Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1871-08-17
TiitOn's Criticism of Greeley's At
titude ON the Woman Question.


The following is an article in the
Golden Age of the 9TH. w M
If anybody supposes that we are
wanting in respect for Mr.. Greeley, he
knows little ofthe more than common
affection and reverence which we have
always entertained for this honest and
noble man.
When, therefore, we say, as we frank
ly do,k that the course of the Tribune
on the woman question seems to us a
daily gravitation farther and faster to.
ward the darkness of the middle ages,
we are not making willing but an un-
willing criticism on journal which,
instead of being the chief hinderance,
ought to be the best help, to the Cause
of woman's enfranchisement.
Outside of the Roman Catholic
Church, we do not know man so
backward in his views on all that
partains to the status ofiwoman, as Mr..
Greeley. He holds, for instance, that
there ought to be no divorce at all
not for any crime, even the worst. If
ideas on this subject were moulded into
the legislation of the land, they would
require the reconstruction ofthe statute
book of every state of the Union; save
South Carolina. He holds, too, that if
a man marries and his wife dies, there
should be NO Second marriage Lon the
ground tfYat such 40 in i56afio p would COM
plicate thgs sI6aft81 9feEad3hS Of the
original parties in.the, other w6fid-al-
though 8 ai5Wisef ahth0rity chan MIR.
Greeley mas taught us that Tn heaven
there is neither marrying nor giving in
nlarriaoe.O % iG5 - et7s = 20 ~.
Mr.. Greeley's unreasonable tenets on
these points, if they were enforced by
civil statute or by public opinion,
would bear like CALLING de5potism on
millions of human hearts. 11i.sf ~
1t Is these views which underlie all
the criticism that the Tribune so ruth
lessly and rudely makes on woman
suffrage, and all the social questions
connected Herewith. A bitter foun-
tain cannot give forth sweet waters. -
People who Imagine that Mr.. Greeley
will one day veer round toward wo-
man suffrage do not understand that
he must first change his fundamental
tions which should subsist between
husband and wife not only in this world
but also in the next. q e9n5biiao2 y
d MI. OrcctCy . HOtlOu VI no 'UiVOtCo
for any cause, not even for adultery or
any other crime, and his twin notion of
no second marriage after the first is dis
solved by death, are a brace of theories
which, on account of their absurdity
and folly, deserve to have no placed in
the liberal thought of an enlightened
age, but which nevertheless have lent
to the later years of the Tribune a bale
full conservatism which makes us some-
times think that its editor may yet be
tempted to end his life in a monastery.
Mr.. Greeley is a man of so much
.catholicity that, we are impatient at
seeing In him any taint of narrowness
!. His proper place is at the head of the
progressive thought of the present age.
But on thewoman question, he is more
hopele5sly wrong than any other of its
opponents whom have ever met. Our
esteem for him is SO warm and deep
that we would rather these words were
spoken of almost any other man. But
he is a dangerous enemy to a cause
which needs faithful friends, and we
have no excuse for not striking him a
blow which ne deserves. aa Nsfs