FOOTNOTES:

Carrie Chapman Catt (Signed: "Yours Faithfully Carrie Chapman Catt")

Rev. Anna Shaw, vice-president-at-large, wrote Mrs. Johns in this vigorous language:

I must confess that while I can readily understand the abject cowardice and selfishness which prompt men and political tricksters to urge the abandonment of the plank, I can not understand how you or any other woman with a grain of sense can listen to such proposals for a moment. That endorsement is our only hope. If that fail us, our cause is lost in advance; for it will show the body of the party what the leaders think and feel on the subject, and be a tacit command to kill it. The hypocrisy of the whole business should not receive from women even a show of belief. What wonder men despise us as a shallow lot of simpletons, if we are deceived by so thin a pretense as this? I for one protest against it so strongly that if your committee agree to it and do not push party endorsement, I must decline to fool away my time in Kansas. If you give up that point I must refuse to go a single step or raise a dollar. I am sick of the weakness of women, forever dictated to by men. Experience has taught us what a campaign unendorsed means. Think of submitting our measure to the advice of politicians! I would as soon submit the subject of the equality of a goose to a fox. No; we must have party endorsement or we are dead.If I am not to go to Kansas, I want to know it immediately. It is too late even now, for I refused twenty consecutive engagements for May in one State, thinking it was all given up to Kansas. The man or woman who urges surrender now is more a political partisan than a lover of freedom. I care nothing for all the political parties in the world except as they stand for justice. I can not tell you how even the suggestion of this surrender affects me. For the love of woman, do not be fooled by those men any longer.

If I am not to go to Kansas, I want to know it immediately. It is too late even now, for I refused twenty consecutive engagements for May in one State, thinking it was all given up to Kansas. The man or woman who urges surrender now is more a political partisan than a lover of freedom. I care nothing for all the political parties in the world except as they stand for justice. I can not tell you how even the suggestion of this surrender affects me. For the love of woman, do not be fooled by those men any longer.

Finally, as the case grew more hopeless, Miss Anthony, as president of the National-American Association, on March 11, sent the following:

To the Kansas Woman Suffrage Amendment Campaign Committee—Laura M. Johns, Bina M. Otis, Sarah A. Thurston, Annie L. Diggs and Others:My Dear Friends: I have the letter of your chairman, Mrs. Johns, together with one she forwards from a lawyer of Topeka, with the addedassertion that Judges Horton, Johnston et al., and leading editors and politicians, are begging your committee to cease to demand of the two great political parties, the Republican and People's, that they put a suffrage plank in their platforms; but instead, simply allow the amendment to go before the electors on its merits—that is to say, repeat the experiment as it has been made and has failed eight times over....The one and only sure hope of carrying the amendment in Kansas is to have on its side all the aid of the political machinery of its two great parties. My one object in consenting to go into your campaign for May and June, was to create so strong a public demand as to make sure that every delegate elected to the State nominating conventions of the Republican and People's parties shall be instructed by his constituents, in county convention assembled, to vote for a woman suffrage plank in the platform. The moment your committee abandons this aim, I shall lose all interest in your work. You say: "Prominent Republicans are besieging us to relieve their party of the embarrassment of this demand." So did they besiege us twenty-seven years ago. No; not for a moment should you think of relieving the politicians from the duty of declaring for this amendment. If you do, you are unworthy the trust reposed in you. I surely never would have promised to go into your campaign, or begged the friends to contribute, had I dreamed of the possibility of your surrendering to the cowardice of political trimmers.If the convention which meets first do not endorse the amendment, then the other will not; in which event, its discussion will not be germane in either party's fall campaign. On the other hand, if the first put a plank in its platform, the other will be sure to do so; and then the question will be a legitimate one to be advocated in the meetings of both parties and this will ensure the presentation of our cause to all the voters of the State.By this means the two parties will run your amendment campaign, and you will not be compelled to make a separate suffrage campaign. That you can not do in any event, because (1st) you can not get either the speakers or the money necessary; and (2d) if you could get both, you would have only women in your meetings, and defeat would be just as certain as in the eight States which have had such separate woman's campaigns. Therefore, if you decide to abandon the demand for political endorsement and active help, as the first and chief object of this spring's work, you may count me out of it; for I will not be a party, even though a protesting one, to such a surrender of our only hope of success.I came home for a rest over Sunday, after speaking five successive nights in five different counties, in our New York campaign, and these letters with the weak—the wicked—thought of not demanding of the political leaders to make their parties help carry the amendment, raged through my brain all night long. How to put the shame of surrender strongly enough was my constant study, sleeping and waking alike. No, a thousand times no, I say; and if you do yield to this demand at the behest of men claiming to be your friends, you make yourselves a party with those men to ensure your defeat. The speakers will advocate no measure, and the vast majority of men will vote for none, which is not approvingly mentioned in the platform. If you giveup trying for political endorsement, or fail after trying, all hope of carrying the amendment will be gone. So, over and over I say, demand party help!Lovingly but protestingly,Susan B. Anthony.

To the Kansas Woman Suffrage Amendment Campaign Committee—Laura M. Johns, Bina M. Otis, Sarah A. Thurston, Annie L. Diggs and Others:

My Dear Friends: I have the letter of your chairman, Mrs. Johns, together with one she forwards from a lawyer of Topeka, with the addedassertion that Judges Horton, Johnston et al., and leading editors and politicians, are begging your committee to cease to demand of the two great political parties, the Republican and People's, that they put a suffrage plank in their platforms; but instead, simply allow the amendment to go before the electors on its merits—that is to say, repeat the experiment as it has been made and has failed eight times over....

The one and only sure hope of carrying the amendment in Kansas is to have on its side all the aid of the political machinery of its two great parties. My one object in consenting to go into your campaign for May and June, was to create so strong a public demand as to make sure that every delegate elected to the State nominating conventions of the Republican and People's parties shall be instructed by his constituents, in county convention assembled, to vote for a woman suffrage plank in the platform. The moment your committee abandons this aim, I shall lose all interest in your work. You say: "Prominent Republicans are besieging us to relieve their party of the embarrassment of this demand." So did they besiege us twenty-seven years ago. No; not for a moment should you think of relieving the politicians from the duty of declaring for this amendment. If you do, you are unworthy the trust reposed in you. I surely never would have promised to go into your campaign, or begged the friends to contribute, had I dreamed of the possibility of your surrendering to the cowardice of political trimmers.

If the convention which meets first do not endorse the amendment, then the other will not; in which event, its discussion will not be germane in either party's fall campaign. On the other hand, if the first put a plank in its platform, the other will be sure to do so; and then the question will be a legitimate one to be advocated in the meetings of both parties and this will ensure the presentation of our cause to all the voters of the State.

