Litchfield enquirer., 1879-06-12

of 3, 1000 or 1, ,0O0 people can take fourteen of
 her frail subjects to the ballot box in her fine carriage at an election-as has been done in Wyoming more than once-how many, think
 you, would swarm around the polls in all our
 large cities of the East This is an interest
 ing state of things, indeed, for decent people
 to contemplate It is but short time since that the writer Wyoming pastor bemoaning the state of things in his parish, as follows: Here" said he, ''are many licensed saloons going seven days in the week at full blast: and there are so many houses of prostitution some of them within stones throw of my church-and the finest and most costly houses in town at that and there are so many gam bling hells besides; and what is more there is
 no check whatever, he added, 'put upon them by our civil authorities, but they have every thing their own way,-and what can I do ?"
 And what is true in this instance is true in others and yet the witnesses speak of the
 wonderful effect' of woman suffrage, and
 assert with an apparently sublime indifference
 to some of the most important facts in the
 case that in ''every particular" it has been a complete success!" The most wonderful" | thing about this whole matter it that people in | their right minds can make such statements ]! | It is astounding that with every sluice-way of | vice and crime running to the full before their | eyes, without one step ever having been taken to have it otherwise, as they we'll know. With good people bemoaning their sad and ut terly helpless state in this regard, before the
 law and before the moral tribunal of the pub
 lie, with the notorious fact staring them in the face, that not one political reform has ever
 been effected or even publicly attempted at the
 ballot box for ten years, notwithstanding it's high-sounding and long repeated premses-it is astounding beyond measure, that any body ! can come again and again before the public with such cool, not to say groundless, asser- | tlons as these! And we cannot account for this only on the suppostion that their bitter and abusive personalities having been so effec- tive in the past, they conclude that no one will | presume at this late day to call in question | anything they may say. The ehly complete" | thing about this whole matter appears to be it's
 ''complete" failure CD It promised to puri- fly politics. But thas 'failed, utterly failed' | to do so On the contrary it has introduced | to the ballot box and into politics the worst
 and most corrupting element which has ever | cursed civilized society in all the worlds his- | tory, viz the brothel element. (2) It has | promised great moral reforms. But in this l respect, too, it has 'failed," ignominiously
 failed" without ever having struck so much | as one effective blow in that direction. On | the other hand by its new deal, it has, thus | far, rendered such reforms far more difficult of | accomplishment than ever before, if not alto gether impossible. C3) It has promised to | elevate the standard of moral and social life. But in this, also, it has 'failed," disastrously
 failed" SO that the last state is worse than the first" Some of the calmest and most dis
 passionate citizens of Wyoming, who have
 watched it from the beginning, have solemnlY
 declared that in their opinion it's influence has been to lower the standard of morals rather than to elevate it-that by it's treatment of
 certain classes of voters it has tended to make | vice respectable, instead of odious, as it ought
 to be. (4.) Woman's suffrage promises eff ciency to civil government in the execution of
 law. In this again it has ''failed," grievously
 :failed." It has done no such thing; and all l the special pleadings and degmatic assertions imaginable can show nothing of the kind. On
 the contrary, it is clearly apparent from what
 has been presented that it has paralyZed civil
 governmet in dealing with some of the great est crimes against society. Politicians who
 want votes know what is here meant. The
 absurdity of this promise is yet further seen in
 tue fact that the one essential quality which can give efficiency to civil government, viz:
 physical strength in force, woman does not
 possess, and therefore from the nature and
 necessities she is unftted and could never have
 been designed to take part in the rough and
 often violent affairs of civil government. To | talk of Rights, in view ot such utter unfit
 ness, is simply to talk nonsense, either in this connection or any other. (5) This Reform" has promised to elevate woman and enlarge
 her sphere of usefulness Here, too, truth re- quires the record to be made that it has
 failed" utterly ''failed," and we challenge
 it's best friends to show to the contrary or to
 name one thing in which it has been realized.
 On the contrary some in Wyoming who for
 merly voted, have come to see that it's influ-
 ;o oL k>l Io tho,, A4 olo
 vate, that they have refused to have anything
 more to do with it. While in Utah, it's whole
 influence has clearly been to strengthen and
 perpetuate one of the basest and vilest systems on earth, and to bind women in the chains of vassaage and serfdom worse than that of the dark ages. The testimony of every "Gentle" and true American in that Territory is a unit on this point.
 Thus it appears that the only ''complete" thing about woman's suffrage, thus far, is it's
 compete" failure and this in ''every partic- ular." The facts which we have gathered on
 the ground over and over again-which our own eyes have witnessed, and our own ears have heard from many of the most reliable
 men and women of all professions and callings and parties and walks in life-have settled the question in the writer's judgment, beyond all controversy, that thus far it has done no real good, has fulfilled none of its promises, while it has introduced elements of corruption, and accomplished more evil already than it can undo in a time if ever at all,
 In closing the article of the 25th ultimo the
 "true" philanthropist speaks of the extensive exercise of suffrage by the women, in the recent school elections in New Hampshire, etc. In reply to this writer in recent article in the Boston Congregationalist tells very diff ferent story. Instead of it's being extensive he show from facts and figures that it was
 very meagre, and that in fifty towns or more there were no women voters at all The same indifference is manifested in other States. In Colorado, for example, in the city of Denver, a place of at least 10000 people, only four women were found recently who cared enough about 1t to go out and vote. All of which goes to show that Charles Sumner was right when he said that ''the gratest body of our American women do not want the ballot," and further that all the outcry about this mat ter is a delusion and a humbug. B.