Chapter XVI

WOMAN'S PATRIOTISM IN THE WAR.

House of Representatives (46th Congress, 3d Session. Report No. 386).

Anna Ella Carroll.

March 3, 1881.—Committed to the Committee of the Whole House, and ordered to be printed.

Mr. Bragg, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following Report (to accompany bill H. R. 7,256):

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom the memorial of Anna Ella Carroll was referred, asking national recognition and reward for services rendered the United States during the war between the States, after careful consideration of the same, submit the following:

In the autumn of 1861 the great question as to whether the Union could be saved, or whether it was hopelessly subverted, depended on the ability of the Government to open the Mississippi and deliver a fatal blow upon the resources of the Confederate power. The original plan was to reduce the formidable fortifications by descending this river, aided by the gun-boat fleet, then in preparation for that object.

President Lincoln had reserved to himself the special direction of this expedition, but before it was prepared to move he became convinced that the obstacles to be encountered were too grave and serious for the success which the exigencies of the crisis demanded, and the plan was then abandoned, and the armies diverted up the Tennessee River, and thence southward to the center of the Confederate power.

The evidence before this Committee completely establishes that Miss Anna Ella Carroll was the author of this change of plan, which involved a transfer of the National forces to their new base in North Mississippi and Alabama, in command of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad; that she devoted time and money in the autumn of 1861 to the investigation of its feasibility is established by the sworn testimony of L. D. Evans, Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, to the Military Committee of the United States Senate in the 42d Congress (see pp. 40, 41 of memorial); that after that investigation she submitted her plan in writing to the War Department at Washington, placing it in the hands of Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, as is confirmed by his statement (see p. 38 of memorial), also confirmed by the statement of Hon. B. F. Wade, Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, made to the same Committee (see p. 38), and of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton (see p. 39 of memorial); also by Hon. O. H. Browning, of Illinois, Senator during the war, in confidential relations with President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton (see p. 39, memorial); also that of Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, Comptroller of the Treasury (see p. 41, memorial); also by Hon. Thomas H. Hicks, Governor of Maryland, and by Hon. Frederick Feckey's affidavit, Comptroller of the Public Works of Maryland (see p. 127 of memorial); by Hon. Reverdy Johnson (see pp. 26 and 41, memorial); Hon. George Vickers, United States Senator from Maryland (see p. 41, memorial); again by Hon. B. F. Wade (see p. 41, memorial); Hon. J. T. Headley (see p. 43, memorial); Rev. Dr. R. J. Breckinridge on services (see p. 47, memorial); Prof. Joseph Henry, Rev. Dr. Hodge, of Theological Seminary at Princeton (see p. 30, memorial); remarkable interviews and correspondence of Judge B. F. Wade (see pp. 23-26 of memorial).

That this campaign prevented the recognition of Southern independence by its fatal effects on the Confederate States is shown by letters from Hon. C. M. Clay (see pp. 40-43 of memorial), and by his letters from St. Petersburgh; also those of Mr. Adams and Mr. Dayton from London and Paris (see pp. 100-102 of memorial).

That the campaign defeated National bankruptcy, then imminent, and opened the way for the system of finance to defend the Federal cause, is shown by the debates of the period in both Houses of Congress (see utterances of Mr. Spalding, Mr. Diven, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, Mr. Roscoe Conkling, Mr. John Sherman, Mr. Henry Wilson, Mr. Fessenden, Mr. Trumbull, Mr. Foster, Mr. Garrett Davis, Mr. John J. Crittendon, etc., found for convenient reference in appendix to memorial, pp. 47-59. Also therein the opinion of the English press as to why the Union could not be restored).

The condition of the struggle can best be realized as depicted by the leading statesmen in Congress previous to the execution of these military movements (see synopsis of debates from Congressional Globe, pp. 21, 22 of memorial).

The effect of this campaign upon the country and the anxiety to find out and reward the author are evidenced by the resolution of Mr. Roscoe Conkling, in the House of Representatives 24th of February, 1862 (see debates on the origin of the campaign, pp. 39-63 of memorial). But it was deemed prudent to make no public claim as to authorship while the war lasted (see Colonel Scott's view, p. 32 of memorial).

The wisdom of the plan was proven, not only by the absolute advantages which resulted, giving the mastery of the conflict to the National arms and evermore assuring their success even against the powers of all Europe should they have combined, but it was likewise proven by the failures to open the Mississippi or win any decided success on the plan first devised by the Government.

It is further conclusively shown that no plan, order, letter, telegram, or suggestion of the Tennessee River as the line of invasion has ever been produced, except in the paper submitted by Miss Carroll on the 30th of November, 1861, and her subsequent letters to the Government as the campaign progressed.

It is further shown to this Committee that the able and patriotic publications of memorialist, in pamphlets and newspapers, with her high social influence, not only largely contributed to the cause of the Union in her own State, Maryland (see Governor Hicks' letters, p. 27, memorial), but exerted a wide and salutary influence on all the Border States (see Howard's report, p. 33 and p. 75 of memorial).

These publications were used by the Government as war measures, and the debate in Congress shows that she was the first writer on the war powers of the Government (see p. 45 of memorial). Leading statesmen and jurists bore testimony to their value, including President Lincoln, Secretaries Chase, Stanton, Seward, Welles, Smith, Attorney-General Bates, Senators Browning, Doolittle, Collamer, Cowan, Reverdy Johnson, and Hicks, Hon. Horace Binney, Hon. Benjamin H. Brewster, Hon. William M. Meredith, Hon. Robert J. Walker, Hon. Charles O'Conor, Hon. Edwards Pierrepont, Hon. Edward Everett, Hon. Thomas Corwin, Hon. Francis Thomas, of Maryland, and many others found in memorial.

The Military Committee, through Senator Howard, in the Forty-first Congress, third session, document No. 337, unanimously reported that Miss Carroll did cause the change of the military expedition from the Mississippi to the Tennessee River, etc.; and the aforesaid Committee, in the Forty-second Congress, second session, document No. 167, as found in memorial, reported, through the Hon. Henry Wilson, the evidence and bill in support of this claim.

Again, in the Forty-fourth Congress, the Military Committee of the House favorably considered this claim, and General A. S. Williams was prepared to report, and being prevented by want of time, placed on record that this claim is incontestably established, and that the country owes to Miss Carroll a large and honest compensation, both in money and honors, for her services in the National crisis.

In view of all the facts, this Committee believe that the thanks of the nation are due Miss Carroll, and that they are fully justified in recommending that she be placed on the pension rolls of the Government, as a partial measure of recognition for her public service, and report herewith a bill for such purpose and recommend its passage.

Hon. E. M. Stanton came into the War Department, in 1862, pledged to execute the Tennessee campaign.

Statement from Hon. B. F. Wade, Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, April 4, 1876.

Dear Miss Carroll:—I had no part in getting up the committee; the first intimation to me was that I had been made the head of it. But I never shirked a public duty, and at once went to work to do all that was possible to save the country. We went fully into the examination of the several plans for military operations then known to the Government, and we saw plainly enough that the time it must take to execute any of them would make it fatal to the Union.

We were in the deepest despair, until just at this time Colonel Scott informed me that there was a plan already devised that if executed with secrecy would open the Tennessee and save the National cause. I went immediately to Mr. Lincoln and talked the whole matter over. He said he did not himself doubt that the plan was feasible, but said there was one difficulty in the way, that no military or naval man had any idea of such a movement, it being the work of a civilian, and none of them would believe it safe to make such an advance upon only a navigable river with no protection but a gun-boat fleet, and they would not want to take the risk. He said it was devised by Miss Carroll, and military men were extremely jealous of all outside interference. I plead earnestly with him, for I found there were influences in his Cabinet then averse to his taking the responsibility, and wanted everything done in deference to the views of McClellan and Halleck. I said to Mr. Lincoln, "You know we are now in the last extremity, and you have to choose between adopting and at once executing a plan that you believe to be the right one, and save the country, or defer to the opinions of military men in command, and lose the country." He finally decided he would take the initiative, but there was Mr. Bates, who had suggested the gun-boat fleet, and wanted to advance down the Mississippi, as originally designed, but after a little he came to see no result could be achieved on that mode of attack, and he united with us in favor of the change of expedition as you recommended.

After repeated talks with Mr. Stanton, I was entirely convinced that if placed at the head of the War Department he would have your plan executed vigorously, as he fully believed it was the only means of safety, as I did.

Mr. Lincoln, on my suggesting Stanton, asked me how the leading Republicans would take it—that Stanton was so fresh from the Buchanan Cabinet, and so many things said of him. I insisted he was our man withal, and brought him and Lincoln into communication, and Lincoln was entirely satisfied; but so soon as it got out, the doubters came to the front, Senators and Members called on me, I sent them to Stanton and told them to decide for themselves. The gun-boats were then nearly ready for the Mississippi expedition, and Mr. Lincoln agreed, as soon as they were, to start the Tennessee movement. It was determined that as soon as Mr. Stanton came in the Department, that Col. Scott should go out to the western armies and make ready for the campaign in pursuance of your plan, as he has testified before committees.