By this means the two parties will run your amendment campaign, and you will not be compelled to make a separate suffrage campaign. That you can not do in any event, because (1st) you can not get either the speakers or the money necessary; and (2d) if you could get both, you would have only women in your meetings, and defeat would be just as certain as in the eight States which have had such separate woman's campaigns. Therefore, if you decide to abandon the demand for political endorsement and active help, as the first and chief object of this spring's work, you may count me out of it; for I will not be a party, even though a protesting one, to such a surrender of our only hope of success.

I came home for a rest over Sunday, after speaking five successive nights in five different counties, in our New York campaign, and these letters with the weak—the wicked—thought of not demanding of the political leaders to make their parties help carry the amendment, raged through my brain all night long. How to put the shame of surrender strongly enough was my constant study, sleeping and waking alike. No, a thousand times no, I say; and if you do yield to this demand at the behest of men claiming to be your friends, you make yourselves a party with those men to ensure your defeat. The speakers will advocate no measure, and the vast majority of men will vote for none, which is not approvingly mentioned in the platform. If you giveup trying for political endorsement, or fail after trying, all hope of carrying the amendment will be gone. So, over and over I say, demand party help!

Lovingly but protestingly,

Susan B. Anthony.

Mrs. Johns, of course, indignantly rejected the imputation that she was not working night and day to secure a plank from the Republican convention. She was a most efficient manager, but the cause of her weakness and that of the other women, was that they were trying to serve two masters. The very fact that the Republican men were begging them not to ask for a plank, shows the power which the women already possessed in their municipal suffrage, and they should have had the courage to stand firm in their demands for recognition in the platform, for the dignity of their cause and their womanhood, whether there were hope of getting it or not. There is no doubt that Mrs. Johns did make an earnest effort to this end, but there is also no doubt that every Republican leader understood that even if the party did not endorse the suffrage amendment, she and her associates still would be no less Republicans and would work no less vigorously for the party's success. Miss Anthony's Kansas correspondence during 1894 comprises 300 letters and all confirm the statements thus briefly outlined.

The Republican politicians made the women believe if they would not insist on the party's placing itself on record and thus losing the support of the elements opposed to woman suffrage, all of them would vote for the amendment. Should the women of Kansas ever become politically free, the publication of these letters would be fatal to some aspiring male candidates, but so long as the men still have it in their power to grant to women or to withhold the full franchise, it is the part of wisdom to leave them on their files. There were many Kansas women, however, who refused to be deceived and sustained Miss Anthony's position. In April she wrote to one of the Republican leaders:

If the Republicans had two grains of political sense, they would see that for them to espouse the amendment and gain the glory, as they surely would, of lifting the women of the State into full suffrage, would give them new life, prestige and power greater and grander than they ever possessed; and theywould not be halting and belittling themselves with such idiotic stuff and nonsense as their advice to let the amendment go to the electors of the State "on its own merits." But however politicians may waver, our suffrage women must not have a doubt, but must persist in the demand for full recognition in both platforms. We must exact justice and if they do not give it, the curse be on their heads, not ours.

The same month she wrote Mrs. Johns:

I can not tell you how more and more it is borne in upon me that our one chance lies in securing the Republican pledge to carry us to victory, for that will mean a Populist pledge, and both planks will mean a clean-cut battle between the different elements of the grand old party combined as one on this question—and the Democracy of the State. Even with so solid an alliance of the two branches, we shall have a hard enough fight of it. Every woman who listens to the siren tongues of political wire-pullers and office-seekers not to demand a plank, will thereby help to sell Kansas back into the hands of the whiskey power. Behind every anti-plank man's word, written or spoken, is his willingness to let Kansas return to saloon rule. Sugar coat it as they may, that is the unsavory pill in the motive of every one of them.Sincerely and hopefully yours, trusting in good and keeping our powder dry.

Sincerely and hopefully yours, trusting in good and keeping our powder dry.

Enough has been quoted to show the situation. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt and Miss Shaw went to Kansas to open the spring canvass, May 4, to influence the State conventions. Miss Anthony had been advertised for forty-three speeches. The women of New York, where a great campaign was in progress, were highly indignant that she should leave her own State, but she had put her heart into this Kansas campaign as never into any other, and she fully believed that, if properly managed, the result could not fail to be victory for the amendment. The three ladies held the first meeting in Kansas City, May 4. Miss Anthony made a speech which fairly raised the hair of her audience, demanding in unqualified terms the endorsement of the amendment by the Republican and People's parties. She closed by offering the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted:

Whereas, From the standpoint of justice, political expediency and grateful appreciation of their wise and practical use of school suffrage from the organization of the State, and of municipal suffrage for the past eight years, we, of the Republican and People's parties, descendants of that grand old party ofsplendid majorities which extended these rights to the women of Kansas, in mass meeting assembled do herebyResolve, That we urgently request our delegates in their approaching State conventions to endorse the woman suffrage amendment in their respective platforms.

Resolve, That we urgently request our delegates in their approaching State conventions to endorse the woman suffrage amendment in their respective platforms.

That night she wrote in her journal: "Never did I speak under such a fearful pressure of opposition. Mrs. Johns, presiding, never smiled, and other women on the platform whispered angrily and said audibly, 'She is losing us thousands of votes by this speech.'" Miss Anthony repeated it in the county mass conventions at Leavenworth and Topeka, to the dismay of the Republican women and the wrath of the men.[102]While at the latter place she received an urgent summons to return immediately to New York, as fresh dangers threatened; and so she hastened eastward, leaving the others to fill her engagements. On her way, she stopped by invitation at Kansas City, Mo., and with Miss Shaw held a Sunday afternoon meeting at which $133 were raised for the Kansas campaign.

In three weeks Miss Anthony returned to Kansas, arriving June 5. She found the Republican Woman's State Convention in session, Mrs. Johns presiding. The committee reported a weak resolution declaring that they would not make the adoption of a suffrage plank by the Republican State Convention "a test of party fealty," etc. Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw condemned this in the strongest English they could command. Mrs. Johns also severely criticised the committee, but Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, who had come for both conventions, said: "I care more for the dominant principles of the Republican party than I do for woman suffrage." The committee finally were compelled to report a stronger resolution asking for recognition.

