The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-09-11
HUMAN. NOT ANGEL.

It has long been the custom to declare
that women are "too pure TO touch poll
tics" "too refined and delicate to mingle
with the rough crowds around the polls"
and that even were it otherwise, there
were no need for woman 10 exercise the
right of suffrage, because, forsooth, ''she
already rules the world"
This being the state Of affairs, and
these samples OF the declarations with
which opposers Of the Woman Move
ment have sought to stop its progress,
il is quite astonishing to see some of
them suddenly face about and make as
sertions, directly contrary to those,
which frequent repetition has rendered
so familiar to our ears.
Poets have exhausted the vocabulary
of soft nonsense, and transcended the
bounds Of poetic license in coming new
words to describe the "angelicr crea-
ture In fitting rhyme, while prose writers
have been scarcely behind them in
clothing womankind in robes seraphic.
Think, therefore, OF the rude shock to
the "refined feelings" of these ethereal
creatures, when certain great lights in
the literary world drop their pretences
and In round terms declare that these
erewhile "angels," if permitted TO help
make the laws by which they are gov
erned, equally with men, will bring into
politics q power for evil, which the
strongest and best men will be unable
success fully to combat; that corruption,
the like of which was never known,
even in the traditional "filthy poor'
will abound.
Now, truth is better than falsehood,
and the candid expression OF the opin-
ions Of the great Goodwin Smith, even
though they be incorrect, is infinitely
better than the former shallow pre-
tences, so shallow that, while they
pleased many, and tickled the vanity
Of some, were yet too transparent 10
deceive even the most vapid.
The real sentiments of our most logi-
cal opposers are, in the heat Of the con-
iiict, being stripped Of all false devices,
and plainly reveal themselves to be
something of this order. "Women ar
not angels, nor yet the weaker sex, and
II men hold their own, women must be
kept from the sources of power which
men use, for If all are upon equal terms
men will lose ground" Now we do not
believe our brethren need TO fear such
disastrous results. When men and
women meet each other in an open field
each with his or her own special gifts,
though different, they will not OF
necessity jostle each other, but will OF
necessity help each other, as God de-
signed they should, and in an equal
race will prove that their powers are
nearly equal, II unlike. Women are
not angels, neither are they the opposite,
but in common with men are very
human, with great possibilities for good
and evil. As women have refused i'm
times past TO be cajoled and fiattered
into thinking themselves angels, so
now they will scarcely, 10y any bluster,
be frightened into thinking themselves
monsters Of evil. In the very nature Of
things, men and women must always he
friends. To Ge otherwise, were as i'm
possible and undesirable to one as to the
other. II is as unfair as foolish, to assert
that when women have equal opportuni-
ties for education, business self-support,
and hence a chance for the best use oi
all their powers, that they will use these
10 the disadvantage of man. Superior
conditions will bring superior results
The mistaken idea with many per
sons in regard to the demands Of woman
for equal rights with men is that sh,
ly this demand places herself in a posi-
tiOn antagonistie to them. Nothing
could be farther from the truth thar
this. And when the great msss sf mel
and women equally assume life's care
and burdens, willing to bear and t
share and to help each other over rougl
places and smooth, side by side wit
equal rights, duties and responsibilities
in family, church, state and nation
they will each be able TO help the othe
to better ways and nobler lives tina
they could possibly do with condition
unequal. Who willfully and incor
sistently ignores this, is one who
" Ainconstrues the question like a man,
Who sees woman as the complement
or his sex merely. Who forgets too much,
Ihai every creature. female as the male,
stand single in responsible act and thought,
ASalSo In birth and death"