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."