[Illustration: Elizabeth Cady Stanton] EIGHTY YEARS AND MORE REMINISCENCES 1815-1897 ELIZABETH CADY STANTON "Social science affirms that woman's place in society marks the level of civilization." I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME TO SUSAN B. ANTHONY, MY STEADFAST FRIEND FOR HALF A CENTURY. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. CHILDHOOD II. SCHOOL DAYS III. GIRLHOOD IV. LIFE AT PETERBORO V. OUR WEDDING JOURNEY VI. HOMEWARD BOUND VII. MOTHERHOOD VIII. BOSTON AND CHELSEA IX. THE FIRST WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION X. SUSAN B. ANTHONY XI. SUSAN B. ANTHONY (_Continued_) XII. MY FIRST SPEECH BEFORE A LEGISLATURE XIII. REFORMS AND MOBS XIV. VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE XV. WOMEN AS PATRIOTS XVI. PIONEER LIFE IN KANSAS--OUR NEWSPAPER "THE REVOLUTION" XVII. LYCEUMS AND LECTURERS XVIII. WESTWARD HO! XIX. THE SPIRIT OF '76 XX. WRITING "THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE" XXI. IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE XXII. REFORMS AND REFORMERS IN GREAT BRITAIN XXIII. WOMAN AND THEOLOGY XXIV. ENGLAND AND FRANCE REVISITED XXV. THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN XXVI. MY LAST VISIT TO ENGLAND XXVII. SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLASS OF 1832--THE WOMAN'S BIBLE XXVIII. MY EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY INDEX OF NAMES LIST OF PORTRAITS. The Author, _Frontispiece_ Margaret Livingston Cady Judge Daniel Cady Henry Brewster Stanton The Author and Daughter The Author and Son Susan B. Anthony Elizabeth Smith Miller Children and Grandchildren The Author, Mrs. Blatch, and Nora The Author, Mrs. Lawrence, and Robert Livingston Stanton EIGHTY YEARS AND MORE. CHAPTER I. CHILDHOOD. The psychical growth of a child is not influenced by days and years, but by the impressions passing events make on its mind. What may prove a sudden awakening to one, giving an impulse in a certain direction that may last for years, may make no impression on another. People wonder why the children of the same family differ so widely, though they have had the same domestic discipline, the same school and church teaching, and have grown up under the same influences and with the same environments. As well wonder why lilies and lilacs in the same latitude are not all alike in color and equally fragrant. Children differ as widely as these in the primal elements of their physical and psychical life. Who can estimate the power of antenatal influences, or the child's surroundings in its earliest years, the effect of some passing word or sight on one, that makes no impression on another? The unhappiness of one child under a certain home discipline is not inconsistent with the content of another under this same discipline. One, yearning for broader freedom, is in a chronic condition of rebellion; the other, more easily satisfied, quietly accepts the situation. Everything is seen from a different standpoint; everything takes its color from the mind of the beholder.