215. The Women of Our Nation. Women have had a large part in the progress of our nation. In colonial days women often had to defend their homes against Indians. They endured the hardships of the first settlements as bravely as did the men. They had larger rights and greater freedom than in England at that time, because their help was so plainly necessary in this new country.

By 1850 nearly one-fourth of the nation's manufacturing was done by women, but otherwise until that time women's lives were spent almost entirely in their homes. Though no colleges were open to women until 1833, many mothers knew enough of books to prepare their sons for college at home.

During the Revolution women formed a society called "Daughters of Liberty," to spin and sew for their soldiers. They gave their treasured pewter spoons and dishes to be melted up for bullets. As women have always done, they cared for the sick and wounded after battles.

In the great Civil War, women were needed still more to nurse the wounded, for even then there was no Red Cross or large body of women who were nurses by profession to call upon. Women took the place of the men called to war in many ways, and especially in teaching schools. On both sides women worked in the fields, and sometimes acted as spies, or served, disguised, in the ranks. Southern women also entered the factories in large numbers. They had to meet even greater hardship than women in the North, and were often face to face with starvation.

On the frontier women had always worked in the fields when necessary, and often helped to build the houses they lived in. The fearless pioneering spirit and fine, sturdy character of these women won them the highest respect. This was one reason why western states were the first to grant women the right to vote.

Long before the Civil War great leaders in the cause of woman's advancement had appeared. These leaders saw that in many ways women had proved their equality with men. This encouraged them to appeal for wider opportunities for women, who then had almost no legal rights. The leaders now demanded the privileges enjoyed only by men. We should all know the stories of these women of wise and fearless vision.

216. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Elizabeth Cady was born in New York, in 1815. Her girlhood was a happy one, spent with her brother and sisters. She was a healthy, rosy-cheeked girl, full of life and fun, who believed girls were the equals of boys and had just as much intellect.

When Elizabeth was eleven years old her brother died. Her father grieved deeply over the loss of his only son, and Elizabeth determined to try to be to her father all that her brother might have been. She therefore applied herself diligently to study and self-improvement.

Her father was a lawyer. He had been a member of Congress. Many hours out of school Elizabeth spent in his office, listening while his clients stated their cases. She gradually became indignant at what she found to be the unequal position of women in almost every walk of life. She determined to devote her life to securing for women the same rights and privileges that men had.

While studying she did not neglect the arts of housekeeping. She regarded these as occupations of the highest dignity and importance. When twenty-five years old she married Henry B. Stanton, a lawyer and journalist who since his student days had talked and written against slavery. But she did not forget her old resolve to struggle for the rights of women, even when occupied with the duties of home and children.

217. The First Woman's Rights Convention. In 1848 Mrs. Stanton called a woman's rights convention—the first ever held. Its purpose was "to discuss the social, civil, and religious conditions and rights of women."

Mrs. Stanton read to the convention a set of twelve resolutions, the now famous "Declaration of Sentiments." It demanded for women equality with men and "all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States," including the right to vote. This was the first public demand for woman's suffrage. The resolutions were passed. A storm of ridicule followed the convention, but Mrs. Stanton's position remained unchanged.

218. Susan B. Anthony. A few years after this historic convention, Mrs. Stanton met Susan B. Anthony. Miss Anthony was the daughter of Friends, or Quakers as they are often called. She was born at South Adams, Massachusetts, in 1820. Her father maintained a school at Battenville, New York, and here Susan received her early education.

From her seventeenth birthday until she met Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony had been engaged in teaching school. But now the great national questions of anti-slavery and temperance were drawing her away from her work as a teacher. At first Miss Anthony had not been in sympathy with the Declaration of Sentiments, but when she met Mrs. Stanton the cause of woman's rights won an able, enthusiastic, and untiring friend.

From this time on these two fought side by side for the cause of women. They traveled and lectured in all parts of the country. In 1868 they started a weekly paper, which they called The Revolution. Miss Anthony was the business manager and Mrs. Stanton was the editor. Its motto was, "The True Republic—men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less."

In 1869 they organized the National Woman's Suffrage Association. In many states the question of woman suffrage became an important one at election. Wherever they were needed, in California, in New York, or in any other state, these two women could be found. Every year from 1869 until her death, in 1906, Miss Anthony addressed committees of Congress. In 1872 she cast a vote for President. She declared it to be her right under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. For this act she was arrested and fined, but the fine was never collected.

Mrs. Stanton died in 1902. The great movement she had started was on its way to certain victory. Congress passed the suffrage amendment in 1919, and in August, 1920, it became law. Over twenty-five million women were entitled to vote in the presidential elections that year.

219. Julia Ward Howe. All the great wars in which our country has engaged have brought heavy burdens and sorrow to women. They could not march away to fight side by side with the men. Their duty was to cheer their loved ones as they went away to danger and perhaps to death.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, from thousands and thousands of homes father, husband, son, or brother went away, in many instances never to return. Women were left behind, praying for their loved ones and working untiringly night and day to provide food and clothing and to keep up their homes.

