The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 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 2 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
She remained at home long enough to prepare the memorials to the
national political conventions, and June 4 found her at Minneapolis
ready for the Republican gathering. She was entertained by Mr. and Mrs.
T. B. Walker, and found Mrs. J. Ellen Foster also a guest in that
hospitable home. The memorial presented by the National-American W. S.
A. contained the same unanswerable arguments for the enfranchisement of
women which had been made for so many years, and asked for the following
plank: "As a voice in the laws and the rulers under which we live is the
inalienable right of every citizen of a republic, we pledge ourselves,
when again in power, to place the ballot in the hand of every woman of
legal age, as the only weapon with which she can protect her person and
property and defend herself against all aggressive legislation."
Miss Anthony was notified that she could have a hearing before the
platform committee on the evening of June 8. She was promptly on hand
and was kept standing in the hall outside of the committee room until
after 9 o'clock. Finally she was so tired she sent for one of the
committee to ask how much longer she would have to wait. She learned
that its chairman, J. B. Foraker, of Ohio, refused to preside or call
the committee to order to hear any argument on woman suffrage. Senator
Jones, of Nevada, then hunted him up and asked if he might preside in
his place, and permission being given she was invited into the room. She
spoke for thirty minutes as only a woman could speak who had suffered
the persecution of an Abolitionist before the Republican party was born,
who had been loyal to that party throughout all the dark days of the
Civil War, who had not once repudiated its principles in all the years
which had since elapsed. She pleaded that now she and the women she
represented might have its support and recognition in their right to
representation at the ballot-box. This committee was composed of
twoscore of the most prominent men in the Republican party and, at the
close of Miss Anthony's address, every one in the room arose and many
crowded about her, giving her the most earnest assurance of their belief
in the justice of her cause, but telling her frankly that they could not
put a woman suffrage plank in their platform as the party was not able
to carry the load! The plank eventually adopted read as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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