The new Northwest., January 13, 1881, Image 1

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VOLUMK X. NO.18-
l'ORTLANI), ' OIIEGON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1881.
.rl'KR YEAR-$3 W.
Si
EQUALITY OF DIFFERENCE IN EX.
BY ABIGAIL, SCOTT
fDUNIWAV.
The menUl, moral (and phyitical dbti notions
between men and women are the vinlble culmina
tion of the hiRhent order of the equality of differ
ence In nex that everywhere exUU, according to
iU degree, In 'Natures formation of animate
thlnm. In the lower animals, In, their natural
state, we And no progrews In" Intellectual things,
neither have we found retrogression; but man, in
- the various phases of progress f rom lnstlnct to en
Hghtenment, has sometimes sadly, retrograded.
The brute creation has never failed to recognize
and obey the principle of sexual equality As the
; - receding waves upon the beach are only gathering
their forces for a mighty tenth-wave, which shall
far outstrip Its predecessors In the billowy strug
gle, so man, In his descent below the dumb anl
mals, In falling - to comprehend, the -Important
equation of sexual: Instinct In the two great
halves of his race, has but gathered his forces as
. the generations have rolled onward, till Sf last he
has reached a height from which be may catch a
X glimpse of the period w;hereln he will far excel his
-mute cousins in comprehending and obeying the
- ultimate law." Among animals the male Is the
proteoior and provider, but never the ruler. In
the realm of sex he Is subordinate, but in the
vtalm of streneth he is superior to his mate. He
accepts the situation without question, while man
"T7 Is destined to reach it only through his Intellect.
A widely extended but .altogether erroneous
idea prevails, among men and women who ought
to know better, that there s a vastly different and
wholly Irreconcilable sphere allotted by Nature to
- one sex In human beings from that prescribed for
tic cunning, of our sex, she has chosen a method
to solve her problem that cannot fail to gratify
" the" vanity of those she has written to please.
Vanity, pure and simple, In man, Is readily ap-
peased by the spontaneous flattery of women.
" "il'' I . III 1 a' I
were iae premises irom wnicu sue argues lenaoie,
there would be nothing bearing on the subject left
unsaid; but her problem, i&elf a sophism, can
never be succeeded by an axiom. : lere assertion
Is never-proof of anything, afld the declaration
that WOmn -- . jmrnifriwgt wnrlt, tn rtPVfJL
'can accomplish as much as man, is refuted at once
by the fact that man himself and woman also
Is the result, of Woman's untiring energy and
-painstakings toil. If the motherof the most prom-I Commission
ising specimen of Incipient manhood falls into
disease and death, Straightway another woman Is
employed to carry on "the ceaseless vigil, lest his
"superior Intellect" should perish like a blighted
bud. That the permanent work of woman Is
noticeable In Its effect, rather than in the- labor
itself, is RQtproof that the lator has not been per-
lormeo:, out exactly me reverse.
Tltat woman has not only borne and reared the
whole human family, but' has also done much
more of the other work of the world than man can
do in many directions, no one can doubt who has
known a woman, herself delicately reared, who
has brought up a large family, and at the same
time mastered half a dosen trades, so applying
Jierself tostudy the while, that, without early ed
Ucatlon beyond the elementary spelling-book, she
has reached a respectable and remunerative place
In literature and art, and is to-day knocking at
the portals of political equality with men, apply
ing the force of her logic to the hammer of her
argument with such skill of action as no woman
can hinder, and such force of reasoning as no man
can refute.
. It Is necessary that a man, to be a full-rounded
specimen of the most capable'manhood, should be
a husband and a father. He must know the rapr
tures of conjugal love, and" the hopes, anticipa
tions, Joys, anxieties and fruitions of paternity.
He must experience the battles for livelihood, the
struggles forplace-and power, the humiliations of
he mil st be free to do unto himself in all things as
he would have others do unto hint. He must not
be free o wrong his state or his neighbor, for this
would hot be freedom, but license." The. greatest
good to the greatest number, must be the motto of
the highest civilization. Man must not be ham
pered by human restrictions, arbitrarily enforced
because of his sexa condition which no worth is
allowed to surmount, and no intellectual ability
can change.''
