<^, 
 
 ^. 
 
 ^^^. 
 
 ^, 
 
 o .'VV.S^. 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 1.0 
 
 ^§^ §15 
 
 I.I 
 
 lU 
 
 140 
 
 ■ 2.0 
 
 1.25 
 
 1.4 
 
 <^ 
 
 ?^ 
 
 'J, 
 
 
 /A 
 
 'W 
 
 '/ 
 
 Pk)tDgraphic 
 
 Sdences 
 Corporation 
 
 33 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 
 
 (716) S73-4S03 
 
*M 
 
 i^ 
 
 z 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 CIHM/iCMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically ur«ique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantty change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm6 le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a At6 possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite. ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la methods normale de filmage 
 sont indiquAs ci-dessous. 
 
 n 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 I I Covers damaged/ 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 n 
 n 
 
 Couverture endommag6e 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaur^e et/ou pellicul^e 
 
 I I Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 I I Coloured maps/ 
 
 D 
 
 Cartes g^ographiques en couleur 
 
 Coloured init (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Reli6 avec d'autres documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La re liure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge intdrieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^es 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte. 
 mais, lorsque cela dtait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas dt6 filmdes. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires suppl6mentaires: 
 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 X 
 
 D 
 S 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 Coloured pages/ 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagdes 
 
 Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 Pages restauries et/ou pellicul^es 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 Pages d6color6es, tachetdes ou piqu6es 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages ditachdes 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 Quality of print varies/ 
 Quality inigale de I'impression 
 
 Includes supplementary material/ 
 Comprend du materiel suppl4mentaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 6t6 filmies A nouveau de fapon A 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est filmd au taux de rMuction indiquA ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 14X 18X 22X 
 
 26X 
 
 30X 
 
 y 
 
 12X 
 
 16X 
 
 20X 
 
 24X 
 
 28X 
 
 32X 
 
lire 
 
 details 
 Lies du 
 : modifier 
 ger une 
 
 fiimage 
 
 6es 
 
 re 
 
 i errata 
 )d to 
 
 It 
 
 ie pel u re, 
 
 9on d 
 
 The copy filmed here hat been reproduced thanks 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 Library of the Pubiic 
 Archives of Canada 
 
 The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or Illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., mey be filmed at 
 different reduction retios. Those too teri^e to be 
 entirely included in one exposure ere filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hend corner, left to 
 right end top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 L'exemplaire fiimA fut reproduit grice h la 
 gAnArosltA de: 
 
 La bibliothAque des Archives 
 pubiiques du Canada 
 
 Las Images suivantes ont tnh reproduites evec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de la nettet* de i'exempleire fiimA, et en 
 conformity evec ies conditions du contrst de 
 fiimage. 
 
 Les exemplaires origineux dont la couverture en 
 papier est imprimte sont fiimAs en commen^ant 
 par le premier plat et en terminant soit par ia 
 dernlAre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impresslon ou d'iliustration, soit par ie second 
 plat, salon le cas. Tous ies autres exemplaires 
 origineux sont filmte en commen^ent par la 
 premlAre pege qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impresslon ou d'iliustration et en terminant par 
 ia derniAre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboies suivants apparaftra sur ia 
 dernlAre image de cheque microfiche, selon ie 
 cas: ie symbols — ^ signifie "A SUiVRE", ie 
 symbols y signifie "FIN". 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre 
 filmte A des taux de reduction diff6rents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre 
 reproduit en un seul cliclt6, i! est filmA A partir 
 de i'angle supirieur gauche, de gauche h droite, 
 et de haut en bas, an prenant ie nombre 
 d'images n6cesseire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 illustrent la mAthode. 
 
 32X 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
v; 
 
 Ot^\ 
 
 Wvt VciVvirr^^ 'H*t**\\AxV'^ o\. M 
 
 \\V 
 
 v%^T - V^c^^ 
 
 
 i-"f3<*y/c,' 
 
;>/ 
 
 C,cU 
 
 Vv».vV-\. 
 
 ^^ T-«-V.*\V-\ 
 
 WOMAN'S PLACP: in TIIK STATE. 
 
 TniUTV years ago or more, m coinpaii}' with John Briglit, 
 the writer signed Mill's petition to the British Parliament in 
 favor ol" the [)olitical enfranchisement of women. Both John 
 Bright and lie were led to this by their general prepossession in 
 fa\()r of any extension of liuman rights, combined with their 
 resjx'ct for Mill. Both of them afterward changed their minds, 
 and Bright became the most powerful op])oncnt of female suffrage. 
 Tlie writer was led to revise liis opinion l)y finding that those 
 women whom he had always regarded as the best representatives 
 of their sex among his acquaintance, were by no means in favor of 
 the change. A ]irotcst from some of the foremost women of Eng- 
 hmd, which has recently appeared, confirms his impression, and 
 at the same time relieves a male writer of the fear that he may be 
 actuated by selfishness of sex in arguing against a female claim. 
 
