" she would
say, "that I know how the thing is done."

I remember that we were all considerably startled when she first gave us
an outline of her plan. On my saying that I trusted the dissemination of
our principles would soon bring us a great adhesion, she burst out with:

"Principles! Why if we trust to principles, we shall never succeed! We
must rely upon INFLUENCES, as the men do; we must fight them with their
own weapons, and even then we are at a disadvantage, because we cannot
very well make use of whiskey and cigars."

We yielded, because we had grown accustomed to be guided by her; and,
moreover, we had seen, time and again, how she could succeed--as, for
instance, in the Nelson divorce case (but I don't suppose you ever heard
of that), when the matter seemed nigh hopeless to all of us. The history
of 1860 and the following winter proves that in her the world has lost
a stateswoman. Mr. Wrangle and Governor Battle have both said to me that
they never knew a measure to be so splendidly engineered both before the
public and in the State Legislature.

After the bill had been passed, and signed by the Governor, and so had
become a law, and the grand Women's Jubilee had been held at Gaston,
the excitement subsided. It would be nearly a year to the next State
election, and none of the women seemed to care for the local and
municipal elections in the spring. Besides, there was a good deal of
anxiety among them in regard to the bill, which was drawn up in almost
the exact terms used by Mr. Wrangle at the political meeting. In fact,
we always have suspected that he wrote it. The word "male" was simply
omitted from all laws. "Nothing is changed," said Mrs. Whiston, quoting
Charles X., "there are only 201,758 more citizens in Atlantic!"

This was in January, 1861, you must remember; and the shadow of the
coming war began to fall over us. Had the passage of our bill been
postponed a fortnight it would have been postponed indefinitely, for
other and (for the men) more powerful excitements followed one upon
the other. Even our jubilee was thinly attended, and all but two of the
members on whom we relied for speeches failed us. Governor Battle, who
was to have presided, was at Washington, and Olympia, already his wife,
accompanied him. (I may add that she has never since taken any active
part with us. They have been in Europe for the last three years.)

Most of the women--here in Burroak, at least--expressed a feeling of