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
On the day of the convention he called at the Delevan House for Miss
Anthony and Mrs. Stan ton, now reinforced by Lucretia Mott, Martha C.
Wright, Gerrit Smith and Frederick Douglass, and accompanied them to
Association Hall. They found it packed to the doors. The mayor went on
the platform and announced that he had placed policemen in various
parts of the hall in citizens' clothes, and that whoever made the least
disturbance would be at once arrested. Then he laid a revolver across
his knees, and there he sat during the morning, afternoon and evening
sessions. Several times the mob broke forth, and each time arrests were
promptly made. Toward the close of the evening he said to Miss Anthony:
"If you insist upon holding your meetings tomorrow, I shall still
protect you, but it will be a difficult thing to hold this rabble in
check much longer. If you will adjourn at the close of this session I
shall consider it a personal favor." Of course she willingly acceded to
his request. He accompanied the ladies to their hotel, the mob
following all the way.
This closed the series of conventions. With a Republican mayor in every
other city, there had been no attempt at official protection; and yet
it may be remembered, in extenuation, that it is always easier for the
party out of power than for the one in power to stand for principle;
the former has nothing to lose. The Republicans at this time were
panic-stricken and staggering under the weight of responsibility
suddenly laid upon them; and the Abolitionists, by their radical
demands and scathing criticism, were adding to their difficulties.
There can be no justification, however, for any official who is too
cowardly or too dishonest to fulfill the duties of his office.
Immediately upon the close of this anti-slavery meeting, the State
Woman's Rights Convention was held in Albany, February 7 and 8. Mr.
Garrison, Mrs. Rose, Lucretia Mott and many of the old brilliant galaxy
were among the speakers. They little thought that this was the last
convention they would hold for five years, that a long and terrible war
would cast its shadow over every household before they met again, that
differences would arise in their own ranks, and that never more would
they come together in the old, fraternal spirit that had bound them so
closely and given them strength to bear the innumerable hardships which
so largely had been their portion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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