The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-09-18
ARP AND THE WOMEN.
Females Should be Given tho Ballot.
Atlanta Constitution,


We are better people than our ances'
tors. The civilized world is more toler-
ant, more humane, more reasonable. We
have more common sense, less prejudice
and less fanaticism. was reading about
the Mississippi Convention and the de-
bates over the proposition to allow women
to vote. This proposition comes from the
men, and has not been asked for by the
women. I see that it is confined to wo-
men who can read and write and whose
husbands own $500 worth of property,
OF who have that much in their own
right. What objection can there be to
such a law, especially when it provides
that there shall be separate place for
them to exercise the privilege-a place
where no man shall 60 unless he goes
with his wife or mother or daughter? We
need just such power in this land.
Poets and orators have eulogized the
blessed influence of woman, but if to that
influence could be added little power at
the polls it would be all the better for the
country. When whisky was votedout OF
Barlow county by only four majority, how
many would the majority have been if
women had had the privilege of voting.
Woman is always on the side of virtue
and temperance and religion. She does
not ask for the right of suffrage, but We
need her votes as we'll as her influence.
1t is not probable that she would take any
part in general politics, but in local
questions that involved the welfare of her
children she certainly would not hesitate.
Mississippi needs her votes for the pre-
servation of her State Government and
her morals. The South needs them, and
I wish that our own State had a Conven.
tion that was ready to act on this ques.
tion. Here is Widow Brown, who for
ten years has been managing her farm
and educating her children, and is close
up among the largest taxpayers in the
county, and yet has no voice in choosing
her rulers. The verieat vagabond whose
vote is always for sale has more power
than she has.
The time was even in my recollection
when married woman was nobody. ehe
not only lost her paternal name, but her
property became her husbands, and all
that she afterwards inherited became his.
She was allowed q few things that we're
styled her 'sparaphernalia," THAT is her
ornaments and trappings-and was allow.
ed her dowry when her husband died
but nothing else. But Christian civil.
cation has every few years enlarged her
rights, and she can now stand up beside
her husband and be his equal in all re-
spects, save government. Here is our
public school with 300 pupils, and every
teacher employed is female. The au-
perintendent is man, but the seven
teachers are women, and yet not moth.
er in the town has voice in these mat
ters. It is virtually saying, ne recognize
your superior fitness to teach our children
and train them, and to give them proper
direction to their conduct and morals, but
We can't trust you to choose our teachers
or to take part in making rules for the
school. I am one of the school board,
but I can name a dozen women in my
town who are better qualified and better
fitted for the place than I am. Mrs. Arp
is one of them, and if she didn't give me
q hint occasionally on the important
matters wouldn't be of much account,
hardly. Woman knows her sphere about
as we'll as We know ours, and if she is en-.
trusted with the right of suffrage don't
believe it would make any difference in
her department as a wife or a mother.
She is always on the side of good morals,
and always will be.
I said that We were better people
than our ancestors-some ofour ancestors.
I have nothing to say against the Pilgrim
Fathers, but 1 have been reading the
history of the Salem withcraft and of
Increaae Mather and Cotton Mather and
Samuel Sewall and others who figured in
the trials and prosecutions of those poor
women, and it made me sick at heart. 1t
is just 200 years since this devilish fanat'
icism broke out at Salem. Massachusetts,
and it seems to me that I wouldent dare
to live in Salem now. The history that
l have been reading was written by these
very men, who repented some years af-
terward, and published their own mistake
and infatuation as a warning to future
generations. Just think Of 180 innocent
women in prison at one time and execu;,
ted most every day-women torn from
their husbands, mothers from their chill:
dren and even children of eight years o.
age executed as witches. One mode oi
Il