Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Speeches & Writings File Reminiscences Chapters 41-44 Reminicious by Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chapter (XII) 39 The closing years of the 47th Congress With protracted Lyceum trips and a three day convention every winter in Washington my life was a very busy one especially if we add to this all my domestic anxieties, though I had an invaluable housekeeper able to keep all things in good running order yet I made frequent flying visits to my own hearthstone as well as Vassar College which my two daughters had 2 just entered and to Cornell University where I had two sons. With four children in college it behooved both father and mother to make the most of their time and talents. As we had no fortune to bequeath we were alike ambitious to give our children the best possible education. The leisure months in the summer Miss Anthony, Mrs. Gantz, and I devoted for the best part of ten years to the History of Women Suffrage. In addition to this, we prepared reports every two years, of our annual Washington conventions our hearings before committees 3 and the debates in Congress on our questions. At the close of the 47th Congress we made two new demands. 1st For a special committee to consider all questions in regard to the civil and political rights of women. We naturally asked the question as Congress has a special Committee on the rights of Indians, why not on women. Are not women as a factor in civilization of more importance than Indians? 3 1/2 Then we asked for a room in the Capitol where we could meet our committee, undisturbed whenever they saw fit. Though these permits were debated a long time, yet our demands were answered at last. We have an special committee and our room with "Women Suffrage" in gilt letters over the door. In our struggle to achieve this while our champion the Senator 4 of Massachusetts stood up bravely in the discussion, the opposition not only rekindled the special demand but all attempts to secure the civil and political rights of women As a fair specimen of the arguments of the opposition I give you readers what the Senator from Missouri said, which is a fair specimen of all that was produced on that side of the debate. Mr. Vests poetical flights are most inspiring. Facitious Proposal of Mr. Vest. 203 [ished his remarks, or the Chair would not have stopped him at that moment. The question is on agreeing to the resolution, on which the senator from Missouri [Mr. Vest] is entitled to the floor. Mr. VEST: Mr. President, I was on the eve of finishing my remarks yesterday when the morning hour expired, and I do not now wish to detain the Senate. I was about to say at that time that the Senate now has forty-one committees,] with a small army of messengers and clerks, one-half of whom, without exaggeration, are literally without employment. I shall not pretend to specify the committees of this body which have not [one single bill, resolution, or proposition of any sort pending before them,] and have not had for months. [I am very well aware that if I should name one of them, Liberty would lie bleeding in the streets at once, and that committee would become the most important on the list of committees of the Senate. I shall not venture to do that. I am informed by the Sergeant-at-arms that if this resolution is adopted he must have six additional messengers to be added to that body of ornamental employes who now stand or sit at the doors of the respective committee-rooms. I have heard that this committee is for the purpose of giving a committee to a senator in this body. I have heard the statement made, but I cannot believe it, and I am very certain that no senator will undertake to champion the resolution upon any such grounds. The senator from Massachusetts was pleased to say that the Committee on the Judiciary had so many important questions pending before it, that the subject of woman suffrage should not be added to them. The Committee on Territories is open to any complaint or suggestion by the ladies who advocate woman suffrage, in regard to this subject in the territories; and the Committee on Privileges and Elections to which this subject should go most appropriately, as affecting the suffrage, has not now before it, as I am informed, one single bill, resolution, or proposition of any sort whatever. That committee is also open to inquiry upon this subject. But, Mr. President, out of all committees without business, and habitually without business, in this body, there is one that beyond any question could take jurisdiction of this matter and do it ample justice. I refer to that most respectable and antique institution, the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. For thirty years it has been without business. For thirty long years the placid surface of that parliamentary sea has been without one single ripple. If the senator from Massachusetts desires a tribunal [for calm judicial equilibrium and examination, a tribunal] far from the "madding crowd's ignoble strife," a tribunal eminently respectable, dignified and unique, why not send this question to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims? When I name the personnel of that committee it will be evident that any consideration on any subject touching the female sex would receive not only deliberate but immediate attention, for the second member upon that committee is my distinguished friend from Florida [Mr. Jones], and who can doubt that he would give his undivided attention to the subject? [Laughter.] It is eminently proper that this subject should go to that committee because if there is any revolutionary claim in this country it is that of woman suffrage. [Laughter.] it revo- [204 History of Woman Suffrage.] lutionizes society; it revolutionizes religion; it revolutionizes the constitution and laws; and it revolutionizes the opinions of those so old-fashioned among us as to believe that the legitimate and proper sphere of woman is the family circle as wife and mother and not as politician and voter--those of us who are proud to believe that-- A woman's noblest station is retreat; Her fairest virtues fly from public sight; Domestic worth--that shuns too strong a light. Before that Committee on Revolutionary Claims why could not this most revolutionary of all