Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/18

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Luella Clay Carson.

unsealed mountains to these shores. What soul of womanhood pent up in the child-mother Sacajawea! As she heard the cooing of the baby she carried she never forgot that she was a guide, a lamp unto the feet of valiant men; a lover of baby Baptiste, her husband Charboneau, her people the Shoshones, she never relinquished her mission: to lead men to the land they sought for. The humble Indian woman, like Spencer's Britomart, was "clear to discern her aim; as valiant to pursue it."

Our country can not forget that it was the burning heart of Harriet Beecher Stowe that set communities aflame with indignation at the wrongs of slavery. England will never forget that the tender heart of Florence Nightingale in ministering to the Crimean soldiers laid the foundation of the humane hospitals of modern wars. It is these women who have seen the thing to do and have done the thing that made possible the great advance. It has been the faith, the hope, the enthusiasm of strong men and women that have made possible the steady climb of manhood and womanhood; they rise together. And it is indeed a lofty height to which our nation has arisen at the beginning of this century.


More favorable environments should produce larger results; more favorable possessions should bring larger returns and prompt larger benefactions. The democracy and isolation of the new world gave new opportunities to our race. The freedom, power, vantage ground of this new empire of the West bestows a new opportunity upon the women of these northern States. The women of Idaho, Washington, Oregon have an inheritance now in their keeping that is inspiring; all that the nineteenth century accomplished in spiritual freedom, in legal protection, industrial possibility, educational benevolence and benefi-