The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-10-22

One of the most admirable and sensi-
ble contributions to the discussion of the
"woman question" is a recent brief let
ter OF Mrs. Lydia Maria Child to the
WonG1l's Journal explaining her posi-
ton in regard to paying taxes. Mrs.
Child is citizen of the highest charac-
ter and ability, who owns property, and
is taxed with all other property-holders.
She is thoughtful, sagacious, most ex-
emplary, and most useful member of
the commonwealth, who is allowed by
the law to own property in absolute fee,
but who is forbidden by the law any
voice whatever in the disposition Of
that part of her property which is taken
from her in taxes. Yet the same law
gives that voice to every ignorant,
drunken, worthless and dangerous man
In the country, whether he owns prop
erty or not. He, with others, may say
how much of her property may be
taken, and to what purpose it may be
applied. She must submit in silence, or
be ruined by the forced sale of what she
owns. . .
The monstrous injustice and folly of
such an arrangement are not in the least
changed by sarcasms about the sphere
of woman. Cedric thought it was the
lie
The argument is as old as injustice.
From time to time some women of Mas
sachusetts, like the late Miss H. K.
Hunt, have paid their taxes under pro-
test. Others, like the Misses Smith, in
Connecticut, have refused to pay the ex-
penses of government in whose con-
troll they have no share, and their prop
erty has been sold under the hammer in
consequence, and they have been duly
called fools, fanatics, and impractical
bles, as Sam Adams and John Hancock
and Patrick Henry were a hundred
years ago. Mrs. Child, with cool and
incisive perception of the differences of
situations and the relative value of
facts, comprehends both the injustice of
the government and of the position in
which she is placed, but with admirable
wisdom she says, in words which can
not we'll be abbreviated:
"But, on the other hand, imperfect as
government is, am indebted to it for
good deal of protection from the laws,
for safe roads and free schools. Not be-
ing a traveller, 1 have small use for
roads, and being unfortunately childless,
1 have no grandchildren to attend the
public schools. But whatever benefits
the people at large is more or less
De0eub 10 me, anu le6l al lQJ6I6SJ III IL
far beyond my own personal advantage.
I am therefore willing to contribute to
the support of free schools and courts of
Justice, where the poorest citizen of the
commonwealth can educate his children
and obtain redress for his wrongs. But
I consider my taxes as an outright gift
from my own goodwill, not as the pay
ment of anything the government has a
right todemand of me. 1 feel that am
unjustly dealt by in being excluded
from a voice in making the laws by
which am governed; and dearly as
love old Massachusetts,, tell my vener-
able and venerated mother that she
ought to be ashamed of such one-sided
government of her family.n
She asks whether we must wait for
governments to be perfect before we con-
sent to help them in good efforts; and
as our government, with all its faults,
confers many blessings upon on all citi
zens, women included, she is willing to
support it according to her ability,
while protesting against the tyranny of
taxation without representation.
Mrs. Child's little letter will be a most
powerful service to her cause. For it
will compel the most stupid to wonder
whether the exclusion of such good
sense and true patriotism from a re-
sponsible voice in the conduct of public
affairs is public advantage g
Weekly.