Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-09-10
AN GRAFTON BY DANIEL s. DICKINSON.


This distinguished ex-senator delivered an oration at
Syracuse on the 4th utmo The performance is replete
with practical thoughts wholesome sentiments and pa
triotic aspirations. We quote that portion of it bearing
upon WOMEN AND REFORMS. The Syracuseans are annu-
ally annoyed with Women's Rights Conventions and Sy
racuse was just the place to give the eproof administer
ed by Mr.. DICKINSON
Our institutions repose not upon physical foundations
of standing armies and warke material but are upheld
by the virtue and intelligence of free people. The
patriots hope for their enduring purity rests in the fab
rc Of social order which deeply indebted for its strength
and beauty to the influence woman who fashions the
structure OF society In the sphere which Heaven des
tined her to fill she holds undivided empire she purfes
the fountains Of social and domestic fe casts the i'm
press of her moral image around her like the smiles of
gracious Providence That dream of poetic fancy which
suggested that the domestic hearth was the only spot on
earth by Satan in the fall of our
progenitor was beautiful conception and is exempli6ed
in the pure and holy Influences Of mothers love- The
Of her nature are genteness and peace In
every lane Of life who're it has peyed Heaven her
lot whether at the reside Of home where by influences
Which fs IKE evening dews hpon the veaefable rord
she sways the moral sentiments and and eleyaes
the afectons or in heather laHds whether In the man
sions OF auence the owy cottage whether lingering
by the couch Of the dying mosenng the eyered lip and
wping the death-damp from the throbbing forehead
after her companion has sunk beneath ded before the
destroyer she is mnisterng the necessities of suffering
man. and fulfilling the mission of that same angel Of
mercy who was last at the and earliest the tomb
transferred from the domestic altar to the political
from the culture of infant minds at the vestibuc
OF existence to the framing of Legislative reports and
penal statutes from teaching infant lips to pray to
mngle in the harsh contests and angry debates of the
forum from being the presiding genius of happy home
to preside over grave courts and wrangng conyen-
tons? Her physical and mental structure indicate not
that she was destined for sphere inferior to that of man.
but that she called to exercise vocation inter-
estng, delicate and sacred The concet that she has
been degraded by society from her true condition is the
nffcp
anity and civilization known she is mans companion
and equal and in social life the arbtress of his destiny
She enjoys privileges and immunties to which he is
stranger and escapes many grevous burdens which
rest upon his shoulders and like pharsees of old she
occupies the uppermost seats at feasts and receives
greetings in the markets. and the reformer Of modern
times while prospecting for the fossil remains Of her lost
rights should remember that if in the discharge of
duties and Offices equality is the point to
be attained she should the reformation of re-
storing, for mans equal enjoyment many prerogatves
which she has usurped and monopozed. He who should
insist upon the equal rights of metals which usually
employed in transactng the business of life and that
end should seek to fashion implements of husbandry from
gold that it might enjoy equality with iron, would be
pited for unac, and with contempt and ridicule
for his reward and he who would desecrae and despo
Heavens last best gift, by transferring her from the
ercise OF her social functions where she holds mysterious
dominion over the heart TO discharge duties and engage
in conflicts suited only mans nature should be
remembered only with execraon for the wrongs he has
inflicted upon society," for his endeavor to dim the lustre
down darkness from its orbit where it has long shed
light and loveliness around it.
Every age has furnished its sefconstituted restless
buzzng reformers who regard society organized
evil and hence have essayed uproot and it
according their Utopian schemes and dreamy spe
culations. Hitherto fortunately these moonsruck con-
cets have been confined to the idle vicious aad dement,
ed but NOW, unhappily, We have of different class
and Of diversified characteristics big with the spirit
sccal reformation which extermnate from our
hand every reel and ima gnary i'll And lzrptsby fore
0C~tr ron anrn ara
spectacle females, who finding the relation Of wife,
ther and sister and spritess engage their
attentions and command their soicitude, have unsexed
themselves left the homehearth cold and desoate and
with ideas and costume alike elevated, struggling
stand at the head of this motley crusade that like Peter
the Hermit they may the holy land where womans
rights entombed from the grasp of the nfdel man.
Nor this all The ultima thule of perfection is to
be attained until the supremacy of kndredism is yndca
ted and established until both shall pursue the
yocations in common: until the barriers which
ture erected between coors and races in physical de-
yeopmens and dissmilar tastes, shall be prostrated by
amalgamation nor finally, until entire communities shall
dine together from universal platter cleanse
linen in u common tub.
BY the nterposton Of kindred genius and similar
class of modern the teachings Of philosophy too
have been rendered useless through the occult process
spiritual manifestations and Divine revelation superseded
and rendered useless by the receipt Of later nelgence
from the land whittier Fastening. The immortal
yet obedent and convenient spirits of the departed appear
like the shade Of the ancient prophet the summons Of
some modern witch Of Endor and reveals what is doing
the other side by plying spiritual knuckles upon sub
stantial and material things Ptifu humiliatng and
shameless deuson the green-room where tragedies are
rehearsed to be enacted in the mndhouse in its inHu
corrupt sensual and deviish, variance with
every process Of reasoning subyersve of the de-
caces aud decences Of life, and in derogaton of all
gion revealed natural It's heresies threat
enng to the Of morals than the bertnm of the
worst ages and hurtul to the Of religion than
the works Of Paine and Votaire broadcast among
the people. While can look with indulgsnt compass
sion upon the humiatng mummcries of heathen dolnry
people whose mission is incucate the principles of
civil and religious liberty and whose government
upon their virtue and intelligence, should their
history from contamination, and hoot all such impoons
beyond the pale OF society.