The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-04-27
INHERENT RIGHTS.

INHERENT RIGHTS.
at is not strange that thoughtful
women all over the land are demanding
equal rights in this enlightened age"
said quiet but earnest advocate of free
dom, who moves in the higher circles
of society at the Capital city. "This
demand is not strange, but it is strange
that the age so lacks in justice and en-
lightenment as to render the demand
necessary"
This feeling of establishment is shared
by all who pause and consider the ques-
ton in even its simplest bearings.
Inseparabe from the human soul and
essential to its needs is the sublime
Consciousness of self-hood and its inher-
ent rights. a consciousness of duty is
followed by a sense of the right to do
what that duty enjoins according to the
best Judgment, and then comes the con-
victiOn that no will or power can ob-
struct moral action without Injustice
not to say crime. There is in the hu-
man soul no deeper or more sublime
feeling than the consciousness of rights:
The expressions Of the ages have been
powerless to eradicate it, and the voice
of scorn incapable of Sitting its utter
anees.
An inalienable right to ''life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness" is the
heritage from the Giver of all good to
all of woman born. Possessed as she is
of the mental and moral capacity to
think and to reason-an individual
whose destiny whether for good or for
i'll is largely in her own hands-why is
it that woman is denied rights which
are declared to be inalienable? Why,
but because man has usurped power
over her, arrogating to himself the
moulding of her destiny.
ThefOllOwing propositions, we believe,
will be affirmed by every one whose
mouth is not sealed by prejudice, or
opened by ignorance and arrogance:
Every woman has right to exercise
and invigOrate her intellect" "To OBJ
struct or quench the intellectual life in
another, inficts a grievous and irrepar-
able wrong" Every woman has right
to inquire into her duty and to perform
it according to her best perceptions of
the obligations and responsibilities it
imposes. She has a right to an equiva-
lent for her labor; a right to voice in
the manner in which her tax-money is
expended; a right to individual owner
ship and the disposal of her own earn
ings. All of these inherent rights are
denied to her.
Those of our sisters who have been
brave enough and just enough and
righteous enough to demand that these
usurpations shall cease and these great
wrongs be righted, have been scornfully
designated as malcontents who would
fly into the face of nature for creating
them women; all they ask is to be con-
sidered human beings and allowed the
inalienable rights that belong to them
as such. The intelligent masses of
American women are not willing slaves,
although moiety of them perhaps are
silent ones, yet
" Dear to them as freedom is,
And in their hearts just estimation
Priced above all price,"
They are still doomed by the intoler-
ance of custom, the thick maze of preiu-
dice, and the stubborn barricade of sell
fshness to plead with those who by ac-
cident of their sex are women's political
masters, for a recognition ofrights which
the laws of nature and Of God alike de-
clare to be inherent to every human
being. 1t would be strange, indeed, if
the stronger spirits among women did
not exelaim against this tyranny, and
with protestation, logical and earnest,
attempt to put it down, while their
weaker sisters observe and deplore it
not the less, but lacking courage, live
and die ID silence.