The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-10-16
TIE NONSENSE or fr.
Short .1nswers to common Objections.
By T. W. HIGGINsoN.

| ulrty place! when man takes his Wlfe ana
daughters into the cars, their presence brings
decency. 1t will be the same at the polls.
2. " PoLITIcs ARE NECESSARILY CoRRUPTINa."
Then why not advise good men, az well as
good women, to quit voting?
3. WOMEN ARE SUFFICIENTLY REPRESENTED
ALREADY THROUGH THEIR INFLUENCE ON MEN"
Then why was it that tho Common Law Of
England, (Which Lord Brougham called "a
disgrace to any heather nation" 30 far as it
related to Woman) prevailed almost universally
until the "Womans Rights" agitation began,
twenty-five years ago? 1t was not till women
began to talk about the. ballot that any changes
began to be made in the laws and they have
no security against the repeal OF those improved
laws except the ballot in their hand.
4. "IF WOMEN VOTED, II WOULD DIVIDE
FAMILIES" But families and nations have
quarreled twice as much over religion as over
politics, ever since the world began. If you
allow women to choose their own religion, why
not their own party?
5. WOMEN WOULD ONLY VOTE AS THEIR HUs-
BANDS OR FATHERS DO" Many women have no
husbands and no living fathers. II they have,
and vote as these men do no harm will lie
done. II they vote diiferently-as they are
very likely to do on questions of temperance,
religion, and the right to control their own
chldren-then this objection falls to the ground.
6. "TuE BEST WOMEN WILL NOT VOTE" Will
they not? Then they are not truly the best
women. Women who are really consC eutlous
will not shirk their duties when the time comes,
depend upon it. Was there loyal woman in
the land, who would have stald at home, if
voter, when Abraham Lincoln's reelection was
at stake?
z. "THE MOST REFINED WOMEN WILL NOT
VOTE" Many OF the most refined women whom
the land has produced have gone as mission
aries, taught schools for freedmen, visited the
Five Points In New York, entered into bar
rooms to persuade their husbands away, or
tended hospitals during the war. Refinement
that takes the place Of conscience is weakness,
not strength.
81 BAD WOMEN WILL VOTE" They may and
will vote, as bad men vote. But they Will not
vote in the open character OF bad women for
vice In women, by instinct and policy, conceals
itself aud passes under another name. The
worse women are, the more strkingly they will
counterfeit virtue, whom they come to vote -
rely upon 1t.
8. Il SHOULD NOT WISH TO HEAR MY WIFE
SPEAK IN MOUNTAINEERING" Nor would she like
to hear you, unless you said something worth
saying. But you are often willing to pay other
mems wives to sing in public, and If . woman
uplift her voice to sing nonsense, why not
speak sense?
! 10. at WILL TURN WOMEN INTO MEM" Hap
PLY you cannot do that. 1t is because women,
after all, are different from men that We deny
the right OF men to represent them, make laws
for them, judge them in court and spend their
tax-money. II they are the same with men,
they have tie same rights if they are distinct
from men, they need the ballot to make laws
for themselves. Take which view you please
/ 1t comes TO the same thing.
IL. ~ WOMAN WHO TAKES CARE OF HER HOUSE
HOLD HAS No TIME TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT
POLITICS" Why not say, - a man who prop
erly supports his household has no time to
know anything about politics ?" Men are apt
to claim that their own. days work il harder
than that of their wives.
IL. "PoLr.lcs LIE BEYOND THE SPHERE OF
WOMEN" That is always the excuse for exclu =
ng DISTINGUISHED class. Bancroft says that
the original char;erof Delaware put the gov
eminent into the hands OF royal council, on
the ground that "politlcs lie beyond the pro-
fession OF merchants" So the agents who
came out with Sir Edward Andres to take away
the liberties Of the New England Colonies
wrote back, IN great contempt: " 1t is pleasant
n md nit ri
who have neither house nor land, strutting an d
making no mean figure at their elections" Now
the merchants and mechanics have the ballot
and 1t Is only women against whom the same
old objection is brought up
-. "Ir WILL LEAD TO SUCH DANGEROUS IN
TIMAcY BETWEEN THE SEXES" In an oriental
country, physician can only prescribe FOR a
woman by feeling the pulse in an srm thrust
from behind a curtain. But as no political in
tlmacy would exceed that which already exist:
or may exist between the physician and his
patients, the clergyman and his parishioners
the school-superintenden and his teachers, the
merchant and his book-keepers, the mlll-owner
and his operatives, the objection is idle. II
you honestly prefer Turkish institutions. &C
and live where they prevail but if the Amer
can system DO the best, let il be made consist
ent with itself.
Ii. WOMEN CANNOT FIGHT, so THEY SHOULD
NOT VOTE" Formerly women were refused
PERMISSION to hold real estate, on the same
ground. when tiefs implied military service.
wrote DR.. johnson in 1916, it is easily dis
cerned why females could not inherit them. bu
the reason Is at an end. A. manners make
laws. manners likewise repeal them" Tn,
same reasoning applies now to voting.
Besides the objection proves too much. 1
appears by the published record Of Mitar,
Statistics that out OF men examined for military
duty, more than quarter were found unft
but that this varied with different professions.
, OF journalists 7i0 IN every 1000 we're disquali
fed, OF preachers 97i, OF physicians 67O, O
lawyers 54i. Tho majority Of all these class
os are as useless for warhlSe purposes as women
far more useless than the fighting women O
Dshomey. Arc they therefore 10 De disfran
r chised, like women On the other hand, of al
: unskiIled laborers only 3is in 1000 are disquali
: fed; of tanners DIG, OF iron-workers 1S9. Il