LETTER: Typed letter signed to Reverend Edward Payson Powell, September 14, 1895.
Anthony to Reverend E.P. Powell:
On Bishop William Croswell Doane, the New York Board of Education,
and Upcoming Women’s Suffrage Events
Anthony, Susan B. Typed Letter Signed “Susan B. Anthony” to “Rev. E[dward]P[ayson] Powell.” Rochester, New York: 09/14/1895; one leaf “National American Woman Suffrage Association” stationery; 8 ½ x 11 inches; small spots of soiling; creased where folded from mail.
Anthony writes to Powell, a New York scholar and journalist, in response to his “note of June 17th” addressing men’s university education and opinions expressed by William Croswell Doane, the first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany. Anthony writes, “I agree with every word in regard to placing such men as Bishop Doane at the head of the educational institutions…I was not aware that so many of your young men were educated outside of the state; but certainly, whether it is the present Board of Regents that drives young men to the universities and colleges of other states, or not, those old fogies ought to be remanded to back seats, not only in all educational matters, but in religious also.”
Doane (1832-1913) was the first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany in the United States, and also the Chancellor of the State Department of Education. A conflict between Doane and the State Board of Regents arose in 1895 regarding a proposed bill that would provide funding for out-of-state university students and also delegate more university decision-making authority to the Regents. The bill caused substantial friction between the Regents and the State, eventually leading to an all-out power battle between the parties.
Anthony ends her note on the issue by pointing out Doane’s take on women’s suffrage, “notwithstanding the Bishop’s little diatribe on what he calls the “new Woman,” two of our good woman-suffrage women in the vicinity of Rochester are fitting their daughters to go to that very school in Albany before which the Bishop thus spoke.”
Bishop Doane was vocal in his views against the woman’s movement, responding to women’s petitions by “denying that most women were interested in the vote and advising political representatives not to give into the pleas of suffragettes” (“The Nineteenth Century in Print.” The Library of Congress). In a piece entitled, “Why Women Do Not Want the Ballot,” he wrote, “Many a man says: ‘Oh! Let the experiment be tried; it cannot succeed; it will do no harm to pay women the courtesy of this complimentary vote, and then defeat it at the polls.; But this is an experiment too much like playing with fire to be safe” (The North American Review, Vol. 161, Issue 466, Sept. 1895. 259). He also argued that allowing women the right to work and vote denied them of their inherent ‘womanhood,’ which he called a special “gift of grace and honor equal to, but different from, the glory of manhood,” which, when compromised, would result in “mischief and misery and confusion…from the attempt to make the two the same” (The Putnam County Courier, June 1909).
Anthony’s letter continues, changing subjects to inform Powell of upcoming suffrage events: the “next Annual Convention on our Suffrage Association is to be held in Newburgh, Nov. 8,9,10 & 11, and on Nov. 12th are to celebrate Mrs. [Elizabeth Cady] Stanton’s 80th birthday in the Metropolitan House, New York.”
She goes on to ask whether there is a “good suffrage club in Clinton [New York],” and if not, that Powell might “take steps to get one organized, for if the coming Legislature ratifies the resolution to submit a woman suffrage amendment to the electors of the state, it will be necessary to set about anew the work of educating the rank and file of men to vote “Yes” on that question.”
Edward Payson Powell (1833-1915) was ordained as a Congregational minister in 1817 and later began a career in journalism when he joined the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in 1886 as an editorial writer; he later moved to The Independent, a New York civil rights and anti-slavery newspaper (Adapted from Powell's obituary in the New York Times, 15 May 1915. 13).
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