[The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) by Ida Husted Harper]@TWC D-Link bookThe Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) CHAPTER XII 10/43
Hammond, Ramsey and Colvin, reported to the Senate and passed by that body in February.
It was concurred in by the Assembly the day following Mrs.Stanton's speech, and signed by Governor Edwin D.Morgan.[30] This new law declared in brief: Any property, real and personal, which any married woman now owns, or which may come to her by descent, etc., shall be her sole and separate property, not subject to control or interference by her husband. Any married woman may bargain, sell, etc., carry on any trade or perform any services on her own account, and her earnings shall be her sole and separate property and may be used or invested by her in her own name. A married woman may buy, sell, make contracts, etc., and if the husband has willfully abandoned her, or is an habitual drunkard, or insane, or a convict, his consent shall not be necessary. A married woman may sue and be sued, bringing action in her own name for damages and the money recovered shall be her sole property. Every married woman shall be joint guardian of her children with her husband, with equal powers, etc., regarding them. At the decease of the husband the wife shall have the same property rights as the husband would have at her death. This remarkable action, which might be termed almost a legal revolution, was the result of nearly ten years of laborious and persistent effort on the part of a little handful of women who, by constant agitation through conventions, meetings and petitions, had created a public sentiment which stood back of the Legislature and gave it sanction to do this act of justice.
While all these women worked earnestly and conscientiously to bring about this great reform, there was but one, during the entire period, who gave practically every month of every year to this purpose, and that one was Susan B.Anthony.
In storm and sunshine, in heat and cold, in seasons of encouragement and in times of doubt, criticism and contumely, she never faltered, never stopped.
Going with her petition from door to door, only to have them shut in her face by the women she was trying to help; subjecting herself to the jeers and insults of men whom she need never have met except for this mission; held up by the press to the censure and ridicule of thousands who never had seen or heard her; misrepresented and abused above all other women because she stood in the front of the battle and offered herself a vicarious sacrifice--can the women of New York, can the women of the nation, ever be sufficiently grateful to this one who, willingly and unflinchingly, did the hardest pioneer work ever performed by mortal? Miss Anthony divided the winter of 1860 between the anti-slavery and the woman's cause.
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