways are garnered in the brain when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels. Philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children or perhaps the pressing cares of family life ended the woman may awake to some slumbering genius in herself for art, science or literature and with which to gild the sunset of her life. Longfellow's beautiful poem moratory salutamus written for a similar occasion to this is full of hope and promise for all of us he says something remains for us to do or dare even the oldest tree some fruit may bear Cato learned Greek at eighty Sophocles wrote his grand Oedipus and Simonides bore off the prize of verse from his compiers when each had numbered more than four score years and Theophrastus at three score and ten had but begun his characters of men Chaucer at Woodstock with the Nightingales at sixty wrote the Canterbury tales Goethe at Weimar toiling to the last completed Faust when eighty years were passed these are indeed exceptions but they show how far the gulf stream of our youth may flow into the arctic regions of our lives where little else than life itself survives for age is opportunity no less than youth itself though in another dress and as the evening twilight fades away the sky is filled with stars invisible by day on December twenty first eighteen ninety two we celebrated for the first time for Mother's Day men had celebrated for Father's Day for many years but as women were never invited to join in their festivities Mrs. Devereaux Blake introduced the custom of women having a dinner and celebration of that day Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker spent two days with me and together we attended the feast and made speeches this custom is now annually observed and gentlemen sit in the gallery just as ladies had done on similar occasions my son Theodore arrived from France in April eighteen ninety three to attend the Chicago Exposition and spent most of the summer with me at Glen Cove, Long Island where my son Garrett and his wife were domiciled here we read Captain Charles King's stories of life at military posts Sanborn's biography of Bronson Alcott and Leckie's history of rationalism here I visited Charles A. Dana the nester of journalism and his charming family he lived on a beautiful island near Glen Cove his refined artistic taste shown in his city residence in paintings of statuary and rare bric-a-brac collected in his frequent travels in the old world displayed itself in his island home in the arrangement of an endless variety of trees shrubs and flowers through which you caught glimpses of the sound and distant shores one seldom meets so gifted a man as the late editor of the sun he was a scholar speaking several languages an able writer and orator and a most genial companion in the social circle his wife and daughter are cultivated women the name of this daughter, Zoe Dana Underhill often appears in our popular magazines as the author of short stories remarkable for their vivid descriptions I met Mr. Dana for the first time at the Brook Farm community in 1843 in that brilliant circle of Boston transcendentalists who hoped in a few years to transform our selfish competitive civilization into a paradise where all the altruistic virtues might make cooperation possible but alas the material at hand was not sufficiently plastic for that higher ideal in due time the community dissolved and the members returned to their ancestral spheres Margaret Fuller who was a frequent visitor there we took herself to matrimony in sunny Italy William Henry Channing to the church Bronson Alcott to the education of the young Frank Cabot to the world of work and Mrs. Ripley to literature and Charles A. Dana to the press Mr. Dana was very fortunate in his family relations his wife Miss Eunice McDaniel and her relatives sympathized with him in all his most liberal opinions during the summer at Glen Cove I had the pleasure of several long conversations with Miss Frances L. McDaniel and her brother Osborne whose wife is the sister of Mr. Dana and who is now assisting Miss Prestona Mann in trying an experiment similar to the one at Brook Farm in the Adirondacks Miss Anthony spent a week with us in Glen Cove she came to stir me up to write papers for every congress at the exposition which I did and she read them in the different congresses adding her own strong words at the close Mrs. Russell Sage also came and spent a day with us to urge me to write a paper to be read at Chicago at the Emma Willard reunion which I did a few days afterward Theodore and I returned her visit we enjoyed a few hours conversation with Mr. Sage who had made a very generous gift of a building to the Emma Willard Seminary at Troy this school was one of the first established 1820 for girls in our state and received an appropriation from the New York Legislature on the recommendation of the Governor DeWitt Clinton Mr. Sage gave us a description that night of the time his office was blown up with dynamite thrown by a crank and of his narrow escape we found the great financier and his wife in an unpretending cottage with a fine outlook on the sea though possessed of great wealth they set a good example of simplicity and economy which many extravagant people would do well to follow having visited the world's exposition at Chicago and attended a course of lectures at Chautauqua my daughter Mrs. Stanton Lawrence returned to the city and as soon as our apartment was in order I joined her she had recently been appointed Director of Physical Training at the Teachers College in New York City I attended several of her exhibitions and lectures which were very interesting she is doing her best to develop with proper exercises and sanitary dress a new type of womanhood my time passed pleasantly