Seneca Falls, December 23, 1859.
Dear Susan, — Where
are you? Since a week ago last Monday, I have looked for you every day. I had
the washing put off, we cooked a turkey, I made a pie in the morning, sent my
first-born to the depot and put clean aprons on the children, but lo! you did
not come. Nor did you soften the rough angles of our disappointment by one
solitary line of excuse. And it would do me such great good to see some
reformers just now. The death of my father,1 the worse than death of
my dear Cousin Gerrit,2 the martyrdom of that grand and glorious
John Brown — all this conspires to make me regret more than ever my dwarfed
womanhood. In times like these, everyone should do the work of a full-grown
man. When I pass the gate of the celestial city and good Peter asks me where I
would sit, I shall say, “Anywhere, so that I am neither a negro nor a woman.
Confer on me, good angel, the glory of white manhood so that henceforth,
sitting or standing, rising up or lying down, I may enjoy the most unlimited
freedom.” Good night.
_______________
1 Judge Cady became suddenly blind in April,
1859, and died on October 31st.
2 In October John Brown made his famous raid on
Harper's Ferry. On November 2 he was found guilty and condemned to be hung.
This tragedy unsettled for a time the mind of his friend and supporter Gerrit
Smith.
SOURCE: Theodore Stanton & Hariot Stanton Blatch,
Editors, Elizabeth Cady Stanton as
Revealed in Her Letters, Diary and Reminiscences, Volume 2, p. 74-5
