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314 & ••••••••• 139 • Emily Parmely Collins1 to ECS Hartford Conn. Nov’r [12?] 1899 My dear Mrs. Stanton: My congratulations to yourself and more to all womanhood that you have lived to see your 84" birth-day. In the not distant future when woman shall have come into her rightful heritage the 12th of November will be established as a national holiday as the 22nd of February is now held. And the 12th of November will be commemorated for as much larger reason than the 22nd of Feb. now is, as the emancipation of the whole civilized human race is greater than that of a million and a half of men. With health, and, as now, with undimmed intellect, that you may see many more birth-days is the fervent wish of your old disciple. U Emily P. Collins Y ALS,on stationery imprinted with address,Scrapbook 2,Papers of ECS,NPV. Collins wrote no day of the month. 1. Emily Parmely Peltier Collins (1814–1909) organized what was thought to be the first woman’s rights society in the nation in South Collins, New York, in 1848, in response to reports of the convention at Seneca Falls that summer. Twice widowed , she lived with the son of her first marriage in Hartford, Connecticut, where she was active in the Hartford Equal Rights Club. (History, 1:88–94; American Women; Isabella B. Hooker to Virginia L. Minor, 1 April 1879, Film, 20:789–93; New York Times, 30 April 1909; Woman’s Journal, 29 May 1909.) ••••••••• 140 • Statement by ECS [c. 20 November 1899] Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who has fought women’s battles for fifty years, said: “I indorse every word Mrs. Anthony says. 1 We will never have the right 12 november 1899 ^ 315 social relation until we have established woman’s social equality everywhere with men—in the state,the church,the home and the world of work. “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all polygamists, and the Pentateuch says nothing against it. I have charity for the Mormon, for he has the law of God on his side, as he interprets it. As Miss Anthony says, the Mormon lives up to his religious idea.The question is,does the Gentile do the same? “Social purity leagues and societies have got up a great furor over Roberts . It is all nonsense to talk of social purity until they put the mother, the builder of the race, in her proper place. If the question of polygamy were to come up before Congress, perhaps I wouldn’t want Roberts there, but Roberts may be as good a judge of war and financial questions as any other Congressman. “Do we know the character of Congressmen who sit about Roberts? A physician may be as good a doctor with two wives as if he had only one.” Y New York Evening World, 20 November 1899. 1. SBA’s part at the New York State Federation of Women’s Clubs in stopping a resolution against Brigham Roberts caused an uproar in women’s organizations and the press.“[I]t always hurts to suggest plucking the beam out of our own eye— before taking the mote from our neighbors,” SBA commented in her diary when noting the criticism leveled against her. She retained dozens of articles about the incident in her scrapbook.ECS’s comments were published with another iteration of SBA’s views on Roberts. Women should leave the matter to Congress, she told the Evening World, and take on “a more pertinent mission, and that is to attack the men of this ‘Gentile world’ who transgress the moral code more openly than most Mormons practise polygamy.”In the same article,the Rev.Madison C.Peters called SBA out of date with the modern reformers who espoused social purity; “Miss Anthony is getting old,”he explained. (SBA diary,12 November 1899,Film, 39:13ff; assorted clippings, SBA scrapbook 30, Rare Books, DLC.) ••••••••• 141 • SBA to Samuel Gompers Rochester, N.Y., Nov. 29, 1899. My Dear Friend,— Yours of the 22d inst. came duly. 1 I have made a thorough hunt to find a copy of that old petition, but thus far have failed. Will you not write out a form which you think would be approved? I am very glad you prefer 20 november 1899 ...

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