The Republican convention met June 6. C. V. Eskridge, of Emporia, the oldest and bitterest opponent of woman suffrage in the State of Kansas, was made chairman of the committeeon resolutions. The proposal to hear the women speak, during an interim in the proceedings, was met by a storm of noes. Finally Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Johns were permitted to present the claims of women, but neither Miss Anthony nor Miss Shaw was given an opportunity to address the convention. They did, however, plead the women's cause most eloquently before the resolution committee of thirty-five members, but the platform was entirely silent on the subject, not even containing the usual complimentary allusions, recognition of their services, etc.[103]Not the slightest attempt was made to deny the fact that agents of the party had been at work for weeks among the various county conventions to see that delegates were appointed who were opposed to a suffrage plank, and that the resolution committee had been carefully "packed" to prevent any danger of one. In conversations which Miss Anthony held with several of the leading candidates who in times past had advocated woman suffrage, they did not hesitate to admit that the party had formed an alliance with the whiskey ring to defeat the Populists. "We must redeem the State," was their only cry. "Redeem it from what?" she asked. "From financial heresies," was the answer. "Yes," she retorted, "even if you sink it to the depths of hell on moral issues."

Autograph: "Your Brother, D R Anthony"

It is not probable that any earthly power could have secured Republican endorsement at this time, although heretofore the party always had posed as the champion of this cause. There never was a more pitiable exhibition of abject subserviency to party domination. Men who had stood boldly for woman suffrage in the legislature, men who had spoken for it on the platform in every county in the State, sat dumb as slaves in this convention, sacrificing without scruple a lifelong principle for the sake of a paltry political reward. While many of the papers had spoken earnestly in favor ofthe amendment, the Leavenworth Times, owned and edited by D. R. Anthony, was the only one of size and influence which demanded party endorsement.[104]The Republican managers had but one idea—to overthrow Populist rule and get back the reins of government—and they were ready to take on or pitch overboard whatever would contribute to this end.

A suffrage mass meeting was held in Topeka the Saturday following the convention and, in spite of a heavy thunderstorm, there was an audience of over one thousand. Annie L. Diggs presided and Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw spoke, the former on "Reasons why the dominant parties do not put a plank in their platforms;" the latter on, "Woman first, Republican or Populist afterwards."

The great question now was whether it were wise to ask for a suffrage plank in the Populist platform, and here again was great diversity of opinion. Some thought that endorsement by this party would make it appear like a Populist measure, and the Republicans would vote against it rather than allow them to have the credit of carrying it. Others held that the Populists carried the State at the last election and were likely to do so again, and with their party vote, the Prohibition and such Republican votes as certainly could be counted on, the amendment would go through without fail. Miss Anthony belonged to the latter class and directed every energy towards securing an endorsement in their State convention, June 12. Although woman suffrage had been one of the tenets of this party from its beginning, there was by no means a unanimous sentiment in favor of a plank of endorsement. This was especially true in regard to the leaders. Governor Lewelling, who was a candidate for re-election, was openly opposed, andP. P. Elder, chairman of the resolution committee, made a determined fight against it.

While the resolution committee was out Miss Anthony addressed the convention, saying in the course of her remarks: "I belong to but one party under the shadow of the flag, and that is the party of idiots and criminals. I don't like my company. Are you going to leave your mothers, wives and sisters in that category? I ask you to say that every woman by your side shall have the same rights as you have." When she concluded one of the delegates said: "Miss Anthony, with all due respect, I wish to ask, in the event of the Populists putting a woman suffrage plank in their platform, will you work for the success of this party?" The newspapers thus report her reply and what followed:

"For forty years I have labored for woman's enfranchisement, and I have always said that for the party which endorsed it, whether Republican, Democratic or Populist, I would wave my handkerchief. I will go before the people at your meetings, and though I know very little about the other principles of your party and never discuss finance and tariff, I will try to persuade every man in those meetings to vote for woman suffrage.""Miss Anthony," said Mr. Carpenter, "we want more than the waving of your handkerchief, and if the People's party put a woman suffrage plank in its platform, will you go before the voters of this State and tell them that because the People's party has espoused the cause of woman suffrage it deserves the vote of every one who is a supporter of that cause?"Miss Anthony answered: "I most certainly will!"Immediately upon hearing this, the convention went wild—yelled and cheered and applauded to its very utmost—hundreds rose to their feet—the cheering lasted five minutes without intermission.

"Miss Anthony," said Mr. Carpenter, "we want more than the waving of your handkerchief, and if the People's party put a woman suffrage plank in its platform, will you go before the voters of this State and tell them that because the People's party has espoused the cause of woman suffrage it deserves the vote of every one who is a supporter of that cause?"

Miss Anthony answered: "I most certainly will!"

Immediately upon hearing this, the convention went wild—yelled and cheered and applauded to its very utmost—hundreds rose to their feet—the cheering lasted five minutes without intermission.

In the confusion Miss Anthony thus finished her interrupted sentence:

"For I would surely choose to ask votes for the party which stood for the principle of justice to women, though wrong on financial theories, rather than for the party which was sound on the questions of money and tariff, and silent on the pending amendment to secure political equality to half the people."

None of the reporters caught this and, as a result, the simple statement, "I certainly will," appeared in all the Kansas papers and went the rounds of the press of the entire country.

The suffrage question had its opponents and advocates among leaders and delegates. It occupied the resolution committee until late at night, and finally went down to defeat, 8 to 13. When the resolutions were reported they considered finance, labor, taxes, banks, bonds, arbitration, pensions, irrigation, freight rates, transportation, initiative and referendum—everything under the sun but the suffrage amendment. In regard to that much agitated point they were painfully silent. On this committee was one woman delegate, Mrs. Eliza Hudson, who could not be coaxed or bullied. She gave notice at once that she would make a minority report and carry it to the floor of the convention. The following was signed by herself and seven other members of the committee: "Whereas, The People's party came into existence and won its glorious victories on the fundamental principles of equal rights to all and special privileges to none; therefore be it resolved that we favor the pending constitutional amendment."

Meanwhile Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt and Miss Shaw addressed the convention and were enthusiastically received. When the minority report was presented and every possible parliamentary tactic had failed to prevent its consideration, it was vehemently discussed for four hours, in five-minute speeches, Judge Frank Doster leading the affirmative. The debate was closed by Mrs. Diggs, and the resolution was adopted, ayes 337, noes 269; carried by 68 majority in a delegate body of 606. During the fray a tail in some way tacked itself on to the resolution, which said, "but we do not regard this as a test of party fealty." So the party adopted a plank declaring that it did not regard a belief in one of its own fundamental principles as a test of fealty; but in the wild excitement which ensued, a little thing like this was not noticed. The State Journal thus describes the scene:

When it became evident the resolution had carried, and before the vote could be announced, the convention jumped up and yelled. Canes were waved, hats thrown high in the air, men stood on chairs and shouted frantically. The whole convention was one deep, all-prevailing impersonated voice.How they howled and stamped, as though every one loved suffrage and suffragists with all their hearts!"I want Miss Shaw to come forward and give that Populist whoop that she promised she would last night," said a delegate. Miss Shaw came to the front of the platform and said: "I do not know any better whoop than that good old tune, 'Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.'" "Sing," said Chairman Dunsmore. The vast audience shook every particle of air in the big hall with the full round notes of the long meter doxology. "Let all the people cry amen," said Alonzo Wardall, who was on the platform. Hundreds of voices which had not pronounced the word for years joined in the great, resounding, unanimous "amen" that filled the hall.Susan B. Anthony, Annie L. Diggs and Anna Shaw leaned over the front of the stage and shook every man's hand as he passed along, and hundreds of brown, calloused hands were thrust up to give a grasp of congratulation. Miss Anthony warmed to her work and had to push up her sleeves, but she didn't mind that for suffrage, for which she had just won a glorious victory. Many said, as they grasped her hand: "You're going to be a Populist now, ain't you?"

