Litchfield enquirer., 1879-03-06
From The Hartford Evening Post.] THE ABSURD SCHEME OF WOMAN ...,.s- }yge SUFFRAGE. e5 a.

discusses at considerable length the question whether the family 4s the basis of the State taking the affirmative, and intending the ar ticle as reply to one by the present writer in The Courant few days before. The point,of course, is whether the family is the political basis of the State, and not merely it's mGterial and Ds0a0l basis, which is conceded /; that is, whether the principle of Republican govern nent requires that each fanaily and not each s,.diotdstGl have vote. l do not care to dis cuss the question. but merely to say CD that the practice of every known representative government has been to have individuals and not families vote; and CD that if it is the family and not the individual that sbould vote. then woman suffrage necessarily follows-as where there is no man in family, but only widow and daughters, or young sons, the widow must cast the vote. Woman suffrage being the. in- evitable result of family voting, it surely is point that the woman suffragists are willing to see your correspondent maintain, and if he can, establish.
 But there is remark of his that calls for more extended notice, and to that will con- fine myself. He says: ''The absurd scheme of woman suffrage germinated in some fanci- full brain" We have, then, his authority (high authority, judge from the learning he shows) that woman suffrage $ 0n absurd tde0. Let us see what he has to trample upon in coming to this conclusion.
 And, first, the experience of Great Britain. It is now about ten years since women were admitted to the franchise there, in every re- spect except voting for members of Parliament, and the present discussion in England is wholly upon extending theirfranchise so as to embrace that right. DIsraeli declares himself in fla yor of it, and Gladstone says twill be granted soon. Two hundred and twenty members of Parliament voted for it, and Sir John D. Cole ridge, then Attorney General, said in public meeting that it was sure to be granted, and that as to the suffrage already granted no one thought of such a thing as repeal of the law. A petition to Parliament for full suffrage to women was signed by 300, 900 women of the kingdom: What pity that the writer of your article could not go over and put stop to it all by informing Gladstone and Lord Bea- consfeld that the whole idea is absurd, for they and the people of England have not thought of that important fact.
 And second, The experience of Austria, since 1864; of Sweden, for about the same time; of Russia in her towns; and of the city of Ham, burg, where women have been allowed to vote for many years. Why will not our friend hurry at once to these benighted regions and inform the people that the idea is absurd?
 And, third, The experience of Wyoming in our own country. Hon. N. l.. Andrews,
  writes, under date of January 16, 1879, that he came to the territory with the strongest possible prejudice against woman suffrage" :" but that, ''under all my observations it has worked well, been productive of much good and no evil that have been able to Ob- serve." He then goes on to say "1n my opinion the real lth-giving remedy that would counteract the political degeneracy of the age, would be the ballot in the hands of the women of every state and territory" And again "If good government be the ultiInatum sought by civilized people, see no safer, wis CT, or better way of securing that object than by the ballot in the hands of weman." He also believes "that the time must soon come when woman suffrage must of necessity be- come universal throughout our country"
 The Boston Post (Democratic) publishes the foregoing letter in full, and says editorially that the writer, ''is Democrat of ability and standing" and that the letter is reinforce ment of no small value' to the advocates of woman suffrage. Will not your friend write Speaker Andrews at once, and let him know the all important fact, which he seems to have overlooked, that the idea of woman suffrage is absurd?
 A Wyoming lady writes to the Boston Her aid that ''n the legislature of 1875 (the eXper- iment had been then tried four years) only 
 he was an incorporate man and defaulter. This man made motion to repeal the act, but no one would second it and he was actually hooted down." What a chance for our friend to have sent a postal card to every member with the all-impOrtant information over his own name, that the idea of woman suffrage is absurd!
 And lastly, in making the assertion that he does, he has to put himself in antagonism to the opinions of some of the best thinkers and wisest men of Christendom.
 Herbert Spencer says: 1.-The giving of po- litieal power to women. being required by the law of equal freedom, such concess- ion is unquestionably right and good" Prof. Newman of University College, London, ap- peals to the women of England thus: ''To claim purely domestic status disables you for contest against odious enormties, pregnant with fraud, cruelty and social decay. Such modesty is not womanly sensitiveness it is rather to be called ao0naGnSsh se!tsbneSs. I implore you, ladies, in the cause of the wretch ed and injured. and to quell that licentiousness which is the ruinFof great nations, arise and claim your rightful position in the State l"
 might fill your paper with strong passages from English writers and speakers in favor of woman suffrage. Among it's living advocates are Florence Nightingale, whom all the world admires for her heroic labors in the hospitals during the Crimean war, Rev. Dr. Temple, Rev. Frederick B. Maurice Prof. Amos, Claw professor of London Universally, Lord and Lady Amberly, Prof. Fawcett, M. F., Jacob Bright, M. F., Disraeli (of whom Prof New man says that 'he supported the bill with a zeal quite astonishing, , and many other lead ing names Among it's advocates recently de- ceased are Rev. Charles Kingsley, John s. Mill, Harriet Martineau and Mrs. Somerville, the last of whom was unsurpassed as an as- tronomer, while Miss Martineau's g books on po- litical economy are text books of instruction to-day. How strange that none of them ever happened in some inspired moment to discover that the very idea they were urging was G6- s1rd What a pity that our friend could not have gone abroad and dropped the hint into the ear of some one of them! s.f yss
 These are foreign authorities. We have host of our own. Abraham Lincoln says in a published letter: Il go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing it's burdens, by no means excluding women." Benjamin Franklin said Free dom consists in having an actual share in the appointment of those who frame the laws They who have no voice nor vote in the elect ing of representatives do not enjoy liberty, but are absolutely enslaved to those who have votes and to their representatives" Senator Anthony of Rhode Island says: "1f women are fit to rule in monarchies, it is difficult to say why they are not qualified to vote in a republic" Bishop Simpson (M. E. Church) says T believe that the great vices in our large cities will never be conqured until the ballot is put into the hands of women" Mrs. H. B. Stowe says: "I think the State can no more afford to dispense with the votes of wo- men in it's affairs than the family" George William Curtis says: "Women have quite as much influence in good government as men, and have never heard or read of any satisfactory reason for excluding them from the ballot-b box" Gov. Talbot of Massachusetts in his recent message said: ''The claims of women ts the right of suffrage have too firm a basis in natural justice to be thrust lightly aside.' Rev. James Freeman Clarke of Bos- ton, one of the ablest men in the State, says: ''I do not think our politics will be what they ought till women are legislators and voters.'' Rev. George W. Boardman, a leading Baptist clergyman of Philadelphia, in very thought ful work published by him, says incidentally, America. s salvation lies under God in Amer ica's women. It is precisely because I desire