Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1865-06-22
Equal Rights.

tageous positions those of inferior ca.
pacity, when merit alone without regard
to wealth or poverty or color or sex
shall decide every case, then may We
conclude that the millennium is at hand
For long series of ages the many have
been subseryient to the few, and one
class has been oppressed by another
Especially has the lot of woman been
hard and cruel and even now, among
four fifths of the whole population oil
the globe, such an ifiea as the equal
rights of women, or any rights at all
never entered the heads of their selfish
and tyrannical lords. In our own coun-
try, women are very far from enjoying
all those rights and prerogatives to
which their talents and their goodness
entitle them. Their rights to hold prop
erty are to great extent merged in
those of their husbands. If atany time
they perform the same services that men
do, they are compelled to content them
selves with much smaller compensa-
tion. How common it is for young la
dies TO be employed as teachers of win
ter schools, because, while they can
keep just as good school as man,
they can be had for half the money
Women pay taxes, and in general are
subjected to codes of laws, in reference
to which they have had no voice. There
are many kinds of business, labor, and
some parts of the learned professions in
which females might engage with pro-
priety and success, but from which hith-
erto they have been excluded. In some
states not only females of every shade
and complexion, but also colored men
are prohibited from VOTING. This state
of things had become all but univer-
sal in the slave states and in many of
the western states not only was this
class of persons prohibited from voting,
but they were not allowed to hold prop
erty, or even to move and breathe within
the state limits.
On the Whole, there seems to be vast
amount of inequality and wrong in the
land, and sometimes when it assumes q
gigantic form, and rests like a huge in
cubus upon society, it appears as if
terrible scourge from the Almighty, like
war, pestilence or famine, was necessary
to remove it. We need not say that
case in point is but too fresh in all our
memories. Happily now, having in
near prospect the utter humiliation Of
that which has been denominated the
"sum Of all villainies," African slavery,
we naturally direct our attention to the
kindred dark and crying evil of the pres
emit hour, the disfranchisement of col
ored men and women. "WoMEN?
Shall colored women be allowed to
vote2" Whyn ot2 They kaow as much,
and are as patriotic and as moral is the
men. If you doubt it, go and talk with
Sojourner Truth. They can plough, hoe
pick cotton, and make the welkin ring
with their songs as well as the men.
They can nurse their own children, as
well as those of their mistresses, and
work sixteen hours day, which the
men cannot do. But says one, the idea
of wOnea; and especially colored women
voting, Is altogether too radical 1t 10 10
tearing up by the roots all the long es-
tablished usages and Tnaxims of human
society. 0 no! There is something in
that, sure enough, which deserves con-
sideration. 1t is no trifing undertake
ing to suddenly change or overthrow
the constitution and code of state or
nation. Our Southern brethren" have
lately come to grief in a magnificent en-
terprise of this kind. After four years
OF. fighting and thirty of writing, Presi-
ident Johnson has decided-and he
could not have decided otherwise-that
not single one of the seeded" states
has seeded at all. As these states are
in the Union, they are sovereign
states " in as complete sense as they
ever We're, and their constitutions and
laws, which prescribe the qualifications
of voters, are of binding force. Until
such time, therefore, as the progress Of
human events shall bring about the
requisite changes, or until the evil shall
become one of such overshadOwing
magnitude as to call for another
scourge, it would seem as if the South
ern negro men and women will still
have to be deprived Of some Of their
equal rights.
Meanwhile we should all do what we
can to mitigate human suffering at
home and abroad. AS we have seen,
there are various forms in which oppres-
sion and injustice manifest themselves.
We need not conflne ourselves to any
one form, but commence vigorous at
tack upon any strong hold Of wicked
ness that is within our range.
MORE PRocLAMATIoNs.-The President
has issued two proclamations one Of
4ou,,,c s;,,,;I,r 70 +haca in