Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-03-01
WOMAN'S DEPARTMENT.
ONLY A WOMAN.

Oov8u - WOWeSsVe
bat why Not Give Der the BalIotf-Her
Sex Should BE No bar to All the Rights
Of Citizenship.
At the annual banquet of the Granite
State Club, in honor of the memory of
Andrew jackson. Mr.. Oliver Z.
Branch. of Weare. responded to the
toast. s.Woman as q Factor in Poll
ties"
"Woman as a factor in politics!
Well, as the Irishman said of the Mag
ara Falls: What's to hinder it?"
And who would. if he could. under
take to prevent it? The pages of his
tory are all aglow with incidents that
reveal the presence of woman in poll
tics: not in politics rs headlong race
and rush for Office. but politics as the
instrument and means by which gov
eminent is carried forward. civiliza-
ton advanced. and the world made
a better dwelling-place. And the
emergence of the human race from
garments of goatskins to those OF
silk and linen. from the mud hut to
the modern home. from the sodden
brutality of Gurth to the luminous
genius of Gladstone or Emerson, has
marked the decadence of the barbaric
notion that the test of superiority is
Drawn and muscle. and the gradual
recognition by man Of wOman's right
to;be his equal and of the fact that she
is his equal in its best and truest sense.
She asks why she may not vote; and
with fine logic she is told that it is
because she is woman. She suggests
that this Government is founded
npon the theory of equal rights for
all; and the conclusive reply is: ooh.
yes; but you are woman" She
turns to the Declaration of Independ-
ence, and reads that governments
"'derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed" and once
more she is answered: That is true,
but then, you are only woman. !"
She insists that she is citizen as well
as subject. and a. such, if she
chooses. has a right to say what laws
shall bind her, what taxes burden her.
who shall rule over her, what magis-
trates shall Judge her, who shall in
struct her children, what kind of police
shall be set to protect her life and prop
crty, and whether vice and viliainy,
temptation and crime. in all their hid
eous and protean forms, shall surround
her and her sons and daughters. and
no weapon be put into her hands to
strike them down.
In reply to these propositions, the
perfectly unanswerable argument is
made. that these questions are the
sehseless talk of cranks, these sug-
gestions the insane fancies of dream
c,s and fanatics like Rufus Choate
and Emerson, Wendell Phillips and
John ID. Long. George F. Hoar and
George William Curtis. But these
questions seem likely, at no distant
day. to result in making an issue
in politics. an issue that will not be
waived aside. nor laughed down. nor
sneercd away. The entirely sane,
rational. radiant-mlnded part of man.
Kind. who have no nonsense about
them. and who have a fine. cultivated
escorn of any thing like sentiment in
politics. are going TO be compelled to
.dccide. BIZ and by. positively and def
1,iteiy, whether woman. rs an lntelli-
gent, capable, responsible. account
:,:s.c citizen of the State. shall be per-
united to use ard enjoy those political
rights that the genius and spirit of our
constitutions and governments indubi-
tally guarantee to Woman S
Journal.