The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-02-18
AN ADDRESS
F. F. VICTOR,
Recording Secretary.

DELIVERED BY MRS. BELLE W. COOKE, ACTING
PRESIDENT OF THE o. 5. W. s. A, AT THE
FOURTH ANNUAL CONVENTION
I suppose it is necessary in times of
war that soldiers should be prepared for
emergencies; and when an officer is
disabled on the field, another should |
stand ready to step up and take his
place. This is of course understood and
prepared for; and the officer who stands
next the commander, is, no doubt, al
ways we'll qualified to take his place.
Our war is bloodless war; a war of
words, and of influence against old-time
customs, but it needs leaders with saga
cious and well-trained minds to take the
front in the battle, and mature plans for
action.
Such, I think we have had in our
leader, the President of the Oregon
State Woman Suffrage Association,
Mrs. ]. DeVore Johnson. Yesterday,
we received word that she is unable to
be with us, being disabled by tempo
rary but severe illness. We have some
hope that she may be restored to health
in time to be here before the close of
the meeting, but fear it will not be so.
1 am very sorry that the officer who
happens for the time to be chosen to
take the place of commander, should be
so entirely unprepared to fill the place
as myself; but 1 cannot desert my col
ors and leave the field at this stage of
the conflict, just on the eve of an en-
gagement. So 1 am here to do my
best, and hope to have the support of
all the brave defenders of our cause.
The work of advocating our cause. in
the face of prejudice is not an easy one,
and it is made doubly difficult in that
our antagonists are often our best
| friends. The old, trite arguments are
constantly being brought out and
hurled in our faces, as though they had
not already-every one of them-been
answered thousand times.
The fact is, wOman's right to equality
before the law does not rest in intelli-
gence, so that it can be grasped by ar
gument. 1t has no intellectual founda-
tion anywhere; no good logic sustains
it; it does not rest upon any element OF
the human understanding; hence, we
make slow progress in combating it.
AS Mr.. Mills says, "The worse it is
beaten in argument, the stronger it is
fortified in prejudice" If, as is every
where asserted in any of the forty oil
fifty American Constitutions that have
been promulgated, self-government is
a natural and inherent right, then does
it pertain to every human being alike
and no argument under the heavens
can ever prove to an enlightened woman
that her right to self-government is not
as good and natural as that of man
This is our only plea. There is nc
question whether she deserves it. There
is no question whether she is capable o
using it well. The only question is
whether it is right to have justice
and, in this country, justice cannot ex
ist without equality of privilege. This
was conceded without a question to thu
negro. He was not asked to prove him
self capable of voting before the right t,
vote was granted. He was not asked t,
show that it would be the better 70
him if he could vote. Every intelli
gent American citizen knew that with
out asking. He was not even asked t.
say he wanted to vote; but it wa
thrust upon him, along with his free
dom. And thus should it be wit
woman. Her right to choose her ruler
shohld be given her without question
, of its expediency, trusting, as in tn
case of the negro, in the power of justic
to protect her children in the right.
: 1t is said that the effects of giving
woman the ballot will be evil and injU
n rious; bnt no argument can ever prov
O this position. Nothing but trial-fu
!. and thorough trial-can do it. Nothin
: else can ever test the fallacy of the a.
4 guments of our opposers, or the truth {
. our position. And nothing but trii
:. will ever satisfy the thousands of ovel
, burdened, self-supporting women VIII
A. have so long groaned under their load
D. disadvantages. Nothing is surer
convert woman to the cause of suHras
!. than to find herself thrown upon IN
own resources for support, and to fir
how unjust is law and custom whenev,
er she is obliged to appeal to either. An
t. yet, we are compelled to argue oI
ce cause over and over with many wome
in that we meet, and present what seem
r. us to be self-evident truths, to persol
G. who are our superiors in culture al
J. judgment on almost every other su
d, ject. We feel convinced that all that
F. necessary for many such persons is
ry give their attention to the subject, al
they will speedily find that it is co
ir, trary to the spirit of our government
a. deny the right of suffrage to any one
he its law-abiding citizens.
'es The most stubborn of our opponeu
". among our own sex will assert that 9
he has right to her opinion, and that,
ess she does not wish to vote, she has
,al right to say so. How can she do IL
cd in any public sense, but by Uoti
against her own right to vote, there