The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1869-08-27
WILL WOMEN PURIFY POLITICS (,
Extracts from BuShneH'S Work on "JVon,d,
Suffrage 1.-THE Reform against Nature p

.
Suffrage 1.-THE Reform against Nature -
sit is common assumption that ap-
pears and re-appears at every turn in
the advocacy of women's suffrage, that
our elections will be moderated and
MADE more respectable by the presence
ana participation of women: because
the women themselves will be more re-
strained in their manners, and will have
a restraining mitigating effect on tue
men.
Nothing could be more agreeable to
be hoped, and when we note the ciyiliz-
ing effect OF the presence of women.
coming in, as they sometimes do, to
grace our public assemblies, we are
tempted to believe that such kind of ad-
vantages VIII be gained. But we need
not go far, think, TO gather up facts or
incidents that indicate a result exact
ly opposite. Women admire a great
deal more strongly than men, and When
they nave a candidate, one who has be-
come the idol of their choice, there is
hothlng 1hey will not do to carry their
emu IN MS election; just as the proud
Duchess OF Devonshire allowed butch
er at the hustings to kiss her on condi-
ton of his voting for Fox. If this high
lar taken out of the pfoprieties, in the
hope of gaining vote, how will 1t be
With all sorts of women, mixing with
all sorts OF men, indoors and ut4of-
doors, and playing such intrigues of
candidacy, for weeks before and after,
as the candidates of both sexes can ar
range In the farming of their vote p
FOR time, for three or four elections
probably, the effect may be only good,
Dut no such conjunction of men and
women, in the fierce struggles and heats |
OF party, can ever be kept on foot for
any length of time without breeding re-
suits of profligacy that are fearfully dis
astrous. At the same time, it is not |
true that women take eXcitements less |
severely than men. Dr.. b, shows that
women are the most violent partisans |
in the world, and that nothing is more
certain, when the women's suffrage
plan is carried, than that all party con-
tests will be raised to a pitch of exas-
peration never before seen.''
HISTORICAL PRECEDENT.
The old constitution OF New Jersey
made no distinction ofsex in the rights
which it conferred; and in 1897, Wo-
men went to the polls and voted man
fully.
"As yet, during the space of twenty
one years, there had been no instance
of female voting, but the contest rag
ing now between ohe old Federal and
Democratic parties, brought up two
candidates Tor the Council that stood in
close balance, and the committee on one
side, just before the polls were closed
Tor the day, offered, quite unexpectedly,
a number of female voters-the Nesoarc
Sentinel said seventy five who could
not of course be rejected. Three years
later III the Presidential canvass of 1900,
when Adams and Jefferson were the
candidates, the women voted almost
universally throughout the State-wo-
men of all colors-from the ace of lS
upward. Two years later, in 1902, at a
contested election, the votes OF two or
three colored women determined the
choice of a representative. This fact
excited some dissatisfaction, but moth
lug was done to obtain repeal of the
law till alter another election, by which
II was to be tested yet more severely.
The question of the county-seat, that is
of the location of the courthouse and
jail for Essex coulty, was the point
now in issue, and the trial lay between
Newark and Elizabethtown. The ex-
cltement OF the contest ran high,
and nothing was omitted, right or
wrong, probably, that could helpt to car
ry the vote. The women of all colors
and ages swore to their estate of fifty
pounds, and, insisting on their consGi-
tutional right, would not be excluded;
tor what board of inspectors could be
rough enough to exclude the suffrage
right of women? And the voting, it
seems, grew livelier all day, for, as Mr.
informs us, the women voted
not only once, but as oftan as by
change of Dress who can manage that
ike woman and where is the end OF
tF 'or completely of the inspectors,
hey might be able TO repeat the pro-
,ess.' The result was that the Leglsla-
.ure, at their next session, thoroughly
llsgusted by the palpable frauds of the
set aside the vote by their own
act, and located the county-seat them
selves"