The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1869-02-20
wopep's conventions.

WoQep's Conventions.
1Tis Chicago AAliSs, during mt Ioflast
week, were filed with the proceedings OF twp
women's conventions assembled in that city,
one It Library Hall and one at Music, Hall.
Both conventions seemed to have the same
obiscs IN ysw,kl4 .1h6 Asfreyspot on
convention is sxpaaanahle only by the fact thst
the same convention was intended to becallcd
by two different women's examinations il the
city, and BE- ~ - b ssree % sae dstails,
each, woms1- IN " dst 1niasdatA KtSe its
own way. Both met to talk about, pa reso-
lutions, and generally, toAgitate in fsvor Of
'' canasr 's ss1s NJ e.. '. h.,s NJ.
read half II 4s I&Scsed,1e sf sithet cbpven-
ton, as rsperss il the d6isAe . dailies ymus
ing asmost t6em were. VI TIED, Aovevet,
in going over couple dossaaf scolumns, to
find One solid argument addvced in hvor Of
womena suffrage, but were dieAppointed.7
There my be-probably are-such axgunentS.
but they are not found in those proceedings
as far as we fouIii time t. read them. There
were speeches p1e and con, : great deal Of
rhetorical rubbish, occasionally fash 1t wit
or CLEAN of common ecnse, and no amall
amount of very unladylike slangwhang, but
certainly no arguinent
A leading peculiarly OF the conventions,
however, was their male composition. The
general idea doubtless is, that the conventions
were composed of women, but this is erroneous.
Not only were most of the officers of the con.
ventions men, but the leading spokesman and
managers were men. OF course they were a
peculiar kind of men. What their popularity
was is best explained by giving some names.
The President Of enc Of the conventions was
W. H. Perkins, of Ottawa Then in the pro-
ceedings largely figure the names OF Rev. DR.,
Collyer, Rev. Goodspeed, Rev. Balch, Rev.
Beecher, Rev. Haines, Rev. Fowler. Rev. Ham
mond, Mister Booth lot Milwsukee,) Judy.
Waite, Judee Brsdwell, and so on. It Is note
worthy, however, that tho controlling element
altogether was the ''reverends.' They seemed
to shape and govern everything. And this
seems to give . clue to the secret springs OF
the whole business Do the women generally
of this country want suffragei Were the
question submitted to their own untramelled
vote, we believe that ninc-tenths would vote
in the negative. But the "revereneds' Of a
peculiar class seem to be very anxious indeed
that women should enjoy the fright of suf
frage. This peculiar class is made up of the
political preachers to whose efforts the country
is mainly indebted for all the horrors and cen.
sequences of the 'unpleasantness" between the
north and south. Since the war is over, and
the Niger free, their political influence has
been largely on the wane. "Revernedr radi.
cal human nature is very much like any other
radical human nature. When it was found
that clothing the negro with suffrage at the
south would tend to keep the radical party in
power for an indefinite period, that party very
promptly and cordially espoused the cause OF
universal manhood suffrage" There is no
class Of men who have so much influence
among the women as q certain stripe of
''revereRds." With a fourth or a moiety of
the voters in given locality, placed at their
beck thrangllthe great rcformatory measure
of women's suffrage" what local politician
would dare to turn up his nose at these
''reverends!' There may be substantial rea-
sons why women in certain positions in life, of
sufficient intelligence, should be clothed with
the franchise, but if women's suffrage simply
means enlarged priestly influence in our poll
tics, the last ten years. history Of this country
should admonish US to pause.
- tlf roo
The Legislaturel ~,