 The agitation went on. Non-political franchises were granted 
 to women. At one time they seemed on the point of grasping 
 the political franchise, but then again the hope receded, and not- 
 withstanding the tendency of the demagogic system, which is 
 always to concession, because the politician fears to make an 
 enemy of the coming vote, the balance seemed to incline against 
 them ; when the other day the leader of the Conservative Party, 
 to the astonishment and dismay of not a few among his followers, 
 suddenly declared in favor of female suffrage. It has been said 
 of Lord Salisbury, with not less truth than wit, that he sauk 
 pour vH'eiix recider. lie is very apt to rush impetuously into 
 positions from which he afterward finds it better to retire. On 
 the occasion when he was hurried into this particular leap he 
 was addressing an assembly of Primrose Dames, that is, female 
 canvassers of the Conservative Party, who are supposed, by 
 bringing their personal influence and fascinations to bear on the 
 lower class of voters, to have rendered great service to the ]iarty 
 in the elections; and it may be surmised that his gallantry had 
 
 ^) 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^' 
 
 • • If 
 
 :•• '..• :.' :.. : •.' • • • Vj^ 
 
 i-'1^^*y?«," 
 
 
 . .t • • • • • • 
 
 » ■ » • 
 
(Ho 
 
 (a) 
 
 510 
 
 WOMAN'S PLACE IN THH STATE. 
 
 I ot less to do than his statcsiiiaiishi]) with the iinpulso to which 
 lie g;'.vo way. 
 
 Not that female suirra<r"' is out of the line of Torv policy, as 
 Tory policy i.s now undci.itood by a portion of the Tory I'arty. 
 The stratcjry which Lord Hcaoonslicld practiced and with which 
 ne inocidated a section of his follower.*!, was that wliich, instead 
 of resisting the democratic extension of the sulTrage, seeks to 
 outbid and outflank it, by cnfrancliising clas.ses over which it is 
 supiKvscil the Crown, the ai'istocracy, and the church will be al)]e 
 to exercise a s])ecial innuencc. This is Tory democracy, and 
 akin to it is Tory accc])tance of female .sulTragc. Lord Beacons- 
 iield himself was known to be favorable to the measure, though 
 he never made it a plank in his jilatforin, fearing j^robably that- 
 the bulk of his })arty was not educated uj) to the mark. It was 
 his belief, and is the belief of many Tories, that the women, under 
 clerical or sentimental innuences, would vote on the Tory side, 
 and, esjK'cially, that their religious and ritualistic feeling would 
 lead them to uphold the established church. Whether this be- 
 lief would in the long run ])rove well founded, may be doubted, 
 since in the bosom of the female ])olitician Conservative senti- 
 ment would have a ])otent rival in revolutionary excitement, and 
 while the Conservative women would be inclined to stay at home, 
 the revolutionary women would always go to the jioll. Such, 
 however, is, the game. It is the game of the Tory leader in Can- 
 ada as well as in England. The Canadian Tory leader gives votes 
 to the Indians because the Indian will follow the meal-bag; and 
 he tries to give votes to the women because he thinks that the.^ex 
 is Tory by nature, though in tlte last move he has hith(>rto not 
 been al)le to carry the body of his followei's with him. No great 
 compliment is paid to woman by thus using her for the purj)o.ses 
 of i>aity tactics. 
 
 Lord Salisbury guarded his avowal by saying that he spoke 
 for himself alon(\ But a leader of a ])arty and a ])rime minister 
 cannot sjteak for himself alone. Afr. Gladstone, or whoever may 
 be leader of the o[)position, seeing Lord Salisbury bidding for 
 the women's vote, is sure to bid against him, whatever his own 
 convictions may hitliei'to have been. The demagogic system is a 
 ])crpetual Dutch auction, the last bid in which it is difficult to 
 
 I 
 
 .'• • • • • • • • 
 
 V 
 
 4-V 
 
WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE STATE. 
 
 r.ir 
 
 turcsro. Some are sanguine enough to think tli;n, Aiiicrica will 
 have rest when a l)hiek woman has been eleeted jn-e^ident of the 
 United States; but arc they sure that when the l)arricrs of sex 
 and color have been broken through, a demogo^ie erusade will 
 not commcnee against the limit of age? T have heard an English 
 Radieal say that "a vt)te is the riglit of every sentient being." 
 
 At pre.sent tlic fi'an^'hise is sought in (jrreat Britain only for 
 unmarried women and widows. But evidently the movement 
 will not sto]) tliere. It cannot logically or justly stop there. If 
 the sjK'cial interests of women and the home are to be repre- 
 sented, it is preposterous to exclude all those women who are 
 actively di.-^charging the pi'oper functions of their sex, and all 
 women who have a home. Nor is it intended that the movement 
 shoidd stop at sj»iiistcr and widow franchi.'^c. Spinster and widow 
 franchise is merely the thin end of the wedge, if indeed, consid- 
 ering that the claim of sj)insters is less than that of married 
 women, it may not rather be called the thick end. The aboli- 
 tion of .'subordination in tlie family, of the authority, usurped or 
 obsolete as Radicals deem it, of its iiead, and of everything that 
 tends to merge the civil ])eri<onality of the wife in that of nc 
 hu.sband, is the prime object at least of the extreme wing of tlu' 
 ])arty, which would be achieved if man and wife could be .seen 
 fitrhting airainst each other at elections. 
 