I Circumscribe the liberty and Independence of
man as woman Is thus circumscribe!, ana lie, too,
is ''unreasoning, positive and emotional." Wom
an changes her opinion more easily than man;
and the radical difference between the human and
the brute Is that one pun change his opinion and
the other cannot The donkey ,"for ought we
know, to the contrary, Is the same yesterday, to
day, and for all coming time. ; .- v
Necessary as it Is that man, in order to reach
the highest type of himself, shall be full-rounded
by the affections, experieiwes, rials and Joy t of
marriage and paternity, It is equally necessary
that woman, to reach the full complement of her
womanhood, shall expedience her1 part of a like
destiny. 8he must know the ecstasies of conjugal
love, the perils -of maternity and the raptures pf
the fruition of motherhood. Rut, above all, she.
like man, must be free. In her natural state she
Is" not man's appendage; but his equal his coun-l
terpart. Hhe must conform, Jointly .with himself,
to the oneness of difference In sex without which
there can be no perfect man and no perfect woman.
li 'The plan of the modern state," as Miss Hard
aker tells us, is Indeed truly and wholly. mascu
line.". Even 4queens": have been,. and are yet,
governed by It Rut that does not prove Jhat the
state has reached Its highest grade of excellence.
It falls far short of showing that the incoming
the-otheTpmd thatit-ncver will-be-posriblefrsattlde-hnmaTRntellect-rs-a- tenth-wave In the
harmonize these spheres that each may move un
trammeled in Its individual orbit without seri
ously disarranging,' if not wholly disrupting, the
natural order of its opposite,
Multitudinous, laboredf- learned and IngthtfcMM
man-made mtholl8 to prove the infallibility of
"this assumption have Inked the pages of literature
for generations,-but,-ameng them all, not another
writer has'reachedthehelght that has been easily
IH hy Mlairr.!ftkerr With tho rlrarnp rl-
world's progress. When the perfect helghlaof
government shall, be- reached, there will be ho
"queens" or figureheads to governments, for the
accident of birth will be considered, as It should
now be, a coVnoneiitpatt of. the common loi-of
us all. Neither will there be kings, for a like
reason? for men and wpmenrunitlng their equal
iiy of difference In the.grand intellectual factors
of Individual liberty, will form the sum-total ol
4 government of the -people, by the people and for
the people, wherein their chosen representatives
will proudly do the public will.. As
arc now constituted, a queen cannot do otherwise
than obey her Parliament, for she s only one
among many ; but history Is not without Its great
examples of women as rulers, who In both ancient
and modern times have swayed a scepter of power
quite equal to that -of any king. The reign
KHzabeth was more potent than .that of jtll the
Oeonres. and no monarch of either sex has ever
aurruuuMHl Victoila'a. wisdom and jhumanltyc
monarcbies4ontinated
of England's queen, and through thai Arbitration
the Alabama Claims were settled by a Joint High
whose, lnspl ration was createdby.
defeat, and the triumphs of victory, that alone can
perfect his Inherent mental, moral and physical
forces; but, above all, he must be his own master,
and, as far as possible, the arbiter of his own, des
tiny. The man who works Jfor a salary can never
be so great as the man whoVor for himself;
. and the man who spends his life In unpaid servi
tude Isjonly a man when he rebels against Jihe
Injustice of his position. He cannot be, in the
highest sense, a man, unless he is free. That la,
A rrrlw of MIm TUMakirrl paper, "Ths Ethics of
la tbt AortA American Jtrriew.
the queen's suggestion. Was not this better for
humanity than planning and carrying out the
forms and horrors of war? And If the reign of an
enlightened queen may so modify the roughest
aspects of a monarchical government that all men
f must admit the benefits of the modification, what
might we-not reasonably expect If each Individual
woman were permitted to be the sovereign In her
own right which she was In the beginning, when
man was created "male and female,", and "to
them," and notto Aim or her, given "doral nion
overall theeartli"? - ' .
A one-eexed government Is like a one-sexed
home.. It Is like an unmarried man pr an un
mated woman. It Isllke one-half of a- pair of
shears.-It is like the atmosphere with the oxygen
left out It is like love without reciprocity light
without heat, a world without an atmosphere, or
magnetism without electricity. : ""
-It Is difficult to Imagine the "course of history'
which Miss Hardaker has pursued to lead her to
theconclus4on-thathlstory ioer not show anjr
deliberate exclusion of woman from the affairs of
government" It is true that women, have al
ways figured In history, though In very meager
numbers, and. as the bosom companions of rulers.
Vashtl wsaonce one of these, and so was the de
posed Empress Josephine. Rut queens have also
been subordinate to kings when married, and to
man-madejaws
cially the world of monarchs has not yet out
grown the superstitious supposition that by
woman's subordination she will palliate divine
vengeance -and this superstition -Ja jloing more
than all else to keep alive the erroneous assump
tion (hat the spheres, of the sexes are so widely
apart that they cannot be harmonized Into healthy
mutuality of action. . k s
If Vwomen-have made four Important contribu
tions to modern civilization,'1 and "the comfort
and beauty of everyday Ufe proclaim their suc
cess," where does Miss Hardaker go for a proof
that they would fall as co-workers with men. In
the affairs "oT. a republican form of government?
