did what she could with her
hands, but found them tied by unavoidable labors. She offered tongue and
pen, and found them much more efficient agents. The war destroyed the
circulation of the paper, and she was set free.

The cry of suffering from the Freedmen reached her, and God seemed to
speak to her heart, telling her that there was her mission.

In the autumn of 1862, without appointment, or salary, with only faith
in God that she should be sustained, and with a firm reliance on the
invincible principles of Truth and Justice, in the hope of doing good,
she left Ohio, and proceeded directly to Port Royal.

She remained among the freedmen of Beaufort, Paris, Fernandina, and
other points, thirteen months; administering also to the soldiers, as
often as circumstances gave opportunity. Her own four boys were in the
Union army, and this, if no more, would have given every "boy in blue,"
a claim upon her sympathy and kindness.

In the fall of 1863, Mrs. Gage returned North, and with head and heart
filled to overflowing with the claims of the great mission upon which
she had entered, she commenced a lecturing tour, speaking to the people
of her "experiences among the Freedmen." To show them as they were, to
give a truthful portrayal of Slavery, its barbarity and heinousness, its
demoralization of master and man, its incompatibility with all things
beautiful or good, its defiance of God and his truth; and to show the
intensely human character of the slave, who, through this fearful ordeal
of two hundred years, had preserved so much goodness, patient hope,
unwavering trust in Jesus, faith in God, such desire for knowledge and
capability of self-support--such she felt to be her mission, and as such
she performed it! She believed that by removing prejudice, and inspiring
confidence in the Emancipation Proclamation, and by striving to unite
the people on this great issue, she could do more than in any other way
toward ending the war, and relieving the soldier--such was the aim of
her lectures, while she never omitted to move the hearts of the audience
toward those so nobly defending the Union and the Government.

Thus, in all the inclement winter weather, through Pennsylvania, New
York, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri, she pursued her labors of love,
never omitting an evening when she could get an audience to address,
speaking for Soldiers' Aid Societies, and giving the proceeds to those
who worked only for the soldier,--then f