The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-12-01

will, and for authority will refer to the
condition of our fathers, and also to the
improved condition of the negroes since
they acquired the right of citizenship.
The Amendment that covers the ground
for them does not enforce the right to
vote, but simply forbids that a right al
ready possessed shall be not denied.
Where did our brethren first get this
right? We will tell them. They in
herit it from their God, and every one
ofthe sovereign people inherit it from the
same Infinite source. He knew no such
! ignoble distinction as that of sex when
creating men and women with like con-
ditions and necessities.
The right to vote is higher than State
laws, higher than constitutions, and
when our laws are brought to this
standard, we shall have a Republican
form of government, and not till then.
I believe that woman's cause is Gods
cause, and that He fights the battles of
the weak. 1 believe that this move
ment has a strong under current fed
upon deep springs and will not sink into
the sands. 1 believe in the omnipotence
of freedom, and that all will come right
in time. We shall yet see the day when
the husband and wife go to the polls to-
gether and vote. Then we shall see
that Woman Suffrage is not so bad after
all. We are not going to pull our
houses down about our ears, or blow up
our hearthstones, or make bonfires of
, of our cradles and dressing gowns and
slippers. The wives of timid gentlemen
! will not be driven to Congress like sheep
to the shambles, nor their fair daugh-
ters be offered upon the altar of public
service.
Epithets attached to intrepid reform
ers are fast losing their terror, and the
!, word "strong-minded" applied to US is
: already something to boast rather than
: to be ashamed of. The cry of 'aboli-
tion," which has clung to anti-slavery
: reformers for three-quarters of a GEN.
tury, has been shorn of it's terror, and
= during the long and sanguinary strug-
= gle for the freedom of the slave, it shone
. the brightest.
- When the epithet "blue stocking''
- first came to woman, it was so powerful
that no woman dared to be known as
having literary taste, and when she
! wrote a book, or an occasional article
j. for the press, she always disguised her.
self under nom de plume. That terror
:, has vanished like the morning dew.
= When the word 'strong- minded' is
sounded in our ears, we confess we can
y not help liking it, for we have always
y said if women were to be divided into
strong-minded and weak-minded, we
=. would vastly prefer to be classed with
the strong minded.
= 1 believe the tendency of all human
!, beings is toward what is noble and true
>, Step by step the race has been made fol
higher progress, and why cannot mel
and women be trusted with the same re
lations Inasmuch as cajolery, satire
az and sermonizing have all failed il
" making woman happy and con
II tented with her lot, we ask tina
- another plan be adopted. We ask al
interest in business enterprises and in
I dustrial pursuits, in politics and legisla
" tion and professional honors. You Civ
~ ~ US enough of adulation, and it is al
'u :, very pleasant as adulation, but equa
wages for equal services would be NOR
=. satisfactory and buy more bread. an
III butter. We do not ask special proteC
y" tion; we think we are able to proteC
ourselves, and are willing to come rigt
VI in under the same laws and take an il
'n- dividual part in the great drama of hU
,ei man affairs. The great school of th
he people is the jury-box and the ballo
Iey box, and so long as great political que'
10 tions stir the deepest nature of one-ha
III the nation, passing far over the heads
yes the other half, a great wrong is suffere
as to exist that no republic, however grea
we can long survive.
] a