Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1888-02-09

frage at Nashville, Tenn, where she
attended the annual meeting of the
National w. C. I. L. She said:
Webster defines Il Democracy as a
Government for the people; ours is a
Government Of only half the people
so long as woman has no voice in it.
If all power inheres in the people, you
yourselves, my brothers, are shorn of
half your power so long as woman is
not permitted to share it. In the be-
ginning it was not so. male and
female created He them, and gave
them dominion" over all the earth.
Here He defines the character of that
humanity He was grading in the new
made world. Here in the beginning
of the Bible we have it all in a nut
shell; the closing uttcrances of the
blessed book and grand prophetic Wis
ion all along the pages reiterate it.
If the voice of the people is the voice
of God, then the voice of God can
never be heard so long as woman
voice is silenced. This must be so, un-
less you put her outside the pale of the
humanity God planted. IN Eden. A
slave mother bears slave progeny;
woman is a slave to just that extent
thai she is denied the privilege OF
working out her own thoughts and
convictions of right as God gives her
to see the right The reform for which
we plead is not against man-it is pre-
eminently for the benefit of man. Oh,
my brothers, you have tunneled
mountains, comprised lands, spanned
oceans, even harnessed the lightning
to do the worlds work. God gave you
the aggressive force, and you have
used it grandly, and laid all your
trophies at the feet of woman. You
hand invents machinery which sets
our hands free from drudgery; your
steamboats, and railroads annihilate
distance for us; your telegraph brings
the worlds thought to our knowledge;
but there are moral and spiritual forces
which elude you every time-womar
alone can grasp them.
Dear sisters, when you talk abou
the worship you receive from you
brothers. do you forget the two hun
bred thousand licensed schools Of vic,
in this countryp Do you realize thai
this makes your door-yard fence tn,
dead-line beyond which your boy passe
only at the peril of his soul? Womer
of old were held accountable for ma
tional vice. ''Woe unto you womel
that are at ease in Zion" viii no
God sit in judgment against you, who
amid brighter light and infinitel,
greater privileges, sit at ease in Ziol
while such snares are laid for souls
Can you make no better returns to tn
good men who have made your lives s.
sheltered and secure than darned lac
and crazy quiltsP
"Politics are too dirty for women T.
mingle in," is another objection oftel
made. But it is no argument agains
woman suffrage, it is one against nal
suffrage. Men have always ha
control of politics; if they have al
lowed them to become dirty it is tim
women came to the rescue an
cleared things up, just the work i
which they are adopts. If though
that politics were necessarily dirty
the unholy scramble for power int
which, too often, they degenerate
should never wish my boys to becom
voters, If not fit for my girls, polite
are not fit for my boys.
The blessed Book says that the
who stay by the stuff shall share equa
ly with those who 90 out to the battle
We stay by the stuff and guard you
interests in your absence, and shall W
not share equally with youP But, 70
object, ''therc is already too much SUI
frage What we need is restricted, nc
extended suffrage But can you It
strict suffrageP This Nation will wad
in blood up to its knees before it II
stricts suffrage. Voters realize to
well the value of suffrage yield it e,
cept with their lives. And this is wei
the masses are safer with the ballC
than without it. The ballot and til
bayonet are the only two great force
which do you prefer, amob armed wit
ballots or with bayonet,?
Consider the developing power I
the ballot; look at the men of tn
Nation, descended from long line I
voting ancestry. The VOL Id shows n
nobler specimens of manhood. Con
pare them with the thousands lande
every month at Castle Garden. con
ing from the disfranchised classes
Europe, and you can form some id'
of this developing power of suffrage
: You can not develop slave; develo
ment comes only with freedom, an
: keeps pace with it Our wilde
dreams have not pictured what &c
Q intends to do for this Nation when a
l its people, instead of half of them, a
really free.
1t is common to attribute the n
: tons growth and success to its bro;
. acres, rich mines and other materi
, resources, but they are due rather
r spiritual forces. What is true civiliz
Q toni Does it consist in marble p;
!; aces, in p etry, painting, statuar
If so. Greece and Rome excelled I
: but they weE. down to death in sp
: of their splendid physical and int
lectual development because the RIG
spiritual forces were wanting. Tr
= civilization is to do justly, and to 10
e God with all the heart. When the
{ rule the National life. all the questiO
G that now vex and threaten the co
= monwealth win be easily settled. |
! not say that woman viii settle the
r but l do say she will help you to so
5 them. and YOU will never solve h
urithou ha,. heln