Weekly Trinity journal., 1869-10-30
Rockford Woman's Ideas OF Suffrage.

What will our women do with themselves ?
That is the problem presented to us by the ad-
vocates of women's rights, SO called, who are
daily making the telegraph wires hum, and jim
gle, and shrek with the reports of their conven-
tions Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Llvermore,
and others, after the manner of female sopbists:
would make US believe that the real question is ::
What are the men going to do with the women
The fact, however, remains that the men are In
no manner interfering with the women, but are
mere spectators of the windy row which these
viragoes keep up. Is woman-that is, abstract
femininity-the divine creature that, ever since
the days of chivalry, she has been painted =!
Shall our Marys no longer be idealized and our
Annas no more be worshpped? Pathetcally
and deprecatingly, l ask, is sparkling misde-
meanor and popping the question crime! 10
the casual observer, to him who does not look
under tfe surface of things, these be idle ques-
tions but to the thoughtful and afectonate
young man, who has been accustomed, every
Sunday night, promptly to report for duty at the
domicl of his Mary, or his Anna, and far into
the night to engage in that charming social in
tercourse which springs from the mingling of
the weaker with the stronger, from the contact
of vigorous manhood with the winning graces
and weaknesses OF woman, these queries are
charged with solemn import.
You, John, and you, Thomas, for years, it may
be, have stone by stone, bulded unto yourself Il
Mary, or Anna, and now, when the work is
finished, when the last workman has departed
from its walls, and your castle is finished and
ready for its occupant-now when, to drop the
romantic and assume the practical (for there be
those who never comprehend an idea orna-
mentally expressed), now when you are, by
means of the savings of years, able to say to
Mary or Anna, ':Comel my bird, have
featbered a nest for you," the bird, instead of
will nnt
me fairly and squarely | want my rights !;
women are the equals of men and as much enti-
tied 10 the ballot as negroes and Cinnamon.
This is the test question between you aud me,
and am prepared to discuss it with you now,
before the chains whereby you seek to make me
your slave are irrevocably riveted y
Now, as a married woman, know very we'll
that Joint discussion between husband and wife
are quite common, but cannot imag inc that be-
tween lover and mistress they are desirable
What are the practical objects of marriage
That the man shall be the husband and father
supporting the family and earning, 10y his TOLL
the right of those few hours of domestic enjoy
ment permitted by the cares of business; that
the woman shall, in compensation for the sup
port and care of the man, faithfully discharge
the duties of wife and mother, and, while not a
slave, do that which she may to make her hus-
band S and her chldren's home attractive. This
is the mission of most women and of most men +,
and if, now and then, like golden thread shot
through plain warp, we note a career, lofty,
solitary and devoted, like that of Joan of Arc,
Madam Roland, and other historic and heroic
women, let US remember that, in the paths of
greatness many seek and few are chosen and let
US, with tha: calm spirit of content, which is far
removed from the mpassveness of the brute,
bumby devote ourselves to the discharge of
those duties, social and domestic, which is the
lot of the undstnguished majority of women.