Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1870-02-12
mr.. A,tderson,s Column.
NJ , Woman Question st =

This work makes oil other questions sink' Into
place of less Importance by Gui switch
cd on rom the question OF suffrage, NOT that
that question grows less, but that this grows
larger.
Now the first Idea that comes 10 me Is that
only woman can be mother. The perpetui.
ty of the race depends on her and the nature
of the mental condition of the race depends ON
the state of mind and b6dy In which she may
be at the time when she becomes, or Is to be-
come, a mother. For woman to depart mate.
rally from her sphercc-i ei the sphere that is
now conceded to be r's,-would be TO break
up all hope of II ptrpetuity of the race. Think
of female lawyer giving up her clients, or
female physician letting her patients die, OF
female clergyman abandoning lief pulpit and
letting souls h,-while she gives up the
three or four months that Immediately bound
the before and after childbirth Or think of
the mental conditions of the child born out of
such state of worriment as would come Of
cases in court, or in medical practice, or in re
ligious revival, going by the board because the
professional person is having baby
This is a sort of thing that is not materially
affected by legislation. Either tlte race must
run out or woman must bear the CHILDREN
And it is God, mot many who has regulated
the mode of collaborating and the necessary
lyings-by that precede, attend, and follow it,
But with all this there comes another newt
able thought and that is that as woman must
bear all the children, so woman gets the inside
track in influencing the child mind against
tI,a tiu,a ,vban II shall urnxy ,,ofuro Sho co,,
influence 1t before birth by her own state of
mind and heart but of that let some phys
clan write rather than l, who know too little
about it. of the post birth influence l do
not need TO write; as no thinking person has
not counted up the blessed influences on his or
her life that came of the mother.
Who made me the loyal lhan that am p
My 1NOther Who made me the Christian man?
My Mother. Who started every grace that has
grown into principle Who made the first
sense Of repugnance to a meanncss, which has
grown into a sense of honor? Who taught
me to love the poor,--in purse and in spirit
Who taught me to espouse the cause of the op-
pressed Who taught me to be brave and il !
dependent i'll pursuing what l know to be
right? For the matter of that-who taught
me to be a man ? My Mother God fitted her
to be just such teacher. If am less than
l might be, it doesn't change the fact that 1
have couple of splendid brothers-and moth
er made them what they are.
So, too of the sisters. Mother taught thcm
and because she did teach them there are thoL
sands who to-day bless their namcs-thrOugh
their writings, or through their other Christian
works They taught or teach their children
Grandmother taught mother, and another
grandmother taught father. tell you, the
mesh of blessing grows intricate as you look
into it-that net in which we are hed--thc net
of maternity
Suppose my grandmother had taken the role
of doctor, and had decided that she must at
tend to her profession at the expense Of her
maternity. She might have saved some fever,
and mendcd some bones, and pulled some ca
rious teeth, and brought safely into the world
some other womens' children, (who were satt
ly born anyhow but l am vain enough of my
family to suppose that even all of such good
of her life would not have offset the forty odd
tolerably wide awake persons who, up to this
time, have come of her holding to the usual
sphere of woman.
Now in all this may be in error, but 1 am
giving the ideas that come to me. 1t does seem
to me that real smart female doctor or minis.
ter, or lawyer would become the mother of
real smart sons and daughters, they inheriling
her smartness and being educated under it,
and that so she would be multiplying her life
al ifnitum in the course of few generations
This is in addition to the glorious work that
she can do besides, pro bono pu6kicO, in her life
time, and between the terms of her mother
hood.
Now this brings me to the other idea that
has switched me off from that of suffrage =
for insist upon it that these thoughts are all
outside Of any question of suffrage. That
other idea is of the good work, extra-maternal
that woman, and only woman can do.
When begin to think of this, as an old sol
dier my mind naturally turns to such noble
women as Mother Bickerdyke, Clara Barton,
and others who flew to help the soldiers when
they were wounded. l see before my eyes
slch women as Mrs. Hattie Colfax, (aee Reese
of this place. kneeling by the cot of dying
trooper in my own commando very angel of
mercy. think of Miss Craighead, of whom
l spoke last week, at her work in st. Louis, and
women like Mrs Bolton of Cleveland, who are
helping UP poor fallen women. If don't
think of Mrs, L. c. Stanton, and Lucy Stone,
and such women, suppose it is because do
not know them.
But there are such women as these last. G..
public, reforming women,-lke Mrs. ii. b.
Stowe. Mrs St'we writes "Uncle Toms Cab
in," and kindred books. and brings up splen-
did family besides. Put the life of such wo-
man as Anna Dickinson over against the life
of Mrs. Lyman Beecher, the mother of Henry
Ward and Thomas X. and Edward. and Cath
arine. and Harriet But add to that feature of
Mrs. Beechers life, the one that makes all the
world bless her,-the every day deeds of kind
ness and love, the deeds that are little known
on earth, but that are treasured in heaven -
and what glorious life il is
Cleopatra was a splendid woman, and SO are
Victoria and Eugenia. But where do the two
latter oVertop the formers Is 1t as queens,
or as good queens and good mothers? The poor
people bless the names of these two last ;--but