Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-03-10
THE AN TI-SLAVERY BUGLE.

right to trial by his peers, or grant woman the
same. or. ut least, let each be tried by a Jury oil
the race-men and women together. Man could
not, from his different position, understand the
temptations to which woman might be exposed.
Man can labor and be honored. Not so woman.
She pictured faithfully the temptations to woman
to commit sins in order to retain her social position,
that might exist, and claimed that man was inca
pablo Of approaching perfectly oil these things
OF our laws, she said they contained not one wo-
manly element. |
They were hence incapable Of judging matters of
difference between .hc two. In differences | etween
q married pair, woman is compelled to come before
the masculine court, and there lay bare her femi-l
nine soul, and before a court that cannot understand
her nature. She will rather suffer in silence than
thus reveal herself. Since the matrimonial rela-
tions exist between man and woman, let man and
woman make tn, laws regulating that union, and
regulating divorce. The justice of this was to her
very apparent, and she could not but feel that it
j would be granted.
Miss b. then proceeded to discuss the injustice
of rrorerty-ta xation without representation, and
claimed that woman's moral nature, too, must sub
f nit to he taxed by certain laws, in which it was
unrepresented. In the liconselaws she is taxed
morally, and not represented. Governments are
said to derive their Just powers from the consent
5 of the governed. If that was true, we had not in
our Government just powers, for the consent of the
governed was not granted.
What good reason, she asked, could be urged to
granting woman at once ncr right OF Suffrage =!
Suppose her rights were now granted her, they
could not be retained unless she was represented
in the Government and at the ballot-box.
A few years ago this subject was ridiculed now
it was attracting serious attention, and the very
first rinciples of right give to woman the right of
suffrage in common with man. No matter, she
} said, whether woman claimed the right and desired
to exercise it or not, it was hers by right, by rea-
son of her humanity. Suppose but one woman
demands her rights, must she wait till all the rest
demand the same? But, she said, there were
hundreds of thousands in the State who desired
the right of suffrage. The objections urged to
this were, first, that woman did not desire political
privileges.
If you have perfect faith, said she, that it is in
consistent with her nature to vote, don't show your
want of confidence in her nature by declaring she
shall not rote. Permit her to determine whether
she desires it or not. Do not cast contempt into
her face and that of her God, by attempting to leg
islate as to her nature. Woman ought not to be
tempted to enter the political field, by telling her
she shall not. Let her prove whether she have the
right talent or not-whether she is adapted to pub
lie life or not.
. Let this question lie determined by trial once,
and it will be forever settled.
Another objection urged was, that public life is
coarse and gross, she did not like to say, a low life,
but people talked rs if it was. If this were indeed
so, she thought woman ought to be permitted to
seek to improve, to refine the character of the po-
litical world. She thought it the very argument
for giving woman access to the ballot-box, that 1t
was a coarse and low field that needed improving.
She did did not claim that woman was more holy
than man, but that the effect of the one upon the
other was beneficial, restraining and harmonizing.
1t was this effect that was wanted everywhere even
perhaps in so grave a hall rs this.
The womanly presence she would extend every
s where that human effort is put forth.
She alluded to the remarks of an ex-senator Of
the danger of our democracy going back to a mon
archy, and claimed that it could only be diminished
by enlarging our democracy; either woman must
be made free as man is, or we shall go back tc
monarchy. We may have another monarchy, and
then out of it a create republic, where all the peo
pie shall try tie experiment of self government.-
Come it must. The application of equal rights to
" woman are seen let them then be granted, and
throw down all restraints. The State that first
grants her equality will be blessed. At least give
her a reason achy she should not govern and repre-
es sent herself. Wherever man can go, and be true t.
his manhood, ,coman can go, and be true TO her ro
-, manhood. Woman has, place in public life, tho
!" a hedge of public opinion is planted round it, ant
iron bats, molten in the furnace of law, are pu
round her; yet, when her spirit rouses within her
and she feels that she has a mission to perform
m these barriers will fall down before her.
If women were worthy to act in Government
they would soon be permitted to act in it; bu
make her worthy by giving her the motive. Sh
felt sure of ultimate results, and only asked TO
help now, that the world might be better now
Woman asks justice, and that justice will be es
teemed by her a favor. She feels that she has
mission to perform and if you see the justice o
re her claims, that they are in accordance with tn
law of God, what We would men should do to you
mi do We even SO to Them" give her this, give he
justice.
Mrs. Ernestine L. Rose followed, alluding frs
to the fundamental principle of our Revolutionary
! fathers, that ''all men areereated equal," and said
that under that principle, all that woman aske
had been granted already. She only asked in fac
what is granted in theory-the right of life, Libel
ty, and the pursuit of happiness. Will any on
say woman is not included in that glorious Declt
N ration? That principle required no sex, for it wa
based upon humanity and mind, and they knew n
M sex. Happiness and misery, life and death, recol
nize no sex. In all the essentials of human lit
woman is like man. Where the dividing line b,
gins or ends, we need not seek to know. lie
: claims are based above these, and she claim
ON nothing she ought not to possess, and she ought
on take no less, for principle knows no compromise.
Ter She repeated the idea, that without the right
"a the elective franchise, woman was not secure in I'll
by possession of any of her rights and replied to tn
An objections urged to it. She thought it time th'
'"- woman helped man in securing peace and quiet
the ballot-box.
ON 1t was urged that woman, with political right
an would neglect her family. She replied that ST
IL would know better her duties to her family, an
,ual would the better discharge them. 1t was aske
hey why, when woman was represented by her fathe
In brother, and son, she would seek to represent he
ied self. The question was worthy of consideration
'rn- but she claimed that even if not wronged by the
the representation, misrepresentation would be HI
right. But facts were stubborn things, and 81
The stotnte hooks say .sbeh and "bis, and in h,
.ede few instances, "she' and "hers."
her -, ',.- -. -:c
said she, but that one is the husband. She wisht
me- they were truly one; if so, there would be far lie
tho reason for the claims she urged. When womt
~ marries, in almost every sense she dies, legal
that - a o.a rn n - u HL Ion " ner hu
less uls.hot'9n oeeween Tah anu man, ou. oetwe,
ike, ma" n a"u III LID. ~ ;5;on o"' "'u ooo
her. oiaeoou va ~ i'o'o
IAN, The distinction shonld be between good men al
nsi. bad men, between right and wrong, not betwe,
sexes.
Mrs. R. noticed in detail the laws of our Ian
e dwelling upon the prOnertY features Of existiI