can foresee the effect: Therefore the only way is to plunge in." Better than such utterances is the Maxim "The Nation that knows not what to do, should never do it knows not what." Many advocates of this doubtful experiment are eloquent and many are sincere; but when they speak of the Anti-Suffragists, their eloquence is burning and sometimes vitriolic. They declaim such phrases as "Behind the Age," "Tied down to the house," "Companions of vultures looking for carrion," "Protectors of the liquor interest," forgetting that a Circular, issued by an Equal Suffrage Association in a large State, declared "The Temperance issue has nothing to do with Woman Suffrage." Some affirm that "Under any circumstances feminine instincts will preserve women." Alas! Alas! Behold England at this time! As an opinion or belief, without the grounds of its being made known, may deceive, this book contains the main alleged reasons advanced for Woman Suffrage; and also the vital objections to it, closing with the assertion that THE TRUE WOMAN NEEDS NO GOVERNING AUTHORITY CONFERRED ON HER BY THE STATE. The Wrong and Peril of I PRELIMINARY STATEMENT The proposal to extend the suffrage to women imposes upon men the duty of deciding whether to retain power where it was lodged by the founders of existing governments, or to make women eligible to vote and hold office upon the same terms as men. I' F woman ought to have the suffrage, she has been, with inconsiderable exceptions, grievously oppressed in every period of time, and in every part of the world. Another consideration accentuates the situation: if Woman Suffrage is essential to the welfare of society it is of vast importance to all classes that it be conferred; for society needs all possible advantages, especially all safeguards. Besides if woman has been wrongfully deprived of the right to vote, as it is man, claiming it as his prerogative, who has monopolized this mighty lever of influence, every husband, father, brother and son, should as speedily as possible remove his iron heel from the neck of wife, mother, sister and daughter. If woman is better off without the franchise, and the responsibilities it entails, and if it would diminish rather than increase her power for good, it is important that she should be fully aware of that fact and equally so for man to see clearly how to vindicate himself from the charge of oppression and tyranny. This subject drew my attention when in college and interest therein was intensified a few years later when I was in attendance upon the "May Meetings" in Boston, at that time famous throughout the coun try. There Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Abby Kelly Foster, Wendell Phillips, Lucy Stone, Mrs. Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, and others of note, at white heat with zeal, were at their best in argument, eloquence, satire and wit. Certain individuals whom I greatly respected avowed themselves favourable to Woman Suffrage. Desirous to promote any true reform, I examined the proposal in all its aspects, and relations and have studiously followed its varying phases with the result of a settled conviction that to impose upon woman the burdens of government in the state would be a "Reform against Nature" and an irreparable calamity. |