Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1870-03-01


more cruelty wound or hopelessly control?
If he were unciyilized he could beat or
imprisor her; but reasoning is useless,
entrcaties fail, and commands are despis-
cd so that constant and humiliating sub.
mission is the only escape from disgrace
ful family broils. ''i ll-ii 9"'
This is the kind of slavery to which many
a refined and honorable man has been sub
jected. Women .also have abused their
power as step-mothcrs, as slave-mistress-
es, and not unfrequently in governing
their own children. This is the kind Of
slavery also by which capitalists can tyr
annize over the laboring poor.
Which sex has the power thus to tyr
annie over dependents can never be accu-
rately settled; but it is certain
that it is not laacs that are to rem
the evils, but rather that lore to God and
man which it is woman's especial duty to
secure by the family training Of our race.
The rules Of Christ's religion have been
found by experience to be the surest guide
in the difficulties Of the family state. But
in the family as in the civil state, the root
Of the difficulty is that those to whom the
power of control is given have used it for
selfish. qualification instead of the !" best
good Of all concerned" In those fami-
lies that come the nearest to following the
the self-sacrifcing cxample.of Jesus Christ
the husband honors the wife as the deli
cate and "weaker vessel" needing tender
care, loves her as himself, and accounts
her happiness as equal in value to his
own. Moreover, he is required by Di-
vine precept to Glove her as Christ loved
the Church )" that is he is to ''sutfer" for
and with her in order to support, elevate,
and emoblc her. The father is to set the
example of scll-sacrifcing love and devo-
ton, and this makes the duty Of obedience
only q pleasure.
Under such parents each boy is trained
for his future position by labor and sacri-
fee for his mother and sisters. 1t is the
brother who is to do the hardest and most
disagreeable work, to face the storms, and
perform TIM most laborious drudgeries.-
And in the home C crclc he is always to
give his mother and sisters precedence in
all comforts and convcniences.
The great difficulty in the matter Of
the subordinate station of woman has been
that the duty of wives to obey their hus-
bands has been more strenuously urged
than the Obligations of the husband to a
selE-sacriicing love "as Christ loved the
Church" s.. .-. .........
In Christian countries women are guard
ed by law from the abuse of husbands, or,
it not wholly protected, the women, in
most cases, can escape from tyranny by
In this country no woman
can be abused as are slaves without
chance of protection from the civil law.
There is no doubt that there are many
wrongs against women to be redrcsscd by
better laws, and this is true of many chill
dren, servants, apprentices, paupers, ard
those classes who are ground
down by the power given to wealth. But
it must be remembered that our law-mak-
ers are husbands, fathers, brothers, and
lovers, and then that women have a power
of appeal to the law-making power given
to no other Oppressed class.
All that is needed in country like ours
is for women to decide what they deem
necessary for their own best good and that
Of their children, and unite IN asking for
il. Aud if those who are now agitating
to end the relative subordination of women
in the family and state would direct equal
energies and benevoience in the right di-
rection, they would soon gain all the sub
stantial good they desire, and far more
speedily than they will attain the law-ma-
king power and civil Offices.
There are certain departments of civil
management that seem to demand the reg
ulating influence of women such as the
management of schools, the various admin
of beneyoence, and the regula-
tion of penal institutions. In all these,
women should be appointed by civil au-
thority to act with men, and our legisla.
tors would mich more readily be led 10
frame laws for this purpose than to give
the law-making power to women.
Indeed, it is certain that men will not
resign political power and civil Offices to
woman, even if justice requires it, till the
Of men are both just and gener-
Gus. And whenever that time arrives,
everything that law can do will be done
by such majority for the best good Of
all the daughters of the State. No en-
actments or constitutions can alter the
fact that men are ,the higher power" of