"I want Miss Shaw to come forward and give that Populist whoop that she promised she would last night," said a delegate. Miss Shaw came to the front of the platform and said: "I do not know any better whoop than that good old tune, 'Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.'" "Sing," said Chairman Dunsmore. The vast audience shook every particle of air in the big hall with the full round notes of the long meter doxology. "Let all the people cry amen," said Alonzo Wardall, who was on the platform. Hundreds of voices which had not pronounced the word for years joined in the great, resounding, unanimous "amen" that filled the hall.

Susan B. Anthony, Annie L. Diggs and Anna Shaw leaned over the front of the stage and shook every man's hand as he passed along, and hundreds of brown, calloused hands were thrust up to give a grasp of congratulation. Miss Anthony warmed to her work and had to push up her sleeves, but she didn't mind that for suffrage, for which she had just won a glorious victory. Many said, as they grasped her hand: "You're going to be a Populist now, ain't you?"

During the confusion an old soldier came up and pinned a Populist badge on her dress, and this was magnified by the newspapers into the thrilling description: "Miss Anthony seized a Populist badge and, pinning it on her breast, declared: 'Henceforth and forever I belong to the People's party!'"

The State Prohibition convention was in progress at Emporia at the same time, and the women had been notified that a suffrage plank would be adopted without any effort on their part. On June 13 the following telegram was sent by the secretary of the convention to Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw: "Recognizing the right of suffrage as inherent in citizenship, the Prohibition party stands unequivocally pledged to use its utmost efforts to secure the adoption of the pending constitutional amendment for the enfranchisement of women." This was their response from the Populist convention hall: "The National-American Woman Suffrage Association sends greeting, and is gratified that there is one political party which does not need to be urged to declare for justice to women." The Capitol said: "There was a wild demonstration as their names were read."

It is hardly possible to give an adequate idea of the storm which followed the announcement of Miss Anthony's declarationin regard to the People's party. There was scarcely a newspaper in the country which did not have its fling. Kate Field's Washington led off with a full first page entitled, "The Unholy Alliance." Editors opposed to woman suffrage made it a text for double leaders. Republican papers berated her without mercy. Letters poured in upon her from personal friends, judges, mayors, ministers, members of Congress, accepting the published reports and condemning her in unmeasured terms. Others wrote begging her to set herself right in the eyes of the public, as they knew she had been misrepresented. It seemed impossible, however, for her to make herself clearly understood. She writes in her journal: "One would think I had committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost in thanking the Populists for their good promise and saying I preferred them with justice to women, no matter what their financial folly, to the Republicans without justice to women, no matter what their financial wisdom."

She returned home June 20 and all the Rochester reporters were on hand for an interview. The following from the Democrat and Chronicle is practically what appeared in all:

Miss Anthony was perfectly willing to talk, and this is a resume of what the reporter learned: 1. Miss Anthony is not a Populist. 2. Miss Anthony is not a Democrat. 3. Miss Anthony is not a Republican. 4. Miss Anthony can not say what party she will join when the right to vote is given her."I didn't go over to the Populists by doing what I did in Kansas," she said. "I have been like a drowning man for a long time, waiting for some one to throw a plank to me. The Republicans refused, but the Populists threw an excellent plank in my direction. I didn't step on the whole platform, but just on the woman suffrage plank. I went forward at the close of the convention and told the men how glad I was to see one of the dominant parties take up woman suffrage. I said that we had been besieging the big political parties for twenty-five years. Here is a party in power which is likely to remain in power, and if it will give its endorsement to our movement, we want it."I do not claim to know anything of the merits of the issues which brought the Populist party into existence. All I know is that it is chiefly made up from the rank and file of the old Republican party of that State, and that the men who compose it think they have better methods for the correction of existing evils. They are protesting against the present order of things, and certainly no one will deny there is ground for it. I do not endorse their platform, but I would be one of the last to condemn an honest protest.""But," said the reporter, "it always has been understood that you are a strong Republican.""Why has it been so understood? Simply because a majority of the national legislators who have favored us have been Republicans. Suppose the Republican party of New York, at its coming convention, refuses to endorse woman suffrage; suppose the Democratic does endorse it. My action with the Democrats would be just what it was with the Populists of Kansas. I am for woman suffrage and will work with any party which will help us. Remember I say 'with,' not 'for.'"

"I didn't go over to the Populists by doing what I did in Kansas," she said. "I have been like a drowning man for a long time, waiting for some one to throw a plank to me. The Republicans refused, but the Populists threw an excellent plank in my direction. I didn't step on the whole platform, but just on the woman suffrage plank. I went forward at the close of the convention and told the men how glad I was to see one of the dominant parties take up woman suffrage. I said that we had been besieging the big political parties for twenty-five years. Here is a party in power which is likely to remain in power, and if it will give its endorsement to our movement, we want it.

"I do not claim to know anything of the merits of the issues which brought the Populist party into existence. All I know is that it is chiefly made up from the rank and file of the old Republican party of that State, and that the men who compose it think they have better methods for the correction of existing evils. They are protesting against the present order of things, and certainly no one will deny there is ground for it. I do not endorse their platform, but I would be one of the last to condemn an honest protest."

"But," said the reporter, "it always has been understood that you are a strong Republican."

"Why has it been so understood? Simply because a majority of the national legislators who have favored us have been Republicans. Suppose the Republican party of New York, at its coming convention, refuses to endorse woman suffrage; suppose the Democratic does endorse it. My action with the Democrats would be just what it was with the Populists of Kansas. I am for woman suffrage and will work with any party which will help us. Remember I say 'with,' not 'for.'"

