Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-10
THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH.

For some days past the Tribune, which
/ generally possesses the virtue of seli-respect,
not knowing, doubtless how else 10 give
vent 10 TO its ill-humor at the turn Qfffairs,
has lavished insults upon the womenof The
South. 1t seems to Us that thousand rea-
sons not to mention the simple one of pro-
priety, should restrain Northern journal
from such attach The Iiibane should re-
member, too tlie7trosm displayed by the
Confederate women for their cause. Wheth-
er this cause were good or bad, the Southern
women have sustained it nobly, and with
forcaof. character which recalls the ancient
women of Sparta, and which has every
where commanded respect and admiration.
Not satisfied with attacking the Southern
women, the Tribune institutes between them
and the women of the North a comparison
as odious as & is unjust.
sour women" says Mr.. Greeley's news
paper, "are everywhere a most cultivated
class; the women of the South are more
illiterate than the men,"
We dispute the truth Of this assertion
There are at the South, as at the North, ed
ucated women and ignorant women, we'll
bred and ill-bred, vulgar women. But we
do not believe that the proportion is so I'M
favorable to the South The ladies of
Charleston, of New Orleans and of Rich
mond have shone in all the European sa-
looms where they haveappeared, as brilliant
ly as those of New York and Boston. That
the Southern women are less literary than
their husbands is very possible, but we do
not consider this purely as reproach. We
do not like learned women we are repealed
by women yersed in Latin and philosophy,
and unlike Mr.. Greeley, take the part of
Henriette against Armande. A woman may
be educated, but let her never become pc
dant; aud, 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 at the North and
what these gain in science, if science that
may be called which consists in great many
ideas, almost always confused and super
ficially understood, joined to enormous pre-
tension, lose in grace and attraction. Wesay.
this without intending any injustice to those
charming Northern women who avoid the
grotesque and ridiculous, and resemble in
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 constancy during the war. We
attribute the great qualities of which the
Southern women have given noble example
to higher origin. Ignorance, the Tribune
has said it a hundred times, can engender
only vice and meanness-and, if the Con-
| federate women have been heroic, it is be-
cause they had faith in their cause. There
are no 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 shove herself and give examples
of the higher virtues These occasions
occur when 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 without ostentation,
without Theatrical parade.
They have borne all privations, they have
| defied all outrages by their proud and i'm
passable attitude. Soldiers, drunken with
| blood, could outrage their bodies, but their
victims remained as pure as those Christian
| virgins whose memories the embraces of the
executioner could not defle.
All that is precious to women--dress
| jewels, the Injuries of home-all these the
Southern women gave up-they did not re-
coil even before sacrifices still more painful
| they did not fear to break their hearts by
| sending forth their sons to do battle for a
cause, sacred in their eyes, like that Lace
| demonian mother who showed shield to
her son and said simply: return with it, or
on it; do thy duty, or die. DO not expect
sHch trials from ignorant women, from
| souls without elevation
And while desolation over all the hearths
of the South, while mothers had each day
fresh tears to wipe away, yet bravely bore
4 l. Al n
| North employed? In developing a costly
luxury against which the Tribune itself
cried out, calling attention to its scandalous
extent feminine prodigality became more
and more unrestrained. We know to what
result this state of affairs had led. Some
ladies, It's trne, like Miss Anna Dickinson,
| gave tiresome lectures TO promiscuous
audiences, others clamored for pretended
woman's rights, and exposed themselves to
the derision of the public, and others still
| enrolled themselves under the banner of
miscegenation. 1t is among these classes
| of woman, who defy good sense and modesty
in public exhibitions, that the Tribune finds
its ideal.
Let this journal, then, cease to insult these
conquered women, of whom the defeat has
not diminished the greatness; let it cease to
embitter and dishoner its pen in sustaining
an indefensible paradox The North, like
the South, has its contingent of good, grace
full, educated and elegant bred women; it has,
perhaps, larger number of that class who
so little deserve the name of women, and for
whom certain announcements are made in
the journals; it possesses, also, greater share
| Of learned and pedantic ladies-but for these
will New Orleans not become envious of
Boston. As for good and well-bred society,
it is the same everywhere; and the Tribune
may be sure thata woman of the world, COM
ing from Boston, would not feel out of place
in New Orleans, nor would the contrary be
true. In eliminating the Southern women,
Mr.. Greeley bas simply proved that he does
not know them, and that he knows still less
the common laws of propriety.