LETTER: Autograph letter signed, to Ms. Claflin.
Autograph Letter Signed
Stone, Lucy. Autograph Letter Signed “Lucy Stone” to “Mrs. Chaplin.” Boston: August 18, 1881; two leaves The Woman’s Journal stationery; 5 x 8”; writing on all sides; creased where folded.
In this letter Lucy Stone, in her capacity as editor of The Woman's Journal, calmly and methodically answers the author of an article critical of social activist Wendell Phillips and of the work of The Woman's Journal.
She writes, on Wendell Phillips,
I have known him and honored Mrs. Phillips a great many years. When the anti-slavery society divided on the Woman question he was on our side. He was at the first woman's rights convention in this state in 1850. He refused to sit in the world convention in 1860 in London when the women delegates were excluded. In 1853 when a mob of ministers at a temperance convention attempted to shut out the woman delegate he helped fight her battle. He has been as true as a needle...to our cause. His great service to the slave has put his name among those who will be forever revered and honored.
Stone met Wendell Phillips in 1848, when he hired her for $6 a week as a lecturer and organizer for the American Anti-Slavery Society in Boston. Later, she was named secretary of the society. Phillips and Stone remained close; when Stone adopted the controversial "reform dress" costume of bloomers and short hair, Phillips publically defended her. He continued to support Stone throughout her suffragist endeavors.
On the work of The Woman's Journal, Stone writes in her letter,
I presume you do not know with what pecuniary poverty our work is carried on. The Woman's Journal has been edited for years without salary to its editors. All the time it is a hard pull to get through and not make debts (which we never do)... At each annual meeting the anxious thought is, shall we collect enough to cover expenses...When any real help comes, it is impossible not to feel a sense of personal gratitude. Some day when the suffrage cause is more popular, and more men and women are willing to work for it and be identified with it, the case will be different.
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