The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1900-03-09

ito rui,Gn d.frt.
Strangely enough this early abso'nt
ism WAS based upon moral ground the
ground Of womans natural inf.rior'ty
That woman, intellectually, ha' never
been nor ID now. under the ban 81 IA
tnre, bnt Of statute and custom history
weavss for ms a network Of evidence
Founded upon church prccept, sns
tanned by ecclesiastical and civil author
ity, md berusthed 10 the outlying races
a. a fundamental Of moral creed and
legal Jurisprudence, not merely a phys.
icnl, bnt A mensa! and moral intcriOrity
m wsll, has for long ages stigmatizod
, he mother OF the human rase. A dr.
orted idea Of God az 4 mrrciiess, mat
milne tyrnnt ha. mnrred the scheme If
nature by investing man. his after type,
with the crown Of authority, woman,
with tho badg- Of s.rvllity The rcpu
dated feminine principle III the God.
head has wrought untold degradation
20 women, and branded with gin the in
fanny Of a human race.
This condition, ,trengthened By the
conservative tendency Of the human
mind which tendency j. after ali moth
ing more than Il habit Of thought IN
dursd by authoritative teaching, has
starved and depressed by its ages Of
barren lnActlcn the mental cravings Of
momeu, until the channels Of individual
effort and individual will seemed most
efectually damned.
In speaking Of the moral Influence Of
law Sheldon Amos SAYS As s0on a9 u
law is made and lifted out OF the regions
Of controversy, it begins to exercise a
moral influence, no less intense and
ride,rpreadinR for being almost impre.
coptible, Though law can never at
tempt to forbid all that is morally
wrong, yet that gets to be morally
wrong which tho law forbids.'
Thus We can see how customs Of .oci
ety hnve been built up through the in
lnenco Of religions and civil lnwe,
founded though they be upon . miscon
ception of God and man, These the
despotic conditions TINT 80 long denied
to the mother. OF the race that freedom
OF thought and action which alone sub
serves the highest aad hottest purpoaps
Of being.
God thy law thou, mine, ms an ex
preston OF the relationship between
man and wife, inimical though it was
to truth and Justice, wa. not more an
embodiment of Millions individual
creed than an actual exponent Of the
spirit Of the age in which he lived.
So mnch, then, for the ban Of law
and custom nnpon which the women Of
the race have struggled by which they
have been 20 effectually handicapped III
every phase of the worlds activity. Do
you marvel that the women who have
distinguished themselves in the history
Of the world are exceptions2 Vet, oh,
with what travail Of soul do we relin
qnish, even now, in this century of
reason and intelligence, these mOrihuud
tenets on which the race has fed: on
""',n surieIy mas DulIded and whereon
rests the orthodoxy OF our present crea
ture COMFORTS, our hope for the eternal
future, Truly, this il the faith unto
which We We're born woman's inferi
oritv and subordination to man and
the creed has oyershadowed IL, even un-
to the dawning Of the twentieth cen
turv,
But after all the medal hs. it's OBJ
verse, luminous with revelations of the
future. The inclusive ethical principle
that is terminating today puts to blush
the fanaticism that scarcely more than
two score years ago made even the
question Of woman humanity n debat.
able one. What would she of Intellect.
nality, whose inferior state, rs embed
in luther's maxim, No gown or
garment worse becomes a w0man than
that She will be wise, fitted her SOLELY
for the mental Offices Of the subordinate
and slave?
~,
The church had for ages refused her
recognition to n great extent with
holds it still declared her possessed Of
no individual rights, defining such
'heagre privileges as she may have had,
he ''grfts' OF her lord and master, de
te rnined her normal condition As one
,f ignorance and impurity, maintaining
that education WAS a p~rerOgative Of
alone interpreted moral and ecle
teachings always to her dptri
nent; outlined her sphere by her
obedience to masculine supremacy and
to mans will, crushed and
degraded her, questioning even her kin.
ship wirh the race OF humanity. her
possession OF II soul, until woman her
'clf well nigh lost IN continued dark
iess and repression her inner con.
OF personal right and liberty, I
'o.exi.tant with individual creation. t
an We wonder that this barbaric con, I
of womans position, her stig [
natism as a curse wherein 1t was '
legitimate to heap the worlds continue
= and reproach should have resulted in .
mental atrophy, a sitting of intellect.
ial possibilities, that scarcely yet have il
ad their just and adequate stimulus to <
NIL DEVELOPMENT? Thousands of wO. h