The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-10-06
Liberal Men and Women's Rights.
BY SARA a. uxpERwoon.

by SARA a. UNDERWOOD.
| don't know how il is with Others,
but | must confess for one, that my
cheeks tingle with shame for the men
my brothers i'm the human family-who
can find no better occupation, or more
elevating theme, than to sit down delib-
erately to write an article whose sole
aim and purpOrt is TO traduce and vilify
in the most cowardly manner their daily
companions, their mothers, sisters, and
wives.
try my best, but vainly, TO imagine
how such men feel after they have writ
ten some of the articles against women,
which | see daily poured in n corrupt
stream from the press, and-worst shame
of all-even from the pens of men call
ing themselves "Liberalsw A Liberalism
confined to one sex, and, / fear, to one set
of opinions and those their owni Do
they realize that the word "Liberal"
rs applied to them is 4 misnOmer? They
are bigots, worse than the bigots Of
Puritanism, for they live in an age Os
Liberalism, whereas the Puritans were
educated into bigOtry.
These men generally begin by a
wholesale charge of weakness and folly
on the part of one-half the human race,
including the mothers who watched over.
and guarded with unwearied love and
care their innocent childhood: the sisters
who played with, and petted them i'm
their youth; the wives whom they were
proud and happy to win as the eompan-
ions of their manhood; the daughters
who are the comfort and sunshine OF their
ripper years
They call us weak, frivolous, and
helpless beings, and then proceed to
illustrate their own valOr and magma
nimity 10y daring to-attack us savagely
i'm our unprotected situation. What
heroes these worthy indeed of all
womanly admiration and emulation :
In view of such men as these | should
grow discouraged for the future of the
race, if il Were not for the personal
knowledge of the many good men and
true, real Liberals, who are clear-sighted
enough to perceive that progress is not "a
purely masculine element, and that so
indissoluble by Natures laws is the
companionship of the sexes, that it is
utterly impossible TO elevate one with
out raising the other also, and vice versa.
The Woman's Rights question is at
present mainly confined 20 the question
of suffrage. Had | 10 personal interest
as woman Mt stake, | should be in
clined To laugh at the ridiculous and
contradictory arguments adduced by the
opponents of this movement. The cry
has been for years, and from just this
class of men, that women Were too friv-
ilous, too unthinking, too ignorant, too
much addicted to fashion and folly.
| This was iterated and reiterated, with
some show of truth, yet still these same
men who oftenest renewed the charge.
D found al stf Il. l.rf,.
of the very giddiest and most fashionable
of the butterflies whose existence they
deplored; while not "A helping male hand
was thrown out TO save these weak
minded, miserable beings from them
selves.
And lOi now that woman, tired OF
being the slave or plaything of heI
| Lord and Master,n has taken her fate
in earnest into her own hands, demand
ing first of all, i'm order to be enabled to
etfectually help herself, that she be
placed on a footing of legal equality
with her brother-the cry is changed
with the rapidity of unrefiective thought
"BehOld, this mOnstrosity she thinks
and acts upon her own responsibility
and is therefore unseXing herself she
demands equality with us, her consti.
tuted superiors ,-better, far better, tC
hurl her back into the pretty nOnentity
we despised, than to recognize thOsC
claims ~ Like "Frankenstine," they
shudder at the monster they have
created, and like him in vain, for femi
nine thought having been aroused int
phase Of action, can never again b'
lulled into lethargy by any mesmeri'
endearments, or driven back to nothing
ness at the word of command. The fac
. NNnnauFfG - SfFf fruf IL Uf N
persistent efforts of these opponents a
the most, can only temporarily clog th'
wheels Of progress.
Then, again, they say, while persist
emily denying us the right we ask
'These women ere not capable of voting
they would soon weary Of il even if W,
granted their petition" Why thel
deny US so savagely and so steadily, if 81
certain that we would so soon tire o
baubles which men would purchase a
any cost? The ballot i'm itself, il is true
is little thing, but it is the seal an,
symbol of all that man holds dear-tha
! is liberty.
Another argument (?l which the,
bring up against us, is that only the feV
desire il, that the mass of women ar
! opposed to the movement is toto. We'll
even admitting that to be (which tim
will prove not to be the easel, we answer
; that ii is not intended to compel ever
i woman to vote, any more than men ar
} now marched up to the polls if discline
! to vote, under guard. 1t would be a
great an infringement of the law of pei
sonal liberty to oblige any person TO vote
as it now is to deny the few who nov
demand the right to cast their ballo
when they please. We ask only tina
women no more than men shall b
; restricted of their right to vote, or to sta
1 away from the polls as best pleases then