Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-03-22
Political Rights Of Women.

written to the New York R7ldependent
/ by Theodore TiIton duriog his recent
tour through the West.
Beyond my expectation, I have
found in the West q ripeninE and
/ fruit promising tbcug htfulness on the
question of the political rights of
| women.
If any man supposes that the discus
I sion of this question Is confined to a
few writers and speakers. radical iu
their views and conspicuous In their
minority, he does not discern the signs
of the times The claim Of woman, as
a citizen, to possess the citizen's fran
chise the duty of popular govern
ment to acknowledge this domestic
/ right: the peeUniary necessities Of
great multitudes of American women
/ to whom the elective franchise is the
/ only hope of multiplying their employ
/ ments, and Of increasing their wages
4 4he public need of Women's s direct and
4 personal influence on political opinion
/ and civil administration all these and
! many other branches of one and the
same central subject are now elicihng
the attention of nearly all the intellec-
tual women whom I have had the good
fortune to meet In the West.
or course, fastidiOusness, preiu-
dice. and fashion deter many excellent
and well meaning ladies from giving,
as yet, thought to a question which
is to occupy public. attention IN the
/ future as the question of slavery has
! occupied It In the past. Many per-
sons who are not In the habit of treat
ing other great subjects with ridicule,
treat this with an objectionable levity.
But let these testing critics remember
the great army of women In this Coun-
try who are forced to struggle for
their daily bread let them remember
the poverty stricken mothers of faith
erless children let then remember
the dependent sisters of half million
slain soldiers let them remember the
hosts Of needle-Workers who have now
grown so numerous as II reduce their
own wages TO a mere pittauce let
them remember the school-teachers
whose salaries are a disgrace to the
system of free schools; let them re-
member the daily increasing thrOng Of
young women who, either IN stores or
factories, either by one employment OF
another. are earning just enough mon
ev to make them feel that they are
earning none at all. Such solemn and /
sOrrOwful facts as these-seen by all /
blind-ought to make the great mass ]
of we'll do American women atten-
tive rather than frivolous toward /
proposed remedy.
Whether or not women ought to /
vote Is a question on which women /
like men, may entertain diverse opin- i
ions But whether or not women 4
ought to have a wider range Of em-
plovments. and a higher scale of wages
IS question on which neither any 4
humane woman or man can generously i
hold a dissenting view.
The purest soul and the tairest body 4
with which God has hOnored human /
nature He has awarded to woman. ItE
is a pity, therefore, that so many true, 1
good. and heroic American women are /
hardly able to keep soul and body /
together
earning a living where a woman has /
one
This is neither generous or just. 1t !
is a grievOus wrong. 1t is a crying So
c;aI evil. 1T is at this moment work 4
ing a keen cruelty, nay a bitter agony \
to thousands Of the noblest daugh-
ters of tie Republic.
I am Dot speaking at random. Here I
In the West-Dobody IS Idle-Where /
all men and women work. have lis 4
tened to many an appeal from Indefat-
igable women, saying, God forbid 1
that we should complain of our work, 1
but is there no device by which we can I
earn better pay met a lady IN
Iowa, a teacher in Creek woman
with more brains than Queen Victoria
or the Empress Eugenie-and yet /
whose utmost earnings IN the persUit 4
of her profession we're forty dollars a
month. I met the most respected and
capable woman of Western town, who
having suddenly lost her husband, and
having three children to support, told
me she knew not whittier to turn for
a livelihood and she Wept In despair.
These two instances are types of two
great classes-the class of underpaid
teachers and the class of dependent
widows. What is the remedy for
each ? Shall we indict the board of
school trustees for not paying a res
peetable salary to the teachers No.
The question of salary is not ques-
ton of generosity, but of business
Shall we make charitable collection
for the widow and babes? No. a
sensitive woman will not consent to T
live on charity or, if she Will, she
cannot find charity enough TO live on.
The remedy for both cases is to open
the gate for the wider field of congen-
ial and remunerative employment; +; so
that a teacher, when teaching, fails to
command a good market, may find in
something else a better reward so that
the mother of a family, If suddenly I
made a widow, may with reasonable
exertion achieve a self-earned live
lihood.
Now, does any silken-clad lady,
rocking In a velvet chair, exclaim,
what hinders this teacher from seek
ing already a better paid occupation 2
or what hinders this widow from open
ing whatever door she Will2 Then
madam, to speak frankly, let it be said
the hindrance is your own unsuspect-
ing self-your blindness to the neoes-
sites of your own sisterhOod-your
unconscious contribution TO q public
sentiment which crowds dependent
women into the narrow circle OF few
standard occupations, under the pen
altv. If such women venture outside of
these, of suffering loss of caste. A /
man may choose to be a banker, or
choose to be a mechanic, and yet after
either choice, one never thinks of say
ing that he has either gained or lost
caste But il makes a prodigiOUs diff
ference in public respect whether a
woman lives at her ease on her hus-
bands income, or whether she cuts
and fits dresses to earn her children's
bread. / am sorry to say that women
are more aTistocratic than American
men. Now, Of course it is better for
a woman to have money than 20 have
none it is better for a woman 60 have
position than to have none but let
woman who has money aud position
and belongs TO aristoeratio circles in
the East, come and soiourn a while ia
the domestic circles of the West, aud
she viii be soon washed clean Of the
tainted class-and-caste notions with
which her money and position may
have contaminated her mind. The
trueat domestic equality which / have
ever seen in any community, whether
between man and man, or woman and
woman, exists ia some of the commu-
mites Of the Far West. The spirit Of
equality strikingiy peryades not, only