Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, September 4, 1887, Page 13

THE OMAHA DAILY BEE: SHALL THE WOMEN VOTE | The Question Discnssed by United States ' Senator Ingalls. BUFFRAGE NOTANATURAL RIGHT Itit a Privilege, and Will be Granted Whenever Woman Wants It, and Soclety Needs 1t, and Not Betore. From the September Forum. ‘The political dogmatism which asserts that sufirage is A natural right, and that government rests upon consent, has naturally led to a vigorous demand for the enfranchisement of woman. If the premises are granted the argument is conclusive. If voting is & natural right, then everybody has the same right to wvote that he has to exist, and the distran- chisement of women, minors, alicns, paupers and polygamists is indefensiblo tyranny. If government rests upon the consent of the governed, then all who wre governed are entitled to express their assent or dissent, by the ballot, upon ;;;;:ulons affecting liberty, property or But it suffrage is a privilege conferved from considerations of expediency, and it government rests primarily and nlti- mately upon force, then there is a ra- tional and satisfactory explanation of the universal exclusion by all nations of women, children and otker dependent classes from participation in legislation and polities. It is not a question of in- telligence or morals. There are infants of twenty years who could vote more wisely and with greater advantage to the State than many registered electors of balf a century. Multitudes of educated and patriotic women could be more sately intrusted with the ballot than the bloody thugs, repeaters and aseassins who have for a generation made elections in the south and in Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York and other great cities. shameless and brutal parodies, and have built intolerable despousms upon the ruins of publie liberty. But the supreme crisis in the life of the state comes when 1ts laws are violated and its energies assailed by combinations too formidable to be overcome by pacific agencies. Then only the final appeal to force remains; the beak, the talon and the thunderbolt, which are the emblems of national authority. And thus the state has always confided the control and direction of its powers to those who can enforce its decrees. The most passionate pleader for female suffrage has never affirmed that women would make valua- ble judges, public executioners, guards, Jailers, policemen, militia or regular sol- diers. I'he contention is that they should bo permitted to enact laws and formulate policies, whose enforcement, if resisted, should be left entirely to the other sex, againat whose judgment they may have been decided at the polls. The dogma that suffrage is a natural right has no support either in reason or experience. Suffrage is a privilege, con- ditioned upon age, sex, birth, property or intelligence, conferred by the state upon such citizens as are considered most likely to aid in the accomplishment of the fundamental objeots for which gov- ernment is established; the diffusion of civil rights and political equahty, with efficient and vigorous guarantees for the protection of life, the seourity of prop- orty and the preservation of personal liberty. The decision 18 necessarily arbi- trary and not susceptible of accurate definition. It expresses the ultimate Jjudgment, and reflects the final convic- tious of the state as a political entity, upon the essential conditions of its own exiatence. Thomas Jefterson, the father of mod- ern democracy, borrowed his ideas of the social contract from Rousseau and the French &hilouopners, who believed that the state of nature was the ideal condition of man, and that numbers ‘would u!flml!elj revail against intelli- fenm;, duty an runloe. His dreamy magination was captivated by their vague phrases and imperfect generaliza- tions, He had no conception of the moral forces which give a nation strength, duration and grandeur. He failed to comprehend the supreme obli- gation of law as the bond which unites society, superior to the will of individ- uals and the discontent of minorities, capable of excouting its statutes, re- pressing injustice and preserving its autonomy. The rule of action for states, as for men, is obedienco to law. The doctrine that just governments derive their powers from the oconsent of the governed, in the Jeffersonian phra- seology, 1s an imperfect statement of fact. It is the truth, but not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In the last analysis all governments, the just and the unjust, rest, not upon consent, but upon force. So long as individuals submit to the laws, and minorities con- sent to the decision of majorities, so long overnment rests upon cousent, but no longor. If the citizen violates no edict or ordinance he consents to be governed; but it he commits murder or refuses to puy taxes, behind the law stands the sheniff, the posse, the militia, the army and navy of the United States. The south, in 1861, endeavored to act upon the theory that government rests upon the consent of the governed. Dis- satisfied with the lawful expression of l}lu wul of the majority at the