Page 25 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONTIER P H I L OSOPHY: AMERICAN D I SCOURSE

aware of, or are willing to allow, on the conduct of women: this is one
of the principal things on which the great machine of human society
turns."15 A few years later, in 1 8 42, Elizabeth Sandford's epistle titled
Woman, in Her Social and Domestic Character, stated the matter more
strongly. In Sandford's view, American society in general received its
"balance and its tone" from women. "She may be here a corrective of
what is wrong, a moderator of what is unruly, a restraint on what is
indecorous," Sandford asserted. "Her presence will be a pledge against
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impropriety and excess, a check on vice, and a protection to virtue." 6
Domesticity was extended a step further in a fourth trope: even the
country as a whole could be affected by women's behavior.Women were
counseled to take note of the affairs of their nation, but not in a parti­
san way. Rather, by acting as nurturers, teachers, and moral exemplars
to young men, who comprised the future citizens of America, women
could be "allies of legislators" and even "have agency in the prevention
of crime." 17 By training both female and male children to cherish their
country and its government, women could affect the United States as
well as its impact on the world. "Mothers of America!" the Ladies
Repository reminded women in 1 8 48, "the destiny of this mighty repub­
lic is under your control, and hence the consequent freedom and the
political and moral elevation of humanity throughout the world."18
Clearly, women had a role to play in emerging nationalism and the
country's westward expansion.
Catharine Beecher, an educator and leading theorist of domestic
philosophy, was particularly interested in the link between women, the
well-being of the country, and the West. As early as 1837, Beecher argued
that even though women held a subordinate relation to the " other sex,"
as men were increasingly known, it was not because Providence destined
women's duties or influence to be any less important or pervasive than
men's. Rather, God intended that women's mode of gaining influence
and of exercising power should be altogether different and special. 19
During following decades, Beecher worked tirelessly to remedy "the fact
that the honor and duties of the family state are not duly appreciated"
and "that women are not trained for these duties as men are trained for
their trades and professions." She believed that if schools were established
to train women in their profession, appreciation of "the science and

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