Eighty Years and More; Reminiscences 1815-1897
lively episodes, vol. III. went steadily on.
My suffrage sons and daughters through all the Northern and Western
States decided to celebrate, on the 12th of November, 1885, my
seventieth birthday, by holding meetings or sending me gifts and
congratulations. This honor was suggested by Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton
Harbert in _The New Era_, a paper she was editing at that time. The
suggestion met with a ready response. I was invited to deliver an essay
on "The Pleasures of Age," before the suffrage association in New York
city. It took me a week to think them up, but with the inspiration of
Longfellow's "Morituri Salutamus," I was almost converted to the idea
that "we old folks" had the best of it.
The day was ushered in with telegrams, letters, and express packages,
which continued to arrive during the week. From England, France, and
Germany came cablegrams, presents, and letters of congratulation, and
from all quarters came books, pictures, silver, bronzes, California
blankets, and baskets of fruits and flowers. The eulogies in prose and
verse were so hearty and numerous that the ridicule and criticism of
forty years were buried so deep that I shall remember them no more.
There is no class who enjoy the praise of their fellow-men like those
who have had only blame most of their lives. The evening of the 12th we
had a delightful reunion at the home of Dr. Clemence Lozier, where I
gave my essay, after which Mrs. Lozier, Mrs. Blake, Miss Anthony, "Jenny
June," and some of the younger converts to our platform, all made short
speeches of praise and congratulation, which were followed by music,
recitations, and refreshments.
All during the autumn Miss Anthony and I looked forward to the spring,
when we hoped to have completed the third and last volume of our
History, and thus end the labors of ten years. We had neither time nor
eyesight to read aught but the imperative documents for the History. I
was hungering for some other mental pabulum.
In January, 1886, I was invited to dine with Laura Curtis Bullard, to
meet Mme. Durand (Henri Gréville), the novelist. She seemed a politic
rather than an earnest woman of principle. As it was often very
inconvenient for me to entertain distinguished visitors, who desired to
meet me in my country home during the winter, Mrs. Bullard generously
offered always to invite them to her home. She and her good mother have
done their part in the reform movements in New York by their generous
hospitalities.
Reading the debates in Congress, at that time, on a proposed
appropriation for a monument to General Grant, I was glad to see that
Senator Plumb of Kansas was brave enough to express his opinion against
it. I fully agree with him. So long as multitudes of our people who are
doing the work of the world live in garrets and cellars, in ignorance,
poverty, and vice, it is the duty of Congress to apply the surplus in
the national treasury to objects which will feed, clothe, shelter, and
educate these wards of the State. If we must keep on continually
building monuments to great men, they should be handsome blocks of
comfortable homes for the poor, such as Peabody built in London. Senator
Hoar of Massachusetts favored the Grant monument, partly to cultivate
the artistic tastes of our people. We might as well cultivate our tastes
on useful dwellings as on useless monuments. Surely sanitary homes and
schoolhouses for the living would be more appropriate monuments to wise
statesmen than the purest Parian shafts among the sepulchers of the
dead.
The strikes and mobs and settled discontent of the masses warn us that,
although we forget and neglect their interests and our duties, we do it
at the peril of all. English statesmen are at their wits' end to-day
with their tangled social and industrial problems, threatening the
throne of a long line of kings. The impending danger cannot be averted
by any surface measures; there must be a radical change in the relations
of capital and labor.
In April rumors of a domestic invasion, wafted on every Atlantic breeze,
warned us that our children were coming from England and France--a party
of six. Fortunately, the last line of the History was written, so Miss
Anthony, with vol. III. and bushels of manuscripts, fled to the peaceful
home of her sister Mary at Rochester. The expected party sailed from
Liverpool the 26th of May, on the _America_ After being out three days
the piston rod broke and they were obliged to return. My son-in-law,
W.H. Blatch, was so seasick and disgusted that he remained in England,
and took a fresh start two months later, and had a swift passage without
any accidents. The rest were transferred to the _Germanic_, and reached
New York the 12th of June. Different divisions of the party were
arriving until midnight. Five people and twenty pieces of baggage! The
confusion of such an invasion quite upset the even tenor of our days,
and it took some time for people and trunks to find their respective
niches. However crowded elsewhere, there was plenty of room in our
hearts, and we were unspeakably happy to have our flock all around us
once more.
I had long heard so many conflicting opinions about the Bible--some
saying it taught woman's emancipation and some her subjection--that,
during this visit of my children, the thought came to me that it Would
be well to collect every biblical reference to women in one small
compact volume, and see on which side the balance of influence really
was. To this end I proposed to organize a committee of competent women,
with some Latin, Greek, and Hebrew scholars in England and the United
States, for a thorough revision of the Old and New Testaments, and to
ascertain what the status of woman really was under the Jewish and
Christian religion. As the Church has thus far interpreted the Bible as
teaching woman's subjection, and none of the revisions by learned
ecclesiastics have thrown any new light on the question, it seemed to me
pre-eminently proper and timely for women themselves to review the book.
