The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1883-09-01
Beeeher On Woman.s Rights. .

Beecher or Woman's Rights.
IN his Thursday night lecture at
Portland Henry Ward Beecher
delivered the same lecture that he
did at Astoria, the evening before.
The fact that the lecture was de-
hvered under the auspices of the
Oregon Woman's Suffrage Associ-
alton caused him 10 throw out .
few ideas relative TO that move
ment. He said:
lay down the simple ground
that anything that is fit to be done
at all woman NAV do it, If she
has the capacity and the advant-
ages. In vast majority Of in
stances women will dwell in the
household, and that will be their
sphere. That is TO say women are
Just like men. Only now and
then a man who is capable OF
achieving something will go into
a larger sphere and achieve it.
And so does she. She has 4 per-
feet right to do it, and to do any
thing that she can DO well.
As to this question OF woman's
rights, ali admit that she may
speak in the temples. That has
been settled.
When anybody wants TO hear
anybody, then that body is called
to go and speak. And it has
passed through those stages that
woman is no more a curiosity. Ii
she is thought to have personal
ability, people go to hear her. |
have never heard any man in my
life that could make such an elo-
quent address as | have heard
made by women. Her right 10
speak is not doubted any longer;
but has she the right to vote?
She has, undoubtedly, the right to
vote; and it is her duty to vote as
soon as that right Is acknowl-
edged. We want precisely that
element. We want her at the
polls. 1t is not a good thing for
man TO be alone in politics, any
more than it is in domestic life.
The correction that we want in
politics is chiefly that correction
we should obtain when woman be-
comes a voter.
1t is insisted that she does not
wish to vote. | have been preach
ing to sinners on their duty 10 re-
pent for many years, and have
never taken that to be 4 sufficient
argument that they did not want
to repent. She ought to vote, and
she will want to vote by and by,
when experience has broken down
prejudice and shown her that it is
her duty. | should like 10 know
who it is, with pain and sorrow,
bring children into life. Who Is
it when they are helpless infants
doing nothing and requ;liag moth
ing; who is il that gives her ume,
by day and by night, Jhat give of
her body to feed anG her miud to
thought and care OF the chilirc",
and when the children gcau np
and go ont into lie, who's coun-
sci it Is that wraps her very sab
stance in their lie but mother:
and when they &c wrong, vino
calls them back and gives them
hope and Joy but mother; ana
when they are sick who night md
day gives all her time and all her
thought 10 their care bat the
mother; and when they die the Ia
ther grieves too, but the thunder
of the world and It's business soon
sweeps out of remembrance the
pain and the sorrow. but the
mother hears the funeral llnell 10
the end of her lie. Now J say
that when woman has given 10
the world her children and has
reared them through every stage
of life, and has gone with them to
the shade OF death, say if there
be any creature on earth who has
a right to declare what shall be
the surroundings of her children
it is the mother Of the children.
If there be any creature on Gods
earth that has a right to declare
how many grog shops shall be IL
censed in a community, and now
many gambling dens there shall
be, whether the school shall be
open for three months or twelve
months, whether education should
prevail where her children are.
the mother, who has brought them
into life, who has enfolded them
in her very being, l say is the one
that should vote on questions that
touch her children TO the very
heart, and not to allow her TO vote
IS a shame and an outrage before
God and ought to be before men.
-
IL the recent Utah election.
say the Boston Herald when I5.-