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
I speak in this village to-morrow night; had written a gentleman
but he was away, so I had all the work to do myself. I first called
on the Methodist minister to get his church. I stated my business
and he asked: "What are you driving at? Do you want to vote and be
President?" I answered that I did not personally aspire to the
presidency, but when the nation decided a woman was most competent
for that office, I would be willing she should fill it. "Well,"
said he, "if the Bible teaches anything, it is that women should be
quiet keepers at home and not go gadding round the country;" and
much more. In all my traveling, in short or long skirts, I have
never been treated so contemptuously, so insultingly, as by this
same wretch of a minister. He is void of the first spark of
reverence for humanity, therefore must be equally so for God. Just
now his pious church bell is ringing for prayer-meeting; I have
half a mind to go, to see if he warns his flock to beware of my
heresies. From him I went to the Wesleyan Methodist minister, and
what a contrast! He thought I wanted the church for to-night and
said: "We have our prayer-meeting, but will adjourn it for you."
This kindness made me so weak, the tears came in spite of me, and I
explained the rowdy treatment of the other minister. I have had a
varied experience ever since I left Easton. Verily, I am embarked
in an unpopular cause and must be content to row up stream.
In May she went to the great Anti-Slavery Anniversary in New York. In
August she attended the State Teachers' Convention at Oswego. Victor M.
Rice, of Buffalo, was president and accorded her every courtesy and
encouragement. The question of woman's right to speak had been settled
at the Rochester convention the previous year and never again was
disputed, so she turned her attention to the right of women to hold
office in the association and to fill the position of principal in the
public schools, which called forth vigorous discussion. She secured the
election of a woman as one of the vice-presidents. The Oswego press
declared: "Miss Anthony made the speech of the convention; in grace of
oratory and in spirit and style of thought it fully vindicated her
claim to woman's right to speak in public. Her arguments were good, her
speaking talents of the first order, and we hope that when men answer
such pleas as she made, they will do it in a manly and generous
spirit."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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