Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, HumanitarianLutz, Alma
History
Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian
Lutz, Alma
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
Trying to pour oil on the troubled waters, Mary Livermore, the popular
new delegate from Chicago, asked whether it was quite fair to bring up
George Francis Train when he had retired from _The Revolution_.
To this Stephen Foster sternly replied, "If _The Revolution_ which has
so often endorsed George Francis Train will repudiate him because of
his course in respect to the Negro's rights, I have nothing further to
say. But they do not repudiate him. He goes out; but they do not cast
him out."[236]
"Of course we do not," Susan instantly protested.
Mr. Foster then objected to the way Susan had spent the funds of the
Association, accusing her of failing to keep adequate accounts.
This she emphatically denied, explaining that she had presented a full
accounting to the trust fund committee, that it had been audited, and
she had been voted $1,000 to repay her for the amount she had
personally advanced for the work.
Unwilling to accept her explanation and calling it unreliable, he
continued his complaints until interrupted by Henry Blackwell who
corroborated Susan's statement, adding that she had refused the $1,000
due her because of the dissatisfaction expressed over her management.
Declaring himself completely satisfied with the settlement and
confident of the purity of Susan's motives even if some of her
expenditures were unwise, Henry Blackwell continued, "I will agree
that many unwise things have been written in _The Revolution_ by a
gentleman who furnished part of the means by which the paper has been
carried on. But that gentleman has withdrawn, and you, who know the
real opinions of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton on the question of
Negro suffrage, do not believe that they mean to create antagonism
between the Negro and woman question...."
To Susan's great relief Henry Blackwell's explanation satisfied the
delegates, who gave her and Mrs. Stanton a vote of confidence. Not so
easily healed, however, were the wounds left by the accusations of
mismanagement and dishonesty.
The atmosphere was still tense, for differences of opinion on policy
remained. Most of the old reliable workers stood unequivocally for the
Fifteenth Amendment, which they regarded as the crowning achievement
of the antislavery movement, and they heartily disapproved of forcing
the issue of woman suffrage on Congress and the people at this time.
Although they had been deeply moved by the suffering of Negro women
under slavery and had used this as a telling argument for
emancipation, they now gave no thought to Negro women, who, even more
than Negro men, needed the vote to safeguard their rights. Believing
with the Republicans that one reform at a time was all they could
expect, they did not want to hear one word about woman suffrage or a
Sixteenth Amendment until male Negroes were safely enfranchised by the
Fifteenth Amendment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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