claims receive immediate and ample attention? More than that, as I said before, if there is any tribunal that could give undivided time and dignified attention, is it not this committee? If there is one peaceful haven of rest, never disturbed by any profane bill or resolution of any sort, it is the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. It is, in parliamentary life, described by that ecstatic verse in Watts' hymn: There shall I bathe my wearied soul In seas of endless rest, And not one wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful breast. For thirty years there has been no excitement in that committee, and it needs to-day, in Western phrase, some "stirring-up." By all natural laws stagnation breeds disease and death; and what could stir up this most venerable and respectable institution more that an application of the strong-minded, with short hair and shorter skirts, invading its dignified realm and elucidating all the excellences of female suffrage? Moreover, if these ladies could ever succeed, in the providence of God, in obtaining a report from that committee, it would end this question forever; for the public at large and myself included, in view of that miracle of female blandishment and female influence, would surrender at once, and female suffrage would become constitutional and lawful. Sir, I insist upon it that in deference to this committee, in deference to the fact that it needs this sort of regimen and medicine, this whole subject should be so referred. [Laughter.] Mr. MORRILL: Mr. President, I do not desire to say anything as to the merits of the resolution, but I understand the sole purpose of raising this committee is to have a committee-room. So far as I know, there are some five or six committees now which are destitute of rooms, and it would be impossible for the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds to assign any room to this committee--the object which I understand is at the foundation of the introduction of the proposition; that is to say, to give these ladies an opportunity to be heard in some appropriate committee-rooms on the questions which they wish to agitate and submit. [Mr. HOAR: They would find room in some other committee-room. They could have the room of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, if there were no other place. The PRESIDENT pro tempore: The question is on the adoption of the resolution reported by the senator from Massachusetts.] 7 This gives a very fair idea of the character of the arguments produced by our opponents from the inauguration of the movement. But as there are no arguments in a republican government, in favor of an aristocracy of sex, ridicule was really the only available weapon. After declaring, "That no just government can be formed without the consent of the 8 governed," "that taxation without representation is tyranny," it is difficult to see on what basis one half the people are disfranchised. It is gratifying to know that Senator Vest in his next reincarnation, will return to earth in the form of woman, & when in turn he comes to the Capitol to plead for his enfranchisement, 9 Miss Phebe Couzins may be the senator from Missouri, "to mock at his calamities & laugh when his fear cometh." Reminiscences by Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chapter XLII New England Conventions In the spring of 1881 we decided to hold a series of conventions through the New England States. We began during [in] the Anniversary week in Boston, & had several crowded enthusiastic meetings in [Fremont] Tremont Temple. In addition to our woman suffrage meeting, I spoke before the "Free Religions," "Moral education" & Heredity associations. All our speakers stayed at the Parker House 2 & we had a very pleasant time visiting together in our leisure hours.x We were received by Gov Long at the State House. He made a short speech in favor of woman suffrage in reply to Mrs Hooker. We also called on the Mayor at the City Hall went through Jordan & Marshe's great mercantile establishment where the clerks are chiefly young girls, who are well fed & housed, and have pleasant rooms with a good library where they can sit & read in the evening. ------------------------------- Mrs Isabella Beecher Hooker; Matilda Joslyn Gage Olympia Brown Willis, Rachel Foster, Mrs Harriet Robenson, Mrs Shattuck May Wright Sewall , [Mrs] Elizabeth Lyle Saxon Mrs Merriwether 3 We went all through the Sherborn Reformatory Prison for women, managed entirely by women. We found it clean and comfortable, more like a pleasant home than a place of punishment. Mrs Robinson, Miss Anthony, & myself were invited to dine with the Bird Club. No ladies (except myself) had ever had that honor before. I dined with them in 1870 escorted by "Warrington" of "The Springfield" Republican" and Edwin Norton. There I met Frank Sanborn for the first time. Frank Bird held about the same place in Massachussetts politics that Thurlow Weed did in New 4 York for forty years. In the evening we had a crowded reception at Mrs Fenno Tudor's, a fine old residence facing the Common, where we met a large gathering of Boston reformers. On Decoration Day, May 30th, we went to Providence where we had a very successful convention. Senator Anthony and Ex-Gov Sprague were in the audience and expressed great pleasure afterwards in all they had heard. I preached to Mr Hinckley's congregation the previous Sunday afternoon. Had many pleasant talks with Dr. Channing during this visit & with Mr Cabot in Boston, on social questions. 5 From Providence I hurried home, to meet Theodore & his bride who had just landed from France. We decorated the house & grounds with Chinese lanterns and our national flag for their reception. As we had not time to send to New York for bunting our flag, French and American were all made, of bright red and blue cambric. The effect was fine as they arrived, but unfortunately there came up a heavy thunder storm in the night, & drenched our beautiful flags into cloudy colorless rags without character or stiffness. My little 6 maid announced to me early in the morning "that the French & Americans had had a great battle during the night, that the piazza was covered with blood." This was startling news to one just awaking from sound sleep. "Why Emma" said I, "what do you mean?" Why said she the rain has washed all the color out of our flags & the piazza is covered with red and blue streams of water. As the morning sun appeared in all its glory, charming the dark clouds away, our decorations did indeed look pale and limp, and were promptly removed. 