The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-03-08
1.-THE NEW CONSTITUTION. -

Our neighbOrs "over the line" are
very busily engaged just now in plan
ming for their admission into the Union
as the sovereign State of Washington.
There are, among those who are agitat-
ing this measure, a few mans rights
fossils, one Of whom, under a cloak of
piety as thin as it is fiimsy, efervesces
on the suffrage question in the Van
couver Independent, as follows:
"He the pauper) ought not to be put
down along with idiots and insane peo-
pie, for what if man is poor and out Of
luck? In this free country poverty is
no crime. In this new country
We can't well afford to disfranchise any
white male citizens, although they be
poor as Jobs turkey" Then, by way of
exhibiting his inconsistency, this brave
defender Of paupers' rights in "free"
country says he does not think "the
good people of Washington Territory
will allow so hurtful a measure as
Woman Suffrage to be put in their con-
stitution." The reason he gives for its
"hurtfulnessn being the hackneyed one
that "the Creator never designed wom-
an should occupy the same sphere with
men," Now, although this vapid nom
sense has been over and over again dis
PEELED before the breath Of logic, we will
stoop to argue yet a little longer with
the self-appOinted arbiters of womRn's
sphere, who believe the Creator cannot
manage the creatures of the purer sex
unless the manacles Of mems political
power be upon them. If God never de-
signed men and women for the same
sphere, why did he put husbands, wives,
brothers, and sisters in the same family?
Did he not create men "male and fe-
male" giving to them, and not to her,
dominion over all the edTtbP
The writer further informs US that
women must beput down with idiots and
insane persons because they are "differ-
emily organized from men," This start
ling announcement sounds strangely
familiar, but it proves nothing, except
the necessity that this different element
should not be put down, but compose
One-half of the body polite, in order to
complete a perfect whole, as in the
home, and in society.
The pauper has different sphere from
the farmer, but our writer thinks it
would be unfair to disfranchise him for
simply being "out of luck" Yet he
sees no injustice in disfranchising wom-
an for being, in his eyes, tout of luck"
also. Poverty is no political crime, but,
according to his logic, sex is a very
heinous one, if it happens to belong to
the feminine order. "a woman's life,"
he tells US, 'shOuld be devoted to home
duties and the care of children, and not
TO the affairs of government"
The thousands of mothers of men who
have devoted their lives to the rearing
Of large families to rise up and bless
them in their present strike for liberty
need not 10 be reminded that rearing
men is woman's work. But how are
women to be keepers at home" unless
they have homes 10 keep? How many
women does this same writer supply
with homes, so they may have no need
Of other employment than keeping
them?
He also takes a decided stand against
taxing the churches, saying, taxing
them, if not like killing the goose that
lays the golden egg, is at least like
starving them very MUCH" Now, we
should like to hear from him about tax
ing women, whom he denies the right
to vote. Would he be as consistent
with them as he is liberal with the pau
per who has no taxes to pay? He says
that "woman has done a noble work for
the whole race in her God-appointed
sphere" We presume no sensible per-
son will deny this, nor that it rebounds
to her glory that she has so done, but
we submit the declaration that her
man-appointed sphere has not been a
success, nor never will be, so long as
there is a political rabble" to make
laws for her 10 obey, which she is taxed
without representation to sustain.
Woman does not believe in political
rabbles," and one of her very first acts
as voter will be to disperse them by
the very charm Of her presence at the
polls, as she now does at the church. the
post office, the leeture-room, and in the
home. Mans opinion to the contrary
Notwithstanding, we must reiterate the
oft-repeated declaration that the Gre
ator made no mistake when he saw and
said that ''it was not good for man to
be alone" And if the new constitution
Of Washington shall be in harmony
with Gods law, we may depend upon it
the women will be enfranehised in .
preference to the paupers whom they
are taxed to support.
Godey's LGdy's Book for March is Oh
our table. It is magnificent numbar