Susan B. Anthony Collects International Support For Her First Appearance Before Congress

"We want to have therein as formidable an array of good names & strong appeals and arguments as possible – that we may thereby influence our law makers to act favorably upon our demand and that too at this very session of Congress."

By 1884 there was great frustration among proponents of the cause of women's suffrage. It had been 36 years since the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, and insufficient progress had been made. So Anthony determined upon a different course of action, which was to take the fight to the halls of Congress and argue her case there. It had been 16 years since ratification of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which provided that neither the Federal nor any state government could "deny to any person…the equal protection of the laws," and 14 years since ratification of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which provided that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." If taken together these did not mean that the Constitution required that women, as citizens, could vote, then she would demand a 16th Amendment plainly stating that. The date of March 6 was set for her to come before the Senate Select Committee on Woman Suffrage, and on March 8 to testify before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. These would be her first ever appearances before Congress. To build up the pressure on Congress, the 1884 National Woman Suffrage Association's 18th annual convention was set to be held in Washington on March 4-6, immediately before Anthony's testimony.

To prepare for the events, Anthony set out to gather statements from notables that she could present before the convention and see published in both the newspapers and in the official account of the convention. She had visited Great Britain in 1883 and met the luminaries of the British women's right movement there. So she decided to reach outside of the United States for support, intending to present Congress with a show of international solidarity. Priscilla Bright McLaren was the sister of English liberal John Bright and the president of the Scottish National Society for Woman Suffrage. Priscilla's husband Douglas McLaren was a Member of Parliament and a supporter of women's rights. Priscilla's sister Margaret Bright Lucas was a women's rights supporter and leader of the British Christian Temperance Union; her son-in-law was John Thomasson, a Member of Parliament. So with the parliamentary connection seen as additionally useful, Anthony wrote Priscilla Bright McLaren asking for her assistance in lobbying.

Autograph letter signed, Washington, January 11, 1884, to Mrs. McLaren. "Enclosed is the call for our next convention and I want to ask of you the contribution of a letter to be read in our meeting & published in our pamphlet report – a copy of which we shall lay upon the table of every member of Congress, and we want to have therein as formidable an array of good names & strong appeals and arguments as possible – that we may thereby influence our law makers to act favorably upon our demand and that too at this very session of Congress. I am sure you will not fail to grant us this favor. Tell us whatever you please on whatever subject seems to be of most importance to you – only don't fail non refuse me the weight of your name & appeal to aid us in moving the head & heart of this 48th Congress!! I have written to Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell begging a letter from her. I want a long list of the names of representative men & women enrolled with us this time, and I hope this may be the last time we shall be compelled to come begging at the feet of the people's servants at Washington. I will remember my pleasant [time] at your home with our dear Mrs. Lucas…" Mrs. McLaren complied and presented Anthony with a long, inspirational letter, just the support Anthony had requested, as can be found in the published report on the proceedings of the convention.

On March 6 before the Senate Select Committee on Woman Suffrage, she remarked: "We appear before you this morning…to ask that you will, at your earliest convenience, report to the House in favor of the submission of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Legislatures of the several States, that shall prohibit the disfranchisement of citizens of the United States on account of sex." On the 8th, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, she called for a 16th Amendment granting women the right to vote.

In the end, all of this work was unsuccessful. The struggle for women's suffrage continued until 1919, when the 19th Amendment was ratified, fulfilling Anthony's dream.