The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-08-27
PLEASE CONSIDER.

ciety is now organized and constituted,
all fhe natural powers of woman are
drawn out andsbrought into, exercise (?
1t is not possible to believe that it is so.
Take one single point. How the en-
largement of political rights among men
has had tendency during three centu-
ries to extend in all directions the do
main Of human thought and culture,
and how much human progress has
been assisted and directed thereby, all
who study the deeper movements well
know. "Ifp says an able writer, "the
suffrage should be extended to women,
it would probably, after two or three
generations, effect a complete revolution
in their habits of thought, which, by
acting upon the first period of educa-
tion, would influence the whole course
of opinion"
OF the correctness of this judgment
there can be no question. It is obvious,
therefore, that the whole powers of
woman have not yet been called out,
and that she is not exercising her right
full influence upon society. Multitudes
of both sexes still think, or act as if
they thought, that her whole function
is to bear children and to cook meals.
But she has intellectual and moral pow-
ers which are not brought into exercise
within the limits to which she is re-
stricted. For what were those powers
given her? A mere animal or beast of
burden does not want them, and is bet
ter without them.
Woman's moral insight is acute and
profound. Were she granted the oppor-
tunity, she is capable of producing a
prodigious influence in directions where
she is not now permitted to exert it. In
the case of the other sex, we see what
the tendency has been. Through the ex-
ercise of political rights and duties, the
creation of strong political feeling diff
fused among men has been sufficient in
many respects to modify all the great
departments of thought, and has con-
tributed largely to the formation of a
distinctive type of intellectual charac-
ter. Habits of thought and judgment
thus formed are of inestimable advan-
tage. Men learn to classify by new
principle. They become in one capac-
ity the cordial associates of those whom
in another capacity they had long re-
garded with nnmingled dislike. They
learn to repress and oppose in one capac-
ity those whom in another capacity they
had regarded with unbounded rever-
ence. Conflicting feelings are thus pro-
duced which neutTalize each other.
individuals are habituated to a true
method of inquiry. A judicial spirit is
fostered and questions are lodged on
their intrinsic merits. To increase the
range and intensity of political interests
is to strengthen this tendency. Why
should the world be deprived of the re-
sources which woman can bring to bear
in their behalf?
Has not woman as much interest as
man in the promotion of virtue and
purity and humanity? Has she not
more? Half does not half measure the
proportion of those sorrows that come
upon woman by reason of her want of
influence and power. 1t needed not the
archangel's voice to tell the world that
"to be weak is to be miserable" Why
shut out woman, the chief sufferer,
from part of that regeneration of
thought and legislation which shall
make vice a crime, and vice makers
criminals? ? The world cannot always
afford TO do it.
But it is said that the household is
woman's sphere. No one will question
this. But shall the influences that sur
round the household be no care of hers?
She that would take the best care of the
house must take care of the atmosphere
that surrounds the house as well.
Every wise woman is bound to have a
thought for the community as well as
for her own household.
But wives and daughters, we are told,
must be kept out of the vulgarity of
politics. Those who urge this objection
forget that politics are vulgar because
woman is not there. Observe how
greatly the efforts of woman have
tended TO the publication of literature.
Time was when there were few female
authors, and few women could read.
Literature was as corrupt as politics are
now said to be. But woman now uni
versally readsand writes and judges. She
has forced her way into literature, tri-
umphing by the power of Intelligence
and of moral force over the preiudices
that once excluded her, and with what
beneficial results the regeneration of
literature shows.
1t ought to be incessautly repeated.
line upon line, until it passes into the
currency of proverb of universal ae-
ceptance, "Let those that God Joined TO-
gether be not put asunder" This prin.
ciple is steadily violated. Man needs
the help of woman in ways in which he
has it not yet. The world needs it. It
is not selfish plea for right to vote as
something merely due to woman. It
stands on the principle that the world
cannot afford to do without woman,s
help in the great work of progress and
regeneration.
The annual announcement of Pacific