It was a great work to get the matter started; you have no idea of it. We almost fought for it. If ever there was a righteous claim on earth, you have one. I have often been sorry that, knowing all this, as I did then, I had not publicly declared you as the author. But we were fully alive to the importance of absolute secrecy. I trusted but few of our people; but to pacify the country, I announced from the Senate that the armies were about to move, and inaction was no longer to be tolerated, and Mr. Fessenden, head of the Finance Committee, who had been told of the proposed advance, also stated in the Senate that what would be achieved in a few more days would satisfy the country and astound the world.

As the expedition advanced, Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Stanton, and myself, frequently alluded to your extraordinary sagacity and unselfish patriotism, but all agreed that you should be recognized for your most noble service, and properly rewarded for the same. The last time I saw Mr. Stanton he was on his death-bed; he was then most earnest in his desire to have you come before Congress, as I told you soon after, and said if he lived he would see that justice was awarded you. This I have told you often since, and I believe the truth in this matter will finally prevail.

B. F. Wade.

From Hon. Elisha Whittlesey.

Found among his private papers, and transmitted to Miss Carroll in 1874.

Treasury Department, Comptroller's Office, } February 20, 1862. }

This will accompany copies of two letters written by Miss Anna Ella Carroll to the War Department.

Having informed me of the contents of the letters, I requested her to permit me to copy her duplicates. When she brought them to me she enjoined prudence in their use. They are very extraordinary papers as verified by the result. So far as I know or believe, our unparalleled victories on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers may be traced to her sagacious observations and intelligence. Her views were as broad and sagacious as the field to be occupied. In selecting the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers instead of the Mississippi, she set at naught the opinions of civilians, of military and naval men.

Justice should be done her patriotic discernment. She labors for her country and her whole country.

Elisha Whittlesey.

Letters To Miss Carroll From Hon. Benjamin F. Wade.

Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, who during the war was Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, and during the last period of his services, after the assassination of President Lincoln had elevated Andrew Johnson to the Presidency, was acting Vice-President and President of the Senate, was a friend of Miss Carroll. He addressed the following letter to her in 1869, just before the close of his last Congressional session:

Washington, March 1, 1869.

Miss Carroll:—I can not take leave of my public life without expressing my deep sense of your services to the country during the whole period of our National troubles. Although a citizen of a State almost unanimously disloyal and deeply sympathizing with secession, especially the wealthy and aristocratic class of her people, to which you belonged, yet, in the midst of such surroundings, you emancipated your own slaves at a great sacrifice of personal interest, and with your powerful pen defended the cause of the Union and loyalty as ably and effectively as it has ever yet been defended.

From my position on the Committee on the Conduct of the War, I know that some of the most successful expeditions of the war were suggested by you, among which I might instance the expedition up the Tennessee River.

The powerful support you gave Governor Hicks during the darkest hour of your State's history, prompted him to take and maintain the stand he did, and thereby saved your State from secession and consequent ruin.

All those things, as well as your unremitted labors in the cause of reconstruction, I doubt not, are well known and remembered by the members of Congress at that period.

I also well know in what high estimation your services were held by President Lincoln: and I can not leave the subject without sincerely hoping that the Government may yet confer on you some token of acknowledgment for all these services and sacrifices.

B. F. Wade.

Very sincerely, your friend,

On the 28th of February, 1873, three years after his leaving public life, Judge Wade addressed the following letter:

To the Chairman of the Military Committee of the United States Senate:

Dear Sir:—I have been requested to make a brief statement of what I can recollect concerning the claim of Miss Carroll, now before Congress. From my position as Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, it came to my knowledge that the expedition that was preparing, under the special direction of President Lincoln, to descend the Mississippi River, was abandoned, and the Tennessee expedition was adopted by the Government in pursuance of information and a plan presented to the Secretary of War, I think the latter part of November, 1861, by Miss Carroll. A copy of this plan was put into my hands immediately after the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson. With the knowledge of its author I interrogated witnesses before the Committee to ascertain how far military men were cognizant of the fact. Subsequently President Lincoln informed me that the merit of this plan was due to Miss Carroll; that the transfer of the armies from Cairo and the northern part of Kentucky to the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was her conception, and was afterwards carried out generally, and very much in detail, according to her suggestions. Secretary Stanton also conversed with me on the matter, and fully recognized Miss Carroll's service to the Union in the organization of this campaign. Indeed, both Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton, the latter only a few weeks before his death, expressed to me their high appreciation of this service, and all the other services she was enabled to render the country by her influence and ability as a writer, and they both expressed the wish that the Government would reward her liberally for the same, in which wish I most fully concur.

B. F. Wade.

We give extracts from letters written Miss Carroll by Judge Wade, after his retirement from public life:

Jefferson, Ohio, Sept. 9, 1874.

This Congress may be mean enough to refuse to remunerate you for your services, but thank heaven they can not deprive you of the honor and consciousness of having done greater and more efficient services for the country in the time of her greatest peril than any other person in the Republic, and a knowledge of this can not long be suppressed, though I do not underrate the mighty powers that may be arrayed against you.

B. F. Wade.

Jefferson, Ohio, Aug. 14, 1876.

I rejoice that you are to have the testimony in your case published by Congress, as I can not but believe that Congress, when they have the facts properly before them, will be shamed into doing you justice, though late.

I fully appreciate and deeply regret the injustice done you as though the case were my own. The country almost in her last extremity was saved by your sagacity and unremitted labor; indeed your services were so great that it is hard to make the world believe it. Many have been most generously rewarded for services having no more proportion to yours than a mole hill to a mountain—and that all this great work should be brought about by a woman is inconceivable to vulgar minds, but I hope and believe that justice will triumph at last.

B. F. Wade.

Jefferson, Ohio, Oct. 3, 1876.

The truth is, your services were so great that they can not be comprehended by the ordinary capacity of our public men, and then again your services were of such a character that they threw a shadow over the reputation of some of our would-be great men. No doubt great pains has been taken in the business of trying to defeat you; but it has been an article of faith with me that truth and justice must ultimately triumph.

B. F. Wade.

Ever yours truly,

From Reverdy Johnson.

Westminster Palace Hotel } London, Nov. 29, 1875. }

My Dear Miss Carroll:—I remember very well that you were the first to advise the campaign on the Tennessee River in November, 1861. This I have never heard doubted, and the great events which followed it demonstrate the value of your suggestions. That this will be recognized by the Government sooner or later I can not doubt....

Reverdy Johnson.

Sincerely your friend,

From Orestes H. Brownson.

Quincy, Ill., Sept. 17, 1873.

Miss A. E. Carroll:—During the progress of the war of the rebellion, from 1861 to 1865, I had frequent conversations with President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton in regard to the able and efficient part you had taken in behalf of the country, in all of which they expressed their admiration and gratitude for the patriotic and valuable services you had rendered the cause of the Union. In the hope that you would be adequately recompensed by Congress....

O. H. Brownson.

I am your obedient servant,

Letter of Hon. Thomas A. Scott to Hon. Jacob M. Howard, Chairman of the Senate Military Committee upon Miss Carroll's claim for a pension after the close of the war:

Hon. Jacob M. Howard, United States Senate:—On or about the 30th of November, 1861, Miss Carroll, as stated in her memorial, called on me as Assistant Secretary of War, and suggested the propriety of abandoning the expedition which was then preparing to descend the Mississippi River, and to adopt instead the Tennessee River, and handed me the plan of the campaign as appended to her memorial, which plan I submitted to the Secretary of War, and its general ideas were adopted. On my return from the South-west in 1862, I informed Miss Carroll, as she states in her memorial, that through the adoption of this plan, the country had been saved millions, and that it entitled her to the kind consideration of Congress.

Thos. A. Scott.

Letter of Hon. Thomas A. Scott to Hon. Henry Wilson, Chairman of the Military Committee, United States Senate:

Philadelphia, May 1, 1872.

My Dear Sir:—I take pleasure in stating that the plan presented by Miss Carroll, in November, 1861, for a campaign up the Tennessee River and thence southerly, was submitted to the Secretary of War and President. And, after Secretary Stanton's appointment, I was directed to go to the western armies and arrange to increase their effective force as rapidly as possible. A part of the duty assigned to me was the organization and consolidation into regiments of all the troops then being recruited in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, for the purpose of carrying through this campaign, then inaugurated.

This work was vigorously prosecuted by the army, and as the valuable suggestions of Miss Carroll, made to the Department some months before, were substantially carried out through the campaigns in that section, great successes followed, and the country was largely benefited in the saving of time and expenditure.

I hope Congress will reward Miss Carroll liberally for her patriotic efforts and services.

Thomas A. Scott.

Very truly yours,

Hon. Henry Wilson, Chairman of the Military Committee, United States Senate.

Letter from Hon. Thomas A. Scott to Mrs. Gage.

