Woman's Profession as Mother and Educator, with Views in Opposition to Woman Suffrage

by Catharine Esther Beecher

their rulers and make their laws; and that the simple dropping a vote into the ballot-box could be done without risk to womanly delicacy, and without danger of any kind. This was before discussion had revealed the more comprehensive bearings of the question, which finally removed me, as it has many others, to the opposite side of the question.

If, then, agitation increases the party seeking the ballot, and yet discussion is constantly withdrawing large numbers of the more intelligent and reflective, the time must be far distant when woman suffrage will be secured.

Another reason for believing that woman suffrage is afar off is the character of the men who appear to favor this change of our political status, and also their modes of meeting the question. The estimate of women by the other sex depends very greatly on the character of the mothers, wives, and sisters with whom they have associated, or on the character of the female society they most frequent. Those who associate with superficial, weak, or unprincipled women, form a low opinion of the

whole sex which is false and unjust. On the contrary, those associated with the highest class of women place a halo of purity, strength, and honor on the brow of the whole sex, which is equally exaggerated. It is this last class of men who are foremost advocates of woman suffrage, and their estimate of woman's ability to manage civil government is to be taken with considerable though honorable deductions.

Another class of amiable, unreflecting men, having had a chivalrous training, are ready to give the "dear creatures" any thing they will please to ask.

Still another class of kind-hearted men say, "Yes, oh! yes, let them have the ballot and all the duties it involves, and they soon will wish to relinquish such responsibilities."

Then there are the political wire-pullers, who perceive that by catering to this, which they secretly deem a folly, they can make it subserve their selfish plans.

Lastly, there is a large number of intelligent and patriotic men who have not, as yet, so investigated the probable results of so fundamental a change in

civil matters as to feel prepared to make any practical decision on the question, and so they give no decided answers.

These several classes of amiable and intelligent men are those who finally will decide the question, and they are the last who would force the responsibilities of the civil state on an unwilling minority of our sex; much less would they force it on a majority who would regard it as an unjust and unchivalrous exercise of power. For this reason it seems almost certain that the ballot will not be given to American women till it is clear that a majority are willing to take such responsibilities; and the time when this assurance can be gained must be at a very remote period.