The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-03-01
WOMAN'S DEPARTMENT.
THE scEprEa or POWER.

THE scEPTER or POWER.
The Dignity OF the Demand for the En-
franchiscment Of Women.
Would that l could awake in tho
minds Of my oountrywomen the dignity
of this demand for the right Of suf-
frage; what it is to be queens in their
own right; intrusted with the power Of
self-government possessed OF all the
privileges and immunities Of American
citizens. The ballot is the crown Of
honor and the scepter of power in re-
public; by it our social. religious and
political relations are all regulated.
Are not the educated women of Amer
lea as capable of welding this power
as Victoria of England, and is not indi-
vidual sovereignty in a republic as ex-
allied as in a monarchy? What Ameri-
can woman would scorn the position Of
Britain's queen? And the posi-
ton OF American citizen is prouder far,
if the duties of self-government are
fully discharged. Who ever heard Of
an heir apparent to a throne in the Old
World abdicating his rights because
some conservative politician or austere
bishop doubted woman's capacity to
govern? History affords no such ex-
ample. Those who have had right
to throne have invariably taken pos
session OF it, and against intriguing
cardinals, ambitious mobiles and jealous
kinsmen fought to the death even to
maintain the royal prerogatives that by
inheritance were theirs. When l hear
American women. descendants of JEFF
ferson, Hancock and Adams. say they
do not want to vote, / feel that the
blood of revolutionary heroes must
have long since ceased to flow in their
veins. When l heard that body Of
Massachusetts, women had actually been
before their Legislature to beg that the
women of the State might not be en-
franchised, blush for my sex.
Suppose when the day dawned for
Victoria to be crowned Queen of Eng
land. she had gone before the House Of
Commons and begged that such terrible
responsibilities might not be laid on
her, declaring that she had not the
moral stamina nor intellectual ability
for the position; that her natural deli
cacy and refinement shrank from the
encounter; that she was looking for
ward to the all absorbing duties of do
nestle life. to husband, children,
home, to her influence in the social
circle where the Christian graces are
best employed. Suppose with trem-
ulous voice and a few stray tears in her
blue eyes, her head dropping on one
side, she had said she knew nothing of
the science of government; that a crown
did not befit woman's brow; that she
had not the physical strength to even
move her nations flag, and much less to
hold the sceptre of power over 80 vast
an empire; that in case of war she could
not fight, and hence she could not reign,
as there must be force behind the
throne, and the force must be centred
in the hand that governed. What would
her Parliament have thought? What
would other nations have thought? All
would have been astounded and said:
1.-The girl is demented; the blood in the
house of Hanover has run out" In
stead, however, of making such pitiful
spectacle of herself. she prepared her
self by study and reflection for
the exalted position she was to
occupy. and when the hour for her COR
onation arrived, though only seventeen
years of age, she walked down the spa
cious aisles of Westminster Abbey. sur
rounded by the dignitaries Of church
and state, lords and ladies and foreign
diplomats, with grace and dignity be-
coming the grandeur of the occasion.
And there at the altar she took the oath
ITO support the civil laws, customs and
statutes, the laws of God, the Protest
ant reformed religion, the Church of
England, and promised security for the
Church of Scotland, the Archbishop of
Canterbury administering the oath, and
placing the crown worn by a long line
of kings upon her brow. Thus she ac-
copied her high honors with dignity,
and the nation rang with plaudits for
their youthful queen.-Mrs. Elizabeth
Cady Stanton.