Volume II Part 10 (1/2)
Though to Anna d.i.c.kinson was due the triumph of the Republican party in several of the doubtful States at a most critical period of the war, yet that party, twenty years in power, has refused to secure her in the same civil and political rights enjoyed by the most ignorant foreigner or slave from the plantations of the South.
The lessons of the war were not lost on the women of this nation; through varied forms of suffering and humiliation, they learned that they had an equal interest with man in the administration of the Government, enjoying or suffering alike its blessings or its miseries.
When in the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of the black man they saw another ignorant cla.s.s of voters placed above their heads, and with anointed eyes beheld the danger of a distinctively ”male” government, forever involving the nations of the earth in war and violence; a lesson taught on every page of history, alike in every century of human experience; and demanded for the protection of themselves and children, that woman's voice should be heard, and her opinions in public affairs be expressed by the ballot, they were coolly told that the black man had earned the right to vote, that he had fought and bled and died for his country!
Did the negro's rough services in camp and battle outweigh the humanitarian labors of woman in all departments of government? Did his loyalty in the army count for more than her educational work in teaching the people sound principles of government? Can it be that statesmen in the nineteenth century believe that they who sacrifice human lives in b.l.o.o.d.y wars do more for the sum of human happiness and development than they who try to save the mult.i.tude and teach them how to live? But if on the battle-field woman must prove her right to justice and equality, history abundantly sets forth her claims; the records of her brave deeds mark every page of fact and fiction, of poetry and prose.
In all the great battles of the past woman as warrior in disguise has verified her right to fight and die for her country by the side of man. In camp and hospital as surgeon, physician, nurse, ministering to the sick and dying, she has shown equal skill and capacity with him.
There is no position woman has not filled, no danger she has not encountered, no emergency in all life's tangled trials and temptations she has not shared with man, and with him conquered. If moral power has any value in the balance with physical force, surely the women of this republic, by their self-sacrifice and patriotism, their courage 'mid danger, their endurance 'mid suffering, have rightly earned a voice in the laws they are compelled to obey, in the Government they are taxed to support; some personal consideration as citizens as well as the black man in the ”Union blue.”
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Before one man was slain the lint and bandages were so piled up in Was.h.i.+ngton, that the hospital surgeons in self-defence cried out, enough!
[2] Feb. 24, 1862.
[3] In a conversation with Miss Carroll, in February, 1876, Mr. Wade said: ”I have sometimes reproached myself that I had not made known the author when they were discussing the resolution in Congress to find out, _but Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton were_ opposed to its being known that the armies were moving under the plan of a civilian, directed by the President as Commander-in-Chief. Mr. Lincoln said it was that which made him hesitate to inaugurate the movement against the opinion of the military commanders, and he did not wish to risk the effect it might have upon the armies if they found out some outside party had originated the campaign; that he wanted the armies to believe they were doing the whole business of saving the country.”
[4] See Appendix.
[5] The ninth, known to the world as the battle of Orleans, fought in 1439, which brought the hundred years' war between France and England to an end, securing the independent existence of France, possessed for its organizer and leader, Joan of Arc, then but eighteen, at which time she acquired her cognomen, ”Maid of Orleans.”
[6] It has been well said: ”That a.s.sumption of man that as feud is the origin of all laws; that as woman does not fight she shall not vote, that her rights are to be forever held in abeyance to his wishes, was forever silenced by the military genius of Anna Ella Carroll in planning this brilliant campaign. Proving, too, that as right is of no s.e.x, so genius is of no s.e.x.”
[7] Hon. L. D. Evans said: ”Nothing is more certain than that the rebel power was able to resist all the forces of the Union, and keep her armies from striking their resources and interior lines of communication, upon any of the plans or lines of operation on which the Union arms were operating. Geographically considered, there was but one line which the National armies could take and maintain, and that was _unthought_ of and _unknown_, and could not have been found out, in all human probability, in time to have prevented a collapse, or warded off recognition and intervention, but for Miss Carroll. The failure to reduce Vicksburg from the water, after a tremendous sacrifice of life and treasure, and the time it took to take Richmond, furnish irrefragable proof of the inability of the Union to subdue the rebellion on the plan of our ablest generals.... England and France had resolved that duty to their suffering operatives required the raising of the blockade for the supply of cotton, and nothing prevented that intervention but the progress of the National arms up the Tennessee.... This campaign must, therefore, take rank with those few remarkable strategic movements in the world's history, which have decided the fate of empires and nations.”
[8] See Appendix.