7 I find in my Diary the following notice of my new daughter, "I was happily surprised with my tall stately daughter Marguerite Berry. A fine looking girl of twenty straight, strong, & sound, modest & pleasing with nothing of what we should call French airs and graces. She can walk miles, sketches from nature with great skill and rapidity. She can catch a pony in pasture, saddle him and ride like the wind, she can milk a cow, cook a dinner, read write and speak three languages. I had always said to my sons, "when you marry do choose a woman with 8 a spine and sound teeth” remember the teeth show the condition of the bones in the rest of the body." So when Theodore introduced his wife to me he said "You see I have followed your advice. Her spine is as straight as a ramrod, and every tooth in her head as sound as a nut." This reminds me of a young man who used to put my stoves for the winter. He told me one day he thought of getting married. Well said I "above all things, get a wife [she] with a spine and sound teeth" 9. Stove pipe in hand he turned to me with a look of surprize and said "do they ever come without spines?” “Oh! no;” said I, “not exactly, but with very weak & crooked ones. & it is a great calamity to be tied to a woman who is always ill; there is nothing worse unless it is a feeble flimsy husband” July 1st 1881 Sitting under the trees Susan & I have been reading & discussing Wendell Phillips magnificent speech before the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa society. They had often talked of inviting him, but they were afraid of his radical utterances. 10. At last, hoping that years might have modified his opinions, & somewhat softened his speech, they vetured to invite him. The elite of Boston, the Presidents & college Professors from far & near were there. A great audience of the wise, the learned, the distinguished in state & church assembled. Such a conservative audience it was supposed would surely hold this radical in check. Alas! They were all doomed for once to hear the naked truth, on every vital question, before the people for consideration thinking this might be his only opportunity, to rouse, some thought 11 in conservative minds, he struck the key note in the whole circle of reforms, defended labor strikes, the Nihilists of Russia, prohibition, woman suffrage & demanded reformation in our prisons, courts of justice and halls of legislation. On the woman question he said "Social science affirms that woman's place in society marks the level of civilization From its twilight in Greece, through the Galatian worship of the virgin -- the dreams of chivalry -- the justice of the civil laws & the equality of French society, we trace her gradual recognition: while our common Law as Lord Bingham confessed : 12 was, with relation to woman [was] the opprobrium of the age & of Christianity. For forty years earnest men & women working noiselessly have washed away that opprobrium, the statute books of thirty states, have been remodeled, & woman starts to day almost face to face with her lost claim - - the ballot. It has been a wearing and thankless, though successful struggle. But if there be any refuge from that ghastly curse, the vice of great cities -- before which social science stands palsied & dumb, it is in this more equal recognition of woman If in this critical battle for universal suffrage -- our fathers noblest legacy to us, & the greatest trust God leaves in our hands -- there be any weapon which once 13 taken from the armory, will make victory certain, it will be as it has been in art, literature & society, summoning woman into the political arena. The literary class, until half a dozen years, has taken no note of this great uprising, only to fling every obstacle in its way. The first glimpse we get of Saxon blood in history is that line of Tacitus in his "Germany" which reads, "In all grave matters they consult their women." Years hence when robust Saxon sense has flung away Jewish superstition & Eastern prejudice, & put under its fist fastidious scholarship & squeamish fashion, some second Tacitus from the battery of the Mississippi will answer to him of the Seven 14 Hills. ' In all grave questions, we consult our women.'" "If the Alps piled in cold & silence be the emblem of despotism, we joyfully take the ever restless ocean, for ours only pure, because never still. To be as great as our fathers, we must be better. They silenced their fears & subdued their prejudices, inaugurating free speech & equality with no precedent on the file. Let us rise to their level, crush appetite , & prohibit temptation if it rots great cities; intrench labor in sufficient bulwarks against that wealth, which without the tempted strength of modern incorporations, wrecked the Grecian & Roman States: & with a sterner effort still summon woman into civil life, as reinforcement 15 to our laboring ranks, in the effort to make our civilization a success. Sit not like the figure on our silver coin looking ever backward,” New occasions teach new duties. Time makes ancient good uncouth Very much upward still, & onward Who would keep abreast of truth Lo, before us gleam her matchfires. We ourselves must pilgrims be Launch our Mayflower, & steer boldly Through the desperate winter sea, Nor attempt the future’s portal With the heart’s blood-rusted key.” That Harvard speech, in the face of fashion, bigotry, & conservatism, so liberal, so eloquent, so brave is a model for every young man, Who like the orator, would devote his talents to the best interests of the race, rather than 16 to his personal ambition for mere worldly success July 2nd The nation was thrilled to day with the sad news, that our President James A. Garfield was shot down by an assassin. Russia will screen her despotism now behind such facts in America, She will say what better is a republic than a monarchy! The people complain alike under all forms of government Unthinking people will not stop to consider the difference between a vast organization of intelligent liberty-loving Nihilists, & the freaks of one half crazy disappointed office seeker. 