That the Sargent family was well acquainted with Susan B. Anthony can be seen in the following news article:


MISS ANTHONY ARRIVES,

She Is Accomapanied by Her Private Secretary, Mrs. Emma B. Sweet.

The Veteran Suffragist as Vigourous and as Confident of Success as Ever.

Miss Susan B. Anthony, accompanied by her private secretary, Mrs. Emma B. Sweet, arrived from San Diego yesterday afternoon.

Dr. Elizabeth Sargent met them at Tracy and Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, Miss Hattie Cooper and Mrs. Solomon met the party at the Sixteenth-street station, Oakland. One of the ladies presented the veteran leader with an exquisite bouquet of heliotrope and white fleur de lis, a floral trophy which Miss Anthony proudly carried to the home of her friend, Mrs. A. A. Sargent, with whom she will stay during her sojourn in the city.

Miss Anthony looks as vigourous as when she left the State last summer. She spoke deprecatingly of the telegraphic stories of her supposed demise last summer. "I was in a small country town and the boys were put to it for news," she remarked, laughingly. "I don't believe they credited it themselves even for the two minutes I was in a swoon. Don't say much about it, please. I am ashamed of having fainted, even though it was for the first time in my life."

Miss Anthony is as confident of the ultimate success of her cause as ever.

"We must depend upon an amendment to the National constitution for the triumph of woman suffrage in the conservative East," she said, "but in the progressive West it can be accomplished by State legislation. Reports from California have been encouraging. I cannot speak of the outlook from personal knowledge as yet, but the sentiment is waxing strong in the West.

"The matter of amendments granting equal suffrage is being agitated in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and Mrs. Chapman Catt has taken a force of workers to Idaho, whose efforts will be directed to the same end.

"It has been my good fortune to meet club after club of women since I left California. For instance, there was the Woman's Club, numbering 700, in Chicago. Jane Adams, who is at the head of the Hull House, read a paper on 'The Modern Tragedy' that I consider one of the finest effors I ever heard. No member of the present Congress could do as well, I am sure.

"I was at Ann Arbor at the time the 600 girl students gave their leap-year ball. It was a most amusing affair.

"I have the pleasantest recollections of the National convention at Washington. Miss Shaw and I were able to marshal representatives of thirty-four States before the Congressional committees, the best showing we have ever made."

"Will you remain in California till the close of the campaign?" was asked.

Miss Anthony replied that she did not know, but Mrs. Cooper said she thought she would.

Mrs. Sweet is a pleasant young woman, who is making her first visit to the coast, with which she is charmed. She will be domiciled at the Berkshire.
San Francisco Call - March 15, 1896


SARGENT - In this city, February 6, 1900, Elizabeth R. C. Sargent, daughter of the late Aaron A. and Ellen C. Sargent. (Nevada City, Washington, D. C., and Newburyport, Mass., papers please copy.)
Notice of funeral will be given in Thursday morrning's papers.
San Francisco Call - Feb. 7, 1900


That Elizabeth Sargent played her own role as a suffragist is evident in the following letter:


"WOMEN DO NOT WANT TO VOTE"

It is often said that the majority of women do not want to vote, but who can say or know the number who do want to vote? Tens of thousands have openly expressed their wish in the affirmative; still more thousands acknowledge that they believe the demand to be just, and that they cherish in secret a desire to have a voice in the election of officials to govern them, but fear to come out openly because some male relative upon whom they are dependent is "bitterly" opposed— this male relative being often a very decent sort of a man. It may be said that these women ought to be braver. Are they, however, less lacking in the "courage of their convictions" than men who acknowledge their belief in woman suffrage, but fear to let it be known on account of supposed injury to business or political interests?

It requires unusual moral courage, as well as disinterestedness in a woman, to express opinions favorable to woman's enfranchisement, until at least there is a fair prospect of obtaining it. The comfort of her individual life and her social consideration usually depend upon the good-will of those who hold the undue power. Women will never express a "general desire" for suffrage until the men ot their little worlds have ceased to ridicule and despise them for it. Senator H. W. Blair of New Hampshire expresses himself very fully on this point:

There are many reasons why some women declare themselves opposed to the extension of suffrage to their sex. Some well-fed and pampered, without serious experiences in life, are incapable of comprehending the subject at all. Vast numbers, who secretly and earnestly desire it, from the long habit of deference to the wishes of the other sex, upon whom they are so entirely dependent while disfranchised, and knowing the hostility of their "protectors" to the agitation of the subject conceal their real sentiments and the "lord" of the family referring this question to his wife, who has heard him sneer or worse than sneer at suffrgists for half a lifetime, ought not to expect an answer which she knows will subject her to his censure and ridicule or even his unexpressed disapprobation.