these days with a drive in the park and an hour in the land of Nod also in reading Henry George's Progress and Poverty William Morris on Industrial Questions Stevenson's novels The Heavenly Twins and Marcella and a twilight when I could not see to read and write in playing and singing the old tunes and songs I loved in my youth in the evening we play drafts and chess I am fond of all games also of music and novels hence the days fly swiftly by I am never lonely life is ever very sweet to me and full of interest the winter of 1893 through 94 was full of excitement as the citizens of New York were to hold a constitutional convention Dr. Mary Putnam Jacoby endeavored to rouse a new class of men and women to action in favor of an amendment granting to women the right to vote Appeals were sent throughout the state gatherings were held in parlors and enthusiastic meetings in Cooper Institute and at the Savoy Hotel my daughter Mrs. Stanton Blatch who was visiting this country took an active part in the canvas and made an eloquent speech in Cooper Institute strange to say some of the leading ladies formed a strong party against the proposed amendment and their own enfranchisement they were called the aunties this opposing organization adopted the same plan for the campaign as those in favor of the amendment they issued appeals circulated petitions and had hearings before the convention Mrs. Russell Sage, Mrs. Henry M. Sanders, Mrs. Edward Lauderbach, Mrs. Runkel and some liberal clergymen did their uttermost to secure the insertion of the amendment in the proposed new constitution but the committee on suffrage of the constitutional convention refused even to submit the proposed amendment to a vote of the people though half a million of our most intelligent and respectable citizens had signed the petition requesting them to do so Joseph H. Chote and Elihu Root did their uttermost to defeat the amendment and succeeded I spent the summer of 1894 with my son Garrett in his home at Thomaston Long Island Balsach's novels and the life of Thomas Payne by Montcure D. Conway with the monthly magazines and daily papers were my mental pabulum my daughter Mrs. Stanton Lawrence returned from England in September 1894 having had a pleasant visit with her sister in Basingstoke in December Miss Anthony came and we wrote the woman suffrage article for the new edition of Johnson's Cyclopedia on March 3rd 1895 Lady Somerset and Miss Francis Willard on the eve of their departure for England called to see me we discussed my project of a woman's Bible they consented to join a revising committee but before the committee was organized they withdrew their names fearing the work would be too radical I especially desired to have the opinions of women from all sects but those belonging to the Orthodox churches declined to join the committee or express their views perhaps they feared their faith might be disturbed by the strong light of investigation some half dozen members of the revising committee began with me to write comments on the Pentateuch the chief thought revolving in my mind during the years of 1894 and 1895 had been the woman's Bible in talking with friends I began to feel that I might realize my long cherished plan accordingly I began to read the commentators on the Bible and was surprised to see how little they had to say about the greatest factor in civilization the mother of the race and that little by no means complimentary the more I read the more keenly I felt the importance of convincing women that the Hebrew mythology had no special claim to a higher origin than that of the Greeks being far less attractive in style and less refined in sentiment its objectionable features would long ago have been apparent had they not been glossed over with a faith in their divine inspiration for several months I devoted all my time to biblical criticism and ecclesiastical history and found no explanation for the degraded status of women under all religions and in all the so-called holy books when part one of the woman's Bible was finally published in November 1895 it created a great sensation some of the New York City papers gave a page to its review with pictures of the commentators of its critics and even of the book itself the clergy denounced it as the work of Satan though it really was the work of Ellen Betel Dietrich, Lily Devereux Blake, Reverend Phoebe A. Hannaford, Clara Bowick Colby, Ursula N. Guestfeld, Louisa Southworth, Francis Ellen Burr, and myself extracts from it and criticisms of the commentators were printed in the newspapers throughout America, Great Britain and Europe a third edition was found necessary and finally an edition was published in England the revising committee was enlarged and it now consists of over 30 of the leading women of America and Europe the month of August 1895 we spent in Peterborough on the grand hills of Madison County 900 feet above the valley Garrett Smith's fine old mansion still stands surrounded with magnificent trees where I had played in childhood chasing squirrels over lawn and gardens and waiting in a modest stream that still creeps slowly round the grounds I recalled as I sat on the piazza how one time when Frederick Douglass came to spend a few days at Peterborough some southern visitors wrote a note to Mr. Smith asking if Mr. Douglass was to sit in the parlor and at the dining table if so during his visit they would remain in their own apartments Mr. Smith replied that his visitors were always treated by his family as equals and such would be the case with Mr. Douglass who was considered one of the ablest men reared under the southern institution so these ladies had their meals in their own apartments where they stayed most of the time and as Mr. Douglass prolonged his visit they no doubt wished