Blackwell Family Alice Stone Blackwell Miscellany Book reviews. Lucy Stone, Pioneer of Women's RightsPage Fourteen The Democratic Digest July, 1934 Views and Reviews By Ellis Meredith Lucy Stone, Pioneer Woman Suffragist by Alice Stone Blackwell. Little, Brown & Co., Publishers. This is not a new book, but it is a true book, perhaps too true at times for comfort. It is written about a great woman by a truly great woman, one of the finest, bravest daughters a fine and brave man and woman ever gave to their country, who never had any idea that she was more than the humblest of the sitters in the cheapest of the "bleachers." It is a book for young people to read, especially young people who think this is a hard world, full of discouraging relatives, who don't understand youth. And it is full of cheer for youngsters who think chivalry died with the troubadours and that romance ended with the Victorian era. The Brownings are ranked among the immortal lovers, because they wrote poetry about their emotions. Henry Brown Blackwell and Lucy Stone were lovers to the day of her death---and beyond. She was seven years his senior, not keen about the married state as she had seen it, and intent on the enfranchisement of her sex. They met in 1850 and were married five years later, and from that hour until her death in October, 1893, theirs was a perfect union, partly because the uppermost thought in mind of each was the happiness of the other, which is the best known short cut to married felicity. The next most important item is a community of interests, and Mr. Blackwell was as ardent a suffragist as his wife, and her superior in one respect; he had wit and humor and the pure spirit of fun. He made the most awful puns, and his eyes twinkled with mirth. He sang well, too, simple songs and hymns. One of my lovely memories is playing his accompaniment in the big "parlor" of the fine old Dorchester house Sunday nights. Lucy Stone said "she hoped when she got to heaven she should understand music and jokes." It was my good fortune to hear her unforgettable voice once, though the convention hall was so full one could not get in, when she spoke at the Woman's Congress of the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, and afterward, when the leaders of the Suffrage Association made it plain that they wished Colorado had not rushed in with her untimely demand for the vote in 1893, it was Lucy Stone who patted my frightened shoulders and said, "We will help you." And she did most generously. The one bitter drop in our cup of rejoicing was that she slipped away just a month before our victory. There has been much criticism of the chapter dealing with the split in the suffrage ranks immediately after the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. Probably it was a question in the author's mind, for she says those not interested in the history of the movement "should skip this chapter." But obviously they would skip the book. The lives of Lucy Stone and Henry Brown Blackwell and Alice Stone Blackwell were devoted to that cause, and they were tireless. Knowing something of what Miss Blackwell has omitted, her statement seems moderate and just. One line I wish she had left out, but for the first time the average reader will learn why the cause of suffrage lagged for a quarter of a century. When Miss Anthony discarded her bloomers she said, "One reform at a time is enough," and suffrage certainly suffered from its mixture with slavery, and the doctrines of the Woodhull sisters. The Anti-Slavery men and the Republican party were willing to deliberately disenfranchise the women by writing the word "male" into the Constitution for the first time. Perhaps a war always means a loosening of morals; certainly the views held by youth during and since the Great War suggest that this is so, for the Woodhulls appear to have been fifty years ahead of the times. It isn't a pleasant chapter, but it is part of the essential history of this movement, and since it was omitted from the authorized history the chances are that Miss Blackwell has stated the facts more fairly than any other person with contemporary knowledge would have. The book has one other shortcoming, which was inevitable. Had anyone else written it Miss Blackwell would have come in for at least a small part of the credit due her for she was a most worthy third in that truly fine and gallant family. * * * * The July Virginia Quarterly Review, without exciting malice or uncharitableness, must rouse a certain amount of envy in editorial offices. It must be a perfect joy to send out a magazine like this, so perfect from the typographical standpoint that it is an almost compelling invitation to the reader, and with a list of articles and writers so "fetching" as to complete the charm. It begins with "The Dilemma of Edmund Ruffin" who saw in 1850 the "irrepressible conflict" now upon us between the "free labor" of our hands and the enormous out-put of the machine, which must inevitably crush---or serve mankind. "The Mirror for Editors" and the "Hamilton and Jefferson Today" articles are reminders of bits of history we forget, which is at least one of the causes of our lack of understanding of life as it goes along on this small planet. In the book reviews that of Dickens' latest book is specially interesting to Dickens lovers, of whom the tribe continues reasonably large. _______________ Government Credit is Firm Despite the Administration's inflationary money policies and its huge program of spending and borrowing, the Government's credit does not suffer, as is proved by the acid test of the market for its securities. For instance, recently, the Government successfully floated $300,000,000 worth of bonds and $500,000,000 of Treasury notes to cash customers in addition to offering to exchange short-term securities maturing in