 Since England has got loo.se from her old political moorings, 
 and under the name and forms of a monarchy turned herself into 
 the most unbridled of democracies, America has become the 
 more conservative country of the two, and we seem farther from 
 a great revolution in the relations between the sexes on this side 
 of tiie water than thev are on the other. Something mav be due 
 to the fact that, sufTrage here being universal, and there being no 
 proj)osal to limit the franchise to unmarried women, the change 
 presents itself at once in its full magnitude. But more is due to 
 the conservative instincts of the "territorial democracy," and to 
 the superior robustness of republicans who have had a long 
 tenure of political power. The American citizen, satisfied of his 
 right, is not infected with that feeble facility of abdication which 
 takes possession of the soul of tottering privilege and makes it 
 yield at once to every clamoi'ous demand. A great safeguard is 
 
618 
 
 WOMAN'S PLACE IN TIIK STATE. 
 
 funiislHMl \)\ \\\v iiooossiiv ()f subinittin^^ :ill constitutional aniond- 
 nionts to tlio j)()i)tiliii' vote. ^J'lio ])e'o|tle are not trembling for 
 their re-election ; they are not afraid ol" making an enemy in ad- 
 vance of any })o?sil)le " vote " of the future; nor can they be ])er- 
 sonally interviewed, wheedled, and bullied as the niend)ers of a 
 legislature are. 
 
 In the last session of Congress, however, a committee of the 
 Senate, of which Mr. Blair was chairman, rc])Oile(l favorably the 
 resolution for a constitutional amendment enacting that " the 
 riifht of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied 
 or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of 
 sex." The resolution assumes the exi.stence of a right, thereby 
 begging the whole question, as the committee seem partly aware. 
 If there is a right, the denial or abridgment of it i.-, as a matter 
 of cour.«?e, a wrong. 
 
 According to one theory, the right ha.^ already been recog- 
 nized by the fourteenth constitutional amendment; but, as the 
 committee say, "the great misfortune of those who thus believe 
 is that the Supreme Court holds just the contrary opinion.'' For 
 holiling the contrary opinion, the Supreme Court has had vials of 
 wrath ])ourcd uj)on it; bat surely it had common sense upon its 
 side. Nobody could imagine that the nation, in ])assing the 
 fourteenth amendment, meant to introduce woman .suffrage; and 
 a court must l)e the .slave of verbal technicalities irideed, if it can 
 liold that, by the mere use of an unguarded ])hrase, a community 
 has entra])ped itself into a transfer of half the sovereign power, 
 and a revolution in the relations between the sexes at the same 
 time. English courts, upon an analogous a])peal, decided in the 
 same way, though in England the aj)})ellants were able, not only 
 to show that the words of the law, as construed by them, were 
 in their favor, but to cite the historical ])reccdent of queens who 
 in the Saxon times had sat in the "Witenagemote. 
 
 The other ground on which the claim is made, and vvhich, as 
 
 the committee say. is not inconsistent wutli the legal ground, is 
 
 that of natural right: 
 
 "The suffrage is a natural rii^ht inherent in all who are capable of ex- 
 ercising- the political functions of citizenship; that is to say, who are capa- 
 ble of becoming component parts of the aggregate body of sovereigns in 
 all governments which are republican in form.' 
 
 ' 'A 
 
 y 
 
I 
 
 WOMAN'S I'LACK IN THK STATE. 
 
 51!> 
 
 To this tlio rc])ly is that what is ossciitial to tlio ropiihlicaii form 
 of govcriiiiu'iit, can 1m gathered c>iily hv iiuliu'tioii from a survey 
 of such repiiblies as have exi.^ted; ami that of all the rejtiildii'S 
 which have existed, not one has given a share of the sovereign 
 power or a part in government to women. It might have l)(>en 
 thought that theories of natural right to the po.ssession of politi- 
 cal })ower had been buried in the grave of the j»olitical jdiiloso- 
 jihers of the ];\st ciMitury. Tiiat 1o which, and to which alone, 
 every iiiend)or of a community, whether man, woman, or child, 
 whether white or black, whether above or l)v'low the ag(! of 
 twenty-one, has a right, is good govermnent, and siuHi things as 
 are necessary or eontUicive to it. We are tlnis thrown back on 
 the ])ractieal ([ueslion whether femaU' sullrage is necessary or 
 conducive t(; g(»()d government. Say the committee: 
 
 " JfifTtsrson trembled wlu'n ho retneiubered that CJod is just. Now 
 voniiin, our o(|U!il, asks n>!iff from lior jj;realpr wixm^'-s. Wo shall rot'unn 
 tli«'in at our poril. Ood is slill just. JoU'erson's foi'('l)odin<;s wore b>it a 
 glinipso of tiio terriblo rotributioii which descondod upon tho pooplo." 
 
 All this and much more to the same effect, and (Mpially full- 
 bodied in style, proceeds on the a.ssumption that every one has 
 the same jight to a share in the government which he or slie lias 
 to immunity from the worst kind of injustice; than which 
 nothing can be less self-evident to the ordinary mind. 
 
 '* In mu'^cle," say the committee, " wt)man is inferior to man; 
 but mnsele has nothing to do witli legislati<in or government. In 
 intellect she is man's e(iuul; in character she is by liis own ad- 
 mission his suj)erior, and constitutes the 'angelic ' ])ortion of hu- 
 manity.'' Here, a.s throughout the report, and indeed in tho 
 wliole discussion, the amatory somewhat intrudes nuou the lems- 
 lative. The ({uestion, however, is not whether the intellectual 
 gifts of woman are equal in value to those of man, or whether 
 her character compared with his is angelic, but whether her nn- 
 dcrstanding and cliaracter arc as v;ell fitted as his for the sjiecial 
 functions of ]H-)litics and government. Neitlier the intellect of 
 Newton TU)r 1? ;> character of John Wesley would lie dis])a raged 
 by saying that they were not well fitted to command a fleet or to 
 perform a surirical operation. If government requires a mascu- 
 line understanding or temperament, and if the practical character 
 
bii) 
 
 WOMAN'S I'LACK IN TlIK STATK. 
 