in their hearts that they had never taken that silly position the rest of us walked about with him arm in arm played games and sang songs together he playing the accompaniment on the guitar I suppose if our prejudiced country women had been introduced to Dumas in a French salon they would at once have donned their bonnets and ran away sitting alone under the trees I recalled the different generations that had passed away all known to me here I had met the grandfather Peter Sken Smith partner of John Jacob Astor in their bargains with the Indians they acquired immense tracts of land in the northern part of the state of New York which were the nucleus of their large fortunes and have often heard cousin Garrett complain of the time he lost managing the estate his son Green was an enthusiast in the natural sciences and took up little interest in property matters later his grandson Garrett Smith Miller assumed the burden of managing the estate and in addition devoted himself to agriculture he imported a fine breed of Holstein cattle which have taken the first prize at several fairs his son bearing the same name is devoted to the natural sciences like his Uncle Green whose fine collection of birds was presented by his widow to Harvard College the only daughter of Garrett Smith Elizabeth Smith Miller is a remarkable woman addressing many of the traits of her noble father she has rare executive ability as shown in the dispatch of her extensive correspondence and in the perfect order of her house and grounds she has done much in the way of education especially for the colored race in helping to establish schools and in distributing literature she thrives for many of the best books, periodicals and papers for friends not able to purchase for themselves we cannot estimate the good she has done in this way every mail brings her letters from all classes from charitable institutions, prisons, southern plantations army posts and the far off prairies to all these pleas for help she gives a listening ear her charities are varied and boundless and her hospitalities to the poor as well as the rich, courteous and generous the refinement and artistic taste of the southern mother and the heroic virtues of the father are happily blended in their daughter in her beautiful home on Seneca Lake one is always sure to meet some of the most charming representatives of the progressive thought of our times representatives of all these generations now rest in the cemetery at Peterborough and as in review they passed before me they seemed to say, why linger you here alone so long my son Theodore arrived from Paris in September 1895 and rendered most important service during the preparations for my birthday celebration in answering letters, talking with reporters and making valuable suggestions to the managers as to many details in the arrangements and encouraging me to go through the ordeal with my usual heroism I never felt so nervous in my life and so unfitted for the part I was in duty bound to perform from much speaking through many years my voice was hoarse from a severe fall I was quite lame and as standing and distinct speaking are important to graceful oratory I felt like the king's daughter in Shakespeare's play of Titus Andronicus when rude men who had cut her hands off and her tongue out told her to call for water and wash her hands however I lived through the ordeal as the reader will see in the next chapter after my birthday celebration the next occasion of deep interest to me was the Chicago Convention of 1896 the platform there adopted and the nomination and brilliant campaign of William J. Bryan I have long been revolving in my mind questions relating to the tariff and finance and in the demands of liberal Democrats populists, socialists and the laboring men and women I heard the clarion notes of the coming revolution during the winter of 1895 through 96 I was busy writing alternately on this autobiography and the women's Bible and articles for magazines and journals on every possible subject from Venezuela and Cuba to the bicycle on the latter subject many timid souls were greatly distressed should women ride? what should they wear? what are God's intentions concerning them? should they ride on Sunday? these questions were asked with all seriousness we had a symposium on these points in one of the daily papers to me the answer to all these questions was simple if women could ride it was evidently God's intention that she be permitted to do so as to what she should wear she must decide what is best adapted to her comfort and convenience those who prefer a spin of a few hours on a good road in the open air to a close church and a dull sermon surely have the right to choose whether with trees and flowers and singing birds to worship in that temple not made with hands eternal in the heavens or within four walls to sleep during the intonation of that melancholy service that relegates us all without distinction of sex or color to the ranks of miserable sinners let each one do what Seameth write in her own eyes provided she does not encroach on the rights of others in May 1896 I again went to Geneva and found the bicycle craze had reached there with all its most pronounced symptoms old and young professors, clergymen and ladies of fashion were all spinning merrily around on business errands social calls and excursions to distant towns driving down the avenue one day we counted 80 bicycles before reaching the post office the ancient band box so detested by our sires and sons has given place to this new machine which our daughters take with them wherever they go boxing and unboxing and readjusting for each journey it has been a great blessing to our girls in compelling them to cultivate their self-reliance and their mechanical ingenuity as