Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-05-05

vault on high glorious, SHINING ORB
| among the consolidated hosts of heaven
should attempt with it's feeble wing to
pierce ETHEREAL space and find and assume
its robes of eternal light.
| Thus it is clearly seen that on a basis
of intellectual and physical qualification
woman cannot consistently in govern
ment like ours demand the elective fran
chise. To demand it on the basis of a
property qualification is wanton and de-
liberate attempt to subvert and destroy
the principle of republicanism.
The third topic, that in the present ex-
listing political and social systems man is
usurper and tyrant and woman a slave,
we will now proceed briefly to examine.
African slavery, Turkish barbarity,
Moorish ferocity, are figures most fire.
quently used to illustrate this feature of
the subject. And as Sam Weller observes,
"the dreadfullest part of the thing is the
majority of the fair sex in our land are
not conscious of the degradation and SER
vitude they are experiencing. To be
slave, degraded wretch, and not know
it, is decidedly bad. What does such talk
mean? Can the motive be traced AS
nature designed each sex for separate,
special sphere of action, so long as each
respects the boundary of its own field,
and remains oontented to fulfill and meet
the duties and obligations naturally exist
ing within its limits, usurpation or tyran-
ny on the part of either would be simply
impossible. .. ..
/ But in case that either sex becomes an
invader, forsaking its native sphere of ae-
tivity and usefulness, and entering the
sphere of its neighbor as a rival and COM
petitor, it would be natural that the ag
gressor, destitute of natural powers to
meet the new demand, should complain
that its native occupant was at once ty-
rant and usurper. Because the female in
her weakness and impotence cannot sue
cessfully compete with the male in the
sphere of masculine activity, but is thrust
aside with ridicule and contempt, she
sharply retorts with the harmless epithets,
"tyrant," "nsurper" This is the whole
} secret of the matter and thank God it is
only the hybrid type OF intellect that
makes the accusation. -
J The faithful mothers and wives of our
J country, those whose characters are lumi-
nous with the super-feminine virtues, are
content to dwell within the sphere of femi-
nine activity and usefulness. In their
: keeping, the sacred structure, home, that
, their dear hands have reared, and to whose
} inmates the guardian angels of civiliza-
ton, morality and religion ever minister,
is safe against the fury of the frenzied
attempts to destroy it. How far the dis
integ grating element that owes its origin
to the present female suffrage movement
will be permitted to destroy the cohesion
/ of society, before its deadly nature and
} fatal aim are seen and understood, remains
to be seen. Tho moment that the male or
5 female intellect, disregarding the impulse
and promptings of nature, voluntarily
forsakes its native sphere of action, and
attempts achievements that it possesses
no capacity to perform, it becomes in the
: highest sense of the term a social mon
strosity, and as such tends to destroy
5 rather than uphold sound, correct, social
, system.
8 The social vices of to-day afford CAPT
7 tai illustration of this feature of the sub
ject.
The attempt recently and widely made
: by portion of the female sex to root out
of their nature the super-femenine virtues
3 and to plant therein, in the feeble soil
the towering wide spread masculine ele'
= ments of character, has overrun society
/ with hybrid growth, wanting the vir'
tues of either sex but possessing the vices
; of both
= Though it is in the nature of things
impossible to transform the physical sex
yet by persistent efforts at cultivation the
intellect of either sex will produce lux
urient growth of foreign, morbid, inClina-
= tions and ambitions, which in the intellect
of the opposite sex would be at once indi-
f genous, useful and beautiful, while every
4 capacity physical and mental in the ma
ture in which they unnaturally exist,
is utterly unable to satisfy their morbid
lusts and cravings.
, The present existing social structure
, exhibits to a considerable degree, this ten
} dency to disorganization and ruin.
To-day vast herd of restless, reckless
, impOrtunate hybrid 1uuetlvvte, cd
in the physical nature of both sexes, and
= find by unnatural morbid inclination:
r and ambitions-that the elements of THEN
own natures, physical or mental, can never
} execute or satisfy, are to-day running tc
and fro in society disclaiming with q
! rabid, insane vehemence against the gen
+ uine masculine and femenine virtues
calling on woman to pluck out Of her
nature the super-femenine elements Of
: weakness, gentleness, beauty and grace.
and to plant therein the masculine quail
: ties of strength, action, endurance, capa-
city and vehemence, that she may be fit
ted to enter the sphere of masculine
activity and effort as the rival and COM
petitor of man.
How Supremacy and contemptably
} ridiculous and silly does this woman suf-
= frage movement appears when stripped of
) its disguise, its features are exposed in
, the clear light of reason and common
sense.
} What, ask, would be thought of the
lamb with its weak physical form, its
: plaintive voice, and its herbiverous or
: gans of mastication and digestion, that
: should aspire to assume the nature, the
} instincts and the habits of the lion, and
then should attempt to range the desert,
pursue the antelope, and with its harm
less herbiferous organs of mastication, to
seize and rend its prey.
l What, l ask, would be, theoretically,
= the fate of such a would-be lion, when in
his native empire--the desert wild--it
. encountered a real lion Would it not
be natural for such a wonld-be lion Gf it
possessed the power of speech) to call the
{ real lion by such names as monster,
"tyrant," "usurper," 'wretch," &c.
AS the natural result of this unnatural
and monstrous attempt to unsex human
nature, the purity and cohesion of society
are being destroyed.
, AS result, the tie of mutual depen-
dence and interest, and that of passion, is
} less irresistible than formerly in produc-
ing a natural union of the sexes.
As a result, the marriage bond is more
loosely worn than formerly, and more
frequently cast off after having been once
assumed.
AS result, the female is more disin-
olined than formerly to fulfill the func-
tions of maternity; a disinclination lead
} ing to the horrible crime of murder, per-
petrated upon unborn innocence crime
, that never so universally disgraced any
/ age of civilization as our own.
, II short, as result, the natural bonds
of mutual dependence and interest and
f passion, are being severed these natural,
|, sacred ties being replaced by those of bru-