Part 17 (1/2)
It is constantly said that the advocates of wonore the fact of sex On the contrary, they seenore it
Were there no such thing as sexual difference, the wrong done to woman by disfranchisement would be far less It is precisely because her traits, habits, needs, and probable demands are distinct from those of man, that she is not, never was, never can, and never will be, justly represented by him It is not merely that a vast number of human individuals are disfranchised; it is not even because in many of our States the disfranchisereat; it is not merely that we disfranchise so many units and tens: but we exclude a special element, a peculiar power, a distinct interest,--in a word, a sex
Whether this sex is more or less wise, more or less iu such, is more absolutely distinct from the other than is any mere race from any other race The then our arguro,-- although the two races are now so aamated that not even the s,--how iislation for the other sex!
This is so clear that, so soon as it is stated, there is a shi+fting of the ground ”But consider the danger of introducing the sexual influence into legislation!”Then we are sure to be confronted with the case of Miss Vinnie Rea da poor statues! they say If one woman could do so much, hoould it be with one hundred? Precisely the Irishainst the use of pillows: he had put one feather on a rock, and found it a very uncouave her so ress being coave her an exceptional and dangerous influence Fill a dozen of the seats in Congress oer at least will be cancelled The taste in art may be no better; but an artist will noa pretty boy So in all such cases Here, as everywhere, it is the advocate of wouard against its perils
It is precisely so in education Believing boys and girls to be unlike, and yet seeing them to be placed by the Creator on the same planet and in the same family, we hold it safer to follow his method As they are born to interest each other, to stimulate each other, to excite each other, it seems better to let this impulse work itself off in a natural way,--to let in upon it the fresh air and the daylight, instead of atte to suppress and destroy it In a mixed school, as in a family, the fact of sex presents itself as an unconscious, healthy, mutual stimulus It is in the separate schools that the healthy relation vanishes, and the thought of sex beco This observation first occurred to -schools years ago: there was such marked superiority as to sexual refinement in the day-scholars, who saw their sisters and the friends of their sisters every day All later experience of our public-school system has confirmed this opinion It is because I believe the distinction of sex to be momentous, that I dread to see the sexes educated apart
The truth of the whole hts-- innocently if she can, guiltily if she enious paper on the other side, called ”sex in Politics,” in an able New York journal, puts our case better than I can put it, before he gets through, only that he is then speaking of wealth, not women: ”Anybody who considers seriously what is meant by the conflict between labor and capital, of which we are only just witnessing the beginning, and what is to be done _to give islation which it now exercises illegitieneration will have a thorny path to travel” The italics are my own Precisely what this writer wishes to secure for money, we claim for the disfranchised half of the hulish tradition instead of the French; woislators, not itiitimately wield This is all our dereat convenience, ton of Newbury, ”if theof it, instead of the end But it never is” Coeneral principles, hold to those, and trust that all will turn out well No ro emancipation or free-trade, for instance,--it is a step in the dark at last, and the detailed results never turn out to be precisely according to the programme
An ”estees yet said in America in behalf of the enfranchisement of woman, writes privately to express some solicitude, since, as she thinks, we are not ready for it yet ”I aht of wo woe would throw the power, inclines me to hope that this poill not be conceded till education shall have prepared a class of women fit to take the responsibilities”
Gradual e truth and justice to take care of theroes were set free, whether they would at first use their freedom well, or ill? Would they work? would they avoid crimes? would they justify their freedom? The theory of education and preparation seeainst that, there was only the plain theory which Elizabeth Heyrick first announced to England,--”Immediate, unconditional emancipation” ”The best preparation for freedoroes then is true of women now
”The lovelier traits of womanhood,” writes earnestly our correspondent, ”siuilelessness, unfit them to conduct public affairs, where one must deal with quacks and charlatans We are not all at once 'as Gods, knowing good and evil;' and the very innocency of our lives, and the habits of pure hoe a certain class ill flock to this standard”
But the basis of all republican governer than evil If we once abandon this, our theory has gone to pieces, at any rate If we hold to it, good woument that would here disfranchise woymen I believe that in some States they are still disfranchised; and, if they are not, it is partly because good is found to be as strong as evil, after all, and partly because clergyood as to be useless I am very confident that both these truths will be found to apply to women also
Whatever else happens, wewill The first step towards the enfranchisement of woelic superiority of women Just so surely as women vote, we shall occasionally have woues Conceding, for the sake of courtesy, that none such now exist, they will be born as inevitably, after enfranchise Those who doubt it ignore human nature; and, if they are not prepared for this fact, they had better consider it in season, and take sides accordingly In these pages, at least, they have been warned
What then? Suppose woood and evil:” they are not to be es They are to conorant innocence, that may be only weakness, into a wise innocence that will be strength It is too late to ree: they have eed too far not to come farther In a certain sense, no doubt, the butterfly is safest in the chrysalis When the soft thing begins to eerous place; and it is hard to say ill be the result of the emancipation But when she is once half out, there is no safety for the pretty creature but to cos
I HAVE ALL THE RIGHTS I WANT
When Dr Johnson had published his English Dictionary, and was asked by a lady how he chanced to norance, norance” I always feel disposed to make the same cohts she wants For every woht have been, a mother And when she comes to know that even now, in ht to her child, I should think her tongue would cleave to her ain
All the things I ever heard or read against slavery did not fix in le scene in a Missouri slave-jail o As I sat there, a purchaser cairl to wait on his wife Three little sisters were brought in, froht to twelve years old: they were entle ood care of, and their pink calico frocks were clean and whole The gentleood-naturedly enough, if she did not wish to go with him She burst into tears, and said, ”I want to stay with my mother” But her tears were as powerless, of course, as so many salt drops from the ocean
That was all But all the horrors of ”Uncle Toitive slaves, the scarred backs I afterwards saw by dozens a colored recruits, did not impress me as did that hour in the jail The whole probable career of that poor, wronged,child passed before me in fancy It seemed to me that a man ive his life to overthrow such a system It seemed to me that the woman who could tolerate, much less defend it, could not herself be true, could not be pure, or norant
You acquiesce, fair lady You say it was horrible indeed, but, thank God!
it is past Past? Is it so? Past, if you please, as to the law of slavery, but as to the legal position of woman still a fearful reality It is not many years since a scene took place in a Boston court-room, before Chief Justice Chapman, which orse, in this respect, than that scene in St
Louis, inasmuch as the mother was present when the child was taken away, and the wrong was sanctioned by the highest judicial officer of the State
Two little girls, who had been taken fro dead, had taken refuge with her against his wishes; and he brought them into court under a writ of habeas corpus, and the court awarded theainst their mother ”The little ones were very much affected,” says the ”Boston Herald,” ”by the result of the decision which separated them from their mother; and force was required to remove them from the court-room The distress of the mother was also very evident”