Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1916-03-15
BIOGRAPHY OF
ZANE GREY SWISSHELM
First Newspaper Woman Of
Minnesota.
A Remarkable Woman Of Ante
bellum Dayo-1915-1865
CHI APTER XVIII.
Mexican War.-Age. 1892

CHAPTER XVIII.
Mexican War.-Age, 1892.
James G.. Birney was the presiden-
tial candidate of the Liberty Party"
in 1874, as he had been in 40. Dur
ing the campaign wrote under my
initials for The Spirit of Liberty, and
exposing the weak part of an argu-
ment soon came to be my recognized
forte. For using my initials l had
two reasons-my dislike and dread
Of publicity and the fear of embar-
assing the Liberty Party with the sex
question. Aboitionists were men of
sharp angles. Organizing them was
like binding crooked sticks in a bun
die, and one of the questions which
divided them was the right of women
to take any prominent part in public
affairs.
In that campaign, the great Wing
argument against the election of Polk
was, that it would bring on a war
with Mexico for the extension of slav-
cry, and when the war came, Wings
and Liberty Party men We'd each 9TH
er in their cry of "Our Country, right
or wrong!" and rushed into the army
over every barrier set up by their late
arguments. The nation was seized
by military madness, and in the
furore, the cause Of the slave went
to the wall, and The Spirit of Liberty
was discontinued. It's predecessor,
The Christian Witness, had failed un-
der the successive management Of
William Burleigh, DR.. Elder, and Rev.
Edward Smith, three giants in those
days, and there seemed no hope that
any anti-slavery paper could be sup
ported in Pittsburg, while all anti
slavery matter was carefully excluded
from both religious and secular press.
1t was a dark day for the slave, and it
was difficult to see hope for a bright
er. To me, it seemed that all was
lost, unless some one were especially
called to speak, that truth, which
alone could make the people free, but
certainly l could not be the messen-
ger.
For years there had run through
my head the words, "Open thy mouth
for the dumb, plead the cause of the
poor and needy" The streams sang
them, the winds shrieked them, and
now a trumpet sounded them, but the
words could not mean more than talk
ing in private. l would not, could not,
believe they meant more, for the
Bible in which I read them bid me
be silent My husband wanted me TO
lecture as did Abby Kelley, but 1
thought this would surely be wrong.
The church had silenced me so ef-
fectuately, that even now all my
sense Of the great need of words
could not induce me to attempt it;
but if could "plead the cause"
through the press, must write. Even
this was dreadful, as 1 must use my
own name, for my articles would GER
tainly be libelous. If I wrote at all,
I must throw myself headlong into
the great political maelstrom, and
would Of course be swallowed up like
fshing-boat in the great Norway
horror which decorated our school
Biographies; for no woman had ever
done such a thing, and l could never
again hold up my head under the bur-
den of shame and disgrace which
would be heaped upon me. But what
matter? I had no children to dishon-
or; all save one who had ever loved
me were dead, and she no longer
needed me, and if the Lord wanted
some one to throw into that gulf, no
one could be better spared than I.
The Pittsburg Commercial Journal
was the leading Wing paper Of west
ern Pennsylvania, Robert M. Riddle,
it's editor and proprietor. His mother
was a member of our church, and l
thought somewhere in his veins must
stir anti-slavery blood. So I wrote
letter to the Journal, viii III appeared
with an editorial disclaimer, "but the
fair writer should have a hearing"
This letter was followed by another,
and they continued to appear once or
twice week during several months.
do not remember whom attacked
first, but from first to last my articles
were as direct and personal as Nath-
ans reproof of David. OF slavery in
the abstract l knew nothing. There
to a Whipping-pOst and scOurging her
rem. The old Kentucky saint who
bore the torture of lash and brine all
that bright Sabbath day, rather than
course Jesus" knew nothing Of the
abstraction of slavery, or the fine
spun theories of politeness which Gov
cred the most revolving crimes with
pretty words. This great nation was
engaged in the pusillanimous work of
beating poor little Mexico-a giant
whipping a cripple. Every man who
went to the war, or induced others to
go, held as the principal in the whole
list of crimes of which slavery was
the synonym. Each one seemed to
stand before me, his innermost soul
laid bare, and his idiosyncrasy I was
sure to strike with sarcasm, ridicule
solemn denunciations, old truths from
Bible and history and the OPINIONS of
good men. I had a reckless abandon,
for had I not thrown myself into the
breach to die there, and would I not
sell my life at it's full value?
My style I caught from my crude,
rural surroundings, and was familiar
to the unlearned, and was not sur
prised to find the letters eagerly read.
The Journal announced them the day
before publication, the newsboys
cried them, and papers called attea-
ton to them, some by daring to in
dorse, but more by abusing Mr.. Rid
die for publishing such unpatriotic
and 'incendiary rant" In quoting
the strong points, venal press was
constrained to scatter the living
Goals of truth" The name was held
to be a nom de plume, for in print it
looked so unlike the common pronun.
citation Of that of one of the Oldest
families in the county that it was not
recognized. Moreover, it must be a
disguise adopted by some man. Wise
acres said, one of the county judges
No western Pennsylvania woman had
ever broken out of woman's sphere
| ALL Lived in tho uoru oonfro Of fho1