The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-07-14

tute and NOAe-es by MIS- @AN NAE - = iO-'s "a
Hazehurst Miss, June =, 1885,
II is proposed TO add to the Constitu-
ton of the United States sixteenth
amendment, granting the right of suf-
frage to women. For eighteen years
the advocates of this measure have
urged its consideration upon Congress,
and there is now pending joint resolu-
tion to submit the proposed amendment
to the Legislatures of the several States,
for adoptione
Those who favor this sixteenth amend
ment claim it as the grandest stride our
nation can take toward universal Tree
dom. They claim that the principle for
which our fOrefathers contenced IN the
revolution is violated, when women are
taxed without being allowed to gote-or
in other words, it is taxation without
representation" They appeal for the
ballot as matter Of justice and equality
to the women of this nation, and inquire
by what right, one half of humanity ar
rogates to itself the prerogative OF gov
ernipg the other half.
MRS. HELEN n. COUGAR,
of Indiana, before the Congressional
Committee on Woman Suffrage, said:
"On behalf of the mothers of this eoun-
try | demand that their hands shall be
loosened Before the ballot-box and that
they shall have the privilege of throw
ing the mother heart into the laws that
shall follow their sons not only to the
age of majority, but that they shall
carry their influence in protecting laws
around the footsteps Of those boys even
after their hair has turned gray, and they
have seats in the United States Congress
| ask you to give to mothers the power
to throw protecting laws around those
boys TO the very confines of eternity.
This can be done in no indirect way; 1t
cannot be done by the silent influence;
it cannot be done by prayer. | had
rather have that ballot on election day
than the prayers of all the disfranchised
women in the universe. | ask
that women shall have the right of the
ballot that they may go into legislative
halls and there provide for the proven
tion, rather than the cure, of crime"
MRS. MARY sEYaoRE BOwELL,
of New York, in her argument before
the Senate Committee, said: "We ask
for the ballot for the good of the race.
Huxley says: Admitting, for the sake
of argument, that woman is the weaker
mentally and physically, for that very
reason she should have the ballot, aud
every help the world can give her. J"
Further on she said eff you would
have statesmen, you must have stateslco-
men to bear them"
MRS. ELIZABETH L. SAXON,
of Louisiana, the only Southern woman
before the Committee, said: 81 plead,
because my work has been combatted
in the cause of reform everywhere that
/ have tried to accomplish anything. |
plead by the power of the ballot to be
allowed to help reform women and ben
eft mankind"
This agitation for woman suffrage is
wide spread. Twenty-six States and
territories were represented by women
before the Committee of the Forty
eighth Congress, and should the now
pending resolution be adopted, his ques-
tion, which some of US have never seri-
ousIy considered, will be presented to
our Legislature for consideration and
action. What, then will be our attitude
in regard to woman suffrage?
IT IS ALWAYS SAFE To Do RIGHT.
Then let us inquire, is it rights it
for the best interests cf the State, the
nation and humanity, that the burdens
of government should be laid upon wo-
man?
God created the sexes for different
spheres in life. He fitted each for the
duties each is designed to perform. He
created one man and one woman and
Il Al +b I'd Of IN
the family relation. Man was endowed
with greater physical strength and was
| designed to be the head, or ruler, of the
family, for after the curse was pro-
nounced that woman's sorrow should be
greatly multiplied, we read: And her
desire shall be toward her husband, and
| he shall rule over her." This duty of
obedience OF wives to husbands is clearly
| taught and emphasized in the New Testa-
ment, showing that God designed that
in the family government there should
be one head, and that one, the man.
| And this duty of obedience of wives 70
husbands carries with it no humiliation
to the true wife. The true wife loves
and hunors her husband, and cherishing
| these feelings, obedience becomes to her
chief delight. Not indeed the servile
obedience rendered by a slave to a mas
ter, but obedience and Difference grow
ing out of that Glove, which is the full
filling of the law
A man must leave his father and his
mother and cleave unto his wife and
"they shall be one flesh" or as the poet
happily expresses it,
1.-TWO souls with but a single thought,
| Two hearts that beat as one.
Their destinies are heneeforth united,
| their interests are one and inst parable.
This is the scripturaI view of marriage,
and it follows, since the greater includes
he less, if woman marries man, II
she can trust to his keeping her hand
and heart, the protection, and as God
designed, the government, OF their home
she can safely trust him on election
day TO cast the ballot in their mutual
interests Woman Suffrage, then, is not
necessary for the protection OF woman
Again, woman was designed to be the
MOTHER OF THE HUMAN RACE.
As mother, she is the custodian of sa
cred interests, and with softened nature
and less of physical strength, was fitted
for the retirement of home, and tht
bearing and rearing of her children
There are times in the LIE OF every
mother when she could not go to tbs
polls to deposit her ballot, even If th'
safety of the republic depended on hel
vote. For such times as these. and be
cause of her very heiplessness, God ha
wisely designed that she should have
, protector-one to represent their unitee
interests in the outside world. This j
the plan of God, our Maker, Bein,
who is too wise to err, and too good t
be unjust. Every mother is responsible
for the training of her children; this
her God given duty and she cannot neg
lect it without the greatest detrimen
to the child, and ultimately, to the State
The wise man tells us to train up
child in the way he should 60, an
when he is old he will not depart fror
lit.n The lessons learned at the mother
knees are the most lasting lessons c