Wisconsin Women's History

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or two pages are devoted to the autographs of early or prominent workers, each autograph accompanied by a sentiment especially significative of the writer's thought That of Lucretia Mott is "Truth for Authority and not Authority for Truth," Mrs. Stranton's of which the "tires" I have forgotten. My own which was also widely used upon the Centennial envelopes issued by the National Woman Suffrage Association during 1876, is "There is a word sweeter than mother, home or heaven; - that word is Liberty." This sentiment is especially expressive of my thought and of it I have never tired, for to me no word is, or ever can be as sweet as Liberty.

Matilda Joslyn Gage

W.H. Mallory, President Dr. J.A. Mc Klveen, Vice Pres. F.I. Stuart, Secretary. F.R. Crocker, Treasurer.

Lucas County Immigration Bureau

Directors L.H. Mallory, D.I. Storie, C.E. Penick, J.A. Brown, O.A. Bartholomew, F.R. Crocker, J.A. McKlveen.

Chariton, Iowa. November 4, 1890.

Clara B. Colby Beatrice, Neb.

My Dear Madam, Yours received. I recognize the apparent form of the points you make. Yet I apprehend that no very decided advances will be made on the road to Equal Freedom, until the vast army of crusaders shall be in mental condition to move forward as one body on rational lines. True, for educational purposes, it may be best, and possibly necessary, for specialists to prosecute their respective portions of the work to the comparatively total disregard of other perhaps equally meritorious portions; and you may here and there gain recognition for your sex in matters political, but to me it seems that interests and truths are so interwoven and interdependent in the economy of the universe that no really essential and permanent strides can be brought about without a concerted movement all long the line. I suspect that when you get all your desire for woman, you will get it with the assistance of and by cooperation with, various special schools of thought with which you would

not now wish to be regarded as having anything in common. You know you are right on your specialty You are not so clear that other nominal reforms are founded in reason. You may regard them as unpopular, iconoclastic, or what not. You see merit in some of them; others are so far removed from your accustomed sphere of operations that they do not commend themselves as within rational or practical, etc., etc. So on, ad infinitum, other special school regard the woman suffragists. Well, those founded in reason and truth will, and must sooner or later, meet upon common ground.

I am quite in line with my friend Mr. B.O. Flower, editor of "The Arena", on these subjects, and regard him as one of the most capable and safe thinkers in this country. And I follow very largely the philosophy of Mr. Herbert Spencer from whom I have had a number of personal letters in the past on these subjects, and one this morning. I do not disparage your work; far from it. [None?] had occasion to mention your excellent paper in letters to the editor of an eastern publication for which I do some writing. But to me it appears of much more importance that the people shall think rightly on several subjects than that they shall vote rightly on one. Free trade is undoubtedly sound in principle; yet it is not so clear that the adoption of free trade, outwith at the same time so changing statutes as to secure to all equal access to nature's bounties, would bring about the grand results claimed by its special champions. Woman suffrage is undoubtedly correct in principle; yet while I should not demand it as a condition precedent I should very much like to feel assured that 10 or 30,000,000 women voters would not continue or increase (through ignorance upon those questions) several existing statutory oppressions that menace the perpetuity of free institutions. It is of more importance that women shall vote rightly than that they shall vote. This, not as an argument against woman suffrage (I believe that they are more likely to vote rightly than men), but against specializing reforms. respectfully, F.O. Stuart

M. Harman, Editor and Publisher. C.L. Swartz, Assistant.

LUCIFER, THE LIGHT-BEARER. $1.25 Per Year. Publishers and Book Sellers. Circulars of Reform Books Sent Free.

Valley Falls, Kas. 11-11-90

Mrs Clara B. Colby Beatrice Nebraska

Dear Madame,

Did I acknowledge the receipt of your very kind & sisterly letter received by me during my imprisonment at Lansing? I fully intended to do so, but have been so crowded with work since my release that I fear I have neglected my duty in this respect, as I have in many other instances of like nature.

The receipt of the letter in question was a most agreeable surprise to me. I knew that you had often spoken out quite plainly in the "Tribune"

in favor of free speech & free press, & against the invasive methods of Anthony Comstock et al. but I was not expecting you to take so decided a stand in favor of the prosecuted editor of the proscribed Lucifer. I especially refer now to what you said in your paper. Your lecture at Topeka some four years ago was one of the finest I ever heard from the rostrum, but still I supposed you would feel the necessity of keeping the "Tribune" clear of all implication of sympathy with a sheet so unpopular as is ours or with methods of discussion so unfashionable & so outre, as the Frenchman would say.

M. Harman, Editor and Publisher. C.L. Swartz, Assistant.

LUCIFER, THE LIGHT-BEARER. $1.25 Per Year. Publishers and Book Sellers. Circulars of Reform Books Sent Free.

Valley Falls, Kas.