But there were other women who could not serve their country in this way. Many had no one to send away to fight. Among these was Julia Ward Howe. She was born in New York in 1819, of wealthy and distinguished parents. She was carefully reared, but she knew little of the work that girls are usually taught to do. Practically everything was done for her by servants. However, Julia dearly loved to read and study, and very early she began to write poetry.

In 1841 she married Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, a noted teacher and reformer. While visiting in Washington in 1861 she saw women nursing the wounded soldiers brought in from the battle field of Bull Run. She was deeply stirred by the sights around her. What service could she do for her country? Her husband was too old to enter the army, her son too young. She knew that there were thousands making clothes for the soldiers in the field. But she could not sew for the soldiers or care for the wounded, for she had never been taught to work with her hands. She could only write poetry. Of what use was that now?

One day her minister suggested that she write words for the popular army tune, "John Brown's Body Lies A-mouldering in the Grave." She did so, and the poem was published in a magazine under the name of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Soon the song was being sung through all the camps of the northern troops. The soldiers sang it on the march, in wild charges, or at night beside the camp fire. Everywhere its challenge roused the northern soldiers to a more determined fight for victory. In writing this poem Mrs. Howe had done a great service for the Union.

220. The Woman's Club. After the war Mrs. Howe wished to continue serving her country in some way, and she took up the cause of woman's rights. Women had had little or no chance to educate themselves and broaden their minds by discussing with each other subjects outside their homes. She thought woman's clubs would work to free women from the narrowness of mind that comes from thinking only of dress, hired help, and housekeeping. From then on, she devoted herself to establishing clubs for women. She traveled over the country and wrote and lectured on this subject. She urged that the members of these clubs should seek not only for self-improvement but for means of serving others; and through their efforts hospitals for women and children, lodging houses, and labor schools were established.

Mrs. Howe had found a means of serving her country even greater and more effective than the writing of her "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

221. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Another woman who did great service for her country with her pen was Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was born in 1811. Her father was a Connecticut minister, and she was brought up in a deeply religious home. At school she was apt at writing and she dreamed of becoming a great author.

She married Calvin E. Stowe, a student of theology, and thereafter devoted herself to her home and her children. During the years just before the Civil War there was much discussion of the slavery question. Mrs. Stowe had traveled in the South and had seen how the negroes were kept in ignorance, and how cruelly they were sometimes treated. She was aroused by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law and by some of the things that happened as a result of it. She resolved to use her talent for writing to help the slaves.

In 1851 she began the story, Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was first published in serial form in an abolition paper in Washington. It was later published in book form. From the first, the sale of the book was enormous. It was translated into many languages and was very popular abroad as well as at home.

Mrs. Stowe became famous. It is said that the book converted more than two million people to the cause of freedom for slaves. It helped to unite the North and to give it strength to stand firm in the great conflict.

Mrs. Stowe continued writing in behalf of the slaves. She gave her son to the cause of freedom. He was wounded at Gettysburg and never regained his health. She aided in establishing schools for the negroes in the South, and worked among them earnestly until her death in 1896.

222. Frances E. Willard. In 1839, when Frances Elizabeth Willard was born, thousands were leaving the eastern states for the new West. Her father and mother were successful teachers in New York, but when Frances was two years old they decided to move with the westward current. After living five years at Oberlin, Ohio, the family went on to Janesville, Wisconsin, settling on a farm in the midst of picturesque hills and woods. There Frances and her brother and sister grew up healthy, happy children, playing together in the forest and fields. The parents were religious and were total abstainers, and the children never forgot their teachings.

At fifteen years of age Frances went to school in Janesville, and at eighteen to a Milwaukee college for girls. The following year she entered the Northwestern Female College at Evanston, Illinois. At graduation she stood at the head of her class.

Miss Willard began teaching. Then the death of her sister Mary, and shortly afterward, of her father, broke up her home. That home had been an ideal one. There the father and mother were equal in all things, and discussed together the affairs of the household. It was a perfect home, orderly and temperate. Frances Willard made up her mind to spend her life in spreading abroad a knowledge of such homes, and in helping women to become equal with men before the law.

In 1874 came the anti-saloon crusade. Miss Willard saw that this movement was part of the fight for better and happier homes, and threw herself ardently into the work. When the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was organized in Chicago, Miss Willard became its president.

In 1879 she became the president of the National Union. Her work was never-ending. She wrote books; she lectured all over the country. For twelve years she held an average of one meeting a day.

Miss Willard had seen that unless women had the right to assist in making laws, their cause was hopeless. Accordingly she declared herself in favor of woman suffrage. A few years later the Woman's Christian Temperance Union followed their leader into politics in an effort to encourage temperance legislation.

Miss Willard's work constantly became wider. The organization of which she was the head became international in its influence, and the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union was organized in 1883, with Miss Willard as president. She had united the women of the world in a great league for the protection of the home. Miss Willard remained to the end of her life president of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She died in 1898.

