Huntsville gazette., 1890-07-26
already been tried. In Wyoming IL has

been success for twenty years, certi.
fed to by the best authorities there, and
showing much better record than SUI
frage in many Southern States or North.
ern cities. Woman suffrage is vindi-
Gated by the fact that, while steadily
the sphere of woman has been broaden
ing, admission given her into new fields,
occupations, trusts-yet in no single in
stance has she failed to show herself
equal to the task. Reflect upon that
fact for moment! If there were this
inferiority or unfitness of woman in
capacitating her for suffrage; If it were
wrong and inexpedient and dangerous
for her to exercise that function-how
do you account for the fact that what
ever forward step you have let her take.
she has justified it?
Not only in my mind is there no ar
gument against woman suffrage, but
every argument for it. In the first place,
every extension Of intelligent
suffrage strengthens the body
polite. / must believe this, or
give up the principle of republican gov
eminent, which is the strongest and Sc
curest form of government know
some shudder little at universal suf-
frage, but it is ten thousand times more
dangerous to suppress and exclude a
part of the people. The gases which are
harmless if vented, may work ruin if
YOU confine them. There can in the
long run be little danger when all are
equally responsible. Suffrage is itself
- ;,,,r,oroa od,,o,+ior. ;tc ohcapca a
degeneracy. The broader the basis of
your State, the safer. In the next place,
the influence of woman has refined
whatever circle it has been admitted
into under conditions of its own self-re-
spect History, homely experience, COM
mon observation, all confirm this. Wom-
an suffrage would not debase women and
politics. 1t would elevate both. 1t would
add to the body polite the positive ele-
ments of feminine whOlesomeness and
natural antagonism to vice and violence
A new interest for the securities of
home and. peace, sobriety and order,
would be evoked Woman herself would
be benefited, as intelligent emancipa-
tion Of every sort and to whatever de-
gree always benefits its object
can not help feeling that back of all
this matter Of casting vote, lies still
deeper question Of social integrity,
There is at stake not the unrest of few
women, leaders of the movement, but
the welfare-the moral and Intellectual
statns-of the great body of women who
are in the mass of life. who toll in shops,
and whose character and fate are subject
to the molding of their circumstances.
Any thing that attaches to them badge
or fetter OF inferiority, dependence, or
weakness, just SO far binders their ulti-
mate moral, and intellectual self-sover-
eighty When, woman. lis under full
ed uality Of, rights and Of social respon-
sibdlity,s thence will date the era Of q
who1esomer social life, Nslich now some
times seems to be the despair Of social
science
Tho topic is boundless. have touch
ed only. on familiar and practical as
poets, which come quickest home to the
sense of justice. To sum them up, it is
right that women, equally burdened,
should have equal voice In the adjust
| ment of the burden. 1t is despotic and
undemocratic to- deny the equal right.
Nothing is easier than to arrange for
its exercise without injurious disturb
ance to social life or political stability.
| Women would not be drawn from their
duties, or their time over-occupied,, any
more than now in the case of men-and
we all know how little, how next to
nothing, that is, fer nine hundred and
ninety mine in every thousand of them
No dangerous, but better, element
would come into influence. l have no
more doubt. of the ultimate voting of
women than l have of the progress OF
the human soul, or than I have that,
when that time comes, more enlight-
ened age will look back on our dis
elimination against one of the sexes in
this respect as a relic of barbarism,
slowly-melting glacier of bourbonism
and prejudice. want to be ON record
as having melted out early, or rather as
having never been frozen in.