The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-06-03
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
Addresses by Rev. Olympia Brown and
Others.

|
day afternoon.
The meeting was called to order by the Rev
Dr. MeKeown, who introduced the Rev. Olym
pia Brown. Mrs. Brown said it was with grea
| pleasure she spoke of woman's suffrage in
this grand old State of Maine to which for
long years she had looked to lead in all re-
forms, and in coming up to this state she had
felt hope Interest in one reform led to inter
est in all, and as Maine had led in temperance
she looked for it again in the van. But there
could be no reform worth having in temper
ance or any other cause until woman had the
power to do more than talk; that she &C.
knowledged was power but a small one.
Without suffrage our most fervent convictions
upon temperance or kindred reforms were but
vain talk. What signifies it to beseech the
liquor dealer with tears in your eyes, to beg
him to spare your father or husband, when
there is no power of law behind your voice.
Until the moral voice of woman is sustained
by the power of the ballot her work will avail
little. This may seem to many an absurd
statement, but behind the power of the ballot
stands the peace of home. The church is up
held by women. She appealed to DR.. Nc
Keown if he did not find women his most eff
Gent workers. She needs the ballot to give
dignity to her work in the church, in charities
in the home, that her children may recognize
q responsible citizen of the commonwealth in
their mother, and may respect the power be-
hind her opinion. For women to have ballots
means better hired girls And perhaps the
best thing to be said over the whole land is
this wall of Incompetence of hired girls; every
where the hired girl is vexed question. What
is the trouble? have studied the question
and have also experience; what they need is
self-respect and intelligence When they have
the ballot they will be respected. They are
desplsed because they have no power before
the law. The church, the home, the hired
girls all need the ballot. AS for the state,
that is self evident. That Conkling is over
thrown is well; if others follow it will be bet
ter. When men with the interest of govern
ments in their charge cannot see above their
own petty claims and interests it is time that
women who love their country, who have
studied her history and followed her with their
prayers are allowed to be heard by the ballot.
1t IS lncomprehensible that in this land of lib
erty woman, patriotic and far-seeing should be
kept with no voice in the disposal of her inter-
ests.
have heard it said that in New England,
that in Maine, there is no definite opposition
to women's voting; no reason that they do not
vote but their own indifference. Don't let
them have that excuse; rouse up, stand as one
woman and make the demand, and give no
man peace until he sees you are in earnest
Don't let your husband dream you are indif-
ferent: make them all know you are in dead
earnest, and that there will be peace until you
have the right of suffrage You are we'll cared
for; you are comfortably housed, clothed and
fed, but is this all? Do you care for nothing
beyond; have you no interest in the questions
that now agitate the nation of liberty? You
may have all liberty, but even around you are
many in homes filled with comforts that have
not; that dare not for the strife it would make
speak OF suffrage. Are you not willing to
speak for them? Don't be selfish; selfishness
is the original sin. Women need to break
from this selfishness, to think less of their own
who is still at great disadvantage Come out
OF yourselves, consider the question today.
You cannot afford to be Indifferent. 1t has an
intimate relation to every affair in life. The
more you study the more it will come home to
you. The necessity is laid upon you and woe
upon you if you do not proclaim this gospel.
Miss Anthony, Mrs Merriweather and Miss
Foster spoke pointedly and pIeasingly.
Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage, editor of the Ma
tional Citizen and Ballot Box, spoke upon CEN
tralization, showing that there were two kinds;
one that secures and defends liberty, the other
that endangers liberty. She declared the ac-
knowledged principles of the national govern
ment to be first, that Of self-government; sec
ond, that while all questions of local interest
should be under the control of the states, all
questions of general or common interest should
be guaranteed and protected by the general
government, bringing all her arguments to
bear upon the necessity of a xvIth amendment
to the national constitution which should de-
clare the right of suffrage to inhere in the
citizen of the United States, leaving with
states the power to regulate, but not to pro-
hibit as they now did III case of women. She
showed the dangerous kind of Capitalization to
be state central iZation, which controlled such
matters as the laying out of roads or building
bridges, and which had grown to such enorm-
ty that action had been taken in some states to
limit this power. The most dangerous power
of states was that which allowed each of the
IS separate states to control the governmental
rights of women. Suppose certain states should
make a provision that only such person should
use or be employed in the postal service, every
woman would see the tyranny, and yet they
are deprived of the rights of self-goyernment
by the introduction Of the word such in its
constitution. She then reviewed the govern
ment of the country from its beginning aud
showed how Capitalization had benefited it.
She accused the Republican party of not hav-
ing lived up to the results of the war; that
they had become the great state rights party,
and that Senator Conkling and Platts defec-
tion from the United States Senate was as
much an act of secession as the withdrawal of
civil war.
About 600 persons assembled in City Hall
at the evening session, the majority being
women.
Prayer was offered by Rev. Olympia
Brown. Mr.. A. j. Grover of Chicago was the
first speaker. He spoke briefly, contrasting
the movement for the acknowledgements of
women to the antislayery movement and pre-
dicted that the time is not far distant when
the names of Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and
the noble women who have labored so long for
the elevation of their sex will be held in as sa.
Parker and Phillips.
Mrs. Merriwether of Tennessee commenced
by saying that she had been told that the press
in Portland, with the exception of the Argus,
favored woman suffrage. She assured the
audience that in the South the Democratic
press as we'll as the Republican was largely in
favor of the movement. The assertion that
the principles of the Bible were opposed to the
equality of woman ,she pronounced untrue,
and quoted extracts from Genesis to sustain
her assertion. The burden of her discourse.
which consumed nearly an hour, was devoted
to an exhaustive arrangement of Blackstone's
commentaries. She denounced the heresy
and gypsy laws, and said their ghosts still wan
dered in our halls of legislation. Her remarks
were desultory, illogical, and not even remote
ly connected with the subject at issue.
Rev. Olympia Brown Of Wisconsin was the
next speaker. Mrs. Brown is petite lady of
pleasing and scholarly address. Her remarks,
keen, logical and incisive, were delivered with
almost perfect elocution, commanding the I'M
divided attention of the audience. She began
by quoting from Lincoln a commentator on
the works and principles of Jefferson. The
axioms contained in the immortal Declaration
of independence should be written in letters
of gold upon the banners of the Republic Our
great danger as nation lies not in the extern
sion but in the restriction of the right of suf-
frage.
She made an earnest plea for universal suf-
frage in its highest significance. The doors of
the temple of liberty should be open to all, ir-
respective of race, religion or sex. The broad
er the foundation of the Union the more en-
during will be the superstructule The very
class who to-day cry out against universal suf-
frage-the great merchants and bankers of our
cities-owe their very existence and prosperity
to the principles which they SO bitterly de-
nounce. Such men are the enemies of the re-
public which, founded by Washington, Adams
and Jefferson. will endure forever only when
the ship of State is guided by the beacon of
universal suffrage. Mrs. Brown claimed that
the ballot is q priceless heritage. that this Gov