The Hawaiian gazette., 1894-04-27
CORRESPONDENCE.
More Argument About Woman
Suffrage.

Mr.. EDITOR in the article, "Shall
the Women Voter" written by Hon.
w. \. Armstrong, one finds the apo
theosis of the heartlessness with which
the male human species have ever
considered the female, where the ques-
ton was one of justice and equal
rights.
Who but a man could ever have
thought out this postulate of wis iom:
Would it not be an act OF wise states
manship, for the coming Constitu-
ii nal Convention TO establish female
suffrage with high property quail
fcdtion attached TO itr'
The italics are not intended by Mr..
Armstrong, but in them lies the key
10 the situation.
Does any one imagine for one mo-
meut that Hetty Green, with all
her high property qualifications,
would make more intelligent clu-
zen than a Mary Wollstonecraft,
Mary Goodwin, or q George Eliot" Or
does one not rather see that the
noblest, the purest, the sanest ana
the most able women would be eN-
cluded by such standard of selection?
Nowhere is mans self-centred egotism
80 apparent as in his treatment of his
wife and mother; and he will willing
ly confess himself an ass To convince
her that he is made of different If not
quite superior clay.
Now, why should women not have
extended TO her the right OF suffrage
upon the same plane of equality As
man? From times of savsgery down
TO our present, all men, except the
most enlightened, have been possessed
hy a vague dread of some mysterious
evil which was TO attend the extension
of equal rights TO their mothers, Sis
tiers and wives. Is il not about time
that we got rid of this bogy,
root and branch? We have gone
so far SIS TO believe that an
enlightened bad man often makes a
better citizen than narrow minded
well meaning one. Does it, there
fore, require any EXTENDED study OF
political philosophy TO explain the
natural effects on civil government Of
the co operation Of an intellectual
woman with her clean notions of good
morals? Man has never considered
any law as applicable TO woman eX-
cept the law of his own inclinatiOns,
and by assuming TO himself the right
Of undisputed authority over them he
has stood in his own light and so held
the best half of our intellectually in
allowance until now; and now he
would attack some condition as silly
as his former objections He is so
confirmed in his egotiSm, injustice
., ha f.
thing TO woman he expects 10 hear
the crack of doom.
OF course. Hawaiians need the vote
Of every really intelligent mind with
in the confines of their territory, but
shrewdness in trade is not the surest
sign Of mental worth or civil Oesira-
bllity. Some other standard should
be sought other than that OF high
property qualifications. A China
man would fill that condition, yet he
is not wanted for the reason that his
civilization is not ours. All minds
are wanted as citizens who are able
TO educate, TO refine, 10 enlighten and
TO improve. The pure minded woman
more than all.
From the unciyilized past few
things have lived that are so imper-
fectly fitted 10 the partially civilized
present as the exclusion of woman
from q voice in government; and the
fully civilized future will never
come until woman's faculties, tastes
and abilities shall be felt in dis
charging the various duties OF life,
social and political.
Already the power of cooperation
has been seen and developed; already
such amounts of self-restraint have
been acquired by men that women
are allowed TO carry on their lives
without much impeding; already wo-
men exercise such interests, felt by
citizens in social aud public affairs, as
10 combine individual efforts 10
achieve good ends; and already mems
sympathies have become active
enough TO generate impartial discus
sion. And If, in the course of the few
thousand years that have passed, the
discipline of civilized life has done so
much, il is folly TO suppose that it
cannot do more-folly TO suppose that
ii will not, in course of time, do all
that has TO be doDe-emancipate wo-
man.
We have nothing TO fear from wo-
man How absurd 10 supp sc that
social life can be harmed by keeping
the fundamental law of social life
the equality Of human rights.
IrTrrN u HANN.r