Year: 1869

Charles Sclibner ~ 20


DIR. Bushnell treats the subject Of womens rights
and wrongs not only with eloquence Ou' WIN sOOu
.onse His poetical fancy has not Except IN ie"
instances) led him into the common error oil rnapSo
diving over n great problem which can only be solNed
nv sobcr arpument and historical illustration; and'
although he has not attempted to discuss the phIios
ophy of his subject exhaustively, or 10 carry inc
debate in all cases back to first principles he mas
approached il in a serious spirit ana touched we
believe the points upon which the real weight OF the
discussion ought to hang. Dr. Bushnell begins by
a frank recognition of womans wrongs She Is
wronced by our unjust laws Of property She IS
wronged by exclusion from modes Of employment
and productive industry for which she is natu-
rally fitted She is wronged by undeT-payment
and by under-eduoatien The remedy for the first
of these wrongs is in our own hands anu
we can easily apply it. For the resi- Wo
have only TO continue tho reform in education WIicn
has already commenced, and with better training
woman will find enlarged fields Of usefulness anu
adequate recOmpense, DR.. Bushneh warmly 1"'ol9
the plan of educating the two sexes Uoso'''' ",N"
has been tried so successfully at Ahtloch anu O'oI
lin Taupht on this footing of equality, women VIII
soon obtain place in the scale OF estimation lnaC
svoctl cor,espoRds with their personal weight and
ranocit The learned professions will then be open
a. tbe,, Surgery demands the firm hand of man
INT there are various departments OF medlcal prac
aoi, which women are decidedly TO be preferred
T like manner. the labors Of the law might be ad-
vantageOusly divided between the sexes. NO woman
could engage in the wrangle of the courts without
becoming viragO, and being reduced beside to
very ineffective advocate. Neither would woman
make a good judge, for she cannot bear wen the
assumption of authority, nor is she wicked enough
70 sifr. expose, and vigorously score the
living tricks of evidence. But she Is admira-
bly fitted for certain kinds of ofice-work,
such as the Investigation OF authorities,
the framing Of legal documents. the junction OF
notaTies public and perhaps the cerkshp OF courts
of record DR.. Bushnell sees no good reason why
women should not be admitted to the pulpit II they
have a natural gift for preaching; but he would not
allow them to administer the affairs Of the churches;
"anvthing which belongs to the quickening and
eifying of assemblies in the spirit may be left open
to them; only when we come TO matters OF church
administration and presiding rule these do not come
within their jurisdiction" There are other fields OF
employment of course into which women may enter
without question We have only to give them
better education and they will crowd the walks OF
literature, art and teaching. They will take more
forward part in trade. They will conquer places IN
banks insurance offices, printing-houses, &C. ana
so the over-supply Of sewing-women and shop-girs
will be drawn of and wages will regulate them
selves by the ordinary laws of business 1t is in this





tion of the sex not forgetting of course, while we
enlarge womans opportunities of acquiring property,
20 protect her in the enjoyment OF it.


But the most forward question just now is getting
TO be, Must we place woman an equality with man
not only in professional and industrial pursuits, but
in the right to vote and hold public Office Certain


women believe that nothing but the suffrage will
ever secure for them the most obvious rights of prop


erty. Certain Others place political equality with
man above all other privileges, and prize it for its
own sake beyond all the other reforms for which
their sex are contending. And many persons, caught
by the phrase emancipation hold the enfrancnse-
ment of women as something analogous 10 the liber-
alton of the slave and ready to plunge into the
proposed revolution without fairly considering what
1t means. In the first place. must disabuse our
minds of the common error that suffrage is right
of which women are deprived by man. 1t is not un-
usual to hear people talk about the ballot as if the
right to vote were absolute as the right to per-
sonal liberty. From the American doctrine that all
men are created free it does not follow that all men
are likewise created electors. There is no absolute
right of suffrage in either woman. great
deal of confusion of ideas about natural rights"
and natural equality" has been brought into our
political literature by the unfortunate fOndness Of
our Revolutionary ancestors for the use of we'll
sounding phrases borrowed from the liberal philoso-
phy of France but hardly susceptible of very rigid
examination. Suffrage is political trust conferred
by State upon certain of its citizens for the benefit
of the whole. 1t has never been exercised a nat
ural right in any part of the world 1t has never
been unrestricted. If women are to have it, they
must show that society viii be the better for their
getting 1t. Aud this we believe must DO the kernel
of the controversy.


Dr. Bushnell drops into poetry before he reaches the
second member of his syogism and remains so long
out of sight that nearly despaired of finishing the
argument. lie attempts to show from the Bible and
the eternal fitness Of things that God and nature
alike demand the subsection Of woman to man, and
the preservation of the distinctions of through
ell the relations Of life. Probably these chapters
will satisfy those who areadsagree with the writer,
and will have little effect upon anybody else. But,
in his survey of The Probable Results" he picks up
the thread OF reasoning which lac had dropped. The
change which would assuredy take place in the
feminine character if woman should come down from
the gallery where she has been an occasional spec
tator of political assemblies and mingle in the quar-
rels and intrigues Of the floorf sine added to the
cOrrupiOns of our present machinery of government
the awful wckedness Of the days when women
shared in the government Of FTance-if she lost her
beautiful prestige, met men with their weapons
and fell beneath their feet she certainly must fall
sOiled and battered in the struggle-ths change is
too mOurnful TO be contemplated without O
shudder There is reason in the world to suppose
that bringing women into politics would refine the
caucus, the town-meeting, the Legislature There
is ground for the assertion that the presence of
women at the polls would preserve the purity and
good order Of elections. On the contrary it is much
more likely DR.. Bushnell very clearly shows, that
men would be made no better and women would be