The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-11-14
LETTER FROM SALEM.


ally agitate the theme in their papers and
you have a right to defend yourself, and
il is also your duty, for the sake of our
cause, to allow your friends to defend
you. For my part, thought, and still
think, that all you have written or
spoken concerning Mitchelps case was
but the the embodiment of plain, prac-
teal common sense and Justice. The
grave offences of which he is accused
were all committed prior to his election.
Men imagine that women do not under
stand their "stop-thief cry" but they
are badly mistaken. Granting all their
accusations to be true, do they suppose
that they can make US believe that he
is any worse than the majority of our
officials? We must destroy the condi-
tions which foster social corruption and
then the disease will die out of itself.
The secret of mems hostility to you lies
in the fact that you strike vigorously at
the root Of iniquity in high places,
while they strike feebly at IFS top-most
branches.
Many men are asserting that YOU
stumped the State in favor of polygany.
l am not a rOier, but know enough TO
be certain that if should make the
same assertion, l should lie, and of all
things that are low and vile liar is the
worst.
Please ask the editor Of the Bulletin
to ask "young" Miss Edgerton if the
women are more ignorant now than the
men were before the Inauguration OF
the present suffrage law? When Miss
Edgerton virtually asserts that the
women's votes will only offset the votes
Of the former slaves of the South,
she pays doubtful compliment to her
own, intelligeucc,which women can ap-
preciate if men cannot. Forgive her,
We gods, for She has no correct knowI-
edge of the meaning Of her own
assertions.
The inference drawn from the lady's
reasoning is just this: Taxation with.
out representation is a benefit to the
Republic, and taxation with represen-
tation calamity to be feared and fought
against" Everybody who opposes
woman suffrage virtually cries out
against the immortal declaration that
taxation without representation is
tyranny"
Miss rs old, old story that woman's
voice In Government will demoralize
her is so stale as to make one wish that
she could add to her insipid compound
q little Of the acid of common sense, to
make it efIervesce and sparkle Were
there any argument in her old saw, il
would have had its effect upon us long
ago, and this "young lady" pet of the
Bulletin might have spared us the dis
play OF her sweet, young modesty be-
fore the reading and lecture-going pub
lie.
Now, will our would-be Lords please
tell us why we mothers, who have hal
q score Of children, are to be considered
less capableo of Judging what is good fol
us and our families than this "fine-
looking maiden, who appears al
though she might have written her OWL
Lecturer"
Men and women have so long mingled
together i'm public schools, shops, facto-
ries, hotels, cars, steamers, churches
festivals, families, etc, etc, always will
good results to both sexes, that it is idle
to preach longer upon the terrible con
sequences accruing to either sex from
their association in politics. Indeed
this co-association is the last and only
hope for our Government.
If man is such deplorably demoral
lied creature that his political associa'
ton with woman would contaminatC
her forever, why is it that we can trusl
him as our companion at church, al
fairs, festivals, or in our own homes, ol
at table? All men and women kno"
that the lowest man, when sober, vii
deport himself decently among LADIES
and why? Because this association Il
good for him. Il is the very elixir tha
he needs to counterbalance the effects
of masculine indulgences. a man wh'
las one spark Of manhood in him vii
respect himself in the presence OF re
spectacle womanhood. Yet men, wheI
intoxicated, will often insult or injur
their wives, mothers, or children whel
at home. For this reason, must W
abolish all homes, or exclude all womel
from them? o, sham! where is tn.
shame?
Miss Edgerton's argument implie
that men must hold woman in subjec
tion to prevent her becoming as corrup
as himself. Man often says the same, ye
we must give him credit for not believ
ing what he argues. Had Miss +. ful
filed her destiny, and become the moth
er of half a score Of sons and daughters
she would have formed n better opinion
of manhood and womanhood. She wOul'
have learned that family consisting o
both sons and daughters is always su
perior TO one composed of either Sc,
alone; and then, maybe, she woul
have pursued the idea to its elimination
i'm National Government.
Every mother, who looks with com
mon sense view upon the present con
dition Of public affairs, can see the grea
necessity Of woman's influence in thei
administration.