was hardly possible for a woman to seem that which she was not in the
matter of sympathy, while in the national capital the constant influx of
strangers and sojourners made the keeping of a military or political
secret a matter of the utmost difficulty.

These more military pursuits, however, are hardly creditable and little
congenial to true womanhood, and the present record does not care to
concern itself with them. There was enough of passive heroism displayed
during the time of strife to fill the onlooker with admiration for the
courage as well as the patriotism of American womanhood, and these
things are more pleasant to look upon than is professional espionage.
The display of courage and endurance was varyingly manifested in the
different parts of the country and under different conditions; but it
was constant in its spirit. The debt of the Union to its women has never
been acknowledged, perhaps because never understood. The many triumphs
of the Confederate arms on the battlefield gave rise to a strong "peace
party" in the North; and, though general history makes no mention of the
fact, there can be in the mind of one who remembers the trend and
expressions of public sentiment little doubt that it was chiefly the
women of the North who barred the way of that party to ultimate victory.
Because the most prominent expressions in matters political come from
male sources, we are apt to neglect to recognize the home influence
which is so frequently a factor in the total result that accrues from
the consequent action. It was the men who fulminated against peace, the
men who went to the polls and by their votes decided that the war must
continue until either the South had been brought back into the Union or
the cause of the latter was so hopeless that to continue the struggle
were folly; but it was in large measure the women who, by their
steadfastness of devotion to the cause, impelled the men to such action.
There will be few among those who remember the interior history of those
terrible days who will not agree in the statement that to the women of
the North was due, in great measure, the hearty affirmative response
which rose from the country to the question, "Shall the war go on?"

Southern womanhood was equally steadfast in the cause of liberty, as the
South deemed it; indeed, the Southern women, as unyielding in principle
as their Northern sisters, were yet more admirable in their constancy,
because of the conditio