George William Curtis, the editor for so many years of the "Easy Chair" in Harper's Monthly, touched upon the same point in his genial, witty way in one of the last issues before his death. He gives a supposititious conversation between an elderly wit and a comely young woman in a crowded omnibus, the wit having asked his son, sitting in his lap, why he did not get up and give the lady his seat. If the comely maid had suddenly and sweetly asked the elderly wit whether he was a true American, and believed that taxation and representation should go together, he would have promptly replied, "Yes, ma'am." But if she had then whipped out her logical rapier and thrust at him the question, "Are you, then, in favor of giviug me a vote?" his cleverness and his courtesy would have blended in his reply, ''Madam, when women demand it they will have it." It is the universal reply of the ingenious patriot, who is aware that the argument is against him, but who is still unconvinced.

Mr. Curtis then makes the comely maid bring forward in rapid succession the queries: "Has It been the general custom of Legislatures to wait until everybody interested in a reform asked for it before granting it?" "Whether imprisonment for debt was abolished because poor debtors as a body requested it, or because it was deemed best in the general interest that it should be abolished"; "Whether hanging for stealing a leg of mutton was renounced because the hapless thieves demanded it, or because Romilly showed that humanity and the welfare of society and of respect for law required it" ; "Whether the slave trade was stopped and the West Indian slaves emancipated by England because the slaves petitioned, or because Parliament thought such reforms desirable for the interests of England."

But, even if a large number of women do not desire any change in the constitution, that would be a very bad reason for withholding the elective franchise from those who desire it. Senator Blair says:

If the right (of suffrage) exist at all it is an individual right, and not one which belongs to a class or to the sex as such. Yet men tell us that they will vote the suffrage to women whenever the majority of women desire it. Are, then, our rights the property of the majority of the disfranchised class to which we may chance to belong? What would be said if it were seriously proposed to recall the suffrage from all colored or from all white men because a majority of either class should decline or for any cause fail to note? I know that it is said that the suffrage is a privilege to be extended by those who have it to those who have it not. But the matter of right, of moral right, to the franchise does not depend upon the indifference of those who possess it or of those who do not possess it to the desire of those women who wish to enjoy their right , and to discharge their duty. If one or many choose not to claim their right, it is no argument for depriving me of mine or one woman of hers.

From all points of view, the argument that women do not want to vote proves to be no argument at all, because if the right to vote is gained they can exercise it or not, as they choose. It is not a compulsory exercise of power on their part. It is not proposed to "force suffrage" upon any one, but only to give every qualified woman the option or not as she pleases, just as a qualified man has the option. And which is the more creditable to womanhood, the attitude of the suffragists who say, "Let each woman do as she chooses," or that of the remonstrants, "Make all women do as we choose"?

It seems fitting to close with another quotation from the "Easy Chair":

"The fabled stream that sank from sight and emerged far away, still flowing, is an image of the course of all progress. The argument which establishes the reason and the benefit of reform does not, therefore, at once establish it, still less complete it. There are obstructions, delays, disappearances; but still the stream flows, seen or unseen, still it swells, and reappearing far from where it vanished, moves brimming to the sea."
Elizabeth Sargent.
San Francisco Call - Aug. 3, 1896




Death of Miss E. R. C. Sargent.

Friends of Miss Elizabeth R. C. Sargent will learn with sorrow of the death of that estimable lady. She passed away in this city yesterday after a short illness. She was a daughter of the late Senator Aaron A. Sargent and Ellen C. Sargent. Miss Sargent was well known in society circles of Nevada City, Washington, D. C., and Newburyport, Mass.
San Francisco Call - Feb. 7, 1900


SARGENT - The funeral of the late Elizabeth R. C. Sargent will take place at the family residence, 1630 Folsom street, northwest corner of Thirteenth, to-morrow (Friday), at 11 o'clock. Friends are invited to attend the services at the house. The interment will be private.
San Francisco Call - Feb. 8, 1900


NOTE: Although interment was not disclosed it is very likely that Elizabeth was originally interred near her father at Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco. When land in San Francisco became too valuable, Laurel Hill Cemetery lost it's place in history and all of the individuals buried there were disinterred. Most were relocated to Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, but whether this is true in Elizabeth's case is not yet known. Her father, Aaron Augustus Sargent, was brought to Nevada County, where the family had formerly resided. His tombstone is now present in Nevada City's, Pioneer Cemetery, but his ashes were said to be spread at his mining claim on Quaker Hill.