Omaha daily bee., 1914-12-01
Women in
1870
BY EVELYN b. BALDWIN.

BY EVELYN b. BALDWIN.
In Orange county. New York. a short
time ago, came across. among some
papers now yellow with age. the details
bearing on the manufacture of the great
chain that obpstructed the Hudson below
West Point In revolutionary days.
II was made at Cornwall-on-the-H ud-
son by German patriot called Jonas
Williams. assisted by his sons and
daughters. General Washington. being
then at Newburgh and knowing of the
undertaking. rode in person to the smithy
and witnessed the welding Of the great
links. AS the general stood there the
smiths daughters. too. Joined in welding
the sledges and made the anvil ring as a
'~eeesin ringing out liberty.
Only a few years previous to this
Patrick Henry, amid breathless silence
had thrilled the Virginia assembly with
the immortal words. IL know not what
other men may think, but as for me, give
me liberty or give me death!'
And those words, inspiring men and
with woman, upon the founding of the
new ship OF state. In those days Il was
not thought Of by Washington and
others to frown upon woman and to
forbid her to leave the home" or to AID
in war. Nor would the men of those
days have been too sentimental or cow
ardly to fight side by side with the
patriotic sisters had it been necessary for
them to bear arms in the spirit OF
Patrick Henrys declaration
But was the call to arms any more
honorable or important or understan J.
able than the present-day call to ballots!
And is any great skill required now
adays to manipulate the rapid-fire gun
than to operate the .typewriting machine
or the voting machine?
While we thus learn of the Teuton
blacksmith and his family-one son. he
related to Washington, had already given
his life for the cause of freedom with
Montgomery on the Heights OF Abraham,
in Canada-let 1t also be not forgotten
that between the years 1877 and IT'S there
were 10000 foreigners mostly Germans
or Dutch and of German descent, who,
sailing from Hamburg and Rotterdam.
To subdue them, together with our
English, Irish, Scotch. French and other
forebears. the Teuton king of England.
George III, hired of his Teuton kinsman
the king of Prussia, a large body of Hes
sian troops and sent them to the colonies
on their mission Of destruction.
Add to the liberty-ioving spirit Of the
early settlers of New York. New Jersey
oeaA DAv, a.. ~ e. 49, "A
those states where the most sanguinary
conflicts took place-where men and
women were compelled to struggle to-
gether in closest mutual relationship
and we perhaps have a reasonable ex-
PLANTATION of the readiness with which
the present generation in those states
has encouraged the growth of equal SUI
frage as the safest guarantee for the per-
petuatlon Of real freedom.
They readily agreed with Benjamin
Franklin that mo man Cperson) should
dictate the conscience of another" and
with Thomas Jefferson and others that
Government derives its just powers
from the consent of the governed" in a
republican form of government-the
consent" being given by ballot.
Then, too, II was in the three colonies
poIOEo InSutlOHeO lndI Nn0 PoOplS CtIHe
in closest personal touch with Washing
!, ton, and observed his chivalrous respect
for women, as well as the same spirit
manifested by his fellow officers and
the statesmen of that period. To learn
OF this one has only to read the diaries"
of the engineer of the continental army,
Colonel Loammi Baldwin, and of his
! close kinsman, Colonel Jeduthan Bald
win, and the Correspondence" OF Ben
jamin Franklin. in which the close as
ISOLATION of the ladies" OF those times
with the affairs of the men folk are
frequently mentioned in terms of courtly
consideration.
Indeed, how could It have been other
wise, when the great mind of the leader
of men had been fashioned in the mold
of democratic knighthood by Mary, the
mother of Washington and who also
had breathed into his soul the stainless
purity of her own character?
1T was such examples as were set by
Washington and his fellow officers and
statesmen in their treatment of women
that inspired Betsy Ross and her neigh
bors with that same lofty ideal OF pa
tr1otism as they made with their own
hands the original STARS and Stripes
that had filled the hearts and minds Of
the Teuton daughters of the anvil. 1t
was such chivalrous respect that caused
such women to dedicate, in the makine.
Of the national emblem, that mothev-.
hood OF the flag which is as undying
as a mothers love for the offspring of
the flesh, And well Il is that the men
OF the republic of today are passing
along from flag to ballot that same
womanly conservation chat so nobly be-
speaks more healthy and normal, be-
cause more equabie, circulation of the
blood In the body polite.