No. 233 South Fourth St., } Philadelphia, Mar. 29, 1880. }

Dear Madam:—I have your letter of March 25th in regard to Miss Carroll's matter, and beg to say in reply that I do not know whether the old papers are on file in the War Department or not; I presume the only way to ascertain would be to apply to the Department direct. I have done all that I feel I can do in this matter, having given my evidence before the Committee in the most concise and direct form possible. I hope that Congress will do something for Miss Carroll, but with their present economical habits, I doubt very much whether they will.

Hoping that the Committee in charge of the matter may have success,

Thomas A. Scott.

I am, very truly yours,

Editorial from the National Citizen (Syracuse, N. Y.), September, 1881:

The Contrast.—"Look on this picture and on that." While President James A. Garfield lay dying, another American citizen, one to whom the country owes far more than it did to him, was stricken with an incurable disease. But in this case no telegram heralded the fact; no messages were cabled abroad; few newspapers made comment, and yet had it not been for the wisdom of this person whom the country forgets, we should have possessed no country to-day.

Anna Ella Carroll lies at her home near Baltimore, stricken with paralysis—perhaps already beyond the river. As the readers of the National Citizen well know, when the nation was in its hour of extreme peril, with a nearly depleted treasury, with England and France waiting with large fleets for a few more evil days in order to raise the blockade, with President, Congress, and people nearly helpless and despairing, there arose this woman, who with strategic science far in advance of any military or naval officer on land or sea, pointed out the way to victory, sending her plans and maps to the War Department, which adopted them. Thus the tide of battle was turned, victory perched on the Union banner, and in accordance with the President's proclamation, the country united in a day of public thanksgiving.

But that woman never received recognition from the country for her services. The Military Committee of various Congresses has reported in her favor, but no bill securing her even a pension has ever been passed, and now she is dying or dead.

In another column will be found the report of the Military Committee of the Forty-sixth Congress, in her favor, March, 1881, which as a matter of important history we give in full, hoping no reader will pass it by. Under the circumstances we shall be pardoned for giving an extract from a letter of Miss Carroll to the editor of the National Citizen, accompanied by a copy of this report.

Miss Carroll says: "I am sure you retain your kind interest in the matter, and will be gratified by the last action of Congress, which is a complete recognition of my public service, on the part of military men; both Confederate and Union brigadiers belonging to the Military Committee."

While this bill was in no sense commensurable with the services rendered by Miss Carroll to the country, yet as the main point was conceded, it was believed it would secure one more consonant with justice at the next session of Congress.

The nation is mourning Garfield with the adulation generally given monarchs; General Grant is decorating his New York "palace" with countless costly gifts from home and abroad; yet a greater than both has fallen, and because she was a woman, she has gone to her great reward on high, unrecognized and unrewarded by the country she saved. Had it not been for her work, the names of James A. Garfield and of Ulysses S. Grant would never have emerged from obscurity. Women, remember that to one of your own sex the salvation of the country is due, and never forget to hold deep in your hearts, and to train your children to hold with reverence the name of Anna Ella Carroll.

WOMEN AS SOLDIERS.

A Female Soldier.

There is a female here appealing for five months' back pay due her as a soldier in the army. Her name is Mary E. Wise. She is an orphan, without a blood relative in the world, and was a resident of Jefferson Township, Huntington County, Indiana, where she enlisted in the 34th Indiana Volunteers under the name of William Wise. She served two years and eighteen days as a private, participating in six of the heaviest engagements in the West, was wounded at Chicamauga and Lookout Mountain, at the latter place severely in the side. Upon the discovery of her sex, through her last wound, she was sent to her home in Indiana. When she arrived there, her step-mother refused her shelter, or to assist her in any way. Having five months' pay due from the Government, she started for Washington, in the hope of collecting it, arriving in this city on the 4th instant. Here her troubles have only increased. She can not get her pay. Her colonel probably, under the circumstances, not deeming it necessary, failed to give her a proper or formal discharge, with the necessary papers. In her difficulties she has, repeatedly, endeavored to refer her case to the President, but, not having influential friends to back her, she has been disappointed in all her efforts to see him, and the Department can pay her only upon proper or formal discharge papers, etc. So she is here, without friends or means, wholly dependent upon the bounty of the Sanitary Commission.

NATIONAL FREEDMAN'S AID ASSOCIATION.

Josephine S. Griffing.

Washington, April 15, 1870.

Lucretia Mott—My Dear Friend:—Feeling that the exact condition of the worn-out slaves now in this District could be better understood by a little explanation that I can make, and knowing that you desire the truth in this matter of life-long interest to you, I desire to refer to the following facts, which I trust you will present to the meeting of Friends (Quakers) in Philadelphia who sympathize with you.

In the year 1864, when urging upon Senator Sumner and our friends in Congress, the necessity of a bureau that could afford special aid to the emancipated slaves, the great fact that the old people were suddenly turned out of the possibility of a subsistence, was recognized by all. Mr. Sumner, in his first speech putting the bill in passage, urged this as sufficient ground alone, if no other existed, which was not the case. From the time of the organization of the Bureau till now, their special claim has been recognized by Congress, and notwithstanding they received, in common with all the freed people of this District, an allowance made to each in rations, blankets, clothes, fuel, Government buildings, medical treatment, and monthly visitation; they also have each year received from Congress special aid in an appropriation because of their age and infirmity, many of them being helpless as infants, and all too far spent in slavery to labor for a support.

In providing for the able-bodied freed people, only partial support was intended by the Bureau, to bridge over the transition from slavery to freedom. Then education and the ballot, added to their own industrial resources, came in, and furnished them a basis for self-support and citizenship. The Bureau was no longer a necessary department in the Government for this class, and was abolished, without a substitute for the aged and worn-out slaves, though they were now older and more infirm, and had lost in this change houses, food, fuel, clothing, medical treatment, and, excepting myself, visiting agents.

Since the discontinuance of the Bureau, I have acted, as before its creation, as "best friend" and as agent of the National Freedman's Relief Association of this District, in the care of the old, crippled, blind, and broken-down, of whom I have at this time in number eleven hundred, not one of whom is able to earn for himself the necessaries of life. At this moment, at least one hundred and fifty broken-down slaves are at this office, covering all the porches, sitting on all the stairs, forming an almost impassable barrier to the entrances—all with a story of want in their faces; in fact of want, from "the crown of the head to the sole of the half-naked feet," and all eager to say, "We has nobody to go 'pon." An old woman ninety-one, sat on the steps just after the sun rose this morning, so tired, she looked a pitying sight for angels. "Can you let me stay anywhere?" she said. "I'se had no home dis winter; dey let me stay in de wash-room last night, but der wasn't any blanket, and 'pears I got chilled through." Upon investigation I found it was true she had no friend or relative, and had been going on the outskirts of the city begging among the colored people (poor as herself, except in shelter) a lodging, and often doing with almost nothing to eat for two or three days at a time. Perfectly disabled for life by weakness (so common among the old women of slavery) and the infirmities of ninety years of hard life. Through the noble efforts of Rachel W. M. Townsend in behalf of these poor human beings, I was able to give her a bedtick and twenty-five cents for straw to fill it, a comforter, and a place to stay in the house with two others of the same class, for whom we have all winter paid rental. What less than this would the loving Saviour of men have done for one like her? What less would you, who have battled half a century for her freedom, have done in a case like that? She has now a bed and comforter, no pillow, nor bedstead, and not one garment to change with the ragged and filthy ones that have served for day and night apparel, for bed and outdoor wrappings, the last three months. She has no resource for bread, in herself, and none but God to whom she can say, "Give" me "this day" my "daily bread". This woman represents at least two hundred persons in every way as destitute, who look to me for help. Another class of two hundred are in a similar state of destitution, with this exception, they are sheltered by a fellow-servant or distant relative, and sometimes furnished a bed, but nothing more, and none of these can labor.

Two hundred more are equally destitute and as helpless, many of them as young children, needing the personal care that patients in our hospitals do, not excepting medical treatment and bathing. Add to these five hundred, who under the most favorable circumstances may, though do not generally, furnish their bread three months in the summer, by picking up bones and rags in the alleys and gutters, I believe I may safely say that out of the eleven hundred there are not one hundred who can do this, and pay house-rent beside. And it must be remembered that none of these old people own a foot of ground in the city, or have a home they can call their own. A few of these only live with children, some of whom are also very old. Fanny Miner, one hundred and thirteen, lives with a daughter seventy-two. William Dennis, ninety-nine, lives with a daughter seventy-four. Anna Sauxter, one hundred and one, with a consumptive son of sixty, and has slept on an old table through the winter watching, as she says, two days and a night at one time, with no food at all. She was one of the slaves of Washington. Anna Ferguson, another of his slaves, emancipated when young, lives in a wretched garret, and has no one to give her a cup of water. She sent a child to me to-day, who said she went in to borrow some fire of "old auntie," and found her very sick, groaning with dreadful pain, with the message that she was perishing for something to eat; could I send her an Irish potato? She added in her message, "Tell her to come and see me, I'll not be here long."

