Sentiments of An
American Woman, 1780
Esther Reed launched the
creation of the Ladies' Association of
ON the
commencement of actual war, the Women of America manifested a firm resolution
to contribute as much as could depend on them, to the deliverance of their
country. Animated by the purest patriotism, they are sensible of sorrow at this
day, in not offering more than barren wishes for the success of so glorious a
Revolution. They aspire to render themselves more really useful; and this
sentiment is universal from the north to the south of the Thirteen United
States. Our ambition is kindled by the same of those heroines of antiquity, who
have rendered their sex illustrious, and have proved to the universe, that, if
the weakness of our Constitution, if opinion and manners did not forbid us to
march to glory by the same paths as the Men, we should at least equal, and
sometimes surpass them in our love for the public good. I glory in all that
which my sex has done great and commendable. I call to mind with enthusiasm and
with admiration, all those acts of courage, of constancy and patriotism, which
history has transmitted to us: The people favoured by
Heaven, preserved from destruction by the virtues, the zeal and the resolution
of Deborah, of Judith, of Esther! The fortitude of the mother of the Massachabees, in giving up her sons to die before her eyes:
Rome saved from the fury of a victorious enemy by the efforts of Volumnia, and other Roman Ladies: So many famous sieges
where the Women have been seen forgeting the weakness
of their sex, building new walls, digging trenches with their feeble hands,
furnishing arms to their defenders, they themselves darting the missile weapons
on the enemy, resigning the ornaments of their apparel, and their fortune, to
fill the public treasury, and to hasten the deliverance of their country;
burying themselves under its ruins, throwing themselves into the flames rather
than submit to the disgrace of humiliation before a proud enemy.
Born
for liberty, disdaining to bear the irons of a tyrannic
Government, we associate ourselves to the grandeur of those Sovereigns,cherished and revered, who have held with so much splendour the scepter of the greatest States, The Batildas, the Elizabeths, the
Maries, the Catharines, who have extended the empire
of liberty, and contented to reign by sweetness and justice, have broken the
chains of slavery, forged by tryants in the times of
ignorance and barbarity. The Spanish Women, do they not make, at this moment,
the most patriotic sacrifices, to encrease the means
of victory in the hands of their Sovereign. He is a friend to the French
Nation. They are our allies. We call to mind, doubly interested, that it was a
French Maid who kindled up amongst her fellow-citizens, the flame of patriotism
buried under long misfortunes: It was the Maid of Orleans who drove from the
kingdom of France the ancestors of those same British, whose odious yoke we
have just shaken off; and whom it is necessary that we drive from this
Continent.
But
I must limit myself to the recollection of this small number of atchievements. Who knows if persons disposed to censure,
and sometimes too severely with regard to us, may not disapprove our appearing
acquainted even with the actions of which our sex boasts? We are at least
certain, that he cannot be a good citizen who will not applaud our efforts for
the relief of the armies which defend our lives, our possessions, our liberty? The situation of our soldiery has been
represented to me; the evils inseparable from war, and the firm and generous
spirit which has enabled them to support these. But it has been said, that they
may apprehend, that, in the course of a long war, the view of their distresses
may be lost, and their services be forgottten.
Forgotten! never; I can answer in the name of all my
sex. Brave Americans, your disinterestedness, your courage, and your constancy
will always be dear to
We
know that at a distance from the theatre of war, if we enjoy any tranquility,
it is the fruit of your watchings, your labours, your dangers. If I live
happy in the midst of my family; if my husband cultivates his field, and reaps
his harvest in peace; if, surrounded with my children, I myself nourish the
youngest, and press it to my bosom, without being affraid
of feeing myself separated from it, by a ferocious enemy; if the house in which
we dwell; if our barns, our orchards are safe at the present time from the
hands of those incendiaries, it is to you that we owe it. And shall we hesitate
to evidence to you our gratitude? Shall we hesitate to wear a cloathing more simple; hair
dressed less elegant, while at the price of this small privation, we shall
deserve your benedictions. Who, amongst us, will not renounce with the highest
pleasure, those vain ornaments, when-she shall consider that the valiant
defenders of America will be able to draw some advantage from the money which
she may have laid out in these; that they will be better defended from the rigours of the seasons, that after their painful toils,
they will receive some extraordinary and unexpected relief; that these presents
will perhaps be valued by them at a greater price, when they will have it in
their power to say: This is the offering of the Ladies. The time is
arrived to display the same sentiments which animated us at the beginning of
the Revolution, when we renounced the use of teas, however agreeable to our
taste, rather than receive them from our persecutors; when we made it appear to
them that we placed former necessaries in the rank of superfluities, when our
liberty was interested; when our republican and laborious hands spun the flax,
prepared the linen intended for the use of our soldiers; when exiles and
fugitives we supported with courage all the evils which are the concomitants of
war. Let us not lose a moment; let us be engaged to offer the homage of our
gratitude at the altar of military valour, and you,
our brave deliverers, while mercenary slaves combat to cause you to share with
them, the irons with which they are loaded, receive with a free hand our
offering, the purest which can be presented to your virtue,
By An AMERICAN
WOMAN.