17 The last of October, Susan returned, after a rest of two months, & we commenced work again on vol. II November 2nd being election day the republican carriage decorated with flags & evergreens came to the door for voters, as I owned the house, paid the taxes, &c &c & as none of the "white males" were at home, all at their places of business in the city, I suggested that I might go down & do the voting, wherefrom the gentleman who represented the republican committee urged me to do so most cordially. Accompanied by my faithful friend Miss Anthony, we stepped with the carriage & went to the ideal polls, held in the 18 same large Hotel where I usually went to pay taxes. When we entered the room it was crowded with men. I was introduced to the inspectors by Charles Everett one of our leading citizens, who said "Mrs Stanton is here gentlemen for the purpose of voting. As she is a tax payer, of sound mind, and of the legal age, I see no reason why she should not exercise this right of citizenship" The Inspectors were thunder struck. I think there were afraid that I was about to capture the ballot box, [One] placed his arms round it with one hand close over the aperture where the ballots were to slip in, and said with mingled surprize and pity "Oh! no madam, men only are allowed to vote." I then explained to him that according to the Constitution of New Jersey, women had voted 19 there, down to 1801, when they were denied the right by an arbitrary act of the Legislature, & that by a recent amendment to the National Constitution Congress has declared "that all persons born & naturalized in the United States & subject to the jurisdiction thereof were citizens of the United States & entitled to vote." I told them I wished to cast my vote as a citizen of the United States for United States offices. Two of the Inspectors sat down, pushed their hats over their eyes, whether from shame or ignorance I do not know. The other held on to the box and said "I know nothing about the constitutions state or national, I never read either, but this I do know, that in New Jersey, women have not voted in my day & I cannot 20 accept your ballot." So I laid my ballot on his hand saying that I have the same right to vote that any man present had & on him must rest the responsibility of denying my rights of citizenship. All through the winter Susan & I worked diligently on the History, Harriot came home from Europe in February determined that I should return with her as she had not finished her studies. To expedite my [labors] task on the history she seized the laboring oar, prepared the last chapter, & corrected the proof, as opportunity offered. As the children were scattered to the four minds of heaven we decided to lease our home Reminiscences by Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chapter XLIII To the old world Having worked diligently through nearly two years on Vol. II History of Woman Suffrage, I decided to take a rest in the old world, beyond the reach & sound of my beloved Susan & the woman suffrage Movement. I thought with an ocean between myself & Susan I should hear no more of calls, conventions, appeals or petitions, at least for one year. For vol II 2 we impressed my daughter Harriot into our service, & she did most of the proof reading. She did the last chapter on our way to the steamer. She & Susan sitting on deck, page & galley proof in hand wholly absorbed in their work. Surrounded with the hurry & bustle of a speedy departure was the last picture of my friend imprinted on my brain in leaving my native land. May 27th, 1882 we sailed in the Chateau Leoville for Bordeaux. Among the friends who came to see us off were Dr Clemence Lozier & son, Mrs Devereux Blake & daughters, Mrs Steele sister of 3 Roscoe Conklin, Abby Hutchinson Patton, Mr & Mrs Rogers, Mrs John England, & members of our own family circle. They brought fruits & flowers, boxes of ginger to ward off sea sickness, letters of introduction and light literature for the voyage. We had all the daily & weekly papers secular & religious, the new monthly Magazines & several novels. We imagined that we should do an immense amount of reading, but we did very little. Eating sleeping walking on deck & watching the ever changing ocean is about all most people can do. The sail down the harbor That brought warm evening was beautiful & as the moon was 3 1/2 bright we lingered on deck until a late hour. I slept but a little that night as two cats kept running in & out & my berth was so narrow that I could only be in one position, as straight as if already in my coffin. Under such circumstances I spent the night thinking over everything that was painful in my whole life & imagining all the different calamities that might befall my family in my absence. It was a night of severe introspection & intense dissatisfaction. I was glad when the day dawned & I could go on deck. [The next] During the day my couch was enlarged one foot, & at night the cats were locked out of the saloon 4 We had a smooth pleasant voyage, until the last night on reaching the French coast, it was dark & stormy One foggy, rainy morning early in June, 1882, our good steamer the “Chateau Leoville,” pushed slowly and carefully up the broad, muddy Gironde and put us down in the bustling quays of Bordeaux. As we turned to say farewell to our sturdy ship - my daughter Harriot and I - as we gazed up at it’s black iron sides besprinkled with salty foam, a feeling of deep thankfulness took possession of us, for she had not been unfaithful to her trust, but had borne us safely from New World to the Old over thousands of miles of treacherous sea. We spent a day in driving about Bordeaux, enjoying the mere fact of restoration to terra firma after [ten] [*twelve*] days' imprisonment on the ocean, as much as the sights of the second seaport of France. Maritime cities are much the same all the world over. The forests of masts, the heavy-laden drays, the lounging sailors, the rough longshoreman and the dirty quays are no more characteristic of Bordeaux than of New York, London and Liverpool. In the heart of the town we did see some churches, public buildings and streets that were new to our eye, but we were not loath to quit the birth-place of Montesquieu and the capital of ancient Guienne and Gascony for the more interesting sites beyond.” 