Miss Shaw finished her two months' engagement in Kansas and did not return to that State. Mrs. Catt wrote Miss Anthony a few weeks after the conventions:

It is remarkable the difference of opinion that is floating about. We hear of Populists who are so mad about the plank they declare they will go back to the Democratic party. Others, even those who are suffragists, are so mad at the women for putting the plank forward they say they will vote against the amendment. Democrats say there can be no fusion and that will mean death to the Populist party. Some Republicans say they will not vote for the amendment because it is now a Populist question. Again some Republicans and some Democrats say they will vote the Populist ticket because of the plank. From all these varied ideas it is impossible to find out whether we are better or worse off.... At any rate, the question now has a political standing, and it will depend upon party developments where we find ourselves. My own hope is that it may bring the Republicans to time, but if the Populists say too much, it may drive them to secret opposition, and then we are done for.

Miss Anthony took a much more cheerful view and replied to the various letters:

At last one of the dominant parties in a State, and that one the party in power, has adopted a woman suffrage amendment, and upon that one plank I have planted my feet. The Republicans by ignoring us give party sanction to every anti-suffrage man among them; while the Populists' endorsement makes every anti-suffrage man among them feel that he will be the better Populist if he vote "yes."...Meantime, every Farmers' Alliance picnic, every school-house meeting, will be on fire with the enthusiasm born of their party's heroic action; for such it was, in defiance of their leaders' command to imitate the Republicans and ignore the amendment. The 900 Republicans in the State convention obeyed their masters; while 68 more than one-half of the 606 Populists rebelled against theirs. Surely there is more to hope from the party, a majority of whose men dare vote opinions against their bosses, than for the one in which not a single man dares even raise a protest. What would our friends havehad us do? Bless the Republicans for slapping us in the face, and blast the Populists for giving us a helping hand?

Meantime, every Farmers' Alliance picnic, every school-house meeting, will be on fire with the enthusiasm born of their party's heroic action; for such it was, in defiance of their leaders' command to imitate the Republicans and ignore the amendment. The 900 Republicans in the State convention obeyed their masters; while 68 more than one-half of the 606 Populists rebelled against theirs. Surely there is more to hope from the party, a majority of whose men dare vote opinions against their bosses, than for the one in which not a single man dares even raise a protest. What would our friends havehad us do? Bless the Republicans for slapping us in the face, and blast the Populists for giving us a helping hand?

Among the comforting letters which came during these troublous times was one from Wm. Lloyd Garrison, with whose father she had fought the battle of Abolitionism, in which he said: "I saw Mrs. Isabel Barrows yesterday and heard from her of your weary journey together from Chicago, your discouragement regarding Kansas, and the personal pain occasioned you by untrue newspaper reports and the harsh criticism of friends. I write to express my word of sympathy and cheer. Send me a brief statement of the Populist matter and let me break a lance in your behalf. A reformer's life is full of misrepresentations. How little they signify in the long run and, if they did not wound the spirit, would not be worth the mention. To be misjudged by one's own friends hurts more than all the bitterness of the rest of the world."

In a public address made this summer, Miss Anthony referred to the matter in the following beautiful words:

Had the Republicans of Kansas adopted a woman suffrage plank, and Miss Shaw and Miss Anthony declared that, because of such endorsement, they would prefer the success of that party, nobody would have thought it meant that they had endorsed the whole Republican platform, and made themselves responsible for the right conduct of every officer and nominee of that party.I was born and reared a Quaker, and am one still; I was trained by my father, a cotton manufacturer, in the Henry Clay school of protection to American products; but today all sectarian creeds and all political policies sink into utter insignificance compared with the essence of religion and the fundamental principle of government—equal rights. Wherever, religiously, socially, educationally, politically, justice to woman is preached and practiced, I find a bond of sympathy, and I hope and trust that henceforth I shall be brave enough to express my thanks to every individual and every organization, popular or unpopular, that gives aid and comfort to our great work for the emancipation of woman, and through her the redemption of the world.

I was born and reared a Quaker, and am one still; I was trained by my father, a cotton manufacturer, in the Henry Clay school of protection to American products; but today all sectarian creeds and all political policies sink into utter insignificance compared with the essence of religion and the fundamental principle of government—equal rights. Wherever, religiously, socially, educationally, politically, justice to woman is preached and practiced, I find a bond of sympathy, and I hope and trust that henceforth I shall be brave enough to express my thanks to every individual and every organization, popular or unpopular, that gives aid and comfort to our great work for the emancipation of woman, and through her the redemption of the world.

To a letter from Henry B. Blackwell, urging her to be non-partisan if she could not be Republican, she replied, July 9:

The difference between yourself and me, and Mrs. Johns and me, is precisely this—that you two are and have been Republicansper se, while I have been a Republican only in so far as the party and its members were morefriendly to the principle of woman suffrage. I agree with you that it will be in line with Mrs. Johns' ideas for her to work for the Republican party, false though its platform and its managers are to the pending amendment; but I could not do so. The rank and file of the Populist men of Kansas may not possess equal book or brain power with the Republicans, but they are more honest and earnest to establish justice, and 337 of their delegates had manhood enough to break out of the whiskey-Democratic bargain which their leaders, like the Republican fixers, had made. No, I shall not praise the Republicans of Kansas, or wish or work for their success, when I know by their own confessions to me that the rights of the women of their State have been traded by them in cold blood for the votes of the lager beer foreigners and whiskey Democrats....I have not allied and shall not ally myself to any party or any measure save the one of justice and equality for woman; but the time has come when I strike, and proclaim my contempt for the tricksters who put their political heel on the rights of women at the very moment when their help is most needed. I never, in my whole forty years' work, so utterly repudiated any set of politicians as I do those Republicans of Kansas. When it is a mere matter of theory, a thousand miles from a practical question, they can resolve pretty words, but when the crucial moment comes they sacrifice us without conscience or honor. The hubbub with the Republicans shows they have been struck in the right place. I never was surer of my position that no self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party which ignores her political rights.

I have not allied and shall not ally myself to any party or any measure save the one of justice and equality for woman; but the time has come when I strike, and proclaim my contempt for the tricksters who put their political heel on the rights of women at the very moment when their help is most needed. I never, in my whole forty years' work, so utterly repudiated any set of politicians as I do those Republicans of Kansas. When it is a mere matter of theory, a thousand miles from a practical question, they can resolve pretty words, but when the crucial moment comes they sacrifice us without conscience or honor. The hubbub with the Republicans shows they have been struck in the right place. I never was surer of my position that no self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party which ignores her political rights.

These few extracts from scores of similar letters, speeches and interviews, show the position consistently and unflinchingly maintained by Miss Anthony, and justified by many years of experience in such campaigns. During the summer of 1894, while she was being thus harassed, she kept steadily on, speaking and working in the New York campaign and preparing to return to Kansas in the fall. She wrote to the Republican and the Populist central committees, offering to speak on the suffrage question upon their platforms. The former, through its chairman, Cyrus Leland, declined her offer.

