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
As Miss Anthony herself had asked so many favors of Wendell Phillips,
she thought it would be a good idea to have Mrs. Stanton invite him to
make an address at this anniversary; but he was not in the least
deceived, as his reply shows:
DEAR MRS. STANTON: Your S.B.A. thinks she is very cunning. As if I
did not see a huge pussy under that meal! She has been so modest,
humble, ashamed, reluctant, apologetic, contrite, self-accusing
whenever the last ten years she has asked me to do anything, go
anywhere, speak on any topic! Now she makes you pull the chestnuts
out of the fire and thinks I do not see her waiting behind. Ah, the
hand is the hand of Esau, the voice is the voice of Jacob, wicked,
sly, skulking, mystifying Jacob. Why don't "secretaries" write the
official letters? How much they leave the "president" to do!
Naughty idlers, those secretaries! Well, let me thank Miss
Secretary Anthony for her gentle consideration; then let me say
I'll try to speak, as you say, fifteen minutes.... Remember me
defiantly to S.B.A.
In the midst of all this correspondence came a letter from a sweetheart
of her girlhood, now a prominent officeholder in Ohio, stating that he
was a widower but would not long remain one if his old friend would
take pity upon him. It is sincerely to be hoped that the secretary of
the Loyal League found time at least to have one of her clerks answer
this epistle.
The meeting was held in the Church of the Puritans, May 12, 1864, and
soul-stirring speeches were made by Phillips, Mrs. Rose, Lucretia Mott,
George Thompson, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony. The report of the
executive committee showed that a debt of $5,000, including $1,000 for
postage alone, had been paid; that 25,000 blank petitions had been sent
out; that the league now numbered 5,000 members, and that branch Loyal
Leagues had been formed in many cities. Strong resolutions were adopted
demanding not only emancipation but enfranchisement for the negroes.
The entire proceedings of the convention illustrated how thoroughly the
leading women of the country understood the political situation, how
broad and comprehensive was their grasp of public affairs, and with
what a patriotic and self-sacrificing spirit they performed their part
of the duties imposed by the great Civil War.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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