The record-union., 1895-10-10
THE FATE OF REPUBLICS.
Rev. Anna H. ShaW's Lecture on That
Subject Last Night.
She Devoted Her Attention Mostly
to the Question of Woman
Suffrage.

About three hundred people were pres
ent last night at the Congregational
Church to listen to the lecture of Rev.
of Repu blics."
Miss Shaw was introduced by w. II.
V. Raymond.
She said the real history of government
has not yet been written, or the real life
Of the people shown. The Legislature of
California at its last session submitted
the question of allowing women to vote
to the male population of the State, and
the fate of the proposition will be settled
at the next general election. The State
Association has therefore thought it best
to send out speakers to educate the peo-
pie. Almost all the States last winter
considered the question of woman SUI
frage in some form. In this day every
one is allowed to argue in favor of what be
or she believes. Women are generally
c0ntented with things as they find them,
but men are possessed of a more restless,
pushing disposition, and have pushed
ahead Till there is no frontier left in the
country. Men are much more easily dis
couraged than women, however, and the
women have, by their perseverance,
aided in developing the country.
Every republic which has died has
done 50 from causes within itself, on ac-
count of the lowering of the moral tone
of the people. In republic every class
that votes affects the Government along
the line of its interest. There are many
more good men in the country than bad
ones, but they are not combined and or
gained as the bad ones are. If the good
ones would organize and com ine as the
bad do, they could direct the affairs of
the country better.
She gave an amusing account of the
way in which a political campaign was
engineered over the question OF dam 10
make cranberry marshes, and votes were
snapped in the Legislature TO obtain the
required result.
she did not think that the voting of
women would affect the methods OF gov
eminent unfavorably. The masculine
and feminine characteristics will always
remain as they are. and development can
never be reached alone by one sex as
well as when they are com bined.
While men are the great financial force
in the nation, woman is the great moral
force, and she thought everybody would
admit that women are more moral than
men. 1t is much more revolving to see
d woman drunk or swearing than if il
were a man, and we cannot help feeling
that it is so.
/ She wittily described the debate on
woman suffrage in Congress and the
arguments used against IL by tho various
Nom ers, and excited much laughter in
/ her audience.
While women are not particularly de-
sirous Of holding Office, she said, they
are particular as TO who does hold office.
/ They are directly Interested in the effects
! ofthe liquor business aud should have q
voice in the regulation of it and in
protecting themselves from 1t. What we
need in this country far more than the
/ silver question or any of the great politi-
/ cal questions, is an infusion into politics
and the Government of the Golden Rule
and a strong sprinkling of the Decalogue.
She made mum Der of sharp thrusts a,
Senator Ingalls, in relation to his speech
on woman suffrage, and his declaration
/ that women Will not fight. The veterans
/ Of the late war knew the value or wonen
on the battlefield ana in the hospital, and
( in caring for the home while the soldiers
were fighting. The greatest injustice had
! been done by the legislative bodies of the
country to the women of the war, and
/ not monument or any token had been
erected TO them. The negroes were
given the franchise, but the women were
told to wait, and have been waiting ever
since. The ballot was put into ignorant
/ 0aQUS. Wnl6 8uuCak6Q women naQ &c
stand back. 1t was the most ungrateful
and shameful thing the republic had ever
done.
Then when the war was done and Con
gress did not know what to do with
/ Jefferson Davis, they DISTINGUISHED him
and put him in the same class with the
women.
Women, she said, are more law-abid.
| ing than men. and Senator Ingalls, in his
/ speech said that those who best obey the
laws are best fitted to make them. L
this be SO, as almost all the inmates o.
/ States prisons are men, it follows thai
women are best fitted to make the laws
To avoid the causes of decay in those
republics that have gone down, then, the
ballot should be pus into the hands o
the women as well as those of men.
Miss Shaw is a witty and brilliant
speaker, good humored and mildly sar.
castle, who clothes the old arguments il
favor of female suffrage in we'll chosen
and attractive language, aud holds wei
the attention Of even those who dihe
from her.