August 18, 2013 is the 94th
anniversary of victory in the suffrage campaign when the 38th state –
Tennessee, ratified the 19th Amendment. Then it was certified as law of the land by
the secretary of state in Washington, D.C. on August 26, 1919.
Mary Lyon
gathered funds for her dream of a women’s learning center penny by penny in the
1830s, knowing that buildings and teachers and materials cost money. The pennies she gathered amounted to $1000. In 1836 South Hadley, Massachusetts contributed
$8,000 to guarantee the location of Mt. Holyoke Seminary in this town. (Notable American Women) Using conversion factors from the Consumer Price Index of
2005, these amounts would be over $22,000 for Lyon’s gifts and $160,000 in
today’s dollars.
Women suffrage leaders, many of whom had
supported earlier drives, continued these fund-raising practices. They knew that money was needed to win the
battle for equal franchise. They too raised
money at fairs; they also sold mementos; they received fees for public
lectures; they published newspapers and magazines. They added a new source of income when they
obtained pledges at their annual conventions.
There were no grants and endowments from philanthropic organizations
willing to support lobbying efforts for this great social issue. It seems very possible that millions of
supporters of woman suffrage contributed millions, dollar by dollar, over the 72-year
struggle. Only occasionally did large sums of money come from women and men
dedicated to the cause who also possessed large sums of money to give or
bequeath.
Susan Anthony’s parents, Lucy and
Daniel, and her siblings supported her work emotionally and also financially
through the years. Her sister, Mary, was
a school principal in Rochester, N. Y. for 25 years. She was a thrifty money manager and “with her
patrimony and salary has lain by a competence.” She was able to advance $5000
to add to $5000 given by a wealthy cousin Anson Lapham, which “bridged the last
chasm” after Susan had given her last dollar to pay for publication of the
suffrage newspaper, The Revolution. (History of Woman Suffrage, I, p.461)
This was around 1870; $10,000 would be worth more than $140,000 today.
Quite early in the drive for
suffrage, leaders recognized the need to raise money to publish their positions
and repel slander. At the 1852 National
Women’s Rights Convention at Syracuse, Elizabeth Oakes Smith (1806-1893), vice-president
from New York and member of the business committee, told the audience that “we
should have a literature of our own, a printing-press and a publishing-house,
and tract writers and distributors, as well as lecturers and conventions; and
yet I say this to a race of beggars, for women have no pecuniary
resources.” It appears no official
action was taken on this need. (HWS I, p.523) However, tracts, pamphlets,
posters and other visuals soon appeared.
At this 1852 convention Horace
Greeley spoke about the pay inequity between women and men, and called on men
to pay juster wages for housework; women should receive at least 2/3rds of the
wages paid to vigorous hired men.
Strong, capable, hard-working women, he said, are receiving $4 to $8 per
month when men are paid $10 to $20.
These wages today would be $98 to almost $200 for women and almost $250
to $500 for men.
Suffragists raised money by
charging admission to programs and sometimes asking for donations when lectures
were free. In 1854 Anthony hastily
convened the Saratoga Convention when she learned that Temperance and
Anti-Nebraska groups were meeting at the same time, providing a ready-made
group to convert to suffrage.
(Networking already!) Without a publicized
program, she called a meeting at St. Nicholas Hall. More than 600 people attended in the
afternoon session and about the same number in the evening. About $300 was taken in for admission,
[almost $7000 today]. NOTE: Brackets
will enclose the 2005 equivalent money amounts of donations and other income,
as well as expenses of the suffrage drive in succeeding paragraphs. In 1854 Anthony was not an experienced
speaker. “[H]er forte lay in planning
conventions, raising money, marshalling the forces, and smoothing the paths for
others to go forward, make the speeches, and get the glory.” (HWS I,
p.621) The convention was so successful
in terms of receipts, attendance, and the sale of woman suffrage literature
that another convention was planned for 1855.
The 1855 Convention was also
successful. One of the secretaries was Mary
L. Booth who went on to become editor of Harper’s
Bazar. (sic) Anthony had women’s
rights tracts and other papers for sale at the door. She encouraged buyers to
circulate the material among neighbors.