To John W. Breidenthal, of the People's party, she wrote: "Do you not think it will be a great deal better, both for the suffrage amendment and the Populist party, if in all the announcements it shall be distinctly stated that Miss Anthony speaks only on the subject of woman's enfranchisement?" To this he replied, August 6: "I leave the matter entirely with you whether you confine yourself only to the suffrage amendment, or whether you add to that the discussion of the otherquestions now attracting public attention." Meanwhile she had been receiving cheerful messages from the Populist women of Kansas, among them a long and cordial letter from Annie L. Diggs, written August 16:

Nearly everything along the line of my experience and observation would make you glad. I have large audiences, say the best and strongest things I know for suffrage and always find the heartiest response. I see more and more the wisdom of your insistence on platform mention. Oh, I am so thankful that I, too, saw straight before it was too late to get the Populist endorsement. I have been speaking almost constantly, sometimes twice a day, and at every meeting other speakers andcandidatessay the best kind of words for the amendment. Governor Lewelling speaks in warm endorsement, reports to the contrary notwithstanding. I can not say that he does so always, but he did at the three meetings which we held together. The Populists who wanted to shake my head off at the convention, give me, if possible, warmer greetings than the others. They are truly glad they took that righteous step....We Populists wish so much for you and Miss Shaw to come to Kansas. People constantly ask me if you will talk for the Populists when you come. I answer that you will talk suffrage at Populist meetings and will also say that, inasmuch as in Kansas the Populists endorse suffrage, therefore the party ought to win. Is not that your intention? How I wish I could describe to you some of the success I have had in talking to German audiences. But I have not another minute only to thank you for your kind words about me, and to say again, as I have said so many years, "I love and revere you."

We Populists wish so much for you and Miss Shaw to come to Kansas. People constantly ask me if you will talk for the Populists when you come. I answer that you will talk suffrage at Populist meetings and will also say that, inasmuch as in Kansas the Populists endorse suffrage, therefore the party ought to win. Is not that your intention? How I wish I could describe to you some of the success I have had in talking to German audiences. But I have not another minute only to thank you for your kind words about me, and to say again, as I have said so many years, "I love and revere you."

Autograph: "Faithfully yours, Annie L. Diggs."

Mrs. Johns wrote, August 27: "I think the Republicans are conscious dimly of the increasing strength of the Populists. It looks as if they will win, and it is generally believed the amendment will go through." As late as October 12, Mrs. Catt, who had been speaking at suffrage meetings for the pastsix weeks and whose judgment was generally sound, said in a letter from Hutchinson:

After all the vicissitudes, hard feelings and distresses of the campaign, it begins to look as if we were going to come in "on the home stretch." The last two weeks have wrought wonderful changes. The tide has set in our favor. I think the chief cause is the published fact that we are going to count the votes to see how many out of each party are cast for the amendment, and Republicans understand they will be in a bad way if they don't make a good showing. Since this came out, Morrill has spoken for the amendment. Judge Peters, at the big McKinley meeting here, advocated it and they tell me it created more enthusiasm than anything else during the meeting. Cyrus Leland admits that it will carry. The Republicans are coming over splendidly and, if the Populists stand firm, we will surely come in with a fine majority. It seems as if nothing can defeat us now.

Two weeks before the election, October 21, Mr. Breidenthal wrote her: "I am confident the amendment will have 30,000 majority." Miss Anthony reached the State October 20 and began her two weeks' tour the 22d, speaking at Populist meetings in the largest cities up to election day, November 6.[105]From the hour of her arrival she realized there was not a shadow of hope for the amendment, and it was marvellous to her how the others could have been so deceived.

At the previous election when the Populists came into power it had been through a fusion with the Democrats. This year the Democrats had their own ticket, and not only had ignored the pleading of the Democratic women for a suffrage plank, but had adopted a resolution denouncing it.[106]The great railroad strike and its attendant evils, during that summer, were attributed by many to Populistic sentiment and created a strong prejudice against the party. The argument was made that if the amendment carried, the women would feel so grateful to the Populists that it would result in securing to them the woman'svote, thus keeping them in power. This induced many to vote against it who disliked Populism, and it decided a number of even those Republicans who believed in woman suffrage to reject the amendment this year rather than allow the Populists to have the credit of carrying it. To destroy the last hope, word came from Colorado that the People's party was about to be defeated there. It was the first time for the women of that State to vote and, while there was no evidence to prove that they were responsible, the bare possibility was enough to stampede the Kansas Populists and prevent their giving the ballot to the women of that State.

The amendment was lost by 34,827 votes; 95,302 for; 130,139 against. The total vote cast for governor was 299,231; total vote on suffrage amendment, 225,441; not voting on amendment, 73,790. There was an attempt to keep count of the ballots according to parties, but it was not successful and there was no way of correctly estimating the political complexion of the vote. The vote for Governor Morrill lacked only 1,800 of that for the other three candidates combined, which shows how easily the Republican party might have carried the amendment. Subtracting the 5,000 Prohibition votes which it was conceded were cast for the amendment, it lacked 28,000 of receiving as many votes as were cast for the Populist candidate for governor. Since some Republicans must have voted for it, the figures prove that a vast number of Populists did not do so. In Miss Anthony's journal on the night of the election she wrote: "Our friends remembered to forget to vote for the suffrage amendment, while not an enemy forgot to remember to stamp his ticket against it."

Though she had expected defeat, her regret was none the less keen. In all the past years she had given more time and work to Kansas than to any other State, even her own. Her hopes had been centered there. It having been the first State to grant school suffrage and the first to grant municipal suffrage to women, she had confidently expected that when the amendment for full suffrage was again submitted it would be carried. The events of the campaign confirmed her belief that the grantingof municipal suffrage is a hindrance rather than a help toward securing full enfranchisement. By its exercise women naturally become partisan, show the influence they can wield through the ballot, and thereby create enmities and arouse antagonisms which bitterly oppose any further extension of this power. She resolved henceforth to advise women not to attempt to secure fragmentary suffrage, but to demand the whole right and work for nothing less.

