The Virginia Gazette

THE SENTIMENTS OF AN AMERICAN WOMAN.

In the commencement of actual war, the women of America manifested a firm resolution to contribute as much as could depend on them, to the deliverance of their country. Animated by the purest patriotism they are insensible of sorrow at this day in not offering more than barren wishes for the success of so glorious a revolution. They aspire to render themselves more really useful; and this sentiment is universal from the north to the south of the Thirteen United States. Our ambition is kindled by the fame of those heroines of antiquity, who have rendered their sex illustrious, and have proved to the universe, that if the weakness of our constitution, if opinion and manners did not forbid us to march to glory by the same paths as the men, we should at least equal, and sometimes surpass them in our love for the public good. I glory in all that which my sex has done great and commendable. I call to mind with enthusiasm and with admiration, all those acts of courage, of constancy and patriotism, which history has transmitted to us:

The people favoured by Heaven, preserved from destruction by the virtues, the zeal, and the resolution of Deborah, of Judith, of Esther! The fortitude of the mother of the Maccabees, in giving up her sons to die before her eyes: Rome saved from the fury of a victorious enemy by the efforts of Volumnia, and other Roman Ladies: So many famous sieges where the women have been seen forgetting the weakness of their sex, building new walls, digging trenches with their feeble hands, furnishing arms to their defenders, they themselves darting the missile weapons on the enemy, resigning the ornaments of their apparel, and their fortune, to fill the public treasury, and to hasten the deliverance of their country, burying themselves under its ruins; throwing themselves into the flames rather than submit to the disgrace of humiliation before a proud enemy,

Born for liberty, disdaining to bear the irons of a tyrannick government, we associate ourselves to the grandeur of those Sovereigns, cherished and revered, who have held with so much splendour the sceptre of the greatest states, the Bathildas, the Elizabeths, the Maries, the Catherines, who have extended the empire of liberty, and contented to reign by sweetness and justice, have broken the chains of slavery, forged by tyrants in the times of ignorance and barbarity. The Spanish women, do they not make, at this moment, the most patriotick sacrifices, to increase the means of victory in the hands of their Sovereign. He is a friend to the French nation. They are our allies. We call to mind, doubly interested, that it was a French maid who kindled up amongst her fellow-citizens, the flame of patriotism buried under long misfortunes: It was the maid of Orleans who drove from the kingdom of France the ancestors of those same British, whose odious yoke we have just shaken off; and whom it is necessary that we drive from this continent. But I must limit myself to the recollection of this small number of achievements. Who knows if persons disposed to censure, and sometimes too severely with regard to us, may not disapprove our appearing acquainted even with the actions of which our Sex boasts? We are at least certain, that he cannot be a good citizen who will not applaud our efforts for the relief of the armies which defend our lives, our possessions, our liberty? The situation of our soldiery has been represented to me; the evils inseparable from war, and the firm and generous spirit which has enabled them to support these. But it has been said, that they may apprehend, that in the course of a long war, the view of their distresses may be lost, and their services be forgotten. Forgotten? never; I can answer in the name of all my sex. Brave Americans, your disinterestedness, your courage, and your constancy will always be dear to America, as long as she shall preserve her virtue.

We know that at a distance from the theatre of war, if we enjoy any tranquility, it is the fruit of your watchings, your labours, your dangers. If I live happy in the midst of my family; if my husband cultivates his field, and reaps his harvest in peace; if surrounded with my children, I myself nourish the youngest, and press it to my bosom, without being afraid of seeing myself separated from it by a ferocious enemy; if the house in which we dwell; if our barns, our orchards are safe at the present time from the hands of those incendiaries, it is to you that we owe it. And shall we hesitate to evidence to you our gratitude? Shall we hesitate to wear a clothing more simple; hair dressed less elegant, while at the price of this small privation, we shall deserve your benedictions. Who among us will not renounce those vain ornaments, when she shall consider that the valiant defenders of America will be able to draw some advantage from the money which they may have laid out in these; that they will be better defended from the rigours of the season to which they are exposed by their painful toils, they will receive some extraordinary and unexpected relief; that these presents will perhaps be valued by them at a greater price, when they will have it in their power to say: This is the offering of the Ladies. The time is arrived to display the same sentiments which animated us at the beginning of the revolution, when we renounced the use of teas, however agreeable to our taste, rather than receive them from our persecutors; when we made it appear to them that we placed former superfluities in the rank of necessities, when our liberty was interested; when our republican and laborious hands spun the flax, prepared the linen intended for the use of our soldiers; when exiles and fugitives we supported with courage all the evils which are the concomitants of war. Let us not lose a moment; let us be engaged to offer the homage of our gratitude at the altar of military valour, and you, our brave deliverers, while mercenary slaves combat to cause you to share with them, the irons with which they are loaded, receive with a free hand our offering, the purest which can be presented to your virtue,

AN AMERICAN WOMAN.

VIRGINIA. THE sister state of Pennsylvania had the honour of giving birth to the foregoing. The unhappy Fate of Miss Macrae, Mrs. Caldwell, and others, has proved that the murder of women is an object of war with British and Indian enemies. The Ladies of that state have shown their gratitude by ample donations to those brave men who are shielding us from the sword of the one, and scalping knife of the other. Our sisters of Maryland are following the fair example; and it is not doubted but those of this state will give equal proofs of gratitude and patriotism. It is thought that in this extensive country the conveyance of our offerings will be facilitated by their being given in at places of religious worship, at which sermons suited to the occasion will doubtless be preached by the several Ministers of the Gospel; such notice being first given as may reach all those who may conveniently attend. As paper money may be easily converted into specie, or into such necessaries as the soldiery want, offerings will be as readily received in the one, as the other.