Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-05-21

'oi youDS men. ibis FOUNDER believed that
women were neglected in their higher in
terests by our educational system, and were
the' eby impelled to an inequality which Was
not intended by the Almighty to exist
The college had labored to improve t. C
education OF American women, still it was
not without grave defects as yet. The sub
Ject was large and important one, and was
not matter of more adventure for women,
but OF higher education for them. There
w's enough, and more than enough, of edu-
cation of certain kinds; what was needed was
higher education than had ever been known
tor women. Millions OF money had been ex-
pended In institutions for the sole education
oil men, closed hitherto to women. The speak
er hoped that the doors of Harvard would
soon be thrown wide open to the daughters
OF the people as we'll as the sons. The ques-
ton as to whether exactly the same educa-
ton was suited to both men and women was
as yet an unsettled one. Women should,
however, demand right to as high an ed
ucatlon as men, and take nothing less under
any consideration.
gentleman Professors at Vassar College how
they were TO keep even with the gi,ls. In
regard to their health the speaker SAID: "
challenge the United States to produce 400
girls as healthy as. those OF our college Ii
you don't believe it come and see.' Study,
rightly prosecuted, was a healthy occupation,
and the speaker called attention to Professor
Agassiz rosy face in proof Of the fact The
Ill health OF college students was owing to
vicious habits and bad living, not to hard
study All that Mr.. Raymond asked was
that people should use the same common
sense In relation to education of one sex as
the other.
OPPOSITION FROM HARVARD.
President Elliot of Harvard was the next
speaker, and WAS received with app ause.
he thought the education OF the sexes was
new experiment IN America, and when it
was asked of the old New England colleges
TO take part IN an experiment, good and SUI
6clnt reasons should be given. President
Elliot, alter visiting some Western colleges
which admit girls, had arrived at conclu-
sion Numerically opposite t. that of Colonel
uigglns0n.
He believed the tide was ebbng in this
matter. Oberlin College had been the most
successful of any where both sexes were ad-
United, yet their experience WAS adverse to
the plan. THIS college began with the same
course for men and gris, but now they were
obliged to have separate courses. Girls even
took separate degrees FROM the men. and fol-
lowed literary courses Instead of classical
The testimony of figures correspondent with
hat OF the teachers. The matron of the
institution told the speaker she would not
wish her daughter TO take an Oberlin College
course. 10 most Of the We tern colleges the
lady pupils were residents of the towns
where they were taught. and used the col
lege as sort of day school, living at home
with their parents. Mr. Elliot bell, we'd that
the minds of women were as different from
those of men were their bodies.
Tue fact that the physique of American
women was to he last degree unsatisfactory,
was too we'll known to need argument.
However this came about, it was true that
women cbuld not bear the mental stress
which came from too hardy study. Not only
male but female physicians were agreed upon
this point. The speaker would not Be will
ling to take such responsibility in reference
To Harvard as to admit women, with his
present convictions. The simle of the rising
tide was used by advocates OF the plan, and
If this was true. nature would settle the
question for Harvard. as the tide-it rising
would rise over their heads
1t is common for girls, where the elective
system is practiced, to take lower stand
than men. In one school in Boston where
the study of Latin was elective, only six out
Of several hundred took the study.
The amount of money needed to fund
college was little understood. Harvard was
always pincbed tor funds, and could prohta-
bly, use double the money 1t has.
II was remarked that parents shrank from
sending their girls away from home, and this
was from feeling that it was liable to un-
dermine their refinement OF manners. Boys
herGed together IN schools were benefited by
contact with each other, but this was not
true of girls. The speaker hoped that acade-
mics for girls would be built up, where they
could receive thorough educat ton by them
selves.
WENDELL PHILLIPS OPINION.
Wendell Phillips followed President Elliot
He was surprised to hear such ideas from a
representative of Harvard College. That
college was the property of the Common
wealth, and should be open to all 10 the
country who wished for education. The
founders of Harvard were in the van one
hundred years ago, and would have been In
the van to-day and aided these reforms which
are agitated Woman made her claim on
such public institut Ons, and asked admIs-
sion at her own risk, as she would claim a
right upon the public highway. President
Elliot might, if he chose, argue to women
that they had better net come that 1t would
lnjure their health to come, but that he
should not bar them out. 1T only five wO-
men in the next twenty years asked admission
to Harvard, they should not be barred from
its advantages.
If President Elliot tells a young woman :,
ardent for education, @ Your sex bars you" 5"
she might justly answer, Hang my sex, |
don't care for that No one could s,y
that any college which admitted both sexes
had developed immortality. The family type
was founded by God himself, and should be
carried out in the schools. When Chaucer
wrote, though living in as pure day as ours,
he wrote for men, and his lines cannot be
placed on your centre tables. Dickens and
rennyson wrote for the race, and they can
be read by everybody. Women should be
man IS comp mpanion, not his toy or plaything
Vaeslr College had been gwen within tue
memory of man, and its officers had right
to bar whom they chose, but Harvard was
the old property of the State, and had DO
such right. 1t Mr.. Phillips had daughter
VITO wanted to enter Harvard and she was re-
fused, he would carry it to the Supreme
Court OF the State, il be supposed there Was
an honest one in the State.
These opponents tell girls they are not
smart enous "a to come to college. How macy
bows would fail OF admission were brains to
be made the standard They could say to
hundreds of the young men, You cant
come, you haven't brains enough" When
Harvard becomes a private institution, and
not till then, she may put up the sign I"
private way-dangerous passing ~
! WOMAN SUFFRAGISTs ON TIE PLATFORM.
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe took the platform
after Mr.. Phillips, and referred t, the re-
marks OF the noble champion as expressing
her own feeling As to Harvard, she woult
rel uso to 60 to an insti ution having such 6
narrow code of education as that which LED
.Lo.,, ~, oxnlnda one half OF humanitv from