Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1866-03-17
The wosaen or the South.
Prom the Gunner des Etats Unis.l

For some DAYS past the Tribune, which generally
possesses the virtue of self.respect, not knowing
doubtless how else TO give vent 10 us Ill humor at
the turn of affairs, has lavished insults upon the
women of the South. II seems to us that thous-
and reasons not to mention the simple one Of pro-
pretty should restrain Northern journal from such
attacks The Tribune should remember, too, the
heroism displayed by the Confederate women for
their cause. Whether this cause were good OF pau,
the Southern women have sustained 1t nobly ana
with force of character which recalls the ancient
women OF Sparta, and which has everywhere CON-
manded respect and admiration.
Not satisfied with attacking the Southern women,
the Tribune institutes between them and the women
OF the North comparison as Odious as it is I'M
just.
"0ur women" says Mr.. Greeleys newspaper,
ARE everywhere a most cultivated class the wo-
men of the South more illiterat than the
men,"
We dispute the truth of this assertion. There are
at the South, as at the North, educated women and
ignorant women, well bred and i'll bred, vulgar wo-
men. But we do not believe that the proportion is
so unfavOrable to the South. The ladies of Charles
ton of New Orleans and of Richmond have shone
in all the European saloons where they have ap-
peared as brilliantly as those of New York and
Boston That the Southern women are less litera.
ry than their husbands is very possible, but we do
not consider this surely as reproach We do not
like learned women; We are repealed by women
versed in Latin and philosophy, and, unlike Mr..
Greeley, take the part of Henrlette against Arman-
de. A woman may be educated, certainly, but let
her never become pedant; and above all, let her
never parade her learning. We do not see at the
South such physical and philosophical ladies' we
see only too many of them " the North and what
these gain in science, II science that may be called
which consists in IA great number OF ideas, almost
always confused and specifically understood, join
ed TO enormous pretensOn lose in grace and attrac-
ton. We say this without intending any injustice
to those charming Northern women who avoid the
groesque and ridiculous and resemble I'M this their
sisters of the South.
Let us permit the Tribune to insist upon the
"gross ignorance" Of the Confederate women, and
to refer TO this ignorance their energy and constan
CIV during the war. We attribute the great quail
ties of which the Southern women have given noble
example to higher origin. Ignorance, the Tn
bune has said it hundred times, can engender only
vice and meanness-and if the Confederate women
have been heroic. 1t is because they had faith in
their cause There are occasions in history when
women, whose mission in ordinary times is to make
the good wife, the tender mother, and to polish
manners by the charm and grace which she brings
into all social relations, may rise above herself and
give examples of the highest virtues. These occa-
sons occur WI en- the sacred soil of her country and
with it Tor through it the domestic hearth and the
family are threatened with invasion. These high
virtues the women of the South have practiced with
out ostentation, without theatrical parade.
They have borne all privatiOns they have dehed
all outrages by their proud and impossible att.
tude Soldiers, drunken with blood, could outrage
their bodies, but their victims remained as pure as
those Christian virgins whose memories the en-
braces of the eXecutiOner could not defle All that
is precious to women-dress, jewels, the luxures OF
home-all these the Southern women gave up
they did not even recoil before sacrifices still more
painful-they did not fear to break their hearts by
sending forth their sons to do battle for O cause
sacred in their eyes, like that Lacedemonian mother
who showed shield to her son and said simply
return with tor upon lido thy duty, or die. Do
not expect such trials from ignorant women, from
souls without elevation
And while desolation over all the hearths of the
South, while motheTs had each day fresh tears TO
wipe away, yet bravely bore their grief, how were
the women Of the North employees In developing
a costly luxury against which the Tribune itself
cried out calling attention to its scandalous extent
feminine prodigality became more and more unres-
trained, We know to what disastrous result this
state of affairs had led Some ladies, it is true
like Miss Anna Dickinson, gave tiresome lectures 20
prOmiscuous audiences, Others camOred for pre-
tended woman's rights and exposed themselves to
the dersion of the publc and Others still enrolled
themselves under the banner of mscegenation. 1t lis
among these classes of women, who defy good sense
and modesty in public exhibition, that the Tribune
finds its ideal.
Let this Journal then cease to insult these conquer
ed women, of whom the defeat has not diminished
the greatness let it cease to embitter and dshonOr
its pen in sustaining an indefensble paradox. The
North, like the South has its contingent of good
graceful, educated and elegant bred women: it has,
perhaps larger number of that class who little de-
serve the name of women, and for whom certain
announcements are made in the Journals; it posses
ses ALSO greater share Of learned and pedantic Ia
dies-but for these, VIII New Orleans not become
envous of Boston, As for good and well.bred So
ciety, il is the same everywhere; and the Tribune
may be sure that a woman of the world coming FROM
Boston, would not feel out of place in New Orleans,
nor would the contrary be true. In calumniatng
the Southern women, Mr. Greeley has simply proved
that he does not know them, and that he knows
still less the common laws Of propriety.