[*Lyceum lecture written about 1876.*] The subjection of woman [*Words- 4700*] O. B. Frothingham in his late work on the [humanity of religion] "Religion of Humanity" tells us that "some of the deepest "students into the melancholy history "of woman's subjection bring back the cheerful report that her multiplied [*153A 153*] wrongs & oppressions have their origin not in the tyranny & selfishness of man, but in "an unintelligent & well-meaning kindness." In rude times of strife pillage & lust woman's condition was necessarily one of perpetual guardianship in order to preserve her purity & social position. Her family were her protectors. Her Fathers [*154*] .3. authority was her shield, his power her defence, his wealth her provision, insult to her was affront to him, wrong to her brought down his vengeance She was rooted in the family, could not be detached, in passing from the guardianship of parents, she leaped into the guardianship of a second parent [*155*] 4 Her husband was in law her Father It was in his capacity of Father that he acquired rights over her person & property. She was not his slave but daughter, his own blood as it were, part & parcel of himself. The worst injustices the worst indignities against woman [*156*] had this kindly root, true he says .5. this root is so deep down under the ground that none but the keenest "sighted naturalists suspect it." but we shall accept his assertion and see how well the facts of our times prove its truthfulness. It is pleasant for those of us who can trace relationship to some of these sons of Adam [*159*] .6. to know that men are not as bad as they seem to be. "If in things most evil there is a soul of goodness, our faith in the moral constitution of things is justified". Without however going centuries back to analyze the component elements of man's chivalry, let us glance as his successive acts of goodness in our own [*158*] .7. in our own day & generation, in the full faith that however bad [their] his deeds may seem on the surface, all injustices & oppressions have been perpetuated against woman, from the highest motives of kindness & protection. If this is true of the Hebrews Egyptians, Persians, Greeks & Romans, it must hold true of the German, French, .8. English and American. When the heroes of 76 made their constitution, for the protection of men only, it was not from indifference or design that they made no mention of women, but because they knew her natural delicacy would revolt at having her name hawked about in constitutions & declarations, booming [*160*] .9. at the mouth of the cannon round the globe. When they incorporated the old English laws, by which a wife to day, is there, an adult bond slave, into our codes, they were moved by no feelings of selfishness in tyranny, but a tender sense of her need of guardianship or protection. They legislated her property [*161*] .10. into their own pockets, that she need not lumber her brain with our complicated systems of finance, with stocks, mortgages, tariffs, & taxes. And they spent her money too, to save her the degradation of bartering on the street corners, in the market place, or exchange: they [*162*] understood her wants & needs, far better .11. than she possibly could herself. True the man on whom this particular woman depended was oftimes ignorant & incompetent himself, or suddenly translated to another sphere, leaving the wife all unprepared to defend herself. But then that extra sense with which God in his mercy has endowed all women, namely "intuition" [*163*] .12. came in, enabling her to do things of which she had never dreamt before changing her in one hour from a helpless dependent to a self reliant will power. Thus finding herself ever & anon her own guardian & protector, some women thought it would be wise, by a thorough [*164*] education, to prepare themselves for the .13. emergencies of life & begged the privilege of entering the colleges of law, medicine & divinity But these excellent men said no, not because they desired to keep woman ignorant & dependent, & feared her competition with themselves, for they all assert that there is nothing in the [*165*] universe they so much admire as a .14. highly educated woman, & that for the offices of wife & mother woman needs all knowledge: but they feared that the sciences of physics, jurisprudence, & theology & contact with the men who fill those temples of learning might demoralize these ideal beings, who are supposed to live [*166*] 15 in the clouds, to gaze on the stars, the sons of earth from a lofty distance quite forgetting that the actual woman digs & delves by the side of man all through the hum drum of life, But in the face of all this "unintelligent, well- meaning kindness" in the heart of these good men, women have 16 steadily taken possession of one strong- hold after another, are destined to conquer many more. The good men are frightened from their