The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-02-22


James Nadison said:
"Uuder every view Of the subject, it seems
indispensable that the mass OF the citizens
should not be without a voice IN making the
laws which they are TO obey, and ID choos-
ing the magistrates who are 70 administer
them.n
But it seems unnecessary TO multiply these
excerpts, familiar to every student OF the his
tory OF those times These cecla faricns were
not confined TO our shores.
Lord Somers said:
Among all the rights and privileges APP
pertaining unto us, that OF having share
in the legislation, and being governed by
such laws as We ourselves shall cause, IS the
most fundamental and essential as well as
the most advantageous and beneficial"
The judicious Hooker wrote:
Agreeable to the same Just privileges ri
natural equity is that maxim of the E1glish
COL stitution that Law to bind all must De
ssstnied TO by al, and there can be no legal
appearan &c CT assent without some de- rec OF
representation"
IN 1870, Condorcet, in his treatise on the
admission OF women to the rights OF citizen
ship in France, says:
NOW, the rights Of men result solely from
the fact that they are rational beings, sas-
ceptible of acquiripg moral ideas and reason
ing on these ideas. Women, having the same
qualities. have the same equal rights. Either
no one Individual of the human Kind has
true rights or all have the same, and one
who votes against the right of another, what
ever be that others religion, color, or sex
from that moment folfeit5 his own"
Mirabesu con denses the whole question
in bis definition that "a representative body
should be a miniature OF the whole cJm-
muniiy."
The fight of women to personal represen-
tstlon through the ballot seems to me IN
assallsble, wherever the right of man is con-
ceded and exercised. / can conceive OF no
possible abstract justification for the exclu-
son of the one and the inclusion OF the
other.
is IT DESIRABLE?
Is the recognition OF this right desirable?
The earliest mention of the Saxon people is
found in the Germany of Tacitus, and, in
his terse description of them, he states that
''in all grave matters they consult their
women" Can We afford to dispute the ben
EFT of this counseling in the advancement of
our rsce?
The measure of the civilization OF any Ma
ton may be no more ely ascertsined by its
consumption of salt than by the social, eco
nomic, al q political status of its women.
1t is not enough for c0ntentment that We
assert The superiority of our women in intel
hgence, virtue, and self sustaining qualities,
but we are TO consider the profit to them
and to the State in their further advance
ment.
Our statistics are lamentably meager in ia
formation as TO the status of our women out
side their mere enumeration, but We learn
that IN single State A.. 900 are assessed and
pay one.eleventh of the total burden OF tax
alton, with no voice II its disbursement.
From the imperfect cleaning of the Tenth
Census We learn that of the total enumerated
bread winners of the United States more
than one-seventh are women. They are clas-
SIZED in round terms as follows: Agricul-
ture, 100000; professional and personal SER
vices. 400 coo; trade and transportation,
so, 600; manufactures and mechanical aud
mining industries, 600, 900. That these ., 647, !.
157, citizens of whom we have Off cial infor-
nation labor from necessity, and are every
where underpaid, Is within the knowledge
and observation of every Senator upon this
foor.
Only the Government makes any pretense
OF paying women in accordance with the
labor observation-disclosures submitting them
TO the competition of their starving sisters,
whose natural dignity and self.resDect have
suffered from being driven by the fierce pres
sure of want into the few and crowded ave.
Dues for the exchange OF their labor for
bread.
Is il not the highest exhibit of the moral
superiority OF our women that so very few
consent to exchange pinching penury for
gi|ded vice?
Will the possession of the ballot multiply
and widen these avenues TO self-support and
independence?
The most thoughtful women who have
given the subject thorough examination be-
lieve 1t, and l can not but infer that many
men looking only to their own selfish inter
ests, fear is.
History teaches that every class which has
assumed political responsibility has been
materially elevated and improved thereby,
and can not believe that the rule would
have an exception in the women OF to-day.
do not say that to the localized women SO
generally described by obstructionists-the
dainty darlings whose prototypes are to be
found in the heroines Of Walter Scott and
| Fenimore Cooper Immediate awakening
would come; but to the toilers, the wage
workers, aud the women of affairs the con
sequent enlargement OF possibilities would
| give new courage ar d stimulate to new en-
deavor, and the State would be the gamer
thereby.
The often urged fear that the degraded and
| vicious would swarm to the polls, while the
intelligent and virtuous would stand aloof
is fully met by the fact that the former class
has never asked for the suffrage or shown
any interest in its seeking, while the hun
dreds of thousands of petitioners are from
our best and nobiest and women, including
those whose efforts for the authorization fol
the wrongs and suferiDgs of others have
won for them imperishable tablets 10 the
emI le or humanity.
Would fear be entertained that the State
would fer some mortal harm If, by some
snaDge revolution, its exclusive contro
| should be turned over to an oligarchy com.
| posed OF such women as have been and are
identified with the agitation for the emanci
patton of their sex?
| Saloons, brothels, and gaming houses
might vanish before such an administration
| wars avoidable with safety and honor
4 mlCh1
be diverted topurposes of general sanitation
and higher education, but neither in these
respects nor in efforts to lift the bowed and
strengthen the weak would the right to life
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness bs
placed in peril.
Women have exercised the highest civil
powers in all ages of the worl6-from Zeno
bia to Victoria-and have exhibited state
craft and military capacity of high degree
without detractiDg from their graces a.
! women or their virtues as mothers.
A woman. Mrs Ross designed the Amer