deed, they may have refused outright to use it, if granted. And so, blind to the interests of all, deaf to the entreaties of many, they refuse the request, making, in fact, their wives the arbiter of all women. That is not statesmanship, but partisanship, and a partisan is not one likely to comprehend a question in its broadest meaning. Husbands and wives who are not as far apart as the poles, are apt to think alike on all questions except religion and temperance, perhaps I ought to add finance. Social problems they solve by the same rule, public officers they weigh in the same balance, party measures criticise and pronounce wise or unwise with the same verdict. I know of a few advocates of woman suffrage whose husbands, fathers, brothers, or some one dearer, do not directly or indirectly aid them. So far from alienating the married pair, so far from creating domestic disturbance, the discussion of this question has called into activity faculties men never dreamed woman possessed. She has shown more fixedness of purpose, sagacity, and sound judgment, than have ever been attributed to her. Excepting the religion of Christ, which first broke the chains binding woman to a mere animal existence, and sent gleams of love and hope through the darkness in which she groped, there has been nothing which has given such an impetus to her life as the present one, set in motion by her demand for freedom. Never before in the history of the human race, have women stood so high in the estimation of men as they stand to-day.
There is but one answer to give to woman-worshipers, and that is, Take away all responsibility from me, shield me from the terrors of war, intemperance and licentiousness, and be my vicarious sacrifice in the world to come, and I'll be the thing you would have me—the echo—the reflection—the soulless divinity.
Is this an extreme view? What! can there be an extreme view, when one is considering individual freedom? Set bounds to the political, social, or religious liberty of a man, and what figures of speech would he employ? The advocates of the XV. Amendment put words into our mouths, and they must answer for them if they seem too extravagant. There is nothing under the sun that will so arouse man or woman as the fact that another, as needy, as finite as himself, sets stakes in the path of his progress, and says, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." It is this assumption of men, most grievous to be borne, that has compelled woman to ask that the stakes be removed, and she be permitted to go where she wills to go.
Mrs. Hannah B. Clarke spoke as follows: When I am satisfied that a majority of the women of this country desire the ballot, I shall be in favor of granting the same, says the man of to-day of average ability and culture. Oh! my friend, we shall not allow you to take out a patent for magnanimity on the strength of that confession. When all the women, or even the majority of the women, shall unite in one solemn, earnest appeal for a voice in the framing of the laws which they are compelled to obey, the turf will be green over that political statesmanship which supposes that a question of right, of principle, is a question of majorities. While I do not believe that the fewness of the women in any community who really desire the ballot furnishes any man good ground for throwing his influence in the opposite scale, I do believe that the most serious hindrance to the immediate success of our cause is the opposition of women themselves.
