The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-05-10

selves we must act, or we must take our places
with the lax and ignorant voters, OF whom we
have complained so long
Our study of English history has made the
triumph of our race for civil and religious lib
eriv very fresh in cur minds. We have seen
how a brave and valiant people have risen from
the depths of barbarism and superstition; how
they have thrown of the yokes of kings and
potentates, and wrenching the great Charter
from unwilling despots have made it potent
factor in the redemption of nations and the
enlightenment of the world.
We have seen how women, the slaves and
chattels of men, the patient, toilng human
animals have crowned the child-bearers with
the halo of sanctified womanhood, and how,
erect in their new-fOund uprightness, they are
marching side BY side with men to the accom-
plishment of common destiny, greater.
grander more splendid than any of which
enthusiast or reformer has ever dreamed.
Women in the schools; women on the plat
form; women at the editorial desk women in
the pulpit; women who carry their homes and
their cradles with them. as the lsraeltes car
ried the tents of the tabernacle, the very Holy
of HOLES, on their march through the wilder
ness to the sweet Land of Promise-thcse are
the women who are to wrench the still greater
Magma Charta-the Magma Charta of high
lTeaven-from the forces of ignorance and
wrong and set the world singing on its axis
toward purer and higher destiny. When
THE GREAT WAR CAME
women were obscure. unorganiZed, isolated.
Those who made womanly efforts toward bet
ter things were scorned and jeered at. That
war was an emancipation in more senses than
one. The black millions freed from physical
bondage were more than matched by the
white millions of women freed from the intel
lectual bondage forged by anvils of ages.
God spake and the shackles fell from the
sweet soul of woman, and in her weakness
she stood forth the right hand of man. The
societies formed by women for the ameloratiOn
OF the woes of man during our great civil war
were the great training-schools for the mission
given her to do.
When that was DONE and well done. she was
given permanent place in the great organized
forces of civilization and culture and Christ
ianity. The great Weman's Temperance Union,
which has girdled the earth with n white rib
bon. the innumerable boards of missions which
have opened the barems and Zamanas OF the
Orient TO the sweet cvangels Of Christ. the
American Red Cross Society, whose honored
head wears the decorations of kings and poten-
lA'es. never before conferred upon women the
multfarious charities and humaniiies. clubs
and circles, organized and carried on by women,
ever for good and for good only-these are some
of the results close following upon the emanci-
patton of women.
The National and International Councils of
Women, the Worlds Congress. mingling the
brightest and best minds of Occident and
Orient. the mingling and commingling of
women of every race and nationality. ever and
always with lofty principles and holy aims,
these are great and growing results of the
emancipation of women.
England is making a way for her women;
France gives her women the franchise who are
property holders. in tho election of judges who
decide ia such cases. And America! What
will not America do if her own brave, true
born sons, who are the helpers and defenders
and advocates of mothers and wives and homes,
have their way? If there is a holding back
anywhere, it is from women themselves, not
men.
recent investigator has been looking into
the condition of women-physical, mental,
moral, and spiritual-of all the great European
powers. He gives the results of his investiga-
tion to the public prints, the gist of which he
sums up in the trite aphorsm. 1.-THE greater
the liberty the greater the virtue"
With the supreme and unlimited liberty en-
joyed by the American woman, there are no
nights to which she may not climb. no obsta-
cles she may not accomplish. Her under
takiDgs are limited only by her ambition. and
her accomplishment by the abilities she brings
to bear upon her undertakings.