FOOTNOTES:[101]It was the Republicans who framed the original constitution of the State so as to give women liberal property rights, equal guardianship of their children, and school suffrage. In 1867 they gave to women an equal voice on the question of local option. In 1887 they granted to them municipal suffrage. In various State conventions they adopted an unequivocal endorsement of full suffrage for women.[102]See Appendix for full speech.[103]The women of the Topeka Equal Suffrage Club, at their next meeting, adopted a resolution thanking the Republican conventionfor not declaring against the amendment![104]It will be cowardice for the Republicans to fail to endorse woman suffrage in their State platform. In past years, when no amendment was pending, the Republican party of Kansas has encouraged the presentation of such an amendment. Will it now attempt to sneak out of the responsibility and go back on its past record? The women of our State have shown themselves intelligent voters, in every way worthy of being entrusted with full suffrage. None of the evils have come upon us which were predicted by the opponents of the reform, and they never will come. To place a plank in the platform will save many votes to the party. It is the right, the brave thing to do. What is brave and right has, in the past, been the thing that the Republican party has done. Let it not now begin to do the cowardly thing.—Leavenworth Times, May 17, 1894.[105]Miss Anthony did not receive a dollar for her services daring the year in Kansas, and was enabled to make the three trips there solely through the kindness of her brother Daniel R., who furnished transportation. It was also by his assistance that she had made her long railroad journeys from east to west during the past thirty years.[106]Fifteenth.—We oppose woman suffrage as tending to destroy the home and family, the true basis of political safety, and express the hope that the helpmeet and guardian of the family sanctuary may not be dragged from the modest purity of self-imposed seclusion to be thrown unwillingly into the unfeminine places of political strife.

[101]It was the Republicans who framed the original constitution of the State so as to give women liberal property rights, equal guardianship of their children, and school suffrage. In 1867 they gave to women an equal voice on the question of local option. In 1887 they granted to them municipal suffrage. In various State conventions they adopted an unequivocal endorsement of full suffrage for women.

[102]See Appendix for full speech.

[103]The women of the Topeka Equal Suffrage Club, at their next meeting, adopted a resolution thanking the Republican conventionfor not declaring against the amendment!

[104]It will be cowardice for the Republicans to fail to endorse woman suffrage in their State platform. In past years, when no amendment was pending, the Republican party of Kansas has encouraged the presentation of such an amendment. Will it now attempt to sneak out of the responsibility and go back on its past record? The women of our State have shown themselves intelligent voters, in every way worthy of being entrusted with full suffrage. None of the evils have come upon us which were predicted by the opponents of the reform, and they never will come. To place a plank in the platform will save many votes to the party. It is the right, the brave thing to do. What is brave and right has, in the past, been the thing that the Republican party has done. Let it not now begin to do the cowardly thing.—Leavenworth Times, May 17, 1894.

[105]Miss Anthony did not receive a dollar for her services daring the year in Kansas, and was enabled to make the three trips there solely through the kindness of her brother Daniel R., who furnished transportation. It was also by his assistance that she had made her long railroad journeys from east to west during the past thirty years.

[106]Fifteenth.—We oppose woman suffrage as tending to destroy the home and family, the true basis of political safety, and express the hope that the helpmeet and guardian of the family sanctuary may not be dragged from the modest purity of self-imposed seclusion to be thrown unwillingly into the unfeminine places of political strife.

Theday following the Kansas election, November 7, 1894, Miss Anthony started at 10 o'clock in the morning for Beatrice, Neb., to make the opening speech at the State Suffrage Convention; arrived at 6p. m., took a cup of tea, dressed and, without having had one moment's rest, found herself at the opera house in the presence of a splendid audience. After she was seated on the platform a telegram was handed her saying the suffrage amendment had been lost in Kansas by an immense majority. Yet, in spite of the terrible physical strain of the past weeks and in the face of this stunning news, it is said she never made a stronger, more logical and comprehensive speech than on this occasion. She reviewed the amendment campaigns of the last twenty-five years, describing the causes of defeat or success, and pointing out the necessity of educational effort beginning with the primaries and continuing through all the conventions and political meetings up to the very day of election.

Although she received urgent invitations to speak at various points in the State, she declined all and left the next morning early for Leavenworth; and the day following, November 9, was on her way eastward. After a day in Chicago she went directly to Philadelphia, where she attended a reception given by the New Century Club to Mary Mapes Dodge; had several business meetings regarding the affairs of the national association; then hastened by night train to the New York convention atIthaca. Here again, without a day's rest, she made a stirring address to an audience which packed the opera house to the top row of the upper gallery, sat on the steps and filled the aisles. The convention was welcomed by the mayor of Ithaca and President Schurmann, of Cornell. The latter invited the officers and delegates to visit the university and accompanied them on their tour of inspection. Miss Anthony spoke to the girls of Sage College after dinner, gave them many new ideas long to be remembered, and was received with enthusiasm and affection.

The next evening, November 15, she returned to Rochester. She had just concluded two of the hardest campaigns ever made for woman suffrage; for almost one year she had found no rest for the sole of her foot, not an hour's respite for the tired brain, and yet the letters and the entries in the journal show her to be as cheerful, as philosophical, as full of hopeful plans, as ever she had been in all her long and busy life. After just one day at home she started for Cleveland. The W. C. T. U. were holding a national convention in that city and were to have a great "gospel suffrage" meeting in Music Hall, Sunday afternoon, which she was invited to address. The Cleveland Leader, in describing the occasion, said:

Miss Willard, the chieftain of the white ribbon army, introduced Miss Anthony, the chieftain of the yellow ribbon army, saying: "Once we would not have allowed the yellow ribbon to be so generously displayed here. Had its wearers asked us to admit it with the white we might have voted it down; but the yellow badge of the suffragists looks natural now. The golden rule has done it. Well do I remember that in the hard struggle mother and I had in paying the taxes on our little home, no man appeared to pay them for us. Had I been condemned to death I would not have expected a man to startup and take my place. Susan B. Anthony—she of the senatorial mind—will be remembered when the politicians of today have long been doomed to 'innocuous desuetude.'" Miss Willard then quoted a few familiar lines ending with the sentence, "And Susan B. Anthony has been ordained of God to lead us on."Miss Anthony was greeted with a rousing Chautauqua salute. "I am delighted beyond measure," she said, "that at last the women of this great national body have found there is only one way by which they can reach their desired end, and that is by the ballot. What is 'gospel suffrage?' It is a system by which truth and justice might be made the uppermost principlesof government. Every election is the solution of a mathematical problem, the figuring out of what the majority desire. We have in this country mercantile, mining, manufacturing and all kinds of business by which money can be made. The interests of every one of these are put into the political scale, but when the moral issues are put in the other side the material pull them down. Why? Because the moral issues are not weighted with votes. The men who are associated with women in movements of reform get no more in the way of legislation than do women themselves, because when they go to the legislatures or to Congress they have back of them only a disfranchised class."If you would have your requests granted your legislators must know that you are a part of a body of constituents who stand with ballots in their hands. Women, we might as well be dogs baying the moon as petitioners without the power to vote! If you have no care for yourselves, you should at least take pity on the men associated with you in your good works. So long as State constitutions say that all may vote when twenty-one, save idiots, lunatics, convicts and women, you are brought down politically to the level of those others disfranchised. This discrimination is a relic of the dark ages. The most ignorant and degraded man who walks to the polls feels himself superior to the most intelligent woman. We should demand the wiping out of all legislation which keeps us disfranchised.