they are often compelled to mend the wheel in case of accident among the visitors at Geneva were Mr. Douglas and his daughter from the island of Cuba they gave us very sad accounts of the desolate state of the island and the impoverished condition of the people I had long felt that the United States should interfere in some way to end that cruel warfare for Spain has proved that she is incompetent to restore order and peace End of Chapter 27 Chapter 28 of 80 Years and More Reminescences 1815-1897 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 Lynette Geisel 80 Years and More Reminescences 1815-1897 By Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chapter 28 My 80th Birthday Without my knowledge or consent my lifelong friend, Susan B. Anthony who always seems to appreciate homage tender to me more highly than even to herself made arrangements for the celebration of my 80th birthday on the 12th day of November 1895 She preferred that the celebration should be conducted by the National Council of Women composed of a large number of organizations representing every department of women's labor Though, as the enfranchisement of women had been my special life work it would have been more appropriate if the celebration had been under the auspices of the National Women's Suffrage Association Mrs. Mary Lowe Dickinson President of the National Council of Women assumed the financial responsibility and the extensive correspondence involved and with rare tact, perseverance and executive ability made the celebration a complete success In describing this occasion I cannot do better than to reproduce in part Mrs. Dickinson's account published in the arena In the month of June 1895 the National Council of Women issued the following invitation believing that the progress made by women in the last half century may be promoted by a more general notice of their achievements we propose to hold in New York City a convention for this purpose As an appropriate time for such celebration the 80th birthday of Elizabeth Cady Stanton has been chosen Her half-century of pioneer work for the rights of women makes her name an inspiration for such an occasion and her life a fitting object for the homage of all women This National Council is composed of twenty organizations These and all other societies interested are invited to cooperate in grateful recognition of the debt the present generation owes to the pioneers of the past From their interest in the enfranchisement of women the influence of Mrs. Stanton and her co-ajutor, Miss Anthony has permeated all departments of progress and made them a common center round which all interested in women's higher development may gather To this invitation came responses from the old world and the new expressing sympathy with the proposed celebration which was intended to emphasize a great principle by showing the loftiness of character that had resulted from its embodiment in a unique personality The world naturally thinks of the personality before it thinks of the principal it has at least so much unconscious courtesy left as to honor a noble woman even when failing to rightly apprehend a noble cause To afford this feeling its proper expression to render more tangible all vague sympathy to crystallize the growing sentiment in favor of human freedom to give youth the opportunity to reverence the glory of age to give hearts their utterances in word and song was perhaps the most popular purpose of the reunion In other words it gave an opportunity for those who revered Mrs. Stanton as a queen among women to show their reverence and to recognize the work her life had wrought and to see in it an epitome of the progress of a century The celebration was also an illustration of the distinctive idea of the National Council of Women which aims to give recognition to all human effort without demanding uniformity of opinion as a basis of cooperation It claims to act upon a unity of service notwithstanding differences of creed and methods the things that separate shrink back into the shadows where they belong and all hearts brave enough to think and tender enough to feel found it easy to unite an homage to a life which had known a half century of struggle to lift humanity from bondage and womanhood from shame This reunion was the first general recognition of the debt the present owes to the past It was the first effort to show the extent to which later development has been inspired and made possible by the freedom to think and work Claimed in that earlier time by women like Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Mrs. Stanton and many others whose names stand as synonyms of noble service for the race To those who look at the reunion from this point of view it could not fail of inspiration For the followers in lines of philanthropic work to look in the faces and hear the voices of women like Clara Barton and Mary Livermore For the multitude enlisted in the crowded ranks of literature to feel and living presence What literature owes to women like Julia Ward Howe For the white ribbon army to turn from its one great leader of today whose light spreading to the horizon does not obscure or dim the glory of the crusade leaders of the past For art lovers and art students call to mind sculptors like Harriet Hosmer and Anna Whitney and remember the days when art was a sealed book to women For the followers of the truly divine art of healing to honor the Blackwell sisters in the memory of Madam Wazel Clements-Losiar for the mercy of surgery to reveal itself in the face of Dr. Cusher who has proven for us that heart of pity and the hand of skill never need be divorced For women lifting their eyes to meet the face of Phoebe Ann Hannaford and Anna Shaw and other women who today in the pulpit as well as out of it