4 1/2 But I must not forget to mention an accident that happened on landing at Bordeaux where Theodore met us. We had innumerable pieces of baggage. A baby carriage, rocking chair a box of Histories for foreign libraries, beside the usual number of trunks & satchels & one hamper into which we had thrown many things on which we were undecided whether to take or leave. Into this a loaded pistol had been carefully laid, which I am being landed with an emphatic jerk by some jovial Frenchman suddenly exploded, shooting the bearer through the shoulder. He fell. 5 bleeding to the ground. It was just at the height of the dynamite scare. The general consternation for a few minutes was indescribable. Every Frenchman with vehement gestures was chattering to his utmost capacity, keeping a respectful distance from the hamper. We did not know what it was, but Theodore was bound to make the investigation Not knowing but he might be blown into the fifth heavens, he proceed to untie the ropes & examine the contents & there he found the pistol, from which pointing upwards he fired two other bullets. Alas! said Hattie I threw that pistol in there one day never dreaming it was loaded. The wounded man was taken to the hospital. 6 His injuries were very slight but the incident cost us 2000 [*use the figure*] francs & no end of annoyance. However I was too thankful that by some chance it had not gone off in the hold of the vessel & set the ship on fire & sacrificed three hundred lives through one girls carelessness. Verily we cannot be too careful in the use of fire arms. One of my sons in shooting at a moth had forgotten in laying the pistol down that it was still loaded. Bordeaux is a queer old town. The first thing that strikes an American is the innumerable soldiers & priests perambulating in all directions. The priests in long black gowns & large black hats 7 have a solemn aspect, & the soldiers, walking lazily along guarding some buildings that seem in no danger from any living thing look ridiculous. Then the heavy carts & harness move the unaccustomed observer to constant pity for the horses. Beside every thing that is necessary for locomotion they have an endless amount of ornaments, rising two or three feet above the horses heads, with bells, feathers & tassles. One of their carts would weigh as much as three of ours, & all their carriages are equally heavy I should think the harness & ornaments would weigh fully as much as the horse. We spent two days in Bordeaux driving about the city. 8 It was a bright, cool day on which we took the train for Toulouse and we enjoyed very much this delightful run through the very heart of old Gascony and Languedoc. It was evident that we were in the South where the sun is strong, for, although summer had scarcely begun, the country already wore a brown hue. But the narrow strips of growing grain, the acres of grapevines looking like young current bushes, and the fig-trees scattered here and there looked odd to the eye of a native of New York where our fields are square, our grapes hang on arbors and apples take the place of figs. We passed many historical spots during that afternoon’s journey up the valley of Garonne. At Portets are the ruins of the Chateau of Langoiran built before America was discovered, and a few miles farther on we came to the region of the famous wines of Sauternes and and Chateau-Yquem. Saint Macaire is a very ancient Gallo-Roman town where they show you churches, walls and houses built centuries ago. Agen, one of the largest stations on the line, has a history typical of this part of France, where wars of religion and conquest were once the order of the day during long and weary centuries. It was taken and retaken by the Goths, Huns, Burgundians and Saracens, nobody knows how many times, and belonged successively to the kings of France, to the dukes of Aquitaine, to the kings of England and to the counts of Toulouse. I sometimes wonder whether our American towns, whose growth and development has been as free and untrameled as that of the favorite child, appreciate the blessings that have been theirs. How true the lines of Goethe: “America, thou art much happier than our old continent; thou hast no castles in ruins, no fortresses; no useless remembrances, no vain enmity, will interrupt the inward working of thy life.” But I hurry through Moissac with its organ, a gift of Mazarin; through Castelsarrazin, founded by the Saracens in the eighth century; through to Montauban, that stronghold of the early Protestants, which suffered more for its religious faith than have all our towns in New York state for any cause whatsoever; through Grisolles, built on a Roman highway, – and at last, in the dusk of the evening, we reach “the capital of the South,” learned, curious, interesting Toulouse. 9 Mrs. Laura Curtis Ballard, in her sketch of me in "Our Famous Women," says: "In 1882 Mrs. Stanton went to France on a visit to her son Theodore and his wife, and spent three months at the Convent of La Sagesse, in the old city of Toulouse." This is quite true, but I have sometimes tried to guess what the readers of "Our Famous Women" thought I was doing for "three months at the convent of La Sagesse." Weary of the trials and tribulations of this world had I gone there to prepare in solitude for the next? Had I taken the veil in my old age? Or like high-church Anglicans and Roman Catholics had I made this my "retreat." No, none of these. My daughter wished to study French advantageously, my son lived in the mountains hard by, and the garden of La Sagesse with its big trees, clean, gravel paths and cool shade was the most delightful spot in Toulouse. Here in the umbrageous quietude of this pious spot I met from time to time some of the most radical and liberal-minded residents of the South. Toulouse is one of the most important university centres of France and bears with credit the proud title of "the learned city." With two of the distinguished members of the Faculty, Dr. Nicholas Joly, whose biography I gave at some length a year ago in the Phrenological Journal, and Professor Molinier, of the Law School, I often had most interesting discussions on all the great questions of the hour. That three heretics - I should say six, for my daughter, son and his wife often joined the circle - could thus sit in perfect security and debate in most unorthodox fashion in these holy precincts all the reforms, social, political and religious, which the United States and France need in order to be in harmony with the spirit of the age, was a striking proof of the progress the world has made in the freedom of speech and in the freedom of conscience. The time was when such acts would have cost us our lives, even if we had been caught expressing our heresies in the seclusion of our own homes. But here under the oaks of a Catholic convent, with the grey-robed sisters in our very midst, we could point out the fallacies of Romanism itself without fear or trembling. Glorious nineteenth century, what conquests are thine! 