pro- priety with each new step of aggression but as the root of all their opposition is based on love, it gracefully yields in time to the inevitable, When 17 women held first convention the men laughed good naturedly from Maine to California, knowing a rebellion against their best friends must die out in sixty days. But it has gone on twenty five years. In this quarter of a century of work woman has moved her way into the 18 schools, colleges, hospitals, pulpits & editorial chair with many branches of trade, commerce, into the telegraph, printing, & post offices. This has been done by argument & assertion by persistent work & by taking the pastimes she claimed. When girls first went .19. into the printing offices, the men laid down their type & walked off. According to Mr Frothingham they meant no indignity, but feeling their own unworthiness to stand beside such exalted beings they reverently veiled their faces & retired [*171*] When Theodore Cuyler's church was .20. thrown into convulsions by the preaching of Sarah Lindie in their pulpit, it was not because they respected woman less but Paul more. "Good men" are apt to be governed more by authorities & precedents than reason & those Brooklyn deacons feared that while Miss Lindie's [*172*] .21. preachings might turn sinners to repentance, it would also turn the Roman apostle with horror in his grave. For the same reason women are solemnly warned to keep silent in the Fulton Street prayer meeting. It matter not that [*173*] American women in the 19th century .22. can pray & preach acceptably to God, & man, so long as Corinthian women, who could do neither, were forbidden to try 1800 years ago. I wish all deacons would remember, that while each generation makes its own history [*174*] it must make its own laws & customs .23. also. And what shall we say of the lawyers, Judges, statesmen & politicians, who deny women the rights of citizenship & compell them to discharge its duties. They must obey the laws; they are forbidden [them] to study in the[ir] universities to practise in the[ir] courts or [*175*] .24. to discuss & pass in the[ir] legislative assemblies. After all these years of discussion can these gentlemen be "unintelligent" on all the interests involved in this question? The resolution passed at the Massachusetts state convention, pledging the republican party squarely [*176*] .25. to woman's suffrage, & the 14th plank in the national platform solemnly promising "a respectful consideration of the rights of women show plainly that the men of our day thoroughly understand the situation, & that no well meaning kindness coats the bitter pills of [*177*] .26. of insult & ridicule the women of this republic are daily compelled to swallow. Myra Bradwell is denied the right to practise law in the state of Illinois. because she is a married woman I wonder if she thinks the roots of this decision are based deep down in love [*178*] Catharine Stebbins is denied the right .27. to vote in Michigan because she is a married woman, while Annette Gardner at the same time is allowed to vote because she is a widow. Are these men blind that they do not see they are offering bounties in sending husbands off at pack horse speed to [*179*] heaven. We might think these thrusts .28. at marriage were a premium on celibacy, but lo; Susan B. Anthony a republican spinster in Rochester N.Y. having duly registered her name & voted is arrested by U.S. republican officers for voting a clean republican ticket. Carrie Burnham spinster [*180*] in Philadelphia, offers her vote & .29. & is refused. Whereupon the United States sues, the former, the latter sues the United States. What: a labyrinth of difficulties? with these "unintelligent & well meaning kindnesses" Where is all this to end? In the triumph of woman, in her [*181*] individual sovereignty, in the grand .30. march of progress, her turn has come. Perhaps in the coming centennial celebration of our nation's birth, as women are called to help in the busy preparations, the century may round out with her enfranchisement & the old Liberty bell ring in equality [*182*] for all. She has already conquered .31. so many difficulties, [&] so many places in the trades, & professions, in art, science, & literature, that she has earned the crown of American citizenship. & in all its rights, honors, & dignities she should be now secured. As by persistent demand, we have gained the heights we hold to day [*183*] .32. so by our own self assertion must we achieve the rights we are still denied Susan B. Anthony whom we have long jocosely called the Napoleon of our movement is leading off in the right direction. Being a citizen of the United States, she is determined to exercise the [*184*] rights of a citizen. The authorities 33 say she shall not. Thus she found herself at war with the United States & on the 17th of June her rights as a belligerent were tried & decided. On