The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1891-02-26
THE RIGHT or SUFFRAGE.

of home, family, church and state,
flaming torch lights the way for the
destruction of all that does not ac-
cord with his ideas of advancement
in the race of life. He DEGREES that
marriage Is q failure; that the right
of suffrage should be extended 10
w%omankind that all ideas of sex
should he oblitcrated from the laws
Of our land. The educated, intelli-
gent man, who would scorn to do in
justice to any living thing upon the
face of the earth, much less TO that
which he holds dearer than all else
womankind-feels the force Of this
attack, and says if injustice has been
done in this respect, amends must be
made-and that at on~cc-though the
heavens fall. Thus, the battering
ram is rein forced
81 am the spirit restless
That can never stay or Sleep
and what was first q fusilade becomes
canister and grape. He thinks that
possibly marriage is q failure; and
why not universal suffrage with all
the rights that necessarily follow IN
its footsteps? Imbued with q spirit
to right q wrong to do justice where
justice had been denied, man becomes
the exponent of q new evolution. He
lives in the present, is strung by the
past and his efforts are excellerated
q convert to q new cause, he hastens
to become its champion. Human
effort is onward and upward and
who will say the new idea is not
right? lie recalls that Thomas JEFF.
ferson wrote, ''that all men are
created equal" lie reads on and
sees "thaL they are endowed by their
Greater with certain inalienable right;
that among these are life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness and the in
| evitable conclusion is, that either the
! women were included in the word
''men'' or that they have been cx-
Guided intentionally if included,
why deny them equal rights, if ex.
cluded, why are they not endowed
with like ''inalienable rights" He
wonders why the countless millions
who preceded him thought 81 little
about so important a subject. True,
the new idea had never been tried,
hut therein was the strength of his
faith, ''taxation without representa-
ton" rings in his ears. He recalls
new discoveries thinks of the prog
rcss of the world and the more he
thinks about it the lirmer grows lis
conviction that the old ideas were
wrong-how could they have been,
right? 70 this midnight marauder,
this battering ram, VIC owe the ex.
istence Of a divided church, a Sec
tartan religion, for he could not
wholly destroy it. He is the doubling
Thomas of this age, the Ipgersoll
and Bellamy of this generation. He,
it is who, has made VIM. Tell q mitli
and denied Shakespeare the fruits OF
his labor. lie first breaks down the
citadel and then builds upon its
ruins. Thus we are led from actual
to theoretical existence. We find the
current too fierce, too strong for re-
sistence, and we follow in its path.
Woman ceases to be what the idea
and chivalry Of the Fifteenth cen
tury made her, and becomes one OF
us. Is the loss not greater than the
gain? We subordinate and eradicate
that ideal which is dearest TO us all
that woman may have equal and ex.
act ~iustice-the right of suffrage.
She pays for it when she pays hel
taxes, and why not have it. Strangl
that women should covet what SC
many men neglect to excrcise-the
right to vote. When the batterine
ram has accomplished this, other
fields and pastures new will be
opened unto him. Free love has its
ADVOCATES now more numerous among
intelligent people then were the be.
levers in women's suffrage fifty
years ago. Some believe that it will
come just as certain as the inexora.
Die laws of destiny lead us from CIV
iii2ation back TO barbar;sm, We
pause upon the threshold to think.
Do we favor universal suffrage? We
hesitate and acknowledge that the
battering ram has sown his seed, but
we have not been converted. We do
not believe that all things earthly
should be gagged by a money stand
ard. If taxation without represen-