The Iola register., 1889-08-16
The great end Of our being, to servo
God In loat .ioht of The coll. NJ hmm nm.

1 no great Gnu Oh our O0luR, 10 ScrV0
God. is lost sight Of The calls OF human
ity can not be heard for the clamor OF
custom and the din clatter of domestic
life. Contemplating little things, We
grow little; confined to narrow bounds.
we become narrow. But the ballot
comes and arOuses us from this dream
of selfishness. 1t gets the thoughts out
of the old ruts. 1t impels and counsels
us 10 the consideration Of other subjects
besides our own little interests. Our
views will widen, our sympathies
broaden, and we shall be wiser, better
and nobler. And the mental benefits
OF the ballot will be in proportion to
the moral attitude of the voter. If he
is conscientious and wants to do right;
if he has an honorable solicitude to
stand fairly on every record. he will be
impelled to seek knowledge, and COM
pare and balance theories, to reason
and to analyze; but if he cares little
about his duty. If his conviction lacks
intensity and strength, he will derive
but little benefit from this great privi-
lege.
In this paper we have used the word
men in its generic sense; but the mascl-
line includes the feminine. All these
truisms are as applicable to woman as
to man. Truth may have her meridi-
ans. but she does not have sexual va
rieties.
(a) That the ballot would enlarge
woman's sympathies is unquestionable;
and unquestionably she needs it.
(b) 1t would compel her to indepen-
dent thought. She is given to thought
by proxy.
| (c) 1t would awake in her mind the
sleeping truth of free agency and con-
sequent responsibility.
Right here We may detect the true
solution of woman's inferiority. The
fatal iron of the doctrine of necessity
has entered her soul and bound her all
through the ages. do not mean that
this has been with her a formulated
theory. 1t may not have always been
present to her consciousness, but it has
slumbered in the profoundest depth Of
her being. She has lived under the in
fuence of this narcotic, and it has
stepped her senses in perpetual calm.
Would you awaken a woman from her
supineness and energize her conscience?
Give her the ballot. We do not ask
you to give it to her because she is so
wise and good. but because she needs
wisdom and goodness.
Does not the world believe it? We
know it was the argument urged for en-
franchising the negro. But those who
urged it so vehemently then can not
see it applies with equal force to wo-
man. Says wise political economist:
1T is characteristic of the cautious and
tentative character of English legisla-
ton that it becomes gradually COM
mitted to great general principles. not
through any perception of the truth
and value of these principles in the alb
stract. but gradually, and through the
compulsion of particular necessities.
And to the last possible moment the
general application of such principles
is always resisted"
Perhaps this explains why we have
not applied this doctrine to women.
But we do not point you to the negro
to show what the ballot will do for wo-
men. Give several men a copy Of the
same book to read. and the man that
brings to the perusal of the book the
most knowledge will learn the most
from the pages. So women will be
more benefited by the ballot than her
inferior in knowledge. Indeed, the ex.
pertinent was never tried under so ia
vOrable circumstances as it might be,
to-day, in America
| Giving woman the ballot will educate
her sons to greater maternal reverence.
Every son knows that his country de-
grades his mother. He knows he is to
be her future ruler. Boys are not long
in learning to sneer at woman's posi-
ton. 1t is a shame thus to degrade
the mothers of the land before their
children.
But. as men accept my theme as tru-
ism, then it follows they must think
of woman's education as matter of in
difference. They were not Indifferent
to the negro claims. but they are deaf
to womans claims. They thrust it on
the negro before he asked for it, but
many thousand women sue for it vain
". When will America learn that to
elevate her nature you must elevate
her motherhood?
Egypt, that wonderful civilization
that existed for so many centuries, hon.
ored her women. When the Moslems
came, with their contempt for woman.
woman went down; and the nation
went down with her. Look at Turkey,
If you would see the effect of female
degradation. Here women are slaves.
and they bring forth a progeny Of
slaves, who grow into a nation OF im-
beetles No country has ever degraded
women as America has done. Other
countries were obscure themselves in
regard to human equality; but America
has done it in spite Of the prayers and
tears Of tens of thousands of her best
and most distinguished daughters.
Says Hon. A. Spencer: Sooner or later
every institution must answer the chal-
lerge: Are you founded on justice?' "
God grant American men may answer
this question in the peaceful convoca-
ton of deliberative assemblies, and not
before the flaming bar Of retributive
| Justice! l do not mean that woman
will ever become an avenging spirit to