223. Clara Barton. Clara Barton was born in 1821, near Oxford, Massachusetts. She was educated to be a school teacher, and for many years followed that profession. In 1861 she visited Washington, and there felt the impulse that led to her great life work.

The injured soldiers from the first battles of the Civil War were being brought to Washington. Miss Barton at once felt it her duty to help in caring for them. She not only nursed the wounded, but she encouraged those who were on the way to the line of battle.

224. Goes to the Battle Field. The men that were being taken to the hospitals received no care until they arrived there. Miss Barton saw that her place was on the battle field.

She secured a pass to the firing line, and for four years she followed the Union soldiers. She was constantly in danger; her clothing was pierced by bullets, her face blackened by powder. But she was undaunted. The soldiers needed her, and she must be there to help them. When she could, she nursed wounded Confederate as well as Federal soldiers. She received no pay for her work.

When the war was over Miss Barton went to Europe. There she learned of the Red Cross Society, founded in Geneva in 1863. The purpose of the society was to care for the wounded of any nation on the field of battle. A treaty among the nations agreed that the Red Cross nurses should be safe from capture. Miss Barton was asked to organize a branch of the Red Cross in the United States.

In 1882 President Arthur signed the treaty, and the American Red Cross, with Miss Barton as its first president, was established. She continued as president until 1904, when she resigned.

In 1896 Miss Barton went to Armenia at the head of her Red Cross to relieve the suffering caused by the massacres. She saved thousands from starvation and disease.

Again she nobly responded to the call of President McKinley to go to the help of Cuba in the Spanish-American War.

Miss Barton lived to see the Red Cross a world-wide society carrying comfort and cheer to all nations. In the World War after every great battle the Red Cross nurses worked on the field or in the hospital to lighten the awful sufferings of the wounded.

225. The Red Cross Society in Times of Peace. It was Miss Barton's firm belief that the world needed the services of the Red Cross in times of peace as well as in times of war. Accordingly an amendment was made to the Geneva treaty. Local Red Cross societies sprang up in every part of the country. The suffering which followed the great Charleston earthquake, the Galveston flood, forest fires, mine explosions, and all similar accidents found the Red Cross Society on hand with aid and supplies.

The greatest calamity that has befallen our country since the Red Cross was well organized was the burning of San Francisco following the great earthquake of 1906. Five hundred millions in property was destroyed, and two hundred and fifty thousand people were left homeless and without food. The Red Cross alone spent three million dollars in giving aid to the sufferers.

An important new undertaking is the rural work of the Red Cross. This is not limited to health questions, though a nurse is the first person sent into a country. But also if possible another worker is sent to help the country people with their social problems, their amusements, and the building up of a spirit of neighborhood coÖperation.

226. Jane Addams. There was still another great and vital field of service waiting for a leader. This was the cause of a better chance in life for the very poor. A better understanding among all people, rich and poor, and a knowledge of the interests which all have in common are aiding in this. Education, reform of unjust working conditions, and social service—the help or relief of poor or unfortunate people—are all means of progress through which people like Jane Addams have worked.

In 1883 while traveling in Europe, Jane Addams, a daughter of wealthy and distinguished parents, was deeply touched by the terrible poverty and misery she saw everywhere around her. She herself had never known want or hunger. Indeed she had more wealth than she knew how to spend for things she herself needed or cared for.

She determined to devote herself and her fortune to a fairer distribution of the world's goods and pleasures among those who were always hungry and in want. It was a vast undertaking, but Miss Addams was not dismayed. She hoped that some day the rich and the educated would see that all men are equal and would unite with the unfortunate in one great brotherhood.

She returned to Chicago, and there with a group of workers established a social settlement in a building in a poor quarter of the city and called it Hull House.

There everyone, however poor, was welcomed. People could come there for advice or help. Through personal influence they were led to become acquainted with the best books, to cultivate their minds, and to meet each other at times for study or social enjoyment.

Men and women from all parts of the country and from abroad visited Hull House to see what Miss Addams and all her fellow-workers, through personal service, were doing to make the lives of the poor people around them a little brighter and happier. They found Hull House a success. The neighborhood was like a great family whose members sought each other's welfare. They regarded Miss Addams as one of themselves. This was a bit of the human brotherhood of which Miss Addams had dreamed.

227. What Has Been Accomplished. These great women of whom we have read have worked for the advancement, not alone of their sex, but of all mankind in the United States and the world over.

Through their efforts great changes have taken place in woman's position. Throughout the country she has a place more equal to man's in the eyes of the law, almost unlimited opportunities in education and business, and whatever openings in public life she proves fitted for. Now looking back, we can see that the greater part of what Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony so relentlessly strove for has been gained. Woman suffrage will doubtless soon cause the more backward states to give women full legal rights, and it will also enable women to work more freely for the progress of the nation.

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