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
It is hardly possible to give an adequate idea of the storm which
followed the announcement of Miss Anthony's declaration in regard to
the People's party. There was scarcely a newspaper in the country which
did not have its fling. Kate Field's Washington led off with a full
first page entitled, "The Unholy Alliance." Editors opposed to woman
suffrage made it a text for double leaders. Republican papers berated
her without mercy. Letters poured in upon her from personal friends,
judges, mayors, ministers, members of Congress, accepting the published
reports and condemning her in unmeasured terms. Others wrote begging her
to set herself right in the eyes of the public, as they knew she had
been misrepresented. It seemed impossible, however, for her to make
herself clearly understood. She writes in her journal: "One would think
I had committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost in thanking
the Populists for their good promise and saying I preferred them with
justice to women, no matter what their financial folly, to the
Republicans without justice to women, no matter what their financial
wisdom."
She returned home June 20 and all the Rochester reporters were on hand
for an interview. The following from the Democrat and Chronicle is
practically what appeared in all:
Miss Anthony was perfectly willing to talk, and this is a resume of
what the reporter learned: 1. Miss Anthony is not a Populist. 2.
Miss Anthony is not a Democrat. 3. Miss Anthony is not a
Republican. 4. Miss Anthony can not say what party she will join
when the right to vote is given her.
"I didn't go over to the Populists by doing what I did in Kansas,"
she said. "I have been like a drowning man for a long time, waiting
for some one to throw a plank to me. The Republicans refused, but
the Populists threw an excellent plank in my direction. I didn't
step on the whole platform, but just on the woman suffrage plank. I
went forward at the close of the convention and told the men how
glad I was to see one of the dominant parties take up woman
suffrage. I said that we had been besieging the big political
parties for twenty-five years. Here is a party in power which is
likely to remain in power, and if it will give its endorsement to
our movement, we want it.
"I do not claim to know anything of the merits of the issues which
brought the Populist party into existence. All I know is that it is
chiefly made up from the rank and file of the old Republican party
of that State, and that the men who compose it think they have
better methods for the correction of existing evils. They are
protesting against the present order of things, and certainly no
one will deny there is ground for it. I do not endorse their
platform, but I would be one of the last to condemn an honest
protest."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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