"To go on working, I consider the only thing to do; and, when
friends urge this after every fresh effort, their doing so in
itself contains a kind of verdict."--FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY.
There are some items of interest, that have come under my observation,
for the first time, during the last few years, which I have not found it
possible to add to the preceding lectures without destroying their
symmetry. I therefore offer them in an Appendix. They are not placed
here because they are unimportant, but simply that the later progress of
public opinion may be set forth by itself.
For the last five years, the women of the United States have held few
public discussions. They have done wisely. Circumstances have proved
their friend. Nothing ever had done, nothing ever will do again, so
great a service to woman, in so short a time, as this dreadful war, out
of which we are so slowly emerging. Respect for woman came only with the
absolute need of her; and so many women of distinguished ability made
themselves of service to the government, that we had no single woman to
honor as England had honored Florence Nightingale. With us, her name
was _legion_. But with the prospect of peace comes the old duty of
agitation; and we find ourselves again summoned to our work, and again
anxiously awaiting its results,--_anxiously_, for the public work of
women is an object which still attracts the gaze of the curious; and the
smallest indiscretion on the part of a single woman has a retrograde
effect, which very few seem able to measure.
Our reform is unlike all others; for it must begin in the family, at the
very heart of society. If it be not kindly, temperately, and
thoughtfully conducted, men everywhere will be able to justify their
remonstrances. Let us rather justify _ourselves_. My last report to any
convention was made to those called in Boston in 1859 and 1860. Between
that time and 1863, I printed five volumes, which are nothing but
reports upon the various interests significant to our cause. During the
last four years, I have watched the development of American industry in
its relation to women, and have, through the newspapers, aroused public
feeling in their behalf. My labor is naturally classed under the three
heads of Education, Labor, and Law. A proper education must prepare
woman for labor, skilled or manual: and the experience of a laborer
should introduce her to citizenship; for it provides her with rights to
protect, privileges to secure, and property to be taxed. If she be a
laborer, she must have an interest in the laws which control labor.
In considering our position in these three respects, it is impossible
to offer a digest of all that has occurred during the last six years.
What I have to say will refer chiefly to the events of the last two.