Mrs. M’Cord, daughter of the distinguished statesman, Langdon Cheves [pron’d Cheeves, in one syllable], was born at Columbia, South Carolina. She was educated in Philadelphia; and in 1840 she was married to David James M’Cord, a prominent lawyer of Columbia, at one time law-partner of Wm. C. Preston. They spent much of their time at their plantation, “Langsyne,” near Fort Motte on the Congaree.
She was a woman of strong character and of commanding intellect as her writings show. Speaking of her home life, a contemporary says, “Mrs. M’Cord herself illustrates her views of female life by her own daily example. She conducts the hospital on her own large plantation, attends to the personal wants of the negroes, and on one occasion perfectly set a fracture of a broken arm. Thoroughly accomplished in the modern languages of Europe, she employs her leisure in the education of her children.” See under Wm. C. Preston.
WORKS.
Caius Gracchus: a Tragedy.
“Sophisms of the Protective Policy,” from the French.
My Dreams, [poems].
Articles in Magazines.
WOMAN’S DUTY.
(From Enfranchisement of Woman, in “Southern Quarterly Review,” April, 1852.)
In every error there is its shadow of truth. Error is but truth turned awry, or looked at through a wrong medium. As the straightest rod will, in appearance, curve when one half of it is placed under water, so God’s truths, leaning down to earth, are often distorted to our view. Woman’s condition certainly admits of improvement, (but when have the strong forgotten to oppress the weak?) . . . Here, as in all other improvements, the good must be brought about by working with, not against—by seconding, not opposing—Nature’s laws. Woman, seeking as a woman, may raise her position,—seeking as a man, we repeat, she but degrades it. . . . . . .
Each can labour, each can strive, lovingly and earnestly, in her own sphere. “Life is real! Life is earnest!” Not less for her than for man. She has no right to bury her talent beneath silks or ribands, frippery or flowers; nor yet has she the right, because she fancies not her task, to grasp at another’s, which is, or which she imagines is, easier. This is baby play. “Life is real! Life is earnest!” Let woman so read it—let woman so learn it—and she has no need to make her influence felt by a stump speech, or a vote at the polls; she has no need for the exercise of her intellect (and woman, we grant, may have a great, a longing, a hungering intellect, equal to man’s) to be gratified with a seat in Congress, or a scuffle for the ambiguous honour of the Presidency.
Even at her own fire-side, may she find duties enough, cares enough, troubles enough, thought enough, wisdom enough, to fit a martyr for the stake, a philosopher for life, or a saint for heaven.