In Her Own Right : The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton Read Free

and more visible, she became more assertive in their partnership. She overrode Anthony’s objections and forced her to put aside women’s rights questions for the duration of the Civil War. Stanton’s regret over that decision and her acknowledgment that she had been wrong subsequently enabled Anthony to regain the upper hand for a short time. During the critical period following the war Stanton preferred to act in unison with Anthony. “I have always found that when we see eye to eye we are sure to be right, and when we pull together we are strong,” she admitted to Anthony in 1867. “I take my beloved Susan’s judgment against the world.” 6
    If they could not agree, Stanton and Anthony argued in private until one of them conceded. During the postwar period Stanton was usually the firstto compromise. Having broken with Henry she was unwilling to break with Anthony. She believed that “like husband and wife,” she and Anthony must always appear to agree in public. Even with Henry she maintained the appearance of marriage. She really had no model for discord. Her parents’ marriage and those of her friends had been cordial relationships, and the diplomatic mode appealed to her own disposition. 7
    By 1865 the Stanton-Anthony friendship had evolved into a partnership of equals. Each admired the other’s capacities and accepted any shortcomings. In the aftermath of the Customs House scandal and prelude to the reconstruction fight, Stanton needed the comfort of uncritical friendship and Anthony needed Stanton’s intelligence. As Stanton reassured her: “If your life depends on me, I will be your stay and staff to the end. No power in heaven, hell, or earth can separate us, for our hearts are eternally wedded together. Ever yours, and I mean
ever
, Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” 8
    Throughout the war Stanton had been a loyal abolitionist. More active than during the antebellum years, she had worked for Lincoln’s election after the convention in 1860, joined the antislavery crusade in upstate New York in 1861, postponed her feminist demands, founded the National Woman’s Loyal League, amassed petition signatures for the Thirteenth Amendment, supported Frémont over Lincoln in 1864, and backed Wendell Phillips when he challenged William Lloyd Garrison for leadership of the American Anti-Slavery Society. At the society’s annual meeting in May 1864 Garrison had moved to disband the organization. He insisted that its work had been completed with the Emancipation Proclamation and the anticipated passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. The slaves had been freed. The majority of the society, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, disagreed. They supported Phillips’s argument that the work was incomplete until the slaves had been made citizens and enfranchised. Garrison’s motion to disband was defeated, and he resigned. He suspended publication of the
Liberator
, accepted a gift of thirty thousand dollars from admirers, and went to Paris. Stanton’s candidate, Phillips, was elected president of the group. For her loyalty to Phillips and the Anti-Slavery Society, Stanton expected abolitionists to include woman suffrage on their postwar agenda.
    Similarly Phillips and the abolitionists expected the Republicans to enact their suggestions. The triumphant congressional majority, eager to punish the South and enroll ex-slaves as Republican voters, adopted many abolitionist measures as their own. By the summer of 1865 language for another amendment was circulated. The draft of the Fourteenth Amendment conferred citizenship on every male born or naturalized in the United States, prohibited states from abridging “equal protection” of citizens, reduced congressional representation for states that denied the ballot to blacks, disbarred ex-Confederates from holding office, and repudiated the Confederatedebt. Officially proposed by the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in April 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment had to be ratified by