The Kansas herald of freedom., 1858-05-29
Woman and Her wors.

an able lecture, few weeks ago, IN New
York, on the rights of women, which was
listened to by the Aldermen, Common
Council, ten Governors, Postmaster, nearly
al the officials, and an immense audience
ofthose in private life. The n. Y. Tribune
reports the substance of it, as follows:
aThe lecturer said L The originality Of
any thought is secondary to its truth. II
it is old, it should be welcomed on account
Of respect due TO age. His subject led
him to consider whether woman is poten-
tally what she oughtfo be. The reiatfun
between man and woman is the most
beautiful expression Of the great law OF
nature. Woman is simply the equal of
man-nothing more, nothing less. We
have no right to determine what is
woman's sphere by any arbitrary preju-
dices. I cannot recognize any such fact
as mans rights or woman's rights; / only
recognize human rights. Woman's orbit
is the orbit of her humanity, and hence
she ought to be mans equal before the
world, before the law, as she is before
God. And let no one be disturbed by
visions of strong minded women, with
spectacles, lecturing on Kansas. The
question is, what is truth, and not what
are the imaginable consequences. Man
may run against Gods will, but cannot
alter it. urge that woman should actu-
ally be something more than she has been
held to be. She has been placed above
the scale and cast below it; she has been
mans slave and his empress. In one
place you may see her the poor drudge of
the wash-tub or the needle, working to
support drunken husband in another
place we see her in some parlor, listening
to the confectionery of small talk furnished
by some dandy. Society around us is but
little more than modification ofthese two
pictures. What we want is some way of
deliverance for woman from being mere
slave, and something more substantial
than those accomplishments which make
her but mere gewgaw. The legal argu-
ment has already been presented, so /
shall pass on to the subject of woman's
education. Woman ought to be rendered
less dependent upon man. Our present
state of society too often so trains her as
to make marriage an absolute necessity.
l am glad if there is some advance in this
respect; am glad if some women and
clergymen are regarded as something else
than respectable paupers. Woman can
become what she should be, and do what
she should do, only by genuine educa-
ton. cannot see why there should be
a very sharp discrimination between the
education of boys and girls. If certain
kind of learning will develop the intellect
of the boy, why not of the girl You
may say woman cannot be Newton or q
Shakespeare. Well, ifshe can't she won't !;
and so where's the harm? Laughter. I
Why should woman, with liberal edu.
cation, be less fitted for the duties of wife
or mother? If in the cultivated mind
there is reserved force for emergencies,
why should woman be debarred from that
blessed skill that unlocks the treasures of
truth and opens communion with the
distant and the dead :? In many cases
woman is brought up not to self-reliance,
but simply to make settlement for life.
We all have horror of female gamblers !;
but how many women are really gamblers
for lucky match? Do we wonder there
is often the gamblers loss as well as his
hazard ? In the worlds version, it is not
charity but money that covers multitude
of sins. The rich profigate receives the
hand of virtue and beauty. But there
would not be so many serpents in the
parterres of fashion if there were not Ewes
in the garden to listen. In rude society,
woman was bought and sold as slave,
aud some of our manners are not much
better. Christianity teaches us that woman
has soul but many men act as though
they had not accepted, and many women
as though they had none to give. Women
have right to a proper culture, not as
woman's rights, but as human rights; as
mans equal and companion, she requires
a training which will develop every human
faculty. The true way to find the sphere
of anything, is to educate it to its highest
capacity. A genuine culture will produce
nothing that will overrun its divinely-
appointed limits. Woman's work will
follow spontaneously from woman's na-
ture, and will accord with the qualities of
her being. 1t will not therefore be strong
physical work, but where clean, delicate
work is needed, where emotion mingles
with thought, it will be her work in the
future, and still more as the future opens
into civilization. Woman's truest work is
of home and its sanctities. Let us not
fear these offices will be abandoned there
will be still the heart of the wife and
mother. There are many women for whom
this sphere of home is enough. But If
woman is enslaved and degraded at home,
where shall she have honor? In this
sphere claim for her . large and liberal
culture. Is it of no consequence who is
to discharge these offices-who il to teach
and train the life, the heart of the future
man? Among women there are two
classes, whom the home duties do not
absorb, and they claim something TO do.
They comprise those who are not forced
to work for . living and those who
are. In behalf of those, I say large
field is needed for woman's work. Con-
slider what ought to be done for that ciass.
Of women who must work or perish. What
are they to do? That is the question.
/ might specify many forms of labor, such
as some parts of watch making, of tele-
graphing, of the work of newspaper Offices,
and countless Others, ali of which are
adapted 70 womsn,s nature and her caps
city. The claim of this class Of women Is
simply the claim of their humanity. They
must have this work OF pesish-perish in
one of two ways-physically, either from
lack Of work or scantiness Of is. Think of
the poor widow who makes shirts at Eve
cents spiece-and ] suppose ths man who
pays It covers the New Testament with
that Eve cent piece. She can, perhaps,
make one day. Is not that reducing
humanity nearly TO starvation Think
of these nobis women who virtually say,
Let Death have rs, 50 he takes 70 God
our womaaly purity untsinted.n Thank
God for the women who die honossbly
and only perish physically ! I think,
what saints they make Ia Heaven, with
their sweet faces fr6r. which ali the