The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-07-10
Woman Suffrage in Illino

oman Is lue pieSluCut OF sCclefF.
with qualified powers-the principal OF
the school Of home, with almost absolute
powers. Upon her rest great resDonsi-
bilities, increasing every day.
Mark you, she is walking with a sure
il not rapid step up TO her proper place
Of equality with man. You tell me this
will never dO-that such opinions will
unsettle the foundations of society, and
introduce chaos into the homes Of the
land. Let us not quarrel about thu
matter. Cling to your opinion. Time
will instruct you.
Aneiently, the wife lived by the
mercy of her husband. He could STAY
her without question. Public opinion
unheeding protestants against reform
finally pronounced against this power
in the husband. OF old, in England, the
husband was the wife's lord and master
her sovereign; and in that country,
and in many of the States in this Re
public. she is to this day the bond ser
want Of her husband.
This is the condition of women in
nearly all the world but in Illinois We
have taken long step away from the
Injustice of the past and present; we
have made the wife the equal Of the
husband before the law. The husband
and wife bill, enacted last winter By the
General Assembly, gives to the wife the
right to possess her own property. The
property she takes into the marriage
relation is hers within it as without it:
the husband can in no way control II.
She may, after marriage, do business
for herself, and the profits of the busi-
ness are her Own-the husband cannot
touch them; the losses are also hel own
they cannot be recovered from the
husband. She may labor with her
hands or brains, and the husband can
net, without her consent, obtain the
proceeds. She may buy what she
| pleases upon credit, but the bills she
makes are her own-they cannot Be col
lected from her husband. The vile may
sue the husband and he may sue her.
! She may sue any other person in her
own name; she may defend in the courts
/ independent Of her husband. If the
husband is sued, she may defend for
him; and il she is sued, he may defend
! for her. She has an equal share with
1 her husband i'm the education and sup
port of the ehildren; and, If she has
| property, the expense of educating and
supporting the children may be recOv-
cred from her as from him. If the fam
FLY has homestead the husband cannot
i sell it from over the heads of the wife
and children until he has procured
she has been made the equal OF tie hus-
band before the law, except that she is
prohibited from entering into partner
ship with any person but her husband,
without his consent, unless he has de-
serted her, is an idiot, is insane, or is in
the penitentiary.
Tie opponents of this bill declared. as
the opponents of the prohibition of the
infliction by the husband Of reasonable
punishment upon the wife declared Of
old, that it would break up the family
J relation-raise the demon of discord in
every home. But the advocates of the
bill were not frightened; We took the re-
spOnsibility; we passed the bill; we
: placed Illinois ahead of the world. Is
not the day of woman's disenthrallment
growing into its full splendor? Is not
truth eXeTting q wonderful moral con-
troll through public opinion
, What next? The ballot in the hands
of woman Yes, if there is any virtue
in the 'signs of the times.n
] You need not tell me that on every
side we hear the OutcTy of men asserting
that they will not consent that woman
shall participate in the government of
the country. Time will instruct them.
We who wish woman's equality can
wait. She will obtain her rights.
In America woman occupies more
. advanced position than elsewhere in the
: world, and is better, happier, more in
q telligent De TOcqueville says that If
he were asked to what the singular
prosperity and growing strength Of the
Ot people of this nation ought mainly to
. be attributed, he would reply: ITO the
, superiority of their women But even
the American woman has a vast field
: before her over which she must advance.
She will not, when the opportunity is
. ripe, fail to 20 forward. AT the proper
time she will ask for her rights; and
) when she does demand them man will
2 not dare withhold them.
r | would not confound together the
different, characteristics of the sexes
would not attempt to make of woman
5 and man beings not Ouly equal but
q alike, as writer says is done by some
in Europe; in the language of Lemuel,
! speaking the prophecy his mother
1 taught him, would Give her of the
3 fruits Of her hands, and let her works
praise her in the gates" believe
that 0
g Woman is not uudeveloped man,
n I But diverse; could we make her as the man,
Sweet love were slain; his dearest bond is this
b Not like to like, but like IN difference
= lNet in the long years ltker must they grow
r The man be more Of woman, she OF man.
>, He gain In sweetness and i'm moral hight,
u Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the
world.
she mental breadth, nor faii in chiIdwari care
4 Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind;
= Till at the last she set herself 10 man
|. like perfect music unto noble words.
: And so these twain upon the skirts OF time
Sit side by side ful-summed in all tn cir powers
o Dispensing harvest, sowing the TO-be;
Self-reverent each, and reVerencing each,
Distinct in individualities,
But like each other even as those who love
Then comes the statelier Eden baci, to man.
Then reign the worlds great bridal chaste and
calm;
\ Then springs the crowning race or humankind
May these things berf r.r.