The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-03-29
From the 5. F. Pioneer.I
Rejected Answer to Motherhood" in the
Overland Monthly" of January.
BY -. =. D. cHANnLEP

hood" taken from the Orcridnd MOHtIiIY.
1t contains, together with some correct
statements worthy of consideration,
much which is untrue-which misrep-
sents the social state, married life and
womankind. The writer must have
failed eminently in attaining such
knowledge of facts as warrant a judg-
ment, and made up the case from the
surface hints, most prominently in the
form of shameful advertisements of nos
trums, records of Police Courts, Alice
Bowlsby disclosures, childless house
holds, etc, etc.
The frivolous life of fashion-serving
women we deplore beyond the power of
language to express; but when we hear
men eXclaiming that 'wOmen should be
only a being of grace and ornament,
shedding light in the household of hus-
band, father and brother" Gf she pos
sesses either of these three dependence
iUe see, if masculine intellect cannot, a
close relationship of cause and effect to
the customs which have resulted in such
a style of womanhood as finds delight
and satisfaction in a devotion to dress
and Recommendations souls are empty
of aspirations and aims, and therefore
find necessity for dissipation.
The sin of women, in consenting to or
projecting the criminality now flooding
our land, we neither justify nor extern
uate. But we defy any tribunal, apprO-
priately informed of facts, we find wom-
an the guiltier party. We will take up,
seriatim, the pOstulates of the writer:
"Children are entirely out of the fash
ion" "Woman, who ought to have
more to say upon the subject than any
body else, pronounces against themn
'An eminent physician, who has prac-
ticed successfully for thirty-siX years de-
sired me to state that during those years
she had, among very large number
and all classes of women, never found
one who, being happily married, did not
desire TO have children"
Our knowledge and observation, which
extends over more than a quarter of a
century of mature experience, is that
women, as class, by no means pro-
nounce children "nuisanees." And If
she had been allowed "to have more to
say on the subject than anybody else''-
condition which we claim is her in
alienable right, and which the simplest
perception of justice would accord-we
should possess means of Judging more
intelligently what are woman's inclina-
| tiOns in the normal state.
Hundreds of thousands of women have
endured martyrdOm of spirit, physical
/ torture, ineXpreSsible WEAKNESS, and
| have been borne down with an eX-
/ hausted, buldensome existence through
excessive marital demands and frequent
exercise of maternity. This grand,
| beautiful and sacred office-creative and
nearer to the Divine than any other hu-
man function-has to multitudes been
only a dread, and this necessarily by
reason of the ignorance, sensuality and
even brutality of man. Children have
/ inherited the effects of this transgres-
sion upon womanhOod and motherhood
/ Man has assumed that the demands of
| his selfish appetites were the normal in
dication of what woman should be to
| him, and has been more than beastly in
his defiance of all physiological and
moral law to unborn offspring.
'Is there not an active, irrepFessible
crusade against these mewling infants
going on ?'i etc. Ii we could array the
records which the future will disclose,
accusing both men and women, they
would by no means show that woman
has waged this war most vigorously.
| Numerous instances could be brought
TO witness, to my positive knowledge,
where the wife has, after enduring the
"ruling over herr which violated first
her personal sanctity, been forced, at the
| risk of her peace and happines, to "as-
sail the stronghold of life;" and this not
only, but under threat of being accused of
matrimonial infelicity if she refused to
/ do this, even at the risk of her own life.
"Do not many women-good women,
as the world gOes-congratulate them
selves upon being free from the annoy
ance and care of children ?" "Do they
I l. l. \ I
to ward off what they deem so great
ealamity?" The injustice and untruth
of these questions is in the implied affir-
nation that the whole burden of this
crime is due to the folly, selfshness and
wickedness of woman alone. We could
cite columns of facts and testimonies,
showing that to many young wife the
| purpose of ''laying the axe at the root of
| the tree" is first suggested and urged by
the husband. 1--WE are using tongne
and pen, according to our poor ability,
| in advocating the claims of the child,
and the need of an elevated motherhood
as the grand hope of future well-being
/ in society. But the fountain whence all
corruption springs must first be cleansed.
and the demon of lust and selfishness
banished from marital life. When the
mother has the sanction of public opin-
/ ion, the knowledge of all the laws of be-
| ing, the courage and power to protect
herself from an undesired maternity,
and her child from the transmission of
| lust, we may look for an order of men
and women who will not look to mar
riage as an occasion for indulgences and
excesses destructive to physical health
and moral sensibility, and who may en-
ter upon the serious responsibilities of
I no a I'll a 4.
tiOn befitting the invocation of a soul
into an endless existence.
The statement that "Frivolous. Dleas-
ure-loving womanhood has brought us
into this dilemma" is a magnificent
falsehoOd. There is quite as large an
element of pleasure-lOving manhood re-
sponsible therefor. Man asserts his
right to enjoyment, and pushes woman
into the commission of crime. The
''selfishness at the root of the evil' is
quite as much mans disposition to make
his wife the instrument of his gratifica-
ton as is the "selfish desire for comfort
and ease" on the part of woman. When
children are not regarded by man as
perpetual crosses" when man prefers
a noble, unselfish life to personal ease
and qualification; when parental love
cOnquers self lOve-we shall see very
great release of woman from the neces-
sity of committing crime to escape tor
ture.
The widow of a physician recently
testified that her rhusband tormented her
constantly after the first child with So
| licitations that she destroyed the eX-
pected "angel;" heaped upon her un-
kindness, and treated the children al
ways with neglect and harshness. We
need not only a powerful revival OF
] mnLLerhnnl. hut q birth and deYelOp-