The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-07-08
WOMAN.

ERrr. MISS, READ BEFORE THE ALUNS4K Ass0-
rf.rIoS or WHTwokTH COLLEGE, JUNE %
1855.
While my guardian angel slept, by an
untoward fate, unfortunate alike for
myself and this audience, / WAS selected
a Fssayist for the Alumn@ Association,
this Commencement. In puzzling my
brain for a subject fitting the occasion
for commonplace sentiment or stale
nlatitudes cannot satisfy the demands
~ an are electric with thoughts and
teeming with fancied novelties-l could
think Of nothing that would prove Of
more interest 10 both sexes than that
rnuch discussed theme-WoMAN. Not
woman in any stage Of development; I;
not woman in any manifestation OF her
necuIiar characteristics; not woman ed
ucated or uneducated, refined or gross I;
not the womah Of romance or the paint
ed butterfly Of fashion; not the bejew-
eled belle OF a fancy ball, nor the com
plaining croaker who beWails her wife
hood. u,yt the Mrs. l,ad-a-bout who
tattles from morn till night; not the
bcartless feminine structure whose soul
ia concentrated on her own individual
self. but the woman trUe-whOm ambi-
tion sweryes not from duty, whom fiat
tery cannot cajole, which is but true
type Of our Anglo-Saxon woman, modi-
fed. and improved by education and
Christianity.
We must consider woman as she is in
her best presentation of virtue, intelli-
Oence. genius and religion. Historians
and artists have pictured to US the wo-
man of the past; observation and expe-
rience tell us something of the woman
Of to-day but, standing at this grand
focal point in the worlds history, who
can can look through prophetic lenses
and paint for us the woman of the
flturef 1t is beyond the philosophers
reasoning or the prophets ken.
1t is not my wish or purpose TO carry
YOU back to the dark and benighted
ages of the world, to furnish you a
glimpse OF woman's condition in the
different periods of the worlds history,
when man, bound down by chains of
ignorance and superstition, claimed to
be the sole, rightful heir of creation,
whose absolute dominion there was none
to dispute While woman, though bone
of his bone and flesh of his flesh, was re-
garded by him as his inferior in every
attribute that made him Lord of the
fowl and the brute.
he MOrtu TOlltu on III tHc ihdICu VI
its centuries, and woman continued in a
condition of slavery, abject and vile in
her servile ministrations to his arbitrary
will and power. 1t was not until the
dawn of the Christian era and its en-
tightening and civilizing influences were
felt and realized by nations composed
of the better part of mankind, that, re-
cogniZing in part her excellent qualities
.uJ baarf ha xNae alpvafaH m a
higher sphere of life and duty, thence
forward to be regarded by man as "the
object of his love, the partner of his
cares. the comfort of his home, the
refner of his heart his equal in intel
lectual perception, his superior in moral
power, his inferior only in physical
strength and the energy of the passions" +"
Human laws and human institutions,
recognizing woman as an important fac
tor in the active affairs of human life,
are but the results of popular judgment
crystalized in enduring forms to perpet-
uate mans wisdom and woman's worth.
Although not
woMAN's RIGHTS WOMAN,
in the unpopular sense of the term
confessing to no such radical ideas az
many Of the more aggressive thinkers OF
the day advance; with no ounwomanly dis
position to usurp the manly prerogatives
of the other sex, / am disposed, rather
to bow in humble, grateful recognition
Of what man, in the pride of his power,
in the sense of his justice and the good
ness OF his heart, has done, and is dis
posed to do, in concession to the
claims of woman. The assertion OF
her rights has been mild and persuasive
Il 1INxr rfr.a
the effect of woman's influence over
the other sex, when exerted in way
that she only knows how tc make efec-
tive; il is, nevertheless true that In this
consummation, man has proved himself
no unwilling agent responding TO the
claims of a higher civilization and yield
ing to the demands of enlightened pub
lie sentiment in this age of wonderful
progress and development, he has at
last accorded to woman her true posi-
ton in the scale of humanity.
In this the evening of the nineteenth
century, a period greatly distinguished
above every preceding one, for its de
velopment of the powers of the human
intellect and for the progress with which
il has signalized itself in science and
discovery, in the arts of peace and war
and in every branch of human industry
we find woman's just rights more gener
ally conceded and her privileges more
extensively enlarged than at any pre-
yious epoch in the worlds history. Is
pecially is this true in our own grand
and glorious country, where the vigorous
and irrepressible Anglo-Saxon mind Ii
working out successfully the great prob
lens of science and government.
In the booming development OF new
educational ideas, opportunities are offer
ed and facilities granted that were never
before offered or granted, of which she
is availing herself with an earnest pur
pose. inspired by a natural ambition tC
promote herself to a higher sphere o.
usefulness; and the
DOORS OF OUR STATE UNIVERSITIES,
which never before responded to the
"open sesame" of woman, now, at he
approach, ''on golden hinges turning
open wide their portals and give her :
generous welcome to their classic halls
Within those time-honored halls
where the sons of noble sires were won
to congregate and compete among them
selves, in generous rivalry for University
prizes and honors, woman has been ad
mitted as an equal contestant IN th'
intellectual tournament. With wha
result9 Is she found tagging in th'
race, while her proud brother is first a
the goal? Wonderful to tell The clicl
of the telegraph does not so report, th'
telephone utters no such sound, tn,
press, the worlds great tongue speak
no such word. Wonderful to tell Al
most at the very outset, she steps to th'
front, marches to the head, and carrie
off the honors. / do not refer to this il
a spirit of boasting; the weaker shoult
not triumph over the stronger, but sim
ply to cite an example, to illustrate
fact not generally conceded, that woman
has brains as well AS man.
As though the chivalrous and gener
GUS people of the great State of Missis
sippi were not satisfied with having don
30 much for the education of woman, i
their efforts to further enlarge her pris
ileges, they have just laid the Pounds
ton of another public Institution, ded
Gated to woman, to be devoted exclusive
ly to the education of the white girls {
the State. This is another
MONUMENT OF LEGISLATIVE WISDOM
erected to the honor OF the people G
Mississippi, showing high appreciatio
Of womarl's intellectual powers and {
her capacity for usefulness in many 6
the industrial ayocations. of life. |
bestowing upon her the dement's OF tn
higher education, in enlarging ne
qualifications, and the sphere OF ht
activities. the State is performing gre<