The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1880-04-14
Elizabeth L. Saxon.
Woman's Mnr,ls.l

NQUAdH GHQEdNDE ia our laNOEAlG galaxy OF
Woman's Words, we have not been unmind
tul OF the class Of the South, for no womer
anywhere can have greater merit in thei
ideiity TO home and society than these
Not to recall the dark days where a sense
OF duty arrayed them united and enthu.
sIastlc in cause they believed right WI
refer briefly TO the great advance in other
directions which these same heroic self
sacrificing women have made in later wears
while the healing arts of peace have deep
ened and absorbed their sympathies ana
energies in newer and better channels.
No one who has not travelled through the
South within the last decade and observed
the various occupations and industries that
have been developed there, can for a mo
ment understand what great progress has
been made WiJhout attempting to recite
details 1t Is safe to affirm that the last ten
years OF progressive thought in the Southern
States have done more to deyeIope their
vast and magnificent resources than a cen
fury could have done under the old svs-
tenn; and in this work the women of the
South have been the strongest and most
effective workers. Whatever avenue has
beenNopened to them, they have entered
upon 1t with an intelligence that has never
been unmindful of the immediate and pros
pective results. Prominent among these
workers we find the subject of this sketch.
Elizabeth l., Saxon, of New Orleans
woman OF native force of character, ready
writer. an original thinker, and a speaker
OF great effectiveness and power.
Mrs. Saxon was born in Tennessee, but
losing her mother at the age of two years,
her father shortly afterwards removed TO
Wetumpka, Alabama, at that time the head
quarters of the Cheek Indians Left thus
early under the special care and training OF
her father, who was a man well read in an
cient and modern literature, the child very
naturally grew strongly like him in thought
and feeling, and his love of nature and of
the outdoor world. his favorite authors and
familiar haunts became hers Between
father and daughter there was an invisible
link that could never be broken, and that
grew with the development of her body and
mind. Few names are better remembered
in literature and education a quarter of a
century ago than that of Mrs Caroline zee
Hentz; and it was under her instruction
that the growing girl rapidly developed
those sterling qualities of mind and heart
which have since made her foremost in prac-
teal measures for the good of her sex. Mrs.
Lee Hentz indeed recognized what she
deemed a poetic inspiration in the bright
young pupil just budding into womanhood,
and was quick to prophecy commanding
literary future for her favorte; but "the
best laid plan of mice and men oft gang-a-
giee, as Robert Burns has it. Cupid has
not been taken into consideration, and at
sixteen a knight of the white plume APP
peared to the young girl ia the person of
Mr. Lydell A, Saxon, of South Carolina: A
man of sterling worth, and a member OF one
of the Oldest families of the State They
removed to New Orleans,
where they still reside, OF the seven
H. ? ,4 ell IL. - IL.
living. Iwo--a son and daughter-are
happily married, and the other two are at
present at school at the Belvidere On. J0
Before the war Mrs. Saxon
wrote very frequently, both prose and peo-
try, and was tavorlte contributor to the
Louisville Courier, and leading journals
North and South.
The vast difference in the worlds treat
medt OF the same acts of men and of women
especially in a case which affected one she
dearly loved, turned her attention seriously
TO the social and civil conditions Of women,
and she learned To hate uhattle slavery as
she hated the wretched servitude that hedg-
I'd in and enyironed women. She studied
-he writings of political economists and took
an active interest in every thing bearing on
social questions.
Mrs. SaXOn's father Andrew Lyle, exacted
from her promise when he was dying that
she would never relax her efforts in behalf
IF women while she lived. He was a pris-
Dner of war at tho time, and to this promise
perhaps, is due much of the energy which so
her work In the Female
Writers of the south" published by Claxton
4 Co., of this city in 1872, we find notes of
her literary work from which some of our
facts are taken.
Mrs Saxon was the colleague of Mrs. E.
A. Merriweather, of Tennessee, in carrying
A petition before the Convention that nomi>
mated illden at st. Louis, seeking to arouse
thought and cooperative action on educa~
5ional matters, but which was successful
only so far % sending the printed petition
throughout the South. And in other Sims
lar movements she has since been among the
the hearty aid and assis-
lance of the leading women of the South.
In 1873, during the terrible devastation
wrought by the yellow fever, Mrs. Saxon
was president of an association of ladies who
heroically disdained to fly before the
destroyer and sought by every effort that
the broadest philanthropy could devise and
secure 70 Inltigate the horrors
lying -. around them As president of
that association she threw open the doors
Of her hopitable and elegant homemade
work room of her parlor-and counted no
effort too costly that would alleviate the
or assuage the grief and misery of
the sick and dying about her. Her own
daughter, charming child of twelve years,
the lily of the family and the darling Of her
heart, fell a sacrifice to the destroyer
The survivors of this heroic band of no
bic women, whose three months aud more
Of selt-akIegatiOn can never be forgotten by
those they aided, comforted and encourage
ed, at their final meeting took occasion 20
pass series of resolutions highly eulogistic
OF Mrs. oaXon's share in their work which
were duly engrossed and presented to the
surprised but gratified recipient.
In June last she was selected as the ora
tor to present to the Constitutional Conven-
ton of the State Of Louisiana an argument
in behalf of woman's right of suffrage and
co>educatiOn, which was pronounced by the
press and those who heard it to be q most
convincing argument delivered with a
force, eloquence and power that won great
applause from admiring friends and reluc-
tant opponents.
Women in English Politics.
The interest taken in politics by la
dies in England at the close of the last
century, when Mrs. Crewe, the Duchess
of Devonshire, and others were really in
power in the State, is again evinced to-
day, and now, as then, is most conspicu-
Gus among the whig aristocracy. Thus,
at Liverpool, lately, Lady Ramsay was
a most active coadjutor to her husband,
and there IS no question that Lady
Portsmouth's popularity and eloquence
(she addressed the electors) largely as
sisted 10 secure her sons return for
Barnstaple. On the other hand the
Tory ladies, too, occasionally come To
the fore Lord Vaudeville is believed
to have benefited not a little BY the
effect of his American wife's beauty and
persuasive wiles on the bucolic minds Of
Huntingdonshire, while Lady West
minister and her daughter observing the
traditionarY family politics. unquestion-
ably turned the scale two years ago in
Dorsetshire. The next fortnight will
probably see an immense amount Of
feminine fascination brought to bear on
the electoral list Now that every
householder III towns has a vote, the