Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-05-08
MarL Twain on the Woman. Crusade.

Would you consider the conduct of these
crusaders jusiitable? / do-thoroughly
jIstltiable. They ind themselves voiceless
III the making of laws anL the election Of
officers TO execute them, born with brains,
born in the country, educated, having lar @
Interests at stake, they find their tongues
tied, and their hands iettered, while every
ignorant, whiskey-drinking, foreign born
savage in the land may hold Office, help TO
make the law, degrade the dignity of the
former aud break the latter at his own
sweet VIII. They see their fathers, husbands
and brothers sit namely AT ht me and allow
the scum of the country 10 assemble at the
"primaries,' name the candidates for o.
flee from their own vile ranks, and, unre-
buked, elect them. They live in the midst
OF country where there is no end to the
laws and no beginning to the execution of
them. And wher the laws intended to
protect their sons from destruction by
intemperance lie torpid and without sign
OF life, year after year, they recognize that
here is matter that interests them person
ally, matter which comes straight home
to them. And, since they are allowed TO
lilt no legal voice against tue outrageous
state of things they suffer under in this re-
gard, think II is no wonder that their pa
tience has broken down, at last, and they
have tried TO persuade themselves that they
are iustiiiable in breaking the law Of Tres
pass when the laws that should make the
| trespass needless are allowed by the voters
to lie dead aud imperative.
The present crusade, will, doubtless, do
| but little work against intemperance that
| will be really permanent, but 1t will do
what is as much, or even more, 10 the pur-
| pose, think. 1t will suggest TO more Than
| one man that II women could vote they
would vote on the side of morality, even If
| they did vote and speak rather frantically
and furiously, and II will also suggest that
when the women once made up their minds
that II was not good to have the all-pOwer-
ful primaries" in the hands of Ioaers,
thieves, and pernicious little politicians,
they would not sit indOlently at home as
their husbands and brothers do now, but
! would hoist their praying banners take the
| field in force, pray the assembled political
scum back TO the holes and slums where
| they belong, and set up some candidates fit
for decent human beings TO vote for.
| dearly want the women to be raised TO the
| political altitude OF the negro, the imported
| savage and the pardoned thief, and allowed
| to vote, Ii is our last chance, | think.
| Tho women will be voting before long, and
then If a B. +. Butler can still continue to
| lord it in Congress; If the highest Offices in
the land can still continue to be occupied
| by perjurers and robbers; If another Con-
gress, like the 42d, consisting of 10 honest
men and 200 of the other Kind can once
more he created, it will at last be time, l
fear, TO give over trying to save the coun-
Wy ny human ileausi anu appear 10 TIoNl-
| dence. Both the great parties have Jailed.
1 wish we might have wonlan's party
now, and see how that would WORK. feel
| persuaded that, in extending the suffrage
TO women, this country could lose absolute
| ly nothing and might gain a great deal.
For thirty centuries history has been ltera-
ting and relteratlng that in a moral fight
woman Is simply dauntless, and We all
know, even with our eyes shut upon Con-
gress and our voters, that, from the day
that Adam ale of the apple, and told on
Eve down TO the present day, man, in o
moral fight has pretty uniformly shown
himself to be an arrant coward.