June and August for more bonds of the new issue. The cash bond issue was over-subscribed eight times. The bonds run for fourteen years and carry a 3 per cent interest rate. The only issue with a comparable rate since pre-war days was made in September, 1931. These were the famous Mellon 3 per cent bonds, which now are selling at a premium. It was announced there will be no further long-term issue before September. The reason for the flotation at this time, financial authorities understand, was to take advantage of present low-money rates, to be ready for future emergency outlays, and to cut down the floating debt. At the end of May, the total public debt was more than $26,000,000,000 and the new obligations will bring it up to the maximum of August, 1919. The New York Times pointed out, however, that the lower rate of interest at which bonds now are being floated imposes a smaller burden. The annual interest charge in the fiscal year 1923 was more than $1,000,000,000, whereas in the fiscal year 1933, with the total debt about the same, it was only $689,000,000.July, 1934 THE DEMOCRATIC DIGEST Page Thirteen Our Shifting Population Between 1920 and 1930, for the first time in many years, the current of internal migration was reversed. It flowed from farm to city instead of from city to farm. The urban population grew in this decade by 14,600,000, while the farm population declined by at least 1,200,000. Population in the country but not on farms grew only 3,600,000. The rural population, which in 1900 was 60 per cent of the total, fell to 44 per cent of the total in 1930. The principal growth of population occurred in the industrial states of Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina and New York. People became more concentrated in cities. In 1930, 17 per cent of the people lived in cities of over 500,000 and 12.6 per cent in cities between 100,000 and 500,000. Thus nearly one-third of the population dwelt in the big cities. Almost 18 per cent more lived in cities of 10,000 to 100,000, writes George Soule in "The Coming American Revolution." Many of these smaller municipalities are in metropolitan areas, or are "satellite cities" of larger centers of population. Population increased twice as rapidly in the small satellite cities as in cities of equal size in rural areas. Even the rural population in the neighborhood of large cities increased 57 per cent, as compared with a growth of only 6 per cent in the rural population elsewhere. We hear a great deal today of the "decentralization" of city population. But this spreading of people means merely that they are spreading from the more congested areas of big cities to other parts of the metropolitan region. Near cities of over 250,000, the satellites grew more rapidly than the planetary city itself, in the last decade. * * * In so far as we still have a frontier, it consists in any advancement of opportunity which may be offered by metropolitan regions to those dwelling in the backwoods. But this opportunity is of a different character from the old one. You do not rumble down Broadway or Main Street in a covered wagon, stake out a claim and build yourself a house of logs or sod. You become a wage-earner in an automobile factory or a textile mill, or a clerk in a store or wholesale house. THE HALLS OF CONGRESS The Capitol looks as every American expects it to look. It has attained Thomas Jefferson's ideal for the seat of legislation and is "simple, noble, and beautiful." Situated on what generations have called "the Hill," the stately building dominates the city. Perhaps George Washington, who suggested the site, meant thus to emphasize the importance of Congress. In size it is appalling. It covers three and a half acres. One can walk for miles in its corridors. Generally of Corinthian architecture, the structure is built of the freestone of the period, and is ornamented with pillars, arcades and balustrades, harmoniously placed. The entrances are within imposing Greek porticoes. From the center the dome rises superbly; as well it might since the Statue of Freedom, on its top, wears a war bonnet and carries a sword. The western entrance lies beyond pleasant walks and roads mounting through a garden of which the elm planted by General Washington is still the cherished ornament. The external personality of the Capitol is peaceful and belies the debates and contention that resound in the chambers of the Senate and House of Representatives. Nor is there a hint in the perfection of the whole vast structure of the difficulties of its architects in the early years when Washington was called "the city of magnificent intentions." George Washington laid the corner stone in 1793. The plans of Dr. William H. Thornton, rewarded by $500 borrowed by the impecunious government, were firmly adhered to, although succeeding architects, Hallett, Bullfinch, Latrobe, Hoban and Walter often threatened changes. Even after the burning by the British in 1814, the design was undisturbed in the remodeling. Daniel Webster laid the corner stones of the Senate and House wings. Though small alterations are still frequently made in the building, it was practically finished during the civil war. The squat wooden dome was then replaced by the great iron one and the completed Capitol became at timely emblem of the unity of the Nation. -- From "The Washington Sketch Book." CAPITOL OF THE UNITED STATES One Can Spoil It Disarmament is like turning the other cheek. Nice people can't do it so long as one hard guy refuses to play that way. -- From the San Francisco Chronicle. Or Look if Gun is Loaded Ah, well; if they didn't try to pass a truck on a curve, they might live to pour kerosene on a fire. -- Akron Beacon - Journal Review of Lucy Stone - Pioneer of Woman's Rights by Alice Stone Blackwell by Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, New