Letter, Susan B. Anthony to Dr. Cordelia Green
A letter from Susan B. Anthony to her friend Dr. Cordelia Green. Anthony reports that poor health has led her to abandon her plan to secure a large standing fund for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). She mentions two possible plans for what to do with the money she has currently raised: it can either be entrusted to others who might secure the standing fund for NAWSA, or it can be invested to help with the publication of The History of Woman Suffrage. Anthony asks Dr. Green for her opinion on what to do with the money.
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[Letterhead: National-American Woman Suffrage Association]
Rochester, N.Y.,
Nov. 20, 1900.
Dr. Cordelia A. Green,
Castile
Wyoming Co. N.Y.
My Dear Friend: –
Owing to the fact that my health is not such as to warrant a great
outlay of strength in any one direction, and the probabilities are that
with increasing years it will not improve, my friends strenuously urge me
to abandon my cherished plan of securing a large standing fund for the
N.A.W.S.A. They think it would be wiser for me to use what strength
I have along lines of work in which I shall be able to influence present,
or near future, conditions, rather than to attempt to secure a “fund” for
the use of younger workers.
I have at last come to feel that I must accept their view of the
situation, and the question arises, what shall be done with money on hand,
of which there is $2,500 are 2,250? Two plans present themselves to me, one of
which is that it might be turned over to others who would undertake to
carry out the “standing fund” idea. This, however, would place the mat-
ter in the hands of those who are now constantly appealing for money to
help the work at the present, and would doubtless prove ineffectual.
The other plan is one by which the money can be invested so as to
help in carrying on the work through the coming years, and that is to as-
sist me in the publication of the fourth volume of the History of Woman
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(C.A.G.) -2-
Suffrage, which is being prepared under the splendid supervision of Mrs.
Ida Husted Harper, my biographer. This money would enable me to publish
the work and place it with the other three volumes now in the libraries
of the country, where it would be a means of continual education in the
progress of the suffrage movement.
The three volumes already published have ended before the actual granting
of full suffrage in the four states of our nation or in most other coun-
tries. This volume will close complete the history of the movement for the nine-
teenth century, and leave the twentieth century in the hands of the younger
women. If you approve of the plan and are willing your contribution should
be used for this purpose due credit will be given you in the History.
Please indicate to me your wish in the matter at your earliest conve-
nience and greatly oblige,
Very sincerely yours,