LETTER: Autograph letter signed, fragment.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Autograph Letter Signed, “Elizabeth Cady Stanton,” Fragment. [NP], [ND];
Single sheet, 5-1/2 x 8-3/4.”; folded to fit an envelope; one corner shows age-toning; ink notation at bottom of reverse, “Elizabeth Cady Stanton”; very good.
Likely the second sheet of this letter was retained for the signature and the first sheet thrown away. Though only a fragment, it is a tantalizing one. Mrs. Stanton writes of her desire to see “put the symposium in a leaflet I particularly wish that point restored as it might rouse the pride of woman...” She reverts to another topic with evident pain: “I feel that the Journal has robbed my past of some of my best friends whether accidentally or intentionally my hand is shortened and weakened. / Yours as ever / Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” This appears to be a brief, poignant reflection on the split between the American Woman Suffrage Association under the leadership of Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and Mary Livermore and the National Woman Suffrage Association under the leadership of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The Woman’s Journal, the successful suffrage newspaper launched by Stanton’s rivals Mary Livermore and Lucy Stone, attained a steady following which eluded Anthony and Stanton's own The Revolution. Stanton’s comment suggests the bitterness and pain which the split caused her. Elizabeth Cady Stanton autograph material is far scarcer than that of her colleague Susan B. Anthony, and though a fragment only, it is a revealing one.
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