may use a woman's right to minister to needy souls For the off-time sufferers from unrighteous law to welcome women lawyers For the throng of working women to read backward through the story of 400 industries to their beginning in the fore and remember that each new door had opened because some woman toiled and strove For all these the exercises were a part of a great thanksgiving peyote Each phase of progress striking its own chord and finding each its echo in the hearts that held it dear As a student of history, or to him who can read the signs of the times there was such a profound significance in this occasion as makes one shrink from dwelling too much upon the external details Yet as a pageant only, it was the most inspiring sight and one truly worthy of a queen Indeed, as we run the mind back over the pages of history what queen came to a more triumphant thrown at the hands of a greatful people What women ever before set silver crowned cannabied with flowers surrounded not by serval followers but by men and women who brought to her court the grandest service they had wrought Their best thought crystallized in speech and song Greater than any triumphal procession that ever marked a royal passage through a kingdom was it to know that in a score or more of cities in many a village church on that same night festive fires were lighted and the throng kept holiday bringing for tribute not golden gems but noblest aspirations truest gratitude and the highest ideals for the nation and the race The great meeting was but one link in a chain yet with its thousands of welcoming faces with its eloquence of words with its offering of sweetest song from the children of a race that once was bound but now is free with its pictured glimpses of the old time and the new flashing out upon the night with the home voices offering welcome and gratitude and love with numberless greetings from the great true brave souls of many lands it was indeed a wonderful tribute worthy of the great warm heart of a nation that offered it and worthy of the woman so revered It seemed fitting that Madame Waselle Antoinette Sterling who, twenty years ago took her wonderful voice away to England where it won for her a unique place in the hearts of the nation should, on returning to her country give her first service to the womanhood of her native land I am coming a week earlier so she had written that my first work in my own beloved America may be done for women I am coming as a woman and not as an artist and because I so glory in that which the women of my country have achieved So when she sang out in her heart a rest in the Lord wait patiently for him no marvel that it seemed to lift all listening hearts to a recognition of the divine secret and source of power for all work One charming feature of the entertainment was a series of pictures called then and now each illustrating the change in women's condition during the last fifty years and after this upon the dimness they're shown out one after another the names of noble women like Mary Lyon Maria Mitchell Emma Wallard and many others who have passed away upon the shadows and the silence broke Mademoiselle Sterling's voice in Tennyson's Crossing the Bar and when this was over as with one voice the whole audience sang Old Lang Syne and last but not least should be mentioned the greetings that poured in a shower of telegrams and letters from every section of the country and many from over the sea These expressions not only of personal congratulation for Mrs. Stanton but utterances of gladness for the progress in women's life and thought for the conditions already so much better than in the past and for the hope for the future would make of themselves a most interesting and wonderful chapter Among them may be mentioned letters from Lord and Lady Aberdeen from Lady Henry Somerset and Frances E. Willard from Cannon Wilberforce and many others including an address from thirteen members of the family of John Bright headed by his brother the right honourable Jacob Bright a beautifully engrossed address on parchment from the National Women's Suffrage Society of Scotland an address from the London Women's Franchise League and a cablegram from the Bristol Women's Liberation Association a letter from the Women's Rights Society of Finland signed by its president Baroness Grippenburg of Helsingfords telegrams from the California Suffrage Pioneers and others from the Chicago Women's Club from the Toledo and Ohio Women's Suffrage Society from the son of the Reverend Doctor William Ellery Channing and a telegram and letter from Citizens and Societies of Seneca Falls, New York accompanied with flowers and many handsome pieces of silver from the different societies there were also letters from Honourable Oscar S. Strauss Ex-Minister to Turkey Miss Ellen Terry an address was received from the Women's Association of Utah accompanied by a beautiful onyx and silver ballot box and from the shaker women of Mount Lebanon came an ode a solid silver loving cup from the New York City Suffrage League presented on the platform with a few appropriate words by its president Mrs. Devereux Blake hundreds of organizations and societies both in this country and abroad wished to have their names placed on record as in sympathy with the movement many organizations were present in a body and one was reminded by the variety and beauty of the decorations of their boxes of the Venetian Carnival as the occupants gazed down from amid the silken banners and the flowers upon the throng below the whole occasion was indeed a unique festival unique in its presentation as well as in its purpose, plan character and spirit no woman present could fail to be impressed with what we owe to the women of the past and especially to this one woman who was the