Year: 1867

Much has been said and written by the
women of our country, Our public wo-
men, as. | suppose they will not object to
being called, on the subject of Woman
Suffrage.


We may take it for granted ; that it
has called out the best woman talent to
be found among those who advocated it.
That their best writers and speakers have
said their best things in their best man
ner,-not to speak of an undesirable
amount of lobbying at Washington, and
talkin private circles, sand directed their
best efforts to accomplish what they deem
so desirable an end.


Few, however, believe, have attempt
ed to speak for that large class of the
women of our country, who do not see
that good could be affected, either to
their sex or to their country at large by
the success of such measure, and who,
while they are not Indifferent to anything g
that concerns the public veal, would still
be unwilling to see the right Of suffrage
extended to woman.


Mr. Sumner, 1 think spoke truly as
well as kindly, when, at the close of a
long and interesting discussion of the
subject in the Senate last winter, he said,
that Swhen the women Of the country
wish to vote they will do 80, bat at pre-
sent it is not the general wish of the sex
to be admitted to the polls


This Indifference on the part of the sex
is frequently complained OF by women
speakers on the subject, and felt to be
one Of the greatest obstacles to its sue
cess, while much of their strength is
spent in endeavors to awaken them to a
sense OF the great wrongs which burden
them, beseeching them to gird themselves
to the battle which is to wrest from their
great enemy, MAN, the rights of which
he has SO long and so unjustly deprived
them.


That there is great backwardness on
the part Of the women of our country to
come up to the help of their strong mind
ed sisters in this matter is sufficiently
evident, but that this backwardness ari-
ses from stolid indifference to the true
interests of the sex, from their Being too
deeply buried in ''their airy nothings,"
or from their minds having been reduced
by this bondage to such q stubborn
frame'' that they cannot even see the ac-
tual wretchedness Of their condition, may
be questioned.


There are many who think seriously
on this subject, to whom it is not yet
given to see that the welfare Of the sex
or the safety Of the country demands the
opening OF public or political csreer to
woman.


While they believe that the nature of
their mission in this world is not less dig
nified or important than that of man,
they do not believe that it calls them to
the Polls, the Rostrum or the Halls of
Congress.


They cheerfully, and, on behalf of their
husbands, brothers, and sons, proudly ad-
nit the verdict of wise and thoughtful
men, that in attempting to measure in
tellectual no less than physical strength
with the sterner sex, they would speedi-
ly be put ''hors du combat" and decline
to enter an arena on which they could
expect only humiliating defeat.


Conscious of the Difference paid to the
truly wise and good of their sex, and Of
the noiseless but powerful influence they
may exert, if true to themselves and their
position in society, they are satisfied with
being ''the power behind the throne" ," and
not willing to risk losing the substance,
by grasping at a shadow. While they
tail to see that admission to the polls
would work out any great advantage to
woman, they believe that great and seri-
GUS evils would grow out of it, for her !;
but these have been so ably set forth by
many writers on the subject, especially
by DR.. Todd in his recent letters in the
GomgregationaIist, that l need only refer
to them here. r...


Beyond and above this, they believe
that positive evils to the country, would
result from wonan suffrage, and they
love their country too well to have its
safety ieopardized by what seems to them
a doubtful experiment.


We all know with what pertinaclty
and success the women of the South ad-
voeated the rebellion at its inception, and
with what an all pervading power and
influence, they helped to carry it on to
the end. With beroisKa which would