I have just now returned from a visit on "the Island," where I have seen twenty-seven of these helpless persons, a few cases of which (could you see them) would leave no doubt in your mind in reference to the necessity of a change from the present state of things. I saw enough in this visit to fill a book, and could tongue or pen describe it—to convince the mind of a savage—of terrible inhumanity and lack of all charity. The morning was sunny and clear, and old Aunt Clara and Uncle John sat on broken chairs, under the rude perch of a miserable shanty. He, tall and athletic, his long white beard and snow-white head, impressive as the type of venerable age, was putting Aunt Clara's foot into a soft shoe as carefully as though it was the last time it could be dressed. She 74, neat and velvet-faced, was stone blind, and so paralyzed that the slightest touch on the arm or hand made her spring and cry like a child. The shock put out both her eyes, and made her as helpless as an infant in all particulars.

For one year she has been unable to feed herself, undress, or to do anything to relieve the monotony of utter helplessness. He had brought her out in the sun, there was no window in their room, and had spread a cloth on her lap, as she said, hoping somebody would come along who would comb her hair. Uncle John was 14, he says, when Washington died. Not a child or a friend to go to them, there they stay. They said they had nothing to eat last night, and were often two days without a pint of meal, and nothing like food in the house, for the old man said, "When mamma has her 'poor turns', I never leaves her, and nobody ever feeds her but me, or dresses or undresses her." I shall not forget how the tears dropped from her face, as she told the story of her life. "A woman once, but nobody now, comfort all gone, and hungry and cold the rest of my days." Her mind was unimpaired, and her faith unwavering.

Henry and Milly Lang were two squares away; persons between sixty and seventy, living in a shanty used in time of the war as a stable. For five years they have lived there, paying, in all but the last two months, four dollars a month rent. Milly is also stone blind, and sick and helpless. They were in great distress, had no food in the house, for Henry has hip disease, and for eleven weeks has not walked a step. On every side I could look through the open boards, and when the last storms came, they said the rain came down on the whole floor, covering it, so they sat on the pallet all day. The landlord has ordered them to leave the house in five days, to put in a cow instead! Friendless, homeless, penniless!!! and yet must eat or die. Three of those I saw were over one hundred—one had five children, when Washington died, lived in his county. Sixteen were over seventy. Not one of them had a child in this city. Five were over 80; and all of these whom I saw were as dependent as infants.

Johnny Scraper sat in rags, paralyzed from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, alone in a six-by-ten-foot room, unable to walk a step, yet is left entirely alone, sometimes for three days. If he has anything brought in to eat, he thanks God; if not, he must do without it. Tuesday and Saturday night he says a fellow-servant, living in a distant part of the city, came to see him, and sometimes brought a piece of fish or meat; this is all the chance he has for anything, except a little meal or dry bread. Every one of these old people complained that they were dying for some meat—were so weak. Aunt Dinah said that she went out on the street last week and begged of the school children, who gave her seven cents, and she went into a grocery to buy a piece of meat, and received there five cents more. "Oh!" said she, "how that strengthened me, it lasted me three days."

I might go on and fill the sheet with incidents of these extremely aged pilgrims and strangers in this city, for whom nobody cares. But I should fail to convey to you any just idea of what they suffer, because you can see there is no parallel to their status. In no city on the globe can you find a people to whom the words of Wood (I think it is) so well apply—"paupers whom nobody owns." You must see them as they are to believe.

The Government says, "They need provisions, let the city be taxed." The city says, "We care for the multitude of legitimate paupers of the Government—pensioners, who die waiting for their claims, but these are special wards, brought to the capital by special legislation, not any of them voluntary residents. We are unable to provide for this surplus of poor." Turning to the people of the country, they say, "We have given them their freedom, let them take care of themselves!" To the Abolitionists, and they rebuke us for listening to their cry, and say, "It is no more than must be expected; let them alone and they will die off." Even the loudest professors have said to me, "As long as you will take care of these poor old creatures, so long you may; there are plenty of others to come." So turn which way we may, we are met with coldness and distrust.

I come now to you, and ask what is our duty to these worn-out slaves, whose labor we have enjoyed in the general prosperity, and whose destiny on earth we have fixed by legislation, over which they could have no control? In old age we have taken from their homes these people, and calling them "free," we have said to them, "Be ye warmed and clothed," and then gone on our way. Had I, like most others, have been so fortunate as not to have met these old people, on the day of arrival here as they came out from slavery, nor have listened to the thousand witnesses, that have each day testified to utter inability to live without charity, as a practical relief, I might as easily as they, perhaps, satisfy my conscience by the above reasoning; but one thing is sure, whoever stands in my place will find no half-way measure will answer. They can not look these people in the face, as they come, averaging under the present arrangements of the Secretary of War two hundred a day, to ask for bread and wood, and clothes and shoes and shelter, and bed and blanket and medicine, not one of whom can be satisfied without food.

One of the most distressing days we have seen was last Tuesday, when two hundred and fifty all broken down, stood and sat, three long hours, waiting and hoping that the Commissary would send bread or rations, but none came, and we could get only twenty-five loaves for them. Many came from the suburbs of the town, some from over the river, not less than five miles away, and had left an aged companion and orphan grandchildren on the alert for their return, with something for a dinner or a meal. But nothing came; and yet, as they left with sorrow in their faces, that almost breaks my heart to think of, in their meek way one after another said, "You'se done all you could, Honey, we'll do the best we can, and come again to-morrow."

You see, these people must eat. Bread must be furnished every day, rain or shine, hot or cold. I ask what is our duty? Will God perform a miracle to feed this multitude? I can not ask you, "Is it safe to leave them in the hands of the Government or the city?" I have for six years plead, as for the life of them, with both. None but God knows how earnestly I have laid their claims before officials in the highest departments. By the greatest efforts, and with the sympathy of a small number of friends, who in Congress see with us, and have from the beginning, that the repudiation of this claim must call down upon the Nation the just judgments of heaven, we have secured the special appropriations up to this time.

The history of the past warns us that unless the people, their constituents at home, recognize this duty, and work with us more earnestly by organized effort, and generous heartfelt contributions, the Government will ignore their claim altogether. Indeed I trembled at the prospect of this immediate result. Excepting the few noble men and women whose sympathy and aid I would have, and ever pronounce unparalleled in the history of benevolent work—but for these, Congress might well say, "The people do not demand it. They do nothing, why should we?" If you say, "Provision must be made for them, they must not be left to starve and die, like Andersonville prisoners," then let us agree upon the best measures to relieve them, and put an end to the system of slow starvation under which so many have this winter suffered and died.

We need and must have a hospital-home building to gather in the scattered, helpless ones, who now live alone, and in distant localities. With such an institution we could with far greater economy than ever before, provide for them all. But I have trespassed too long upon your patience. I thank you and all the friends in Philadelphia for timely aid during the past winter, and trust you will lay this before your yearly meeting soon to convene, as an appeal for help in the future. Hoping to hear what you think is our duty in this emergency,

Josephine S. Griffing.

Faithfully and lovingly,

Roadside, near Philada. 5mo. 1st. '70.

My Dear Josephine:—Thy several sheets were duly received and read with heartfelt and thrilling attention. It may seem neglectful that no acknowledgment has been made before.

I have waited hoping to have more than a mere acknowledgment. I took the letter to our meeting, and added somewhat to the appeal made the week before, by our earnest, truly sympathetic R. W. M. Townsend.

Just at this time the approach of our yearly meeting, the claims of the Indians under the care of our Friends, the freedmen's schools at the South, also under our care—for whom thousands have been raised—and the Swarthmore College, just reporting its great need to pay off a debt, etc. All these pressing their claims, of course make it more difficult to collect beyond our city poor, who are ever appealing to us—many of whom also suffering from the effects of cruel slavery. Still thy account was too harrowing to be cast aside, and a few men took hold of it and called a meeting. So I will enclose the small sum of $20, which thou doubtless will find use for.

I was sorry not to have time to speak to thee before leaving that Fifth Avenue Woman Suffrage Meeting. My daughter, fearing we should miss the cars to take us twelve miles to her children at Orange, rather hurried me away.

I can not be in New York again now. Our yearly meeting occurs in Anniversary Week. My son, Edward M. Davis, took thy letter to have a copy taken before returning it to thee. He thought he might make some use of it for the benefit of those poor, aged sufferers.

Lucretia Mott.

Thine in haste and affectionately,

Letters to Mrs. Stebbins.

Emily Robinson, of Salem, Ohio, writes me that Mrs. Griffing "was for several years the honored, loved, and trusted agent of the Western Anti-Slavery Society. The fact is indelibly graven on my heart that she was one of the most faithful and indefatigable laborers in the Anti-Slavery cause; she brought a great mother-heart to the work. Under fearful discouragement, she was ever strong and persevering. I do hope that you knew her, even better than I did, and that the history will be a success. Be sure of my heartiest and kindliest sympathy. It is a beautiful work—the effort to preserve and embalm the memories of the sweet-souled moral heroes in special reforms, those in which we have been pioneers, though scores go out of life without, in the book of God's remembrance they are gathered, and their work will bear harvest forever and ever."

