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
Abby Hutchinson, the only sister in the famous family of singers, wrote
from their Jersey home, Dawnwood: "I want so much to help you; I have
longed to do some good with my voice but public life wears me out very
fast." Nevertheless she came and sang for them. Mrs. Stanton and Mrs.
Brown Blackwell brought new babies into the world a few weeks before
the convention, to Miss Anthony's usual discomfiture. She wrote to the
latter: "Mrs. Stanton sends her love to you and says if you are going
to have a large family, go right on and finish up as she has done. She
has only devoted eighteen years out of the very heart of her existence
to this great work. But I say, stop now."
The convention in Mozart Hall followed close upon the Anti-Slavery
Anniversary, Miss Anthony presided and there were the usual
distinguished speakers, Phillips, Pillsbury, Garrison, Douglass,
Higginson, Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Gage, Mrs. Rose, and, for the first
time, George William Curtis spoke on the woman's rights platform.
Notwithstanding this array of talent, the convention through all its
six sessions was threatened with a mob, encouraged by the Herald and
other New York papers. The disturbance at times was so great the
speakers could not be heard, even Curtis was greeted with hisses and
groans, but Miss Anthony stood at the helm unterrified through all and
did not leave her post until the last feature of the program was
completed and the convention adjourned. She was growing accustomed to
mobs.
In August, 1858, she attended the teachers' convention at Lockport. The
sensational feature of this meeting was the reading by Professor Davies
of the first cablegram from England, a message from the Queen to the
President. The press reports show that she took a prominent part in the
proceedings and possibly merited the name which some one gave her of
"the thorn in the side of the convention." These annual gatherings were
very largely in the nature of mutual admiration societies among the
men, who consumed much of the time in complimenting each other and the
rest of it in long-winded orations. During this one Miss Anthony arose
and said that, as all members had the same right to speak, she would
suggest that speeches should be limited so as to give each a chance.
She made some of the men furious by stating that they spoke so low they
could not be heard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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