Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Political


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Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met in March 1851, the two women not only developed a deep friendship but also helped each other prepare to change women’s rights forever. Together they formed one of the most productive working partnerships in U.S. history. As uncompromising women’s rights leaders, they revolutionized the political and social condition for women in American society. Stanton was the leading voice and philosopher of the women’s rights and suffrage movements while Anthony was the inspiration who was able to gain control of the legions of women. Through there struggles Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were able to win many rights for American women. 1 Born on November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, New York, Elizabeth Cady grew up around wealth and privilege, the daughter of Daniel Cady, a well-known judge, and Margaret Livingston. In 1826, the death of her brother Eleazar motivated her to excel in every area her brother had in an attempt to compensate her father for his loss. After her graduation in 1833, she became interested in the world of reform at the home of her cousin Gerrit Smith. There she fell in love with the abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton.2 After the Stanton’s moved from Boston to the village of Seneca Falls, New York, in 1847, Elizabeth found herself in a very non-active community. This is where she began to form ideas on how to improve women’s roles in society. Along with Lucretia Mott, of Philadelphia, and three other women, Elizabeth formed the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in July 1848. At this gathering, she presented their Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, a document she had written herself. The Declaration and its 11 resolutions demanded social and political equality for all women, including its most controversial claim, the right to vote.3 Susan B. Anthony was the second of eight children, she was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. Her father Daniel, was a respected Quaker, who owned a mill and factory. He was also a reformer, who made sure that his daughters as well as his sons had excellent educations. Susan grew up in a culture that permitted women to freely express themselves. Following her education, she worked as a teacher. In 1848, after ten years of teaching, Anthony began her reform career as a temperance activist. She joined the Daughters of Temperance in 1848, left teaching in 1849, and soon became a recognized temperance leader in New York. Through temperance, she was able to encourage women to seek legal solutions to protect their families from the poverty and violence caused by their husbands’ alcohol abuse. 4 During the early 1850s, Anthony was very interested in the abolitionist and women’s rights movements. Soon after her first meeting with Stanton they began their partnership to improve woman’s rights. Anthony quickly picked up on Stanton’s incredible knowledge of politics and philosophy. Stanton was also very motivated by Anthony’s thoughtful critiques of her ideas. Anthony would not allow Stanton to sit by and do nothing, she was always pushing Stanton to write one more speech. 5 Frustrated by obstacles that arose during their first project as leaders of the Woman’s State Temperance Society in 1854, Anthony and Stanton began their own women’s rights campaign to enforce New York’s Married Women’s Property Law of 1848.6 Anthony, who was unmarried and free of family demands, often organized and ran the campaign. She traveled statewide, speaking throughout 54 New York counties. Stanton did the legal research and drafted the literature while Anthony distributed, and wrote the speeches for them both. Finally, in 1860, following Stanton’s eloquent speech before the New York state legislature, the Married Women’s Property Law of 1860 became law. Married women gained the right to own property, engage in business, manage their wages and other income, sue and be sued, and be joint guardian of their children. 7 In 1856, the American Anti-Slavery Society hired Anthony to be its general agent in the state of New York. Until 1861, she and her troupe of antislavery orators, which included Stanton, traveled across the state, confronting hostile mobs wherever they spoke. Anthony and Stanton also formed the Women’s Loyal National League, the first national women’s political organization. Through the WLNL, 5,000 women gathered 400,000 signatures to persuade Congress to pass the 13th Amendment guaranteeing the freedom of African Americans. Soon after, they were able to establish the American Equal Rights Association, which was dedicated to securing the ballot for all African American men and women. Though the two suffragists believed that woman suffrage could be enacted through the 14th, and later, the 15th Amendments, many of their abolitionist colleagues rejected their ideas, arguing that votes for African-American men must take precedence. 