Susan B. Anthony Makes Her Argument For Women’s Rights Based on the U.S. Constitution: “The National Government owes protection to every…citizen in their sacred right to a voice in the government – not excepting the women.”

Thus she inscribes the three volumes of her landmark work, History of Woman Suffrage, to an “Equal Rights Club”

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton initiated the project of writing a history of the women's suffrage movement in 1876. The result, the History of Woman Suffrage, was a landmark work that serves as a moving testament to what intelligent, courageous, and committed individuals can accomplish when they join together to accomplish a great goal. Producing this history, which was ultimately a four volume set of books, dominated Anthony’s life for much of the next decade.  It was written and published during the heat of battle, and the preface notes that some women’s rights activists felt it was too soon to publish the history of a movement that was still working to attain its objective. But Anthony, Stanton, and their co-author Matilda J. Gage, were determined to capture the words and insights of their contemporaries in the movement while they were still living. Today the work is an extraordinary primary resource.

In the introduction the authors wrote of their intentions: "We hope the contribution we have made may enable some other hand in the future to write a more complete history of 'the most momentous reform that has yet been launched on the world—the first organized protest against the injustice which has brooded over the character and destiny of one-half the human race.”

Volumes 1 through 3 of the magnum opus were written by Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Gage. Volume 1 covered the early period of the women’s rights struggle from 1848-1861; Volume 2 covered the period from 1861-1876; and Volume 3 covered the period from 1876-1885. The fourth volume, written by Anthony and Ida H. Harper, did not come out until 1902.

We are offering the first three volumes, all that was published up till that time, gifted by Anthony “To the Equal Rights Club of Paducah, Kentucky.”  Volume 1 is a 2nd edition, published in 1886. The flyleaf contains the inscription, “To the Equal Rights Club, Paducah, Kentucky, With the hope that these volumes may be studied carefully by its members, not only for the facts contained, but also for their literary merits. From the friend & co-worker of all men and women for the reign of perfect justice & Equality. Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N.Y., Jan. 15, 1895.” Volume 2 is a 2nd edition, published in 1886. The flyleaf contains the inscription, “With the hope that the Constitutional arguments contained in this second volume will be carefully studied, and the lesson learned that the National Government owes protection to every…citizen in their sacred right to a voice in the government – not excepting the women. From Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N.Y., Jan. 15, 1895.” Volume 3 was published in 1887. The flyleaf contains the inscription, “To the Equal Rights Club of Paducah, Ky., From their friend and co-worker, Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N.Y., Jan. 15, 1895.”

This is as significant a set of inscriptions or quotations we have seen of Anthony, calling forth her reliance of the U.S. Constitution, echoing Thomas Jefferson’s terminology in the Declaration of Independence by categorizing the right to participate in government as “sacred”, and finishing with her basic argument that women should enjoy the same rights as men.