Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-03-24

MIR. EDIroR:
Dear Sir:-Owing to the short
ness of the time had In which to pre-
pare my lecture for last evening, and the
consequent failure to remember the di.
visions of the subject in the order of their
| occurrence, I was so unfortunate as to
overlook and leave out some of the most
important parts-parts that are intended
to answer some of Mr.. Keeler's positions
of the evening before, on the subject OF
"Woman's Rights and Suffrage" And l
wish to give them insertion in your pa
per, so that the public need not infer that
did not aim to meet all his arguments.
The matter left out is as follows:
One of the greatest causes of the in
harmony in the marriage relation, is that
marriage has become with woman pro-
fession-a business by which to obtain a
livelihood, for did not Mr.. Keeler say
'that man is to support the family, and
woman be supported" We would ask
aohy marriage has become with woman n
profession by which to obtain liveli-
hood? Is it not because man, having the
exclusive use of the ballot, has closed
against her every other honorable means
by which to obtain livelihood? Must
she not have livelihood as well as man?
and must she not seek it in the only d.
rection where it can be obtaineds Man
virtually says to woman in her helpless
ness, here are three alternatives-mar
riage, prostitution, starvation; which will
you accept? In the majority of cases the
former is accepted as the most honorable,
often with an inward protest against this
mockery of love. In many instances the
husband is made to realize that he is a
victim to the conditions he has improved;
and he learns the painful fact that his
wife married not him, but his home, his
position, his connections. But the gen.
tleman counsels us to patiently bear the
consequences. Is this the manner IN
which the curse is to be removed and
better condition of society inaugurated?
If we expect that woman will cease to
make marriage mere business profess
ion, we must place her on an equality
with man; we must secure for her educa-
ton, and enhance her wages, so that she
will no longer have any motive to prosti-
tute marriage as a means to obtain a liv
ing. She must be placed it, position
where she can claim respect for her per-
son, for her womanhood, and then she
will exalt and bless marriage with her
love. 1t is not necessary to keep woman
in a state of helplessness to preserve the
"holy institution" Nature knows what
she is about. The divine attraction of
the sexes will bind them too closely to-
gether to admit of destructive diver
gence in case woman is Disseminated, and
allowed to meet man on equal terms.
He assumes further that the ballot will
not affect woman's wages; that wages
cannot be voted up or down. Yet politi
clans have heretofore made their strong
est appeals to the human necessity of sub
sistence, as well as the sordid love of gain,
so that political questions that have been
most potential in their sway over the
minds of the people. have been those in
volving financial interests. Cannot vote
wages up or down? Do not social and
political conditions regulate demand and
supply, Political action creates war and
concludes peace. Behold the modifica-
tions of demand and supply as involved
in our great political struggle and civil
war. Wages doubled, and openings made
for thousands of women to earn Il support.
all resting upon the ballot that elected
Abraham Lincoln! Consistency, thou
art jewel"
The speaker further said, "that women
would not vote for prohibition" Assump
ton again. And | wonder how the wo-
men who heard him could sit quietly and
not flash back from the eye at least, a
stern denial of ST. unworthy Il statement.
Here again women are judged by mascu-
line action, as seen in the past where the
inebriate voters have had the only power
to E,stcn. upon the world the demorali-
zing influence of every vile measure. Who
give their voice and vote to any vile
measure for little more drink-and in
that drink browns all the wife's influence,
even though she be of verify a minis
terng angel? Oh. woman, will you be
thus slandcred and choose a life of ire
sponsiblity and ease, in preference to
raising an earnest. serious, wOmanly
voice, not only in favor Of every good
measure, but for that most potent instru
ment of power in the hands Of the peo
ple-the ballot-for righting the wrongs
of intemperance, or in protecting those
who share with yourselves in a common
womanhood.
INDEPENDENCE, March 22d.