Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-06-26

The Rev. DR.. Horace Bushnell has re
Gently written book on " Woman SUI
| frage," in which be has aimed TO shov
that the movement is reform agains
nature Much Of the argument is in tn,
nature Of deductions from sacred history
whereas, doubtless, q more convincin!
argum snt, to the msjority OF mankind
would be that which natural history, illu
minated by the social history of tn,
human race, supplies. In the natura
order of creation, the female is nowhers
found to be the protector, defender, OF
ruler of the male; but the reverse is uni
| formly the case. Nature did not estab-
lish this uniform law throughout all hei
animated works without design.
That the woman suffrage" movemen,
| is an attempt to rebel against this law Of
nature, ought to be sufficiently evident
without deeper examination, from the
fact, lAtent to all observation, that the
female advocates of the so-called reform
are uniformly of the class popularity
known as masculine women" The
phrase is used in physical, as we'll as in
an intellectual, sense. The Susan
Anthonys, the Madame Livermores, the
Cady Stantons, are all males, in every
respect but one. The Livermore fur
nishes o good type ofthe general average
of the class. A Swapping six-footer-
coarse of feature and organization
masculine in every muscle-a fatboat-
man in petticoats. Some imaginative
gallant has applied to this description of
female the term Juno-like. But Juno
was an irascible termagant, forever quar-
reling with her lord about her assumed
rights in the celestial government. The
most Hnwomanly and unnatural OF all
the female creations of the heather
imagination was that same Juno. The
comparison to more modern termagants
is not inappropriate.
Semiramis, Catherine de Medici, Cath
crime of Russia, Margaret of Denmark,
Elizabeth of England, were all Juno
like" creatures, and all, had they lived
in our day. would have been excellent
women's rights men," They were re-
markedly unwomanly exceptions to the
average of womanliness, which is the
only infallible criterion of nature. An
attempt to estimate the nature of woman
by their standard would have been an
attempt against nature, just as 1t is now,
in the reform against nature" which
the unnatural Livermores, Stantons, and
Anthonys are prosecuting.
But the female monstrosities are not
the only Performers against nature" that
are found at the present day. On this
continent, especially, the reforms against
nature are numerous. The attempt to
make the moral, political and social
equivalent Of the white man is one of the
most prominent. The natural status OF
the negro ia that which has al.
ways been the average status Of
the negro race, deduced from the whole
history of the race; just as the status
which nature intended the female to oc-
cupy is to be ascertained. 1t is not nee
essarily, in either case, position OF in
feriority, relatively or positively. 10
the religious sentiments IN moral
sensibilities; in the social affections; in
gentleness of disposition, patience under
suffering, sympathy with affection, and
all that constitutes the exceeding beauty
of the woman nature, the woman is
greatly the superior of the man. In the
average of physical strength, and the en-
durance of certain natural conditions
under which the white man would perish,
the negro is, doubtless, the superior of
the white race. The real question is not
whether the negro be an inferior or So
perior being but, has nature made the
negro en- equivalent OF the white man as
an elemento of oiviisationf
Every one knows that the negro, in all
the ages of history, has not taken a
single step in civilization. There has
never been, in any spot on the SURFACE
of the globe, any such thing as g negro
eiviliz alton. Alfhas been harbarism, with
but slight gradations above or helov the
average of that baFbarism. The fact
goes back to the remotest era OF the HUI
man species !. covers 49,. ...c = .c.a period
Of recorded history.
Surely, if fapts teach anything, this
great fact teaches that the negro nature
is not the nature that produces or ad-
vances civilization. 1t is not the nature
that devises and creates-the one great
popularity that distinguishes the eau
casian races from all other species OF
men.
The attempt to take this unereative
negro ont of his nature and put him into
that OF the creative Caucasian, is mani
testify as much reform against nature as
the analogous attempt to take the woman
out of her nature and put her into that OF
the man. Both are attempts to recon-
struct the laws of nature. In the end,
both will fail.
1t is not intended by this juxtaposition
of the woman and the negro to discover
any similitude between them that would
be both impossible and absurd. Only
the shallowest demsgogues, whether men
or women, will assume that To give the
ballot to the negro, and deny it to the
woman, is TO degrade the latter below the
level of the former. 1t is rather to pre-
serve the. latter from the loathsome con-
tsminstion Of the former, by recognizing
the fact not only that she cannot get out
of her own nature into that of the man,
but that she ought not to cease to be
woman, and become niger.