This Conflict Is One Thing I've Been

If Woman Alone Had Suffered Under These Mistaken Traditions [of Women's Subordination], If She Could Have Borne The Evil By Herself, It Would Have Been Less Pitiful, But Her Brother Man, In The Laws He Created And Ignorantly Worshipped, Has Suffered With Her. He Has Lost Her Highest Help; He Has Crippled The Intelligence He Needed; He Has Belittled The Very Source Of His Own Being And Dwarfed The Image Of His Maker.

What Could I Do But Go With Them Civil War Soldiers, Or Work For Them And My Country? The Patriot Blood Of My Father Was Warm In My Veins.

What Armies And How Much Of War I Have Seen, What Thousands Of Marching Troops, What Fields Of Slain, What Prisons, What Hospitals, What Ruins, What Cities In Ashes, What Hunger And Nakedness, What Orphanages, What Widowhood, What Wrongs And What Vengeance.

It Irritates Me To Be Told How Things Have Always Been Done. I Defy The Tyranny Of Precedent. I Cannot Afford The Luxury Of A Closed Mind.

This Conflict Is One Thing I've Been Waiting For. I'm Well And Strong And Young - Young Enough To Go To The Front. If I Can't Be A Soldier, I'll Help Soldiers.