The New York herald., 1868-05-25
Wemau Suffrage.


ladies' man and a general civilizer, to advocate
the cause of woman suffrage. He will find
that one great cause of the rapid degeneracy of
pagan Greece and Rome was the exclusion of
woman from even the spheres of social inHu-
ence to which Christianity has elevated her.
He can prove that in England the abstract
right of woman to vote is no new thing under
the sun; that it is, as the fifteen hundred
women who, through John Stuart Mill, petit
TONED Parliament for the right of franchise de-
clared it to be, San evident anomaly" that, in a
country where the possession of property is
expressly laid down by high authorities as car
rying with it the right to vote in the election
Of representatives in Parliament some holders
of property are allowed to use this right, while
others, forming no less constituent part of the
nation and equally qualified by law to hold
property, are not able to exercise this privi-
lege; and that, as the same petitioners as
serted, ''the participation of women in the
government is consistent with the principles
of the British constitution, inasmuch as women
in these islands have always been held capable
of sovereignty, and women are eligible for
various public Offices" Mr.. Donnelly would
find another text for his argument in curious
petition which has lately been presented to the
Hungarian Diet signed by number of widows
and other women who are landed proprietors,
and who ask for a restoration to the same
equality of political rights with the
male inhabitants of the country. These
women were, for the first time, ex-
cluded from the franchise in lS4S. Mr..
Donnelly might refer to the great changes in
Swedish law mainly due to the influence of
the late Frederika Bremen, enlarging the
electoral privileges enjoyed by the women of
Sweden. He could show that even in Austria
certain women have the same electoral rights
as men, voting as nobles in their corporate
capacity as nuns and as taxpayers or mer-
chants, although in few cases they are COM
PEELED to vote by proxy.
In this country, where the struggle Of the
American colonies against the mother country
originated in spirit of resistance to the
tyranny of taxation without representation,
Mr.. Donnelly would discover fine theme for
his vigorous sarcasm in the inconsistency
tyranny. Mrs. Dalls recently published work
on womap's relations to, education, labor and
law, entitled '7The College, the Market and
the Court, will supply Mr.. Donnelly with
multitude of facts in support of the civil rights
Of woman. We especially commend to his
perusal the plea for the rights of the American
woman which Mrs. Dali bases on the famous
clause in the Declaration of Independence
asserting the claim to 'life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness" Mrs. Dali points out
the inconsistencies of our government in not
according her share in this claim to the Ameri-
can woman. "How can she be said to have
right to life who has never consented to the
laws which may deprive her Of 1t, who is
steadily refused trial by her peers, who has
no voice in the election of her judges? How
can she be said to have a right to liberty whose
person, if not yet in custody, almost inevitably
becomes so on her maturity; who does not own
her earnings; who can make no valid contract
and is taxed without representation? How can
that woman be said to possess either the right
or the reality of happiness, who is deprived of
the custody of her own person, Of the guardian
ship of her children, Of the right to devise or
share her property?" Mr. Donnelly might also
proftably study the history of New Jersey, in
which State from 1776 to 1907, period of
thirty~one years, the constitutional right of
woman to vote was admitted and exercised.
He might investigate the question as to how
far the alleged hardening and corrupting infu
ences from which the opponents of woman suf-
frage would fain protect women by keeping
them away from the polls are directly due to
the fact that they are thus kept away. If
every fine young fellow marched up with his
sweetheart to the polls and both voted at the
same time, would not all the men voters be apt
to improve in dress and manners? Would not
coarse and profane language less frequently
offend the carp Would not low grogshops be
banished from the vicinity of the polls? Would
not the last of the "short boys disappear? In
fine, would not the acknowledged refining
moralizing civilizing influence of woman at the
6reside be extended to our public life? All
these are questions for the consideration of Mr.
Donnelly as the champion of woman's civil
rights. There is no question at all but that
both he and Mr.. Washburne would have
restrained the violence of the abusive speeches
which they lately hurled against each other in
Congress If any of their fellow members of
Congress had been women.
The Democratic Candidate.
Who is to be the democratic candidate against
Grant9 That is the puzzling question. The
West Is clamorous for Pendleton and his green
back system but the democratic bondholders