She also praised the employment practices of Anna E. McDowell who
published The Women’s Advocate in
Philadelphia, a magazine devoted to women’s right to work. In it she demanded equal pay for equal
service. The paper was owned, edited,
published and printed all by women. At
this convention a committee of five was appointed to hire lecturing agents and
raise funds for their compensation. (HWS I, p. 624)
At the end of this Saratoga
Convention, Charles F. Hovey took all the presenters and officers for a drive
to the lake and provided a fine meal; a good time was had by all. He felt his duty was to “throw what sunshine
and happiness he could into the lives of women . . . [to] atone for the
injustice of his sex.” He died in 1859;
his will provided for continuing this practice. (HWS I, p. 625-626) His will also endowed a $50,000 [more than
$1,000,000] trust fund to promote reforms, including women’s rights. It is not known how much of this fund aided
suffrage.
Charles Hovey and Francis Jackson, a wealthy
Boston merchant, were generous supporters of the suffrage drive. Jackson made an anonymous gift of $5,000. When Eliza Eddy, Jackson’s daughter, died,
she left a bequest of $50,000 to be divided between Susan B. Anthony and
Elizabeth Stanton. These sums would be
doubled in today’s economy.
The Jackson gift, wisely invested,
increased in value and supported several drives. The campaign in New York received $1,993.66
to pay for 60,000 tracts and several hundred dollars more to print sermons by
Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell. The
Ohio canvass of 1860 received $1,000 to pay for many pamphlets. Money and tracts were sent to the Kansas
campaign of 1867; Lucy Stone received $1,500 for the 1867 Kansas drive, and she
used another $1,000 in 1871. (HWS I,
p.743) Still the fund was not
exhausted. In 1866 Wendell Phillips
received $500 from the “Jackson Fund” which provided seed money for the
National Equal Rights Society. This
group’s focus was to strike the word “men” from the proposed 15th
Amendment.
The suffrage drive was suspended
during the Civil War, and women turned to relief work. Josephine Griffing, suffragist and
abolitionist, collected food, blankets, wood, and established industrial
schools to meet the needs of more than 30,000 former slaves, men and women, who
arrived in Washington by 1863. (HWS II,
p. 26-28) Elizabeth Stanton created the
Woman’s National Loyal League in 1863 “to educate the nation into the true idea
of a Christian Republic.” (HWS II, p.891)
This work continued after the war in the Freedman’s Bureau.
The proposed 14th and 15th
Amendments failed to include the word “women” in the description of citizens
and specifically identified “men” as having the right to vote. Great efforts were made to lobby Congress and
gain support for adding “women.” As
usual these efforts required money. Lists of contributors at the National
Woman’s Rights Convention in New York in May 1866 include Abby Hutchinson
Patton and Jessie Benton Fremont who each gave $50 [almost $600 each in today’s
economy.] In addition, Dr. Clemence Lozier contributed $20; Lucretia and James
Mott, Gerrit and Nancy Smith, their daughter Elizabeth Smith Miller (she of “bloomer
“fame), and Martha Coffin gave amounts from $5 to $10. A general collection added $46.50. (HWS II,
p. 923) [More than $2000 total of these
amounts.].
Lists of contributors at the Equal
Rights Convention in Boston two weeks later included Anna Dickinson who gave
$100 and five other families who gave a total of $100. Almost 100 contributions ranged from
thirty-five cents to five dollars which added $126. (HWS II, p.924) Donations totaled $840 and pledges $470 [more
than $20,000 total.]
The 11th National
Woman’s Rights Convention in 1866 became the American Equal Rights Association
working for Universal Suffrage. Susan
Anthony knew money was needed for lectures, tracts and petitions and she raised
$255.50 [$3000 today] for these items. In March 1867 at the American Equal
Rights Association Convention, Secretary Susan Anthony spoke of the tasks of
the overworked, dedicated few in New York who were canvassing, creating and
distributing tracts to lobby Congress.
"Money being the vital power of all movements – the wood and water
of the engine – and, as our work through the past winter has been limited only
by the want of it, there is no difficulty in reporting on finances.” Receipts were $4,096,78; expenses $4,714.11
(HWS II, p.183)
Money came from near and far to
sustain local and state drives. For the
campaign in Kansas in 1867, waged to remove words “white” and “male” from the
state constitution, the Hutchinson family of singers and other well known
suffragists including Olympia Brown, Susan Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton, spent
months in Kansas, speaking at rallies, distributing material, trying to
persuade the state legislators to accept the proposed constitution. Money was sent from friends in Massachusetts
and New York; Sarah Shaw, mother-in-law of George W. Curtis, sent $150 but
wished it could have been $1,000. Mrs.