 1)V wliii'li ))()litio:il quostions art' likely to he host settled resides 
 ill the mail, whose s])liere is tlu' world, riitlier than in the woman, 
 whose sphere is home, that is a reason for ])referring such n'ov- 
 ernmeiit and le<fislati(Mi, (luite independent of any invidious com- 
 parisons, whether intelleetual or moral. Perfect e(|uality may 
 I'cign between two beings whose s])heres are dilTcrent, and wlio 
 are the eomplements, not the competitors, of eacii other. 
 
 Muscle, the committee pass over as having nothing to do 
 with the matter, liut the fact is that muscle has a great deal to 
 do with the matter. Wiiy iias the male .sex alone made the 
 laws? Because law, with whatever majesty we may invest it, is 
 will, which, to give it elfect, must l)e backed by force; and the 
 foi'ce of the community is male. A.- Gail Hamilton (|uaintly but 
 forcibly e.\])rcsscd it, " every ballot is a bullet." Muscle is the 
 coarse foiiiKhition on which the most intellectual and august 
 fabric of legislation rests. Divorce the huv from the force of the 
 (•(Hiimunity, and tlie law will become inefTectual. If the case of 
 rpiceiis regnant is cited, the answer is that a queen regnant has 
 the public force at her back. Sup])ose the women, when invested 
 with jtolitical })ower, were to make the laws which they threaten 
 to make in their own intenjst and against that of the man, would 
 the men execute the law against themselves? We have .seen ex- 
 travagant ])ro])osals for increasing the severity of the penal code 
 in all cases of olTenses against W(»men. Su])i)ose any such pro- 
 ])osal wen* carried by the female vote, would the men obediently 
 inflict the jienalties on each other? That the tendency of a state 
 governed by women would be to arbitrarv and sentimental leoi.s. 
 lation, can hardly be doubteii. Prohibitionism in its most ex- 
 treme form would almost certainly carry the day. Possibly 
 legislation against tobacco might follow. "Would men obey, 
 knowing that the law had no force behind it? If they did not, 
 what but disregard of law and con.sequent confusion would ensue? 
 
 One of the ladies whose evidence was taken by the commit- 
 tee, admits that in the davs of force, when women needed the 
 jirotection of man, male government may have been justifiable; 
 but these, she says, are days of ])iping peace. Days of piping 
 peace, when there are millions of men in arms, when armaments 
 are being increased daily, and the liammer of military prejiara- 
 
 •'*: 
 
f 
 
 WOMAN'S I'LACE IN THK STATK. 
 
 Wl 
 
 tioii i:« clanging in all the lories of war! It would 1)0 itn|>oHsil)l(:» 
 to allow ([Ui'stions of jicaci* ;in<l war to Ito (U'riijcd hy tlic women's 
 vote. Till' wonii'ti of Kraiu'i' sonio years Jigo would })rol)al)Iy 
 have vot('(l !i war for the support of the temporal power of the 
 J'opf. The women of l']nglainl might have voted intervention 
 ill favor of the t^ueen of Naples, by whose heroism tiieir hearts 
 were yrreatlv moved. In both eases the men would have refused 
 to march or act, and government would have succumbed. 
 
 Power to elect implies ])owcr of being elected. E.xclusion 
 from the legislature and from political ollice, would be a griev- 
 ance not less exas])crating than the j)resent exclusion from the 
 jioUs. Ill Kngland the leaders of the movement evidently lo(jk 
 f.iiward to full ])articipation in ])ublic life. In fact, it may be 
 siisjK'cted that here li<'s the chief motive ])ower of the agitation. 
 Yet tlu! feelings of the .s(!xes toward each other must have greatly 
 changed before women can, like men, be held strictly resj>onsible 
 for the jK'rforuuuiee of oflicial duty and punished for the breach 
 of it. Even to criticise them as men are criticised, would be 
 oilVnsive to sentiment. We .saw it stated that lady princi[)als of 
 tii(> city scliools in New York, the other day, protested against 
 the rea]>]K)intnu;nt of education t'ommi.ssioners of tlieir own sex, 
 on the ground of the noxious immunity from criticism which, 
 through the gallantry of the men, female coiumissioners enjoyed. 
 
 The belief that vvomeu will iin])art their tenderness and purity 
 to politics is surely somewhat simi.)le. They are tender and pure 
 because their s])here has hitherto been the home, which is the 
 abode of tenderness and ])urity. Thrown into the arena of jioliti- 
 cal strife, the "angcLs." if experience may be trusted, in.stead of 
 imparting the angelic character to the male combatants, would be 
 in danger of losing it themselves. In the de.'^pcratc ])arty conilict 
 which has been raging in England, each party has put its women 
 in requisition as canvassers on a large scale; and we are misin- 
 formed if the result has been the infusion of a more angelic char- 
 acter into the fray. "Corruption of the male sulTrage," say the 
 conimittee, "is already a well-nigh fatal disease." But what 
 assurance have they that women, when exposed to the temptation, 
 will not take bribes? What assurance have they that in regard 
 to appointments to ofliee women will be es{)ecially free from per- 
 
6'4'i 
 
 VVUMANS I'LAC E IN TllK STATE. 
 
