Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, HumanitarianLutz, Alma
History
Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian
Lutz, Alma
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
Horace Greeley justified his opposition to woman suffrage in a letter
to Moncure D. Conway: "The keynote of my political creed is the axiom
that 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed....' I sought information from different quarters ... and
practically all agreed in the conclusion that _the women of our state
do not choose to vote_. Individuals do, at least three fourths of the
sex do not. I accepted their choice as decisive; just as I reported in
favor of enfranchising the Blacks because they do wish to vote. The
few may not; but the many do; and I think they should control the
situation.... It seems but fair to add that female suffrage seems to
me to involve the balance of the family relation as it has hitherto
existed...."[191]
Horace Greeley never forgave Susan and Mrs. Stanton for humiliating
him in the constitutional convention or for the headlines in the
evening papers which coupled his adverse report with his wife's
petition. When they met again in New York a few weeks later at one of
Alice Cary's popular evening receptions, he ignored their friendly
greeting and brusquely remarked, "You two ladies are the most
maneuvering politicians in the State of New York."[192]
* * * * *
While Susan's work in New York State was at its height, appeals for
help had reached her from Republicans in Kansas, where in November
1867 two amendments would be voted upon, enfranchising women and
Negroes. Unable to go to Kansas herself at that time or to spare
Elizabeth Stanton, she rejoiced when Lucy Stone consented to speak
throughout Kansas and when she and Lucy, as trustees of the Jackson
Fund, outvoting Wendell Phillips, were able to appropriate $1,500 for
this campaign.
Lucy was soon sending enthusiastic reports to Susan from Kansas, where
she and her husband, Henry Blackwell, were winning many friends for
the cause. "I fully expect we shall carry the State," Lucy confidently
wrote Susan. "The women here are grand, and it will be a shame past
all expression if they don't get the right to vote.... But the Negroes
are all against us.... These men _ought not to be allowed to vote
before we do_, because they will be just so much dead weight to
lift."[193]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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