The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-05-22


polished and fashionable lady friends,
all of which we are certain to hear.
These ladies claim to be sensitive and
refined, but they seem to think that a
woman who is seeking the elevation of
her sex to places of honor and equality
before the law, loses all her womanli-
ness, and has no right to be charitably
Judged.
Why may we not differ from them in
our opinions on this subject, as well as
on Others, and still deserve kind and
womanly treatment and criticism? Yet
ladies whom we have never known to
act unkindly or urgently in other cases,
give vent to the most bitter remarks
about the women who will "lecture,"
and "appear before the public" as
though they never appeared in public
in more trying situations, on a street
corner of a windy day, or running the
gauntlet Of long church aisle with
new bonnet on All, we fear there is
danger of their losing that Heavenly
charity, without which they are but as
sounding brass and tinkling cymbals."
One of the changes which we believe
would be consequent of the participa-
tion of women in political conventions,
debates and deliberative bodies, is that
the discipline of parliamentary rules
would tend to make women more for
bearing and eonsiderate of the right of
others to differ from them, and gradually
enable them to listen calmly and cour-
teously to the expression of opinions
contrary to their own, thing which is
now very hard for many women to do.
That men are usually superior in this
respect, arises, / think, from the con-
slant restraint they are called upon to
exercise, in regularly organized socie-
ties, in which women are but beginning
to have experience.
Men have expressed fear that if women
were permitted to participate in busi-
ness and political meetings, they would
prove so unruly that business would be
interfered with. But think that lit
tie practice and discipline, and perhaps
more than this, an assurance that their
opportunities were secured to them,
that they were sure to have justice; in
short, that they were on perfectly
equal footing with men, would tend to
do away with kind of desperate feel
ing, which they sometimes indulge,
that since their opportunities are thus
restricted, they Will make the most Of
them.
If we consider that woman's admis-
sion to the ballot, and consequently to
the public councils of the country, would
be for the public good, we may be pretty
sure that the good sense that has made
woman behave herself in the trying
relations of the past, will not desert her
when placed at her husbands side in
councils of the Nation.
Her acknowledged power when called
into action, is rarely ever arrayed on
any side but that of truth and right,
and would then be brought to bear di-
rectly upon the great questions of the
day; and we cannot see how it could
fail to exert a mighty, restraining and
purifying influence.
She is always invited to participate in
religious, and benevolent, and temper
ance societies, and all know that her
sympathies are ever in accord with the
objects of these orders.
The highest earthly duty of the citizen
is that which he owes to the State, and
it should be the pride of every man that
he has a right to voice in directing its
affairs. And that this right is not
lightly priced, the circumstances at
tending the oft-recurring elections
abundantly testify.
Is it strange that we should be ami
mated with desire to take part in this
noble work of framing just and benefi-
cent laws, and restraining evil in our
midst? We often see what we con-
slider wrong principles prevail, and we
always think on such occasions that
had woman an equal share in the bal
lot, right would win and wrong would
be confounded. She is bound by every
sacred tie to support only that which
she believes will be for the best good Of
those she loves; and it would be vio-
lation of her every natural instinct
should she join in supporting any cause
that could possibly tend to impair the
sacred bond. Laying no claim for my
self to the epithet "strong-minded," /
yet with diffidence hold that while man
is endowed by nature with greater phys
ical strength, his mental capacity is not
so far superior to woman's as to entitle
him to decide for her any question OF
conscience or opinion. II woman's
counsel has proved valuable in the do
mestic relations, would not the public
good be promoted by the introduction of
her wisdom, Der delicate intuitious and
keen perceptions into the councils of the
Nation? If any think that woman is
incapable Sf comprehending the intri-
cacies of diplomacy; that her mind has
not the grasp necessary for the higher
affairs of State-let the history of the
world answer!
And while l might fill n page with
the names of women who illustrated
their age with the highest order of
craftsmanship, will cite in refutation
of this opinion, only Tenobia, the splen-
did Queen of Palmyra, and Elizabeth,
Queen OF England, both of whom were
endowed with superior statesmanlike
abilities, and swayed the seepter of