Woman's World Column - July 9, 1885

In 1885, Catt (Carrie Lane) resigned from her position as superintendent of schools in Mason City, Iowa, and married Leo Chapman, editor of the Mason City Republican, a weekly newspaper. She became co-editor of the newspaper and started the column “Woman's World,” which she wrote would be “devoted to the discussion of such questions as purport to the welfare, the social, political and intellectual position of women.”

Now and then, a woman is found, who, when the question of Woman’s Suffrage is proposed, will excuse herself from an opinion upon the ground that she “had never thought much about it.” In a question, which pertains so closely to the welfare of her sex and agitated almost entirely by women, it is strange that any woman would plead ignorance as to its merits. While it may be these women feel no need of a ballot for themselves and are abundantly satisfied with their own condition, the fact that a movement, extending over many years, has existed and grown steadily stronger, should be a sufficient evidence that all women are not situated as contentedly as they. It is every woman’s sacred duty to inform herself as to the needs of her sisters and to be ready to lend a helping hand when their condition shall require it. For a woman to say she does not know the results to be obtained from suffrage, is to acknowledge that she has no interest in the welfare of women.

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There is no longer, the least doubt but that the Tennessee campaign in the late war, which broke the power of the Confederacy and saved the Union, was planned entirely by a woman, Miss Anna Ella Corroll [Carroll], of Maryland. Several plans for military campaigns had been presented at the War Department, by the most prominent generals, but none in the judgement of the President and his Cabinet seemed feasible. After each had been carefully examined and then rejected, they were in sore distress. Just at this time, Miss Carroll brought to the Department, a plan so sagacious and practical, it was accepted at once. It was thought best to keep it in as great secrecy as possible, and therefore orders were issued from Washington, without those who carried them out knowing anything of their origin. There was at that time so much jealousy among the officers that it was thought they would have refused to carry into effect a plan of a civilian. Lincoln, at one exclaimed: “Great God! If they knew it was a woman’s plan, the whole army would resign, and the Confederacy be an established fact.”

The plan had been attributed to many persons, but proof of their claims was never presented to the public. There is, however, no doubt that the plan of keeping the name of the originator a secret was a wise one. Cassius M. Clay said upon one occasion that “in military genius Miss Carroll towered about all the generals.” Senator Jocob Howard, Chairman of the Conduct of the Ware, said that she “did more for the country than all the military generals; she showed where to fight and how to strike the rebellion on the head; possessing, withal, judicial learning so comprehensive and concise in its style of argument that the government gladly sat at her feet and learned the wisdom of its powers.”

Under his own signature B. F. Wade writes: “As the expedition advance, Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Stanton and myself frequently alluded to Miss Carroll’s extraordinary sagacity and unselfish patriotism, but all agreed that she should be recognized for her most noble service and properly rewarded for the same. The last time I saw Mr. Stanton he was on his death-bed; he was then most earnest in his desire to have her come before Congress, and said that if he lived, he would see that justice was awarded her.”

While it may be that Miss Corroll may live and die with her patriotism and sagacity unrewarded by Congress, she may be assured, that justice will place her name in the history of our Nation’s struggle.

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The German Government has discharged all women, who were employed in its postal, telegraph and railway service as clerks and in other capacities. As during the last twenty years they nearly monopolized such service in some towns, much suffering has ensured among the discharged. The motive alleged is that women are unfit for public service.—Woman’s Journal.

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When industrial and technical schools for girls shall have done as much to transmute their capacity into capability as such schools for boys have done and are doing, when not merely the honorableness of labor is admitted, but when the entire dishonorableness of idleness and dependence shall be proclaimed, when all incentives urge women to try their powers, and all rewards wait on their success, then, and not till then, will it be in order to endeavor to compute the relative abilities of women and men. —May Wright Sewell, in Woman’s Journal.

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About six months after woman’s suffrage had been adopted in Washington Territory, Chief Justice Greene said in his charge to a grand jury composed of men and women: Twelve terms of court, ladies and gentlemen, I have now held, in which women have served as grand and petit jurors; and it is certainly a fact beyond dispute that no other twelve terms so salutary for restraint of crime have ever been held in this Territory. For fifteen years I have been trying, as well as I knew how, to do what a judge ought, but have never until the last six months felt underneath and around me, in that a judge has a right to feel it, the up-buoying might of the people in the line of full and resolute enforcement of the law.”—Woman’s Journal.

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Governor Warren, of Wyoming Territory, in a letter addressed to a member of the Legislature of Massachusetts, give the the following testimony in regard to the practical working of Woman’s Suffrage in that Territory:

“I have been a citizen of that Territory ever since its organization, and was a resident there before its organization, while it was yet a part of Dakota. And from my experience and observation I am compelled to say, in justice to the women of Wyoming, that Woman’s Suffrage has not ‘lowered the grade of public officials’ in that Territory. On the contrary, our women consider much more carefully than our men the character of the candidates and both political parties have found themselves obliged to nominate their best men in order to obtain the support of the women. As a business man, as a city, county and Territorial office, and now as Governor of Wyoming, I have seen much of the working of Woman’s Suffrage, but I have yet to hear of the first case of domestic discord growing out of it. Our women nearly all vote, and since, in Wyoming as elsewhere, the majority of women are good and not bad, the result is good and not evil. No attempt to repeal the law has been made for ten years and none is contemplated, for the practical workings of Woman’s Suffrage commend it more and more every year to favor among men and women as they understand it better.”

Chapman, Carrie Lane. 1885. “Woman’s World.” Mason City Republican, July 9.

PDF version, courtesy of Mason City Public Library