Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1851-08-16
1856
Atisfellancous.
Enfranchisement Of Woman.
From the Westminster Review.
INDIVIDUAL SPHERES,

We deny the right of any portion of the
species TO decide for another portion, or any
individual for another individual, what is
and whut is not their "proper sphere" The
proper sphere for all human beings is tho
lurgest aud highest which they arc able to
attain 10. What this is cannot be ascertain
ed without complete liberty of choice. The
speakers at the Convention in America have
therefore done wisely aud right in refusing
TO entertain the question of the peculiar apti-
tudes either of women or of men, or the linn
its within which either this or that occupa-
tion may he supposed to be more adapted to
the one or TO the other. They Justly main
tain, that these questions can only be satis-
factorily answered by perfect freedom. Let
every occupation be open TO all, without IA
vor or discouragement TO any, and employ
inents will fall into the hands of those men
or women who are found by experience to
lie most capable of worthily exercising them.
There need be no fear that women will take
out of the hands of men any occupation
which men perform better than they. Each
individual will prove his or her capacities in
tho only way in which capacities can be pro-
ved-by trial; and the world will have the
benefit of the best faculties of all its inhabi-
tnns. But to interfere beforehand by an ar
bitrary limit, and declare that whatever be
tue genius, talent, energy, or force of mind
OF an individual of certain sex or class,
those faculties shall not bc cxorted, or shall
be exerted only in some few of tho many
modes IN which others nre permitted to use
theirs, IS not only an Injustice to the indiv-
dual, and detrlncnt to society, which loses
what II can i'll spare, hut is also the most cf-
fectual mode of providing that, in the sex or
class so fcttcred, the qualities which are not
permitted TO be exercised shall not exist.
We shall follow the very proper example
of the Convention, in not entering into the
question of tho alledgcd differences in ply
sical or mental qualities between the sexes
not because we have nothing to say, but be-
cause we have too much TO discuss this ono
point tolerably would need all the space we
have to bestow on the entire subjects But
1t those who assert that the "proner sphere"
for woman is the domestic, mean by this that
they have not shown themselves qualified for
any other, the assertion evinces great ignor-
ance OF life and of history. Women have
shown fitness for the highest social functions,
exactly IN proportion as they have been ad-
Inittcd TO them. by curious anomaly, tho
ineligible to even the lowest offices of state,
they are IN some countries admitted to the
highest OF all, the regal; and it there is any
one function for which they have shown a |
decided vocation, it is that of reigning. Not
TO go back TO ancient history, we look in vain |
for abler or firmer rulers than EIizabe,li; than
Isabella of CASTLE than Maria Teresa than |
Catharine of Russia than Blanche, mother |
OF Louis IN. Of France than Jeanne DEAL |
bret, mother of Henri Quatre. There ere |
lew kings on record who contondcd with !
moro difficult circumstances, or oyercame
n mr. frrfr .t,s. 81.
IN seml-barbarous Asia, princesses who have
never been seen by men, other than those of
Ihelr own family, or even spoken with them
unless from behind a curtain, have as re-
gents, during the minority of their sons, ex-
hibited many OF the most brilliant examples
of just and vigorous administration. In the
middle ages, when the distance between the |
upper and lower ranks was greater than |
even between women and men, and the wo-
men ofthe privileged class, however subject
TO tyranny from the men of the same class,
were at less distance below them than any
one else was, and often in their absence re-
presented them in their functions and autho-
of heroic chatelaines, like
Jeanne de Montfort, or the great Countess of
Derby ms late even as the time of Charles l.,
distinguished themselves not only by their
political but their military capacity. In the
centuries Immediately before and after the
Reformation, ladies OF royal houses, as diplo-
matlsts, rs Governors of Provinces, or Ms the
confidential advisers of kings, equaled the
first statesmen of their time: and the treaty
OF Cambrny, which gave peace to Europe,
was negotiated in conferences where no oib
or person was present, by the aunt of the
Emperor Charles the Fifth, aud the mother
of Francis the First.
Concerning the fitness, then, of women for
politics, there can be no question; but this
dispute is more likely to turn upon the fit
ness OF politics for women. When the rea-
sons alleged for excluding women from ac-
tive life in all IFS higher departments, are
stripped OF their garb Of de:lamatory phrases,
and reduced to the simple expression of a
meaning, they seem to DO mainly three the
incompatibility ofactivo life with maternity,
and with tho cares of household secondly
its alledged hardening effects OH the clarac-
ter; and thirdly, the inexpediency of making
an addition to the already excessive pressure
OF competition IN every kind of professional
or lucrative employment.
OBJECTION FROM MATERNITY.
The first, the maternity argument. is usuol-
Iy laid most stress upon although liz needs
hardly be said) this reason il il be one. can
apply only 10 mothers. 1t is neither neccs-
An excellent passage on this part of the
subject from one of Sydney Smiths contribu-
TONS 10 the Eden6wyh Reriee, we will not re-
ram rom quoting; /" A great deal has been
said of the original difference of capacity bc.
tween men and women, as if women were more
quick and men more iudicious-as If women
were more remarkable for delicacy of nssocia-
ton, and men for stronger powers of attention.
All this we confess, appears to us very fanciGil.
That there is difference in tho UNDERSTANDINGS
oI Iic men, ana the women we every day meet
with, everybody, we suppose, must ncrcoivc
but thero Is none, surely which may not be oc.
counted for by tho difference of circumstances
IN which they have been placed, without rotor
nng TO any conjoctural difference of original con-
formation OF mind. As long as boys and Girls
run about in tho dirt, and trnndle ioops topeth.
cr, they are both precisely alike If YOU Catch /
n