The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty YearsHarper, Ida Husted
History
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years
Harper, Ida Husted
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
There was nothing but to go to work again, for Miss Anthony and her
co-laborers were determined not to relax their efforts until the
obnoxious laws against women were repealed. It was at this rallying of
the forces and renewing of the attack that Mr. Channing declared Miss
Anthony to be "the Napoleon of the movement," a title so appropriate
that it has clung to her to the present day. She had now thoroughly
systematized the work in New York and was appointed general agent. It
was decided to hold a series of conventions throughout the state for
the purpose of rolling up mammoth petitions to present to the
Legislature every session until they should be granted. Two strong
appeals, one written by Mrs. Stanton and one by Mr. Channing, were
widely circulated and a large corps of able speakers was engaged. All
this work the State committee assigned to Miss Anthony, but did not
provide her with one dollar to pay expenses.
For many years thereafter she canvassed the State annually; held
meetings, organized societies and secured thousands of signatures,
without any guaranteed fund. Not only did she give all her time and
perform far greater labor than any other person engaged in this
movement, but she also took the whole financial responsibility. The
anxiety of this hardly can be imagined, but she was seldom discouraged,
never daunted. Her father had repaid the few hundred dollars she had
loaned him from her slender earnings as teacher in the days of his
adversity, and these she used freely without expectation of replacing
them. She never hesitated because she had not money but went boldly
forward, trusting to collections and contributions to pay expenses.
Sometimes she came out even, sometimes behind. In the latter case she
sent at once to her father who supplied the necessary funds, which were
repaid when there was a surplus. Had she waited to have the money in
hand, had she feared to take the chances, her work never would have
been done; and unless some one else had been developed who could and
would assume the risk and manage the business part of the State
campaigns, the progress of woman, slow as it has been, would have been
still longer delayed. The one ruling characteristic of her life ever
has been courage, moral and physical. There never have been hardships
which she feared to endure, never scorn, ridicule or abuse which she
did not dare face. While she might have risen to a high position and
commanded a large salary as teacher, or have lived at home in restful
comfort, she voluntarily chose the hardest field of work the world
offered, one shadowed with obloquy, holding out no prospect of money or
fame and no hope of success except through long and bitter conflict.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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