Eighty Years and More

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Eighty Years And More; Reminiscences?by Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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1815-1897, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Eighty Years And More; Reminiscences 1815-1897
Author: Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Release Date: April 10, 2004 [EBook #11982]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: Elizabeth Cady Stanton]

EIGHTY YEARS AND MORE
REMINISCENCES 1815-1897
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON

"Social science affirms that woman's place in society marks the level of civilization."

I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME TO
SUSAN B. ANTHONY,
MY STEADFAST FRIEND FOR HALF A CENTURY.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I.
CHILDHOOD II. SCHOOL DAYS III. GIRLHOOD IV. LIFE AT PETERBORO V. OUR WEDDING JOURNEY VI. HOMEWARD BOUND VII. MOTHERHOOD VIII. BOSTON AND CHELSEA IX. THE FIRST WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION X. SUSAN B. ANTHONY XI. SUSAN B. ANTHONY (Continued) XII. MY FIRST SPEECH BEFORE A LEGISLATURE XIII. REFORMS AND MOBS XIV. VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE XV. WOMEN AS PATRIOTS XVI. PIONEER LIFE IN KANSAS--OUR NEWSPAPER "THE REVOLUTION" XVII. LYCEUMS AND LECTURERS XVIII. WESTWARD HO! XIX. THE SPIRIT OF '76 XX. WRITING "THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE" XXI. IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE XXII. REFORMS AND REFORMERS IN GREAT BRITAIN XXIII. WOMAN AND THEOLOGY XXIV. ENGLAND AND FRANCE REVISITED XXV. THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN XXVI. MY LAST VISIT TO ENGLAND XXVII. SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLASS OF 1832--THE WOMAN'S BIBLE XXVIII. MY EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY INDEX OF NAMES

LIST OF PORTRAITS.
The Author, Frontispiece Margaret Livingston Cady Judge Daniel Cady Henry Brewster Stanton The Author and Daughter The Author and Son Susan B. Anthony Elizabeth Smith Miller Children and Grandchildren The Author, Mrs. Blatch, and Nora The Author, Mrs. Lawrence, and Robert Livingston Stanton

EIGHTY YEARS AND MORE.
CHAPTER I.
CHILDHOOD.
The psychical growth of a child is not influenced by days and years, but by the impressions passing events make on its mind. What may prove a sudden awakening to one, giving an impulse in a certain direction that may last for years, may make no impression on another. People wonder why the children of the same family differ so widely, though they have had the same domestic discipline, the same school and church teaching, and have grown up under the same influences and with the same environments. As well wonder why lilies and lilacs in the same latitude are not all alike in color and equally fragrant. Children differ as widely as these in the primal elements of their physical and psychical life.
Who can estimate the power of antenatal influences, or the child's surroundings in its earliest years, the effect of some passing word or sight on one, that makes no impression on another? The unhappiness of one child under a certain home discipline is not inconsistent with the content of another under this same discipline. One, yearning for broader freedom, is in a chronic condition of rebellion; the other, more easily satisfied, quietly accepts the situation. Everything is seen from a different standpoint; everything takes its color from the mind of the beholder.
I am moved to recall what I can of my early days, what I thought and felt, that grown people may have a better understanding of children and do more for their happiness and development. I see so much tyranny exercised over children, even by well-disposed parents, and in so many varied forms,--a tyranny to which these parents are themselves insensible,--that I desire to paint my joys and sorrows in as vivid colors as possible, in the hope that I may do something to defend the weak from the strong. People never dream of all that is going on in the little heads of the young, for few adults are given to introspection, and those who are incapable of recalling their own feelings under restraint and disappointment can have no appreciation of the sufferings of children who can neither describe nor analyze what they feel. In defending themselves against injustice they are as helpless as dumb animals. What is insignificant to their elders is often to them a source of great joy or sorrow.
With several generations of vigorous, enterprising ancestors behind me, I commenced the struggle of life under favorable circumstances on the 12th day of November, 1815, the same year that my father, Daniel Cady, a distinguished lawyer and judge in the State of New York, was elected to Congress. Perhaps the excitement of a political campaign, in which my mother took the deepest interest, may have had an influence on my prenatal life and given me the strong desire that I have always felt to participate in the rights and duties of government.
My