The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-05-04
Selfhood VS.. SerVitude.
BY ELIZABETH cApY STANTON


The degradation of woman in a nation
where aristocracy is based on sex has
always been to me the most humiliat-
ing feature in our condition. The idea
that all classes of men, black and white,
foreign and native, washed and un-
washed, learned and unlearned, drunk
and sober, old and young, are the judges,
rulers, lawmakers, bishops, priests,
Heavens law-givers for all women,
their superiOrs in so many of the cardi-
nal virtues, in self-discipline, self-sacri-
flee and spiritual insight, would be
laugbable if the absurdity of the posi-
tion were not so terribly demoralizing to
both sexes alike.
Think of ignorant immigrants land
ing on our shores, born and bred under
the despotisms of the old world, with
their vague ideas of human rights, and
woman's in particular, accustomed to
see her harnessed with a cow before the
plOw, bearing heavy burdens, while the
man walks leisurely by her side, coming
to this Republic to be our sovereigns;
to fasten on our necks the yOkes they
have just thrown off their own. And
trying as this is, after all, what these
ignorant foreigners may say or do, in
expressing their contempt for woman,
Is not half so aggravating as to have ed
GIcdted Englishmen and Germans come
here, and oppose wOman's demands for
political equality, and assume to teach
American women their "sphereu As
if our Declaration of Independence in
1776, and that first shot at Lexington
that went round the world had not set
tied the question of individual spheres
long before the sound fell on their dull
ears. And in no place is woman's sub
lection more Extensively set forth than
in those ecclesiastical councils that denv
woman the right to enter their theOlog-
ical seminaries, or to be ordained for
the ministry, and base their own love
of power, selfishness and narrow mind
edness on the will of God and the teach
ings of the Bible. The moral effect of
what men in high positions say and do
has its influence for good or evil on all
classes of mind. When the laws and
religion of the country made the black
man legal bondman, a Heaven-or-
dained slave, he was a pariah every
where, but with the ballot in his hand
he opened the college doors, the courts,
the halls of legslation; the crown and
scepter of sovereignty were his, aud he
walked with new safety and dignity on
the earth.
Even so the sentiments of bishops,
Judges aud statesmen in regard to wom-
an are felt in all circles of social life.
Denied political equality, she, too, is a
pariah everywhere. The contempt ex-
pressed in high places is seen in the
overt acts of the lower order, in the
haunts of vice, the streets, the highwa
You scarce take up a paper without
reading the report of some terrible out
rage on womanhOod; the young girl,
picking flowers by the roadside on her
way to school, and the matron, saunter-
ing through the meadow on her way to
church, are alike the victims of brute
force.
You cannot find an order of men so
lawless as TO break into our cathedrals,
desecrate the altars, toss about the ele-
ments of the sacrament, because they
have all alike been educated into a holy
reverence for these TEN piles of the Lord.
And is not the mother of the race, as a
factor in civilization, more than tenn
Piles, altars, or sacraments? Yet, where
shall we look for lessons of honor and
reverence Tor iier.
Common minds cannot appreciate the
ethics and philosophy of woman's equal
ity, all that it signifies, lis transform
ing influence on man, woman and So
cietyi but they eau Understand what
ballot means in republic; they can
feel its leveling influence. When Pat
rick and Hans walk to the polls with
their wives, a new idea of the dignity of
these women enters their heads as no
arguments could. When graduates
from Princeton ascend their pulpits to
preach to congregations of women who
called them to their position, who will
have word to say about their salaries,
aud as to the taxes on church property,
they will be very careful not to preach
to them about subsection. They will
find it good policy to liberalize their
views on doubtful passages of Scripture
as to woman's position, just as they
nave for the negrO's, since the first gun
at Sumpter blew away the theological
cobwebs on slavery, that obscured the