[9] But as early as she was thus engaged, one woman had already preceded her. When the first blood of the war was shed by the attack upon the Ma.s.sachusetts troops pa.s.sing through Baltimore that memorable April 19, 1861, but one person in the whole city was found to offer them shelter and aid. Ann Manley, a woman belonging to what is called the outcast cla.s.s, with a pity as divine as that of the woman who anointed the feet of our Lord and wiped them with the hair of her head--took the disabled soldiers into her own house, and at the hazard of her life, bound up their wounds. In making up His jewels at the last great day, will not the Lord say of her as of one of old, ”She has loved much, and much is forgiven her?”
[10] There was no penalty for disobedience, and persons disaffected, forgetful, or idle, might refuse or neglect to obey with impunity. It indeed seems most wonderful--almost miraculous--that under such circ.u.mstances, such a vast amount of good was done. Had she not accomplished half so much, she still would richly have deserved that highest of plaudits, ”Well done, good and faithful servant!”--_Woman's Work in the Civil War._
[11] When the Spanish minister, Senor Don Francis...o...b..rca, was presented to the President, he spoke of America as the ”splendid and fortunate land dreamed of, for the service of G.o.d and of human progress, by the greatest of all Spanish women, before others conceived of it.”
[12] On a pair of socks sent to the Central a.s.sociation of Relief, was pinned a paper, saying: ”These socks were knit by a little girl five years old, and she is going to knit some more, for mother said it would help some poor soldier.”
[13] The Christian Commission, an organization of later date, never succeeded in so fully gaining the affection of the soldiers, who, in tent or hospital, hailed the approach of medicine or delicacy, with an affectionate ”How are you, Sanitary?”
[14] Organized seven years previously by Dr. Blackwell as an inst.i.tution where women might be treated by their own s.e.x, and for co-ordinate purposes, and out of which the New York Medical College for Women finally grew.
[15] Women in many other parts of the country were active at as early a date as those of New York. A Soldiers' Aid Society was formed in Cleveland, Ohio, April 20, 1861, five days after the President's proclamation calling for troops. This a.s.sociation, with a slight change in organization, remained in existence a long time after the close of the war, actively employed in securing pensions and back pay to crippled and disabled soldiers. At two points in Ma.s.sachusetts, meetings to form aid societies were called immediately upon the departure of the Sixth Militia of that State for Was.h.i.+ngton.
[16] Women as loyal as these were to be found in the South, where an expression of love for the Union was held as a death offence. Among the affecting incidents of the war, was that of a woman who, standing upon the Pedee River bank, waved her handkerchief for joy at seeing her country's flag upon a boat pa.s.sing up the stream, and who for this exhibition of patriotism was shot dead by rebels on the sh.o.r.e. During the bread riots in Mobile a woman was shot. As she was dying she took a small National flag from her bosom, where she had kept it hidden, wrapped it outside a cross, kissed it, and fell forward dead.
”Indeed, we may safely say that there is scarcely a loyal woman in the North who did not do something in aid of the cause--who did not contribute time, labor, and money, to the comfort of our soldiers and the success of our arms. The story of the war will never be fully or fairly written if the achievements of woman in it are left untold.
They do not figure in the official reports; they are not gazetted for deeds as gallant as ever were done; the names of thousands are unknown beyond the neighborhood where they live, or the hospitals where they loved to labor; yet there is no feature in our war more creditable to us as a nation, none from its positive newness so well worthy of record.”--_Women of the War._
[17] The distinctive features in woman's work in that war, were magnitude, system, thorough co-operation with the other s.e.x, distinctness of purpose, business-like thoroughness in details, st.u.r.dy persistency to the close. There was no more general rising among the men than among the women, and for every a.s.sembly where men met for mutual exertion in the service of the country, there was some corresponding gathering of women to stir each other's hearts and fingers in the same sacred cause.... And of the two, the women were clearer and more united than the men, because their moral feelings and political instincts were not so much affected by selfishness, or business, or party considerations.... It is impossible to over-estimate the amount of consecrated work done by the loyal women of the North for the army. Hundreds of thousands of women probably gave all the leisure they could command, and all the money they could save and spare, to the soldiers for the whole four years and more of the war.... No words are adequate to describe the systematic, persistent faithfulness of the women who organized and led the Branches of the United States Sanitary Commission. Their voluntary labor had all the regularity of paid service, and a heartiness and earnestness which no paid service can ever have.... Men were ashamed to doubt where women trusted, or to murmur where they submitted, or to do little where they did so much.--_Woman's Work in the Civil War_.
L. P. BRACKETT.