Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
[53] WOMEN POLITICIANS.--Mr. Lane, of Kansas, it is reported, has
presented to the Senate the petition of "one hundred and twenty-four
beautiful, intelligent, and accomplished ladies of Lawrence," praying
for a constitutional amendment that shall prohibit States from
disfranchising citizens on account of sex. That trick will not do. We
wager a big apple that the ladies referred to are not "beautiful" or
accomplished. Nine of every ten of them are undoubtedly _passe_. They
have hook-billed noses, crow's-feet under their sunken eyes, and a
mellow tinting of the hair. They are connoisseurs in the matter of
snuff. They discard hoops, waterfalls, and bandeaux. They hold hen
conventions, to discuss and decide, with vociferous expression, the
orthodoxy of the minister, the regularity of the doctor, and the
morals of the lawyer. They read the _Tribune_ with spectacles, and
have files of _The Liberator_ and Wendell Phillips' orations, bound in
sheepskin. Heaven forbid that we should think of any of the number as
a married woman, without a fervent aspiration of pity for the weaker
vessel who officiates as her spouse. As to rearing children, that is
not to be thought of in the connection. Show us a woman who wants to
mingle in the exciting and unpurified squabble of politics, and we
will show you one who has failed to reach and enjoy that true relation
of sovereignty which is held by her "meek and lowly" sisters; who,
though destitute of such panting aspirations, hold the scepter of true
authority in those high and holy virtues which fascinate while they
command in their undisputed empire--the social circle. What iconoclast
shall break our idol, by putting the ballot in woman's hand?--_Albany
Evening Journal._
A CRY FROM THE FEMALES.--Mr. Sumner yesterday presented a petition to
the Senate from a large number of the women of New England, praying
that they may not be debarred from the right of suffrage on account of
sex. Our heart warms with pity toward these unfortunate creatures. We
fancy that we can see them, deserted of men, and bereft of those rich
enjoyments and exalted privileges which belong to women, languishing
their unhappy lives away in a mournful singleness, from which they can
escape by no art in the construction of waterfalls or the employment
of cotton-padding. Talk of a true woman needing the ballot as an
accessory of power, when she rules the world by a glance of her eye.
There was sound philosophy in the remark of an Eastern monarch, that
his wife was sovereign of the Empire, because she ruled his little
ones, and his little ones ruled him. The sure panacea for such ills as
the Massachusetts petitioners complain of, is a wicker-work cradle and
a dimple-cheeked baby.--_The New York Tribune._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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