The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-04-05
woMAN's RIGHTS.
EDITOR NEW NORTHWEST:

acceptable.
In the incipiency of every reform, the
opponents are generally inclined to rid
icule it, and thus kill it in the minds Of
weak persons before it has established
its demands for candid investigation.
The woman movement has passed
through this ordeal and has come out
better and stronger. Woman's rights is
no longer called fanatacism of much
abused New England; but its presses are
scattered from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, demanding as a right that the
voice of oppressed woman should be
heard and her wrongs alleviated. 1t is
gaining a hold upon the public mind,
and what we heard laughed at i'm our
boyhood is now in our manhood spoken
OF in soberness and discussed in legisla-
tive assemblies. 1t is time that we
wake out Of the lethargy that we have
been in for ages past, and canvass and
discuss with reason this subject which
we once spoke of with ridicule. We
have been looking at an object through
a mist and its proportions and excres-
ences have been greatly enlarged to our
vision; let us throw the light of reason
and intelligence upon it, and we may
find that that which We so much de-
tested on account of its ill proportions
has become graceful and even beautiful
to our sight.
Let us throw up the debris that his
tory has covered the "angel of crea-
ton" with, and see whether under this
does not shine forth an intelligence and
virtue that sheds lustre over the age in
which she lived. True, we have fur
nished the majority of the poets, heroes
and statesmen of the past, but yet nobly
shines forth the names of Zenobia, the
Spartan mothers, Joan of Arc, and sew
eral others who have asserted rights
which belonged alone to men at that
time; and who have not only added
lustre to their nations annals, but who
helped to make the history of the world
But woman's field of labor has been in Sc
eret, and live could only look "behind the
scenes" we might see many a noble
hearted matron instilling the principles
into son while yet in infancy which in
after life has placed him high in the list
of fame. Heroes, statesmen and poets
receive their first impressions, which
finally grow to future greatness, in the
cradle or on the maternal knee. The
son is lauded to the skies for his talents
and virtues, but the mother is forgotten
in oblivion. The tale of the Spartans at
Thermopyle is read with enthusiasm by
everybody, but what chronicler ever
spoke of the noble mothers who made
those Grecian youths the "bravest of
the brave?" Not one. Even Rollin,
the candid and Christian historian,
mentions them with upbraiding. Yes,
it is no falsity to state that history (pro-
fane) has covered women with the debris
of oblivion, and that such characters as
have struck out into the ocean of pub
licity, like Zenobia, Boadieea and Joan
of Arc) have either been ridieuled or
considered fanatics.
The history of the world in ages past
furnishes proof that woman was not
only possessed of great mental powers,
but rid of its prejudices and sophistries,
shows that the nucleus of Republics,
moral reforms and social and intellectu-
al advancements were first formed in
prattling infancy and imbibed from
noble mothers. The world to-day, no
doubt, is indebted to Christian mother
for Luther's reformation, and to the
same for the social and moral revolu-
tions which have followed since. 1t is
not penned, but we know that ideas
gained from the cradle have ripened
into acts which have astonished Chris
/ tendon.
But 'let the dead past bury its dead, /"
and let us give our attention to the pres
ent age of progress, and see whether or
not in the advanced civilization of our
own loved country we are dragging with
us some of the "debris'' of history's past
such that the "coming" man or wom-
an will have to dig up and throw to the
winds. Have we no Spartan mothers,
whose fame spreads no farther than the
domestic hearth, and whose sphere of
labor is contracted to the wash-tub and
kitchen? We have noble-hearted wom-
en- in the United States, who, If only al
lowed the right, would turn the world
upside down, and set in successful oper-
alton reforms which we have vainly en-
deavored to do for years past. But,
thank God, Americans are arousing to a
full sense of the right of the woman
movement, and il is no longer disgrace
for woman to appear in public in the
capacity of the debater or reformer.
Churches are awakening to the true text
of their theology; and we hail with joy
the solicitations of some denominations
for women preachers, who have hitherto
enshrouded themselves with coats of
doctrine mildewed with bigotry and
superstition. The sun has appeared i'm
the east, and the beams of its transcen-
dant light have sped over the snowy
peaks of the Rocky mountains, descended
deep down into the valleys of the Sierras
and dispelled the mists on the minds of
the dwellers by Willamette's flowing
stream, until the New Northwest has
made rapid strides to overtake her older
sister-the East.
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