Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1850-05-24
WOMAN'S RIGHTS.

pable OF taking charge of his affairs.
WOMAN'S RIGHTS.
Our neighbor of the Democrat does not ham
die this subject very differently from what we
supposed he would, in case he thought it worth
while TO refer to it. We urged that woman pos
sessing precisely the same mental organization,
differing only in degree, as man, was therefore,
naturally entitled to the same rights and any
thing which we, as men, claimed as a natural
right, was equally natural right of woman'4.
To meet all this, it is suggested that Mrs Adams
has expressed a contrary opinion, and then comes
an extract from the Boston Transcript in the usu-
al vein Of those who find it much easier to sneer
at principle than to argue it, Mrs. Adams,
we know, was the wife of one President and the
mother OF another but we never understood that
she was the author either of the laws of nature
or woman's constitution, and hence might posi-
bly, entertain views just as erroneous as others
Her opinion is worth just what is WORTH and 10
more, and unless she has shown woman to have
a different mental organization and different
destiny to achieve from man, we do not think she
has made it appear that she should not possess
and enjoy the same rights. Wit and sarcasm
and all that kind of thing, are all very well where
you can get nothing better, but even those do
not alter facts. What we want is, to look at the
foundation on which human rights rcst-out of
which human rights grow, and wherever that
foundation exists, there the rights belong, and it
i.t 10 o,,1o III T.,
the declaration of independence, our fathers set
forth certain inalienabe rights as pertaining to
humanity, among which were life and liberty
and the pursuit of happiness, and to secure these
ends they revolted from Great Britain and esta-
bished government of their own. The CUES
ton then is, "what is humanity?' to which these
rights belong. 1t is, plainly, the possession Of
those peculiarties of mental constitution which
make humanity in contradistinction to all else of
animate creation, and as we said, if the declara-
ton of our Fathers be worth any thing it applies
wherever this humanity is found Now our pc
cuar government consists in the exercise of
rights on the part of those governed, and if the
exercise of these rights be necessary to secure
fe liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it fol-
lows that those who are denied their exercise,
are denied the means of attaining the end for
which the government was instituted. This is
the general principle; woman being part of hui
mainly, naturally has all the rights which proper
Iy belong to humanity, and those who, being
stronger, claim rights for themselves which they
deny others, are simply tyrants.
Here, those who take the opposite ground ge-
morally call sarcasm to their aid and we are as
ked how it would look to see woman leading an
army to battle, or abusing and knocking down
her adversary at the polls. sr struggling with ner
husband for the possession Of political power; or
doing some other ridiculous thing. In the first
place, if the general principle be conceded as cor
rect, we should not anticipate very disastrous re-
suits to flow from It's recogn ton. 1t would be
much more reasonable 10 expect bad results from
proceeding on false basis than correct one.
And in the next place if it be inevitable that all
this folly must be enacted, we do not perceive
why woman should not possess the same inalien-
able right to make fool OF herself that the rest
of mankind enjoy. All this apprehension, that
woman possessing her rights would get out of
her element, is based on the assumption that all
! the vice and wickedness and folly, that men have
been soiling their hearts and fingers with in all
lime past, is to be kept up in all time to come,
aud woman must necessarily embark in it. Now
we do not look upon war and strife and political
squabbling, and all that kind of thing as at all
necessary, on the contrary, we think the country
would be better off without it, and we want the
rights of woman restored TO her, no; that she may
degrade herself by participating in these things,
but that she may, by following the dictates of her
nature, prevent their commission. 1t is time the
ollies we are in the practice of in the admins
tration of government, were done away with,
and we want woman's natural rights conceded to
her, not that she may descend to all the impurtv
of our present institutions, but that she NAV lift
up all these things to the purity of her own cha
racter.
! The possession of their rights by our Fathers
lid not make them worse men than they were
previously: does any one believe that the pos
session of their rights by our Mothers would
tend TO degrade them. Such an idea is folly and
sweeps away the only reason upon which huma-
nifty demands its rights. Humanity demands its
tights, because those rights are necessary to the
pursuit of happiness, or in other words, necessa-
nv to make US better and If ii be true that TO pos