Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1882-04-20
I HE REPORTER.
Official County Paper.
Grand Rapids, April 20, 80.
EQUAL SUFFRAGE.

ton, Delipered March /, 1852 an the
Wisconsin Senate.
Why should one-half of any people
be permitted to frame and administer
government, to which the excluded
half must yield allegiance?
Where does this favorite half derive
its authority?
Do we not all hold, and admit, that
ali governments to be just must 'derive
their JUST power from the consent OF
the governed 2"
"Where, [ ask, have the women oil
our land ever consented to existing
forms of government?
When have they ever had an oppor-
tunity
When and where have they ever
been asked for such consent?
On principle. if one-half of people
in defiance of the other half, can as
sumo and usurp the right to establish
and maintain government for the
whole, why may not less number, a
one-fourth or one-hundredth of the
people. and if one in a hundred may
do it, why not one?
If any less number Of the people
than the whole may ignor and exclude
all the others, why, on the same prin-
ciple, may not one, if he have the
power, ignor and exclude the balance
The wrong to each person excluded
is no greater in one case then in the
other; the only difference being that,
in the latter case, there is great num-
Der of the same wrongs. Logically, the
same reasoning that would justify the
usurpation Of one-half of a people
over the other half, would justify an
oligarchy, or enthrone a despot.
The moment we departed from the
true and admitted principle, that gov
ernments derive their just powers from
the consent Of the governed, and as
sumo that part of the people have a
right to govern the whole, that moment
we swing out from the safe moorings of
republican and representative govern
ments, and set out sails for the peril
Gus seas of ollgarchies, and the long
exploded doctrine Of the divine right
of kings.
That women compose at least one
half of our population, the census full
ly shows. The great mass of our voters
are almost exclusively educated by
them. She goes with him, moulding,
training and educating him, from the
cradle to the ballot-box; there the bal
lot of a pupil whom she alone has
fitted for the discharge Of the duties of
citizenship is received, while hers-the
instructor, with equal if not greater
intelligence and ftness-is rejected.
That such an anomaly has been in
wrought into our fundamental law, and
been acquiesced in so long, and is still
being defended, it seems to me, cannot
be satisfactorily explained by any logi-
cal or valid reason, and can only be ac-
counted for by the fact that we have
not yet disconnected ourselves from
the precedents and paralyzing influence
of the somber past; that we have stood
and are still standing within the umbra
of the dark ages and that it is easier to
plod on in deeply worn ruts of our
fathers then it is to make the mental
eXertion to lift ourselves out of them
and to discover and travel in new,
broader and better paths.
Conservatism has been called the
brake OF society, and is a good thing,
in its place if properly used; but if per-
petually applied may become and is,
an intolerable nuisance, especially to
those who wish to move; and, when in
tensifed, it may more properly be
called the obstinate mule of society,
which with ears laid back, resolutely
braces itself against all progress.
1t is this spirit which has always
stood resistingly against the grand
march of the ages.-from barbarism to
civilization; in religion, in science and
in the development of improved civil
governments. Il was this that opposed
and ridiculed the reforms preached by
Noah; cruciied the Savior; burned the
martyrs; opposed the adoption of the
Copernican system; fought Jenner's
specific for small-pox-and even now,
in many places, is fighting it;-ridicul
ed Harvey theory of the circulation Of
the blood; predicted ruin to our far
mers and labor, when railways super
seeded the old stage coach made bon
fires of labor saving implements; fore
told and hoped for anarchy and failure
as the result of our forefathers expert
ment of self-government; barricaded
the entrance Of women to our colleges
and universities, and denounced CO.
equal education Of the sexes; fought
and ridiculed the opening of larger
sphere of occupation for women, es-
pecially their entrance to the profess
sions; prophesied utter destruction to
the peace of the home circle when
tardy justice exempted her own prop
erty and earnings from the control of
her spendthrift husband; and is now
rehashing and urging against investing
women with the ballot the same old
arguments and objections that were
used and urged against each successive
advance towards justice to women, with
as much earnestness and zeal as if ex-
perience had not demonstrated their
futiiity,
The ballot may be defined, as pre-
scribed and adopted form of expressing
the voters consent or dissent to certain
forms of government and laws, and of
the selecfinn of AGENTS To make and nY-