The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-07-03
TIE DOMESTIC OUTLOOK.

first began to unroll its written and un-
written pages for the human eye and
heart to scan and study, has there been
known to exist as much domestic inse-
curity aud inharmony as now. Men are
very slowly and very obstinately COM
pretending the important fact that in
dividual property in wives is an imag-
mary heritage. And, as tyranny never
dies without a struggle, and often not
without bloodshed, the horror Of wife
killing seems TO have become imbued |
with a new impetus, causing the DEATH
grip of wife ownership to release its hold
quite frequently through the demise Of
the victim.
It is often urged by men who oppose
the enfranchisement of women, as an /
argument in favor Of their position, that
the woman movement causes domestic /
discord. If such opponents would but
use the gift of reason, well tempered
with philosophical judgment, they
would readily discover the fact that
there can be no domestic discord with
out there first exists cause for it.
"For melting domestic insurrection
among u.s." was one Of the complaints
against the domination OF Great Brit
ain, which was urged by the revolu-
tionists of hundred years ago. This
grievance is to-day being urged by
women as the primal motive which
prompts them to demand their civil and
political liberty. There was a time in
the history of the mother country when
men among the common people had not
yet learned to understand that their in
alienable prerogatives were just as sa-
cred, just as innate and just as necessary
as were the natural prerOgstives Of those
who, through human power, ruled over
them. But by aud by, with the progress
of intellectual enlightenment, the di-
vine fact that "all men were created
equal" dawned upon the subjugated
millions. Then began their famous
struggle for civil aud political liberty.
One by one, as they could get away
from their lawful Oppressors, they
crossed the high seas and took up their
abode in the North American wilder
ness, choosing rather to risk the possi-
bility Of being murdered by savages or
devoured by wild beasts than to longer
sin against the gospel Of light and
knowledge, which is the gospel of indi-
vidual liberty and innate self-owner-
ship.
This struggle for individual liberty is
nothing new. It has always been going
on in some form or other, and just now
it is taking the decided shape OF domes-
tic discord in its efforts to assert its
God-given existence. Wives are learn
ing that they belong primarily to them
selves; that their conjugal relations are
secondary to their individual entity;
that no man, husbands not excepted,
has the natural right to subjugate any
person to his supreme dictation; that all
such dictation is tyranny, and that re-
sistance to tyranny is obedience to God.
Whenever women learn this divine les
son, they conscientiously endeavor to
erty without incurring domestic inhar-
mony, and many Of them, after a hard
struggle, have conquered both the tyr
amy and the discord. Others, IL is true,
have nothing of the kind to conquer, for
their husbands are individually superior
to the law of the:land, and, being law
unto themselves, have never given
cause for conjugal discomfort But it is
not of these that we are treating now,
though it must be admitted that all
such stand in the way as stumbling
blocks, if they are not far-sighted
enough to see beyond their own self-in-
terests, and philanthropic enough to de-
sire for others, less fortunately situated
than themselves, the fullest compile
ment of personal prerogatives which
they individually enjoy.
The masses Of women whose eyes
4 have been opened to an understanding
Of their own selfhood have encountered
law and custom, conjugal tyranny and
q financial oppression, which are lying
E like lions in their paths. And so they
are fighting not marriage, but injustice;
not the domestic relation, but the unjust
Z usages that make husband and wife
, one, aud that one the husband. They
have learned that one in marriage liter
ally and justly means both. The aver
S age husband will not willingly concede
this fact, and, having law and custom
and money aud influence TO back him,
his power in the domestic relation
r seems absolute; hence the discord. 1t is
! not the movement for woman's liberty
that makes the trouble in families, but
e it is the opposition TO it that causes the
: disturbance. Had men not been op-
posed in their struggle for liberty by
the powers that existed under English
D monarchical domination, they would
not have found it necessary to brave the
terrors Of the North American wilder
ness in order to secure to themselves
E their own inalienable prerogatives.
? And had not the spirit Of governmental
{ ownership pursued these seekers after
? freedom, and claimed their liberties as
J its own, there would have been no revo-
: lutionary war. The present domestic
insurrection, which Woman Sufragists
every here deplore, is a revolutionary
war against conjugal usurpation. It is