Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1870-02-09
For the Journal.
A Woman's Opinion.
MoNrpELIER. February 7.ls7O.

that represent large class of thoughtful Yer
mont women.
The advocates Of Woman Suffrage have sent us
some Of their abest women, 10 say nothing Of
their men, to try to convince us that women ought
to vote. That being their avowed purpose, they
spend one day and two evenings in elaborate argu-
monts seeking to accomplish their object yet
toward the close Of the last meeting, one Of their
speakers makes buresque Of the whole per-
iormanco by declaring that he will not pretend to
prove it, viz that women ought 10 vote, since it
is sei-oyident truth.
In an attempt to provo that which is self-evi-
dent, we should naturally expect 10 find contra
dictions and absurdities; and we are not diap-
pointed. 1t is affirmed in one speech that there
is no radical difference between man and woman
woman is the equal of man; therefore she should
vote and again the speaker says, "woman is
different from man she is the complement Of
man therefore she should vote" Do they ask
us to draw the same conclusion from contradc-
tory premiscs2
They tell us, over and over that women ought
to vote because Indians, negroes and foreigners
are allowed the right, utterly ignoring, it would
seem, the fact that the relation of woman 10 man
is n sui gcneris relation, and all arguments from
Indians, negroes and foreigners, arc irrelevant 10
the question.
Again, it is said, " all just government is based
upon the consent Of the governed Now If this
is strictly and literally true, and not glitter
ing generality, as Mrs Blackwell says, then
what is to be said about the consent of the mi
nority2 If fifty men vote on a question, and
twenty-six vote one way, twenty-iour another,
and are beaten, what about the consent of the
twenty-lour, or are they not " the governed
without their consent? OF course we know
what answer might he made to this we do not
offer it as argument; it is only suggestion.
lnanswer to the question, what good will
come of yotng?" Mrs Blackwell says, at isa
protection women now receive half the pay Of
men" We know there are thousands Of over
worked, under-paid women, whose suffering calls
for our deepest sympathy, and whose condition
offers a problem that ought in some way to be
solved. But it seems to us that, If marriage is
at the foundation ola Christian civilized society,
If laws to be made for the class, and not for
exceptional cases, and il the present law which
iNihlNH tlt W pIuNtub support OF Tue
family, is a just law, land we have yet to learn
that any advocates of the " reform object to
this), then it IS fair that man should have more
pay than woman for the same work woman
has right to her earnings after she is eighteen
a man, after he is twenty-one. Let us suppose
each of them to work for five years and then mar
ry they may do exactly the same work with
/ puunI ability and Tho h..
saved enough from his earnings to support a wife
and family, or he cannot, as an honorable man,
marry. The woman may marry without cent if
she choose, and still be an honorable woman
That thousands of women never marry, but work
for wages all their lives that many have Others
beside themselves 10 support, is nothing to the
point If the suggestions with which we started
bo correct. 1t is very hard It's true for clever
woman to see a stupid man getting double tue
pay she gets for work which she could do twice
as well and it is especially hard if she have any
dependent on her for support but it she be an
intelligent, unsefsh woman, she will accept the
hardship for the sake of the greater good to the
greater number. So that if equal wages with
mans are to be the first blessing Of this new
reform" we say without hesitation, women
tho we are, and women working for wages too,
some Of us-that we do not want it,
! If it be urged that marriage is not at the found
alton of our society,-that nation of old maids
and old bachelors is desdeatum, then that
opens the way to another field of discussion,
which we do not care to enter
The connection Of woman suffrage with educa-
ton, we utterly fail to see. That girl is educa-
ted with " bad French, worse Latin, and meaner
music" is not because she or her mother could
not vote to have it otherwise.
Another good to come of woman's voting is,
that she will refine and purify politics Shall the
woman who stands before the hOoting, whistling
and cheering Of a boisterous crowd and filings at
the feet of a Christian gentleman the charges Of a
coward and u liar, teach us refnement2 Let no
woman think she can stand too near the " dirty
pool of politics" and escape the contagion of its
foul vapors let her not think to purify its I'M
wholesome depths by putting in her stick, tho
she stir never 80 vigorously or wisely Let her
keep her place up in the pure, clear mountain air
at the sources of those streams that go down to
form the troubled sen with all its dirty pools
When her duty is done there, and not till then,
shall we see politics purified by her influence
Mrs. Liyermore tells us in one speech that the
woman suffrage movement began when Christ was
born babe in Bethlehem. In another speech
she tells us of her services during the war,-(and
We do not for a moment question their efficiency
or their yalue)-especially of her services to Yer
mont soldiers, and then asks as compensation for
her services, that Vermont should reyolutoniEe
society and grant woman the right of suffrage
Modest--perhaps-bu hardly like the spirit of
Him who came " not to be mnistcred unto, but
~ minister"
But it would DO a dreary task to follow their
arguments further. We know that many excel
lent things were said, and said we'll We cor
daily admire the energy, ability and earnestness
Of these women, and admire them none the less
that we earnestly wish them devoted to better
cause. But the truth is, there are some minds
of at least ordinary ability, to which the right
and duty Of woman to vote, is not an axiom
There are some women who know that the whole
burden Of proof rests with those who oppose ex-
isting institutions,-and they are not convinced
by such specimens of logic as they heard last
week, or as they have seen in the reports Of SINH
lar conventions held elsewhere. There is too
much reckless arguing from individual, special
cases, to universal rules too confused iumb-
ling OF wrongs redressbe by legislation, with
wrongs which are 50 deeply rooted in the fibre Of
our being that no legislating, either OF man or
woman, can'eyeF reach them. We hold that there
are some first principles Of morals and social or
der us well as oil mathematics and when we
hear such speech as the following "The un-
married have some advantages which the married
have not, for an unmarried woman can call her
baby her own, while a married woman cannot"
after the first instructive shame and shrinking
comes the natural inquiry whether there may not
be some inherent fitness in such speech, coming
from tho lips of an apostle of this new dispense.
ton,
10 call it by no harsher name this fbarfully