The Woman's National Loyal League: Feminist Abolitionists and the Civil War

The Woman's National Loyal League: Feminist Abolitionists and the Civil War Wendy F. Hamand In the summer of 1862, Ellen Wright penned a letter to her close friend Lucy McKim. Both of these young women were the daughters of wellknown abolitionists and both would later marry sons of William Lloyd Garrison. Writing from her home in upstate New York, Ellen Wright expressed her disappointment at being unable to play an active role in what she regarded as the war to liberate the slaves. "Think how our boys are all going!" she wrote. "Is it not stifling, irksome work, to remain quietly at home."1 Her letter demonstrated the exuberance and impatience ofyouth, but she also touched upon something more far-reaching. Many women felt a sense of frustration during the war. Fully aware ofthe importance ofthe conflict about antislavery and the future ofdemocratic government, many longed to take a more active role in the war than the traditional female tasks of nursing, sewing, and bandage rolling. When the Emancipation Proclamation became law January 1, 1863, some abolitionist women rejoiced, but most were skeptical ofthe measure. Amy Post, a Rochester activist, summarized the views of many when she wrote that the proclamation was "more than I feared but much less than I hoped." Abolitionists also complained about the president's motives. "The ugly fact cannot be concealed from history," wrote the novelist and pam1 Ellen Wright to Lucy McKim, Aug. 15, 1862, Garrison Family Papers, Smith College. Ellen Wright, daughter of Martha Wright and niece of Lucretia MoH, married William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., on Sept. 14, 1864. See Walter M. Merrill, ed., The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, 6 vols. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1979), 5: 190. Lucy McKim and Wendell Phillips Garrison were married Dec. 6, 1865. Several months before Ellen Wright penned the above letter, McKim had accompanied her father to Port Royal, S.C. Miller McKim was heading a reliefeffort to help the newly freed slaves there. A trained musician, she collected slave songs, some of which were published in 1 862. Slave Songs ofthe United States, which she co-edited in 1867, became the standard book on slave music. Edward T. James et al., eds., Notable American Women, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1971), 2:23-24. Civil War History, Vol. XXXV, No. 1, ® 1989 by the Kent State University Press 40CIVIL WAR HISTORY phleteer Lydia Maria Child, "that it was done reluctantly and stintedly . . . merely a war-measure."2 The proclamation failed to arouse wide public enthusiasm, which was another reason for abolitionist disillusion. Many had predicted optimistically that when emancipation became an official war aim, Northerners would embrace abolition and the war would end quickly. "The War does not seem to end, with the 1st Jan.," Ellen Wright complained in a letter to her cousin. "How great has been the punishment which we must bear, for Slavery!"3 Many abolitionists concluded that the people must be inspired to send a clear message to Congress and the president demanding immediate emancipation for all slaves. Although women abolitionists had aided the cause early in the war through their speeches, fund-raising, and letter writing, their efforts had never been collectively organized. In the winter of 1863, two determined and energetic reformers, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, decided to form an organization ofwomen united against slavery. Stanton, who had helped to launch the formal woman's rights movement at Seneca Falls in 1848, was an abolition crusaderas well. Anthony had also engaged in a wide range ofreform activities. Although both women had come to regard feminism as their first priority, Stanton insisted they must stop holding woman's rights conventions in order to concentrate on the issue of emancipation for the slaves.4 Together Stanton and Anthony founded the Woman's National Loyal League, which, they hoped, would collect a mammoth petition to Congress carrying one million signatures from every Union state. The petition would provide senators and congressmen with irrefutable proof that Americans favored the complete and immediate abolition of slavery. Recruiting and organizing women for the league was a challenging proposition . In the decades before the war, women across the Northern states had participated...