polls, they refused to consent to the administration of the government by the republican arty under the presidency of Abraham .incoln. They were logical, but the reverberating thunder of the guns of Grant at Donelson, Vieksburg and Appo- mattox refuted their fatal syllogism, and the proclamation of cmancipation dis- posea of the fallacious rhetoric of the composer of the Declaration of Inde- pendenco. Had this government rested upon the consent of the governed, sluvery would not have been abolished, nor would the eleven seceded states have returned to the Union. Like the kingdom of heaven, the Union suffered violence, and the violent took it by force. No confederate leader has ever admitted that slavery was wrong, or that the Cal - boun interpretation the constitution was incorrect. The most penitent of the prodigal sons appeases his conscience b, the guarded admission that ‘‘the sout socepts in good faith the results of the War. Politics is the metaphysics of force, The rule of the majority 18 still the rule of the strongest. But modern society bas agreed to determine the question of supromacy by counting instead of by flzl\linf. Mathematics has been subst:- tuted for musclo; computation for war. We count yea on one side and nay on the other, and call it sufirage. But the same principle underlies the ballot-box and the battle-field. The appeal from the ballot to the bullet remains. The north bad much greater reason to be dissatisfied with the election of Cleveland in 1884 than the south with that of Lincoln in 1860, There were more imminent dai gers of bloodshed and civil war in the disputed election of 1876 than have ever been disclosed. The principal actors in that tragedy have been sileut, and its secret history has never been written. Had tho seat of government been in New York in of Washington, and a less resolute executive than Grant been com- mander-in-chief, the final verdict of the electoral commission might not have been recorded, In considering the wisdom or expe- diency of enlarging the voting classes 1n this oouulr{ by oomrumnhnll the states peremptorily to confer sul s'onmn all wonsen, under penalty of forfeiting rep- rosentation in congzreds and the electoral colloge, as is proposed by the shampiors of the sixteenth smendiment to the con- stitution, it is not necessary to aflirm nor to imply that woman is incompetent ot disqualitied for the ballot by reason of moral or intellectual infirmity. The intellect of woman may be weaker or stronger than thatof man, but it s mot the same. It may be higher or lower, but it is essentially different. ‘There have been women with masculine traits, a5 there have been men with feminine characteristics, but between the montal functions and activilies of the sexes there is a great gulf fixed, bridged ouly by sentiments, the emotions and the passions. In her own domivion woman 18 invincibie, but if she abdicates and invites competition with man upon equal terms, in bis province, she alwayas has becn, und always will be, vanquisbed. 1t is impossible to conceive of a female Blackstone, Webster, Napoleon, Shak- speare, Giadstone or Bucon. Many women may have been greater and wiser than these, but none huve heen able to do the work that these have performed. Women have made no mpartant contri - bution to any of those great subjects of thought with which the science and prac- tice of government are concerned: finance, diplomacy, nternational law, the tariff, war, the regulation of com- merce, internal improvements. Oppor- tunity and capacity have not been want- ing, but inclination and disposition have been absent. It cannot be claimed that the facultics of woman are under duress, for the tendency from subordination to equality has been irresistible and her emancipa- tion has long been complete. The fatali- ties of sex and the ohstacles of tempera- ment are the only obstructions to her unrestrasined competition with man in every field of physical or mental action, Christianity, co operating with the spirit of the age, has abolished injustice and removed the degrading servitudes im- posed upon her by the ignorance and prejudice of mankind. She can practice law or medicine, preach the gospel, engage in the pursuits of commerce and business, participate in politics, write books, edit newspapers, paint pictures, carve statues, build railroads, cultivate the soil, toil in the field, the quarry and the mine if she will. The world is hospitable to her thoughts and to her labors. The question of suffrage belongs, under the constitution, exclusively to the states. Congress has no power to conter or limit suffrage except in the territories and the District of Columbia. Each state now has the right to grant full suffrage to women whenever a majority of its elec- tors desire. No amendment to the con~ stitution is necessary, nor could it haye any other effect except to force the enfranchisement of women upon reluc- tant states that are not prepared for it, and do not wish for it, under the penalty of areduction of representation in con- gress and the electoral college. Why the proponents of equal suffrage appeal to , rather than to the state legisla- tures, by whom alone