CONCLUSION.
In the opening of this volume I have given it as my opinion that the
movement to obtain the elective franchise for woman is not in harmony with
those through which woman and government have made progress. I have spoken
of the marvellous forward impulse that has marked the passage of the last
half-century, and have mentioned the growth of religious liberty, the
founding of foreign and home missions, the extinction of slavery, the
temperance movement, the settlement of the West, the opening of the
professions and trades to women, the progress of mechanical invention, the
sudden advance of science, the civil war, and the natural play of free
conditions, as among the causes of this impulse. I have pointed out the
fact that the Suffrage movement has nearly reached its semi-centennial
year, and has made a record by which its relation to these progressive
forces can be judged, and I have appealed from the repetition of its
claims to the verdict of its accomplishment.
In the second chapter I have considered the growth of republican forms the
world over, and endeavored to show that the dogma of Woman Suffrage is
fundamentally at war with true democratic principles, and that,
practically, woman suffrage has been allied with despotism, monarchy, and
ecclesiastical oppression on the one hand, and with the powers of license
and misrule that assail republican government on the other.
In the third chapter I attempt to prove this further by a study of the
origin of the Suffrage movement, and by its relation to the Government of
the United States. I try to refute the two propositions which it has put
forth as solid resting-ground for woman's claim to the elective franchise
in this land--"Taxation without representation is tyranny," and "There is
no just government without the consent of the governed." I have also set
forth the difference between municipal and constitutional suffrage, and
shown that the extension of school suffrage, so far from being a stepping-
stone to full suffrage, affords another evidence that such full suffrage
is unprogressive and undemocratic. It is held that regulated, universal
manhood suffrage is the natural and only safe basis of government.
In the fourth chapter I consider the early relation of the Suffrage
movement to the causes of anti-slavery and temperance. I also discuss the
attitude of the Suffrage leaders during the civil war, and indicate that
the Suffrage movement was not patriotic, and was a hindrance to
emancipation and reform.
The fifth chapter treats of the connection of the Suffrage movement with
the change that has taken place in the laws, and it contains a synopsis of
the present laws of New York regarding women. From this study it appears
that the Suffrage movement did not originate the change in the laws; that
many changes most vigorously urged by its associations never have been
enacted; and that change of laws has not been so much sought as a voice
upon change of laws--the fact being, that the vote _per se_ has been urged
as the panacea for all woman's wrongs.
The sixth chapter deals with Woman Suffrage and the trades. It shows that
this movement was not instrumental in opening the trades to women; that
the conditions of industrial life are not changed in such essentials as
would involve a change of sex relation to Government; and that, so far
from altering the basis of government, industrialism has introduced new
problems of such grave import that security in the enforcement of law is
doubly necessary. It shows, furthermore, that socialistic labor has been
naturally the friend of Woman Suffrage, while the safer and sounder
organizations have extended sympathetic help to woman.
The seventh chapter discusses the connection of Woman Suffrage with the
professions. It aims to show that here, too, suffrage has not been
necessary to gain, for women who were fitted to hold it, an honorable
place; and, in regard to the places they have not yet entered, it is held
that the impulse must come from within. It is argued that, in the
professions, as in the trades, Suffrage effort has hindered more than it
has helped, and that in the West its practical working is the most
damaging thing that has attended woman's real progress.
The eighth chapter considers the connection of Woman Suffrage with
education. Its conclusions are, that not education, but coeducation, was
the persistent demand of Suffragists, and that woman's advancement in
college and university was wrought out by the impulse gained from women
who opposed the Suffrage idea, and made practical by men to whom also that
idea was repugnant. It is suggested that women who could prepare and
defend the ignorant Suffrage Woman's Bible have no right to utter a
syllable in protest of the educational ideas of men and women who are
competent to speak on the subject, and whose verdict has been, on the
whole, for separate study during collegiate age, wherever such could be
afforded, while it is not disputed that coeducation has its place and its
uses.
The ninth chapter presents Woman Suffrage in its relation to the church.
It first discusses, briefly, a few points in the Suffrage Woman's Bible,
published in New York in 1895. This is a commentary on such passages in
the Pentateuch as relate to women, and the title "Rev." is prefixed to
four names of editors on its title-page. This book, or rather a book of
which this is the first instalment, was promised by Suffrage writers and
speakers from the beginning. It is considered to contain the consummate
blossom of the mind that first expounded the Suffrage theory--the mind
that grasped it as a whole, in its full meaning and intent, and never has
wavered in expression as to its ultimate object and the means by which
that object is to be sought. This chapter sets forth, in few words, the
present writer's view of woman in the creation, and of St. Paul's attitude
toward woman. The chapter further discusses woman's early preaching in
this country, and shows that it has not been such as to build up religion
or the state, but has been such as to suggest that, while the
possibilities of her nature tend to make her supreme in capacity to point
the way to higher regions, it also contains qualities that may render her
peculiarly dangerous as a public leader.
The tenth chapter, entitled "Woman Suffrage and Sex," alludes briefly to
the social evil, and then discusses the Suffrage ideas in regard to sex as
explained by both their older and more recent writers. It discusses the
disabilities of sex in relation to the suffrage--the difficulties in the
way of jury duty, police duty, and office-holding--and draws the
conclusion that the fulfilment of such necessary work of the voting
citizen is practically an impossibility for woman, and has been found to
be so in the Western States.
The eleventh chapter has for its title "Woman Suffrage and the Home." It
sets forth the belief that the Suffrage movement strikes a blow squarely
at the home and the marriage relation, and that the ballot is demanded by
its most representative leaders for the purpose of making woman
independent of the present social order. It argues that communism is the
natural ally of Suffrage, and that, as homes did not spring out of the
ground, they will not remain where men and women alter the mutual
relations out of which the institution of home has slowly grown.
The general conclusion of the book is, that woman's relation to the
Republic is as important as man's. Woman deals with the beginnings of
life; man, with the product made from those beginnings; and this fact
marks the difference in their spheres, and reveals woman's immense
advantage in moral opportunity. It also suggests the incalculable loss in
case her work is not done or ill done. In a ruder age the evident value of
power that could deal with developed force was most appreciated; but such
is not now the case. It lies with us to prove that education, instead of
causing us to attempt work that belongs even less to the cultivated woman
than to the ignorant, is fitting us to train up statesmen who will be the
first to do us honor. The American Republic depends finally for its
existence and its greatness upon the virtue and ability of American
womanhood. If our ideals are mistaken or unworthy, then there will be
ultimately no republic for men to govern or defend. When women are
Buddhists, the men build up an empire of India. When women are
Mohammedans, the men construct an Empire of Turkey. When women are
Christians, men can conceive and bring into being a Republic like the
United States. Woman is to implant the faith, man is to cause the Nation's
faith to show itself in works. More and more these duties overlap, but
they cannot become interchangeable while sex continues to divide the race
into the two halves of what should become a perfect whole. Woman Suffrage
aims to sweep away this natural distinction, and make humanity a mass of
individuals with an indiscriminate sphere. The attack is now bold and now
subtle, now malicious and now mistaken; but it is at all times an attack.
The greatest danger with which this land is threatened comes from the
ignorant and persistent zeal of some of its women. They abuse the freedom
under which they live, and to gain an impossible power would fain destroy
the Government that alone can protect them. The majority of women have no
sympathy with this movement; and in their enlightenment, and in the
consistent wisdom of our men, lies our hope of defeating this unpatriotic,
unintelligent, and unjustifiable assault upon the integrity of the
American Republic.
NEW YORK, _March, 1897_.
THE END.
End of Project Gutenberg's Woman and the Republic, by Helen Kendrick Johnson