Miss Anthony was greeted with a rousing Chautauqua salute. "I am delighted beyond measure," she said, "that at last the women of this great national body have found there is only one way by which they can reach their desired end, and that is by the ballot. What is 'gospel suffrage?' It is a system by which truth and justice might be made the uppermost principlesof government. Every election is the solution of a mathematical problem, the figuring out of what the majority desire. We have in this country mercantile, mining, manufacturing and all kinds of business by which money can be made. The interests of every one of these are put into the political scale, but when the moral issues are put in the other side the material pull them down. Why? Because the moral issues are not weighted with votes. The men who are associated with women in movements of reform get no more in the way of legislation than do women themselves, because when they go to the legislatures or to Congress they have back of them only a disfranchised class.

"If you would have your requests granted your legislators must know that you are a part of a body of constituents who stand with ballots in their hands. Women, we might as well be dogs baying the moon as petitioners without the power to vote! If you have no care for yourselves, you should at least take pity on the men associated with you in your good works. So long as State constitutions say that all may vote when twenty-one, save idiots, lunatics, convicts and women, you are brought down politically to the level of those others disfranchised. This discrimination is a relic of the dark ages. The most ignorant and degraded man who walks to the polls feels himself superior to the most intelligent woman. We should demand the wiping out of all legislation which keeps us disfranchised.

Almost every sentence of this brief address was punctuated with applause from the immense audience.

Always when in Cleveland Miss Anthony was a guest at the palatial home of Mrs. Louisa Southworth, At this time, with her hostess' permission, she had summoned the entire National-American Board to a business meeting, and all were entertained under this hospitable roof. For thirty years Mrs. Southworth had been among the leading representatives of the suffrage movement in northern Ohio, and during all that time had been Miss Anthony's staunch and unfailing friend. She had given thousands of dollars to the suffrage cause, and hundreds to Miss Anthony for her personal use. On this occasion she presented her with $1,000 to open the much desired national headquarters. One such supporter in every State would win many battles which are lost because of insufficient funds to do the necessary work.

Miss Anthony soon afterwards went to New York to prepare with Mrs. Stanton the call and resolutions for the approaching national convention, and to revise the article on "Woman'sRights" for Johnson's new edition of the Encyclopedia. She was the guest of her cousin, Mrs. Semantha Vail Lapham, whose home overlooked Central Park. Mrs. Stanton's cosy flat was on the other side, and through this lovely pleasure ground each bright day Miss Anthony took her morning walk. When the weather was inclement she was sent in the carriage, and the two old friends talked and worked together as they had done so many times in days gone by.

The evenings were spent with her cousin and various friends and relatives. Once they dined with a kinsman in his elegant Tiffany apartments. She and Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, Mrs. Henry M. Sanders and Mrs. George Putnam, had a delightful luncheon with Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi. She was invited by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lauterbach to hear the opera of Faust, which was followed by a supper at the Waldorf. With a relative she attended the "Authors' Uncut Leaves Club," at Sherry's. One Sunday she went to hear Robert Collyer and the diary says: "His grand face, his rich voice, his white hair, were all as attractive as ever; he was a beautiful picture in the pulpit. He gave me a cordial greeting at the close of the sermon." She ran over to Orange for a few days with a loved cousin, Ellen Hoxie Squier; and then on down to Philadelphia and Somerton for a little visit with the friends there, of which she writes: "Rachel and I had a soul-to-soul talk all the day long and until after midnight." She was a guest at the Foremothers' Dinner, December 22, given at Jaeger's by the New York City Woman Suffrage League, Lillie Devereux Blake, president, with nearly 300 prominent women at the table.[107]The dinner and the speeches lasted until after 5 o'clock, Miss Anthony responding to the toast, "Our Future Policy."

Thus a month slipped pleasantly by, and then, with the work all finished, the body rested and the mind refreshed, she returned home to spend Christmas. The two sisters dined with Dr. and Mrs. F. H. Sanford and a few old-time friends,and passed a happy day. Among the numerous Christmas remembrances were several pieces of fine china and an elegant velvet cloak from Mrs. Gross.[108]

On December 30, Miss Anthony received word of the death of her old co-worker, Amelia Bloomer, at Council Bluffs, Ia., aged seventy-seven, and sent a telegram of sympathy to the husband. A death felt most keenly in 1894 was that of Virginia L. Minor, of St. Louis, August 14, which closed a beautiful and unbroken friendship of thirty years. She left Miss Anthony a testimonial of her love and confidence in a legacy of $1,000.

The year ended amidst the usual pressure of requests, invitations and engagements. Would she lecture for the Art League, for the Musical Society, for the Church Guild and for a dozen other organizations of whose purposes she knew practically nothing? Would she accept a "reception" from the Scribblers' Club of Buffalo? Would she send a package of documents to the girls of Vassar College, who were going to debate woman suffrage? Would she please reply to the following questions, from various newspapers: "Have not women as many rights now as men have? What is woman's ideal existence and what woman has most nearly attained it? Have you formed any resolutions for the coming year, and what has been the fate of former New Year's resolutions?" and so on, ad infinitum.

The "woman's edition" fever raged with great violence at this time, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the editors of ninety-nine hundredths of them wrote to Miss Anthony for an article. Of course it was an impossibility to comply, but occasionally some request struck her so forcibly that she made time for an answer. For instance, the woman's edition of the Elmira Daily Advertiser was for the purpose of helping the Young Men's Christian Association, and to its editor, Mrs. J. Sloat Fassett, she wrote:

I should feel vastly more interested in, and earnest to aid the Y. M. C. A., if the men composing it were, as a body, helping to educate the people into the recognition of the right of their mothers and sisters to an equal voice with themselves in the government of the city, State and nation. Nevertheless, I avail myself of your kindly request, and urge all to study the intricate problem of bettering the world; not merely the individual sufferings in it, but the general conditions. Such study will show the great need of a new balance of power in the body politic; and the conscientious student must arrive at the conclusion that this will have to be obtained by enfranchising a new class—women. If the Y. M. C. A. really desire to make better moral and social conditions possible, they should hasten to obey the injunction of St. Paul, and "help those women" who are working to secure enfranchisement.

Miss Anthony received soon after this a consignment of pamphlets, etc., that she had ordered printed, on the outside of which the manager of the printing house, a man entirely unknown to her, had written:

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