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^ 577 ••••••••• 288 • Remarks by SBA at Birthday Celebration in Washington Editorial note: SBA’s birthday party took place in Washington. Officers and delegates journeyed from Baltimore not only to party but also to testify before committees of the new Congress. After reporting all the speeches, the press paraphrased some parting words from SBA about “aid” for the cause and faith in Anna Shaw’s leadership. [15 February 1906] Miss Susan B.Anthony,ensconsed in a big,easy chair upon the platform at the Church of Our Father, surrounded by the officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and others and confronted by an audience of men and women that completely filled the first floor and galleries , last evening received hearty congratulations upon the occasion of her eighty-sixth birthday anniversary and high praise for her long life work in behalf of women. Letters from President Roosevelt, senators, representatives in Congress and prominent persons all over the country were read. Those who extended congratulations in person were Senator Fred T. DuBois 1 of Idaho, Representative J. Warren Keifer 2 of Iowa, Commissioner Macfarland 3 of the District of Columbia,Rev.John Van Schaick, 4 pastor of the Church of Our Father, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of New Jersey, Mrs. Alexander Kent 5 of this city, Rev. Charles Ames 6 of Boston and Rev. Anna Shaw, president of the national organization. Miss Anthony has been ill from a severe cold during the past week, and it was feared that she might be unable to be present last evening, but by remaining in her room all day yesterday under the care of a trained nurse her condition improved. She took very little part in the meeting, except to smile and nod as things were said that pleased her.Twice,however,she rose from her chair and said a few words. Once she took occasion to comment upon the President’s letter of congratulation. This communication was addressed to Rev. Anna H. Shaw, and was as follows: “Pray let me join you in congratulating Miss Anthony upon her eightysixth birthday and extending to her the most hearty good wishes for the continuation of her useful and honorable life.” 15 february 1906 578 & Hope Men Will Do Something. “I hope the men will do something besides send congratulations,” Miss Anthony said, after this and many other letters had been read. “President Roosevelt’s letter is very good. But I want him to force Congress to pass an amendment to the Constitution granting women their rights. I would rather have him say one word to Congress on this question than give all the praise in the world to me personally.” Y Washington Evening Star, 16 February 1906. 1. Fred Thomas DuBois (1851–1930) of Idaho was the territorial delegate to Congress and one of the new state’s first senators, serving from 1891 to 1897 and again from 1901 to 1907. Originally a Silver Republican, DuBois had left the party and become a Democrat by this date. (BDAC.) 2. Joseph Warren Keifer (1836–1932), Republican of Ohio, was returned to the House of Representatives in 1905 and served until 1911. While he was Speaker of the House in the Forty-seventh Congress from 1881 to 1883,he joined suffragists in their unsuccessful effort to restore a select committee for woman suffrage. (BDAC. See also Papers 4.) 3. Henry Brown Floyd Macfarland (1861–1921), a journalist, was appointed a commissioner of the District of Columbia in 1900 and served for nine years. He also held office in the District’s woman suffrage association. (NCAB, 19:226; WWW1; History, 6:105n.) 4. John van Schaick, Jr., (1873–1949) was minister of the Universalist Church of Our Father, where the birthday celebration took place. (Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography, on-line publication of the Unitarian Universalist Historical Society.) 5. Caroline or Carrie E. Gove Kent (1843–1918), wife of Alexander Kent, pastor of the People’s Church in Washington,was active in the District of Columbia Equal Suffrage Association and, according to the History of Woman Suffrage, “served in some official capacity from 1898 until her death in 1918.” She was the group’s president in 1900, 1902, 1903, and 1914. (Federal Census, 1880, 1900; History, 4:568n, 6:105, 106n.) 6. Charles Gordon Ames (1828–1912),long active in work for woman suffrage in California, Pennsylvania, and Massachsetts, was at this time minister of Boston’s Unitarian Church of the Disciples. (NCAB, 23:317–18. See also...

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