The age-herald., 1898-01-30
THE WOMAN
 IN POLITICS.

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 Woman's prominence In public affairs, which has been asserting itself with some emphasis on both sides of the Atlantic in the past few weeks. is not an entirely new manifestation. It has appeared in many ages and many countries. It stretches across the centuries from the days of Ml- riam down to those of her sisters who figured in the Dreyfus case in France and in the sensational contest in Ohio. Mi riam, one of the larger personages in the Jewish Exodus, and Aspasia, who probably had even more influence over Peric.es than Mime. Maintenon did over Louis VIV. or Mime. Pompadour over his great-grandson and successor, Louis XIV, helped to make history. Many queens and expresses, Of course, from Semframis and Cleopatra down to Maria Theresa and Catherine ll had great influence in shaping the story of their country and their period, but these do not come within the scope of this article. Some of the women who, while holding official station, influenced, di- rectly or indirectly, the politics of their time are the only ones who will be men tioned here.
 It is an odd circumstance that in one of the two great republics of the world, France, woman'S direct connection with political events has been greater than it has been anywhere else while in the other one the United States, it has apparently been smaller than in any other important nation in the world. True, in the days of woman's greatest dominance in France that country was a monarchy, but during the revolutionary period in the hast decade of the eighteenth century, in the lifetime of the first republic, France had long list of women whose personalities were potent force in politics. In the one great nation of the world in which the salic law excluding women from the succession to the crown has always prevailed in mon archial days woman's contact with poEti- cal events has been closer and more con- stant than it has been in any other na- ton.
 What Tytler said about the connection of women with great events in the history of Rome is almost true, in general way, in the history of France. Tt is somewhat extraordinary" remarked that writer, in his Universal History" "that most of the revolutions of the Roman state should have owed their origin to women TO woman Rome owed the abolition of the regal dignity and the establishment of the republic. To a woman she owed her de- livery from the tyranny Of the decemViri and to woman she owed that change or the constitution by which the plebans be- came capable of holding the highest ofii- ces of the commonwealth
 Louis XIV. the proudest and most pow erfu monarch of his day, whom Macauey called the most consummate master or kingcraft of any age, and who according to the same writer, "succeeded in pass Ing himself off on his people as a pelng above humanity was swayed largely Tn political and social affairs in the last thir- ty years of his life by Mime. Maintenon. In her apartments and in her presence scme of the mightiest affairs of state were discussed by Louis and his ministers. Sne took part in the consideration of most Of the great issues of the last quarter Of century of the grand monarch's reign, and was. to use term of Jackson's days In the presidency, the leader of the kings kitchen it that the treaty of Nantes was revoked in 1885, and the persecution of the Protest ants in France renewed. In general, her Influence was used wisely, though In tnls larticular instance it was not. The an- nu.iing of the treaty had good effect on the United States, however. It sent large numbers of Huguenots to this country, and they formed settlements in many p.accs in New England and the middle states and in Virginia and South Carolina. I ae Reveres, Jays and Laurences and many other well known families were Hu- fuenots.
 A woman of greater beauty, of scarcely less tact and ability, but of far less robust virtue than Mime. Maintenon exercised donlnent influence over Louis XlV.'s great t-grandson and successor for many years. This was Mime. Pompadour. The later Louis was more tractable than his abier and greater predecessor and Pom .ptlour had an easier task than her fore runner in managing the king She did this fo such purpose that she was virtually recognized the head of the administra- lion for about twenty years. Ministers and military commanders were appointed by her, ambassadors of the other great nations presented their credentials to her, and she had a voice in the determin- irg of the foreign relations of the country at a time when, to almost as great an extent as in the days of Louis XIV. and Bonaparte, the history of France, as some body said in Bonaparte's time, was the history of every great nation in Europe except France. In a decidedly direct and emphatic degree she could and did reward her friends and punish her enemies It was said that warrants of commitment to the bastle were furnished her by the king signed and ready for use. with the space for the names left blank, that she filled the blanks. and that some of the persons found in that political prison at the time it was destroyed by the Paris mob in 11S9 a quarter of a century after her death. had been sent there by her, and, as often happened at the time, were im- mediately forgotten. To Mime Pompa- dour is ascribed the mot, After us the deluge." which reflected the recklessness ard selfshness of her career.
 Womar's influence except that of the monarch's wife. Marie Antionette, counted for comparatively little in the days Of Louis XV.'s narrow minded. misguided ana unfortunate successor. Louis XVI, who went down in the ''deuge' which the fol- lies and crimes of his predecessors had invoked Marie Antoinette was an mtrep- id woman, ana m Jne cycioHic udys "iiSH overthrow her house and ultimately led the king and herself to the block this wor- thy daughter of Maria Theresa often in- stilled courage and resolution into her somewhat timid and vascillating husoand More than once she must have addressed him in the strain in which Theodore, Jus tinian's wife, addressed that terror-strick- en monarch at his council with Beiisar- jus. his great general, when sedition ana rebellion threatened to overthrow the dy- nasty. If flight were the only means of safety" declared the heroic Theodore, who had risen as far above her ignoble antecedents morally as she had socially, "yet should disdain to ny. Death IS the condition of our birth. If you resolve Caesar, to fly, you have treasures Be- hold the sea; you have ships. But trem- ble lest the desire of life should expose you to ignominious death. For my own nart I adhere to the maxim of antiquity. that the throne is 8 glorious sepulcher'
 Theodora's courage stopped the panic m