Greetings! As I said earlier, throughout the summer, I will be posting transcripts from the diary of Susan B. Anthony, who with her fellow women’s rights activist Ernestine Rose visited Washington, D.C., and its environs in the spring of 1854. This is the third in the series.
March 24
Directed tickets to Mrs. Rose meeting on Political & Legal Rights of Woman this evening at Carusi’s Saloon, to both Representatives & Senators, in all about 300 in number.
Asked the Speaker of the House for the use of the Capitol on Sunday A.M. He referred me to Mr. Millburn the Chaplain, called on him. He could not allow her to speak there because she was not a member of some religious Society—I remarked to him that ours was a country professing Religious as well as Civil Liberty & not to allow any & every faith to be declared in the Capitol of the nation, made the profession to religious freedom a perfect mockery. Though acknowledging the truthfulness of my position he could not allow a person who failed to recognize the Divine, to speak in his place.
Mrs. Rose gave her lecture on the Political & Legal Rights of Woman this evening, a better audience than on Tuesday eve. 76 M. C. present.
Looked over our account of Receipt & Expenditures, from the time of leaving Albany, March 14 & found that the former were $22.75 & the latter $114.46. Notwithstanding this pecuniary loss, we can but feel that [word missing] has been done. The Washington people seem to gratify their love for speech hearing by attendance at the Capitol, very few persons can draw an audience of respectable size here—The Editors here are very Polite, unlike our Northern ones, they publish notices gratis, & unlike them, they are cautious about committing themselves on the question. All of them have spoken well of Mrs. R’s talent, but not one, even the National Era, has said a word either, for or against the Cause—The Daily Evening Star is the only paper that has charged for publishing Notices & the only that has reported Mrs. R’s 1st speech—it gave a fine report, but not a comment.
March 25
Cold & Windy. Cloak & Furs are quite necessary.
Mrs. R & self called on Linn Boyd of Ken., Speaker of the House, to ask him if it were probable that the Capitol Hall could be obtained for Mrs. R. to speak in. He said there was a standing [word missing] to allow no one to speak there on any any [sic] subject.
Left W. in Stage for Alexandria about 11 O clock secured there Liberty Hall got Bills printed, or spoke for them, engaged a man to post them & returned to W at 2 ½ O clock by boat—The wind blew very high. The Potomac is a beautiful broad river, much larger than the Hudson. Arrived at the St. Charles, just in time for dinner, after which we made a second call on Mr. Millburn. Mr. R. thought she could influence him to allow her the Hall for the afternoon, but he assumed great clerical sanctimony, & said No.
Mrs. Davis called in evening. We went into the Parlor, & all hands, save me, joined in the dance. Tired & weary & slipped out at an early hour & laid my head upon my pillow.
March 26
Went to the Capitol & listened to Mr. Milburn on Home Life. He said many good things & many things that indicated gross ignorance, misrepresentation—said, “It is here in the house that most men & all women’s chiefest duties lie.”
After dinner called on Mrs. Pendleton, who said she [would] call in her Carriage (the one made expressly for President Pierce) & take us to the Presidents’, on Tuesday A.M.
Called also at Gerrit Smith’s & spent the evening had a delightful conversation. Mrs. Smith is a most splendid woman, plays beautifully on the Piano & sings most sweetly. I was charmed with her. Several gents came in, [?] Brittain of N. York among them, a circle was formed, & Mrs. Smith sang & played to raise the spirts—but all in vain—nothing wonderful manifested.
Mr. Smith said he wished to share with us in the pecuniary loss of our Meeting & insisted on my accepting a Bill which I afterward learned to be a $20 Bank Note.
Expressed himself very glad that Mrs. R. had come to Washington. Gov. Talmadge of Wisconsin accompanied us to the St. Charles—The wind had blown very hard all day, & the air [having] been quite cold, ice was formed quite thick in the A.M.
Notes:
Reverend William Henry Milburn served as House Chaplain for a number of years. It is hardly surprising that he refused to allow Ernestine Rose to speak in the Capitol. The daughter of a Polish rabbi, Ernestine had rejected religion at a young age and was active in freethinking circles. Although she generally avoided airing her controversial religious views at women’s rights conventions, other than to argue against using the Bible as an authority for or against a subject, she was much more outspoken on other platforms. In June 1853, she had spoken at the Hartford Bible Convention, called by an assortment of freethinkers, reformers, and spiritualists “for the purpose of freely and fully canvassing the origin, authority, and influence of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures.” Over the shouts and hoots of local divinity students who had packed an evening session, she told the women in the audience, “The Bible has enslaved you, the churches have been built on your subjugated necks; do you wish to be free? Then you must trample the Bible, the church, and the priests under your feet!” No doubt the Reverend Mr. Milburn was aware of this speech, which had been widely reported.
Before going to Washington, Ernestine and Susan had been in Albany, New York, where they combined a women’s rights convention with lobbying.
The Daily National Era reported on March 25, 1854, “The lecture of Mrs. Ernestine L. Rose last evening was well attended, and proved eminently successful. She is a lady of great ability and eloquence.” This brief mention probably did little to assuage Anthony’s worries about the lack of editorial comment Ernestine’s lectures were drawing.
“Mrs. Pendleton” is likely Mary Alicia Key Pendleton, a daughter of Francis Scott Key. I have been unable to track down her connection with the President’s carriage, but Mrs. Pendleton would later die tragically in a carriage accident in Central Park in 1886. (Her brother Philip Barton Key was murdered by the cuckolded Dan Sickles in 1859. Sickles successfully pleaded temporary insanity and went on to have a colorful life, including losing a leg at Gettysburg.) Anthony and Ernestine may have met the socially prominent Mrs. Pendleton through Gerrit Smith’s wife, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith, who like Mrs. Pendleton was from a prominent Maryland family.
The initial before “Brittain” is difficult for me to read. Given that Anthony tells us that a circle was formed—that is, a “spirit circle”—the visitor was likely Professor S. B. Brittain, who was lecturing on spiritualism in Washington that week. (Governor Nathanial Tallmadge, a fellow spiritualist, was promoting Brittain’s lecture.) Spiritualism (of which we shall hear more later) was enthralling the country at the time, and its allure may explain in part why Ernestine Rose was having difficulty drawing crowds—and quarter admission fees—to her competing lectures, which offered no possibility of communicating with the spirit world.
I love this transcription. Sometimes people ask me if my facts were correct on Adelaide Labille-Guiard’s struggles and yet her in real time the effort for women to have a place and it’s dismissal.