Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1870-03-03
Mad,.sn Correspondence.
MADISON, Feb. 10Th, 1870.

buuTdbcy nci VIM iuNSSN
"-tilts with piercing STEEL"
"hurrying to and fro"
among the lords, and songs of Joy sung
by the women. But here is an impev-
feet sketch of his pleadings and argus
ments;
Bacon said that every great cause
would have hearing. The cause Of the
negro had had a heariDg--tho decision
has been in its favor. All it wanted
now was the carrying out of the deci.
sion of the people in letter and spirit
by the executive department of the gov
ernment And next the woman question
would have hearing. 1t has taken
about hundred centuries to make wo-
man what she now is.
De Tocqueville, than whom there is no
| better criterion of American Institutions
extant, attributes their excellence to the
superiority Of American woman.
American law put four classes on an
equality.
l. Negroes.
2. Indians
3. Idiots.
4. And last, least and lowest-Woman
A Bedoin Arab being asked what
was lighter than feather answered,
air Than air r Thought Than
thought? A dream. Than dream Wo-
man. Than woman2 Nothing Weighed
in the scale Of American law, woman
was nothing, and that in the face of the
fact, that the one great cardinal point of
the American idea was, equality before
the law.
Queen Victoria while visiting at Bal>
morae, took morning stroll, plainly
dressed and unattended, and met q
peasant woman with basket Of eggs.
Gave her a sovereign, and told her to tell
her children that that was from Queen
Victoria. God looked upon those two
woman, and in His sight they were on
perfect equality. They both were moth
ers---they both possessed good, humane,
motherly feelings. But what gulf the
law placed between them. But Prince
Arthur, the son of that excellent woman,
and heir apparent to the British Throne,
once on American soil as he is now,
was on an equality before American law,
with the poorest and most despised lad
in the land Look at Astor and his
gardner, the one getting $3.50 day,
and the other worth his millions, lock
arms and 20 to the polls on perfect equal
ityl We want equality behind as we'll
as before the law.
Suppose q foreign potentate planted
himsel on our shores, and from his i'm
perial throne dictated to the American
people laws ever 30 good and wise and
beneficial, -unexceptional in all and
every respect Would we stand it2 Of
course not And why, because in the
very beginning the consent of the gov
erned was not obtained.
American law as regards woman is
like the old Methodist class meetings, the
men all on one side, and the women on
the other, Weakness and strength pitt
ted against each other.
Why not let Frances have the fran
chiss as well as Francis, since all these
words are onymous-meaning free
dom,
Not a single American statute from
1890 to 1870 ever consulted Il woman
Look at the American returning home
from Switzerland and another from Mon
tana to New York so as to exercise their
right of franchise last Preside ntial elec>
ton. If there is anything in that right
dear enough for two citizens to come
from such distances to exercise it, there
is something in it that is Of great inter'
est to woman as we'll She has an inter-
est, and that vital one in her entran-
chisement did it have effect and bear
upon nothing but the marriage contract,
But the law adjudicates as between her
and many an other subject of vital inter>
, est to her. Dr. Bushnell says, woman
suffrage would initiate against nature
woman has no natural right to the fran.
chise National right Neither has man,
IL 4