Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-01-14
gaAies' Column.
Women at the Polls

rage mas been the legal privilege OF
women for several years, but compar
atively few have exercised it. A
the recent election, however, wome
suddenly rose to be the dominating
force. They held the balance o.
power on the school question, anC
their votes decided the election.
The day was rainy and thoroughly
disagreeable. 1t was just one OF
those days when male voters are ac,
costumed to stay at home in large
numbers for fear of wetting their feet
but that did not prevent these seven
teen thousand women from turning
out to fulfill their political duties.
1t has been said by opponents of fe-
male suffrage that women do not
want the ballot, because, when the
right Of school suffrage was conced-
ed, so few exercised it. But the
recent election shows that, when
women have a motive for coming to
the polls, they can assume their polit-
ical duties with tremendous energy.
In 1885, not half of the male voters
of Massachusetts, cast their votes,
from which it might have been falsely
assumed thas not half Of them wish
ed the right of suffrage. Men as
women must feel the Importance of
their vote, or they will not take the
trouple to cast it.
The recent election has also shown
that women can 60 the polls and vote
without any of those terrible revolu-
tons in domestic and social economy
which have been predicted. There is
nothing so good as an object lesson
in woman suffrage to show that the
old chronic objections to it, founded
simply on the distinction of sex, are
no longer valid in this day and gen
Grafton. In an age when women
have opportunities for the highest
education, when an eveT-increasing
circle of pursuits is opened to them,
when it is coming to be conceded
that women have right to do those
things which they are capable of do
ing, the ballot can no longer be with
held. The interest of women, though
deeply concerned with the education
of their children, do not stop there.
The same logic which has granted
women the right to cast a vote for
school committee will inevitably con-
fer upon her the right of suffrage as
fully as it is enjoyed by men. There
may and should be certain limita-
tions of the electoral privilege, such
as those which relate to age and ed
ucation but to limit the exercise of
the right by color or sex is unnatural
and unjust.
While the recent election was a
of the general argument
for woman suffrage, there were facts
exhibited which women suffragists
must squarely and frankly admit.
We are obliged to acknowledge that
many women allowed their feelings
TO run away with their judgment,
md that others, instead of being act
Iated by sentiments of patriotism and
Justice, were influenced by the most
bitter sectarianism. If it could be
;onclusively shown that this sec
so contrary to the true
American spirit, was wholly confined
o women, it might be urged by their
opponents that they are not yet ready
or the ballot, because they have not
yet learned how to use it. But the
act is that the sectarianism which
lisfigured the recent campaign was
" no means confined to women. Its
most prominent fomentors were a
eoret committee of both sexes and a
ew Protestant ministers, who, actual
ID undoubtedly by good motives, heap /
d a good deal of fuel on the flames.
)ne of the most gratifying features /
# the election was the fact that the |
mall body of women voters who for I
everal years have cast their votes for /
chool committee were almost solid /
n their opposition to the sectarian-
SIN of the novitiates. 1t is just rs /
ard for many men as it is for many
7omen to grasp the American idea /
hat Church and State are to be kept I
eparate, that religious prejudice
aust not be imported into political
If it was painfully evil
ent that a good many Protestant
yomen needed education in the first /
principles Of Americanism, it is just
S true that a good many men ought
D go to school with them. If the
ight of the male sex to use the bal
ot depended upon infallibility in
asting it, the privilege would need
, be abolished altogether; and, if
he mistakes, the wrongs, and Unjust
,e inflicted by the ballot in the hands
f men were to be counted up, what
terrible argument COULD be made
gainst masculine suffrage! What
yer mistakes may be charged against
omen in the recent election, it must
e remembered that they were mis-
lkes in feeling and judgment, not
lie terrible mistakes of immortality
nd corruption which have so often
oiled the ballot in the hands of men.
Seventeen thousand women of
massachusetts, have shown that thev
ant the ballot and are willing to
st it. The legislature of this State