10 I shall say nothing of the picturesque old winding streets of antique Toulouse; nothing of the Italian-looking priests who swarm like children in an English town; nothing of the beautifully carved stone facades of the ancient mansions once inhabited by the nobility of Languedoc but now given up to trade and commerce; nothing of the lofty brick cathedrals, whose exterior reminds one of London and whose interior transfers you to "the gorgeous East;" nothing of the Capitol with its gallery rich in busts of the celebrated sons of the South; nothing of the museum, the public garden and the broad river winding through all. I must leave all these interesting features of Toulouse and hasten up into the Black Mountains, a few miles away, where I saw the country life of modern Languedoc. Jacournassy is the name of the estate where I spent a month full of surprises. How different everything from America and even from the plane below. The peasants, many of them at least, can neither speak French nor understand it. Their language is a patois resembling both Spanish and Italian and they cling to it with astonishing pertinacity. And their agricultural implements are not less quaint than their speech. The plough is a long beam with a most primitive share in the middle, a cow at one end and a boy at the other. The grain is cut with a sickle and thrashed with a flail on the barn floor as in Scripture times. Manure is scattered over the fields with the hands. There was a certain pleasure in studying these old-time ways. We caught glimpses of the anti-revolutionary epoch when the king ruled the state and nobles the lands. Here again we saw as never before what vast strides the world has made within one century. But let us go indoors. Here we return to modern times. The table, beds, rooms - for I speak of the chateau and not of the peasant homes where the past still lingers - are much the same as those of Toulouse and New York. The cooking is not like that of New York, however, unless Delmonico's skill be supposed to have extended all over Manhattan, which is unfortunately not the case. 11 The most admirable product of French genius is the art of cooking. More beneficial to mankind than the principles of the Revolution have been the culinary teachings of Vatel and his followers. One of the most [agreeable] familiar sources of amusement during my sojourn at Jacournassy was of a literary nature. My son Theodore, was then busy collecting the materials for his “Woman Question in Europe,” which the Putnams of New York have since published, and every post brought in manuscripts and letters from all parts of the continent written in almost every tongue known to Babel. We had good linguists at the chateau and every document finally came forth in English dress, which, however, often needed much altering and furbelowing. This was my part of the work. So away off in the heart of France, high up in the Black Mountains, surrounded with French-speaking relatives and a patois-speaking peasants, I found myself once more putting bad English into the best I could command, just as I had so often done in America when editor of The Revolution, or when arranging manuscript for the “History a Woman Suffrage.” But it was labor in the cause of my sex, it was aiding in the creation of the “Woman Question in Europe,” and so my pen did not grow slack nor my hand weary.” [*So just what I came aboard to avoid I found in the very threshhold where I came to rest.*] Reminiscences by Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chapter, 44 Jacournassy I passed six weeks at Jacournassy on the Black Mountains, where all about one could see stone twins of the strongholds of past centuries. My chief occupation was helping Theodore with his book, “The Woman Question in Europe“ I found great pleasure in reading the many interesting letters from the women of different 2 nations with whom he was in correspondence, some of which we’re written in English & some his wife had translated. The scenery in the Black hills is very grand & reminds one of the lofty ranges of mountains round the Yosemite Valley in California Behind the Black Mountains [were] are the snow capped Pyrenees rising still higher in the distance, producing a solemn beauty, a profound solitude. Just the place to recite Bryants Thanatopsis. We used to go every evening where we could see the sunset, & watch the changing 3 shadows in the broad valley below. Another great pleasure here was watching the gradual development of my first grandchild. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Jr. born at 51 rue de Varrenes Paris on the 3rd of May 1882. She was a fine child, though only three months old her head [is] covered with dark hair & her large blue eyes looked out with intense earnestness, from beneath her well shaped brow. Here too I met Madame Caroline de Barrau as her estate joined that of Madame Berry. I found her a very cultivated women 4 very liberal in her opinions, a thorough Democrat. She had been the means of leading her own family as well as the Berrys out of Catholicism and aristocratic conventionalisms into greater freedom in their ideas of government, religion and social life. Until the day of her death she was identified with all the leading reforms. The children of these families had been educated together & could speak English, German & Italian, as well as their native tongue, hence they were quite in harmony with us and our American 5 ideas. Yet the poor peasants with their wooden shoes & heavy woolen caps the hottest days of July, have learned no lessons of