the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, she was denied the sacred right of trial by jury, as Judge Hunt ordered a verdict [*185*] 34 of guilty & sentenced her as a criminal to pay a fine of one hundred dollars for exercising a citizens right of suffrage It must have been a great consolation to Miss Anthony to know that her sentence was "rooted in love": a ray of sunshine in that dark hour to remember that the arbitrary form of trial was owing to the [*186*] 34 1/4 reminded me of a remark of Charles O'Conner. Some one asked him what he thought of Judge Hunt. "Judge Hunt, said he, why I think he is a very lady like Judge." The case of Carrie S. Burnham decided in the Supreme court [*187*] 34 1/2 "unintelligent & well meaning kindness" of the Judiciary of the [Empire State] United States. Though guilty of the grossest outrage on the constitutional liberties of a citizen yet the Judge behaved like a well bred gentleman. The polite way in which he robbed [*188*] Miss Anthony of her most sacred rights .35. of Pennsylvania About the same time is interesting, as showing that "this unintelligent & well meaning" "kindness" is apparent in all latitudes. [*189*] .35. 1/2 [of Pennsylvania] I have just re-read the very able argument of Miss Burnham before the court & the opinion of the Hon George Sharswood the presiding Judge. & I must say I should rather be the author of the argument, than the opinion. In the Pennsylvania Constitution the word "freeman" [is substituted] [was] at that time [*190*] designated the voting classes 36. instead of "white male". As the women of that state pay taxes, & the penalty of their crimes, Carrie S. Burnham inferred they were "freeman" & had the right to vote, but according to the Judge the word "freeman" had a pickwickian sense, not quite broad enough to include women [*191*] .37. Reading the able arguments of Miss Anthony, & Miss Burnham, in pleading a right for themselves, already secured to every type of degraded manhood in the nation, remembering the youth of the one, & the age of the other, & seeing how little effect in both cases, the [*192*] .38. ablest arguments, & highest moral considerations seemed to produce on the opinions of the stolid courts I felt afresh the mockery of this boasted chivalry of man towards woman. As I read history old & new the subjection of woman may be clearly [*193*] traced to the same cause that .39. subjugated different races & nations to one another, the law of force, that made might right, the weak the slaves of the strong. Men mistake all the time their reverence for an ideal womanhood, for a sense of justice [for] towards the actual being, that shares with [*194*] them the toils of life. Man's love .40. & tenderness to one particular woman for a time is no criterion for his general feeling for the whole sex for all time The same man that would die for one woman, would make an annual holicaust of others. if his appetites, or pecuniary interests required it. Kind husbands & Fathers .41. that would tax every nerve & muscle to the uttermost to give their wives & daughters every luxury would grind multitudes of women to powder in the world of work for the same purpose. The subjection of woman to man in the best conditions is rooted in .42. selfishness & sensuality, so insidious in its tyranny that I can liken it only to the subjection of the higher faculties sentiments, & affections of the individual to the gross animal propensities. Of all kinds of slavery to the most hopeless & pitiful is that of an individual of genius, power, ambition, bound .43. to the earth by an appetite. Many of our greatest men have been victims of intemperance, gluttony or [?] If man will thus abuse himself subjugate his whole moral & spiritual nature, will he not make woman his victim, impelled by the strongest appetite in his being 44. Does he not need all the restraints of law & gospel, custom, & constitution to teach him justice to woman. & should not the state & the church throw round her every shield to make her self reliant & independent instead of making as now by their 199 45 creeds & codes, the strong stronger & the weak more helpless. We have arrived at that point in civilization when woman demands a union with man higher & more enduring than that of the chivalry based on [physical] sex. The great lesson the reform we press, [to day] 200 46 teaches, sex in mind, A recognition of the masculine & feminine element in art, science, philosophy, & literature will give new force & zest to life & love & lift the race from the animal plane. where woman's degradation holds it to day. In this higher civilization woman must lead 201 .47. In demanding political equality. we do not begin with the soul of the question The ballot-box is but one of the outposts of progress, a victory that all orders of men can see & understand. Only the few can grasp the metaphysicians of this question, in all its social, religious, 202 & political bearings & appreciate the 48 moral effect of according all outward honor & dignity to woman. We must educate in every way woman's self respect, & show man the momentous responsibilities that rest on her elevation, that all the best interests of the race are at stake in her ignorance & degradation. 