Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-06-11
The CO-EducatiOn of the Sexes.

President Eliot of Harvard College argued
against the admission of women to college,
and Mr.. Hgginson, Wendell Phillips, Mrs.
Howe, Mrs. Livermore, and others, stoutly
insisted that women had the right to the
benefits of college course, and were fully
equal to the several requirements Of study,
has given rise to considerable newspaper dis
susson. In view of this discussion the fol-
lowing extract from a speech by President
Angel, of Michigan University, formerly
of Burlington College, at the laying of the
corner stone of Sage College, Cornell Uni
versity, is pertinent and timely.l
President Angel said: So far as | have
observed, the objections in the main to this
course sum themselves up or group them
selves under two or three heads. The first
one, which used to be cited much more fire.
quently than now, and which has been an
swered SO completely | need but advert to it,
1t is this, that women are not capable OF
attaining to this culture. Well, my friends,
that has all been taken care of. One would
think from hearing these persons talk, that
the young gentlemen who carry off the de-
grees of A. B. and B. P. had some marvel
Gus attachments in literature and science.
Well, We won't deny that among ourselves
undergraduates, but the world at large, who
have teen through college, are mostly con-
WINGED that there is not so extraordinary an
accumulation of knowledge but that many
bright girl can get it, and they do get it.
| give the result of the work at our unIver-
sity without any Encouragement to the young
men and | say in all frankness, that in ali
departments OF study the young ladies have
fully held their own, to say the least, and no
less in the higher mathematics than in the
departments OF literature. They have shown
the same variety OF aptltude,-the same va
rety of skill, that the young men have
Some Lave been brilliant, some less SO, some
| broken at examination. That for your en-
enlargement. young gentlemen, because we
are impartial. Another objection, or an
other class OF objections, sum themselves up
under this head, and to my mind it was a
much more formidable one, namely, that
they had not the physical endurance to 90
through the course, and | do not doubt but
women, mothers who hear me here, to-day.
think the same, that it would be too heavy
a draft upon the nervous strength, and that
they would break down and come home in
valded. Now, the only way this can BE- an
swered is of course by experiment Any
lady who can endure the draft that modern
dress and modern society make upon her
can certainly endure any college course SO
| far as physical endurance is concerned.
am simply here to bear testimony in the
plainest way to what our experience has
shown. | have made it an object of particu-
lar examination and scrutiny, and am thor
oughly convinced that there is no danger
which need be considered worthy of mention
in any young woman, in tolerably good
health, pursuing the regular course prescrib-
ed Dor has it actually been the case that
they have been impaired in health by the
| course.
The third class of objections, and the las,
| shall name, sum themselves up under this
head: That there will be some kind of mora
embarrassment that will be unpleasant, OF
that there Will be some sacrifice of that De-
culiar charm, that delicacy which we de-
scribe 10y the term womanliness. None
certainly, can hold more to his opinion thar
! |, that ii there was to be the slightest sacri-
fee Of that charm, that delicacy which is tt
woman what the color is to the flower, thai
nameless something that poets strive to de-
scribe but cannot, that something which
attracts US to woman, If this were to be lost
1t were indeed, in my judgment, too great
cost to pay. 1t we We're to make masculine
women, or 5ue-stockings, then for one lei
me have the privilege of resigning my posi-
ton. But wish to testify, so far as my ex
perience has gone-I give it only as thret
years experience-l must say | see no pos
slble tendency in this direction. We al
know that American men, according to tn,
testimony of Europeans, are proverbially
courteous to ladies, and from students OF col
leges you may rely upon courteous treatmen
toward ladies. So far as | know, though W,
have no regulations or rules in regard to tn,
matter at all, but have left the whole thns
TO the innate good sense and courtesy of tn,
students, | have yet to learn of the irst thing
in which | see the least apprehension upol
this point. | speak with great plainnes
and emphasis, because l know this is poin
upon which there has been great concern
and upon which there was in my mind a
one time. So mucn for these three points
believe you Will never have occasion to re
cur to them. Indeed, | need not stop to ar
que it here. The argument has been mad
and the verdict rendered. 1t is looming al
in stone before me, to stand for ages