Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-08-08
FREE LOVE.

! mat the advanced women who clam
or so earnestly for social regenera-
ton are unwilling or unable to tell
us precisely what they want. The
universe is not governed by fine phras
es; domestic virtue needs some oth~
er safeguard than mystical poetry !;
and society cannot be purified and
ennobled merely by substituting for
the old reign of law new dispense
ton of impulse which, however glo-
rious it may be in the rhodomontade
OF feminine philosophy, is not distin-
gulshable by practical people from a
very vulgar sort Of license. We
know what one class of the female
reformers want for some of them
at least are quite clear in their own
minds, and certainly frank enough
in speech; but when lady like Mrs.
| Davis cries out for Free Love, and
then shrieks with horror because
the only possible definition of Free
Love is explained to her, or when
two such philanthropists as Mrs. Hen.
ry b. Stanton and Miss Susan b. An.
thony take pains to demonstrate an
ELUSIVE sympathy with q notorious
representative of the vilest variety
OF Free Love principles, we are puz-
zled for an explanation, and would
beg the ladies Gif there were any use
in begging) to come down out of the
clouds and talk plain English. Mrs.
Laura Fair, we believe, never spoke
at conventions, but she practiced in
the concrete the same liberty of love
which the advanced women advocate
with so much eloquence in the alb
stract. Her life was course of vuI-
gar lust, crowned by cruel and
sickening murder. Therefore, Mrs.
Henry B. Stanton and Miss Susan
i. Anthony feel it their duty to visit
her in Jail and offer her the hand of
sympathy, and Miss Anthony at
tempts to defend her in public lect-
ure, until the Kisses Of the audience
oblige her 70 change the subject
Pray, ladies, what do you want?
1t was apparently for the purpose
OF getting an answer to this question
that San Francisco reporter sub
jjected Mr. Stanton to mild cross
examination. He got very little for
bis pains, as anybody could have
predicted. "When locked into the
mild blue eyes of that poor woman"
said tho lady, "and studied that pale
'and sorrow-laden fa &c, | could but
"icel that no amount Of testimony,
"no array of evidence that might be
"piled up against her, could ever
convince me that she was the bad,
"bold woman that the press has stated
"that she is. Mrs. Fair may not have
"been saint, but she cannot have
"been q demon" Now, this lady
knows that about the facts of the
homicide and the principal incidents
of Mrs. Fairs life there was no dis
pute; the woman justified them
prostitution, adultery, m rider and
all-upon the very principles Of which
Mrs. Ii. b. Station is the apologist, if
not the apostle. SO when Mrs. Stan
ton complained that the case bad not
been fairly tried because "the jurors
"were not her peers the majority
"of them were foreigners, and foreign
"ers, cannot and do not look upon
"women as we do" she must have
meant, If she meant anything at all,
that Free Love murderer should be
tried only by Free Love jury, and
that Mrs. Fair had valid defense for
her life and crimes in the beastly doc
trine of affinities which she avowed
when she shot Crittenden. Mrs. Stan
toms philosophy comes to nothing
short of this, if there is any meaning
in words and any force in logic but
she will, no doubt, be angry with US
for saying SO.
The impractical, unreasonable,
preposterous ideas of these advanced !
women were displayed in other in
stances during the San Francisco
interview. The Imprisonment of the
"poor woman" was, to Mrs. Stanton's |
"mind, ga disgrace to the City of San
Francisco" She ought to have |
books, flowers, and music, better
cell, and opportunities for exercise.
81 disapprove of our whole system of
jars. 1hey shOulu Oe surrounded,
"as are our asylums, with grounds
".and gardens. Instead of sending
Glands of music to the parks for the
"rich, we should send them to the
"iails for the unfortunate" But re-
ally, why not carry ont the Stanton
doctrine OF liberty to its logical de-
velopmont ? Then everything would
be lawful, and VIC should have no use
for jails.
Most readers will object to the
notice we take of such twaddIe. But
il is precisely because people have
been too much amused, or Disguised,
or too Indifferent, or too gallant, that
people protesting such vicious prin-
ciples in such respectable guise have
really come to possess q power for
evil and to need of all things, plain
speaking concerning themselves and
their works.
s6-A great increase in the order
of Free Masons has been shown late