The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-09-29
THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN.
HORACE GREELEY TO THEODORE rnros.

Your article on this topic is so fOrcible
and lust i'm the main, that i presume
you will be quite willing to have its
slight inaccuracies corrected in your
columns. | do not assume that my
views of the Woman Question are OF
much consequence TO others; but, in 50
far rs they may possess interest, il is
well that they be clearly understood.
Let me, then, indicate your misappren-
sions without further preface.
/. You say hold ''there ought to be,
no divorce at all-nOt for any crime,
even the worst" So far as can recol-
lect, your only authority for this state
ment is a remark. that, had not the
Master spoken otherwise, | would not
have deemed adultery sufficient reason
tor dissolving a marriage. AsyOu seem
to have given these words undue
weight, allow me to explain my view
more fully.
That persistent, flagitious adultery in
husband or wife affords cause for di-
vorce, / have not meant to deny. But
there have been cases of transient infidel-
ty TO marriage vows, under the influ-
ence of passions infiamed by wine and
other unnatural eXcitements, which be-
ing followed by prompt and profound
contritiOn, would not judge as ade-
quate reasons for divorce. You and
both know that wives have often par
doned such lapses in husbands; you and
/ agree that husbands have no rightful
immunity i'm such matters which ought
not also to he accorded to wives. And
profoundly honor and reverence the hus-
band who can say to his erring wife,
Though know that you have been
false to God and to me, yet because OF
of the love | have borne for you, of the
vow which pledged me to love and
cherish YOU till death, and for the sake
of our dear children which God has Civ
en- us, believe YOU truly penitent, will
forgive and try almost to forget your
your crime, and thus shield our little
ones from undeserved shame" regard
the husband who speaks and acts thus as
a better Christian, a truer man, than Is
he who exposes, discards, and outlaws,
the wife of his youth for tiagrant
transgressiOn now sincerely and bitterly
repented. / suggest therefore that you
henceforth represent me a holding that
adultery may, but does not always, jus
tify an application for divorce.
III. You say | hold that ''if a man
marries and his wife dies, there should
he no second marriage" This, also, Is
most esteemed friends are REMARKED
happily, | am sure; wisely and nobly,. |
Judge. Nay, / can imagine case IN
which the poor, hard-wOrking. widowed
father of young children whom he can
not take with him TO his daily labor,
should feel constrained for their sake 10
replace his lost wife by another in
whose perfect acceptance and discharge
of mothers duties toward those chill
dred he could implicitly trust. Pardon
me, but | am quite confident that the
casual remark on which you based your
broad assertion referred to a re-mar-
riage following separation 10y divorce,
not death.
III. Let me state my own conception
of rc-marriages as complicating marital
relations i'm the other world.
/ do not dispute tie doctrine OF Jesus
that ''In heaven there is neither mar
rying nor giving in marriage" if you
have quoted His words exactly. And
vet feel that there are couples 50 COM
pletely and happily united in this world
that they will be nearer and dearer to
each other IN the next than they would
or could have been had they failed to
meet in this life, and | think these are
happier i'm either world than though one
or both of them had REMARKED. do
not hold that either would have been
culpable in re-mauying if widowed ON
this planet; | only Insist that they will
both rejOice-and with TeasOn-in their
higher life, that neither in this life was
married second time.
". You are entirely, eminently
right, Mr.. Editor, i'm asserting that my
conviction of the proper indissolubility
of marriage is the handspring of my
hostility to Woman Suffrage, and to the
social philosophy from which many
vaihly seek TO separate the Woman
movement. Though ! have written ol
dictated very little of what has, during
! the last then years, been printed as edl-
/ torial i'm the Tribune on this subject, II
is nevertheless true that my conception
of the nature and scope of the marriage
relation renders my conversion to Wom'
an Suffrage a moral impossibility.
have but two left of seven children
and these are both daughters. would
gladly fit them for lives Of usefulness
and honor, as beloved and loving wive;
of yirtuous. upright, noble men, anC
mothers, if it shall please God, of good
healthy, happy children. If il he de
creed that they are to be, not sucl
women as those | have most admired
and reverenced, but men with femal,
| physiuue-powerful in ward caucuse;
and nominating conventions, vehement
i'm senate and on the stump, and etiec
tive before juries in the trial of actor
for Grim. con.-I pray that my caree
on this globe shall close before this i
fairy begun. When and where they
shall thus shine, il Will not be pleasan
for me to stay.
Mr.. Editor, / believe our countrymeI
are indebted to you for having discov
cred perhaps I should say inventedl m
as a Dossible Though most improbable
candidate for the Presidency. ALLOW
me. then, TO thank you for your earl,
and frank demonstration that | can il
no contingency be counted on or hope,
for as n Woman Suffrage candidate
AS YOU forcibly and justly say, there
not even a remote possibility Of IN,
ultimately adapting myself to this end
Nv difference with your crowd is to
vital, too radical, to permit the mos
sanguine dreamers TO hope for my con
version. / am growing old; my opin
! ions are tOlerable firm; and the Ad
vanced female of the Laura Fair type
who kills the paramOur of whom sh
claims to be the rightful affinity, an
gives the lie in open court to the vii
: she has doubly widowed, is my pet avel
, sion.
But why should any man be the car
> didate for President of the Woman Su
fragists. Logically and consistently,
: feel that their candidate should be
woman. She ought, moreover, TO !
one thoroughly emancipated from th
''absurlity and folly" tine marrow
= ness,u and "baleful conservatism,
A which am TO old to Outgrow. Coul
> YOU not find one who illustrates in h'
/. own person and history what you :
, felicitiously term ''the liberal thOugl
: e -. IL. A....nI nr.o oif NJ h..r 1