 A 
 
 sonal iiifliu'ricr, or inoro ri^ondis uplioMfis than iikmi of tlio 
 piiiu'iploH of the civil service act? If we tiiistake not, the most 
 trenchant attack Ujion the principU's of that act, anJ the most 
 open (K^fcnsc of public favoritism that \vc have rcail, was from 
 tiie pen of a woman. 
 
 " Knfranchise women," says the report, "or this repuiilic will 
 steatlily advance to the same ilcstnieti(»n, the same ignoble and 
 tragic catastrophe, which has cngnlfcd the male rej)nblit.'s of his- 
 tory." Tliis .^eems to im|)ly a new reading of history, according 
 to which republics havi' owed their fall to their masculine char- 
 acter. The (Ireck republics were overwhclnicil by the Macedo- 
 nian monarchy, their surretider to which was assuredly not duo 
 ttj excess of masculine force. T]\v Roman repuitlie was con- 
 verted by the vast extension of Roman cotuiuest into a mili- 
 tary cm|»ire. IMie city republieanisiu of tiie middle ages wan 
 crushed Ity thv* great monarchies. The short-lived eomnion- 
 weallli of Kngland owed its overthrow to eau.ses which certainly 
 had nothing to do with sex. The Swi.ss re})ublie, the American 
 republics, the French rt'i)ublic still live, so do sevi'ral con- 
 stitutional monarchies, including (Ireat ]>i'itaiii ami her colonics, 
 which ai'c repid)lics in all but name. It is true that these, 
 commonwealths, though, we may hoj>e, less directly threatened 
 with the wrath of heavi'u than the report a.ssumes them to be, 
 are yet not free from jtei-il ; but th( ir pei'il a])parently lies in tho 
 ])assions, the giddiness, ilu' anarchical tendencies of the multi- 
 tude, and would liardly ln' averted by oju'ning another flood- 
 gate and letting in all at oiu'c the full tide of fendnine enu:)tion. 
 
 Of female governnuMit we have ik) expcricn(;e except in the 
 ea.ses of nueeiis rcirnant ami female viceroys. Without croiiifr 
 through a tedious list, we may safely .say that there is not among 
 these any examjile of such transcendent beneficence that the hope 
 of rej)r(,)ducing it can warrant us in risking a great revolution. 
 Queen Victoria is cited as a paragon of female government. 
 The truth, as every one ought to know, is that she reigns but 
 does not govern. As wearer of the crown she has social duties 
 of an im]iortant kind, which since the death of her consort have 
 never been performed, and the ]KM'siste)'.t neglect of which, in 
 spite of faithful advice and warning.s, have in the case of Ireland 
 
 I 
 
 - >'i 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 WOMAN'S Vl.M'K IN THK STATK. 
 
 523 
 
 Ifd to tlu' most. ciihiiiiitoii.H results. 'I'lic (.^ticfn'.s life .'iinl merits 
 Imvt! liecii •lomestie. In her ".loiirmil " then' iin^ two references 
 to piiltlie eviits, one to the Kraneo-Ciernmn and the other to the 
 Kj^'Vptiiin war. In the tirst thi; writer hml a son-in law, in th" 
 8ee<Mi(l sJK! had a son. SliouJd tlu; time evei' eome, as, with revo- 
 liitioiiarv forces of all kinds at work, i.s conceivable, when it nuiv 
 he necessary for tlu! salvation of the coimtrv to adopt a nolicv 
 involving'' some risk to tin- Crown, the sex of the sovereij^n may 
 prose a st'i-ioiis misfortune, since it is imjxissible to give counsels 
 involvini/ any risk to a woman. 
 
 It iloes not follow, U.S the committee seem to assume, bccanso 
 women do not vote or take a direct part in polities, that their in- 
 thieni'e on <rovernment and Icj^dslation will i)e lost. It is already 
 )>owerful, and nowliere more powerful than in the United States, 
 'i'liere runs through all these arguments and denunciations the 
 fallacious assuiii])tion that women are a class apart, exchuled 
 from the privileges which are enjoyed by tlie other clas.ses. But 
 women are not a class; they are a sex, identified in interest, 
 bound up in alTcetion, and living in the closest communion with 
 the voting an<l governing sex, the character of which as mothers 
 they have mohled. and which is constantly permeated by their 
 ideas and sentiments. The ballot is not the onlv sufTrage or tlie 
 only seej)ter. There are ukmi who, from the special nature of 
 tlieir occupations or from indilTerence to party struggles, have 
 hardly east a vote in their lives, and who yet liave exercised a 
 marked influence on ])ublic opinion. Such men would probably 
 lind it dinicidt to understand the transcendent value attached to 
 ]iartieipation in atstive j^olitics or to the possession of a vote. 
 We have been told tiiat unless women vote they cannot take any 
 interest in ])ublic afTairs, and even that Lhey cannot read history. 
 Facts show that they can <1() both. 
 
 If wointMi w»TO really a class without votes, their class inter- 
 est might suH'cr. But we repeat, and it is the very gist of the 
 matter, that they arc not a (ilass but a sex. What special inter- 
 est of women can be named which is in danger of suffering at 
 the hands of a legislature composed of their husbands, sons, and 
 brothers? What grievance is there, redress of which has been 
 
 denied? It is reasonable to ask this question before we invoke 
 35 
 
b'Zi 
 
 WOMx\N"S PLACE IN THE STATE. 
 
