The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-09-15
Woman's Rights.

AiloW me 10 give my platform o
Woman's Rights, begging pardon for tn,
use of very manish term, which us,
for the sake of brevity.
All claim for woman is the remOva
OF the interdiet. Accept her as citizen
Now she is denied the rights of citizen
ship and all the numbering legislation o
centuries will not adjust her relation.
| harmOniously in the world till this i'm.
/ Justice be removed. She cannot be pro.
tected fully till she is thus recognized
She cannot reach the true dignities o.
her being till she is invested with the
sanctities and privileges of a good citi.
zen.
Remove the interdict. Make oul
wives and mothers and sisters at full age
citizens, and they may vote or not vote
as our brothers vote or abstain from
voting.
Every shade of character exists among
women. ! leave these to find their true
relations. The family woman-soft, de-
| pendent, instinctive-will gather heI
pretty brood about her and nestle to the
tireside; the woman of cold intellectu-
ality will be 10th to make the domestic
altar the arena for mere intellectualism
The composite woman will range the
whole sphere of thought, imagi-
nation or passion. leave these to their
career as the world finds them mt present.
meet the facts of life as | find them. /
see the present social system tottering
to decay. | will not help to bolster up
what Is false in it, but by casting out
aspects that have ceased to be in harmo-
ny with our higher progress | hope to
arrest the introduction of what is pernic-
iOus.
l..1 . IL.
country are driven TO their own resources
for livelihood. Hundreds are engaged
in teaching at miserable pittance. The
proportion supposed to be adequate re-
muneration for teaching compared with
other expenses in family, may be a
little intrinsically reached by comparing
the items of expense in the letter of Mr..
Folsom, Minister to the Hague, where a
plain Yankee official pays 500 for wine,
and S225 per year TO a governess. Most
OF the larger schools are projected by
men, and women fill the various de-
partments at the lowest possible rates.
l contend that the law must loosen its
hold upon us. Our women artisans,
farmers, merchants, lecturers, authors,
must not rank with idiots, lunatics, oI
children rs they now do in nearly all the
States. This is all / ask; and vet the
country is in alarm; simple, pioUs souls
aggrieved, as if | We're a blasphemer;
editors sharpen their keenest pens to
annihilate me on the point of a para
graph; husband forbid their wives tC
hear me; little children are told of "a
woman out of her sphere" who must be
warming to them; and u sort of spas
modic, porcupine state seems to have
sieZed upon all classes, who verify be-
4 Ia fr ft m
dies, and women to ruling States.
You will find the beautiful old illus
tration of prejudice very apt in regard tC
the doctrines of WOman's Rights. Pref
udice, il has been said, is like one who il
fog behOlds an object in the distance
il is gigantic i'm size, defOrmed in aspect
He is alarmed and shocked, and calls fol-
help or retreats before it. Onward come,
the strange object; nearer and nearer
and gradually, what had been a hideOu,
monster, assumes shape, proportion; tn,
distance decreases, and now, what hat
been looming through the fog rs 4
creature of dread, proves to be his OWL
brother.
So is it with these doctrines. They
need only light and proximity to assume
grace and beauty, and recommend
themselves as but an expression OF
human needs, growing out of human
progress. / do not aim at the overthrow
of womanly quality; on the contrary, /
contend we are not wOmanly because are
we not recognized i'm our full natures
by our brothers. do not ask to be freed
from the law, but only protection and
representation therein. Give us social
and civil equality. Ii it is safe for the
husband to fill the office of a private
citizen, and private one, according to
the wishes of his friends and neighbors,
or the people at large, it is safe also for
women. III man looks to the cOnstTuc-
tiOn of his own being rs the foundation
of the laws by which he is to be bound,
women should be allowed to do the same.
Those who seek the highest human
freedom are the most bound by the great
God Himself-Nrs. T. Odkcs Smith.