the appeal can be made eftectual, is not clearly perceptible. Their reply to this interrogation is that ‘woman has as much right to the ballot as the negro. Nothing could be more irra- tional than this pretext. The fifteenth amendment was as much a war measure as the drafs, or the legal tender act. The negro was enfranchised by the states and not by congress. The alternative made the process compulsory for obvious rea- sons; but those who pretend that there is any similarity between the present condition of American women and the status of the freedmen at the close of the war are either ignorant or insincere. ‘The abohtion of slavery by the thir- teenth amendment, in 1865, was appar=- ently unaccompanied by any purpose to interfere with the control of suffrage by the states, The congressional debates disclose no such intention. This amend- ment was the ratification by the people of the emancipation proclamation of Sep- tember 22, 1862, and January 1, 1863. The enfranchisement of the freedmen was not then contemplated. The idea was repugnant even to the radical element 1n the dominant party, which had been rendered homogeneous by the destruction of slavery. But the intelli- gent and wealthy classes in the south, who had exclusively held the political power of that section till the close of the rebellion, were reluctant to surrender their prerogatives, and 1t soon became obvious that the rights of the negroes were not to be adequately protected in the conquered states. It was also evident that the liberation of the slaves would increase the political power of the south unless the negroes were made citizens and voters. These convictions led to the adoption of the fourteenth amendment in 18¢8, and the fifteenth amendment in 1870, which, with the reconstruction act of March 2, 1867, coerced the seceding states into negro suffrage as a condition precedent for their restoration to the union. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the constitution were incident to the war. Their adyo- cates wera consistent and logical. But there is no logic in_ politics except the logic of events, and, judging by events, it must be admitted that thus far the ex- periment of negro suffrage in the south under the constitutional amendments has been aa absolute and unqualitied failure. None of the anticipations of 1ts promo- ters have been realized. This declaration does not imply that the negro is incom- petent to vote, nor that he snould not vote. But the south, having obtained thirty-eight additional members of the lower house of congress, and an equal increment in the electoral college, by the operation of the fourteenth amendment, has practically nulliied the fifteenth amendment, and neither educates the negro nor permits him to vote. Political power in that part of the republic 1s as exclusively in the hands of the whites as it was in 1880, and the indications are that it will so continue for an indefinite period in the future. The national authority has been exbausted, and noth- ing remaina but the final appeal to the national conscience. So formidable has the danger become that the most active ohm'wiuns ot equal suffrage for women are also the most ardemt supporters of the recent measures for national aid to common schools, whose avowed purpose is the education of the.colorad voters of the south, at the exp of the publie treasury, upon the g that their ignorance is an instm menace to constitution:’ and civil liberty, Unde peals the senate of th o ssed a bill appropriating 370,000,000 r:r this purpose, and there is hittle doubt that it would have passed the house of representatives had it not boen for the obstruotive parliamentary tactics of its cnemmies in both political parties. By the statistics of the tenth census we are informed that the colored males in the United States above the age of twenty-one, who were unahle to write, numbered 1,023,151, or 65 7-10 per cent of the entire class. The white males simi- larly disqualitied were 856,959, or 7 8-10 per cent of the yoting population, It is an appalling reflection that 1n & govern- ment theoretically based upon intelligent citizenship, such an enormous proportion of the electors are destitute of the rudi: ments of education. The adoption of the proposed sixteenth amendment would add to this stupendous mass of itliteracy, colored females 1,135,749, or 77 6-10 per cent of those who would be enfranchised, and white fomales 1, being 11 per cont of those who would entitled to the ballot; a grand total of nearly 8,800,- 000 illiterate and disqualitied eloctors, in addition to the existing millions whose condition is a confe: menace to the perpetaity and_stability of free popular government. Those, therefore, who con- tend that there should be a sixteenth amendment because there was a ifteenth, and that all women should be allowed to vote because the liberated slaves wero enfranchised, are not felicitous in their argument. rage under our political system has been exiendsd to the extreme limit con- sistent with national safety. We have reached the danger line. It s too lata to cure the evils aud correct the mistakes of the past. They are irremediable and