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
A CRY FROM THE FEMALES,--.... Our heart warms with pity towards
these unfortunate creatures. We fancy that we can see them,
deserted of men, and bereft of those rich enjoyments and exalted
privileges which belong to women, languishing their unhappy lives
away in a mournful singleness, from which they can escape by no art
in the construction of waterfalls or the employment of
cotton-padding. Talk of a true woman needing the ballot as an
accessory of power, when she rules the world by a glance of her
eye! There was sound philosophy in the remark of an Eastern
monarch, that his wife was sovereign of the empire, because she
ruled his little ones and his little ones ruled him. The sure
panacea for such ills as the Massachusetts petitioners complain of,
is a wicker-work cradle and a dimple-cheeked baby.
The New York Post, which under Mr. Bryant's editorship had favored the
enfranchisement of women, also took ground against it now, and this was
the attitude of Republican papers in all parts of the country. The
Democratic press was opposed, except when it could make capital against
the Republicans by espousing it.
In November Miss Anthony went to a great anti-slavery meeting in
Philadelphia. Between the two sessions, Lucretia Mott invited about
twenty of the leading men and women to lunch with her. At her request
Miss Anthony acted as spokesman and, in behalf of the women, begged Mr.
Phillips to reconsider his position and make the woman's and the
negro's cause identical, but here, in the presence of the women who had
stood shoulder to shoulder with him in all his hard-fought battles of
the last twenty years, he again refused, declaring that their time had
not yet come. Miss Anthony sent the most impassioned appeals to the
Joint Committee of Fifteen, with Thaddeus Stevens as chairman, which
had charge of the congressional policy on reconstruction, urging that
if they could not report favorably on the petitions, at least they
would not interpose any new barrier against woman's right to the
ballot; but, although Mr. Stevens had ever been friendly to the claims
of women, he refused to recognize them now. Everywhere they were met by
the cry, "This is the negro's hour!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account