 
 I 
 
 a revolution. The ou\y sj)ecilic grievjiiice within tlie power of 
 legishition to remedy, mentioned by any of the hidic.-* who give 
 evidence, i.s th;it a woman is tried, it may lie for infantieide. liy u 
 male jurv. But have the innocent been convicted, or does anv 
 one wish the guilty to escape? It surely cannot be doubtecl that 
 nuile juries are lenient to women. It is not the woman who has 
 diiliculty in getting justice against the man, but the man who 
 has dilhculty in getting justice against the wcnnan. Liberty of 
 divorce, if the lack of it was once a subject of complaint, has 
 now been conceded in measure so abundant that the statistics 
 liave become almost appalling, and Wvunen themselves are begin- 
 ning to recoil. The separation of the wife's projierty from that 
 of the husband is as complete, nay as jealous, as it can be, short 
 of an absolute dissolution of the domestic Dartnership. Almost 
 every set of suffrage cxccjit the jiolitical has l)een conceded, or 
 is in process of concession. Women aie being admitted to the 
 professions, even to that of law, albeit justice, which would seem 
 to be the main object, is not likely to be ]>romoted by the ad- 
 dresses of female counsel to male juries, unless sex can be alto- 
 gether eliminated, as some pcoj^le a])])ear to think that it mav. 
 Male universities are thrown ojien to women; and if the ju'ojior- 
 tion of women who resort to them is small, this is due to the in- 
 stinct of ])arent3 who ]>refer for their daughters female }ilaces of 
 education. Woman has made her way to the smoking room and 
 has mounted the bicvele. She beuan to adoitt male attire, and 
 nothing but her own taste stojijHHl her. .Vfter all. Nature has 
 made two sexes. Nobody thinks it a coinpliMieiit to a man to lie 
 called eireminate; why should we think tlial to become nuiscu- 
 line is the hiuhest ideal of woman? 
 
 The complaint has been made, and is echoed in the evidence 
 apjtended to the report, that women, compared with men. are un- 
 derpaid in professions and trades. Economic relations iwo some- 
 times a good deal governed by cnst(^m. and it would be rash to 
 afHrm that upon women as new-comers in certain em])lovments, 
 custom has not borne hard. But in em])lovments where their 
 ])osition is established, such as those of the singer, the musician, 
 the novel-writer, the artist, or the milliner, women are not und(>r- 
 paid. Who is more overpaid, or, if managers speak the truth, 
 
WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE STATE. 
 
 .)v'.> 
 
 IV \\n- 
 soine- 
 asli to 
 nonts, 
 tlicir 
 ^i(•ian, 
 iiidcr- 
 truth, 
 
 lUDiv )'aji;icious, tliaii a prima doniia? One (.'K'liu'iit of ^•alu(■ in 
 labor must be the complete devotion of the labori'r ti» tli(> ein- 
 ploynieiit; aiul a woman, unless she has linally renounec(l mar- 
 riajxe, cannot be eomj)letely devoted to an employnu'nt. nor is 
 she likely to rival male jierfeetion in it. In truth, female labor 
 which takes the woman a\\ay from her home ami from her natu- 
 ral duties, which are those of the wife and mother, is a sad, and 
 we mav hope a transient, necessitv of our iiresent staufe of civili- 
 zation. liut, at all events, every economist and every person of 
 common sense knows that questions of watres must be settli'il bv 
 the market, and not by the legislature. If there were a female 
 lejj;islature, and it made laws re(iuirin<x men to pive for woman's 
 woi-k more tiian the men thought it worth, men would resist or 
 evade comj)liance; and again law and government would fail. 
 But this suL''u;estion, and t)thers which are akin to it, open to us 
 V vista of the agitation which would be set on foot when the 
 majoritv of the holders of ]H)litical ])ower were women, and poli- 
 ticians iiad begun to play for tlie woman's vote. 
 
 The report ju'oclaims that "without the exercise of the in- 
 alienable iMtural right of suU'ragc, neither life, liberty, nor jtrop- 
 ertv can be secured." To the ordinary observer it appears not 
 only that the lives, liberties, and properties of American women 
 are secure, but that they are more secure, if anything, than those 
 of tjie men: and that the attitude of men in the United States 
 toward women is rather that of subjection than that of domina- 
 tion, in fact, if the epithet "slave," so lavishly used by every 
 one who thinks that he has not the e.xact amount of ])ower which 
 he ought to have, is to be seriously applied to any one not in 
 actual bondage, it will hardly be to a woman, who is being main- 
 tained, jierhaps. in the height of luxury, by her husband's labor, 
 and for whose comfort and convenience sj)ecial arrangements are 
 made wherever she goes. "Actual and jiractical slavery." which 
 one of the ladies who give evidence declan^s to be the condition 
 of woman without the ballot, has certainly in the case of the 
 American slave disguised itself in very deceptive forms. "No 
 one," says another lady, "has (h'liiecl t'.» women the right of 
 burial, and in that one sad necessity of human life they stand 
 on an equal footing with men." Such language seems to mock 
 
o2ij 
 
 WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE STATE. 
 
