Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1871-06-02

GAIL HAaILToS on WOMAN SUFFRAGE. The
lively and Inerciless critic of Rev DR.. Todd, for
bis opposing female suffrage, now writes to the
Ialepeadeat in relation to the woman suffrage
movement, as follows;
have watched with unfagging intereit, with
such intelligence ss was vouchsafed to me, and
from what vantage ground | could command,
every phase Of the movement that came within
the sphere Of my observation. That movement
has advanced from weak and despised begin
nings 10 q point where 1t IS discussed with
seriousness, recognized by parties, deferred to by
leaders, sni acknowledged in some quarters as a
not remote future possibility.
From this careful observation Of its course
thus far ! cannot see that anything in its treat
ment Of difficult questions or in lis conduct Of
delicate afilirs-in the ends which it proposes,
the methods which it selects to accomplish those
ends or the manner in which it pursues those
methods-gives US the smallest prospect Of any
introduction to a higher grade of political life
than that which we are already occupying under
the dynssty Of man. fail to see that it Is more
comprehensive in vision, more inezhaustible in
research, more radical in thought, more scientific
in method, more conscientious in action that in
discussion j; is more sober, candid, Just and
courteous that it displays more information
and less Inflammation, more Of philosophy and
less Of personality ; that it is more accurate in
presentation and more conscientious against mis-
representation that il is more judicious in the
selection Of agents that it appeals to higher
motives, or teaches wiser mode, or points to q
wider field Of activity. Il appears to me, on the
contrary, that the womsn's party copies with
singular fidelity the old ways of the Old parties,
which ought never to have been entered at all.
Women, SO far as they are already in politics,
are doing right over again, and often with
peculiar feminine and fata facility, the very
things which have been done by men, and which
ought never to be done at all while | have not
been able TO discern the introduction by them
Of a single improvement or sign Of improvement
in political thought OF action. Universal purity,
freedom, and happiness, are indeed noble ends
for any party but no party in the country con-
fesses or professes any other ends. When We
lock at the means by which the womsn's party
proposes to reach the desired results, we find
that they are either general, and, therefore,
practically worthless or specific, but empiri
cal, and often worse than worthless or they
are the same means which men have been en-
ploying and are still continuing to employ. This
has nothing whatever TO do with the right OF
woman to the ballot. man is not forbidden TO
cast his vote because he casts it for the wrong
person or the wrong measure no more should
a woman be- But, when the vote of women is
urged upon the nation as its means ef grace and
hope of glory, it is requisite and necessary to
infer somewhat from such preliminary grace and
glory as have been displayed. If the dawn is
darkness, why shall we suppose that at evening
time it shall be lightl
Nor do thesastatements, if admitted to be
true, involve the inferiority of woman to man.
1t does not imply inferioriy to fail where he has
not succeeded. 1t simply indicates that at pres
ent she is not politically his superior: 1t dis
misses again to the domain of abstract reasoning
the idea that government and society sre to be
uplifted by the direct professional participation
Of woman in politics, snd leaves it with pre-
sumptive evidence against it.