49 Let good men in high places remember that their words & sentiments find expression in the acts of the ignorant masses. So long as the press & pulpit of a country teach the subjection of woman, so long will our journals be compelled to chronicle 50 the outrages on womanhood so rife today. Thieves & robbers seldom enter churches, to desecrate the altars or sacramental service, because they are taught from childhood to reverence these temples & emblems of sacred mysteries. They care not for the theologies, the doctrines the 51 catechisms or the discipline, but they see the great & good pay deference to the externals of religions & they are awed to respect. But who alas! teaches honor & reverence for woman And yet does not the mother of the race hold a more important place in civilization, than golden goblets 52 altars, & cathedral walls? Does not the growth of generations, in goodness wisdom & power depend more on the status of womanhood, than the church We all hesitate to undermine anothers religious faith however hedged about with superstitions knowing the need of every soul. for some Gibraltar rock 207 .53. on which to stand. But who fears to undermine the faith of sons & daughters in her who gave them birth? No holy influence held so light! The church tells them, the woman is the weaker vessel, unworthy to enter the presence of God, to preach & pray in the assemblies of the people. 208 .54. The heaven ordained condition of the wife is in subjection to the husband drunk or sober, a failure, or success. The laws & the customs of society echo the same ideas. I will not stop now to quote the insulting laws that degrade every statute book in the union, but I recommend 209 .55. every woman to read a tract just prepared by Carrie Burnham a digest of the laws of Pennsylvania for the women of that state. These laws have a twofold influence. They not only cripple & oppress woman in every civil action, but the lower the moral tone of society & woman 210 .56. herself in her own estimation. We cannot estimate the far reaching demoralization, of training the best minds in our country, the expounders of the service of jurisprudence, & Constitutional law in a onesided justice, that violates the first principles of republican government [*211*] .57. No matter how noble the women of their households, what must be the impression on the minds of young men in our law schools when they first read the codes for women. & the opinions of Judges as to their status in law & nature. [*212*] .59. Charles Sumner in his able speeches made on the passage of the 13th 14th & 15th amendments clearly traces the evil effects of slavery on the law, religion & public sentiment of the entire nation. From the standpoint of the slaveholder, constitutions were interpreted, and [*213*] .60. decisions in the Supreme Courts of the United States, given in violation of every principle of natural rights. If the slavery of 4,000000 Africans on southern plantations could thus make the eternal principles of justice. in their administration as uncertain as the sands on the sea shore & poison the fountains of our political, [*214*] 61 religious, commercial, & social life, throughout the union, must not the violation of the same principles in the case of 20,000,000. women in every state of the union cause equal judicial blindness, clerical hypocracy & social demoralization? In the case of the the slave, statesmen saw that emancipation [*215*] .62. was a mockery, without the power to legislate for himself. & from the highest moral considerations they gave him the ballot for his protection. Politicians saw their party success depended on the votes of the slave, & from humbler motives they said give him the right [*216*] 63. of suffrage. We ask statesmen to apply the same principles for woman's protection. We ask politicians to use the same policy for their own success in the reorganization of parties Do you think the women on this platform have persistently [*217*] .64. demanded the right of suffrage for twenty five years, merely to enjoy the pleasure of going to the polls to vote for a Gov [Dix] Tilden or Mayor [Hasenayer] Wickham or to get some piciaume office for themselves, or some male relation? [*218*] .65. I ask to exercise this right - 1st Because it is my right, & all women need this power for their protection, dignity & moral influence. With man's [feeling of] chivalry for the one woman he loves, he feels it must be safe to trust the rights of all women, to all men, but the experience of life teaches us 219 .66. a different lesson. Brutal men