The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-11-27
"IN NO HASTE TO VOTE.
BY MRS. ]. A. JOHNS.

Strange as 1t may appear, there be
those who advocate Womanis Enfran-
ehisement logically and well, yet who
declare that they are in "no hurry to
vote" How any one can have the au-
dacity to assert that women who have,
since the world was, been the compan-
ions and helpers of men, are too igno-
rant to vote upon affairs pertaining to
State and national prosperity is
more than / am able to perceive.
Church affairs surely take, or should
take, as nice q sense of discernment as
the election of county officers. To al
low women to vote in church meetings
and, under certain property conditions,
in school meetings, and then debar them
from the franchise at general elections,
claiming that there men represent
them, is an absurdity and folly, not to
say an insult to the general intelligence
of American women, compared with
that Of American men.
l hope that may never again have
the modification of hearing a cultured
woman, while Ostensibly advocating
Woman Suffrage, and in plain view of
the dire evils that are more or less the
outgrowth of one-sexed, one-sided laws,
declare that "she is in no hurry to
vote" Witnessing the giant frauds,
the sufierings entailed by unjust laws,
the fragrant injustice of a system that
places all womanhood upon a level
with idiots, paupers aud criminals, and
yet proclaiming in flOwery language
that "she is in no haste" to help right
these wrongs, presents to my mind an
anomaly not easily explained, and
scarcely to be tolerated. Instead of
such declarations as these, 1 hope in fu-
ture to hear the cry, "give us the ballot
and down with all One-sided laws" 1t
is our inalienable right to voice in the
making of the laws that we are CON-
PEELED to obey, and who and what.are
puny Legislators, that they should pre-
tend to hold our rights in their keeping
to give or withhold according to their
should have voice in making and
amending laws that license evils where
by their children are tempted to theil
destruction. And any one looking al
the dens and pitfalls that lie in wait tc
entrap the unwary must certainly fee
that this need is a present and a press,
ing one.
1t has been, and still is my earnest ell
deavor and desire to judge charitably ol
the opinions of others, who are good and
honest workers in the interests of hu-
manity, yet as ] before said, it passes
my comprehension how any one claim
ing to be such a worker can look OH
with Indifference aud proclaim herself
content with the inertia of her fettered
condition, while abuses hoary with age
aud outrageous to every sense Of justice
exist because voman's voice is unable to
be heard at the ballot-box and in legis-
lative halls.
Women, do not listen TO the sophistry
of those who tell you that you need a
long course of preparation before you
are fit to assume the duties of citizens.
Watch the voters that collect around
the polls on any election day, and see il
your native good sense does not tell you
that you are at least as well prepared to
exercise the franchise as those who are
now in undisputed possession of that
right. Consider whether it is more the
part of earnest, womanly women to fold
their hands in listless leisure and prate
about preparation" for the ballot, or to
set zealously to work with such means
as is at your command, and demanding
your wrongfully withholden rights, seek
to elevate mankind, remove the pitfalls
from the pathway of the unwary, and
by aiding the good and true of your
brethren, accomplish that which neither
can or should be expected to accomplish
alone. Be not of those who proclaim
themselves in no hurry to see the glori-
Gus results of woman's political freedom.