The Iola register., 1890-05-02
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.

THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.
Woman's Claim Upon the Ballot Backed
Up by Principles of Truth and Justice.
In recent speech, before the State
House Committee on Woman's Suffrage,
in Boston, VIM. Lloyd Garrison said:
IF YOU will consider and analyze care
fully the arguments which the remon-
strants have brought to this discussion,
we NAV be grateful to them for their in
voluntary assistance to our cause. The
logic they have used, where it has not
refuted itself, tends to conclusion
which strikes at the roots Of democratic
government.
1T was the venerable DIR. Peabody, OF
Harvard College, dear and respected
name-who affirmed that there is no
such thing as a right Of suffrage. be-
lieye,' he said, that universal suffrage
most dangerous experiment. and do
not want to double the danger
'sIf that is the mature conclusion Of a
student of society whose observation
and experiences cover four-score years,
ought we not to conclude that the ex-
pertinent of self-governmentis is failure?
1t is enough to make one long for the
good old days when George III. was king,
and Samuel johnson berated republican
ism and defended the divine right of
monarchs.
Therefore. the suffrage which you
enjoy is not a right. Suppose, in that
case, we were petitioning for its con-
traction, and as the Legislators of the
State have not always been wise or just
and have made many mistakes, that we
ask to have you personally disfranchised.
What answer would you make? Re-
member that universal suffrage is a
most dangerous experiment, and that
Dr. Peabody does not want to double
the danger. Imagine that, sharing in
this belief. we demand that it shall be
diminished one-half, and, as we must be-
gin the reduction somewhere, we begin
with you.
Il fancy that you would indulge in no
plant yourself upon the ground of indi-
vidual right. You would quote with
JUNCTION Abraham Lincoln's famous die
tum that this government is of the peO-
pie. for the people. and by the people,
and you would talk Bunker Hill and
Lexington, before you would part with
fraction of your ballot, misuse it how
you may. And you would be entitled to
universal sympathy, because your action
would be grounded on right: right
which. if once surrendered, would bring
back a despotic form of government and
wreck the hope of mankind.
..If suffrage is not right, is it privi-
lege? If so. who was the favored indi-
vidual or corporation that conferred it,
and where did he or they obtain the
right to endow others with the preroga-
tive? Alas, if any thing can make one
question the efficacy of self-government
it is to see distinguished product of
freedom and culture come here to ar
raign with distrust the mother that nur-
tured him. What singular ingratitude.
But you know, gentlemen. that you
do not owe your ballot to the grace or
bounty of any human being with rights
beyond Your own. The moment re-
public was decided Ipon-and no re-
public was decided upon-and no re-
public ever had its foundations laid
theoretically so deep or broad as this
that moment privilege had no place un-
der its agis. and rights were coextensive
with the realm. Our government is but
an association of human beings for mu-
tual benefit, and implies the consent OF
all. For part to claim the exclusive
right to make the laws, is as indefensi-
BILE as for King or emperor. In equal
ity there are rights always, privileges
never.
1T is humiliating. long after the CEN
tennial celebration of the nations birth,
that we are forced to discuss principles
which the fathers settled for all time,
but to which their children are recreant.
We simply ask the application of ac-
cepted doctrines. And while woman is
governed and taxed, and punished if
she breaks a statute, we insist that in
Justice and in accordance with true
democracy she be allowed a voice in
making the laws upon which her happi-
ness and dignity and power Of self-de-
fense depend. submit that all friv-
olous objections urged by the remon-
strants fail to touch in single point
these fundamental truths.
But Harvard College has sent US bet
ter words than fell from the pessimistic
lips of its venerable Plummer professor,
and l conclude with the broader state
ment and more hopeful outlook Of James
Russell Lowell, whose comprehension OF
a true government has found matchless
expression in his address on Democ-
racy:
Have the Serene Highnesses and Enlight-
| ened Glasses carried on the business Of mankind
| so well. then, that there is no use in trying a
less costly method, The Democratic theory is
| that those constitutions arc likely to prove
| steadiest which have the broadest base, that
| the right to vote mark the wordI makes q
safety-valve Of every voter, and that the best
way of teaching q man how to vote is to give
him the chance to practice For the question is
| no longer the academic one. rs II wise to give
every man the ballots' but rather the practical
one, 1T is prudent to deprive whole classes Of
| it any longer," 1t may be conjectured that i,
is cheaper in the long run TO lift men up than tC
| hold them down. and that the ballot in their
hands is less dangerous TO society than sense
! Of wrong in their hands
I'm every nation, civilization may be
gauged by the extension of the fran
chise, every step in widening it mark
| ing the decline Of despotism and the up
rising of the people. Shall we, who
| fiaunt our example OF equality to the
world, persist in this monstrous Unequal
| ity which the disfranchisement of one
half the people, and the pauper half,
proclaims?
'Gentlemen of the committee. save us
from the Observation-Disclosures, God
forgive her, she's a-kneelin' with the
rest Help her to her feet and to her
sense of justice. now smothered in heI
| praipli leo Of SOW