irreparable. The cowards and the dema- gogues of all political parties have been emulous in obsequious subserviency to tho most dangerous and destructive ele- ments in our civilization. The total number of immigrants from foreign countries for the twelve months ‘"‘"“5 Jane 30, 1887, at the smix principal ports of the United States, was 483,116. The arrivals not reported would swell this number to more than 500,000, or nearly 1,400 for every day in the year. This ox the arrivals of the preceding year more thsn 40 ver cent. Many of of these were unskilled laborers, im- ported by corporations to destroy the intelligent industry of American artisans by the d;grmmd competition. Myriads, like the Poles, Finns, Italians and Hun- &srians in the mines of Colorado, Ohio and Pennsylvania, are only restrained by armed force from arson and massacre. Paupers, oriminals, fugitives, malcon- tonts, outlaws, connecting links between the savage and the beast, the feculence of decaying nations, the sediment and exuvie of humanity, are discharged like sewage upon the continent. The emissa- ries of anarchy, the re-enforcements for the brutal army of ruin, whose war ery is the destruction of organized govern- ment and social order, whose weapons are the torch and bomb, are welcomed uFan the strand with tumuituous waving of the n'.nr-npnnrled banner, with per- petual Fourth of July, with continuous Yankee Doodle” and “Hail Columbia, Happy Land,” with the tender of the ballot and a quarter section of the public domain, before they can spesk the lan- guage or distinguish the difference be- tween the constitution of the United States and the proverbs of Solomon. By the oclose of the present century, and perhaps earlier, there will not be an acre of the public domain upon which corn and wheat can be raised without irrigation, subject to pre-emption or homestead - entry within the present limits ot the United States. Real estate will increase enormously in value. Ocr surplus_population no longer having in the fertile area of free land over which to diffuse iwelf, will accumulate in cities, The rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer. The middle class will gradually disappear, as the struggle for existence becomes fierce and relent- less. A dim consciousness of impending peril has already penetrated the public mind, and in obedience to its admoni- tions the Chinese have been excluded with barbarous rigor, in violation of treatios, and notwithstanding the sono- rous manifesto of 1808, that “‘expatria- tion is a natural and inherent right of all people,” and that any declaration, instruction, opinion, order or decision of any ofticer of the government which denies, restricts, impairs or auestions this right, is “‘inconsistent with the prin- cipies of this government.” In obedience to same impulse the acquisition of real estate by aliens has been rigidiy limited by act of congress. The demand for further legislation in the same direc- tion is imperative_and oannot be disre- garded. tional admission to citizenship of assisted pau- pers, fugitive felons and the avowed enemies of the social contract, must cease. Our capacity for assimilation is exhausted. More than one million skilled and unskilled laborers are now unem- loyed, or employed at w: inadequato or the support of themselves and their families. Trade and industry are men- aced by unlawful combinauons that resort to the destructign of life and property to accomplish their designs, and the hour is approaching when the active coalition of the counseryative forces of the country will be necessary to prevent destructive orfunlc changes in our social and political system. = The constant mnfusion of fresh blood is essential to national health, but thereis no blood poi- son so fatal as adulteration of race. We are no longer homogeneous. Unity of purpose and interest does not exist. he hordes of socialism and anarchy are openl, orfinnimd under the red flag, drilled and armed, inflamed by incen- diary appeals, denouncing property as robbery and openly declaring war against all social institutions. The atrocious murder of policemen in Chicago found its apologists, and so feeble was the force of public opinion that at the next munic- ipal election it required the co-operation of both political parties to prevent the capture of the city government by these execrable malefactors, whose nsolent challenge shonld have been met by the bayonet and the gatlows. And so strong is the sympathy among the hitherto un- suspected classes that it is doubtful whether the felons who were convicted by a courageous jury do not escape the penalty of their boasted crimes through the intrigues of gusillnuimoun politicians or the inevitable conservatism of an elective judiciary. ‘To these portentous perils the advo- cates of the sixteenth amendment would add the unknown element of unrestricted female suffrage, with the ecertain, but unknown, elements of 1guorance, degra- dation, inexperience and corruptibility that would accompany the experiment. The reply to this suggestion is that the vote of women would purify politics and constitute a safeguard against the evils which all admit and deplore. But