Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1890-04-10
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
A WRONG PRINCIPAL.

Uujust Legislation Through Which Women
Suffer From the Absence of Political
Power.
We object to human slavery, not
merely on account of the individual in
stances of hardship and outrage which
it ontailed, but because we believe that
however kind the master, it was wrong
in principal that the destinies of one
man should be contided to the keeping
of another. But put this proposition in
another shape, said Hon. w. Foulke, of
Indiana, in recent address, it is equal
ly unjust that the destinies of one race
should be placed under the control of
alien blood; and still another shape, 1t
is equally unjust that the rights of one
sex should be granted or withheld
solely at the good pleasure of the other.
The sovereignty is just as complete
which is exercised in the form of gen.
eyal laws. There is some amelioration
of the practical condition, but the prin-
cipal is just as iniquitous
And this unjust principle is sure to
give rise to unjust laws. There never
was time when men in their legisla-
tion respected in all particulars the
equal rights of women. They certainly
did not under the old systems. The
laws of Menu prescribed that at no time
should woman govern herself accord
ing to her own will. Before she was
married she was subject to her father,
then to her husband, and, he dying,
to her sons; or If she had
none, then to her nearest male relative,
and in default of this, to the king. At
no time could she rule herself according
to her own will. The Greeks improved
but little upon this idea. Among the
Romans, woman's property and civil
rights were mainly at the disposal
either of her father or her husband BY
Che Code Napoleon of France the joint
property belonged to the husband, and
however brutal he might be, he could
compel her to live with him, even if he
had to bring her to his home between
brace of gendarmes. The common law
of England was just as bad. When she
married, all her personal property be-
came her husbands by the act of mar
riage. All her outstanding claims were
his as soon as he saw fit to reduce them
to possession. Her real estate belonged
to him during their Joint lives; or If a
child was born to them, remained his
for life; and not a penny Of personally
could she call her own. The children,
too, were subject to his WILL and he
might beat her provided the rod were no
thicker than the judges thumb. Grad
ually these hard conditions have been
ameliorated, but still her condition re-
mains one of inequality. There are
States in which she can not make con-
tract, where her own earnings do not
belong to her; and even where these
iniquities have been swept away, the
door is still closed to all political prefer
ment. All this as the law tells us is for
her good.
Now, I am utterly opposed to every
form of doing good to people against
their will. / am opposed to every sort OF
divine right, whether of king or an
aristocracy, of a single race or of sin
! x 10 sCA. II WOuldll ult llOO buiCl lIOlll
this absence of political power, it would
be the only instance in history where a
class deprived of political rights has not
been the worse for this disability. In the
progress of civilization from despotism
to constitutional government, one class
after another, one race after another,
found that some share in the govern
ment was necessary for the protection
of their rights. The barons wrested il
from King John; the wealthy burghers
acquired the right to share it with the
barons Gradually through the various
strata of society filtered this divine
right, this right of sovereignty, this
right of suffrage, until at last it has
been extended even to the poorest. Sc
in America, first it was the property
qualification, then it was the race quail
tlcation. Step by step has the franchise
been extorted from its exclusive pos
SCISSORS, until now it embraces prac
tically the entire human family of thu
male sex, If the principles upon which
these advances have been made are true
the movement can not stop here.
1t is wrong in principle to say to ou
sisters what avenues Of activity and EN-
ployment shall be open to them ant
what shall be barred; and il is just a
wrong to close the single gate of politi
cal preferment as to shut them out from
any other lawful occupation. BY wha
argument can you justify it, and defen,
your own political liberty? BY wha
argument can you defend your owl
suffrage as right and not concede a.
equal right to her? A just man ought T.
, accord to every other human being, evel
to his own wife, the rights which he de