Mrs. Griffing's daughter says in a letter: "Mother lived till Feb. 18, 1872, and no one can ever know how faithfully she worked for every one but herself. Her very last words were, as she dropped her tired arms by her side, 'I have done the best I could,' and we knew she had."

Death of Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing.—Yesterday morning, at two o'clock, Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing departed to a higher life. A woman of rare beauty of character, of uncommon executive capacity and judgment, and ever inspired by a beautiful and self-sacrificing charity, she had warm friends among the best men and women, eminent in character, influence, and position, and a host of devoted friends also among the poor and aged freed people, to whom for years she has been a daily angel of mercy. Accomplished and cultivated, she has devoted herself to the wants of the poorest of the poor, visiting their homes and ministering to their wants with her own hands. She has disbursed many thousands of dollars and a large amount of food and clothing furnished by the Government and by private benevolence, and done all wisely and well and for long periods of time without material fee or reward.

Rarely, indeed, do we find such tender charity, such ability for continuous labor, and such spiritual beauty of life as hers, and her departure is no doubt the result of her too severe and self-sacrificing career of good works.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to-day the remains may be seen by her many friends at her late home, on Capitol Hill, and to-night her daughters go with all that is mortal of a most tender and loving mother to the family burial-place in her native town of Hebron, Conn.—Washington Chronicle.

Mrs. Griffing to Catharine F. Stebbins.

Washington, June 27, 1870.

My Dear Mrs. Stebbins:—Yours so kind and interesting came duly, and I thank you. I am sure you have seen how some genius, greater, more powerful than myself control me and forbids me to seek enjoyment in human friendships. If you comprehend my life, you will pardon long silence of the lips, and join me in the prayer, that the poor all taken into "Abraham's bosom," I may enjoy those I love, in heaven. I am pained when I think that not only you, but my dear father in his affliction, has been neglected, for it is now four long weeks since I have written a word of love and consolation to him. But the days are so full of work, and the nights of thinking, that all my vitality seems to be in requisition, and I sometimes think there is no reserve force left in me. Oh, how I wish our Christianity would be true to itself, and take to its heart the great questions of humanity, then would I turn over a precious few of the starving old people now calling upon God and me for their support, to churches, and enter the field for woman.

How grandly the tide is lashing the shore on both sides of the Atlantic, and its voice is the voice of God, commanding once more that ye "let my people go, that they may serve me." Only the foam and the surge are seen to-day—"Woman and the Ballot." But there is overturning and upheaving below, and the great depths shall ere long become the surface, and what is now seen in the social realm and believed in, as a religious creed, must enter into the formation, geologically conforming to fossilization and decay; so the last shall be first, and the first last. The last half century is a grand prophecy. How slavery went down, carrying away social and religious systems with it! There they lie, like dust and ashes in the rear. None are found so poor and benighted as to do homage at their shrine. It was the moral agitation that gave spiritual birth to the race enslaved. I remember to have felt great impatience at the tardy and conservative elements that entered into the struggle side by side with the radical leaders of 1845, when to me the issue was not with the Constitution, nor even with the pulpit, nor the Bible, but with Justice. It was man to man, stripped of all but the Divine within him. The lessons of moral and political formation in its slow but certain work, come to strengthen me now. To my mind the issue of to-day in the woman cause is clearly not what Paul taught and thought, nor what God has settled upon her as her dower, nor what the marriage contract makes her, but it is woman as a beneficent genius, next to the angels, against woman below the beasts, in human society under the heel of the Law, in the arms of brute force, crushed to death with passion and lust. Lucy Stone has made it obvious to the world that six plates, six teacups and saucers, and a guardian for her children, at the time of her husband's death, are not her only legitimate property. Mrs. Stanton goes further, and declares that not alone is her property sacred, and must be restored to her, but that personal freedom, subject to the Moral Law, not to the law of Society, nor of Government, if those powers contravene or interfere with God's Law as it is written in her own constitution.

In so much as woman is endowed by the Creator with the most loving and beneficent genius or nature capable of enduring the agonies of many deaths, to give life to many souls, in so much she is entitled to command, not left to obey. So says Mrs. Stanton; I agree with her. Both Lucy Stone and Mrs. Stanton are skilled workmen. Both representative women; representing the two wings in the cause of woman's freedom.

You speak of Mrs. Stanton's view in the McFarland-Richardson case. I knew but little of the real character of Mrs. Richardson, but if what is acknowledged to be true of his,—I do agree with Mrs. S. in declaring this case a forcible argument—not against marriage,—such a thing can not be—but against the marriage contract, as interpreted in the courts. What a burlesque upon insanity! Poor Minnie Gaines, the colored girl who shot her seducer the other day, in my neighborhood, was cleared upon as doubtful insanity as McFarland's, and she enjoys the benefit of the doubt in the insane asylum, where she will remain unquestionably for a term of years; why does this man "go at large"? Neither of the Associations, nor journals, are ready to assume the high ground that Mrs. Stanton standing alone and leading, as she always has on this question, can and will do. With all my heart, I pray that true women and the angels will stand by and sustain her in this noble daring.

Our work (the Freedman's work) is as usual, every day painfully interesting and compensating. No money comes yet, and I have to raise some $2,000 soon, or lose our delightful home. (Yes, it is delightful). We have a bad city government, the colored people begin to feel the old rebel spirit. Hundreds thrown out of work, and I have nothing to hope from the City Council to compensate for my work. Some good friend said a few days since, that Congress would, if persons of influence would ask it, pay me. Now would Mr. Ward with Mr. Wade, do this, and so let me breathe and live? or not?

We can not go out of the city this summer. You will be in Philadelphia at the Decade meeting I hope, and I shall rejoice to be there too. You see the Peace Society is in "hot water" over the McFarland-Richardson discussion in the Band of Peace.

Thermometer stood at 107° yesterday, and very hot to-day. Write when you can, and believe me ever your attached friend,

J. S. Griffing.

THE WOMAN'S LOYAL LEAGUE.

Letters in Response to the Call for Meeting of the Loyal Women of the Country.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Hampton, N. H., May 4, 1863.

Miss Anthony—Dear Madam:—I cheerfully respond to the call, published in The Liberator, to the loyal women of the North, to meet on the 14th inst. I am sensible that you will have responses from many whose words will be more potent, and who can do braver deeds than I can do. But I want to add my feeble testimony, notwithstanding, to encourage this first effort of American women, in a national capacity, to sustain the Government, and help guide it through the perils which threaten its existence, thus demonstrating not only their loyalty, but their ability to understand its genius; the quickness of their perception of the cause and also of the remedies of the dangers which imperil the nation; and also their fitness to be admitted to take part in its deliberations. Not long since, men here at the North—loyal men—men who were not in favor of slavery, denied that they had any responsibility in regard to its existence. Marvelous, that they could not see that slavery is a moral pestilence, poisoning all the fountains of society, spreading infections over all the nation. Now the war teaches them that they have a responsibility, and that it would have been better had they seen it earlier. The right to take any responsibility in regard to it was denied to woman; it was out of her sphere; it ran into politics, which were unfit for woman, and into governmental affairs, which she was supposed incompetent to comprehend. But this painful hour of warfare crowds home upon us the conviction that woman's interests equally with man's are imperiled—private as well as public, individual as well as social. She must not only consent to the sacrifice of husbands and sons falling in their blood on the enemy's ground; but failing to conquer them there, these enemies are eager to change the scene of action, transfer the battle-field to our own doors, spread death and devastation, and then establish slavery as a legacy to us. Yes, let it be shown and sent home to the hearts of those who shall meet, that woman is equally interested and responsible with man in the final settlement of this problem of self-government.

Wishing that the women of every State may be largely represented by earnest and faithful representatives, able to give wise counsel and efficient action, I am very cordially with you in spirit,

Clarissa G. Olds.

Bradford, N. H., May 10, 1863.

Mrs. Stanton—My Dear Madam:—I thank you for myself, and for thousands of women in our State, who may perhaps remain silent, for the clarion call you have rung through the land for a convention of the loyal women of the nation, to be held at New York on the 14th of the present month. God bless you for the rallying cry, and may there be such a gathering of patriotic women as the times demand. I trust the women of our State will be well and largely represented. I must believe that the women nurtured among our granite hills are ready for all earnest work and brave self-sacrifice, to help bear up and on the banner of freedom, till it waves in victory over all our beloved country. I wish you a hearty God-speed in all noble and patriotic efforts.

Mary J. Tappan.

Truly yours,

Debry, N. H.

We rejoice in your call to the women of our country to do something, in the great hour of her peril. They are generally too indifferent to her success or failure, lack zeal and earnestness, and need enlightenment on the true state of this contest. It is not a mere matter of triumph of arms, but of principle, which will affect us and future generations.

H. T. and M. Adams.

VERMONT.

Randolph, Vt., May 9, a.d. 1863.