 I 
 j 
 I 
 
 ![ ■ 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 k 
 
 ■n 
 
 our undorstaiidiii^^s, Coinjiiirisoiis of tlie condition of woman 
 denied the suirrage witli that of tlie Negro in the South, have 
 often been made, and in this report we arc told that the exclu- 
 sion of women fi-om a convention 
 
 "constituted Hie sliirlling" rovelation of a roal subjection of woman to 
 man world-wiiic; and in many resjtocts as complete and galliiiy, wlii-n an- 
 alyzed and duly considered by its vic-tinis, as tbat of tlie Nej-ro to his nias- 
 
 t.T." 
 
 Tlic Negro, nevertludess, Vv'ould not iiave been sorry to change 
 conditions. Just as these line-- are being written, the papers give 
 an account of a raid made upon a i)lace where liquor was sold by 
 a party of women in nutsks, who beat the proprietor Avith clubs. 
 Several such acts of violence on the part of women have been 
 j-ecorded ; and they are committed appai'cntly not only with im- 
 punity but with general approbation. Resistance to them ap- 
 petirs to be proscribed. These are not practices in which the 
 Negro was allowed to indulge toward his master before emanci- 
 jKition, or in which he has even been allowed to indulge since. 
 If the men of the United States were called to account for their 
 treatment of the women, and the women at the same time for the 
 performance of their special duty to the race, it seems doubtful, 
 at least supposing that American writers on these subjects tell 
 the truth, whether befoi'e an impartial tribunal judgment would 
 go against the men. 
 
 This extreme language about the ''slavery" of women who 
 are not i : possession of ])olitical power, has its origin largely in 
 John Stuart Mill's treatise on " The Subjection of Women," which 
 has l)ecome the manual of the movement and has set its tone. 
 "Without dis])aragement to ^Mill's general powers or to his admir- 
 able character, it may be said that on this particular subject of 
 the relations l)etween the sexes he was influenced in his writing 
 by the disturbing circumstances of his own life, as was Milton 
 on the same subject, though in a directly ojiposite direction. 
 His disciples assure us that he had always been in favor of 
 enfranchisement; but of the exceeding bitterness of his lan- 
 guage, and of what any one who judges by the visible relations of 
 man and wife to each other will deem liis extreme overstatement 
 of the case against the husband, an explanation must a])})arently 
 
 iii 
 
 \ 
 
WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE STATE. 
 
 537 
 
 1)0 sought in the fact wliich his "Autobiography" discloses. 
 The immense expectations of improvement in government from 
 the participation of women which he liad formed, may in like 
 manner be traced in part to the passionate ailection whieii had 
 caused him to see a genius equal to that of the greatest nnin, in 
 a wonuiu whose intellectual gifts, to cooler observers, aji[)eared 
 not to be extraordinarily high. 
 
 Surely this hideous story of the injustice and cruelty of nuin 
 to woman could never be re{)eated by any one wlio was versed in 
 the ])liiloso])hy or imbued with the charities of history. Woman 
 as a rule, has not been the slave or the toy of man, but his wife, 
 his mother, and his sister. The relation between the sexes has 
 been that of partnership in a very rough and im])erfect world, 
 where each sex has had its share of joys and sorrows, of special 
 burdens, and of special immunities. Man has had to do, and has 
 still to do, most of the rough and dangerous work ; nor does any 
 preacher of woman's rights propose to take it off his hands. 
 Men fought, in the fighting days, for their wives and children as 
 well as for themselves. Woman has indee<l had her full share 
 of pain and woe, but she has also had her privileges and exemp- 
 tions. The relations between man and wife, and those between 
 the sexes generally, have varied with the course of civilization. 
 Freedom, which may be the blessing of a woman now, would have 
 been her curse in the days of force, and would be her curse still 
 in countries, like Arabia and Afghanistan, wdiere force continues 
 to reign. If the Indian woman has had to carry the kit, the man 
 has had for da3^s together, ])erhaps fasting, to be tracking the 
 deer. The grave in a backwoods burying ]ilace, where a pioneer 
 and his wife rest tosrether, after their life's struL'^rle with the wil- 
 derness, is not a bad monument of the general history of the 
 sexes. The union of those two people may not have been un- 
 checkered, but nobody can doubt that on the whole they have 
 been helps and comforts to each other. Man has too often been 
 unkind to woman; man has not always been kind to man; 
 woman has not always been kind to woman; nor has woman 
 always been kind to man. The unkindness of man to woman 
 has been of the coarser and more jtalpable; that of woman to 
 man has been of the subtler but not less cruel kind. Of the ad- 
 
528 
 
 WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE STATE. 
 
 11 
 
 vniK'CS made by woman, though uninvested with jiolitical power, 
 in position and inlhienee, there can be no doul)t. Civilization 
 lias begun to be measured by the degree of her ascen(hin 'v, and 
 tl'is without reference to the manner in which she discharges her 
 vS])eeial duty to the community. 
 
 Tliat the sex has its privileges in America, no woman, it is 
 presumed, will deny. Do the woman's rights partv e.\peet to 
 combine the prerogatives of both sexes, and to have equality and 
 j)rivilege too? For a time perliajis they might, wiiile the ancient 
 sentiment lingered; but the total change of relations would in 
 the end bring a corresponding change of feeling. Chivalry de- 
 pends on the acknowledged need of protection, and what is ac- 
 corded to a gentle helpmate would not be accorded to a rival. 
 Man would neither be inclined nor bound to treat with tender- 
 ness and forbearance the being who was fighting and jostling 
 liini in all his walks of life, wrangling with him in the law courts, 
 wrestling with him on the stum}), mancjeuvering against him in 
 elections, haggling against him in Wall Street, and perhaps en- 
 countering him on the race course and in the betting ring. But 
 when woman has lost her privilege, what will she be but a 
 weaker man? 
 
