The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-06-29
Are Women Entitled to the Right of
Suffrage.

been said and written upon the subject,
public opinion still seems averse to grant
ing to women this valuable prerogative ex-
cept iu limited degree, and then only as
to one or two matters which have little or
no political significance. In educational
affairs, perhaps majority of intelligent
people would concede their fitness both to
vote and to hold Office. This, however, is
simply thing of education and instruc-
ton, for which any reasonably well edu-
Gated woman is possibly as well qualified
as a man, and in some cases better than
most men.
But tie matter Of education, or the lack
Of it, has, in this country, had little to do
with the right Of suffrage, Voting, as q
political right, has always been based upon
manhood, or more properly speaking upon
masculinity. Conclusive evidence Of that
fact is seen in the giving of the right Of
suffrage to male citizens alone whether
educated or otherwise, and notably in en-
franchising the colored race, of whom
a large majority do not possess even the
first rudiments of an education.
Neither does property holding seem to
have any greater weight than the lack of
an educational test. What proportion of
the voters of this country are property
holders we will not undertake to estimate,
it is sufficient to say that in the present
state of unlimited manhood suffrage,
those who possess very little or no
property generally outvote the property
holders, and that it is numbers
and not property which really decides
matters Of taxation and the assumption of
public burdens. Women who acquire
property and pay taxes, even though they
are not entitled to vote, are therefore in
reality in no worse condition than men who
are property holders and tax payers but
are in a minority as compared with those
who have little or nothing to be taxed
1t is not easy to see any benefit to accrue
from the enlargement of suffrage irrespec-
tive Of sex to the property holders and tax
payers, unless the right of suffrage should
be restricted by property qualification;
otherwise it would be only an enlargement
of the voting element without material
improvement of its pervading quality.
As neither property qualification, OF
an educational test, have been considered
by our people an essential, or at least ar
indispensable element of suffrage, it follows
that We must seek elsewhere for the deter.
mining cause why woman has not beer
heretofore allowed, aud is still denied, the
right of electoral suffrage
The diferentid Of sex and the insur
mountable consequences attendant upor
physical causes have always been the
potential and uubending reasons for deny
ing to woman personal participation iu po
litical suffrage. Woman is denied thu
ballot, to use the language Of another
because "a mans vote is the index Of I
force lying behind the vote; a woman
vote would have no corresponding fore
behind it." 1t is in the masculine ele
ment that the force is found which con
stitutes a governing element. The rea
center of power and governmental agenc
is in that which represents the force
really governing. 1t is contended
using the language of the opponents Q
female suffrage, that ''the masculin
is the only sex from which soldier
aud police are taken-or in other words
the class Of force or the governing ele
ment,-and therefore the male sex alon
should be admitted to elective franchise
1t must be admitted by even the "SoroSiS
that comparatively very few females hay
masculine tendencies, and that anon
civilized people the gentlcr sex for tn
most part naturally prefer the ways {
peace and domestic lie, the management
of household affairs, and the privileges an
duties peculiar to their sex, rather ;ha
aggressive, combattive. political and maj
tial pursuits such as men are continual
engaged in.
With due Difference then, we submit t,
those who are asking the bestowment {
suffrage upon women these plain questions
whether the possession could possibl
change the consequences which inevitabl
follow the distinctive characteristics {
sex; whether it would in any essenti
degree alter the natural relations and col
ditions of the sexes towards each othel
and whether in fact it would at all tend
increase womans usefulness, or enlarge I'll
means Of her individual happiness.
not, then to what profit, or to what essel
tial good would it contribute?
The deeper and more reconcile questic
Of whether suffrage is merely an artifc
arrangement instituted for the purpose
obtaining proper constituency wit
which to lodge the elective and law makir
power Of a country; or whether it is
natural and inalienabe right inherent
in every adult member of the body polit
without distinction of race, color, sex,
previous condition of servitude; is or
that we have not even attempted
trench upon, and the limits Of this arlicI
will not permit its discussion at this time
nevertheless we are Of the opinion that
is the paramount question to which q
others usually urged for and against ii
subject are merely Incidental and sui
sidiary.
The Chief Justice VS. The zealots.