A good government Is only an aggregate or collec
tion of homes, and, like the family, should be
controlled by a united head of free men and free
women, - ;
"The rudimentary education of children" is not
only woman's work, but the very - basis upon
which their mental, moral and physical structure
rests Is the Involuntary product of her organism f
and thl product depends for its expression in
children upon the surroundings of the motherhood
which enstamps It with character. The mother
who,beiause of her position In the home as a ser
vsnt'Without wages, Is compelled to arise at mid
night to steal the bill from her husband's pocket
to purchase the coveted wardrobe for his heir-
expectant, need not be surprised If the son, born
of such conditions, develops the abnormal acquis
itiveness that, repressed ;ln her, culminates with
him. (If he rea h high places In the state) In Credit
Moblller swindles, cipher llpatob frauds, Pacific
Mall suttsidies, straw ' surveying bids, or back
salary grab. Men do not gather grapes of thorns
nor figs of thistles ; and when they sow a wind of
injustice that reduces motherhood to the condition
of dependency, they need not wonder when they
reap the. whirlwind as is harvest of crime or dis
honesty among the! r sbns and daughters.' S
Though men and women are distinctly different
from each other, they areyet morally, mentally
and physically equal. What one lacks Is supplied
by the other, and neither sex can make a greater
mistake than to suppose it possible that in any of
the relations of life, from the family to .the gov
ernment, they can separafe theTrTnterests without
Injury to all concerned.' Where man has strength,
woman has endurance ;T where he has logic, she
has perception-; where he has will-power, she has
obstinacy 'wherehe has pa1on7iiheastcTices-
sivencss ; and where he has love, she has reciproc
ity.. A masculine i woman Is' regarded as a mon
stroslty, but she Is no more nor less so than i
feminine man. We quite as often see the one as,
the other, and very frequently meet them as hus
band and wife, thus proving how naturally, the
law of demand creates the law of .supply.
"Man's right to found states" Was not based, as
Miss Hardaker would have us believe, "in his in
tellectual superiority over woman," but in his
superior physical strength, through which he sub
tler, at an early period In human devel
bpment, to hi bodily service, independently of her
owmrolltlon. Had "superior Intellect" ruled his
actions toward her from the beginning he would
have known that his sons, taking' their mental
status from their mother, required the highest and
freest order of motherhood for their best endow
ment It is true that "woman could not possibly
organize any modem state'! that is, any one-
sexed. statebecauae byy I rtue of her maternal
gard for . man (a- regard which has ever risen
superior to self-interest) she has never conceived
the possibility of separating one-half of the people
irom tl4nutual Interests of the common human
ity y Woman is superior to man In parental love;
but had he been subjected by Nature to the peril
of giving life, to the lace, be would have been
equal to her In this regard. "
While "men have not legislated for themselves
alone,?, they have not Jegislatodjiatlsfactorlly for
thinking women, nor have they comprehended
woman's needs from her standpoint, or they would
not have "declared themselves Invested with
power to legislate for us In all cases whatsoever."
Thel woman who' has been robbed by a probate
court, had her unborn children willed to strangers,
been tried by a Jury not of hccpeers, been denied
the benefit of the land laws when married, or ad
vertlsed as a fugitive when compelled to leave the
custody of her Intellectual 14superlor" to earn her
bread and butter, can hardly appreciate the
rhapsody of fine writing that calls the man-made
government or America that sanctions ber vassal
age "a wild horse tamed, answering obediently to
word, bit and bridle while we all take a. holiday
rwe." - r
That woman, hedged about by artificial environ
ments such as these, has not been able to "lay far-
reaching plans," is not wonderful; but time wll
yet prove that, with the restrictions removed, she
can "project undertaking which are to cover wide
territories and affect far-reaching communities."
Would Miss Hardaker have us forget Isabella of
Castile? A nd doesjhnoy(.nojK.iJ'Ututio-her.
womanly Insight into "far-reaching plans," the
"undertakings'; of Columbus would have been a
failure? "I detest Madame de BUM," said Napo
leon t ie Great, "for she always makes me feel like
a consummate fool I" For a like reason eminent
men have, from remote antiquity, dislike great
women, or those' who have had the stamina' tp be
at once great and moral. The contrast 4s not flat
tering to their vanity:
Miss Hardaker, with a spirit of concession that
proves, her womanliness of character, gives her
sex credit for . originating one great project-
Woman Suffrage. This concession upsets all her
theory If woman can,' In spite of her "smaB
raln,H originate, organlzeand carry forward a
movement of such . magnitude, while, yet in
shackles of disfranchisement and Its inseparable
companion, InijMM'unloslty, are Uon her, whfl
may she not accomplish after a few hundred yean
of equality Ufore the law with man has given her
eqtial property - rights With himself? Does adt
one example ujmet a thousand theories?
