The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-05-19
A SUFFRAGE CRANK.

In the North american ReUie,C for May
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Bishop
]. L. Spalding write on the question
Has Christianity Benefited Woman?''
The bishop makes a fair but not very
forcible showing in the affirmative, but
Mrs. Stanton devotes her pages to dis
plav of ignorance spiced all through
with hate and venom. Indeed, her pa
per is a malicious assault upon Chris
tianity, such as a woman with womanly
instincts and motives and hopes would
be incapable of writing. The scoffing
apostle of infdelity, Ingersoll, would
not be more bitter in an attack
upon the religion of Christ
than Mrs. Stanton, whose heart has
seemingly been flooded with gall, be-
cause she has been unable to obtain for
herself and her sex, the right to vote
and hold office on an equality with men.
She thinks the church should have made
the fight for women, and virtually de-
cIares that Christianity, instead of
eleyating and ennobling the sex, has
given its efforts to the advancement of
man and the enslavement of woman.
Mrs. Stanton must be crank" only a
crank could so recklessly disregard the
facts and overlook the history of Chris |
tianity. The position that woman oc-
cupies to-da. Mrs. Stanton attributes
to the progress of civilization. Now, if |
she would admit what is the truth, that
civilization owes its advanced state to
Christianity, she would learn that
about all that woman is or hopes to be
above an animal, machine, or veritable
slave without respect in this world or
hope for the next, she owes to Christ
Ianity. The ballot is of small conse-
quence to woman as compared with the
benefits and blessings and rights"
which the sex enjoy to-day, wherever
holds sway. If Mrs
Stanton wants to know what women are
where Christianity has not asserted it
self in such way as to control, let her
go to Turkey, to China, to Africa, or
even to our North American Indians,
where the female is so completely under
the control of man, and subject to his
whims and caprices, that without his
permission she dares not claim that she /
mas a soul; it is even doubtful If she
knows that she has a soul. Christianity
may regard her as a slave" but if so
the manner of expressing the regard has
been strange indeed. In Christian
countries, In all respects but one woman
is the equal of man, and socially, NOR
ally and intellectually she Is as free as
the proudest man who walks the earth;
she even goes beyond man in the pro-
lection which the law throws abouther
In the matter of property rights, the
law makes the man responsible for the
debts contracted by his wife, but no law
can touch the married womans prop
erty to settle the obligations of her hus-
band. Woman suffers no social or |
moral disabilities, being restricted only
in the exercise and responsibility
of the ballot, and the vast majority of I
them do not desire this, for it means to
them special burdens without compensa-
ting benefits. AS to this fright" to polit-
ical equality, we believe that when ma
jority Of the sex, or even fair minority,
shall manifest desire to possess it and
accept its responsibilities, man will not
be 10th to yield, and Christianity will
not stand in the way, for it. will be
Christianity if anything that makes
the progress of civilization" that will
cause woman to think that she wants to
vote and hold Office.
The cause of woman suffrage gains
nothing by such attacks on Christianity
as this one by Mrs. Stanton. The lady
has been soured by the long struggle
in which she has engaged. She should
subside.