The Ladies of Randolph to the Loyal Ladies assembled at New York, send Greeting:—

Thrillingly interested in all that concerns the great cause in which we, who love the inheritance our fathers bought for us at such a price of life and treasure, are now all embarked, the ladies of our Association desire, on this occasion, to manifest their oneness of spirit with you for everything that may promote loyal devotion to our country.

We who have offered up on her altars what is dearer to us than life—our fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers—so that almost every home has made its sacrifice, and the blood of many from among us has already been shed, while others come back crippled for life—need hardly tell you that we are of one heart and mind with them, and ready to be bound and offered up too.

May the God of our fathers hear our cry, and save our beloved country from those who would destroy all her liberties.

Mrs. R. Parkinson.

Very truly yours,

In behalf of the Ladies' Aid Society.

MASSACHUSETTS.

Pittsfield, May 12, 1863.

Miss Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:—In response to the thrilling and patriotic address of Mrs. "E. C. Stanton on behalf of the Women's Central Committee," accompanying the "Call for a Meeting of the Loyal Women of the Nation on the 14th inst.," I beg leave to say that my heart is with you in the great work of crushing the rebellion.

Our strength, clearly, is not "to sit still" at a time like the present. Although much has already been done by the women at the North, in their subordinate sphere, for the relief and comfort of the soldiers, yet the supineness of many of our sex has exposed us all to rebukes.

We hear of the enthusiasm of women at the South in aid of the Slave-holders' Rebellion, and can form some estimate of the "fierceness of their wrath"; but, God be thanked, the days approach when their mad passions will recoil upon themselves—the days approach when their evil cause must die. Let us unitedly pledge ourselves to stand by the Government, in our legitimate sphere, and out of it, if needs be. Let us, with womanly zeal, help to crush the power of its iniquitous assailants, remembering that the name of woman is in the list with those who "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."

Shall we not, in this "crisis of our country's destiny," imitate the example of these heroic worthies, if "hereunto we are called"?

Mrs. Sarah R. Barnes.

Very truly yours,

Worcester, April 20, 1863.

Dear Susan:—I see your call to the loyal women. Will you let me know distinctly if you propose to commit yourselves to the idea of loyalty to the present Government? I can not believe you do. But to me there is something equivocal in the call, if it does not mean that. I am sorry it is not explicit on that point.

You and I believe if the present Administration had done its duty, the rebellion would have been put down long ago. Hence, we hold it with its supporters responsible for the terrible waste of treasure and of blood thus far, and for that which is to follow. It needs strong rebuke instead of unqualified sympathy and support.

Abby Kelly Foster.

Hastily, yours as ever,

Natick, May 8, 1863.

Every loyal woman in America has a part to perform in this great struggle for the preservation of the nation. I trust that the coming meeting in the city of New York will inspire the women of the loyal States with new zeal and patriotism, and enable them to serve more efficiently their once prosperous, but now distracted, country.

Mrs. Henry Wilson.

Yours respectfully,

CONNECTICUT.

The Loyal Women of Manchester, Ct., to the Meeting of Loyal Women in New York, Greeting:—Patriotism in this town is in the ascendant. Impelled by the conduct of traitors, dupes, and cowards, the loyal women of Manchester formed themselves into a League, in which they resolved to be unconditionally loyal to the Government and its institutions; to abhor treason and cowardice in every form, and under every disguise; to encourage and sustain our brave soldiers by constant tokens of interest; to study carefully the great principles of civil liberty, which constitute the spirit and life of our Republican Government; and to publicly wear as the badge of the Loyal League the Union colors, until the day of our national triumph. We mean by this to occupy no doubtful position, and to express ourselves in no ambiguous words. We believe in the Union, one and inseparable, and stick to the motto, "E Pluribus Unum."

We find nothing to justify the rebellion, and have no sympathy with those who do. We long for peace, but believe in war as the only legitimate way to reach it; therefore hail the advance of our armies, and rejoice in every Union victory with unspeakable joy.

We believe, moreover, in the natural rights of man, and intend to stand by our President in his Emancipation Proclamation. We regard negro-hate and disloyalty as near akin, and feel that those who would not employ the black man to save the country are not over-anxious to save it themselves.

The Loyal League of Manchester numbers some five hundred members, and we mean by all within our power to cast our influence on the side of the Union, and its brave defenders.

In true sympathy with all who stand by the Government and repel its enemies, in behalf of the Executive Committee and members,

Mrs. S. M. Dorman.

NEW YORK.

Waterloo, N. Y.

I have read Mrs. Stanton's call to the loyal women of America, and can not resist telling you how valuable such a suggestion appears. For what is more meet, than that those upon whom fall the direst agonies of the war should with one voice cry out, "Give us a nation for whose preservation we may joyfully surrender our heart's dearest treasure; but swear by the green graves of our slaughtered brethren, that this sacrifice shall seal the doom of every trafficker in human flesh?"

Sarah Hunt.

Utica, N. Y., April 19, 1863.

We write to assure you that we appreciate the address of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, published in The Tribune of the 18th. We have long expected such a call, and regard it as the external manifestation of a wide-spread demand among women.

Mary Dean, and Seven other Women.

Waterloo, May 4, 1863.

My Dear Friend:—I read with great pleasure the "Call for a meeting of the Loyal Women of the nation." I think such a gathering can not fail of great and good results. I hope you will have a correct and full report of the proceedings for the benefit of those who can not be present to see and hear for themselves.

Phebe B. Dean.

Sincerely yours,

Frey Chapel, May 1, 1863.

To Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:—In response to the call for a meeting of the loyal women of the nation in the City of New York, on Thursday, the 14th of May, the undersigned wish to be represented at the ten o'clock session.

Harriet Graham, Emily Frey, and 88 others.

NEW JERSEY.

Old Bridge, Middlesex County, N. J.

Mrs. E. C. Stanton:—Being unable to attend in person in answer to your stirring appeal to the loyal women of the nation, and feeling a deep interest in this cause, we can not forbear answering it in this manner at least. We do not believe there is a lack of enthusiasm in the mass of the women of the North; all we want is a common channel in which to pour it out. Do this, only point us the way, and you will find our efforts as irresistible as the tides of the ocean.

We believe now, if ever, Halleck's lines apply:

Hoping God may so direct you that our dear bleeding country may be cheered through the storm and darkness to a glorious peace, with our starry flag floating as of old from the Bay of Fundy to the far shores of the Pacific, and believing that freedom, truth, and right must prevail,

We are, for ourselves and numerous friends,

Mary E. Disdrow, Margaret M. Willis.

Respectfully and truly yours,

PENNSYLVANIA.

Columbia, Pa., May 8, 1863.

Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:—I beg that my name may be recorded with those of the Loyal Women of the Nation. Though we walk in darkness, tears, and blood all the days of this generation, let us not shrink; we have to do the most blessed duty ever laid upon a people. Though we see not the end, our deed shall be blessed. Let us rejoice that upon us is laid the glory of suffering for the good of mankind. Though all our dearest fall, though we are wrapt in woe, let us not flinch to the bitterest end. Right shall triumph. God shall cause the wrath of man to praise Him. Upon Northern traitors be unutterable and everlasting contempt. Highest honors, tenderest glory to our heroes, immortal in the heart of the nation.

Sophia Lyman Smith.

We wish to obtain the documents of the Ladies' National Union League, that we may be "transformed into the same image"; and also desire to wear the same badge.

Mary R. H. Haynes, President Richwood Ladies' Union League.

Yours fraternally,

Pennsylvania State Normal School, } Millersville, May 11, 1863. }

To the National Convention of Loyal Women:

Ladies:—I beg leave to introduce to you Miss Fannie W. Willard and Mrs. Annie V. Mumford, who have been elected by the ladies of this institution as delegates to represent them in your Convention. Hoping that, by word and work, your Convention may add strength to the arm that is now raised in defense of the nation's life, I am,

J. P. Wickersham, Principal.

Yours truly,

Green Grove, Luzerne Co., Pa., May 8, 1863.

Dear Madam:—With pleasure I read the "Call," and gladly would respond to it in person, but must be content with sending my name. Prospectively I see the places of meeting filled to overflowing, every eye kindling with enthusiasm, every heart swelling with patriotism, all determined to aid in preserving our sacred legacy of liberty. The woman who is not truly loyal is unworthy the protection of our dear old flag.

May God bless all the efforts made in sustaining the best Government on earth!

Sarah J. Vosburgh.

Yours sincerely,

From the Loyal Ladies of Stevensville, Pa., to the Ladies assembled in Convention in New York:

Dear Sisters:—Although unable to co-operate with you in your noble efforts in behalf of our country by attending your Convention, we dare not remain silent when treason is in our very midst, and thousands, with blind fury, are trying to uproot the fair tree of Liberty which our fathers planted and watered with their blood. We have already sent our fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons to defend our country, and are willing to make still greater sacrifices if necessary. We heartily sustain the President in every effort he has made to put down the rebellion, and hope that the war may be prosecuted with renewed vigor, until every traitor, North or South, shall be subdued. We would express our sympathy for the brave soldiers in the field and for those who are languishing in prisons and hospitals, and pray that their sacrifices and sufferings may not be in vain. May the angel of Peace soon spread her wings over our unhappy country, is the prayer of your loyal sisters,

Mrs. Angie E. L. Stevens, And Twenty-five other Women of Stevensville, Pa.

