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^ 13 Banks, Biographical Dictionary of British Feminists, 1800–1930.) Jacob Bright’s wife, Ursula Mellor Bright (1835–1915), shared her husband’s political interests. She joined the pioneering Manchester suffrage society, worked against the Contagious Diseases Acts, and led the Married Women’s Property Committee. (Oxford DNB. See also Papers 4 & 5 for all four members of the family.) ••••••••• 7 • ECS to Clara Bewick Colby 26 West 61st N.Y. Jan 28 [1896] Dear Mrs Colby, Do your best not to allow the association as such to take any action on The Woman’s Bible.It would be a great pity for the only liberal association of women we have to cater to the religious bigotry of the age. The spirit of our times is setting in the direction of religious freedom. Prof Goldwin Smith1 in the December number of the North American Review says the Bible is the millstone round the neck of Christianity A resolution denouncing the Woman’s Bible with Susan B. Athony in the chair, would be a stain on Susan’s honesty that would never be forgotten Every one who knows her knows that she is at heart as liberal as I am, & that [a]ny action looking in the other direction is simply policy. If I were Susan I would [re]sign rather than endorse any such proceeding I have just written her a strong letter The best classes of men in favor of woman suffrage are afraid of it, as they say the influence of woman would be against the secular nature of our government & I fear it would We should get woman suffrage at too dear price, in a union of church & state, against which our fathers so carefully guarded I wish I could see you for a long talk If I had had any idea of such a betrayal of principle I should have gone to Washington to2 help strengthen the weak kneeded & oppose the bigots. I stood alone in demanding suffrage in the first convention but after prolonged discussion carried it unanimously at last.I trust Susan will be able to stand firmly for religious equality after fifty years of education I care more that she should be true to her convictions than for all beside. “The literary style of The Penteteuch” is too weak a basis for denunciation the real one “a fear of the popular faith as to the inspiration of the Bible” which is the true ground of the proposed resolution3 i[s] much 24 january 1896 14 & stronger as well as true Make the speech of your life in favor of religious freedom Sincerely yours U Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Do you want any more Bibles. You can have all you want at thirty cents & sell for fifty Do you intend to go on another year, & do you wish to publish Part II from week to week.4 You might take names & addresses for the Bible & send to Bob,5 or he can [sen]d you another package. Y ALS,Clara B.Colby Papers,Archives Division,WHi.Letters in square brackets obscured by ink blots. 1. Goldwin Smith (1823–1910) was an English journalist and historian living in Canada. In “Christianity’s Millstone,” North American Review 161 (December 1895): 703–19, Smith reviewed contemporary ideas about literal readings of the Old Testament and recommended that “the time has surely come when as a supernatural revelation [the early books] should be frankly though reverently laid aside, and no more allowed to cloud the vision of free inquiry or to cast the shadow of primeval religion and law over our modern life.” (Oxford DNB.) 2. Here,at the bottom of her sheet,ECS wrote her initials,though her sentence carries over to a new sheet. 3. Omitted here is an extra quotation mark that ECS penned between this word and the next. 4. ECS refers to Colby’s chronic problems financing the Woman’s Tribune and asks if she will repeat the arrangement by which Colby published the Woman’s Bible, Part I in serial form in the Tribune prior to its publication as a book. 5. Her son, Bob Stanton. ••••••••• 8 • Remarks of SBA to the National-American Woman Suffrage Association Editorial note: This, the main debate about the Woman’s Bible took place at a public session in the afternoon of 28 January 1896. Lillie Blake tried to find a compromise during an Executive Committee meeting on 25 January 1896,proposing that criticism of the Woman’s Bible be struck from Rachel Avery’s report...

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