ted, glorified. On that April morn, when a
nation of citizens suddenly sprang into an army of warriors, with
a patriotism as intense, a consecration as true, American women
quietly assumed their vacated places and became citizens. New
boundaries were defined. A Mary Somerville or Maria Mitchell
seized the telescope and alone with God and the stars, cast a new
horoscope for woman. And the new truth, electrifying, glorifying
American womanhood to-day, is the discovery that the State is
but the larger family, the nation the old homestead, and that in
this national home there is a room and a corner and a duty for
"mother." A duty recognized by such a statesman as John Adams,
who wrote to his wife in regard to her mother:

Your mother had a clear and penetrating understanding and a
profound judgment, as well as an honest, a friendly and
charitable heart. There is one thing, however, which you
will forgive me if I hint to you. Let me ask you rather if
you are not of my opinion. Were not her talents and virtues
too much confined to private, social and domestic life? My
opinion of the duties of religion and morality comprehends a
very extensive connection with society at large and the
great interests of the public. Does not natural morality
and, much more, Christian benevolence make it our
indispensable duty to endeavor to serve our fellow-creatures
to the utmost of our power in promoting and supporting those
great political systems and general regulations upon which
the happiness of multitudes depends? The benevolence,
charity, capacity and industry which exerted in private life
would make a family, a parish or a town happy, employed upon
a larger scale and in support of the great principles of
virtue and freedom of political regulations, might secure
whole nations and generations from misery, want and
contempt.

Intense domestic life is selfish. The home evidently needs
fathers as much as mothers. Tender, wise fatherhood is beautiful
as motherhood, but there are orphaned children to be cared for.
These duties to the State and nation as mothers, true to the
highest needs of our children, we dare not ignore; and the nation
cannot much longer affo