liberty from their rich proprietors. It was painful to me to see them touch their caps to us on the highways. It was a confession of their inferior condition. Why should they make such a tacit admission, when often the man who touches his cap may be superior to those he salutes, in all the cardinal virtues? I am thankful we see none of this among our laboring masses nor our school children, in the American Republic 6 One night I had a terrible fright, (so says the diary). I was the only person sleeping on the ground floor of the chateau & my room was on the extreme end of the building on one side and the staircase on the other. I had been frequently cautioned not to leave my window open, as some one might get in. But as I always did sleep with an open window winter and summer I thought I would rather risk some adventure than endure a feeling of suffocation night after night. The blinds were solid and to close them was to exclude all the air, hence I left them 7 open about a foot braced by an iron hook. A favourite resort for a pet donkey was under my window, where he had uniformly slept in profound silence. But one glorious moonlight night probably to arouse me to enjoy with him the exquisite beauty of our surroundings, he put his nose through this aperture and gave one of the most pro- longed resounding brays I've ever heard; started from a deep sleep, I was so frightened at first I could not move. My next impulse was to seek out and arouse the family, but seeing a dark hand in the window, I thought 8 I would slam down the heavy sash & check the intruder before starting. But just as I approached the window another agonizing bray announced the innocent character of my midnight visitor. Just as I was stretching out of the window to drive him away with my [flesh?] brush, a gentleman in the room above me, for the same purpose dashed down a pail of water, which the donkey & I shared equally He ran off at a double quick pace, while I made a hasty toilet. The next night he was turned into a distant 9 pasture. Where he could disturb no one. From his peculiarly melancholy bray one would think that all the sorrows of the world had been laid on the shoulders of his long suffering kind. “August 20th” I returned to Toulouse & our quiet retreat in the Convent. The sisters gave me a most affectionate welcome & I had many pleasent chats, sitting in the gardens with the Priests & Professors once more. Several times my daughter & I 10 attended High mass in a cathedral built in the 11th century. Being entirely new to us, it was a most entertaining spectacular performance. With our American ideas of religious devotion, it seemed to us that the people as well as the building, belonged to some far back century. About fifty priests in mantels gowns & capes, some black some yellow, with tinseled fringes & ornamentation, with all manners of gestures genuflexins, bowings, kneelings, & burning incense, with prayers admonitions & sacraments (over) filled the alter, in constant motion. Reminiscences by Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chapter XLVIII Writing a Romance, Returning from Europe in the [winter] autumn of 1883, after visiting a large circle of relatives & friends I spent six weeks with my cousin Elizabeth Smith Miller, in her charming home on the shore of Lake Geneva. Through Miss Frances Lord a woman of rare culture 2 & research my daughter Mrs Stanton Blatch & myself had become deeply interested in the school of Theosophy, & read Isis Unveiled by Madame Blavatska, Linnett's works on the occult world, The Perfect Way &c. &c. Full of these ideas, I soon interested my cousins in the subject, and we resolved to explore, as far as possible some of these eastern mysteries, of which we had heard so much. We looked in all directions, to find some pilot to start us on the right course. 3 We heard that Gerald Massey was in New York lecturing on "The Devil," "Ghosts," & "Evil Spirits" generally, so we invited him to come & visit us and give a course of lectures in Geneva. But, unfortunately, he was ill, & could not open new fields of thought to us at that time, when we were hungering & thirsting, to get some glimpses into the unknown world, and hold converse with the Immortalls. However Charles D Mills of Syracuse, who had been making a study of the old Greek mythologies, 4 & of the lives and writings of the philosophers & mystics, made us a visit & gave us the result of his studies. He thought Greek literature contained all the wisdom known to the ancients, & that Emerson had distilled the escence of all that was known to the Greeks. He quoted many passages from Emerson, to show how deeply he was imbued with the mysticism of ancient thought. As I left Geneva soon after with my daughter Mrs Stanton Lawrence, our occult studies were for a time abandoned ¶ She & I had often talked of writing 5. a story together, she describing the characters & their environments, & I the philosophy and soliliquys. As Susan had not yet got her grip on me, & I had no special duties in prospect, having leased our house for a term of years, not yet expired, we decided this was the time to make our experiment. Accordingly we hastened to the old homestead at Johnstown, where we could be entirely alone. It was closed for the winter, buried in snow 6 with the thermometer [20] twenty degrees below zero. But our faithful Celts, [Marywood] and John, soon warmed up the apartments we needed, opened the paths, & gave us a good hot supper. Our friends on all sides wondered what had brought us there, in the depth of the winter with the snow three feet deep on the level, & drifts high above the fences. But we kept our secret & set ourselves to work with diligence. We had but four interruptions, as the successive storms of February, the howling 7 winds of March, & the cold rains of April, served the double purpose of keeping us as well as our neighbors at our own firesides. Thus from day to day our story progressed rapidly, our interest & enthusiasm increasing to the end. At one time a visit from Susan [was] seemed imminent, but fortunately a fierce storm blocked the roads, & made it impossible for her to reach us. Else She would have found out what we were doing & laughed 8 laughed us to scorn, & switched me off to a coming Washington convention which I dodged that year & she never