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
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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
Mary A. Livermore is not archaic when in the "North American Review" for
February, 1896, she says: "Her physical weakness, and not alone her mental
inferiority, has made her the subject of man. Toiling patiently for him,
cheerfully sharing with him all his perils and hardships, the
unappreciated mother of his children, she has been bought and sold, petted
and tortured, according to the whims of her brutal owner, the victim
everywhere of pillage, lust, war, and servitude. And this statement
includes all races and peoples of the earth from the date of their
historic existence."
I deny the truthfulness of the archaic accusation, and denounce as an
absurdity the bombastic demand. I resent, as an unwarranted insult to
woman and to man, the still more bitter modern representations of woman's
condition and woman's rights in this world, and especially in this
Republic. They are simply false.
Archaic or modern, the dictums of the Suffrage pioneers have been repeated
at their every convention. Overlaid with sentiment as much of the Suffrage
idea has become, contradictory as it is in argument and in statement of
fact, blended as are its sophisms with the real progress of the time,
sincere and well-meaning as are many of its advocates, sex antagonism is
the corner-stone of its foundation. The Woman's Rebellion is a more
complex affair than the American Revolution. The latter was the natural
result of the earnest and united protest, by a large majority of men and
women of the American Colonies, against the tyranny of a monarchical
government. The former was a protest by a small band of women and men
against what they claimed to be universal tyranny. They attacked law and
custom all along the line, and the weapon forever kept in order for the
service was the demand for woman's possession of the ballot. Where she
does not possess it, and has not asked it, her influence is mightiest. The
relation of woman to the Republic is a study worthy the most exalted
patriotism. In it is involved the broader question of her relation to man
and to the destiny of the race. When told of her son's heroism in crossing
the Delaware, Mary Washington said, "George will not forget the lessons I
have taught him." Through the mother's devoted faith and the son's
obedient power, the foundations were laid of a government whose sole
reliance must still be on woman's inspiration and man's willing strength.
These are evidently God's instruments for our Nation's upbuilding.
CHAPTER IV.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND PHILANTHROPY.
The extinction of human bondage, more perhaps than any other one event,
has emphasized the progress of the century about to close. Our generation
has witnessed the destruction of serfdom in Russia, and of slavery in
Brazil and the United States. Freedom was gained; but of the enlightened
rulers through whom it was won, two were assassinated and one was exiled
to die. Sacrifice is still the price of liberty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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