ABSTRACT
DEAR MADAM, - When an in1ustice has long held out in defiance of repeated and vigorous assaults, it behoves the assailants to have some doubt as to the completeness of their plan of attack which does not compel surrender. One great injustice the strong hand of the law still upholds and fortifies against us women, and though effort, and enlightenment, and devotion have sallied against it unwearied time after time, it bas not yielded, and one cannot say how long the obst.inate siege will continue without reward. We have not exhausted our energies, there are ever new recruits joining our ranks ; there is as muc:h heart in the storming as ever. But in the short intervals of rest, now and again there floats though our brains somewhat disturbing tbought.;i. May not the, enemy within the walls have some force which we have never pitted ourselves against ? May there not be some defect in our engines of war? Have we not, perhaps, some weakness in our cause which gives the enemy a moral force, thus stimulating them to zealous resistance? These are not cheerful considerations, and they are very apt to be discouraged and bid to vanish with the morning light, .which summons us again to action. But these unwelcome doubts will press themselves again on us after every vain effort till we have grappled with them, till we have slain them,. or till they have forced us to acknowledge our shortcomings, perhaps to change our tactics, to cast out the accursed thing, if such there be in our camp, which brings down judgment on us, which causes the enemy to blaspheme and to triumph in his evil. Now, that our cause is a good one we are all agreed, but success does not yet crown it. Have we not some fundamental weakness in our army? Is there no accursed thing in the midst of us?
