Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, HumanitarianLutz, Alma
History
Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian
Lutz, Alma
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
With the election of Joseph Choate of New York as president of the
convention, Susan knew that woman suffrage was doomed, for Choate had
political aspirations and was not likely to let his sympathies for an
unpopular cause jeopardize his chances of becoming governor. While he
gave women every opportunity to be heard, at the same time he arranged
for the defeat of woman suffrage by appointing men to consider the
subject who were definitely opposed, and they submitted an adverse
report. Here was a situation similar to that in 1867, when her
one-time friend, Horace Greeley, had deserted women for political
expediency.
"I am used to defeat every time and know how to pick up and push on
for another attack," she wrote as she now turned her attention to
Kansas.[388]
* * * * *
The Republicans in Kansas had sponsored school and municipal suffrage
for women and had passed a woman suffrage amendment to be referred to
the people in 1894. Yet they proved to be as great a disappointment to
Susan as they were in 1867, when as a last resort she had been obliged
to campaign with the Democrats and George Francis Train.
The population of Kansas had changed with the years, as immigrants
from Europe had come into the state, and Susan was again confronted
with the powerful opposition of foreign-born voters for whose support
the political parties bargained. The liquor interests were also
active, and the Republicans, who had brought prohibition to Kansas,
now left the question discreetly alone, even making a deal with German
Democrats for their votes by promising to ignore in their platform
both prohibition and woman suffrage. Prohibition and woman suffrage
were synonymous in the minds of voters, because women had generally
voted for enforcement in municipal elections, and no matter how hard
Susan tried, she found it impossible to have woman suffrage considered
on its own merits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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