kill wives, daughters, sisters, mothers. Respectable men cheat the women of their households out of their substance. Lawyers can tell of cases in their callenders of Fathers defrauding daughters, brothers sisters, husbands wives of their rights of 220 .67. property. Look how women are treated in the world of work crowded into a few employments & half paid there. When a girl is prospective heir to a crown in the old world, every advantage of education is accorded her. She is trained to higher dignity of speech & manner fitting the station 221 .68. for which she is destined. Our throne is self government, our crown - equality, our sceptre the ballot, & when American girls are heirs to these, the colleges will open wide their doors & vie with each other for the honor of educating these heirs apparent to the rights of American citizens. They will be honored in the world of work. 222 .69. expurgated editions of the creeds & codes will be speedily issued, & party, pulpit, & press. will treat women citizens with as much respect as they now do the new made Southern freeman & the unlettered foreigner just landed on our shores To save the nation from the demoralization openly confessed in .70. in every branch of our government noble women should be willing to use their influence to elevate the tone of our politics, & ensure a wiser policy on many questions. History is full of incidents of woman's wisdom & heroism in hours of distress & danger 71 what a Florence Nightingale a Clara Barton, a Grace Darling an Ida Lewis have done for wounded soldiers & drowning sailors, women who study the political horoscope. may now do for the nation's life. & ease our ship of state now drifting for Sambro 72 light. A page of German history in 1140 tells us of the Duke of Guelph besieged in Weisburgh by Conrad III. & being hard pressed he capitualated on the terms that the women should be allowed to depart in safety taking with them all they could carry. Accordingly the Duchess came forth .73. bearing the Duke on her shoulders & all the women of the city with their husbands, The conquerors were so surprised & pleased with this manifestation of woman's strength & devotion that they watched the exodus in silence & inaction. If the hope of family safety. could thus mend [faith] faint hearts [*227*] 74. & make feeble arms so strong, cannot a nation's safety, the triumph of those great principles of republican government so dearly bought, & oftimes redeemed rouse the women of our day to action. Great as our country is in her boundless acres, majestic forests mighty lakes & rivers & inexaustable [*228*] .75. mines of wealth, she has hidden treasures in the undeveloped powers of her women, that if employed would add more to the wealth of the state, than all our other resources together. The white man's "wards" have all alike, Africans, Indians, women [*229*] 76 & Labor been crippled by his guardianship & protection, & have alike avenged themselves by act & stratagem outside the rules of war because denied fair action, & debate, His protection has been like that of the Eagle to the lamb he carries to his eyrie. I think we should [*230*] .77. all be willing to forego such protection & stand on our own feet. I often wonder in reading the able articles of the New York World on Free trade. That it so seldom touches on this most odious form of "protection." We have thrown the african race on its own responsibility 231 .78. & it does not erase the old guardianship again, The best policy we can inaugurate for the Indian is to treat him the same way Make no discrimination for or against him. hunger & taxation & the just penalty for individual crime would soon settle the problem of 232 .79. work, property & law. He will stay at home & raise cattle instead of ponies when when he provides his own beef & flour. And this is all we ask for woman, the same advantages, opportunities, & code of laws. man claims for himself in discrimination on the ground 233A of sex, no "protection," but justice 80. liberty equality & as these are the corner stones of national life peace prosperity !- All partial reforms wait woman's enfranchisement. The cry of "peace" is mockery. so long as its fundamental principles are treated as glittering generalities. With 20,000000 233 women in chains, with labor ground 81. to ponder between the upper & nether millstones of avarice & ignorance with the church endorsing poverty as a divine ordination, & the state enforcing it by cunning legislation, our jails & prisons crowded with helpless victims waiting for the tardy 234 justice that seldom comes. the cry .82. of peace from our leaders is as vain & guilty as it would have been from the watchtower of the Atlantic in that awful hour when poor souls went down. Let those who preach temperance, who urge prohibitory law review the situation, look deep 235 .83. down for the causes of these overpowering animal appetites. Feeble