Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1871-03-21

There's message sweet and clear
Whispered down to every ear
Hear It,
Women's Rights Women.
AS the subject Of Woman's Rights is now
exciting some attention and interest, and is
destined to excite much more, the following ex-
tracts from an article published in the South
ern Magazine, from the facile pen of Rev. DIR.
Dabney, will be read with interest
I'm our day, innovations march with SO rap
id stride that they quite take away ones
breath The fantssical project of yesterday,
which was mentioned only to be ridiculed, is
to-day the audacious reform, and will be to-
morrow the accomp plished fact Such has been
the history of the agitation for women S
rights, as they are sophlstically called in this
country. A few years ago this was the espe-
cial hobby Of very few old women Of both
sexes, who made themselves the laughing
stock of all sane people by the annual ventila-
ton of their crotchet. Their only recruits
were few of the unfortunates whom nature
or fortune had debarred from those triumphs
and enjoyments which are the natural ambition
of the sex, and who adopted this agitation as
the most feasible mode of expressing their
spitefulness against the successful competitors.
To-day the movement has assumed such di-
mensions that it challenges the attention of ev-
cry thoughtful mind.
If we understand the claims Of the Women s
Rights women, they are IN substance two: that
the legislation, at least, of society shall disre-
gard all the natural distinctions Of the sexes,
and award the same specific rights and iran
chises to both in every respect and that wo-
man, while in the married state, shall be re-
leased from every species ct conjugal subordi-
nation
One result of the reflection which we have
been able to give this movement, is the convlc-
ton that it will prevail in the so called Uni
ted States.
After giving nu umbef Of strong, solid, sub
stantial reasons for this belief, the author pro-
ceeds, with mastery hand, to depict the ten
denotes and results Of this modern and mis-
chievous fanaticism.
What then, in the Dezt place, he says, will
be the effect of this fundamental change when
it shall be established? The obvious answer
is, that
1T WILL DESTROY CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZA-
TION IN AMERICA.
Some who see the uliscbievousness of the
movement express the hope that it will even,
if nominally successful, be kept within narrow
limits by the very force OF its own absurdity.
They reckon with out their host" There is
Satanic ingenuity in these Radical measures
which secures the infection of the reluctant
dissentients as surely as of the hot advocates.
The women now sensible and modest who
heartily deprecate the whole folly, will be
dragged into the vortex, with the assent of
their now indignant husbands. The instru-
ments of this deplolable result will be the (so-
called) conservative candidates for Office They
will effect it by this plea that ignorant, impu-
dent, Radical women aoW vote, and vote
wrong; whence it becomes necessity for the
modest and virtuous women, for their coun-
try's sake, to sacrifice their repugnance and
counterpoise these mischievous votes in the
spirit of disinterested self-sacrifce. Now a
woman can never resist appeal to the prin-
ciple of generous devotion; her glory is to cru
city herself in the cause Of duty and of ZEAL
This plea will be successful. But when the
virtuous have once tasted the dangerous intox-
ication of political excitement and OF power,
even they will be absorbed they will learn to
do con anore what was first done as painful
duty, and all the baleful influences of political
life will be difused throughout the sex.
What those influences will be may be learned
by every one who reverences the Christian
Scriptures, from this fact, that the theory of
"Womens Rights" is sheer infdelity. 1t di-
rectly impugns the authority and the justice OF
these Scriptures. They speak in no uncertain
tones 1.-The husband is the head of the wife
(Eph. 5 23). wives, submit yourselves to
your own husbands, as to the Lord" (5 22).-
1.-The man is not for the woman, but the wo-
man for the man" Cor. Il: 81 ''Let the
woman learn in silence, with all subsection
but [ suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp
authority over man, but to be In silence: Tor
Adam was the first formed, then Eve; and
Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being
Jooo.1o1 in tha mn II ftIn,
2:2-l4). They arc to be discreet, chaste,
keepers at home, good, obedient to their own
husbands etc. (ritus 2: s. How utterly
opposed is all this to the levelling doctrine Of
your Radical. Women are here consigned to
social subordination. and expressly excluded
| from ruling offices, on grounds of their sex,
and divine ordination based by God upon a
transaction which happened nearly sig thou
sand years ago! The woman's sphere is ex-
pressly assigned her within her home, and she
| is taught that the assumption of publicity is
an outrage against that nature with which she
| is endowed Now the politics which denounce
| all this as natural Injustice and elf-evident
| folly cannot be expected to reverence these
Scriptures: they must aud will hout their whole
authority. We must then make up our minds
in accepting Women's Flights to surrender our
| Bibles, and have sn atheistic Government =
| And especially must we expect to have presi
| ding over every home a0d rearing every grouI
| of future citizens, that most abhorrent of al
phenomena an infael woman: for of course
that sex, having received the precious boon O.
their enfranchisement only by means of the
overthrow of the Bible, must be foremost il
trampling upon this their old oppressor and en-
emy Its restoration to authority is necessa
rily- their REINSTATEMENT" to speak the Ian
guage of the party.
Second: these new exeitements and tempta
tions will utterly
| CORRUPT THE CHARACTER AND DELIcACY OF
AMERICAN WOMEN.
1t is Indignantly asked, why should poll
tics corrupt the morals of women more than q
the lords of creation {? - Suppose now we re
ply American politics have corrupted th
morals Of the men? Suppose we argue tha