her vocation, for she was
already receiving commendation from men and women of a high order of
intelligence and being given larger contributions as a result of her
speeches.

The country was at that time in the beginning of its Civil War period,
and much was written and said on the issue of the hour. At a Kennett
Square meeting, where hot debates were held on the burning question of
the day, Anna was one of the speakers, and one of the press notices on
the following day said:

"... The next speaker was Miss Anna Dickinson, of Philadelphia,
handsome, of an expressive countenance, plainly dressed, and eloquent
beyond her years. After the listless, monotonous harangues of the
previous part of the day, the distinct, earnest tones of this juvenile
Joan of Arc were very sweet and charming. During her discourse, which
was frequently interrupted, Miss Dickinson maintained her presence of
mind, and uttered her radical sentiments with resolution and
plainness. Those who did not sympathize with her remarks were softened
by her simplicity and solemnity. Her speech was decidedly the speech
of the evening.... Miss Dickinson, we understand, is a member of the
Society of Friends, and her speech came in the shape of a retort to
remarks which were contrary to her own beliefs. With her usual
clear-cut conviction and glowing oratory, Miss Dickinson said that:

"'We are told to maintain constitutions because they are
constitutions, and compromises because they are compromises. But what
are compromises?' asked the young speaker, 'and what was laid down in
these constitutions? Eminent lawgivers have said that certain great
fundamental ideas of right are common to the world, and that all laws
of man's making which trample on those ideas are null and void--wrong
to obey, but right to disobey. The Constitution of the United States
sat upon the neck of those rights, recognizes human slavery, and makes
the souls of men articles of purchase and sale.'"

So clear of mind and expression was the young orator that her
statements sank as deeply into the minds of her hearers as if spoken
by a far more learned person, and from that time her intense nature
had found its true outlet, and her longing to provide her mother with
some of the comforts which had so long been denied her was soon to be
realized.

In that same year of her speech at Kennett Square, on an evening in
late February, she spoke in Concert Hall, Philadelphia, before an
audience of