Litchfield enquirer., 1870-07-28
Woman's Suffrage.

tive committee on Woman's Suffrage. The arguments in favor and against that move men are so we'll and so temperately sci forth in those reports, that we shall at. tempt nothing more than brief comment upon salient points: THE MAJORITY REPORT.
 The majority, lin report drafted, it is said, by Mrs. Hooker, of Hartford) demand that woman should have power father than in,auence in the state; they aver that direct responsibility is needed to ensure the state the assistance it wants from her, and the assistance she needs from it; that she is suffering from laws in the making of which she had no voice; and that the ballot box needs the purifying presence of woman to correct evils plainly attributable to her ab- sence. The principal objections to the movement are stated, and answered, as fol- lows:
 l. That tho universal exclusion of wom- on from participation in government hith- erto. proves her natural incapacity for it. This is conclusively answered by the fact that government has till of late been mat. ter of might. not of right
 2. That participation in public affairs will be fatal to ''womanhood." Mrs. Hook CT resents the implication that 'swoman- hood" is man-made rather than God made, and says that 'tthey would as soon look to legislation for the preservation of their bodily form, as for the maintenance of their spiritual characteristics.
 3. That the state rests on basis of force and that women ought not to be allowed to make laws which they have not the physical strength to enforce. This favor ite argument Of MT. Pratt of Norwich, Mrs. Hooker meets very conclusively by enquiring whether the present legislature, resting on the support of minority of the voters of the State, could make laws for the majority, if government was a mere matter of force? This practical instance shows the fallacy of the whole argument. As Mrs. Hanaford i've think it was) told MT. Pratt, women can hire policemen as we'll as men, and that is the way the law is enforced nowadays. The pretence that civil authority is like to fail of execution should women be allowed to vote is plain ly absurd
 A. That women ought not to vote be- cause they cannot fight. This argument would be more conclusive were capacity for military service condition prece. dent already. Such has never been the case. Property, education, good moral character, and many other con ditions, have at different times been required of the Connecticut elector, but never the capacity for military service. This is an answer, but, as we have always felt, not complete answer to this objection. Can the female citizen render no service to the state, ,ipecu- liar to herself, and yet as severe and dan gerous as that which the male is compelled to render on the field of battle? As we have often urged before, she certainly does so. With infinite pain, and at great risk to her life, she bears children not only to supply the waste of disease, and natural decay, but to fill the places of those man murders Fin the unnecessary wars wherein he rem ders his boasted special service. In for mer article we showed from statistics that greater proportion of women die in child bed, than men on the battle field, in the United States of this century. That a barbarous age should overlook services of that character may be natural, but justice cannot afford to do so.
 5. Voting implies office. holding, and for this woman is unfit. As Mrs. Hooker so we'll says, the great majority of our voters are unftted for many offices, yet is that any reason why such electors should be disfranchised? A very limited oligarchy and general turning out of present office holders might follow the adoption of any such principle. Moreover, no objector has yet shown how women unfit for office are to be elected to office. They certainly could not rely on their own sex in such case. for who is so quick to detect the de- ficiencies of woman as her sister women. If men cannot be trusted whose fault is that2 It is pretty certain that any candi- dates that they may select from the oppo site sex will be no worse than those they take from their own. ,1v ! The proposition of the constitutions amendment with the word "white" still at tached, shows the absurd fix into which Democrats favoring female suffrage go themselves by refusing to recognize tA. passage of the Fifteenth Amendment.
 THE MINORITY REPORT.
 The minority report, said to have beel written by Mrs. Thomas Cowles, embodie the usual objections to the measure, mos of which had been already answered in the majority report To few of these we vii briefy refer:
 1. That a majority of the women in thu state do not wish to vote If it was pro posed to compel women to vote, this nigh
 be 9 conclusive answer; but the request i