 Theframers of this report say nothing, and the advocates of 
 the political enfranchisement of women generally say very little, 
 about the probable effect of the eiiange upon marriage and domes- 
 tic relations. In truth, the enthusiasts of sexual revolution are 
 usually little careful, sometimes they are even rather contemptu- 
 ous, in their treatment of this part of the case. Mill, whose 
 union with his wife was an ardent and ])hilosophic friendship 
 rather than an ordinary marriage, says comparativel}'^ little about 
 children, and the writer has noticed the same omission in the 
 speeches and writings of some other advocates of the cause. Yet 
 surely this is not a jtoint to l)e overlooked. If it were reasonable 
 to draw a com})arison between two things which are different in 
 their uses and each of which is indisj^ensable in its way, we might 
 be inclined to agree with the Comtists, who jn-efer the family to 
 the state. At all events, it may be said that the family might 
 rebuild the state, while the state could never rebuild the family. 
 Is the double life ])roduced by the complete union of a married 
 
WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE STATE. 
 
 c);tU 
 
 i 
 
 j)air higher and l)ettor tlian the single life? Is wedded alTection 
 the greatest souree of our virtue and of our hap])iiiess on earth? 
 Are the })erinanence of marriage and the order of the household 
 
 itial to the formation of eharacter in the ehildi 
 
 Th 
 
 eaimg with 
 
 essen 
 
 we ought at all events to see our way when we are 
 these tilings. Hitherto the family has been a unit before the 
 state; this luis been a fundamental law of our social organization, 
 and to rej)eal it is a grave step and one certainly fraught with 
 serious conse(juenees for good or evil. In the abstract, j)erhaj)3 
 it may be said that a spiritual or moral union ought to survive 
 any estrangement of material or political interest; but to assume 
 that it will survive, is unsafe. The foundation of man is in the 
 dust. The union of the heart is rather severely tried when legis- 
 lators decree that ujion a woman's dying intestate the whole of 
 her j)ro})erty shall go, not to her husband, who may be left in 
 beggar}', but to a distant cousin; thus abrogating the Christian 
 prineii>le that the woman shall leave her father's house to cleave 
 to her husband, and proclaiming that her remotest cousin is 
 nearer to her than the man on whose breast she has laid her head. 
 But wouM it survive the introduction into the family of political 
 strife? Would the citizen and citizeness, in such times, for ex- 
 ample, as that of the anti-slavery agitation or the Civil War, 
 after struggling against each other in the canvass and at the 
 polls, sit down in unimpaired affection by the hearth and present 
 the same aspect of love and united authority to their children? 
 Beautiful pictures no doubt are drawn of such harmonious con- 
 flicts; but are they not mere pictures; are they true at most with 
 regard to any but exceptional characters and quiet times? W^e 
 shall of course have female planks in every platform, women at 
 all the conventions, and the demagogue in the family. A man 
 when he marries takes on him the heavy burden of maintaining 
 a wife and family; he expects as his reward a loving partner and 
 a haj)py home. Make marriage too onerous and unattractive to 
 man, wlu^ther in regard to jiroperty or in regard to the civil 
 status of the pair, and what will follow? License which the leg- 
 islator will be ]>owerless to repress, unless he can eradicate or 
 subdue the mightiest of all human passions, as some seem to 
 think that they can. In a reign of license, what would be, what 
 has been, the condition of woman? 
 
630 
 
 WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE STATE. 
 
 ; \ 
 
 ] ' 
 
 The report ends by saying tluit men can have no motive for 
 refusing the suffrage to women but the selfish one of unwilling- 
 ness to j)art with half of the sovereign power. Selfishness in 
 this matter would undoubtedly be not only wickedness but folly. 
 What is good for woman, is good in the same measure for man, 
 and ought not for a moment to be withheld. One lady in her 
 evidence warns Congress, if it will not give way, that the wild 
 enthusiasm of woman can be used for evil as well as good, and 
 threatens in America a repetition of the scenes of the French 
 Commune. More terrible even than this menace is the fear of 
 doing an injury to man's partner, and therebj' a deeper injury to 
 man himself. But the change ought to be proved good. Before 
 man hands over the government to woman, he ought to be satis- 
 fied that he cannot do what is right himself. In an age of 
 "flabby " sentiment and servile worship of change, we have had 
 enough of weak and precipitate abdications. To one of them 
 we owe the catastrophe of the French Revolution and the deluge 
 of calamity which has followed. To man, as he alone could en- 
 force the law, the sovereign power came naturally and righteously. 
 Toet him see whether he cannot make a just use of it, in the in- 
 terest of his wife and children as well as in his own, before he 
 sends in his resignation. 
 
 GoLDWiN Smith. 
 
 'i 
 
 ,i* 
 
 ; . s 
 
 \ 
 
 ) 
 
 '( • 
 
ve for 
 illing- 
 ess in 
 folly. 
 • man, 
 n her 
 ! wild 
 i, and 
 'rerich 
 sar of 
 irj to 
 Before 
 satis- 
 ge of 
 e had 
 them 
 eluge 
 id en- 
 )usly. 
 he in- 
 re he 
 
 TH.