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You will, I hope, pardon my seeming neglect & want of due appreciation when I tell you that not until today did I see a copy of what you said editorially in the Tribune soon after my release, & now I would not have had the pleasure of reading it had it not been for the reprint of said editorial in the National Liberator, Boston, for November.

I dont know how or why it is but I have seen but very few copies of the Tribune since my release. It may have been coming regularly but I do not open near all the exchanges &

Radical Club, 9 St. Marks Pl., New York. Vera Sassulitsch Aid Committee.

Sub-Committee on Subscriptions: Mrs. Marguerite Moore, 258 W. 15th Str. Mrs. Hugh O. Pentecost, Newark, N.J. Miss Alice Donlevy, 23 E. 14th Str. Mrs. James Redpath, Hotel Gladstone, N.Y. Miss Leubscher, 4 Warren Str. Mr. T.B. Wakeman, 93 Nassau Str. Mr. Augustus A. Levey, 20 Nassau Str. Henry F. Reed, Treasurer, 135 Waverly Pl. Moses Oppenheimer, Secr., 9 St. Marks Pl.

(All communications should be addressed to the Secretary, c.o. Radical Club, 9 St. Marks Pl, N.Y.

An appeal that should leave no freedom-loving heart untouched, reaches us from across the sea. Vera Sassulitsh, the Russian heroine of liberty, is seriously ill and destitute in her exile. Her physicians advise her a sojourn on the seashore in a sunny climate, but the unselfish and indefatiguable worker for the cause of the Russian people is too poor to bear the expense, and her friends in Europe are equally poor. We now ask generous Americans to come to the rescue, by subscribing, according to their means, on behalf of the noblest of Russian soldiers of Liberty.

Dec. 13. 1890

Dear Madam: Your favor of the 10th inst. with enclosure of $5.00 from Mrs. W. Gass, Virginia, has been received, and the money transferred to Vera Sassulitsch Fund. Allow me to express, in the name of the Committee, our sincere gratitude for your kind notice as well as for the good result if achieved. Your would oblige us if you would convey our hearty thanks to the generous donor.

We have also received a number of sample copies of your ably conducted paper of Nov. 22, containing the notice regarding poor Vera, and distributed them among the ladies of our Club.

Vera Sassulitsch is suffering from consumption. She is not in Russia now, nor has she been for the last 12 years, since she went into exile to escape transportation to Liberia, by favor of administrative order, after her acquittal by a jury. She is at present in the sunny South of Europe, on the sea-shore, for her health. We advance the money to her through a reliable address in London, England.

If you choose to send your bright paper to our Club regularly I think many of our members will appreciate your kindness.

Yours very respectfully Moses Oppenheimer Secy. V.S.A.C.

Clara Berwick Colby Beatrice, Neb.

May you be blessed by the poor little Indian waif with much love Your Friend Laura de F. Gordon

Assembly Chamber, Twenty-Ninth Session

Sacramento, Feb. 13th , 1891

Dear Mrs. Colby I have tried for weeks to get time & opportunity both, to send you a report of some of our work in Cala. but will jot this hasty note in the midst of confusion in the Senate Chamber, during recess to tell you that we are making fine progress. The bill to appoint women Notaries Public has passed the Assembly & is on 3rd reading file in the Senate, with good prospects of its passage. The bill to enfranchise women, No. 300 in the House and 254 in the Senate has been reported back from the respective Committees, with a unanimous

recommendation in favor of its passage and is on the second reading file. As there is almost a certainty of the session being prolonged over the allotted time, the outlook is favorable for its passage.

I wish there was time to call a meeting of our Cala. State W.S. S. and send greeting to the N.A.W. S. convention soon to convene in Wash. but the last time we sent resolutions (2 years ago) at a cost of many $ by telegram and also resolutions by fast mail, we were not even mentioned in the proceedings and worse than all were left out in the printed Report (by accident or mistake we were afterward informed,

Now [herein?] I enclose M.O. for $1,60 to pay $1.00 for Dr. Lillian Lomaff, Stockton name sent you nearly a year ago - so please give credit, and 6-5 weeks sub. for which please send me as premium the Origins of the Aryans? Enclosed is list of names for the 5 weeks subs. How is your little boy? Mine is lovely. God prosper you.

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I was one of the founders of the National Womans Suffrage Assn This is not mentioned. The National Citizen is not referred to At time of its existence she spoke as highly of it as she has since done of The Tribune. As little as possible is said of my connexion with Centennial work - the Woman's Declaration of Rights, and that little presenting me in an inferior and rather ludicrous light - the main reference being to my holding Susan's Anthony bonnet.

I was at the womans in Philadelphia doing hard work for ten weeks during the summer: Mrs Stanton for three only. I was also there two weeks the preceding winter making arrangements &c. The address to the Republican Party was written before Mrs Stanton arrived.

My hand was largely in the Declaration of Rights - a most historic and important document. That portion which the Philadelphia Press called its chief