The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-08-23
wOmEN's RIGHTS.

a political system in which the doctrine Of
representation Is fundamental, anybody should
be subject to laws which they have no direct
voice in making This is particularly oppres-
sive, too, when the laws undertake TO appro-
pirate ones personal and real estate for the
support Of the Government. Miss HARRIET
Hunt, some years ago, told the Legislature and
other authorities OF Massachusetts, that she had
been protesting against compelling women to
submit to taxation without representation"
and that she meant to keep on protesting
until the question is brought before the courts
and settled by solemn adjudication. HARRIET
we take it for granted, is one Of the "hard-
minded" specimens Of her sex, who imagnes
that she has certain "inherent and unalien-
able rights" which are denied by the laws or
the usage of society, and which IL is the reli-
gious duty of her wronged and oppressed sis
terhood to assert and insist upon until they
are recognized and conceded. Miss HARRIET
thinks that it is not quite enough to DO told
that she ought to pay for the benefits and
blessings she enjoys through the civil
institutions and agencies which are main
tanned for the protection Of each and
the general social advantage of all. She fam
cles that to be governed, though never so well,
Is an imperfect or questionable felicity, with
out the privilege to say who shall govern and
how he shall govern. And in vindication Of
this idea she appeals, with great apparent
eearnestness and faith, to the fact that our
Revolution sprang out of the principle that
acts Of Parliament do not rightfully bind those
who have no hand in their enactment. II
must be confessed that both precept and
precedent in this matter are, seemingly, on
HARBET's side; that the theory Of our re-
publicanism, in proclaiming that no one
should be taxed who is not represented in the
taxing body, is not fully and faithfully carried
out in our own practice; and thatlif the
women OF the land, young and old, married
and unmarried, were TO continue thoroughly
and resolutely in pressing this instance of
political inconsistency before the jury of
public feeling and conscience, We might find
that; in the maxim upon which we protested
against British jurisdiction, and resisted Its
exercise over us, we had but "taught bloody
instructions, which return to plague the
inventors"
But is IL true that the women are not rep
resented in our Government? If they are
not, indeed, admitted to the polls, and have
no direct suffrage in the election of those who
make and administer the laws, can II be said
that they do not actually and effectually par
ticipate in the legislation and administrative
policy and action of the State? A renowned
ruler of ancient Greece once said that his
child governed the people over whom he pre-
sided, because his son governed his mother,
and she governed him.
In the same way we believe that the women
of America exert greater control in our
politics than they or the men are aware Of.
And if every mother, wife, sister, or sweet
heart can influence the voters, may they not
be said to vote in effect, though they do not
personally put in the ballots? This sort of
reasoning may not satisfy such doughty
champions of abstract political rights as
Miss HUNT, who would not be cheated
out of her natural sovereignty by
having the shadow OF franchise sub
stituted for the substance; but we would
like to know what our women would gain by
being allowed to do directly what they can
make man do for them? Is il not more
comfortable to sit at home on election day,
remote from the dense crowd the coarse pro-
family, the rufiian violence, and drunken con-
tention, of a polling booth, and have vote
cast by proxy, than to cast it directly, sub
iect to all the brutalites and perils of an
American election ground2 Women govern
us now, FIVE did but know it, to a very great
extent; and it they do not govern us more
than. they do already, it is their own fault.
We would advise all the Miss HARRIET
HUNTS who are ambitious Of having their
names on the assessors list, aud being allowed
to vote, to get married as speedily as possible,
and then TO use what arts and wtchcrafC they
may in controlling the political opinions and
actions of their husbands. They can do much
in this way if they set about il earnestly; and
we fancy it would, for the ladies, be a great
deal more agreeable mode Of exercising the
right of-uHrage, than being Obliged to fight
ones way TO the pools through a mass O
drunken rCwdics and excited political virggOs