West Auburn, Pa., May 9, 1863.

In compliance with the call for a meeting of the Loyal Women, we, the undersigned, take this method to manifest our approbation of the President's Proclamation. Thinking we comprehend the principles involved in the nation's struggle for existence, we believe it the duty of every loyal woman to pledge herself to co-operate, in word and deed, for the benefit and encouragement of our brave men in the field, until our country is Free.

Lucy A. Seely, And Thirty-five other Women of West Auburn, Pa.

Kennett Square, Pa.

Dear Mrs. Stanton:—The deep interest I feel in the subject to be considered in your Convention, prompts me to an expression of my sympathy in the movement. May you be able to speak God's truth in tones that shall arouse a nation's heart to a prompt performance of a nation's duty, will be the earnest prayer of many who are not privileged to meet with you in solemn convention.

Hannah M. Darlington.

Columbia, Pa.

Dear Miss Anthony:—Let me have the happiness of giving my name where are my heart and soul, with the loyal women of the nation.

Mrs. F. Boardman Wells.

OHIO.

To the Loyal Women, assembled in National Meeting in New York, the Loyal Women of Wilmington, Ohio, send Greeting:

We have heard your earnest call for a National Meeting of women, and our hearts respond as one to the call, and our hands willing to do more than has yet been done. Here, as everywhere in the North, we have formed societies and united our efforts in contributing what we might to soothe, encourage, and cheer. But we would not speak of what we have done, for it is but a mite compared to the need, and a drop among the millions that have been given our brave ones who are so gloriously defending our homes. But the wide future with its great destiny is before us, and we hope after earnest counseling you will decide what more can be done, and we will gladly work with you as sisters, as daughters of our kind All-Father, as children of our common country for the good of all.

We shall be glad to hear of the decision of your meeting, and doubt not it will waken many who are slumbering to a sense of the duty of immediate action in a cause so just, and fraught with untold interest, not only to our own beloved country, but to the whole world.

Louise McGregor, Secretary.

Martinsburg, Ohio, May 7, 1863.

To Susan B. Anthony:—I was rejoiced and encouraged on reading your call for an assembly of the loyal women of the nation, and feel constrained to address you a word. For although I may not be able to elucidate the principles on which a free government is founded, with the force and clearness of many others who will doubtless respond to your call, nor awake enthusiasm with that magic power that some of the anti-slavery women of the North possess in so high a degree, I shall at least give to Ohio and my country one more voice in favor of a united and free republic; and certainly no voice should be silent when called to speak for liberty.

It was fit that the first work of the women of the North should be for the comfort of those who are enduring the hardships of the camp, exposed to sickness, and to the deadly horrors of the battle-field, in their defence.

But this is not all that should be done by intelligent women living under a free government, when that government is in danger of being overthrown by wicked conspirators. Every power and influence granted us under the social and political regulations of our country should be unreservedly laid upon the altar of liberty and right. It is necessary that we fully understand the nature of the conflict in which we are engaged. Enthusiasm can elevate and sustain but for a moment, unless upheld by the power of a great principle. Not only is our welfare as a great nation at stake, but the oppressed of the world look anxiously and hopefully to us as holding the key to their prison doors, which we may unlock if we will.

In view of the greatness of the trust committed to us, let us not flag in our efforts to free our land from slavery and the rebellion inaugurated by its minions, that they might establish it on a firmer base.

By meeting as you are about to do, and giving expression to sentiments in favor of the perpetuation of our Government, and in behalf of those of our citizens who are denied the rights and privileges of citizenship, you will strengthen the hearts and hands of all among our rulers who are endeavoring to execute judgment and justice, and to save our Government under the guidance of Him who controls the destinies of nations.

Trusting that this is but the beginning of a good work among the true women of the nation, I subscribe myself, Yours for the interest of our common country,

Lizzie Welsh.

Medina County, Ohio, May 12, 1863.

Dear Miss Anthony:—This is no time to be idle now. Every true woman must do her whole duty, and buckle on the strong armor of Faith, to meet the enemy face to face. Let the traitors of the country hear our voices, and let Southern tyrants tremble in their high places. Let the prayers of the loyal women ascend to the throne on high. I trust you may have a decidedly good meeting—one, too, that will be remembered in future ages, when war and bloodshed shall have passed forever away, and sweet peace shall reign again in our beautiful land. We long for our brave brothers to return to their homes, but not till the Union is restored, and the traitors receive their just punishment. My heart is deeply engaged in the cause of human liberty and justice, and I have given my all in the struggle.

Emma C. Hard.

I remain, yours respectfully,

Richwood, May 9, 1863.

Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:—In The New York Tribune of April 25, 1863, we observed that a National Convention of the Ladies' Union League is to be held in the city of New York, on the 14th day of May. We were truly gratified with this intelligence, and should be very happy to be present on that occasion; but as that is among the impossibilities, we deem it a great privilege to represent the Richwood Ladies' Union League through epistolary correspondence. The cause is glorious, and is calculated to elevate woman to a higher sphere. Louder voices and holier motives urge us to duty as never before. At the time our Ladies' Union League was organized, we knew not that there was another in the world, or that there ever would be. Its infancy was feeble, as we must advance cautiously, if we would surely; but it was as a city set on a hill. The good work is still progressing.

INDIANA.

Angola. Ind., May 6, 1863.

Miss Anthony:—The call for a Convention in New York to express the feelings of woman in view of the condition of the country, is timely. I regret that I can not be present to share the inspiration of the occasion, and as far as possible to aid in making an impression worthy of the hour. We call this an alarming crisis because it is a struggle involving our lives, our liberty, and our happiness. It must be borne in mind that this nation is great not simply from the number of States it has held in union, but from its creative genius. We are told that this is the best expression of a republican form of government. It is so because it is self-sustaining, self-reliant, and therefore may be self-governing. The stern, smooth-faced Puritan fled from religious persecution in the Old World to find room for an idea in the New; and the planting of one religious idea has yielded a rich harvest of sects, each an improvement on the last.

Yesterday politics had its center in a party; to-day, in the nation; to-morrow, it will find an equilibrium in the individual. This is a stern work, wearing furrows in the cheeks of statesmen, shaking the frame-work of the Government, letting the blood and drinking the treasure of the nation. It can not be avoided. God has said, "And unto you a child is born," and his name shall be called Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, the Holy of Holies, the Universal Republic. And as God rested after the first creation, so shall this nation find its Sabbath of rest when this struggle for freedom is over, and from the little child to the bowed-down man, all shall breathe through the new Constitution a fresher, more glorious life. Viewed from the daily papers, the battle is long, terrific, and uncertain. Go to the stricken hearthstones, and we exclaim, "Oh, that this cup might pass from us!" Visit the solemn battle-field, and in anguish we murmur, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken us?" Retiring to the high mountain of our faith, we see in this painful view the magnitude of our cause, and that slowly but surely this contest will end triumphantly. From this point we mark the milestones that show we have made indelible foot-prints toward Liberty and Union.

The choice by the people of a Republican President, the firing on Sumter, the defeat at Manassas, the recognition of Hayti, the treaty with England for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the decision of Attorney-General Bates in favor of universal citizenship, the conversion to the anti-slavery sentiment of Dickinson and Butler, the President's Proclamation, and the arming of the blacks, are signs in the political zodiac, showing our revolution certain as that of the rolling suns in the material heavens. Only Liberty can be our watchword henceforth! To this standard alone will the country, both North and South, rally when a few more days of leadership are over. God saw to this in the frame-work of every living thing, when He made his wants to be a blessing with freedom and a curse without it. Open the cage-door to the pining fox, loathing his master's beef and pudding, and see if his instincts are not true as the needle to the pole. Lay the sweet babe before the starved lion, and his want will not bow to your compassion. So in slaves; it matters not whether slaves to rebellion or to aristocracy. So in all men and in all women, the want of liberty, as the want of bread, is a vital principle in the blood. It is the motive power. Without it man is but a log, and is suited to rule over frogs only; or, like the silent water, becomes a loathsome stagnation. You may suppress, but you can not appease or destroy this divine inheritance in man. On this uniform idea the laws of society depend, and union can have no other. Raise the banner of freedom to all, and you have an imperishable Constitution, supported by the gushing blood of the millions, and immortalized in the spirit of the nation. This is our work: To comprehend liberty, to establish a constitution, and perpetuate union. We began at union, the right-hand figure, borrowing ten, as in mathematics, from the next higher order, observing the rule of maintaining an equal difference by paying what is borrowed.

