The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-04-22
Woman VS.. Ballot.

Woman is not naturally law maker.
Even in our homes she desires the head OF
The house to lay down the law. Never
shall forget the influence exerted by the
uttcrance in a convention Of Sabbath school
teachers. A paper was read, complaining
that in Il certain Sabbath school there was
a lady superintendent, because no man
could be found to take the place. In con-
ciusion, the writer said, ''We need a man
ia our town. We have things that wear
pantaloons, bat we need a man, to give di-
rcction to the school and to attract the no.
bier and better portion of the community
1t was an honest declaration, and voiced a
truth. Every town, every Sabbath school,
every home, needs man. Women of tai
ent have tried TO figure in politics and in
The pulpit, bat sorry figure they have
made Of if.
1t is claimed that the ballot will secure
Cor women social respect. The claim is not
vel! founded. Those who seek it lose So
cid respect, because they step out of the
path marked out for them by Providence
and by Nature. Woman, in her sphere, is
mans good angel and helpmeet out of ii,
.le is mans bltterest foe and heaviest curse.
There is self-respect for woman in her
proper sphere, which is of itself a power
superior to any that a woman can build up
Tor herself by her own hands, even through
the ballot
How natural to see woman waited on by
man Sir Walter Raleigh was praised be-
cause he cast his cloak into the mud to save
the foot of his queen from being soiled.
As noble acts have been performed by many
men, times without number. The uprising
Of gentleman in the cars when a tired wo-
man enters with child the disposition to
Tighten her cares and sweeten her Joys, is
everywhere considered manly.
Education is essential for her. She is
the educator Of the home, for she is its soul.
II one must be ignorant, let it be the man
and not the woman. Many of our most
intelligent men have had cultured mothers.
Very few sons ever grew to be learned
whose mothers cared not for books. This
fact is appreciated, and leads us naturally
to conclude that if woman lacks social re-
spect it is her own fault. II woman pre-
fers superliciality to thoroughness music
drawing, and dress, to a knowledge OF
homework, an acquaintance with literature
and the endowments of common sense,
simply because brainless men are disposed
to seek out the etfeminate and frail in pref
erencc to the rugged and well-endowed, then
she must suffer The consequences. If young
ladies', compelled to toll for support, will
prefer the factory and the store, with its
hot air and depressing associations, to the
work III the home, because she hopes in
the store or factory to secure the hand and
heart of husband sooner there than else
where, she must suffer accordingly. But
if women Will unite in securing reform
in this dircction,-if the pure and virtuous
Will say, such life as is offered me in the
family is in harmony with my future we'll
being, and will scorn the alurements else
where held out, and fit myself, by study,
for companionship with the great and no
bic of the land, she will succeed If wo.
man will respect herself, she will be re.
spected.
1t is not by clamoring for rights that have
been conferred upon others it is not by
restless discomfort, by partisan appeals, by
stepping Out of her God-given sphere, and
by attempting to destroy the network of ho-
ly influences by which he has ever surround
ed her; it is not by ridicuing marriage and
casting scorn on motherhood, that she is to
obtain the blessings she courts, but by
TRANQUILITY laboring under this heaven-im.
posed law Of obedience. Woman's weak
ness is transmitted into strength when she
opens her nature to the influences of love
and when she consecrates herself to the hap.
piness of others. Then it is she obtains a
moral and spiritual power to which man is
glad to do homage. Ambition, pride, will
tllness, or any earthly passion will distort
her being. She struggles all in vain agans,
divine appointment. 1t is from the sou
OF meekness that the true strength of wo.
manhood is derived, and it is because it has
its root in such soil that it has growth SC
majestic, showering its blessings and fruits
upon the world.
1t was the sun and the rain that in the
liable strove for the mastery; and the strife
was tor the travellers cloak. The quiet
moon had nought to do with such fierce ri
valry OF the burning or the blast but as
in her tranquil orbit she journeys round the
world, she gently sways the tides of the
ocean. Woman's influence resembles that
exerted by the queen of night. In the Con-
hicts Of life she has little to do; but her
influence is felt from the cradle to the grave.
and the sphere of it is the whole region of
humanity. Woman's worst enemy is he
who would cruelty lift her out of her sphere
and would try to reverse the laws of God
and of nature in her behalf. They deceive
woman who cause her to believe that she
will find independence when she abandons
the position assigned her by her Creator,