Volume IV Part 49 (1/2)
[125] This was held the first week in December, 1901, and netted about $8,000 for the a.s.sociation.
[126] It will be noticed in this pamphlet that all but one of the favorable reports from congressional committees were made during the years when Miss Anthony had a winter home at the Riggs House, through the courtesy of its proprietors, Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Spofford, and was able to secure them through personal attention and influence. There were always some members of these committees who were favorable to woman suffrage, but with the great pressure on every side from other matters, this one was apt to be neglected unless somebody made a business of seeing that it did not go by default. This Miss Anthony did for many years, and during this time secured the excellent reports of 1879, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886 and 1890. The great speech of Senator T. W. Palmer, made February 6, 1885, was in response to her insistence that he should keep his promise to speak in favor of the question. In 1888-90 Mrs. Upton, who was residing in Was.h.i.+ngton with her father, Ezra B. Taylor, M. C., did not permit the Judiciary Committee to forget the report for that year, which was the first and only favorable House Report.
[127] For account of the work of the a.s.sociation before Congress see Chap. I.
[128] George W. Ray, N. Y., chairman; John J. Jenkins, Wis.; Richard Wayne Parker, N. J.; Jesse Overstreet, Ind.; De Alva S. Alexander, N.
Y.; Vespasian Warner, Ill.; Winfield S. Kerr, O.; Charles E.
Littlefield, Me.; Romeo H. Freer, W. Va.; Julius Kahn, Calif.; William L. Terry, Ark.; David A. De Armond, Mo.; Samuel W. T. Lanham, Tex.; William Elliott, S. C.; Oscar W. Underwood, Ala.; David H. Smith, Ky.; William H. Fleming, Ga.
[129] That this was a mistaken courtesy was proved by subsequent events, as afterwards Mrs. Dodge came out with a card in the New York _Sun_ denying that they were admitted through the intervention of Miss Anthony.
[130] In the official Senate report of the hearing the arguments of the suffragists filled forty pages; those of the ”antis” five pages.
They consisted of brief papers by Mrs. Dodge and Miss Bissell. The former took the ground that the Congress should leave this matter to be decided by the States; that women are not physically qualified to use the ballot; and that its use by them would render ”domestic tranquillity” a byword among the people. Miss Bissell began by saying, ”It is not the tyranny but the chivalry of men that we have to fear,”
and opposed the suffrage princ.i.p.ally because the majority of women do not want it, saying, ”I have never yet been so situated that I could see where a vote could help me. If I felt that it would, I might become a suffragist perhaps.”
CHAPTER XXI.
THE NATIONAL-AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1900 CONTINUED.
It had been known for some time before the suffrage convention of Feb.
8-14, 1900, that Miss Anthony intended to resign the presidency of the national a.s.sociation at that time, when she would be eighty years old, but her devoted adherents could not resist urging that she would reconsider her decision. When they a.s.sembled, however, they found it impossible to persuade her to continue longer in the office. The Was.h.i.+ngton _Post_ of February 8 said:
Miss Susan B. Anthony has resigned. The woman who for the greater part of her life has been the star that guided the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation through all of its vicissitudes until it stands to-day a living monument to her wonderful mental and physical ability has turned over the leaders.h.i.+p to younger minds and hands, not because this great woman feels that she is no longer capable of exercising it, but because she has a still larger work to accomplish before her life's labors are at an end.
In a speech which was characteristic of one who has done so much toward the uplifting of her s.e.x, Miss Anthony tendered her resignation during the preliminary meeting of the executive committee, held last night at the headquarters in the parlors of the Riggs House.
Although Miss Anthony had positively stated that she would resign in 1900, there were many of those present who were visibly shocked when she announced that she was about to relinquish her position as president of the a.s.sociation. In the instant hush which followed this statement a sorrow settled over the countenances of the fifty women seated about the room, who love and venerate Miss Anthony so much, and probably some of them would have broken down had it not been that they knew well her antipathy to public emotion. In a happy vein, which soon drove the clouds of disappointment from the faces of those present, she explained why she no longer desired to continue as an officer of the a.s.sociation after having done so since its beginning.
