The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-09-26
OUR ALBANY LETTER.

VIC SaiA attcu-lOi 10 OUT Albany letter
in another column. While we admire
the salient points Of it relative to the
stand we are taking in the Congress
ional fight, we are not little amused
at the unconscious impudence pardon
u.s. Of its criticisms. What, pray, has
the Republican party done for us, that
we should fall down and worship it &?
1t acted in bad faith with the
women Of America? Why should we
do Republicans a service except "when
its suits our interest to do so ~ Are we
not politically manacled? And hasn't
your party the power to unelasp our
chains, and doesn't it resolutely refuse
to do it? Women feel that they are
sagacious enough to attend to their own
best interests, and they know that Re
publicans as body are not thus wise or
they would see at once that to enfran-
chise their wives and mothers and sis
ters would insure them, for many long
years to come, against the possibility OF
political defeat. But men hold on to
power so remorsely that nothing but
t0hipping will loosen their grasp. Their
mothers and sisters very much dislike
to whip them, but if reason will not do,
nor entreaty; if justice avails them
naught; If equity is farce, and con-
sistency a humbug with men, don't, We
pray you, o recently converted brother,
blame US too severely for meeting you
upon your own plane and whipping you
with your own weapons. We are work
ing for Hiram Smiths election for the
three-fold reason that he is a temperate
man, a moral man and Woman Suf-
fragist. II he is not elected, il will be
because, and because only, that the Re
publican party, which we are coolly
called upon to sustain, even If it be
against our Gown interests" will not
furnish US, as a disfranchised ally, with
the necessary means with which to
thoroughly educate the people. If the
other Smith were as good a man as
if he were a temperance man, a
moral man and a Woman Suffragist; if
he did not sail under an alias; if he were
not an habitual office-seeker and well
known observation-disclosures us; we
looked in the Dictionary for n more pol
lshed word to convey the same idea, but
find it)-if he were a gentleman
by habit, thought or instinct, we should
Just as soon see him elected as his COM
petitor. But everybody knows that he
is none Of these. The boasted purity of
any one-sexed political party exists only
in the eye of the politician. It is not
possible that such a party can be pure,
or contain within itself the elements Of
publication or perpetuity. 1t is an alb
normal growth Of false assumptions;
rehash of impracticable ideas; libel
upon the great mechanism of nature,
and direct insult to the great Author
of humanity who "saw that it was not
good for man TO be alone"
Pray, friend, never ask us to be a Re
publican or other partisan, till, like your
self, we stand before the law, as we ought
now to stand, free aud Independent We
know that in the election of Hiram
Smith we shall gain one decisive step
in the securing of this great desideratim.
This only is the reason why the burial
of the other candidate becomes a funeral
in which we are interested. Let no man
misunderstood US.
We are glad our friend has become
converted. We should have more faith
in him, however, il he would allow us
to print his full name as signature, in
stead of some random letters in it. Per-
haps he will grow more brave and self
reliant after reading this copy of the
NEW NORTHWEST.