The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-09-04

Only one year-Oh sister mine
This quiet grief may tell
Seems an eternity of time:
My precious one FAREWELL!
Philadelphia, Sne., "a, 1869. J. D. s.
FEMALE EDUCATION.
FROM AN ADDRESS BY J. C. HARNESS, A. NJ,
PRESIDENT OF THE STATE NORMAL
UNIVERSITY, WILMINGTON, DEL.
Delivered in part before the american Nor
NAL Association, at Trenton, N. j., Aug
II, 1869, and SUPPRESSED By the Act
ing President and assistant presiding officer
of the association, on the ground that 1t is
too strong an adcocacy Of Woman's
Rights" the Objectionable points being her
admission to College, Professional Schools
and the Learned Professions.
On no great question has so much been
said and so little done. 1t is the most i'm
portant question before the public, while it
is the most unsettled and chaotic; the
most closely watched and yet the most
lamentably neglected. Still it is the great
question of the day and the future. One
that is to revolutionize American Society,
customs and institutions though not, per-
haps in all the points which any one has
claimed or will claim.
On account of this alarming neglect and
the startling degeneracy of the times on
account of the immense and unsupportable
wrongs of woman, proceed:
And in the name of American intelli-
gence, American virtue, American honor,
and American justice, charge the four
great and learned professions of Theology,
Medicine, Law and Education with guilty,
gross, shameful, absurd and unjust neglect
of the noble, momentous and sublime sub
ject of Woman and on this charge ar
raign them before the highest earthly tri-
bunal-a discriminating and enlightened
public opinion. You are guilty:
1st. Because you have excluded and
still do exclude woman from the highest
institutions of liberal education-your Col
leges and Professional Schools.
Cd. Because you have winked at folly,
Incidence, extravaganza and extreme viola
ton OF the laws OF health.
| Sd. Because you have not admitted her
to many branches of industry and the learn
ed professions.
The Indictment may be read by the civil
lied world and on the first point you will
not clear the skirts of your garments from
the guilt of neglect until you open to her
the Colleges, Universities, Polytechnic,
Law, Medical, and Divinity Schools of the
country. If your systems are not adapted
to her, then they are false and erroneous
and ought to be reformed. If in any de-
gree the moral atmosphere is not consonant
with her purity, admit her, and she will
Danish the burning shame.
How can you be above, beyond, or ex-
| cluded from woman-the intellectual and
| moral light, the central figure of happiness
and guardian angel of your homes, the
partner of your joys and sorrows, your sue
cesses and reverses, your cares and pleas
ures, the nurse of your wounds and an
guish, the consolation and heaven-pointing
index of your death-bed? You must be
equal with her you must come down to her
level or she must come up to yours, in Or
der to secure perfect sympathy and the
highest condition of social happiness an
harmonious family, united in the culture
and enjoyment of the innocent and rational
pleasures of literature, art and refined in
| tercourse.'
To be just and true to woman, to be just
and true to yourself, give her a liberal OF
professional education in all the institutions
of the country, and she will bless you a
| thousand fold.
On the second point you are more guilty
for you are they, who, by carrying Oh and
propagating false systems of education
institutional and social; or you are they
who by failing to make opposition to those
false systems, are undermining the mora
status and enervating the moral strength
and fortitude of woman. / speak of the
fashionable and superficial education, un
healthy dress and the unhealthy encroach
ments of fashion, the enervating customs
of fashionable life, the inordinate develop
ing of the passions for dress, display, ex
element and sensation, the tiattery anC
hypocrisy, the Incidence and the neglect O.
home duties, the demoralizing influence o.
false literature and false social element
the failure to inculcate principles of hon
esty, integrity and virtue, truthfulness anc
sincerity in girls, the failing to make edu
cation sufficiently thorough and practica
to become means of livelihood, the ques
tons, principles, and issues on her mora
education allowed to pass by in neglect, o
lapses from truth, fidelity and industry un
noticed, of teaching them to become help
less, feeble and delicate in form, manner
and actions, to speak with small swee
voice-even though it is affected, of teach
ing them that they must never have opin
ions and sentiments of their own and neve
laugh heartily and be really and natural
happy and of keeping the young woman il
ignorance for she is not always told til
physical laws that regulate her own bein
to, will destroy her.-Such informatio
would be ''inelegant" and not ~ la mode.
Away with such superstition, ignoranc
and nonsense! The way to keep woma
from violating the great laws of her mora
intellectual and physical being is: 1st T
make her fully acquainted with them. &c
To give her sufficient physical trainin
and sufficient fortitude and courage 70
resisting the fashionable prescriptions fo
prolonged suicide with such moral prime
l pies and intelligence as will enable her
possess sound, sensible and practic;
= mind in sound, healthy and strong bod!
To secure beauty, let her obey the laws {
:, health and be natural in voice, mannel
and every expression. Let her know whel
her every weakness lies Let her be taugl