”I have fully determined,” she began, ”to retire from the active presidency of the a.s.sociation. I was elected a.s.sistant secretary of a woman suffrage society in 1852, and from that day to this have always held an office. I am not retiring now because I feel unable, mentally or physically, to do the necessary work, but because I wish to see the organization in the hands of those who are to have its management in the future.” Then jestingly she continued: ”I want to see you all at work, while I am alive, so I can scold if you do not do it well. Give the matter of selecting your officers serious thought. Consider who will do the best work for the political enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women, and let no personal feelings enter into the question.”
While Miss Anthony seemed at the height of her physical and mental vigor, those who loved her best felt it to be right that she should be relieved of the burdens of the office which were growing heavier each year as the demands upon the a.s.sociation became more numerous, and should be free to devote her time to certain lines of work which could be done only by herself. They tried to imitate her own cheerfulness and philosophy in this matter, but found it more difficult than it ever before had been to follow where she led.
The last of the resolutions, presented to the convention a few days later by the chairman of the committee, Henry B. Blackwell, read as follows: ”In view of the announced determination of Miss Susan B.
Anthony to withdraw from the presidency of this a.s.sociation, we tender her our heartfelt expression of appreciation and regard. We congratulate her upon her eightieth birthday, and trust that she will add to her past ill.u.s.trious services her aid and support to the younger workers for woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt. We shall continue to look to her for advice and counsel in the years to come. May the new century witness the fruition of our labors.”
This was unanimously adopted by a rising vote. Observing that many of the delegates were on the point of yielding to their feelings, Miss Anthony arose and in clear, even tones, with a touch of quaint humor, said:
I wish you could realize with what joy and relief I retire from the presidency. I want to say this to you while I am still alive--and I am good yet for another decade--don't be afraid. As long as my name stands at the head, I am Yankee enough to feel that I must watch every potato which goes into the dinner-pot and supervise every detail of the work. For the four years since I fixed my date to retire, I have constantly been saying to myself, ”Let go, let go, let go!” I am now going to let go of the machinery but not of the spiritual part. I expect to do more work for woman suffrage in the next decade than ever before. I have not been for nearly fifty years in this movement without gaining a certain ”notoriety,” at least, and this enables me to get a hearing before the annual conventions of many great national bodies, and to urge on them the pa.s.sage of resolutions asking Congress to submit to the State Legislatures a Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution forbidding disfranchis.e.m.e.nt on account of s.e.x. This is a part of the work to which I mean to devote myself henceforward. Then you all know about the big fund which I am going to raise so that you young workers may have an a.s.sured income and not have to spend the most of your time begging money, as I have had to do.
The convention proceeded to the election of officers. Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake (N. Y.), who was a candidate for president, asked permission to make a personal explanation and said: ”I have received from many parts of the United States expressions of regard and esteem that have deeply touched me. But in the interests of harmony I desire to withdraw my name from any consideration you may have wished to give me.” Of the 278 votes cast for president Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt (N.
Y.) received 254; eleven of the remaining twenty-four were cast for Miss Anthony and ten for Mrs. Blake. The other members of the old board were re-elected almost unanimously.[131]
The Was.h.i.+ngton _Post_ said: ”There was a touching scene when the vote for Mrs. Chapman Catt was announced. First there was an outburst of applause, and then as though all at once every one realized that she was witnessing the pa.s.sing of Susan B. Anthony, their beloved president, the deepest silence prevailed for several seconds. Lifelong members of the a.s.sociation, who had toiled and struggled by the side of Miss Anthony, could not restrain their emotions and wept in spite of their efforts at control.” The Was.h.i.+ngton _Star_ thus described the occasion:
Mrs. Blake not being in the hall, Miss Anthony was made a committee of one to present Mrs. Catt to the convention. The women went wild as, erect and alert, she walked to the front of the platform, holding the hand of her young co-worker, of whom she is extremely fond and of whom she expects great things. Miss Anthony's eyes were tear-dimmed, and her tones were uneven, as she presented to the convention its choice of a leader in words freighted with love and tender solicitude, rich with reminiscences of the past, and full of hope for the future of the new president and her work.
”Suffrage is no longer a theory, but an actual condition,” she said, ”and new occasions bring new duties. These new duties, these changed conditions, demand stronger hands, younger heads and fresher hearts. In Mrs. Catt you have my ideal leader. I present to you my successor.”