Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-04-17
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
Our Joe" is Square Against
Any Such Foolishness.
A Synopsis of His Speech in Congress
on the Subject = Tennessee
Women His Idols.

Joe Washington made a speech re
Gently in Congress on the admission
of Wyoming into the Union. He
favored the admission of the terri
tory on general principles, but sat
down pretty heavily on the woman
suffrage plank. "My chief objection
to the hasty admission of Wyoming
at this time" said the speaker, sis
based on my opposition to sections of
the bill which allows woman suf-
frage." He here read the sections
and said: "These sections grant and
confirm to women the right to vote at
all elections and to be eligible to and
to hold any office within the gift of
the people of that Territory or State,
as it may be. In no State in the
Union to-day does woman have the
unrestricted right to vote and hold
Office. Several States have conferred
the right to hold offices up to a GER
tain grade and to vote in certain
elections. / shall not discuss the adj
visibility of such a course further
than to say that l am unaIterably OPP
posed to female suffrage in any form.
1t can only result in the end in un-
sexing and degrading the woman
hood of America. 1t is emphatically
a reform against nature.
"Female suffrage has been much
lauded of late as the only means left
to purify the ballot and to elevate
politics. No man has a higher re-
gard or greater respect for woman
in her proper and natural sphere
than / have; but, sir, maintain
that, when she assumes to exercise
the elective franchise, throws herself
into the whirlpool of politics, takes
part in ward meetings and partisan
conventions, is pulled and hauled
about the polls by 'heelers' and
'bummers,' and becomes cam
paign orator, instead of refining and
elevating politics, she will be dragged
from her high estate and sink to the
general level of what some choose to
call political infamy."
Right at this juncture Ezra B. Tay-
lor asked the speaker if he did not
think it would help the Senate to
have a good woman or two in it.
Mr.. Washington responded that If
Taylor was in the Senate the restrain
ing influence of women might puri-
fly it somewhat.
Mr.. Kerr, of Iowa, thought the
same would apply to the gentleman
from Tennessee. When the name
Tennessee was called it seemed to
fire Joe. If you don't believe he is
for Tennessee women you are wrong.
Just listen to him:
ooh, Tennessee has not yet adopt
ed any of these 'new-fangled' ideas.
She has no disposition to take any
such new departure or follow any of
these progressive follies. Not that
we are lacking in respect for true
and exalted womanhood in my State.
We hold, Mr.. Speaker, that the
home and not the forum is the place
God intended woman to fill. With
her gentle voice and her tender hand
she smoothes the troubled brow and
lulls to rest the weary limbs of him
who labors for her comfort. Her re-
filming influence, her watchful care at
the Preside, molds the mind and
forms the character of her sons and
of her daughters.
"In the home she controls the man
of to-day she rears the pride and de-
pendence of the State in the future !;
she directs the energy and shapes the
legislation of the country with a
thousand-fold more potency than she
could exercise by the ballot or in the
Senate. Brought into rude contact
with the coarse world she is either
roughened or crushed. AS mother
and wife in her own realm her hand
Yields more power than any mon
arch. Let us not for any party or
political purpose drag her from that
lofty pinnacle, higher than that
which she occupies anywhere in the
civilized world, on which American
chivalry has enthroned her." APP
plause.