The Origin, Tendencies and Principles of Government / A review of the rise and fall of nations from early historic time to the present; with special considerations regarding the future of the United States as the representative government of the world and the form of administration which will secure this consummation. Also, papers on human equality, as represented by labor and its representative, money; and the meaning and significance of life from a scientific standpoint, with its prophecies for the great future.

by Victoria C. Woodhull

WOMAN’S IDEA OF GOVERNMENT.

The public have, during the past few months, been interested and perhaps edified by the ideas and impressions put forth by Mrs. Victoria C. Woodhull upon the broad, general subject of human government, as well as by her subsequent nomination of herself as a candidate for the Presidency in the election of 1872. The articles in which she has announced these views and purposes have from time to time appeared in the Herald, and to-day we present a further communication on the question of the “Limits and Sphere of Government.” It is evident Mrs. Woodhull is imbued with at least one very sensible idea, and that idea is one which it would be well for large numbers of aspirants for public positions to emulate—viz., that fitness is the first prerequisite of qualifications entitling the seeker to enjoy the position sought for. This it is, doubtless, which has led her not only to study and perfect herself in the nature of the functions she seeks to exercise, and their effect, but, in the honest belief that she does understand the question, to give her opinions to the people, that they may judge of her ability and the correctness of her views.

At the same time it is somewhat difficult to see what good will come out of this particular Nazareth. Mrs. Woodhull offers herself in apparent good faith as a candidate, and perhaps has a remote impression, or rather hope, that she may be elected, but it seems that she is rather in advance of her time. The public mind is not yet educated to the pitch of universal woman’s rights. At present man, in his affection for and kindness toward the weaker sex, is disposed to accord her any reasonable number of privileges. Beyond that stage he pauses, because there seems to him to be a something which is unnatural in permitting her to share the turmoil, the excitement, the risks of competition for the glory of governing. There is therefore but one position that may be taken in considering the aim of this ambitious lady, and that is that, perceiving and fully appreciating the natural obtuseness of man, she has boldly put herself forward with a view to wearing down these scrupulous angles in his sympathetic character and nature, and that she will, after all, be content with the knowledge that she has done her full share in educating him for the new order of things which shall supervene when woman, in all matters, has equal rights and duties with him.