James Parton, Horace Greeley, T. W. Higginson, J. S. C. Abbott, E. M. Hoppin, William Winter, Theodore Tilton, Fanny Fern, Grace Greenwood, Mrs. E. C. Stanton, Women of the age; being natives of the lives and deeds of the most prominent women of the present gentlemen

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[384] meeting. Her opening speech, on that occasion, is remarkable for its common sense, and a pathos peculiarly her own. In 1853 she moved to St. Louis. Those who fought the anti-slavery battle in Massachusetts cannot realize the danger of such a warfare in a slave-holding State. With her usual frank utterances of opinions, she was soon branded as an abolitionist, her articles excluded from the journals, and she from “good society,” with daily threats of violence to her person and the destruction of her property. Three disastrous fires-the work of incendiaries, no doubt — greatly reduced the resources of the family. Owing to her husband's ill health, and failure in business, she took the post of assistant editor of an agricultural paper in Columbus, Ohio; but as the breaking out of the war soon destroyed the circulation of the paper, and four of her sons had gone into the army, her thoughts turned to the scenes of conflict in the Southern States. The “suffering freedmen” and the “boys in blue” appealed alike to her loving heart for kindness and help; and, without appointment or salary, she went to Port Royal in 1862. She remained in Beaufort, Paris, and Fernandina thirteen months, ministering alike to the soldiers and freedmen, as opportunity offered. Pages might be written on the heroism of Mrs. Gage and her daughter Mary during this period. Oppressed with the magnitude of the work to be accomplished there, she returned North, to give her experiences acquired among the freedmen, hoping to rouse others, younger and stronger than herself, to go down and teach those neglected people the A B C of learning and social life.

During this year she travelled through many of the northern States, speaking nearly every evening to Soldiers' Aid Societies. She worked without pay, only asking enough to defray her expenses. When the summer days made lecturing impossible, she went as an unsalaried agent of the Sanitary