Severance collected $50 from her friends; Martha Wright sent $30 from her
children. (HWS II, p. 240) [Almost
$3000]. Susan Anthony published 60,000 tracts to distribute in Kansas with
frank privileges from Senators Ross and Pomeroy. The Drapers of Massachusetts added $100 to
pay for tracts; the trunk full sold for $110, [almost $1,400]
Susan
Anthony knew well the power of the printed word. Her supply of material ran out and she writes
from Salina, Kansas on September 12, 1867; “. . . the Topeka people failed to
fill my telegraphic order to send package here. It is enough to exhaust the
patience of any ‘Job’ that men are so wanting in promptness. Our tracts do more than half the battle;
reading matter is so very scarce that everybody clutches at a book of any
kind. If only reformers would supply
this demand with the right and the true – come in and occupy the field at the
beginning – they might mould these new settlements….” She requested 7,000 tracts and, to fill the
box, reports of the last convention containing speeches. (HWS II, p.242)
After
failure in Kansas, Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony spoke in many cities
from Leavenworth to New York City.
George Francis Train, a dedicated supporter of equality, donated $2,500
[almost $33,000], to cover expenses including publicity. Train and David Melliss provided funds to
start Anthony’s newspaper, the Revolution.
Almost every state and territory by
1870 had its own suffrage organization and held annual conventions with
speeches and programs and resolutions directed at their legislators. Officers usually included treasurers but
records of receipts and expenses at state levels rarely appear in their
reports. The Connecticut State Suffrage Convention in 1869 lists as treasurer
John Hooker, husband of Isabelle Beecher Hooker. That year Mrs. Jewell, wife of the governor,
gave $200 [more than $2,500].
The “Woman’s Journal” began
publication in Boston in 1870, edited by Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry
Blackwell. Besides containing articles
on suffrage, news of activities and material not covered by other papers, its
pages provided a venue for inexperienced writers and advertising. To support this paper and pay other expenses,
mammoth bazars (sic) were held in 1870 and 1871. Items for sale came from many states. Besides raising funds, these fairs received
publicity in other papers and convinced more women and men to work for
suffrage. (HWS III, p. 275)
Elizabeth Stanton, Susan Anthony
and Matilda Gage were painfully aware of the need for money to win the
vote. They also recognized the
importance of recording the speeches and actions of the movement. These three collected materials, documented
the conditions of inequality faced by women through the ages, and beginning
even before the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, the efforts of American women
to gain equality under law... They began writing the History of Woman Suffrage in
1876 without a cent to cover expenses.
In 1880 a generous patron, Elizabeth Thompson, gave $1,000, [$18,000
today] but still not enough to cover expenses.
In 1882 came good news that Eliza Jackson Eddy (daughter of Francis
Jackson) had bequeathed over $40,000 to Anthony and Lucy Stone for the “Woman’s
Rights’ Cause.” The will was challenged
by Eliza’s nephew, Jerome Bacon (a millionaire himself) on the grounds that
helping suffrage was not a charity. The
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in March 1885 approved the gifts. Anthony
used her $24,125 [$464,000 today] to pay bills of publication (steel engravings alone cost $5,000) and
enabled her to give 1200 copies of the first two volumes (which came out in1881
and 1882) to libraries in this country and Europe and hundreds more to
individuals. (HWS III p.iv, 312-316 and
IV p.vii-ix.) This legacy to Anthony and Stone was the largest gift to the
suffrage drive up to that date.
The 6 volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage are filled
with speeches, resolutions and reports of actions. Also there are records of
money received and spent. The report of the 3rd annual National
Woman Suffrage Association, held in 1871 in Washington, D.C. glows with pride
on “the unusual amount of money that flowed into the treasury” with this sample
from Mrs. M. M. Cartter: “Miss Anthony,
I have this morning deposited $500 [more than $7,500] for the use of the
N.W.S.A. and I will give a check for the amount as you desire it.”(HWS II,
p.442). This represents more than $7,000
in 2002 dollars.
The Fifty-first, and last,
Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association was held in
Chicago in February 1920 with 546 delegates and
representatives from many other women’s groups. The treasurer reported
that in the last 6 years receipts totaled $443,989 [close to $7,000,000.] Balance remaining was about $35,000 [almost
$400,000]. On February 18, 1920 Carrie Catt adjourned the Victory
Convention. But before adjourning,
pledges were sought and obtained for the League of Women Voters. Lucy Anthony made the first contribution of
$1,000 in memory of her aunt.
At the
conclusion of her report, the treasurer from 1914 to 1919, Mrs. Henry Wade
Rogers, “gratefully acknowledged also the devoted service of many others, who,
unheralded and unsung, have helped to make possible this victory hour . . .”
(HWS V, p.609)
We echo her
tribute.
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