We saw that fighting for union and slavery left us just what we began with. So we borrowed from the Constitution Fremont's Proclamation, and carried the popular response to the next Congress, and under the second period we wrote the liberty of three millions! We have now to work out the main principle or highest order, to test the virtue of the people, to see whether, when rebellion is put down, the nation can survive; and there is now left us no escape from death or disgrace except in the announcement of freedom as a principle. Do this, and you have enlisted new recruits from men who will nobly dare to die, but never will retreat. Do this, and the mothers of the country will continue to lay their precious sons upon the altar, not as "Union soldiers," as before, but as heroes of a new republic. Do this, and woman, the subtle architect of society, will teach you how to walk the very verge of death with an unflinching hope of life; her faith will separate your light from darkness, truth from error, liberty from slavery. She will demonstrate for you that self-reliance is the condition of all creations, that as "the flower looks to no power outside itself to unfold its tendrils and accomplish its mission," so this nation is self-sufficient. In its warm beating heart lies its folded banner, and each man and woman must unfurl it as the seaman unfurls his sail. Nail Freedom to your banner, and it shall bring a prostrate nation to its staff, and together with their loud applause, "the morning stars shall sing, and all the sons of God shall shout for joy."

Josephine S. Griffing.

To the Meeting of Loyal Women to be held in New York the 14th of May:

Miss S. B. Anthony:—Not being able to attend your meeting, I desire to convey to you personally my heartfelt appreciation of your work. If, as the call implies, your object is to help create and keep alive a loyal public sentiment, it is truly praiseworthy. This is what we need—a public sentiment that will not tolerate disloyalty anywhere. We want the rebel sympathizer to feel the society of intelligent women a constant rebuke to their unfaithfulness; we want to go still further, and make them feel that they can not be admitted to the social circle of loyal women; we want to make them feel that we will not patronize them in business relations; in short, that we will hold no communion with them whatever, except it may be to reform them as fallen brethren. As the Spartan mothers of old, as the mothers of the Revolution, did not shrink from whatever of trial, of sacrifice, and of toil was theirs to endure, so may we of the XIXth century, the mothers of the soldiers of freedom, grasp heroically the sword of truth, and wield it with a power that shall make the tyrant tremble. It is not enough that we scrape lint, make hospital stores, knit socks, make shirts, etc., etc.; all this we should do by all means, but we have also other duties connected with this war. Let us endeavor to perform them all faithfully. As the war is working out for woman a higher and nobler life, while it is destined in the providence of God to free the slave, it will also bring about in a great measure the enfranchisement of woman. Let us prove that women are intellectually and morally capable of laboring side by side with our brothers in the great struggle, and heaven will bless our efforts.

Mary F. Thomas.

Yours in the great work,

Richmond, Ind., May 11, 1863.

Pecor, Wabash Valley, Ind.

To the "Call for a meeting of the Loyal Women of the Nation," we most heartily respond. It is precisely what is needed at this time. There is a lack of enthusiasm here as elsewhere—not that our "Aid Societies" are not quite flourishing: but that we do after the manner of Miss Ophelia, "from a sense of duty." A lady says to me, "What more can be expected of women if men fail to some extent in our military affairs?" Well, they can arouse the smouldering fires of patriotism, help to raise the trailing banner, and stand devotedly by the dear old flag. If they enter into the work heart and soul, good results will follow. There is here a strong secession element; copperheads abound; the sky looks dark and threatening; but Gov. Morton's vigorous policy and Gen. Burnside's "Order No. 38," will show the traitors that we have a government—a strong one, too—that will bring them straight up to the mark.

Those who are disposed to criticise your meeting, who have a word to say about women taking part in political or public affairs, should have their memories refreshed a little. From a great many who have ruled in affairs of State, I select one who lived a long time ago. The record is from the highest authority. Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, who judged Israel, had her canopy of State under the palm-tree in Mount Ephraim. At this time the children of Egypt had been mightily oppressed for twenty years by Jabin, King of Canaan. Hope is almost extinguished in Israel; not one man scarcely seems awake to his country's wrongs; patriotism is slumbering in every manly breast, yet glows brightly in the heart of woman; and as the tribunal of judgment is deserted by manly virtue, ability, and zeal, Deborah takes the place, not by usurpation, but divine appointment. She instructs the people in the law and testimony of the living God, and inspires them with more than a common enthusiasm to go with Barak against the mighty host of Canaan. They go forth, and are victorious, completely routing the enemy. Sisera, the commander-in-chief of the great army of Jabin, is slain by the hand of woman! The mighty arm of the Lord of Hosts is seen in this conflict, for Jehovah has no attribute that will take sides with the oppressor!

Would it not be well for the women of to-day to emulate Deborah in her zeal and love of country? I trust your meeting will be productive of great good in arousing us to more correct views of our duties and responsibilities as members of the Republic. As Burke says, "I love agitation when there is a cause for it." The alarm-bell which startles the inhabitants of a city from their midnight slumbers, saves them from destruction.

Eliza B. Terrell.

Truly yours,

May 11, 1863.

E. M. Wilkinson, on behalf of the Soldiers' Aid Society in Laporte County, Ind., writes:

"We will labor with all our might, mind, and strength for a free country, where there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude. As our mothers stood by the Government in the Revolution, so we, like them, will stand by the present Administration. We believe the sin of slavery to be the cause of this horrid war, therefore we hailed with gladness the ninth section of the Confiscation law, and the Proclamation of Freedom by the President."

ILLINOIS.

Rosemond, Christian County, Ill., May 5, 1863.

Miss Susan B. Anthony—My Dear Christian Friend:—I observed with deep interest, in The Independent of April 16th, an article on "Women and the War," stating that meetings would be held in your city on the 14th of May, "to consider how woman's services may be more effectually engaged in promoting the war, supporting the Government, and advancing the cause of Freedom and the Union."

At that meeting I shall be most cordially present in spirit, while I am necessarily in body far from you; and for the result of your deliberations there I shall watch with eager interest. What can woman do? has been with me from the beginning of this war a question of the uppermost importance. I have asked it with tears again and again, and have watched every intimation upon this point in our journals, and from soldier friends, with a willing heart and ready hand; though I have sometimes observed with pain, that those who had given least for this great cause were least solicitous on this question, and less disposed to do, and to continue to do, than those very ones who, as they would say, had surely done enough, when they had given up husband or son, father or brother, or all of these, for the bloody conflict. But no, it is those who like me have given up their all, and perhaps like me are left by this war widowed and alone, helpless and in feeble health; such it is that cry, What can woman yet do for this sacred cause? Such may silently bear their lonely anxiety and sorrow, patiently toil and struggle to take care of themselves, and of those dependent upon them, as best they can, uncomplaining, asking not aid or sympathy, and all the while cheering their beloved ones yet spared in the conflict, and holding up their hands by words of encouragement and blessing. But such can not sit still, and feel that they have done enough. Such can not look with indifference upon the flowing tide of blood all around us; upon the thousands of hearths and homes as desolate as their own; upon the hardships and sufferings of our brave soldiers in field, or hospital, or camp; upon the hundreds of thousands of those poor freedmen, women and children, that have just begun to emerge from the house of their bondage, and come out empty, ignorant, and degraded, yet seeking liberty, protection, instruction, and offering their strong right arms for the defense of that wise and beneficent Government that has bid them go free. Methinks, every mother and every teacher should now take special care to instill into the minds of those committed to their instruction a holy and devoted patriotism; the sacred principles of liberty; liberty for all; the inestimable value of our free institutions; and the perpetuation of these as an end worthy of their highest ambition. Teach them to honor the name of soldier, and to cherish sacredly the memory of those who have given their life's blood for the cementing and maintenance of this Union, and to be ready to stand up bravely for the right, when their turn may come.

I have written from the fullness of my heart, yet in much weakness and sorrow. My own beloved and noble husband was among the very first to offer his services at his country's call, and in less than one short year his sacrifice was owned of God, to whom he had early consecrated his life, and from the strife of the battle-field (at Donelson, in February, 1862) he was called up higher to rest in peace. In feeble health, I have returned to the asylum of a father's house, to which one beloved brother has just returned with his discharge, having wasted nearly to a skeleton in Southern hospitals, and two brothers are yet in the army. Should you have any printed circular of the result of your meetings, a copy would be very gratefully received; and if there is any way in which ladies at so great a distance can co-operate with you, in measures you may devise, you may be sure that this little town of Rosemond will furnish her full share of loyal women. I will almost venture to say, no other can be found here.

In behalf of all that makes our country

E. P. Weeks.

I am, yours very cordially,

Aurora, Ill., May 8, 1863.

There never was a time in the world's history when the strength and efforts of women, as well as men, were so imperatively demanded as now. Never before in the annals of time has there been a struggle of such momentous import, not only at home, but abroad, as this. The eye of every principality and power on the face of the earth is upon us, anxiously watching and awaiting the success or defeat of our armies to prove or disprove the practicability of a republican form of government. Let us work for the right and true

Ellen Beard Harman.

For Freedom and Union,

Washington, Tazewell County, Ill., May 12, 1863.