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 7th of October came a telegram from George Francis Train, who
was then at Omaha, largely interested in the Union Pacific railroad. He
had been invited by the secretary and other members of the St. Louis
Suffrage Association to go to Kansas and help in the woman's campaign.
Accordingly he telegraphed that if the committee wanted him he was
ready, would pay his own expenses and win every Democratic vote. Miss
Anthony never had seen Mr. Train; she merely knew of him as very
wealthy and eccentric. The Republicans not only had forsaken the women
but were waging open war upon them. The sole hope of carrying the
amendment was by adding enough Democratic votes to those of Republicans
who would not obey their party orders to vote against it. Every member
of the woman suffrage committee who could be communicated with--Rev.
and Mrs. Starrett, Rev. John S. Brown and daughter Sarah, Judge
Thatcher and others--said that Mr. Train was an eloquent speaker and
advised that he be invited, so the following telegram was sent: "Come
to Kansas and stump the State for equal rights and woman suffrage. The
people want you, the women want you. S. N. Wood, M. W. Reynolds,
Charles Robinson, Mrs. J. H. Lane, E. Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony."
Mr. Train accepted and Miss Anthony at once began laying out a route
for him and telegraphed: "Begin at Leavenworth Monday, October 21. Yes,
with your help we shall triumph. All shall be ready for you." If she
had had any political experience, she would have made his appointments
along the railroad, whose employes were largely Irish, with whom he was
very popular on account of his Fenian affiliations; but in her
ignorance, she arranged for most of the meetings in small towns off the
railroads, where the inhabitants were chiefly Republicans.
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