New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-12
Sixty-nine Years Ago
Mrs. Stanton and the First OF the
Women's Rights Conventions

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir; In view o. the great victory for the
women of New York that was won on NO
vember 8. may give you, for your readers
q little bit Of history that they probably DO
not know. and which heard my mother, Eliz-
abetb Cady Stanton, often relate? IL shows
how far ahead she was Of her tunes and
how she saw into the future. She was then
thirty-three years old, the mother OF three
fine boys.
In Seneca Falls, n. T., on July 1920, 1913,
she and some OF her friends held the hrst
convention that was ever called to discuss
the right, Of women Frederick Douglass,
the distinguished orator, had come down
from Rochester TO speak at the convention.
Mother asked him what it was that he saw
that his people, the black slaves, needed TO
nut them on the right plane.
"Tke ballot" he promptly replied.
"And | gee that the ballot is exactly what
we women need" said Mrs. Stanton.
Then she explained to him that She had
drawn I'D Q resolution TO that effect. which
She would read 10 the convention, and that
she wanted him 10 instantly jump to MS
feet and make a short speech FOR her reso-
luton. Then she would do likewise. She
told him that in the conferences they had
been holding before the convention, when
she had maintained that the ballot in
the hands of woman was the keynote to the
situation. Lucrctia Mott, the great Quaker
preacher, had exclaimed: "Oh, Lizzie, II thee
demands that thee will make US ridiculous.
We must 90 slowly" And my father, Henry
3. Stanton, the famous antislavery orator,
who usually stood firmly by my mother IN
all she did and said, and who also spoke
and worked for the cause of woman, was so
amazed at her daring when she conhded 70
him what she intended doing, and would
not follow his advice, that he left town and
would not attend the meetings.
But my mother felt she was right, and
Frederick Douglass agreed with her, and said
he would do all he could to help her out
Then. too. she remembered the advice gwen
her by Daniel O'Connel, the famous Irish
orator, whom she had met in London on her
wedding trip and with whom she and father
dined in Dublin. She asked the great irish
Libcrator." as he was called, II he expected
TO win liberty for ireland. mo" he replied,
"but always claim the uttermost; then you'll
get SOHelHluB.
OF course, the others were furious at her
for Swinging her resolution in the conven-
tom il created hot debate, but the brilliant
defence Of Douglass and her own eloquence
and logic so reused the audience that many
arose and spoke for her side, and after a
two hours tussle they carried the day. SO
that Elizabeth Cady Stanton's demand from
the first was those three little words, Votes
for Women"
Susan B. Anthony was not present at this
first convention; she did not come into the
movement until three years afterward, 1851.
But almost from the day that she and my
mother met they became the warmest friends
and stood nobly by each other for over sixty
years Theirs was, probably, one OF the most
beautiful friendships that ever existed be-
tween two women.
MARGARET STANTON LAWRENCE.
Spuyten Duyvil-on- Hudson, n. Y, Nov. 10,
1917.