The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-19
SLA VERY OF AMERIOAN WOMEN.

SLA VERY OF AMERICAN WOMEN
The number of "woman s-rights" conven-
tions that have been held within the past few
months would almost lead the public into the
belief that no adjournments were permitted
in these charming gatherings. No new con-
verts seem to be added to the list, if we may
Judge from the published accounts of their
inharmonious proceedings. The same stereo-
typed names still figure as presidents, COM
mittee women, and eminent chinnists. Some
times the list is varied by exchanging gentle
Cady s. for sweet Susan B., and 0Sca 0ersa,
but in the main the posts of honor-and
honorable posts they are-are invariably
filed by our old familiar friends, whose names
are we'll known and whose capacity is pretty
fairly estimated.
The preambles, resolutions and speeches
emanating from the same select, if not re-
fined, circle have also become familiar, and
if it were not for the internal jealousies and
hair r-pullings that manifest themselves at
times, but few readers would find interest in
their proceedings. The meeting in Apollo
Hall, New York, presided over by Theodore
Tilton, that eminent saint with "long yellow
hair, has evolved no new or startling idea
on the terrible wrongs under which the
American women are suffering. The speeches
and resolutions were only relieved from the
dead level of puerility and stupidity by the
cat-like snaps, screeches, and cIawings
that enlivened the proceedings. There
was, however, one resolution, submitted
by the would-be Honorable Cady Stanton,
and enthusiastically adopted by the meeting,
that is perhaps little in advance of any of
their previous innumerable preambles and
resolutions. Not that the moral sentiment
or refinement contained therein is above the
usual Stanton-Anthony standard, but because
it is bolder expression of the secret spring
that moves these misguided, wrong-headed,
loud ''tongued," and idle-handed women.
The resolution referred to was to the effect
that, ''Whereas, in the Sickles, Cole, and
Mcfarland trials, the accused were acquitted
by jury of their countrymen, therefore the
obvious deduction was that American women
were in slavery, from which they can be
rescued only by the ballot, etc., etc.
What inferenees are we to draw from such
teachings? What would the highly gifted and
virtuous Mrs. Stanton have us conclude?
Take the cases in their order and let us apply
the test. General Sickles was indicted for
shooting man who, after enjoying the hos
pitality of his house and the generous bounty
of his hand, had violated every instinct of
the gentleman by dishonoring the wife in the
very house of his friend, thus desolating his
home and dragging in the dust all that is
dearest to man. jury acquitted him on the
ground that so vile treachery and SO terrible
a calamity were sufficient to render the
prisoner unaccountable for his acts. Does
Mrs. Cady Stanton, Tilton, sweet Susan b. q
Co., object to General Sickles' interference
in the unlawful and unholy conduct of his
wife and Barton Key? Do they think she
should have been permitted to continue her
wickedness unmolested? If not, where is the
application of their text, ''the slavery of
woman?" The tyranny in this case consisted
in the fact that the husband separated his
wife from her paramour. In this can you see
but the act of an unreasonable stakeholder,
oh ye heavenly saints of Apollo Hall? The
case OF General Cole was in many respects a
counterpart of the one to which allusion has
just been made. In this, as in General
Sickles case, the slavery of the
woman consisted (reasoning from Mrs.
Stanton's premises) in the fact that
General Cole restrained his wife from
further evil by removing her guilty confiden-
tial friend. The jury ia this case, as in that
of Sickles, acquitted on the grounds that
when the sanctity of home was ruthlessly
violated, the most sacred of all ties trampled
upon, and the dearest of all earthly objects
polluted and dishonored, the outraged, ruined
husband was not responsible if under the
mental agony resulting therefrom he laid
violent hands upon the villain who wrought
all this misery In the last of the three cases
enumerated in the resolution of the indignant
Cady, we have presented the abject slavery
of Mrs. Abby Mcfarland Richardson
whose unreasonable husband objected tc
her receiving undue and scandalous attention
from another gentleman before she had
ceased to be Mrs. Mcfarland. In this case il
is somewhat more difficult than in the former
10 perceive in what the ''slayery of the
woman" consisted. In spite of the solemn
VOWS that bound her to Mcfarland, and the