The herald., 1896-09-20
THE SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT

Law" has shown that Sin the ancient
| family community the separate exist
ence of individuals was almost submerg
| ed and lost in the corporate existence of
| the aggregate. Personal freedom was
| entirely unrecognized. To family duties
all individual rights were subjected. BY
a tie. religious no less than political, the
members of the family were all held in
| allegiance to its oldest male representa-
| tive. The father might abandon his son
in infancy, and when grown up might
| sell him as a slave or put him to death
| for disobedience. And the wife was to
| an equal extent in the power Of her hus-
| band, to whom she legally stood in the
relation of a daughter, so that marriage
was but the exchange Of one form SER
| vitude for another. No transfer of prop
erty was valid, unless the persons con-
Quoting it swore in the name of some an
| cestor-dead ages ago it might be; for
SO absolute was the authority of the
| paterfamliaS that it could not be con-
ceived as departing from him at death,
| but must be exercised by him through
the medium of prescriptive ceremonial,
over whole generations to come. Moth
| ing. in short, was regulated by contract,
but everything was determined by
| status" And John Fiske says with
| the rise of higher aggregates. such as
states, civic or imperial, this sinking of
| the individual in the corporate existence
| still for some time continued. The rights
| and duties Of the Individual were still
unrecognized, save in so far as they fol-
lowed from the status in which he hap
pened to be born or placed. In repub-
lican Rome, and in the Hellenic commit
mites, the welfare of the citizen was
| universally postponed to the welfare of
the state" But it was to the growth I'M
der Roman Jurisprudence from status to
contract at an advanced period of the
| ANN thot he ovid Go dol taA FOR
the first recognition of that fundamen-
tai truth Of all true government, the
complete recognition of individual rights
and obligations.
Until in modern times, the primitive
mode Of organization is almost entirely
effaced, leaving but few barely trace
able vestiges.
Individual rights and obligations,
from being nothing, have come to be all
in all.
while originally the individual was
thought to exist only for the sake of the
state, the state is now regarded as exist
ing only for the sake of the Individual"
With this principle of individual rights
and obligations once fully recognized,
the principle of democracy was estab-
lished and at once commenced her VIC
torious career. And as this principle
was an outgrowth of the abolition of
status and the adoption of contract, it
soon became apparent that there could
be no freedom of contract in the full
sense of the term unless between two
equal units; hence we find that grand
truth. which is the underlying principle
of every true democracy, enunciated
in our own declaration Of rights: I'VE
hold this truth to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal and endowed
by their creator with certain inalienable
rights. among which are life, liberty
| mr. hn nj a
And, as we all know, this is not the
declaration of a fact in it's application
to human institutions. All men are not
created equal when viewed from the
standpoint of men, but from the stand
point Of justice. of God, it is eternally
true, and should be so recognized by
every form of just government. If all
men are not placa6sin the same status
!, by birth, then this principle requires
, that every government which recog-
, nizes freedom of contract, which recog-
nizes the principle Of individual rights
and obligations on the part of Its citi-
zens, should see to it that, so far as in
it's power lies, every individual citizen
should stand equal before its laws. Rec
, ognizing the justice of this, we find slav-
, cry abolished and the growth Of univer-
E sal suffrage throughout the civilized
world in all forms of representative
aa WOMAN sHass s s RSt n
the part of earnest, thoughtful men anc
; women to broaden the application OF
this principle and take in the women OF
the land, so that the laws of our land
: shall not be inconsistent with our decla-
, ration of rights and the fundamental
= principle underlying our form of gov
eminent.
, Thus it will be seen that the moderr
. woman movement is only one phase OIL
! that progress through the centuries
: toward the development and recogni-
,, ton of tho individual However, tht
DEVELOPMENT of the individual does moi
, mean the abolition of institutions; the
+ state is no less an established factor ir
:, society becai'se it is composed of indi-
, vdualized units. Indeed, government
has a significance and binding force
, which it could not have did it not de
pend upon the loyalty of self-respectine
, individual citizens.
! In the same way has the family beer
strengthened by the modern conditions
. which have tended to make the individ-
, ual men and women MORE self-depend-
ent personalities. In no age but ou-
, own We're there ever so many homes ii
, which could be found so much mutua
satisfaction and enduring happiness
The characteristic marriage today is
| not based upon the desire to monopo-
lie woman in marriage as satisfac-
ton Of the sex passions. heightened and
: concentrated by mystery, put is the
perfection of human comradeship, con-
. secrated by mutual respect, strength
ened by common interest, and finding
, it's justification and perennial joy in the
most blessed gift of God to man, the love
of one human being for another. Such
marriages have only been made posi-
BILE through the modern development
that has come to woman, tending to
make her the equal of man in rights.
duties and responsibilities.
In homes founded on such marriages
there is no need to sound the ominous
warning based on the conditions in
France and on some phases of Ameri-
can life. Does it occur to our critic that
the French woman is in no sense the
modern woman; in no country have the
women entered SO little into the So
called new woman" movement as in
this country famed for it's intrgues ard
its sterilty. He will find, moreover,
that the American women who shirk the
obligations of motherhood are not the
women of the new school, not the col
lege bred woman not the professional
woman, but uniformly that class of
women who by meager or superficial
education and narrow interests have al
lowed their lives to become absorbed in
the follies of a shallow social life
| Ninety-nine out of a hundred such
women would say they had all the rights
they want. The woman who is broad
enough and earnest enough to appre-
ciate the sacred privileges Of her vn