honored guest of the occasion and no young woman could desire to forget the picture of this aged form as leaning upon her staff Mrs. Stanton spoke to the great audience of over 6,000 as she spoke hundreds of times before in legislative halls and whenever her word could influence the popular sentiment in favor of justice for all mankind my birthday celebration with all the testimonials of love and friendship I received was an occasion of such serious thought deep feeling as I have never before experienced having been accustomed for half a century to blame rather than praise I was surprised with such a manifestation of approval I could endure any amount of severe criticism with complacency but such an outpouring of homage and affection stirred me profoundly to calm myself during that week of excitement I thought many times of Nicolette's wise motto let the wheel and woe of humanity be everything to you their praise and blame of no effect be not puffed up with the one nor cast down with the other naturally at such a time I reviewed my life its march and battle on the highways of experience and counted its defeats I remembered when a few women called the first convention to discuss their disabilities that our conservative friends said you have made a great mistake you will be laughed at from Maine to Texas and beyond the sea God has set the bounds of women's fear and she should be satisfied with her position their prophecy was more than realized we were unsparingly ridiculed by the press and pulpit both in England and America but now many conventions are held each year in both countries to discuss the same ideas social customs have changed laws have been modified municipal suffrage has been granted to women in England and some of our colonies school suffrage has been granted to women in half of our states municipal suffrage in Kansas and full suffrage in four states of the union thus the principal scouted in 1848 was accepted in England in 1870 and since then year by year it has slowly progressed in America until the fourth star shown out on our flag in 1896 and Idaho enfranchised her women that first convention considered a grave mistake in 1848 is now referred to as a grand step in progress my next mistake was when as president of the New York state women's temperance association I demanded the passage of a statue allowing wives an absolute divorce for the brutality and intemperance of their husbands I addressed the legislature of New York a few years later when a similar bill was pending and also large audiences in several of our chief cities and for this I was severely denounced today fugitives from such unholy ties can secure freedom in many of the western states and enlightened public sentiment sustains mothers in refusing to hand down the genocide fraught with so many evil consequences this also called a mistake in 1860 was regarded as a step in progress a few years later again I urged my co-ogitors by speeches, letters and resolutions as a means of widespread agitation to make the same demands of the church that we had already made of the state they objected, saying that is too revolutionary an attack on the church would injure the suffrage movement but I steadily made the demand an opportunity offered that women be ordained to preach the gospel and to fill the offices as elders, deacons and trustees a few years later some of these suggestions were accepted some churches did ordain women as pastors over congregations of their own other selected women deaconesses and a few churches allowed women as delegates to sit in their conferences thus this demand was in a measure honored at another step in progress taken in 1882 I tried to organize a committee to consider the status of women in the bible and the claim that the Hebrew writings were of divine inspiration it was thought very presumptuous for women not learned in languages and ecclesiastical history to undertake such work but as we merely proposed to comment on what was said of women in plain English and found these texts composed only one tenth of the Old and New Testaments it did not seem to me a difficult or dangerous undertaking however part one of the women's bible was published again there was a general disapproval by press and pulpit and even by women themselves expressed in resolutions and suffrage and temperance conventions like other mistakes this too in due time will be regarded as a step in progress such experiences have given me confidence in my judgment the opposition of my co-odjuters with whom on so many points I disagree it requires no courage now to demand the right of suffrage temperance legislation liberal divorce laws or for women to fill church offices these battles have been fought and won and the principal governing these demands conceded but it still requires courage to question the divine inspiration of the Hebrew writings as to the position of women why should the myths, fables and allegories of the Hebrews be held more sacred than those of the Assyrians and Egyptians for whose literature most of them were derived seeing that the religious superstitions of women perpetrate their bondage more than all other adverse influences I feel impelled to re-enterate my demands for justice liberty and equality in the church as well as in the state my birthday celebration was to me more than a beautiful pageant more than a personal tribute it was the dawn of a new day for the mothers of the race the harmonious cooperation of so many different organizations with diverse interests and opinions in one grand jubilee was indeed a heavenly vision of peace and hope a prophecy that with the exultation of womanhood would come new life light and liberty to all mankind End of chapter 28 End of 80 years and more Reminisances 1815 to 1897 by Elizabeth Caddy Stanton