Susan B. Anthony - The Woman for All Women
would be granted the voting rights as well as the men and she attached her suffrage movement to this fight.Anthony was quoted as saying, " I would cut off my right hand to ask a ballot for black men and not black women." Her collegues, however did not agree saying that that black men took precident over the rights of black women. The 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870 finally passed and did allow black men to vote but not the women.
Without abolitionist support behind her and feeling betrayed, Anthony, along with Stanton, had to start again with a new association, The National Woman Suffrage Association in May 1869. Also between 1868 and 1870, The Revolution was published. This was a radical women's right's newspaper which Anthony served as publisher and business manager. The paper was a financial failure but it did allow the movement to reach it's followers and allowed the women to talk about the current subject of voting. The paper only lasted 2 years. It was at this time the association brought a challenge against the 14th amendment, adopted in 1868, saying that under it the people born in the US, including women, were citizens and were entitled to the rights it gave and could not be denied. She showed her challenge by registering to vote in the presidential election of 1872. She arrived with fifteen other women and continued to vote and then were arrested three weeks later, however Anthony was the only one brought to trial (United States vs. Susan B. Anthony). The judge made the decision on her trial before she entered the courtroom. The judge opposed woman suffrage and refused to let Anthony testify and found her guilty. She was fined $100. She refused and no further action was taken against her. In 1878, Stanton write the amendment presented to the U.S. Senate and for 40 years it came before each session.
Anthony's personal life during the late 1870's and early 1880's was also an extremely difficult ride. With her sister Mary, she nursed her mother and two other sister during the last weeks of their fatal illnesses. Stanton was quoted to have said about Anthony that, " Anthony was not wedded to man with child and love but wedded to an idea." It was this idea that sustained her through the tragedy of loss and her faith that kept her knowing that their
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