Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1874-06-18
For the Herald.
WOEnan'S Right tn Vote.

inalienable rights to secure which, ''gov-
ernments are instituted among men, deriv-
ing their just powers from the consent of
the governed" Now, woman is governed
as much as man by laws and lawmakers
of the United States. Men make laws,
and woman having no political existence,
must submit to her masters DEGREES. Is
she governed by her CONSENT Our con-
stitution declares, also, that taxation with
out representation is tyranny But has
woman any "representation?' A woman
of property is taxed as much as a man of
man governed by her consent? Is she
taxed only through representation? We are
informed, that resistance to tyrants is
obedience to God Shall woman not re-
sist, therefore, all political injustice? Her
individuality is not respected among Chris
tians! She is both governed and taxed as
a minor, a chattle, slave; though her love
may be worshipped and her intellect infe-
rior to no priest or politician,
Although we live under the highest de-
velopment of Christianity, yet Is woman
peremp ptorily denied her political indjvid-
uality. Those who labor to secure the
rights and to remove the wron gs of wo-
man are, in general, persons Of both sexes,
who realize and advocate the divine prin-
ciples of love and justice, utterly inde-
pendent OF any sectaTian scheme of re-
formation. Without referring to the afro
cious crime of negro slavery, ,permitte and
committed by our Republican government
We will proceed directly to the fact, our
government treats woman as a chattel,
politically; considers her incapable of
holding office, regards her as a political
nonentity, as weak and dependent minor,
incapable of forming correct judgment
But her brother Of twenty-one years, al
though unable, perhaps, to read and write
the English language, is her superior in
politics. She may be complete scholar,
as she often is, but she must submit to
laws and rules made by voters who know
their candidate, perhaps, only by the anti
temperance smell of his breath.
Every government which denies the
| right of suffrage to women is essentially
corrupt and despotic. In America we have
the two extremes: the best form of iber-
| ty and the worst phase Of slavery! 1t is
said that wOman's situation here is supe-
rior to any previous estate--that she is
gradually being elevated-but the same is
true Of trees and railroad stocks, and other
branches of industry. What we ask for
woman is absolute equality. We ask for
the sake and safety of our country's free
dom, that woman be allowed to vote her
own lawmakers, and have an equal voice
in the framing and construction of laws in
the Legislature. Think you that We should
have incorporate rulers if woman could
vote? She would soon dissipate the gross
ness Of masculinity from our courts, would
soon deliver the political parties from
their accumul ated corruptions, she would
soon exterminate the tippling shops and
foul cess-pools, which, by spontaneous
generation, breed and mature all that is
loathsome and disgusting in profanity, and
babbling, and vulgarity, and Sabbath
breaking-in short, she would soon plant
the white banner OF Temperance over the
ramparts of the whole liquor traffic.
| But conservatives have many objections
to the enfranchisement of woman. They
I pretend to imagine an increase oftrouble
thus, as ever, making policy paramount tt
principle. When the question of univer
sal suffrage was debated several years ago
whether both the rich and the poor mar
should vote, the same class Of prudential
lists said, no! only the rich or property
holder should have political voice, les
the rabble vote away the houses and home
of the more fortunate. What was the re
suit. Simply after establishing the righ
of universal suffrage, society protected it
self instinctiYely, as it were, and perma
nently against evils Of ignorance by sys
tenn of public schools. Still further bacl
: the saying was that "The Scripture mus
not be trusted with the people, indiscrim
inately, lest they falsely interpret them.
And now, since the high claims of the wo
man-nature are seen to be self-evidentl.
r just and important to mans development
all objections are narrowed down to tn
pusillanimous saying, that woman shoul
! not vote, as it would not only be unfemi
e nine, but would tend greatly to augmer
5 the trouble of elections.
: Now, all these objections are both ur
e just and silly. Nevertheless, they serv
q to keep woman down in political bondage
It cannot be disguised, by any logical ski
whatever, that the common law, whic
regulates the marriage relation des
= troys, subs tantially, the legal indiyidualit
i Of woman. It does. AS soon as she or
It ters the conjugal state, at once her nam'
:. her property, her inaiienable right to tn
r; possession of her own body and soul
II taken from her and given into the legi
l. hands Of her self-constituted protector
If Unwise love, which ever longs to pa
~ more than is due, might, indeed, infuenc
2r the gentle woman soul to such beneyt
;e lence, or perhaps, more properly, to sue
r. an act of self-injustice; but, that the con
l. mon law should enforce this sacrifice, con
Is Is pei this crime of self -extinguishment c
l. the part of woman, regardless of the col
le sent Of the goverded, is not less than de-
If potism. The laws of certain States, hoV
ID ever, have recently become more friendl
ID to the demands of woman General
speaking, in law woman has no right
the product of her own industry; not eve
ID to the clothing on her person; neither HI
she right to her children, nor to thessel
Of sovereignty of her soul; no real right
t. the independent pursuit of life, liber
Sc and happiness, which individual right
r professedly and actually the foundation s
of curity of our government. G. NJ. W.
q,