this theory that all women, or a majority of them, would always vote for the purification of politivs and society, has been practically tested in Utah. The legisiature of that territory gave women the ballot. The efforts of con- gress to elevate women by the extirpa- tion of the crime of polygamy have been strenuously resisted by the Mormons. The revolting practice destroyed the purity, delicacy and refinement of woman, the sacredness of her sex, the sanctions of society. For the tamily it substituted the herd; for the home it substituted the sty. ~Here, if ever, was the place and the time for the instincts of woman to exhibit their highest and noblest activity. But either from choice or by compulsion, Instead of co-operat- ing “with the law they thwarted and baffled 1t by their votes at nver{elaction. ‘The women of Utah became the strong towor of defense of polygamy at the polls. They voted for their continued degradation and for the corruption of oty, so that congress was oomielled at its” last session, by the twentieth sec- tion of the anti-polygamy act, to dis- franchise them absolutely, and to annul the territorial enactments providing for the rogistration and voting of females. The silence of the champions of the sixteenth amendment concerning this act of confreuioml t‘nuny is like the still- ness of the sepulchre. Possibly it has escaped their attention. But if vot- ing "be a natural right, then the women of Utah have suffered redoubled injustice, for they huve been deprived by national authority of a prerogative con- ferred both by nature and by law. If just government rests upon the consent of the governed, then the Edmunds statnte 15 the quintessence of concen- trated despotism. If woman sufirage be the panacea that is to ocure the 1 society and purify polities, the interven- tion of congress was superfluous, and Kolyg-my should have perished in the ouse of 1ts frieads. The truth 1 that good women me" than the best men, and bad #omeén are worse than the worst men, but in politics the virtues of women would doTore harm than their vices. The strpngest evidenoe of theic capacity for su ':;i“ i8 the admitted fuct that they do not whnt it, No one doubts that whenover women desire to vote, the ballot will be given to them. The nsur- mountable obstacle to the sixteenth amendment will be found, not in the hostility of men; but in the indifference and aversion of women. There is not a state, county ni wnship in the United States in which, the proposition, if sub- mitted to the decision of the wives, mothers and daughters resident therein, wanld not be rejected by an unmistakable majority. e The agitation is not new, Naearly a century ago the French metaphysician Cordorcet published his celebrated plea for the enfranchisement of woman. A little later New Jersey tried the experi- ment tor several years, and then nban- doned it, with the concurrence of both sexes, The first national woman's rights convention was held in 1850, and for more than twenly years congress has been annually petitioned upon the subject of woman suffrage. The question has been respectfully treated, and its advo- cates have heen accorded courteous consideration. In many states qualified suffr: has been granted to women in school and municipal affuirs, with interesting and_signifioant results. The statistios in Dlassachusetts are most minute and accessible. The national movement began re, and the agitation has been most vigorous and persistent. Its ablest orators have not ceased for nearly half a century to assure the womnuen of that commonwealth that they were in bondage, and that the ballot would make them free. Frequent con- ventions have been held, bureaus estab- lished, newspapers ably edited, to organ- ize and direct public opinion. he nprnnuul.s of the measure have been held up to scorn and derision, as cotvards who were afraid to allow women to vote. Those who have ventured upon the right of private judgment huve been denonnced a8 inteliectual felons, punishable by outlawry. Professional agitators, male and female, have devoted long lives and respectable talents to the presentation of the arguments in favor of equal suffrage, to committees of the legislature and to the people. And they would not for awhile, but afterward, like the unjust udge, they said within themselv ‘Because this widow troubleth us will avenge her, lest by her continued coming she weary us.’’ S school suffrage bill was pas: hailed by the suffragists as the dawn of new era for woman. Hope elevated and joy brightened the crests of the reform- ers. It was not doubted that the un- shackled and liberated women of the Bay state would flock to the polling places like doves to their windows. But it mbled the acoustic exveriment, when the philosonhers dectared thatif all the inhubitants of the earth would shout simultancously they could attract the attention of the man in the moon. “The arrangements were made, and when the moment arrived everybody was so anxious to heir tho tremendous uproar that nobody shquted except an oid deaf woman in Pekip; and thus, instead of an unprecedented gin, there was an unusual and ombarrassipg silence. * The women, of Massachusetts have betrayed an indgnsibility and mdifference to their enfranchiseiment which is skock- g to the phi un?