selves, but would carry peace in the exercise of the right to
others. "Would you have a woman participate in the scenes
preliminary to an election?" I will tell you that the moment that
women begin to vote there will be no scenes "preliminary" in
which women may not appear. It is this very jointure of the
family influence that we look to as a part of the influence that
should bring reformation into our politics; for if our politics
are to be masculine forever I despair of the republic. No!
whatever thing on God's earth a woman's conscience tells her to
do, she can do it, though she stood in the gates of hell, and be
every particle a woman just as much. Is there anything in this
world that has so great a reputation for lawlessness as a camp?
And yet, when our armies went into this conflict, how many
hundreds of women went, not as companions, but to minister to the
boys. They went down into the camps, and through the whole war
consorted with the rudest of men, and not one single syllable did
they ever hear from the lips of those men that a pure ear should
not hear. They ate the soldiers' fare--they performed the most
menial services; but it was love that inspired and sustained them
in their toils. And will any man say that after these four years
had passed, and these ministers of mercy came back again, that
because they had been mixed up with this rabble crew, they were
the less women? Were they not the more women? These are sisters
of charity--these are heroines without a record in any human
literature. Have they been injured by mixing with the rude
affairs of war in camps and among soldiers? When women take upon
themselves such necessary duties they take vulgarity from
vulgarity, and coarseness becomes refined, for it is the heart of
woman that brings life among men, and restores Paradise.

But it is said that it would do women no good to have the vote,
because they would vote as their husbands would. Well, I am very
glad to hear that you are all so happily mated. I have a pretty
large flock, and my observation has been that there was not such
perfect unanimity. The tidings brought to me are that there are
women who have minds of their own, and I don't think a woman
would make up her mind to vote with her husband unless she
conscientiously bel