Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-01-29
RIGHTS OF WOMEN.
Miss Phoebe Cousins's Strong Plea for
Woman Suffrage-The Utah Ques-
tiOn-Let the

Women OF the Country Settle It-A Pie
ture OF Mormon Land, Where Women
Are Allowed to Vote.
In the discussion OF the Utah question be-
fore the Women's National Suffrage Conven-
ton, at Washington, last week, Miss Phoebe
Cousins OF ST. Louis. addressed the conyen-
tior as follows:
MISS CoCsISs's SPEECH.
Now for Utah. The task OF dealing fairly
and Justly with this territorial complies
ton should never be committed to the blum
dering legislation OF man alone. His sue
cess az legislator and executive for woman
in the past does not inspire confidence that
in this most serious problem he will be any
the less an unbiased judge and lawgiver.
This government of men permitted the es-
tablishment of a religious colony, so-called,
whose basis of faith was the complete hu-
initiation OF woman; recognized the system
by appointing its chief, Brigham Young,
governor OF the Territory, under whose los
tering care polygamy grew to Its present pro-
portions. That woman has not thrown off
the yoke of religious despotism can be read
lily appreciated when we recognize that man,
from time immemorial, has played upon
woman's religious faith to exalt his own at
tributes and degrade hers; that through this
teaching her abiding belief in his superior
capacity to inssrpret scriptural truths for her
has been the means OF
SACRIFICING HER POWERS
Of mind her tender affections, her delicate
sensibilities, on the altar Of his base selfish
ness, throughout the ages. Orthodoxy recog-
nizes no 'inspiration" Tor woman to-day. She
Is not "called" save to serve man. Under Its
teaching her thought has been deadlocked in
the name of the divinity and her liberty OF
expression sealed in sacrilegious authority OF
heaven; and nothing clearly bespeaks the
degeneratiug influences Of the ages OF per-
yerted masculine teaching as the absolute
faith manifested by the women of Utah IN
this ipse dirt of mans religious doctrine.
Their emancipation must necessarily be
slow. The paternal government allowed po-
lygamy to be planted, to take root and grow
in a wilderness where the attrition OF nobler
minds and freer thong hit was not known.
They came from the personal despotlsm OF
the Old World to be shackled in a land OF
freedom with the still darker despotism OF
SOUL and under the segis of the American flag
they have borne children as religious duty
they owed TO God and man; and surely 1t
cannot be expected, even with that grand
educator from king and priestcraft rule, the
ballot, that at once they will vote themselves
outeasts and their children Legitimate. 1t
took
THE WHITE MEN OF THIS NATION
one hundred years to recognize the evils OF
that twin relic of barbarism, slavery, which
they established, and this solution must come
through liberty for women, higher education
for the children, and the incoming tide of
Gentle immigration The hitting act OF
of
Senator Morgan propounds, and the re-enact-
ment of that old Adamite cry: The woman
whom thou gavest," but the disfranchisement
of man, who is the only polygamlst (no wo-
man. 50 far as heard from, having plurality
of husbands), and the stepping down and
out OF the sex as legislator, under whose
fostering care this evil was grown. Retire to
your sylvan groves and academic shades,
gentlemen. as Mrs Stanton suggests, and let
the Deborahs, the Huldahs, and the Nashtis
come to the 'front.' and let us see what we can
do toward the solution OF yonr wretched leg
islation. But suffrage for women In Utah
has accomplished great good. / spent one
week there in close observation. Outside OF
their religious convictions, the women are
emphatic in condemnation OF wrong. Their
votes
BANIsHED THE LIQUOR SALOON.
saw no drunkenness anywhere; the poison
U
the air OF heaven, either on the streets or in
public assemblies. Their courtroom was
model of neatness and good order. Plants
were in the windows, and handsome carpets
graced the floor, unstained by tobacco juice
or unmarried by the bushel- basket spittoon.
During my stay the daughter OF Mormon,
the then acknowledgement Of the Territory,
/ was admitted to the bar by Chief-Justice
Mexican, of the United States Court, who, in
fitting and beautiful language, welcomed her
to the profession as woman whose knowl-
edge of the law during the three years in
tercourse of himself with her fathers official
duties fitted her to be the peer OF any man
in his court. She told me that she detested
polygamy, but felt that she could render
greater service TO the emancipation OF her
sex inside of Utah than out. AT midnight
wandered, with one OF my own sex, about the
Streets to test the assertion that 1t was as safe
for women then as at midday.
NO BAccHANALIAN SHOUT
rent the air; no man was seen Keeling in
maudlin imbecility to his home or in brutal
frenzy aiming pistol or knife at mis- brother.
No guardians put in an appearance, save the
stars above our heads; no sound awoke the
stiffness but the purling of the mountain
brooks, which washed the streets in cleanli-
ness and beauty What other on this CONT
nent can present such showing? With
murder for man and rapine and unsafety for
woman continually exhibited where man
alone is maker and guardian of the laws in
municipalities outside of Utah, it behooves
him to pause ere he launches invectives at
the one result OF woman's votes while the
multiplicity of mans shows such hideous
array. Again; ! went into the temple and
looked upon the faces of the women gathered
there to worship that Creator whose purposes
for her have been SO foully misinterpreted
throughout the generations. A divine pity
filed my soul, for here | saw, as never be-
fore, the resultant fleet of generations Of un-
tutored minds and uncultivated thoughts
upon
THE MOTHERS OF THE RACE.
Looking back through the vista of years and
down the generations OF Christian era,
saw no colleges for her, no universities OF
learning no wells of knowledge in the past
from whence to draw the inspiration OF the
future, no joyous invitation to partake OF the
rich fruits of wisdom, but the paralyzing
dogmas that yelled the mind and crushed
the thought and even in richly-dowered New
England bar the doors of Harvard, Yale,
Columbia, with "brains all pre-empted by
the Adamites and the right of way fore
closed" And here, in these far-away noun
tain fastnesses my sisters had come, lowered
with the wrongs of the ages in the Old World,
to breathe the air of freedom in the New,
and for this bread OF life man had again i'm
posed stone, and Justice, with the scales and
the sword, sat revenged IN the mems and
women's faces. But, with it all, woman has
made that desert to blossom the rose,
while dwelling within the shadow OF intel
lectual darkness she hath yet shown the
capabilities OF her SOUL Shall we, then,
take
THE BEACON LIGHT OF LIBERTY
that feebly glimmers in her hand and casts
her back into the darkness of mans guild
ance? Nayi rather let US say to her that
liberty shall bring justice, justice shall
bring light, light shall pierce the clouds, and
all the infinite diversities of beauty and
pure religion shall spring into being from
out the life-giving radiance OF true freedom.
SIT is not for an abstraction that men have
toiIed and died, that in every age the wit
nesses of liberty have stood forth and the
martyrs OF liberty have suffered"
so, TOO MY BROTHERS.,
not for fame wealth or honors have the
pioneers of my own sex endured the FIRE and
sword and scaiping-knife of public opinion
in the desert OF prejudice and opprobrium
Tor forty years, but that the feeblest OF their
kind may be lifted up and strengthened and
grow into the stature of noble womanhood,
with all that is "serene, oraeular and beautiful
in her SOUL" Enact the law that shall stop
all further encroachment, but perpetrate no
wrong against The sex so grleYousiy betrayed,
lest the Divine retribution shall come to you
and your children, which Furnishes with
deeper agony than any earthly tribunal.
ITEMS OF INTEREST.
Cincinnati people say that the May festival
receipts will be about 100000.
The Baltimore teachers are obliged to re-
port twice week the names and number of
pupils punished.