} opist and discour- aging to the patriot, Thereare 347 cities and towns in ig&gtnm In 170 of these, from 1879 to 1888, not one woman has ever registere ated. In 200, or more than one-half, no wqman has ever voted, though in 30 of these a few have ocea- sionally regisf , - By the state census of 1885 tl werg, 442,616 male voters and 486,310 female. voters, and of these in 188§ there were 4,219 who registered and 1,911 who voted, or less than 50 per cent of those who registered, and 1 in 25¢ of those who were eligible. The population in_ the interval from 1880 to 1885 increased nearly 200,000, while the fomale vote increased 234. In New Hampshire women have been eligible to oftice and_authorized to vote in school district affairs since 187). The same apathy has prevailed in the Granite state. In Concord, where there are 3,000 female voters, since the novelty of the first meeting not 25 have attended. The experiment has had the same result in Vermont and elsewhere. The collapse has been complete. Like the seed which fell 1 stony places, where they had not much earth, these ideas have sprung up, but when the sun came up they wers scorched, and because they had not root they withered away. It is another case of leading the horse to water. It shows the futility of attempting to manufacture reforms, hoping that they will be called for. In explanation of these embarrass- ing statistics the champions of the six- teenth amendment aflirm that school and municipal affairs are too paltry and trivial to attract the attention of women, but if they are allowed to vote for the resident, and for members of the legis- ature and of congress, their response will be immediate and universal. There is a slight discrepancy between this degmq(nuon of school” and municipal suffrage, and the cxulting acclaim with which their enactment was hailed. Half a loaf is povularly supposed to be better than no bread, but partial suffrage is worse than none. If the women of Massachusetts had been active and zealous in the excrcise of school suffraga when the opportunity was atforded them, it would have been a powerful, an un. answerable argument in favor of their advancement to absolute equality with men in the obligations and responsibili- ties of American citizenship. *“Thou hast been faithful over a few things, will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!’ Social and political institutions are a growth and development to meet the requirements of some antecedent and pre-existing aspirations of the human soul. Whenever woman wants the ballot and society needs her emfranchisement, then the sixteenth amendment will be adopted. Till then they labor in vamn that vuild it, There is no legislation that can annul the ordmances of nature, or abrogate the statutes of the Almighty. Jony JAMES INGALLS. —— Mysterious Warning of Robbery. Chicago Herald:! The people of Jeff- erson are not natarally superstitious, but it is safe to predict that they will be in the future. Barrister M. H. Reynolds, of that place, went to his friena's, Dr. D. B. Fonda's, house ‘early Sunday afternoon to help in making out some business pavers, and together they worked and chatted for several hours. Suddenly Mr. Fonda looked' up and exclaimed: Mark, ['ve got &n 1dea that somebody's about the store; something’s wrong with the safe.” *‘Stuff and nonsgnse,” responded the I"OI‘HC*: ‘'you're erazy.” “No, I'mnot., Just put on your hat, Mark, and come “along. I'm going to see about this.” ‘They started together, Dr. Fonda lead- lnzithu way with rapid and long strides, looking neither to the right nor left until his drug store, in the centre of the vil- lage, was reached, They unlocked the door and on the moment of their en- trance they heard a rustle. The drug- gist walked around the prescription counter and there caught a six-foot thief bent down 1n hiding, sb that tho top of his head just showed over some boxes. Fonda ran to grapple with him, but the thiet dashed around the rroscn tion counter again and into the front of the store with his hands full of $5and $10 bills. Here the gallant barrister clirched him, the two rolling with the money on the floor. Their eries brought belp and the thief was overpowercd and $200 im bills taken from him. AUTUMN AN — WINTER ICILIOITIHIINIG) Robinson&Garmon We have placed in our store the largest and best selected stock of Mens', Youths) Boys’ and Childrens' ICL EVER OFFERED FOR SALE IN OMAHA, And at Prices L.ower than Ever Before Known to the People in this City. WE HAVE SELECTED OUR CLOTH! And Had Them Made and Trimmed with Special Care. To Make it equal in all Respects to Custom Work, and Guarantee Our Gassimere Suits from $6 to $30 As Well Made, as Well Trimmed and in as Good if not Better Style as if Made to Measure. WE CALL PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO OUR FINE SUITS AND QVERGOATS, In all varieties of color and price. We have also a fine line ot WOOI. PANTS It will please you, it will pay you to see our goods and get our prices, At all prices. ROBINSON & GARMON, 1311 FARNAM STREET.