England Quarterly - April 1931 The chief of new light on the woman's rights movement is shed by Miss Blackwell's circumstantial account of the split that occurred within the ranks shortly after the Civil War. The whole episode is glossed over by the monumental History of Woman Suffrage edited by Susan B. Anthony, and others and also by Ida Husted Harper in her authorized three-volume biography of Miss Anthony. The facts reflect great credit on Lucy Stone and her followers and show Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, at this stage of their career, as the nucleus of the lunatic fringe. One of their male allies, George Francis Train, seemed, even to William Lloyd Garrison a "crack-brained harlequin and semi-lunatic". (p. 211) The author, who evidently inherits many of her mother's qualities, writes with quiet self-restraint. She is content, for the most part, to allow the facts to speak for themselves. The volume is a valuable addition to the biographical literature of American social history. Review in The Suffragist, by Ruby A. Black (Official organ of the Natl. Woman's party) Lucy (Stone) was perhaps more normally human than any of the other Equal Rights pioneers with the possible exception of Lucretia Mott, she, more intensely than any of the others, lived in a fullpersonal life in spite of laws and customs and all the opposition of family and tradition. Lucy Stone campaigned in the West for woman suffrage and so did her husband. She got elected a delegate to a State Republical Convention in Massachusetts. She got the Massachusetts Republicans to endorse suffrage. She and her husband tried to get national conventions to do so. … She converted other leaders - and perhaps she made no greater contribution besides that of her own example. By Ottilie Lou Kepner, in the Legislative Counsellor The conditions of the lives of the American women and girls at the beginning of the 19th Century were unfavorable and unjust. The high schools and universities were closed to young women. There was one single large private school giving her an interesting and complete education. The general sentiment was that a woman knew enough when she was capable of reading and writing and keeping the accounts of the family from day to day. About speaking in public there could be no question and even the woman who wrote for publication was an outrage to her sex. Such was the world in 1818 when Lucy Stone was born but when she died in 1893 the picture was a changed one. - - - The letters and documents in the Suffrage Archives collection tell the story of all the years of struggle of the women who worked with Lucy Stone and others from the time she went to Oberlin in 1845, through the work for abolition of the slaves and to the passage and ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.Lucy Stone - Pioneer of Woman's Rights by Alice Stone Blackwell Review by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt Woman Citizen, October 1930 The story of the life of Lucy Stone who died [x] 37 years ago, has been anxiously awaited these many years. Now it appears, containing material found in no other record and wholesomely written in the well-known engaging style of Lucy Stone's daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell. No suffragist can afford to imagine that she knows suffrage history in this country until she reads this book. [Suffrage Archives Collection] Comment by Mrs. Catt The Blackwell papers are for three reasons an imperative factor towards the completion of suffrage history: (1) Lucy Stone was a great leader and her services merit an outstanding place in woman suffrage history. (2) Her experiences did not duplicate nor overlap the activities of other pioneers. (3) When, after a long period of disconnected endeavors, suffragists finally effected two national organizations - the National under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony - Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry B. Blackwell became the leaders of the other, the American Woman Suffrage Association. The first three volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage - the chief reference on woman suffrage, are supposed to have been prepared under the personal direction of Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony. Therein the story of the National organization is given chief place and the absence of comment upon the American organization and its work is notable, therefore the published records left a gap which now the Blackwell papers ably fill. Probably the most crucial period in American history was the twenty years after the Civil War, when policies and hostilities concerning reconstruction kept the nation on the verge of further war. It was within those twenty years that Lucy Stone and her fellow pioneers did their greatest work. … The great outcome of those twenty years was a wide revolution of public opinion and an unswerving determination in the souls of hundreds of women to live and to die for their great cause. This spirit that carried on was created by the increasing hard work of Lucy Stone and Mr. Blackwell on one side, and Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony on the other. What they did to effect this astounding change in American life is the real suffrage history of those twenty years, not the curious behavior of chance droppers in which sometimes perturbed the judgment of leaders. Despite this defect, with which others may not concur, I regard this biography as a great book and I am grateful to Miss Blackwell for having written it. Lucy Stone - Pioneer of Woman's Rights by Alice Stone Blackwell Review by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt Woman Citizen, October 1930 The story of the life of Lucy Stone who died [x] 37 years ago, has been anxiously awaited these many years. Now