The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1870-03-19
Sixteenth Amendment.
BY n. s. YOUNG.

with so morbid an appetite that it can be
only appeased by continued course of
intense excitement, even of the most
revolving and unworthy nature.
The lives aud acts of those who consti.
tute the ''power of the nation, certainly
prove the world of mind strangely agog.,
Ever since tho cessation of hostilities
there have been wranglings, quibblings
aud jugglings without, end to annex
Fifteenth Amendment aud scarcely has
this fiendish deed been accomplished than
the political heavens become overcast by
q cloud of more terrible import than all
others, in the form of a Sixteenth Amend.
ment.
Aud what does it mean? What need
for another appendage2 What its sub
ject? What its object? Women of
America, veil your pure faces to conceal
the bushes that should mantle your
checks at mention of the word Sixteenth
Amendment, for it is an insult to your
purity--a shame to your honor, the
death-biow to your womanhood.
You, may question how this can be !?
How 7 Is it no shame tina. men should
stand in legislative hall aud use the pure
and gentle name of woman in noisy de-
bate or. hnrsh and jeering tone, that
should make the heart die {! "Tis sad
that men should scoff aud trample OH
each other !; but oh, tis bitter wrong that
they should drag mother, wife and sister
from her higher shrine to crush her in
the dust !! Sixteenth Amendment |!
Womans shame? Not that alone
When the act is done which proclaims
woman has entered the political arena to
contest for positinn aud power, it will be
the final deed-the last signature to the
death-warrant Of Il once glorious nation.
Ah truly Indeed, may the poet sing,
'Fold that banner, for .ais weary"
Wee, fold it-'drnpe it in mourning -
wreathe it in Grape, for the nation is
dead
Strange, passing strange, that woman
should contend for power should SO far
forget her sclf-respect and duty as to
stand before gaping, curious crowd,
and With her woman's voice cry out for
equal rights! Equal rights! For what {?
To be trodden under foot? To he jostled
and jeerel by hoisy, clamorous mob 7
Think you, oh, deluded creatures, to
save the already tottering fabric of
government? Vain delusion for with
the power Of equal rights the old, sweet
influence of woman is forever gone
Will the rude, drunken creature wrang-
ling at the ballot box heed the reproot
from the voice beside him in the noisy
crowd! Will he not rather lift his hand
to strike the reprover? Not cowardly-
as for man to raise his hand against
woman-but as man tn man for with
her equal rights she must accept the
cruel taunt aud hear the harsh and
wicked words, or lift her wof. ans hand
iu self-defense. What prompts those
calling themselves women to demand
among the archives of the nation there
shall be placed one law giving to them
such privileges us only men should claim?
ls it ambition Heed not the siren
voice; it will prove but "Wili O. the
Wisp," leading you through sodden
marshes into the fatal qnchsand Do
not strong men go down ia mt and wearyY
See them FILLING By the waysidei The
soiled and tattered banner on which they
had traced, in joyous hope, "Excelsior," ="
trailing in >she dust--a bruised and
crushed form beside them-seen too late
In their haste aud upward gazing, in
their sarnest reaching for tho "castlcs in
the air." they saw not the beautiful
flowers at their feet, needed not the
pleading form and yearning heart, and
in striving for fame and power, happiness
was lost, and as they fall tho truth of all
they might have been foats around and
away from them into the "nameless
yonder.,' Tho shore is strewn with the
wrecks Of barks guided by strong hands.
Can tho trembling, weak hand of woman
hope to steer more safely DER the rough,
tempesiuous soa OF life /? The nation il
dying, and woman must save Then, to
the rescue. Not ut the ballot box not
IN Legislative hall; not by haranguing
Needless muliitudes; but in the quiet of
home, with the great, wicked world shut
out, exercise the power that is there