Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1869-01-20
woman Suffrage.

kBc IKEEAANL CfEL ECAOOhSo W AS NOAuAIhS
any intelligent and courteous communication,
whether the views advanced coincide with
ours or not. The paper is not partisan in
any sense of that word. We seek truth and
Justice and right, and can therefore cheer
fully give place to the strongest and clearest
presentation Of the arguments that can be
urged against any pjsitiol we have taken
And, especially, on the coming question Of
woman suffrage, would we give a respectful
and full hearing to such writer's as L., whose
communication may be found on the outside
Of this paper, and who evideatly believes
what he writes and while it is hardly
likely that either of us will be converted to
the others opinions, it is possible that some of
our readers may find something in the views
of each to aid them in solving for themselves
the new problem of suffrage.
We DO not agree that woman's fitness for
the suffrage, or the use she will make Of it
If granted, are unimpOrtant elements Of the
problem to be solved but as l.. admits
that woman :" is as well qualified to use po-
litical power as many, perhaps most, to whom
We have given it, we now need to make no
issue on that point, but may take it for
granted. If there is no insuperable obstacle,
in the "ftness of things" in the way Of
giving suffrage to that portion of the people
whose 4" interests Al. well as sympathies are
on the side Of virtue, morality, order and
Christianity" the interests of the State de-
mand-thst it should be given to them,
whether they ask it or not. If woman will
make a better use Of this new tree Of knowl
edge than man has made who has been feed
ing upon it for generations, she had probably
better be allowed to partake of it, unless
some fact, or reason, or revelation can be
produced, showing that there is one tree OF
knowledge in the universe of which it is law
full for man but unlawful for woman to eat.
And it may not be unnecessary to premise
here, that no advocate Of woman suffrage, as
far as we know, proposes ito vote the
equality of the sexes That is a matter
which we propose to leave to take care Of
itself. But we submit that it is just as alb
surd to declare them unequal. as the Consti-
tuition now does, as to declare them equal.
1t is just as unnecessary to vote that water
shall run down hill as to vote that it shall
run up hill. Nature will take care of that,
as it viii of Ysman's sphere, whether we
<vote it up or vote it down. What we do
desire, however, is to give woman and her
nature a fair chance. 1t isn't quite fair
to forbid her being different from what
she is, on the ground that it is impossible
for her to be different. We suspect that,
after all, L.. fears that woman might become
a sphere of different diameter, a star Of
different splendor and glory, or he would not
so seriously protest against & proposition
which would simply open a different path
before her while not oblIging her to walk in
it. If we had proposed a constitutional
amendment to make gaher run up hin, or to
make al stars Of equaf splendor and glory,
we suspect L.'s pen woas not have gravcfy
attempted to show that we were in danger
of interfering with " the eternal fitness of
things" or breaking up the order Of nature.
We are not disposed to question that We
man has ga place of her own that belongs
to her and not to man - hRt we do notsee
how this settles the question whether or not
LIE should be -afiosed 2 vp~SerLs
s1c-
a unit in praise of woman, and-though
Shakespeare has given us Lady Macbeth and
the Shrew-we will admit that poet and
dramatist have from time i%mmemorial sung
the praises of woman. But why should that
be used as an argument agains their voting
That woman is wise and good; cloaS-sighted,
yirtuOus, believing aud hopcfm, might be
some reason Why it would &c not only safe
but eminently visa to allow her. to help
choose our rulers and make our laws,-but
how does it prove that she should leave the
work Of ruling the world to those q giants Of
selfshness, passion and wrong?" That sun
shine has life-giving qualities might be a
sound reason for having windows in our
houses to let it in, but we should hardly
think of urging it as = reason why we should
shut it out. And how is it that Spenser'.
knights, /" sometimes deceived and sometimes
vanquished, " must do all the voting, and the
clear soul Of Una, never darkened and
with a faith and hope never broken must
let the ballot alone, while the giants of pas
sion and wrong build that passion and wrong
into every temple Of justice and every struc-
ture Of government? We confess not to be
able to see the ssquitur in this reasoning.
But if L. means to have us infer that wo-
nan would at once change her nature and
lose her peculiar excellence if the ballot were
offered her, that the water would after all
run up hill, and the spheres change their
diameters, and the stars their glory, we
must dissent from that conclusion. Victoria
Is no less a true woman because she is queen
Of a realm upon which the sun never sets
and if a woman can wear a crown and shape
the destinies Of a nation without losing her
sweetness and grace, without ~wronging hel
motherhood or ~wifehood, it cannot be a vic
lent supposition to suppose she may remain
a true woman and yet express a choice il
selecting the rulers of a free people. Prince
Albert and Victoria-to use our correspon
dents language-composed an actual dual
ity " 90 two constituted one - but that on
was, so far as the government of England
was concerned, the Queen. VIII L. affirm
that from the Queen of Sheba to the Queen
of England the women who have been rulers
have been unsexed, ~unwomanly, stars wan
dering from their spheres and losing thei
~lustre? Does the lovesiek Desdemona NOR
agree with his notion of the eternal ftnes
of things, than Portia, clothed in the robe
of Justice, and ~pronouDcing her witherini
judgment upon the cunning, and mean, an
blood-thirsty Jew?
We dc not assent to LIZ assumption tina
Imam, as man, is entitled to suffrage.
OhIr defcrn of sn ffrarn IL that of the Decl-