Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1875-02-13
THE BALLOT FOR WOMEN.

I. Ledger. t-'+, 'r .t'" 49,.
. ed--7---------. --- ----,,--- ... -.
Ii. THE BALLOT FOR WOMEN.
An Essay read before the Woman Suffrage
Association of Thurston County.
What are the best means to be used
to obtain the ballot for woman This
would be.a very easy question to an.
swer, were people governed, as they
should be, by the Golden Rule, to "Do
unto others as they would have others
do unto them" IL men; would do by
the women, as they would; wish the
women to do by them, were their polit-
ical conditions reversed, the question
of the ballot for women would soon be
solved. But as men are not governed
by the golden rule, even in this Chris
tian country, it becomes necessary that
other arguments and means than those
laid down by our Saviour must be used,
in order to obtain for woman that which
so manifestly and justly belongs to her.
What then epnder the present existing
circumstances, are the best means for
obtaining the ballot for women? One
suggests that the best means is higher
education for women; that owing to
their present condition OF political slay-
cry they are incompetent to vote inteli-
gently, and therefore it is not safe to
trust them with so grave and potent a
power until they are educated up to q
higher intelligence. Such an argu-
ment ias this might do in q country
where education and intelligence were
made a qualification for the exercise
of the elective franchise, But here, in
our country, where all male citizens,
black and white, can vote, whether they
can read, or whether they don't know
the letter A from their fathers drag
and write their names with an X, the
argument for a higher intelligence for
woman before she is allowed to vote,
comes with bad grace. Such an argu-
ment could only have been born
ofignorance, and will be fully exploded,
when ignorant men voters become in
telligent enough to understand that it
takes no more intelligence on the part
Of woman to vote, than it does on the
part of q man. H''~-
TIE ignorant man who makes use of
such an argument, deserves pity. The.
knave who does SO, in order to defraud
woman OF her just rights should re-
ceive the condemnation Of all noble and
right-minded men and women. A
higher intelligence for woman, then, is
not the best means to be made use OF
to obtain the ballot for woman; for
were women to become as wise as the
gods, and the men to remain as ignor-
ant as they now are, they would be no
more inclined to do her justice than
they are at present. believe no one
has ventured to deny to woman the bal
lot on the grounds of drunkenness.
Perhaps that might be recommenda-
ton. Who knowsf Sotnany men get
drunk on election day, one would think
that drunkenness was one of the neces-
sary qualifications for voting. Wonder
If that is not what makes men vote SO
intelligently Maybe we have been
mistaken; maybe it is whisky intelli-
gence women need instead of " book
larnin." But if men do not object to
women voting because they do not get
drunk, they do on the ground Of her
personal chastity. Why, say they, If
we should allow the women to vote, all
the bad women, even the common pros
I titutes would vote, and some of them
might get into office! What a catas-
trophe!3 Do bad men never voteP Who
ever heard, ofa hbertine, being excluded
from the polls? On the contrary, we
believe that ibertineism and debauch-
cry are no bar to the exercise OF the
right to vote; neither do they exclude
men from holding the most responsible
offices in the nationy,that of President
not excepted. 'tAnd Jesus said, - let
him that is without sim among you,
cast the first stone, and they which
heard it, being convicted by their own
conscience, went out one by one, begin
ming at the eldest even unto the least. =
Comment is unnecessary. Personal
chastity is not, therefore, b. necessary
requisition, in the voter, and as the
women of our nation are as pure, and
chaste in their lives as are the men, and
as impurity of life in man il no, bar to
the exercise of the elective franchise
nor to official eminence, itsurely should
not be in woman; for We're the women
as pure as angels, and the men as gross
and sensual as they now are, they would
be no more disposed to do her Justice
: than they are at present. ,...