Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1870-03-09


what woman, conscious of her weakness, conscious
also Of her power knowing her deep responsibility
for the well-being Of the souls committed TO Der
care will not consider well before she assume other
weighty duties and responsibilities We know
that it is good for the mind TO turn away q. times
from It's ordinary round of duties and going out
into the world Of nature of literature, and OF ac-
tiyites different from its own, il will come back
with renewed freshness and yigor for its own
work again But is politics the sort of work to
furnish for woman this rest A conscientious
woman, if she vote at all, must be conscientious
voter, and politics, we suppose, is something more
than dropping a slip Of paper in box, SOME
thing different from an intelligent acquaintance
with the general principles Of government; it is
the practical application Of those principles, and
that not in an IDEAL world either. If we may ac-
cept the testimony Of men who ought TO know,
there is no more perplcxing, harrassing, annoy
ing work they have to do than this same work of
politics And we would like to know upon what
principle Of justice and common sense it is pro-
posed to add all this to womans proper work,--a
work to which man has nothing corresponding
and call that equality. viii the ballot confer new
physical mental and moral power commensurate
with the added burden2 That we are competent
now to vote as well as many men, we do not
doubt but we do not want any more work to do
than we can DO thoroughly and well A ack-oi-
all-tmdcs is proverbmlly good at none, and the
world is full enough Of worthless jacks already,
without ever wishing to multiply the number.
We have spoken Of women simply as voters,
and not rs taking any more active part in politi-
zeal life and yet we know that voting implies
being voted for, and being voted for implies the
possibility Of election 10 office of course no
woman need accept an office unless she choose,
and tits our strong conviction that no true woman
who is a mother ever would accept one or sell
her birthright for mess Of pottage though it be
never 50 savory We know there are women
noble women, too--who have no paramount FAM.
~ claims, but is there not abundant work for
them-work for which they are peculiarly fitted,
and which must forever remain undone unless
they do it We look over our world and see the
fields already white to the harvest fields Of dull
ness and ignorance to be aroused and enlightened,
Of weakness to be strengthened, sorrow 10 be COM
iorted, poverty, pain and suffering to be relieved,
sin and misery waiting for the Gospel Of peace
and pardon, land the cry comes unbidden from
the depths Of a burdened heart, " Lord, where
are the laborers for this 50 vast a work ~ And
as We turn with eager expectancy to the reform
ers who also feel deeply the pressing wants of
our times, for practical solution of this ques-
ton, we hear from the Rutland convention that
since sewing-machnes were invented, there re-
mains no more work for woman but politics
Yet after all there may be some great good to
be accomplished by our voting which we have
not yet heard Of II there is, why not tell us Of
it, and not comeall the way TO Vermont to tell us
that " a women may be hanged and yet have no
voice in the law that hangs herr" Wereally had
not thought Of being hanged as among the con
tngencies Of our possible future but it may be-,
and considering public sentiment sufficiently
lax on this point, we may say in passing that II
ever in the Judgment Of" the powers that be as
Mt present ordained we deserve hanging, we hope
that we shall be hanged At present we have no
fear that our fathers, husbands and brothers, will
hang us for their own amusement
This reform gravely proposes to make wo-
men intelligent and responsible citizens Poor
things What ia pity that Mrs. Browning could
not have waited little longer so that she might
have been intelligent What II pity that Yer
mont women must wait till next June before they
can have breathed into them living soul
! As to woman's peculiar condition of hardship
and suffering a reason for giving her the bal
lot, we believe that in that good time coming,
when " sound mind in a sound body " shall be
the common heritage of our race, all forms ofd
ease and physical suffering which men and women
/ thoughtlessly and wickedly bring on themselves,
will be esteemed as great disgrace as drunken
ness is now. And them if not before, we trust
that all trouble and physical suffering that God
sends, will be held sacred in its mysterious con-
nection with that inner spiritual life which is
" made perfect through suffering" that a wo-
man would no more think of parading it before
any audience, as ground for claiming political
privilege, than she would hold up 10 the public
gaze, for the same purpose, her heart-angush at
the loss Of friends. If we could look upon all
this talk simply as that of persons whom we be-
ieye to be either wiliully wrong or blndly mis-
guided, reason would that we bear long with
them, and charity would that we judge them kind
]
we are in the wrong. But when our Council of
Censors propose to introduce a reform which will
seriously affect all our lives and the lives Of our chill
dren after us, and when these people come as the
ayowed opponents of that reform, severe criticism
where we deem it called for, becomes n sacred and
imperative duty and when they talk to US about
the elevation OF our sex, we must ask them to dc
fine little more clearly their notions Of eleya-
ton For when we are urged to 90 up higher, it
does make some difference in our feeling of Sc
curty whether we are to ascend the mountain
whose broad and sure bases are the eternal laws
Of God, or to climb a hJertypoie which men have
set up and may take down at their pleasure. We
may have an abstract right " to climb liberty
poles the world may have made long mistake
in excluding that from woman's sphere but not
being crodulous enough to accept any body's un
inspired dietum on either point, we decline try
ing the fool hardy experiment under any pretence
OF " trusting God for the consequences" More
over, though we acknowledge it is very un-
worthy suggestion, considering the glorious end
10 be attained, yet we should have little feeling
about making ourselves laughing stock to the
crowd below. Bat if woman's political equality
!
with man lies on the summit of any mount Of
God, We will cheerfully take up our line of march,
however difficult and wearisome the ascent If it
is to be reached by that other sort of climbing,
we are perfectly willing to leave it to the few
professional gymnasts who may be fulfilling their
destiny by the exercise. Changing Just one word
Of Shakespeare to accommodate our sex
! We dare do all that NAV become a woman
Who dare do more is nome"
So if no higher motives can be appealed to than
the hope of sitting on a jury, figuring in legis-
latiye assemblies, or occupying the Presidential
ehair--appealed TO not in fights of poetic fancy,
but in sober reasoning, then we, conscious Of
other, higher and conflicting aims say to the very
Spirit of the reform itself even at the risk of be.
ing charged with personality" Retro Satanas.
For, since the one perfect Life was lived here on