As they are now studying theology in many institutions of learning,
asking to be ordained as preachers, elders, deacons, and to be admitted,
as delegates, to Synods and General Assemblies, and are refused on Bible
grounds, it seemed to me high time for women to consider those
scriptural arguments and authorities.
A happy coincidence enabled me at last to begin this work. While my
daughter, Mrs. Stanton Blatch, was with me, our friend Miss Frances
Lord, on our earnest invitation, came to America to visit us. She landed
in New York the 4th of August, 1886. As it was Sunday she could not
telegraph, hence there was no one to meet her, and, as we all sat
chatting on the front piazza, suddenly, to our surprise and delight, she
drove up. After a few days' rest and general talk of passing events, I
laid the subject so near my heart before her and my daughter. They
responded promptly and heartily, and we immediately set to work. I wrote
to every woman who I thought might join such a committee, and Miss Lord
ran through the Bible in a few days, marking each chapter that in any
way referred to women. We found that the work would not be so great as
we imagined, as all the facts and teachings in regard to women occupied
less than one-tenth of the whole Scriptures. We purchased some cheap
Bibles, cut out the texts, pasted them at the head of the page, and,
underneath, wrote our commentaries as clearly and concisely as possible.
We did not intend to have sermons or essays, but brief comments, to keep
"The Woman's Bible" as small as possible.
Miss Lord and I worked several weeks together, and Mrs. Blatch and I,
during the winter of 1887, wrote all our commentaries on the Pentateuch.
But we could not succeed in forming the committee, nor, after writing
innumerable letters, make the women understand what we wanted to do. I
still have the commentaries of the few who responded, and the letters of
those who declined--a most varied and amusing bundle of manuscripts in
themselves. Some said the Bible had no special authority with them;
that, like the American Constitution, it could be interpreted to mean
anything--slavery, when we protected that "Institution," and freedom,
when it existed no longer. Others said that woman's sphere was clearly
marked out in the Scriptures, and all attempt at emancipation was flying
in the face of Providence. Others said they considered all the revisions
made by men thus far, had been so many acts of sacrilege, and they did
hope women would not add their influence, to weaken the faith of the
people in the divine origin of the Holy Book, for, if men and women
could change it in one particular, they could in all. On the whole the
correspondence was discouraging.
Later Miss Lord became deeply interested in psychical researches, and I
could get no more work out of her. And as soon as we had finished the
Pentateuch, Mrs. Blatch declared she would go no farther; that it was
the driest history she had ever read, and most derogatory to women. My
beloved coadjutor, Susan B. Anthony, said that she thought it a work of
supererogation; that when our political equality was recognized and we
became full-fledged American citizens, the Church would make haste to
bring her Bibles and prayer books, creeds and discipline up to the same
high-water mark of liberty.
Helen Gardener said: "I consider this a most important proposal, and if
you and I can ever stay on the same side of the Atlantic long enough, we
will join hands and do the work. In fact, I have begun already with
Paul's Epistles, and am fascinated with the work. The untenable and
unscientific positions he takes in regard to women are very amusing.
Although the first chapter of Genesis teaches the simultaneous creation
of man and woman, Paul bases woman's subjection on the priority of man,
and because woman was of the man. As the historical fact is that, as far
back as history dates, the man has been of the woman, should he
therefore be forever in bondage to her? Logically, according to Paul, he
should."
I consulted several friends, such as Dr. William F. Channing, Mr. and
Mrs. Moncure D. Conway, Gertrude Garrison, Frederick Cabot, and Edward
M. Davis, as to the advisability of the work, and they all agreed that
such a volume, showing woman's position under the Jewish and Christian
religions, would be valuable, but none of them had time to assist in the
project. Though, owing to all these discouragements, I discontinued my
work, I never gave up the hope of renewing it some time, when other of
my coadjutors should awake to its importance and offer their services.
On October 27, 1886, with my daughter, nurse, and grandchild, I again
sailed for England. Going out of the harbor in the clear early morning,
we had a fine view of Bartholdi's statue of Liberty Enlightening the
World. We had a warm, gentle rain and a smooth sea most of the way, and,
as we had a stateroom on deck, we could have the portholes open, and
thus get all the air we desired. With novels and letters, chess and
whist the time passed pleasantly, and, on the ninth day, we landed in
Liverpool.
CHAPTER XXIV.
ENGLAND AND FRANCE REVISITED.
On arriving at Basingstoke we found awaiting us cordial letters of
welcome from Miss Biggs, Miss Priestman, Mrs. Peter Taylor, Mrs.
Priscilla McLaren, Miss Müller, Mrs. Jacob Bright, and Mme. de Barrau.
During the winter Mrs. Margaret Bright Lucas, Drs. Kate and Julia
Mitchell, Mrs. Charles McLaren, Mrs. Saville, and Miss Balgarnie each
spent a day or two with us. The full-dress costume of the ladies was a
great surprise to my little granddaughter Nora. She had never seen bare
shoulders in a drawing room, and at the first glance she could not
believe her eyes. She slowly made the circuit of the room, coming nearer