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.But the reciprocal relationship between a soldier and his communitydemanded that women know whether their men were being cared for.Women s familial and patriotic duties required them to ensure thattheir men received physical and spiritual succor.18When the USSC attempted to revamp the whole benevolence sys-tem of the country at the beginning of the war by asking women tochannel their supplies through a national agency, it threatened thevery essence of communally based benevolence.The first communi-cation with the numerous societies across the North came fromFrederick Law Olmstead, the USSC corresponding secretary.In thecircular addressed to the Loyal Women of America, Olmstead setthe tone of aloofness that would become characteristic of women sperception of the sanitary elite.He introduced the agency as a vol-unteer and unpaid bureau of the War Department and asked for Richard.qxd 8/29/2003 1:28 PM Page 185THE COMMUNAL CONTRACT 185women s gift-offerings of their own handiwork. He emphasizedthat their benevolence must be administered in a disciplined fash-ion. Thus, not only did he suggest that women had no experience inbenevolent work, but he implied, notes Jeanie Attie, that the organ-ized precedents set by women s groups were inadequate to carry onthe work of national importance. The exigencies of war apparentlyrequired a national infrastructure supervised by men.The USSCthus undercut the kind of interplay women had experienced in theirown societies, which allowed suggestions and questions from all itsmembers, and by placing benevolence under the direction of men itusurped the power women had gained through their local societies.19Finally, by sending their gifts through a central agency, womennot only would lose control over the destination of their goods, butalso would have no way of knowing if their supplies were beingreceived by the soldiers who most needed them.This loss of author-ity over their gifts also created a gulf between the hometown societyand the soldiers.Women could not be certain that their handiworkwas having the physical and emotional impact they had intended;moreover, the USSC made unending demands for more and moresupplies and accused the women of being selfish if they gave theirtime and efforts to the needy in their own communities.The USSCcame to be known as the soulless society because the leadersseemed to be concerned only with numbers and bureaucratic effi-ciency and appeared to have little interest in the soldiers or thewomen making the supplies.20The USSC leaders expectations were based on the contemporaryphilosophy about sex-based behavior.The motivation behindwomen s wartime labors, explained an anonymous author in the sol-diers newspaper the Armory Square Hospital Gazette, did not stemfrom political purposes but from an innate duty to serve the sick.Theauthor claimed that not only were a woman s sympathies heightenedby the voice of affliction, but she would lose a sense of danger andassume preternatural courage that knew neither fears nor conse-quences.A biologically formed undaunted spirit over which shepresumably had no control would direct her body and soul.Fromthis perspective, then, Sarah Gregg s motivation to help the sick andwounded at Mound City sprang from the natural designs of her sexand was not voluntary at all.21 Richard.qxd 8/29/2003 1:28 PM Page 186186 BUSY HANDSAttie also notes that Dr.Henry Bellows, the USSC president, andother USSC leaders likewise theorized that women s labor emanatedfrom their natural moral purity instead of from human exertion andskill. Their gifts and contributions came from their need to fulfilltheir wifely and womanly duties.As a result, Bellows viewed women scontributions as limitless because he assumed women could not con-trol their urge to help.When the women felt that the USSC under-valued their goods, however, they retaliated by sending their supplieseither directly to the soldiers through state agencies or, worse still, tothe rival USCC.It was true that women did respond to the needs oftheir family members by offering supplies, but they did so with theknowledge that they were helping the country while they were aid-ing their own men.By tying women s work to their sex roles, USSCleaders failed to recognize that women responded to their country scall as patriotic citizens, just as men played their civic roles whenthey enlisted.22The duties of citizens to their communities reflected the sepa-rate sphere precept and gender ideology that assigned men to thepublic realm and women to the private world.Men governed thetown in the capacity of mayor, lawmaker, lawman, and judge, justas they acted as the patriarchs of their own families.As an exten-sion of their duty to defend their homes and protect their familymembers, they guarded the town and its citizens from physicaldanger.Women fed and clothed their families and through theirbenevolent societies provided the same services to the soldiers oflocal regiments.They acted as the moralizing agents of their fam-ilies by comforting and guiding their relatives emotionally andspiritually.In a larger sense, however, they hoped to generate andregenerate society through their benevolent work and virtuousinfluences.During the war, they used their moralizing power as astabilizing agent.They tethered men to the ameliorating powers ofthe home by sending supplies and letters.When a man enlisted, heresponded to his patriotic duty as a citizen and to his familialresponsibility as a father, son, or brother.In a like manner, womenclaimed that they, too, were enlisting for the duration of the war byproviding for those who could fight, and thus were respondingpatriotically within the boundaries of their duties as mothers,wives, and daughters.23 Richard.qxd 8/29/2003 1:29 PM Page 187THE COMMUNAL CONTRACT 187Wisconsin governor Alexander Randall s proclamation to thewomen of the state in 1861 reflected these gender-based obligationsto family and community
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Tematy
IndexEmilie Richards [Ministry is Murder 04] A Lie for a Lie (pdf)
Richard Roeper Debunked! Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends, and Evil Plots of the 21st Century (2008)
Richard Bitner Confessions of a Subprime Lender, An Insider's Tale of Greed, Fraud, and Ignorance (2008)
Richard Davis Electing Justice, Fixing the Supreme Court Nomination Process (2006)
Richard S Weiss Recipes for Immortality Healing, Religion, and Community in South India
Peter Richardson American Prophet, The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams (2005)
Weiss, Richard Recipes for Immortality Healing Religion and Community in South India
Jason A. Edwards Navigating the Post Cold War World, President Clinton's Foreign Policy Rhetoric (2008)
Analysis Patterns Martin Fowler
Zbrodnia na Cyrhli Toporowej Zeydler Zborowski Zygmunt