The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-12-20
How to Learn to Swim.

pendent have been so prompt to recognize
the hopeful and practical turn which
affairs are taking in regard TO Woman
Suffrage, that their criticism and ad-
vice deserve the respectful considera-
tion" of Suffragists, however widely we
may sometimes differ from their con-
illusions. The following editorial, on
the recent address Of the Republican
women of Massachusetts to the women
Of America, appeared last week, entitled
sHow to secure Female Suffrage:"
1--WE have passed through the Wood
hull era Of attempted enfranchisement
Of women by trick with the Fourteenth
and Fifteenth Constitutional Amend
ments. The next era is likely TO be one
OF trust in lobbies and conventions. We
would tell our friends, whose cause we
have so much at heart, that there is
just one radical difficulty which they
must meet and surmount, and no tricks
or evasions will accomplish their ends.
1t is fact that the women Of this coun-
try do not want to vote. Most Of them
have no desire to NEEDLE with politics.
They are satisfied 10 be represented by
their fathers, husbands, and brothers.
So long rs they do not wish the added
responsibility of politics it is wrong to
thrust it upon them. The education OF
and powers Is the first, We might almost
say the only, duty Of the friends Of i'm
partial suffrage. Only by this road can
they reach success
To expect women to show general
interest in politics until they are allowed
/ to participate, is unreasonable. To for
/ bid women to vote until they signify
I their wish to vote is to act like the anx-
! ious mother, who refused to let her son
| go into the water until he had learned
to swim. Political taste and ability
grow with the exercise of the franchise.
No disfranehised class ever made q
united demand for suffrage. Very few
poor men, in Jef1ersoh's day, ever asked
for 1t. But property qualifications were
repealed by a party lChich needed rioters,
and Immediately poor men voted. Very
few black men ever asked for suffrage.
But the restriction was removed by a
party which needed voters, and they
vote. \ great many women do ask for
suffrage; a hundred times as many as
in either Of the preceding cases. When
the barrier is removed, women will all
vote fast enough.
We respectfully differ from the Inde-
pendent in every single proposition con-
tinued in the latter part OF the above
article. Suffragists have not offered
themselves for sale to the highest bid
der. Our main battle must be fought
and is already being fought IN and
through politics. The attempt to en-
franchise woman by a broad construc-
ton OF the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments, however unwise and pre-
mature, is not trick. Citizen suffrage
may not be good law, while the Judi
ciary are anti-suffrage, any more than
anti-slayery was good law in Great
Britain before Lord Mansfield made it
so by his decision in the Somerset case.
But il ought TO be good law and will
eventually be so decided.
1t is not true that the women of this
country do not want to vote; and, II il
were true, it would not be wrong to
thrust the added responsibility upon
them. 1t is not the first duty Of the
friends OF Impartial Suffrage to educate
women TO a consciousness OF theirrights
and powers, from which they are now
debarred by statue.
The difference between the editors of
the Independent and the Wonldn's Jour
udt Is just this. They regard suffrage as
prtUiLege to be given or withheld from
considerations OF expediency. We re-
gard suffrage as the riQkt of every indi-
yidual. Men have no right to exclude
women. Women have no right to ex-
clude men. IL only one women wants
to vote, she ought to vote. It is worse
than idle it is sheer impertinence to ask
now many women want to vote or how
many men want to vote? Nobody is
compelled to vote. We dc not advocate
compulsory suffrage either for man or
woman.
II the Independent had failed to urge
negro suffrage till the emancipated
slaves had asked for it, there would be
to-day no negro voters in any Southern
state, and no Republican party i'm
power: 1t negro suffrage had been sub
mltted TO the0white men of any State
whlch excluded blacks, it would have
oeen Overwhelmingly voted down, alike
IN conservative Kentucky aud i'm radi-
cal Kansas. The political exigencv of
the Democratic party forced the repeal
OF property qualifications for voting in
lSg7. The military exigency OF the Re
publican party forced emancipation
upon reluctant nation in 1854 The
political exigency Of the Republican
party forced negro suffrage upon a re-
luctant nation in 1865. The political
exigency Of the Republican (or some
other party will force Woman Suffrage
upon the American people in 1876
Mans extremity is often Gods opportun-
ity. Let us thank Heaven for each and
all Of these righteous reforms. And let
every Republican demand impartial
Suffrage for all citizens, irrespective of
race, color, or sex, for sin this sign, we
conquer. Henry BLdckloeH in WOns-
ans T1lfTyl0I