Woman and the Republic: A Survey of the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the United States and a Discussion of the Claims and Arguments of Its Foremost AdvocatesJohnson, Helen Kendrick
History
Woman and the Republic: A Survey of the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the United States and a Discussion of the Claims and Arguments of Its Foremost Advocates
Johnson, Helen Kendrick
Women -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
Those whose names are signed to the Suffrage Woman's Bible, and who are
therefore responsible for that disgraceful effusion, have little right to
claim to be intelligent instructors of their sex. With an ignorance that
is monumental, Frances Ellen Burr glories in the fact that "the Revising
Committee refer to a woman's translation of the Bible as their ultimate
authority for the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew text," and they add that "Julia
Smith, this distinguished scholar," is the only person, man or woman, who
ever made a translation of the Bible without help. They say: "Wycliff made
a translation from the Vulgate assisted by Nicholas of Hereford. He was
not sufficiently familiar with Hebrew and Greek to translate from those
tongues. Coverdale's translation was not done alone. Tyndale, in his
translation, had the assistance of Frye, of William Roye, and also of
Miles Coverdale. Julia Smith translated the whole Bible absolutely alone,
without consultation with any one"! Again they say, "King James appointed
fifty-four men of learning to translate the Bible. Seven of them died, and
forty-seven carried the work on. Compare this corps of workers with one
little woman performing the Herculean task without one suggestion or word
of advice from mortal man "! Yes, compare it! Uncultured Julia Smith,
stirred by the Millerite prophecies, did the best she could to enlighten
her own mind, and should be honored for so doing; but what is to be said
of the women who in this day, in cool print, are willing to show that they
have no comprehension of her grotesque errors or of the difficulties that
beset a real scholar in his noble task? Protest at woman's educational
deprivation comes with ill-grace from those who have thus revealed their
own lack of knowledge of the oldest literature in the world, the model of
poetry and prose, the guardian of the purity of our English speech.
Educated women desire that woman should do all that strength and time
allow in the care of the public schools. The school suffrage ought to be a
boon for them. But it does not, so far, look as if women could make it so.
The figures of the school vote of women in Connecticut, for three years,
occasion serious question whether the use of the ballot is the way in
which woman is to effect anything. In Staten Island, ignorance in women
voted out education, and a tremendous effort had to be made to vote it in
again. The number of men who voted at the last general election in
Connecticut was about 164,000. The women outnumber the men, but the
following table represents the school vote in the State of Emma Willard.
It certainly does not represent the amount of interest taken in education,
nor in the common schools:
COUNTIES. 1893. 1894. 1895.
Hartford. 1293 1186 689
New Haven. 973 949 570
New London. 364 873 185
Fairneld. 273 198 126
Windham 176 182 148
Litchfield 159 85 50
Middlesex 60 136 101
Tolland 372 137 37
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account