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 — John Shaqi
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
DEAR SUSAN: Our friend Mrs. Eliza Eddy, Francis Jackson's daughter,
died a week ago Thursday. At her request, I made her will some
weeks before. Her man of business, devoted to her for twenty-five
years, Mr. C. R. Ransom (ex-president of one of our banks) is the
executor. He and I were present and consulted, and we know all her
intentions and wishes from long talks with her in years gone by.
After making various bequests, she ordered the remainder divided
equally between you and Lucy Stone. There is no question whatever
that your portion will be $25,000 or $28,000. I advised her, in
order to avoid all lawyers, to give this sum to you outright, with
no responsibility to any one or any court, only "requesting you to
use it for the advancement of the woman's cause."
After all the years of toil without financial recompense, of struggling
to accomplish her work with wholly insufficient means, of depending from
month to month on the few dollars which could be gathered in, Miss
Anthony's joy and gratitude scarcely could find expression in words. She
answered at once:
Your most surprising letter reached me last evening. How worthy the
daughter of Francis Jackson! How it carries me back to his generous
gift of $5,000; to that noble, fatherly man and that quiet, lovely
daughter in his home. Never going to Boston during the past fifteen
years, I had lost sight of her, though I had not forgotten her by
any means. How little thought have I had all these years that she
cherished this marvellous trust in me, and now I recognize in her
munificent legacy your own faith in me, for such was her confidence
in you that I feel sure she would not have thus willed, if you had
not fully endorsed her wish. So to you, my dear friend, as to her,
my unspeakable gratitude goes out. May I prove worthy the care and
disposal of whatever shall come into my hands. Will you, as my
friend and Mrs. Eddy's, ever feel free to suggest and advise me as
to a wise use thereof? I am very glad it was your privilege to be
with her through these years of her loneliness. I am pleased that
you and Mr. Ransom propose to appropriate something to her faithful
brother James, and most cheerfully do I put my name to the paper
you enclose, with the fullest confidence that you would ask of me
nothing but right and justice to all parties.
A few days afterwards she received another letter from Mr. Phillips:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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