it appears, containing material found in no other record and wholesomely written in the well-known engaging style of Lucy Stone's daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell. No suffragist can afford to imagine that she knows suffrage history in this country until she reads this book. [Suffrage Archives Collection] [Comment by Mrs. Catt] The Blackwell papers are for three reasons an imperative factor towards the completion of suffrage history: (1) Lucy Stone was a great leader and her services merit an outstanding place in woman suffrage history. (2) Her experiences did not duplicate nor overlap the activities of other pioneers. (3) When, after a long period of disconnected endeavors, suffragists finally effected two national organizations - the National under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony - Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry B. Blackwell became the leaders of the other, the American Woman Suffrage Association. The first three volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage - the chief reference on woman suffrage, are supposed to have been prepared under the personal direction of Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony. Therein the story of the National organization is given chief place and the absence of comment upon the American organization and its work is notable, therefore the published records left a gap which now the Blackwell papers ably fill. Probably the most crucial period in American history was the twenty years after the Civil War, when policies and hostilities concerning reconstruction kept the nation on the verge of further war. It was within those twenty years that Lucy Stone and her fellow pioneers did their greatest work. … The great outcome of those twenty years was a wide revolution of public opinion and an unswerving determination in the souls of hundreds of women to live and to die for their great cause. This spirit that carried on was created by the increasing hard work of Lucy Stone and Mr. Blackwell on one side, and Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony on the other. What they did to effect this astounding change in American life is the real suffrage history of those twenty years, not the curious behavior of chance droppers in which sometimes perturbed the judgment of leaders. Despite this defect, with which others may not concur, I regard this biography as a great book and I am grateful to Miss Blackwell for having written it.Comments on Lucy Stone H. L. Mencken, 1930, December American Mercury (Review of Lucy Stone - Pioneer) (Lucy Stone) - She had a hand in every reform that engaged the country between 1835 and 1890 and of most of them she was a leader - always on the go. … "and incidentally throws some new light upon the History of the Woman Suffrage movement in the United States. As everyone knows, it split into two halves in 1869 and for some time thereafter it was represented by two distinct national associations and published two national organs … It is marvellous to observe the success of all the reforms that Lucy Stone advocated. … Lucy Stone was a flaming soul who, from childhood to the grave never lost her zeal for causes which she held to be just. Even in death she was a pioneer, for in accordance with her instructions, her body was cremated - the first cremation to take place in New England. * * * * Prof. James Geddes of Boston University. While slavery and woman's rights were two of the reform questions most agitated, there was hardly any question of the many that came up during the 19th century with which in some way or other Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell were not identified, - witness their effort to aid the Armenians, their alliance with the Friends of the Russian Freedom, their protest in the interest of the Jews against the Russian pogroms, their lectures in behalf of temperance, efforts in behalf of the suffrage movement and equal rights for all. … Indeed this biography comes little short of being an encyclopedia of reform movements of the 19th century, for the principle reforms and reformers are clearly described and the impression enduring. * * * *For Mr. Wilson - Hayward Haycraft The letters and documents in the Suffrage Archives collection tell the story of all the years of struggle of the women who worked with Lucy Stone and others from the time she went to Oberlin in 1845 through the work for abolition of the slaves and to the passage of and ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Review of Lucy Stone - Pioneer of Woman's Rights by Alice Stone Blackwell by Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, New England Quarterly - April 1931 The chief new light on the woman's rights movement is shed by Miss Blackwell's circumstantial account of the split that occurred within the ranks shortly after the Civil War. The whole episode is glossed over by the monumental History of WomanSuffrage edited by Susan B. Anthony, and others and also by Ida Husted Harper in her authorized three-volume biography of Miss Anthony. The facts reflect great credit on Lucy Stone and her followers and show Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, at this stage of their career, as the nucleus of the lunatic fringe. One of their male allies, George Francis Train, seemed, even to William Lloyd Garrison a "crack-brained harlequin and semi-lunatic". (p. 211) The author, who evidently inherits many of her mother's qualities, writes with quiet self-restraint. She is content, for the most part, to allow the facts to speak for themselves. The volume is a valuable addition to the biographical literature of American social history. Review in The Suffragist, by Ruby A.Black (Official origin of the Natl. Woman's party) Lucy "(Stone) was perhaps more normally human than any of the