New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-05-14
NEWS RLGHIS.

We must thank Mr. Foster for insisting so
stubbornly the other day, on the principle
that men have rights which women are bound
to respect. 1t is not every one who will face
an audience of that now powerful and growing
sex, and maintain such heresies rs those OF
MIR. Foster. lie holds that if woman has her
dues of praise she has also her dues OF cen
sure that if she has right to vote she is also
omen to challenge, and that if 1t is proper for
her to find fault with the tyrant man, it is
meet for man in turn to take just exception to
the tyrant woman Instead of meeting this in
eyitable exception in the spirit of an embrace,
and so correcting the fault and suppresSlng
the antagonist, the strong minded man has
been encountered with the panOply and shield
of sexual pride and cultivated prejudice. In
stead of admitting the possibility OF wrong,
the woman has fallen back upon her lnfalhDll-
ity. and takes refuge in that concession OF
foolish men as amogated by vain maids, that
women can do no wrong. But nothing could
stand before the fatal logic of Mr. Stephen
Fosters position The cause of one woman
went down at one dart Of his lthuiel spear,
and the case of another, who attempted to
annihate him with the concentrated pride OF
a whole convention, settled itself by sequence.
Joye being absent, Juno cssayed the thunder
bolt, and burned her fingers. What Mr.. Ten
uyson's Princess was in the habit of saying
before she became q welded woman was just
in tone with what a woman who ought to
know better, and a married woman at that,
said in defiance of every honest claim of man.
Our esteem of Mistress Susan Il. Anthony
we are proud to say, is undminiShed but we
Ne, .ln
upon her manner of keeping accounts will tend
to set mt rest her chances of becoming Secre-
tary of the Treasury. The sincere advocates
of Women's Rights must have regretted, as we
do that President Stanton should have seen
fit To excommunicate Mr.. Foster from the right
To speak as a man simply on the ground that
he accused a woman. There was Amazonian
fire in the soul of the woman who said {:
"When any man comes upon this platform
land says that a woman does not speak the
"truth, he is ont of ORDER His mind may be
out of order, poor man; but is that sufficient
reason for denying him ordinary rights as n
beng and brothcrl What is our good Queen
Bess of Woman's Rights turning dcmagogue
and tyrant mt a breath THAT she thus makes
woman ont an eternal verify and man a
standing falschood ? Let MS not, however
be over bold in confronting this question of
what man shall dare say before women in
general Congress assembled locked up as in the
steel by their properties, fortified by pride of
sex, and defended by curls and ribbons, and
shall we say 1t l-spectaces. We must rather
conccdc that lovely woman has an undoubted
right if she chooses, TO be overbCaring, self
righteous, and n scOrncr Of men. Yes and if
she is, we cannot for the life of us help saying
so. Ii it is not right then it is propensity,
and plOpenSities are strong. We are meek.
Now, 1t is proper that Mrs. Elizabeth Cady
Stanton. much rs we admire her talents and
her mission, should stand under rebukc. We
may, ON our part, be nothing but men, but it
is our simple male duty to demur to anything
but gentle bullying. Are we to be bearded by
the wOmen9 II men cannot say that the other
sex can do wrong, what is every woman but a
queen absolute in her own right, to the over
throw of all Salic laws2 What are we coming
to. and what will become of the subject and
discrowncd MANI We have no right to compete
with this sterner sex even in telling the truth I;
though we may suppress it any time, and tell
a lattering lie to every woman's face. We
admit, in helpless enthusiasm of heart
that Woman is the angel who leads on the
soul of progress, that she is the nurse of
Christianity, aud the mother of heroes-we
ought rather say of heroines. All this we con-
fess, yet insist that.man is her critic, and, if
we dare go further, the best friend she has on
earth. Now, as friend and critic, he has rights
which even women ere bound to admit. Still,
we are meek.
Nothing could be more damaging to the
cause of Equal Rights than the announcement
that men have no business except to hattor
women. In that case there is but q pocket
handkerchief sympathy between the sexes. and