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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

.'• • • • • • • •

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

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-

•'*:

WOMAN'S I'LACE IN THK STATK.

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.

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

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.

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

![ ■

■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.

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

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

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*

; . 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.