Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-10-10

the New York Tribune, redeemed Eve
thousand women ffom pcuperism. In
the next year Illinois put women in the
same position with men ss far rs proper
ty rights and remedies are concerned.
L mention these facts with pleasure, "a
read that Louis Napoleon will, under
certain conditions, Perrlit the French
people TO say what they think. but n
such reforms are desirable they would
certainly have been sooner and more
wisely effected could women have been
a positive political power. Upon this
poinT one honorable gentleman asked
Mrs. Stanton whether the laws both for
men and women were not constantly i'm
proving, and whether, therefore. il was
not unfair to attribute the character O;
the laws about women to the fact that
men made them. The reply il very evil
dent: II women alone made the laws,
legislation for both men and women
would undoubtedly be progressive. Does
the honorable gentleman think, there
Laws?
/! Ii is not true, MT. Chairman. that In
the ordinary and honorable sense of tho
words Wofaen are repres s9nted. Laws are
made Tor them by another class and upon
the theories which that class, without the
fear OF political opposition, may choose
10 entertain, and II direct violation Of
the principles upon which, in their own
cases, they tenaciousiy Insist. | live, sir,
III the county Of Richmond. 1t has
population Of some u ,0c0 persons. They
own property and manage it. They are
taxed and pay their taxes, and they full
nj the duties OF citizens With average ide!-
ity. But II the Committee had intFoduc.
| al pluIlaa in the Ir. L.,
10 this effect: Provided that idiota. Ia.
natios, persons under guardianship, fol-
ons, inhabitants Of the county Of Rich
mond and persons convicted Of bribery.
shall not be entitled to vote "-they would
1ot have proposed . more monstrouS in
justice nor Rrozser inconsistency with
every fundamental right aud America
principle than in the clause they recon-
mend and in thet esss, sir, what do you
suppose would have been my reception
had returned to my friends and leigh
bors, and had said to them, "the Con
vention thinks the. you are virtually
| represented by the voters Of Westchestsr
! and Cheu,auqua.
Mf. Chairman, have no superstition
about the ballot. l do not suppose il
would Immediately right sll the wrongs
or women, sny more than it has righted
all those of men. But what political
s,;ency has righted 40 many? Here are
III )usande Of miserable men all around
US; but they have every path opened to
them they have their advocates: they
have their votes they make the laws,
and ~ Last aid at worst they have their
strong right hands for defence. And
here are Thousands Of miserable women
pricking back death and disboncr with
q little needle, and now the sly hand Of
sa'anrQ n 70 I; n, 4 d = l. =.
The ballot does not make those men
Happy, Nor respectable, nor rich, nor no
BILE. But they quad it for themselves
| with sleepless Jealousy, because they
know u 10 the golden gate &c every OPP
portun'ty; and precisely the kind Of ad-
vantage It gives TO one sex, Il would ri We
to the other. II would arm it with the
,, most powerful wespon Known to politi-
| cal society; IL would maintain the natu-
| raj balance Of the sexes in human affairs,
and secure to each fair play within its
sphere.
But, sir, the Committee tell US that
the suffrage OF women would bs . revo-
lutionary fnnovstion-it would d:sturb
the venerable traditions. Well, sir,
about the year 1870, women were nrst
recognized as school teachers il Massa-
chusetts. At That time the New Eng
land "schoolmerm, and | use tie vofd
with sffectionate respect, was q revolu-
tionary innovation. She has been abroad
ever since, and has been by no means
the least efficient, but always the most
modest and unnOticed of the great civil
iEing influences in this country. limo
vstion-why, sir, when Sir Samuel Rom
lily proposed to abolish the death penal
ty for stealing handkerchief, the law
officers OF the Crown said it would en-
danger the whole criminal law of Eng
land. When the bill abolishing the
slave trade passed the House of Lords,
Lord st. Vincent rose and stslked out,
declaring that he washed his hands of
the ruin Of the British Empire. When
the Greenwich pensioners saw the first
steamer upon the Thames, they protest.
ed that they did not like the steamer,
for It was contrary to nature. When,
at the close Of the reign of Charles IL
London had half a million OF people,
there was . fierce opposition to street
lamps. Such is the hostility Of venera-
BILE traditions to an increase of light
When Mr.. Jefferson learned that New
York had explored the route Of a canal,
he benignly regarded it, in the spirit of
our Committee, as doubtless "defensible
In theory" for he said that Is was "a
very fine project, and might be executed
a century hencc.n And f1fty-six years
ago, Chancellor Livingston wrote from
this city that the proposition Of a rail
road, shod with iron, to move heavy
weights four miles an hour, was inge-
nious, perhaps Theoretically defensi-
bic, but upon the whole the road would
not be so cheap or convenient as q canal.
In this country, sir, the venerable ira
ditions are used to being disturbed
America was clearly designed 10 be dis
turber of traditions, and TO leave nobler
precedents than she found. SO, few
ii: )nths ago, what the Committee call
q revolutionary innovotion WA. proposed
by giving the ballot to the freedmen in
the District of Columbia. The awful re-
suits OF such revolution were duly set
forth in one Of the myriad veto messages
of the President OF the United States
But they have voted. II anybody pro-
posed to disturb the election, ID was GER
tainly not the new voters. The election
was perfectly peaceful, and not one OF
the Presidential pangs has heen justified.
So with this reform. 1t is new, in the
extent proposed. 1t il as new as the
harvest after the sowing, and ii is ~ nat
ural. The resumption OF rights, long
denied or withheld, never made social
convulsion. That is produced by refusing
them. The West Indian slaves rseeiv-
n