LETTER: Autograph sentiment signed to Giles & Catharine Stebbins.
Anthony, Susan B[rownell]. Autograph Sentiment Signed, Rochester, NY: To Giles & Catharine Stebbins, Dec. 25, 1898.
Framed and matted with image of a young Anthony; matted opening of autograph, 6 x 5-15/16,” matted image opening, 6-3/4 x 4-3/4,” total frame size: 12-3/4 x 17-3/4”; autograph on cream paper; fine.
Autograph sentiment, To Giles B. & Catharine A.F. Stebbins/ In recognition of their life long work/ for the enfranchisement of woman - and / with Christmas Greetings - From their sincere friend & coworker / Susan B. Anthony / Rochester - N.Y. / Dec. 25, 1898.
Catharine A.F. Stebbins was a participant in the first women’s rights meeting held in the United States—the Seneca Falls Convention held in July, 1848, where she was elected one of the Secretaries. She was also a signatory of the Declaration of Sentiments. She wrote Chapter XLI of Volume III of The History of Woman Suffrage as well as the biography of Josephine Sophie Griffing (abolitionist, women’s rights activist and key leader of the Freedman’s Bureau during and immediately after emancipation) which appears in Volume II of that work. Both Catharine Stebbins and her husband were founders of the Michigan State Woman Suffrage Association. In 1871, Catharine Stebbins, with Nanette Gardner, attempted to register to vote in Michigan under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, reasoning they were human beings and taxpayers and therefore entitled to enfranchisement. The prior year the Grimke sisters in Massachusetts and Marilla Ricker in New Hampshire had attempted unsuccessfully to register to vote. While Mrs. Stebbins was also unsuccessful, Mrs. Gardner prevailed; as a widow and a taxpayer, it was determined she had the right to vote in local elections. Mrs. Stebbins, however, had representation through her husband and thus was not deemed to be subject to tax without representation.
In 1880 Mrs. Stebbins testified before the House of Representatives Committee on January 24 for the Woman Suffrage Convention then being held in Washington, D.C. In her testimony, she cited the spiritual leadership of women as a key element in the right to equality. In 1898, Mrs. Stebbins wrote to Susan B. Anthony on the 50th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention. This Christmas greeting from Miss Anthony to her old friends in the struggle for woman suffrage commemorates a wonderful association and reflects the warmth and tact of this great leader. History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, 71; Vol. II, 26, 514; Vol. III, 162, 47, 523. Wheeler, One Woman, One Vote.
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