disponding sons of sickly low spirited mothers will crave stimulants for minds & body alike, & no legislation can quench the thirst, or destroy the means of gratification, so long as 236 our chosen rulers belong to the whiskey .84. rings. Labor wretchedly housed fed & clothed, when it can purchase Paradise, for a few hours by a dram will not resist the temptation. Luxury in its palace home, satiated with the good things of life, with nothing to hope, & nothing to do, if it can lighten 237 its ennui with a sparkling glass. who .85. Can wonder? The radical steps towards peace & temperance are these: - Equality before the law: a generation of healthy happy scientific mothers: educated labor, well housed, fed clothed, an inimitable homestead, 7 luxury driven to work, by a 238 system of graduated taxation, temperance 86. in the present diseased condition of the race. with the extremes & antagonisms of its conditions, the risks & strain of competition, the anxieties & disappointments of success & failure, is impossible Those who are overtaxed with work & those who are enervated for lack of it 239 will alike seek stimulants. .87. They who do most to equalize the conditions of society . will do the best work for all reform If we trace all questions of national interest we shall find that they run in parallell lines together, & that each demands a more radical work than yet 240 done by any government. Let the .88. people now awake to their duty . That our rulers are lamentably neglecting their duty all admit. In a recent editorial in "The Christian Union, the question "is this a well governed nation" is thus answered .89. Carl Schurz in a late speech in the Senate said [*242*] [*243*] THE DANGER OF THE REPUBLIC. [From Mr. Schurz's Speech in the Senate, March 14, on the Caldwell case.] Do we not see and understand what is going on around us? What is it that attracts to the capital of the nation that herd of monopolists and speculators and their agents who so assiduously lay siege to the judgment and also to the consciences of those who are to give to the country its laws? What is it that fills the lobbies of these halls with the atmosphere of temptation? What is it that brings forth such melancholy, such deplorable exhibitions as the American people have been beholding this winter, and which we would have been but too glad to hide from the eyes of the world abroad? It is that policy which uses the power of this great Government for the benefit of favored interests; that policy which takes money out of the pockets of the people to put it into the pockets of a few; that policy which in every country where it prevailed has poisoned the very fountain of legislation. Do you think that the consequences can be different here? Are not your great railroad kings and monopolists boasting that they can buy whole State Legislatures to do their bidding? Have we not seen some of them stalking around in this very Capitol like the sovereign lords of creation? Are not some of them vaunting themselves already that they have made and can make profitable investments in Congressmen and United States Senators? Have we not observed the charming catholicity of their operations and the breadth of their cosmopolitanism, as shown before the Credit Mobilier Committee of the House, when Dr. Durant said that he did not care whether the man he supported for election was a Republican or a Democrat, provided he was a good man? And now if you let them know that a man who has purchased his seat here, or for whom it has been purchased, with money, will be secure in the employment of the property so bought, I ask you, Will not their enterprise be limited only by their desires? And will not their rapacious desires, from which the country has already suffered so much pecuniary and morally, grow with their opportunities? As long as such evils are permitted to exercise their influence, they will spread with the power of contagion, and nothing but the most unflinching resistance can check them. Such is our condition. Everybody sees and feels it. . . . [*244*] It is time that we should face the dangers which threaten this Republic. It has no monarchical traditions, no pretenders of historic right to disturb its repose and to plot its overthrow. It is not likely to succumb to the shock of force. But there have been republics whose original Constitution was as healthy as ours, but which died after all of the slower disease of corruption and demoralization, and that decay of constitutional life and anarchy of power which always go hand in hand with them. It is time for us to keep in mind that it requires more to make and preserve a Republic than the mere absence of a king, and that when a Republic decays its soul is apt to die first, while its outward form may still be lasting. What has Congress or any of our Legislatures done toward meeting the labor difficulty? We readily admit that