, 1876-09-03
WOMAN as A POLITICAL PURIFIER.


WOMAN as 4 POLITICAL PURIFIER.
Recent events call fresh attention to this
oft-agitated topic. 1t has been rather
favorite argument with the advocates Of
suffrage that the confessed corruption
of politics could be purified by the admission
of woman to the ballot-box and to civil
Office. The existing evil Was due. it was
argued, to mans g1osser nature and less
delicate moral perceptions Man is q coarse
being; he is selfish also. he has long been
accustomed to think OF government as con-
venience forgaining personal and party ends,
and to use politics as cunning device for
securing power and pe1f. Hence, even When
his conscience sometimes protests against
the corruption, he silences its voice by de-
claring that nothing is practicable in the
direction of reform. He has no courage, no
faith, no hope.
But, allow woman to come to the front,
with her sensitive moral nature, it is said,
and new face will be put upon things.
Her delicacy Of feeling, her tenderness
of conscience, her habit of always
asking first for the right and
wrong Of question, will revolutionizo
affairs. A new element will be intro
duced and made supreme. Her enthusiastic
impulses and her hopeful temperament will
refuse to despair when confronted with the
obstacles which discourage man. She will
investigate all the dark proceedings, and dis
close the mystery Of iniquity. Her very
presence at the ballot-bo1 would send dismay
to the hearts Of the wicked. She would ele-
vate only the honest aud capable to Office.
She would elect Prohibitionists to the State
Legislatures, aud put stop to the traffic in
Intoxicating drinks. Every reform would
find in her an efficient and unwavering advo-
cate. And were sho in, Office, were she re-
sponsibly conducting government, corrup-
ton would be impossible. Who would dare to
approach pure, intelligent, and refined lady
with corrupt proposition? Rer look Of
scorn, her glance OF indignation, would burn
and blast the base proposer of a bribe!
Such is the theory; and it reads nicely in
the columns ~of Woman's Suffrage paper,
eud has taking sound when heard on the
platform, calling back the answering ap-
plause of al appreciative and sympathetic
audience. But some (of both se1es) were
always incredulous on this point. They
were troubled with doubts, notwithstanding
their experience Of the many good qualities
of the female sex. There, for instance was
tho Hebrew tradition of the fall of man,
which the theory did not quite account for.
Why did the serpent choose the woman,
rather than the man, for his seductive at
tack? Why choose the higher, the morally
more sensitive nature2 And how come it
that she yielded, instead of driving the
tempter away in shame, to try whether he
might not have more success with her coarser-
fbred husband Alas, this is great stum-
bling-block! It seems like a typical case,
prophetic of long series of facts, and in
dicating that woman's strong feelings and
eager desires would ever prove weak side
to her moral nature, and that man could be
most readily reached and corrupted through
his love for woman. But that starts us with
a bad outlook for purity in politics through
female influence!
For We must consider that with this con-
stitutional inlet for temptation woman's en-
trance into politics would not exactly be the
coming of an angel into the midst of corrup-
ton. It would be but the advent, amid
powerful temptation, Of very sensitive na-
ture, which already had wrong tendencies
within it. In other words, it would still be
human nature in politics. Sin unfortunately
knows no sex. Sacred history therefore re-
cords Mrs. PoT1PHAR as danger to young
JOSEPH; tells us that where great King fell
into impurity, BArHsHEBA was as willing as
DAVID; shows that the inspiration of AHAB
in his evil courses was his wife. JEzEBEL in
forms us that when HERoD beheaded JOHN
the Baptistit was in reluctant answer to the |
request Of HERop1As and her daughter, to
whom the ghastly head was carried on a
platter; and states that the ambition of |
JAMES and JOHN to have the places of honor |
and power on the right and left hand of the
Messiah in His expected political kingdom |
was instigated by their mother, SA1oME.
Secular history as little shows that purity
always goes into politics with woman. It |
rather brings to light special love of in
trigue and management, and disposition to
resort without scruple to the most con7en-
lent instrumentalities. Such was often the |
female influence and method under Oriental |
despotisms, in Imperial and afterwards in
Papnl Rome, at the Court of Russia, and in
the checkered history Of France, whether
under Kings, Consuls, or Emperors. The
marked appearance of woman in the political
scene generally was accompanied with cul-
Of evil; as though corruption had
gained its lowest depth. This argues nothing
against the character of the sex at large, but
only that it is little fitted to withstand the
peculiar temptations of political life. Am
bition, luxury, vanity, sensuality, revenge,
make appeal to other than male hearts, and
the corrupt atmosphere Of courts has not
been due merely to the presence of man.
Take our own City of Washington, and
what revelation we have recently had Of
political corruption, in which the two sexes
seem to have equally shared. If Secretary
BE1KSAP is mentioned with reproach, the
name Of Mrs. BE1KNAp is spoken with sor-
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