other Equal Rights pioneers with the possible exception of Lucretia Mott, ... she, more intensely than any of the others, lived a fullpersonal life in spite of laws and customs and all the opposition of family and tradition. Lucy Stone campaigned in the West for women suffrage, and so did her husband. She got elected a delegate to a State Republical Convention in Massachusetts. She got the Massachusetts Republicans to endorse suffrage. She and her husband tried to get national conventions to do so. ... She converted other leaders - and perhaps she made no greater contribution b esides that of her own example. By Ottilie Lou Kepner, in the Legislative Counsellor The conditions of the lives of the American women and girls at the beginning of the 19th Century were unfavorable and unjust. The high schools and universities were closed to young women. There was one single large private school giving her an interesting and complete education. The general sentiment was that a woman knew enough when she was capable of reading and writing and keeping accounts of the family from day to day. About speaking in public there could be no question and even the woman who wrote for publication was an outrage to her sex. Such was the world in 1818 when Lucy Stone was born but when she died in 1893 the picture was a changed one. - - - The letters and documents in the Suffrage Archives collection tell the story of all the years of struggle of the women who worked with Lucy Stone and others from the time she went to Oberlin in 1845, through the work for abolition of the slaves and to the passage and ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.Biography of Lucy Stone, by her daughter Alice Stone Blackwell Published by Price This story of the of the life of Lucy Stone, who died thirty-seven years ago, has been anxiously awaited these many years.The book contains material found in no other record and is wholesomely written in the well known engaging style of Miss Blackwell. No suffragist can afford to imagine that she knows suffrage history in this country until she reads this book. From cover to cover she will sit spellbound over it and will never regret the money or time expended in its purchase and perusal. Thirty-seven years has been a long time to wait, but waiting has been worth while. This biography for three reasons is an imperative factor toward the completion of suffrage history. (1) Lucy Stone was a great leader and services and merit an outstanding place in woman suffrage history. (2) Her experiences did not duplicate nor overlap the activities of other pioneers. (3) When after a long period of disconnected endeavors suffragists finally effected two national organizations, the National under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone and her husband Mr. Blackwell became the leaders of the other, the American Woman Suffrage Association. The first three volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, the chief reference on woman suffrage, are supposed to have been prepared under the personal direction of Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony. Therein the story of the National organization is given chief place and absence of comment upon the American organization and its work is notable: therefore, the published records left a gap which now Miss Blackwell has ably filled. Probably the most crucial period in American history was the twenty years after the Civil War when policies and hostilities concerning reconstruction kept the nation on the verge of the further war.-2- It was within those twenty years that Lucy Stone and her fellow pioneers did their greatest work. Referring to the relations of the leaders and their organization to each other at the beginning of this period, Miss Blackwell opens Chapter 15 with the sentences: "The facts hitherto have been largely suppressed. Now they can be told." These sentences kept me away one entire night. What has been suppressed, I asked myself. My conclusion, after reflection, was this: "If any facts have been suppressed, it was because the leaders believed the suppression good for the cause to which they were all unquestionably loyally devoted. It is a grave question whether the awakening of sleeping dogs now renders suffrage history more complete or reliable and especially whether facts can now be distinguished from gossip." The "lunatic fringe" which Theodore Roosevelt once said every reform had was never lacking in the suffrage movement. Queer folk dropped into suffrage circles unceremoniously from time to time and no one knew from when they came nor wither they were going, but when they were very queer, they never staid long. Eventually the door was opened and they were shown the way out. Among these brief callers came Victoria Woodhull, George Francis Train, the Beecher-Tilton scandal, and other plagues. It is doubtful if any made history and none seem to be worthy the space given them by Miss Blackwell while the greatest fact of those twenty years is [*lightly] emphasized. In other words, non-essentials and essentials appear to have been confused. The greatest outcome of those twenty years was a wide revolution of public opinion and an unswerving determination in the souls of hundreds of women to live and to die for their great cause. This -3- spirit that carried on was created by the unceasing hard work of Lucy Stone and Mr. Blackwell on one side, and Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony on the other. What did they do to effect this astounding change in American life is the real suffrage history of those twenty years, not the curious behavior of chance droppers-in which sometimes perturbed the judgment of leaders. Despite this defect, with which other may not concur, I regard this biography as a great book and I am grateful to Miss Blackwell for having written it.