Female Suffrage | Page 7

whole sex the right of
the elective franchise, female suffrage being the first step in the
unwieldy revolutions they aim at bringing about. These views are no
longer confined to a small sect. They challenge our attention at every
turn. We meet them in society; we read them in the public prints; we
hear of them in grave legislative assemblies, in the Congress of the
Republic, in the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain. The time has
come when it is necessary that all sensible and conscientious men and
women should make up their minds clearly on a subject bearing upon
the future condition of the entire race.
There is generally more than one influence at work in all public
movements of importance. The motive power in such cases is very
seldom
441 simple. So it has been with the question of female suffrage. The
abuses inflicted on woman by legislation, the want of sufficient
protection for her interests when confided to man, are generally
asserted by the advocates of female suffrage as the chief motives for a
change in the laws which withhold from her the power of voting. But it
is also considered by the friend of the new movement that to withhold
the suffrage from half the race is an inconsistency in American politics;
that suffrage is an inalienable right, universal in its application; that
women are consequently deprived of a great natural right when denied
the power of voting. A third reason is also given for this proposed
change in our political constitution. It is asserted that the entire sex
would be greatly elevated in intellectual and moral dignity by such a
course; and that the effect on the whole race would therefore be most
advantageous, as the increased influence of woman in public affairs
would purify politics, and elevate the whole tone of political life. Here
we have the reason for this movement as advanced by its advocates.
These are the points on which they lay the most stress:

FIRST. The abuse of legislative power in man, by oppressing the sex.
SECONDLY. The inalienable natural right of woman to vote; and
imperatively so in a country where universal suffrage is a great political
principle.
THIRDLY. The elevation of the sex, and the purification of politics
through their influence.
Let us consider each of these points separately.
FIRST. THE ABUSE OF LEGISLATIVE POWER BY MAN IN THE
OPPRESSION OF WOMEN.
In some countries of Europe much of wrong is still done to woman, at
the present day, by old laws owing their existence to a past state of
things, and which have not yet been repealed or modified to suit
existing circumstances. But we are writing now to American women,
and, instead of the evils existing in the other hemisphere, we are
looking at a very different state of society. Let us confine ourselves,
therefore, to the subject as it affects ourselves.
To go into all the details which might be drawn together from the
statute books of the different States of the Union bearing on this point,
and to do them full justice, would require volumes. Such a course is not
necessary. The question can be decided with truth and justice on
general principles--on generally admitted facts. We admit, then, that in
some States--perhaps in all--there may be laws in which the natural and
acquired rights of woman have not been fairly considered; that in some
cases she has needed more legal protection and more privileges than
she has yet received. But while this admission is made, attention is at
the same time demanded for a fact inseparably connected with it;
namely, the marked and generous liberality which American men have
thus far shown in the considerate care and protection they have, as a
general rule, given to the interests of women. In no country, whether of
ancient or modern times, have women had less to complain of in their
treatment by man than in America. This is no rhetorical declamation; it
is the simple statement of an undeniable fact. It is a matter of social
history. Since the days of early colonial life to the present hour--or, in
other words, during the last two hundred and fifty years--such has been
the general course of things in this country. The hardest tasks have been
taken by man, and a generous tenderness has been shown to women in
many of the details of social life, pervading all classes of society, to a

degree beyond what is customary even in the most civilized countries
of Europe. Taking these two facts together-- that certain abuses still
exist, that certain laws and regulations need changing and that, as a
general rule, American women have thus far been treated by their
countrymen with especial consideration, in a legal and in a social
sense--the