knew why. Had she come, the thread of "Our Romance" would have been so completely sundered, that it never could have been tied again. Madge & I had three months of uninterrupted pleasure, finished our story to our entire satisfaction. We felt sure that every one who read it would be deeply interested. & that we should readily find a publisher. We read it aloud 9, several times to each other. to see how it would sound to [others] the general reader. We went over it critically again, & again separately & together, to see that the paragraphs, the punctuation, the spelling, the grammar, the rehetoric, were all as they should be. When we had it all put in type writing, thinking that as it could be more easily read, the critics would be more readily absorbed with its merits. When about to post it, 10 Madge purposed to send it to brother Bob, as he was a great novel reader, & a very good judge of human nature. & he would know to which Maganzine it was best to take it. Accordingly the document was mailed to him. Having tied it up with loving care, we anxiously committed it to the post office officials, with many fears that by some chance it should never reach it's destiny. Madge & I were thoroughly satisfied 11 with the result of our labors. In anticipation of our assured fame, & a generous check, we added to our usual simple evening meal, some broiled saddle rock oysters, & some of Margarets choicest muffins & a cup of pure coffee, of amber hue, fit for the gods. We were as merry as two crickets. Madge sang & played her choicest repertoire for me , & I told her some of the rich 12 experiences of my boarding school days, over which we laughed nearly to the point of exhaustion. And so the days jumped merrily along until we began to think it was time to hear from "Our Romance". Then we watched the coming of the mail morning & evening, with an impatient interest known only to those whose works of art are in the literary tweezers of editors [critics & publishers], & their critics. We thought 13 of "Our Romance" the first thing in the morning & talked of it the last thing at night. We counted the days over & over again, before it was probable that Bob would have time to read it. We wondered whether the Harpers would take it, & whether it would appear in the May number. We congratulated ourselves especially with the artistic way in which we had detailed my philosophy with Madge's descriptions 14 of scenery & character. At last as I sat alone musing at the twilight hour, one rainy day. Madge rushed in, with great glee announced a letter from Bob. I can see her now. with her velvet hat & feathers, her fur cloak thrown back. her face aglow with happy anticipations, as she lights the gas & seats herself to read the long looked for epistle. 15 New York May 10th 1884 Dear Madge. "Our Romance" duly received & considered, I invited a friend of mine, a good critic on The New York Sun to read your production with me. I did not let him know I had any interest in the authors, so he felt free to express his real opinion. I read it aloud to him, giving you the advantage of my rich voice, & rare powers of elocution. When I had 16 finished. I maintained a profound silence & looked steadily at the wall. After while he drew a long breath & said, "Well that document contains the elements of a good essay, & a good story, but as it is, it is neither. As a novel it is a complete failure. It has no plot, no thrilling incidents, the characters are all wooden. The hero is a phylosophical jack ass, & I should as soon think of going to Switzerland to make love to the 17 Jung Frau as to the stately, self contained heroine". I am sorry to say I fully agreed with him, & as to the manner in which you say you & mother had dovetailed your work, I think you are as distinct in your writing as you are in fact. Your story remind me of that chocolate cake that Amelia used to make for me when a boy, that I loved so well, one layer of pure white, one of brown 18 each maintaining its individual integrity, even in the process baking & eating to the last crumb. Pray do not rush this into print, perhaps to avoid such a calamity & better hold on to the document until you are able to see yourselves as others see you. I advise you dear Madge, to confine yourself to the simple little stories like, "The two hands" in which you succeed so well 19 & mother better devote herself to the laws of her country & constitutional arguements on woman suffrage, & not make a fool of herself like Henry Ward Beecher trying to write a novel, or John Quincy Adams in his vain efforts to write a poem. Where is Susan, that mother is left thus to wander in pastures new? your's lovingly honest Bob. 20 For some minutes neither of us spoke, we were so surprized & disappointed. that our ideas seemed to be scattered to the four winds of Heaven, & we had no language to express our feelings, if we had had any sufficiently defined for utterance. At last my pity for poor Madge roused me to some words of consolation for her, & I said "we were very foolish to consult that conceited poppingjay. Surely 21 you & I are as good judges of a story as he is." “We will make him send the manuscript back & see what we can do to get it published ourselves." after the first brush of indignation, I took his letter & read it aloud, mockingly, & before I had finished we were both laughing immoderately, at the cut impertinence of our young critics, though I had my misgivings that they were in a measure quite correct. 22 For many months Bob held "Our Romance" under lock & key. but on the most solemn promises not to print, we received our little waif in due time & came to the conclusion that it better rest in a pigeon hole of my desk, at least until the authors were safe in Abraham's bosom. If at that time The Tribune still lives & its readers have a curiosity 23 to see, the story written in our solitude, with the thermometer twenty degrees below zero, I will see before my demise that it is safely placed in the hands of the editor. But we had not many days to mourn our disappointment, as Madge was summoned to her western home. & Susan arrived armed & equipped with bushels of documents for Vol III of the History of (over) Woman Suffrage, at which we worked diligently for the following two years. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.