The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-10-29
A LIVE QUESTION.
In the New York Sun of September Sth
we find the following:

the next 6l6cllOn IIeslubnL, Dlus ldlT 10 De
come live one. The Federal Constitution
empowers the legislature of each State TO FIX
the mode in which the electors of President
and Viee-Presideut to which the State is enti-
tied shall be appointed. The legislatures
originally chose the electors themselves, but
for years past they have directed the choice to
be made by male citizens over twenty-one
years of age. A committee Of the Connecticut
legislature lately reported unanimously bill
10 strike out the word "male," and admit
women to vote for Presidential electors on the
same terms with men. The House came
within dozen votes of passing the bill, and
its friends say they can gain enough in twelve
months TO open the Presidential polls to the
women OF Connecticut in 1876.
nthis experiment is TO be tried everywhere,
let it be done first in safe and prudent little
State like Connecticut. But will it be tried
anywhere?
The acknowledgement by the Sun that
this question "bids fair to become live
one" is full of significance, and COM
pletely overshadows the prognostica-
tions of the myriads of nsignificantlit-
tie journals whose short-sighted editors
waste so much breath in the vain en-
deavor to convince their readers that the
question is dead.
When the choice of Presidential cleo
tors was by the legislatures given to
"male citizens over twenty-one years of
age" instead of being confined to the
legislative bodies exclusively, it was a
long step in advance; the next great
ho n or fha 4rynrl 10
before the more comprehensive word
''citizen," as the legislature of Connecti-
cut was petitioned to do at it's last sit
ting, and came within few votes of do
ing. That this will inevitably be done,
not only in "safe, prudent little Con-
necticut," but in other States as well,
no one who is at all conversant with the
progress that events are making can for
moment doubt. It's opponents may,
as has for years been their custom, as
sail this great living issue with ridicule;
the shafts, however keenly pointed,
make no impression upon the armor of
justice in which woman's freedom is en-
cased. They may attempt to stay its
onward course by argument. Ready
and cogent reasoning speedily overcomes
it, however ingeniously cOntrived and
forcibly urged. Desperately they pirate
of expediency, only to find that timidity
in themselves fails to beget timidity in
the minds of those who ask for justice,
and will be satisfied with nothing less.
Pens are dipped in wormwOod to por-
tray the bitterness that woman's equal
ity will infuse into domestic circles, and
pencils guided by the promptings of
gloomiest imagination darkly shade
home pictures where equality shall
reign; but foreboding recitals and somber
pictures alike fail to dethrone common
sense, or to terrify true men aud wom-
en- into the belief that justice will bear
the bitter fruits of discord apd neglect of
duty.
The truth IS, these are sham objec-
tions, sham sTguments, sham cries. "It
this experiment is to be tried anywhere,
let it be in { safe and prudent State like
Connecticut" says the paper quoted
above. Now, in all candor, we should
like to know from what quarter danger
is expected to spring? Is it feared that
the men so long accustomed to lordly
sway and exclusive exercise of power
will rebel at what they consider an in
novation upon the divine rights of meni
Or that women, clothed with the inner.
ent rights of free-born American citi.
zens, will inaugurate a state of affairs
at variance with law and order? o.
course, no one is idiOtic enough to an.
ticipate anything of the kind, so we are
forced to believe that the excessive pru,
dence which some people take such de
light in parading, is manufactured ex,
pressly for the occasion, and is as un
called for as it is powerless to stay th'
tide of public opinion with the breath o
its puny protestations.
|, One experiment, as everybody will al
low, proves more than thousand con
lectures. The experiment of Woman
Suffrage, Wyoming has given us, ant
in that Territory, which, on account o
its youth, can scarcely be called az "saf
and prudent as Connecticut" we see
quietly falling into line, not only with
out disturbance, but with the best re
suits.
To the concluding question in the ex
tract above given, swift-coming event
will soon give an affirmative apswe
that will cause oft-vaunted "expedi
ency" and "imprudent prudence" to re
tire overwhelmed from the field, an
, the aristocracy of sex to die and max
, no sign.
Though the signs seem to indicat
f that the women of Connecticut and sew
eral other States will vote for Presiden
q in 1876, the ends Of justice may not S
soon be accomplished. But the though
germinated by the agitation of thi
e question of political equality will liv
\ and thrive and grow, and in due time th
G rich harvest of deeds will be garnered.
D We congratulate our brother of tn