this class of subjects is full of perplexity, and that it is doubtful how far legislative action is called for upon them. But they are of great and growing importance, and certainly not to be ignored by any wise government. What have our governments done? Massachusetts alone has taken action for getting light upon the matter by official statistics, though this is the least that should be done. In general, our politicians have confined themselves to buncombe resolutions. Often they have done worse than that. Congress has passed an eight-hour law for the national workmen. The law was a sheer piece of demagogism. It was not based on any intelligent conviction that eight hours was a fair day's work, and should receive the old ten hours' wages. It was a sop to voters, and, as far as it went, it said to the laboring class, "Anything you want; only keep us in office!" We do not undertake to say what legislative action is needed in regard to labor; but we do say this: if in any State a hundred intelligent and disinterested men met daily for three months to consult for the welfare of the community, "labor questions" would come in for a large share of their attention. Why do our governing bodies so entirely ignore this class of subjects? Is it lack of intelligence or of disposition? Political government is the highest and most difficult of all social arts. The Government is the organ of the entire people in their collective capacity. In the governing power, therefore - which with us is really the legislative assembly - should be found not only pureness of purpose, but the best practical sagacity, the most intelligent consideration of common interests, that the community can afford. [*241 A*] In what degree do our Congress and our average Legislatures display these qualities? We have lately had startling evidence of the want among them of even average honesty. But, waiving for the present any discussion as to the amount of positive corruption in our governing bodies, there is another indictment to be brought against most of them, which is serious enough. We find everywhere the radical trouble that our legislators do not intelligently attend to their proper work. In theory, their business is to take care of the whole community. In practice, to a great extent, their business is to take care for themselves and their party - terms which to a politician generally mean the same thing. We see, continually, our Congress and our Legislatures slighting the gravest public interests, and devoting themselves to squabbles in which the people is only the goose to be plucked. And the plucking is not the worst the goose has to suffer. What we complain of is, not chiefly that these gentlemen at Washington and Albany and Harrisburg and elsewhere, make us pay so heavily for their services. It is that we get so little in return. The matters most vital to the community - questions of finance, of labor, of social order, of public morals - are left untouched, or bunglingly patched up, while it is being settled who shall have the custom-house or the post-office or the next seat in Congress [*241B*] .90. One good effect of a Presidential campaign is that the rogues all betray each other. And what an unearthing of fraud, corruption we have had! Enough it seems to me to warn the women of this republic that they cannot trust the interest of 40,000,000 of people 245 91 and the wealth of the continent to spendthrift and unprincipled legislators. Have the women of property in the state of New York no interest in the heavy taxes enforced by those rings, in bank defalcations, in the public school fund. Whether used for 246 92 good teachers, buildings, and sanitary conditions, or by a dishonest ring. Have women no interest in the accidents by land sea, the result of imperfect rails, sleepers, bridges, boilers, vessels, & incompetent captains & conductors. All this comes from just that want of 247 93 caution & care that woman with her greater love of life possesses & would sacredly guard if she had a word in the legislation on these matters. Poets find great beauty in women's blind faith in man's capacity to do not only his own work but hers also. It may do to turn a stanza 94 but not for the emergencies of life. Had the passenger of the ill fated Atlantic trusted less in their Captain & organized a police of their own to watch at night how little care & time from each one might have saved that multitude from a a watery grave [*249*] 95. Women of America we are all passengers in the ship state to share its dangers & delays. We are sailing fast towards an unknown shore. There are breakers ahead. The watchmen on the towers are sleeping. Man's skill in battling with the waves, suspended mid [*249A*] ropes and sails will avail us nothing. In the hour of danger without courage & strength in ourselves we must one & all be sacrificed. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.