Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-03-15
M0reover she iS undar hondS NOT

duty. She has no right to assume
the pastorate of a parish, and then,
may be at the very crisis of the spir-
itual life of many, cut herself off from
power to hold the oversight of so vi
tai affairs. She has no right as a
physician to gather into her hands the
charge of the lives and healths OF a
great circle of families, and then with
draw herself for maternity, leaving
them in sickness to death. Taking
the grave responsibility, she must hold
herself clear to meet it. She has no
right to induce circles Of clients to
entrust to her their legal interests,
and then fairly acquainted with their
affairs, withdraw herself to any
private and domestic concern whatev-
er. She has no right in political life,
to take positions and honors at the
hand of any community, or party, and
then, may be at the supreme moment
of party necessity, or public peril, put
herself out Of power to stand at her
post, and discharge her great duties.
Professional success and professional
honor alike put her in bonds against
motherhood.
The obvious and only answer must
be, "then these women must avoid
maternity. That is not the only duty.
Others are paramount. She need
not be a mother" That is frank,
and puts the case On its true ground.
Let US pursue it.
These women shall be celibates
But are not all our reformers bracing
their plea for women at the polls by
saying, "Men are not men without wo
men, and women are not women with
out men," | have heard it one hun
dred times, and, what's more, | be-
lieve it These celibate women in
the ministry, law, politics, medicine,
separated from the common, restful
sympathies of life, outside of .IU -
circles, rasped, burdened with the veA
atiOns, cares, tolls, of successful or
unsuccessful ambitions Men so cir
cumstanced would be, as class, mis-
cradle, worthless, speedily left outside
the esteem, confidence, or employ of
their fellows. We want no celibate
professions either of men or women.
We shall never entrust religion with
its delicate ministries, our families,
nor the state, to any class of celibates.
Every such class invites corruption of
manners, morals and faith. No, no
The world will never trust, nor try,
the mastery Of celibate women in re.
ligion, medicine. nor state craft.
These professional women will have
hearts as well as heads. Instincts for
{ love, tenderness and home will have
way. Marry, forsooth, they must and
will Yet they are under bonds to
success and honor not to interrupt
their professional pursuits by the long
pauses Of frequent maternity. They
cannot give the flower of their days
and energy to reproduction. What
follows? Why this. These leading
, women, most honored and famous in
marriage, but preventing maternity
: must become conspicuously infamous
a contagion Of the devil through soci
ETY.. That fashion is prevalent enough
, What should befall if our brilliant
, splendid women in the pulpit, at the
bar, in medicine and on the forum
should set everywhere the illustrious
) example of prostitution in marriage
t Woe worth the day! Yet this must
' be in any day which shall see women
filling successfully through life the
; professions or even the trades.
5 Who is ready, by celibacy or fruit
! lessness of our ablest women. for these
only would succeed, to see these best
t minds and, if uncorrupted, these best
hearts, taken out of all the lines of hu.
.. man descent? Is our blood SO rich
e that we can stand this thinning p
: What can a class of our best made
women do in their single lives tc
: atone for the loss of sons and daugh
: ters of so worthy stock? ? 1t is q
: question of one woman, barren, in g
t profession, or thousand generations
e OF her grand blood to people and make
!. great the future! | for one believe il
r the thousand generations of noble wo
= men and men, rather than the one wo
e mans good right arm, though she slast
e and hew never so grandly. Mrs
Y Wesley, In her motherhood of sous anC
; Methodism, was greater than she
could have been by any most roya
f work which had hindered those SON
j. from being so well born.
l. Above all, who is ready to see thi
s best blood among women kept out o
Y future generations by processes mos
d foul, whose full tendency should be t.
If corrupt the domestic and marital re
is lations of the generation in which the
f live? Nothing could atone for the sa,
n examples of these famous, successful
V but willfully childless wives. The
would be, as a class, a contagion c
3. the very sin and shame which dot
j. most beset our time.
e So here is my trouble. If wome
re are to be mothers, to any noticeabl
it extent, they can't be successful in tn
,e professions and the trades. The ter
= dency will be frightfully strong, in a
r. ambitious women, to celibacy with il
E. vices, or to marriage with the mann
al less shames which shall! prevent m;
r ternity. The woman-reformers ar
le hard after a success which will forbi
al maternity in all who aspire to reach i
m Specimen women entering publ
a. life at fifty, and reaching success, il
IS. volVe no such difficulty and prov
e. nothing. Venerable women, grand
ry war with wrong, whose public lives b
ar gan after their children were we
ST. reared, boast their homes, and prov
I'd splendid as they are, the glory of tt
ar developing power of maternity.
o. This difficulty out of the way, ar
We one little one beside, that about Pa
Id and Paul's Inspirer, and there sha
th be one more enthusiastic woman
.c- rights man in the world?
es- TREASURE TRovE.-In 1902 the Engli
TX attacked feet of Spanish galleons ne
ch Vigo, when seven of them were sunk a