Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1889-01-26
Queens of the Republic.

Stanton said:
''Would that could awake in the minds of my
countrywomen the dignity of this demand for the
right of suffrage; what it is to be queens in their
own right; ntrusted with the power of self-gov-
eminent, possessed of all the privileges and immu
mites of American citizens. The ballot is the
crown of honor and the sceptre of power in re-
public; by it our social, religious and political re-
lations are all regulated. Are not the educated
women of America IS capable of welding this
power as Victoria of England, and is not individ-
ual sovereignty in a republic as exalted as in a
monarchy? What American woman would scorn
the position of Britains queen? And yet the posi-
ton of an American citizen is prouder far, if the
duties of self-government are fully discharged.
Who ever heard Of an heir apparent to throne in
the Old World abdicatng his rights because some
conservative politician or austere bishop doubted
woman's capacity to govern? History affords no
such example. Those who have had right to a
throne have invariably taken possession of it, and
against intriguing cardinals, ambitious mobiles and
jealous kinsmen fought to the death even to MAIN
tain the royal prerogatives that by inheritance were
theirs. When hear American women descend
ants of Jefferson Hancock and Adams, say they
do not want to vote, feel that the blood of revo-
lutionary heroes must have long since ceased to
flow in their veins. When heard that body of
Massachusetts women had actually been before
their legislature to beg that the women of the State
might not be enfranchised, blushed for my sex.
''Suppose when the day dawned for Victoria to
be crowned Queen of England she had gone be-
fore 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 natu-
raj delicacy and refinement shrank from the en-
counter; that she was looking forward to the all
absorbing duties of domestic life, to a husband,
children, home, to her influence in the social circle
where the Christian graces are best employed.
Suppose with tremuous voice and 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 crown did not befit wom-
ans brow; that she had not the physical strength
to even move her nations flag, and much less to
hold the sceptre of power over so 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 centered in the
hand that governed. What would her parliament
have thought? What would other nations have
thought? All alike would have been astounded and
SAID: 'lhe girl Is demented; the Dlood IN the mousse
of Hanover has run out Instead however, of
making such ptlIdl spectacle of herself, she pre-
pared herself by study and reflection for the ex-
allied position she was to occupy, and when the
hour for her coronation arrived, though only sew
enteen years of age, she walked down the spacious
asles of Westminster Abbey, surrounded by the
dignitaries of church and state lords and ladies
and foreign diplomats, with grace and dignity
becoming the grandeur of the occasion. And there
at the altar she took the oath to support the civil
laws, customs and statutes, the laws of God, the
Protestant reformed religion, the Church of En-
gland, and promised security for the Church of
Scotland the Archbishop of Canterbury admins
tering the oath and placing the crown worn by
long line of kings upon her brow Thus she ac-
cepted her high honors with dignity, and the nation
rang with plauditS for their youthful queen"