The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-04-28

the MOrmons have the Bible for their
authority, they fully justify themselves
in making woman a secondary being,
or satellite to mans glory. The old
patriarchs, being governed by almost
daily direct communication with the
Almighty, kept her in subsection. And
the old common law-writers, whose
wisdom has been handed down to US
through the musty old volumes of legal
lore, slipping their wisdom from the
same fountain-head, fully endorsed
these same views. And now, few
headstrong, self-willed, strong-minded
women like yourself, Anna Dickinson,
Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs.
Paulina Davis, and hundreds of others
that I could name, are making the
world ring with their eternal cry of
''freedom to the SEX" You all claim
that we will be called upon to meet the
question at the ballot-box. Woe to the
world when woman loses her modesty
and becomes a voter, politician, and
an office-holder Woe to society when
woman is allowed all the privileges
that man enjoys! When she has the
right to acquire property, and transact
business in her own name without
stint Look for a moment into the
yawning vortex to which you are drift
ing. If you become lawyers, office
holders and electioneers, you must
drink. You must visit all the saloons
and whisky-shops, all the vile and
filthy dens and pools where political
jobs are concocted, put up, and run; for
the whisky-shops are so connected with
politics that they are almost one and
inseparable. Politics can't be run now
without whisky. It's no use in trying,
and politics must be run, for "the
country must beSsaved." How would
it look for beautiful woman to walk
into saloon just before an election in
Portland, and, calling up a half-dozer
or dozen Irish hod-carriers and negro
boot blacks, order whisky straight fol
the crowd? Think, 1 beseech you, how
it would look And then to see hel
gulp down the contents of her glass
smack her fist down on the counter anC
cry out, "Hooray for Molly Jones fol
Sheriff" What would you think of &
woman who would leave her husband
, and children at home anxious about he
while she went off on a spree and re
manned several nights from home; drum
and carousing with boon companions
, visiting in her drunkenness all the low
, whisky-shops, brothels, and dens of vic'
to be found in our pOpulous and corrup
cities, and, when at last she did return
: tell her husband that she was on busi
3 ness from the city, or that she was will
, lot of high official functiouaries, hav
ing jolly good time; or, that she wa
with lot of friends working up polit
: ical canvass, or any of the Thousand
: other excuses, (little lies, no harm il
them), that we are in the habit of palm
, ing off on our innocent, unsuspecting
cOnfiding wives on such occasions
. No, no, no Mrs. D., it won't do
tell you it won't! Men must look ou
4 for their own protection, and, if the,
quietly cross their hands for women t,
tie them, it is their own fault. MAJ
| has the advantage; man holds the gov
! ernment strings; man has ruled 81!
thousand years, according to the Bible
and he would be foolish indeed to nov
allow woman to come up his equal an,
t his rival, and rob him of at least one
D half, if not all the rights he has en-
=, joyed so long. 1t won't do. If woman
had the right to Vote-aye, if she wa
e considered by the wise lights of th
: past to be any part of the government
s it would make a sanguinary chang
upon all our institutions. She woul
be educated to rely upon herself instea
D of her husband, and then we wOul
s have her rivaling us in all the variou
!, avocations of life, and receiving tn
= same wages, because she would have t,
get money to spend in the whisky
) shops and other such places, in order
a be useful and carry out the design
s More anon.
@ Portland, April Is, 1876.