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seem, because the wrong is in him, and, having the power, must needs be somehow issued in the deed; even though he disavows it, and protests he would not have it.
Yes! ‘having the power’!
Therefore he contemns, subordinates, oppresses!
And he is ‘gravitating steadily’ in that direction.
It is not a rightful but a usurped power that is thus degrading him and injuring woman, and a ‘despotic mastership’ is the inevitable sequence.
The simple remedy for all this injustice is to restore to woman that share of power, especially in matters of legislation, which has been wrested from her; in other words, to concede equal political rights.
No class legislation was ever yet just or beneficent.
Where all are entitled to a voice and vote in public affairs, there the laws will be the most equitable, and the government the most effective in its administration.
Dr. Bushnell says: ‘Suffrage is a right given, never a right to be demanded because it inheres beforehand in the person; and neither men nor women have any title to it, save what is grounded in consideration of benefit.’
Suffrage is a right primarily given—by whom?
Where did
Hancock and
Adams,
Washington and
Jefferson, Revolutionary Federalists and Republicans,
Dr. Bushnell and the opposers of woman suffrage generally, get their right to vote?
Who gave them authority to choose their own rulers?
Women claim no other title to it than men assert for themselves; and that claim is as valid in the one case as it is in the other.
It is sure to be accorded in the end, and the sooner the better.
No matter how many stubborn or stupid men may resist, no matter how many weak-minded or timorous women may say nay, it will nevertheless be triumphant, adding new lustre to the nineteenth century.
Yours, very cordially,