recompense. This may be a reason that such positions are being
gradually assigned to women.

At the time of this general uprising, New York was thoroughly stirred
with temperance and anti-slavery excitement. George Thompson, the
great English reformer and orator, who had been mobbed in all the
chief cities of the North, accompanied by William Lloyd Garrison, was
holding a series of conventions through the State. And as these
conventions were held in the midst of the "Jerry rescue trials,"[89]
the apostles of freedom spoke with terrible vehemence and
denunciation. Popular orators, too, were rushing here and there in the
furor of a Presidential campaign, and as all these reforms were thrown
into the governmental cauldron for discussion, the whole people seemed
to be on the watch towers of politics and philanthropy. Women shared
in the general unrest, and began to take many steps before unknown.
Since 1840, they had generally attended political meetings, as with
the introduction of moral questions into legislation, they had
manifested an increasing interest in government.

The repeal of the License Law of 1846, filled the temperance hosts
throughout the State with alarm, and roused many women to the
assertion of their rights. Impoverished, broken-hearted wives and
mothers, were for the first time looking to the State for some
protection against the cruelties and humiliations they endured at the
hands of liquor dealers, when suddenly the beneficent law was
repealed, and their reviving hopes crushed. The burning indignation of
women, who had witnessed the protracted outrages on helpless wives and
children in the drunkard's home, roused many to public speech, and
gave rise to the secret organizations called "Daughters of
Temperance." Others finding there was no law nor gospel in the land
for their protection, took the power in their own hands, visiting
saloons, breaking windows, glasses, bottles, and emptying demijohns
and barrels into the streets. Coming like whirlwinds of vengeance,
drunkards and rum-sellers stood paralyzed before them. Though women
were sometimes arrested for these high-handed proceedings, a strong
public sentiment justified their acts, and forced the liquor dealers
to withdraw their complaints.[90]

There is nothing more terrible than the reckless courage of despairing
women, who, though knowing they have eternal truth and justice on
their side, know also their helplessness against the tide of misery