Dml tcott was considered a phenomenon
day, and the advocates of negro Inferiority callet
the list of colore! men who "could really be called
great" a "short one;" but that did not stop the
progress of negro, emancipation or hinder a
Douglass from striving for liberty ; nor did ttstay
the march of a Revels to the House of Representa
tives or the progress of a Rruoe to the Senate of
the United Htates.
Just what constitutes Miss Hardaker'a Idea of
greatness In woman, Is hard to conjecture-; but
when she tells us that "Margaret Fuller and Char
lotte Cushman are the only two tltat can be ealle4
really great,',' she certainly falls to comprehend
the word In its entirety. Does she forget Lucrctla
Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Mary A. Liver more?
Has she no word of commendation for Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe?
Are not these women great? and are they not,
with a hundred others, carrying forward the "one
great projef' which she admits thai her sex has
"originated"? She surely cannot forget HarrlcV
Reecher Ktowe, whose unrivaled novel quickened
the anti-slavery agitation Into - slavery's over
throw? Hhe ought not to Ignore Anna Dickinson,
the peer of Patrick Henry as an orator, and the
author and actor of tragedies which will beweW
comed by the world for centuries after all that is
mo rtalof the wrl ter sh! Jia v pprUharf ; nu ,
should she forget the fame of Mrs. Siddons, the
triumph of Jenny IJnd, the glory of Sarah Bern
hardt,or the military genius of AnuaKllaC.arron.
We are thankful that she adnVlU the greatnesa
of George Elioi,or this one frank admission take
the keystone from the arch of her argument and
senda It toppling to Its fall. -If a raoe that can
can produce a Douglass In its days of slavery can
show us a Rruoe In its second decade of freedom,
surely a sex that exhibits a "peer of Hhakspcare
InUllteraUifeTwhlie yet the higher schools df
leArrfng have noi been opened to woman for tha
tenth of a century, may hope, after a few thousand.
years of freedom, to produce a Bchlller, or evenaa
Auerbnehf j - "
It "It is In the nature of women to linger .longer
In the churches, and drop their superstitions mora
reluctantly," why Is It that meirof sectarian type,
the world over, are yet the only priests of every
old-time faith ? And why Is it that every womaa
who -preaches introduces Innovations upon olf:
creeds, and meets only the .opposition pf clerlcaJL
masculinity in ner work?
As a soothing emollient for the sorely abraded
vanity of "masculine superiority," Miss Harda
ker'a essay la the grandest success of th season..
Nobody but a woman would have had the courage
to say, In the very face of direct proof to the con
trary, that the girls In the high schools are Intel
lectually Inferior to the boysuor that "while tha
girl is dreaming, the boy is thin king? -
Qur essayist well says: ifTherais no discourago
ment In facing facts. There Is no humiliation la
it, and It Is a finer and more honorable thing to
see and admit one's true position In the great
drama of human evolution than to contend Ty do-
flant assertion that we possess something which
In the nature of things can never be ours." Rut
It Is also .true that, while woman's brain map
never be as large as man's, It la of finer texture,
and "while this physiological fact remains, tha'
psychological one must keep It company."
In the evolution of the human species, as la
animals, the higher orders come later and are less .
bulky In circumference. The elephant lias a
larger brain than a man, but his brain quality Is
of an Inferior order; and, from what. we know ef -
the present physiological and psychological devel- "
opment of some of the yet undeveloped types ef
men, as In Interior Australia, we may Infer (hat
there was a period In the process of evolutioa
when all men were inferior to the elephant In In
tellect If It be true, that a Byron, w.lth a irala
less than a woman's, was even a greater genloa
than a Webster with his ponderous head, does not
tle -assumption thaf the' smaller brain cannot'
equal the greater fall to the ground? ' j "r"
.There Is every philosophical reason for bellevX'
Ing that the affairs of state,. if left In the hands of '
women alone, would prove a fall a re 'for woman,
without man, Is like man without woman only
half of the great equation which constitute tha
sum-to Ul of the race. She alone cannot form the
home, the social circle, or the church; she alone
could not fuim irismessful state, norTanrhralony"
accompllnhJthat which Nature designed as a work
for both. It Is not good for either man pr womaaT
(Goooladsd oo tlgblh pcs.
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