Woman needs the elective franchise to destroy the prevalent idea of female inferiority. She needs it to make her the equal of her own sons, that they may not in a few years assume the power to rule over her, and make laws for her observance without her consent. The fact that she is the mother of mankind—‘the living providence under God who gives to every human being its mental, moral and physical organization, who stamps upon every human heart her seal for good or for evil’—is reason why she should occupy no inferior position in the world. In the words of Mrs. Stanton, ‘That woman who has no higher object of thought than the cooking a good dinner, compounding a good pudding, mending old clothes, or hemming dish-towels—or, to be a little more refined, whose thoughts centre on nothing more important than an elegant dress, beautiful embroidery, parties, dances, and genteel gossip concerning the domestic affairs of the Smiths and Browns—can never give to the world a Bacon or a Newton, a Milton or a Howard, a Buonaparte or a Washington.’ If we would have great men, we must first have great women. If we would have great statesmen and great philanthropists, we must have mothers whose thoughts soar above the trifling objects which now engage the attention of the mass of women, and who are capable of impressing those thoughts upon the minds of their offspring.
In conclusion the enfranchisement of woman will be attended with the happiest results, not for her only, but the whole race. It will place society upon a higher moral and social elevation than it has ever yet attained. Hitherto, the variously devised agencies for the amelioration of the race have been designed mainly for the benefit of man. For him colleges have been established and universities endowed. For his advancement in science and the arts professorships have been founded and lecture rooms opened. And, above all, for securing to him the widest field for the fullest display of his abilities republican institutions have been proclaimed and sustained at a great sacrifice of toil, of bloodshed and of civil commotions. Although the doctrine of the innate equality of the race has been proclaimed yet, so far as relates to women, it has been a standing falsehood, We now ask that this principle may be applied practically in her case, also; we ask that the colleges and universities, the professorships and lecture rooms shall be opened to her, also; and, finally, we ask for the admission to the ballot-box as the crowning right to which she is justly entitled.
And when woman shall be thus recognized as an equal partner with man in the universe of God—equal in rights and duties—then will she for the first time, in truth, become what her Creator designed her to be, a helpmeet for man. With her mind and body fully developed, imbued with a full sense of her responsibilities, and living in the conscientious discharge of each and all of them, she will be fitted to share with her brother in all the duties of life; to aid and counsel him in his hours of trial; and to rejoice with him in the triumph of every good word and work.
A REPLY.
A lecture entitled, “Woman’s Sphere, Woman’s Work and Woman Suffrage Discussed,” was delivered at the Central Presbyterian church, Des Moines, on the evening of December 25th, 1870, by the Rev. T. O. Rice. The address was published in the Des Moines Register of January 1st, 1871, and Mrs. Bloomer replied to it through the columns of the same paper January 21st, 1871, as follows:
Editor of the Register: A friend has placed in my hand a copy of The Register of January 1, containing a sermon by the Rev. T. O. Rice on ‘Woman’s sphere, woman’s work, woman suffrage,’ etc.
After carefully reading this sermon, I find nothing new or original in it. It is but a rehash of what has before been served up to us by the Reverends Todd, Bushnell, Fulton and others, who are alarmed lest woman should get the start of the Creator and overleap the bounds He has set to her sphere. It throws no new light on the vexed question of woman suffrage, brings to view no passages of Scripture hitherto hidden from our sight, and gives no arguments which have not already been met and refuted again and again. In much that he says the advocates of woman suffrage fully agree with him. A mother’s first duty is at home with her children, and nothing can excuse her for neglect of those entrusted to her care. Home is the happiest spot on earth when it is a true home—a home where love and harmony abide, where each regards the rights, the feelings, the interest, the happiness of the other, where ruling and obeying are unknown, where two heads are acknowledged better than one, and true confidence and esteem bind together the wedded pair. And I know of no happier homes, no better trained and better cared for children, than among the prominent advocates of woman suffrage. Whatever may be thought to the contrary, Elizabeth Cady Stanton is a model housekeeper, wife and mother; and nowhere can greater sticklers be found for the full discharge of all wifely duties than those who are pleading for woman’s enfranchisement. So far, then, as relates to home and children your divine has given us nothing but what we can subscribe to, and what we have preached for a score of years, at least, before he awakened to the necessity of giving the women of his congregation a sermon on their domestic duties. If they were ignorant on those matters, his words have not come to them an hour too soon.
After quoting familiar passages from both the Old and New Testament referring to woman, your divine opens by saying: ‘The general drift of these passages is obvious. Woman was designed to be a helpmeet for man.’ To this we have nothing to object. We, too, say that God made woman a helpmeet for man, finding it not good for him to be alone. But God said nothing of her being inferior, or subordinate, when he brought her to Adam—nothing of her being intended to fill an inferior position or discharge particular or inferior duties. She was made a helpmeet for man, not his subject and servant, but his assistant, companion and counselor. Not a helper in any particular sphere or duty, but in all the varied relations of life. Not to be always the frail, clinging, dependent vine, which falls helpless with the oak when it is riven by the thunderbolt, but to take the place, if need be, of the sturdy oak at her side when so riven, and bear upon her shoulders all the burdens which as true helpmeet and companion fall to her lot. Not to be an idle drone in the hive, but a sharer with him in all his head and his hands find to do. Not a helpmeet in the domestic relation merely, but also in the government of the earth and in the councils of the nation. It was not to him but to them that God gave power and dominion over the whole earth.
He next goes on to show why woman was to occupy a subordinate position, and of all the arguments brought forward by our opponents I never read a more weak and flimsy one than this. Because Adam was first formed and then Eve, she was therefore to be subordinate. But where is the proof of this? Do we find in all nature that the things last formed were inferior and subordinate to those first created? Again, that ‘Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.’ Now, will the reverend gentleman tell us which he deems the greater sin, to commit a wrong after being misled and deceived by promises of great good to follow, or to commit the same wrong without such promises or deception, and with the eyes wide open to the wrong? In any court of the present day, the extenuating circumstances would be considered and the former held the less guilty of the two.
How any unprejudiced and unbiased mind can read the original account of the creation and fall, and gather therefrom that the woman committed the greater sin, I cannot understand. When Eve was first asked to eat of the forbidden fruit she refused, and it was only after her scruples were overcome by promises of great knowledge that she gave way to sin. But how was it with Adam, who was with her? He took and ate what she had offered him without any scruples of conscience, or promises on her part of great things to follow—certainly showing no superiority of goodness, or intellect, or strength of character fitting him for the headship. The command not to eat of the Tree of Life was given to him before her creation, and he was doubly bound to keep it; yet he not only permitted her to partake of the fruit without remonstrating against it, and warning her of the wrong, but ate of it himself without objection or hesitation. And then, when inquired of by God concerning what he had done, instead of standing up like an honorable man and confessing the wrong he weakly tried to shield himself by throwing the blame on the woman. As the account stands, he showed the greater ‘feebleness of resistance, and evinced a pliancy of character, and a readiness to yield to temptation,’ that cannot justly be charged to the woman. As the account stands, man has more to blush for than to boast of.