"For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the
image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. For the
man is not of the woman, but woman of the man. Neither was the man
created for the woman, but the woman for the man." "Wives, submit
yourselves unto your own husband as unto the Lord, for the husband is
the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the Church."
Do you hear that? You didn't know how much we were above you. When
you go back to the old testament, to the great law-giver, you find that
the woman has to ask forgiveness for having borne a child. If it was a
boy, thirty-three days she was unclean; if it was a girl, sixty-six.
Nice laws! Good laws! If there is a pure thing in this world, if
there is a picture of perfect purity, it is a mother with her child in
her arms. Yes, I think more of a good woman and a child than I do of
all the gods I have ever heard these people tell about. Just think of
this:
"When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy
God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them
captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman and hast a
desire unto her that thou wouldst have her to thy wife, then thou shalt
bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare
her nails."
Wherefore, ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but for
conscience sake. "For this cause pay you tribute also, for they are
God's ministers."
I despise this wretched doctrine. Wherever the sword of rebellion is
drawn in favor of the right, I am a rebel. I suppose Alexander, czar
of Russia, was put there by the order of God, was he? I am sorry he
was not removed by the nihilist that shot at him the other day.
I tell you, in a country like that, where there are hundreds of girls
not 16 years of age prisoners in Siberia, simply for giving their ideas
about liberty, and we telegraphed to that country, congratulating that
wretch that he was not killed, my heart goes into the prison, my heart
goes with the poor girl working as a miner in the mines, crawling on
her hands and knees getting the precious ore out of the mines, and my
sympathies go with her, and my sympathies cluster around the point of
the dagger.
Does the bible describe a god of mercy? Let me read you a verse or two:
"I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour
flesh." "Thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the
tongue of thy dogs in the same."
"And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little
and little; thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of
the field increase upon thee.
"But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy
them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed."
"And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt
destroy their name from under heaven; there shall no man be able to
stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them."
I can see what he had her nails pared for. Does the bible teach
polygamy? The Rev. Dr. Newman, consul general to all the world--had a
discussion with Elder Heber of Kimball, or some such wretch in
Utah--whether the bible sustains polygamy, and the Mormons have printed
that discussion as a campaign document. Read the order of Moses in the
31st chapter of Numbers. A great many chapters I dare not read to you.
They are too filthy. I leave all that to the clergy. Read the 31st
chapter of Exodus, the 31st chapter of Deuteronomy, the life of
Abraham, and the life of David, and the life of Solomon, and then tell
me that the bible does not uphold polygamy and concubinage!
Let them answer. Then I said that the bible upheld tyranny. Let me
read you a little: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of
God."
George III was king by the grace of God, and when our fathers rose in
rebellion, according to this doctrine, they rose against the power of
God; and if they did they were successful.
And so it goes on, telling of all the cities that were destroyed, and
of the great-hearted men, that they dashed their brains out, and all
the little babes, and all the sweet women that they killed and
plundered--all in the name of a most merciful God. Well, think of it!
The Old Testament is filled with anathemas, and with curses, and with
words of revenge, and jealousy, and hatred, and meanness, and
brutality. Have I read enough to show that what I said is so? I think
I have. I wish I had time to read to you further of what the dear old
fathers of the church said about woman--wait a minute, and I will read
you a little. We have got them running. St. Augustine in his 22d book
says: "A woman ought to serve her husband as unto God, affirming that
woman ought to be braced and bridled betimes, if she aspire to any
dominion, alleging that dangerous and perilous it is to suffer her to
precede, although it be in temporal and corporeal things. How can
woman be in the image of God, seeing she is subject to man, and hath no
authority to teach, neither to be a witness, neither to judge, much
less to rule or bear the rod of empire."
Oh, he is a good one. These are the very words of Augustine. Let me
read some more. "Woman shall be subject unto man as unto Christ."
That is St. Augustine, and this sentence of Augustine ought to be noted
of all women, for in it he plainly affirms that women are all the more
subject to man. And now, St. Ambrose, he is a good boy. "Adam was
deceived by Eve--called Heva--and not Heva by Adam, and therefore just
it is that woman receive and acknowledge him for governor whom she
called sin, lest that again she slip and fall with womanly facility.
Don't you see that woman has sinned once, and man never? If you give
woman an opportunity, she will sin again, whereas if you give it to
man, who never, never betrayed his trust in the world, nothing bad can
happen. Let women be subject to their own husbands as unto the Lord,
for man is the head of woman, and Christ is the head of the
congregation." They are all real good men, all of them. "It is not
permitted to woman to speak; let her be in silence; as the law said:
unto thy husband shalt thou ever be, and he shall bear dominion over
thee."
So St. Chrysostom. He is another good man. "Woman," he says, "was put
under the power of man, and man was pronounced lord over her; that she
should obey man, that the head should not follow the feet. False
priests do commonly deceive women, because they are easily persuaded to
any opinion,--especially if it be again given, and because they lack
prudence and right reason to judge the things that be spoken; which
should not be the nature of those that are appointed to govern others.
For they should be constant, stable, prudent, and doing everything with
discretion and reason, which virtues woman can not have in equality
with man."
I tell you women are more prudent than men. I tell you, as a rule,
women are more truthful than men. I tell you that women are more
faithful than men--ten times as faithful as man. I never saw a man
pursue his wife into the very ditch and dust of degradation and take
her in his arms. I never saw a man stand at the shore where she had
been morally wrecked, waiting for the waves to bring back even her
corpse to his arms but I have seen woman do it. I have seen woman with
her white arms lift man from the mire of degradation, and hold him to
her bosom as though he were an angel.
And these men thought woman not fit to be held as pure in the sight of
God as man. I never saw a man that pretended that he didn't love a
woman; that pretended that he loved God better than he did a woman,
that he didn't look hateful to me, hateful and unclean. I could read
you twenty others, but I haven't time to do it. They are all to the
same effect exactly. They hate woman, and say man is as much above her
as God is above man. I am a believer in absolute equality. I am a
believer in absolute liberty between man and wife. I believe in
liberty, and I say, "Oh, liberty, float not forever in the far
horizon--remain not forever in the dream of the enthusiast, the
philanthropist and poet; but come and make thy home among the children
of men."
I know not what discoveries, what inventions, what thoughts may leap
from the brain of the world. I know not what garments of glory may be
woven by the years to come. I can not dream of the victories to be
won. I do know that, coming upon the field of thought; but down the
infinite sea of the future, there will never touch this "bank and shoal
of time" a richer gift, a rarer blessing than liberty for man, woman
and child.
I never addressed a more magnificent audience in my life, and I thank
you, I thank you a thousand times over.