The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-19
The Rightlng of womaa,s wrongs.

|
the woman question in all its bearings,
with special reference, however, to the ballot.
Ont of this convention an association for the
wise, systematic, and efficient advocacy Of
| woman suffrage and its kindred civil and
political rights" is expected to spring, and
doubtless the millennium will be brought a
couple Of thousands Of years nearer the nine
teenth century than it is at this writing.
Among the old women who are participating
in the entertainment are James Freeman
Clarke, Rev. J. M. Manning, Colonel
T. W. Higginson, Jddge Henry Chapiu,
Samuel 4. Sewell, and others, who are
Offset by such young women as Mrs. Julia
Ward Howe, Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Miss
Louisa Aloott, and Mrs. Horace Mann. 1t
must be confessed that this array of the
women-righters is the most formidable th at
has as yet been grouped together, and If any
thing can be said or done in behalf of the cause
of female suffrage it will be said and done, aud
that in the ablest and most feroole manner.
We notice with regret, however, that the name
Of Miss Anna L. Dickinson is not included
in the list. In emitting Miss Anna, the
women Fighters have excluded tower of
strength, a forcible and elegant speaker, whose
whole soul is bound up in the cause Of her sex,
This grand gathering of the women
Fighters is extremely opportune for their
cause has sustained several marked defeats of
late. There were Mrs. Lucy Stone aud her
worthy mother-inlsw, who went to the polls
at Newark on election day and claimed the
privilege under the Constitution of New
Jersey, Of voting for Grant and Colfax, bat
only to be informed by the election officers
that they regarded the proposed innovation as
little irregular, to say the least, and unwar-
rauted by the Constitution of New Jersey as
read through their leathern spectacles. On
the other side of the ocean, like wise, similar
check was recently sustained by certain Miss
dia Becker, who has been stirring up the
question among our British cousins. Lydia,
it appears, claimed that she was entitled to ID
registered as voter for members of Parliament
under the common law of Eogand, but the
stupid old gentleman who compose the Court
of Common Pleas could not be made to under
stand the matter, aud had the audacity to de-
eide against Miss Becker by a unanimous
vote. In many of the English boroughs the
advocates of female suffrage have attempted to
execute a flank movement, by placing the
names of all women, who possess the property
qualifications required of men, on the rolls in
the first instance, hoping that they could main
tain the footing thus obtained. But in this
they were doomed to disappointment, as these
rolls are subject to revision, and in many cases
the revising officer assumed the responsibility
of striking off every name which he suspected
of being a woman's, without waiting for any
one to raise specific objection, as is required
by law. In this rather summary way the
flank movement of the women-righters was
met, and their forces discounted. The result
of this action and of the recent decision of the
| Court of Common Pleas is, that the women
of England who are ambitious of participating
in the selection of their rulers will have to
wait little longer for the day of their deliver
snce from the tyranny of taxation without
| representation.
In this result, as well as in the unfortun ate
termination of Mrs. Lucy Stones attempt
upon the ballotbox at Newark, we believe
that all right-thinking women in both couu
tries will cheerfully acquiesce. As we have
stated heretofore, in discussing this question
that class of American women who are best
! qualified for the exercise of the elective fran
chise by education and instinct are content to
let the matter rest as it is. They do not as
pire to position in the political world, no
more than any true man aspires to kitchen
wOlk and baby-ten6ing. The two sexes are
as widely separated as day and night, neither
essentially above the other, but both moving
in cOpgenial and cooperating spheres of life.
The domestic duties of women are as honora-
BILE as the business pursuits Of men, and, as the
world is constituted at present, the one are not
more necessary than the other. Moreover, the
sphere of woman is no longer restricted to the
kitchen and the nursery. Into almost every
walk Of life in which she can compete with
man che finds a ready and unimpeded
entrance. If she can paint like Rosa Bonheur
her pictures will be eagerly sought after. II
she can sing like Patti, the multitude will l
crowd about her and the kings of the earth
will court her favor. If she can talk like
Anna Dickinson, she can get two hundred dol
lars per night throughout the lecture season.
II she can write like Harriet Beeoher Stowe,
she can command her price with the leading
publishers of Europe and America. If she
can do anything except make shirts in gar
ret, and keep soul and body together with a
diet Of faith, hope, and patience, she can
make her way in the world and get along as
comfortably as the majority of men oontrive