Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-11-23

B1EcBER and Wendell PHILLIPS
aud he Rsrolaioa are ardent, enthu-
siastic economists of that divine in1u-
ence which women would exert in
popular elections. How tar woman
would be corrupted by cooperation
with partizan clubs, and to what ex-
tent the sex might falter in the prose
cutiOn Of right and in obedience to
dictates of pure patriotism, when
friends, lovers or kinsmen were aspi-
rants for peace, is a phase of the ques-
ton which the ReUolutiOR and BEECH
ER fail to consider. For some time
past an electoral commission has been
engaged in England in investigating
frauds and almost incredible eorrup-
tions, which have controlled for years
past results of elections in Lancashire
and many burroughs represented in
Parliament. 1t appears, from all the
testimony taken, that in these r
rupt districts women r the most
INSCRIPTIONS, crafty and dextrous
manipulatOrs of voters. There is no
device of ART and ~ knaVeFy that
money may beget, no &c which the
sniles or frOWns Of woman may con-
troll, that is not cOnsummated by these
female corruptionists. All womanly
se~nsibility is destroyed, all modesty
lost; truth Is forgotten, and in the
midst Of the excitement of elections,
in which these English women partic-
ipate, even perjury is commonly COM
mitted. They squandered gold upon
ignorance; they bribed right and left
with smiles and tears; they gave
dresses to wives and daughters that
husbands might do their bidding at
the polls. In fact, these female cleo
ton agents were so thoroughly cOr
rupt and audacious that the Parlia-
mentary Commissioners say that "one
lady Of Beverly was worse than all
the Parliamentary agents of London."
We happen to know certain ladies Of
this city, who, if they set their pretty
heads to work and came down into
our ward in opposition TO any candi-
date, such an ambitious gentleman
would instantly retire from the con-
lest. This power of the sex would
soon exhaust itself, and with it would
be lost that profound reverence for
wOmanly worth and mOdesty which
is the boast, as it should ever be, the
characteristic of Southern gentlemen.
Just now woman rules the tide Of
human hearts as the moon does the
sea. In this realm of the affections
she should be content to reign with IN
divided sway. Here we would always
bow before the unquestioned majesty
of true wOman's worth. Her bosom
IS deemed the depository Ofall human
virtues and from his mothers breast
each youth imbibes a moral as well as
physical life which is only lost in
death.
The assertion that woman would
purify politics may therefore have a
share of t~ruthfulness, but it is equally
true that woman herself would be
rendered impure. Human nature is
much the same the world over, in
England as in America, among wO-
men and men. a chignOn does not
always adOrn a "head entirely level'
and crinOline is not a perfect safeguard
for purity when subjected to dangers
Of participation in the coarse, vulgar
polite of the day. While we rever-
ence the virtues of our mothers and
deem our wives and daughters para
CONS of purity i'm thought and action,
we would have no change in these con-
ditiOns OF the sex, and Southern people
will deny to woman as she viii scOrn
TO accept the right of suffrage.