Page:Women of distinction.djvu/48

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WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.

ciate and value the marriage relation; to know how and to be incited to leave behind him the old shards and shells of slavery and to rise in the scale of character, wealth and influence; like Nautilus, outgrowing his home to build for himself more stately temples of social condition. A man landless, ignorant and poor may use the vote against his interests, but with intelligence and land he holds in his hand the basis of power and elements of strength."

During this long journey through the South Mrs. Harper was ever mindful of the virtue and character of our women. She well knew the abuses they had suffered, the wrongs that they had endured, the advantages that had been taken of them when they were not allowed, under the cursed and cruel lash, to utter a murmuring word in self-defense. Now it was just and proper for some strong friend to remind them that they had rights which all men should respect; that as free people they could be a moral people only when the women were respected and treated as moral beings. This she seems to have been anxious to have them do; hence she wrote as follows from Georgia: "But really my hands are almost constantly full of work; sometimes I speak twice a day. Part of my lectures are given privately to women, and for them I never make any charge, or take up any collection. But this part of the country reminds me of heathen ground, and though my work may not be recognized as part of it used to be in the North, yet never, perhaps, were my services more needed; and, according to their intelligence and means, perhaps never