Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-03-21

From the chicago Advanced --
Why should not women be repre-.
sented2 Ireply: If not already rep
resented they most certainly should be
The question which now presents itself
is, Are women already represented /? This
involves an examination into the office OF
elector, and here at the outset / insist
upon several propositions, some Of which
may not be generally conceded. in
sist that the Office Of civil government is
to protect, not to direct the people, and
to this its power should be applied; also
that political progress viii be marked
by less legislation that electors are
themselves representatives Of the peO-
pie; that the people consist of the whole
population of the commonwealth, in
Guiding all ages, conditions of sexes,
whether masters OF servants, the infant
or the aged-all who are recognized by
and are subject to the law that in these
all of these resides the sovereignty,
and that governments exists either by
the consent or assent of the governed /;
that in all governments the political unit
is the family, and that in our own sys-
TEN of government each family is medi-
ately or Immediately represented by
electors, members Of the lower stratum
of the representative bodies, which is
really the most important, as we'll as the
largest of those bodies. 81 .. rrra-.
Under our laws, the protector Of the
family is supposed to be an elector and
the representative of the family at the
polls, and it is even claimed by some
that actual heads of families alone
should be electors.
1t is to the interest Of the State that
every young man who has arrived at the
age of twenty-one years should be the
protector and bread-winner Of family,
and the law assumes that he is the head
of family, its bread winner and prOtee-
tor in posse, if not in eSse, and therefore
recognizes him as an elector and rep
resentative of family. In this the law
is, in most cases, warranted in Its as
sumption, for most young men, though
not actually married, are engaged in
earning by their toll the means of estab-
fishing a family, winning, in advance, its
bread. .......- .....'..
1t is an interesting fact that as one of
the results of the investigations of
philologists it is discovered that the
derivation of the words that in most
languages express Father, Mother and
Son. are found in expressions which
originally conveyed these ideas respect
lively. The protector :. he who assists
and she who cares for the things of the
household. The Father the protector Of
the family, assisted by his sons the
mother the careful one. (See Dwight's
Modern PhilOlogy, page 272) 1t is un-
necessary to 60 into an examination Of
the original formation Of civil govern
ment growing out of the patriarchal. in
which the family was the state-the
union Of families for mutual convenience
and safety into tribes-in which the
Young men Of many families united for
the joint protection of the same by
force Of arms, while the boys and old
men remained near the homes as re-
serve and to win the bread both for the
families and their youthful defenders.
Soon the cultivation Of the soil, and the
rights growing out of the same, further
complicated this labor saving system
which men had adopted for the purpose
of relieving each individual protector of
a family from the necessity of standing
always in sight of his own door to pro.
tect them, relieved only by his sons who
assisted him in these duties--and Of
whom to-day, in the sherif's Office, who
by physical power enfore6s the edicts Of
the courts. and in the police officer who
patrols our street at nights, we see the
lineal successors.
There are doubtless widowed mothers
who are the sole protectors of their fami
lies. and are required TO contribute to
che support of this eo-operatige estsb-
lishment called government, invented BY
men to relieve them of so much, of their
labor as proteotOrs as TO enable them TO
win bread with greater facility. If such
desire to become electors, to have voice
In the choice of those who are to expend
that which they are required to contri-
butte to the state in the form of taxes,
the privileges might be cheerfully ae-
corded; but if made electors il should
be simply upon the ground that they
are the sole protectors of the family, to
which, TO certain extent, II might be
deemed an evidence. We say,F IL such
desire" We doubt whether many such
would desire to neglect more important
duties for the exercise Of those which
bring with them 50 much that IS repul-
-'ve To a large proportion of men.
;. ~ the family comes before the state
"As ~ Of time, as the bringing uF
in the Orde. ~assible before the state
Of children li5iS I e !, oHas seassdo y be
ua.. eKis.s, ,be state is reh heIeG on POsS'OI' y
~nsII T ~ the bringing p9 Of ehl, S'n, ,-.r, :
.Solisrs SIiS that the duties q the ssas pa. :.
Snm"nd closer attention tpse 'hoss -. =
Gs.nc1S Ss c;,;zso. or, to use further aTgups ~
ipoe IL e the goodness Of society ultimately