Replying to and commenting upon an article on an alleged corruption in the state legislature, Mrs. Bloomer wrote as follows:
“Where then shall the remedy for purifying and healing the nation be found? We answer, in the education and enfranchisement of woman! Loose the chains that bind her to the condition of a dependent, a slave to passion and the caprices of men. Open for her the doors of our colleges and universities and bid her enter. Hold up before her a pattern for womanly greatness and excellence, and bid her to occupy the same high positions held by her brothers. Teach her to aspire to that true knowledge that should fit her to become the future mother and teacher of statesmen and rulers. Resign to her control the children committed to her care, and bid her guard them from all temptation and danger that threaten to assail them both at home and abroad. Restore to her her heaven-born right of self-government, and give her a voice in making the laws which are to govern for good or evil the actions and sentiments of society at large. Let her say whether the grogshop, the gaming house and the brothel shall be suffered to open wide their doors to entice her sons to ruin. Let her say whether man shall have power to override virtue and sobriety and send the minions of evil into our halls of legislation to make laws for the people. Let her say whether we shall have a Maine Law, and whether such a law shall be observed and enforced——Do this, and we shall soon see a great change wrought in society and in the character of our rulers! Our only hope for the future of our country lies in the elevation of woman physically, mentally, socially and politically, and in the triumph of the principles which lie at the foundation of the so-called ‘Woman’s Rights’ reform.”
WOMAN’S RIGHT.
“Woman has a right to vote for civil officers, to hold offices, and so rule over men. If any law against it exists in the Bible, it has been overruled by divine sanction. Deborah ruled Israel forty years and, instead of being told she was out of her sphere, that she had usurped authority over men, we are assured that she was highly approved and that she ruled wisely and well. No one calls in question the right of Queen Victoria to rule over her kingdom notwithstanding there are some men in it; nor do we believe, if she is a wise and faithful sovereign, that she will be condemned at the last great day for thus ruling over men. What was right for Deborah was right for Queen Victoria. If it is right for Victoria to sit on the throne of England it is right for any American Woman to occupy the Presidential Chair at Washington. All that is needed is votes enough to elevate her to that post of honor and of trust and sufficient ability to discharge its duties. Of the latter requisite, judging from some of those who have already occupied that seat, no great amount is demanded.”
WOMAN’S CLAIM.
“A correspondent asks what it is that we and other advocates of woman’s rights want?
“We answer, we claim all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States to the citizens of the republic. We claim to be one-half of the people of the United States, and we deny the right of the other half to disfranchise us.”
DESTROYING LIQUOR.
“We hold in all honor the names of those noble women of Mount Vernon who, a few years ago, boldly entered the rumshop and gambling house and poured out the liquors and destroyed the implements wherewith their husbands and brothers had been at once robbed of their reason and their money, and converted into dupes and madmen. And we believe, if the same spirit now dwelt in the hearts of all the women of this beautiful city, that every rumshop would soon be closed, no matter whether legislators or councilmen passed ordinances or not. Woman has neither made nor consented to laws which leave her, and her children, at the mercy of heartless rumsellers and she should never submit to them. She has a right—nay, it is her duty—to arise in her own defense and in the defense of the souls entrusted to her keeping and insist that, either with or without law, the destroyer shall be driven from the land. And if men have not the courage to boldly attack the foe, then let woman meet him face to face and never retire from the contest till she can do so as a victor. Horace Mann tells that woman may with propriety go into the dark lanes and alleys of our great cities and endeavor to conquer men to virtue. If it be proper for her to visit such haunts of iniquity on such an errand, it would be far more praiseworthy for her to apply her efforts to remove the cause which produces vice and crime.”