The Osceola times., 1888-08-11
MIGHT AND RIGHT.


MIGHT AND RIGHT.
Frederick Douglass on Suffrage, Before
the New England Woman Suffrage As
sociatIon at Their Tweatieth Annual sss-
sion.
According to the Declaration OF indie
pendence and TO the men who signed
that great charter Of human liberty,
all rightful powers of Government
are derived from the consent Of the gov
erned.
No man has yet been able to state
when, where and how woman has ever
given her consent to be deprived Of all
participation in the government under
which she lives, or why women should
be excepted from the principles OF the
American Declaration Of Independence.
We are told that man derived his au-
thority THUS TO disfranchise woman from
Nature; well, we should all have great
respect for Nature. We can not too
often listen to her voice and learn the
lesson she teaches.
Let us begin then with Nature in the
family. This is the starting-point OF
life. the natural starting point OF organ
lied society and OF the State. Here are
son and daughter in the same house,
hold. They have nursed at the same
breast in their infancy; they have been
supplied from the same board; they
have talked, sung, prayed, and played
together on equal terms in their youth;
they have grown to manhood and wo-
manhood together; in word, they have
been equal members OF the same family
together all their young lives, with sub
stantially the same rights and privi-
leges in the common family; they have
received the same moral and intellectual
training, and have enjoyed the same tree
dom Of thought and expression around
the family board-the right to ask and
TO answer questions. They are equal
in moral and intellectual endowments,
or II not so equal, the one is as likely to
be superior as the other, the daughter
as the son, the sister as the brother.
Now the question to be answered atthis
point is just this; At what time and
under what conditions does Nature step
In to change the relations Of these two
people and make the son and brother
the ruler Of this daughter and sister,
When does Nature say that he shall
elect Lawmakers, and make
laws, institute governments, define
for her the metes and bounds Of her
liberty, and that she, rational crca-
ture like himself, shall have no voice or
vote in determining any question con-
corning the government under which
she, equally with him, is to liver They
were equal In the cradle, equal In the
family, equal in childhood, equal in
youth, equal at maturity. equal In the
right to life, to liberty, and TO the pur.
suit Of happiness. ! demand to know,
then, what fiat of Nature, what moral
earthquake from below, or what
thunder-bolt from above, has driven
these two people asunder-raised one
TO the sky and struck the other to
earth-one TO freedom and the other to
slavery The only answer that Nature
is alleged to give here in opposition to
woman, is one which no just and gener-
Gus man can or should accept, for it
bases a moral and intellectual conclu-
sion-one which excludes woman from
all freedom Of choice In the affairs OF
government-upon a purely physical
fact. The logic is that man is physical
ly stronger than woman, and that he
has the right to make her subject OF
his will; that since she can not shoul-
der a musket and fight, she shall not
select ballot and vote-that though
she may have the ability TO think,
she shall not have the right to
express her thought and give ef-
feet to her thought by her vote.
There is no getting away from
the conclusion here that the very es-
sence Of this anti-woman suffrage doc
trine is that might makes right 1t is
the right OF the usurper. the slave
holder, the tyrant, the robber and
pirate-a right which better beiits wild
beasts than reasoning men and women
"A right which no woman ought to ad.
init and no man should claim. The only
thing that saves it from execration Is
the fact that men are too humane and
too civilized to make their practice con-
form TO the full measure OF their theory.
They deny rights. but admit influence.
She may not vote, they say, but she may
influence the man who does vote; and
II is precisely this which constitutes the
vice OF this relation, for it gives infu-
ence and excludes responsibility. A
sense OF responsibility is an essential
element in all our exertions and rela-
tions. We need 1t; woman needs 1t,
not less than man, TO work ont the best
results Of her conduct. Divest wo.
man OF power and you divest her OF q
sense Of responsibility and duty-two Of
the essential attributes Of all useful ex.
ertion and existence.