8 Feeling abandoned and betrayed, in May 1869, Anthony and Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association, a woman-led organization devoted to obtaining a federal woman suffrage amendment. Still opposing their ideas, their divided abolitionist colleagues formed the more conservative American Woman Suffrage Association in November 1869, a move that clearly defined the painful split in the woman suffrage movement.9 During these dark days, Anthony and Stanton published the radical women’s rights newspaper, which was called, “The Revolution”. Stanton was the principal writer and editor, while Anthony was the publisher and business manager. Although the paper was a financial failure, it provided an opportunity for Stanton and Anthony to broadcast their views and inform the public of their ideas.10 During the early 1870s, Anthony and Stanton founded an organization called the “New Departure” on the premise that the 14th and 15th Amendments guaranteed all citizens the right to vote regardless of gender.11 Anthony and at least 150 other women tested its constitutionality by casting ballots in the 1872 presidential election. Several weeks later, Anthony was arrested. The judge ordered the all-male jury to render a guilty verdict. In her comments to the court, Anthony exposed the trial for the mockery it was. They soon abandoned the New Departure in 1875 when the Supreme Court delivered the Minor v. Happersett verdict.12 This trial was about a woman named Virginia Minor who tried to register to vote and was and was not allowed by Happersett. The trial quickly grew and soon became a law suit against the 14 Amendment. During the mid 1880s, Stanton and Anthony worked to produce the first three volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, the story of the movement they created. In 1882 and again in 1886, Stanton traveled to England and Europe to visit two of her children and to investigate the possibility of an international suffrage movement. When Anthony joined her in 1883, they agreed to organize an international conference of women in 1888 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention. The International Council of Women proved to be the largest women’s convention of its time.13 At the 1892 National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) convention, Stanton retired as president and delivered her “Solitude of Self” speech, the fullest expression of her feminist philosophy, which is that women deserve to have the same rights as all other citizens of the United States. In the 1890s, until Anthony retired as president in 1900, NAWSA concentrated on waging state suffrage campaigns, attempting to win the vote state-by-state. Concerned about NAWSA’s future leadership, Anthony spent enormous energy cultivating the most capable of its young women leaders. The most promising of these candidates were Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw, both of whom eventually served as NAWSA presidents.14 Two weeks before her 87th birthday, Stanton died of heart failure on October 26, 1902. Anthony was inconsolable. “I am too crushed to speak,” 15she told a reporter. Anthony’s health was failing, too. In 1900, at age 80, she had suffered a stroke. Though her doctor had warned her to take better care of herself, she decided it would be better to “die in the harness” than to abandon her work.16 She was no longer president of NAWSA but still supervised most of its management. In February 1906, the 86-year-old Anthony, ill and weary, delivered her final speech at the annual NAWSA convention in Baltimore. She reminded NAWSA suffragists that the day of women’s enfranchisement was at hand and that they must not fail. Anthony died on March 13th. 17 It wasn’t until fourteen years after Anthony’s death that the 19th amendment was passed and even though the two women were not around to see their final accomplishment. They will always be remembered for their great accomplishments that made it possible for all women to cast their votes and be considered as equ Bibliography: 1 Carol Ellen Dubois, Elizabeth Cady Stanton – Susan B. Anthony. ( Northeastern University Press, 1992) : 19 . 2 Griffith, Elizabeth. In Her Own Right. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984) : 3. 3 Griffith, 5-10. 4, Kathleen Barry, Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist. ( New York: University Press, 1988) : 11-15. 5 Barry, 65. 6 Geoffrey C Ward, Not For Ourselves Alone. (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1999) : 65. 7 Ward, 67. 8 Dubois, 75-79. 9 Dubois, 84 10 Ward, 133. 11 Miriam Gurko, The Ladies of Seneca Falls. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc. 1974.) 12 Barry, 250 13Dubious, 216 14 Griffith, 192 15Barry, 325 16 Barry, 330 17 Barry 346 1 Carol Ellen Dubois, Elizabeth Cady Stanton – Susan B. Anthony. ( Northeastern University Press, 1992) : 19 . 2 Griffith, Elizabeth. In Her Own Right. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984) : 3. 3 Griffith, 5-10. 4, Kathleen Barry, Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist. ( New York: University Press, 1988) : 11-15. 5 Barry, 65. 6 Geoffrey C Ward, Not For Ourselves Alone. (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1999) : 65. 7 Ward, 67. 8 Dubois, 75-79. 9 Dubois, 84 10 Ward, 133. 11 Miriam Gurko, The Ladies of Seneca Falls. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc. 1974.) 12 Barry, 250 13Dubious, 216 14 Griffith, 192 15Barry, 325 16 Barry, 330 17 Barry 346 Carol Ellen Dubois, Elizabeth Cady Stanton – Susan B. Anthony. ( Northeastern University Press, 1992) : 19 . 2 Griffith, Elizabeth. In Her Own Right. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984) : 3. 3 Griffith, 5-10. 4, Kathleen Barry, Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist. ( New York: University Press, 1988) : 11-15. 5 Barry, 65.

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